What Ever Happened to Fear?
Introduction
A. What is fear?
1. Encarta: an unpleasant feeling of apprehension or distress caused by
the presence or a perception of impending danger.
2. Fear is an emotion.
3. What scares you? Animals, people, situations
4. Biblical fear (Heb. 11 entries & Gr. 8 entries)
a. Eccl. 12: 13 (Read) fear means, “to revere or show respect” Heb.
b. Mt. 10: 28 (Read) fear means, “to be alarmed” Gr.
c. Rev. 21: 8 (Read) fear means, “to be timid” Gr.
d. God does not intend for us to be cowards nor does He intend us to provoke cowardice in others.
B. Can we scare hell out of someone?
1. Discussion
2. Did Jesus?
a. He warned (especially the Pharisees) about the results of sin.
Mt. 23: 15
b. All the parables.
c. Jo. 4 “The Woman at the Well”
3. Should fear be a tool of motivation?
a. Jesus used it sparingly and not with the struggler!
b. I believe we motivate with fear because of our fearful mindset.
d. Prevalent in years past; now many feel we make it too easy, not so!
1. Constant fear provokes conviction; only love can sustain it.
2. We need to promote long term Christianity not short/long time
“’fraidy cats”!
4. When God resorted to real scare tactics it was usually too late for
somebody.
a. Pharoah
b. Ninevah in the time of Nahum’s prophecy/God gave them their chance through Jonah’s prophecy.
Body
A. Fear plays a part in conviction.
1. Acts 2: 38
2. The same Spirit that gave Peter the words on the Day of Pentecost convicted the hearts of the 3,000 converts.
a. The Spirit did not lead Peter to brow beat and berate because He
(the Spirit) did not have to.
b. In true conviction, fear and shame quickly turn to love.
3. Do we have to be afraid to be convicted?
a. Eunich Acts 8
b. Cornelius Acts 10
c. God knows what makes each of us tick because He made us.
Some have to be more frightened than others BUT that’s God’s
call, not ours! I.e. Paul’s conversion was different from John’s
but that was God’s choice, not Annanias’.
B. Undue fear destroys faith.
1. Peter walking on the water.
2. Mk. 4: 40 (Read) Jesus rebukes His disciples because of their fear.
3. Refer back to Rev. 21: 8
a. fearful means, “timid”
b. II Tim. 1: 7 – a true Christian walk is not conducive to weaklings.
c. Look at the company fear keeps.
4. Scare tactics can be deadly for all parties involved. Lk. 17: 1-2.
Job didn’t allow his friends to scare him into repenting of something
he was not guilty of.
C. Unhealthy fear causes paralysis/departure/death.
1. No one stays in a scary situation for a long period of time.
2. Fight gives way to flight!
3. We can go into spiritual shock and virtually shut down.
a. The One Talent Man (Mt. 25: 14-30)
b. What was his sin? FEAR caused his poor stewardship!
4. Biblical examples
a. Remember Elijah in I Kings19?
b. What about Jonah?
c. Gal. 5: 1 & 13 we are free of the fear because we are saved.
1. Fear can cause us to fall from grace because it tends to make us obsess with the observance of the letter of the law, whether it is O.T. or N.T.
2. Heb. 10: 1-22 “Note vs. 22”
5. In reality, we should fear ourselves and not our God because God is
constant and man is fickle.
D. Questions to ponder
1. Are you as afraid of your father today as you were 40 years ago?
2. Are you afraid when you disappoint your father?
3. Even though we are called children of God, we are commanded to
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ!
E. Recap
1. Fear which comes from inside a person is more effective than fear and
guilt poured on that person by someone else.
a. I’d rather the Spirit convict than me. I could be too harsh and come across condemningly.
b. If I shame/scare someone into being baptized, have I gained a soul for Christ? Mt. 23: 15
c. Fear is part of becoming convicted.
2. Fear cannot sustain a proper relationship with God.
3. Fear hinders a Christian from living the abundant life Jesus promised.
a. There are those who will live their lives in fear and go to heaven.
b. There are those who will not let fear rule and will also be in heaven.
4. At some point, we as Christians have to grow up and not be afraid of
light! (Not the dark)
5. Godly fear equates to reverence not timidity/paralysis
Conclusion
A. If not fear, then what? Love!!!!!!!!!!!
1. The apostle John is recorded in history for repeating the word love
over and over. It was him (not John Lennon & Paul McCartney) who
coined the phrase, “All you need is love.”
2. I Jo. 4: 16b-18 keep your eyes on the law and you fear til you die
because none of us can be perfect.
a. Jas. 2: 12-13
b. There is a reason N.T. teaching is called the perfect law of liberty but we must be mature to understand this concept.
c. If we act as a child, chances are we only fear the spanking; if we act as adults, we see our mistakes and strive to change them.
B. Why does the concept of love definitely require maturity for true
comprehension?
1. It involves accepting grace and mercy.
2. It involves believing God is longsuffering.
3. It is trusting that God is faithful.
a. Mt. 7: 7-12
b. We need to be careful not to try and hurry God’s plan for someone
with fear.
C. How can love be better than fear?
1. Obedience due to fear leads to a negative mindset which at best
causes us to become as the Pharisees.
2. Love allows for the living of the abundant life legalism won’t allow.
Read Jo. 10: 10
3. Read I Jo. 4: 18.
D. We should not treat others like they were dumb kids.
1. Teaching the truth in love does in no way negate or diminish the
seriousness of Hell.
2. The Great Commission tells us to teach and baptize not berate and use spiritual terrorist tactics.
a. How many forced confessions are genuine?
b. We need to teach people about the Whole Jesus and not just think
we’ve done our job by shaming them into the water.
3. If we do our job as Peter did on the Day of Pentecost then God will receive the same glory and increase to His kingdom.
4. I repeat, “Fear cannot maintain a Christian for very long but love can.”
5. Fear says, “I’m sorry You caught me, please don’t beat me: love says,
I’m sorry I let You down.”
