Why Are You So Afraid?
Todd Miller
Metal roofing manufacturer and host of the Construction Disruption podcast. I help to ensure the success of metal roof projects and also help contractors Command Their Marketplace.
?I was blessed to give this message recently at Community of Hope in Sidney. I am doing a series this year on Questions Jesus Asked.
Worship Set
Before I start the lesson today, I want to play a song for you – just listen if you will.? This is a beautiful rendition of Nearer My God To Thee.
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give to them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”? (Deuteronomy 31:7-8, NIV)
In His defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at work this this very day, and I too am working.”? (John 5:17, NIV)
This is the Word of God for His children.
Thanks be to God.
This week, we will continue looking into questions that Jesus asked. As you will recall, last week, we looked at the question “Do You Believe?”? We talked about how Jesus healed the two blind men after asking them if they believed that giving them sight was truly something that He (Jesus) could do. As you will recall, they said “yes,” and their sight was given to them. As we talked about that we talked about another kind of blindness – spiritual blindness – and how God gives us not only the ability to see things from a Spiritual standpoint but He also gives us the promise of life eternal when we simply say “We believe”.? That’s all there is to it – He gives us forgiveness, redemption, hope, and a future with Him when we simply say “I believe”.
This week we’re going to look at another question Jesus asked – “Why are you so afraid?”
Have any of you ever been afraid before? Of course you have – fear is a very common human emotion.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, the most common themes of fear that we carry as humans are this: 1) death and illness; 2) social rejection and isolation; and 3) failure and embarrassment. Interesting, isn’t it? As you think about the fears you have had in your life, how many of them fit into those buckets for you? How many of us worry about dying or getting sick? How many of us worry about doing something that causes us to be rejected by others – that causes us to be alone? And how many of us worry about failure and embarrassment – of doing something or having some event occur that causes others to abandon us, look down on us, or perhaps even laugh at us?
So, why do we fear? I want to share a quick story with you about fear.
Many years ago, a friend and I bought a pontoon boat for our families to share. Now, this was not one of the sleek, modern pontoon boats.? We couldn’t afford one of those. This instead was a very old, very antiquated, very tired and probably not entirely seaworthy, pontoon boat. And one evening, excited to share our new toy with his family, my friend took a number of his family members out for a boat ride. He had his wife and children there, and his in-laws, as well as some others. Truth be told, he probably had more people on the boat than it really was capable of holding. Now, keep in mind, too, that my friend was new to boating at the time, same as me.
So, they are moving along on Grand Lake up by Celina when my friend went to slow down the boat. Problem is apparently he slowed it down a little too quickly. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a pontoon boat, especially an older one, when you suddenly stop the motor but things get exciting real fast. As the boat stops, water begins rushing into the front of the boat, basically swamping it.
Fear for their lives set in quickly for my friend and his family.? In fact as people started screaming and my friend’s young son literally started floating away, his father in law, along for the ride, struggled to keep his new white tennis shoes from getting wet, all the while shouting for someone to call the coast guard.
Anyway, they can look back on it and have lots of laughs now – they were all well and safe by the end of their little excursion -- but at the time no doubt it was pretty frightening. They had that fear of death and injury.
Well, today we’re going to look at a story from the Bible of another boating situation. This story is covered in other Gospel accounts as well but we’re going to read it from the book of Mark, Chapter 4, verses 35 to 41.
Now, this is a story of Jesus and several of His disciples getting into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. I spoke earlier about the old, antiquated boat that my friend and I bought.? Jesus’s boat though would have been like 2000 years older than even that in terms of technology and safety. Also, the lake my friend was on is pretty shallow – in fact, in many areas you can literally walk across the lake.? The Sea of Galilee, though, is a little different than that. It is 100 or more feet deep, and it’s nestled amidst some tall hills that are approaching 1500 – 2000 feet tall. So, the potential is there for bad winds to whip the water into a frenzy.? Waves 10’ high and even higher have been measured. Without a doubt the Sea of Galilee has the possibility for pretty frightening situations to arise with storms and big waves.
Let’s go ahead and dig into Mark chapter 4. Early in the chapter, Jesus had been teaching to a large group. Then, later that day, He was gathered alone with His main disciples and He was teaching them. Over the course of the day, He taught them several parables – several stories that taught important lessons to His listeners and followers. As we read the rest of Chapter 4, we see Jesus not so much telling a parable as living one. Let’s see what happens.
That day when evening came, He (Jesus) said to His disciples,?“Let us go over to the other side.” (Referring to the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee. Now, depending upon wind and currents, it could have taken them a couple of hours or the better part of the night to cross the lake.) ?
Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in the boat.?There were also other boats with Him.?A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, (Kind of reminds me of my friend and his family on the old pontoon boat, no?) so that it was nearly swamped.?Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.(I had to double check this but the stern is the back of the boat.) The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” ?
(So, the disciples had justifiable concern, didn’t they? They were caught in a bad storm with, I don’t know, 8, 9, maybe even 10’ high waves on a big lake that was 100 or more feet deep. The boat was taking on water. Undoubtedly they were scrambling and bailing water out of the boat, all the while trying to hang on for dear life. But, while the disciples bailed, Jesus slept, completely unconcerned about what was going on. You know, I think this tells us a great deal about Jesus right here. Ever try to sleep outside in the middle of a storm? Chances are that you or I would never be able to do that, right? But Jesus was a man of such peace, such lack of concern because He was already certain of the future, that He was able to sleep while the others bailed and yelled at each other over the fury of the storm. Shoot, I can’t sleep sometimes at night worrying about even the tiniest of things but Jesus -- Jesus -- could sleep during the storm. Keep in mind, these disciples for the most part were very experienced on the water. This was undoubtedly not their first rodeo when it comes to being on a lake in a storm. But, as we can tell from what they said to Jesus after they woke Him, they were convinced that they were about to be washed into the lake where they would surely drown. Let’s see what happens when they wake up their unconcerned friend and rabbi.)
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves,?“Quiet! Be still!”?Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
(Even the winds and waves listen to the Son of God, right?)
He said to his disciples,?“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
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(So, take note, Jesus calmed the storm and then asked them why they were afraid. Did they have no faith? I think that’s interesting. He could have asked them that before He quieted the storm. He could have said “Have no fear, the Son of God is here!” and then? calmed the storm. But, instead, not calling too much attention to Himself, He told the storm to stop, and then He turned the attention back to His frightened friends. Another thing that I think is interesting here is that Jesus asked “Why are you so afraid?” not just “Why are you afraid?” Jesus knew that, yes, fear is a very human emotion and we will feel it from time to time so He asked them not why they were afraid but why they were so afraid. I don’t know about you but I sort of feel like I should carry that question around with me in my pocket. Why am I so afraid?)
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Now their fear has switched a bit, hasn’t it? They are no longer afraid of the storm but instead they are terrified from wondering who this man was that they were hanging out with. I mean, sure, they’d heard Him tell a few parables and stories. Perform a couple of healings and miracles. But, they now saw that this man was able to command nature. The thing that, as fisherman, the disciples were probably most in awe of and even scared of, Jesus could control. He told the storm to stop and it stopped. Yeah, their fear changed a little bit at that moment. They didn’t have the storm to fear any longer but who was this man they were with?
I don’t know about you but I kind of wonder what happened after this. But all the gospel accounts end this story the same abrupt way with the disciples wondering who in the world this guy was.
So, the disciples were afraid. It was later in His ministry, in fact shortly before His death here on earth, that Jesus told His disciples that, after He was gone, He’d send a Comforter to help them. That Comforter is the Holy Spirit who dwells with us here today, to bring us comfort and assurance during troubled times – during the storms. But at this point, on the Sea of Galilee in a storm, the disciples had no understanding of that and they were afraid, rightfully so.
So, before we continue with the lesson, we’re going to listen to Chris Tomlin’s song, Whom Shall I Fear.? Feel free to sign along if you wish.
Let’s go back and visit that list that I mentioned earlier from the American Psychiatric Association. What are the things that make us afraid? Should we really have fear from them?
Number 1 – I feel like I’m Steve Harvey on Family Feud now – number 1 is a fear of Health Problems, Injury, or Death. What were the disciples experiencing in that storm? A fear of death. During Covid, what fear gripped us all – a fear of health issues or death, right? Even though my whole career has been spent in the roofing industry, I must confess that I have a bit of a fear of heights. But that fear isn’t really of heights is it? That fear is of falling and the giant splat I’d make. A fear of injury or death.
But, here’s the fact – we have no reason to fear death because Christ has overcome death. We talk about being afraid of dying but, as children of God, that’s ridiculous. We have God’s promise of life everlasting. And what’s more, we have His promise that it only gets better after this world, right? We will have new bodies, we will have no worries, we will have no fears as we will be residents of Heaven along with Jesus.
So our Number One fear is kind of ridiculous, right? Death is not a reality for us as Christians.
Let’s look at that Number 2 fear. No, it’s not a fear of Number 2 (LOL) but it’s a fear of Rejection or Not Being Accepted by others. Anyone else ever have this fear? Of course, we all have. Shoot, for me, this fear of rejection and being isolated or alone was pretty engrained in me from a very young age when every time, as one of the smallest and quietest guys in my class, I was picked last or nearly last for teams in gym. But beyond that haven’t we all experienced the fear of either losing those in our life – our support network – or being abandoned by them? Maybe some times we even hold on to toxic relationships because we worry that it would be worse without that person in our life. Really, we see that a lot, don’t we?
But, Jesus says Why are you so afraid? Why are we so afraid of rejection? In another story from Matthew, also taking place at the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus is walking on the water, He flat out says it – “Do not be afraid.” In fact, I believe someone reminded us of this last week but the phrase Do Not Be Afraid appears 365 times in the Bible – once for each day of the year. (A good reason for what psychologists call disektochronophobia which is – I kid you not – a fear of leap years.)
But, as to this fear of rejection, not being accepted by others, and being alone – here’s why we need not have that fear. God is always with us. We are never alone and therefore should have no fear of loneliness. God always accepts us, our faults and our failings. If I could go back and tell that 12 year old me one thing it probably would be to not let that fear of rejection consume me because God would never reject me and He’s on my side. He has my back.
The Message translation of the Bible says Romans 8:31 this way – “So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose?” And, again, the 12 year old me who felt like a loser being picked last for teams in gym class – I wish I could tell him then, you can’t really lose, buddy. God is on your side.
So, the number one fear was death, and number two was rejection and isolation. Anyone remember the number three fear? It is a fear of failure and embarrassment. So, let’s talk about this a bit. God made you in His image. We’re told that in Genesis, right? And God loves you infinitely. There is no end to His love for you. But yet we have this fear of failing and being embarrassed in front of man?
All of us have experienced that feeling. We don’t want to mess up. We don’t want people to laugh at us. Here’s the problem with that fear. When we have a fear of failure, we are measuring ourselves against the standards of this world. Let me say that again. When we have a fear of failure, we are measuring ourselves against the standards of this world.
John 16:33 tells us “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!”
When we live with a fear of embarrassment in this life, we are living with a fear of a world that Jesus overcame when He rose from the dead. As Christians, we often talk about being in this world but not of this world, don’t we? So, if we’re not of this world, how can we be afraid of failure and embarrassment at the hands of this world?? We really can’t be, can we? You were made by the Creator of everything and He loves you without end. Your worth is without end. You have nothing to be afraid of.
So, the most common themes of our worries – fear of death, fear of rejection and isolation, and fear of failure and embarrassment – none of those apply to us as Christians do they? Even in the chaos, God is at work on your behalf. As Jesus said, Why are you so afraid?
Friends, fear and faith work in opposition to one another. If we live with faith, we can’t live with fear – we have nothing to fear. When we live with fear though, we’re low on faith. So, really, fear is a calling to us to have more faith … to dig into scripture, to call on that Christian friend who will support and bolster us and remind us of God’s love for us.
Think back to the disciples on the boat. Did they have any ability whatsoever to do anything about the storm? They as humans did not. But they did the right thing in the midst of the storm, didn’t they? They went to Jesus. We do not have power to do anything about our fears and, in fact, most of our fears should not even exist. But we can go to Jesus when we have fears. We can go to our Comforter who will remind us that He is in control. We may not know the exact paths life will take us down but we’re assured of a peace that is not of this world. And we’re assured of life in eternity with our Creator.
When we go through the storms of life, we may not know exactly when we will see God appear but we are assured He is there, working on our behalf. Romans 8:28 -- And we know that?in all things?God works for?the good?of those who love him, who?have been?called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:38-39 tells us this:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,?nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God?that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are never separated from God who loves us without end and therefore, just like the disciples in the boat during the storm, we truly have nothing to fear.
Here as I am getting ready to close, I want to play a song for us. This is a beautiful song though it is kind of long.? This is “No Fear” by Kari Jobe.
My friends, fear causes us to move away from things. That’s what we do when we’re afraid, right? We retreat. We go backward. We run away from the problem, away from the fear. Here’s the problem with that – we can’t do God’s work by moving away from the problems and chaos. Oftentimes, the chaos and the times of fear in this world and with our friends is exactly where God wants us to be. He wants us to show up in the mess so that we might be His hands and feet, showing His peace and His hope to this world.
So, as you go about this week and fears try to grip you or perhaps they try to make you forget of God’s love for you, or they try to call you away from what God is calling you to do, remember Jesus’s question – “Why are you so afraid?” Have peace because even if you feel like worrying and bailing out water like the disciples, Jesus is sleeping. He’s got this, and He holds you.
Love you all. Have a good week.