people of God, we continue working our way through Mark's gospel, and we are in the ninth chapter. And I'm going to look at a rather large section of this Scripture today. We're going to look at verses 30 through 50. I want you to see, all of us to see how these things hang together, especially upon the pronouncement of the passion in verse 31. Mark's Gospel, Chapter 9. Let me say that next Lord's Day we will be setting aside Mark's Gospel for one Sunday only as we remember the Protestant Reformation and the sermon will relate to one of the great themes of the Reformation, Reformation Sunday. Will you go with me to the Lord in prayer? Almighty God and our Father in Heaven, we are humbled that we even have the Word of God. How often we take it for granted. We do not read it as we should, store it in our hearts as we ought. And yet, Heavenly Father, every believer is thankful for that Word, and we pray that we will become more and more a people of the Book. that we will know its contents, that we will love its message, and that we will see Jesus Christ on every page. And now, Father, we ask that as we hear something of the passion and resurrection of our Savior, but also His instructions on discipleship, that we who are followers of the Lamb may follow more dearly and closely as a result of spending time in this portion of Thy Word this morning. May the word of the Lord indwell us richly, and may those who do not know the Lord Jesus who are here this morning, even though the text largely addresses the believer and the following of Christ, may they also today become followers of Jesus Christ, disciples through faith in him, who alone is the redeemer of sinners, and in whose name we pray, amen. Please take your copy of God's word and stand. Mark's gospel chapter nine beginning. with verse 30. This is the word of the Lord. They went on from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know, for He was teaching His disciples, saying to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise. But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask Him. And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, What were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve, and he said to them, If anyone would be first, He must be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child and put him in the midst of them. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. John said to him, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. But Jesus said, do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. 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 the 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. The word of the Lord, please be seated. People of God, this is still that portion of Jesus' ministry that we call His retirement, when He's trying to get away from the crowds. And before He goes to the cross, He's teaching His disciples. And in chapters 8, 9, and 10, we see that there is direct teaching about His cross and resurrection. Now, obviously, those are summaries of what Jesus was teaching. He was teaching them about His passion and about His cross. And as we go into this entire passage, we not only see something of the wonder of the cross to which he was going and what he would do for sinners, but we also see how discipleship has a direct relationship to what we see there in verse 31, 32, the cross and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And so as we come to this passage, the first thing that we see is that discipleship is anchored in Christ's cross and His resurrection. We read in verse 31, for He was teaching His disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise. But they did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask Him. Now, this again is the second prediction. The other was in chapter 8, verse 31. Now, in this passage, we have another prediction of His death and His resurrection. And you will notice that there is this little verb, delivered. He will be delivered to die. He will be delivered to the cross. And this word is very important. It becomes important because we see it repeated in chapter 10. It's important because it is picked up and used in other places in the New Testament. For example, the Apostle Paul makes the statement in Romans 8, 32, he who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. And behind that is probably a reference to Genesis 22, the offering of Isaac. And behind that also is, that is this statement, is Isaiah 53, in which this verb is used twice in the Greek translation of Isaiah 53, that great chapter about the cross of Christ, speaking of Jesus being delivered. Now of course He was delivered by Judas. Of course we know that He was delivered by those who should have known Him to be the Messiah, the leaders of Israel. Of course He also was delivered by Rome. But I wonder if you know that little statement of Octavius Winslow in which he's trying to get at the real heart of this when he says, who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for money, not Pilate for fear, not the Jews for envy, but the Father for love. He is being delivered up ultimately by the Father because God in counsel determined that day when He would shed His blood on the cross because you were loved and He intended to redeem you by the shed blood of Christ. He is saying to them, the glorious Son of Man is to be delivered up to die. And when we contemplate the Father delivering up His own Son to bear our sins and take divine wrath in our place, we begin to feel the impact of this prediction to His disciples, who still did not understand the cross and the resurrection. At this point, they simply don't get it. Again in verse 32, they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask Him. Isaiah 53 had never been opened like this before. A Messiah that would come and would not overcome the Romans, but would actually die on a cross. And one of the things that we see here that is to be taken into account as we continue to move on in Mark is that Jesus is alone. The disciples do not understand. They cannot share with Him in the depth of His sufferings. They don't get it, and He is alone. And when He goes to Gethsemane, He is alone. And in His trials, He is alone. And when He goes to the cross, He is alone. Alone, He suffered and bled and died in order that you might never be alone, but that you would know Him and His Father in the power of the Spirit forever. And so suffering, death, resurrection provide the context for the teaching that follows about discipleship. Just as we saw in chapter eight in verse 31, when he began to teach them about his suffering, he went on to say, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So there's the cross of Christ and there is following him in his sufferings, the cross before the crown. Yes, His passion is here, but also His resurrection is here in verse 31. The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days, He will rise. But the disciples didn't understand that, not understanding the cross. How could they understand the significance of the resurrection? But the time would come in which it will seem to them as if heaven itself will shake with the grandeur of what happened, and it's as if the as if the ground under their feet just quakes because of this marvelous thing that happened in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, in which for them and for us all things have been made new. They will, after the resurrection, understand that Jesus was identifying Himself as the suffering servant of Jehovah, whom in Isaiah 53 of whom we are told He is the substitute for sinners, and His resurrection also is predicted there. He holds the keys of death and hell. He has the power to give His life to take it up again. But the question is, do you understand? The disciples at this point do not understand the significance of the cross, do not understand the significance of the resurrection. Do you? Do you understand who He is and why He came? Do you understand the significance of His going to the cross? Do you trust Him as the only Redeemer of sinners? Do you know Him as your Savior and your Lord? Well, the directions that follow about discipleship follow upon the teaching of the cross. I wonder if you remember those little lines that we sometimes sing. Oh dearly, dearly has he loved and we must love him too and trust in his redeeming love and try his works to do. Now the order is all important. trust in his redeeming love and try his works to do. We do not work in order to somehow earn his redeeming love. No, no, we know his redeeming love in the depths of our souls and then we try his works to do. So keep that in mind with the imperatives, the commands that the Lord Jesus gives as we follow on in the text. And so the second thing is this. Discipleship brings a call to humility. Now, Jesus asks the question as they're moving along in verse 33, and they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent. For on the way, they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And so Jesus, the suffering servant of Jehovah, asks them, in light of what he has just told them about his own cross and resurrection, what they were discussing. Now, they must have had some notion that this had something monumental to do with the kingdom of God, and they're thinking the kingdom will be consummated soon, and one of us, of course, is going to be greatest. Who will be greatest among the disciples? But when they're asked the question, they are dumb with embarrassment in the presence of Jesus, the suffering servant. He is about to be delivered up. They must have some inkling of what it means, even though they don't know the depth of it. And they are talking about who is the greatest. Jesus is going to die, and they're talking about who is going to have the greatest position in the kingdom. Their misunderstanding is not merely intellectual, I am convinced. They do not want to understand what Jesus is saying because of the cost, the cost to Him, but also the cost to them. You know, their culture was saturated with the idea of merit. Pharisaism in particular was merit-based, but that had no place in the kingdom. Self-glorification is only possible in the context of unbelief. Immersion in the knowledge of Christ brings humility. It brings a man or a woman to beat upon your chest and to cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And so in verses 35 and 36, the Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, takes unto himself a little child. And he has an enacted parable when he takes that child, and we read in verses 36 and 37, and he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. Now you must remember, that in the Graeco-Roman world, children were considered the least. Greatness? Well, do you see this child? In service done to this child, considered least in most of the world in which we live, says Jesus, in service to this child, you are serving me. And when you welcome this child, you are welcoming me. And when you welcome me, you are welcoming the Father. You are receiving the Father. He is teaching us that grace flows downhill, that there is no place for pride and arrogance within our hearts and within our souls. Where do you and I, as believers in Christ, in light of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, where do you and I need to learn to apply this very principle? Perhaps it's in your marriage where humility needs to be shown. Perhaps it's in relationships with coworkers. Perhaps it's in friendships. Perhaps it is maybe even very literally with the way in which you receive your own children. You think about that for a moment. How different is the believer's attitude toward receiving and serving children than that of the world? And just think just recently of the horrible attacks in Israel and the way in which children were utterly valueless to those who attacked on that fateful day. And as for us, even though we cannot regenerate our children, nonetheless, our desire should be as we rear them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, our children for Christ. Whole denominations have been lost by not serving future generations by teaching God's Word to their children, and they are neglected. And when that happens, the church suffers and decays into ruin. Is this not an application of our text, its call for humility in serving the littlest, if not the least, among us? And so Christ says, in light of what I have said to you about what I am going to do in Jerusalem as we move on, in light of this, in my kingdom, forget rank and use your gifts to serve one another. Welcome the weak, the dependent child in my name, and then we become more like the child of God that God wants us to be. In welcoming the child, you welcoming Jesus, and in serving God's people, you serve your Lord and receive the Father. You remember the words of the prophet Isaiah in the 57th chapter in which he says this, For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." There's this experience in which they see the child and it must have been an astounding thing if they will stop and consider it, but evidently John just right out of the chute says, without thinking about this, evidently without contemplating the humility that he has just been taught to observe and to make use of because of the coming cross and resurrection, John just says, Jesus, there was somebody that was casting out a demon in your name and we rebuked him. What humility? How he followed his Lord, did he? John, the apostle of love in this case, was not concerned with Christ's lordship or honor or the kingdom of God, and Jesus rebukes his misplaced intolerance and his lack of humility in verses 39 and 40. But Jesus said, do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. And not only should you receive the man in his deed and rejoice in what he has done in order that I might be glorified, but you should have an attitude of reception and of service to the man. And he uses an everyday illustration from life in verse 41. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. What Jesus is ultimately teaching here is the very same truth taught in more and more doctrinal depth by the Apostle Paul in the second chapter of Philippians, in which we are told, have this mind in you that was also in Christ. who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. You know, I think that it is the rarest of Christian qualities that a man with strong convictions, and we should all have strong biblical convictions developing in our hearts, also knows how to regard brothers with whom he differs and to receive them with humility. I will tell you in my personal life, the person with whom I'm friends that I've noticed this most is in the life of Joel Beeky. You never doubt where He is doctrinally, you never doubt where He is theologically. There are people He would not let in His pulpit, there are people He would fight to keep out of His denomination, but every believer He meets, He receives with humility and with grace. And so there's a kind of sectarianism that can develop that is contrary to the spirit of the gospel and to humility. Hold your convictions, but receive others and the work they're doing for Christ with gratitude. Now, also in light of these things, there's a third thing we see. Discipleship calls us to be careful about stumbling. And this takes in verses 42 to 50. causing someone else to stumble, verse 42, whoever causes one of these little ones who believes 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 so to trip up, to disable Christ's little ones is no small thing. to belittle others, to be indifferent to Christ's disciples, is to be belittling and indifferent to Christ, who in this text will die for them, or from our perspective, to belittle one for whom Christ died. And so there's this donkey powered millstone that was used to crush grain and the strong language of the Lord Jesus inflicting injury through callousness is such an enormous issue that it would be better that this millstone were placed around your neck. You know, the hole in the millstone, you put a rope in it, put it around your neck and there you go. God uses warning to keep His children in the certain grace that He has established for us. Receiving Christ means receiving His children. But also, not only do we find here caution about stumbling on the part of someone else. But right in the same context, there's caution about your stumbling and mine. And this takes in verses 43 through 48. And there's this costly metaphor here in verse 43, 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 on and on he goes here, speaking of a part of the body that should be cut off if it offends, otherwise you may go to hell. Now, I think persecution is the backdrop to this. I'll say more about that in a while. But there's this temptation that might arise to give in to lesser authorities rather than to acknowledge the authority of Christ. And He is saying you must be sure that you are working within your life to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and depend upon Him, working these truths into your life so that you are prepared when that day comes. In our setting, it's not only a willingness to die in Nero's garden, but are we willing to die to self in daily living? And so Jesus Christ teaches here the principle that we all need to learn to apply, and that's the principle of radical amputation. Now, to our littlest children here, who can be quite literal, the Lord Jesus is using metaphorical language. He is talking about something in a symbolic way. He is not saying to cut off a part of your body. What the Lord Jesus is saying here is a spiritual truth. He is saying, if there is anything in your life that would lead you to disregard Christ, not stand for him in persecution, or to live faithfully, then that thing needs to be removed. radical amputation. There are two imperatives here, aorist imperatives. Cut off, cast away. There can be no pampering of sin, no tolerance of temptation, aiming to eradicate sin, not to negotiate sin. And so that is what he is teaching here. Do you know these words? Yes, my Redeemer. They shall die. My heart has so decreed Nor will I spare the guilty things that made my Savior bleed. While with a melting broken heart my murdered Lord I view, I'll raise revenge against my sins and slay the murderers too. That's the attitude that Jesus is teaching here in view of verse 31. He will go to the cross. He will be murdered for the sakes of sinners. He will be your substitute on the cross and the attitude of my life must be. Those things that murdered my Lord, I want to have no place in my heart, in my life, in my actions. Radical amputation. And so we lose in order to gain the right hand or the foot or whatever it may be, spiritually speaking. Do you believe this? That when you cut off and amputate, you gain. You gain in grace, you gain in faith, you gain in mercy, you gain in understanding, you gain in faithfulness to the Lord. And so you learn to cut off lust. You cut off self-righteousness. arrogance. You cut off bad company that influences you to wrong. Whatever requirement is there that you may honor the Lord Jesus Christ, let us be sure that in our lives there is the daily practice of true repentance of our sins. Now, the serious warning of this text reminds us that those whose hearts are closed to the children of God as a way of life And those who are opposed to living that way of life may not know the Christ whom they profess. And there's the serious warning of eternal punishment in this passage that must be taken seriously. No child of God can be lost, but not everyone who professes faith in Christ knows Christ. Now I've said to you that I think the backdrop of this also primarily is persecution. And in some settings, this section does have direct reference to cutting off those things that would hinder us as we also must move to sacrifice our lives for the cause of God and truth. In many parts of the world, that is still the case, and it is growing in the world. And who knows, with increased paganism in government and society here, we may be facing that more as well. You know, during the Shinto shrine controversy, J. Gordon Holcroft, who at that point was a PCUSA missionary, was commanded by his PCUSA mission board to comply with the Japanese mandate to bow to the Shinto shrine. The PCUSA had become so apostate at that point that they were demanding their missionaries commit idolatry in order to remain on the mission field for whatever mission that they considered themselves doing. He refused, and he resigned, and he became a great missionary statesman. Listen, he gave up life and limb. He gave up all that he knew. He gave up his work. He gave up his support. He gave up, but he gained. He gained in faithfulness. He gained in integrity. He stood for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was willing to sacrifice because he would not bow to the Shinto shrine. Now I'll tell you, I'm more concerned about the church's capitulation to culture than persecution from the culture. Now in light of this, there's one more thing to see. Discipleship calls us to be prepared for persecution. In verses 49 and 50, we read, 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. You will remember that Jewish sacrifices were accompanied by salt. Fire here is almost certainly a reference to persecution. Remember, this is Peter's preaching that is mediated through the writing of Mark. And in 1 Peter 1.7 and 1 Peter 4.12, fire is the language that is used of persecution. And he is saying to us, we are called to be dedicated to God's service as living sacrifice. Salt preserves us through the fire, like a burnt offering. Should the time come, we must have willing hearts to acknowledge Jesus Christ. And so he says, maintain your saltiness. Maintain your saltiness. Young people, listen. How can you be prepared for the big thing that may come in life, when you're really confronted with something that is monumental in your stand for the Savior, your stand for the Lord Jesus Christ, how can you be prepared now for that time, that day, that event? Such as a serious persecution, for example. Well, the answer is by being faithful in the small things now. And if you have already died daily to self, you will be prepared to lay down your life when and if called to do so. You remember the English reformer John Bradford? John Bradford is burning at the stake, and this is what he says to the person next to him. Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night. And then there was Hugh Latimer, who said to Nicholas Ridley, be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out. And what a moving thing it is. Some of us have been at that very spot at Oxford. where Latimer and Ridley were burned at the stake for the cause of God and truth. Young people learn from our forebearers in the faith. Do you think that this was the first time when Bradford was burning at the stake, when Ridley and Latimer were burned at the stake, when J. Gordon Holcroft had to make the decision about the Shinto shrine, do you think that this was the first time that Bradford or Ridley or Latimer had stood for Christ? Do you think that this was the first time that they were faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, or do you think They had learned to die to self daily, and they had learned bit by bit by bit in life how to live faithfully for Christ, how to take a gracious, loving, but firm stand for the faith. That's the answer, isn't it? Are you anchored in the gospel? Do you realize that you may not be able to stop the persecutors, but they cannot stop God's good saving plan for his people? Does it surprise you that living this way is also the way of peace for the people of God? And so he says at the end of verse 50, have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. Here's the upshot. Here's what we take from this text this morning, racing through it perhaps a lot here, much more where that came from. But we have biblical imperatives, commands from the Lord Jesus Christ about how to be his disciples. And these biblical imperatives are anchored in the indicatives, who Christ is and what he came to do. In other words, it takes us all the way back to verse 31. The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days, he will rise. It is wrong to think that the gospel of grace relieves us of responsibility of faithful Christian living. Charles Spurgeon somewhere spoke of right hand sins. Everything which offends God ought to offend us. Everything that offends God ought to offend my own Christian heart. And every Christian will find that there are many sins which offend God that must summarily be dealt with as we learn that there is that sin in our lives. So what does Jesus say? I'm going to the cross. I'm going to be raised victoriously from the tomb." And He continues to teach them. And after His resurrection from the dead, they understand precisely what all of this meant. And you read the epistles and you see the great and glorious explanation of the cross and resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. So, I'm going to the cross, I will be raised from the dead, that demands living for the one who loved you and gave himself for you when he died on the cross, and living for the one through whose resurrection you have the power for that discipleship, that godly living to which he is calling you. And therefore, if even on this day, you and I, as believers in Jesus, I'm preaching to the saved, if a believer in Jesus Christ here today, if you or I see that there's something in my life that just doesn't belong It does not honor the Lord. What does the text say? In view of the cross. This is not moralism. This is in view of the cross, in view of the resurrection. Cut it off, cast it from thee. May the Lord, by His Spirit, bring us to hate, what is contrary to our great God's wondrous character. May the Spirit help us to hate what God hates, and may the Spirit bring us to love all that our God loves. Amen and amen.