#40 Stumbling Blocks And Hell Series

Stumbling Blocks and Hell

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

March 7, 2021

NOTE: PowerPoint or ProPresenter presentations are available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 9:42. Our text will be verses 42-48.

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – A very young driver was lost in a snowstorm. He didn’t panic however, because he remembered that his dad once told him: “If you ever get stuck in a snowstorm, just wait for a snowplow to come by and follow it.” Sure enough, pretty soon a snowplow came by, and he started to follow it. He followed the plow for about forty-five minutes. Finally the driver of the truck got out and asked him what he was doing. He explained that his dad had told him that if he ever got stuck in a snowstorm, to follow a snowplow. The driver nodded and said, “Well, I’m done with the Wal-Mart parking lot. Do you want to follow me over to Best Buy now?”

That’s a funny story, but it illustrates a very serious truth Jesus teaches in today’s text. That is the fact that people are watching us, and some are following us, and we had better make sure we don’t lead them astray or cause them to stumble in their faith. Jesus also talks about not letting ANYTHING in this world keep you from being saved and the awful consequences if you do.

A key to understanding today’s text, and really all of verses 30 through 48, is to recognize that it contains several unrelated blocks of verses taught at different times and locations, with various themes rather than a single theme threading through the whole text. We examined some of those teachings last week—the second warning of Jesus’ passion and resurrection, the section on what is true greatness, and His teaching on tolerance. So this week we’ll examine two more unrelated blocks of Scripture in verses 42-48.

I. IN VERSE 42 JESUS WARNS AGAINST CAUSING A BELIEVER TO SIN OR STUMBLE IN THEIR FAITH. – “And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.”

“These little ones,” is not thought to refer to children, although children are particularly vulnerable to stumbling if they’re influenced in a wrong direction by others.

My commentaries were unanimous that Jesus was referring to believers—HIS children.

Therefore, Jesus was saying that there are severe consequences for those who cause His children to sin or to cause them to stumble. The verb “offend” is the Greek word skandalíze, which means “to entrap, to trip, to cause to stumble or entice to sin.”

Jesus said it would be better for someone who causes a believer to stumble or sin to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be cast into the sea. In the ancient world grain was ground by round millstones so large and heavy that they could only be turned by beasts of burden, like donkeys or oxen.

Being drowned by a heavy millstone would have been a vivid warning to the Jewish disciples because that very thing had happened to the leaders of an insurrection under the Zealot leader, Judas the Galilean. What a dreadful image: to be dropped deep alive into the sea with a millstone around the neck, struggling with all their might to get free until the water had excruciatingly filled their lungs, slowly suffocating them to death, leaving them to float motionless in the darkness. Here Jesus was using hyperbole to warn how seriously He takes causing another brother or sister in Christ to stumble or to sin.

The Apostle Paul also took this danger very seriously. The early church wrestled with how to live IN the world but not to be OF the world. Certain believers held that eating meat offered to idols was okay since it was cheaper and readily available, while others thought they should pay the extra cost because eating meat offered to idols was, to them, involvement in idolatry. If they came from a deeply idolatrous background, they worried it would cause them and other believers to fall back into idolatry.

In Romans 14, Paul took the meat eaters’ side of the issue; that is, that since an idol represented a “god” (little g) that was really only a figment of its worshippers’ imagination, there was nothing inherently wrong with eating meat offered to idols.

But he added some warnings: He said in verses 13-15 he said, “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore: but judge this rather, that no one put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in his brother's way. 14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean in itself: but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 But if thy brother is grieved with thy meat, you are no longer acting in love. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.” – Paul was saying that it is better to limit your liberty if it causes a brother or sister in Christ to stumble and fall by the wayside.