The Right Fear Makes You Fearless

1:04It's natural to fear rejection. When we make efforts to do something for someone else, we're afraid that they won't like what we've done. That's natural. It's natural for us to fear judgment, to fear that someone or a group of people will look at us and decide. That we're not enough, that we don't measure up. We're afraid of hearing that. That's natural. But I think every one of us would say that we don't want to have those fears. We don't want to fear others. We don't want to fear rejection. We don't want to fear judgment. We want to overcome those fears.

1:53However, we can't overcome those fears naturally. The only way to overcome our natural fear of others, our natural fear of rejection, our natural fear of judgment, is through the supernatural fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord? That's a notoriously difficult concept to define. And if you've read the Bible for a long time, if you've been in church most of your life, you have a sense of what the fear of the Lord is.

2:29But even if you're thinking about it right now, it's hard to put it into words, isn't it? That's the trouble I'm having right now in this moment, to define the fear of the Lord. Because in English, we associate the word fear with terror, with being terrified. Now, those who are enemies of God, those who have not submitted themselves to Christ and his lordship, those who have not submitted themselves to God's righteous commands, who are opposed to God and to his ways, well, God is going to hold them accountable for those things. He's going to judge them. Judge them for their sin and rebellion. He's going to punish them eternally for it. Those people should be terrified of the Lord if you've not submitted yourself to God.

3:13But for believers, for those of us who have placed our faith in Christ, we're not enemies of God. We have sought to submit ourselves to Him and to His righteous commands. We're not opposed to Him and His ways. We have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, so that's not what the fear of the Lord is for us. So then, what is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is profound respect and awe for God.

3:43It is reverence for the person and work of Jesus. In fact, in the Bible, the word phabos, where we get our word phobia or fear, it's often translated reverence in Scripture. So the fear of the Lord is reverence for God. It acknowledges that He is the creator and sustainer and judge of us and of the universe, and we are not. Anyone then who reveres God fears God. And the supernatural fear of God is what allows us to overcome our natural fear of others and of rejection and of judgment.

4:26And so today in Luke chapter 1, verses 57 through 80, We're going to learn this. Those who fear the Lord have nothing to fear. Those who fear the Lord have nothing to fear. And we'll see that in three parts. First, those who fear the Lord don't have to fear others. Those who fear the Lord don't have to fear rejection. And those who fear the Lord don't have to fear judgment. So let's begin with that first point in verse 57. Those who fear the Lord don't have to fear others.

5:03Here in this first section, verses 57 through 66, we're told that Elizabeth gave birth to a son in her old age, just as God promised. And she and Zachariah, their neighbors and friends, their relatives, come to celebrate with them, fulfilling God's command to rejoice with those who rejoice. Now, we know from the previous passages that Zachariah and Elizabeth were righteous people. Luke told us earlier they walked blamelessly in all of the commands of the Lord. And so on the eighth day, they go to circumcise their son John in obedience to God's command in the Mosaic law. And in the ancient world, family lineage was a very big deal.

5:46Inheritance was passed down through male children, and so naming children, especially the firstborn son, was a very big deal. Because a son's name tied him to a family lineage. Additionally, we need to remember that ancient Eastern culture was not like our culture. It wasn't individualistic like modern Western culture. Ancient Eastern culture was communal by nature. What the community thought was way more important than what any individual thought. Now, to modern Western people, that sounds wrong. That sounds crazy, even.

6:29But I mention this because we can think, why would Zachariah and Elizabeth care at all what other people thought their kid should be named? Right? That's our attitude in the modern West. Why would we care what anybody else thinks, what we're going to name our kid? But to them, it was a big deal because in their culture, that's the way things were. So through that lens, I want you to look at verse 59. Look at the second half there. And they would have called him Zachariah after his father. Well, who is they?

7:04They as their neighbors and relatives. It's their community, probably good and godly and certainly very well-meaning people who came to rejoice with them. People whose opinion absolutely would have mattered to them a great deal. Their neighbors and relatives would have named him Zachariah after his father. But remember, Luke chapter 1. Verse 13. Take a look on the screen. But the angel said to Zechariah, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

7:47God commanded Zechariah to name his son John. And clearly, Zechariah had found a way to communicate that command to his wife Elizabeth, because when their neighbors and relatives say that he should be named Zechariah Jr., she says immediately, no, he shall be called John. And look at how the community responds. Look at verse 61. And they said to her, None of your relatives is called by this name. In other words, bless your heart. That's not how we do things around here, honey.

8:34Can you see how much pressure that they would have been under in this moment? They aren't getting anywhere with Elizabeth, and so they make signs to Zechariah, who apparently is not only mute, it's not just that he can't speak, but he's also apparently deaf since he's had this encounter with the angel Gabriel earlier in chapter 1. So Zechariah asks for a writing tablet, and look at what he writes in verse 63. His Name is John. He doesn't write, you guys have a point there, we should call him Zechariah.

9:09He doesn't write, if it's okay with you guys, we'll call him John. He doesn't say, I want his name to be John. And he doesn't try to hedge by saying, well, we'll name him Zachariah, but we'll call him John around the house. He writes, his name is John. Zechariah has already experienced what happens when you doubt God's word. He doesn't want that to happen again. So what's the result of this? What's the result of his obedience in this matter? For the first time in nine months, Zechariah is able to speak.

9:50I think I would die if I couldn't talk for nine months. If there's no one around, I just talk to myself. For the first time in nine months, Zechariah is able to speak. His mouth is opened, his tongue is loosened, and he began to speak, blessing God, all because he and Elizabeth feared the Lord, not what other people would think. And the result of that was that this miracle struck fear into the hearts of all of their neighbors and relatives who wondered what this child would grow up to be. Zechariah and Elizabeth's fear of the Lord moved their neighbors. And relatives to fear the Lord also, to revere him, to be in awe of God and what he was doing.

10:37Now, friends, in scripture, we're warned a lot about the fear of man. The fear of man is being controlled by what other people are going to think about us or say about us or do to us. Everybody struggles with the fear of man. Occasionally, you'll hear someone say, I don't care what other people think. Sometimes someone will say, that person, they don't care what other people think about them. Well, chances are, that's not true. And if it was true, that's not healthy.

11:15No healthy person says, I don't care what my parents think. I don't care what my spouse thinks. I don't care what my kids think. I don't care what my boss or co-workers or neighbors think. No healthy person says that kind of thing. But here's the deal: our problem isn't that we care too little about what other people think. Our problem is that we care way too much about what other people think about us. We fear man rather than God. And that leads us to make decisions to please people instead of decisions to please God.

11:54So what's the solution? The solution to the fear of man is. the supernatural fear of the Lord. Take a look on the screen at Psalm 118. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Look at Proverbs 29. The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. The fear of the Lord doesn't mean that we don't care what other people think. The fear of the Lord simply means that we care more about what God thinks than about what any person thinks. We are more concerned with pleasing God than we are with pleasing other people because we understand that ultimately we're going to answer to him. We're going to have to give an account to God, not to any person, for every thought we've had, for every word we've uttered, for everything that we've done in our lives. Every decision will be scrutinized by him in the end, not by any person.

13:06Zechariah and Elizabeth feared God more than they feared people. That's why they could withstand the tremendous peer pressure that they were under from well-meaning neighbors and friends to name their son Zechariah instead of John as God commanded. And friends, in the same way, when we remember that we're going to be judged by God for our words and actions, we develop a healthy fear of the Lord. That allows us to make choices based on what's going to please him instead of choices based on what's going to please other people. Those who fear the Lord don't have to fear others.

13:45Join me now in verse 67, where we'll take a look at that second truth. Those who fear the Lord don't have to fear rejection. Verse 67. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

14:49So in this moment, Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit, just like Elizabeth was when Mary came to her and she heard the greeting. He prophesied. Prophesies in the Holy Spirit blessing the God of Israel for doing what God promised to do. And what exactly did God promise to do? Well, as we see in verse 69, there, God promised to raise up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David the king, just like God promised to David multiple times throughout his life in the book of 2 Samuel. And then, as we see there in verse 73, God promised to remember his covenant, all of the promises that he made to Abraham to deliver us, his descendants spiritually, from our enemies, just as God reiterated many times in the book of Genesis. And here's what I want you to see. Here's the point. Here's what the prophecy is driving toward. Why did God promise to deliver his people, to redeem us, to save us from our enemies? Look at the end of verse 73.

16:02To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Friends, this is the whole purpose of salvation. It's so that we might serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days. I want you to think about that phrase, serve him without fear. When it comes to serving God, what is our most common fear? Our most common fear when it comes to serving the Lord is that he's going to reject us.

16:50That our efforts to serve him are going to be rejected, that we're going to bring our offerings, we're going to bring our service, we're going to bring everything that we have to God, and God is going to say to us one way or another, that's not good enough. Your efforts are not enough. Your offerings are not enough. And the reality is, on our own, our efforts are not good enough for God. The prophet Isaiah understood this as well as anyone. Look on the screen to Isaiah 64.

17:25Isaiah says, we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Isaiah declared that our best efforts are not good enough for God. Our righteous deeds are like polluted garments. It would be right for God to reject our efforts to serve him. But, friends, God doesn't. Reject our efforts to serve him. Instead of rejecting our efforts, he promised to visit us and redeem us so that we could serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all our days. And he did that through the person of Jesus Christ. Look at what Jesus said in John chapter 8.

18:22Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The Son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. See, Jesus is talking about our reality before we came to know him. Before we came to know Christ, we were slaves to sin. We practiced sin, and anybody who practices sin is a slave to it. Everything that we did, anything that we would have offered to God, would have been tainted by sin. It was like a polluted garment, but not anymore. I want you to look at God's promise through the prophet Malachi. And I want you to keep in mind that this verse is in the passage where God is prophesying about the one who's going to prepare the way for the Messiah, John the Baptist, Zachariah's son. Take a look at this. This is Malachi 3.3.

19:28The Lord will say, sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Okay, so think about the situation for a moment. Under the old covenant, the only people who could offer offerings to God were the Levites. So as a worshiper, you had to bring a spotless offering to a priest, and that priest who had undergone all of these rites of purification, all of these things to do so that he could stand before the Lord in holiness, you had to bring those offerings to the priest, and the priest would offer them to God on your behalf. But listen to this. Through Jesus Christ, every one of us is now a priest. We are a priesthood of believers. We are able to offer pure, holy, righteous offerings to the Lord because through faith in Christ, you and I are now considered pure. You and I are looked at by God as perfectly righteous. You and I have become priests to the Lord.

20:47So friends, I want you to understand that if you've come to fear the Lord, if you've received Jesus by faith, your offerings are no longer filthy rags or polluted garments. I think there are some of you who live under this constant sense that nothing you do is ever good enough for God. Your Bible reading is not good enough. Your prayers are not good enough. The amount of money you give is not enough. The amount of time or how you give your time is not enough. I think there are some that just live under this constant sense that everything I do, nothing is good enough for God. He's always disappointed with me.

21:38And I want you to remember this morning that when God looks at you, he does not see a disappointment. He sees a beloved and precious child, one that he sent his own child to die for, so that you could offer offerings to God, meagre as they may be, small as they are, imperfect as they certainly are, so that you could make offerings to God that in his eyes are holy and righteous and perfect, not a disappointment.

22:13You think about a child, maybe one of your own children, maybe a nephew or a niece, maybe one of the kids that you serve in our next-gen ministries. You think about a child who brings to you a picture that they've colored, something that they made for you. Never have you once looked at that gift, that offering, and thought to yourself, I can't accept this. That's how your heavenly Father looks at your offerings as holy and righteous and perfect, not as a disappointment.

22:52And so I want to remind you this morning that if you fear the Lord, you don't ever have to fear rejection because of Christ. Let's look now at verse 76, where we'll consider that final truth: those who fear the Lord don't have to fear judgment. Verse 76, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

24:01In these last verses, Zachariah turns his attention to the role that his son John is going to play in fulfilling God's promises. I want to remind you about what the prophets said about this one who is coming to prepare the way for the Messiah, what John's role is going to be. Look at Isaiah 40. A voice cries, in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Look at Malachi 3.1. So this is from that same passage we just quoted. Malachi says, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

24:53So Zachariah's son, John, is the one whom God chose to fulfill these promises. He would go before the Lord Jesus to prepare the way for him, to get people ready for the coming Messiah. And that is exactly what John did in his life and ministry. Look at how Mark, the gospel writer, talks about John's ministry after it happened. This is Mark chapter 1. John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And he preached, saying, after me comes he who is mightier than I. The strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

25:43So in John's ministry, he not only fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi, he fulfilled his father Zachariah's prophecy as well. He prepared the way for the Messiah. He prepared the people as well to understand the Messiah's role. Because we cannot forget that many Jewish people thought of salvation in terms of deliverance from their physical enemies. And in Jesus' day, their physical enemy was Rome. So plenty of people expected the Messiah to be a military leader who would kick Rome out and deliver them out of Rome's hands once and for all. But Israel's biggest problem was not Rome.

26:30Israel's biggest problem is the same as yours and mine. It's our sin and its consequences. Why does the college football playoff buses have to come like through this parking lot? Like every single person is like it's a week away. Like is this Miami? Are they already here? Why? What would anyone be doing in this parking lot except coming to church? Like literally. Are they all going to walk in right now? I'm sorry, I try not to make a big deal about things, but literally, everybody was like.

27:06So let's back up. What I was saying was most people thought their biggest problem was Rome and the occupation of Rome, but that's not their biggest problem. Their biggest problem was sin, and that's our biggest problem, too: sin and its consequences. So, how is John going to prepare the way, not just for the Messiah, the right person? How is he going to prepare the way for what the Messiah came to do, the right purpose? That's what John is going to have to help these people understand. So, his calling was to go before Jesus to prepare his way, as we see in verse 76. And then, look at verse 77, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. This is what the Messiah is coming to do. He's coming to bring about the forgiveness of sins. And John's calling is to bring light to those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, as we see there in verse 78 and 79, to guide the people's feet to the way of peace. In other words, John's job was to point people to Jesus. He was to be an ambassador for Christ.

28:18And friends, by God's grace, we have that same privilege, the privilege of being ambassadors for Christ, for bringing the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins to all. People in our path. Our job is to point people to Jesus and what he came to do. Look on the screen at 2 Corinthians. Paul says, All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

29:24Oh, friends, God is merciful. He sees us trapped in the darkness of sin. He sees that the shadow of death has been following us every day of our life and is going to follow us every day of our lives until it finally encloses upon us permanently. God sees that we are looking for peace, looking for peace in all of the wrong places, and we still cannot find it. But through the person and work of Jesus, God was reconciling us. us to himself. He sent Jesus to bring us out of darkness and into God's marvelous light. He sent Jesus to bring us a lasting and a perfect peace.

30:14And your amazing privilege, my amazing privilege, our amazing privilege is that we get to live our lives as ambassadors for Christ. We get to point people to Jesus in the same way that John did. We get to share the great message that those who fear the Lord do not have to fear judgment because Jesus took all of our judgment upon him. Just this past week, I was sitting with a professing Christian who got a scary medical diagnosis. And they were talking about how frightened they were of death.

30:54And in that moment, my job was to remind them of the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. The believers don't have to fear death because we don't have to fear judgment. And we don't have to fear judgment because Jesus took all of that judgment upon us, upon himself, rather. He went to the cross and he bore the full wrath of God, all of it, for your sin. There's nothing left. There is no such thing as purgatory. There is no place that you go after you die to work off the rest of your sins. You'd be there forever, even if it was just one.

31:32You go to heaven when you die. You go face to face with Jesus when you die. You are in the presence of the Lord forever, accepted and righteous, because Jesus bore all of the judgment that you deserve and that I deserve on the cross. And so I just think about this: this great news that we have, the fact that we are ambassadors, and I think sometimes we act like we have bad news that we have to share with people.

32:04Like we're afraid of telling them about Jesus because we think it's going to be bad news to them. But friends, it's not bad news. However, people respond, you and I are not the bearers of bad news. We have the greatest news that the world could ever hear. It's news that has changed our lives, and if they believe it, it will change their lives as well. But for them to believe it, they've got to hear it. You remember what Paul said in Romans 10 that we covered earlier this semester? Take a look on the screen. Paul asks, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Oh, friends, how. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. You and I are not the bearers of bad news. We bring the greatest news that the world is ever going to hear, the good news of the gospel, that Jesus is not just a way to be reconciled to God. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And the only thing you need to do to be reconciled to God is believe in him, to confess with your mouth that he is Lord and master of all, to trust in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. This is the greatest news of all, that you can have a reconciled relationship with the God of the universe. That's the news that we get to share. That's the good news of the gospel, that those who fear the Lord don't have to fear judgment.

33:54So maybe today God is showing you that you have one or more of these fears. Maybe as you sit here today, you're thinking, you know, I do fear others and what they think about me, what they'll say about me, what they're going to do to me. Maybe you're recognizing that you have feared rejection from God, that he's not going to receive you and your offerings. Maybe as you think about eternity and what happens after death, and you think about standing before God, you would have to confess today, I fear judgment. From God.

34:33What you have to understand is that while all of those fears are natural, we cannot overcome those fears naturally. There's no book I can hand you that will teach you how to overcome the fear of man or the fear of rejection or the fear of judgment. Even if that thing existed, it wouldn't work. The only thing that's going to help us overcome our natural fear of others and rejection and judgment is the supernatural fear of the Lord. Look at what God says in Proverbs 19: The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied, he will not be visited by harm.

35:22In God's upside-down kingdom, it is only those who fear the Lord who have nothing to fear. They rest satisfied, they will not be visited by harm. And that is because those who fear the Lord rightly understand that God is creator and sustainer and judge, and in addition to those things, Lord and Savior. Those who fear the Lord call out to God for mercy and believe that God has given us mercy through the person and work of Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection. So, this morning, if you are not at peace, because You're afraid of what others are going to think or say or do to you, because you fear rejection or because you fear judgment. If you are not at peace this morning, you will find peace in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And here's why. Look at 1 John chapter 4. I love these verses. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

36:40Oh, friends, Jesus loved us perfectly. Jesus loves you perfectly. And his perfect love drives out all fear. Those who fear the Lord look to Christ. And those who look to Christ have nothing to fear. Let's pray. Father, we confess to you this morning that we do have one or more of these fears. We are afraid of other people and what they'll think or say or do. We have feared or we do fear rejection from you. We fear judgment.

37:31But Lord, you have said that your perfect love casts out fear. And everyone who knows you has experienced that. That we get to draw near to you because Jesus has borne our punishment. He has purified us and our offerings. And I pray that we would take tremendous comfort in that today. I pray that every Christian would be comforted by the person and work of Christ this morning. And Father, for those who have not yet trusted in Jesus, I do pray this morning that they would look to him, the one who has been everything and done everything for us in our place.

38:22That they would not look to themselves and to their own shortcomings and deficiencies and imperfections and sins, but that they would look to Christ, the one who is perfect. It's perfect for them. God, we give you thanks that your perfect love can and does cast out all of our fears. In Christ's name we pray. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, Visit us online at newlifecs.net.