In my neighborhood this month, at least 3 yards have been turned into graveyards for Halloween, full of tombstones, caskets, & skeletons. It’s more comical than scary. But really, death is a disturbing thing to be dreaded if a person doesn’t know the Lord (Heb. 2:15). But because Jesus conquered death, I can live with faith instead of fear!
Do you remember that scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when the bad guy is threatening Indiana Jones by swinging around a sword? But Indy isn’t even bothered; he just pulls out his gun & shoots him. That’s death when it met Jesus! Death showed up with a sword to a gunfight, & lost badly.
Jesus was able to set his face toward Jerusalem & head there knowing that the cross awaited Him. But He also knew the joy that awaited Him after the cross! His entire time on earth was leading up to disarming & defeating the final boss. The Apostle Paul, who had seen the risen Christ, wrote to reassure believers that Christ has certainly been raised & destroyed the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:9, 20, 26). We’re now able to face death differently because we have a confident hope of resurrection.
Jesus made some death-defying promises in John’s Gospel about how those who follow Him have crossed from death to life & will rise from their graves (John 5:21-29). Jesus comforted His disciples with the assurance of reunion after death, & a home in heaven. “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:16-19).
Since He’s our Good Shepherd who walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil (Ps 23:4). How can we believe that this isn’t just inspirational poetry – that we can trust our lives to a Jewish carpenter 2,000 years ago? The answer rests in a Jerusalem garden tomb. Because if His tomb is empty, then His promise of resurrection isn’t.
So what are they going to do to me? Take my life? I’m a dead man anyway. Kill me & you’ll just be sending me to heaven! That’s what gave those first disciples such boldness. When the Spirit descended on them in power, they began to speak out fearlessly. Though threatened with beatings, imprisonment & martyrdom, they just kept right on proclaiming the risen Christ because they knew without a doubt Jesus is alive!
The word “fear” first appears in Scripture when the first sinners hid from God. Adam confessed, “I heard you in the garden, & I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Gen. 3:10). God used to walk with Adam & Eve in the Garden, but now they were afraid of God. Sin brought separation from God & death. But even then God promised One who would bruise the serpent’s head. The devil held the power of death, & Christ crushed him at the cross (Heb. 2:14, Col. 2:15, 1 John 3:8).
You can be a “God-fearing” person in two ways. You should be fearful when you’ve rejected& rebelled against God because that disbelief & disobedience bring judgment. Because He is an all-powerful, consuming fire, it’s a terrible thing to fall into His hands (Heb. 12:29, 31). Anyone who comes face to face with the Lord falls down in abject horror at their own sinfulness (Luke 5:8).
But this same God also loves us, & doesn’t want to condemn us as we deserve. In His mercy, He took the penalty we deserved, suffered the hellish consequences of our sin on the cross, & was forsaken by the Father in the hour of His death (Mark 15:34). His perfect love demonstrated on Calvary casts out our fear of punishment (1 John 4:18).
For believers, the other way of being a “God-fearing” person is to hold a healthy reverence – the kind that makes us fearless of anything else. We know that no matter what happens, we’re going to heaven. We walk through the terrors of this world with the ultimate safety net. Some people use religion as a fire insurance policy “in case” there is a God & a real hell. But that’s not an “if” because the man who experienced death & the afterlife affirmed it’s all true. So our faith in Him isn’t an “insurance” policy–it’s an “assurance” policy. We’re sure of where we’re going.
So a Christian need not journey through life like someone whistling through the graveyard, trying to stay cheerful, nervously hoping for a good outcome while ignoring the dire situation they’re in. If you don’t know Christ, you should be scared to death. Escaping hell isn’t our only motive for turning to Christ…but it’s a very legitimate one! I appeal to that fear because Jesus warned us not to fear those who can kill the body but not the soul; rather, be afraid of this righteous God who holds the right to destroy us in hell (Matt. 10:28).
Each moment, we’re standing on the precipice of eternity. Life is incredibly fragile & no one is promised another day. Are you sure that when you face God, you will go to heaven? When God asks, “Why should I allow you into my heaven?” Can you answer with assurance, “Because my faith is in your Son, Jesus, & I’m forgiven”? He says: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25). The graveyard is just a holding place for our bodies while our souls reside with God in Paradise until the Day Christ returns as the grave robber.