The Disciples Life
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last week we talked about greatness. We saw how Jesus outlines greatness in the Kingdom of God is far different from the way that the world views greatness. In God’s eyes greatness is found in serving and putting others first, over ourselves. We live in a world that is all about self advancement and tells you to put yourself first but that is not the teaching that we find in the Bible. The same people that tell us to put ourselves first also tend to do something else, they do not worry about sin. So much so that they often cause others to fall into sin and they never avoid it themselves.
Tonight we are talking about the disciples life, this is not just the disciples that we read about in the Bible but if you are a follower of Jesus you are called to be a disciple. In this passage we see that a disciple is to not cause others to sin, they are to avoid sin themselves, and they are to embrace the salt and fire as the passage puts it.
Lets start out by reading the entirety of the passage and we can start to break it down a bit.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 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, to the unquenchable fire. 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. 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, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. 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 is a teaching moment that Jesus is engaged in here with the disciples and we see that from verse 36 above that there were children present but it is evident from the passage that Jesus is warning against causing children and young Christians to sin. He moves on from there to warn against your own sin. He is not being literal here but rather using something you may have heard in English class called metaphoric hyperbole, he is saying that we need to take extreme measures to keep sin out of our lives. Jesus finishes with talking about salt and fire. Salt was the main preservative in this time, they did not have refrigerators or freezers. Fire was used as a means of purifying things such as gold, fire was also used to describe hardships and persecution. So Jesus is telling us that we need to be preserved by and endure through the purifying persecution that we face. This persecution may come because we work against sin and do not seek the greatness that is in the world but rather the greatness that God desires.
Tonight I want to think deeply about our own sin. Do you cause others to fall into sin? What about your personal sin? How hard do you work to rid it from your life? Do you worry about it at all? Sin is our big problem and Jesus is the solution to that problem but it is more than just knowing that there is a solution but you must know the solution on a different level. Sin is what separates us from God and without his intervention we will forever be separated from his love.
Tonight I want to start with our need to not cause others to sin, then we will move to fighting sin ourselves, and we will finish with embracing the salt and the fire. Lets pray then we can begin.
pray
Don’t Cause Others to Sin
Don’t Cause Others to Sin
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
Here little ones with the language used can really branch to mean anyone. We need to work to not cause others to sin. We see the serious language that Jesus uses here saying that it would be better to die this horrific death than to cause others to sin.
It is easy to see how serious Jesus is about this topic. He is so serious because sin is so serious. We see this as he continues to talk about battling our own sin. With this being said we need to think about how we sometimes cause others to fall into sin. Sometimes it is through seeing us sin, sometimes it is through peer pressure, sometimes it is just going with the group. A lot of the time this will require you to stand up against the people you are around but in that you can stop yourself from sinning and others may follow you and they can see how you are going to live your life.
This really gets down to being a good example. Are you living in a way that others can follow?
We also need to think of when we do tempt others. Maybe there is something that they struggle with and we constantly put that in front of them. This is not good for us to do for one another, it may be something that doesn’t tempt us any but is a struggle for them.
The main issue here is that we need to work together to avoid sin. If we are all working to not tempt each other then we are going in a great direction to fight sin.
Avoid Sin Yourself
Avoid Sin Yourself
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, to the unquenchable fire. 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. 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, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
We are to do more than work diligently to not cause others to sin but we are to also fight sin in our own lives. Jesus uses extremely strong language when talking about our sin because it is something that is a big deal.
What are some of the extreme measures that that we can take to fight our sin? You may think that you do not need to go to extremes but that is not the case. You man have to give up something big in your life; a phone, sports team, events, friends. I know it is not easy but this is the measures we need to go to fight sin.
Fighting against sin is necessary because of the result of sin. Sin without repentance results in eternal death. This is a hard concept for us to grasp but we must realize the significance of that. Forever upon forever in eternal punishment for sin. Christ died so that we can be forgiven, in this we are not without sin but we are at war with it because it is what separated us from God in the first place. It is through faith and turning away from our sins that we are saved and begin to fight our sins for the rest of our lives here on earth.
Embrace the Salt and Fire
Embrace the Salt and Fire
For everyone will be salted with fire. 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.”
In the end of this section we see this part about salt and fire. This comes through a battle against sin. Salt preserves and in saying this we see that we will be preserved, we will endure, because of the fire. The fire refines us and is the struggle against sin and persecution.
battling sin and persecution will carry us through to the end. So many fall away and show that they were never really saved. So many go forward somewhere like Falls Creek or in the Sunday service and say that they want to be saved yet they show that it was not genuine because they never battle the sin and when the persecution comes they do not endure but rather they fall away.
This is a sad reality for so many and this passage gives us insight into what we need to do so that we are not like them. We need to embrace the salt and the fire so that we can walk as a true disciple. We need to embrace the fact that we are enduring through the fight against sin and the persecution that comes along with it.
This endurance, this preservation, allows us to be at peace with one another. It allows us to band together to fight sin and not cause each other to stumble. It gives us the greatest kind of unity.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we wrap things up tonight I want to read this passage one more time and I just want you to see how serious sin is.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 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, to the unquenchable fire. 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. 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, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. 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.”
What are your thoughts on your sin and the sin of others? Do you not care or do you see it as a big issue that needs addressed? Do you see the value in enduring through the constant temptations and trials of sin and the persecution around it? It says in James 1:2–4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” This is the view we need to have as we fight sin.
In the end sin leads down a easy path that finds its way to eternal punishment. Without being forgiven of it this is the path that you are headed down. Jesus offers forgiveness and he only ask that you put your faith in him and turn away from sin. It is not difficult but you have to realize how much you need it before it will ever become something that you see the need for. If you see the need for forgiveness tonight talk to one of the adults and tell them that, lets pray.