One day, a bus driver was driving along his usual route. He didn't encounter any problems for the first few stops; a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well. At one stop, however, a big hulk of a man got on. He was 6' 8" tall, built like a wrestler, and his arms hung down to the ground. He glared at the driver and told him, “Big John doesn't pay!” Then he sat down at the back of the bus. The driver was 5' 3" tall, thin, and very meek, so he didn't argue with Big John. But he wasn't happy about it.
The next day, the same thing happened. Big John got on again, made a big show of refusing to pay, and sat down. It happened the next day, and again the day after that. The bus driver began to lose sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him.
Finally, he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and a class on finding your self-esteem. By the end of the summer, the bus driver had become quite strong and felt really good about himself.
The next Monday, Big John entered the bus and again declared, “Big John doesn't pay!” Enraged, the driver stood up, glared back at Big John, and bellowed, “And why not?!”
With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass." (Ed Rowell, Monument, Colorado; www. PreachingToday.com)
That poor bus driver. He went through all that trouble to get control of the situation, and it was all for nothing.
God has a better way to gain control and real influence in people’s lives. We don’t have to pump up our self esteem and take body-building courses. No. If we’re going to overcome fear to be a godly influence in people’s lives, we just have to learn to fear the right things.
In the New Testament, there was a group of religious leaders who prided themselves as being in charge. If you asked them, they were in control of the situation, but to any outside observer, they had no real influence in people’s lives. That’s because they feared the wrong things.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Mark 11, Mark 11, where these religious leaders challenge Jesus’ authority. He had just overturned tables in the Temple the day before, and now they are trying to regain control.
Mark 11:27-28 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” (ESV)
These religious leaders want to know who gave Jesus the right to clean up their mess in the Temple. It’s a question of who’s in charge here, because they know THEY didn’t give Jesus permission to overturn tables and throw the merchants out of the temple. They’re trying to establish their own authority, but Jesus counters their question with another question, which puts them in a trap.
Mark 11:29-30 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” (ESV)
Jesus was basically saying, “My authority comes from the same place John the Baptist’s authority came from.” It’s either from God Himself in Heaven or from mere men here on earth. In other words, Jesus says, “You answer my question; it’s the same answer to your own question.”
Mark 11:31-33 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (ESV)
Jesus refuses to answer their question, because they didn’t answer His. You see, the religious leaders had already rejected John the Baptist as a legitimate prophet from God, so they couldn’t say John’s baptism came from God. But if they said what they were truly thinking, that John’s baptism was merely a human invention, then they would face a riot from the people, who really believed that John was sent by God.
The religious leaders feared the people, and so they abdicated their power to influence them. The Greek word for “they feared” in verse 32 literally means “they were put to flight.” The religious leaders were so concerned about maintaining control, that they ran away from any control they might have had whatsoever. They wanted to be popular with the people, but that prevented them from having any power over the people they were trying to influence. Instead, the people controlled them.
My friends, if we want to be a positive influence in people’s lives, then we cannot do what these religious leaders did. We cannot be afraid of what people think.
DON’T FEAR PEOPLE.
Don’t cower before the opinions of men. Don’t worry about people’s reactions. Don’t let them squeeze them into their mold if you want to be a godly influence in their lives,
In the fifth century, a monk named Telemachus wanted to live his life in pursuit of God, so he lived alone in the desert praying, fasting, and meditating. Then one day, as he prayed, he realized he was a selfish man. If he truly wanted to serve God, he must serve people, so he decided to return to the city where there was a lot of sin and some very great need.
Telemachus headed for Rome. He arrived at a time when the Roman general, Stilicho, had won a great victory over the Goths, and since Rome was officially Christian, the victory brought people pouring into the churches.
But one pagan practice still lingered in Christian Rome – the gladiator games. While Christians were no longer thrown to the lions, prisoners of war were cast into the arena to fight and kill one another. Spectators roared with a lust for blood as the gladiators battled each other.
Telemachus arrived on the day of the games. Following the noise, he made his way to the arena where 80,000 people had gathered to celebrate. The fights began and Telemachus stood horrified. Men for whom Christ had died were about to kill each other to amuse a supposedly Christian audience.
He jumped into the arena and stood between the two gladiators, begging them to stop. The crowd was furious at the delay of their “entertainment,” and after several shouts and threats, they stoned the monk to death. The rest of the contests were cancelled that day, and three days later, Honorius (the Roman Emperor) declared Telemachus a martyr and ended the gladiatorial contests forever. (William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, Westminster Press, 1975, pp. 203-205; www.Preaching Today.com)
Telemachus was a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, because he was not afraid of people. He was not afraid to stand up for what is right even if people stoned him. So he singlehandedly stopped a centuries-old, ungodly, violent tradition that was a terrible blight on the entire empire.
I wonder what would happen if just a few of God’s people today had that kind of courage. If you want to be a godly influence on the world around you, then don’t be afraid of what people will think or do; don’t fear people. Instead…
FEAR GOD.
Be more afraid of what HE thinks than what people think. Respect God’s opinion more than anybody else’s and submit to him. Do what he wants you to do, not what you think others want you to do. Live to please the Lord, not people.
You see, that’s exactly what the religious leaders in Jesus’ day failed to do. They were more concerned about retaining control than they were about submitting to God.
Mark 12:1-8 And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. (ESV)
According to Dr. Warren Wiersbe, if the owner wanted to retain legal rights to his property, he had to receive produce from the tenants, even if it was only some of the vegetables that grew between the rows of trees or vines. This explains why the tenants refused to give him anything: they wanted to claim the vineyard for themselves. Then when the owner’s son came, the only heir, they thought they could get clear claim to the property if he were gone. That’s why they killed him – to gain ownership of the property (Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary). But that was about the dumbest thing they could do.
Mark 12:9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. (ESV)
The owner of the vineyard is not going to give THEM the property. He’s going to take it away from them and give it to someone else. In trying to retain control, they lose control, and the one they kill is the one who could have held it all together for them.
Mark 12:10-11 Have you not read this Scripture: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (ESV)
This is actually a quote from Psalm 118, the same psalm the pilgrims sang just a couple of days before this when they came into Jerusalem waving their palms. It was a song which celebrated their King’s triumph in battle, looking forward to the day when their Messiah would enter the city having conquered all His enemies. Now, this song uses a picture from the building of the Temple to describe Messiah’s triumph.
You see, when the Jewish people built the temple in Jerusalem, they didn’t want to desecrate that holy site with the ugly sounds of the breaking and splitting of rock. The building site was to be as quiet as possible out of reverence for the Lord. It was holy ground. So they required that all the stones for the temple be cut at another location. It required a tremendous amount of skill and precise measurements on the part of the stone cutters, but they did their job well and sent the cut rocks to the temple site.
There was only one problem. When the rocks arrived, there was an odd-shaped rock that didn’t seem to fit anywhere. The builders on the site rejected it at first, but then discovered that the odd-shaped rock was the cornerstone to the whole structure. It was the foundation piece that gave direction to the whole building.
That’s who Jesus is. Though He was rejected by many, He is the foundation piece that gives direction to the whole world. He is the Sovereign Lord of the universe, who deserves our highest respect and praise. But the religious leaders in His day were not about to give Him that respect.
Mark 12:12 And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. (ESV)
There it is again. They were afraid of the people, but they didn’t fear God. They beat His prophets and were getting ready to kill His Son. As a result, God completely took away their power when the Roman Army came in and completely destroyed everything just 40 years later. As I said before, in trying to retain control, they lost control, but they teach us a very important lesson today.
If we want to have real influence in our world for good, then we cannot fear people. Instead, we must fear God. We must relinquish control to Him in order to maintain the control He wants us to have. Unlike the religious leaders in Jesus’ day, we must respect and obey Christ as our King.
Kevin Miller, one of the vice-presidents at Christianity Today International, talks about taking a family vacation to Toronto a few summers ago. His children wanted to go to the top of the CN Tower, the world’s tallest building and free-standing structure (show picture of CN Tower), but Kevin was reluctant to go. He has a great fear of heights. “Aww, Dad, we gotta go. C'mon, Dad,” his children pleaded, so against his better judgment, they went.
When they started up the glass elevator affixed to the outside of the tower (show picture from glass elevator), Kevin’s palms started sweating, his throat got tight, and he started breathing really fast. He told himself, “Just hang on. Soon you’ll be on the observation floor.”
When they finally arrived, Kevin stumbled out of the elevator onto the observation floor, where he thought it would be safe. But as he put it, “Some sadist had installed a glass floor there, so that people could walk on it, and look straight down to the ground (show picture of CN Tower glass floor).
The kids were laughing as they walked onto the glass floor, jumping up and down, and even laying down.
“C'mon, Dad!” they yelled.
Well, Kevin didn't care how thick those blocks of glass were. “They were installed by the contractor with the lowest bid,” he reasoned, so he wasn't going to chance it.
That same year, Kevin Miller and his family went to the Grand Canyon, where they stood at the South Rim and peered 6,000 feet straight down (show picture of Grand Canyon). At the Grand Canyon, people are not separated from their doom by blocks of glass 2½ inches thick. That’s why every year an average of four or five people die while visiting. Some deaths happen because (in one website's words) there are some “overly zealous photographic endeavors.”
“Still, the Grand Canyon is so beautiful,” Kevin says, “that I was drawn to it. I had to see it, to get near it. I knew I couldn't do anything too foolish near the edge, but the same awesome beauty that caused me fear drew me toward it.” (Kevin Miller, Vice President, Christianity Today International; www.Preaching Today.com)
That’s really what it means to fear God. It’s NOT like being at the top of the CN Tower where the fear is unnecessary or even irrational. That’s how some preachers explain the “fear of God.” “It doesn’t really mean fear,” they say. “It means awe or reverence.” It’s like standing on a glass floor 1,100 feet up in the CN Tower (show picture). Being there may give you a thrill or a quick feeling of awe, but you’re completely safe, so there is nothing to fear. Well, that is NOT what the Bible means when it talks about fearing God.
It is more like being at the edge of the Grand Canyon (show picture). There is real fear involved. Sure, there is a sense of awe and reverence, which draws us to its amazing beauty. But there is also a realistic fear of the danger, because people who acted foolishly near it have died.
In one place, Jesus said, “Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell” (Luke 12:5). And Paul says, in Philippians 2, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Why? “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13).
Now, we don’t work FOR our salvation, but we work OUT the salvation God is working IN us. What God is doing on the inside should show on the outside; otherwise, we are opposing the work of God in us. And to oppose God is dangerous. My friends, some have literally have lost their lives over it. “That is why many among you are weak and sick,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, “and a number of you have fallen asleep” – i.e., a number of you have physically died.
We don’t want to be foolish in the presence of God, so there is some real fear involved. But the amazing thing is when we fear God we fear nothing else. Do you hear me? When we fear God we fear nothing else. On the other hand, if we do not fear God, we fear everything else. So says Oswald Chambers.
Some time ago, in New York City, a young man named Buck was walking home from a bus stop. Soon he was joined by two more young men. Only they didn’t join him for a friendly chat.
“Give me your wallet,” one of them said.
“No,” said Buck.
“This is a gun. Give me your wallet or I’ll shoot you.”
“No.”
“Hey man. You don’t understand. We’re robbing you. Give me your wallet.”
“No.”
“Give me your wallet or I’ll knife you.”
“No.”
“Give me your wallet or we’ll beat you up.” By now the robbers were whining.
“No,” said Buck who continued walking, and after awhile he noticed he was all by himself. When he told his mother about it, she asked him, “Weren’t you scared?”
“Of course,” Buck replied. “What else would I be?”
“Then why didn’t you give them your wallet,” his mother asked.
Buck’s simply replied, “My learner’s permit is in it.” (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p.127-128)
Now, there are some things that are too important to give up, and a learner’s permit is NOT one of them. But when God is the most important thing in our life, nothing else matters. We can face ridicule. We can face opposition. We can face even death while we boldly stand for what is right. And that’s what it’s going to take to change our world.
If we want to be an influence for good in people’s lives, then we cannot fear people. Instead, we must fear God and God alone. Let Jesus be the cornerstone of your life – the One who died for you and rose again. Let Him give direction to your whole life. Then, and only then, can you help others find direction as well.
