Good evening.
It's good to see everyone here this evening.
Take your Bibles and open them to the book of Mark, if you will.
We are in Mark chapter 9.
We're down to about verse 38, which is where we'll be picking up this evening.
Mark chapter 9 verse 38.
Alright, let's begin with a word of prayer.
Gracious Father in heaven, we come before your throne grateful for the day you've blessed us with, for the bountiful gifts that you have granted to us.
We're grateful for all the opportunities that you place before us each and every day to be able to serve you, to be able to work and to labor, to provide for those who are under our
responsibility and under our care, to provide the things needed by those who are in need.
Lord, we are grateful for your gracious mercy and your loving kindness.
We're grateful for the sun that you place in the sky and the rain and the nourishment that it provides the ground.
We're grateful for all that you do for us, that we might be able to be sustained in our lives.
But most especially, we're grateful for your son who came and died on the cross for our sins.
We might have the hope of eternal life.
We're grateful for the gospel message which we are able to implant into our hearts and into our minds and into our lives that we might grow closer to you and know better how to
serve you faithfully in fear and reverence.
Lord, we ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
And all this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Mark writes chapter 9 verse 38, now John answered him saying, teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he does not
follow us.
When John says this, first of all, which
which John should we likely understand is the one being talked about here since there's multiple Johns in the text.
Which John?
There's John the Baptist, there's John the Apostle, there's...
This would likely be John, the brother of James, the apostle, uh one of the apostles.
right.
Well, hello Miller family.
There is a ladies class down the hall if the ladies want to join it down the hall on the left, uh but you're welcome to be in here as well.
All right, so verse 39, or sorry, here in verse 38 and Mark 9, uh John approaches Jesus and says, we did this.
You'll notice he's not saying, Lord, do you want us to do this?
He says, we did this.
But Jesus said, do not forbid him.
For no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterwards speak evil of me.
Jesus is telling John and the other apostles how they are to treat those who do things in the name of Jesus but aren't among the twelve.
Were there ever any followers of Jesus who desired to be an apostle or disciple but were not chosen by Christ to be one?
Yes.
We read over in Luke chapter 9 about individuals who came to Jesus and said, I will follow you.
They're saying, make me one of your disciples.
Make me one of your apostles.
I'll be like them.
And there are multiple examples of individuals who desired that and Jesus turned them down.
Are there those who Jesus sent out in addition to the apostles?
All right, what example do we have of that?
Alright, when he sends out the 70 in groups of two.
Well, if you only have 12 apostles, you can't possibly make 12 into 70, unless you're doing a loaves and fish thing.
So, the math doesn't work.
So, clearly there were those who went out teaching who were not of the apostles.
This individual is one who clearly is aware of Jesus, believes that Jesus is the Messiah, is teaching in His name, and performs a miracle in His name, which means that He got the
authority and the ability to perform that miracle from who?
from God and most likely directly from Jesus.
but he's not one of the 12.
Okay?
He is not of their number.
Now, what is the discussion that they had just been having in the text, in the record, amongst themselves?
Who'd be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Who'd be the greatest fall?
So we're in a context where Jesus is already dealing with them about their attitudes towards their authority.
And John comes along and says, we forbid this individual over here from doing this.
And Jesus said, don't do that again.
You do not have the...
authority that you took on yourself.
Now there are times in our lives where we think we know what the right thing is to do.
And we do it.
And we later find out from the person who actually has the authority that we were entirely and completely wrong about the decision that we made.
And they...
sometimes gently and sometimes aggressively inform us of how entirely wrong we were about our decision.
Jesus replies to John and says, do not forbid him.
For no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterwards speak evil of me.
For he who is not against us is on our side.
For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name,
because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward." When Jesus says, the person is doing this in my name, does that mean that Jesus
is discussing anyone who claims to follow Jesus, you just accept what they do?
No.
What is the idea
of in my name mean.
with my authority, okay?
When a messenger would arrive and they would arrive to someone and say, here is a message.
It is signed and sealed with the king's signet ring and it's closing messages in the name of King So-and-so.
That declaration is by the
authority of that individual, that king, that sovereign.
When a police officer might say, stop in the name of the law, he's saying, it's not my authority, it's the authority of the law that is commanding you to stop.
I am simply the enactor of that authority.
As a result of that, what Jesus is really indicating here is the apostles knew
the authority the individual had.
to do this.
They knew who gave him the ability to perform miracles and they still forbid him.
And Jesus said, you see someone acting on my behalf?
You see someone acting under my authority?
You don't forbid them.
You don't stop them.
And furthermore, he points out, that someone who's acting on his authority with his authority in his name is not going to immediately turn around and oppose him.
But then he goes on to say, for he who is not against us is on our side.
There are those who are of the mentality that there are no sides in religion.
Everything's just gray, you know?
There's no black and white.
It's just gray.
Jesus was not of that opinion.
Jesus was extremely opposite of that opinion because Jesus says there is our side and not our side.
There is those who are under my authority and under my rule and in agreement with God, and then there is everyone else.
what Jesus is discussing and pointing out is here's someone who could have been a benefit to us.
He could have been an asset to us.
He could have been beneficial to us.
He could have reached people we would have never, never met.
And you told him to stop.
What you have in this discussion is an emphasis on the fact that even with the apostles, they were not to grab authority over everything that the followers of Christ did.
and get, they didn't get to become the final decision makers on what everybody did.
They weren't to be the arbiters of every person's actions when it came to those who acted on behalf of the authority of Christ.
Now, Jesus illustrates that with this example.
He says, for whosoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ, surely I say to you he will by no means lose his reward.
Here is a person
who sees that they are the apostles or someone else, if we take the concept further down in the implication.
If the apostles, here they are, they're laboring on behalf of Christ.
They belong to Christ and someone says, because you belong to Christ, accept this.
Not because of who you are, not because of what you've done, but because of what...
who Christ is because of what He's done.
Jesus said, not only are you to accept it, there's a reward that belongs to that person.
And the apostles neither have permission to tell that person not to act on behalf of Christ.
They also don't have any authority over whether or not there's a reward for the person who acts on behalf of Christ.
Jesus, in this entire context, is dealing with the limits of their authority.
specifically because they are anxious to exceed their authority.
Now, verse 42, he goes back to the discussion he entered into in verse 37 before John presents this discussion about the one who they forbid.
He says, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble?
it would be better for him that a millstone were hung around his neck and that he were thrown into the sea." Now, if you go back to verse 37 and verse 36, who has Jesus placed
in his arms and is in the midst of the apostles with?
A child.
But is he really in this verse still in the context of talking about a little child?
He's talking about those who are not those with authority and power.
They are not those who have position.
What is the discussion?
Our position in the kingdom, our authority in the kingdom.
And here comes someone who's just, uh we'll use the modern idea, they're just an ordinary Christian.
They're not an apostle.
They're not one who walked with the Lord.
They're not one who has been given
miraculous ability or direct authority from God, they're just an ordinary disciple.
And Jesus said as he's using the child as the example, and by the way we talked about last Wednesday, the point of the child.
It's not the fact that it's a child.
It's the fact that the child has nothing to offer by way of position, authority, prominence.
The child has nothing to offer someone who is a dignitary, an authority.
The child doesn't come like an ambassador from a foreign nation with gifts and offerings to the second or the third in the kingdom offering them
these things.
See, the discussion that we're in is dealing with a group of people, the apostles, who are still thinking of the kingdom in physical terms.
They're thinking, I'm going to have my little fiefdom and I'm going to sit in a royal throne and people are going to come and approach me and I'm going to determine whether
they get to do X or they get to do Y, whether they get to even approach my throne.
And Jesus takes a little child who has no position, no authority, no prominence, no gifts, no offerings, nothing.
He's just a child.
and instructs them, you receive a child, my name.
When you receive the child, you've received me.
John mentions this individual who's been performing miracles and he wasn't of them and Jesus' point is, when you received him, as you should have received him and you didn't,
you would have received me.
When someone brings you a cup of water in my name,
and they do good to you.
Having done it, they received me when they received you.
And now he says, now one of these little ones, one of these people of insignificance who have nothing to offer, who have no gifts to impart to you in your mind, great authority in
the kingdom.
They're not an ambassador, they're not a prominent individual, they're not a person of position or authority, they don't have any great entourage to enter in your presence with.
He says, whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to stumble.
It would be better for him that a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
Jesus says, you be careful what you do with my people.
turn over to Romans chapter 12.
you
I'm sorry, Romans chapter 14.
Romans chapter 14, Paul in writing concerning some of the issues between the Jews and the Gentiles says, receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful
things.
For one believes that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
This deals with the Jewish uh background of individuals who were Christians now, but they came out of a Jewish society where they didn't eat certain unclean meats.
And so he says here's one individual who they just determined, listen, I'm not going eat anything but vegetables.
I'm not going eat meat at all.
For avoiding, violating the law.
eh He says, let not him who eats despise him who does not eat.
And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats for God has received him.
Who are you to judge another's servant?
To his own master he stands or falls.
Indeed he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand." Paul is making the same point that Jesus is making in this text as he points out, he says, you do not cause a
brother to stumble.
He's not your servant.
He belongs to the Lord.
Go down to the end of this, verse 9 uh of chapter 14, for to this end Christ died and rose again and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
But why do you judge your brother or why do you show contempt for your brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written, as I live, the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.
Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.
Here.
Jesus is emphasizing that through their actions, through the things that they were thinking of themselves as those with authority and power and the decisions that that would
lead to.
He says, you're going to destroy one of these little ones.
You're going to destroy one who is weak because you don't see them as valuable.
You don't see them as important.
And in actuality, what that whole disposition was going to lead to was the disciples being another version of the Pharisees and of the Old Testament religious leaders in Ezekiel's
day.
Not too long ago in our discussion of 1st Timothy, we went back as we were discussing elders and we introduced the shepherds of the Old Testament that Ezekiel condemns and how
Ezekiel points out that here were these shepherds, spiritual shepherds in Israel, and God condemned them because they didn't care for the weak, they didn't care for the sickly,
they didn't feed the sheep, they fed off of the sheep.
Jesus is making it clear, if you treat my little ones like they're there to be your pet things, or they're there to do service to you, or they're there to be being unimportant,
that you can lose them and not care?
He said, it's better off.
Millstone be hung about your neck and you be cast into the sea.
but then he goes into their actions towards themselves.
He says, if your hand, verse 43, 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 which shall never be quenched where the worm does not die.
and where the fire is not quenched.
Jesus is indicating that
Heaven's going to be filled with a bunch of people without limbs,
No?
The early Christian church wasn't filled with a bunch of people who had no hands?
They must have been sinless people then, right?
All right, well then what are we talking about?
All right, there you go.
Their disposition was they wanted to think about what they would be.
They wanted to argue about the authority they would have.
And sometime...
We need to be reminded that.
We are only valuable to God so long as we're doing His will.
and even they could be condemned to hell.
for a disciple.
to be reminded.
The fact that you're my disciple doesn't mean you can't stand judged and condemned to hell by God.
probably was a
significant moment.
in a discussion an employer and I had at one point because of things going on in the business.
That employer said to me, Aaron, it's important for everyone in this business to realize that no one in this business is above being replaced.
Everybody can be replaced.
His point was if you're not acting on behalf of the business, if you're not actually doing what's good for the business, if you're creating problems instead of solving problems,
then you'll be replaced by someone who will actually do the job.
and Jesus is pointing out to these disciples here they are worrying about who they're going to lord over while Jesus is calling them to worry about themselves.
Jesus is telling them you need to judge yourself.
And when you see something that does not align with my authority and with God's will, you need to remove it.
no matter how much it may hurt to remove it.
Ultimately.
it was going to hurt a lot.
because up until the very night of Jesus' the disciples would still be arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
and the removal of that pride was going to come in the form of the death of Jesus on the cross.
And in that event, you will find a separation amongst the disciples, 11 who remain faithful to Him and one who falls under the exact judgment that Jesus describes.
because the thing he was unwilling to extract out of his life was his love of money.
That was the thing that he said, that's too important to cut off.
And John will tell us of Judas in John's record of the Gospel, that Judas was the one who kept the bag.
We also learn in the text that Judas had his hand in the bag.
Judas was stealing from the money that was there to provide for Jesus and the apostles.
And his love of money was the thing he was unwilling to separate himself from and resulted in his judgment.
Turn over to John 17.
that very night as Jesus is praying.
We read beginning in verse 8 of John 17, for I have given to them the words which you have given to me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from
you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
And all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
I am no longer in the world."
but these are in the world and I come to you.
Holy Father, keep them through your name, those whom you have given to me, that they may be one as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name.
Those who you gave me I have kept and none of them is lost except the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled."
But now I come to you and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
not just a few moments ago in the upper room.
They're still arguing about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom.
And now here you are at the end of the night and they're about to leave the room and go to Gethsemane.
Judas is already gone.
and those that remain, Jesus says, I've kept them in your name.
But now, God the Father, I'm turning that responsibility back over to you, because I won't be here anymore.
But I'm praying that they be one as you and I are one.
these same apostles that are continually through this process infighting about who's going to be the greatest, they're ultimately going to end up
working as a unit.
all together, not worried about who's going to be the greatest, not caring at all who's going to be the greatest.
but the sacrifice that's going to get them there is the life of Christ.
He says, 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.
Is there any figurative language in here?
Jeff, is there any figurative language in here?
Is the hand literal?
The hand is not literal.
Is the worm literal?
No.
Okay.
Is there figurative language in here?
Yes.
This is a quotation from Isaiah.
Jesus is using Isaiah's language of God's judgment.
Now in Isaiah's day, Isaiah is painting a picture of the return to Jerusalem and of a defeat so overwhelming by God on behalf of his people that God would vanquish his enemies
to such a degree that they would never stop piling up the bodies of the enemies of God.
When does the worm never die?
The worm never dies when there's always something decomposing to eat.
And the point from Isaiah is, God's enemies are going to be judged and destroyed in such a way, to such a completeness, that the worms are going to have an everlasting feast.
Okay.
Now, Jesus just said, if you have to take your own hand off to avoid going to hell, you do it.
And as He quotes this, He's drawing forward Isaiah's language about the fact that when God judges,
He judges all His enemies.
And when He judges, He doesn't miss any, even if they've been parading around as His friends, even if they've been claiming to be His apostles.
God doesn't fail to judge, and God judges entirely.
but also notice that Jesus makes it clear in this passage and many others that God judges eternally.
Turn over to Matthew chapter 25.
Matthew chapter 25 beginning in verse 45, then he will answer them saying, Jesus here picturing in an example the judgment on the final day, he says, then he will answer, the
king will answer, the son of man will answer them saying, assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
You know what?
He just mentioned the least of these again, didn't he?
Sounds a lot like these little ones, doesn't it?
Well, let's go back.
He says, earlier on, when the Son of Man, verse 31, comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
All the nations will be gathered before Him.
He will separate them one from another as the shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
And He will set the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left.
Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me..." What did he just mention in Mark chapter 9?
An individual who...
is an insignificant individual doing on behalf of someone simply because they belong to Christ.
They give a drink of water in my name.
They see a need and they fulfill the need.
He says in much, he said, was a stranger and you took me in.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came to me.
Then the righteous will answer to him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothed you?
Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?
Then the king will answer and say to them, surely I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these.
My brethren, you did it to me.
What did Jesus just taught them?
When you receive the little child, you receive me.
When you receive the least of these in my name, you receive me.
He's teaching the same thing.
He then goes on to say, and then he will say to those, verse 41 on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed and everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food.
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.
I was a stranger and you did not take me in.
Naked and you did not clothe me.
Sick and in prison and you did not visit me.
Then they will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?
Then he will answer them saying, Assuredly, I say to you in as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." Now notice verse 46.
and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Now the King James translators do a disservice to this passage in my opinion for the sake of not being redundant likely because the word everlasting which some think well that's
kind of unending right but it's not on equal terms with eternal.
For instance, a soul that didn't exist eternally, but is brought into existence might exist everlastingly.
Didn't have a beginning or had a beginning but didn't have an end.
So that's everlasting, but it's not eternal.
God's eternal, no end, no beginning.
And as a result of whatever reason they chose to not translate this the same way twice, there's confusion in this passage.
Because the word for everlasting in this verse is the same word for eternal in this verse.
They should have been translated the same way.
Why is that important?
Because for someone to come along and say, well, the punishment isn't equal
in duration with the everlasting life or with eternal life, they actually have argued against themselves.
Because he uses the same word to describe the punishment and the life.
So if you want a limited duration punishment, you get a limited duration life in the passage.
Jesus taught that God not only does not miss his enemies and emphasizes that from Isaiah's quote, that God is going to completely judge his enemies, but Jesus also teaches the
eternal nature of God's equally with the eternal nature of God's
reward.
So he says, verse 45, if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter life lame rather than having 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, it out.
for 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 the fire is not
quenched." You think Jesus is trying to make a point from that verse?
He's just quoted it three times.
for everyone, verse 49, 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 who?
with one another.
Jesus is making a very clear point to the apostles.
How they behave toward one another would affect their eternal outcome.
How they behaved toward little ones who are insignificant in view of their authority in the kingdom.
would affect their eternal outcome.
How they behaved towards those around them is how they behave toward Christ.
And how you behave towards the King affects your judgment.
That's a lesson we all need to remember and we need to learn.
Any comments or questions as we close?
If not, thank you for your time.