Great Fear

I am teaching through the book of Acts and am in chapter 5 right now, and the story of Ananias and Saphira. If you remember, they brought a financial gift to the apostles from a land sale deal. But they were struck dead! Not because God didn't appreciate the gift, or because it's wasn't sufficient, but because the led people to believe that the gift given was the entire amount from the sale of the property. They were hoping to gain a little status at God's expense. But God will not be mocked and the both croaked!

What intrigues me to this passage is vs 11 where it says "Great came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things." because in the previous chapter, after the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful, and the rapid growth of the church, chapter 4:33 describes this young body of believers as having great power and great grace.

And with the addition of "great fear" the picture is complete and God is now truly free to do his best work.

You see great power without great fear (respect or reverence for God) is a dangerous thing. History tells us that much from tyrants like Hitler, Stahlin and in our time Saddam Hussein. Great grace without the fear of God makes holiness and sanctification just theological terms. But when you have power and grace balanced by reverence for God then you are, as they say in the automobile business, "hitting in all 8 cylinders"

Look at what happened in vv 12-17: Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,

The church grew like never before, and the fair weather believers were culled out from the genuine disciples (vs 13), and expectations were high.

So my question for those who want to reach a lost world for Jesus is what's wrong with preaching a little "hell" once in a while? Seems today many shy away from words like, repentance, judgment, condemnation and hell. Some go as far as to remove the cross since it may communicate an offensive message. Others have deconstructed the word "hell" to mean something other than an eternal place of torment for non believers.

But from the story of Ananias and Saphira, it seems to me a little "fear" is exactly what the church needs right now.

In the 70's there was a test performed with two lab rats. One was placed in a comfortable environment with all the food and water it desired. There was a little wheel in the cage and the rat could exercise when ever it wanted. It was placed in a maze and ever move the rat made was the right one and he was always rewarded with a prize. This rat grew to be a fluffy beautiful rat with bright eyes and coat.

The other rat was exposed to adverse conditions. He was deprived of food, water for long periods of time. He was placed on a tread mill and forced to run or walk for long periods of time without rest.

Then one day the scientists took both rats and placed them in a bucket of water. The rat that had been pampered all of it's life didn't try to save it's life. He just gave up and sank to the bottom and drowned. the other rat that had been exposed to extreme conditions swam for several days before it finally drown.

The point? Maybe for the good of our own spiritual development, we could use a few more sermons on the fear of the Lord, and the Holiness of God. Seems many feel the holiness of God is trumped by His grace. Like the guy in 1 Corinthians 5 who was messing around with one of his father's wives (not his mom!). He was bragging about how good God's grace was that he could do something that immoral and still be in favor with God and not be struck dead. But Paul told the leadership to deal with that problem publicly and severely because it was not a picture of God's grace at all.

You see folks, god's grace runs a parallel path with God's holiness. While God is full of mercy and grace he is at the same time holy. And it makes for a conundrum of sorts until you understand that the holiness of god and the grace of God meet at the cross. And when the spirit of god comes into a person, he is led by the Spirit towards Christlikeness or holiness. We will never achieve complete holiness until our glorification but we spend the rest of our lives becoming like Christ.

So "great grace, great power and great fear" It's a good balance. !