Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Pastor James on how to deal with fear when it creeps into our lives.

James Kaddis: So, if you want to deal with the fears that you face every single day, the financial fears, the fear of people, the fear of this circumstance, the fear of that circumstance, the only way you are able to defeat those fears is by walking in obedience to God because it's your obedience to God that opens up your eyes to understand what his heart is, and only then can you see things through his lens.

Guest (Male): Today on Light on the Hill, we'll be talking about some very famous words that came out of the mouth of Jesus that Peter simply chose not to believe. Before we become so quick to condemn him for what he did, perhaps it's good to stop and consider that but by the grace of God, so go I. Here's Pastor James Kaddis in Mark chapter 14.

James Kaddis: Okay, so we call this book the Gospel according to Mark, but let's face it. We have had multiple discussions regarding this issue. This really is yes, the Gospel according to Mark, but it's probably more the Gospel according to Peter. It's very likely that Peter is the one who sat down with John Mark and actually orchestrated the writing of this. It's very likely that this is Peter or at least at the bare minimum, if it is Mark indeed who wrote this, Mark would have written it through the eyes of Peter. Peter would have been the one who would have schooled Mark in this.

And so in essence, what you would be hearing is you would be hearing the Gospel according to Mark as taught by Peter in many ways. And yes, Mark would have been a firsthand witness of it all. He just was a firsthand witness of it at a younger age. Now, I bring this out at this point because I think it's remarkable that if indeed Peter did have an influence of the writing of this Gospel, that you would see the documentation, the historical documentation of one of the greatest failures of Peter's life. Okay? And it's interesting. Like you would think so if I'm Peter and and I'm having something written here about me, I think that I would want to put myself in the best light possible.

You know, John does this a few times. You you can see it. He talks about the one whom Jesus loved, you know, different things like that. He sort of casts himself in that sort of more favorable light. And I get it. I mean, none of those things were wrong. They were all very very true, but I would suspect that you would expect Peter to be somebody who would want to share this story from a different light, not as raw and not as real as we see it depicted here. Now, I would simply say that upon reflection, you realize later down the line the wisdom behind what Peter does in sharing this story that way or at least inspiring Mark to do so.

We know the Holy Spirit did that, but perhaps even more consequential and more significant for the moment that we're in, it also sheds light on several other aspects of Christ's ministry, not only to Peter describing the process of redemption, but also these aspects of Christ's ministry as it relates to what happens when he ascends and he leaves with us as what he would call the the helper, okay? The Holy Spirit. And so it's interesting because the man that we are about to witness right now is absolutely not the same man that we are going to witness in Acts chapter 2.

All of that to say there is still a character strength that we will be able to see almost immediately even in this story, and perhaps it is remarkable from the perspective of what we can learn from it. And there's a lot that we can learn. Now, let me just simply say this, and it's been something that's been on my heart a lot lately. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking it through because there are areas in my own life where I've had to catch myself and say I cannot allow this emotion to get to me, right?

We've been going through phases where I have to remind myself that I cannot allow the emotion of anger or frustration to get to me. But in some ways, I've also had to remind myself that I cannot allow fear to control me, that fear cannot motivate me, that fear cannot move me. And this passage is all about how fear works and how it progresses. And when you are able to take that same fear that causes you to act out of character or causes you to act out of God's character and and actually point it back to fearing the true and living God, then it becomes even more remarkable because that same fear that gets redirected to the Lord instead of your circumstances actually is the fear that enables you to change the world.

We see that happening with Peter. And if I am going to help you better understand what the fear of God looked like as expressed by Peter, then you need to also understand what the fear of man looked like as expressed by Peter. And this is super super important because there is a unique lesson in this. Now, with all that said, we just finished a moment in time where at the last supper, as we would call it, there's a series of big mega things that happened, okay? Perhaps one of the most important as it relates to this story is the fact that Peter makes this promise that he's going to be ride or die for Jesus, right?

He makes the promise that he's not going anywhere, that that he's basically going to fight for him and he's going to stand with him. And and it's interesting because Jesus says before the rooster crows, you know, you will have denied me three times. Now, this is interesting because you would think that Jesus may have gotten it wrong because even when the temple guards come to take Jesus, Peter pulls out his sword and attempts to behead the guard. I think that's what he's doing. I think he tries to take the head off the guard, but misses and takes his ear off.

And of course, we see the the story of what what manifested within that context. So, you would think not Peter, he looks like he's pretty ride or die. Peter doesn't look like he 's going anywhere. He doesn't look like he's going to flip, doesn't look like he's going to freak out until he begins to see the circumstance change, until he begins to see the circumstance turn. And I want to say this right off the bat before we even start reading through this text, I want to warn you of this. This is something that I want you to see.

It's something I want you to write down within the very depths of your heart. And that's this. Fear has its best place in your life, whether it be through the negative or through the positive, when you begin to see the most vulnerability. Let me say that one more time. In the most vulnerable place, fear will either have its worst effect on you or it will have its greatest effect on you. It has its worst effect on you when you look at the circumstance through the lens of humanity, it will have its best effect on you if you look at it through the lens of God.

Here's the caveat. When there is an absence of fearing God, you typically view it through the lens of man in the worst possible light. And when there is a fullness of what I would call the fear of God or what the Bible would call the fear of God, only then do you begin to see it through his eyes. That's really really important because I've heard so many people tell me that they want so badly to be able to see things the way God sees things. They want to be able to understand things the way God understands things.

And the one thing I have to always emphasize to them is you will never be able to do it unless you understand what it means to fear the Lord and actually fear him. If you fear God and you learn to understand what it means to respect the relationship that exists between the two of you, then the lens by which you view the circumstance will cast out that which is evil. Think about it like this. When you read passages in the Bible that talks about perfect love casting out fear, understand the the picture here, right? The completion of love or the perfection of love as defined by the Bible is encapsulated in obedience.

If you don't obey, you don't love. That's what the Bible says. If you love God, then you'll obey his commands. So, the picture here is if you want to find the status of love within the confines of true perfection, the only way you can do that is by obedience. And when you walk in obedience, only then do you understand what perfect love is. And only then can you allow the moment of fear being cast out that is outside of that which is assigned to or belongs to God. So, if you want to deal with the fears that you face every single day, the financial fears, the fear of people, the fear of this circumstance, the fear of that circumstance, the only way you are able to defeat those fears is by walking in obedience to God because it's your obedience to God that opens up your eyes to understand what his heart is.

And only then can you see things through his lens. You don't obey him, you have a big problem. By the way, prior to this point, listen to me and listen to me well. Prior to this point, Jesus asked Peter to do several things that Peter didn't do. Now, Jesus explained it, right? The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Absolutely. Jesus told him to stay awake and pray. He didn't do it. Would you categorize that as an act of disobedience? Undoubtedly. Can we actually say that the greatest contributory factor or variable as you might call it that brought him to that state of disobedience was that the weakness of the flesh had taken place?

Yes. But the problem is at what point does failure to prepare intersect with the condition of the flesh that led to the moment of disobedience? You understand what I'm saying? Think about it like this. If you find yourself in a situation where you have a very unique addiction, let's even call it a physiological addiction. Let's just say it's an addiction to the type of drug that your body is screaming for in withdrawal. You could reasonably argue that your spirit was willing, but your flesh was weak when in the moment you chose to consume that drug.

Fair enough? Where was the action of disobedience? Well, the action of disobedience was primarily founded in the fact that you took the drug. But the bigger act of disobedience that has to be looked at was the fact that in your moment of strength you allowed yourself to be put in the position by which you would capitulate to the weakness that you knew you had. So, had you walked obediently in preparing yourself for facing the circumstance that you were about to face, then you would have not been in the situation by which your spirit was willing, yet your flesh was weak.

That's why Jesus, when he was in the garden with his disciples, made it very clear what he needed them to do. And I want you to understand that in doing so, he graduated eventually what he had required of them, what he had asked of them. He had prepared them for what would be coming. He set them up for the opportunity to walk in complete and total obedience. It could have happened. If Jesus wanted to set them up for failure, then he would have taken one tired apostle, he would have put him in a darkened place in the garden, walked away and said watch guard.

He didn't do that. He took multiple apostles. He gave them a command. There was an understanding amongst those apostles of exactly what they needed to do. They were in the strongest position to be able to be held to that which God had asked them to because they could have kept each other accountable in their act of obedience. But because they did not, they set themselves up for the failure by which Jesus commented when he said that the spirit was willing, yet the flesh was weak. Super important to understand here, Peter is already walking into the circumstance with the mindset of disobedience that was absent of the fear of God.

when you find yourself in a position where your obedience to God is lacking, you will also find yourself in a unique position where the fear of man will begin to grow. Now, there are some exceptions to this. I should probably point this out right off the bat, right? It doesn't matter how obedient you are to the Lord, the powers of darkness are real, correct? It doesn't matter how obedient you are to you could be super obedient to the Lord. And when you're exposed to the kind of evil that exists out in the world, it's enough to make anybody fearful.

But your obedience in the midst of that difficult moment will allow you to get better at seeing through the very thing that your flesh is wanting you to capitulate to so that you might be able to be granted the victory that God wants to give you. Guys, that's the bigger part of this. As we're going to find out when we get to the end of this passage, Peter didn't rebel against God because Peter was an evil man. I mean, we were all born in a complete state in a state of total depravity, of course. I can make that argument easily.

But Peter didn't do what he did because, you know, he he just hated God and he waved his fist to God and acted the way he didn't know. Peter did what he did because indeed he allowed himself to get to the point where the weakness, the notable weakness that he had kept him from walking sober-mindedly and in his inebriation, he made the wrong decision. I have lost count how many times as a police chaplain we've taken somebody into custody that was responsible for the death or the serious injury of another person because they were inebriated, whether it be in a vehicle, whether it be in a fist fight, whether it be in something that they they don't know what they did until they wake up in the morning in the drunk tank.

A lot more sober and recognized. I remember the first time I talked to somebody who was shocked about the fact that they had killed somebody. It was staggering to me, eye-opening to think that this person genuinely, legitimately did not know that they killed somebody the night before. And somehow thinks that the absence of intent in their mind would get them off the hook. The thought that they would allow themselves to just be checked out of jail after paying a fine, after taking somebody else's life would be no big deal. Like oh yeah, that's going to happen.

I've lost count how many times I've had to explain this, not just to the bad guys when officers asked me to do it, but to officers as well. Oh man, pastor, you just don't get it. I was drunk. You've never been drunk a day in your life. You don't know what it's like, man. I mean, I just got drunk and I just forgot. I did I don't remember what I did. I said your your error is not going to be found in what you did as a drunk man. Your error will be found in what you did to get yourself to the place of being drunk without acting responsibly beforehand.

The reasonable person would know that he would lose control in being inebriated, so he would put himself in a reasonable position to not allow himself to take somebody else's life in that state of inebriation. It's why you don't get inebriated publicly. You don't get it privately. You get what I mean, you to do all kinds of things that could completely destroy you.

Guest (Male): We'll share the rest of this message simply entitled Denied next time on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, a listener supported ministry of Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.