Transcript:
Over the past several decades, it has been vogue to downplay the cost, self-sacrifice, and difficulty of Christianity and present it instead as something easy that will make your life great. There has been little attention on truths that appear to be negative. Included in that mindset has been a redefinition of the fear of God. Today, many Christians insist the fear of God is respect for or awe of God. They reject the idea that the fear of God means to actually be afraid of God. They think that is too negative.
The fear of God is mentioned many times in the Bible. The reality is many of those references clearly present the fear of God as being afraid of God. Mark 4 and 5 contain examples of people seeing the supernatural power of Jesus and being afraid.
Jesus was teaching a large crowd by the sea. He spoke many parables. There was the parable of the sower sowing in different soils, the parable of the sower not knowing how seed grows, and then the parable of the mustard seed. When evening came, Jesus decided to go to the other side of the sea.
Mark 4:36 And leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.
Mark 4:37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling up.
Mark 4:38 And Jesus Himself was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion; and they got Him up and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
The storm was so bad the disciples believed they were going to die.
Mark 4:39 And He woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
Mark 4:40 And He said to them, “Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith?”
Jesus did not understand why the disciples were afraid when they should have known that Jesus had the power to calm the sea.
Mark 4:41 And they became very afraid and were saying to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
Notice the word “afraid”. The disciples had been afraid of the storm because it had the strength to kill them. Even though the wind was no longer blowing, they were still afraid because Jesus had calmed the storm simply by speaking. They realized the power of Jesus’ voice was greater than the power of the storm. If Jesus could speak and calm a storm, He could also speak and destroy them. Therefore, they were afraid of Jesus.
Mark 5:1 ¶ Then they came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes.
Mark 5:2 And when He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him,
Mark 5:3 who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain;
Mark 5:4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
This man who lived among the tombs and had an unclean spirit had so much strength he could not be bound, even by chains. The context indicates this man had been like this for quite some time, so the existence of this man was known in the area.
Mark 5:5 And constantly, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out and gashing himself with stones.
This man’s existence created fear because the people knew he was dangerous. They knew they could not protect themselves against him.
Mark 5:6 And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him;
Mark 5:7 and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!”
Notice the word “implore”. The man who could not be chained was afraid of being tormented by Jesus. The unclean spirit knew it was at the mercy of Jesus.
Mark 5:8 For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
Mark 5:9 And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”
Mark 5:10 And he began pleading with Him earnestly not to send them out of the region.
Notice the words “pleading” and “earnestly”. The unclean spirit knew it was powerless against Jesus and was afraid of what Jesus would to to it.
Mark 5:11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain.
Mark 5:12 And the demons pleaded with Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.”
Sometimes people think the struggle between good and evil is an even fight. However, this illustrates that the forces of evil are completely at the mercy of Jesus. They could do nothing without Jesus’ permission.
Mark 5:13 And Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.
Mark 5:14 ¶ And their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the countryside. And the people came to see what it was that had happened.
Mark 5:15 And they came to Jesus and observed the demon-possessed man sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had the “legion”; and they became frightened.
Notice the word “frightened”. Why were they afraid? They knew this man with the unclean spirit had so much strength he could not be chained. Now, they knew Jesus had even more strength than the man with the unclean spirit. If they could not protect themselves against the man, then they certainly could not protect themselves against Jesus if Jesus decided to do something to them.
Mark 5:16 And those who had seen it recounted to them how this had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine.
Mark 5:17 And they began to plead with Him to leave their region.
The people did not merely ask Jesus to leave, they pleaded with Him to leave. Why did they want Jesus to leave? Again, they knew He had so much power in His voice that He could do anything to them He wanted, and they were powerless to resist Him. They did not want that power residing amongst them.
Mark 5:18 And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was pleading with Him that he might accompany Him.
Mark 5:19 And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”
Mark 5:20 And he went away and began to preach in the Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was marveling.
Over the past several decades, it has been vogue to downplay the cost, self-sacrifice, and difficulty of Christianity and present it instead as something easy that will make your life great. Along with that, many Christians today insist the fear of God is respect for or awe of God, not actually being afraid of God. The reality is there are Bible passages that clearly present the fear of God as being afraid of God.
The disciples had been afraid of the storm because it had the strength to kill them. Jesus spoke and calmed the storm, so the disciples were more afraid of Jesus than they had been of the storm because if Jesus could speak and calm a storm, He could also speak and destroy them.
The man with an unclean spirit who could not be chained was afraid of being tormented by Jesus because he knew he was at the mercy of Jesus.
The people knew the man with the unclean spirit had so much strength he could not be chained. Now, they knew Jesus had even more strength than the man with the unclean spirit. If they could not protect themselves against the man, then they certainly could not protect themselves against Jesus if Jesus decided to do something to them. Therefore, they were afraid of Jesus.
As humans, we are afraid of any power that can harm or kill us. We are afraid to fall off a cliff, touch a bare electrical wire, or stick our hand into a fire because we know gravity, electricity, and fire can harm us. Likewise, Jesus has the power and authority to punish us, kill us, or send us to eternity in hell. Therefore, if we truly understand those truths, then we will be afraid.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”
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