Dismissing Jesus (Part 10) - Fear God

Last weekend in the strip district, we had a very special event to celebrate Father's Day that we dubbed the sauce off.

And after our service, we had dozens and dozens of wings that we fried up, and all of the men brought their best sauce to compete to see who could have the most popular wing sauce.

So I need to recognize Jonas Stoyanoff, who took home the grand prize with a classic Buffalo Ranch.

He's got that amazing grand prize right there, which is a statue of a strongman ripping his shirt off.

Jonas, we will excuse the rumor that in the past you worked at Buffalo Wild Wings, although it makes the rest of us feel a lot better.

When I was in grade school, I remember going to a party at one of our relatives' houses.

And I uh went there with my mom and didn't really know anybody else that was there, and there were no other kids my age that were there.

So pretty soon after we got there, the adults were mingling up on the first floor, dining room, living room area, and I started making my way throughout the house, looking around, trying to find something to do, but eventually found nothing to do and was exceptionally bored.

So I walked back upstairs to where the adults were and saw my mom, and I walked up behind her.

And as dramatically as a fourth grade boy could possibly say, I said, Mom, this party is so boring.

And my mom turned around and looked at me, and when she did, something happened.

I realized that she wasn't my mom.

I didn't know who this person was.

She was an imposter sent to fool me, and I was so embarrassed that I had said that out loud to somebody that I don't even know, that I just turned and ran away.

We ran a duplex right now to some people, and uh we have a some group texts that are going on with the tenants.

And one of the units has three girls that are in their early 20s.

And it's happened a few times that they've forgotten that like we were a part of the group text, and they thought that they were just texting each other.

And so there's been a couple instances.

One was uh somewhat humorous, as one of them bought a 24-pack of toilet paper, and the three of them were negotiating who would pay what amount for the toilet paper.

Do you split it evenly or do you split it based on who uses the most amount?

So we've had a few instances like that.

My personal favorite, though, was that one morning I woke up and uh I looked at my phone and there was a text message, and the person had clearly forgotten that we were a part of the text.

And it read something like this I'll do my best.

I left fresh cut fruit in the refrigerator last night that I was going to pack in my lunch, and one of you ate it.

How very rude, angry emoticon.

Now, when I saw this, I couldn't help myself.

So I replied to the text and said, I swear to you, it wasn't me, I did not eat the fruit.

And they were, of course, pretty embarrassed by that to realize that we were a part of that thread.

Now, you all have your own set of humorous examples, times that you maybe sent an email or a text to the wrong person, or something got out about you that you had meant to keep quiet.

You might also have examples of times when secrets got out and it wasn't so humorous.

Times where it was a little bit more painful.

Something difficult was said about you that you wish would have never gotten out there.

And maybe you can't identify that particular thing having happened in your life, but I bet what you can identify with is that the thought of having all of your secrets revealed is a little bit scary.

The thought of having one of your secrets, something that you don't want anybody else to know, to be made known, that's a pretty frightening idea.

Now, the wild truth about secrets is that while you and I go to great effort to keep them to ourselves, we all know and have experienced that when we have somebody who's very trustworthy, somebody who has our best interest in mind, and we're able to reveal those secrets to that person, we experience unbelievable relief.

Because for a moment, and with this individual, we feel that we are fully known.

There's nothing to hide.

They know us completely, and that feeling brings with it a great amount of relief.

So I want to dig into a passage that deals with secrets, and it's a little bit frightening, which is why it's a part of this series that we're calling dismissing Jesus.

Subjects that we'd like to just set aside and not really deal with.

But what I want to show you is that while it is a little bit frightening, there's actually some very good news that's involved in it.

And I think you'll agree that that's the case.

Luke chapter 12 is actually a very long chapter.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

And though we're only looking at one section, just a handful of verses from it, there are actually nine sections in the entire chapter, and each one of those sections deals with the exact same theme.

Now, whether Jesus sat down and decided to teach on these nine this on this one theme and uh with in these nine different sections all at one time, we don't know.

Whether he did that or whether Luke, writing in the first century, decided to compile these nine things under this one theme so that the early church could read it, we're not sure.

But what we'll see in this chapter is that all of these sections deal with life after this one.

They all deal with the fact that human beings will one day face God as the judge, and that that truth should affect the way we live today.

And so Luke chapter 12, verse 1, begins this way.

Luke 12:1

It says, Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying, Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Now that verse begins with the word meanwhile, and what's important to know is that in the very previous chapter, chapter 11, Jesus exclusively deals with the Pharisees.

He speaks directly to them, and he says, The Pharisees, you are hypocrites, because you put on this outward show as if you're these great religious people, but inwardly you're dead.

Inwardly, you're just trying to manipulate God's law so that you can do whatever you want to do.

You're dead on the inside, but outwardly you put on this show.

And so what I think Luke is trying to point out to us here is that even while Jesus was criticizing the religious leaders of that day, a great crowd of many thousands was gathering around Jesus because they wanted to hear what this man had to say.

He tells them, Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

And he takes aim once again at them at the beginning of this chapter.

Then he says this this is why hypocrisy is so dreaded.

Verse 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.

What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight.

And what you have whispered in the ear in the inner room will be proclaimed from the roof.

The point is simply this the hypocrisy will be exposed.

A day will come where all hypocrisies will be exposed.

All secrets.

See, the Pharisees were keeping a secret that had an expiration date.

And that's an important truth for you and I to realize in this text.

All secrets have an expiration date.

All hidden things have an expiration date.

A day will come when all of those things will be exposed.

Every bad motive, everything that you got credit for when you didn't deserve it, everything that you wanted to keep hidden.

See, what Jesus is referring to here is a concept that was well established in the first in Jewish theology in the first century.

It's already been dealt with in Luke in chapter 10 and 11, that a day will come when all human beings will stand before God as the judge, and God will weigh those human beings.

Jesus continues.

Verse 4.

He says, I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body.

Remember, Luke is writing in a day when these words hit close to home.

This was real.

Luke wrote two books, the one that's named after him that tells a story of Jesus, and the book of Acts, it tells a story of the early church.

And very early on in the story of Acts, we learn about a man named Stephen who would be the first Christian martyr.

And there were many to follow.

And so when Luke writes all of this down, he's writing it to a people where this is real.

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body.

And after that, can do no more.

You see, hypocrisy can take two forms.

We normally think, when we hear the word hypocrisy, of the variety that the Pharisees embodied, putting on this spiritual facade on the outside, this veneer that I'm a good moral person and I'm just blessed by God and everything's great.

While inwardly, it was all a show.

Inwardly, it wasn't real.

And I think that that has been a temptation for Christians in our culture for a long time.

You know, I grew up in a place and a time where on Sunday mornings church was just the expected thing that most people did.

Even to the extent that grocery stores were not even open on Sunday mornings.

I'm sure many of you have experienced the same sort of thing, places and times where it was just expected that you were a religious person.

But there's a slightly different form of hypocrisy.

And maybe hypocrisy isn't exactly the right word, but this is the kind of hypocrisy that the Christians faced in the first century.

Where they were inwardly alive, they loved Jesus, were seeking the gospel, believed it with all that they were, but on the outside they were afraid.

They didn't want people to find out that they were Christians because if they did, their life might be demanded.

And more and more in our day, we're finding that that kind of hypocrisy is becoming a greater and greater temptation to keep it concealed because it might affect your career.

It might affect your future.

It might affect the way people think about you, that you're old-fashioned, that you're unscientific because you believe in those things that that God believed in so long ago.

But both of these types of hypocrisy don't square with the Christian life.

Listen to verse 4 one more time.

I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body.

Why?

Because after that, they can do no more.

Note the theological point here that cannot be separated from Christianity.

You are more than your life on earth.

You are more than your body.

Your life on this earth will come to an end, but that is not the worst thing that will happen.

You are more than your life on this earth.

This past month, I've had the opportunity to just do a bit more reflecting on death than I normally do.

And that was in part because I attended a funeral, in part because I passed the fourth year anniversary of my dad passing away, and I was reminded of something.

From a distance and for the Christian, both of those things are important with what I'm about to say.

From a distance and for the Christian, there's something about death that is sweet.

Don't get me wrong, death always has a sting.

There's always sadness involved in death, but from a distance and for the Christian, there's something about death that is sweet.

Because for the Christian, death is not an untimely end.

It's a transition from one place to a much more glorious place.

And so what Jesus is telling us here is do not fear humans who cannot harm your soul.

They can take your body, they can take your life, but they cannot harm your soul.

The worst thing that they can do is bump up the date of your transition.

And once your body's gone, what more can they do?

They're powerless.

Then Jesus says this, verse 5.

But I will show you whom you should fear.

Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has the authority to throw you into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him.

God has authority over your soul.

He's saying, do not fear humans, fear God, who has authority, not just over your body, but over your soul.

There's a couple loaded concepts here that I think we have to unpack because even just the mention of hell, I think, warrants an explanation.

Because the truth about hell is that you and I tend to not like it.

And so I want to tell you four things about hell, and this is important for us to understand with what comes next in Jesus' argument.

Four things about hell, and there's some references printed in your update that you can look up later.

I won't have time to read each one of those.

But here's what I want you to hear.

If you find yourself uncomfortable with the concept of hell, if you're here today and you're a skeptic and you're not sure that you believe the whole Christian story, if hell is one of those things that sort of keeps you at arm's reach from Christianity, then I want to remind you of something.

Every religion is going to challenge you.

It's going to challenge your thinking.

It's going to challenge your cultural assumptions.

Any religion, if it is true, if it is from God, and if it's going to span millennium, time, places, languages, cultures, there will be things about it that are offensive and that you don't like.

It would be foolish for you to decide whether something is true or not based on whether you like it or not, based on whether it squares with your understanding of the world.

See, the very center of Christianity is that 2,000 years ago God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, predicted his death and his resurrection, and then did it.

If that is true, if that really did happen, then I'm gonna go with pretty much whatever that guy teaches, whether I like all of it or whether it challenges me.

And so four things that I want you to know about hell.

Number one, hell is a place of punishment.

It's unambiguous from the teachings of Jesus, from the teachings of the apostles, the people that were around him, and from the teachings of the early church, that there is a place called hell that is a place of punishment.

And it's a punishment for two different types of people that have something in common.

The thing that they have in common is they lack trust in God.

One type of person lacks trust in God and shows that by living wickedly.

The other type of person lacks trust in God, and they show that by living religiously.

They try to earn God's favor, they try to live good, upright moral lives, they work hard, they might even show up at church.

But both of those people miss God because they're trusting in their own ability instead of trusting in God's grace.

Number two, hell is being cut off from the goodness of God.

The biblical story begins and ends with people living in the presence of God.

And they're enjoying God's presence, and the result of God's presence is perfect peace and joy and lack of any sort of tension or anxiety or fears.

And the story in between is a story of God bringing humans back into his presence.

2 Thessalonians 1:9 says that hell is ascending away from the presence of God.

2 Thessalonians 1:9

It's ascending away from the goodness that is the center of God.

Now, Kurt mentioned this a few weeks ago: that hell might not be a complete absence of the presence of God, that God might be present in hell in the same sort of way that a parent's glare is present when their child has done something wrong.

That God is looking at hell with this look that reminds people that they have rebelled against him.

Now, here's what's important for you to know in light of that.

There will be no one in hell that is begging for God's mercy.

Hell is a place that is full of people that are raising clenched fists against God.

They hate God, they don't want to be in God's presence, they don't want to be in heaven because that's where God is, and they hate his presence and they hate everything about him.

If your picture of hell is people begging for mercy and God saying no, then you have the wrong picture of hell.

Number three, hell is final.

There's no indication in Scripture that there is an end to hell or that someone could somehow transition from one place to the next.

Jesus refers to hell as a place of eternal punishment.

In another place, he teaches us that there's a great chasm that separates heaven and hell, so that there's no transitioning from one to the other.

And then finally, hell is righteous.

You can see it in Romans 2, but the concept is throughout the pages of Scripture that God's judgment on people because of sin is righteous, or it is right.

And when God does something that's right, when he does something that's righteous, he is glorified.

Now, if you have a hard time seeing hell as being righteous or advancing God's glory, then I want to suggest that you have the wrong version of hell in mind.

You're thinking about it based on what you've seen portrayed, based on cultural assumptions instead of what the scriptures teach.

Because a day will come when we will understand hell completely and every person will say, This is right.

This is righteous.

I think one of the best visuals that's helped me understand heaven and hell comes from a book by C.

S.

Lewis called The Great Divorce.

It's not a theology book, it's an imaginative fiction, but the imagery is some of the best uh pictures that I've ever seen in helping me understand what heaven and hell might be like.

Now, all of that, the concept of hell is essential for this next part in Jesus' argument.

Verse five, he says, but I will show you whom you should fear.

Fear him, whom after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him.

The command is to fear God.

And we're to fear God because God has soul authority to control your destiny, whether you will end up in heaven or hell.

And so a healthy posture that we should take as a result of that is fear.

Now, that doesn't mean that we cower from God's presence and we don't want to be near him, because fear of God can exist simultaneously with the perfect love of God, with his perfect peace.

Think of it this way.

One of uh I think the most uh the most instructive verses in helping us understand what it means to fear God comes from Leviticus.

It's a verse about our how we uh treat our parents, and it says this each of you must respect or each of you must fear your mother and father.

Now, I want you to think of the best parents that you can think of.

Think of like if you can imagine parents that are just one step.

Removed from perfect.

Think of those parents.

If you are picturing yourself, we have a wonderful counseling center, Orchard Hill Counseling.

Love to connect you with some people there.

Parents that are one step removed from perfection.

Imagine those parents.

Those parents are gonna instill a healthy sense of fear into their child.

If that word doesn't work for you, maybe think reverence or respect.

Because that family, while that child is gonna grow up with this sense of love and acceptance and intimacy and nearness with their parents, while their home is gonna be a place of peace, it's gonna be a place of comfort where they're at ease.

It's gonna be a place where they feel accepted.

While all of that is true, they're also going to know that if they cross their parents, that there's gonna be a result.

That if they are untrustworthy or disrespectful towards their parents, their parents are going to limit that child's freedom.

And the parent's ability and responsibility to limit that child's freedom is going to create a healthy sense of fear in that child, right?

And so the child is still gonna feel accepted, loved, peace, safety, but they know that there's limitations, there's a fence in their life.

And when they try to go outside of that fence, there will be consequences.

And so Jesus tells us that we're to have that sort of fear toward God as somebody who has ultimate control over our lives.

Here's just one way of thinking about what Jesus is getting at here.

A couple weeks ago, we had, you know, last days of school, right?

And on the second to last day of school, my son went to school and he got this packet of homework that he was allowed to do during the summer.

It wasn't required or anything.

Um, but he brought this home, and when he got home, he was like eager to start doing it.

Like, what?

Who is this kid?

And so he gets working at it.

It's nighttime now.

He's still working at it.

The other kids in our household have already gone to bed, and he's still like, you know, working really hard getting it done.

And my wife is like, why why don't you just do the whole thing?

Just get it all done tonight, and this will be awesome.

Now, the point wasn't for them to do it all that night.

In fact, they were told not to do it that night.

But I don't care, right?

This isn't required.

We've we've bought some other stuff for him to do during the summer so that he could keep learning.

So he worked really hard, stayed up really late, I went to bed, he was still up doing his homework, and the next day he was so proud of himself because he finished the entire thing.

And he goes off to school with his completed packet of paper in hands and he takes it to class.

Well, that day my wife picks him up from school and he gets into the car and he's just dejected.

He's sad, he's discouraged.

What's the deal, man?

Well, come to find out that there was somebody in his class that had like really made him feel bad about the fact that he did it all the night before.

And so he was feeling really sad about this.

So I come home and I'm okay with like my son feeling sad.

Like I get that like a little bit of turmoil in his life is gonna help him become a healthy human being.

So I'm not afraid, like, I don't I don't feel like I need to undo that.

But I come home from work and I meet him in his room and I have a talk with him, and I help him understand something.

I know that you're feeling sad about what this other kid said to you, but you need to understand something.

That his opinion of you ends today.

His opinion of you has no effect on the rest of your summer.

My opinion of you, on the other hand, will affect you for the rest of this summer.

I am proud of you for the work that you did, and I have the ability, unlike that child, to buy you a compound bow.

And I did, and it was awesome.

The point is this I wanted my son to understand that that kid's opinion of him ended right there, and it didn't matter anymore.

My opinion mattered.

And I think that that is what Jesus is getting at here.

I know that that's what Jesus is getting at here.

Don't care about the people's opinion of you that are temporal.

Care about God's opinion, which is going to last forever.

Then Jesus asks, adds this last thing that's very important.

Because he's challenging us, and he's challenging his readers in the first century and his hearers to not be afraid to lose your life.

And so he adds this, verse six.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?

Very cheap birds, right?

Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.

Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Don't be afraid.

You are worth many sparrows.

Jesus tells us that God cares and he sees your suffering.

Don't be afraid of the opinions of people.

No matter what they do to you, God is right there with you.

He sees the result, he sees whatever comes about.

Okay, you put this all together and you can see exactly what Jesus is teaching these here, is what Luke wants the first century Christians to hear.

That hypocrisy will always be a temptation for Christians.

Whether it's the form where we're outwardly religious and inwardly dead, or it's the form where we are inwardly alive and outwardly afraid.

It'll always be a temptation.

Why?

Because we are more afraid of the opinions of people than the opinions of God.

But that's silly.

Don't be afraid of the opinions of people, be afraid of the opinion of God because He has authority to determine your eternal destiny and keep in mind that whatever suffering comes, Jesus is there with you in the midst of it, and he has experienced it.

The point is this you will outlive your body.

You will outlive your body.

You will outlive your life on this earth.

And you are more than your body.

Now, there are probably a hundred different ways that we could apply this.

But what I want to point you to is the very words of Jesus at the end of this chapter.

Remember, all of chapter 12, nine segments that all have to do with life after this, that all have to do with the fact that we're gonna face a judge one day.

And here's how Jesus concludes this chapter.

As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, or the judge, I'll give you a hint, Jesus is not giving us legal advice here.

As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way.

Or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.

Now, this is not bad legal advice, right?

Settle outside of court.

Deal with it today.

When you go to court, things can get much worse, but that's not what Jesus is talking about.

We are all on a journey with an adversary to see the magistrate.

Every one of us is on our way to the magistrate.

We're walking there right now.

Settle things today.

Because if you end up going before the magistrate and you have not settled things, the judge is going to punish you to the full extent of the law.

Settle things today outside of court.

Now, this ultimately means that we seek reconciliation with Jesus for our sin.

That's why Jesus came into this world.

Born as a human being, he lived the perfect life that you and I could never live.

You will not live it.

You can work your entire life to be the best moral, religious person that you can.

You will never earn God's favor, but Jesus earned God's favor for you.

That's why he became a human being, to do for you what you could never do.

And then he went to his death.

And he died the death to pay a penalty that you could never repay.

Even with an eternity in hell, you'll never be able to repay that debt.

But Jesus did it for you so that you can come to him and simply trust him that he's got it covered.

And so that is how we settle things outside of court.

We settle things with Jesus by saying, you've taken, you've lived a life that I couldn't live, you died the death and paid the penalty for the sin that I deserve to die.

Now listen, if you don't identify with Christianity, if you're a skeptic, I want you to stop right there.

And let's just talk, not like pastor in church, but just as two reasonable human beings.

I want to say something that I think you're gonna agree with, that I don't think you can uh that you can argue with, and it's this Christianity teaches that all human beings will die.

They will all face God as the judge, and that judge will determine where they spend eternity, even either in heaven or in hell.

That's what Christianity teaches.

Now, whether or not you agree with that is besides my point for this moment.

That's what Christianity teaches.

That is heavy, and for that reason alone, you owe it to yourself.

Because of what hangs in the balance, you owe it to yourself to learn everything you can about this man Jesus.

Don't settle with what you've heard other people say about him, don't settle with what your friend thinks, don't settle with the fact that you know a Christian who's a jerk.

We know them too.

Sometimes it's us.

Don't settle with that.

Go straight to the testimonies that we have from the first century about Jesus.

Figure out everything you can about him.

Because what hangs in the balance is a very big deal.

Now, if you do identify with Christianity, presumably you've already settled outside of court.

You've already settled things with Jesus, you've already you've already said, your life, not mine, your death, not mine, I trust you.

But here's how this lives for you and me.

We started by talking about secrets.

We probably all have things that we don't want other people to know about.

Conflicts, turmoil that we don't want to resolve, somebody who we simply don't want to forgive.

You will outlive your secrets.

Your secrets have an expiration date.

They will not last forever, they will not be hidden forever.

One day, all things will come to light.

Now, we've already admitted that when we're able to share those secrets with somebody who's trustworthy, that we experience an unbelievable amount of relief because for a moment we're known and we're hiding nothing.

And that's why judgment day for Christians is such good news.

Because while it's scary to have everything revealed, it's also the most comforting thing in the world because a day will come when you have nothing to hide.

Everything will be out there, you will be you.

No more facade, no more veneer, no more pretending.

You will be fully you.

And even though you'll be completely known, you will also be completely accepted for who you are.

That is good news.

So my question for you today is what are you waiting for?

Your secrets have an expiration date.

Why not deal with them today?

Maybe for you, it means simply sending a text to somebody that says, Hey, I want to have a talk with you sometime soon.

Maybe your action step is to join a group, a men's group or a women's group, where you can be in a room where you can be accepted and you can be vulnerable.

I don't know what your particular thing is, but I know what Jesus said.

Settle accounts today because it's better than settling it with the magistrate.

A few months ago, I reached out to a close friend of mine and I asked him a weird question.

I asked him if I could send him my tax return.

And my reasoning was this I don't want there to be any secrets in Joel Haldeman's life.

I don't want there to be a place where secrets could develop.

And I said to him, I don't want there ever to be somebody who can come and say, I've discovered something about Joel Haldeman.

I've discovered a secret, and I'm going to ruin his life.

And so, to the best of my ability, I want to live as an open book.

And I'll tell you that there's unbelievable freedom that comes with that.

I'm not asking you to do that.

I'm not suggesting that that's your thing.

There were particular things that I wanted him to hold me accountable to.

You have your own things.

But what I want you to know is that there is great freedom in being fully known and having everything out there.

You will outlive your body.

Settle things today.

Don't wait another day.

You'll face the magistrate.

You will outlive your body.

Why wait another day?

Settle things.

Let's pray.

Father, we are so grateful for the amount of grace that you show us.

You've been so good to us.

Give us the courage to settle things today and help us as a church begin to find that great relief that comes with that, so that we'll be only further motivated to be an open book, to settle things immediately instead of waiting to meet you face to face.

In your name.

Amen.

We're going to stand together and sing this next song.

And as we do that, we're going to take communion.

And so if you're someone who identifies with Christianity, who's trusting in the body and blood of Jesus, I want to invite you to come forward to the tables and dip the bread in the wine and eat that.

And that for you is a reminder that Jesus has settled things outside of court.

And that when you face the magistrate one day, there will be an advocate who stands up and says, It's already finished.

So we'll sing together and want to invite you to come forward to the tables.