Mark 9:42-50
Passage Mark 9:42-50
Speaker Ben Tanner
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42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’
49 Everyone will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.
So the reading still in Mark 9 from verse 42 is on page 1013.
Causing to stumble. If anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck. They were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell where the fire never goes out.
And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them do not die and the fire is not quenched. Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with each other. This is the word of the Lord.
Thank you so much, Catherine, for reading that. Please do. Make sure you've got your Bibles open. There are some sermons that, when you're preparing them, weigh heavily on you throughout the week. This is one of them.
So make sure that your Bible's open so you can see what God is saying to you in these words. And let me lead us in another prayer. Father God, I pray that as we look at these difficult words, would you show us Jesus? And in showing us Jesus and hearing his voice, would that change the way that we live? For I ask it for his name's sake.
Amen. I should say, if this is your first time with us or if you're fairly new to being with us, sometimes people come to church and they kind of expect church to be all about sort of hell fire and brimstone. And when we're not talking about hell, we're talking about sex. If that's your expectation of church, let me tell you, this is actually the first time that I've spoken directly on this since I arrived here@TOTLEY 2 and a half years ago. Now, I'm not saying that because I want to apologise for it, but I'm saying that because what we want to do is we want to follow what Jesus talks about as we go through the Scriptures.
And so we're in this section of Mark where Jesus has been teaching us about what it means for him to be the Messiah. That's the Bible name for the Promised King who was sent to come and save his people. And we saw a few weeks ago that he's the Messiah who's not come to be this sort of military dictator, but rather he's come to suffer and to die, to give his life for his people. And that means that his people are then those who. Who follow in his footsteps, who take up our cross and deny ourselves and follow him.
And then he taught us about who he is as the Messiah. He shone with the very glory of God, the God who by definition is love, the God who throughout the Old Testament has pursued and followed after a people to pull them to himself in love. Jesus shone with that glory. And we saw then that to know him as the God who is the Messiah means that we listen to him. We don't tell him how to be, but we listen to who he says he is.
Then we saw him with this child, this child who was in this hopeless situation and nobody could help him, nobody but Jesus. And we saw that we're a bit like that child, hopeless. And we need to depend on Jesus. And last week, beautifully, we saw him speaking about what it meant for him to be the Messiah, the Servant of all. And that means that then his followers, those who are following after him, need to embody that humble welcome of all.
And we saw that in last week's passage. And so it might surprise us slightly then when he begins to turn his attention to things of eternal reality. On 11 December 1984, there were some police officers on the M25 and they were seen picking up cones, traffic cones, and throwing them at cars that were travelling at high speed down the motorway. Now, admittedly, people had all sorts of eyebrows raised. These are police officers, these are traffic officers.
They're there to make things safer, aren't they? What on earth are they doing? It doesn't seem in line with their character. Maybe you feel that when you see this Jesus, he's just taken a child in his arms, this Jesus who's welcomed the outcast, who's loved the poor and the needy. And he says, verse 42, if anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone, literally a millstone that it would take a donkey to push a large millstone, were tied around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, for it's better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell where the fire never goes out. Jesus Here speaks and he speaks of an eternal reality. He says there is a fate that is worse than death. There's a fate that's worse than having a millstone drag you to the bottom of the sea. Jesus speaks of a place called hell.
Actually, Jesus speaks more of hell than anybody else in the Bible and he does so because he doesn't want us to go there. You see, the Bible is clear and Jesus is clear that we have a God who cares deeply about justice. And therefore it is appointed that humans are to die once and then face judgement. Now, it might be that you're here and actually you have received from the hands of others harsh treatments or abuse or hurt. And the knowledge that you have a God who takes justice very seriously in is actually a real comfort to you today, maybe especially in light of all that's going on in the Church of England today.
Knowing that there is a God who takes sin seriously, who will bring about justice, is actually a really important thing for you. That people don't escape justice through death. Those who have died and not being brought to justice are going to be brought to justice. Maybe that means a lot to you, but. But maybe this is also really hard to hear because Jesus, he speaks of how the Bible speaks of it being like being cut off from all of the goodness of God.
Jesus talks of it here as being like fire that doesn't go out. He quotes from the prophet Isaiah, the worms that eat them do not die and the fire is not quenched. Jesus doesn't mince his words. Some of you will know when he uses the word hell, he actually uses the word Gehenna. It's probably there at the bottom of your as a little subscript.
Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, it had different names, was a place, it was a place that was next to Jerusalem. And in the Old Testament, God's people, they got enticed by these kind of demonic fake gods, BAAL and Chemosh. And what they began to do is they began to follow their practises. And so it became normal in this little valley for people to take their own children and to burn them alive. I mean, it was horrendous, horrific stuff.
And the Bible's absolutely plain and clear, that's always, always wrong. And so God brought forward this king of Israel, he was called Josiah. And Josiah, he read scripture, he said, this is awful and I need to stop this practise. And so what he did is he tore down the place where that was going on and he made it into a latrine so that kind of practise couldn't go on again. And over time it became a rubbish dump and a place where refuge was put.
There's this valley called Gehenna, and often there would be fires of burning rubbish and burning fuel that came off rubbish that was there. And what Jesus does is he says, look, this is so horrific that what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a visual image of it. In a way, a bit like how Jesus gave us a little snapshot, a little thumbnail of his glory at the top of the mountain when he shone forth with the very radiance of God. He says, this Gehenna is just a picture, a picture of this place called hell. If you've seen images coming out of Gaza, or if you've seen some of the images of the aftermath of the fires in Los Angeles, these small images that give us just a hint of the horrendousness of this place.
And this is a place, we're told, where the fire doesn't go out and the worms do not die. This is not a momentary thing. This is a place that is a place of punishment. Now, I'm not enjoying talking about this. I'm sure you're not enjoying hearing about it.
Do you know, I don't think Jesus enjoys talking about this, but he does so, because if this place exists, it's vitally important we know about it, isn't it? Within our lifetime, one of the royal princesses went to a cathedral and it's a true story, I won't say which cathedral, but she went and she spoke to the dean, which is like the vicar of the cathedral after the service. And she said, is it true, Dean, that there is a place called hell? To which the dean replied, your Highness, the Scriptures say so. Christian people have always believed so.
The Church of England confesses so. To which she responded, then in God's name, why did you not tell us so? If this place exists, we need to hear of it, don't we? And Jesus tells us of it because he longs that we don't go there. In fact, more than that, he shows that by knowing about will change our lifestyle.
Look at verse 49 with me. Everyone will be salted with fire. What on earth does Jesus mean by that? He's using a metaphor from the Old Testament, where they had animal sacrifices and they had salt, and the salt kind of purified the animal sacrifice. It's as if Jesus is saying, look, knowing that we have a God who will bring about justice in the end means that that is going to salt us.
It's going to purify us in the here and now. If anything, it means that we're going to be really careful about causing those who believe in Jesus to stumble. Right? It means Jesus says that if our hands or our feet or our eyes are causing us to stumble, then we'll cut them off. See, knowing that we have a God who takes justice seriously changes how we live.
Now, I hope I never live under a dictator, but if I do, then I want to live under a dictator who understands that one day they will face justice. Just think, if Hitler knew when he pulled that trigger that he wasn't escaping justice but walking straight into the arms of it, would that not have changed how he lived beforehand?
So how does it change how we live beforehand? Jesus talks about hands and feet and eyes, and in doing so, he's speaking about the fact that God made us and he created us as embodied people with bodily organs that are meant to worship him and to serve other people. He gave us hands to serve other people, eyes to behold the beauty of his creation, feet to go and take his good news to people. And yet, what do we do? We often they cause us to stumble.
We say, God, you've given me great hands. But you know what? These hands make wonderful fists. God, you've given me great hands. But instead of serving others with them, I'm going to serve myself.
I will touch what I want. I will take what I want. I will have what I want. These eyes, I will look at whatever I want. I will take in whatever I'd like, whatever serves me at my feet.
Yeah, they might go and help somebody when I want them to, but they'll also take me to places that will serve myself and not others.
And so Jesus says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Now, just as Jesus is speaking metaphorically about Gehenna being hell, here he's speaking metaphorically about cutting off our hands and our feet. That's why you don't see lots of blind Christians who don't have hands or feet. You see, the rest of the Bible is clear about that. Jesus is not talking about physically cutting off your hand or your feet.
He's talking about something far more inconvenient. When I was at Bible College, I had a friend, and in our first year, I noticed he literally wrote out his essays by hand. Every single essay. And when he made a mistake, he would take it and he would redraft it and write it all again. He used to rely on us to tell him when a lecture had changed place because he had a phone, but it was one of those Nokia phones.
And I remember I chatted to him, he was a younger guy, and I said, why do you hate technology? He said, I don't. I love technology. It's great. I used to have an iPhone, I used to have a laptop.
But I also was addicted to pornography. And I knew that if I came to university with a laptop and an iPhone that I didn't have the self control to not do that. And so, as inconvenient as it is to me, I've cut that off and I'm not going to get a laptop or a phone until I'm able to do so more helpfully.
See, knowing that we have a God who is going to bring about justice meant that he took sin really seriously. I remember hearing a story, I don't know if it's apocryphal or real, of the person who bought a snake.
And snake had this kind of cute, cute feature, cute thing. It used to, at night kind of escape from its cage tank. Whatever you keep snakes in, if you keep them in a cage, they probably do escape, don't they? Anyway, escape from its tank. And they woke up and they found the snake next to them in bed.
And they thought, oh, now if you're the kind of person who gets a snake for a pet, that probably freaks you out less than it evidently freaks me out. But they used to find it there and they're like, oh, is it that the snake's not warm enough? Do I need to get more bedding? What's going on? And they went back and they spoke with the expert they bought it from, and the expert's face dropped and they said, you need to get rid of that snake.
You need to get rid of it. Because as it lies there next to you, what it's doing is it's measuring you.
And what it will do when it gets large enough is it will wrap itself around you and it will squeeze you until you cannot breathe and then it plans to eat you.
Christian, where are you living with snakes in your bed? Where is it that you have got areas of sin in your life? You just think acute or. Okay, now don't let your inner lawyer confuse you here. We all know of people who were walking with Jesus for many years who now are nowhere.
Where is it that you are being challenged even today, that you need to cut out that area of your life?
Maybe it's that toxic environment. Maybe it's even a toxic environment at work and as you walk in there you feel yourself change and just become a person you don't recognise. You feel that anger or that bitterness or that hard nosedness come out and you know that it's not doing any good for you and maybe actually it's going to be really inconvenient but maybe actually if we can't change it, it means leaving, taking a pay cut. Maybe it's that relationship that is just wrong and you know, actually I need to cut this out. It's leading me to a place of bitterness or of sin.
Maybe it's that reputation that you have, you know, the reputation that says that person has always got the most tidy and clean and nice and ordered house, a bit like the vicarage. But maybe you have that sense and as people come in it means a lot to you, they go, oh, this house is always lovely. And in order to maintain that, what it means is that you get up and you maybe take the kids to school or go to work and you get back and you just sort and clean and tidy and do the washing and sort it all out and, and actually you don't ever get any time with the Lord and you would never ever say it out loud, but your diary says it really loudly that you prioritise that reputation above your relationship with God.
Where is it that we need to cut out an area? Where's the snake in your bed?
Jesus says in verse 50, salt's good, but if it loses its saltiness, how will we make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with one another. If this salt, this recognising that God is going to bring about justice and judgement one day, if I truly believe that, then I need to have salt among myself. Not that I'm judging people around me, but that I'm bringing about their purity and my own purity by being with them. What do I mean?
I mean if you go along to your growth group this week, do your growth group know where the snakes are in your bed? Do they know those areas that you are trying to cut off? Is it that you'll go on Tuesday and they will say, I know because we've been praying for this, that you are really battling with pride at the moment. I know that that's a battle that's going on and I know that you had that big presentation at work yesterday and everyone's going to have told you, well done. Can I be praying for you with this?
Do your growth group know that you are addicted to social media? Do they pick up and say, I Know we've been praying for you with this. I happened to be on Facebook and I saw that you were on there seven times on Saturday. Can we talk about that? Can we pray together?
Not judging one another, but allowing one another the keys to say, help me get these snakes out of my bed. Is your growth group the kind of growth group that when it gets a bit too personal, you know, talking about where you're struggling, you go, oh, dash, we don't talk about that here. Jesus says, have salt among yourselves. If we have a God who takes sin seriously, if judgement is a true thing, thing, then knowing about it will change our lifestyle, won't it? But there is a problem.
There's a problem as we look at a passage like this because frankly, we know that we don't have enough hands to cut off to stop us from sinning or enough feet to cut off to cause us to stop sinning, or enough eyes to pluck out. We know that, don't we? If the result of stumbling is to be in danger of this judgement, if the result of causing others to stumble is to be in danger of this judgement, then we're in a really, really difficult place, aren't we? And yet we've got to remember where Jesus is saying this. Remember that we're in a section of Mark where Jesus again and again and again has talked about the fact that he is going to the cross, that he is going to be suffer and die and be rejected and on the third day rise again.
Remember, we're at a place where Jesus has said, look, you cannot do this on your own. You need me. You need to depend on me. You need to listen to me. You need to take up your cross because I have taken up mine.
You see, only a few weeks, only a couple of chapters after this bit of the Bible, we will see Jesus there on the cross. And when Jesus goes onto the cross, as he is nailed there, there, he takes the burden of my sin and your sin. There as he is nailed to the cross, he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There he takes the separation that I deserve. The separation that you deserve.
There as Jesus dies, he takes the very weight of sin upon his soul. If you like. The millstone that should be tied around my neck for causing others to stumble. The millstone that should be tied around your neck is spiritually tied around his neck and drags him to the very pit of hell. You see, Jesus takes the hell that I deserve.
That you deserve.
How much must this Jesus love you that he would talk unblinkingly of how awful this judgement is, knowing that he was going to go through it in order that you don't have to.
How deep his love for you that he would endure your hell.
So what? On the 11th of December 1984, it was a foggy morning on the M25. There was a. A lorry and as it was driving down the M25, it crashed. The emergency lights all came on.
Warning cars, the police were called, but the cars ignored the emergency warnings and car after car after car ploughed into that lorry.
Police who arrived started running back up the M25 desperately trying to flag down cars, saying stop, stop. And one police officer recounts the time with tears in his eyes as he saw the cars ignoring him and only a few seconds later heard the crumple of metal upon metal. In desperation, the police officer started picking up traffic cones and throwing them at cars, desperate to try to avoid where they were going.
My friends, Jesus, Jesus picks up the cones and is throwing them at the car today because he cannot, he does not want you to face this judgement. It may be that you're a Christian here today and you are, you are happy with sin. The snake is in your bed and Jesus is taking the cone. He's saying, this is a warning, this judgement is very real.
Where do you need to start making changes in your life today?
It might be that you're here and you would not call yourself a Christian and this is a hard passage to come and hear. I understand that, thank you for listening. But here's the thing. If you're hearing this today, Jesus is saying to you, you need to come to me, let me take the sit, let me take the hell that you deserve. And you might have all sorts of questions about that and there might still be things that you need to work through, but maybe today the traffic cone is right in front of and you need to come to accept this Jesus for yourself, even if you've still got questions.
So what I'm going to do as we conclude, I'm going to give us a moment and I'm going to pray a prayer. It's a prayer that we can all pray. I'm going to read it to you and then I'm going to pray it line by line. And afterwards, I'm going to give just a bit of time for you to say that in your heart, not out loud, just say it in your head. Jesus knows the thoughts of our hearts.
The Bible tells us. And even if you've got questions, even if there's stuff that you need to still work through. Today is a day when you need Jesus to take the hell that you deserve. He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In order that you can say my God, my God, how deeply have you loved me so this is the prayer I'm going to pray.
Jesus, I admit that I use my hands and my eyes and my feet for my own gain. I live as if I am the boss of my life. But I believe that when you died, you took my sin on the cross and through your sacrifice I am forgiven. Today I commit to following you, to cutting the sin out of my life, to living with you as my king. By your Holy Spirit, help me to know I am forgiven and to live as your beloved child.
Amen. So I'll say that just line by line. If you want to say it, please just say it quietly in your heart after me.
Jesus, I admit that I use my hands, my my eyes and my feet for my own gain.
I live as if I am the boss of my life.
But I believe that when you died, you took my sin on the cross and through your sacrifice, I am forgiven.
Today I commit to following you, to trying to cut the sin out of my life and to living with you as my king.
By your Holy Spirit, help me to know I am forgiven and to live as your beloved child.
Amen.
Friends, in a moment we're going to sing of a song who, O Lord, Could Save Themselves. But as we're doing that, if you prayed that prayer today, please, can I encourage you? Please let somebody know. Why not join the prayer ministry team at the front? They would love to pray for you.
We've got a gift that we'd love to give you. Just a little book to help you as you start the Christian life. If you've still got questions, please, please, please grab the person who bought you or a friend or me would love to talk to you about this, but please, whatever you do, don't just ignore this and leave at the end of the service. It's far too serious for that.
But now why don't we stand if we're able, and we'll sing who O Lord Can Save Themselves?