Sunday Service 10-14-2018 - Mark 9:41-50

Today’s reading is Mark 9:41-50

Did you know, our Scripture for today is one of the top 3 most unwanted preached messages that ministers ever want to deliver - ever!

Although it is a difficult one, I do believe it is a necessary one as well.

If we jump around and only talk about what we want to hear, what is easy to deliver; Tell me, what type of Christians would we be?

Mark 9:42-50

⁴² “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin (or to stumble), it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 

OK, A lot is going on here but 1st we need to figure out a few things.

·       The disciples are still in Capernaum.

·       They just had the discussion about which one of them, which one of the disciples is the BEST.

·       And as an answer to them, Jesus pointed out that whoever wants to be first in Heaven, must be last and a servant to all here on earth.

·       9:35b “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”

·       Then Jesus pulls in the child and says:  9:37) Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf, welcomes me. And anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.

·       Then John pipes up and reports to Jesus that they stopped someone who was not one of them.

·       And they were violating their “franchise” – their “Copyright” by healing and casting out demons in God’s Name.

·       And then we have our Reading for today.

The 2nd thing I believe we need to catch or notice is the way that we think and the way that Our Lord thinks.

Most of the time, we are not in sync with God.

·       The disciples were thinking of themselves when they argued about who is the best.

·       They were thinking of themselves when they were protecting their rights and stopped the healing and demon casting out.

·       But once again, Jesus is teaching them not to think of others sins but to think of their own sins.

·       We spend way too much time worrying and visiting about how he or she is sinning and we really do nothing to look at our own sins.

Next, what is a “MILLSTONE”?

“It would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

·       Millstones were used to crush all kinds of grain into flour.

·       And they came anywhere from a palm sized one to ones that were larger than 7’ high, 2’ or more wide and made of solid rock with a hole in the middle of them.

·       The large ones most likely weighed like what we would think a small compact car weighs.

·       The large Millstones would have a base of a tree placed in the hole and it would be rolled around on top of another stone, crushing the grain by the power of donkeys, mules and such things pulling it around.

And, just in case you are wondering. It takes less than 6 minutes for a person to drown.

There is between 20 to 60 seconds spent above the water and then an additional 4 to 5 minutes under the water until the lungs are full and the heart has stopped.

·       But with a Large Millstone strapped around your neck, I think we can safely say we can skip the first 20 to 60 seconds above the water and just jump to the 4 to 5 minutes under the water.

But what do we take from “Little Ones” within our Word for today?

·       Who are they?

·       Possible we could assume that they would be like the child Jesus was embracing back in verse 9:37) “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf”

·       And maybe we could reinforce that type of thinking by looking ahead a bit when we again find Jesus talking about young children in verse ^10:14b)

“Let the children come to me.

Don’t stop them!”

BUT, But if we did that, we would be missing so - so much.

The “WORDS” to describe the Little Ones that we find in our Text for today, “Whoever causes one of these “little ones”.

In the Greek writing, words used to describe “Little Ones”, - were the same words used to describe the “Least of these” or “Last Place” within what I read earlier today found in 9:35b.

·       ^9:35b “Whoever wants to be first must take Last Place and be the servant of everyone else.”

By knowing of this connection, does that change your understand some?

We could read it like this:

⁴² “Whoever causes anyone who is following me and who believes in me to sin (or to stumble), it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 

Now doesn’t that make it real?

Jesus is telling us that it is better for us to cut our life short

·       Than it would be to live longer

·       And cause someone to sin or stumble in their belief in or walk with Him.

It is not that God believes we should do anything to harm ourselves,

·       Or to take our own lives such as drowning in the sea

·       BUT, He is also telling us

o  Of the Great COST of Our Actions

o  IF we derail someone else’s belief in Him.

This is the very reason that we ARE NOT

·       Skipping the hard to preach areas of the Bible

·       Because we need to hear the full message of God

·       Rather than just the here and there,

o  Keeping ourselves Comfortable & Peaceful.

So, Now we are ready to move into the 2nd part of our message for today.

***********

And if we have someone here whose

·       Hands, Feet, Or Eyes are a problem,

o  We are ready to take care of those issues here today.

And I guess, it would be OK for everyone to start lining up, maybe starting here and going down this aisle.

But with our Lord being such a Loving Lord,

·       And IF He is not wanting us to end our own lives

o  Like drowning ourselves in the sea,

·       Is He really wanting us to harm ourselves by cutting something off?

How are we to understand the rest of our message for today?

⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life (to Enter Heaven) crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

This type of “Hell” is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and once in the Book of James.

In the English language, we translate so many ‘Hell Words’ into the one word “Hell” but the proper translation for this Hell is ((ga-HEna) Gehenna) and it is referring to an actual place, a dump, near Jerusalem.

It is where you would take all of your waste from the City, the dead animals, everything you didn’t want, you took it to this dump to get rid of it.

But the problem was, it didn’t take too long before this place began to smell so they lit it on fire and there was so much there along with, all that continued to pour in, that the fire never goes out.

And with all of the dead there, the worms, the maggots never die and never run out of things to eat on.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there.

He goes on and says:

⁴⁴ ‘Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 

⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life (to Enter Heaven) lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 

⁴⁶ ‘Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 

And Jesus continues:

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.’ 

Now I am sure some of you are wondering why didn’t he read verse 44 and 46 and some of you are saying why does my Bible have those numbers but no writing thereafter.

·       That is because, when the King James Version was written, in the 1600s, they added them in there but in our later translations of the Bible, they removed them.

Now, should it be there or not? - Unsure.

·       But we do know that in the Dead Sea scrolls, which are supposed to be one of the oldest found writings, they do not have lines 44 and 46.

But either way you go,

·       Nothing is lost or gained,

o  No harm - no foul;

·       Because we all have those words in our Bibles in line 48.

But here is the question:

With Jesus starting off with saying,

·       Don’t cause a believer to sin or stumble,

·       Why is Jesus saying for me to remove the

o  Hands, Feet, and Eyeballs

§  If they cause me to fall?

·       Surely - My Hands do not cause someone else to sin.

·       And how can My Feet cause someone else to sin.

·       And why would My Eyeballs cause someone else to sin.

However, IF Jesus said to remove my

·       Tongue if it would

o  And way too often it does cause others to sin,

o  Now that would make sense to me.

o  Right? Cut it off!

But - Why DIDN’T Jesus talk about

·       Our Tongue, Our Ears, Our Minds, or even Our Gut?

There are so many other parts of me that causes me to stumble or to sin.

James 1:19 says

·       “Understand this,

·       My dear brothers and sisters:

·       You must all be quick to listen,

·       Slow to speak,

·       And Slow to get angry.”

James didn’t say anything about how our

·       Hands, Feet and Eyes cause us

o  Or even others to sin?

But rather, it was the Ears, Tongue and Temper. 

But Jesus was bringing the disciples, as well as us, back in check and He is saying,

·       Look at Yourself!

·       Don’t worry so much about others!

·       Hell is too Real!

Jesus is using this type of talk to

·       Point out to us just how serious

o  Our Actions are

o  And how through those actions,

o  We influence others on how they live their lives.

Mark 7:20-23 “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.”

What – Jesus is talking about

·       Our hands, feet and eyes

·       And then Now –

·       It is of what comes from inside of us?

Is Jesus changing His mind

·       Or is He giving us a hidden message here?

“For from within,

·       Out of a person’s heart,

·       Come evil thoughts,

·       Sexual immorality,

·       Theft,

·       Murder,

·       Adultery,

·       Greed,

·       Wickedness,

·       Deceit,

·       Lustful desire,

·       Envy,

·       Slander,

·       Pride

·       And foolishness.

·       All these vile things come from within; They are what defile you.”

So, let me ask you:

If I was struggling with the Sin of LUST

·       And I plucked out one of my eyes,

·       DO you think that would that stop my Lusting?

·       Most likely NOT!

But what about if I plucked both of them out!

·       Do you think that would stop me from LUSTING?

No, because it is from within us,

·       Out of a person’s heart,

·       That is where the evil lives.

What about my hands?

·       If I stole things

·       Or if I murder people,

·       By cutting off a hand or two, would that stop me?

Can We Fix our hearts

·       By removing parts of our body.

So, what is going on with God’s Words today?

·       Why did Jesus mention the Hands, the Feet, and the Eyes?

·       Why Those Parts?

Think about this:

·       Doesn’t The HANDS represent the things that we do.

o  Doesn’t The HANDS represent the things that we CHOOSE to DO?

·       And The FEET, They represent the places where we GO.

o  The FEET represent the places that we CHOOSE to GO.

·       And The EYES, the Windows to the soul, Don’t they represent the things that we see and TAKE IN?

o  The EYES represent things that we CHOOSE to SEE.

The Hands, Feet and Eyes are parts of us

·       Which are very noticeable to others

o  And by how we use them,

§  They can either steer people to

·       Or away from God.

And this brings us to the last 2 verses of today’s Scripture

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.”

⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire.

What does Salted with Fire Mean?

I believe by looking at this in 2 parts.

·       Salt and then Fire

As described within the Old Testament,

·       There is a Type of bond which is called the Covenant of Salt and it is mentioned in 3 different location in the Bible.

The 1^st. Leviticus 2:13 “And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.”

In this reading,

·       Offerings were to be seasoned with salt,

·       Which identified them as being the

·       “Salt of the Covenant”.

The 2^nd is, Numbers 18:19 “Yes, I am giving you all these holy offerings that they people of Israel bring to the Lord. They are for you and your sons and daughters, to be eaten as your permanent share. This is an eternal and unbreakable covenant (of salt) between the Lord and you, and it also applies to your descendants.”

This verse is in reference to the establishment of the Aaronic (A-ron-ic) Priesthood.

Then the 3^rd is found in 2 Chronicles 13:5 “Don’t you realize that the Lord, the God of Israel, made a lasting covenant of salt with David, giving him and his descendants the thrown of Israel forever?”

In this verse, it is in reference to the establishment of the Davidic dynasty.

In these 3 verses, it is talking about a Covenant of Salt.

·       I believe the significance of salt lies in the “functions of salt” within a Covenant meal.

A Covenant of Salt is a Biblical phrase for a two-way agreement,

·       The sacredness of which was symbolized by salt.

As salt was regarded as a necessary

·       Ingredient of the daily food,

·       As well as all of the sacrifices offered to Yahweh,

·       It became an easy step

·       To the very close connection

·       Between salt and covenant-making.

When men are together, they became friends.

·       “There is salt between us”;

·       “He has eaten of my salt”.

This means the partaking of hospitality

·       Which cemented their friendship.

OK - That is the Salt Part.

Now for the Fire Part.

⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire.

For Fire, let’s go to 1 Corinthians 3:12-15.

“Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials-gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgement day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.”

Jesus is telling us that

·       If we have a relationship with Him,

·       If we have a covenant with Him,

·       There is salt between us,

·       We have a close connection to one another,

·       And by having that,

·       We will make it through the Judgement of Fire.

But if we are active in our relationship

·       If we are Salty in our relationship with Him

·       Then we will do well when we go through the judgement of fire.

To have Salt is Good.

·       But Jesus is telling us to Stay Salty.

Not to only Have Salt in ourselves

·       But also, between each other as well.

We are to help one another to keep our saltiness salty.

And It is within the church,

·       Within the People of the church

·       Within the body of believers

·       That is where we are made strong and salty.

God Loves us to be servants of His.

For us to belong to Him alone.

And the only way we can do this is to stay Salty. Salty in His Word.

Amen