Mark 9:42-50 Three Rules of Being Disciple Café Church 20-Nov-16 There are bibles on the tables Outline to take notes Let s pray first Intro In our passage tonight Jesus is talking to his disciples And he gives them 3 rules for being a disciple Before we look at these rules We need to understand what a disciple is? Anyone like to give me a definition? [Open for Answers] [Powerpoint 1-Disciple Definition] A personal follower of Jesus A pupil of Jesus A disciple learns from a teacher and then does everything that the teacher did Like Chris and Rhyse teaching the band to play music Eventually the band members will be able to do everything Chris and Rhyse do And teach others who will be their disciples So Jesus disciples taught others about Jesus And this other became disciples too And these others taught others again and they became disciples of Jesus too and so on And that s what we do at church each week and at Bible study and at Scripture and so on. So as Jesus is talking to these first disciples he gives them 3 rules These 3 rules also apply to us because we are disciples too
These 3 rules are how we can be better disciples of Jesus Rule 1 So rule 1 is in v42 of Mark chapter 9 If anyone causes one of these little ones those who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. Who s the little ones Jesus is talking about? Well we have to go back to verse 36 It s children but it s also in v42 those who believe in me So Jesus is saying don t cause anyone who believes in me to stumble What does Jesus mean by stumble? Is he literally talking about physically falling over? [Open Answers] Of course not The Greek Word is where we get scandalize from causing a scandal A scandal is being involved in something that is illegal or immoral So what Jesus is saying here is don t cause others especially children Don t cause them to sin Don t cause them to fall away from believing in Jesus Don t offend them so they give up on Jesus SOOOOO How could we cause someone to sin? We could commit a sin and tell them it s okay and ask them to join in? How could we call them to fall away from believing in Jesus We could do or saying something which is wrong and unkind and un-christian and get away with it and they think that s not what to be part of and they leave church or youth group
How could we offend someone so they give up on Jesus We could say something nasty about them We could gossip about them Tell lies about them Hit them Ignore them Let them down over and over So what s the problem with us causing others to stumble anyway Well apart from being wrong If they give up on Jesus they have lost the chance to be forgiven of their sins by Jesus and they have lost the chance to have life forever with God And if we re the ones causing that We are affected their whole future with God And that is a terrible scandal Jesus says And it s so bad God s going to be real angry And it would be better for us Jesus says if we had a millstone around our neck [Powerpoint 3 Picture of Millstone] What s a millstone? They are circular stones very heavy used to grind down corn in a mill SO Jesus is saying for us to cause someone to stumble and turn away or give up on Jesus our lives will feel like we re carrying this heavy weight this millstone around our neck our lives will be so miserable and horrible And we don t want that do we? And Jesus says it s not being a proper disciple to cause people to stumble and give up on Jesus Rule 2 Get rid of stuff in our lives which cause us to stumble [Powerpoint 4-Rule 2] Now rule 2 is about us stumbling
And Jesus says we need to get rid of stuff in fact any stuff in our lives that might cause us to stumble and commit a sin against God and cause us to give up on Jesus So Jesus says in v43 if your hand causes you to stumble or sin cut it off! And in v45 if your foot causes you to stumble or sin cut if off And in v46 if your eye causes you to stumble or sin take out your eye What things could your hand do - which might cause you to sin? Stealing, punching, killing What things could your feet do which might cause you to sin? Kicking, Entering someone s property, invading (like an army) What things could your eyes do which might cause you to sin? Lusting, pornography, cheating in exams, looking at stuff which is not yours etc. Why does Jesus warn about what our hands, feet and eyes might do? Because all of these things cause sin and God doesn t like sin He wants sin removed from our lives Does Jesus literally mean we cut off our hands and feet and pluck our eyes out when they cause us to sin what do you think? [Open Answers] No not literal although in places like Saudi Arabia people caught stealing can have their hands chopped off! What Jesus means is we must get rid of ANYTHING in our lives which causes us to sin because sin is like a disease that takes over our whole bodies.
For example if we tell a lie then we need to tell another lie to cover up the first lie and then another And Jesus doesn t want sin taking control of us otherwise it becomes a terrible habit that we can t get rid of and we get further and further away from God and further and further away from Jesus And as Jesus says in v43, 45 and 47 He would rather see us going around with one hand, or one leg or one eye than see us end up in Hell permanently separated from God because our sin in our lives is out of control and we ve never stopped and said sorry to Jesus and turned away from our sin The bottom line either sin must die or we must die! Rule 3 Be salted with fire The third rule is not a DON T rule it s a DO rule. Jesus says in verse 49 everyone will be salted with fire [Powerpoint 5-Rule 3] What does Jesus mean here? Well to understand it we need to understand something about sacrifices In the OT especially in the book of Leviticus (2:13) The people came to the high priest who made sacrifices to God for the sins they committed These sacrifices were of animals who were sacrificed instead of the person The sacrifice involved fire and salt Jesus is saying as His disciples our lives will also have to be sacrificial And the fire represents suffering we might have in our lives because we follow Jesus (just like the animal suffered in the sacrifice) Also when precious metal is put through a fire/furnace all the impurities are removed and so the metal because pure gold/silver whatever As we get put through fiery trials and suffering in our lives we get rid of the bad stuff in our lives learn some big lessons and come out better Fire can also be a sign for the Holy Spirit Remember how the apostles received the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended to Heaven
By tongues of fire The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives seasons us, purifies us, preserves us and adds flavour to our lives so that as the Apostle Paul says our lives are like a living sacrifice to God (lookup Romans 12:1) What about the salt? Salt adds flavour and preserves meat too The high priests of Israel didn t have any land they relied on the sacrifices they got from the people to have meat to eat The salt as well as adding flavour also preserved the meat and kept the priests fed God promised to provide for the priests this way and the agreement was called a salt agreement (Num 18:19) So salt was a symbol of an agreement between God and the priests Even in Middle East culture now there is the saying: There is salt between us which means we have an agreement with each other On top of all that salt is easy to come by today and we don t necessarily need it to preserve meat because we have fridges. But in Jesus time, salt was important and precious so salt was valuable. So when Jesus says in verse 50 have salt among yourselves and be at peace with each other he means as disciples we need to be valuable to each other add flavour to each other s lives by being at peace with one another and be a preserving influence on each other So how could we be salty towards each other Adding flavour by praying, encouraging, sharing God s word with each other Being valuable by people knowing we care, helping one another, loving one another Preserving by making sure we focus on Jesus, and that others focus on Jesus, by being peaceful with one another How much better would the world be? If by being disciples
We added flavour to people s lives, added value to people s lives and brought peace? And Jesus warns that salt is good but if we lose our saltiness how can we be salty again. Conclusion [Powerpoint 6-Conclusion] Our world needs more and more disciples of Jesus! To be his disciples we need to make sure we don t cause others to stumble and miss out on a life-saving relationship with Jesus in fact we need people to being doing the opposite and encouraging people into a life changing and life-saving relationship with Jesus To be disciples we need to remove anything that causes us to sin people are watching us our kids and grandkids are watching so what are we modelling them? And lastly the world needs the salty flavour and purity that only Christians can bring. And if as Christians we ve lost that salty flavour and purity where will the world ever get it from? Q&A