Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

Radical Discipleship, Part 2

Mark 9:42-50

 

In our study of the book of Mark, we are in a series of lessons Jesus taught His closest followers in preparation for the His death and return back to heaven.  In particular, He is teaching them about His expectations for their behavior and conduct and commitment and we’ve called it radical discipleship.  It begins with radical love.

 

Mark 9:42-50

 

As we saw last week, we are to receive and love fellow believers as if they were Christ Himself, so much so, we would never do anything that might cause someone to stumble or commit sin.  And if we do, it would be better for us to have a huge stone tied around our neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. 

 

The second requirement is  

 

 

verses 43, 45, and 47

 

There is a logical connection between the way we love and care about others and the way we live our own lives.  We can’t help someone else avoid sin if we aren’t seeking to avoid sin ourselves.  That just makes sense. 

 

You’re not going to be a positive influence on others if you don’t walk the walk and talk the talk.

The danger of leading others to sin, found in the earlier verses, is eliminated when you deal with the sin in your own heart. And what this text show us is how calls for is a radical severe we must be when dealing with the sin in our own lives. 

 

And it is put in very graphic terms involving body parts.  And it seems the summation of it, by mentioning our eyes, hands and feet, is to say, Everything you see, everything you do, everywhere you go, everything that relates to your life is to be kept pure.”

 

And what the Lord is saying is that salvation and the Kingdom of God, mentioned in verse 47, which you want to enter, or life as it’s referred to in verse 43 and 44 which means eternal life, spiritual life, salvation on the positive side and escape from hell on the negative side is so important that you need to get rid of anything that is a barrier to that. That’s the point.

 

And the price we must be willing to pay to make sure we enter the Kingdom of heaven is amputation.  Now I don’t know about you, but that is a pretty radical price to pay for purity.  It is a picture of a severe response to anything that stands in the way of the pursuit of holiness, righteousness and purity.

 

Now obviously our Lord is not calling for physical mutilation.  How do we know that?  We know that because being one-eyed, or having only one hand or foot does not guarantee a life free of sin.  I promise you there are a lot of crippled, blind people out there involved in sin. 

 

What is at issue is not how we look or function on the outside, but what is on the inside. 

 

We’ve already heard Jesus say that back in chapter 7.

 

Verses 14-15, 18-23

 

So the lesson here is just a very graphic way to say, “It you are going to be serious about healing others avoid sin then you’ve got to be serious about how you view your own sin.

 

Remember, the subject they are studying is discipleship, but the outcome of failing to live a pure life is hell.  Does that mean you can lose your salvation?  What is Christ teaching. 

 

It seems to me He is saying discipleship is dependent upon a genuine relationship with God.  Without that you will never be a disciple.  And the evidence of genuine salvation is a life of purity.  It’s not the way we obtain salvation; it is the result of salvation.   So the take away from that means to not be serious about sin leads us to conclude the person has never been saved and will die and go to hell.  

 

The person who is serious about following Jesus will repent of their sin, they will be serious about sin, they won’t do anything to lead others to sin and they will make sure they aren’t sinning themselves, and if they are casual about those things they will die and go to hell. 

 

Getting serious about sin is not just the pathway to salvation, it is the pattern of our life as a disciple.

And the threat Jesus uses to talk about that is hell.

By the way, the word “hell” is Gehenna. That word always refers to the Lake of Fire. In other places you will find the word Hades which references place of the dead.  Hades can actually reference paradise or Gehenna, particularly prior to the resurrection. 

 

But here Jesus uses the word for the actual, burning Lake of Fire. The history of that word includes the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where there was always a fire burning.  How dare the liberals of our day try to soften the preaching of Jesus by saying He didn’t talk about it.  Of yes He did and in the most severe of terms. 

 

And He says it is a place of unquenchable fire “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”  As you can imagine, there is lots of speculation about that verse.  The part about the fire not being quenched is pretty clear.  But what about the never-dying worm? And notice it is a personal worm.  It is “their” worm that does not die. 

 

Verse 48 is a direct quote from Isaiah 66:24 and it is included as a part of a horrible pronunciation of judgment.

 

Isaiah 66:24

 

So it could be a symbolic reference to the awfulness of the judgment of God and the death and destruction is so severe, there will be plenty of corpses to occupy the worms for all eternity. 

 

 

 

 

There is another possibility that comes out of the theology of the past and that is that the worm references the memory or more specifically the conscience.  And just as a worm gnaws on the decaying body, in hell the memory will gnaw forever.

 

If that’s true then what we have with the fire and the worm is not only a place of outer pain and suffering, but also inner pain and suffering as every opportunity to trust Christ continually replays itself over and over again. 

 

I’m telling you, this is the strongest call to discipleship our Lord ever gave. You either deal radically with issues of sin in your life, or you end up in the eternal garbage dump of hell in continual torment from an unquenchable fire and the remorse and regret of refusing the grace of God. 

 

And once we run from sin toward righteousness and embrace the Savior, the only one who can save us from sin, and grant us that righteousness, and then sanctify us and then one day glorify us, until we do that, we haven’t even begun to be disciples. And once we have come to be disciples, that continues to be the pursuit, doesn’t it? Paul says, “I beat my body to bring it into subjection so that I don’t become disqualified for ministry.” I have to subdue my flesh.

 

Radical love, radical purity,

 

 

Verse 49

 

 

This is a very cryptic verse.  What does it mean that everyone will be seasoned with fire?

 

Scripturally speaking we have lots of references to salt and fire, but as far as I know there is only one place in all of scripture where the two come together and that is in the book of Leviticus. 

 

In the opening five chapters of Leviticus we find specific instruction regarding five offerings that were required of the Jews.  Four of those offering were animal sacrifices.  There was the burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering.  The fifth offering was a grain offering and that’s what we find in chapter 2.

 

Notice what we read in

 

verse 13

 

Now all of the sacrifices were required to be coated in salt.  Salt symbolizes God’s covenant promises.  And the instruction is to remember to have God’s enduring faithfulness in mind as you make these offerings, including the grain. 

 

Now grain doesn’t involve any bloodshed.  This is not a sin offering or a guilt offering.  It is an offering of devotion and dedication.  And it is covered with salt.  And in so many words, both God and the Jew were saying, we’re each going to keep our end of the bargain. 

 

Then notice what we find in verses 14-16

 

 

Without going into all the details and pictures we find there, suffice it to say the salt and fire speak of total sacrifice, a long-term, enduring, permanent sacrifice to the Lord. This is consecration.  And Jesus pulls that picture out of Jewish practice to say, “I expect you to be that kind of sacrifice.  Being my disciple means radical sacrifice evidence by being seasoned with salt and fire. 

 

That’s precisely what Paul had in mind when he said to the Roman’s, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord.” 

 

That’s what we see in the grain offering. This is denying yourself, taking up your cross and following  Him.   

 

What does radical discipleship require? A radical love for one another, radical purity in our own lives, radical sacrifice to God and finally

 

 

verse 50

 

Salt is good. I don’t know about you, but I like salt!  Even more than flavoring, it was essential to the ancients for preservation.  No doubt, salt is good as long as it is salty.  As long as it preserves the distinctiveness of being salt, it can do what it is supposed to do. 

 

 But if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again?” What do you salt salt with? 

 

 

Salt is good unless it loses its saltiness. Now if any of you are into chemicals or chemistry, you know that sodium chloride is stable. Just sitting around it doesn’t lose its saltiness. So the question arises,  “What does Jesus mean by this statement”? 

 

Historians have helped us some with the answer to that by telling us about impure salts down through the years that become useless when they are mixed with other elements.  One kind that seemed to be in abundant supply around Israel was salt that was mixed with gypsum and it was worse than useless.  And making it even more dangerous, it was hard to distinguish from the real thing. 

 

So the Lord says, “While we’re talking about salt and dedication, let me just mention this. Salt is good but only if it’s unmixed.”

 

And then comes His statement.

 

Verse 50b

 

“Have salt in yourselves.” 

 

In other words, be the real thing.  Don’t be salt mixed with gypsum or anything else.  Be undiluted or unmixed.”

 

By the way, that’s a command and I think it’s a command to radical obedience. 

 

Why do I believe that?  I believe it because of what follows the command. 

 

“Be at peace with one another.”

Why does He say that? He says it because that’s what they needed to hear. Remember, they are fighting and arguing about who will be greatest int eh kingdom.  They were so competitive and proud.  And if the lessons He’s been teaching are any indication, they were guilty of leading each other into sin and demonstrating anything but humility. 

 

And here the Lord simply says, “You need to be unmixed in your obedience, and here’s your command for today. Stop fighting. Stop elevating yourselves. Stop the competition. Stop being the cause of temptation to sin in someone else’s life.  Be such a radical disciple that you love one another extremely, deal with sin severely, sacrifice your life completely and obey wholeheartedly.

 

And what is the outcome of this?  Then we’ll make the kind of difference in the world Jesus expects His followers to make. 

 

Let’s pray.