A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 9:42-50--Exploring Discipleship, Selflessness, and Eternal Values in the Gospel of Mark-
All right. Mark, chapter 9, verse 42,. That's where we'll start. Hopefully you can hear me. If not, just smile and nod, it's okay. Smile and nod, nod, it's okay. Smile and nod, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, in the gospel of Mark we have seen Jesus come from the top of the mountain there, the Mount of Transfiguration, where he's seen in all of his glory and he's going to the lowest point Well, in so many ways the lowest point in our story. He's going towards the cross. Now, this is not right. It's not the lowest point. It in so many ways the lowest point in our story. He's going towards the cross. Now, this is not right. It's not the lowest point, it's the highest point of the story. But he's headed towards the cross, from here on down the mountain to Jerusalem, to the cross, and it's going to take us a little while, but as he goes, we see that life with Jesus involves discipleship. He's teaching his disciples and in verse 33, just to back up a little bit we see him in Capernaum, that's home base in the beginning of things. He's in a house, possibly Peter's house, and he confronts his disciples on something that was going on on the road. He asked them what was it that you guys talked about on the road, and they knew. They knew they were busted All at once. They knew they had been arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom, who would have the highest position.
Speaker 1:And Jesus calls them on their self-centeredness and their pride. And in verse 35, he says if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all. And then Jesus, as an illustration, takes a little child old enough to stand but still needy, young enough to be held. And and he says in verse 37 whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives not me but him who sent me. And and so we picture it as he's teaching his disciples, holding a little child. There, his disciples are gathered sheepishly around and Jesus is going to break down the subject of what it means to be a real disciple. Look at verse 42. We'll pick up there and we'll read to the end of the chapter.
Speaker 1:But whoever caused one of these little ones who believes in me to stumble, it would be better for him if the millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame rather than have two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, and if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. For everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another. So here Jesus teaching his disciples some heavy stuff. Here teaching his disciples, some heavy stuff. Here he reminds them first, number one, that being a disciple is meant to be a selfless life, selfless life and the direct context here you got to picture it, jesus the teacher, right. Jesus the Savior is standing there and he's holding a little child in his arms. Now notice how it all starts off there in verse 22. With that picture in your mind. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and thrown into the sea were hung around his neck and thrown into the sea. So Jesus, with this little child, says don't cause one of these little ones. This is what being a disciple is about. Don't cause one of these little ones to stumble. And we can think about our own children. Maybe this was Peter's kid, but we think about our own children.
Speaker 1:And I don't know how it is in your house, but many times we act like our kids don't speak English Right now, when they're little. It's one thing. You can spell things out, right, and then after that you get a little more creative. My parents they knew a little bit of German growing up, and so they would every so often drop some German words so that I couldn't understand what they were saying. Right, lila and I took a sign language class together, so we would do finger spelling, you know, and you know when we didn't want our kids to understand.
Speaker 1:But there comes a certain point when they're older where you just kind of pretend I don't know what happens in our brains but we just kind of pretend they don't speak English anymore. You know, we just just just talk about it in front of them. Whatever it is, if it's work or if it's some social problem that we're having with someone, we just let it all out. And I admit I think that's wrong, right, but I do it. You know, you talk about your issues in front of your kids like they just can't hear, right, because I just don't have time for it anymore. And I think about all the times in that literal sense that you know, maybe I came talking about some things that just weren't good attitudes and I really did misrepresent God's heart in front of my kids.
Speaker 1:And Jesus says don't cause these little ones to stumble. It's good to remember that, right, and how we talk about other people or, you know, even life in general. But it's not just kids here. Obviously he's got a little child in his hand, but it talks about those who are maybe younger in the faith, maybe those who have no faith at all. Right, and the thing we understand is that, no matter where we are, what we're doing, people are watching us. The people in our family are watching us, the people at our job are watching us, especially if they know you're a believer.
Speaker 1:And Jesus lets us know how serious it is in verse 42. This is where and I don't want to be irreverent, but this is where mafia Jesus comes into the picture. Right, I mean, there's a lot of serious stuff in this passage. But Jesus says look, if you cause one of these little ones to stumble, you ought to just tie a big rock around your neck and jump into the lake. Right, we have waves, you know. And you're like, wow, jesus, that is very tough. Right, you might as well just jump in a lake. Now, obviously it's not literal. Jesus doesn't want us jumping into a lake with a rock around our neck and drown ourselves, but it is serious, it is serious. It's serious the way we present Jesus through our life. Now, 1 Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 9,.
Speaker 1:Paul is talking about a problem that was in the Corinthian church. They had temples to idols and a little backstory. In these temples to idols, you could buy some great steaks at a cheap price, right, because they would offer these sacrifices, and then in the back door they would offer the meat that was sacrificed to idols at a discount price. Sounds good? Well, in the early church there, some of the people understood idols are nothing. It's just a piece of rock. It's just a piece of wood. What can an idol do to me? I'm gonna get me some ribeye. You know what I mean, and they're like good price on stakes, I'll take it. What's an idol? Now there were other people who were younger in the faith and had these convictions in their hearts and they said well, idol, idols, demonic man. I used to worship idols. I don't know if it's right to eat steak meat sacrifice to idols. And they were conflicted in their hearts.
Speaker 1:And Paul says Corinthians, you need a little love, you need to be selfless. I know you want to eat your meat, sacrifice to idols, but don't do it. You're going to cause one of these weaker believers. They're called to stumble. And we go. Well, weaker believers, you ought to get over it. I got liberty right, I can do whatever I want. And Paul go. Well, weaker believers, you ought to get over it. I got liberty right, I can do whatever I want.
Speaker 1:And Paul says no, no, that is not the way to look at it. It's being selfless. It's about looking out for other people over yourself. Now check it out. If you got all that about the meat sacrifice to idols, how does Paul end it In verse 13,? 1 Corinthians 8, 13,. He says if meat makes my brother, now picture this. You got to catch this. All right, because this is outrageous. He says if eating meat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again. And you go no, paul, you become a vegetarian, right? Oh, my goodness, that's like worse than a sinner, right? No, but you know, you look at that Now I think he's serious. He says if my liberty to eat meat causes trouble in someone's heart, I'll never eat meat again. This trouble in someone's heart, I'll never eat meat again, because their soul is worth more than my liberty to eat meat. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:Being a disciple, not causing the people around us to stumble, is selfless. It's meant to be a sacrifice in that sense, and whatever it is, we need to look out for the needs of others. Now he goes on. We got to move on here. But he says it's also sanctification. Now pick this up. Sanctification is this idea in the Christian life that God takes things out of our life. He takes sin out of our life. He takes sinful habits out of our life and it's all to make us more like Jesus. Now check it out, follow In your life. If you've been a Christian for a while, you should look different than the day you got saved. You should look a little more like Jesus. And it's painful. But he takes different habits and things out of our life and we see that pretty vividly here and in the next little bit. You'll remember PG 13, verse 43.
Speaker 1:Jesus says if your hand causes you to sin, chop off your hand Verse 45,. If your foot causes you to sin, chop off your hand Verse 45,. If your foot causes you to sin, chop off your foot. If your eye now this one's really vivid If your eye causes you to sin, pluck out your eye and I made that sound, but I'm not going to do it again Pluck it out, eject it from your eye socket. It's kind of the Greek there. And you go wow, whatever that means. That takes some determination, some determination to take sin out of our life.
Speaker 1:Hebrews, chapter 12, verse one compares it to being in a race. The Christian life is like being in a race and the author to Hebrews says when we're running this race, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance. The race that's set before us Now a little less intense than chopping off a hand, foot or plucking out an eye. But he says, if we're going to run this race we've got to lay aside things. That this obviously doesn't mean to go literally cut your hand off or cut your foot off or pluck your eye out, because many in church history during the monastic period, you know where there were monks and people would move out to the caves. You know, society is evil. I'm going to move out to a cave, you know. You know clothes is too much temptation, so I'm going to wear sackcloth, rough sackcloth on, and they would do all these kinds of things, even down to these literal things. They should never done it. Literal things of plucking out eyes and cutting off hands. Not what God intended, that's the devil would do that kind of thing to you. But they would do that and many would say in those situations, I've done it and I still have a sinful nature. You're like, wah, wah, you know, don't do that.
Speaker 1:It's not about taking off a hand or plucking out an eye. It's about dealing radically with sin. Sanctification is pretty radical stuff, so check it out. Maybe a more reasonable way to look at this is you know, if your internet causes you to stumble, disconnect the service. You know, if a relationship is bringing you to sin, you might have to cut that relationship off and you go. You know, that's pretty radical. That's painful. It's about as painful as plucking an eyeball out. But Jesus here says it is serious.
Speaker 1:Now notice something else here. Notice there's a repeated phrase here and there's kind of an idea. He says it's better to cut off a hand, cut off a foot, pluck out an eye than to look at verse 43, go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And it says it three times, basically the same way. It becomes almost like a little bit of a commercial, right? You kind of feel the idea. That's a little bit like a jingle. You know liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. You're like it's in my head now. Thanks, you know. You know, whatever the commercial? When my kids were younger it was red Robin, yum, I mean so simple. And they would go around the neighborhood and they would just sing that all day long. Red Robin, yum. Well, this is kind of like that.
Speaker 1:This is actually the last verse of the book of Isaiah that he's quoting. There the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And Jesus says it three times, I think, to get it in our head. He's talking about hell. Right, jesus is talking about hell. In our Bibles it does say hell. Now, some will point out that this word hell in the original text is Gehenna. Gehenna is what this word is, and Gehenna was actually a place on the map. Hell is a place on the map. Well, gehenna is a place on the map. On the map, well, gehenna is a place on the map. Gehenna was an area outside the city of Jerusalem that, during the time of King Manasseh and King Ammon, sacrifice to the idol Molech took place. It was horrible, horrible sacrifice it was. We're not even going to talk about how horrible it was, but they led the people out into idolatry.
Speaker 1:And Josiah comes around and Josiah's heart is changed. He starts throwing things out of the temple, the idols. He does away with the idols and all the false, you know, priests and stuff, and there's a revival under Josiah, ammon's son. Well, he takes this now. Listen, he takes this valley that used to be used for sacrifice to Molech and he defiles it and makes it a garbage dump right. That's how you get rid of the places of worship. You turn them into garbage dumps, right.
Speaker 1:And so check it out Outside the city of Jerusalem. They would bring their garbage and they would burn it. So, nonstop, day and night, there was a field and there was a fire going. You could bring your trash and burn it. If you brought food stuff or animal stuff, there was decomposition, right, you know. And so this phrase here the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Put with this term Gehenna was that picture of the garbage dump outside of the city of Jerusalem. But you know, with all of its history, it was a pretty like just heavy place. History, it was a pretty like just heavy place, continuous fire, continual like decomposition and worms. It was not a nice place to be, and Jesus here says it's better that you lose a hand, lose a foot, lose an eye, then go to hell.
Speaker 1:Now, many will take this idea nowadays and say well, hell is not a place that we're told of in the Bible, it's not an eternal place it's representative of this field outside of Jerusalem where it was burned, but there's no eternal hell. In the church it's actually rather popular to explain hell away. There's no eternal judgment, like the Jehovah's Witnesses say, outside of Christianity. Once you're dead, you just oblivion, you disappear. That's it, and many in the church today would rather that, and I get it.
Speaker 1:Eternal punishment does not sound nice. It's hard to say, oh, god is love, and then say but he sends some people to hell to punish them for eternity. However, the Bible is very clear. There is a literal place called hell eternal fire weeping and gnashing of teeth so many times the Bible talks about it and there sin is judged. And we see in hell that sin is serious stuff. We look at sin and go oh, let bygones be bygones. But God says sin, the wages of sin is death. Jesus died for our sin on the cross. Now, if there's no eternal punishment, we go well, it's only so important that our sin was taken care of. It's just. You know, it's a thing, but it's not everything. No, the Bible says that a just and righteous God will punish sin forever. Now, he doesn't want it that way. He hasn't created us for hell. He created hell for Satan and his angels. But many of us will go that way if we reject what God's done for us, and that's serious because sin is really bad. God is really righteous and he's just, and so Jesus here paints this for us and he says it's better to lose a hand than go to hell and burn forever. Right now we don't always see it that way, but eternity is a real thing. When you die, it's heaven or hell and both are eternal heaven or hell. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:This last week has been pretty heavy. A lot of weeks lately have been heavy. This last week has been pretty heavy. A lot of weeks lately have been heavy. This last week has been pretty heavy because we've experienced two major airline crashes right, and you know that's serious business, but I've really been thinking about it and this is just where we're at today. But you know you think about that.
Speaker 1:No warning, we've seen two fireballs explode on I'm sorry, explode on the TV, and all at once, in an instant. It was pretty quick, I think. All at once people went into eternity, heaven or hell, all in an instant. And you know, I got to say in my hard heart that doesn't really bother me enough? I don't think. I mean I know you've got to kind of like guard your mind and your heart a little bit or you go nuts, but the idea of eternity on both sides of the coin doesn't really bother me that much. And yet, all in an instant, people, souls, faced eternity.
Speaker 1:And I think what Jesus is really getting at here is that it's serious. Life is serious, we'll see. Our witness is serious, and it's serious. Life is serious, we'll see. Our witness is serious and it's eternal. There's eternal consequences. It's crazy to think that 80, 90 years we live here whatever a hundred, we're really lucky it's nothing compared to eternity in the grand scheme of things. And yet, how we live our life, it's worth way more to go without an eye, without a hand, without a foot, than to ourselves go there. There's theological issues in that. Are we losing our salvation here? But let's just look at the people around us. How we live our life is worth it for the eternity that's all around us. And we don't know what this next week is going to look like. I hate to put that in front of us, but that's really true. We don't know how much time we have with people around us and eternity is in the balance here. So sanctification is important stuff, but Jesus goes on. We should probably chew on that longer, but Jesus goes on. Verse 49. For everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.
Speaker 1:I have a little bit of trouble with this, but really I think it's pointing to sacrifices. If you're reading through the Bible in any kind of way, you get to the book of Leviticus and you got a good long time talking about sacrifices. If you're reading through the Bible in any kind of way, you get to the book of Leviticus and you got a good long time talking about sacrifices. You're like why do I got to learn about sacrifices? I don't, we don't do this anymore. Jesus was our sacrifice. We don't have to do this, and that's part of the joy of reading Leviticus. We don't have to do it.
Speaker 1:But sacrifices uh, lots of things you could sacrifice for in the old Testament sin sacrifices lots of things you could sacrifice for in the Old Testament Sin. There were sin sacrifices, there were trespass sacrifices, there were burnt offerings which were really good, and I think this is kind of what that's pointing to. But you would take an animal. You would offer it to the Lord, maybe in your place for sin, maybe in your place for commitment there to God. And it would involve fire. That's what the sacrifices were burnt. But they would also involve salt, which is really strange. And salt is part of a sacrifice.
Speaker 1:And here we see, I think, jesus pointing his selfish disciples, who are arguing about who's the greatest, to the idea of a sacrificial life. Right, guys, your life will be offered with fire, your life will be offered with salt, but it's a sacrifice. I think that really points to what Paul says in Romans 12. Good one to memorize Romans 12, verse 1. There Paul says I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God. So check it out. Everything you do can be a sacrifice to God. You can say God, here's my day, use it, here's my time, my energy, use it for you, and you just offer it up like a living sacrifice. And I think that's what Jesus is pointing to. But let's end with verse 50.
Speaker 1:Salt is good. There's a statement you can just kind of underline Salt is good, right? Unless you have high blood pressure. It may not be good, I don't know, I'm not a doctor but salt is good, right, we know that. Right. If you've ever had to eat like sodium, a low sodium diet, you're like what's the point? I don't even know why I'm eating this anymore. You know, I had a big problem with salt when I was a kid. I used to go to the restaurants and embarrass my parents. I would put salt in my hand and I'd look around, I go. It was like I was a weird kid. I really liked salt. It was probably some kind of deficiency. But you know, salt is good, right, and you could do a whole study on this. All the things that salt does, right, salt is for taste, that's a good one. It preserves. There's some degree that salt is a healing kind of thing, right, salt is good.
Speaker 1:And Jesus here says now check it out. In verse 50, if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? So Jesus puts in this strange idea here. He says if salt stops being salty, what are you going to do with it? And you kind of your brain does backflips and you're like unsalty salt. I mean, it's in its name. How can it be unsalty salt? Is it possible to have unsalty salt? Maybe it is, I don't know. But I feel like when salt loses its saltiness, it's not salt anymore. I don't know what it is Right. And Jesus puts that in there.
Speaker 1:If you, being the salt of the earth, as he says in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew, chapter 5, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the earth, you're the light of the world, you're like salt. You go into this world and you make things taste better. Yay, you bring healing. Yay, you preserve things in this rotting world. Yay, but if you stop being salty, what good are you?
Speaker 1:A disciple, a Christian, is meant to be salty in this world, and Jesus says if you just stop being salty, what good are you Now? In other places, jesus says the only thing unsalted salt is worth is throwing out and being trampled underfoot. I don't know what that's all about, but it is concerning our witness here, as we bring it all together. It's concerning our witness, the, as we bring it all together, it's concerning our witness. The disciple's life is to be salty, that you're put in this world, to make a difference in the relationships that you have and check it out. People are watching. The little ones in your life are watching you. The little ones at work are watching you every single day.
Speaker 1:We need to be sanctified. Not only are we selfless, but we need to be sanctified. God's taken things out of your life, things like sin and things that tempt you. You may have to pluck those things out or cut those things off, but it's worth it. It's sacrificial life, it's laying down your rights, getting on the altar, that we can be salty in this world.
Speaker 1:But I think the big thing that I get from this because it was a heavy chapter, right the big thing I get from this is that it's serious. Jesus is absolutely serious with his disciples and us. Take a deep breath. Jesus is serious with us. Life is about eternal things. I know you don't see it, but people are going into eternity every single day. One day we'll go into eternity and only what's done for Christ will last. And so good encouragement to disciples. And notice he does end it there and he says have salt in yourself, have peace with one another. Guys, don't argue about silly things. Get out there and live that eternal, meaningful life, silly things. Get out there and live that eternal, meaningful life.
Speaker 1:God, another pep rally in so many ways. But yet I know a pep rally isn't what we need, god. We absolutely need your spirit to work these things into our life. God that we would really see things from an eternal perspective. God that we would see heaven and just how wonderful that's going to be it really is. But God, we would see hell and just how so many people are just going there and it's not what you want. God, help us to make a difference in this world and God forgive us for being hypocrites. God forgive us for misrepresenting you, but God, help us this week to just represent you in all that we do. God, take our hearts and our time, our lives, everything. God, I pray for my friends. You would protect them this week. You would give them strength. God, you would encourage them and lift them up every single day. God, we love you. Thank you for your faithfulness. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.