What does First B Jackson teach about fear of god?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, teaching on the fear of God starts where the Bible itself starts it: with what happens when a person actually sees who God is. Pastor Kenny opened a message from 1 Peter 1 with two pictures of that moment. Isaiah, seeing the Lord enthroned with seraphim crying "Holy, holy, holy," immediately said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined." Simon Peter, watching nets fill with fish that had no business being there, fell at Jesus' feet and said, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Both men saw God clearly and saw themselves clearly at the same moment. That pairing, Pastor Kenny said, set the table for everything Peter goes on to command in the letter.
The fear of God in this teaching is not the wrong kind of fear, the kind that drives a person away. It is the kind that produces holiness. From 1 Peter 1, Pastor Kenny showed that fixing hope completely on the grace to come at Christ's return is what makes it possible to stop conforming to old patterns and start reflecting the character of the One who called you. The command is not to feel afraid but to live as people who know who God is and what He has done. The hope is certain, the inheritance is secure, and that security is precisely what frees a person to take God's holiness seriously rather than treating it as a threat.
The 2 Corinthians 5 passage, taught by Pastor Nathan, adds another angle: the fear of the Lord is bound up with accountability. The reality that each person will stand before God, and that sin is either paid for by Christ on the cross or paid for by the sinner, is not presented as something to avoid thinking about. It is what kept Paul going, and what compels honest, undeviating proclamation of the gospel. At First Baptist Jackson, the fear of God is consistently taught as something that clarifies rather than crushes, a right-sized view of who God is that makes obedience and witness make sense.
Taught from 1 Peter 1:13-16 · Isaiah 6:1-7 · 2 Corinthians 5:11 · 2 Corinthians 5:10 · Luke 5:1-11
The passage taught · 1 Peter 1:1-2
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- January 7, 2024 If You Are Saved, Act Like It Peter calls scattered, persecuted believers to hope fully, live holy, fear God, love deeply, and crave God's word, all grounded in the mercy of Christ.
- September 27, 2015 The Love of Christ Compels Us A Wyoming pastor walks through 2 Corinthians 5:11-17, explaining what compels Christians to share the gospel and what it means to see people through God's eyes.
Mentioned along the way
- May 24, 2026 Pay Careful Attention to How You Walk Ephesians 5 calls believers to walk wisely, diligently, and in step with God's will, filled by the Spirit rather than wasting the season God has given.
- December 1, 2024 Barnabas, Ananias, and the Fear of the Lord Acts 4-5 traces the early church's unity, generosity, and the contrasting stories of Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira, with a call to encourage, stay alert, and fear God.
- December 1, 2024 One of Heart and Soul Carl walks through Acts 4:32-5:11, showing what a Spirit-filled church looks like through the examples of Barnabas, Ananias, and Sapphira.
- June 30, 2024 Submit for the Lord's Sake A sermon on Christian submission to authority, politics, and where our true hope lies, drawn from 1 Peter 2 and grounded in the gospel.
- February 19, 2023 The Spreading Circle Psalm 67's "spreading circle" shows how God's blessing flows from Abraham through us to every nation, rooted in faith and the call to carry the gospel outward.
- February 19, 2023 The Spreading Circle Psalm 67 shows God blesses His people not as an end in itself, but so His grace spreads outward to every nation, people, and tongue on earth.
- June 26, 2022 Power Over the Supernatural Realm Jesus confronts a demon-possessed man across the Sea of Galilee, showing His power over the supernatural and sending the freed man home to tell what God had done.
- June 26, 2022 Power Over the Supernatural A Wyoming pastor walks through three Gospel accounts of Jesus freeing a demon-possessed man, asking why people who witness God's power sometimes beg Him to leave.
- June 19, 2022 Peace Be Still: Calm Down Pastor Neil walks through Mark's account of Jesus calming the storm, exploring what it means to trust God when it feels like He is asleep in the boat with you.
- February 20, 2022 God Has Visited His People Jesus heals a widow's son in Nain, echoing Elijah and Elisha's miracles, showing God's compassion reaches everyone who turns to Him in faith.