Fear - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. It means I pronounce a death sentence upon myself at the hands of God if I'm not telling the truth.

That's what it means. It would be easily the most serious way you could take the Lord's name in vain. God kill me if I'm not telling the truth. He cursed and swore from lying to oath to this. Why would he do this? He's afraid.

Why would fear do it? Spiritual amnesia. Does he remember anything he learned that Jesus taught? Nope.

Has he seen Jesus deliver them in the past? Yep. Does it matter now?

Nope. I'm afraid. Fear has gripped me. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. This is interesting. He's going to use another angle to try to help the disciples deal with their fear.

This one's kind of fascinating. Verse 33. The people saw them going and recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities and got there ahead of them. That's Jesus and the disciples. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd. He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. When it was already quite late, his disciples came to him and they said, This place is desolate and it's already quite late. Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

There's a practical guy. Jesus is teaching, and by the way, he's teaching 5,000 men. So there's likely 12, 13,000 with women and children there. And they're saying, Look at this crowd. Tell them to go and so they can find an evening meal for themselves. Now you've got to love Jesus' response. He said to them, You give them something to eat.

That's all he said. You feed them. You can just see the disciples looking at each other. Notice their response to him. They said, Shall we go and spend 200 denarii on bread and give them something to eat? If we just gave them a piece of bread, it cost us two-thirds of a year's wages.

Where do you think you get money like that? He said, Wow. He said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go look. And when they found out, they said, We have five loaves and two fishes.

Wow. And 12, 13,000 people. He commanded them to all sit down in groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. And he took five loaves, two fish, looking up to heaven. He blessed the food, broke the loaves, and kept giving them to the disciples that sat before them. And he divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and all were satisfied. And they picked up 12 full baskets of broken pieces and also fish.

There were about 5,000 men who ate the loaves. Now, that's a pretty phenomenal thing. Now, he wants them to understand something. Who could do that? Only the Son of God could do that. And he's using them. Did he have to use them? No. He just created the food in front of the people and let them eat. Yes. But he wants to use them. In fact, what I'm telling you is this.

He did this feeding primarily not for the people, but for the disciples. Let me ask you something. Have you ever, and I'm reaching here, have you ever missed a meal? You can live with missing a meal? I believe you can't, but you can. All right?

So, could they have not missed a meal that evening? Of course. It's not about that. This is about Jesus speaking to his disciples. He's demonstrating to them his power. Do you understand the power that I have?

Now, notice as soon as he's done with it, he's now going to do to them what he does to us. He's going to test you. You see, he's going to test you to see whether fear controls your heart or faith controls your heart. It's going to be a test. See, and you can't test by raising hands or writing it on a piece of paper. Even now, if I tested all of you, you would all succeed.

How many of you believe that Jesus can do anything? You see, yeah. Then when something happens in your life, why are you afraid?

You see, why are you afraid if that's what you say you believe? So, he gives you a real test. Now, this one's funny. It says, immediately, immediately, as soon as he's done right there, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat.

Now, this is funny. Remember the last time they were in the boat and tested? He said, hey, come, let's go together on the boat. Oh, yeah, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Okay? Jesus makes them. He forces them.

That's what the Greek word means. He forced them. Get in the boat. Now, you can see them talking. Oh, we're in a boat again.

You know, this isn't going to go well for us. We're in a boat. And he got into the boat to go ahead of him on the other side to Bethsaida, while he himself was sending the crowd away.

And after bidding them farewell, he left for the mountain to pray. And when it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land, seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them at about the fourth watch of the night. This is dead in the middle of the night.

Think of this. Jesus is on the mountain. They're in the boat. It's right in the middle of the night, and Jesus sees them straining at the oars. Do you have any idea at all how dark it is 2,000 years ago in the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night? Jesus sees them.

See, that's not to tell you about Jesus. I don't think they could probably see their hand in front of their face, but Jesus could see them. So when Jesus sees them straining at the oars, he comes to them walking on the sea. And he intended to pass them by. That's his intent. He says, look, what's he trying to show them?

Here comes Jesus walking on the water. See, he just wanted to say hello. He just wanted to say hello to them. Should that encourage them? Yes, it should. His intent was just to walk by.

That should be enough. It wasn't. When they saw him walking on the sea, they suppose that it was a ghost. Wow, that's quite an inference, isn't it? That's a ghost.

Why? Well, people don't walk on water. Apparently, ghosts do, you see.

But people, and they cry out. And when they saw him, they were what? Terrified.

What should have they been? Encouraged. Hey, it's Jesus walking on water.

I think this might go well. You see, no, they're terrified. They now had one fear and replaced another fear with it. And immediately, he spoke to them and he said, take courage.

It is I. Do not be afraid. Do you know every time you and I are afraid, that's what he says to us? Every time. Take courage. It's me. I'm right here.

Don't be afraid. You see, and we ignore him just like the disciples did. And there's a reason for it, as you'll see in a minute. He got into the boat with them, the wind stopped, they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves. Their heart was hardened. So where's their problem? Their heart.

Where's our problem? It's the heart. Jesus is trying to do open heart surgery on them.

He's trying desperately, desperately to soften their hardened heart. And it's not working. There's their test.

What's their grade? F-. Total failure. Just like yours is, mine is sometimes. F-.

Couldn't put it together at all. Spiritual amnesia. Fear grips us, takes our heart over our heart, and we fail whenever we experience fear. This time, though, Jesus wants to go about it just a little bit differently. Go with me this time back to Matthew 26. Matthew 26, verse 69.

Here's another test. This time it's Peter. This test is the arrest of Jesus. You know, Garden of Gethsemane, they come and arrest him. Now he's going to all these illegal trials, first before Caiaphas. You see, this is all happening. How are the disciples feeling about all this?

Pretty much terrified and fearful. This is about Peter, though. Peter shows a little more courage.

He follows them to the place where he's going to be tried. And it says that in verse 69, Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him and said, You two were with Jesus the Galilean. Now what is she? Servant girl.

What's that mean? Zero impact on authority in their culture. None. He's a man. He doesn't answer to a woman in that culture. She's a servant. He doesn't answer to a servant. She just says, You two were with him, and he said he denied it before them all, and said, I do not know what you're talking about.

What is that? That's a bold-faced lie. He lied completely. Why? He's afraid.

That's why. He's afraid. He lied.

Now watch. Then it says, When he had gone to the gateway, another servant girl saw him and said to those who were there, This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. Again he denied it. With an oath.

Oh my goodness. Did Jesus ever teach his disciples about oaths? He said, Don't ever take an oath.

Let your yeas be yeas and your nays nays. Jesus, Peter's going to take an oath. I swear to God, on a stack of Old Testaments, you say, I don't know what you're talking about. Why would he do that? He's afraid. Fear. Wow.

Now watch. He then says, A little later bystanders came up and said to Peter, Surely you two are one of them, for even the way you talk gives you away. You've got a Galilean accent. And that would pick right up.

That would be just like any strong accent in our own country. They said that. Then he began to curse and swear.

Wow. And that word for curse is a long word. It's kata ana thematazu.

Kata ana thematazu. Here's what it means. It means, I pronounce a death sentence upon myself at the hands of God. If I'm not telling the truth.

That's what it means. It would be easily the most serious way you could take the Lord's name in vain. God kill me if I'm not telling the truth. And he cursed and swore. From lying to oath to this. Why would he do this? He's afraid.

See what fear did? Spiritual amnesia. Does he remember anything he learned that Jesus taught? Nope.

Has he seen Jesus deliver him in the past? Yep. Does it matter now? Nope. I'm afraid.

Fear has gripped me. Wow. Amazing. Look at this. So what's his grade? F. He's not doing well. Then we have the next test.

And I'll just talk about this. The crucifixion. Now he's hanging on the cross. How did the disciples do? Where were they? They were hiding out.

All except John. They were hiding out. Why were they hiding out? They're afraid. Once again, they're afraid. They have fear about this except for John.

It's kind of interesting when you think about it. John got sort of an immediate blessing from the Lord. Remember at the cross? He looked at John and he said, Behold your mother. And he puts Mary in John's care at that time.

Also, kind of think about this. The other 10, because remember Judas was the betrayer. The other 10, all were martyred. Was John? No, John lived to a ripe old age. John wrote the Gospel of John, Revelation, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John.

It's interesting, John passed, but the other 10? F minus. Same as before. Each and every time.

So what do you have? Fear, in a sense, is part of our fallen nature. The words of Jesus should give us encouragement. You see, confidence and peace. The power of Jesus should also give us courage, confidence, and disease. Because Jesus has power over everything. Jesus will test us to see if our faith will ever get control of our fear. And in this case, when he tested us, they failed every time.

So, I don't mean this to discourage you, because this is where I hope it gets positive. Our faith in one particular thing can change your life completely when it comes to fear. As it did to disciples. Go with me to John, chapter 20. John, chapter 20, verse 19. John writes this, So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were, why were the doors shut?

What's it say there? For fear of the Jews. Are they still afraid?

Whoa, boy. Jesus came and stood in their midst. And here's his first words to them. Peace be with you.

What do they have? Fear. What's he say? Peace be with you. That's what Jesus brings into our lives, by the way.

Peace. And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side, and the disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. And again, Jesus said to them, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I'm going to send you. Just back to Matthew 10.

I'm sending you out. Peace be with you. Wow. That's amazing.

It's more than that. After this moment, the disciples were never afraid again. Never. They changed the world. They changed the world. Ten of them were martyred for their faith with no fear. They weren't afraid of anything.

Why? They saw the resurrected Christ. You see, they saw the resurrected Christ. That meant to them, every word he spoke is true. Everything he said, everything he taught us, it's true. He is raised from the dead.

No one's like this. All of a sudden, fear leaves their hearts. Peace reigns in their heart. All because they saw the resurrection. Now, when you became a Christian, and you believed the gospel, there's one thing you had to believe. You stated to yourself and to God that you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, you're not a Christian.

If you're a Christian, you believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So you already say you believe this, because I know what some of you were thinking. Yeah, yeah, but look, the disciples got rid of the fear because they saw him. They saw him raised from the dead. I didn't.

Oh, okay. Let's look down to verse 29, Jesus speaking. 29 of John 20. Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, yet believe.

We're in a very special category. It's better to have never seen him raised and believe it than it is to have seen him raised and believe it. That's what Jesus is saying.

So you can't use the excuse, well, if I'd have seen him. No, you said you believed it, because when you became a Christian, you have to believe it, because the resurrection's the key to everything. Remember the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, if Christ isn't raised from the dead, we are to be more pitied than anybody in the world.

Why would people pity us? Because we believe a lie. There is no Christianity without the resurrection of Christ. It's the heart of it all. But once you believe in the resurrection of Christ, that cornerstone of your faith can cause fear to leave you. You see, it makes such a difference, and I don't think we realize it. I think when we get in fearful circumstances immediately, as Lucado says, we get spiritual amnesia. We don't even think about it. I'm just afraid.

Do you see this? I'm terrified. What of? You see, what are you terrified of? I mean, David wrote in Psalm 23, even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, what?

I will what? Fear no evil. So what are you afraid of? You see, that's an ultimate fear to us, the fear of death. That's an ultimate fear.

But here's the reality of it. You are going to die, and so am I. Now, some of us will go suddenly, some of us will go slowly, some of us will go tragically. Jesus never promises how we're going. He does promise where we're going. You see, that makes such a difference, so I'm not afraid. That's why for someone like Saul of Tarsus who finds Jesus on the road to Damascus, and when Jesus speaks to him there, he knows he's what?

Raised in the dead. Paul knows that. So that's why when the Philippians said to Paul, Paul, if you were given a choice whether to leave now or stay longer, what would you do? He goes, well, if it was my choice, I'd leave now. I know where I'm going.

I'd rather go now. But he said, for your sake, I'd be happy to stay here. You see, our resurrection, the fact that we're eternal beings, this is crucial to us to understand. When you say to yourself, Christ is raised in the dead, he's alive. You see, and every word he has spoken to us is true. Well, if it's true, why did he speak to us over and over again? Fear not, fear not, fear not.

Yeah, but you don't understand, Jesus. I'm in a pretty fearful situation here. You see, and then his words mean nothing. We can't do that.

And you can believe his words because he was raised from the dead. You have nothing to fear but fear itself. Let's pray. Father, we realize that fear is a formidable opponent. We live on a cursed planet among sinful people, and built into that is a certain amount of violence, suffering, pain. That's why when we get to the eternal state, there's no more sorrow and no more tears. In these circumstances, we allow to overwhelm us that we do get spiritual amnesia. We forget the words of Jesus Christ. We forget the power of Jesus Christ in our lives, and we fill our hearts with fear. Father, I pray the next time we face situations that could be considered fearful to us, that we remember that the disciples changed completely once they realized that he was raised from the dead. We believe that with all our heart. Now we have to live based on that belief. The next time we face fear, we want to say that is formidable, but my Lord is raised from the dead. His words are true, and I have nothing to fear. Father, if we could overcome fear with faith, what a blessing it would be to us.

How much more wonderful and quiet our lives would be. So Father, I pray do open heart surgery on us this morning. Open our hard heart up for the sensitivity it needs for the word of God.

We don't have anything to fear because we have Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .