[MUSIC] Who is Jesus? What is his mission? As the story moves and Jesus moves beyond the region of Galilee, the miraculous signs all point to his identity as the promised Messiah and King of God's kingdom. What miracle will happen next? What do the miracles mean? Will the disciples understand where all of this is leading? Let's pick up where we left off in this story. Well, hey everybody, if you've got your Bibles, go ahead and turn with me to Mark 9. We're going to close out that chapter together today. Now as you turn there, how many of you are familiar with this prank? It's a prank called the Post-It Note Prank. And the idea is simple. You pick your victim, maybe someone that you like or maybe someone you don't. Pick something that belongs to them and completely cover it with Post-It notes. Now, at first glance, it's a funny, harmless prank. But the catch is, if the Post-It notes are left on too long in a compromising temperature, it can leave a nasty, sticky residue that becomes a huge challenge to get off. Not to mention, it becomes a major inconvenience and a setback on the day of the person pranked. And it will no doubt leave a lasting impact on them. For better or for worse, they may laugh or they may want to punch you in the face. Now, it's a stretch, but I needed an open illustration. I want to suggest that in some strange way, our discipleship is kind of like this prank. Too often we think how we choose to live is harmless and maybe even funny to others, but we're completely unaware of the hard to get off sticky residue that we leave behind at times. We're completely unaware of the major inconveniences and setbacks of our actions and how we've laughed a lasting negative impact on a person. Too often we're just not thinking about the effects of our Christian life. In the last couple of weeks, we've sort of bumped up against this with several discipleship moments that have ended in failure. Moments when the disciples respond or act in a certain way only to be corrected and then coached by Jesus. For example, last week, they got into a debate about which one of them is the greatest. I mean, come on, guys, is that what we're really arguing about at this point? So throughout chapters eight and nine, Jesus has felt the necessity of preparing his disciples for their soon-to-come calling. As he eyeballs Jerusalem and all that's about to come for him and eventually them, he feels the weight of teaching them about the importance of true, healthy and authentic discipleship. And today is no different. Continuing this dialogue with them, he's about to say some, honestly, some real honest and hard things about discipleship because he wants them to be ready. In fact, I'm going to call today's message the gravity of discipleship, meaning that whether we're good, healthy disciples or bad, hypocritical disciples, there's a gravity that we all need to come to grips with. There is a residue that we will inevitably leave behind. So if the title of today's message is the gravity of discipleship, then the big idea for today is this write it down, discipleship requires diligence. Diligence is the ability to show care and conscientiousness and how we live, work, learn and play so that those around us are positively moved towards Jesus. I'd say that diligence is really at the heart of each one of the dream disciple markers that we're walking together towards as a church. We'll need diligence to influence the environments that we're embedded in, to know how to respond in savvy ways, to love our friends and families with a new level of intentionality. We'll also need diligence to share our stories and compassionate and captivating ways. Diligence, in essence, is thinking before we act. Now, even though Jesus is about to say some pretty tense things, I want to suggest that the passage is perfect for helping us see exactly what Jesus cares about in our pursuit of that diligent discipleship. So let's hop into the tax and take a look at three things together today. You guys ready? All right, let's do it. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands and go to hell to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 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 where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire, salt is good. But if salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourself and be at peace with one another. Now I just want to point out that the last two times that I preached, the one on Father's Day and the one today, the Scottish guy for whatever reason was given the awkward passages. The get behind me, Satan, and if your hand and I causes you to sin, cut it off or gouge it out. I don't know what's up with that, but I promise I am a nice guy and I don't always ask to preach these intense passages. I do like to smile and laugh at times too. All right. You ready to jump in? Here's the first thing that we see Jesus caring about in the text. Jesus cares about our influence. He says, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." Now when Jesus speaks of not causing the little ones of these, or one of these little ones sorry, to sin or to stumble, he isn't necessarily talking about children. Although you could probably add them into, but he's rather talking about the ordinary believer, the regular laymen or women, those who are either young in their faith or don't necessarily hold any sort of leadership position, Christian leadership position, perhaps even those who aren't part of your inner Christian circle, because remember the context, right? These words are part of the same dialogue from last week where Jesus is responding to the situation of this independent exorcist. The guy who cast out the demon, but who was then, he wasn't necessarily part of the in crowd and was subsequently criticized by Peter. Do you remember the text? Let me read it real fast. It says, "John said to Jesus, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we try to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus says, 'Do not stop him. For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able to soon afterward to speak of evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us.'" Jesus is talking here to his disciples, remember, right? His leaders, those who are about to become the apostles of his church. And what are we seeing? We're seeing that he cares about their influence. He's trying to teach them about the gravity of their own discipleship and how their discipleship requires a significant level of diligence. Now this warning in verse 42 about the millstone definitely sounds sobering, right? But I actually believe it's designed to communicate just how precious every disciple is to Jesus, regardless of status, and the importance of not only hindering or hurting them or destroying their faith so that they can walk closer to Jesus. The Greek word used for sin here is this word, scandalizo, which means causing someone to stumble. It's this idea of essentially destroying someone's faith or causing them to fall away from God. And I think this can come in two forms, at least I've seen it work out in two ways as my time as a pastor and a believer. And so write these down. License or legalism? Here's what I mean. License says this, "I'm saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, therefore I'm free to act and behave any way I wish because Jesus has already paid for all of my sins. These individuals subsequently feel a sense of freedom to drink and eat and cost and act out and have sex when they want and how much they want with really no consequence because Jesus has paid it all. My life, my choice, Jesus dies so that I can be happy." Unfortunately, this approach has hurt so many onlookers. I mean, over the last decade alone, we have watched leader after leader fall and disqualify themselves from ministry because they believe that they had the license or entitlement to do as they please. Church, this is not sustainable when it's certainly not holy living, not to mention healthy Christian influence. Jesus doesn't just free us from sin. He freed us to a life of holiness where we have the responsibility not to lead or influence any young believer in a way that causes them to fall away from God or into sin. And if I'm honest, this is part of my story. As a young Christian teenage leader, I didn't make great choices. For a few years, I was not a great example. I was not in a good place. My character wasn't ready to hold the responsibilities that I had been given. And I probably confused and hurt a lot of believers in the process. I remember coming to a place of conviction and repentance where God gave me the opportunity. It was difficult, but God gave me the opportunity to publicly confess and to say sorry to many people, to ask for forgiveness and to choose a different discipleship path. And I tell you now, today as a 37 year old, I am so grateful for that moment of grace. Now, this isn't the road that I took, but I would say that the opposite side of the same pendulum swing, if you will, is equally as dangerous and it's called legalism. I'd also suggest that it's probably the mist and closer application of the passage, too. You see, it's easy for us to think about the obvious sins, right, that lead people away from our faith and our Western world and forget about the other side of the coin, legalism. This is where we become so rigid in our Christian, in our Christianity, where nothing goes. And there is no wiggle room for any type of error. You become this noisy gong, banging our Phariseeical drum over and over again, where no one can do anything right and everyone is exhausted around you and, unfortunately, typically those who are the closest to you end up just falling away from the faith altogether. Legalism might not show up as sexual sins, but it often looks like anger, constant judgment, and typically the abuse or the manipulation of power struggles. And I believe when we read Jesus' words here, that he wants us to read these with maybe both in mind for our culture, because in my mind, like I said, I think they're equally as dangerous. And that's what Jesus wants to see, is he describes the severity of such negative influences with this vivid imagery, a heavy millstone around the neck, thrown into the sea. Like, wow, remember when I called Jesus the king of awkward conversations? We're seeing it again here, right? And did you see that he also says that it's actually better? It's a better punishment for them too, assuming that the alternative punishment is standing unrepentant before the holy, just, and righteous God, having to give an answer for their choices. Hurling the sinner who abused and took advantage of their Christian influence into a watery grave is far better for them than facing the finality of God's wrath against such spiritual pride and abuse. I think it's safe to say that Jesus cares about our influence, right? It actually is kinder to say the hard thing at times rather than to remain silent. And this would have been a stark illustration for our first century Jew to hear. I mean, as a cultural rule, they feared the sea in regard to drowning as a crucible form of death. Jesus wants this powerful illustration of God's judgment against those who lead others astray through spiritual arrogance to underscore the seriousness of spiritual influence and responsibility within a community of believers. In church, we have a responsibility. So maybe take this moment in and of yourself right now to even write down a name of someone. Maybe it's a couple of names of people in your life that God has called you to spiritually influence, disciple, perhaps, and join me in this simple prayer. We pray and we just ask God, would you give us the grace and the diligence to lead them towards a healthy relationship with you, amen? Discipleship does indeed require diligence. And Jesus cares about our influence, but Jesus cares also about our integrity. That's point number two. In verse 43, he says, "And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." In verse 45, he says, "If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off." And in verse 47, "If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out." He says, "It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes and be thrown into hell where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." Okay, so if you didn't feel the gravity of discipleship yet, you probably do now. And again, I'm not sure why I got this passage, but here we go, right? Let's jump in. In these verses, we see Jesus shifting the focus. We shift into focus from simply avoiding actions that harm others to a deeper introspection on what endangers our own spiritual well-being, because Jesus cares about our integrity too. Now we'll call out the obvious, right? Does Jesus want us walking around, cutting off parts of our body, self mutilating ourselves towards spiritual holiness? I'm going to say a solid note, right? However, Jesus is continuing to use these shocking, hyperbolic metaphors to communicate the seriousness of anything, anything that would lead us away from God. I mean, I mean, I think it's fair to say that shock value is an effective communication tool to keep your listeners listening. Amen, right? I feel like we do it as parents all the time. Don't run with that in your mouth. Don't jump off that thing. You'll die. You'll choke. You'll rip your arm off. Right? We do it all the time as parents. Now, there are probably two cultural lenses that Jesus' disciples would have heard these sort of intense illustrations through. I want to walk you through them, okay? The first one is this. It's the Judaism lens, right? In Judaism, the body mutilation, except for circumcision, was super taboo. Some could say strictly forbidden, right? So the fact that Jesus is basically saying you do what you've got to do to keep your so safe and healthy would have been a huge eye opener for them. He's essentially saying your character and integrity matter to your spiritual health. And I feel like this was a key marker in Jesus' ministry, right? Constantly challenging people to consider their motives, not just their actions. Remember, I mean, they were living in a world that was surrounded by hypocritical leaders, kind of like we are today, Pharisees and Sadducees, men who like to pray on street corners so that they could be seen as holy and from everybody. But in secret, they were far from God, leaders who Jesus called whitewash tombs and broods of vipers. I mean, Jesus is clear here that you can't have one and not the other. He's telling us that it all matters, right? Even in your life is connected. Your hands and your heart, they're connected, right? What does scripture say? Out of the heart, the mouth speaks, right? It's a matter of integrity. So they would have heard first through this Judaism lens, but they also would have heard through the second lens. We're going to call it the Greek philosophy lens. You see this idea of connectedness that Jesus is talking about here would have rubbed against almost rebelled against the popular first century philosophical school of thought called Greek Platonism, right? Great Plato, as you know, was a philosopher who lived about three or four hundred years before Jesus showed up, right? During the silent years of Israel were God and where they didn't hear from God at all. Plato was a student of Socrates, and he was also a teacher of, who was also a teacher of Aristotle. Anyway, Greek Platonism was a school of thought that made the body and the material world inferior to the mind and the spirit. So yes, here again, Jesus is saying this isn't true. He's turning this cultural misinformation, this philosophical idea and practice upside down, and he's affirming that everything is indeed connected, that our physical actions, so there'd be sexual morality, financial integrity, the treatment of others, what we do with our hands and what we look at with our eyes or what we say with our mouth are actually all the reflection of our spiritual reality. That's why he says in verse 41, last week, that even simple acts like offering a cup of cold water, heavy, turnal significance, I mean, let's say it this way, you can't have Christianity on Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m., but not Monday at 3 p.m. The theologian James AdWords puts it this way, as important as hands, as important as eyes, hands, and feet are to us, or whatever else claims ultimate allegiance. They are not life. The kingdom of God is life, and nothing in this life should be allowed to prevent one from entering the kingdom. Everything can stand in the way of entering the kingdom of God. Now, some of you today know what that thing is in your life. I want you to hear me today, God brought you here to hear his words, to challenge you, and to give you a choice this morning, to leave it here. Don't take those, don't take it with you out the doors, all right? Surrender it to Jesus today. Or what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? Jesus is telling us that he cares about our integrity. He says in verse 47, "That it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes and be thrown into hell where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." The Greek word for hell here, in these verses is the word gehenna, right? This word was derived from the Hinnum Valley near Jerusalem, you see it in this map. This was a very, very dark place associated with things like human sacrifice, and later became a garbage dump symbolizing for the Jewish people, a place of divine wrath and punishment. And so Mark 948 is serving both as a warning and a summons to rid ourselves of whatever impedes our spiritual journey and to faithfully pursue the kingdom of God, for it alone is true life. Don't minimize that sin, don't brush it off, don't think that you'll fix your leadership or influence later, make the choice to tackle it today. Now, I do feel the need a little bit to quickly address the tension and the tightrope of perfection here, because it's easy to hear a warning like this and to automatically jump into panic mode, right? Am I saved? Right? I've lost my salvation. What's going on? I struggle with this sin. I keep getting angry. Gosh, I don't like this fire in brimstone Jesus. What's going on? The next thing that we know, we're throwing ourselves into this unrealistic, unhealthy framework of legalism that Jesus actually just warned us against in point one, where there's no wiggle room for error, sin, or mistakes, try hard, or try hard, or try hard, or it's a suffocating life. I want to bring you back to the title of the point two. Jesus cares about our integrity. And integrity is essentially your character in action. And character at its core is just really who you are when no one's watching. So understand here that Jesus is going after the hypocrite, not the honest, struggling believer. And they may at times feel like the same thing, right? And on the surface, they may even look like the same thing, but at the heart, at the center of it, the heart posture of the two respond totally different to sin. There's a gigantic difference between the person who wears holiness as a badge of honor beating it over the head of people while sinning in the dark and the honest person who humbly walks and even sometimes crawls towards the kingdom of God over all the rocks and bumps and temptations that life throws their way, but again, denying self. The struggle is real, church, but so is Jesus. And here he's telling us today that his prize is greater. Don't tuck your sin away, address it, confess it, and pursue the true life that he promises. It is the better life. It might not be the easy road, but it is the right one. Jesus cares about our influence. He cares about our integrity, and then lastly, Jesus cares about our investment. Look what he says in verse 49 in 50, "For or because everyone will be salted with fire, salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourself and be at peace with one another." Now, hands up if that sounds confusing, right? Now, as Jesus is talking about here, salted fire, and how does that fit into everything else that he's already said? Well, again, let me take a stab at it for you. I believe Jesus is turning a corner from warning towards exhortation and encouragement. Remember the context. He's attempting to teach his disciples, right? In these last two chapters, he's preparing to hand his ministry to them. He's prepping them for their soon-to-come calling as apostles. I want to suggest that these seemingly confusing concluding statements are actually rich with meaning and vision and show us poetically that Jesus cares about our investment in his kingdom. Fire and salt are powerful metaphors that point us back to the concept of diligence. They illustrate far as the intentionality found in the refining and preserving process of our discipleship journey with Jesus. As we know, fire illustrations in the Bible are often in reference to hell and the end destination of those who are outside of a relationship with God. Jesus has kind of already talked about that in the last two points, and here I believe he's making a shift. He's using the illustration of fire within the context of discipleship. Here in point three, I believe he's not talking about a fire of damnation, but rather one of purification. You see, in Leviticus 1, it tells us that when Israel burnt offerings, that they were to be entirely consumed by fire, to be considered purified by God. And so it's almost as if Jesus is saying the trials and tribulations of our discipleship journey are actually designed to purify us, that the choice to deny our self-serving pleasures, to walk away from our sinful desires, our unhealthy identity markers, our the temptation to abuse our influence and leadership is definitely the hard road. I mean, have you ever tried giving up an addiction or some unhealthy desire in you? It's not easy, but it is the road that tests us, this idea of scraping away the dross until the reflection of Jesus is the only thing that's left. I had two people in my life that just desired so badly to be lead pastors. And both of them, despite being warned, ended up achieving that title, but then losing it really, really quickly, because they weren't fit to lead. They had unhealthy desires, and because they weren't prepared to lay them down, they hurt a lot of people in the process, including myself. That Jesus here is saying these difficult choices are actually the things that we need to place on the altar as sacrifices to God. They are the investments, if you will, that you make in your discipleship towards Jesus and his incoming kingdom. They're not meant to destroy us, but rather to purify and refine us like fire does, making our faith genuine in our life's holy before God. That's what allows our diligent discipleship to remain salty, salty, fire. In the ancient world, salt was essential for preserving, especially food, because they didn't have things like fridges. And so Jesus here is saying, "I care about your influence, and I care about your integrity, because I care about your investment. Your investment in this world, it's crucial. You're the church. You're my plan A, and I'm calling you to be the preserving agents, the salt in this decaying world. Your very redeemed presence, your witness in your faithful living is designed to help prevent the moral and spiritual decay around you. Jesus is called to discipleship is all-encompassing. And today we see the gravity of it. It demands our diligence. It demands our whole life. We are to take up our cross, nurture the faith of others laying down our own shortcomings, and forsaking anothin that hinders our walk with Jesus. I can't help but think that this passage, as intense as it is, comes at such a wonderful time in the life of our church grace. As we lift our gaze slightly towards the horizon of the future of grace church, and all that we're about to step into together, we get to hear Jesus saying to us, "I care about your influence, Grace Church, I care about your integrity, and I care about your investment in my kingdom." And so as we respond in worship today, would we be ready to ask ourselves this very important question? What is holding you back from looking more like Jesus? God bless you, church.
