Don't Go There: Revolution Resistance (Week 16)

This Sunday, Equip Pastor Tony Scialabba teaches that we must not treat lightly what Jesus takes seriously, because our influence, our sin, and our holiness all shape how we reflect Christ to the world. We learn that when we turn from sin, surrender every part of our lives to Jesus, and pursue holiness through His grace, we experience the mercy and transforming power of the gospel.

PDF Resources: ( Sermon Notes )

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Pastor Joe said, my name is Tony. And you know, while he was speaking, I had a little conviction in my heart. Um, not about the more serious things he was talking about, marriage and divorce, but uh about 440 276 5575. Okay, I've got it. All right, right? 2765. All right. Well, that aside, I'm glad to be with you this morning. And uh, you know, today we're gonna be talking about something um that is that is also sobering, but I want to bring you back to a time uh several years ago that I was in Indonesia with Pastor Joe and a team, and we were walking through a village, and a man, a Muslim man that we met, said something that stopped us in our tracks. He said, Yes, keeps me up at night. We had just got done with a conversation speaking about eternal judgment, hell, and his views on those things. And I asked him, after he told us about hell, does that make you afraid? And that's when he said, Yes, keeps me up at night. That Muslim man said what I think is something in his soul that he took very seriously. And his description of hell was not a light description of hell, it was actually some of the most vivid and horrific descriptions that I've ever heard from someone about hell. And so he described a place of fire, torment, pain, and final judgment. A place where suffering does not end, a place where judgment is not symbolic. His description was rattling. And so that answer, that it keeps me up at night, stayed with me. Because here's a man whose view of hell is so deep and serious that he loses sleep over it. He wasn't flippant about it, he took it seriously and serious, so serious that you could see it on his face and in his demeanor. And then I think about the way that we view hell in our own culture. Some people turn hell into a party. A place where there's a rebellion and laughter and drinking, and we're with our friends far away from the harsh rules of God. Some make hell a cartoon. The place where that red devil lives with pointy tail and a pitchfork and horns, and we turn it into a joke rather than judgment. And still others try to erase hell altogether, saying, a loving God would never judge like that. In the end, love wins. But when we read Mark 9, like we will this morning, Jesus does not treat hell so casually. Jesus doesn't speak of hell as a party or as a cartoon. He doesn't erase it in the name of love. He speaks about hell with a seriousness that should make every one of us stop and listen. And that brings us to the message of today's passage in Mark 9, chapter 9, verses 42 through 50. Do not treat lightly what Jesus takes seriously. And as we read, I want you to listen to these three things that Jesus is taking seriously. Jesus takes our influence seriously, Jesus takes our sin seriously, and Jesus takes our holiness seriously. So with that in mind, let's hear the words of Jesus in Mark chapter 9, 42 through 50. 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. 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. 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 the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. Let's pray. God, your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and sometimes that means we have to see the hard things. Would you help us see the hard things this morning? In Jesus' name. Amen. So we've been working through the book of Mark, and over the last few weeks, we've kind of shifted the order. Because if you remember, on Mother's Day, we skipped ahead to chapter 10, where Jesus receives and welcomes the little children. Because we didn't think that sermon on sin and hell was the vibe of Mother's Day. And so we skipped ahead. Last week we went back up a little bit into chapter 10, and Pastor Joe talked about marriage and divorce. And today we're talking about another sobering idea, the idea of sin and of hell. And so it's kind of like a double header of heavy topics. But, and me being the newest to the preaching team, I get the ticket on hell and sin. So I'm really excited to be here sharing this with you. But here's the thing, here's the thing. A part of the gift of preaching through the books of the Bible is that we get to hear all the things Jesus says and commands. The things that are great and light, and the things that are sobering and can be heavy. And we need both because Jesus is the one saying it, and we need to hear what our Savior says. And so here in chapter 9, verse 42, Jesus is telling us to take seriously our influence. Verse 42 says, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin. When Jesus says little ones here, he's not just talking about children. And we know that children are close to Jesus' heart. But that's not exactly specifically who Jesus is talking about, because he says, one of these little ones who believe in me. So the little ones are believers. They are those that are his disciples. They are all of us who follow Christ. It's as if he's saying, Whoever causes one of my children to sin. And here's the reality: every believer is vulnerable to sin. We can all be tempted, we can all be influenced, we can all be led away, and that can go for the newest believer who's only been in Christ for a short time, or the most seasoned saint. And I know that's true because I have a feed full of articles about pastor after pastor, decades of experience and pastoring who have fallen. And so this is not just for the new believer, it's for all of us. And Jesus says that it is serious. In fact, he says it would be better for a person to tie a great millstone around his neck and be thrown into the sea than to cause one of his little ones to stumble. Now, this is a shocking picture that Jesus is giving to his disciples. Because a millstone is not some small rock, it's a huge rock, stone that's carved out so that it can take grain and crush it into a powder. And it's so heavy that a donkey or an ox has to be the one who's pulling the weight of that stone. And so Jesus is saying that it's it's better for that stone to be tied around someone's neck and thrown into the sea where there is no coming back, where you go sleep with the fishes. Oh, I'm Italian, but not that kind of Italian. But here's what Jesus says that is the weight of what he's talking about, leading one of his followers astray. Jesus takes our influence seriously. The disciples were arguing about who was the greatest, and Jesus turns their attention to the ones who potentially may fall. They were asking, How do I rise higher? And Jesus is saying, No, focus on the overlooked. Focus on the ones who may be on their way towards destruction. And that is such an important word for us. Because whether we realize it or not, we are all influencing someone. Parents, you influence your children. Spouses, you influence one another. Friends influence friends, leaders influence those they lead. Older believers influence younger believers. Life group members influence other life group members. Students influence students. You get the point. Think about the casual words that you say, your habits, your attitudes, your jokes, your priorities. These things can either help someone move toward Jesus, or they can make it easier for them to drift away. So the question is not, do I have influence? The question is, what kind of influence am I having? Am I making it easier for others trust to trust and follow Jesus? Or am I making sin seem normal or harmless? Because Jesus does not only care about what we do, but he cares about how what we do impacts others. Whether I mean it or not, the way that I treat sin communicates something about who God is in my life. If I laugh at an inappropriate joke, I'm communicating that what grieves God can still be entertaining. If I excuse my harshness by saying, oh, that's just my personality, then I'm communicating that anger doesn't require repentance. If I continuously spend my time and money on myself first, rather than giving it to God and He gets He gets my leftovers, I'm communicating that my ultimate goal far exceeds God and His priorities in my life. If I cover up what I've been doing wrong instead of bringing it to light, I'm communicating that reputation is worth protecting more than confession. And I know these examples may feel small. I mean, we're not talking about murdering someone or cheating or stealing, right? These are just kind of ordinary sins that come up. But the way that Jesus communicates about these sins is what is pressing on us in his serious take on sin. Sin rarely stays contained. The way I treat my sin can either help take someone closer to Jesus, or it can help them treat lightly what Jesus takes seriously. So let me ask it this way: where is my influence making sin seem small? Where is my influence making sin seem small? Because Jesus takes our influence seriously, we should too. But Jesus doesn't just stop with the way that we impact others, he goes even deeper. He moves from the danger of causing others to stumble to the danger of us making peace with sin in our own lives. Because Jesus takes influence seriously, and then second, he also takes our sin seriously. So look again with me at verses 43 through 47. 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. 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. Before we soften the idea of sin here, of what Jesus is saying, let's remember that the Bible speaks more about hell and more clearly and seriously about it than anyone else in the New Testament. Sometimes people assume that hell is a doctrine created for from harsh religious people who are just looking to have people force obedience out of them. But in the New Testament, the warnings about hell come primarily from the lips of Jesus Himself. In verses 43 through 47, Jesus is saying that it's better to enter life crippled than with two hands and go to hell. It's better to enter life lame than with two feet and be thrown into hell. It's better to be with one eye than with two eyes and go to hell. It's graphic and it's disturbing, which is what Jesus meant for it to be. Jesus is warning us about a judgment more dreadful than words can fully capture. So if sin leads us away from God and towards judgment, then sin cannot be treated casually. It cannot be managed, excused, protected, and must be dealt with. So Jesus is saying, there are things that we do with our hands that we ought not to do. There are places that we go with our feet that we shouldn't go. And there are things that we look at with our eyes that we shouldn't look at. Jesus says the solution is stop doing them. Cut them off. Now, what he's not doing is commanding self-mutilation. He's not saying that the physical body is the root of all sin. Sin is not a surgical procedure that we can just go in and take care of. Otherwise, all of us would be walking around with a limp and eye patches on. But that's not what he's saying. The reality is that you can sin with one hand. You can sin with one eye. You can sin with no hands and no eyes. Because it goes deeper than the body. Now, sin is missing the mark of God's standard. Anything that falls into that category is sin. Missing the mark of God's standard. Jesus is using severe language here because he's trying to help us understand that sin is severe and it's dangerous. He's saying, do not negotiate with what is destroying you. Do not negotiate with what is destroying you. That sounds extreme to us because we often will minimize the stakes. We'll say, it's not that serious. It's just a bad habit. That's just something I struggle with. No biggie. It's only online. It's not hurting anyone. We excuse away the seriousness of sin. But that's not how Jesus talks about it. Jesus says, cut it off. What am I allowing to stay? Because I have convinced myself it is not that serious. We all need to examine our hearts and our minds. What are we excusing away? And some some of us need to make this very practical in our lives. You need to delete the app. End the dating relationship. Cancel the subscription. Leave the group chat. Stop going to the place where you compromise. Stop listening to the podcast or political commentator. That sounds extreme, but it's the extreme language that Jesus is using. And he's not being cruel, he's being merciful. Because here's the thing sin never tells you that it's taking you down a road of destruction. But Jesus loves us enough to tell us the truth, and he wants us to save us from that destruction. This is his mercy that he's speaking. And I think this is a fitting place to use a quote from Pastor Rick Duncan, our founding pastor. He said this about sin. Sin takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs more than you want to pay. So we need to cut it off. And I'll give you an example from my own life. There was a season where I was using X, formerly Twitter, as a place where I'd go to for international news, keeping updated on what's going on at the time. There's a lot of conflict happening around the world. And I went to X to find the latest updates on what was happening. And when I did that, it was just for news. I wasn't going to seek out sin. It was just for me to catch up on what was going on in the world. But over time, the algorithm started placing suggestive content in front of me. And I could have justified it. I could have said, well, I'm not here for that. So I'm just going to try to stay informed and if something pops up, I'm just going to scroll right past it. But that would have been protecting the access point to temptation. So I deleted the app. Not because deleting the app makes me holy. Let's get that clear. Not because deleting the app saves me, but because I do not need to keep a doorway open to the things that are feeding temptation. That's too high of a risk. And that's why Jesus is using such extreme language here. Our actions do not save us, but our habits do shape us. What we keep returning to begins to train what we love. What we keep excusing begins to shape what we tolerate. What we keep feeding begins to form who we are becoming. That is the kind of practical obedience that Jesus is talking about. Do not negotiate with what is destroying you. And we need to make this very clear. You cannot cut off enough, delete enough, clean yourself up enough to make yourself right with God. Only Jesus saves you. It's not by the actions that you take, the steps that you take. That is not what sanctifies, that is not what purifies you. It is not what makes you clean. Instead, Jesus is the one who does that. Now, you may notice, verses 44 and 46 are not there. Most Bibles, most modern translations don't have it there. Go ahead, take a look. This was very distracting to my wife when I when I mentioned this to her. So I want you to just go ahead and take a look. There's usually a footnote that says something like, Earlier manuscripts do not have these verses in this section. Now, I want to clear that up because someone might look at that and say, Well, there you go. The Bible is definitely filled with error. And that's not what's happening here. In fact, the verses that are missing are the exact verse of verse 48, which says, Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And so scribes repeated the description of verse 48 in later translations in order to emphasize the severity of hell, of what Jesus is talking about. But nothing about Jesus' warning is lost in this verse, in these verses that are missing. So the word Jesus uses for hell is Gehenna. It was a place located just outside Jerusalem. In the Old Testament, it was associated with horrific evil. There was a false God Molech that the people of Israel would sacrifice their children to in this site, at this site. And so it was a place that represented God's judgment. And Jesus uses that word, Gehenna, because he's reaching to the strongest image that would have been there for the disciples to really understand the weight of what he's saying. Warning them that hell is not a small thing, it is a dreadful reality of final judgment. He's warning us because the stakes are eternal. So we should take action. We should cut off access. We should not make peace with sin. But we also need to be clear: Jesus is not merely after behavior modification. You've heard that from this pulpit many times. It's not about behavior modification because cutting off a hand doesn't create a holy life. The deeper issue is not only do I have enough willpower, the deeper issue is do I believe Jesus is better? Do I believe his warnings are true? Do I believe his kingdom is worth it? So, yes, we need to fight against sin aggressively. But it doesn't stop there. We need to ask God that the Holy Spirit would reorder our lives and it would reorder our loves until Christ becomes more beautiful to us than the sin that is tempting us. Because the goal is not just that we would avoid consequences, but the goal is that we would begin to live a life fully satisfied in Christ, fully belonging to God. So here's the question: What am I keeping close that is pulling me away from Jesus? What am I keeping close that is pulling me away from Jesus? And to you, you have maybe have treated it as something very small. But from these verses, we see that Jesus doesn't treat any of our sins like a small sin. He says, cut it off. The same Jesus who warns us about hell is the Jesus who also went to the cross to rescue sinners from hell. He's not just talking about it, he's living it. The same Jesus who says, cut it off is the Jesus who gave his body on the cross to die and get cut off from the Father in judgment for us. So we fight sin because Jesus has brought us near to God. He's the one who did it. Do not treat lightly what Jesus takes seriously. Jesus takes our sin seriously. So should we. But he doesn't stop at our influence or at our sin. He's calling us into holiness because Jesus takes our holiness seriously. So again, Jesus takes our influence seriously, he takes our sin seriously, and he takes our holiness seriously. Let's look again at verses 49 and 50. For everyone will be salted with fire. 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. So here in these couple verses, Jesus is bringing together lots of things: fire, salt, purity, preservation, peace, and in just a few words. And so I'd be lying to you to say that, oh, this is a very easy thing to interpret. In fact, these are some of the hardest two verses in all the New Testament to get down to the meaning of. But I think that we can understand what Jesus is getting at here. In the Bible, fire is often used for different purposes. It's used as testing and refining. It reveals what is real, it purifies, it burns away what does not belong. That's fire. And then salt. Salt carries several meanings, like it's a preserve preservative. It preserves things, it keeps something from decay. It was connected to purity. And in the Old Testament, in fact, sacrifices were offered with salt. You don't have to turn there, but you can look to the screens. Leviticus 2.13 says, You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering. With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. So salt was a part of the offering process, the sacrificial process. It connected to covenant faithfulness. It marked the offering as belonging to God. And now Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, Have salt in yourselves. In other words, your life belongs to God. You're not bringing God a salted sacrifice on the altar. Instead, you are the offering. We are the offering being presented to God. How do we know this? Romans 12, 1. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. So Jesus says, have salt in yourselves. He's calling his disciples to live as people who wholly are offered to God. Not partially, not externally, not privately, and then publicly following Jesus. Jesus tells his disciples to be like salt, be purified, be preserved, be distinct, be the kind of disciples whose life fully belongs to God. Because Jesus takes our holiness seriously. And sometimes God preserves his people through fire. Not the fire of hell for those who reject him, but the refining fire of conviction, repentance, and costly obedience. It's the purifying process for all those who call Jesus their leader and forgiver. Sometimes it looks like conviction. You hear the word of God and it exposes it a habit in you. It brings to mind something that's pulling you away from Jesus, a pattern of anger or private compromise that you've learned to live with. And so sometimes it's the fire of conviction. Sometimes it's the fire of repentance. Bringing sin into light. Telling the truth, asking for accountability, owning what you did without blaming someone else. And sometimes it looks like costly obedience. Choosing integrity when dishonesty may get you ahead. Choosing generosity when self-protection would be easier. Choosing peace when you would rather win the argument. The fire of costly obedience. In all this, Jesus is teaching us again and again, our whole lives belong to Him. What we do belongs to Him. What we say belongs to Him. Where we go, what we look at, how we treat people, our whole life belongs to God. That is what holiness is. Holiness, as a definition, is not just avoiding the really bad sins. Holiness is belonging fully to God. That kind of holiness doesn't say private. Because when my whole life belongs to God, my relationships, my speech, my actions, the things I think, and the things that I entertain are all going to be in submission to God's design. Doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect, but that's why we need Jesus. And that brings us to the last word Jesus has in this passage. He says, Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. That ending is very intentional. Remember where the conversation started. The disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. They were comparing, they were competing, and they were trying to figure out who would rise above everyone else. And so Jesus says, Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. In other words, if you're going to be my disciples, you cannot be preserved in pride and rivalry. You must be purified from it. A life offered to God becomes a life of peace with others. So we need to be salty. We need to be salty people. And when I think of an example of that, here at CVC, a couple comes to mind who is a married couple who are members here, Dave and C. Spadoni. Now, they're currently leading the trip in Guatemala, but I want to tell you a little bit about who they are because I think that they are a great example of living salty lives. Dave is always ready and willing to serve and to lead. And he is someone who is serving our community. He goes to the hospital weekly to share with people who are in health crisis. He volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. And he leads one of our young adult life groups here at CVC. And then Cece, who is his wife, and I'm glad she's not here because she would be mortified that I'd be talking about her from here. But that's just who she is. She's more behind the scenes, but man, you feel welcome and loved when you talk to Cece. You feel that she listens. You feel that she is on your side and is praying for you. Together, Dave and Cees are a great picture of salty discipleship. They love the church, they care for the hurting, and they're burdened for the lost. Their lives are marked by service, faithfulness, compassion, and gospel urgency. Now, the thing about Dave and Cease is they're in their retirement years. And the way I just described who they are is how they're spending those years in total service to the Lord. In fact, I received a message from Dave on Monday, and here's what he wrote: God gave me the opportunity to do a full send. That's our coded language for sharing the gospel with somebody. And the Spirit led her to say she believed, sharing the gospel with someone day to day, and someone responded. That's what salty living looks like. Now, you may hear this, and that's kind of ordinary. There's nothing spectacular about Davences's story. Here are two people spending their retirement, time and effort to serve God and his people. But it doesn't need to look glamorous. Hands that serve, feet that go, eyes that see people with compassion, mouths that speak the good news of Jesus, lives that belong to God. A salty person is one who has been purified from pride that says, that says to God, I need you above all else. And preserved in humility that says, I want help, I want help to follow you, Jesus. That is why Jesus takes holiness seriously. Because holiness is never about me and God alone. But it's about how that affects the whole community. Saul preserves, so here the question is: where is Jesus calling me to become salty? Where is he calling me to be purified before God, preserved from sin and at peace with others? Maybe it's a sin that needs to be confessed. Maybe it's pride that needs to be humbled. Maybe it's bitterness that needs to be released. Maybe it's a relationship that you need to pursue peace with. Or maybe it's an area of your life that you have kept separate from your discipleship. And Jesus is saying, no, that all belongs to me too. Your hands, your feet, your eyes, your desires, your influence, all of it. That is what holiness is. Holiness is not just avoiding the really bad sins, holiness is belonging fully to God. But we need to be clear here. We don't offer ourselves to God so that He will finally accept us because of that obedience. We offer ourselves to God because in Christ, He has already done the work. Jesus did not come to warn us, He came to rescue us. And that's good news. Because He did what we couldn't do, He lived the perfect life that we can't live. He never minimized sin. He never rebelled against the Father. He fully obeyed where we often fail. And then he died a death that we deserve. Because our sin is not a mistake, it is a rebellion against God. And we've all treated lightly what God takes seriously. We've all sinned against him, and we all deserve judgment. The judgment that Jesus warns us about here is what we deserve. But at the cross, Jesus took the judgment for all sinners. He gave his body, he shed his blood, and he died in our place so that we could be forgiven, rescued, and brought into right relationship with God. But he didn't stay dead. It's not about how well we follow the rules. It's about how Jesus lived the perfect rule-following life. So the invitation today is not clean up yourself and maybe God will accept you. The invitation is come to Jesus. Turn from your sin, trust him as the leader and forgiver of your life. And that's why this whole passage matters so much. Because Jesus is not only talking about behavior, but he's talking about eternity. So if you've been treating Jesus lightly, come to him. If you've been treating eternity lightly, hear both the warning and the mercy of Jesus today. After the service, there's going to be some leaders who would love to pray with you. If you're someone who wants to know more about what it looks like to follow Jesus, they would love to talk to you and to pray with you. If you're someone who is dealing with a sin that maybe has come up from hearing this today, you can come up and you can pray with them. However, Jesus is calling you to come, listen and obey. At the beginning, I told you about a man whose view of hell kept him awake at night. And I think that Jesus wants to wake us up with this. But Jesus does not warn us about hell to leave us hopeless and afraid. He warns us so that we would come to him, receive his mercy, and enter life. Do not treat lightly what Jesus takes seriously. Jesus takes our influence seriously. He takes our sin seriously. He takes our holiness seriously. And through all of it, Jesus takes eternity seriously, seriously enough to die on behalf of our sin. And so we should take these things seriously too. Let's pray. Lord, it is a humbling thing to know the cost of our sin. To know that apart from belief in Jesus as the leader, forgiver of our lives, we are totally hopeless, we are totally lost, and we are destined for destruction. Where the worm does not die, the fire is not quenched. But despite the fact that we deserve this as our judgment, you have given us a way, a way of freedom, a way of hope, a way of holiness, a way of a satisfied life in you. Through Jesus. So I pray, Lord, as we consider this text, as we consider these sobering words, as we consider the sin in our own lives and how our sin may have an influence on other people. Apart from you, we fail every time. Would you fill us? Would you give us the strength? Would you give us the perseverance that we may be salt of the earth? Proclaiming the message that we so freely were able to receive. May we freely give it so that others may know. Have your way in us. We pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.