Stumbling Blocks and Hell
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
March 7, 2021
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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.
Addressing the same issue in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul said in verse 13, “Therefore, if I make my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again…” – Paul would do nothing that might cause Christians who might be weak in a certain area to stumble in their walk with God.
God help us to be careful not cause anyone to stumble by our careless behavior.
It’s a dangerous thing that God takes very seriously.
II. IN VERSES 43-47 JESUS EXHORTS THE LOST TO MAKE ANY SACRIFICE NECESSARY TO BE SAVED. – “And if thy hand causeth thee to offend thee (literally “to cause to stumble,”) cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for you to enter life maimed (or we would say “crippled” today) than to have two feet and be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:…Move down to verse 47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell.”
Now Jesus turns from talking about causing another person to stumble to a solemn warning if you are allowing something to keep YOU to stumble in coming to Jesus.
Now let me say up front that Jesus is not literally teaching self-mutilation here. Tragically, some have understood it this way. The Church Father Origen is the most famous case of misunderstanding this text. He had himself castrated in order to overcome his sexual desires.
But bodily mutilation was strictly forbidden in the Old Testament Law, so why does Jesus appear to be teaching it in our text? His instructions here to hack off body parts was an example of metaphoric hyperbole that Jesus often used to get a point across in a vivid, unforgettable way. This was a common Jewish practice to make a serious point. So though these statements are not to be taken literally, they are meant to be taken very seriously; they are meant to underline for us the importance of what He’s teaching.
What Jesus is saying is that you must get rid of ANYTHING that stands in the way of your coming to Christ. Jesus talks about cutting off hands, feet and eyes. In Jewish thought, these body parts made up the totality of life, representing what we DO (hands), where we GO (feet) and what we VIEW (eyes). Jesus was using vivid hyperbole to teach that there is a goal in life worth ANY sacrifice to attain it. And NOTHING is worth going to hell over!
Jesus spoke more about hell than He did about heaven. He was deeply concerned that people do not go there. He was saying that there is nothing in this life worth holding on to if it causes you to stumble from being saved and making Jesus your Savior. All earthly goods and pleasures put together are not worth one moment in hell.
CONCLUSION
In today’s text, Jesus does not mince words. He’s very serious about the danger of causing others to stumble and the reality of hell. Let’s see what this means to us personally.
1. If you’re a believer, are you living is such a way that you help rather than hinder believers?
Brethren, to avoid being a stumbling block to others, we need to “walk our talk.” Listen, someone is watching you, and if you disappoint him or her because of your life not being consistent with what you profess to believe, that person may stumble.
Illus. – In the church I was an assistant pastor of in Durham, NC there was a church sign out in front. Weekly our pastor would go out and put a short, thought-provoking saying on the sign. One Sunday we came to church and the sign had been tampered with. Pastor Greg had put up the phrase, “Jesus loves you. Trust in Him today” but someone—probably some local teen pranksters—had jumbled all the letters and made it read some other things that were quite dishonoring to God. Pastor Greg went out before people started to arrive to put the letters in correct order.
I think that our lives as Christians should say to others: “Jesus loves you. Trust in Him today.” Unfortunately, by not living out our faith, our sign can be jumbled up and say things that don’t honor God and become stumbling blocks for others.
How many parents have been stumbling blocks in their kids’ lives? Maybe no one else is watching your life but let me assure you your kids are! Sometimes parents are one thing at church and something else entirely at home in their actions and attitudes. And sometimes people stumble in one big way, causing a cascade of trouble because of it.
Illus. – In the 1990s I pastored a church in England. Before that, I had never known a drug addict or worked with addicts my entire life until I came to England. One day a man came to our church. He had been saved as a child, but because of a one-time dalliance his Christian dad had with a prostitute, which wrecked his family, he had turned from God.
He tried every kind of drug there was, but the worst one was heroin. As always happens, soon he became an addict. But he got his life sorted out in our church and started serving God and brought his kids to church and they showed great interest in the Gospel. One of his sons trusted in Christ as his Savior.
But strangely, from time-to-time he would start to look troubled, begin to miss church services and start looking thin and haggard. Then abruptly he’d just drop off the face of the earth. I wouldn’t be able to locate him...he wouldn’t answer his cell phone…his kids would say he was off on a job and I just took their word for it. Then weeks later, he’d pop back in church one day all healthy-looking and on fire for God again.
After a few of these cycles, I started putting two and two together and realized that he must have been falling back into drugs. I asked him about it and with head bowed low, he confirmed with me that was the case and that when he had been away, he’d been at a drug rehab facility.
In time, I began to notice that his kids were no longer coming to church. Later I was saddened to hear that his daughter had become pregnant out of wedlock, and both she and the youngest son had started taking drugs themselves. My heart went out to all of them: getting clean from heroin is an awful, heart-rending struggle.
A couple of years after coming here to start Grace Baptist Church we got word that the youngest son had overdosed on heroin and died.
But there’s good news: Later the father was able to get off drugs again and as far as I know has been clean for many years; and after his wife died, he married a Christian woman and they have been living for God. But what a price the grandfather paid because of one episode of immorality, which was a stumbling block to his son, who then became a stumbling block to HIS own children. I think they would say that it would’ve been better if a millstone had been hung around their necks, and they had been cast into the sea than to see the ruin of their children.
Moms and dads, what is there you may be leaving unattended in your Christian walk that could be a stumbling block to your kids?
Are you careful of the words you say and how you say them anywhere, anytime, and especially in front of your kids and TO the kids?
Are you careful not to gossip or speak ill of others?
Are you careful of the TV shows YOU watch—not just what THEY watch?
Are you careful of the literature you have in your house?
See, you don’t have to be a fornicator or a drug addict to be a stumbling block to your kids. But the fact that we’re being watched by our kids, and our coworkers and our extended family has its UPSIDE…for our lives have tremendous potential to cause others to be want to follow Christ and be nurtured in their walk of faith.
Illus. – I knew a couple that had been saved out of a wretched life of sin, who after a tragedy in their lives, turned to Christ. He and his wife became real soul-winners like no others I have ever met. They loved people and served God and led their family in the things of God. The oldest son watched their character, their responses to people who didn’t treat them right, their faithfulness, their reactions to trials and stresses, their consistent, godly living, their love for others and their joy in serving others.
That son idolized his parents, but especially his dad. He said to himself, “That’s the kind of man I want to be.” After retiring from the Air Force, his dad became a Christian schoolteacher, and then an assistant pastor in a military church overseas and then a church planter and senior pastor in three overseas military churches.
And his son followed right in his footsteps, first teaching in a Christian school, then serving as an assistant pastor and finally pastoring two military churches overseas and planting a third church and pastoring it for many years. You’re sitting in that church right now, and I am that son.
Now I’m not much special, to be honest. But what I became was due to a large part that I walked in the footsteps of giants—my Dad and Mom, who blazed a trail for me to follow.
Brethren, our character; our responses; our faithfulness; our dedication to Christ, our commitment to godliness and service to others can have an incalculable impact on our kids—but not just our kids, but our extended family members, our friends, our neighbors and our co-workers.
2. Here’s the second thing I want you to get out of Jesus’ teaching this morning: If you’re not saved this morning, what is standing in your way of coming to Jesus?
When Jesus says it is better to “enter into life” maimed or crippled or blind than to enter into hell with all your body parts, He wasn’t saying it was better to enter into HUMAN life, in the sense of being born into this world. My 7 “go-to” commentators all agree that “entering into life” here refers to entering into the life of God, having your sins forgiven, having God as your father. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and THE LIFE.” The way to LIFE is through Jesus.
The decision is stark and decisive: You must put out ANYTHING in THIS life that is keeping you from having spiritual life here and now and everlasting life in heaven. Sometimes the amputation of a limp or the excision of a body part by surgical means is the only way to preserve life for the whole body.
Illus. – On Saturday April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston went climbing in Blue John Canyon near the Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. It was to be a one-day hike, but the unthinkable happened: he pushed his arm into a crack in the canyon wall, and an 800-pound boulder shifted, pinning his arm. He tried using a pocketknife to chip away at the boulder without success. He tried to rig a makeshift pulley with ropes to lift the boulder and that failed as well.
After three days, having gone through most of his three liters of water and his food, he decided to sacrifice his arm to save his life. First bending his body in order to break his wrist bone, he proceeded to use his knife to amputate his arm just below the right elbow. The 27-year-old climber then applied a makeshift tourniquet and rappelled 60 feet to the canyon floor. According to a sergeant in the Sheriff’s Department, Ralston would have died if he had stayed in that canyon.
Aron Ralston had a will to live, and he did whatever was necessary to stay alive. That’s what Jesus is talking about in our text, in a metaphorical way. He wants you to do WHATEVER is necessary…to discard ANY hindrance…to forsake ANYTHING or ANYONE that is keeping you from coming to Jesus.
Don’t worry, no matter what sins you have done or how unworthy you feel to receive God’s grace, God will save you if you turn to Him in faith. Romans 10:13 promises that “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Do you believe that? Call upon the Lord today! And in Revelation 22:17 we read these hopeful words, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let him who is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
