Weighty Warnings

Weighty Warnings

Mark 9:42-50

Last week, we saw the disciples fighting among themselves over who was the greatest. Jesus used their argument to teach them a very important truth. He taught them that greatness is obtained through service.

· The way to become great in the kingdom of God is by serving the leas.

· The path to the top leads through humble service to those who cannot serve us back.

That was a lesson the disciples needed. It’s a lesson that we need as well. Far too many want to occupy the chief seat and far too few have a servant’s heart.

On the heels of that, Jesus issues a series of warnings to His disciples. These verses use harsh, straight to the point language that cautions us to be careful how we live our lives.

Maybe, as we’ve studied Mark’s gospel, you’ve found that it’s moving you outside your comfort zone. And it should be. God’s Word will comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

See, we’ve become too comfortable.

Jesus knew that His disciples needed to be shocked into becoming the men He’d saved them to be. He knows the same thing about us.

Left to ourselves, we’ll amount to nothing. So, He has to come along every now and then and shake us up to get our attention. That’s what these verses are meant to do.

So, let’s pray and read our text for today and then look at these weighty warnings.

Pray!

Mark 9:42–50 ESV

“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.”

The first warning is a:

Warning about Saints

Jesus had used a child to illustrate the kind of people we’re to serve in this world.

We’re to serve those that are neglected and rejected by others. We’re to serve those who can’t serve us in return. In other words, we’re not to serve others so that we can be promoted. We’re to willingly take the place of a slave in the Kingdom of God, serving Christ by humbly serving others.

Jesus uses that same child to teach us another important principle. Not only are we to serve the least among us willingly; we’re also commanded to protect the least among us from sin.

Jesus says that it is a very serious matter when we cause one of God’s children to fall into sin.

He says that you would be better off having a “millstone” tied around your neck and being thrown into the sea. The millstone Jesus is talking about is a large stone used to grind grain and it was so heavy a donkey was used to turn it.

So, if someone tied a millstone around your neck and tossed you overboard, you’d be sleeping with the fishes in no time.

His listeners would have been familiar with the image He used. On more than one occasion, the Romans had carried out executions by tying heavy stones around the necks of their victims and throwing them into rivers and lakes.

But Jesus says that it would be better to suffer a horrible death like that than it would be to cause a little one to sin.

How do believers cause others to sin? There are many ways! Let me share a few with you today.

By directly tempting others to sin

This kind of behavior is seen from the very beginning. Eve after listening to the serpent and falling for his lies decided to eat from the only tree that God had forbidden its fruit. But she didn’t stop there. She gave some to Adam and maybe since she hadn’t died, he ate of it as well.

People can be led into sin indirectly

When we treat others in insensitive, unloving and unkind ways we can cause them to sin through rebellion. We can spark angry reactions in people, or we can cause them to throw up their hands in frustration.

People can be led into sin by a bad example

If a believer who is weak in the faith sees a respected believer commit a sin, that younger believer could fall into sin by following that bad example.

It’s possible to our liberty can cause others to sin.

1 Corinthians 6:12

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful…

As a believer I have great liberty in Christ. I’m not under the Law, I’m under grace. But, if a weak believer sees me doing things that they believe are wrong and I encourage them to sin against their conscience, I’m guilty of leading them astray.

People can be led into sin because other believer fail to lead them into righteousness

In other words, we fail to share the riches of Christ with new believers, we fail to disciple them, and as a result, they remain weak and never grow in the Lord. We fail to give them the spiritual food they need and they starve in the midst of plenty!

People can be led away through false doctrine

Teachers of false religion lead people astray. When they do, they are committing a two-fold sin. First, they sin because they follow false religion. Second, they sin because they lead those that follow them away into Hell.

I’m a man, but I’m also a parent. I can forgive a slight against me pretty easily, but you touch one of my children and I’ll have a harder time in the forgiving department. But I’m in good company! God says that the person who offends one of His little ones is in big trouble!

Whether we see it or not, this is a very serious warning!

There is a warning about saints and a

Warning about Sin

These next few verses are graphic in nature and offer a stern warning to both saint and sinner alike.

Jesus talks about the hand, the foot and the eye. These are really our three problem areas when it comes to dealing with sin.

The hand refers to the thing we do

The foot refers to the places we go

The eye refers to the things we see or desire

These three words describe all the areas where we’re tempted to sin.

Jesus says that if the hand, the foot or the eye causes us to sin, we’re to take drastic action and amputate that body part, so that we won’t give in to its desires.

Let me just say that Jesus is speaking figuratively here. He’s using hyperbole. Jesus is using exaggeration to emphasize the horrible nature of sin. He’s not commanding us to mutilate our bodies.

In the early days of the church some people took these words literally. One of the more notable examples was Origen of Alexandria. He had such a problem with lust that he had himself emasculated to get rid of that temptation.

What Origen discovered is what you and I need to know today. No amount of surgery on the outside will cure the problem on the inside! We don’t need a change on the outside; we need a change on the inside! We need to be born again because all of our sins come from the heart.

What Jesus is talking about is how we are to deal with our sins.

When the temptation to sin comes into our lives, we must deal with it immediately, harshly, ruthlessly, consistently and decisively! Sin should receive no quarter in our lives.

If a relationship is leading you into temptation and sin, you need to sever that relationship! If some activity is leading you into temptation and sin, you need to cut that out of your life immediately.

In Jewish society, the right eye, the right foot and the right hand represented a person’s best and most precious faculties.

· The right eye was your best vision.

· The right foot was your best walk.

· The right hand was your best skills.

Jesus is simply saying that we must be willing to give up the most precious, the most valuable things we have in our effort to avoid sin.

Jesus warns His disciples that nothing in this world is so valuable that it’s worth going to Hell over. Yes, Jesus believed in Hell! His references to Hell are very graphic.

The word “hell” comes from the word “Gehenna.”

Gehenna was a place in the Valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem. In ancient times it had been a site devoted to pagan worship. It was here that the people of Israel had sacrificed their children to the false gods of the Canaanites. King Josiah tore down the pagan altars and desecrated the site, turning it into a garbage dump.

By Jesus’s day Gehenna was a horrible place! Fires burned there constantly. Wild dogs roamed the dump, feeding on carcasses of animals and criminals. The insane and other outcasts lived there as well. It was a fitting description of what Hell will be like.

Jesus is trying to teach the disciples that even if radical surgery is required for a person to be saved, that surgery is necessary and needed. He wants people to know that there is a horrible place called Hell and that lost people will spend eternity there.

Jesus says that Hell will be characterized by two terrible realities. Jesus quotes Isaiah 66:24 and tells us that people in Hell will suffer in two terrible ways.

First, “their worm does not die…”

This has been interpreted many ways over the years. Some think it refers to actual worms that will gnaw on the body in Hell. I do not think that is what He is talking about! Others think Jesus is talking about the soul. They feel that He’s saying those who go to Hell will live forever. They do, but I don’t think that’s what He is talking about here.

When Jesus says, “their worm does not die…” I think He’s talking about the torments people will suffer in Hell.

When the rich man died and went to Hell in Luke 16, we’re told that he had an active and accurate memory. Those in Hell will remember every opportunity they had to be saved. They will remember the love and grace of God. They will remember the cross and the empty tomb. They will be reminded for all eternity that they didn’t have to be in that horrible place.

Second, Jesus says, “and the fire is not quenched.”

This refers to the physical agonies of Hell. The torments of Hell are real and they’re horrible. They’re unceasing and they’re unimaginable. On top of that, they’re avoidable! You don’t have to go there!

Listen, hell is real!

If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, you’ll spend eternity there. It doesn’t have to be that way! You can be saved, if you’ll come to Jesus!

Sin isn’t something to play with!

You may think you’re in charge. But the truth is that you’re its servant.

When it has ruined and taken all you have, it’ll throw you into Hell and torment you there for eternity. Whatever your poison is, it is not worth going to Hell over! You’d be better off to live this life denying yourself the “fleeting pleasures of sin” so that you might go to Heaven and avoid Hell.

There is a warning about saints, a warning about sin, and a

Warning about Service

The two verses that close this chapter are among the most difficult in the New Testament to interpret. But I think we can understand what they are saying to us, if we take them in their natural context. In all of these verses Jesus is talking to His people.

He’s talking to the people of God. First, Jesus warns His people against offending weaker believers. Second, Jesus warns His people to avoid the terrible and tragic consequences of sin.

He’s not saying that a believer can lose their salvation; He’s saying that sin is a destroyer and that it must be handled ruthlessly.

Now, Jesus warns His people that serving Him will require sacrifice and purity.

Jesus says, “for everyone will be salted with fire.”

Now, fire is a purifier. Fire is a cleansing agent. Jesus is telling us that His servants can expect to be cleansed through fire. In other words, God will allow us to go through persecution and trials in an effort to make us more like Jesus.

God sends us into the fire so that the flesh and its power over us might be burned away.

Then Jesus says, “Salt is good!”

And it is!

Salt was a valuable commodity in that day. The ancient Jews had a saying that went, “The world cannot survive without salt.”

Often, Roman soldiers were paid their wages in salt, which could be traded ounce for ounce for gold. Salt was also necessary for life in the days before refrigeration. Meat would quickly spoil, but if meat was pickled in a salt brine solution, it would keep for a long time.

Salt was also good because it made the inedible tasty. Some foods juts need a little salt to make them edible. Salt was often placed into wounds to help them heal and stop the spread of disease. Salt was a preservative, a flavoring, an antiseptic, and a currency.

Salt is good, but if salt loses its saltiness what good is it? Salt in our day is pure and it doesn’t lose its flavor. In those day, it was often contaminated with other minerals and after a short time salt would develop a terrible flavor. Salt in that condition was good for nothing only to be thrown away.

Jesus then says, “Have salt in yourselves…”

In this context to have salt means to be real, to be genuine. Jesus is telling us that if we are truly the children of God, then we should act like and live like children of God. How do we do that?

We don’t cause others to stumble and fall into sin.

We avoid sin at all costs in our own lives.

We willingly embrace the salt of a sacrificial life and the persecution that comes with it.

When we do, we’ll demonstrate another quality of salt. Salt creates thirst. When believers are salty and walking as Jesus would have them walk, they create a thirst for the things of God in the lives of those around them.

The best witness for Jesus is a salty Christian who lives like Jesus.

Like salt we are to be a preserving agent in the world.

When we show up, our very presence should raise the moral atmosphere, promote honesty, elevate conversation, stir the conscience and make people want to live a little cleaner. Our lives should make a difference in the world around us!

Like salt, we’re to make this world thirsty for Jesus. Like salt, we’re to make this world a better, more appetizing place to live. Like salt, we’re to help stop the spread of corruption in the world.

Jesus is simply telling His followers, that if they’re going to be His servants, they can expect God to send trials to purify them. And, they’re expected to embrace their trials and be salt and light to a world that desperately needs what the believer possesses!

Jesus closes by saying “be at peace one with another.”

Remember the disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest among them.

And they’d told off a man who was working in Jesus’s name, just because he was not one of them.

I think He’s saying that His people shouldn’t be worried about who’s the greatest, and His people shouldn’t be telling off other people. God’s people should be in the business of examining their own hearts.

We should salt ourselves and judge our own faults!

It’s easy for us to lose our saltiness and become useless to Him. We need to remember that it glorifies God when His people live lives of commitment and character day after day. It also glorifies Him when we forget about who might be the greatest among us and prove that we’re His by loving one another and by being at peace one with another!

Where does this find you today?

· Are you lost in sin and headed to Hell? Would you like to be saved? You can be if you’ll come to Him. He can help you!

· Are you struggling to live the right kind of life and having trouble? He can help you!

· Do you need to be saltier? He can help you!

· Is He purifying you through trials? He can help you!

· Are you leading people to Him or away? He can help you!

Let’s obey His voice as He speaks to us today.