Our Strong Foundation

2 Timothy 2:19. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 31, 2021.

This world seeks to build a future that can bring about peace, safety, and greatness for humanity.  The problem is that the world is building upon a foundation that is not God’s foundation.  Instead, it is being misled by their own sinful desires, and the devil, a fallen spiritual being who hates mankind.  We are led into through an unhealthy trust in our own human reasoning and wisdom.  Such people are manipulated by spiritual forces in ways that they often do not realize.

God’s people have always understood this about the world.  We must not yield for one second to the spirit of this world, and step off of the foundation of Jesus.  We must not join them in their great campaign to reject God’s foundation and make their own.  This endeavor will only be like the man who built his house upon the sand.  A great trial is coming upon the whole world, and this foundation of the devil and humanity will not hold.

Let’s look at our passage.

The solid foundation of God

Our verse comes on the heels of a list of actions and people who were causing troubles in the churches that Timothy was overseeing, no doubt, this also happened elsewhere in Paul’s travels.  Paul warns Timothy not to strive over words to the ruining of those who are hearing it.  He also warns him to avoid worldly and empty chatter because it will increase to more and more ungodliness.  Lastly, he warns that those who promote such will spread their message like cancer.  They will resist the truth, even to the point of some teaching that the resurrection was already past.  This was leading to the overthrowing, conquering, of the faith of some.

It is in this context that Paul reminds Timothy that there is a solid foundation of God despite the long list of negative things happening.  The word “nevertheless” operates in opposition to that negative list that Timothy is to avoid.  No matter how great the forces arrayed against God’s people, we still have a solid foundation that is from God Himself.  That is a great comfort in such times and has been demonstrated over and over again throughout history.

Paul does not define the foundation here, but it is made clear in many other verses.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building…For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  -1 Corinthians 3:9,11 (NKJV)

Here, we see that the people of God, His Church, are a building that God is building in cooperation with the apostles and leaders of the Church.  Paul clearly states that Jesus as Messiah is the foundation upon which the Church is built.  It is unlikely that it means the external institution.  He speaks of the spiritual body of Christ throughout the world, and throughout all time.  Let’s look at another verse regarding the foundation of God.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  -Ephesians 2:19-22 (NKJV)

In these verses, we see that the building in mind is a holy temple.  The people of God, both individually and collectively, are a temple in which the Spirit of God dwells and works.  We are built together and upon a foundation that is now described as being the apostles and prophets with Jesus being the chief cornerstone.  A similar image is given in Revelation 21 where the 12 foundations of the New Jerusalem are named after the twelve apostles.  This is not in contradiction to 1 Corinthians 3:11, but expands the imagery of a foundation.  In one sense, Jesus is the foundation, period.  However, it is also true to see him as being the most important stone within a foundation that had been laid over centuries by God through the prophets.

The historical record that we can read today has been faithfully delivered by the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles, who were the prophets of the New Testament that were sent by Christ with his message.  This strong foundation is all possible, and built upon, God Himself.  We must remember that the foundation of what we believe and how we live is built upon God Himself.  And, because it is built upon God Himself, it will stand firm regardless what assails it.  The Spirit of God wants us to know that, regardless of what comes against us personally, or against the faithful as a group, we have been given a foundation that was set by God Himself.  It will not be shaken, and it will not fall, period.  Our true danger is in somehow getting off of that firm foundation.

There are a lot of strivings over words that are ruining God’s people.  There are a lot of profane and empty babblings that are increasing our people into more and more ungodliness.  Many are having their faith overthrown, or supplanted with a faith in untruths.  God help us to be careful in these last days that we not have our faith overthrown, or shipwrecked.  His solid foundation was given especially for times like these.  Countless generations before us have entered the fires of trial, and have found it to hold firm, and so will we, if we courageously stand upon it.  The purpose of God and the strategy, or mission, of God will prevail over the enemy!  This is the flip-side of standing with Jesus and making the Good Confession.  We not only stand beside Christ speaking the same thing as he, but we also stand upon Jesus, his word, and the apostles that he authorized to establish his teachings.  We must refuse to be moved off of him.

Paul mentions that the foundation of God has a seal on it.  This is important because the attacks upon our faith come from outside the Church and from inside the Church.  A seal functioned to show who something belongs to, and it also functioned to show that something was authentic or genuine.  Both are important for Paul’s purposes.  Those who truly belong to the Lord will stand upon, and be built up upon, the foundation of Jesus.  This foundation is both the written Word of God, and the person of Jesus called The Word of God.  The written is an expression of a being called the Word of God.  We must never isolate the written word from the person of Christ himself through our fellowship with his Spirit.

These last days will challenge you.  Are you going to stay upon the foundation and belong to God, or, will you lay your faith aside and step onto a false foundation that is not firm?  God help us to stay faithful in these times.

We are told that there are two statements upon this seal, which is actually a spiritual seal.  The first statement is, “The Lord knows those who are His.”  The second is, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Let’s deal with the first statement.  It appears that Paul has the confrontation of Numbers 16 in mind since this first statement is a direct quote from Numbers 16:5. It may not look like it at first because most translations have Numbers 16:5 as, “the LORD will show who is His.”  The verb translated “will show” is literally “will cause to be known,” i.e. the Lord will cause to be known who is His.  The translation is good, but the different tack taken by the New Testament translators masks this connection.  Let’s talk about the Numbers 16 episode.

Moses had led the people to the Promised Land, but they had refused to enter in because of fear and unbelief when they saw the giants.  The people did not like the fact that they then had to go back into the wilderness for 40 years, so they tried to attack the giants and lost.  So, into the wilderness they went. 

Korah, a Levite who was related to Moses and Aaron, led a rebellion against Moses.  Why should Moses and Aaron have the say about where they go, and who gets to minister in the tabernacle?  Moses then tells Korah to prepare censers with incense and show up the next morning before the tabernacle.  Aaron and his sons would be there too.  Moses declares that, as they minister before the tabernacle, God would make it known who is His (or on His side).  Do you know what happened?  First, the ground opened up around the tents of those in league with Korah’s rebellion and they all fell in with their tents.  It is not clear if this was an earthquake event or a sinkhole event.  At the same time, fire went out from the Lord and killed Korah and 250 men who were offering incense before the tabernacle with him.

Ultimately, Korah and his followers represent those within God’s Church who are not happy with where things are and where they are headed.  Instead of trusting in the leading and foundation of God, they seek to take control of God’s Church.  However, God not only knows those who are His, but He will cause it to be known who are His at particular junctions.  You could say that the Second Coming of Christ will be such an event par excellence. 

The times of trials and shakings are for the very purpose of revealing who really belongs to Christ.  The Big Lie will be that those who stand on God’s foundation are the problem that is holding the world back, but God will shake this earth once more, and fire will go out from the Lord once more, and He will show who belongs to Whom.

Now, let’s look at the second statement.  “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”  This is connected to Numbers 16 as well.  Moses warned the people to get away from the tents of those in the rebellion, or they would perish with them.  To remain close to Korah would be to participate in his judgment.  Paul’s instructions to Timothy to avoid such people is not just good wisdom.  It is existential wisdom.  God’s people are to avoid those who claim to be Christians, but are caught up in iniquity.  We must not let them influence us.  Not all who claim to have the truth are of God.  This is why it is so important to be a student of God’s Word and to have a relationship with the Spirit of God through prayer.

This theme is an important end-times theme.  Revelation 18 speaks about the destruction of Mystery Babylon the Great.  In verse 4, it warns, “Come out from her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.  For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”  This is even a reiteration of Jeremiah 50:8, which speaks of the judgment of Babylon.

Listen, the world is trying to build a modern, but spiritual, tower of Babel whose foundation is anything but Christ.  Don’t let yourself be sucked into it, and deceived.  Those who truly believe in Christ and carry his name to the world will not fellowship with those who love iniquity.

Final Thoughts

There is a tension that exists between reaching the lost out of God’s compassion, and not fellowshiping with those trapped in iniquity out of love for God.  The separation is always a spiritual separation, and, from time to time, becomes a literal separation.  In fact, I believe this is exactly what God does in the rapture.  He removes his people because there will be no safe place on this earth to separate ourselves to, and so He takes us up to Himself.  It is our duty to remain spiritually committed to Christ and Him alone, to His Word and it alone, all the while warning people to flee the wrath hanging over this world.  May God strengthen our resolve to stand upon His strong foundation in the days ahead.

Strong Foundation audio

Jesus Teaches on Prayer

Mark 11:22-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 19, 2020.

Last week, we talked about the situation where Jesus had cursed a fig tree and within 24-hours it was dead down to the roots.  There, we talked about the symbolic importance of what Jesus did.

Today, we are going to look at what Jesus told his disciples immediately after Peter expressed amazement that the bush was so dead only one day after Jesus spoke to it.  Peter’s amazement is itself a demonstration of his ignorance at how powerful prayer truly is.  Thus, Jesus takes advantage of the opportunity to hammer home just how powerful prayer is to the person who has faith.

We should have faith

Jesus does emphasize the faith of the person praying, but even more critical is his emphasis on whom our faith is based.  My faith must be based upon God alone.  God is the foundation of our faith, and prayer is a dependence upon the power of God.

People who do not pray do not believe that they need God’s help.  It is also possible that they may think they are too spiritual to ask God for things, but the prior reason is the most typical.  Such people will attempt to gain the goal or target that they desire by their own abilities.

Here is where we should recognize that it is unbiblical not to pray, and yet just as unbiblical to sit back and do nothing while asking God to do everything.  Instead, we are to do what we can while praying for God’s help in those things we can’t.

To emphasize the critical nature of having our faith based solely on God, here are some examples in Scripture.  When Jesus tells us that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, he follows it up with the statement that with God all things are possible.  Thus, he is not impressing on us that rich people cannot be saved, but that it can only happen with God’s help- this is actually true of all of us.  This is the same message that the angel Gabriel gave to Mary when she questioned how she would have a baby- she was still a virgin.  The angel tells her that with God nothing will be impossible (Luke 1:37). 

The same God who created the universe is the Heavenly Father who watches over us.  His possibilities go far beyond our impossibilities.  He did not intend us to do life without Him.  Prayer is our ultimate birthright, to cry out to our Father for help, the one to whom all things are possible (that conform to his character, of course).

In case the teaching hasn’t sunk in, Jesus gives his disciples an illustration that is much greater than praying that no one will ever eat fruit from a particular fig tree ever again.  Praying that a mountain be removed and cast into the sea represents an extreme fantastic prayer that seems impossible.  There is an added symbol to this prayer because mountains are used as metaphors for political powers and empires, such as the Roman Empire.  It is the extreme nature of the request that highlights how unable we are, and yet how able God is.  By definition, God has the power to literally cast a mountain into the sea.  Yet, why would I ever need a real mountain thrown into the sea, and who will the resulting tsunami imperil?  A literal mountain is not the “impossible thing” that we typically need removed from our way, or life.  Instead, it represents an impossibility of any nature for which we would need God’s help.  This extreme example is intended to stretch our faith to the point that we stop limiting God just because we are limited.  Did not God literally move the waters of the Red Sea aside so that millions of Israelites could escape Pharaoh’s army?  So, can He not take care of my problem?  Of course, He can!

It is here that Jesus adds the issue of doubt.  We must not doubt God’s power, but neither should we doubt His care and concern for us.  It is one thing to have enough faith to pray a prayer, but we should not doubt that God will do it.  Granted, doubt is not the only issue here, but it is a critical one.  It might be better for us to ask the question, “Why do I doubt that God would answer this prayer?”  We will come back to this, but doubt is a huge reason why many people have quit praying, or never started in the first place.  We start doubting that God will do anything about our request.  He may help others, we tell ourselves, but I doubt that He is willing to help me.

In verse 24, Jesus gives us a summation of what he is saying.  When you pray asking for something, you should believe that you are receiving it, and it will be yours.  Another way to say this is that we should believe that God is taking care of it and that we will experience His answer to our prayer.  There is a certain load and burden in life that we all need to learn to carry, but there are things that are too heavy of any of us.  Prayer is intended by God to be the place where these overly heavy burdens are moved off of our shoulders and onto God’s  O, what joy we will experience when we learn to put those things we can’t change onto the shoulders of the one who cares for us (1 Peter 5:6-7).

This is not an exhaustive summation on prayer, but we need to let it sink in on its own merits.  Once that is done, we can move on to the other lessons concerning prayer.  This summation does beg two questions.  First, what impossible things should I be praying for that actually need removed from my life?  Second, what is the source of my doubt about it?

We must deal with our sins

In verse 25, it may appear that Jesus is switching the subject, but in reality, he is still teaching on prayer.  The sentence is introduced with the connective word “and,” and it involves a particular thing that affects our prayers, sin.

Jesus brings up the heart issues of what other people have done to me.  It can be hard for me to forgive those who sin against me and this becomes a source of problems for our prayers.  It is in the heart that I am to believe without doubting.  Yet, this very heart is often full of hurts and wounds that I have received from others.  Many people stop praying because they are angry that God has allowed other people to hurt them.  Technically, these are the sins of others, but they have intersected with my life and infected my heart.  We could say that they are other people’s sins that are now stuck in my heart.  Believers must learn to deal properly with those sins.  Harboring a grudge, hurt, or anger towards another person, and refusing to forgive them, becomes an obstacle to answered prayer.  Why is this?  It may be because it affects my faith and causes doubts, leading me to doubt that God really cares about me.  However, it may be because God is not pleased and wants me to deal with my lack of forgiveness first.  Scripture does not detail the nuts and bolts behind how this affects our prayers, but that it surely does.  Jesus teaches more about this in Matthew 18:15 and the following verses.  This would be good homework for us in the area of dealing with the sins of others against me and forgiving them.

Yet, notice that Jesus does not end up on whether or not our prayer is answered.  A lack of forgiveness for those who sin against me can even become a hindrance to me having my sins forgiven by God.  This is the exact situation that Jesus describes in the parable of The Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:22-34.  The question ceases to be about answered prayer and becomes about my own salvation.  A lack of forgiveness is far more serious for the believer (note the irony in that term) than just having our prayers answered.

Jesus leaves the teaching there.  Perhaps, he felt that it was a sufficient amount for them to contemplate.  However, I want to look at two more areas that God’s Word tells us can be a problem for our prayers.

The first is when we sin against others.   Jesus taught on this in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:23.  When we approach God in prayer and worship, He may bring to our remembrance some way in which we have sinned against others.  We are told to go and make things right with them, and then come back to God.  We may be avoiding things that we don’t want to deal with, or we may be obstinately clinging to our own righteousness in the situation.  Regardless, we are called to be at peace with all people, as much as is possible with us.  Being right is not an excuse to treat someone harshly, in short, to sin against them.  Such, lack of repentance in our heart will cause our prayers to be hindered.  The Apostle Peter gives us a picture of this in 1 Peter 3:7. There, he cautions husbands to dwell in wisdom with their wives, recognizing that, though they have different constitutions and roles, they have the same inheritance as them before God.  Husbands who mistreat their wives (i.e. sin against them) will find that their prayers are hindered by God.  Such hindering is God’s way of getting our attention and challenging us to deal with our sins against others.

James also gives us some more instructions on prayer.  In the first chapter, he too focuses on praying without doubting. 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But, let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;” (James 1:5-7 NKJV).

Yet, in chapter 4:1-3, James gives us more teaching about prayer.  Prayers that are focused on our desires for pleasure in this life will also be hindered.

James says that he is writing to people who are relying on clawing their way over others to get what they want instead of praying and believing God.  Their problem is that they are not asking God for help.  They are prayerless.  Yet, in the rare times that they did pray to God, there was a second problem.  Their prayers were focused on their own fleshly pleasures.  James literally says that such prayers are bad or wicked.  God is not our Golden Willy Wonka Ticket to chocolate pleasures, or any others.  A heart that is only filled with the desires and pleasures of this life will also find that its prayers are hindered by God.  Why?  We will find them hindered because we are still pursuing the flesh instead of following the Spirit to become like Jesus.  It is not that God doesn’t want us to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.  He made them.  Yet, our flesh hijacks the purpose of our life and makes it all about obtaining as much pleasure as possible.  God in His grace will not answer such prayers.  However, let me give one caution.  Scripture does say that, if we persist in seeking wickedness, God may give us what we seek as a judgment against us.  We must not be deceived.  God will not be mocked.  If you sow to your flesh then from your flesh you will reap destruction, but if you sow to the Spirit of God then you will reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:7-8).

We need to be a people of prayer for our sakes, and for the sake of the lost around us.  Yet, to do so means to be a person who deals with the sin that is in their life on a daily basis.  Then, our hearts can be clean before God and our prayers will not be hindered, but answered.  Amen!

Prayer audio

What Are We Doing Here At Abundant Life? Share Part 1

Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:9-11, 23; Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23; John 3:16; Acts 4:12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday June 14, 2020.

We have been talking about the purposes of the Church and its members.  We will now look at the last purpose, which is to passionately share Jesus with those who do not know him.  It can be seen as part of purpose #2.  In a way, we are serving those who are lost by telling them the good news.  However, since it is quite different then the ways we serve other believers, it is best to give it its own purpose.  Unbelievers have only one overwhelming need and that is Jesus.  Everything else pales.  They need to connect to the Lord of life, and only those who know Jesus can help them do that.  If you feed a person’s belly, but don’t help them connect to Christ then you have not helped them in the way that they needed.  Of course, you can do both, but we must never lose sight of our true purpose in their life.

People need Jesus whether they know it or not, and Christians must be convinced of that enough to go out of our comfort zones.  So today, let’s talk about the fact that people need to hear the good news of Jesus.

Each of us is a sinner

The first two passages that I have listed impress upon us that each person on this earth is a sinner.  Even those who are trying to keep the righteousness of God fall short.  It is interesting that people typically feel like they are doing a good enough job, and that their good outweighs their bad.  However, the revelation from God tells us that this isn’t true.

Mankind wasn’t always this way.  Back in Genesis chapters one and two, we are told that God created humans good and without sin.  Yet, in Genesis three, Adam and Eve rebel against God’s command and purposefully sin.  Sure, they were deceived, but they still knowingly broke God’s command.  At this point, Adam and Eve entered into a fallen, dying state.  This fallen state would also affect all of humanity that would come after them.  The death that God warned them about was both physical and spiritual.

All humans born after Genesis three would also be dying beings who were separated from the direct presence of God.  This may seem unfair, but there is no logical way around it.  The choice of parents always affects what a baby experiences: where it is born, how well it is taken care of, whether or not it is raised for the Lord, and the list goes on.  We can scope this out to recognize that the choice of families determines what a neighborhood experiences, and the choice of neighborhoods determines what a city experiences, and so to the state, nation, and ultimately the world.

Of course, there is more to this than just our choices.  There is also the fact that the devil and his cohorts have interfered in our relationship with God.

Given enough time, every person born on this planet will become sinners.  Isaiah is speaking about a people, Israel, who knew God’s law and yet he recognized that none of them were righteous before God.  He revealed that God would one day put our sins upon another, the Messiah.  I will talk more about that later.  In the Romans passage, Paul also emphasizes that both Jews and Greeks (basically everybody that wasn’t Jewish) fall short of God’s glory because of their sin.

We are born to sinful parents, who are in a sinful world, and we have a propensity for sin, that is, a sinful nature.  This is quite evident in each person.  You do not have to teach a child to sin.  It comes naturally.  However, you do have to teach and train them to do what is right.  This does not mean that everyone becomes as sinful as they can possibly be.  It simply means that, in the middle of all our choices, none of us measures up to complete righteousness.  It would be good for us to remember this in our social discussions and arguments.  Usually, it is the first thing we jettison.  When I am railing against someone else’s sin, I should remember that I too am a sinner.

How about the aborted baby, or the baby who dies within the first year?  Technically they are not guilty of sin before God, but they are stuck in the human condition.  They die and go into a spiritual holding place where all other humans have gone before them.  Without Jesus, they would still be stuck there.  There are some who have taught that we are born having inherited the guilt of Adam.  I don’t believe that this is a proper reading of Romans 5:12 and other passages about the effect of the original sin.  It was death and separation from God that spread to all the rest of us, not Adam’s guilt before God.  However, if they had been allowed to live, they would have eventually become sinners too.  At some point, they would become aware that they were doing something wrong and yet, would do it anyways.  It is at that point that we become guilty before God for our own sins.

The judgment of God is upon us

Yes, man is a sinner, but Ezekiel tells us the decree of God.  The soul who sins will die.  The wages of sin is death.  In Genesis 3, we see God meting out judgment.  Though we could talk about painful childbirths and the sweat of our brow, the most important part of our punishment is that we die.  Before that day, Adam and Eve were not as we are today, growing old and dying.  However, this is not only true physically, but spiritually as well.  They were kicked out of the Garden and were separated from the presence of God.  This spiritual separation is the death of a relationship, but it also leads to an eternal spiritual death if it is not fixed.  We will all be held guilty for our own sins, not the sins of our parents, or our neighbors.  The question is not, did they sin, but what did I do because of their sin?  Usually, we use it as an excuse for our own sin.

This sets up a dilemma, not in the sense that God was stumped and couldn’t figure it out, but in the sense that there is a tension between God’s love and His Righteousness.  The Old Testament emphasizes both and even posits the need of a sacrifice to cover our sins.  God is love, so He wants to save us.  However, He is also just, so He cannot overlook our sins.  It is easy for us to say, “He’s God!  He can do anything that He wants.”  However, we fail to recognize that God cannot quit being Himself.  He is fully love and yet fully just.  We can overlook sin because we are sinful humans.  However, God is not.

Let’s look at an illustration.  If someone raped and murdered a loved one of yours, and then was arrested, confessed, and proven guilty at trial, what would you think if the judge chose to overlook the case and simply let the guy go free?  Something within us would cry out, “That’s not right!”  Even if we weren’t bloodthirsty for his death, we would still think that something more than just letting him go should happen.  We easily pick and choose when to demand justice and when not to, but God cannot.  As Paul says in Romans 6:23, He must give us the wages that we deserve.  The good news is that there is a way out of this, but we must not jump ahead of ourselves.

We cannot save ourselves

So, we are sinners, and therefore are under the judgment of God.  This last point is that we cannot save ourselves.  Many people will recognize the bad stuff of the world and its need for some kind of answer.  However, God tells us that we are in a situation that no human or group of humans can fix by themselves.

The smartest and best individuals of humanity cannot fix the sinful nature that is within each of us.  Paul says in Romans 3:23 that our attempts at righteousness fall short and are unacceptable.  In fact, they are woefully short.  Imagine someone giving you a glass of water, but it only has a couple of specks of feces in it.  Is that acceptable?  But, Lord, it is better than that other glass that is half full of crud.  It doesn’t matter.  A couple of specks of feces is still too much, and unacceptable.  Another way to look at this is this.  If the best among us only sin between one to three times a day, that is still between 365 to 1,000 times a year.  Over a typical lifetime, we would amass between 25,000 to 75,000 sins, and this is the best-case scenario.  If your plan to save yourself is to be a good person then hear what God’s Word is telling you.  It won’t work.  It falls woefully short in even the best of people, and most of us are average.  If your plan is to follow the wise people of this world who can lead us into Utopia then hear what God’s Word says.  It won’t work.  It not only falls short, but always leads to a destructive end because humans are sinful. Globalism won’t solve our problem.  It will only dismantle the protections that God installed at the Tower of Babel against an evil man ruling over the entire earth.  This is exactly what the book of Revelation tells us is on the agenda for the last days.  A man of sin will take over the earth and the world will eat it up.  However, it will also bring great destruction upon the world.

No, our righteousness falls short and always will.  What we need is God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  Jesus was, and still is, God’s solution for the world.  Because He loved us, God sent His Son to pay the price for our sins.  All who put their faith in him can have their sins covered by His righteousness, and then be justly allowed to join His family.  Only God’s plan will work.

As we close, I want us to remember that there is a whole world of people in need of the truth before they leave this earth, which few get to know when that is.  They are in the same situation that you were in before you met Jesus.  They are lost and without hope.  Some have never really heard the good news.  Some have heard a little of it, but it is fuzzy and without resolution.  Some have heard it, but also experienced a bad witness.  Perhaps they were in a cult, or were hurt and wounded.  Some have heard the gospel and have outright rejected Christ.  Yet, God loves them.  He made them to become like Him, to reflect His image, to dwell with Him.  This is the plight of the world around us.  They are under judgment and cannot save themselves.  Oh, the need is great for laborers who will go out into the field and share the good news of who Jesus is.  May God help us to have the guts to go do it!

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The Danger of Causing Someone to Stumble

Mark 9:42-50.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 02, 2020

How do I treat other people?  Our passage is specifically about how Christians treat each other.  Our culture has developed a blasé attitude regarding the issue of how our words and actions affect other people.  Some even become very heated in their statements that it’s their problem and not my responsibility.  They should be stronger or better than that, appears to be their response.

Here, Jesus shuts the door on the propriety of a brazen attitude towards the affect our words and actions have upon others, especially other believers.  We are going to be held accountable, and there will be no excuses that will work.  May God help us to take these matters seriously because we are going to be a challenge to one another even if we are doing our best.  There is no call for making it worse through neglect, or purposeful intent.

Jesus warns against tripping others up spiritually

In verses 42-48, it is clear that this is the climactic instruction from Jesus to his disciples concerning their interest in which of them is the greatest of his disciples (vss. 33-37).  He first challenged them with the illustration of a small child. Then he dealt with their attitude towards a believer in Jesus who was not a part of their group (38-41).  This passage puts the capstone on the warning that Jesus is giving to his disciples, and us by extension.  They were in danger of being a stumbling block to one another and they needed to quit it.

Let’s deal with what is meant by the words “to fall into sin” or “cause to stumble,” in verse 42.  Both translations are correct.  The word is literally “to put a stumbling block in front of someone and is typically used metaphorically for causing someone to sin.  The KJV uses the word “to offend,” which meant “to strike against.”  This isn’t a bad translation either, for its time, but the normal usage of this English word can mislead us today.  The focus is not on how our actions and words can make a person feel, though that is a subset of the issues involved.  Rather, it is about the fact that our words and actions can cause a person to spiritually stumble and fall into sin.  To be fair, we should also note that it is not particularly about our intention either.  Whether intentional or not, our words and actions can be like a stumbling block that trips a person up.  Some people are particularly agile in this area and do not fall into sin, whereas, others are not. 

It is clear that Jesus is rebuking their attitudes towards each other within the group, and also with others who were not a part of the group.  Their attitudes would lead to a multitude of sins and the ruination of what Jesus was laying his life down in order to build.

The first warning is given through the reference of a horrible, unthinkable death.  For clarity in this section, I will use the terms the offender and the offended.  Jesus warns us that it is better to have a horrible death of a millstone tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea than to be a cause for the stumbling of another.  Such a death is the ancient equivalent to the mob putting your feet in cement and tossing you in the river.  It would involve the terror and horror of being murdered through drowning. 

All of us would agree that this would be an undesirable death, but not all of us would agree about how deserving of judgment our actions are toward another.  We tend to see our actions as innocent and the actions of others as fraught with injustice.  Could you imagine if the game of football didn’t have referees, but instead every player and the coaches all had their own flags?  What chaos that would be.  We are ready to “throw the flag” on everything others do and vehemently contest the flags that they throw against us.  Jesus is warning us that it is foolish to remain in such a state.  You will stand before God one day and give account for how you treated others.  He who is the judge of all men, both the living and the dead, takes these things seriously.  It is better to have a horrible death without causing others to stumble than it is to have a wonderful death, and then face the judge having lived carelessly.

We should also notice that Jesus ties this warning back to the image of the little child standing in their midst.  “These little ones who believe in me” are not just about physical age, but also about spiritual age.  Young believers of any age do not have as much spiritual growth and more easily stumble.  If we are focused on our greatness then we tend to only care for ourselves.

We must ask ourselves if our words and actions help others to believe in Jesus, or could they be a source of stumbling into sin for them?  The warning is very strong, and is against treating this lightly.

The second warning is reiterated three times.  However, there is a textual issue in these verses.  Depending on what Bible version you are using, you may be missing some of the verses that are in some of the older translations.  There is no conspiracy to get rid of any doctrines.  It is a matter of determining what Mark exactly wrote.  Let’s look at this textual issue further.

Here is a brief layout of the warning:

43.  If your hand causes you to sin…

                44. Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

45.  If your foot causes you to sin…

                46.  Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

47.  If your eye causes you to sin…

                48.  Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

The three sections are identical except for a different part of the body being mentioned.  People often sin with their hands, feet, eyes, and Jesus could have continued.  In between each is a quote from Isaiah 66:24 regarding their worm and the fire that is unquenchable.  When the KJV was written, they had a particular number of known Greek manuscripts from which to determine what the text originally said.  The scholars of that day felt the repetition of verses 44, 46, and 48 were original.  There have been many more manuscripts discovered over the years since then (the most famous being the Dead Sea Scrolls).  Some of these manuscripts do not have verse 44 and 46, but they do have verse 48.  To many scholars today, it appears that the statement of verses 44 and 46 were not originally there.  That means it was only stated once at the end.  Of course, the repetitive structure of this teaching would imply that it applies at those places too.

Whether such scholars are right in this judgment or not, notice that the absence of verses 44 and 46 do not change the meaning and their presence is definitely implied.  The absence or presence of these verses, therefore, are not a problem for the biblical reader.  Nothing is lost or gained in either decision.  Now, let’s get to the particulars of this second warning.

Verses 43 through 48 all represent a reiterative, second warning.  This warning can be taken as towards the offender and the offended.  It begs the question of what exactly is “causing” us to sin.  In the end, no one can make me sin by being offensive, or by being such that stirs up the desire in me to offend them.  The issues of sin are deeper than what others have done to me.  Notice that the thing that causes me to sin here is not another person, but rather parts of my own body, a hand, a foot, and an eye. 

The structure of this warning draws us into the deeper issues such as who do I blame?  It is easy to blame others for my sin, but James 1:14 tells us, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”  Yet, the warning mentions the parts of our body that are often used to act out the sin.  It would definitely be harder to sin without hands, feet and eyes (and we could add brains at this point).  Jesus is using the obvious external things to connect to the hidden internal things that cause us to sin.  It is not the presence of a hand that causes a person to steal, but the internal evil desire takes advantage of the fact that they do have hands.

What Jesus does here is extremely powerful.  We can all imagine the horrors of cutting our own hand or foot off.  Yikes!  I do not believe that Jesus ever intended that people would actually do this.  However, neither do I want to mitigate the power of what he is doing.  Such a drastic act is extremely rare.  There is a story of a hiker, Aron Ralston, whose hand was pinned by rock in Utah.  He could not get free, until he imagined the possibility of cutting his hand off.  He lives today because of his courage.  Most people would have died in that same spot.  To the degree that the outward physical act seems outrageous, is the degree to which we should go in fighting against the internal.  In fact, it begs the question of effective ways to fight against strongly entrenched desires.  It can be a combination of drastic external and internal changes that set us free from the control of sin in our life.

The person addicted to pornography does not need to gouge their eyes out, but they do need to get drastic about cutting off things in their hearts and in their daily activity.  They need to get drastic about their computer usage, and accountability to other people in their life.  We can say things like: “But I need to have my smart phone with a data plan,” or “There is no verse that says I can’t have a computer!”  Yet, all of such things are only the protestations of a corrupt desire.  We must get drastic because our sin can cause us to go to hell.    It is better to live this life without something and make it to heaven than to keep it and end up in hell because of it.  Which is more important to you?

The word for hell in this passage is “Gehenna” in the Greek.  It translates a Hebrew word that means the Valley of Hinnom.  In the past, the English word “hell” was used to translate several Greek words, which has caused much confusion.  The word “Hades” refers to the grave, a spiritual holding place for all who have died.  There they await the judgment.  It is not properly hell.  However, the condition that one experiences in the grave is clearly connected to a person’s eventual judgment.  Thus, the rich man of Luke 16:23 was in torments in Hades.  It was hot and he desired just a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus who was in the paradise of Abraham’s bosom.

Gehenna literally refers to the valley southwest of Jerusalem, which connects with the Kidron valley which comes from the east side of Jerusalem.  Let me just list some Old Testament passages that will give us background to the sinister connotations of Gehenna.  2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31-32; 32:35. At one point in Israel’s history, a place called Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom (GeHinnom/Gehenna) had an altar or a high place to the false god Molech.  There many Israelites, including some of their kings, burned their children as sacrifices to the false god of the Ammonites in hopes of fertility in crops and more children, and in hope of success in war.  The idea is that you show the god your devotion and he rewards you with these other things.  We may shudder at child sacrifice, but it really is an extremely pragmatic proposition.  This was always called an abomination, thing of abhorrence, to the God of Israel, the One True God.  Isaiah particularly uses Topheth as a picture of the burning wrath of God that was coming for the wicked.  Isaiah 30:33 and 66:24 are his descriptions of something that is more than a place on earth of judgment on the wicked, but is a judgment of a fire that never goes out.

Gehenna properly connects to the Lake of Fire in the book of Revelation, not the grave.  There we see it is the Second Death that all men and spirits must face.  We will either be judged worthy to enter into eternal life, or we will be given eternal judgment.  Whether you think such a judgment is warranted or not, we must hear the warning of Jesus.  It is better to go through this life without something that keeps leading us to sin, than to end up in the Lake of Fire with that thing.  What good do eyes do me if I am in the Lake of Fire?  None whatsoever.  The emphasis is not so much that you will go to heaven without your hand, etc.  This says nothing about resurrection.  The emphasis is on your condition when you “enter” the next stage.  I enter life as a man who had lost his hand, but I avoid the Lake of Fire because of my sacrifices in this life.  I won’t continue on this theme. 

Let me just end it by saying that Jesus spoke of Gehenna to religious people and always as a warning that was intended to shock them out of lethargy concerning their sin.  You do not see him trying to scare those who don’t know God with the reality of hell.

Don’t let the trials of this life rob you of peace with one another

We need to bring this to a close, so let’s quickly look at these last two verses.  The desire to be the greatest threatened to rob the disciples of peace between each other in this life, and potentially peace internally in the life to come.  Jesus challenges us not to let the trials of this life rob us of our peace.

When he says that everyone will be seasoned with fire, he uses imagery that represents the trials and occasions of stumbling into sin that come upon us in this life.  We would probably use the word “peppered.”  We are peppered with fiery trials and temptations in this life.  It is impossible to avoid them.  We can focus upon the people who put the stumbling blocks in front of us and blame them, but that won’t deliver us from the temptations.  You can’t avoid it through the blame game.  You must deal with sin in your own life, or become a casualty to it.

Thus, our lives are called to be a sacrifice (living sacrifice) here on this earth.  The lives of the righteous are a sacrifice in the sense that we go through these fiery trials for the glory of God and in honor of him.  We become an acceptable sacrifice that is pleasing to God when we put our faith in Jesus, pick up our cross, and follow him.  The lives of the wicked are a sacrifice in the sense that they are an unacceptable sacrifice that is not pleasing to God.  Thus, eternity is not pictured as being salted with fire, but being immersed in a Lake of Fire with no moments of reprieve.  We must not kid ourselves that hell describes our life here without God.  No, such is only a foretaste of something far worse, walled off from the goodness of God.

To follow Jesus is compared to remaining salty.  In Colossians 4:6, Paul says, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”  The more that we live out the godly character of Jesus, the more that we will have peace with one another.  Of course, it takes two to tango.  So, you can only focus upon your part of the equation.  I don’t want to be a source of trial that causes you to sin.

Gehenna is the negative motivation for not wanting to hurt one another.  However, peace and eternal life are the real motivations that ought to spur us on to love and forgiveness with each other.  Ultimately, we need to see that we will not have rest, in this life or the next, until we desire to be like Jesus more than we desire the lust of our flesh, the lust of our eyes, and the pride of this life.

Causing to Stumble Audio