First Baptist Church of Tampa Sermons

S1 E6: Seriously

• First Baptist Church of Tampa • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Sermon Overview

Series: Following Jesus

Title: Seriously

Text: Mark 9:42-50

Date: March 15th, 2026

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THRIVE?

We want to help every person make a genuine commitment to follow Jesus and then follow through with that commitment in Connecting People to a Thriving Life in Christ. These Thriving disciples should Dig In to the Bible, Grow Up in Christ, and Branch Outinto the community.

Our Mission: To Connect People to a Thriving Life in Christ. What is a thriving life in Christ? Scripture says that Jesus Christ came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Our mission in the city of Tampa is to make disciples who follow the pattern of the believer in Psalm 1 and desire God’s glory above all things.

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SPEAKER_00

In three weeks' time, we will be gathered together in two worship services on Resurrection Sunday. Easter is just three weeks away. And on that Sunday, we're going to discuss what we just sang about. Is he worthy? We'll be looking in Revelation chapter five, where John is getting a glimpse of the throne room of God. And there the question is asked, is anyone worthy to take the scroll from the Father's hand? Is there anyone in heaven and under heaven, on earth, under earth, is there anyone who can take the scroll? And no one can take it. No one can stand up and come and take the scroll. And John begins to weep because he recognizes this is God's plan, and there's no one to carry out God's plan. And then one of the elders says, Stop and look. Next to the throne is a lamb standing as if slain. Jesus Christ, who laid his life down as a lamb, who returns as a lion, will be celebrating He is worthy on Resurrection Sunday. I pray that you make plans now to come and bring friends with you so that they might hear the truth of the gospel. But this morning we're back in Mark chapter 9. We're going to conclude Mark 9 today. So if you would take out your copy of God's word, open it up, turn and join me there. Turn it on however you have it. If you don't have a Bible with you, there are some in the pew back. We're going to be on page 906 in those pew Bibles. Mark chapter 9. And we're going to read to the end of the chapter in just a moment. Do any of y'all have a friend or an acquaintance that you just don't know whenever they talk to you, if they're kidding around or if they're being serious? We all have these people in our lives where you just don't know. When they talk to you, you don't know. Are you being serious right now? Are you just kidding around? So we take teams to South Africa on a regular basis about every other year or so, every third year. And our good friend and ministry partner there is Hoppy Pullman. And Hoppy Pullman is one of these people. He's one of these people that if you don't know him, you have no idea if he's being serious or if he's just messing around. And he loves the first night of the trip to ask the team, Did you enjoy the baboon meat that you had for dinner tonight? And he does it in such a way that you have no idea. And so the team is often confused, and they come to me saying, Bob, was that really baboon meat that we ate tonight? I said, It was good, wasn't it? It was really, really not knowing if somebody is serious or just messing around can be frustrating at times. It can be confusing. There are times when we have to use phrases like, let's get serious. Or we ask somebody, seriously? Or we have to say, this is serious business, or I need to have a serious conversation with you. Sometimes we refer to as a boxer, as a serious contender. Or we have to say, this is a serious responsibility. Or even, can you just get serious right now? Why do we say these things? Why do we have these phrases? We have these phrases because we recognize that there are sometimes there are topics or situations in our lives that have more weight, more gravity to them that we need to pay attention to. It's fine to be lighthearted, it's fine to have fun, it's fine to goof around, but every now and then there is a topic that comes along, or there is a situation that comes on that we need to get locked in on, that we need to focus on, that we need to make serious, pay attention to. Our text for this morning is one of those texts, it's one of those times, it's a topic in a situation where God is talking to us about sin, eternal consequences, and hell. It's a time to be serious. It's a time to take it seriously. Do you know that God takes sin seriously? God takes sin seriously far more than we tend to take sin. We tend to trivialize our sin. We tend to make fun of our sin or make light of our sin. And yet God takes sin very seriously. He does so because the result of sin is death. The result of sin is separation from Him. God takes sin seriously. He takes it so seriously that he dealt with the cost of our sin by sending his son to die to pay the price for our sin. God takes sin seriously. The price for our sin is death. And Jesus paid that price. And those who have received that by grace, by faith, receive the grace of God. Those who reject that, however, face an eternal consequence. Forgiveness demands repentance. It demands turning away from sin. And yet we tend to trivialize our sin. We tend to make little of it, not much of it. But sin is serious to God. In our text for this morning, we're gonna see that shocking language is used. Drastic hyperbole is used to get our attention, to focus our attention. Language that you probably would not expect. Images that you probably would not expect in the Bible are used. And here's the thing the words that we are going to read today come from our Savior, Jesus Christ. They come from the mouth of the one who died to save us from our sin. So we might want to take it seriously and pay attention to what he says. The theme of the text, the theme of the message is simply, do we take sin seriously? If you're willing and able, would you stand with me as we read these words? Mark chapter 9, we're going to begin in verse 42 and read to the end of the chapter. Jesus said, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believed to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go into hell into the unquenchable fire. If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell. If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell, where there 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 becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourself and be at peace with one another. Father, as we open your word today, sometimes as we do so, we turn to passages that are light, we turn to passages that uplift us, we turn to passages that bring us joy, and then there are other times when we turn to passages that we just have to allow your spirit to help us to understand. There are words that our minds and our hearts rebel against. There are concepts that we don't like to think about. And yet, because they're in your word and your word is truth, we know it to be true. And so, Father, help us to understand your truth. Help us to embrace your truth and help us to align our lives according to your truth. Lord, as you talk about sin and you talk about eternal punishment and you talk about hell, let us take it seriously for ourselves and for those around us. God, thank you for being clear and being frank and telling us the truth. Lord, help us to align our lives to it today, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Sin is serious business. Jesus uses graphic language. He uses graphic terms to help his disciples to understand just how graphic and how important sin is. The Bible describes sin as transgressing against the law of God. Sin is going against the character and nature of God. It is falling short of the glory of God, it is missing the mark. God's standard is holiness, God's standard is perfection, and anything short of that is sin. And God hates sin. He hates sin because it is the opposite of his character. God is completely holy. There is nothing about him that is tarnished, he is holy. Psalm verse five, chapter five, verse four says that no evil is within God. He is holy. God hates sin because it is against his purity. He is infinitely holy. We cannot begin to quite honestly comprehend just how pure and righteous and holy God is. Therefore, any sin is an affront to his holiness. God hates sin because it is an affront to his holiness. God also hates sin because it separates his creation from him. God hates sin because when we fall into sin and refuse to repent, we are separated from him. Isaiah 59, 2 says, your sins separate you from a holy God. God takes sin seriously. And sin demands restoration. Sin causes separation, which demands restoration. And in order for restoration to take place, it demands holiness on the part of the one who has been separated. God is holy. He hates that separation that is caused by that. He desires restoration, so he has provided the way for us to be made right through his son Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our sin. But we must place our faith in that and seek after the holiness that only he can impart to us. The consequences of sin. The Bible says that the wage of sin, what we earn with sin, falling short of the glory of God, not living up to his standard, not meeting his laws and his character, the wages of sin is death. That is physical death. All of us have sinned. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. How do we know that everybody has sinned? Because everybody dies. It is a physical death. But it is also a spiritual death. Spiritual death being separation from the creator who created us, a holy God who has loved us. The consequence of our sin is separation from God. That takes place while we are walking on earth and we do not have a relationship with Him. And if we do not resolve that relationship through faith in Jesus Christ, then when we die, that broken relationship will continue on in eternity. In a place described as hell. Jesus talks about hell more than anybody else in the New Testament. In fact, he talks about hell more than he talks about heaven. And he does so because he wants to warn us. He wants to help us to understand just how awful it is. And many people, we want to we want to explain away hell. We want to say that a loving God would never have a place where people would be separated from him forever. A loving God would not have a place that is described as eternal torment and unquenching fire. A loving God wouldn't do such a thing, and yet, what about a holy God who is eternally holy? And a just God, a holy God who cannot be with sin. And a just God who must punish sin. An eternally holy God, and any sin against him requires and demands eternal consequence. We don't want to think about it. We want God to overlook our sin. We want him to sweep it under the rug. We want him to pretend like it never happened. But Habakkuk tells us that God's eyes are too pure to look on sinfulness and approve. A lot of people like to quote Habakkuk and they say, God can't look on sinfulness. That's not what the verse says. The verse says that God cannot look on sinfulness and approve. God looks at sinfulness all the time. But it doesn't mean he approves. And we want him to approve it. A higher percentage of people believe in heaven than they do in hell. A majority of people claim to believe in a place called heaven where people go and they get to be with God, whatever that may look like to them, a very high percentage of people believe that there is something called heaven. But a much lower percentage of people believe that there is actually a place called hell. Many of us, many of you perhaps, grew up under hellfire and brimstone preaching. Anybody have a preacher when you were growing up that they've, you know, slamming, sweating, talking about hell all the time? Right? We're told now that you can't talk about sin, you can't talk about hell in church because nobody wants to be told about that. And if you keep talking about hell and sin, they won't come back. Well, we're just trying to appease ourselves, aren't we? My job is to tell you the truth. And when I read scripture, I read what Jesus taught. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. When Jesus teaches, he teaches truth. And there's 12 times that hell is talked about in the New Testament. Eleven times Jesus talks about it. And when he does, he describes it as a real place with real consequences that lasts an eternity. I'm going with what Jesus says. I'm paying attention to what he has to say. In this text, he calls it a place where the worm never dies and the fire never goes out. He calls it a place of an unquenchable fire. The image that was drawn and the word that was drawn in the New Testament, most of the time when Jesus used it was the word Gehenna. It describes a garbage dump on the south side of the city of Jerusalem, where they would take all their refuse and all their trash and their corpses, and they would take everything and they would throw it, and there was a constant fire burning there. In the Old Testament, it was a place where they would do child sacrifices to a false god named Moloch. When Jesus talked about Gehenna, when he talked about a burning fire with fuel that will constantly fuel it, he was using imagery that they would understand. He wanted them to understand what was at stake. The Bible describes hell as eternal, unquenchable. Shame, everlasting torment, everlasting destruction, a lake of burning fire, torment day and night, forever. And I agree with you. I don't want to think about that. I don't like thinking about that. I don't like think about people that would be sent there that would go there. I certainly don't want to think about people that I've known in my life who I don't think knew Christ and hadn't trusted in him and where they might be now. I don't like thinking about it. Our hearts don't like thinking about it, our minds don't like thinking about it, but that does not mean it is not true. We try to explain it away, we try to come up with alternatives. We come up with things called universalism. Universalism is just this concept that says God is so loving that somehow, somehow, everybody gets to heaven. Doesn't matter what you believe in, doesn't matter how you live, doesn't matter, there may be some kind of consequence some along the way, but ultimately everybody gets to heaven. It's called universalism. I suppose it's a nice thought, but it has nothing to do with God's holiness, God's justice, God's grace, or God's truth. We come up with things called soul sleep, where we believe that just when you die, you just go to sleep. And there's nothing more. We come up with things like annihilationism. This name, this word probably is familiar if you are paying attention. Recently, Kirk Cameron raised this question. Kirk Cameron's an actor, a TV producer, a podcaster, an evangelist. And recently he raised the question of hell. Now he hasn't settled on what he believes, but he just wanted to kind of throw this idea out there of maybe hell is in a place of eternal torment, maybe hell is annihilationism. And here's what annihilationism teaches: it teaches that after you die, if you haven't trusted in Christ, there is a period of punishment, and then after that period of punishment, you just cease to exist. My question would be: where is that taught in Scripture? Where do you find that anywhere in Scripture? I understand it, it salves our minds and it helps us to feel better about the concept of eternal punishment. But where does the Bible teach it? Several years ago you might have remembered a pastor by the name of Rob Bell who wrote a book, Love Wins. Do not look it up, do not read the book, it's garbage. But he questioned. He questioned if God is so loving, is there such a place as hell? Or isn't hell just the experience that people have in life apart from God? Rob Bell, by the way, is completely left the compound. He's we don't like to think about it. But here, Jesus warns us about it because eternity is at stake. And when Jesus talks about hell, here's the interesting thing. I I find this very interesting. When Jesus talks about hell, he does not talk to unbelievers about hell. Every time Jesus talks about hell, he's referring, he's talking to his disciples, he's talking to his followers, he's talking to religious people. When Jesus talks about heaven, that's when he's talking to unbelievers. He wants underbelievers to see the glory that they can receive, and he wants believers to understand if these people don't get saved, this is where they will spend eternity. Jesus is giving a warning in this text. In verse 41, he gives us a promise. Of reward. You'll remember that this whole context is that the disciples have been arguing about who is the greatest amongst themselves. And Jesus took a small child and he placed him in his lap and he said, Look, if you receive this child as you receive one who has nothing to offer and is just kind of socially out there, if you receive him, then you understand how I've received you and you receive me and my father. And he's been talking to them about that. And then the disciples said, Hey, Jesus, there was this guy who was casting out demons in your name, and we told him to stop. And you remember what Jesus said? Stop trying to stop him. If he's not against us, he's for it. Here's what you should have done: you should have taken our brother a cup of cold water. You should have encouraged him. You should have equipped him. You should have done whatever you could. He talks in verse 41 about a reward for unity, a reward for helping a brother in Christ. Verse 42, he talks about a warning for causing someone else to stumble, for causing somebody else to sin. Quickly, I just want you to see these two warnings that he gives us. First of all, he says there's a warning, don't cause someone else to sin. That's verse 42. And then verses 43 through 48, he says, don't cause yourself to sin. Jesus takes this little one and he puts him in his place next to them and he's having this conversation. And then Jesus says, if anyone causes this little one to stumble, this little one who believes to stumble, it would be better for him if they put a millstone around his neck and drowned him in the sea. A millstone was a grinding stone that they would use to grind grain into wheat and to flour. They were massive stones. They were very practical in their application, but they could also be used as a tool of execution, and they often were. They would take criminals and they would strap this stone around their neck and then they would throw them into the Sea of Galilee. And it was a horrific way to die. It was a disgusting way to die. And the disciples knew that. And Jesus said, I want you to understand the consequences here. He says, if anyone causes one of these little ones, and I don't think he's talking about little children. Jesus in this instance is referring to those who are younger in the faith, those who are weaker in the faith, those who are less mature in the faith. He says, if you who are walking in the faith cause somebody who is weaker in the faith to stumble. The word stumble here is the word we get scandalized from. It means to trap or entrap, to trip up. And he says, if any of you, he's not talking about false preachers, he's not talking about TV evangelists. He says, anyone who causes someone who's weaker in the faith, if you cause them to sin, it would be better. That's the key word in the phrase, better. It would be better for you if someone were to strap a millstone around your neck and you would drown in the lake rather than what? Face the judgment that you'll face. Because if you do not care enough about sin, and if you do not care enough about your brother who might sin, then you don't understand the impact of sin in your life. The whole context of that conversation is the disciples having the superior attitude. I'm better than you, you're better than me, who's first, who's second? That guy's not one of us, he can't be acting in the name of Jesus. They have a superior attitude. How many people have been caused to trip and sin because church people have a superior attitude? And we look down our noses at them. Like Cain, we want to ask Jesus, Am I my brother's keeper? Is it my responsibility to look after somebody else so that they don't sin? You know what the answer to that question is? Yes, it is. It absolutely is. Romans chapter 15, verse 1 says, Those that are strong in the faith ought to bear the weaknesses of others. The first solemn warning is don't cause someone else to sin. The second solemn warning is don't cause yourself to sin. He turns their attention away from somebody else and he says, Let's talk about you for a minute. Because if you don't want to lead someone else into sin, then you need to make sure you're not in sin. He's calling for a life of holiness. He's calling for a life of righteousness. He's calling them to pursue righteousness. If I don't want to lead others into sin, then I need to get sin out of my own life. How does he do that? He says, don't toy with sin. Don't play with sin. Don't dance along the line of sin. Flee from sin. Get sin out of your life. If you are a Christ follower, sin no longer reigns in your life. It no longer has control over your life, but it remains in your life. It is still there. As we walk in this world and as we live in these bodies of flesh, we still deal with sin. But we are no longer slaves to sin because Christ has overcome sin in our lives. But we need to deal with it. And how does he tell us to deal with it? In very drastic language. Says in verse 43, if your hand causes you to sin, do what? Cut it off. Verse 45, if your foot causes you to sin, do what? Cut it off. Verse 47, if your eye causes you to sin, do what? Pluck it out. Get rid of it. Now hear me very clearly. Jesus is not speaking literally here. People throughout history have said, oh, he's talking literally, so I'm going to cut my hand off, or I'm going to pluck my eye out, or I'm going to emasculate myself, I'm going to do something. But did you know, and I'm sure you do, that you can close your eyes and see nothing and still sin? You can cut your foot off and still sin. You can emasculate yourself and still sin. Jesus is not talking about physical amputation. Jesus is talking about spiritual mortification. He is talking about there are some things in our lives that we recognize lead us towards sin. Our eyes, the things that we see, our ears, the things that we hear, our hands, the things that we touch, our feet, the way they take us. And he's saying there are some things in your life that the best way for you to deal with them is to do what? Oh, play with it a little while. Dabble around with it. See how much you can play with it until you get to the point where you can sin. No, no, and no. He's saying, deal with it, and here's how you deal with it. Cut it out of your life. If it's a cancer, you cut it out so it doesn't continue to grow. Cut it out. And some of us need to be careful, little eyes, what you see. For the father up above is looking down in love. So be careful, little eyes, what you see. Be careful, little hands, what you touch. We need to go back to preschool and remember this song. There are some things in our lives, there are some people in our lives, there are some situations in our lives that we need to cut out. There are some things we allowed to go into our eyes and then into our brains, and into our hearts that we need to cut out. There's scrolling that we need to stop doing and streaming that we need to stop doing. There's gossip and there's laziness that we just need to cut out. Proverbs 6. It says, don't dabble with sin. It says, can a man keep a fire next to his breast and not burn his clothes? Can a man walk on burning coals and not singe his feet? Of course, the answer is no. Stop pulling sin in and get rid of the sin. But we we we kind of like our sin, don't we? We tend to love our sin. And what does he tell us to do? Cut it out. The word is immediate and the word is continual. It means to cut it out now and continue to cut it out. It is immediate and it is consistent. Don't let have sin have dominion in your life. Don't let it defeat you. Don't let it destroy your testimony. Cut it out. Why? Why should we do this? Because there is no salvation apart from a heart that desires holiness. There is no salvation apart from a heart that is broken over sin. You can't claim to receive grace if you don't understand what sent Christ to the cross in the first place, which is your sin. We need to be mortified over our sin. We need to hate it as much as God hates it. And cut it out wherever we can. He tells us why, as he concludes, he says, that the sacrifice will be salted with fire. In the Old Testament, they would take the sacrifice and they lay it on the altar, and then they would pour salt over it before the fire came. Romans chapter 12 tells us, in view of God's mercy, we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to our Father, for this is our spiritual act of worship. We ought to offer our lives seasoned with salt. Because people are watching. Let me just ask you this as we finish. If someone were just watching the path that you take in your walk with the Lord, if they were just watching the way you lived your life with Christ, would your path cause them to stumble along the way? Or would it lead them directly to Christ? How do I know? None of us are perfect, right? None of us are. But when I strive to cut sin out of my life because I take it as seriously as God does, then I can paint a picture for others. And I won't lead them towards sin, nor will I go towards sin myself. God takes sin seriously. So seriously that he sent his son to die for the price of sin. What's the price of sin? Death. Eternal death, because God is eternally holy and sin keeps us from him eternally. God takes sin so seriously, he sent his son to die for it. How seriously do you take your sin?