Why are you afraid?

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Well, hey everybody. Good morning. Good to be with you guys. It’s so good to be with you. I got to wave from her. No one else waved. Yeah, it’s good to be with you guys. My name’s Chris Paavola. I’m the senior pastor here at St. Mark. And yeah, it’s another wonderful Sunday. It’s great to be in the house of the Lord with you. If you are a guest with us, special welcome to you or if you’re watching online. We would love to connect with you sometime in the near future. I promise lightning won’t strike and the coffee’s pretty good and we won’t make you stand up and introduce yourself or whatever fears you might have. So let me put those to rest. You’re going to enjoy yourself.

UNCOMMON AND COMMON FEARS

Actually, I looked up because today we’re talking about fears, but I looked up, is there a technical term for being afraid of church? And there is. It’s called ecclesiophobia.

ECCLESIOPHOBIA

 So, the actual term for being afraid of church is ecclesiophobia, and that makes sense. And then that sent me down this rabbit trail of what are some other really unique or unusual fears. And there’s some interesting ones.

NOMOPHOBIA

For nomophobia, this is a new one. It’s a fear of being without your cell phone. So, it didn’t exist 20 years ago, but no-mo-phone means nomophobia, is kind of the way you can think about that.

AMPHILOPHOBIA

There are some other really funny ones like amphilophobia is a fear of belly buttons.

ANATIDAEPHOBIA

Anatidaephobia is a fear a duck is looking at you. I’m not kidding.

HIPPOPOTOMONSTROSESQUIPPEDALIOPHOBIA

And then this one is real. This is real. Okay. I’m not making this up. It’s in the DSM. Hippopotamonstrosequipppedoaliophobia is a fear of long words. I think that’s a mean and it’s a legit fear, like long words. Anyway.

And then I was like, well, what are the most common fears? Because I was just kind of trying to wrap my head around this topic. Number five, most common fear. Someone in the room probably has this is claustrophobia. So that’s one in five people. And then number four is glossophobia, fear of public speaking. So what I’m doing right now, one in four of you would just absolutely hate the idea of doing this. Arachnophobia, fear of spiders is one of four people. And then acrophobia, fear of heights. That’s, I mean, not you guys up there. You guys are just fine, but a fear of heights. Yep, you’re good. The bleacher creatures. And then the number one fear. Anyone have a guess what the number one fear is? It’s mine. Snakes. Yeah, it’s snakes. Ophidiophobia. I didn’t even know what it was called. Am I saying that?

Ophidiophobia something. Fear of snakes. So there you go. Those are obviously fears that like all of us experienced. And today we’re talking about fears. As we continue our series questions, Jesus wants to ask you. And the whole premise behind this series is that Jesus is a good teacher. He’s a rabbi. And one of his primary teaching methods is questions. It’s how he teaches. And so as his students or disciples, we’re taking these safe questions that are arm’s length on a page and we’re daring to ask them of ourselves to see what we can discover. It’s a whole idea by the series. And today Jesus is going to ask us a question and teach us on fear. But it’s not like these kind of fears.

Those are just like every day. Okay. Those are kind of general categories. But he also speaks to like the practical everyday kind of fears. The fears that we would classify or quantify as worry or anxiety. The fear that my kids are going to walk away from the faith or the fear of, I’m going to be single forever. Or the fear that I’m not going to be able to pay the bills, I’m going to lose the house. Whatever it is that keeps you up late at night and makes you stare at the ceiling and you wrestle with and you think about all the what if scenarios. That’s the fear that Jesus also speaks to. And what I want to do today is I want to connect the dots between Jesus and that fear more than just like pretending they don’t exist, but to really answer how does Jesus address those fears that we wrestle with and how does that change the way we respond to them?

JESUS CALMS THE STORM

So that’s what we’re going to do today. Now this question comes to us in this account that we just heard in our reading. This famous account of Jesus on the sea of Galilee. Now the sea of … Sometimes we forget this. You can go to the sea of Galilee today. It’s a real location. So it’s kind of in Northern Israel there. And this scene happens up on the north side of the lake there, pretty much in the dead center north. The location most likely is this cove right here. It’s called the Cove of Parables or something like that sometimes. But you see how it’s kind of this natural amphitheater looking thing. So the crowd has gathered there. And the reason they think that Jesus spoke there is because it kind of serves as a natural amphitheater. And the crowds that were around Jesus were not like these polite decorous people.

They were rowdy and raucous and jostling and fighting to get close to him. They wanted to hear what he had to say or just see if what he was doing, if they could see it for themselves. And so they fought to get really close to Jesus. And the image we get at the beginning of this chapter is that Jesus is on the shore and the crowd keeps coming and he’s like backing up to the water. And then he’s like, “Well, I’m going to get in a boat.” So he gets in a boat to escape the crowds, rose out into the water and people wade up to Jesus up to like what, their waist or something to just get close to him. And he keeps going until they stop. And then he’s like, “Okay.” And what happens though, like sonically, acoustically is he’s got this hard surface of water all around him acting as a megaphone, talking to this people now seated on this natural geographic amphitheater right there.

And as he’s teaching, he teaches on these parables, he teaches a couple different things. And then he’s like, “Hey guys, let’s go over there.” And he points to the other side of the lake and he tells the disciples, “We’re going to go way over there.” Now the lake is 13 miles long, eight miles wide. So it’s a decent size, right? It’s bigger than Goguac Lake for sure. And he wants to go to the other side of the lake. We assume it’s this region that you can kind of visually see from where this bay is. And so they start rowing out there and then what happens, happens, right? This furious squall comes up as what the text says. And then Mark notes that they were terrified and Rembrandts, maybe you’ve seen this painting before, but this is a famous Renaissance painting by Rembrandt of Jesus calming the storm.

And whether it looked like that, I don’t know, but it’s a nice painting. But there in the moment, Jesus is sleeping on the stern. I think that’s so funny. They wake him up, “Don’t you care if we drown?” He gets up and he rebukes the wind of the waves and everything gets calm. They’re freaking out and he asks them the question, “Why are you afraid?”

WHY ARE YOU AFRAID

And here it is. It’s another obvious question, right? It’s another obvious question. On Easter, he asks a woman at a graveyard, “Why are you crying?” And he asks a blind man, “What do you want me to do for you? ” Both times it’s very obvious. And here we are. We get into this moment. Jesus is standing on a boat where the boat nearly sank and he says, “Why are you afraid?

What are you afraid of? ” And they’re like, “Are you kidding me right now, Jesus? Have you seen the size of these waves? Have you seen how rickety our boat is? Have you seen how poorly I swim? Why are you afraid?” And Jesus is asking a really obvious question and it seems rhetorical, but when Jesus does this, it’s because the question is not obvious. There’s something deeper he’s trying to get to, a deeper truth he’s trying to teach about because they’re not afraid of the waves, you guys. They’re not afraid of the boat. In the early 2000s, there was a psychologist named Dr. Carl Albrecht, and he put together this paper and published this journal that basically categorizing all of our phobias, all of our fears. Whatever your fear is, it falls into one of five categories. And he says, the categories are loss, isolation, worthlessness, pain, or death.

Whatever you’re afraid of falls into one of those five categories. So if you’re afraid of clowns, you’re not afraid of clowns, you’re afraid of what the clown’s going to do to you. You’re afraid of the pain the clown’s going to bring, right? If you’re afraid of public speaking, you’re not afraid of standing up here, you’re afraid of the sense of isolation that comes with it. Does that make sense? So there’s a deeper underlying fear that’s associated with this. And for these disciples in the boat, they’re not afraid of the wind. They’re not afraid of the frailty of the boat or they’re not afraid of their inability to swim.

They’re afraid of the death that’s going to come. And I think that’s really enlightening. It gives us an interesting way of thinking about our fear.

5 SOURCES OF FEAR

What are you afraid of falls into one of those five categories. If you’re afraid of paying the bills, you’re not afraid of the money, you’re afraid of losing the house, the loss. If you’re afraid of being single forever, you’re not afraid of being single, you’re afraid of this isolation or maybe even the sense of worth that follows. And I think it’s really enlightening. And I remember reading this article when it first came out and then having an aha moment that Jesus came to deliver us from our fears. That’s what scripture says.

JESUS SPEAKS TO YOUR FEAR

And that Jesus addresses every one of those fears. This is so powerful, okay? Follow me here, but Jesus came to address every one of these fears. So loss, Jesus came to give. He says, “I did not come to be served. I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.” He came to give a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over to give us blessings that we don’t have enough room for them to give what we ask for. But it keeps going. He came to address our isolation and give us connection.

He says, “I have come to those who are lost and in the outer darkness perishing.” And he finds them to connect with them. He’s a good shepherd who finds the wandering sheep. He’s like a widow searching for a lost coin, a father waiting for a son to return. And he calls us to heaven to prepare a place for us that we might be with him in fellowship forever. And he sends his spirit so that we’re never alone. And he says, “I will abide with you and remain with you as you remain with me. ” But it continues, worthlessness. Jesus came to speak to our worthlessness and speak value to us. You are more precious to your heavenly father than the birds. You’re more important to him than the flowers. You’re so precious that he gives his only begotten son to ransom you.

And for pain, he comes to give you comfort. The prophet says that people comfort, comfort my people. Messiah is coming. He comes to comfort us and says, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” He heals us of all of our diseases is what it says. He was pierced instead of you to save you from the pain that your sins deserve by his wounds, his stripes, you are healed. And then for death, when he came to deliver us from that, he went into your grave before you. He beat you there so you never go there alone. And when you go to your grave, you will emerge with him with eternal life because he conquered the grave, that death has lost its sting. It is a defeated foe. He is the champion and Lord of life.

That’s what it means. When we say that Jesus delivers us from our fears, the Bible tells us to fear not over 300 times. And it’s not because you sit there and go, “Ugh,” and you think, “I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid.” And you get really brave. The waves are stronger than you. The boat is too fragile. That’s the point, but you know the one who commands the wind and the waves. You know the one who came to rescue you from your fears. And so when you think about loss and your fear of loss, remember that he came to give. When you think about your fear of isolation, think about how he came to connect with you. When you think and you fear feeling worthless, remember that he came to give you value. When you think in fear pain, remember that he came to give you comfort.

And when you think and fear death, remember that he came to give you life. This is what the psalmist means when he says, “The Lord delivered me from all my fears.” And this changes like how we respond to fear. You know how like in horror movies, like they’re running away from the guy with the chainsaw and they do the stupid thing and you’re like, “Why would you do that? Right?” Scared people do stupid things. And it’s true in life, man. When we’re afraid, we act desperate. We get manipulative and coercive and try to control things. We do dumb things, dumb things when we are afraid. And you make wise decisions when you’re unafraid.

And I want you to make wise decisions. So like when you are afraid and then you turn your thoughts to think of what God has done in Christ and how he addresses and delivers you from those fears, watch how it changes the way you react to that situation at work. Watch how it changes the way you react to your kids or your spouse. It changes the way you think. It changes the way you act, the decisions you make. This is what scripture means when it talks about how he’s delivered us from our fears and we are at peace and we’re kept safe.

AN INVITATION

Now I want to like end today just very briefly by talking to anyone in the room who you walked in here and you wouldn’t have called yourself a believer, but this conversation about fear triggers something for you and it clicked. So if you’re watching online, same thing where you’re going, “I’m tired of being afraid. I’m tired of being tight, wrapped around the axel, wrought with anxiety about these things.” I don’t want to be a slaved fear anymore. I am here to tell you today that Jesus came to save you from all your fears, everything you’re afraid of, and that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, not only from their fears, but from the sin that holds them captive. And so, let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, first of all, I pray for all of us that you would make real to us and aware to us what it means to be unafraid and to fear not.

It’s not because the things and the fears aren’t real, but because Christ has overcome everything we fear. He came to give where we feel lost, to connect where we feel isolation, to give value where we feel worthless, to give comfort where we feel pain, to give life, even where we face death. And Lord, I pray for anyone watching or listening or here right now, who is yet to believe in their heart, to confess with their lips, that you are Lord. And God, you give faith today and they just call on you and ask you to save them and that God, you would do just that as you promised, that you would rescue them from their fears, Lord, and rescue them from their sin. Give, connect, show value, comfort, and make a life. And this is Jesus’ name. We pray all of these things. Amen.