The Comforting Hope of the Fear of the Lord

Father, as we enter into this preparation time before Lent, help us to remember that

anything we receive from you is because of your grace and because of your love and your

goodness and your kindness towards us.

Lord, that parable reminds us that it does not matter how long we've been a Christian

or how short we've been a Christian. We are a part of your family, not because we have labored and toiled,

but because you have given us eternal life. Lord, let us humbly come before you and remember who we are

in light of who you are. So Lord, we ask your blessing on this text. Help us to hear with our

spiritual ears by the empowering of your Holy Spirit. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

If you're following along, we will be on page 56 in the Acts Scripture Journals. Just a heads up,

but before we get into it, we'll begin by talking about confrontation. Now, don't put up your hand,

but answer in your head. How many of you love confrontation? My guess is probably zero. Maybe

there's a bit of a crazy person among us that loves confrontation, but my guess is it's no.

Confrontation is something that by and large, again, I don't want to pigeonhole all people that

are Canadians, but by and large, Canadians are not known as confrontational people. In many ways,

I mean, we have opinions, but we like to be passive aggressive about it, subtle about it. We want people

to get the hint. We don't want to confront people. And yet, confrontation can be a very good thing.

Confrontation can be a source of growth for many of us. Nobody has the corner on right living. We make

mistakes. Oftentimes, there's an ignorance about some of the mistakes and the erroneous ways we live, and

being confronted on something can open our eyes and begin the process of right living, of correcting

what is wrong, ideally so that we can then live in the truth. Now, there's obviously right ways to

confront people and wrong ways to confront people. That's not so much what I'm going to refer to here,

but just to say that we oftentimes have, we have confused civility with a politeness.

We're not willing, in a sense, to confront people, to be a thorn in the side, so to speak, because we are

more concerned about politeness, and we've confused politeness with civility. So now, this isn't my idea.

I picked this up from Alexandra Hudson. She wrote a book on civility, interestingly. I didn't end up

reading it, but read a few articles around it, and she talks about how civility is the recognition of

the full personhood of an individual, and I would extend that to say that a part of that full personhood

is understanding people as image bearers of God, and as such, to confront somebody on something that is

wrong, or erroneous, or wrong-headed in some kind of way, is to respect their personhood,

to respect that they are made in the image of God, and that they are made to walk in the truth,

engaging in a mode of conduct that is befitting of a member of civil society. It's a part of the civis,

a part of being a part of society. So civil disobedience, at its best, ideally, is to,

not to, not to, to start some kind of riot, but to open the eyes of a segment of society to a wrong

way of thinking. So the civil rights movement in America is a great example of that.

In its best form, it's to not crush or shame the, the, the, the population that is for segregation

in the south, but it's to open their eyes to the truth so that they would correct their ways

and walk in the truth. That's the, the idea of civil disobedience, but it's confrontation.

Jesus heals not simply to undo evil, but to give hope that the brokenness will not stay broken

forever. In many ways, when Jesus heals, when he casts out demons, when he commands nature, when he does

any miracle, what we see is a confrontation between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom

of evil, or of Satan, or of sin, or of death, that has ruled over mankind for far too long, for centuries

upon centuries, and has, in a, in a very real way, looked to spoil and destroy God's good creation.

And this ministry, in a sense of confrontation, the kingdom of heaven versus the kingdom of the earth,

we've seen that it doesn't end with Christ ascending into heaven in Acts 1, but it becomes the very

ministry of his church, and we've seen this from Acts 1 all the way to Acts chapter 9, that the church

Acts 9 · chapter mention

continues on, and in a sense, even, I don't want to say adds to Christ's ministry, but it certainly expands it.

So that the ministry of Christ doesn't remain in the Galilee and then in Jerusalem, but goes to Judea,

Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The ministry of reconciliation is what it's called, but it can also be the ministry of confrontation.

So the church, by the power of the Holy Spirit, continues to confront the forces of evil and sin and death

by proclaiming the gospel, the wonderful good news that through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus,

people from all nations and backgrounds will become citizens of heaven, the kingdom of God forever.

So in our text, we're going to look primarily actually at verse 31 of the previous week's reading,

and then that will be our first point, so to speak, and our second point will be looking at the rest of the text to verse 43.

Really, we're going to look at how the gospel exposes and confronts our brokenness and fears.

First, by confronting our obsession with distraction and pleasure.

And second, confronting disease and death.

And we'll see actually that the confrontation of distraction and pleasure is actually the bigger confrontation in a way

than the confrontation with disease and death.

So look with me, verse 31.

This is the previous week.

Susan did not read this.

It was read last week, but I'll read it again right now.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up,

and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

This is the third summary statement in Acts.

We've seen it, if you remember, in Acts chapter 2, and I believe it's in Acts chapter 3.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 3 · chapter mention

It kind of sums up the state of affairs in the church thus far.

If you remember last week, Saul of Tarsus, the zealous Pharisee who is persecuting the church,

is miraculously confronted by Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he comes to faith.

He is converted.

And then he becomes an evangelist.

He is on his way to persecute, and by the end of the chapter, he's the one being persecuted.

And it would make sense then that this summary statement speaks of peace in the church,

because their chief persecutor seems to be now on their side.

But there's more to it than that, because it also doesn't just sum up what just happened,

but looks ahead of what is to come.

The text again.

So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was being built up,

and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Wouldn't it be wonderful that in a hundred years they could say, whoever they are, they,

could say, instead of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, they could say,

so the church throughout all of Ottawa, and especially Church of the Messiah West,

they had peace.

They were being built up, and they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

It would be a wonderful thing.

I mean, whoever the youngest child is, is, you know,

dies with their huge family around them at 95 years old.

Nobody who founded the church or launched the church or who's here this morning would be around in a hundred years,

but they'd still say that about our church.

It would be a wonderful thing.

But the question then would be, how did they have peace?

So for us, how do we have peace?

How were they being built up?

How did they enjoy a church that multiplied or grew?

So the answer seems to be two things

that seem on the surface to be contradictory,

but are deeply intertwined,

and that is the second part of verse 31,

the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

So looking first at the fear of the Lord,

it seems by and large in Scripture there's two ways,

and this is like really general comments about the fear of the Lord,

but there's two ways to understand the fear of the Lord.

The first is actual fear.

We see it with not even interactions with God himself,

but with an angel of the Lord.

People, they turn white as a ghost.

They fear God.

It is to encounter the all-powerful, completely holy, awesome God of light

is a terrifying thing for sinful, finite human beings.

If you remember, when Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the law from God,

he comes down and the people,

I mean, it was always God's purpose to see all the people interact with God,

but the people were too afraid,

and they said,

Moses, you go as our representative.

We can't, it's too scary for us.

It's terrifying.

And God actually told Moses that they were right in that assessment.

The uncreated triune God is in no way in anyone's debt.

He has never compromised his character or his identity or his purity,

nor does he get squeamish or does he lose courage in the face of sin and death.

To cross this God is a fearful thing.

He is completely holy, completely other, completely all-powerful.

To fear God is to fear God in a very real way.

The second way that it talks about the fear of the Lord is connected to the first bit,

but in this way, it's more of a deep and awe-inspired reverence

in terms of a relationship or a relational connection to God in that way.

And we'll talk about that shortly.

But the fear of God is little talked about in general,

and even in some ways even less talked about in the church,

and it's dangerous to be overly simplistic in determining why this is,

but I want to suggest the reason is that we live in an age of pleasure and distraction.

So here's where we get into this confrontation.

But first, a bit about the pleasure and distraction.

We engage in pleasures to distract ourselves, and we distract ourselves with pleasure.

Oftentimes for the purpose of not feeling the acute reality of our reality,

the nature of sin and fallenness.

I'm not suggesting that any form of pleasure is wrong,

or that engaging in some kind of respite from just very busy or difficult seasons or situations,

to have mental breaks from the monotony and the routine of life,

that somehow that is sinful.

I'm not somehow suggesting that.

I'm suggesting that we have a problem with the very age,

the very ethos that informs the way we live,

that our age is an age of pleasure and distraction.

It's the very thing in some ways that defines us.

It has become our telos, our reason to be, our guiding North Star,

the thing that we live for.

Whether we know it or not, we look for pleasure.

But this guiding principle, it is not true solve for our souls.

It is not the very thing that we need, even though we look to it.

Because the problem with pleasure and distraction is that the pleasure

oftentimes loses its pleasurableness.

And distraction does not make the problem go away.

Our feelings of meaninglessness or loneliness or sin and fears, they persist.

And this is Satan's great trick,

to distract us with good and pleasurable things,

to draw our attention and affections away from God and his Son.

We value the kingdom of whatever far more than the kingdom of heaven.

I say whatever because it can be whatever.

So a very interesting thing with temptation,

that it's not just the evil, dark, or terribly sensual things that are temptations,

although those things certainly do exist.

They need to be dealt with, of course.

But the temptation, in a sense, is anything that is good,

where we put our ultimate hope in,

that distracts us from our ultimate end,

that we see as a source of strength or courage or delight in,

more than God.

In many ways, this is idolatry.

And it's Satan's great trick.

It certainly is.

We have an enemy that seeks not to create,

in a sense, an army of atheists,

but an army of distracted pleasure seekers.

I mean, he'll take the atheists too, by the way.

I mean, he'll do whatever it takes to distract us.

And it's interesting.

I mean, I talked to somebody earlier this week

about the Screwtape Letters,

and this is a bit of a longer quote.

So, the Screwtape Letters, if you haven't read it,

it's by C.S. Lewis,

and it's a clever little way, in a sense,

to look at temptation

and the way that Satan's plans

and temptations aren't organized in any other way

apart from just drawing us away from God.

So, it is written in a series of letters back and forth

from an uncle, demon, who is like a high-up-there demon.

It's a weird book, but it's very clever.

To his nephew novice son.

Or, sorry, his nephew novice.

He's like a junior officer, so to speak, in hell.

And he's giving him advice on how to tempt

this one client he has.

And this is how it goes.

As this condition becomes more fully established,

you will be gradually freed from the tiresome business

of providing pleasures as temptations.

As uneasiness and his reluctance to face it

cut him off more and more from all real happiness,

and as habit renders the pleasures of vanity

and excitement and flippancy

at once less pleasant and harder to forego.

For that is what habit fortunately does to a pleasure.

You will find that anything or nothing

is sufficient to attract his wandering attention.

You no longer need a good book,

which he really likes,

to keep him away from his prayers

or his work or his sleep.

A column of advertisement in yesterday's paper will do.

You can make him waste his time

not only in conversation he enjoys

with people whom he likes,

but in conversations with those he cares nothing about

on subjects that bore him.

You can make him do nothing at all for long periods.

You can keep him up late at night,

not roistering,

but staring at a dead fire in a cold room.

All the healthy and outgoing activities

which we want him to avoid

can be inhibited and nothing given in return

so that at last he may say,

as some of my own patients

said on his arrival down here,

that's hell,

I now see that I spent most of my life

in doing neither what I ought

nor what I liked.

The Christians describe the enemy,

whenever the enemy is there,

he's talking about God.

Everything's backwards, remember.

The Christians describe the enemy as one,

quote,

without whom nothing is strong,

end quote,

and nothing is very strong,

strong enough to steal away a man's best years,

not in sweet sins,

but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it,

knows not what and knows not why,

in the gratification of curiosity so feeble

that the man is only half aware of them,

in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels,

in whistling tunes that he does not like,

or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries

that have not even lust or ambition

to give them a relish,

but which one's chance associations

has started them,

the creature is too weak

and fuddled to shake off.

You will say that these are very small sins,

and doubtless,

like all young tempters,

you are anxious to be able to report

spectacular wickedness,

but do remember,

the only thing that matters

is the extent to which you separate

the man from the enemy.

It does not matter

how small the sins are provided,

that their cumulative effect

is to edge the man away from the light

and out into the nothing.

Murder is no better than cards,

if cards can do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell

is the gradual one,

the gentle slope,

soft underfoot,

without sudden turnings,

without milestones,

without signposts.

Your affectionate Uncle Screwtape.

If anything can be weaponized

to distract us from God,

where is the hope?

Friends, the hope is in Christ Jesus

and his gospel.

The gospel confronts our obsessive

and pervasive pleasure-seeking

by helping us to see

what the fear of the Lord,

that the fear of the Lord

is a good and gracious thing.

It is not a scary thing,

but actually a blessing for us.

So what does that mean?

How is it a blessing for us?

To know that there is a good

and perfect and holy God

and that this God

is the source of all goodness

and beauty and truth,

and in him we can find eternal,

true eternal satisfaction,

and that he has provided to us

a way that we would be made right with him

and enjoy him forever

in an eternal relationship.

This is the gospel message.

This is the very thing

that in a very real way

we long for,

but we look everywhere else for

except from him,

and we take wonderful,

beautiful, good things

and we muddy them

and ruin them

because we try to use them

to achieve something

that they were never designed to,

namely,

eternal satisfaction

with the one true God.

God doesn't cease to be holy,

but through the cross

he allows us

into this right relationship with him

because of what Christ has done.

He doesn't lower his standards,

but he descends himself

paying the penalty for our sin

so that we could have access to him,

not on our own merit,

our own righteousness,

our own, in a sense, clothing,

but by Christ.

And the result is

the giving of his very spirit.

And it says, interestingly,

in verse 31,

that there's the comfort

of the Holy Spirit

that also builds the church.

So the giving of the Spirit

comforts us.

And in a real way,

is this not the very thing

we're looking for, comfort?

comfort,

a divine comfort,

a comfort that speaks

to a deep peace

where our future is secure

and all our fears

are relieved,

that our life has meaning

and purpose.

We look for such comfort

in pleasure

and distraction,

but are we really comforted

by such things?

And the gospel,

what it does

is it confronts that,

that pleasure seeking

and that distraction

for the sake

of true comfort.

It confronts it

and it tells us

in a very real

and loud way

that that is not comfort at all

and that is a blessing

from God.

What is interesting

about finding deep

and eternal comfort

in the Lord

is that we actually

become less concerned

about ourselves.

A book written

a few years back

by Timothy Keller

who has since passed away,

the blessing

of self-forgetfulness.

And we have this blessing

of thinking

of ourselves less.

Not being obsessive

about our own

pleasure and distraction,

we become joyful

in the things

that bring God joy.

The mission of God

becomes our mission

where Christ

continues on

through his church

by his spirit

to confront disease

and death

and false gods

like pleasure

and distraction.

So this leads us

to the second confrontation

with disease

and death

and in many ways

it seems

like this is the easier

confrontation.

We'll get to that

in a minute

but let's read

verses 32 to 42.

Now as Peter

went here and there

among them all,

he came down

also to the saints

who lived in Lydda.

Peter likely

is consolidating

all of these churches

churches

that popped up

with Philip

and some other apostles

proclaiming the gospel

around Samaria

where the gospel

spread

after the stoning

of Stephen.

Church order

is being brought

to all these various

house churches

or gatherings

and this is what

Peter is likely doing.

Verse 33,

there he found

a man named

Aeneas,

bedridden for eight years.

Interestingly,

in the original language,

it could be bedridden

since he was

eight years old.

Either way,

this man has not

walked in a very

long time.

He was bedridden

for eight years

and he was paralyzed

and Peter said

to him,

Aeneas,

Jesus Christ heals you.

Rise and make your bed

and immediately

he rose

and all the residents

of Lydda and Sharon

saw him

and they turned

to the Lord.

Now there was in Joppa,

that is modern day Jaffa,

just south of Tel Aviv,

a disciple named

Tabitha,

which translated

means Dorcas.

Same,

both those names

mean gazelle,

it's just,

one is Aramaic,

one is Greek.

Tabitha,

or Dorcas,

was full of good works

and acts of charity.

In those days,

she became ill

and died

and when they had

washed her,

they laid her

in an upper room.

Since Lydda

was near Joppa,

the disciples,

hearing that Peter

was there,

sent two men

to him,

urging him,

please come to us

without delay.

So Peter arose

and went with them

and when he arrived,

they took him

to the upper room.

All the widows

stood beside him

weeping

and showing tunics

and other garments

that Dorcas made

while she was with them.

But Peter put them

all outside

and knelt down

and prayed

and turning to the body,

he said,

Tabitha,

arise.

And she opened her eyes

and when she saw Peter,

she sat up

and he gave her

his hand

and raised her up

and calling the saints

and widows,

he presented her alive.

Verse 42,

and it became known

throughout all Joppa

that many believed

in the Lord.

We have two miracles here,

two confrontations,

one with disease

and ailments

and one with death.

They look very similar

to two miracles

that Jesus performed himself.

the first,

Aeneas,

he's a paralytic.

He is raised

much like the paralytic

of Mark chapter 2

Mark 2 · chapter mention

where,

if you remember,

a paralytic is lowered

through the roof

and Jesus tells him

just like he does Aeneas here

to rise,

take up your bed

and walk.

Very,

very similar language.

In the second,

we have this woman,

Tabitha or Dorcas,

she's died

and she's raised again.

Notice that Peter,

he prays first,

it's different

than what Jesus does.

Jesus doesn't pray

to himself

but he just lifts her up

but nevertheless,

Peter,

in working with

the power of Jesus,

says to her,

Tabitha,

rise.

Interestingly,

the only difference

in language

between what Jesus does

with Jairus' daughter

in Mark chapter 5

Mark 5 · chapter mention

and what Peter does

with Tabitha

in Acts chapter 9,

Acts 9 · chapter mention

it's identical,

everything's identical

about it

except for one letter.

With Jesus,

he says Talitha,

rise.

Just a different name.

Peter says Tabitha,

rise.

One letter

is different

and Luke,

writing this,

he is making

this connection.

It is,

there's no doubt

about it.

He is telling us

that Christ,

not Peter,

but Christ continues

to be at work

through his church

doing the same

work of confronting

the effects

of sin

and brokenness

in the world,

disease and death.

Christ is still active.

He's ascended,

but he is still

the active agent

in this story.

Peter is a conduit.

What does he say

to Aeneas?

Jesus Christ heals you.

Rise and make your bed.

And what does he say

to Tabitha?

He prays.

He's clearly praying

to Jesus,

Tabitha, rise.

Jesus is still at work

confronting sin

and death,

disease,

and everything

that belongs

to evil.

And in both cases

we see a movement

up,

up to life,

up to heaven,

and not down

towards the grave

and to death.

For Aeneas,

arise.

Interestingly,

that Tabitha

her body is put

in an upper room.

If you remember

back in Acts chapter 5,

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Ananias and Sapphira

drop dead on the spot.

Crazy story,

but they're buried

right away.

It is a custom

to bury right away.

I mean,

a part of it

has to do

with being

in a warm climate,

but the other part

of it is

to respect the body,

to lay the body

to rest right away.

A body that dies,

you don't put

in an upper room.

It's a bit of

a bizarre

thing to do,

although

it's bizarre,

but it's bizarre

unless you

believe maybe

this person

could rise again.

But we see

either way

a movement

not down

towards the grave

and death,

but up

towards life

and resurrection.

In both cases,

the product of sin

and brokenness

are confronted.

Disease and death

are shown

in this

to be lesser foes.

And what's the result?

Verse 35

and also verse 42.

I'll read verse 35

first.

And all the residents

of Lydah

and Sharon

saw him,

that is,

Aeneas,

the former paralytic,

and they turned

to the Lord.

And in verse 41,

sorry,

in verse 42,

And it became known

throughout all Joppa,

and many believed

in the Lord.

The result

of the confrontation

of disease

and death

wasn't simply

that the paralytic

could walk again

and the dead person

could rise

once again,

but it was to declare

that death

and disease,

they were weak enemies.

They were defeated enemies.

They were neutered enemies.

They were enemies

without power.

They had a shelf life.

The time has come

that life

and life eternal

would be given

to all who believed.

It was a sign,

in a sense,

that pointed up

towards Christ.

The fact is,

I mean,

I'm assuming,

maybe I shouldn't assume,

but I'm assuming

Aeneas got some disease

later on.

In a year,

he could have got

tuberculosis.

We don't know.

Maybe he contracted pneumonia

when he was in his old age.

Whatever.

But he got sick

at a certain point

and his body failed him

and he died.

Tabitha,

maybe she lived

another five,

ten years.

Maybe she

had a 30-year

mercy ministry

after this.

It was an incredible thing.

We're not sure.

But she died.

The point

isn't so much

to revel

in the healing

or the resurrection,

but to see

what that represents

and what that points to.

That the kingdom

of heaven has come

and has confronted

the kingdom

of darkness

and sin forever

and has found

the kingdom

of darkness

and sin

to be wanting.

That's true hope.

That is true hope.

A sure and better hope

than anything

we can put our hope

in here.

It's a better hope

than any pleasure

that we could find

apart from Christ

and any distraction

that truly gets

our mind off

of our problem

or problems

for a period of time.

If the rejoicing

of the disciples

in verse 35

and 41

were just with the healings,

it would be false hope.

But it wasn't.

It was eternal hope.

We need to be

hopeful people,

but we also need

to be hopeful people

in the right things,

the right person.

If we put our hope

in medicine,

beating disease forever,

that's a lesser hope

to put our hope into.

Medicine, fantastic.

Right living,

exercise,

doing all the things,

very good,

but that can't be

our eternal hope.

Hope in the way

we build our lives

or raise our children

or how we run our business

or how we are employees.

If we put our ultimate hope,

our ultimate feelings

of pleasure in that,

that will let us down.

All good things,

but that can't be

our ultimate hope.

Christ will be

our ultimate hope

because God forbid

something happens

to our families.

It could.

God forbid something

happens to our job

or our reputation.

All of these things

are not guaranteed

to last forever.

Only Christ

can last forever.

So where is our hope?

Only in the gospel

do we see

the ultimate hope

that confronts

and defeats

the source

of all disease

and all death

and confronts us

and wakes us up

from our malaise.

And this is something

that we

constantly fall into.

This is why

a season of Lent,

of preparation

into Easter

is helpful for us

because

it's a season

where we

once again

in a very

pointed way

recognize

our great need

for Christ's mercy

and we bend

our need

to him afresh.

That's why

confession of sin

is a huge part

of what we do

here at our church

and what the Bible

talks about

is because

we often

fall into

patterns of

distraction

and pleasure

and we fail

to put our hope

in the ultimate one.

We put our hope

in lesser things.

So friends,

ask yourself,

who is your hope in?

Is it in the cross

of Christ

that will never

let you down?

That will always

satisfy

in this life

and in the world

to come

or in a lesser hope

that really is no hope

at all?

Let's put our hope

in Christ.

Let's pray.

Father,

we thank you

for your goodness

to us

that in times

of conviction

of sin

that it is not

to shame

us

to make us

feel rotten

forever

but to open

our eyes

to confront us

with a wrong

path that we

are walking down

so that by your

strength we would

go down the right

path.

We would repent

through ourselves

to your grace

afresh once again.

Lord,

if we are people

that have fallen

into cycles

of pleasure

and distraction

as the means

by which we

address

our feelings

of meaninglessness

or sin

or loneliness

or whatever it may be

rather than looking

to you

by your strength

will you help us

to look to you

afresh?

Lord,

help us to always

remember that

any eternal joy

that we might have,

any comfort

of the Holy Spirit,

any divine pleasure

that we will experience

in this life

it is because

of the grace

of your wonderful

Son offered to us

on the cross

of Calvary.

Amen.