Introduction:
Ill. Years ago a boy had a crush on a girl, Laura Mae. Everyone in that community planted gardens and protected them with scarecrows made as lifelike and original as possible. Riding the school bus one afternoon, they rounded the curve near Laura Mae’s house, and her parent’s garden came in to view. In the middle of the rows, was a figure dressed in an old straw hat, ragged overalls, and a faded checked shirt. A hoe was stuck under his right arm, adding authenticity. In an effort to gain favor with the girl he loved, the boy said, “Laura Mae, your daddy never has to worry about crows in his garden; anything that ugly will keep everything away.” And right at that moment the scarecrow began hoeing. Laura Mae is married now, but not to that boy. (1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking by Michael Hodgin)
Jesus was desperately trying to submerge the disciples in "kingdom attitudes". He taught that the Christian life must be approached with serious focus. The disciples asked, "Who is the greatest?" and He answered, "The servant of all."
The taught that we must be accepting to all of God's children, especially those working for His name. He told them even the little cup of water to help someone was blessed beyond imagination. He promised that others will be blessed if they assist our work for Christ in the smallest way also. Now, Jesus shifts the subject from blessings to curses, or offenses.
Ill. There was once a man in a Church that was greedy and selfish, desired power, influence and prestige. He tried to rise in power in the Church, attacked those he viewed as the competition, and tried to control the treasury.
A dear, sweet old lady came to him after a business meeting and gently told him that his actions and attitude were offensive to God.
This hurt this man deeply. He was offended. He shouted, "You offended me. That hurt. You need to apologize!
Should this woman go to him, hat in hand, confess evil and ask for forgiveness?
James 5:19-20 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
This is something that we are going to cover today, and it requires a lot of prayer and wisdom. I want you to keep something in mind. There are good offenses and there are bad offenses.
I. Offending Others. (42). "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.
It is believed that Jesus was still holding the little child. The phrase "causes to sin" is translated "offends" in many translations. The root Greek word is same as our word "scandalize", which means to trap, offend, make one sin.
One writer describes "scandalizo" ."This word “skandalon” originally described a small piece of wood that was used to keep the door of an animal trap propped open. A piece of food was placed in the trap and when the animal went into it to get the food, it would it the wood and the trap door would close shut trapping the animal. In the New Testament times this word was also referred to as a “stone or obstacle that causes one to trip, to stumble, and to lose his footing, to waver, to falter and to fall down.”
For the record, this is a bad offense. If you do something that interferes with the spiritual growth of a believer and hinders their walk with God, look at the serious consequences. Jesus said, "it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea."
Interestingly, there were two types of millstones familiar to these people on those days. One was a home version, used by women. It was small and crushed grain into flour in small portions.
And then there was the industrial version, so to speak. In the Greek, it was called a donkey stone, indicating a woman could not turn it, it took a beast. The idea is, if one of these where tied around your neck and you were cast into the sea, you would have no chance of survival. According to the writings of Josephus, this was a common "death sentence" method known to the people of this area.
II. Offending Ourselves. ( 43, 45, 47, 48) "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. 45 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. 47 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, 48 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."
There is also a danger in causing yourself to sin, because you are valued by God. Three things are listed as possession in this life that are better to lose than to risk eternal damnation of the soul.
First, the hand, indicating what we do. "Be careful little hands what you do," as the song says. Jesus already described that what our hands do reveals the iniquity and sin in our hearts. Mar 7:20-23 "And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
You see, you hand reveals your heart. Verse 45 reminds us that the foot, where we go, reflects the condition of our heart. Verse 47 reminds us that what we allow our eyes to see reflects the desire of our hearts. This, too, is talking about bad offenses.
Let's handle a few things here. 48 is quoted from Isaiah 66:24. Vs. 44 and 46 are on in the later manuscripts of Greek and Latin and are repetitions of verse 48.
He speaks of "Gehenna" or hell. In the early days, Gehenna was the Valley of Henna, a place where parents would sacrifice their children to the false God Molech.
Years later when King Josiah attempted to purify the land, this valley was looked upon with such contempt it was used only as a garbage dump for Jerusalem. The trash was burning and the fire never seemed to go out. The people would simply drop their garbage over the ledges onto the ashes and the fire would reignite.
Usually, by the time people took their trash, it was riddled with worms and maggots. As the trash would burn in Gehenna, the worms, of course, would die. Jesus description of Hell was Gehenna-like, but with one clarification: the worm didn't die.
The picture of worms and fire here was of internal corruption and torment in a place of external torment. It truly spoke of a place where there would be conscious inner and outer torment. "Their worm" means the internal torment would not be diminished or purged by the external burning.
The second thing, some teach that this is a verifications of boundaries. Many people build up boundaries or limitations around their lives to purify their outer behavior. This was the way of the Pharisee. Many people proclaim they are better than others because they don't have a TV in their house, and yet they refuse to deal with the problem of lust in their hearts. Some people won't go to the store because they can't control their wondering eyes, and they feel this barrier is pleasing to God. Yet, they refuse to look in their hearts and deal with the tendency to stray in this area.
Physical boundaries are not what this passage is teaching. We have covered that wickedness begins in the heart in previous sermons and has to be dealt with there. Jesus quoted Isaiah29:13 in Mat 15:7, saying "You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"
Jesus knew you could cut off a hand or foot, or pluck out an eye, and not change your heart. Listen, outwardly it looks good to our religious eyes for someone to build up barriers to prevent the opportunity of sin, but if boundaries keep us from taking an honest look at our hearts and our tendency to stray, we are just being whitewashed walls.
You see, Jesus said a believer will be salted with fire.
III. Observing Offenses. (49) "For everyone will be salted with fire."
Ill. One of the things that amazes me is the ability of salt to penetrate to the center. I salt the outside of my steaks before I grill them, and the inside gets salty.
Listen, God's fire will purge the center, the hearts of God's people and condemn and burn the hearts of those who reject Jesus Christ. Everyone will be judged by fire, salted through and through, to the innermost parts. Ignoring a wicked tendency in our hearts by living in a monastery will not only fail to purify within but will worsen the judgment. Building barriers around our lives are a wonderful idea for children, who can't or won't control their wondering, but will damage a mature believer's honest look at the "renewing of the mind" God is calling for in their lives.
We hate to take a honest look inside. Sometimes we need someone else to do that. But when we refuse to deal with a character flaw and a tendency to sin, we are offending ourselves and our God.
And listen, it is not a sin to offend pride, selfishness and lust in other people. Some of you are thinking, "It is always a sin to offend someone." I remind you that Jesus never sinned. (Ref. Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21). But He did offend people's pride, selfishness, rebellion and self-promotion.
Matthew 12:34 "You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
Jesus didn't sin, but He spoke openly about people's pride, selfishness, and lust. He was offensive, but the true offense was that the person did not deal with the sin in their hearts.
Luke 17:3-4 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him."
When you have sin in your heart, a lot of righteous stuff will offend you. That is good, because that offense is a red flag that you have sin in your life. So, if someone offends you, you must first look inside and see why it was offensive to you. If it was because of pride, selfishness or any other sin, that person does not have to apologize to you. By no mean. But you need to thank them. You need to confess that sin, let God clean you up, and thank that person from the bottom of your heart for loving you enough to confront the sin in your life. They are salt to you and God used them. You see....
IV. Offering Opportunites. (50) 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."
Salt is good. But if you respond poorly to the salt, it does not benefit you. Salt cannot lose its saltiness but by one method: dilution. Salt, sodium chloride, will always be salty by definition of chemistry unless you mix so much unsalty things in it you can't taste it.
I am told that white sand was common to the salt mines in these days. Along the edges of the salt deposit, the salt looked good, but had more sand in it than salt. That diluted salt was used to clean walking paths. The diluted salt would kill the grass and weeds and help pack the ground.
Jesus tells His disciples, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Be honest and pure in your conversations, loving, confronting sin, giving comfort and encouragement, and protecting each other from things that will pull the other away from God. Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
And get over offenses. "Be at peace among yourselves."
Ill. In a previous Church, a member came to me to mend a problem. "Bro. Tim, what you said offended me. I was mad for a while, but as God continued to deal with me, I realized that it wasn't what you said that hurt me.
He said, "See, I was previously offended in this area, and what you said, though innocent, brought back all the memories and pain. I was mad at you for opening the flood gates of bad feelings. That was wrong of me and I want you to forgive me."
I prayed with this person and sensed a strong impression from God. God told me to confront this. However, I was more concerned with this person's relationship with me than their relationship with God. We were making progress in our relationship and that was enough for me.
I know you have not had time to think this through, and the offense here is not obvious. Let me try to explain it this way. God impressed me that this one had become offended with me because they had not properly dealt with offenses previously. God impressed me to love this one by helping them deal with those old offenses which still existed.
But as I said, I was pleased simply that our relationship was made right, not that this person was making right with God. I will have to apologize and ask this one to forgive me when I see them again.
It is either confronting them with this but if I fail God, I will be being sized up with a millstone necklace. You see, I am not the judge to what hurts someone or help them. I must live in obedience to the Father.
There are four things we are reminded of in this passage:
First, be careful that your sin does not offend one of God's children. Second, be careful that your attitude and actions do not hinder your relationship with God. God loves you too and is not pleased when you hurt yourself with disobedience. Third, when you are offended, you need to look inside to see why you were hurt. If it is because of sin, be thankful that God sent someone your way to convict you. Finally, If you have not responded properly to previous offenses, you need to go back and deal with them or everything will hurt you.
If you are not saved, you need Jesus to begin healing. As He forgives you of your sin, He will offer you the power to forgive and the responsibility to do so.
If you are a believer and God has brought something to your mind, this invitation is open to you to do business with God or with others. If you resist His call, you may be being fitted for a millstone necklace.
