SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 8/29/2012 7:24:51 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Service
Leads to Honor
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
9:41-50
Message
of the verses: In Today’s SD we will
attempt to look at the last section of Mark chapter nine. It is a difficult passage to understand, and
there are even parts of it that were probably not in the original text, which
makes it even more difficult to understand.
There are a number of places in the NT where there seems to be things
added after the original text was written, and they were later added to the
text, in the most part, to help understand the text better, although that is
not the case in all the additions. When
we get to the last chapter of the book of Mark there is a section there that
was added on, a large section that was added onto the text, however we will
wait until we get there to comment on it.
We ended yesterday’s SD with these
words: “In tomorrow’s SD we will learn
that Jesus did not treat the statement made by John lightly, but in fact, He
goes on to explain the danger of causing others to stumble, and this will cause
them to stop serving the Lord.”
Service
Leads to Honor Part Two (Mark 9:41-50): “41 "For whoever gives you a
cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say
to you, he will not lose his reward. 42 “Whoever causes one of these little
ones who believe to stumble; it would be better for him if, with a heavy
millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. 43 “If your hand
causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled,
than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, 44 [[where
THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]] 45 "If your foot causes you to stumble, cut
it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to
be cast into hell, 46 [[where THEIR WORM
DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.]] 47 "If your eye causes you to stumble,
throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye,
than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, 48 where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE,
AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. 49 “For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 “Salt
is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty
again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’”
Verses 44 and 46 are not in the
original text and that is why the NASB put brackets around them. We do see in verse 48 the same words, and
these are in the original text.
Jesus’ statement to the disciples is
very serious as He talks to them about how they are to treat others who are
believers, something that is seen in John’s statement that he was not
doing. We know that the disciples did
have disputes with each other and did not always get along. It is good to remember that Jesus would use
these twelve men to turn the world upside down and so He wanted them to get
along in order to show a good example to those whom they would be used to lead
to the Lord. Jesus is speaking about
hell in this section, and He is speaking about getting along, along with
believers not tempting others to do wrong.
Paul speaks about this in several of his letters stating that it was his
great desire not to cause anyone to stumble.
Jesus shows us the importance of this statement in this section. The word millstone, according to John
MacArthur is a Hebrew word meaning “Mule Stone,” and we get this word from the
mules that pulled a large stone around in a circle in order to process grain,
and perhaps even olive oil.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following in
part of his commentary on this section: “The
solemn message about hell carries a warning to all of us to deal drastically
with sin. Whatever in our lives makes us
stumble, and therefore causes others to stumble, must be removed as if by
surgery. The hand, foot, and eye would
be considered valuable parts of the body, yet they must be removed if they are
causing sin. Of course, the Lord is not
commanding literal physical surgery, since He had already made it clear that
sin comes from the heart (Mark 7:20-23).
What He is teaching is that sin is to the inner person what a cancerous
tumor is to the body, and it must be dealt with drastically.”
I mentioned that verses 44 and 46
are not in the original text, and verse 48 is, but did not mention that this is
a quote from Isaiah 66:24, “’Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of
the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their
fire will not be quenched; And they will be an abhorrence to all
mankind.’” Interestingly enough this is
the very last verse in the book of Isaiah, and this verse is speaking about
hell. Jesus speaks of hell in this
section and some are surprised about that, but hell is a real place and a
permanent place where those who have not accepted the forgiveness offered to
them by God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Isaiah’s day the people were looking forward to the Messiah in order
to have their sins cared for by Him, and we look back at that event in order to
place our trust in the finished work that Christ accomplished for us on the
cross.
Dr. Wiersbe continues his
commentary, “But isn’t that too great a sacrifice to ask from us?’ Some might argue. ‘To deal that drastically
with sin would cost us too much!’ In
Mark 9:49-50, Jesus used the concept of ‘living sacrifices’ to illustrate His
point (see Rom. 12:1-2). The sacrifice
ends up on the altar and is consumed by the fire. Would you rather endure the fires of hell as
a lost sinner or the purifying fires of God as a sacrifice for His glory? Remember, Satan promises you glory now, but
the pain comes later. Jesus calls us to
suffering now, and then we will enjoy the glory.”
The word “hell” is gehenna, and it comes from a Hebrew
phrase “the valley of [ge] of
Hinnon.” This refers to a valley
outside of Jerusalem where the evil king Ahaz worshipped Molech, who was the
fire god and this is where human baby sacrifices were made to this god.
A few words about salt: Salt was put onto the sacrifices that were
offered to the Lord and salt speaks of purity and also preservation. It was also used in OT days in the establishing
of covenants. The disciples were God’s
salt as seen in Matthew 5:13, however they were in danger in losing their
saltiness. The disciples should not have
been rebuking others but examining their own hearts so that they could be more
useful to the Lord.
Dr. Wiersbe finishes his commentary
by writing: “The three lessons Jesus
taught in this section are basic to Christian living today. If we are yielded to Him, then suffering will
lead to glory, faith will produce power, and our sacrificial services will lead
to honor. In spite of his impetuousness
and occasional mistakes, Peter got the message and wrote: ‘But the God of all grace, who hath called us
unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered awhile, make
you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever’
(1Peter 5:10).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Be salt
in a world that needs it. Do not cause
anyone to stumble. This is a difficult
lesson to write about and even more difficult to practice, but it is important
to do both.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust the Lord to help me practice the things that I have learned in
this section of Scripture.
8/29/2012
8:30:48 AM
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