1 John 4:18 – Perfect love
drives out fear
Do you know what I think
of when I read this verse? I think of a
golfer with a driver and a ball on a tee.
That ball is our fear, and the golfer is our Lord. It takes that club and smacks that ball so
far away that it won’t be found for a while.
When we say this verse, let’s say it like a golfer sending a ball far,
far away.
I also think of the Lord taking my fears into a car, driving it into the desert, and leaving it there.
I want to show you a few
things that scare people. As I show them
to you, I want to see how many of you are afraid of these things.
Snake doll: Back in 2006 I worked at Rainforest Café in
Nashville at Opry Mills. Has anybody
been to one? It has robot animals,
jungle decorations and a story. The
store has toy snake dolls and one of the employees had one. On the other side of the whole mall was a
shooting. The employee with the snake
doll was scaring another employee with it.
She was not afraid of working in the same mall as a shooting, but she
was afraid of any snake. Real or fake,
dead or alive. She was afraid of snakes.
Toy spider: I know somebody who will not watch certain
movies because they feature giant spiders or bugs. My own dad originally would not watch Charlotte’s Web because it has a
spider. However, I am the one who picks
up roaches with my bare hands and throws them away.
A doll: Did anybody have any dolls that would talk if
you pull a string or press a button in its hand? Did any of those dolls talk without you doing
that in the night at some point? We used
to have a toy train that would do that.
Everybody has something
they are afraid of. Here are some other
fears:
Arachnophobia? (Spiders)
Acrophobia? (Heights)
Thanatophobia? (Death)
Achluophobia (Darkness)
Ophidiophobia? (Snakes)
Pediophibia? (Dolls)
Sesquipedalophobia (Fear
of long words)
Even the bravest soldiers
and the boldest explorers have fears.
The key is not to let your fear overcome you. If a soldier lets his fear of death overcome
him, he can’t fight. If an explorer lets
fear of heights or darkness overcome him, he’s missing out on a great
adventure.
The Bible talks about a
cure for fear: taking them to Jesus. And
you know what else it says? Jesus
himself was afraid.
Jesus is God. He always was and he always will be. He created the world. He created you and me. He saw his creation rebel against him and turn
their backs on him, earning permanent separation from God and death. If you sin, you must die for your sins.
But God kindly sent him to
pay the only price that could save us from hell: blood from a perfect man: the
only man that could survive God’s wrath.
He also did all that for
joy that he would see his people in heaven and rule the earth with them.
At the same time, Jesus
was completely human. He was born to a
mother, got sick, got hungry, had to learn in school, had to learn to obey, and
he did all that perfectly. But he also
cried and was afraid.
At this point in the
scripture that I will read, Jesus was about to face the worst day in his whole
existence: his death on the cross. On
that day, the soldiers would beat his back with a bony whip that would tear his
skin and expose his bones. They would
put a nasty robe on him and press a crown of thorns into his head. Then they would nail him through his wrists
and his feet and he would eventually choke to death on the cross. But that isn’t nearly as bad as God the
Father turning his back on him so that he could take the full punishment for
all our sins.
Does it ever feel like God
has turned his back on you? I can
happily tell you that it has never happened to you. You may disobey your parents, cheat at
school, get in arguments, disappoint your teachers, make expensive mistakes,
even end up in jail or dead, but God the Father has not turned his back on you
while you still live on this planet. But
he did that to Jesus so that he could save you from your sins.
With all that, I will now
read from Matthew 26:36-46.
36 Then
Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to
them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two
sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and
troubled. 38 Then he
said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of
death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a
little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father,
if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but
as you will.”
40 Then he
returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep
watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you
will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is
weak.”
42 He went
away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this
cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he
came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went
away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he
returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and
resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the
hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let
us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Why is Jesus afraid? Because he knows what is coming. Jesus had come to earth to die, and the
thought of being tortured, hung on a cross, and dying had become very
real. Jesus is sincere when he prays to
his Heavenly Father, “If it’s at all possible, please don’t let this
happen.” And yet, even in his hour of
great fear, Jesus is willing to do what it takes to complete his mission –
“Your will be done!”
Was Jesus afraid of where
he would go when he died? Not at
all. Jesus came from Heaven, and he knew
where he was going after he died. Jesus
was afraid of the pain, of the suffering, of the agony, and the loneliness he
would face. He was human, and he knew
that paying for our sins would cost him greatly. Jesus was willing to do whatever it took to
free us from our sin, but he would have gladly taken another way if God had
offered it to him.
But Jesus didn’t let the
fear get the best of him. He had come to
Earth to save us from sin, and he was not about to run out on us at the last
minute. He could have run and hid. He could have found another garden to pray at
– one Judas would not know about. But
Jesus trust his heavenly Father’s plan. He knew that death was not the end. It was his whole purpose in living. He knew that if he died, he could save us
from our sins. Jesus suffered and died
on the cross so that he could be the cure for sin, for fear, and even death. His death destroyed our sin and punishment
and his resurrection gave us new righteousness (his righteousness) and
life.
What does that mean for us
today? What are some things that make
you afraid?
I will talk about some of
the things that make me afraid and why I would still face them.
I’m afraid of
heights. But if I am playing with a
frisbee, and it gets stuck on a roof, then I would climb a latter with the joy
of knowing that I would be reunited with my frisbee.
I’m afraid of
confrontation and having to discipline children. I do that as my job, but I do not enjoy
that. But if a kid is misbehaving, I
would rather put that person in time out than have to see them continue in
their bad behavior. I do it for the joy
of possibly being friends with that kid when they grow up and knowing that that
person loves Jesus and wants to obey him.
I’m afraid of not
succeeding in life. I have been turned
down for so many jobs and opportunities that it makes me not want to
apply. But I also still do it because I
have a husband to support who also supports me, and I have a goal to move to
another house. I keep those in mind as I
continue to look for better jobs and situations.
I can take all of those
things to Jesus who was afraid of the worst possible thing yet still went
through with it for my sake. He saw the
vision of living with us in eternity as friends and decided to go through with
his worst fears.
But all these fears have
one thing in common. I take all my fears
to Jesus and ask him to help me through them.
I cannot even wake up in the morning without Jesus allowing me to live
another day. I did not come to believe
in Jesus without his Holy Spirit changing my heart to want to love and follow
him. And that is the same for you. Every move you make really is from God, just
like the song says. You are still
responsible for your choices and decisions, but you still rely completely on
God to guide you through your life. You
must take your fears to God.
What are other things you
fear that you will face? Why would you
face them? What prize is at the end of
them?
I have had one other fear
that even I’m afraid to take to Jesus: fear that somehow God and the Bible are
not true and that when I die, that will be the end. But even that fear I had to take to Jesus or
else I would not be cured from it. I
must believe that there is more to this life than right now and what I can see
or else I won’t be able to move. If you
have that doubt, you must do the same.
If you don’t have that doubt now, but you do later on, you will know
what to do.
1 John 4:18 says, “There is
no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with
punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
There is no one more
perfect love than in Jesus. And his love
takes a golf club to fear and drives it far, far away. Or he will put it in a car, drive it out to
the desert, and leave it there. You must
trust in this love, bask in this love, and share this love with other people,
wanting only the best for them, which is Jesus.
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