Amazed and Afraid Pastor Allan Kircher Shell Point Baptist Church 10 Jan 10
Mark 10:32
the evangelist Mark brings into clear prominence a critical period in the history of our Lord to us this morning.
Before this verse Jesus went from Perea to Bethany, and raised Lazarus from the dead; He then, because the Sanhedrin had laid Him under excommunication, and decreed that HE should die, retreated back into the desert of Ephraim.
The last abode of Jesus in the wilderness, His last retreat in this world.
This was the great task that He now contemplated.
The disciples saw in His majestic, resolute, solemn, and fixed deportment, that a most important crisis was impending.
The Lord strengthened them in solitude.
He led His disciples and gave them the third and last and most express preannouncement of His passion.
He repeated to them all the comforting promises of His resurrection, and thus prepared them for all, while waiting for the Galilean persecution that awaits him.
Jesus now begins his heavenly pilgrimage.
ON account of their Master, they were amazed
For themselves, they feared.
All nature trembles when God leads man on the way of the cross.
The Master going before them, what remained but that they should follow as we also follow His divine words.
Pray
It seems as if we have forgotten the words of Jesus, or merely pass them off as pious platitudes and nice stories.
We claim to follow the Savior, but we don’t take very seriously the things he said about love, nonviolence, openness to others, forgiveness and compassion.
We are in danger of becoming shallow, hypocritical and missing the depth of the life Christ has called us to live.
Seeing salvation as merely a legal transaction.
Becoming a Christian for many is simply a matter of “getting saved”.
One trip to the altar is all that is required. Just get baptized. Just take communion.
Just join the church and it is all settled.
It is as if someone asks God to forgive their sins, and then they wipe their forehead and say, “Thank God that’s over with!”
It is not that there is not a certain amount of truth in all that,
but the problem is that we see it as a one time act that is over and done with.
Not much thought is given to actually studying the Gospels to see what Jesus really said and discovering the life he meant for us to live.
Not much care is given to really becoming a disciple of Christ and growing in the life to which he has called us.
We often talk of repenting of our sins, as though it is merely saying we are sorry so that God will forgive us.
But repentance means a change of heart and life — a total turnaround.
It brings about a dramatic change of character. We start treating each other differently.
We really do start loving our enemies.
We actually forgive those who have wronged us.
We seek to find nonviolent means to bring resolution to disagreements.
We long for reconciliation rather than harboring grudges and bitterness.
We become a new kind of people.
The goal of the Christian life is not forgiveness, but transformation.
The Christian life is not a set of doctrines to be believed, it is a lifestyle to be lived.
The Christian life is not just about “being saved”, it is about a relationship with God that results in obedience and transforms the way we live.
It transforms the way we see the world and the way we see and treat other people.
Christians need to take their faith seriously and realized the importance of being a witness by living a transformed life in a culture collapsing under the weight of its own sin.
The trend that I see happening over and over, and the trend that we will see in our passage of Scripture,
is that an individual will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ,
or a Christian will grow closer and stronger in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
And then they will become very excited about how God is moving and working in their lives,
but they also become accustomed to certain spiritual routines and habits and they get used to God working in predictable ways.
Then when they happen to grow to a certain point in their faith,
God might just ask the individual to do something that they are not used to doing.
Perhaps it is listening too and singing and rejoicing with a type of music we are not particularly used too.
He might ask them to take a step of faith and do something that just doesn’t make much sense,
and out of fear of the unknown the person will sometimes refuse to press onward.
They will refuse to trust God and to grow any more in their faith and then their relationship with the Lord starts to suffer greatly.
As we will see today, many of us tend to grow accustomed to where we are in our relationship with the Lord.
We become accustomed to how God normally speaks to us and uses us.
Then when God asks us to do something different or unpredictable,
we can become greatly afraid and remain right where we are.
So what happens to us when we refuse to move ahead when God tells us to step out in faith?
Let’s look at Mark 10:32.
They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid, Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him.
In this verse we read that as Jesus’ disciples followed him to Jerusalem they were filled with both “amazement” and “fear.”
The gospel writer Mark apparently liked to use these two words often in his writing.
Throughout Mark’s gospel, people respond to Jesus with amazement and with fear.
They were amazed when Jesus healed a man who could not walk.
They were amazed when he said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the Kingdom of God.
They were amazed when he instructed them to return to Caesar the things that were Caesar’s.
The people were “amazed” by what Jesus did and said because he challenged much of what they took for granted and they were “afraid” of the power that he possessed.
Mark combines the two emotional responses when he tells us that the disciples were both amazed and afraid as Jesus went before them as they journeyed toward Jerusalem.
Mark couples the two words “amazed” and “afraid” together in a few other places in his gospel as well.
For example, in Mark 5:15, and 20, we are told how people responded to Jesus healing a demon-possessed man.
These verses say, “Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind.
And they were afraid . . . And [the man] departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled [or were amazed].”
In Mark 16:8 we read that two ladies named Mary went to see the empty tomb after Jesus’ resurrection,
and the Scripture says, “So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
Mark isn’t the only gospel writer who couples the words “amazed” and “afraid” together, for Luke does so as well.
In Luke 5:26 we read that after Jesus healed a paralytic,
“They were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear [or were afraid], saying,
‘We have seen strange things today’.”
Remember when Jesus calms the storm?
Now here, Jesus gets in the boat and falls asleep.
A squall came down on the lake, so the boat was being swamped.
The disciples get all flustered and wake Jesus up saying,” Master, Master we are going to drown!”
He got up, rebuked the wind and the storm subsided.
Where is your faith?
In fear and amazement, they asked one another, “Who is this?” He commands the wind and the water, and they obey him.”
Don’t you truly believe even today that Jesus could have just remained sleeping and his followers would still have been taking care of?
This is a pattern that we all tend to follow at one time or another in our response to Jesus Christ,
I believe that we can learn something about our relationship with the Lord Jesus by examining why we often react this way.
How and why are we filled with sudden surprise and amazement at Jesus,
and why does this sometimes lead to apprehension?
Well, let’s look at Mark 10:32 again and see if we can gain some insight.
The first thing that we see here is that the disciples were amazed or astonished.
The disciples knew that opposition was growing to Jesus’ ministry.
However, Jesus led them toward Jerusalem and they could not understand why he would head right into the hornet’s nest.
This filled them with astonishment or sudden surprise and amazement.
When we come to know and understand Jesus through a personal relationship with him we will become completely amazed by what we discover.
We will be amazed by what Jesus asks and requires of us in order to follow him.
Jesus is going to challenge our way of thinking and ask us to do things that we are not used to doing.
He will ask us to step out of our comfort zones.
One thing that Jesus might ask us to do that is simply astonishing is to give up our very comfortable way of living in order to follow him.
Your own life……….
How many of us will be astonished when we see that following Jesus could require us to live a life of poverty?
Jesus is going to challenge us to do some things that will make us very uncomfortable and this will cause us great astonishment and amazement!
The story of the woman caught in adultery, among many others, is a perfect example of this.
The self-righteous thought it a good and righteous thing to stone the woman to death,
and they were shocked and appalled when Jesus said he did not condemn her. He saw something valuable in her — even when she was living far from God.
He saw her as redeemable. He saw her as someone God loved in spite of her sin.
That’s good news for you and me. Atheists, sinners and the like are not the enemy to be despised,
they are the object of our mission as Christians, and we are called to love them.
We are called to love them and win them to the Kingdom.
And perhaps in living lives of love and grace before them, they can be drawn to the God who loves them.
How will they ever believe that God loves them if we do not?
The second thing that we see in Mark 10:32 is that the disciples became afraid.
Notice that they were first astonished, but then they became afraid of what was to happen.
The disciples were also afraid when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus,
and we are told that their fear left them speechless.
Do you know what the most frequent command in the New Testament is?
It is, “Do not be afraid!” Jesus told his disciples about the persecution they would soon face.
He told them of the coming persecution and said, “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home” (John 16:32).
It was the worst possible news they could imagine, but then he said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Do we believe that Jesus has overcome the world or not?
Are we living in that quiet confidence?
Then we don’t have to get mad and upset at everything that comes along.
When we come to newfound spiritual truths I think that many times we become excited.
First of all we are excited that God actually spoke to us and showed us his will.
We are also excited that his will and his plans include us.
And secondly, we are excited because the whole idea of stepping out in faith has a kind of romantic appeal.
However, as time goes by and as we come to grips with the actual challenges that we will face then we become afraid.
We become afraid because we think that we can’t do what Jesus asks of us.
We look only to our own abilities, or should I say inabilities,
instead of looking to what God is able to do through us by his power.
We face a crisis of belief and we become afraid,
and many times that fear will cause us to stop dead in our tracks and then we refuse to press onward into God’s will for us.
Churches, as well as individuals, can become both amazed and afraid in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
I want to give you an example of how this can happen in churches.
Churches claim that they want to grow, however when all at once God opens the floodgates and many people start joining these churches, then some of the church members would become afraid of all of the new faces coming in.
Before long, those church members who were afraid started doing things to sabotage God’s work whether they knew it or not.
They weren’t yet ready for God to move and because of fear they shut everything down.
As I said fear will stop us dead in our tracks.
I would suggest that to be “amazed and afraid” is the state of being in which two things are happening.
First, a person or community is able to recollect those times in their lives when they felt that God was very present.
But, secondly, it is also a time when that person or community stands on the threshold of new, uncharted territory, a future which is hazy and uncertain.
That is what it means to be “amazed and afraid.”
[To be amazed and afraid is] . . . a mix of hope and fear.
Whether it be an individual or a church,
people will sometimes draw back to those things which are more familiar to them when God asks them to move onward into new uncharted territory.
In my own walk with the Lord there are times when I look back on those early days in my relationship with the Lord –
the days when everything was new and exciting, and God was revealing many new things to me in my quiet times.
It was a time in which I was being fed and didn’t have to bother with feeding others.
Everything was much easier back then,
and there are times when life becomes difficult that I wish I could return there.
However, if I had never stepped out in faith I would not be pastoring today.
I would still just be a spiritual infant.
We can’t grow in faith by just studying about faith in God’s Word.
We can only grow in faith by living it out and following and trusting God in those new, difficult, and frightening circumstances.
What is it that often makes us afraid to press on, and what do we do when we start becoming afraid?
The last part of verse 32 says, “Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him.”
When the disciples became afraid to follow and wanted to stop right in their tracks,
Jesus explained in great detail what they were up against and he likely encouraged them that they would be just fine.
Jesus revealed his plans to his disciples.
He alleviated some of the element of the unknown that causes so much fear in the lives of human beings.
If we become afraid to follow Jesus where he is leading and when he tells us to move,
then it is likely that we have not confirmed God’s direction in our hearts.
If we are unsure of God’s direction then it is probably because we have failed to spend time with Jesus and seek out his will.
When an individual spends time with Jesus by reading God’s Word, by praying,
and by fellowshipping with other believers, then he will be more in tune with what Jesus desires.
The same thing holds true for churches as well.
If each church member is sincerely seeking God’s heart and will then we should all be on the same page when God asks us to step out in faith and head in a new direction. Our direction as a church
When God starts to move in our lives or in our church we are filled with amazement.
We become very excited!
However, when God shows up in our lives or in our church he will soon ask us to follow him wherever he leads.
At this point many of us will clam up and become afraid. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.”
I have always interpreted this verse as saying that when we have a perfect love relationship with Jesus Christ,
then we will come to trust him no matter what happens.
There has never been a time when it is more important to live out the life that Christ has laid out for us than it is today.
And it is possible through Christ.
We have been forgiven and brought into the kingdom of heaven.
We have the Holy Spirit living around us and within us.
We have each other.
We have the hope of a returning Savior and the promise of eternal life.
What could be better?
The Bible makes this promise: “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).
If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior then I want to challenge you to draw nearer to him and seek his direction for your individual life and for this church.
Rededicate your life to spending time with the Lord through his Word and through prayer, and then the fear in your life will soon depart
If you have never believed that Jesus Christ died for your sins on the cross and rose again from the dead to conquer sin and death for you,
and if you have never publicly confessed Jesus Christ as you Lord and Savior,
then you are not a Christian.
If you are not a Christian but you still attend church,
then you have probably been amazed on many occasions.
I am sure that you have been amazed whenever you saw someone else step forward to confess his or her faith in Jesus Christ.
You have probably been amazed when you heard Jesus speaking to your own heart to accept him,
however that amazement usually turns to fear when you start thinking about what other people will think of you should you go forward to receive Christ.
That amazement turns to fear when you think about the commitment that will be required of your life when Jesus asks you to live a life of dedication to him.
If you will just surrender and allow Jesus’ perfect love to come into your heart, then all of your fears will subside.
