The Fear That Haunts Humanity
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.600 | We all come face to face with a dark fear in this world that cannot be brushed away.
00:00:11.120 | It's rarely spoken of, but it never goes unfelt, and it's the fear of death.
00:00:16.800 | This fear is universal in scope and it's enslaving in its power,
00:00:21.040 | and is a fear Jesus Christ came to conquer and defeat on behalf of sinners like you and me.
00:00:26.240 | John Piper explained this more fully in his sermon titled "You Will Never See Death"
00:00:31.280 | preached on May 14, 2011. Near the end of the sermon,
00:00:35.520 | Pastor John explained Hebrews 2, verse 14 by saying this.
00:00:39.200 | The effect of Jesus' death in our place as the God-man in Hebrews 2, verse 14
00:00:50.160 | is what I want you to feel and see in the last few minutes of this message.
00:00:56.000 | "Since therefore the children," that's us, just people, "Since therefore the children
00:01:02.480 | share in flesh and blood," that is we're human, "He himself," the Son of God,
00:01:12.240 | "likewise partook of the same things," the same nature, that is he became human.
00:01:18.320 | See the dynamic. The question is now, since we're human, He became human.
00:01:23.840 | He became human. This is what we're seeing in John all over the place.
00:01:27.120 | And here's the reason. "So that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death,"
00:01:39.360 | that is the devil, "and deliver," this is us now, "deliver all those who through the fear of death
00:01:48.640 | were subject to lifelong slavery." The writer to the Hebrews believes that all human beings
00:02:00.320 | are enslaved their whole life by the fear of death, even when they don't know it.
00:02:14.960 | In 1973, Ernest Becker wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book called "The Denial of Death."
00:02:24.960 | It was all the rage in the 70s. The thesis of the book was the same as the thesis of Hebrews.
00:02:38.560 | Humanity is enslaved globally by fear of dying. And what humans do is deny,
00:02:50.480 | deny, deny, deny, and we find all kinds of ways, religious ways, alcoholic ways,
00:02:56.480 | work ways, family ways, beautiful ways, surgery ways.
00:03:04.640 | Take 10 years off. Listen to this. I'll read you the thesis. The main thesis of this book,
00:03:10.320 | Becker says, the main thesis of this book is that the fear of death haunts the human animal
00:03:17.200 | like nothing else. It is a main spring of human activity, activity designed largely to avoid
00:03:25.440 | the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.
00:03:33.360 | Becker has no answer. He's just documenting this pervasive reality, this massive human effort to
00:03:43.440 | deny, deny this reality of death. Jesus has an answer. His answer is to, number one, say, "I am
00:03:57.840 | God." Number two, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth."
00:04:06.800 | Number three, "I lay down my life for my people and cover all their sin and provide all their
00:04:19.440 | righteousness." Number four, "I conquer death, and I conquer Satan who has the power of death."
00:04:29.360 | Number five, "I rise from the dead." Number six, "I take away the fear of dying." That's Jesus' answer.
00:04:44.880 | Hebrews and Becker, Ernest Becker, and the writer of the Hebrews,
00:04:48.560 | both say that the fear of death produces pervasive, lifelong slavery. Don't miss that.
00:04:58.720 | See at the end of verse 15 in Hebrews 2, "I came to deliver those who through fear of death were
00:05:06.480 | subject to lifelong slavery." You may not think that. He does. I believe. I'm going to agree with
00:05:12.640 | him, not you. John Piper, "Until grace does a miracle," is subconsciously driven to deny my death.
00:05:21.440 | There are things in your life right now that are owing to the fear of death that you don't know
00:05:28.560 | are owing to the fear of death, and that if you could have this stunning liberation
00:05:38.560 | from the fear of death, there would come into your life a kind of freedom and a kind of
00:05:46.560 | risk-taking, adventuresomeness for God that would change almost everything in your life.
00:05:53.440 | It is haunting our choices, making us cautious and wary and restrained and confined and narrow
00:06:04.960 | and tight and robbing us from risk and adventure and dreams for the sake of Christ and the kingdom
00:06:12.880 | and the cause of love in the world. Why do you live such cautious lives? Why do you devote so
00:06:20.800 | much energy to security? It's just absurd if the one who said, "Before Abraham was, I am," said,
00:06:32.720 | "You keep my word, you'll never die, ever." You have entered life. You have passed out of death.
00:06:44.960 | You have moved around judgment. You are hidden with Christ in God. It cannot be ended. It cannot
00:06:57.360 | be interrupted. What are you afraid of? Beautiful, freeing, and motivating. That was a clip from
00:07:06.320 | John Piper's sermon, "You Will Never See Death," preached on May 14th, 2011. It was suggested to
00:07:13.600 | us by Timothy White of San Diego, California. Thank you, Timothy, for the suggestion. You can
00:07:18.960 | find the full message on our site, along with a couple thousand other messages like this one from
00:07:22.960 | John Piper in our sermon archive at desiringgod.org. On Wednesdays, we dive into the archive and pull
00:07:29.120 | out a classic clip. And if you have a favorite clip from a John Piper sermon, email us the title
00:07:33.600 | of the sermon and if possible, the timestamp of when and where the clip occurs in the audio. Put
00:07:39.440 | the word "clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:07:46.160 | What happens when a pastor of an evangelical church thinks it's a good idea to officiate a
00:07:52.400 | so-called same-sex marriage? What does an elder board do in response? Pastor John will think
00:07:58.320 | through a tough question faced by one church right now. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you
00:08:02.960 | tomorrow.
00:08:04.720 | you
00:08:04.800 | [Music]