You Gain By Losing (Mark 9:33-50)

We're going to be in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, verses 33 through 50.

Mark 9:33–50

If you need a Bible, please raise your hand.

We'd love to bring one to you.

We'll be reading out of the CSV translation.

And as you're turning there, kind of to set the scene, uh, two weeks ago we saw Jesus' transfiguration, his glory being revealed in that time.

We saw the voice of God telling Peter, James, and John, This is my son.

Listen to him.

And then last week we saw Jesus address the unbelief of a father with a son that has an unclean spirit.

Jesus cast that spirit out of the boy.

Then we saw Jesus again telling his disciples about what he will suffer, what's on the way as the time leads up to the cross and while he's on the cross and then his resurrection afterwards.

And what we see, what we ended with last week, is Jesus telling his disciples all these things, and they're still not picking up on it.

They're still not quite understanding and getting it.

And that's where we pick up right now in verse 33.

So if you're able, would you please stand with us for the reading of God's Word?

Mark chapter 9, starting in verse 33.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

It says, They came to Capernaum when he was in the house.

He asked them, What were you arguing about on the way?

But they were silent, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest.

Sitting down, he called the twelve and said to them, If any one wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.

He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in my name welcomes me.

And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him who sent me.

John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn't following us.

Don't stop him, said Jesus, because there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name who can soon afterwards speak evil of me.

For whoever is not against us is for us.

And whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

And if your hand causes you to fall away, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell, the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off.

It's better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out.

It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and fire is not quenched.

For everyone will be salted with fire.

Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it?

Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with one another.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for this text here this morning.

We thank you for your word.

Lord, I pray that you would help me to rightly divide it here this morning.

That it would be your spirit that is speaking.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So remember, as we've been going through chapters 8 through 10 here in the book of Mark, Jesus is telling his disciples all of these things, and what he's doing is he's trying to help them to see more clearly.

And this passage continues on with that same theme that we've been going through for about the past month or so.

These disciples have a lot that they still don't understand.

They're still near-sighted spiritually, and they have some expectations that need to be undone because of the traditions of their culture that they were raised in.

And what we see in today's passage is that continuing to be undone by Jesus.

He's trying to unwrap all of these preconceived ideas that they have that are false expectations for him and for what's going to happen with the Messiah and all of those things.

And what we see in today's passage is that continuing to be done by Jesus, specifically with his disciples.

And throughout this passage, look for that theme, which is the title of the sermon this morning.

That's kind of what we're really going to be talking about with this specific section.

Now, admittedly, this is not an easy passage.

If I taught topically, just kind of picking and choosing, this is not a passage that I would have chosen for a topical message.

But that's kind of the beauty of what we're doing here.

As we go through whole books, there's some hard things that we need to deal with and go through.

And this is not like the warm fuzzy message this morning where you're going to leave just, you know, with those nice warm fuzzies.

This is really, there's a lot of conviction that comes with the with this verse.

But it's good.

We need it.

So let's start right there in verse 33.

It says, They came to Capernaum when he was in the house.

He asked them, What were you arguing about on the way?

In the past couple weeks, we've seen Jesus asking his disciples questions that he already knew the answer to.

And we know that Jesus knows the answer to this question of what were you arguing about?

Because in verse 34, Jesus responds to what the disciples were arguing about, and they never, they were silent.

They never told him what.

So Jesus knew exactly what was going on, but he still asked them, Hey, what were you arguing about on the road?

It's like Jesus is the dad of these young kids that got caught red-handed sneaking a cookie.

And the dad asks, you know, what are you doing?

And the kid just freezes.

Like, well, maybe if I'm still quiet enough, he's gonna forget what we're talking about, you know, something like that.

But look at verse 34.

It says, But they were silent because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest.

They were caught red-handed, like a kid with their hand in the cookie jar.

Jesus has been providing this perfect example of lowliness to his disciples, of humbleness, of servitude in everything that he's doing.

And we're gonna actually see uh here in a couple weeks in chapter 10, verse 45, that Jesus outright says it.

He says, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus didn't have one single selfish act on this earth.

He never tried to promote himself, he never elevated himself.

And don't think that his disciples hadn't noticed this.

They've been paying attention to everything that he's doing.

It was those things, actually, Jesus' humbleness and his servitude and not elevating himself, I think that drove the disciples the most nuts.

Because they were they were ready.

They went, hey, let's get some crowds, let's let's do this.

And I think this is why the disciples kept silent.

Because they were convicted.

They knew what they were arguing about was wrong, so they just felt silent when Jesus actually addressed the issue.

So Jesus gives them a little talking to you.

Look at verses 35.

It says, Sitting down, he called the twelve and said to them, If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.

If you're writing in your Bibles, circle that word all or underline it or highlight whatever you do.

And servant here is the same word that's used for deacon throughout the New Testament.

And it means one who executes the commands of another.

It means a servant, an attendant or a minister.

That's what that word servant means right there.

Another way of saying this verse is if you want to be first, you must be an attendant of all.

Have you ever heard the saying, you can assess how well you're doing at being a servant by how you respond when you're treated like one?

Have you heard that one before?

I don't know about you, but when I'm treated like a servant, that's when my pride really starts to swell up.

Don't tell me what to do.

But look at Jesus' example.

He actually said he came to serve and not be served.

And that's the same word that we see in chapter 10 that we're looking at today.

Jesus came to first serve the Father, God, but he also came to serve you, to give his life as a ransom for us.

He took our place to give us life.

That is the true example of a servant.

Now, I want you to think about this in our modern context.

Have you ever seen this idea of servitude on an inspirational poster?

You know the ones I'm talking about?

They used to be all over the business school in Kal Poly, like lining the halls there, where it says, you know, success, excellence, motivation, and you know, some saying underneath it with some pretty picture in the background.

You know, I've never seen the one that says, servant to all.

As if they are your master.

You know?

I don't think those type of calendars are gonna sell very well, are they?

Or have you ever heard the ver this verse mixed in with some type of a prosperity doctrine?

This isn't usually the verse that people are reaching for in that context.

You know, from a cultural context, this really is the opposite of what our American culture is telling us.

Our culture is saying, you know, if you want to succeed, you've got to be cutthroat.

You've got to be fierce.

You know, if you want something, you need to do whatever it takes to do that.

And if you need to use people as the rungs of the ladder in which you're gonna climb, just step on those people so that you can climb the ladder.

That's what our culture is preaching.

But look at what Jesus is preaching.

The kingdom of God in so many ways is counterintuitive to the world.

And that is what Jesus is trying to get across to his disciples in chapters 8 through 10.

That you need to forget what the culture and the oral history have taught you all these years, and you need to listen to me.

The Father said that outright during the transfiguration.

This is my son.

Listen to him.

He knows what he's talking about.

God was trying to get across.

Stop trying to coach my son.

Stop trying to rebuke him, just listen.

He knows what he's talking about.

Then Jesus goes on teaching in verse 36.

He says, He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever welcomes one little tr child such as this in my name welcomes me.

And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him who sent me.

You know, there's so much in these two verses.

But first, I want us to think of this little child that Jesus stood right before all of them.

If Jesus took the child in his arms, we're probably talking, you know, anywhere from an infant through a toddler.

But it says he had the child stand among them.

So we're probably looking at a kid that's maybe one to five years old.

How much help does a one through five-year-old need?

All the help, alright?

See a lot of parents.

Yes.

Because at that age it's all about them.

It's all about serving and helping them just so they survive.

And what does the parent get out of it?

Out of serving a child that's this age?

Not a whole lot, alright?

Serving a one through five year old.

They take your sleep, they take your time, they take your money, sometimes they take your sanity, you know.

But what Jesus is saying is that if you want to be first in the kingdom of God, you need to serve like a parent with a young child.

And we need to do that with each other.

You're not not serving for something in return.

You're serving because you love God and because you love people.

And that's what service looks like.

And that is what God, one of the things that God really values the most, serving the least of these.

Now, this is what Jesus is referring to in Matthew 25, 31, when he's talking about judgment day.

And it's a bit of a longer verse, but I'm going to read it to you because I think it's really appropriate to what we're going through today.

Matthew 25, 31 says, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He will put the sheep on his right, and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.

It says, For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in.

I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you took care of me.

I was in prison and you visited me.

Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see a stranger and take you as a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you?

When did you s when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will answer them, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

You know, it's in the lowliest times of service that Jesus takes greatest notice.

It's when we serve those that are considered lowest, when we serve in a place that no one else would really want to.

You know, and that's part of the reason that I'm so excited about what Carol and Andrew are doing with the homeless community here in Atascadero.

That's an area of our city that very few want to touch, including most Christians.

And it's brought so much controversy into our community.

And it's an area, you know, that we've been praying for.

And we've been praying specifically, God, how do we serve the least of these in our community?

You know, within the church, you know, what does that look like?

Well, I think, you know, serving the least of these in the church, it means approaching the lonely, befriending maybe somebody that seems a little odd, or visiting the sick.

Maybe it's pouring into our kids that can't give us anything back in return.

Or maybe ministering to those that are advanced in age that might not have the capabilities that they once did.

Because if we want to be first in the kingdom of God, we need to minister to someone that can give us nothing in return.

I really believe that that's the heart of what Jesus is saying right here.

Look at verse 38 with me.

So as John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn't following us.

Man, talk about conversational whiplash, right?

Jesus is giving them, you know, these great metaphors, and he's really, you know, speaking to them and trying to pour into them.

And as soon as there's a pause in the conversation, it's like, oh teacher, you know, like a little kid.

Teacher, teacher, teacher.

Like, we saw the sky and this happened.

But I feel like that happens every time Jesus gets into these deep points, and the disciples, maybe they're not quite tracking with what Jesus is saying, and they just say like the next thing that's on their mind.

And Jesus graciously addresses that, and then he steers them back to what he was actually trying to get through to them.

Like on the way down from the Transfiguration, if you remember that, Jesus is talking about the last couple days of his life and trying to prepare Peter, James, and John for that.

And then all of a sudden, they change the topic, and they're like, you know, what about the prophecy with Elijah and the last days and all that kind of stuff?

And Jesus graciously answers that question and then he steers him back to what he was trying to get through in the first place.

And that's exactly what we see Jesus do again right here.

Look at verse 39.

Jesus says, Don't stop him, said Jesus, because there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name who can soon afterwards speak evil of me.

For whoever is not against us is for us.

So he addresses the question.

And basically the answer is, Don't stop the guy.

Basically, if he's doing something good that's in my name, you know, what's the problem?

And notice the disciple's biggest concern here.

What was it?

He's not one of us.

He's not in our group.

Therefore, he must be wrong.

Regardless of what he's doing.

He just must be wrong because he's not in our group.

And I kind of think this goes back to the who's the greatest theme that we started with this morning.

I think the disciples already thought that they were the greatest.

It was just a matter of who was the greatest among their group of twelve.

I mean, these guys are willing to stop someone from doing good works.

Think about that.

Stop somebody from doing good works in Jesus' name, actually.

Because that guy wasn't one of them.

You know, that's some serious pride right there.

And Jesus simply responds, don't stop him.

If he's not against us, then he's for us.

And I think there's a lot to learn from this today in our modern context.

Because we can become so entrenched in our own little churches that we start to think that way.

Like, you know what?

Like, we're the ones.

We we've got this figured out.

And I think, but honestly, I think it starts innocent enough where it's just loving your church and loving what your church does and what your church is about.

But then I think pride creeps in.

And I think it goes from innocence to, you know what?

We've actually got this figured out.

And if only everyone else could figure it out, the way that we have it figured out, you know, we've got the inside track.

Everyone else is doing church wrong.

And I'm definitely guilty of this, especially when I was young in ministry and first started doing pastoral work.

I thought that Calvary Chapels had it figured out and that everybody else had been doing church wrong for 2,000 years.

I was just like, and I honestly had to repent of that.

You know, there's actually a group of pastors that I pray with every Wednesday morning.

There's about five or six of us that are consistent to be there.

And they're all pastors from Christian churches right here in town and in Santa Margarita.

And our theologies vary, you know, on non-salvific areas, you know, outside of the scope of salvation.

But all of these guys are Bible-believing.

Jesus is the only way preaching kind of guys.

And I look at each one of those guys, and they all love Jesus.

They're all definitely not against Jesus, that's for sure.

They're from different backgrounds, different schools of thought, but they are the opposite of against Jesus.

They're giving their lifelong service to Jesus in the best way that they know how, just like I am.

And I've come in a very short time to really love and respect and appreciate each one of these guys.

And I think this is the heart of what Jesus is getting at here.

If they aren't against us, then they're for us.

And here's where I've personally landed kind of in all of this.

You know, we can have theological debates until we're blue in the face regarding predestination and free will and baptism and communion, pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, all millennialism, millennialism, you know, all that kind of stuff.

But here's where I've landed.

If I know I'll be standing next to that person in heaven, worshiping God with them, why waste time debating over the things that are not essential to salvation?

When I could be spending that time and energy with someone that doesn't know Jesus at all.

So Jesus says, if they're not against us, then they're for us.

And who cares if they're not one of us?

And here in verse 41, we get to see Jesus steer the conversation.

He graciously answers the question and he steers it back to what he was trying to tell them in the first place.

Look at verse 41.

And Jesus goes on.

He says, And whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.

So Jesus had been talking about giving, as we saw in Matthew 25, the verse I just read you.

Giving a drink to someone who is thirsty.

And now he's talking about receiving.

Receiving a cup of water when somebody's giving it to us.

Whatever somebody does in Jesus' name, that's what he's regarding to.

That is a reward that's waiting for them in heaven and throughout eternity.

Whatever we give or somebody gives to us.

Something as simple as giving a cup of water.

Let's see, Rick, you were doing coffee this morning, right?

How many cups of coffee do you think you handed out?

Yeah.

Yeah, seven?

Alright.

Your reward is in heaven.

Like throughout eternity.

This is what Jesus is talking about.

Just simple, simple acts of service.

But in all seriousness, I have a question for you.

What's easier for you?

To give a cup of water or to receive a cup of water?

I think for a lot of us it's receiving the cup of water.

You know, because it's just like, ugh, you know, this is, you know, when somebody serves us, and maybe, maybe it's not just coffee, but somebody brings a meal over to your house, or somebody offers to come and help with some act of service.

A lot of times for us, that's a hard act to receive.

You know, I was hanging out with a friend last week, and he's an awesome believer, and he does not attend here.

And he uh he said, Hey, I know you guys are moving buildings and all that kind of stuff.

Um he's like, How can I help?

You know, what's what's going on?

I was like, we're doing great, you know, we have everything that we need.

It's awesome.

And he's like, Well, what about a sign?

You know, because the Lutheran Church isn't gonna allow us to put a permanent sign out in the front of the building.

Um, and I said, Well, that's actually something we do need to get done and and um and to have um have made and then installed and all that kind of stuff.

And he's like, I want to buy it.

He's like, send me the invoice, I want to buy it, I want to bless your church with that.

And my gut reaction was like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No, we're fine.

Like, you know, that's okay.

But then I felt the Lord was like, no, like this is his reward in heaven.

Like let him, he wants to bless the it wasn't coming to me, it was for the church, and he wanted to bless the our church by donating the sign.

And uh, the Lord convicted me, I'm like, okay, this is really hard for me, but yes, absolutely, thank you.

I will send you the invoice as soon as we have it all figured out.

And he was so excited and so joyful.

But if I would have told him, no, that's his reward in heaven that I would have been taking away from him.

So if we're gonna be a generous church, especially to one another, it means that half the time we need to be willing to receive.

And half the time we need to be willing to give if this is gonna work the way that Jesus wants to.

And then we're gonna move into verse 42, and Jesus starts to get real serious here.

It says, But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

So, free advice of the day.

If you ever have two options, and one of them is a millstone hung around your neck, choose the other option.

Okay?

99% of the time that's gonna be the right choice.

But Jesus is saying here, in this case, it's better to have a millstone hung on your neck and thrown into the sea than to stumble a little in.

This is serious business that Jesus is getting down to here.

If we do anything that makes another child of God fall away, it's better to just die.

And you might be asking, okay, well, what does fall away mean?

Like what in this context, what's Jesus talking about?

Other translations say cause to stumble, to sin, to fall into sin, or to fall away.

Pretty much anything you do that makes a believer stumble and sin, it's better to die.

Let that sink in for a second.

It's better to die than to do that, to cause somebody else to stumble.

This gives us such a very clear picture of how much God hates sin.

And he hates sin because sin brings separation in our relationship with God.

So it's something that God takes very seriously.

And from verse 42 to verse 43, Jesus goes from talking about causing somebody else to sin to warning us about our own sin.

So look at that transition in verse 43.

Jesus goes on, and if your hand causes you to fall away, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell, the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out.

It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.

You know, I remember reading this as a kid and thinking that this was literal.

That mutilation was the way to free, you know, Christians from sin.

But fortunately, I realized that it was figurative.

Otherwise, Christians would be really easy to identify, wouldn't they?

As Pastor Joe Folk says, you know, we'd all look like pirates.

Eye patches, hooks, peg legs, you know, just walking around.

Oh, there goes another Christian.

You know.

But what these verses actually do is reinforce how much God hates sin.

And he wants us to take drastic measures to do whatever it takes to cut it out of our lives.

You know, sin is always gonna be a heart issue.

And even if we do cut off our hand or our foot or pluck out our eye, that doesn't change the heart condition.

I think the true meaning of this verse is if your hand causes you to stumble, you know, if the things that you're handling, the things that you're touching, that you're putting your hands to, the things that you're holding, if those things cause you to stumble, you need to cut those things out of your life.

You know, if your foot causes you to stumble, you know, if where you're going, if where your feet are taking you, then you need to stop going there and cut that out of your life.

You know, if your eye causes you to stumble, you know, so the things that you're putting before you, you know, whether it's a phone or TV or internet, then stop putting those things before your eyes.

Take drastic measures.

Like get a flip phone, like if you can imagine what that would be like.

Um throw your TV out the window, or cut off your internet if you need to.

Preacher Billy Sunday has a great quote on this.

He says, one reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.

We see it as delectable instead of life-threatening.

The point of verses 43 through 47 is whatever it takes, just cut that out of your life.

Because it's better to enter heaven maimed than to go to hell to an eternal torment.

It's better to sacrifice the really convenient things that we love, like hands and feet and TVs and phones and stuff like that.

It's better to sacrifice those things for the kingdom of God than to enter into hell having entertained all of those things in our life.

And maybe you've noticed that a majority of the things that the disciples are struggling to comprehend in these last couple chapters, they're in regards to sacrifice.

I really think this is part of what Jesus is trying to get through to them.

That if you want to be the greatest, the greatest are the ones that sacrifice the most.

The greatest are the ones that serve others the most, that sacrifice the things of the flesh in their own life, like their eyes and their feet and their hands.

Like Jesus did daily.

Jesus' only sacrifice wasn't on the cross.

He was sacrificing every moment of every day for each one of us.

You know, the conversation that the disciples were having on the road was purely flesh-based.

Who's going to be the greatest?

Who's going to have the most honor?

Who are people going to look up to the most?

Who are people going to remember the most?

Who's going to sit at the right hand of Jesus in heaven?

Remember, Jesus taught them in Luke 14 that when you go to a wedding banquet, you know, don't sit at the head of the table in the place of honor, because then you're going to be asked to move down.

But sit in the lowest seat and then allow the host to be the one that brings you up to a more prominent place of honor.

That's the kingdom of God, where the last shall be first and the first shall be last, sacrificing our own desires and tendencies and our own human nature.

And it's so counterintuitive to everything that our flesh screams for.

Our flesh is always yelling, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, right?

And in verse 48, Jesus starts to explain what happens to those that don't hate their sin, that don't deny their flesh, and that bask in it instead.

And this is in reference to how verse 47 ended, in reference to hell.

And Jesus gives us a description of hell in verse 48.

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

You know, Jesus doesn't mince his words here, does he?

And he never tries to soften hell.

He gives these really vivid descriptions, just like this one we see here in verse 48, saying that hell is eternal torment.

And it's something that really I don't think anybody likes to talk about.

Have you ever met somebody that wants to talk about hell?

I haven't personally, but I think we don't like to talk about hell so much so that even some Christians are starting to believe, and it's becoming more and more popular popular in annihilationism.

And that's just a fancy word that means they believe that after death that you're just done.

Like you're just wiped from existence.

You cease to exist and you're just done.

If you're not going to heaven, that's what your eternity is going to look like.

Just wiped off the face of the earth and wiped out of consciousness.

The only reason I think that it's becoming more popular is because it's so hard to think about anyone spending an eternity in torment.

And I think it's so dreadful even for God to imagine anyone spending an eternity an eternity in torment that he sent his only begotten Son.

That whoever believes in him will have eternal life in heaven.

2 Peter 3 9 tells us that God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.

And I think that is why Jesus doesn't soften hell, but speaks directly about it.

He gave everything to keep us from that torment.

So why would he soften it as to be less offensive?

Because I think that's what we try to do.

Like, oh, this is really offensive, and I better just soften this a little bit.

But we never see Jesus doing that.

You know, I was trying to think, you know, what would this be in a different context?

So if say that I gave my whole life to inventing and perfecting the first airbag for vehicles for the sake of saving lives.

I sure wouldn't downplay the dangers of a car accident, would I?

If that was my whole life's work that I had put in.

You know, when we soften hell, I think it's like saying, you know, car accidents aren't that bad.

You probably don't need an airbag or a seat belt.

You know, you'll never die in a car accident.

And I think that's why Jesus doesn't soften hell.

He gave everything, not just his life's work, he gave his whole life to give us eternal life with him.

So why on earth would he soften the reasons why he did that specifically for us?

Look at verse 49.

It says, For everyone will be salted with fire.

Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it?

Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

So admittedly, these verses can be a little bit confusing.

And I think the NKGJV translation makes it a bit clearer.

So I want to read that to you.

It says, For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.

And the main school of thought here is that Jesus is done talking about hell, which is a little confusing because he just talked about, you know, the fires of hell, but now he's talking about a different fire.

But I really think that he's introducing the idea of being a living sacrifice to his disciples right here.

You see, in the law, specifically in Leviticus 2.13, God tells Moses, You are to present salt with each of your offerings.

With every single offering, there was to be salt with it.

So this is something that Jesus' disciples would be very familiar with growing up during the sacrificial system in Israel.

Salt and sacrifices, those always went together.

So as Jesus is introducing the concept of the disciples being a living sacrifice, he's telling them what the salt is going to be for a living sacrifice, which is trials.

That's what the fire refers to in verse 49.

Like it says in James 1, 2 through 4, consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

And this school of thought really makes the most sense to me because that continues on the theme of what Jesus has been talking about with his disciples over the last couple chapters.

Not living for themselves, being the greatest servant.

That whole theme of sacrifice.

Like we see in Romans 12, 1.

And it says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in the view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true worship.

You know, it's the giving of ourselves that is the true worship to God.

So I want to pull this all together and make sure that we're keeping this all in context.

Because as I was studying through these verses, I felt like you could do like four different sermons.

But there is one main theme that we see as we go talking about all of these different things that we've just looked at today.

Jesus starts with telling his disciples that they want to be first, if they want to be first in the kingdom of God, that you must be servant to all.

You must hate sin and take drastic measures against it.

You must be salted or seasoned with trials, and you must live as a living sacrifice.

That's kind of the summation of what we just went through.

And I think Warren Wearsby really ties this all together really well.

He says, if you pamper sin in your life, you will lose your salty character and not be able to affect others for Christ.

Deal drastically with sin as a surgeon does with a cancerous tumor.

You gain by losing.

And I think that last sentence is what sums up this whole passage really well.

It's what Jesus is really trying to communicate to his disciples in this section, that you gain by losing.

A counterintuitive, counter-cultural idea that it's counter to our human nature.

But it continues with the idea of taking up our cross, of being a living sacrifice, of putting others before ourselves.

That is what it looks like to serve Jesus.

And I know this doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.

You know, when it's all said and it's like, ooh, this is heavy, this is serious business, but I can testify that there's no better way to live your life.

There's no greater adventure that you could ever go on.

God cares so deeply about each one of us.

He loves us so perfectly that even when things are hard, they're still good.

And it wouldn't, I wouldn't trade this life of walking with Jesus for anything.

And it's not all hard times, don't get me wrong.

There's immense joy in it.

There's extreme satisfaction and purpose that the Lord gives each one of us.

But it's not easy.

You know, it's the wide path that's easy, but it's the straight and the narrow path that requires a lot of sacrifice along the way.

Would you please pray with me?