A Heart for Discipleship
Mark 9:38-50
Introduction: The film 127 hours tells the story of Aron Ralston, who became trapped when
a boulder dislodged while hiking in a canyon in Utah and pinned his arm. For 5 days, he pushed and pulled and tried to
chip away at the rock with his pocket-knife. When he accidently put the knife into
his thumb, he realized his hand was dead, and was actually beginning to
decompose. His water was gone, his situation was hopeless, he knew he would die
unless, armed only with a now dull two-inch pocket-knife, he could amputate his
own arm. And how would he get through the bones anyway? What would you do?
Could you cut off your own limb if you were convinced it was the only way to
save your life? Thankfully, most of us
will never have to make that choice. We do, however, have choices to make.
Jesus uses the language of amputation here, but He is obviously speaking
figuratively. One of Mark’s interests in this gospel is to answer the question,
“What does it mean to follow Jesus?” This kind of shocking language will make
it clear that there is nothing “casual” about following Jesus—the is no room
for “easy-believeism,” we are called to put
off the “old man” and to put on
Christ. We cannot choose to hold onto the things in our old life that we know
are displeasing to God. Toward the end of his life, my dad lost a leg due to
complications from diabetes. The circulation got so bad, that his leg was
essentially dying. It got to the point that the only way to save his life was
to take his leg. Jesus isn’t talking here about physical surgery, but we may
need radical surgery if we want to follow Him.
Context: Let’s
back up and remember the context in Mark 9. The nine disciples while awaiting the
return of Jesus and the three who had ascended the Mount of Transfiguration had
been unable to cast a demon out of a boy who his father had brought to them.
Jesus came down the mountain, and He healed the boy and then later reminded the
disciples about the importance of prayer. Continuing the theme from chapter 8,
He again taught them about His impending betrayal, death, and resurrection. And
again, as 9:32 tells us, “But they still
did not understand what He meant and they were afraid to ask Him about it.”
Instead, they began arguing among themselves about who was the greatest!
That theme continues into this context, this time it is John who speaks up, and
tells Jesus, perhaps proudly, about how they had rebuked someone who was
casting out demons in His name, but were not following their group. And once again, Jesus needs to correct His
followers…
The BIG Idea: Rather than judging the motives of
others we should guard our own heart as we serve Christ in the world. 1) Don’t
judge others; 2) Guard your heart; 3) Know that God is at work in you to purify and mature
you (49-50).
I. Do not judge the motives of others (38-41).
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw
someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he
was not following us.” 39 But
Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will
be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.
40 For the one who is not against us is for us. 41 For truly, I say to you, whoever
gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means
lose his reward.”
First of all, let’s be clear about what Jesus is not
saying here. He is not telling the disciples (and us) that we should not use
discernment with respect to the teaching and doctrine that we hear. Quite the
contrary, the Bible is full of admonitions to that end. The Bereans in Acts
17:11 are commended for testing the teaching they heard from Paul against the
Scriptures (the written Old Testament at that time). We are called to
search the Scriptures and to discern sound doctrine (1 Tim 1:6-11; 2 Pet
2:1-3). The root of the word “disciple” is from the word “to learn.” A disciple
is one who is learning, in the Christian context, learning the truth that God
has revealed to us in His Word. The issue the disciples had with the exorcist
they mentioned is that he was not part of their group, he wasn’t
following them in their itinerant ministry. We don’t know anything else about
him, other than what he was doing: casting out demons in Jesus’ name. The language John uses seems to indicate that
man was doing that effectively, successfully. Their only objection was
that he wasn’t a part of their group! So, they tried to forbid him.
When I read this, the first thing I thought of was the
very different story in Acts 19...
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name
of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you
by the Jesus, whom Paul proclaims."
14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were
doing this. 15 But the
evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who
are you?" 16 And the man
in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and
overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all
the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all,
and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled… (Acts 19:13-17).
This was not that!
Here in Mark this guy was seemingly successful in casting out demons. In
another context, Jesus does warn that some, who He never knew, would cast out
demons and do other signs in His name (Mt 7:22,23). How could that be? It seems to me,
that Satan, the great liar and counterfeiter, might make it appear that
someone who was not a believer was casting out demons. That person could
then deceive both himself and others. In Acts 19, as the early church was
expanding, God was glorified by the “fake exorcists” being exposed. It’s clear from
that story that an unbelieving human has no authority in the spiritual
realm. The man that John refers to, as
far as we know, was a believer who was not part of their group. Maybe someone
like the man in Decapolis who Jesus freed from the Legion, and then told to go
home to his own people? We don’t know. The point is, we don’t know (and
can’t judge) the hearts of others. Paul said,
Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord
comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will
disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation
from God… (I Corinthians 4:5).
We are not the ones who should judge the motives of others! Jesus, of
course, knows the heart of every human. He knows our heart, and He
knows the heart of every person. The day will come when He will judge, and our
hearts will be exposed. We need to leave that to Him! This is an important lesson, too easy to forget:
God knows our hearts! It is a good thing to do acts of kindness to people
around us, the kinds of things we think a Christian should do. But for the
believer in Jesus, a question to consider is why do we do it? What is
our motive? Do we serve with a purpose? Is it mostly because we want
people to like us? Or is it because we love Jesus and want others to know Him?
V.41 says “…whoever gives you a
cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose
his reward.” The NLT gets the sense well, “If anyone gives you even a cup of water
because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will
surely be rewarded.” Who would show you kindness because you belong
to Jesus? Another Christian most likely! Jesus said, “By this men will know you are my disciples,
if you love one another…” (John 13:35). Jesus said they will be rewarded. I
think that is talking about in eternity. The point is that He knows hearts and
motives and their will be a day of accounting. That’s the BIG IDEA: For our part, rather than
judging the motives of others we should guard our own hearts as we serve Christ
in the world.
II. Guard your own heart, everything depends on it (42-48; cf. Prov 4:23).
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.
44 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.
46 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.'
Causing a Child of God to stumble is that
serious (42)! Jesus had just used a child as an example of someone we
should receive. Is he referring here to young children? He may be, but I think
it is broader, He is referring to his followers more generally, as He calls
them “little ones who believe in Me.”
We are not only his followers, we are His children. John said in John 1:12, “As many as received Him, to those who
believed on His name, He gave the right to be called children of God…”
[In fact both Paul and John use the phrase ‘my
little children’ to talk about believers in their charge (Gal 4:19; I Jn
2:1)]. “To cause someone to sin,” the word used is skandalizo, “cause to stumble,” we get the English word
“scandalize” from the same root. It’s used 29 times in the New Testament, 3
times by Paul (I Cor 8:13 twice, and in 2 Cor 11:29), all the rest by Jesus, four times in these verses. He has just
told the disciples not to forbid another person from doing a good work
in His name, but now He gives this stern, almost dreadful warning: Anyone who
causes one of His children to stumble will face serious consequences: “It would be better for a great millstone to
be hung around his neck and be cast into the sea.” A great millstone would
be a huge, wheel shaped stone that was turned by a beast of burden to grind
grain. The picture is powerful… and horrible. It is a strong warning to
teachers and preachers, but I believe it applies to all of us. Be that
careful about what you say. James warned about the tongue, and that “…out of the same mouth come praise and
cursing… this should not be…” (James 3:1-10). Guard you heart, because out
of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks!
Hell is Real (43-48). I am choosing not to devote this
message to talking about hell, because I don’t think that is the main point. Jesus
goes from warning about causing others to sin, to calling his hearers to be on
guard against those things that would cause themselves to sin. He is not
arguing for Hell, but assuming it in this context. The word Gehenna refers to a valley, southwest of
Jerusalem. It was an accursed place, because there, children had been offered
as sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (Jer 32:35). It later became a garbage
dump which was always smoldering as the fires burned the refuse. It was a place
of uncleanness where worms and maggots ate rotting garbage. That came to be
viewed as a picture of eternal judgement and suffering in hell. The same
picture of conscious suffering of dead unbelievers was reflected in Jesus’
parable in Luke 16:20-28,
20 And at his gate was laid a poor man
named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was
carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried,
23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw
Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and
send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I
am in anguish in this flame.' 25
But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good
things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here,
and you are in anguish. 26
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order
that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross
from there to us.' 27 And he
said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house- 28 for I have five brothers- so
that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'
Jesus is not giving an extended
teaching on future judgement or rewards, but He does assume the reality of both. God will judge, and the time for
believing and repenting is now. Today is the day of salvation.
In our context in Mark 9, Jesus
is saying that we should let go of anything that would keep us from
trusting and following Him. His point is, that not only should we not presume
to judge others, but that we are responsible to guard our own heart (cf.
Prov 4:23)! Now it is clear that Jesus is using hyperbole, a deliberate
exaggeration to emphasize His point, and it most definitely not
advocating cutting off body parts. Mutilation of the body in any way would have
been something pagans did, but was an abomination to the Jews, and was strickly
forbidden by Scripture (Dt 14:1; 23:1; I Kgs 18:28). His point seems to be a call
to examine your heart, make sure you love God more than you love the world. That’s
the BIG IDEA: Rather than judging the motivations of others guard our own heart
as you serve Christ in the world.
III. Know that God is working to purify and mature you (49-50).
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."
These two verses are a challenge
to me, particularly v.49. Salt preserves and gives taste. Fire consumes or it purifies. It seems, perhaps, like a mixed metaphor: as
we cover food with salt to preserve it, we also will be “purified” in every
part of our life, as God works through the suffering we experience? Leviticus 2:13 talks about adding salt as a
purifying agent to OT sacrifices. From that text Strauss suggests,
“The combination of salt and fire
may indicate the purification that takes place through the fires of persecution
and trials as believers offer themselves as living sacrifices before God (Rom
12:1-2)” [Mark, p.414].
We are called elsewhere to be salt and light in the world, and at the
heart of that is our calling to bring the Gospel to the lost. Here we are
called to “have salt in ourselves.” Maybe the idea is: “Be the preserving, ‘savory’
influence in the world that you are supposed to be!” After all, what good is
salt that has lost it’s saltiness?! We
do that by not judging the heart of our brother, but rather examining own
hearts, our own motivations, striving to mature into the disciples the
Lord wants us to be.
Therefore… pursue peace with one another. This last phrase
seems to me to tie the passage together. Rather than forbidding and judging the
motives of another (like the man casting our demons), why not embrace the
things that make for peace, and see how God is glorified in the process!
That is what God is saying to us, the BIG
idea in the passage…
Rather than judging others we should guard our own hearts as we serve Christ in
the world.
What would God have me
to do in response to this passage? Aron Ralston was pinned, literally, between a “rock and a
hard place.” He had a decision to make. He had no tool to cut through the bones
of his forearm. Using his body weight and what strength he could muster, he
snapped the bones, one at a time, and made a tourniquet, took his dull pocketknife
and began, layer by layer, cutting through the soft tissue. Six hours later, he
was rescued. He gave up part of his arm, but he saved his life. The Bible warns
us about our hands, our feet, our eyes… a song for children says – be careful
little eyes what you see… little hands, what you do… little feet where you go…
1) First of all, we
can’t know the heart of another. I think an assumption is that we need to
give the benefit of doubt, we should look for the best in people. We’ve
received grace, we should extend grace to others.
2) We can’t know
the heart of another, but we can know our own heart. What does it mean
to follow Jesus? Here we see a call to holiness. And it starts in the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 tells us, “Above
everything, guard your heart, for from it are the well springs of life.” Are
our hands occupied in doing things that honor God? Do we go to places, or into
situations, where we know we’ll be tempted and our witness may be ruined? What
do we look at? Have you, like Job, made a covenant with your eyes? What does it
mean to follow Jesus? Above everything, guard your heart, your whole life
depends on it. AMEN.
Comments
Post a Comment