Sermon Tone Analysis

REMOVING MASKS (2): TO FEAR OR NOT TO FEAR

(Luke 12:4-7)

*Intro* – (Read Lu 12:4-7).

Bill got a parrot for his birthday.

But it had some salty vocabulary from its previous owner.

Nothing Bill tried cured the habit.

Frustrated, Bill threw the bird into the freezer one day.

All was quiet at first, but soon the parrot was begging for its life, promising to reform.

Bill soon relented and freed the bird.

The turnaround was astounding, but became a little more clear when the parrot said, “BTW – I gotta ask.

What did the chicken do wrong?”

He’d developed a healthy fear.

That’s our topic today.

Healthy fear.

Fear of the right things and no fear of the wrong things.

Our context starts at 11:37 where Jesus’ lunch with a Pharisee quickly turns into a sermon against hypocrisy.

I doubt much lunch got eaten that day.

As Jesus leaves lunch, a crowd awaits His ministry – but first He turns to His disciples.

Hypocrisy is still on His mind.

These guys are going to take the gospel to the world.

They must not become dead religionists like the Pharisees.

The must exude genuineness.

So in 12:1-3 Jesus gives a solemn Warning Against hypocrisy that we examined last week.

Now – in vv.

4-12 He gives the Way to Avoid hypocrisy.

Authentic living relates to the whole Trinity -- Fearing the Father, Confessing Christ and Esteeming the Spirit.

*I.

Fear the Father*

No Fear!

That’s our motto.

No one wants to be paralyzed by fear.

It’s no fun to be like the guy who was taking flight training when his instructor turned to him one day and said, “You know, you’re not nearly as much fun since you stopped screaming.”

Who wants to live in fear?

Yet we all know there are times when fear is helpful.

We fear robbers and take protective action; we fear disease and get flu shots; we fear the highway patrol and drive a reasonable speed.

Healthy fear is good.

We want healthy fear – but not unhealthy fear.

To Jesus this is step one in avoiding a hypocritical existence – fear the right things; don’t fear the wrong things.

That keeps us rooted in reality.

Let’s look.

*A.

What to Fear – The Father*

5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

As a child I thought that was referring to Satan, but, of course, it is not.

Jesus is not warning us to fear the Devil; He is warning us to fear God.

He is the one who not only has the power of life and death, but also has the power of eternal destinies.

When you put it like that, no wonder we should fear Him.

Typically we soften the word “fear” to mean reverence or respect or awe – all of which are true meanings of the word.

But if we do not give the word its full force here, we kill the impact!

To reverence or respect makes the whole thing sound optional!

But to fear God is not optional.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” according to the psalmist (Psa 111:10).

Your IQ can be through the roof; absent the fear of the Lord, you’re out of touch with reality.

To fear the Lord is to recognize His absolute power and authority – not just over the universe, but over me!

To fear the Lord is to recognize that by character and lifestyle, I violate His holy character, and He must either deal with that truth or cease to be God.

His wrath against sin, including mine, is not a temper tantrum, but a holy expression of who He is.

To fear the Lord is to live with the daily reminder that all sin must be paid for, either by the offender or by Jesus.

Death is not the greatest enemy of mankind.

Something lurking beyond physical death is a million times worse.

Thus Jesus says “fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.”

We must absorb that there is something worse than death.

Max fear must be reserved for the One who imposes that penalty.

Jesus’ intent is that that fear drive us to the eternal life that is the only antidote for sin’s penalty.

Now, Jesus refers to the thing worse than death as “hell.”

The actual word He uses is Gehenna.

Most Bibles note that.

So what is Gehenna?

Well, in Lev 18:21 God warns Israel, “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God.” Who was Molech and how could children be given to him?

Molech was a Canaanite god – especially cruel in that people burned their own children alive in offering to him.

Amazingly, the Israelites took up this horrendous practice.

II Chron 28:3, we read of King Ahaz in around 730 BC, “and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.”

The Valley of Hinnom – a little ravine just south of the city walls of Jerusalem – easy walking distance.

A high place, or tophet, was built where this unthinkable practice was carried out.

Other kings followed suit – offering children to Molech hoping to stave off enemies.

Naturally the people fell in line.

Jer 32:35, “They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech.”

Hinnom became known as the Valley of Slaughter.

King Josiah ended these practices, but it became the place for burning rubbish and dead animals – a place of endless fire -- named Ge (land of) Hinnom – Ge-hinnom; in Greek – Gehenna.

You see why it became a synonym for hell, the place to which those who have rejected Christ are eternally sentenced (Mt 23:33).

Jesus elsewhere describes it as a place of unquenchable fire and eternal torment.

It is so awful that in one sermon Jesus advises if your foot, hand or eye keep you from faith in Christ, cut them off.

Mark 9:47, “And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out.

It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”

Jesus listeners could graphically picture Hinnom where dead carcasses were thrown and where the poor and outcasts were buried.

They had seen the continuous fires and worms preying on the dead – a dreadful image.

It symbolizes the eternal destination of all who reject Christ – hell, where the fires never cease, and worms never die.

The pain, the corruption, the decay go on endlessly.

This is the horror of the hell that awaits unbelievers.

So, is hell fire real, or is it symbolic?

The answer is it doesn’t matter.

Physical fire would not burn a spiritual soul.

But it clearly symbolizes persistent, unremitting, eternal torment of body and soul.

The prospect of hell is so abhorrent that we have taken it out of our vocabulary except as a swear word.

But, Beloved, it is as real as the chair you sit on this morning.

Jesus’ comparison makes no sense otherwise.

If there is no such place, then physical death is the worst thing that could happen.

Jesus clearly teaches there’s something worse - to be avoided at all cost.

We just won’t believe it.

You know what the worst thing about hell is?