The Benefits of Fearing God, Part 2 | Fearless in Fearing God

Grab your bibles, open to Luke 12,starting in verse 1 and we’ll read through verse 12. Luke tells us that, “in the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

“‘I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“‘And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’”

Tucked as we are safely in the hands of a powerful almighty God, just consider what security and comfort that there is for you who fear him. Jesus uses an illustration from the marketplace here to show the level of detail in God’s care for those who fear him. He says in verse 6, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?” Tiny birds like sparrows were caught, killed, skinned, roasted, eaten as a snack. You put enough of those little tiny birds together you can make an actual meal out of them.

So everyone in the crowd is going to consider sparrow life rather cheap. It’s purchased for very little money, it’s quickly eaten and easily forgotten. But not by God. Notice, not one of them, even the free one thrown in in the purchase, not one of them is forgotten before God. Even those things that we consider to be small and insignificant, things that we don’t mind, killing, skinning, roasting, eating, consuming, digesting, and forgotten about. Even those things God sees them, he counts them, he considers them, he cares for them.

Look ahead at verse 24, Luke 12, “consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them.” Of, “of how much more value are you than the birds?” He’s making the same point here in verse 7, “why even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” God is so detailed in his care that he knows each one of the hairs on your head? I looked it up, there are somewhere between ninety thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand hairs on every human head and God knows each one of them individually, he has them all numbered.

Listen, Jesus is just showing us that the father knows so much more about you than you know about yourself. The father cares for you more than you can possibly know or understand. And so Jesus says there at the end of verse 7, “Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows.” I know some of you are thinking, well how many? What’s, what’s my sparrow quotient? That’s irrelevant really. Because the point here is that with the backing of a father like this, a father who is so detailed in his attention to us and his care for us, why would we ever, ever, doubt him?

Why would we ever fear, be anxious, worry? Is there any good reason for having an anxiety attack? Is there any good reason to fear what people think about us? None whatsoever. The father’s care is cause for such profound comfort for us that we must never fear anyone, or anything else, ever. And when we do, we visit the Lord for more care, more comfort in his forgiveness.

Let’s consider a second encouragement. Encouragement number two, the word courage. So we’ve talked about comfort, now let’s talk about courage. And the courage is found in this, that the son confesses you. Of course I’m speaking to those who fear the Lord, I’m speaking to those who are following and obeying these commands, fear him, fear God, fear nothing else, fear God. Those whom Jesus calls friends, you can have courage because the son confesses you.

What Jesus says in verses 8 and 9 to the God fearers is meant to instill great courage in us. Unashamed boldness in us knowing that Christ, Christ himself will vouch for us when and where it matters the most. Look at those verses, “I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.” What is greater than the temporal courts of human judgment or the fickle courts of human opinion? The eternal verdict of a heavenly court. That’s really all that counts in the end. That’s really all that matters.

Let me give you several observations on this section here. I think I’ve got five of them, yeah five. First observation, the English Standard Version translation of the word here, homologeo, the ESV translated as acknowledge, rather than the more usual translation which is, to confess. I understand the choice that they made, I realize why they did it, but to acknowledge someone doesn’t seem strong enough here and especially when you consider the context.

I’ll come back to that in just a moment, I’ll give a second observation. Jesus makes a distinction, the way he speaks of himself notice that. He uses the first-person pronoun, me, as the one that we must confess or acknowledge before men. But then he uses a third person title, the Son of Man, to refer to himself at a future time and before the angels of God which refers to that heavenly courtroom. So he talks about confessing me and then the Son of Man will, so he’s talking about himself but different in two different contexts.

Third thing, since Jesus is speaking here about our, how our choices on earth count in heaven and since the scene that he pictures for us is a heavenly courtroom setting the test that he is preparing us for now, as his disciples, is a judicial test. It’s the court of public opinion, one that can execute, enforce social penalties upon us or a court with more legal jurisdiction, formal jurisdiction. A court that can enforce formal legal penalties, or like civil penalties, or even criminal penalties. The context supports this view he tells his disciples in verse 11, what to do, how to think, quote, “when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities.” So, the community and the courts were confessing and denying Jesus as the Christ, as the Son of Man. These are the places where courage counts.

So fourth observation, back to that matter of how we translate the verb homologeo here. The literal meaning of homologeo, it combines the word homoias which means same. Think about homo and how it’s used today, it’s the word same and then the verb logeo, to say or to speak. So the literal meaning of this verb homologeo is to say the same thing as. So to confess something means to say the same thing about something that God says about that thing.

To acknowledge, to confess, is to say the same thing as God says about it. So when we confess our sins we’re saying the same thing about our sins that God says about our sins. When we confess Jesus it’s not enough just to say his name, to add him to your list of religious leaders that you respect. It’s not enough just to acknowledge him, say he’s a great historical figure, great truth teacher, great moral example.

No, we need to say the same thing about Jesus that God says about him. Namely that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Son of Man, that he is the incarnate Son of God, that he is the savior of the world, that he is Lord of all, yes it means he’s Lord of me and you right now, right here, in everything I think and say and do. He’s Lord, that’s what God says about him.

To confess Jesus then means to say the same thing that God says about him. And one final observation, just adding a proper nuance to this word homologeo so we understand how Jesus is using it here to strengthen us. When homologeo is used in a judicial context it means to make a binding statement, to testify in a courtroom, it means to bear witness to something. And so it can have a similar sense also when it comes to less formal settings, which is how we commonly experience this test.

The meaning of homologeo in an informal setting means to confess something in public. To stand up for and show allegiance to, and loyalty to, in front of other people, whether in a classroom for students, whether in the workplace for adults, whether with your neighbors, your friends, your family; to stand in the court of public opinion, so to confess in that setting, setting is to make a public acknowledgement of allegiance, to declare your loyalty to confess your allegiance and your loyalty.

Now, let’s take those five observations and kind of put those things together and see how this aspect of fearing God is meant to invoke courage in our hearts, moral courage, boldness in our speech. Look back at verse 8, Jesus says, “I tell you everyone who acknowledges me before men.” That is, before the community or before the courts, informally, or formally, standing at the bar of human judgment or human opinion.

Each and every one of us who acknowledges Jesus, that is in the fear of the Lord, we are to refuse to be intimidated. Refuse to be silenced by human opinion or human judgment. We confess Jesus first in that greater sense by saying the same thing about Jesus that God says about him and then second in that more immediate sense of professing our allegiance to that one, declaring our loyalty to that one. When that’s the stand that we take, and especially when it costs us, especially when it counts, Jesus says, “I tell you the Son of Man will acknowledge that one before the angels of God.” For every God fearer who has felt the scorn, taken the abuse, experienced the hostility of the unbelieving world, this is cause for such immense courage.

We look forward to that day of visitation, don’t we, as Christians, 1 Peter 2:12. That day, Romans 14:11, “when every knee will bow to me says the Lord and every tongue shall confess to God.” What do they confess? Paul gets even more specific in Philippians 2:9-11, “God has highly exalted Christ Jesus and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow before him. In heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

It’s comprehensive, it’s all inclusive, everyone bowing before Jesus whom we are to confess. Every tongue will confess on that day. What are they going to confess? That Jesus Christ is Lord. Not my government. Not my school system. Not the administration. Not my friends. Not the workplace. Not my family members. Not my neighbors. Not the Rec center, the community, the community things I’m a part of. They’re not going to be there to bow before and profess lordship. No, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the father.

We long for that day don’t we? When everybody sees our savior like we see our savior, and we see our savior in such fullness of his glory. To see him in all of his glory and strength, and power and honor and majesty, that is what I long for, that’s what you long for. Groan inwardly, Romans 8:23, waiting eagerly for the consummation of our hope in Christ. Because we know Jesus is Lord. Because we, we know that he will confess us when we stand one day in his father’s court room. In the presence of the holy angels who execute the will of God.

This infuses us with courage to know that the Son of Man will confess us. That he will acknowledge on that day our allegiance to him in his court. And that really counts for all eternity, that is for keeps. Turn to John 5, and just quickly, just to illustrate this a bit, just want you to appreciate the gravity of Jesus’ judgment and what it means. John 5 and starting in verse 22, John 5:22 and following, Jesus tells us that “the father judges no one but he has given all judgment to the Son.” Hmm, that’s interesting I thought God the father is the judge, no, the father is the judge but he’s given all judgment to the son. The son is going to execute judgment. Why, verse 23, “so that all may honor the son just as they honor the father.” Equal weight of honor and glory to the father and the son.

If there’s any better argument for the Trinity, there it is right there. “Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.” Think about the implications of that. “Truly, truly I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has,” that’s present tense, abiding possession, “has eternal life. He does not come into judgment,” he, “has passed from death to life.”

The author of that gospel, John the apostle, he makes the meaning of verse 23 even crystal clear. In case there is any doubt, he makes it crystal clear in 1 John 2:23, “That no one who denies the son has the father. And whoever confesses the son has the father also.” Again, 1 John 4:13-15, “by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.” Spirit, Father, Son, all wrapped up in a Trinitarian passage, telling us, confess the son.

If you confess the son, you confess the father, the Spirit bears witness to that confession, he confesses the son. So to confess the son is to honor the son. To honor the Son is to honor the father also, to abide in God, to have eternal life. Now go back to Luke 12 and notice that the opposite is also true. That “the one who denies me before men,” verse 9, “he who refuses to confess me,” which means either he refuses to say the same thing as the father says about Jesus and, or, refuses to confess allegiance to him, “that one will be denied before the angels of God.”

Obviously that, that excludes all those religions, doesn’t it, that deny Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, the Jehovah’s witnesses, the United Pentecostal Church. They are anti-Trinitarian. All those religions that do not, that deny the Trinity they overtly deny the son. That goes for all the Hindus, and the Buddhists, all the Bahis and all the eastern religions. They claim to honor Jesus but they do not say the same thing that the father says about him. They make Jesus out to be just another religious teacher. They add him to their pantheon of Gods, put him on the shelf, lining him up as just another idol. What about the other sense of confessing Jesus, that is taking a public stand.

Maybe you say the same thing about Jesus as the father says about Jesus but do you take a public stand? Verbally testify before the community, or before the court of public opinion. Before the courts themselves. Those who refuse to do that, who shrink back in fear and in shame, the warning is clear in verse 9, that “the one who denies me before men will be denies before the angels of God.” Strong statement, isn’t it?

There’s strength and confidence, conviction, coming as we see the Spirit is going to strengthen us on that day. Unless you doubt, as we all ought to, doubt our own strength in that time. We don’t rely on our own strength, never did. Our own salvation isn’t up to us, so our preservation isn’t either. Our confession is Spirit generated. This passage by the way sounds very similar to something he said in, in Matthew chapter 10. He said similar things during his Galilean ministry, that’s before this time right here. He spoke of confessing and denying, and then he spoke of doing that “before my father who is in heaven.” He says that twice. Here it’s before the angels of God, seems like a step down doesn’t it? Before the father, before the angels? What’s the significance of this?

Quite simply as we’ve seen in Jesus referring to himself in these eschatological terms as the Son of Man, he’s overtly setting the scene and even picturing in his mind and speaking from that picture in his mind about the day, the scene, of the Great White Throne Judgment. With the angels pictured here as the bailiffs in the courtroom, as the deputies from the sheriff’s office who were there ready to execute his judgment. In Federal courts I guess they’d be the U.S. Marshals. It’s not a scene I’d like to imagine, being on the wrong end of this. I don’t like to imagine it for myself or any of you.

John looks ahead to that great day of judgment he writes this in Revelation 20 verse 12, he says “I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened and then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them.” That is there’s a general resurrection of all people, believer unbeliever all of them there, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

Casting this in the terms Jesus uses in Luke 12, the judgment is based on what they did. Did they confess, or did they deny. Where they God fearers or where they man fearers? What did their behavior manifest? And Jesus as the exalted Son of Man on that day, the one to whom God has handed all judgment, the father has put all judgment into his hands. He calls each one forward by name, he works through the evidence line by line of the things recorded in the books. Each item having been insidiously, impeccably, recorded in the book by an impartial omniscient recorder.

Surrounding the courtroom are the angels of God awaiting the verdict. Ready to execute judgment. And you can picture Jesus there, in his role as the Son of Man, the exalted Son of Man, and he’s taking note of the angels looking around the room, he’s created each one of them. He knows each of those angels by name, he remembers their deeds, he knows the roles that they played in the redemption, the history of redemption here on earth. Ah, there’s the one that he deployed in the beginning, to guard the way to the tree of life with a fiery sword. I remember him.

There’s the one who accompanied him to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, to rain fire and brimstone upon the cities. There’s the one that he sent to strike down the first born of Egypt. And there’s the one that he sent to strike down a hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers in their sleep in one night. There’s Michael, the archangel who contended with the devil over the body of Moses. There’s his second in command Gabriel. The two of them did battle against the demonic forces of Persia according to Daniel. Many of them, led by archangel Michael, they fought valiantly against the Dragon, against his forces when they were cast out of heaven.

And all those angels are there, and they await the verdict of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. And they are ready at that moment to do his bidding in the execution of his justice. And when the word comes, Revelation 20 verse 14, “then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if any one’s name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Who’s doing the throwing? It’s the angels. They’re ready and zealous to do the will of the Son of Man. And they will cast, according to Revelation 21:8, they will cast the cowardly, that is those who fear man and do not fear God. They’ll cast the cowardly along with all faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars. Listen, the cowardly, those who denied the son, they will join all of those in “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur which is the second death.”

That’s what Jesus means in Luke 12:9 when he says that they will be denied before the angels of God. Now, the good news, the courage for us God fearers, means you see escaping that before the angels of God who act as the marshals, who act as the sheriff deputies to take us and cast us in. We don’t fear them. They’re on our side. We’re on their side. This infuses us with such courage that Jesus would tell us, the Son of Man will confess us before those angels of God. That guy with the flaming sword, well put it away Travis is one of mine.

If we’ll stand for him now, no matter what the situation he’ll stand for us then. We’ll not only escape the dreaded judgment of eternity in hell; we enter into the joy of the triune God who is our eternal reward. This gives us such great courage beloved, such boldness before others. We’re going to join those saints of old whose courage is exemplified, wrapped up in the apostles. Acts 4:13 describes the reaction of the rulers of the Sanhedrin and they’re shocked by what they witnessed in these guys in their own courtroom. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated common men and they were astonished, they recognized, “Wait, they’ve been with Jesus, they were there to hear this message from him.” May the same be said of us beloved. And not by men either, not by the pages of history, but by our Lord when he confesses us to be allied with him. When he confesses us before his father and before all the angels of God, amen? Let’s pray.

Our Father, we thank you so much for sending the Lord Jesus Christ, the divine truth teacher, truth teller, our Savior and our God, our Lord, our salvation. Father we just ask that you would make our church, make us as believers, make us a pocket of God fearers here in northern Colorado. A refuge from the vile and violent world. Father let us be a place where your loving care is manifest among us. Let us be a place where the confession of your beloved son is welcomed and rejoiced in and celebrated; may that be our only boast. let us be a place where the Holy Spirit teaches our hearts, giving us all assurance before you and confidence before the world. Father may you work powerfully among us your people. Christ’s church, by your Spirit and all of this redounding to your glory in the name of Jesus Christ our savior, amen.