Conducting Ourselves in Fear

2003-03-27

This was originally prepared to be a sermon on 1 Peter 1:17-21.

Introduction

I wrote this scene several years ago as to what the throne room of God might look like:

A boy stands in the center of the throne room of God. The Lord Jesus, eyes darker than wine, stood there, and every man and angel bowed down praising the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth.

The thoughts of the boy moved quickly in great anticipation. Is this my defense at the judgment seat of Christ? He cringed. Yet the majestic voices of the human-angelic choir echoed highly and widely about and above.

And the Lord said, “Come,” and the bride said, “come.” The boy stepped forward. “What are you doing, son?”

The boy prepared to speak the speech he had fumbled with in his mind: the excuses, the cop-outs, the defense for his years of mediocrity. But Jesus said first, “Do not say those things. I have heard that already. And there are still several million Americans in line behind you. Did you obey my commands?”

“What commands, sir?” the boy stuttered.

“How many times must I speak to your faithless and perverse generation? Very well. You believe in me, and thus have life only because of me. But do you love me?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Then why did you hear my commandments and not keep them?”

“What commandments!?”

“Did you love others as I have loved you?” Silence. “What exactly did you do with your life?”

This is what I thought it would look like if I went through life being Christian in name only, but not truly serving Him.

Believers in Jesus should conduct themselves in fear of their heavenly Father. There is a text that deals with fearing God, which is exactly what this young man, who represents me, did not seem to do throughout his life. Why should we fear God? Is it true that we should fear God? These are the questions that Peter addresses.

“And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (1 Peter 1:17-21).

Context of 1 Peter 1:17-21

The background of 1 Peter likely takes place in the A.D. sixties during the reign of the emperor Nero. Now during his reign Rome was set on fire, and many of the citizens were demoralized. Many homes were destroyed. People were under good suspicion that Nero had set fire to the city of Rome to make room for new building projects. When he heard that he was being accused, he had to choose a scapegoat and he chose the Christians. Persecution against Christians had arisen on a very serious level during his reign. Christians obviously were in danger, and must have been afraid. They were afraid of losing all that they had, including losing their lives in a brutal way. So Peter likely wrote this epistle to comfort them.

Keeping this in mind, Peter addresses them where they are. These people were quite afraid of Nero. Here Peter will address this concern of fear. Peter’s main exhortation here is that Christians should conduct themselves in fear of their heavenly Father. If anyone should be afraid of anything, they should be afraid of God who both appoints kings and brings them down again.

Fear of the Lord

Throughout the Bible and in the midst of our discussions, the concept of the fear of the Lord often comes up. What does this mean? Does this mean we should be afraid of God? Peter does not address the issue of the Fear of the Lord, because it is a common theme throughout the Bible. If his audience was Jewish, and some of the audience probably was, they would know exactly what he was talking about.

The Bible easily defines what the Fear of the Lord is. In Job 28:28, he writes, “And unto man he [God] said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” The Holy Ghost uses a common poetic form called parallelism to show that the two statements are parallel. First, he defines ‘wisdom’ as the fear of the Lord. Secondly, he says that departing from evil is understanding, which is a similar statement to the preceding one. Peter is saying, conduct yourselves in fear, be wise, depart from evil. This is also a common theme in Proverbs. For example, Proverbs 1:7 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

In addition, there is a concept of reverence and awe that is apparent in the context, but we cannot divorce this from the actual presence of fear we ought to have, considering the word choice.

Our heavenly Father judges us according to what we do, or in other words, our Father will discipline us according to what we do. Take for example a child that is misbehaving. If a child misbehaves, then he or she will be punished. It is the same with our heavenly Father. If we persist in our sins continually and do not turn away, our Father will also discipline us. This is the kind of fear that we should have toward our heavenly Father, for His eyes are always on us and we cannot get away with continuous sinning.

Sojourning in a Foreign Land

It is important to notice there is a time restraint on this. Though the letter’s recipients were living under Nero’s reign, this was only temporary. Peter calls this period that believers have on earth a temporary pilgrimage as a resident in a foreign land. Their nationality or citizenship has nothing to do with Rome; they are children of the living God. This pilgrim theme Peter uses resonates well here. If we are to conduct ourselves properly throughout our time here on earth, there is an assumption that we do not have to concern ourselves with this once we leave earth. This is because we will not ‘depart from evil’ then, as what the fear of the Lord is, because there will be no evil in or around us. Isn’t this what we long for?

What Peter wants us to learn about fear, is that our loving Father in heaven does not want the object of our fear to be in the uncertainties of life. Nero is long gone, but today in America, we could face the same things. There has been anger around the world toward America’s handling of its foreign policy. There may be a time when there will be terrorist attacks back on the homeland just as was seen in New York and Washington some time ago. Are we going to fear human and demonic forces that will attempt to make us afraid? Is our hope and comfort in living in America or being Americans? My challenge to you is to find out where you place your fear. Is it the fear of the future in losing a job or a loved one? We should have fear of the One who has the power of changing all of these things and more, as children fear the discipline of their fathers. The difference is that the One we fear loves us as a father loves his son.

Why should we, in light of who we are, fear God? We have said and know very well that our Father disciplines us and keeps us on track. Peter gives us two reasons. In verse 17, Peter tells us that Father God judges without partiality. In other words, God judges fairly in all cases for all people. Secondly, He judges according to each one’s work. Since God is always watching us, He knows exactly what we have done, what we are doing, and what we will do in the future. Therefore, we are without excuse. We should fear God simply because He holds us accountable for who we are.

Fearing God in Light of Jesus Christ

More importantly, why should we, in light of who Christ is, fear God? Peter seems to spend a lot more time on this concept. What is most important to Peter is that he wants to let us know that Christ suffered in our place for all that we have ever done. He brings us back to the very elements of the Gospel, which should not only humble us, but also bring us to fearfully trust in Him who single-handedly brought us to the hope of eternal life.

Firstly, Jesus suffered in our place not as a perishable object. Peter tells us that we were not redeemed by gold or silver in verse 18. Peter chose such an analogy well. The people of the world place their trust in being financially secure. In America, we hold to that well with the amount of luxury that we experience here. But that is not our hope of salvation. Moreover, Peter calls the very object of the world’s faith, silver and gold, corruptible!

Secondly, Jesus suffered in our place as to bring us away from our former patterns of living. Before Jesus entered into our lives, we belonged to the world and its ideologies. Remembering my life without Christ, it is now easy to see that it was a life of despair. I had developed my own religious philosophy and lived in sin, trying to find myself in anything but God. God communicated to me clearly over a period of time, after trusting in everything but Him, that I can only rely on Him.

Thirdly, Jesus suffered in our place as the priceless lamb, perfect in all ways, as Peter writes in verse 19. The animals for sacrifice, as offered in Old Testament times, were to be offered without any defect (e.g. Exodus 12:5). Jewish people who read this would understand perfectly clearly. For us, it would be like giving some of the most prized possessions we own to God as a sacrifice. But in this case, it was God who gave the sacrifice, His own perfect Son, His most prized possession, for us. We should fear God because it was He who initiated our hope by making the only sacrifice that would truly satisfy God. And we as Christians should fear our heavenly Father because we who are more perishable than silver and gold were spared in place of Jesus. Peter will write in the following chapters: For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).

In verses 20 and 21, we see that God revealed His plan to bring us to Himself in these days. The person of Christ is whom we see as the center of our faith. Jesus died and was raised from the dead, so that our faith and hope are in God. This last statement summarizes what Peter wants us to learn about why we as Christians should fear God. We fear Him because our faith and hope are in God and in God alone. If we were redeemed from our useless patterns of life and brought to God, who else should we turn to when we sin or when we have a need or a hurt? We should fear God because He is our only hope.

Conclusion

And this is my challenge for you. As my story in the beginning depicts of how the young man did not fear God during his life, do you find yourself placing things before God? If your heavenly Father were to confront you in such a way as this young man experienced, would he say something similar to you? When troubles come to you as they did with first century Christians, how do you respond? The answer comes down to whether your faith and hope are really in God. If this is true, then you will agree that Christians should conduct themselves in fear of their heavenly Father. That is what I challenge you to think about as this world gets darker by the day, so that you will be ready for the trials when they come.