Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Has fear settled into your life? Consider this from Pastor James Kaddis.

James Kaddis: If there's anything I want you to walk away with, it's the idea that the fear you may develop in any area of your life can be easily defeated with respect to the control and power it has over you if you will trust the fact that God is in the midst of it. If you will trust the fact that God is with you and God is watching over you and God is moving in the situation literally on your behalf. That's the only thing you need to understand and know and recognize.

Guest (Male): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.

Guest (Male): Life is filled with circumstances that can easily create fear in our hearts, often pushing us in directions that are destructive. Yet, when God is in the middle of those moments, fear can become a reminder that his hand is at work in ways we do not yet see. More often than we realize, fear comes just before a great victory. Let's hear about it now on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis in Mark chapter 14.

James Kaddis: Okay, Mark chapter 14 and we're going to start in verse 43. Now, before we jump right in, there is one thing that I want to reiterate and it's an important one and you're going to hear me reiterate this quite a bit as we go through the remainder of Mark. We'll see a lot of this in Luke. We'll also see a lot of this in John, but specifically as we go through Mark, I want to reiterate the fact that we are talking about intense spiritual warfare. There's a lot of stuff that's happening in the background. There are things that are happening in the invisible that are not being seen by human eyes.

Now, of course, don't get me wrong. We can perceive things. We can discern things. We can feel that there is something awry. We can feel that there is something happening and in this particular context, the air has to be thick, okay? And I want to just uh explain how significant or how consequential I think this is or this moment is because it relates so heavily to the time that we're in right now. As a matter of fact, let me reiterate what I've been saying for quite some time because I think it 's really important for me to bring this out yet again, and that is the fact that I believe the time of warfare that we are experiencing right now in human history is literally second to none with the exception of two other times in the history of mankind.

The first time would have been when man chose to rebel against God in the garden. That would be the first time. The second time undoubtedly would be the time period that we're reading right now concerning Christ, okay? I think there's been no other times in human history that we've seen the kind of spiritual warfare that we're seeing right now other than those two times. And of course, at the time that Christ is being crucified or the time leading into his crucifixion, there is so much that we can learn from. There is so much that we can make ourselves aware of.

There's so much that we can be able to discern because the messages are clear and the result of the warfare is extraordinary. And I think tonight, if there's one message that I want us to be able to perceive or that I want us to be able to understand and know, it centers around one variable that I think often times we may not verbally express, but we certainly feel. And that is the fact that it's a scary time we're living in right now. I think for a lot of people, it's been made it's been solidified in their minds and in their hearts because we've been living in a world, especially as of late over the last few years, that the unthinkable seems to continue to happen.

That the things that you can't even think of possibly happening are happening and they're happening in a way that is just so absolutely egregious. And I can just bring up example after example after example after example and we could talk about this. I'll give you one example of this. And again, this goes right back to the subject of spiritual warfare, right? I never thought in a million years. I don't know why. I mean, I should have known that it could be a possibility. I should have known that this is something that could have happened, but I never thought in a million years that we would see somebody on a school campus just literally assassinated trying to speak to the people that actually killed him.

Like and I know that it happens and we see things like this happening the way it does, but in this particular context for me, it's mind-boggling. But you know what shocks me even more than that happening? What bothers me even more, especially when we talk about spiritual warfare, what is more shocking than the very act itself is to see the demonically inspired population of people that are trying to capitalize on the moment. The people who when I say capitalize on the moment, I'm not talking about capitalize on the moment like saying, hey, you guys need to get right with the Lord.

Let's preach the gospel and tell people about Jesus. I'm not talking about that kind of capitalizing. I'm talking about the capitalizing that is completely just I'm going to go ahead and accuse this person of that and we're going to run this whole gamut. I mean, it's unbelievable, but listen, we're only scratching just a small part of a larger surface. It's going to get worse. It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse. Spiritually speaking, we are going to watch a decline that we have never seen before. We've been warned about it. We've been told about it.

It's something that we've been asked to anticipate. It's something that we see. And yet, what's really interesting is that when those things happen, even if we have been warned, even if we have been told, there is one emotion that the enemy is going to do his absolute best to capitalize on. And it might be the strongest emotion to capitalize on in moments like this. And you guessed it, it's fear. Because what happens is we see these things happening. We watch them manifest. We watch the things that are going on. We see how absolutely crazy things have become.

And now all of a sudden, we begin to translate them into our own insecurities, our own concerns, our own worries. And in our mind, we tell ourselves that we're never going to allow ourselves to capitulate to the things that actually bring on the fear that we uh continue to have. Yet, when the moment comes, when push comes to shove, it would seem as though that fear is paralyzing. That fear causes us to run. That fear causes us to literally focus in on something else and to think about nothing but protection and self-preservation. By the way, guys, look, the Bible laid it out for us.

The Bible told us this when when people are waiting in line to take the mark of the beast. The reason why they're waiting in line to take the mark of the beast has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they think it's some great sociological construct to be able to worship some totalitarian ruler that 's going to basically make them do everything uh including get permission to breathe. That's not why they're going to wait be waiting in line. They're waiting in line because of the fear of death. They're waiting in line because they're concerned about the repercussions that will exist because they have no real familiarity with what happens even after they die.

Their souls are completely tied up in a prison that seems to not be able to be freed because they allowed the emotion to completely overwhelm them and then they capitulate. And we live in a world today that is exactly like that. We live in a world today that is building its whole foundation. It's building its whole existence on fear. That's exactly what's happening. And the moment that we're about to read about right here with Christ is such a beautiful picture. And when I say beautiful, there's a little bit of sarcasm in that, right? But it is absolutely true.

It's a beautiful picture. And what makes it beautiful is because of the actions of Christ, but it's a beautiful picture of how the whole world will run because of fear. Literally run away from everything while Christ is running towards the very thing that people are scared of. That while the whole world is capitulating to the emotion of fear, God is looking at it from a completely different perspective because he is missionally minded. He has a goal. There's something that he knows needs to be done and he will not allow any of the emotions of the people around him to take him off the focus from what he's doing.

This is what we learned with Christ. By the way, this is Christ's MO. This is what he would always do. That when the emotions of the people around him got out of control, he got more laser focused. He got more intentional. He was aware of what he needed to do. And so he was not made afraid by any of the things that were going on around him. And I think if there's one area that we need to watch when we read this text because this is not the type of text that most people would stop and focus on for even 15 minutes.

But when we read through this text, what I want you to focus on is I want you to focus on the intentionality that exists within our creator to do what he's doing. I also want you to focus on the fear that continues to drive the people in the direction that they're being driven, including the perpetrators. I want you to pay attention to the emotions that are clouding what the real issues are. And I want you to pay special attention to how God in his own sovereign way takes it all and turns it into something absolutely spectacular.

So, by looking at this, what I hope this is going to end up doing is I hope it's going to set within you a pattern in your heart where you recognize the moments in your life where you are beginning to feel fear. And when I say fear, I 'm talking about spiritual fear, the kind of fear that's a lot deeper than, oh, I don't want to touch that because I might get shocked. I 'm not talking about that kind of fear. I 'm talking about the kind of fear that takes advantage of every vulnerability that you might have that would seek to exploit you and literally gut you.

I want you to think about that kind of fear. And I want you to understand what God wants you to do in the midst of that fear and how he is going to be in the midst with you in managing the issue as it confronts you. Because there's so much to learn that's here because I want you to understand that even when you run even when you decide you're going to run away from the place that is scaring you the most when you avoid this area, God will stand in the middle. God will hold the ground.

God will go to the place that you are absolutely scared of because he wants to be the strength that you need, that you might be able to experience all that he has for you. You have to keep this in mind cuz this is really really important. There's a lot of beliefs that go into what caused this moment to happen. Some people will presume and I actually taught it for for uh quite some time. Some people will presume that Judas's whole motivation behind doing what he did was the fact that he wanted to accelerate the coming of the kingdom of God.

And by doing so, what he did was he caused these uh um guards that came from the temple to come and arrest Jesus that he might be uh put in a position to pretty much hold everybody out and shut them down. I used to kind of think that way, but I think there's a a certain level of naivety that you have to have in not being able to understand the bigger picture to be able to come to that conclusion. But the point behind what I 'm trying to say is everybody, every single person that was even remotely close to the Lord believed that the Lord was going to be the solution to all of the stuff that they were experiencing.

He was going to be a solution to the problem of the Romans. He was going to be a solution to the problem of the fact that they had been as Jews persecuted again and again and again and again, beat up, mistreated, totally Jew hatred is something that doesn't just exist today. It's existed for a very very long time from the very beginning. They thought that they were going to find something that was going to absolve them from all of it in the Messiah. And when they saw that things were not working the way that they anticipated them to work, it changed the name of the game.

Watch what happens here because what you learn from this, I think, is going to be so telling and so important for your walk with God in general because if there's anything I want you to walk away with, it's the idea that the fear you may develop in any area of your life can be easily defeated with respect to the control and power it has over you. If you will trust the fact that God is in the midst of it. If you will trust the fact that God is with you and God is watching over you and God is moving in the situation literally on your behalf.

That's the only thing you need to understand and know and recognize. Look what it goes on to say. And we'll go back and just give you an idea. They're in the garden here. Things are getting really really tough. Christ is telling his disciples, you shouldn't be sleeping. You know, he's having an intense moment. He's going before the Lord. He's saying, hey, listen, let this cup pass from me. Jesus knows exactly what's going on. Uh clearly there is uh a very difficult emotion that he's experiencing in the process of all of this. And yet, he knows what he needs to do.

So, this is where we're at. So, he says uh in verse 42, which is what we read last week, he says, rise up, let us go. Lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand. So, Jesus knows what's going on, right? Now, by the way, I just want to point this out. You have to be able to imagine the fact that as Jesus says, let's all go, you guys, because the betrayer is waiting. The one who is going to betray me is right here. He's coming up. Can you imagine just in their hearts the kind of fear that they must have felt in that moment?

Jesus is saying, I'm about to be betrayed. Now, there must be a part in their minds that says, well, it's not going to be a big deal because he's the Messiah. He's going to defeat the one that's going to betray him and all is going to go well except for the fact that they have just been told that he's going to be crucified. He just finished telling them that it's going that he is going to be crucified. He's going to be delivered into the hands of the enemy, basically. He just finished telling them that. So, you have to keep in mind they're probably very overwhelmed.

It's probably a very difficult situation. It's probably very painful in the current moment. So, they know what's going to happen. Look at this verse 43. It says, and immediately while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the 12, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Think about this. Jesus is there in the garden and he's saying, okay, let's move on. I'm about to be betrayed. The betrayer is coming. And a while he finishes sharing the sentence, this massive army of temple guards are accompanying Judas.

Can you imagine the emotion that must be felt at that moment? Can you imagine the fear that is very likely in their hearts, the fact that they are just so just they have to be overwhelmed by the moment. They have to be filled with fear in the moment because the consequence that's coming is going to be significant. These are men that are armed. These are men that have the intention to kill Jesus. And if you are a disciple of Jesus, they very likely are going to kill you. That's what's going on in their minds. They have to have fear in them and we know that that that's going to be confirmed in just a second.

Look at what goes on. It says in verse 44, and he that betrayed him had given them a token saying, whosoever I shall kiss, that same is he. Take him and lead him away safely. Now, I I do want to stop by just simply mentioning one very important point that I do think is critical. And that is the fact that Jesus was not identifiable to these guards easily, okay? Cuz I hear people talk about the fact that, oh, when Jesus walked around and he had a little aura around him and he looked better than the average person.

He was this certain height and he was this No, actually the Bible tells us that Jesus was not discernable in the sense that you couldn't just pick about from a crowd, okay? As a matter of fact, I think this is really important to understand. The temple guards would not have known who Jesus was. The only way they know who Jesus was was by Judas walking up to him and kissing him because they weren't able to tell the difference. Now, this could be a reflection of a couple of things, okay? The first thing that it could be a reflection of is the obvious.

And the obvious is Jesus was not some uh person who just stood out in the sense that he uh didn't look any different than most, certainly acted different than everybody. There was something about him that everybody knew was completely different. But here's the second part about this that's also unique. It's very likely that the men who were going to arrest Jesus And this is I really believe this is happening, right? That the men who are likely going to arrest Jesus were men that the scribes and the Pharisees and the high priests made sure of never had contact with him prior.

Now, why would that be the case? I think that the reason why that the men who go to take Christ in custody would have never had contact with him prior was because they wanted to ensure that the men who would go to take out that task would not be people who because they've watched Jesus in his goodness, when they watched Jesus do what he was doing as a creator of the universe, would not find a soft spot in their heart to not act on what they knew they needed to act on. I actually believe that the reason why these men did not know who Jesus was besides the fact that he was not easily discernable in a crowd just from the outward appearance perspective was because these men went out of their way to make sure that the guards who went to go take Jesus had never had an encounter with him.

I think there's something to be said about that statement because there's a thing that we can learn from that lesson. And that is this. And I don't want to take a lot of time pontificating on it, but I do think it's really important. I have found an overwhelming majority of the time the people who put themselves in a position to oppose the true and living God are often times people who have never had a real encounter with the true and living God. Now, don't get me wrong. There are times where people do have a real encounter with the true and living God and they reject it because the hardness of their heart drives them to the place of complete and total rejection.

But there are moments there are moments where if you find somebody who is hostile to virtually all of it, the key the key is let them have an encounter with Jesus. The key is show them who Christ is through what you're doing, through what you're saying, through the life that you're living.

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis and we're currently going through the gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well. When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We'd love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what he's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website lightonthehillradio.com.

We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James's new book, The Last Book. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the Rapture and the End Times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon. If God is leading you to support this radio outreach, there's also a place to make a donation at lightonthehillradio.com. Throughout the week, you can watch our live shows and short videos, many of which relate to Bible prophecy and help you to see current events with a biblical worldview.

Look for these at jameskaddis.com. Now, here's Pastor James with the rest of his message, Faith Over Fear.

James Kaddis: I have a friend right now who is getting beat up a lot right now. He is he is taking some fiery darts right now from the enemy because he is going out of his way to expose people who are in the ministry, who are doing very very evil things right now. And he has made a series of videos over the last uh several months where he has exposed some pretty evil things that have been happening in different charismatic movements. Now, don't get me wrong. We as Calvary Chapel are a charismatic movement and there are guys within Calvary Chapel that have done some pretty evil things and pretty wrong things that actually got covered up for in some cases, okay?

So, the idea here that this guy is going and doing what he's what he's what he's doing and he's a very special friend of mine. He's somebody that I think I I'm very blessed by him. I actually had a hand in discipling him many many years ago and he's very effective at what he does. He is very good at what he does. And he doesn't have one of these discernment ministries where he's going around and he's, you know, picking out all the sins and the flaws and lots of people. He's not doing that. He he was confronted by a lot of people who were victims of these guys in ministry who were doing all kinds of things from stealing to lying to cheating to sexual abuse.

So, he decided that he was going to make videos to expose this, to force the condition of accountability that was being ignored. And the way he's been effective at it, right? There's churches that are like turning around and they're repenting and saying, we're sorry we didn't, you know, like we shouldn't have done this. We were wrong. That's good to see. I'm very happy to be able to see that. I'm very I'm very very blessed to be able to see that type of thing happening. But here's the thing that's really interesting. I don't even have to talk to my friend to understand the mentality that feeds what he does, okay?

Because here's the thing. If you want to win people over, the way you win them over is you expose them to Christ. There's uh literally it's the only you don't have to be a salesman. All you have to do is go to the people and show them who Jesus is. He's the one. As a matter of fact, my greatest errors in ministry, my biggest flaws in ministry are when people see more of me than they do Christ. Because when they see more of me than they do Christ, then they're not going to be transformed. When they see Christ more than they'll ever see me, there's transformation that takes place.

It's really simple. I love the mentality of those that understand that principle because when Christ is exposed to even the hardest hearts, they soften. I think the enemy inspired the betrayal of Jesus to be done by people who had never seen Jesus or known Jesus or recognized Jesus so that the likelihood of their failure to accomplish what they wanted them to accomplish would be uh minimized. In other words, I I do not believe that these were people who just randomly were selected to go take them into custody. I think they were people who were given a picture of who he was without ever knowing him or understanding the truth.

Now, that's a really important thing because when fear settles in, I'm going to just tell you this right now. You should take a note of this. When fear settles in in any context, I can promise you Christ is out of the equation. Okay? At least when fear settles in and you allow the fear to cause you to capitulate, Christ is out of the equation. I can tell you that right now.

Guest (Male): More from the book of Mark coming up next time on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. This listener supported program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Guest (Male): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.