Great Fear
by Laurence Windham

(2 TIMOTHY 1:13)

Then Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out." Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon the church and upon all who heard these things, (Acts 5:9-11).

As you read the Book of Acts you find that things were really gong well for the early church. Chapter one begins with the Ascension of Christ. In chapter two, the Holy Spirit descends and empowers the Apostles. Chapter three records the healing of a lame man, which in turn draws the attention to the message of the Gospel. In chapter four Peter and John find themselves being interrogated before the entire Jewish Supreme Court. They are subsequently threatened to stop speaking Jesus' name, an order that they could not obey but were nevertheless shaken by. The result was the calling of a corporate prayer meeting that resulted in the place being shaken by the Spirit of God and everyone speaking in unknown languages, starting their own television shows and wearing big hairdos. ( Ok, I made those last three things up).

The result was they "spoke the word of God with boldness;" this after they realize what they are up against. See verse 27: "For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together" That is pretty much everybody. And yet, as we read the Book of Acts we continually see that nothing can stop the Church. Nothing. Not even that awful black spot in our early history found in Chapter five. You know what I'm talking about… Ananias and Sapphira.

Everything was rolling along, to the point that caring meant action, people with needs were being helped. Everyone was moving out of their comfort zones and giving of their possessions and themselves. The beauty of this was marred by the sin of one couple. God acted quickly. Ananias and Sapphira died. The Righteous Judge acted swiftly and the result was fear. No one said, "Hey, I thought this was the new Testament where God is all kindness and love." No, "great fear came upon the church."

This is essentially lost in our day. Too many of us pretend to be what we are not, because, like our dead example, we want to be though of as giving and pious and sincere before others more than anything. We fear men and not God. But God is not to be trifled with. We can continue to be more familiar with our sins than with His holiness. And live our lives out as though He is not omniscient omnipresent. But we will also continue to pay the price for our nonconfessional, opaque, prideful lives in the loss of the next generation (our children), leanness in our souls, and lack of power in the world.

In Jerusalem, great fear came upon the church. The fear helped the church grow, kept them pure, kept them focused. Imagine the type of music they played the next Lord's Day. Probably not, "What a friend we have in Jesus." And yes, Jesus is our friend, and we understand that part of the relationship, but what we have lost sigh of is the "Friend" that stopped the wind and waves was feared by those closest to Him. Because of who He was. Believe me, this someone that you want as a friend. But He is also God. And as His subjects we must cultivate a new sense of trembling in the presence of our awesome God.

One way that this can be accomplished is in church discipline, a continuance of what took place in Acts chapter five. When someone is found out, they should be confronted and commanded to repent. If they do not, then they should be expelled from the church by due process. The lack of responsibility in this area of responsibility is horrendous. When this is neglected, the church loses her fear of God. Then we, the church, begin to fear anything and everything else. We fear our loss of reputation more than the consequences of our sins. We fear the loss of popularity rather than pleasing God. We fear the loss of comfort and possessions more than loving our brother or our neighbor. We fear changing our way of life more than the day we die and find ourselves before God.

Where do you stand right now in your relationship before God? If your thinking characterized by believing that you have special deal that allows you to rationalize that God's wrath is held at bay by His patience? Are you so sure that grace abounds further than our that you take grace for granted to the point that you've forgotten the chastening hand of the Almighty? Have you forgotten that Paul told the Corinthians that some of the illnesses and deaths among them were attributed to their lack of obedience and introspection of personal sin? And what of Achan's sin causing the death of other Israelites, and the 10 spies costing a whole generation the victory and rest of the Promised Land, and David falling when should have been fighting?

We have become a fearless people when it comes to our relationship to God. This is often mirrored in our worship, our prayers, and our lifestyles. The term "God fearing man/woman" was once synonymous with the term "Christian." Would to God that He will instill fear back into His church. That we may once again reverence Him in worship in our churches and in our lives. Great fear is better than great programs any day.