Mark Chapter 9

Intro

Students!

We are on to chapter 9!

We are cruising through the book of Mark and I hope you guys have been enjoying it as much as I have!

Here is everything that happened from Mark 8 to 9

Mark 9:2-13 — Jesus brings up Peter, James and John and the Jesus transfigured (showing the full glory of who He truly is)

Mark 9:14-29 — Jesus heals a boy who is demon possessed

Mark 9:30-32 — Jesus tells them that he will die and then be raised from the dead

Mark 9:33-37 — the disciples argue who is the greatest, and Jesus answers

Mark 9:38-41 — Jesus tells the disciples that if someone is following Jesus don’t reject the

That leads us to the last section of Mark 9 that we are going to look at today

This is a heavy HEAVY section

Here Jesus is talking to His disciples about sin

This comes off the back of Jesus telling the disciples who they can be the greatest in the Kingdom — off the back of Jesus showing them what it looks like to be a true believer in Jesus in chapter 8

Verses

Mark 9:42–48 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.’

Jesus here speaking to the disciples starts talking about the severity of sin

Sin is easily defined is anything that goes against God

Or my favorite definition is hitting the wrong mark

We are called to live holy and be holy, to follow Jesus and do what God commands

Sin is anything that goes against that

It is not just missing the mark however — because we don’t just miss the mark Jesus set up

We also equally hit a target — the wrong target

Jesus here is looking at the disciples and warning them of the dangers of sin

He tells them that it is better to tie a millstone (anvil) around your neck and jump in the ocean than to cause someone to fall into sin

Better yet Jesus also tells us that to flee sin we need to cut off our hand, our foot, and gauge out our eye

That it is better to lose limbs than it is to fall into sin

That’s because sin is so dangerous that it destroys us

Sin does different things:

Ryrie’s Basic Theology A. For the Unbeliever

A. For the Unbeliever

The unbeliever who dies without the forgiveness of his sins must suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire (

Sin is severe and destroys us

No matter who we are or what we have done sin destroys

With sin being so important, and Jesus speaking so specifically against it I wanted to share with you how to avoid your sin

Know your sin

Galatians 5:19–21 ESV

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Here’s the first thing you need to do:

Know your sin

If we are going to do what Jesus warns us and flee our sin we must know our sin

You must know what sin you struggle with

We all struggle with a different sin — we all struggle

For us to fight our sin we must first know what sin we struggle with

You cannot beat the sin you don’t know

“know your enemy” — we must know our sin that we struggle with

We must know the sin that we struggle with and when we struggle with it

Without knowing our sin we cannot fight it and flee it

Set up guardrails

Proverbs 4:23 NET

23 Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the sources of life.

The second thing you need to do is:

Set up guardrails

We must then set up guardrails

Guardrails are set up to keep you from flying off the interstate

They are designed to keep you from dying and destroying yourself

The same thing is true of our spiritual life

Once we know the sin we struggle with we must set up guardrails for ourself

Put things in place that allow us to flee sin

If you struggle with an addiction put things in place that allow us to flee those addictions

If you struggle with lying put yourself in places that don’t cause you to have to lie

Whatever your sin is, you need to set up guardrails

Confess your sin

1 John 1:9–10 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Here’s the last thing:

Confess your sin

We must confess our sin

We are told by John to confess our sin and Jesus will forgive us of our sins

Even if we know our sin, and set up guardrails we are human and are going to struggle and sin

That is where we must get into the practice of confessing our sin

John tells us that Jesus will forgive all our sins when we confess them and repent — but to say we don’t have sin is to say that

Conlusion

Jesus tells us that sin is severe and important

I heard a pastor describe it like this

Insert lion analogy

So for us to take Jesus’ words to heart we must:

Understand our sin

Set up guardrails

Confess our sin