17 Jul Mark 23: Warning signs

Mark 9:30-50

³⁰ They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, ³¹ for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” ³² But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

³³ And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

³⁸ John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰ For the one who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

⁴² “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. ⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ 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. 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.’ 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.”

Two weeks ago, Eleana was not feeling well and we went to the Doctor. On the way to the Doctor, when I was driving, I noticed that there was something not right. The steer was a bit heavy. I stopped and checked the tyres. I found that one of the tyres was completely flat. Imagine if I ignore the “warning of heavy steer” and I did not check, it could cause us a bigger problem. And, sometimes, when we feel pain in our body is a good thing. It may be a warning for us to do a health check to prevent any bigger issues.

As we learn together from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has been giving us glimpses of the true character of Jesus Christ. Many times, we also found that Jesus gives strong warnings to their followers because His teaching is different to everything the world teaches. If we called ourselves true followers of Christ, let me tell you that we need to radically change the way we think. So often, it does not make sense from our limited perspective. This is exactly what happened to Disciples. They have their understanding of the messiah. They believe that Messiah is someone who comes to give Israel independence from the Roman Empire. The disciples still have that belief even after they saw all miracles that Jesus did. Therefore, when Jesus told them in verse 30 – “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” This is the response from the disciple – .” ³² But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask him. They watched Jesus heal sick people, cast out demons, calm the sea and walk on water but the disciples do not understand what Jesus means by being raised on the third day. Do you know why the disciples do not understand? Because they do not like what they hear. It does not fit with their understanding of the messiah.

This is the second time Jesus prophesies His Death and Resurrection. The first one in Mark 8 and the third one in Mark 10. The disciple’s responses after each revelation are the same; they are unable to understand what it means and ignore it completely. See what they did this time. Straight after Jesus’ prophecy of His death and resurrection, in verses 33-34,  ³³ And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. The Lord Jesus just told them that He was about to suffer and die but they debate over which one would be the greatest. Who would be number one among them? Seriously?! Why did they do that? Because they do not like what they hear. It does not fit with their understanding of the messiah. Church, we do the same. Many times, when the word of God speaks to us and we do not like it, we tend to ignore it and claim we do not understand. When the Word of God tells us to run from temptation, especially sexual sin, we love the sin so much to the point we claim we do not understand, we justify our wrongdoing and we do not obey God.

Being Christian will transform the way we look at our work, our studies, our family, and other people. It will transform every aspect of our lives including our relationship with one another. It also includes how we see the world and our sins. Our desire is no longer to follow the world. Sin will grieve us instead of satisfy us. If I must summarise my sermon in two words, I will say “Stumbling Block”. We do not want to be a “Stumbling block”. This stumbling block can go two ways; firstly, we do not want to be a stumbling block to other Christian. Secondly, we do not want to be a stumbling block to ourselves in our spiritual walk. One of the common reasons we become stumbling blocks for others is because we are still applying worldly concepts. The Kingdom of God is an upside down Kingdom. Jesus came to establish the promised kingdom but it was not the kingdom they were expecting. Jesus came to not only establish the kingdom of God but also give us the warnings. He warned the believer that the nature of the Kingdom of God is completely different to world concepts. That is what we are going to learn today. I will divide my sermon into 3 points. In the Kingdom of God, there is no place of superiority, exclusivity and ignorance.

1. NO PLACE FOR SUPERIORITY (verse 33-37)

The problem of the disciple is not just wrong timing but their understanding of “the greatest” is completely wrong. There is one interesting thing in this story. Jesus asked the disciples what they were talking about. In verse 34, it says that they kept silent, and no one told Jesus. Everyone stays silent. They did not answer Him. They thought Jesus did not know what they were talking about. But Jesus knew! Jesus knew what was in their heart even though they remain silent. How do I know Jesus knew? In verses 35 – ³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Even though the disciples remain silent, Jesus begins to talk about anyone who wants to be first. Church, Jesus knows everything, your thoughts, your dream. He knows your angry thoughts, lustful thoughts, and jealous thoughts. He also knows your struggles, your desire, and your dreams. This is what we did in this world. Our thoughts are a very private thing for us. We filter them out before we show them to the world. We hide something that other people do not want to see. Knowing this can be intimidating. Someone knows everything about me. Even worse, He knows all my weaknesses. But let me tell you one thing, if you are a true follower of Christ, this should not intimidate but it should give us comfort knowing our Lord knows us. And He knows us more than anyone else in this world including your parents or your spouse. Even He knows better than we know ourselves. We don’t need to be afraid of being vulnerable to Him. We do not need to try to hide things from Him. 

We love talking about the greatest. The greatest singer of all time. The greatest footballer of all time; Ronaldo or Messi. I will not talk about the greatest premier league club of all times because I do not want to be a stumbling block to some of my brothers and sisters in Christ. When we talk about this, we determine who is the best of the best based on their performance, their glory, their trophy, and their resume. Again, even though the disciple did not tell Jesus, Jesus knew that they looked to their achievement and resume to be the greatest. Therefore, Jesus needs to show them to be the greatest in God’s kingdom is completely different to everything the world teaches. The world teaches us to be great is measured by how many people report to us and how many people serve us. The Kingdom of God has a different system. To teach the Disciples, Jesus used a human object, a little child. In verse 36 ³⁶ And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Why did Jesus use a child as an example? When we are at university, we are sometimes asked to create a group for the group assignment. Who is the most popular person at that time? The smartest person in the class. People would come to them and get them to the group. The last person to be picked is the one who is at the bottom of the ranking. People try to avoid that person. But Jesus went to an extra level, He puts a child in the equation. Let me tell you that people will have the same thought – “this child would be useless in my group”. This child can not help you to get a High Distinction mark. This child cannot help you answer the question. This child cannot help you finish the assignment. Instead of helping you, this child will be very needy. Instead, they help us, we are the one who needs to help them. Basically, this child is useless and has no influence at all. What did Jesus do with this ‘useless’ human being? He wrapped His arms around this little one.

Listen to what Jesus said in verses 37 –, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”. We do not use people for our cause, but we welcome them despite them being “useless”. And we welcome such people in the name of Jesus, we are actually welcoming and receiving Christ. This is my question for everyone. Who is the “little kid” with who we need to wrap our hands? We may only want to wrap our hands around wealthy people or powerful people or people who have big influence for our own sake. Jesus is saying that “If a person welcomes “useless”, ordinary people or people who have no wealth, no power then they are welcoming me.”. The world teaches us to use people to get what we want but Jesus says that love others because they are precious to Him.

2. NO PLACE FOR EXCLUSIVITY (verse 38-41)

When I was in high school, that was the time when we start to do grouping and there is always one group that was considered a popular group. It normally consists of people who join a basketball team or any sports team and some of them are “bad” boys. All students want to be in this group. It is a cool thing. People will see you as cool and at a higher level of the student ladder. Fortunately, I was in this group. Do not judge me or don’t ask why I was in that group. One of the reasons is because my twin brother is really good at basketball, and we have a similar faces. Every time, someone was trying to be in the group, we give this kind of face – “excuse me, who are you?”. Normally, they randomly join our circle during lunch. We always give that face of “excuse me, you are not part of this group”.

This is what happened to the disciples. In verses 38 – ³⁸ John said to (Jesus) him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.” The disciple saw someone casting out the demon. From their perspective, they cannot allow that, and they have to stop them. Why? Because they are not part of our exclusive group. ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰ For the one who is not against us is for us. In another word, Jesus said that do not build a wall between believers but to include them. Many times, we want to accomplish a lot of things for God which is great, but we have to make sure that we are not so focused on ourselves and what we are doing that we pay no attention to other believers. We can easily get caught up with what we are doing or with the programs we have that we forget about people. One of the fundamental issues here is that the disciple thinks that they are more special. They think that they are more spiritual. They are too proud of themselves. God is not interested in people who think they are great. When we start thinking that we are better than other people, we will ruin the unity of the church.

There is no place for superiority and exclusivity in the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God, the concept is completely different to the Worldly concept. In the world, it is about what we are doing. Our greatness is measured by how many people serve us. It is measured by how many people we can control. That’s the world. But the Kingdom of God is different. Jesus teaches us completely different to the World. Look what Jesus did. He humbled Himself by becoming Human. But it did not stop there. He continued to humble Himself as a human. He shows us to be great in the Kingdom of God we need to live a life of servanthood. As Jesus said in verses 35 – ³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”. ³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” It involves sacrifice. It involves humility. It is not serving our own needs. Jesus considered others. Jesus considered us as believers. He did not die on the cross for himself. He died on the cross for us. He humbles himself to the point of dying on the cross. We can say that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is the greatest thing that ever took place. But at the same time, it was absolute humiliation for him. He did not for Himself but for us; the sinner.

I hope that we all feel included in this church. Let us answer this simple question. How many people do you actually really know in this church? When I ask, “know them”, you do really know them. Because we can say that we know them, yet we do not really know them. We only know them on the surface; just say Hi on Sunday. If we have this exclusivity mentality, how we can bring people to Christ. How we can grow spiritually together. We cannot do that if we isolate people for whatever reason. We cannot do that if we exclude some people because they have a different political view or different convictions. We cannot do proper discipleship if we look down on other people because their educational level is not the same as ours. For leaders or ministers, the title we have does not mean we have more power to control people, but we need to serve the church. Church, are you willing to include others? If your answer is yes, you may start with these questions. How can you help other people with their spiritual growth or discipleship? What can you do to make a stranger or newcomer feel welcome in this church?

3. NO PLACE FOR IGNORANCE (verse 42-50)

In the first two points, we learn that Jesus does not want us to have a superiority and exclusivity mentality because it will be a stumbling block for other people as well as for ourselves. It is a warning for us as a believer. In the next verses, Jesus gives more intensity to this warning. In verse 42, Jesus says ⁴² “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. It is bad enough when we personally sin against God, but Jesus said if you become a stumbling block for someone else to fall to sin, it is even worse. Jesus says that you are better to take a rope and attached it to a very heavy rock around the neck and throw the stone into the sea. In the next few verses, it is like a horror movie script. But Jesus said this not because he was in bad mood. He really gave us a very strong warning. This strong warning is directed to the disciples or us as believers. Why did Jesus give us this strong warning? 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. He reminded us that we as disciples of Christ are not to be stumbling blocks to other people, but we are to be salt. That is the character of the true disciple of Jesus Christ. We are meant to be salt not stumbling blocks. What does it mean? What is the purpose of salt? During that time, salt has 2 main purposes which are preserving food and enhancing its flavour. Jesus’ statement here reminded us that we are salt of the earth. We are slowing down the moral decay and enhancing the spiritual flavour of this world. We can only do that by making a positive impact on people around us.

Jesus did not stop in there. He continued by giving us another warning. ⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ 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. 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. In another word, Jesus says that if you keep anything that makes you fall to sin, you must undergo surgery.

I want us to see this warning again from Jesus. if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Do you think it is easy to cut your own hands? No! ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. Do you think it is easy to cut your own foot? No, it is hard! This is the worst one.   ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. Do you think it is easy to tear your own eyes out? No, it is hard! Church, It is easy for us after reading this scripture our response would be “ok, I will cut it off this sin and that sin. But there is one sin that you hide and cover and protect that you don’t want anyone to know. Hidden sin”. That hidden sin is the hardest one to cut off. Jesus wants us to cut it off.

Church, I think we have to realise that being a witness in this world is a very serious matter. It is far more serious than we thought. If you know you are doing something you should not do and it is causing you to stumble and other people to stumble, Jesus strongly reminded us to cut it off and repent. Otherwise, we only have another alternative way, hell. 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.’ Let me be clear, church. Hell is real and no joke. Hell is not a good place. It is a terrible place. What is it about Hell that makes it so terrible? In Hell, we will be separated from God Himself and His love and His glory. We will be separated from all good things for eternity. It means that if you are in hell already, there is no hope of escape. Some people think if they are thrown to hell, they will be burned quickly and gone but they are wrong. Jesus used some graphic wording in this verse – ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Hell is not just for a short duration. It is eternal punishment. It is the place where people are tormented day and night forever and ever. Hell is a place we should avoid.

I hope that graphic wording from Jesus makes you realise that hell is real and I hope it also makes you fear hell. I hope that your fear is not going in vain yet leads you to Jesus Christ. But I must make a clear statement here. Yes, I do pray that your fear leads you to Jesus, but you have to know your fear does not save you. If fear of hell is the only reason you come to Jesus Christ, you might still go to hell. This is a common problem among Christians. We come to Jesus Christ because we want the benefit or the gift such as blessing, avoid hell instead of being with Jesus Himself. We just want the benefit, but we don’t want Him.

Let me ask everyone an honest question. Raise your hand if you have been hurt at least once by your church friends or cell group member or church leaders or Pastors. As we learned today for the last 30 minutes about what the ideal character of a true Christian; no superiority, no exclusivity, does not cause you to stumble, take seriously their sin, I do really want to close this sermon by talking about this; Home for imperfect. I do not want you to leave this church and think that I will expect these characteristics from everyone in this church. Let me tell you, you will be disappointed. I also do not want you will think that “If this is Christianity, I don’t want it, or I just do online service”. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying you have to stay in one church for whatever reason. There are a few reasons why you need to leave the church. One of them is when the church does not preach the Gospel but that would be another sermon by Ps Yosia. But, if you have been hurt by one of your brothers or sisters in Christ and want to leave the church, that is not a valid reason to leave the church. All those disagreements and fights show us one thing as a community which is this place is a group of imperfect people. RSI has this motto – “Home for Imperfect”. It is not just cool words that we want to use but this is really a reminder for us. This community is full of fallen and sinful people. But God wants us to gather and worship together. This is not a recommendation from God. It is the command. There is nothing that can replace community in our growth in Christ. It will be messy. It will not be an easy process, but it is worth it. We will have different interests or preferences. Or we may struggle to love or serve those people who are hard to love. Look to Jesus! He put our interest above His own comforts and died for us. We all are a sinner and saved only by His Grace. Knowing this should humble us before anyone. Tim Keller said “Strong community is formed by powerful common experiences. For example, when people survive a flood together. This shared experience becomes the basis for a deep and permanent bond. The more intense the experience, the more intense the bond.” When we shared the same experience of how we should have deserved hell, but Jesus in grace took what we deserved, died at the cross, and gives us his righteousness, this is what bind us together as one family of Christ. It is knowing that we deserved eternal condemnation but received eternal acceptance by the blood of Jesus, this bond is far more intense than the bond of a blood relationship. It will be the most intense bond, more than a blood relationship. It is because we have been through a “life and death” experience together. We can only build Church unity on the right understanding of the Gospel. If we understand what Christ has done for us, not only there is no room for superiority and exclusivity but also there is no room for us to carry bitterness toward other Christians. No room for holding a grudge. Let’s Pray.

Discussion questions:

1. Have you ever ignored warning signs? What happened?
2. Out of the three warning signs from the sermon, which one stands out the most to you and why?
3. List out some difficulties in receiving “children” in Jesus’ name?
4. What can you do to battle the natural tendency for exclusivity?
5. How does the gospel empower us to be #HomeForTheImperfect?