Mark 9:42-50 - Sin is Serious...Our Response Should Be Too!

Surgery is a very interesting thing.

You’ve recognized that you have a problem inside of you and you pay someone to cut you open to operate on the problem.

If you pay someone to cut you open, it’s called surgery

If you don’t pay someone to cut you open, it’s called a felony.

Surgery happens to treat and injury or disease by the physical removal, repair or readjustment of organs and tissues, often involving cutting into the body.

Someone has to create a minor injury, the initial cut, in order to service the other major problem.

If you need open heart surgery, they make a 6-8in incision down the center of your chest wall, cut the breastbone, and open the rib cage.

But your only thought would be, needing open heart surgery is serious. So the response should be serious.

Big Idea: Sin is Serious… and our response should be too

Context: vv. 38-41

The disciples are in danger of being exclusive and creating a small circle of those following Jesus.

They want to limit the followers to the twelve, then rank the twelve.

They were arguing about who is the greatest follower.

The disciples had just been rejecting a fellow believer.

Jesus gives them a stern warning.

Stand to read

Mark 9:42–50 (ESV)

42 “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. 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, to the unquenchable fire. 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. 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.”

Leader: This is God’s Word

Everyone: Thanks be to God

Doesnt that just give you the warm and fuzzies?

Jesus warns them that causing other Christians to stumble could equal the fires of hell.

Jesus warns them to pay attention to the ruining of their own souls here.

We must be careful to avoid anything that would lead us to sin and also what will lead others to sin.

Whoever discourages, hinders, or draws other Christians to sin, Jesus said it is better for him to be drug into the depths of the sea.

This requires some serious attention.

There’s a common misconception that the danger of hell only applies to those who are caught in “big” sins.

We put ourselves in danger when we say “At least I’m not...”

“At least I’m not an atheist; living someone I’m not married to; on drugs; cheating on my wife; having promiscuous sex; a thief; a liar; etc.”

But that’s not the tone we get from Jesus here.

Jesus told his disciples that creating confusion in someone about whether they truly belong to the Kingdom or not is a grave sin.

He uses this phrase “Little one” to point to the fragility of their faith.

A new believer who has just began trusting in Jesus.

Jesus is serious about protecting them!

Jesus places a supreme value on common/ordinary disciples.

It would be better to drown because of this huge bolder around your neck dragging you to the bottom of the ocean than to walk in your religiosity against other Christians.

This is a graphic way for Jesus to convey the finality and the weight of God’s wrath for spiritual snobbery.

Jesus is showing us that:

APPLICATION: We must recognize who our real enemy is (v. 42)

Our enemy is not other Christians, but our sin.

Our truest problem comes from inside of ourselves.

Remember when Jesus taught us what defiles us in Mark 7?

Mark 7:21–23 “21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.””

It’s sin in our lives that causes confusion, discontentment and division among believers.

It’s not our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We all have this issue with sin, and it’s more serious than we often recognize.

Then, Jesus gets really graphic.

Mark 9:43–48 ESV

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, to the unquenchable fire. 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.’

Here, Jesus gives us a theology of hell.

The Greek work Jesus says there is “Gehenna”

He uses a place just south of Jerusalem, where human sacrifices had previously been practiced.

Now it’s a garbage dump, where piles of trash is burned,

but on top of that this is where bodies of those who did not have families were buried.

If you went to this location, you’d be overwhelmed by the stench and sights. The worms Jesus referred to was the maggots that lives on the bodied.

In the Valley of Gehenna, when they burned the garbage, the bodies were consumed, so the maggots died too.

So Jesus is using this gruesome picture to point to something much worse.

The difference is in this physical location, the body is consumed and the worms die.

In hell, the maggots don’t die and there is no final decomposition.

The fires of hell never die down, and what is in the fire never dies from the fire.

People in hell don’t die out and the fires don’t die down.

Jesus’s metaphor about bodies burning on the garbage heap demonstrates that hell involves both the spiritual and the physical.

Jesus has to give us such graphic descriptions, because there’s nothing comparable on earth to it.

It’s far worse than what words can describe.

With this in mind, Jesus warns them against sin.

We often view sin in very small terms.

We usually take the bigs ones seriously and overlook the little ones

But Jesus tells us to run from hell with ferocity.

Mark 9:43 ESV

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.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off!

He gives this hyperbolic response to cause the disciples some shock.

“You want me to do what?”

Being chained and thrown into the sea, where you’re helpless to save yourself is like something from a horror movie

Sinking down into the darkness until you cannot struggle any longer.

Being horribly dismembered

Being physically maimed and disabled.

Jesus says these things are better than hell.

Woah. What do we do with this?

APPLICATION: We are be at war with sin [take drastic measures] (vv. 43-48)

There are so many things that we overlook or hide because either the culture has deemed it okay or because its embarrassing but we can’t be rid of it.

Our problem is that we try to justify ourselves

“At least I don’t do what this guy does”

“At least I’m not...”

We look to the big sins and hide the little ones.

Jesus points directly to the small ones.

He started out by saying if you cause someone else to sin!

There are some things in our lives that we wouldn’t know how we’d go on if we parted from it.

Pornography. Lust. Anger. Unforgiveness. Pride. Materialism. Theft. Envy. Greed.

Some people don’t know how to live without some of these things.

So we remain enslaved to them.

Gospel Presentation

Sin is like a cancer that is killing us slowly.

It’s gruesome, it’s ugly, and some people don’t even know it’s possible to get rid of it.

The beauty of the gospel is that God is a master surgeon, ready to perform surgery on your life.

Yes, it hurts

Yes, it will require some recovery

Some people refuse treatment.

We’ll hold onto this sin and are willing to let it drag us to hell rather than let Jesus cut it away.

Simply because we don’t want to fight sin.

Jesus died so that you could be blameless before God!

Jesus was physically brutalized and experienced hell like you were supposed to so that you wouldn’t have to!

Jesus absorbed the wrath of God for your sin so that you could be set free from sin!

If you’re here and you’re not a Christian, this operation can start today!

Through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection you can be changed!

You can have your life back!

Will you believe in Jesus?

Will you be set free from slavery to sin?

If you’re a Christian and you sin, which we do, this is still very true for you!

Over time, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and pulls little shards of sin out of us

This is surgery

God is cutting away the sinful parts of your heart that is killing you so that you can be made well!

Jesus, like a surgeon, cuts away what should not be there, so that when He returns, you will be whole in Him.

What does this give us the freedom to do?

APPLICATION: We need to be marked by the gospel (vv. 49-50

What about salt? (v. 49)

In the sacrificial system, there were burnt offerings.

Before they were burned, they were seasoned and purified with salt. (Exodus 30:35)

Salt represented the covenant with your God (Lev. 2:13)

Nothing was to be offered without salt.

Salt was a preservative in that time.

If salt was to lose its purifying and preserving value, then it’s worthless.

Followers of Jesus are living burnt offerings purified with salt.

The New Covenant community should be marked by purity that comes from committing our lives to God.

This requires us to continually kill sin in our lives, and pursue Jesus.

Unless we maintain the purity of our own lives and are purified by the flames of testing, and remain faithful to Christ, our lives will have no preserving influence on this corrupt world.

Sinclair Ferguson

Jesus draws this simple application in light of the reality of hell:

“Have salt in yourselves and peace with one another” (v. 50)

Here’s what Jesus isn’t calling you to do: Be unnaturally religious.

If God’s big plan if for you to be good and not bad, then there’s no power and you’ll get bored in Christianity.

We may highlight again Jesus’ frequent presence in social settings in all four Gospels. Jesus was clearly not a recluse, a hermit, or an unnaturally religious person. He was invited to meals and parties, and He came to a number of them.

Frederick Bruner

Jesus is at weddings and epic parties.

When they run out of wine at this Jewish wedding, which could last two weeks, like this party is HUGE!

Jesus isn’t unnaturally religious!

Jesus was so full of life, joy, and kindness that people wanted Him at their parties!

How radically different of a picture of Jesus is this than we all grew up with?!

Jesus danced at parties, and laughed, and clinked His cup and told jokes!

Why? Because there was life in Him and people wanted to be around it.

He didn’t have joy that came from the world, He had joy that comes from heaven!

Think about the places Jesus went to.

If I went to some of those places, the elders would be like, “So, Friday, where were you?”

He was a friend of sinners, full of life. And people wanted Him there.

You weren’t called to be unnaturally religious.

You were called to reflect the peace, love, and joy of God.

Following Jesus in such a way that there is a kindness in us, a joy in us, and a life in us that men and women want to understand and want to be around.

If you, at work, were marked by joy, gratitude and life, how out of step would you be with the rest of your coworkers?

Wouldn’t you be a little odd if you just showed up joyful in Jesus ready to love and serve people?

This isn’t a *through your teeth “I’m going to be kind!”

That’s unnaturally religious!

“I love you, Dan. Jesus help me.”

Joy is great evangelism.

What if our true faith in Jesus influenced the way we enjoy life away of sin?

God wants you to be a certain way, not do certain things.

Walking in love, light, peace, and joy in Jesus.

That naturally causes us to take sin seriously.

Jesus was far more serious about sin than any of us have ever been, and Jesus is far more joyful than any of us have ever been.

Following Jesus and obedience to God’s Word leads us to how life is supposed to work.

Have salt. Don’t be salty.

Don’t fuss or fight over positions and status

Be humble and avoid causing other Christians to sin.

Be a reflection of the God-given joy and peace you’ve received from Jesus.

This gives us freedom to pull for one another in Christ, rather than against one another.

Who can you invite into this type of joy this week?

We take our sin serious because Jesus takes sin seriously.

More than that, Jesus calls us to take sin seriously so that we can have true life.

Who are you going to invite into this?

Salty disciples resist the moral decay that characterizes this world.

The purity/Christlikeness of believers counteracts the impurities of this world.