[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Good morning church! If you’ve been tracking with us over the last few months, as a church we’ve been preaching through the gospel of Mark. Right now we are in Chapter 9.
We are back in our study of the gospel of Mark this week.
As you all know we took a short break from our study to do a series on Living out our Identity in Christ. And that was a wonderful reminder for our heart to know the identity that Christ has given us. Even though that series is over, we’ll often be coming back to those themes as we deal with various scriptures. We are right now in Mark 9 v42-50.
As you are turning to the passage, I’ll share the background of today’s text. Jesus announced for the second time that he’s going to suffer and die on the cross and be raised on the third Day. The disciples don’t understand what Jesus is saying and they seem to be more concerned about finding out who’s the greatest among them.
Jesus uses this opportunity to teach them on servant-hood. He says “if you want to be first, you should be last and a servant of all. You should care for the least and insignificant. You should welcome and accept those who follow me even though they might not be in our tribe”. God is concerned about all his disciples…especially the ones that are weak and different.
42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[g] it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell,[h] to the unquenchable fire.[i] 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 For everyone will be salted with fire.[j] 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
As you’ve noticed in the gospels, Jesus used different figures of speech while he taught his disciples. Sometimes he used parables, other times he used metaphors and now in today’s text he uses “hyperbole”. Hyperbole means exaggerating a thought in order to drive home a point.
Most of us growing up would have heard either our teacher or parent say something on these lines “If your friend jumps into the well, would you do that also?”
Now they don’t literally mean that we jumped into the well or needed to that in the future…it was a way for them to drive home a point to not be easily influenced by our friends. At the same time this passage has got a very direct, convicting tone. Three things that this passage tell us of:
- Caution – Cautioning us from being a stumbling block
- Cut-off – Cutting off the patterns of sin from within
- Confirm – Confirming that our faith is Real
Caution – Cautioning us from being a stumbling block
42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[g] it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
It’s important for us to first understand who are these “little ones”? Those are believers who the world may see as weak and insignificant. I think this could also refer to new young believers who join the church at a very tender stage in their spiritual life.
But these believers are not insignificant to God…in fact they are very precious! God loves them and deeply cares for His people especially those who are lowly and powerless.
But why such a severe judgment upon them? Jesus is saying in comparison to the judgment that will come upon those who cause these young believers to sin, it’ll be better for them to tie a heavy millstone on their neck and be hurled into the sea!
It’s because believing in Jesus is more than intellectually agreeing to facts. Believing in Jesus means that you are united to Him. It means that you belong to Him.
Just a few verses earlier, Jesus tells them 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” It’s a very close intimate relationship that God has with His children.
Jesus takes it upon Himself to guard & protect you. Anything that causes a young believer to distrust and disobey Christ does not only mean harm to the person but Christ as well.
That’s why Paul when he’s answering the question if it’s right or wrong to eat food offered to idols, he tells the Corinthians to always think about the weaker brother and not be a stumbling block for him. He says when “sinning against your brothers[e] and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.” (1 Cor 8:12)
I may have shared this story with you all…As a brand-new believer in Mumbai, I started following all these prosperity televangelists. What I didn’t realize at the time was how they were abusing the weak and the naive.
Even I remember “sowing a seed” in one of these ministries because the pastor promised that it’ll come back to me double-fold or ten times more.
And with their lavish lifestyle, their luxurious home, cars and expensive suits – what they were doing by twisting Bible verses and through their lavish lifestyle was feed into my idolatry.
The truth is ultimately I wanted those things more than Jesus and more and more stumbling blocks were put in my way that was causing me to distrust and disobey my Savior. I praise God that He freed me from that but we know how they continue to prey on young, weak believers in the same way even today.
And it’s not just the prosperity preachers. Prosperity preachers are more like in your face & actively placing stumbling blocks but there are other ways how we do that passively. It happens when we are persistently unrepentant of our sins. When young believers see us have a very casual approach to sin and sometimes even worse when they see us enjoy and brag about our sin, it can really cause a lot of damage.
It’s different when you come to your brothers or sisters and grieve over a sin pattern and look for hope and healing in the gospel. But what I’m talking about is persistent unrepentance. A feeling where you think “I’m okay with my sin…It’s not as bad as some others”. Sin is serious and it is a serious offence to God! That brings me to point number 2
Cut-off – Cutting off the patterns of sin from within
43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell,[h] to the unquenchable fire.[i] 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
It’s not referring to literally cutting yourself. It’s a hyperbole! But it does tell us 3 things:
- Identify the sin – “If your hand causes you to sin” You’re not being generic but very specific of those sins that you know are affecting your relationship with God.
- Take Radical Steps to cut off the sin – You’re not just sitting and saying “what to do? I guess I’ll be living in this sin forever or God is so gracious so He’ll forgive”. That’s not how it is for a believer. A believer does whatever it takes to fight the sin.
- Immediate response – It’s not telling you to deal with the sin tomorrow and sometime in the future. Right now cut off the sin! Today cut off the sin!
And this passage makes it very clear – what’s at stake is eternity! Now we know that it’s not our efforts or works that can save us from hell. Today if you have eternal life, if you’ve been given a passport to the kingdom of God, if you’ve been protected from being eternally separated from God – it’s only and only because Christ died for your sin.
But let’s realize Our attitude to cutting off sin shows that Christ’s blood has washed us. Our attitude to cutting off sin shows that we are truly His.
Imagine a guy who has a problem with diabetes. He’s got very high blood sugar. The doctor tells him that he cannot have any sugar or sweets or it’ll be fatal. The guy agrees to the doctor when he’s at the clinic and goes back and tells his family the diagnosis. However, when he’s browsing on the internet he keeps looking at the newest editions of Dairy Milk.
He goes to work and tells his colleagues how much he loves chocolate and how amazing the taste is. He looks through the magazine and gazes at the image of the newly imported Swiss chocolate that’s now available in India.
What do you think is going to happen the next time he’s at the grocery store? He is going to buy chocolates! Because even though he identified his diabetes problem, he didn’t take any radical steps and immediate steps to tackle it.
Similarly, what sin is God calling you to cut-off today? It maybe the circle of friends that you’re in close relationship with. You know that they constantly influence you to sin but you keep hanging around.
What would it mean for you to cut it off? It might be a dating relationship that you are currently involved in and you know it doesn’t honor God. Or it’s images on your computer screen or mobile phone that’s enslaved you. Or it may be social media and entertainment that’s filling your mind. Or it might be unforgiveness that has held your heart captive for so long.
God’s Word tells us to Cut it Off! Take very strong steps to cut it off. Even if means inconvenience or discomfort but cut it off! People around you might think you are crazy to take these steps. But you do whatever it takes to honor God and preserve your best affections for Christ!
Rom 13:14: make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Confirm – Confirming that our faith is Real
49 For everyone will be salted with fire. [j] 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
This suddenly is a puzzling statement. We were talking about Caution and Cut-off but what is this whole conversation about “Salt”. Again…it’s a figure of speech. In those times, the people’s main source for salt would come from the Dead Sea. It had to be processed properly to be in a usable condition. If it wasn’t processed properly, it would taste really bad and couldn’t be used in the food.
What does this have to do in this context?
I believe what these verses say is that fire or hardships and trials will truly reveal those who are real disciples of Christ! And just as unprocessed salt is useless for the food, a life that isn’t actively cutting off sin is useless and dead.
James 2:17 says “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Real faith will express itself in good works. It’s like two sides of the same coin.
Let me ask you, how do you know that you are a believer in Christ? You might say “I prayed the sinner’s prayer”. I’m not saying God doesn’t use it but there’s no mention of a sinner’s prayer in the Bible. It’s not a mantra prayer that guarantees salvation.
But you may say “Every Sunday when I worship I’m really moved in my heart”. But that in itself is just an emotional experience. Well I know a lot of Scripture from the Bible and I know the churchy language. Be we know from Scripture that even the demons know a lot of Scripture. James says “Even the demons believe that God is One and shudder”.
What’s the solution then?
Don’t look at yourself and your actions but look to the cross. Look and see the Son of God who died on your behalf and rose again on the third Day to completely destroy and free you from the power of sin!
Look at his perfect provision for you. (Rom 5:8) and if you call upon him today and believe not in your works but His perfect work on the cross for you…you will be saved (Rom 10:9). Would you want to experience real faith today by trusting Jesus?
For others, you know you have real faith. You truly grieve over your sin and have tried every single way to cut-off that sin-pattern and have seen a lot of failure. I just want to remind you of the power and the tools that are at your disposal to wage war against sin. You have the Holy Spirit within you. And the Holy Spirit will strengthen you to kill and cut-off sin as you humble yourself, turn away from your sin and yield to what the Spirit asks you to do today.
Romans 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
In 1 John it says that He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world.
Would you call out to God and ask Him to help you hate your sin and develop great and intense affections for the Savior today? And would you commit yourself to close group of believers who will hold you accountable and help you cut off the sin that is within![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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