Sunday School Session 10

Good day, everybody. Well, now we're on to lecture number five for the Gospel of Mark. It's entitled, This is the Way of Discipleship. So before we look at that, let's just take a few moments and pray.

Father, thank you that we can look into your word. Help us now, we pray, that we may be the kind of disciples distinguished by these characteristics. Help us now, we pray, as we look to you in Jesus' name, amen.

The Marks of Discipleship in Mark 9:33–10:12

Well, we are now looking at that part of the Gospel of Mark that goes from Mark chapter nine, verse 33, to the end of chapter 10. And the purpose of this portion of Mark is that we would know the distinguishing marks of the followers of Christ, that we would know what are the characteristics that disciples of Jesus should have.

What are the marks of discipleship? Over the centuries, many have devised their own means of distinguishing disciples of Jesus. It's oftentimes by what we don't do, right? Disciples of Jesus are those who are not going to, as I grew up with, are not going to smoke, are not going to drink, they're not gonna be involved in this, they're not gonna be involved in that for others.

The distinguishing marks were even how they look. Our Amish neighbors think the distinguishing mark of a follower is to dress a certain way, to only have buttons, not zippers, to not have electricity.

These are the marks of the disciples of Jesus. But in this portion of scripture, Jesus himself identifies for us those marks, the way you can identify a disciple. And it's interesting, it's often not what we would consider.

And it goes beyond just outward behaviors and outward appearances. It goes beyond those things to things much deeper. So let's spend some time and seek to understand these identifiers of disciples of Jesus.

What must they be like? What must they do? Well, again, I'm going to say to you, if you haven't read this passage, turn this off, take the time to read chapter nine, verse 33, to the end of the chapter.

Do that now, to the end of chapter 10, do that now. All right, now, as we look at Mark 9, verses 33 to 37,.

Here's what we see.

Greatness by Serving Others

Disciples of Jesus seek greatness. Now, according to Jesus, what is the path to greatness? The path to greatness comes in seeking to serve everyone. He says, if you want to be first at the head of the line in God's eyes, strive to be last in position in the line.

Make sure everyone else gets in the line before you,.

If you will.

The first will be last, the last will be first. Those who strive to be great in the eyes of the world who are at the beginning of the line, at the top of the stack, the apex of the pyramid. If you're seeking that, you'll be last in the eyes of God.

Instead, he says, serve others. Look at yourself as everyone else's slave. Now, as we look at this passage, you remember as you read it, how the disciples were arguing about who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And you would think, who would ever argue about that? You know, in our polite society, we would never argue about something like that. Well, here's the thing, in our thinking, and sometimes in our conversation, we come up with these comparative rankings.

In everyday life, we say things like this.

She married him? She married him?

Well, she's a teacher and he's just a janitor. And we do this quite often in our Christian circles, right? Who is greater? The pastor or the Sunday school teacher? The elder or the deacon? Or the people who serve on the maintenance ministry?

Who's more important, the CEO or the press operator, right? And so we get these rankings in our head. Certainly, we don't go around arguing about who's the greatest. Sometimes we do, when we're not talking about ourselves.

And we have these rankings in our minds. Now, here's the point to see, Jesus is not talking about position. He's talking about attitude and actions. When are you greater? When you serve other people or when everyone applauds you?

When you're recognized, when you are recognized or when you're serving in a capacity where no one recognizes you? When are you greater? You see, when do you achieve the heights of greatness? Now, you see in this text that Jesus involves a child in the discussion.

Children were the lowest in the social order. Children were very low in the social order. It would be totally full of children. It would be a little bit foreign in that day to say, oh, we've got to get our kids here for this activity.

We've got to get them there for that activity. And we have to buy them all these books. No, no, the children were the lowest in the social order. And he is essentially making the point, you have to serve in such a way that children are your masters, that you're serving children.

Even the lowest of the low, you serve them as well. You cannot exclude the lowliest from your service because your service involves welcoming Jesus and his father. What do you think you need to change and start thinking and doing in order to achieve such greatness?

Think in very specific terms. Think about when you feel the best. Is it when people are applauding you? How do you feel, for example, when you have served well and no one seems to notice? Just take an inventory emotionally and find out,.

When do I feel the best?

The way you feel is gonna tell you something about the way you think, you see. And Jesus concludes by saying, you see yourself as the slave to everyone. Listen, your plans for the week should reflect the fact that you are serving others.

The way you use your money should reflect the fact that you serve others. The use of your time should reflect the fact that everyone else is your master. You must say to yourself, I must use me and all that I have for others if I would achieve greatness.

What specifically do you need to change in order to reflect your status as a slave? Remembering this, that the distinguishing mark of a disciple of Jesus is greatness in his service to others. Again, we all know this.

This is something that we all know. We all know this, we're brought up with that. This is what we're taught. And yet it seems so difficult for it to sink into our heads, to sink into our brains, to actually act that way.

God says his disciples seek greatness and they seek it by serving others. Now we come to Mark 9 38 -41, four short chapters or four short verses. And here he says, the disciples of Jesus must be inclusive, not exclusive.

You may say, well, wait a minute, Pastor Tim, we seem to be pretty exclusive around here. We don't just fellowship with anybody. We don't just do anything with any church. What are you saying? We tend to be kind of exclusive.

Well, let's look at those verses, verses 38 -41 carefully. As disciples, we must be more inclusive than exclusive. Now we have a tendency to draw lines in a rather fine manner, okay? When I grew up, I grew up in the kind of churches that said, unless you agree with us on just about everything, mind you, if you disagree with us on who we should fellowship, if you fellowship with someone that we think you shouldn't fellowship with, then we're not gonna be a part of you.

Then we're not gonna fellowship with you. See, because those people are bad over there, you're fellowshiping with those heretics and because you're fellowshiping with them, we're not gonna fellowship with you.

In fact, if someone would fellowship with you, then we can't fellowship with them either. It's very exclusive, very exclusive. If you don't believe that Jesus is going to return before the great tribulation of seven years, that he's gonna return and rapture the church, and then now there's gonna be seven years of tribulation, and then Jesus is gonna come back and reign for a literal 1 ,000 years on the earth, and then there's gonna be a great rebellion, and then will come the eternal state.

And if you don't believe that, then we can't have fellowship with you. Wow, that's pretty exclusive. And so what does Jesus say is the dividing line? The dividing line is Jesus. The dividing line is Jesus.

Now, the last phrase gives us much direction when it comes to this inclusive principle. The last phrase does help us because the Bible and other places tell us we've got to be exclusive. We've got to separate from people who deny certain truths, right?

We don't have fellowship with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses because they deny certain truths about Jesus. Now, if you look at this text, Jesus is the dividing line, and the last phrase in this text gives us a great deal of direction when it comes to this inclusive principle.

If someone offers to help you just because you belong to Christ, he is for you. When the going gets tough, and people are more willing to abandon Christ's disciples, and someone still wants to identify with you and Christ, then he is a disciple.

What do I mean when I say the going gets tough? Well, he says here, offers to you a cup of water in Christ's name. That's the idea of the fact that he's willing to identify with you in the midst of suffering.

He's willing to identify with Jesus in the midst of suffering. He may do some things differently. He may not believe exactly like you do. He may not believe in the same kind of baptism you do, but when the going gets tough, if he's willing to be identified with Jesus and with you as a follower of Jesus, then he's one of us.

Anyone who welcomes you because you belong to Jesus must be accepted. So that kind of community with one another doesn't hinge on whether or not we go to the same church, or that we like the same kind of things.

What matters is whether we both love Christ and see his name exalted. And so we need to be inclusive. Jesus is the dividing line. Now, when you come to Matthew 9, verses 42 through 50, we find here the third identifier, the third mark of a disciple of Jesus.

And it is this.

Dealing Harshly with Sin

Disciples of Jesus must deal with sin. Disciples of Jesus must deal with sin. We must be vigilant against anything that would cause a young disciple, a new believer to sin. Christians will exercise caution and restraint around new or young believers.

God loves these young ones so much that Jesus asserts that if you lead them into sin, it'd be better for a millstone to be hung around your neck. You know what a millstone is? It's those, go to the old mills, they have these grinding stones in which they would put the grain in.

The grinding stones would do this and grind the grain into wheat or into flour, grind the wheat into flour. And those grinding stones are great big things, great big things. And Jesus says, boy, if you cause one of these younger ones to sin, it's better that we chain a millstone around your neck and throw you in the water to drown you.

That's how concerned he is for these young ones. And you know, we can cause them to stumble. We can cause them to stumble. These new believers, these brand new believers who are new to the life and don't know the things that you know and may take things differently than you would.

And so you've got to be very careful around them. But he doesn't stop there. Jesus says you must also give diligence to dealing with sin in your own life. That is to say you will deal harshly with any sin in your life.

If you have to cut off a limb to keep you from sinning, then cut it off. It's better. It's better to have life with only one limb rather than to go into hell with two hands.

Right?

Isn't that what he says here? It's better for you to be lame in this life than to run headlong into hell with two good legs. Cut off that leg, cut off that arm, pluck out that eye. If that sin, if in order to deal with that sin, you will have a desire for practical holiness.

You will have a desire to be someone who is fighting sin hard,.

Fighting it hard.

And note Jesus' warning here. This ought to give me great concern about the course of my life. I need to examine it. Am I, do I look like a disciple because I deal harshly with my own sin? We call this, if you will, radical amputation.

Right?

If my eye has caused me to sin, I'm going to pluck it out. Make it, I'm going to make it hard for me to sin.

Right?

I'm going to cut off a leg in order to make it hard for me to sin. Now, is Jesus speaking literally here? Is Jesus speaking literally here? No, he's not.

He's not speaking.

He just, what he's trying to say is you will do whatever it takes. With this hyperbole, he says to you, you will do whatever it takes to deal with sin.

Right?

You will do whatever it takes.

So for example,.

If you're having a problem on the internet, you're looking at things you shouldn't be looking at,.

What will you do?

You will be willing to go without your internet service in order to keep yourself away from that temptation. Now, again, that's radical, isn't it? Who doesn't have internet today? But the point, that's the point that Jesus is making.

It's like plucking an eye. It's like cutting off a limb. It's that drastic. And if that's what we have to do to be holy, we'll do it. We will deal drastically, practically. We will be hard on ourselves when it comes to sin.

We'll do whatever it takes, in other words. Now, I need to heed the warning to sin when it comes to, you know, when it actually comes even to our own children.

Right?

Think about living in the home. Do we refrain from things and actions that may tempt them to sin? Just our kids in our home. Do I give them an example that may cause them to stumble into sin? Do I live my life with them in mind?

You see, I need to think carefully about those things. First, I will be very careful in the way I live before young believers, which is believers who have just come to the faith or even the children who are believers who don't have the ability yet to understand everything.

Am I giving them an example that will help them or am I giving them an example that would hurt them? I don't want to be a candidate for a millstone around my neck, you see. And I will deal harshly with my own sin.

By the way, can you see how those go together? I will deal harshly with my own sin. I will pursue practical holiness and by that, I won't cause other people to stumble. I won't be a candidate for the millstone.

Faithfulness in Marriage

Now we come to the fourth identifier in chapter 10, verses one through 12, the fourth identifier. And that is this. Disciples of Jesus must practice marital fidelity. We will be known, Christians will be known as people who are faithful in their marriages.

Now, this section is not intended to teach about all the ins and outs of divorce, but it's intended to teach us what should characterize disciples in marriage. What does Jesus expect from his disciples with regard to marriage?

What does he tell us? Well, as you look at the story, you look at the narrative, the Pharisees are questioning Jesus since like today, just like today, the whole issue of divorce was a pressing question.

The Pharisees bring up the question for the purpose of testing Jesus. And Jesus takes the opportunity to teach his disciples, some of his followers, some rather important distinctives when it comes to his disciples.

First notice that Jesus actually changes the old covenant law. He says, Moses gave you these commandments about divorce, but I'm telling you this, right? Jesus' followers must obey a different rule, that which Jesus himself sets forth as God's authoritative word on the subject.

And Jesus does this on his own authority. He doesn't appeal to anything else. He doesn't say, Rabbi, so-and-so says this, and I believe he's right. He does it on his own authority, why? Because he is the final word from God.

And so what he says is how we live, right? He told them, he says, because of the hardness of your heart, you had these regulations. If you look at the Old Testament, go back, you will see that if you were gonna divorce someone, you had to follow a very prescribed procedure.

And Jesus says, this is because of the hardness of your hearts. That is to say, God did not immediately say to his people back in the days of Moses, no more divorce ever, right? But because their heart was so hard, he regulated it so it wouldn't be so prevalent, so that it would put the brakes on.

But now Jesus says, okay, I've come, and I'm telling you now that those laws no longer hold true. You must be faithful. A disciple of Jesus will live out God's original intent for marriage. Yes, there are exceptions to the rule.

Matthew tells us that. Matthew tells us that in Matthew 5 and Matthew 19. Paul tells us that of those exceptions in 1 Corinthians 7. But those are exceptions and they're rare. Overall, disciples of Jesus are not the kind of people who hop from marriage to marriage.

They're not the kind of people who hit some difficulties and decide to divorce. His disciples are going to be those who fulfill God's original intent for marriage. In the realm of redemption, in the realm of where Jesus' people live, they are going to seek to accomplish God's original intent for marriage.

The disciples of Jesus will have a reputation for marital fidelity. Disciples who will be those who find contentment in their marriage. What leads to so many divorces and remarriage? What is it? It's discontentment.

It's discontentment. It's a lack of content. A disciple of Jesus is not merely one who remains married, but one who finds contentment in his spouse. How can we show ourselves to be true disciples of Jesus in this area of life?

How can you show contentment? How can you show contentment in your spouse? What should you be doing? What should you be saying? How should you be acting? Now, listen to me. I know that some of you are listening to me who have experienced divorce.

Divorce is not the unforgivable sin. Jesus has come to rescue sinners. However, as a disciple of Jesus, our intention, our actions, our thoughts, our attitudes will always be directed towards marital fidelity.

Are you married now? Then develop a reputation for faithfulness in your marriage.

This is important.

This is a mark of a disciple of Jesus. Well, that'll be enough for today. I hope again that this has been helpful to you. I pray that as you hear these things, that you will say, that's what I need to do.

That's what I need to be if I'm going to show others that I'm a disciple of Jesus. Well, let's pray, shall we? Our God and our Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for how you have revealed yourself in Christ.

Now, Father, we pray, as we have discussed these things, that you would help us to show ourselves to be a distinctive people, people who love the Lord Jesus, disciples who truly, who truly love and serve him and have these distinguishing marks.

Thank you now, in Jesus' name, amen.