Why You Should Be Scared of Jesus

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Maybe the reason that so many people are so casual and unmotivated in their obedience and so sluggish in their worship is because they have no fear of him at all. Y'all he rebuked the weather and it obeyed. He commanded disease and death and they yielded. He spoke to demons and they fled. Who are you?

Who are you to disobey him? Sometimes a little scare can be fun. You know, like when you're watching a suspenseful movie or riding a rollercoaster. But other than that, we don't normally think of fear as a positive thing. In fact, scripture tells us countless times, do not fear. But today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer explains that when it comes to our relationship with God, fear is a good, healthy and essential response.

But this kind of fear has a different flavor than maybe the fear you're used to. He provocatively titled this message, Why You Should Be Scared of Jesus. And it's part of our series called The Whole Story.

If you've missed any of the previous messages, you can find them online at JD Greer dot com. But now grab your Bible and a pen and let's get started. Mark, chapter four, we come today to what has to be one of the most underrated miracles of Jesus ministry, in my opinion. I say it is underrated because it reveals an essential element of our relationship with Jesus. But one element that I think most people overlook and that is the fear of Jesus. And I know that sounds strange because we think one that Jesus is supposed to be meek and mild and tossing children up in the air and petting lambs and looking pensively off into the sunset with his permed hair kind of blowing softly in the breeze. And yes, the tenderness of Jesus is amazing.

But this weekend, we're going to see a different side of Jesus, one that is every bit as important in your relationship with him. And that's fear. In fact, without the fear of Jesus, you'll never find the tenderness of Jesus that precious or that comforting.

Many people today in our culture, Christian culture also assumed that a God who should be feared would be a God that was guilty of some kind of fault, that the fear of God is some kind of leftover relic from an oppressive archaic view of religion that's way outdated. But anytime you are in the presence of true greatness, you feel a sense of fear. Last year, I told you about the moment that I achieved my lifelong dream of meeting Michael Jordan. I was nine years old when he hit the game winning shot against Georgetown to win for UNC their second national championship. From that point on, in that moment, 1982, Air Jordan became more than just my favorite basketball player, he became my role model. And I was convinced that if I just work hard enough, I could dunk like he dunked.

So my friends and I, we lowered our goals to seven feet. And we spent endless hours practicing our split leg tongue extended dunks while blasting Whitney Houston's one moment in time from our jam box. Those dunks, they felt so right when I was doing them. But when I would watch the videos later, they just didn't quite look like Mike's. And when I watch those videos now, all I can think is, Lord Jesus, what was wrong with me?

I look like a wounded duck coming in for a crash landing, not some kind of athlete honing in on perfection. Well, you can imagine how excited I was when during my eighth grade year, I found out that the great MJ was going to be in a charity golf tournament not far from my house, and that my dad could get tickets and my best friend and I set out that morning with one agenda. And that is we were going to meet the man, the myth, the legend himself. So for eight hours, we followed his little caravan around the golf course, we never even got close. His bouncers clearly had experience with people like me.

Well, that is until the very end of the day, I was standing toward the exit, pretty discouraged near the near the exit of the golf course, waiting for my parents to pick me up when I saw a purple Porsche Carrera 944 winding its way down the road toward the exit. And I was enough of a groupie to know it immediately. That's Michael Jordan. So I turned around and yelled to my best friend who is several yards behind me. I'm like, it's him.

That's Jordan. And a couple dozen people heard me also and they ran over to where I was standing. And so I got this little crowd behind me and as Jordan approaches, he rolls down the window, he's going real slow because he's he's looking for somebody. Now he's not looking for me, I can assure you, but he's looking for somebody as he gets right where we are. I'm kind of leaning down looking at his car, my best friend sees this opportunity. So he grabs me from behind and shoves me into the car. So I'm now waist deep in his passenger window.

I am this far from that man's face. I could have licked him, I could have licked him. And one of my lifelong regrets is that I did not.

Right? Because how cool of a story ends with I like Michael Jordan, but I didn't do it. I was right there. And I said, Hi, Mike. And he has his hand on the wheel. And he kind of cuts his eyes over at me. And he says, Get out of my car. And I said, Yes, sir, Mr. Jordan. And I pulled back. And I turned around to the crowd. And I was like, he talked to me.

He talked to me, I had a conversation with Michael Jordan. So it was a great moment in my life. But the presence of greatness has a strange effect on us. Whenever you encounter greatness, you feel this curious mixture of, let's say desire and terror. You know what I'm talking about? You kind of you're not sure whether you want to draw close or run away. That's the effect that greatness has on you.

Here's my question. If being in the presence of human greatness makes us feel that way, what would it be like to be in the presence of infinite greatness? If I were that starstruck in the presence of somebody whose glory consists of the fact that he can jump 36 inches higher than the average man, what's it like to find yourself in the presence of the one who spoke the universe into existence? Have you ever thought about how big and how powerful God has to be? What is it like to be in the presence of that kind of greatness?

What are you supposed to feel in the presence of that kind of greatness? Watch Mark 4, verse 35. When evening had come, Jesus said to them, let us go across to the other side. Now, the other side, he's talking about the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee was the little body of water that separated the Jewish territory in Palestine from the Gentile territory. So Jesus is heading from the Jewish side to the Gentile side. He could have taken the land route, but he chooses to take the sea route.

And that's an important detail that I'll come back to later. Verse 36, leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was, and other boats were with him. Now, I need to stop here, even though it's going to break the train of thought of the sermon, because this little textual thing counters an objection that I hear people make more and more often about the Bible.

And so even though it breaks the train of thought here, I got to stop and just at least show it to you. The thing that I hear more and more often on campus about the Bible is that it's really a collection of legends. The idea has been popularized by things like the Da Vinci Code or people like Bart Ehrman.

And the basic gist of the theory goes like this. The first disciple saw Jesus as a great prophet with a special connection to God who taught and did some great things. But over time, the stories about him got stretched to kind of include his divinity because that made the stories more compelling. So, you know, for example, Jesus prayed for somebody and they got better, and that turned into he healed them.

Or Jesus, you know, said, I hope it's good weather tomorrow for a picnic, and there was, and that turned into he controls the weather. The reason this idea became popular is because people realized that the idea that the disciples just made all these stories up and lied about it, it's just not that compelling of an explanation, mainly because it's hard to establish a sufficient motive for why they would do so. You see, usually if somebody just directly lies, they've got a motive for it. You know, they're trying to get power or money or trying to stay out of trouble, but these lies, they didn't gain the disciples anything. They didn't get them money. It got them poverty. They didn't get them power. It got them persecution. It didn't keep them out of trouble. It got them into trouble. So what would be the motive for them just making up all these stories?

You just can't come up with one. So the new theory suggests that they didn't grossly lie. It's just, as these stories got repeated, they got exaggerated until you got this supernatural son of God, and the legend is indistinguishable from the facts.

Now, there are a number of problems with that theory, but here's one small, really subtle one. These stories just don't read like legends. They claim to be eyewitness accounts, and here's the thing, they read like eyewitness accounts.

And one of the many evidences of that are spurious little details like the one in verse 36, and other boats were with him. What's that got to do with anything? How does that tie into the plot?

It doesn't tie in at all. It's just a guy remembering what he saw. And so you got these little evidences that show this is an eyewitness account. It reads like an eyewitness account. It doesn't read like a legend.

So don't make statements that don't make literary sense. There are verse 37, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling, but he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him up and said, teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? Now, y'all, this must have been some kind of storm because these were experienced fishermen, and they've been in lots of storms. The Sea of Galilee, even today, is very prone to a really bad, ferocious, really quickly onset storms.

The sea itself is 700 feet below sea level, and the mountain range that surrounds it is 9,200 feet above sea level, which means the air in the mountains is really cold, and the air in the kind of the subterranean sea is really warm. And so the hot air and the cold air, that combines for some pretty quick and bad storms. I've been there, even today, if you go to the little restaurants along the west side of the sea, they're always up on stilts, you know, 15 or 20 feet high, and there's little signs in the parking lot that will say, if a storm comes, you better get your car out immediately, because in the course of an hour, the parking lot can flood by up to 10 feet. And so by the time you finish your meal, your car might be floating in the sea.

You see, this is one of those kinds of storms that comes on suddenly and destructively. Meanwhile, Jesus, who is tired from a tough day of ministry, he's got a pillow over his head trying to catch some sleep. We know that his sleep is intentional because he has a cushion.

When I see you come into the service with a neck pillow, I know that you've already decided you're not going to make it all the way through. So we know that Jesus was planning to sleep. And here's the question, why would he be intending to sleep if he knows a storm is coming?

Right? I mean, surely, y'all, if he controls the weather, he knows the weather. So he knows it's coming and yet still he is planning to sleep through it. You see, this is all a big setup. So the disciples in fear, wake him up with a question, don't you care that we're perishing?

Which has to be one of the dumbest questions ever asked. But Mark puts it in here because it's exactly how you and I feel throughout life. Isn't that right?

There are times you go through storms and it seems overwhelming and you feel like, I'm about to die. Do you even care? Are you there? Are you sleeping?

I'm not sure you even exist at all. Mark records this story because it is often how we feel as we go throughout life. Verse 39, and he awoke and he rebuked the wind and he said to the sea, peace be still. Rebuke is a word that means in Greek exactly what it means in English. It is a word that you use for somebody that's underneath you that you have authority of. You rebuke an employee who has done a bad job. You rebuke a child. No ma'am, you will not talk back to your mother.

No son, you will not pee in the sink. I have to give you a little glimpse of how things go down in the Greer household. Jesus stands up and he rebukes the weather like it's nothing more than a rowdy kid. No incantations, no loud invectives, no expecto patronums or magic wand. He just stands up and calls it down like it's a rowdy toddler.

Here's something else. Be still in Greek is what they call a verb of continuing action, which means that literally what he's saying is be quiet and stay quiet. In other words, he put the storm in timeout.

He's like you in the corner, you shut up and don't you come out until I tell you it's okay. And the storm kind of touched its head and, you know, goes slinking off over in the corner. The wind ceases and there was a great calm. Not only did the storm die down, immediately the waves died down. Y'all, even if you could stop the way the wind immediately, it would take a couple of hours for the sea itself to die down.

He does it all in the space of a second. Then my favorite part of the story, he turns to the disciples and says, why are you so afraid? Well, we thought we were about to die. And then you stood up and you rebuke the wind like it was an angry toddler and it shut up. I feel like we got caused. And Jesus continues, well, have you still no faith?

Watch this. Then they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him. Great fear. When they were in the storm and thought they're about to die, they were filled with just plain old regular fear.

That, you know, the kind of fear, regular boring fear, like you fear when you're about to die, that kind of fear. But after Jesus had stilled the storm, oh, then that fear went to great fear. In other words, the rescue scared them more than the storm. Seeing Jesus power over the storm was more terrifying than thinking they were about to die in the storm.

So they graduated from death fear to great fear. And they asked in amazement, who is this? That even the wind and the waves obey him. You see Jews believe that nobody but God could command the weather. Other prophets throughout history had possessed the power to heal, but only God, they believe could control the weather.

In fact, here's another nerd moment for you. Some of the rabbinic literature at the time, like second Maccabees, record stories of a prophet who claimed to be able to control the weather and they accused him of blasphemy. They said, only God can control the weather. Jesus here does not even call on a higher power to change the weather. He's not like, oh, father, would you control this storm?

He's like, he's like, hey, you shut up. He possesses the power in himself. Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Mark's very clear answer is it's got to be God. This is one of the three stories that Mark tells right in a row about amazing and bizarre things that obey Jesus. You got the story of Jesus who heals the disease and raises the little girl from death. You got this story where he commands the weather. When he gets over to the Gentile area, he's going to throw out a whole legion of demons. And Mark puts these three stories together asking this question, the demons, disease, death, and the weather all obey Jesus.

Why don't you? Disease, death, weather, all of it obeys him. Who are you to defy him? Three important implications from this story. Number one, there is a good and necessary kind of fear. There's a good and necessary kind of fear. As I mentioned at the beginning, a lot of people think the concept of a God that you should be afraid of is outdated, but that's just foolish. How could you understand anything about the power of Jesus and not feel fear? Whenever anybody glimpses the power of Jesus in the Bible, they're overcome with fear.

One of my favorite examples of this is Revelation 1 where the apostle John sees Jesus, gets a glimpse of Jesus for the first time after he has been ascended from earth into heaven and he is now glorified. Now keep in mind, Jesus and John had been BFFs when Jesus was on earth. In fact, John rather confidently describes himself in the gospel of John, you know this, as the one that Jesus loves. I've always thought that talked a lot of nerve to put into print in the Bible. You know, like I'm the one that Jesus really liked. I thought about signing my emails that way, JD Greer, the one that Jesus loves, you know. John must have been pretty confident. In fact, we know at the last supper that John kept leaning his head back on Jesus's chest. Now I've got some guy friends, but I'm gonna tell you, not many of them do that.

In fact, by not many, I mean, not any. It's just not, it's not a, we're talking a very close relationship. So what's this kind of reunion going to look like? What would you act like if you'd seen a cherished friend and they left and you're getting together with him for the first time?

All right, warm embrace, high five, you know, how you doing, tears. Well, I'll let John himself describe it. Revelation 1 verse 17, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. That's not a figure of speech, by the way, when he laid his eyes on the glorified Jesus and finally saw him in all of his power, John literally thought he was gonna die. You know, I feel like we have lost all concept of this in our churches and our worship services. Jesus is our homeboy, our pal, our shepherd snuggling with the lost sheep. We glibly sing these sentimental songs about wanting to be in his presence. Y'all realize that if Jesus did what we were asking and just showed up here on stage with me all of a sudden, we would all like John think we're gonna die.

They would not be good for church attendance. You see, maybe the reason that so many people are so casual and unmotivated in their obedience and so sluggish in their worship is because they have no fear of him at all. Y'all, he rebuked the weather and it obeyed. He commanded disease and death and they yielded. He spoke to demons and they fled.

Who are you? Who are you to disobey him? Who are you to disobey him?

We have people listening to me each weekend who treat the commands of Jesus so casually. Oh, I'll get to it one day. It's just not a good time of life for me. It just can't make this a priority. There's too much going on at work. Oh, you know, it would just be so inconvenient to obey these commands. I prefer my sexual preferences to his will. It doesn't fit in with my lifestyle.

I'll do it later. Do you know the one to whom you're speaking? Who are you to defy the one who commands the winds and the waves, the demons, disease and death itself? More trembling and less sentimental swaying might do our worship services some good. Number two, fear does not exclude love. Number one, there's a good and very important kind of fear. Number two, fear does not exclude love. Whenever we talk about the fear of God, people begin to object like, well, wait, wait, wait. We're not supposed to be afraid of God, right?

Perfect love casts out fear. I heard that verse. Or isn't God the meek, tender, soft brown haired savior that plays with kids? Yes.

Yes. But then you get pictures of Jesus like this that make that tenderness much more amazing and much more comforting. I'm reading C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe right now to my two youngest children who are eight and six before bedtime. And a couple of days ago, we came to the section where the four children hear about Aslan for the first time. Aslan is the lion who represents Jesus. They hear that he's coming back to Narnia and that he wants to meet the children. So when the children first hear Aslan's name, they feel this mixture, Lewis says, of mystery and loveliness.

That's that same idea I was talking about, desire and terror. I don't know whether to draw close or run away. And Susan, one of the older kids says to Mr. Beaver, who's telling them about Aslan, says, so wait a minute, who is this Aslan? And Mr. Beaver says, why? Who is Aslan? He's the king. He's the great lion who is the creator of Narnia. He is Narnia's rightful ruler.

And he's on the move and he's coming here. And Susan says, a lion? A lion? I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe?

I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. Safe, said Mr. Beaver. Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good.

He's the king, I tell you. So my daughter Raya, at that point, eight years old, says, so wait dad, he is safe or he's not safe? And I said, well, he's not safe because he's a lion, but he's good. She's like, so he is safe. I'm like, no, you're not listening. He's not safe because he's a lion.

He could eat you, but he's also good. You can trust. That doesn't make any sense then. We went back and forth for 10 minutes on this with her being frustrated, me being frustrated, and her more confused than when we're starting. So let me try to do a better job of explaining it to you.

Let me switch, use a different analogy. They say that in really high altitudes, like Mount Everest, that storms can come on suddenly and fiercely. Storms that kill because that's how people die on Mount Everest usually. And so the temperature can drop up to 40 degrees in the space of like five seconds. Gale force winds come out of nowhere and just sweep people off the mountain.

You don't even see it coming. Imagine you got caught in one of those storms. You feel the temperature drop by 40 degrees. You watch as your stuff is just blown away and you were clinging for dear life to the side of the mountain.

And you know that death is only moments away. And just when you are about to despair, you notice this little opening in the side of the mountain. And as you look in, you see it leads to a regressed cave. And in that cave, somebody has built a fire and they're sheltered from the storm and they are preparing a meal.

And so you work your way in there and it's perfectly safe. And as you sit by the fire, you are warm, you are fed, but you're able to look back out the extra exit of the cave and you're able to see this ferocious power of nature all around you. Even though you are now safe from all of its threats, you still feel this sense of hushed awe before its power. That's the kind of fear the disciples feel before Jesus. You see their experience of salvation actually makes them more afraid of the God who was doing it. Our forgiveness is supposed to, in many ways, intensify our fear, not lessen it.

That's why you see strange verses in the book of Psalms like this one. But with you, there is forgiveness that you may be feared. What, forgiven so that we might fear? Isn't the point of forgiveness to take away our fear? If we've really been forgiven, what's there left to be afraid of? When you see what Jesus had to go through to save you, it makes you realize the holiness and the perfection of the God that you have rebelled against.

We are being called to biblical, reverent fear of God. You're listening to Pastor JD Greer on Summit Life. Today's message is part of a series we've been calling The Whole Story. It's an overview of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and we've still got a few more weeks left to go.

But if you've missed any of the past messages, you can find them online at jdgreer.com. In addition to listening to this series, we always encourage you to be reading the Bible on your own. This year we've emphasized Bible reading and Bible verse memorization in our resources, and our new resource this month will help you tie it all together. Have you ever finished reading a book of the Bible and wondered what on earth you just read and who was this message for?

Me too. That's why this month we're offering a set of 66 books of the Bible cards. We want to spend our efforts helping you get the Bible because we believe it is how God has revealed himself to us.

We believe it holds both the hope that we need for today as well as the joy awaiting us in eternity. This set of cards will help you make connections as you read, understanding more of the original context with the original audience and how it then applies to us today. Use them around the dinner table to help your family grow in understanding or review them every few weeks to keep the overviews of each book top of the mind so you can apply these concepts in your personal time with the Lord. We'd love to send you a set today as our way of saying thanks when you donate to support this ministry. Ask for the books of the Bible cards when you give right now by calling 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220. Or you can give and request the cards online at jdgreer.com. That's jdgreer.com. By the way, if you haven't checked out Pastor JD's newest podcast, you'll want to do that today. It's called Ask Me Anything, and Pastor JD gives candid, concise answers to tricky questions from listeners like you about faith, life, and leadership. Listen at jdgreer.com or through your favorite podcasting app. Before we close, let me remind you that if you aren't yet signed up for our email list, you'll want to do that today. It is the best way to stay up to date with Pastor JD's latest blog posts, and we'll also make sure that you never miss a new resource or series. It's quick and easy to sign up at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Bidevich, inviting you to join us again Friday when Pastor JD continues this message about a healthy fear that comes from seeing Jesus as He is. That's next time on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.