Well, I would ask you this evening, "What do you take seriously in your life?" Everybody has things that are serious to them. Maybe some of us are very serious about physical exercise. We live on the corner of 11th and Arch, and we watched the thousands of people run in the Philadelphia Marathon this morning. The evidence was that some of them were serious about exercise; some of them obviously weren't; it was clear. Maybe you're a lawn person, and you are very, very serious about the condition of the grass that surrounds your house, and you invest all kinds of time and money; you are absolutely obsessed with weeds, and you have de-weeded everything that is under your power.
Serious About Remodeling and Food
Maybe you're serious about decorating your house, and maybe you're one of those people who have been on an endless remodeling; it never seems to end. Or maybe you're serious about food. I was shopping yesterday for Thanksgiving; I'm the cook for this meal, and I was aware that I was shopping for just the right sun-dried tomatoes. I had gone to several different places; and then I realized, this is not a momentous decision. No one will say to me, "Why did you buy these sun-dried tomatoes?" We laugh, but what you name as serious, claims you.
It claims your time; it claims your energy; it claims your money; it claims your thoughts, and your desires, and your words, and your actions. As you watch, not a snapshot of you on a Sunday evening, but as you would watch the video of your life, what are you serious about? What claims your desires? What disappoints you? What makes you happy? Maybe the question to ask is: what is the dream that sort of captivates, structures, controls, shapes your world? The passage we're going to look at tonight is about seriousness; it's about seriousness with the one area that we should all be very serious about; sadly, sometimes we're not.
And I would ask this question as we begin: Are you a person who's serious about sin? Is your life shaped by this seriousness? Does it shape the way you make decisions? Does it shape the things that you do in your home when no one is watching? Does it shape your private moments? Are you serious about sin? This is a very convicting passage. We look first at the disciples; and for all the display of Christ's glory, for all the clarity that He was growingly giving them about this grand redemptive mission that He was on that would be the hope of the universe, these men lacked seriousness about this.
The way that showed itself is they continued to make it about them. They come across this man who is casting out a demon in the name of Jesus, and they're outraged by that, shocked, dismayed. And they run to Christ and say, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us," - crucial words there at the end. Now, this is sort of ironic because these are guys who, just a little time before, had attempted to do the same thing in their own power, not in the power of Christ, and failed.
These were guys who had just got done with a conversation about who was greatest. They had this great ability to pull in the walls of the Kingdom of God to the small narrow confines of their own little lives. You know, what appears to be ministry is not always ministry; what appears to be done for Christ is not always done for Christ. And they're rebuked by Christ, and He says this, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us."
Jesus said, "Don't you understand anyone who works in My name has become an ally of Me; an ally of the work of My Kingdom? Why would you ever be concerned about that? My will is that we would collect thousands and thousands and thousands of allies to the Kingdom of God who would go forward and do this work; it's not about your little club." We can turn the church into a self-righteous little club that's more about us than it is the plan of God, than it is this worldwide work of redemption. Jesus said, "Why would you ever want to stop this man, because the one who is active in this way for us won't be against us; this is an ally of my work; you ought to be excited about that.
A Cup of Cool Water
That's the kind of person I have come to produce. You guys get it wrong!" And then He says this, "Even a redemptive act as small as a cup of cool water will not go without reward. When a human being steps out of his own kingdom, quits serving himself, and begins even in the smallest way to serve me; I will not rebuke him; I will reward him; you have it wrong. It's not about you; it's about the work of My Kingdom." Having said that, Jesus turns to one of the most graphic, serious discussions in the New Testament about the gravity, the seriousness of sin.
He speaks of it in three areas: That I would be serious about sin in the closest relationships of my life; that I would be serious about sin in terms of my own life; and that I would be serious about sin with respect to the surrounding world. Now, this discussion rests on a very significant moral worldview. It comes to the fore in this conversation; here it is: you live in a moral world, and every day, you make inescapable moral choices. Whether you're aware of it or not, whether you're conscious of the importance of those choices, every day of your life is marked by moral choices.
The things you do at work are structured by moral choices that you will make there. Your conversation is structured by moral choices that you will make. Your relationships are about moral choices. Your leisure is shaped by moral choices. The way you spend your money is about moral choices. This is the world that we live in; it's ruled by a holy God who has told us how to live, and we're always living that moral life. You are always living in that kind of environment. And I think the thing that lulls us to sleep is because we live in little moments, most of our moral choices are choices lived in little moments; they don't seem to be of great consequence.
But I would remind you that the character and direction of a life is not set in one or two big moments. The character of a life is set in 10,000 little moments. It's what you have lived in those little moments that shapes how you'll deal with the big moments of life. And so those little moments are important because that happens to be the address where you live. And so this passage must live in those little moments of life; that's the world that you live in. There's a second thing that is very clear because this passage speaks of judgment, that you and I are accountable for our moral choices.
Whether we recognize it, again, we're always living under authority, ultimately the authority of God; no one, no one lives above authority--and that's the framework of this passage. Now look, if you would, at verse 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." When Christ talks of the little ones, He's not actually talking of children in this context. "Little ones who believe" sort of gives that away; He's using an affectionate term for those who have believed in Him.
And in saying that, He immediately reminds us of our moral obligation, the obligation that God has given us for the influence that He would have through us in the life of the people that are near to us. You have been chosen to be part of what God is doing in the lives of others. Did you hear what I said? You have been chosen to be part of what God is doing in the lives of others. That's not your choice; you've been drafted. None of us must be comfortable with just being consumers of the faith. We're called to be instruments in God's hands in the lives of other people.
Every Joint and Ligament
You see that played out very powerfully in the epistles of Paul, where Paul says that the body of Christ grows as every joint and ligament does its part. What a graphic picture that is. And so I must ask the question, "What's the nature of my influence in the lives of the people around me? Do I represent God well? Am I a good ambassador of His grace and His calling, His wisdom in the lives of other people?" The passage says what a terrible thing it is to cause another person to stumble. That phrase means two things: It's first an issue of the heart.
"Causing to stumble" means "cause to doubt, cause to question." And it's possible that the way you live as you declare yourself a believer, the way that you live, living inconsistently, would cause them to question, "If this is a Christian, is this what I want to be?" "Cause them to stumble" also means to tempt a person to sin; maybe by my anger or my selfishness or other things that I do, I actually tempt someone to do what is evil in the eyes of God. Jesus said, strong words, "It would be better if a millstone was hung around your neck and you were dropped into the sea."
That punishment would have been familiar to the listeners; it was the way the Romans would punish the insurrectionists against the Roman Kingdom. Now that's how serious God takes our influence. If you're a parent here tonight, I would ask you this question: do your words and actions toward your children stimulate their faith? Are you a beautiful picture of the authority of God in the way that you exercise your authority? If you're a husband and wife, does your relationship to your husband or your relationship to your wife encourage faith in them, encourage hope in God, encourage the love of God's wisdom, encourage a life that's pleasing to the Lord?
If you're a single person, do you take those friendships seriously? Do you understand that you are positioned as a person of influence; that you are either in those relationships, part of what God is doing, or you're in the way of what God is doing in those relationships? Do we actually take sin seriously in the context of these near relationships to us?" Boy, I'll say it for you, "I don't always." There are times I'd rather be right. There are times I'd rather have my way. There are times where my schedule is more important to me than God's glory.
There are times that I would rather be served than serve. There are times when, rather than being a tool of grace, I remind people that are near me how tough it is to be around them. Are you part of what God is doing in the lives of people around you or in the way of it? And then Christ moves to seriousness of sin in terms of our own lives; the word pictures here could not be more graphic. Let me read it to you, verse 43: 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.
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. 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, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. To illustrate the seriousness with which we are called to view our own struggle with sin, Jesus chooses three very important members of the body - maybe gateways to the struggle - your hands, your eyes, your feet.
Do your feet take you where you should not go? Do your hands reach out for what you should not desire? Do your eyes look at what you should not consider? Powerful word pictures! Now Jesus is not actually calling us to mass amputation, in case you wondered. I would not advise you to go home and relieve yourself of one of your feet! But He's calling us to that level of seriousness with sin. I've said this to you before: sin doesn't always look serious to you and me. It doesn't always seem dangerous.
When Sin Feels Life-Giving
It doesn't always seem like it leads to death; sometimes sin even feels life-giving to us; sometimes it seems beautiful; sometimes it looks attractive." When you have, with anger, won an argument and exercised your power, and in so doing, you've been unloving and unkind, and you haven't treated that person in the way that God calls you to treat them, perhaps you've murdered them with words; you may feel powerful; you may feel successful; you may have that buzz, but that thing is evil in God's eyes; it will never produce good fruit; it never leads to life.
If you're a man, and you've spent the last forty-five minutes filling your eyes and your mind and your heart with pornographic, disgusting, sexual images, during that forty-five minutes, it hasn't been disgusting to you; it's been beautiful and thrilling, and you go from website to website, drinking in the joy of this thing that, in God's eyes, is an abomination; that's what sin does to us. When you're a glutton, gluttony doesn't seem horrible and dangerous. Mouthful leads to mouthful, leads to mouthful, of what seems to be delight, but that thing is an abomination in God's eyes.
You see, brothers and sisters, this is why we need this warning; I'll say it, "I need this warning." Because I would love to say to you this evening that always sin looks dangerous to me; always it looks disgusting to me; always it turns me away, but it doesn't; it doesn't always for you either. And Jesus says, "I'm calling you to this level of seriousness that whatever is drawing you toward what I say is evil, you cut it out of your life." He's calling us to costly, self-sacrificing discipleship.
Could it be that in 2010, we watch things on our television as supposedly committed believers that would've been called pornography in 1950? Well, the law of God has not changed. I'm afraid that the Church of Jesus Christ and a lack of seriousness with an ongoing struggle with sin have lost its power of influence to the surrounding world. We have been enculturated. We have become worldly. We need this. These radical words, hard words to read, hard words to hear, are themselves a grace to us; this is a loving Savior warning us once again.
And how serious is God? He says this, "It would be much better for you to go in eternity lame, maimed, than to go to hell with all your members." I would ask you, be honest this evening, "Do you carry that level of seriousness in your heart?" And then finally verse 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." In using the metaphor of salt, Christ reminds us of our position toward the surrounding world.
This is the Christ who spoke on the Sermon on The Mount and said, "You are the light of the world; you are the salt of the earth." Don't think just of salt as a wonderful seasoning. Salt, in those days, was the major preservative. Salt was put on meat to fight corruption of that substance. And so Jesus is saying, "Don't you understand your position with the surrounding world? You are meant to be salt; it's your presence in the world that is meant to be influential; it's because you are in the world that the corruption of the world is retarded; that's what I've called you to.
A Person of Influence
It's not just your near relationships; it's not just your own life; I lay claim to your life, and I have called you to be a person of influence in this world that is so eaten by corruption." I have a moral responsibility to the surrounding world; I have been placed there to be the salt of the earth. My life doesn't belong to me anymore. And Jesus says, "What good is salt if it has lost its saltiness?" And then He says this, a particular application to the disciples, "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
Jesus simply is saying, "The conflict you have with one another, boys, because you're so concerned about who's going to be great in the Kingdom, precludes any possibility of you being salt, because you're so turned inward; you're so worried about what is in it for you, that you have no thought of your surrounding influence at all. You've lost your saltiness!" Now, I think I can speak for all of us tonight. I don't think there's a person here who is rational and has a bit of humility inside him or her who can say.
"Paul, I easily measure up to this passage." I think all of us would say, "I don't always take my influence in the relationships that God has given me seriously. I don't always take sin seriously in my own life; I don't always remember my calling to the surrounding world." And so you need to hear the Gospel; your standing with God is not based on how well you keep this passage because Jesus has perfectly kept the requirement of this passage for you. He was serious about sin in every way; every thought, every deed, every interaction, was done in complete obedience to the will of God.
He was serious about sin, and so He was willing to suffer and die, horrible injustice, horrible torture, unbelievable mockery, so that sin would be conquered. And so because of the sacrifice of Christ, in my failure, I don't have to be afraid; I don't have to hide from my heavenly Father; I don't have to give myself to delusional self-atoning arguments; I can run, once again, into His presence and say, "Father, oh, there are moments when I'm serious, but not always; there are moments when I want to be part of what You're doing in the lives of others, but not always; there are moments when I want to live a holy life, but not always; there are moments when I'm engaged in the larger work of Your Kingdom, but not always.
So I come to you once again; by grace, I come, and I thank you that I have been accepted on the basis on the obedience of another, and I can ask once again, "Won't You empower me by Your grace? Won't You fill my heart with seriousness once again? Won't You claim my desires for Your Kingdom? Won't You own my thoughts for Your work so that, Father, one day I may hear You say, "Well done, good and faithful servants?" Let's pray: Lord, we are serious about many things; maybe it would be right to say that there's a war of seriousness fought in our hearts; and sometimes, Lord, in the midst of that war, the most serious thing in life, our sin and Your work of grace get lost and become less than serious.
Oh, please forgive us? Oh, empower us by Your grace, that in our relationships and in our personal lives and in our position in the world, that we would take sin seriously; that we would long to be an influence, that we would long to be holy, that we would long to be of great influence to the surrounding world? Oh, this will only happen by means of Your grace, and so we pray for that this evening. In Jesus's name, Amen.
