Mark 9:38-40
Choices and Consequences
Mark 9:38 And John answered him, saying, Master,
we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he
followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he
followeth not us.
39 But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is
no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that
can lightly speak evil of me.
40 For he that is not against us is on our
part.
This is our Wednesday night Bible study so let’s drop this text into
its context. Once Jesus left Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8), two things
became obvious to His disciples.
1. He began teaching much, much more about His betrayal, arrest,
suffering, and death. \\#Mark 8:31\\
a. The disciples did not understand what His words meant
\\#Mark 9:32\\, but He certainly told them about it.
b. From then to the cross, Matthew recorded Jesus telling and
retelling that prophesy four times—and He well may have
done it more than that.
2. Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem \\#Luke 9:51\\.
a. It was not a fast trip, but it was a determined trip.
b. It was not a straight trip, but His destination was
definite.
Another thing that Mark did at this point that was different was he
began recording the conversation between Jesus and His disciples.
That is not unheard of. Other gospel writers recorded those
conversations, but I have not noticed Mark doing it.
The first conversation is recorded in \\#Mark 9:33-37\\. It centered
on who would be the greatest among the disciples. How sad that while
Jesus walked steadfastly and determined to the cross, His disciples
debated which of them was the most worthy and would achieve to the
greatest status. The disciples seemed to want some rank, some
insignia, some uniform, or position. To settle the question, Jesus sat
a child in the midst of them \\#Mark 9:36\\ and told the disciples
that the greatest will always be the one who serves, such as to
receive a child in His name. What irony! The greatest, not just among
them but in all creation, stood before them as the greatest of all
servants.
1. To receive can mean to accept, to take responsibility for,
perhaps as in to adopt.
2. But nothing in the text indicates that Jesus was asking for
that kind of commitment.
3. I think He was just asking for someone to love that child like
He would love him.
4. Parents have an insight track into that one.
a. When we get to heaven, we may be surprised to find that the
greatest in God’s kingdom were the ones who got their own
children to Jesus.
b. The largest and greatest mission field anyone can be called
to is their own children.
c. If parents won their children to the Lord, there wouldn’t
be a need for any other kind of missionary.
The second conversation, recorded in \\#Mark 9:38-40\\ centered on
the question, "Who is against us?" John had seen someone performing
miracles, casting out demons, but he did not follow their group so he
chastened the man and forbade him to do so. No doubt, he thought
Jesus would commend him for it and told Jesus, thinking he might gain
some praise, but John did not. Instead, Jesus taught him and us a
lesson, one that we fundamentalist still need to learn. Jesus said if
his is not against us, he is for us. Translated into words we might
understand, Jesus said, "A person doesn’t have to be with us to be
for God."
This is a lesson I have had to learn again and again. We naturally
think we are right or we would change. Our next logical conclusion
is that if we are right, everyone else must be wrong. Jesus told
John that is not always true. I told you last week that I believe
every preacher should be taught to say and to practice a most
important expression. The expression is, "That’s none of my
business." May God help us to learn that a person does not have to
be like us to be for God.
In \\#Mark 9:41-50\\, Jesus had a third conversation with the
disciples. This one centered on choices and consequences. I see two
choices about which Jesus spoke.
I. Every Christian must choose whether to serve or not.
A. Jesus had already been talking to the disciples about serving.
Now He told them He would reward them.
Mark 9:41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of
water to drink in my name, because ye belong to
Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose
his reward.
B. In this verse, Jesus was telling the disciples that the
smallest deed would not escape His notice.
1. To give "you," one of Jesus’ disciples, just a cup of
water would earn some kind of reward.
2. Question: How much does it cost to give a cup of water to
someone?
a. Answer - Not a lot.
b. Someone says, "Well, if you live a desert it does."
(1) Yeah, but we don’t and even if we did, the water
in the desert doesn’t belong to us.
(2) Even you think you own the land, the water still
belongs to God.
(3) So Jesus was saying that you can be rewarded for
giving away something that doesn’t even belong
to you.
c. That’s a pretty good deal.
3. It is almost like what He does for us, New Testament
Christians.
a. First, God saves us.
b. Then He cleanses and changes us.
c. Then He calls us, giving us a purpose, a reason to
live, an opportunity to serve the Lord God almighty,
to do something worthwhile in our otherwise worthless
lives.
d. Then He equips us to do what He has called us to do.
(1) He gives us His Holy Ghost.
(2) Supplies us with the Word of God to accomplish
the impossible.
(3) Encourages us.
(4) Protect us.
(5) Provides for us.
(6) For some unfathomable reason, He even pays some
of us so that we can serve His purpose full
time.
(a) All the while, it is God doing the work.
(b) We just get the credit, get to stand in the
lime light a little.
e. Then when we die, we go to heaven to be rewarded for
a work that He did to begin with. We just watched
Him work!
C. Do you know what it takes to get these kinds of rewards?
1. Just one thing.
2. A choice.
3. We must choose to give someone the water.
D. Important lesson here: Our choices demonstrate what our hearts
love and our heads think.
1. Our choices reveal what is important to us.
2. Earlier when Jesus choice to pull the child to Him and to
use him to illustrate what greatest is like in the kingdom
of heaven, Jesus’ choice demonstrated something.
a. It demonstrated how precious children are to Jesus
b. Such is it with all choices.
c. What we choose demonstrates what we care about.
3. So what things are important to you?
a. Will you spend 2 hours fighting traffic to attend a
ball game but find it too difficult to drive 25
minutes to attend a proper church?
b. Will you pay $100, $200, $300 for a ticket, $25 to
park, and $5 for a hotdog but balk at tithing to
God?
c. Will you have memorized the latest standings? know
the whole roster, have a knowledge of each player’s
stats, have a researched opinion of their potentials,
but not know where to find the book of Philippians
in the Bible?
d. Will you sit outside in a breezy, rainy 50 degree
stadium but feel too bad to go to an air-conditioned
sanctuary for church?
4. What is important to you? What do you love? Just how
high in the choices of your life does Jesus Christ rank?
5. My pastor once preached that he could tell more about you
from your checkbook than from your Bible.
a. My definition of devotion is the distance between
your first love and your second.
Lu 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate
not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple.
b. Jesus did not demand that you love Him only, but He
did command that you love Him extremely!
Lu 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man,
having put his hand to the plough, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Heb 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith:
but if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him.
Jas 1:8 A double minded man is unstable
in all his ways.
II. \\#42-50\\ Every person must choose Christ or not.
A. Now, we appear to be back to the child,
Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of
these little ones that believe in me, it is
better for him that a millstone were hanged about
his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
1. \\#Matthew 18:5, Luke 9:47\\ both indicate Jesus drew a
child to Himself when He spoke these words.
2. But He was not just talking about children and them being
abused.
3. He was also talking about going to hell.
Mark 9:43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it
off: it is better for thee to enter into life
maimed, than having two hands to go into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched:
4. Who goes to hell?
a. People who mistreat children?
(1) Well, they most certainly might, but it won’t be
because they mistreated children.
(2) It will be because they did not accept Jesus.
b. Not only do Christians have to choose to serve, but
everyone must choose what they will do with Jesus.
B. I’m not quite sure why Jesus went from one extreme to another,
especially in such a short distance.
1. \\#41\\ Jesus was talking about Christians. \\#42\\ He
was talking about the lost.
2. \\#41\\ Jesus was talking about service. \\#42\\ He was
talking about abuse.
3. \\#41\\ Jesus was talking about rewards. \\#43\\ He was
talking about hell.
C. In my way of thinking, that is a short distance and a large
extreme.
1. But then again, those two actions and consequences are
only separated by one thing.
2. A choice.
a. Which choice have we made?
b. Heaven or hell?
c. Reward of damnation.
D. It would appear that as Jesus was talking, He was attempting
to get His disciples to make right choices.
1. He spent some time telling them that hell was an awful
place.
a. \\#Mark 9:42, 44, 46\\ Jesus told them that the worm
of hell does not die and the fire of hell is not
quenched.
b. That sounds pretty awful to me.
2. Then He spent some time telling His disciples that
whatever sacrifice is required to stay out of hell is
well worth it.
a. \\#43\\ If you had to cut off your hand to avoid hell,
it would be worth it.
b. \\#45\\ If you had to cut off your feet to avoid hell,
it would be worth it.
c. \\#47\\ If you had to pluck out your eyes to avoid
hell, it would be worth it.
E. This passage confuses some people.
1. They seem to think Jesus was giving the plan of salvation
here.
a. The way to go to heaven is to cut off your hands, feet,
or pluck out your eyes.
b. As I often say, if this was the only Bible verse we
had, you might make a case for that; but it is not.
c. In fact, we know that even if you did mutilate your
body in some attempt to stop sinning, you’d still
find a way to sin.
2. Jesus wasn’t telling anyone how to be saved.
3. Jesus was trying to convince someone that whatever you
have to give up to go to heaven is worth it.
F. Who might Jesus have been speaking to?
1. We don’t know for certain.
2. But let’s remember what we do know.
a. Jesus was headed to the cross.
b. As far as we know, all 12 disciples were with Him.
c. These are their last days together.
d. Perhaps eleven of them needed to be shorn up some on
their decision to get into the water distribution
business.
e. \\#41\\ So maybe Jesus taught them about service.
f. But there was one man in that group that wasn’t even
close to making a decision about service.
(1) That man was thinking more about silver than
service.
(2) That would be Judas.
(3) That man still has to make a decision about
Jesus.
g. As they all walked together down those dusty trails,
maybe Judas’ mind kept wandering.
(1) He had already invested three years into this
Jesus fellow and so far it had not paid off.
(2) Now He keeps talking about dying.
(3) While, if He is going to die anyway, maybe I can
get some payment for my lost time.
h. If he had not already, he would soon have to make his
choice.
i. Is it possible that Jesus wasn’t just talking to the
eleven?
j. Is it possible that Jesus was talking to the one? to
Judas?
(1) We know Jesus has to be betrayed.
(2) We don’t know that it has to be Judas.
k. But is it possible that Jesus still loved him, still
wanted him to get saved, still wanted Judas to think
about the choice that was before him?
l. Well, we can’t know what the Bible doesn’t say, but I
think it is at least possible.
m. And if that is possible, I think it is possible that
He cares about you too.
Our choices not only demonstrate what our hearts love and our heads
think. They also determine direction and destination. Tonight, God
has reminded us of two important choices: To be saved or not to be
saved. To serve or not to serve. Make your choice carefully.
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