Clear And Present Warnings
Mark 9:42-50
Message #34
There is an action movie with the name “Clear and Present Danger” which I have never seen. And there is a Supreme Court ruling from 1919 that made the phrase “Clear and Present Danger” a legal test, which I could very easily get side-tracked on and apply to our current crazy political situation. But in both of those instances, a clear and present danger is an absolute and imminent danger.
Today, the language that Jesus himself uses is so graphic and so intense, that (to me) it makes up this same kind of intensity. And so, we’ll call the three warnings that we’ll look at today three Clear and Present Warnings.
How do we handle serious and dramatic warnings in the Bible? Sometimes we avoid them – just kind of skip over them. Maybe that’s because we think certainly God can’t mean what he says.
And often, Bible teachers focus on the counter-balance of the rest of scripture, and it is important to balance the warnings with the big-picture truths of all the Bible. But – sometimes we do that so much that we take away the impact of the warnings.
But when Jesus delivers dramatic warnings like he does today, he doesn’t soften them. He doesn’t counter-balance them. He drops them with startling force, and he allows us to wrestle with them.
And so, I’m going to try and do that today.
Let me start by listing the three clear and present warnings from Jesus in our text.
#1) BEWARE of CAUSING a Believer to fall into sin
#2) BEWARE of CODDLING sin in your own life
#3) BEWARE of LOSING your saltiness
All three of these warnings come with very graphic descriptions that we have to wrestle with in our own lives.
We’re continuing our context from last week, where we looked at three “we still don’t get it” situations. And the third one was the Disciples explaining to Jesus that they saw someone who was not in their group using the name of Jesus to cast out demons and so they told him to stop it. In response, Jesus told the Disciples in Mark 9:39, “Don’t stop him!” And then Jesus explained anyone who is operating in the name of Jesus and who is not against Jesus is for Jesus.
And that leads Jesus into a contrast which begins our text today. So, let’s back up one verse to Mark 9:41 to start (from last week).
Mark 9:41 (NLT)
41 If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded.
If anyone helps or supports you in the name of Jesus, and because you belong to Jesus, that person will surely be rewarded – Praise the Lord.
But then, the contrast verse comes.
Mark 9:42 (NLT)
42 “BUT (in contrast to helping a Christ-Follower) if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.
That is a clear and present warning. Now, this phrase, “Little ones who trust in Jesus,” it certainly can (and does) apply to children, but it is also used in a spiritual sense for new or young believers.
So, if you help someone, (verse 41 says), because they are a Christ-follower and in the name of Jesus, then your reward is sure. But, if you cause a new believer or a believer young in the faith to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.
A millstone is a large stone used to grind wheat – even the smallest ones weigh over one hundred pounds. And so, Jesus says wearing a necklace made out of a 100-pound stone and being thrown into the sea would be better for you than what is waiting for you if you cause a new or a young believer to fall into sin.
In contrast to this first clear and present warning, the entire New Testament calls us to come alongside one another; to help carry one another’s burdens; to strengthen one another, and to follow Jesus together with one another. So, this first dire warning from Jesus is about our influence, and our impact on other believers (especially new or young believers) and God help us if we cause them to fall into sin.
Okay, let’s move on, but you’re probably going to wish that we would’ve spent more time on the first warning because this second warning gets even more personal.
Second clear and present warning – these are the words of Jesus in the very next verse.
Mark 9:43 (NLT)
43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.
I told you it was going to get even more personal. But instead of me explaining just cutting off your hand, let’s continue in order to get the full picture.
Mark 9:45 (NLT)
45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet.
Alright, so far, we’re going to heaven with one hand and one foot rather than going to hell with all our appendages, right? But Jesus isn’t done with this warning yet.
Mark 9:47-48 (NLT)
47 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’
There is a Gehenna Valley that the Kidron Valley runs into in Tyro-Phoenician Valley. There are three valleys there around Jerusalem. The Gehenna Valley is where, at a time in the Old Testament, the pagans were sacrificing children to Moloch there. And when Israel took Jerusalem and then fell away, Israel actually started sacrificing children to Moloch in that valley.
And so, when King Josiah came and did phenomenal repentance and revival in Israel, he turned Gehenna into a trash heap. And so, the fires would continually burn in Gehenna. And the stench was there, and the maggots were there. And so it became a perfect picture of hell.
It’s not graphic enough for Jesus to just say be thrown into hell, and so he adds a detailed description of hell in verse 48, where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out. And in the King James line of translations, that verse is actually inserted after each of these three clear and present warnings.
Cutting off your hand. Cutting off your foot. Gouging out of eye. This is all hyperbole. Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally. We all know that, right?
So, what is Jesus talking about? Let me quote R. Kent Hughes here. What Jesus is calling for is not physical mutilation, but spiritual mortification—the cutting off of harmful practices from one’s life.
It is generally accepted the hand symbolizes what we do. The foot symbolizes where we go. The eye symbolizes what we are looking at. Jesus is using very graphic hyperbole to try to get this clear and present warning across to us.
Are there things that we are doing that are causing us to sin? Jesus says radically cut that off. Are there places we are going that are causing us to sin? Jesus says radically cut that off. Are there things we are looking at that are causing us to sin? Guess what? Jesus says radically cut that off.
This graphic metaphor of cutting off an appendage is clearly conveying the decisiveness and the sacrifice required to conquer our sinful habits. Jesus is metaphorically saying better a little blood on the ground now than an eternity spent in hell. Can we just accept this clear and present warning for what it is and not rationalize, justify or debate the issue?
So, staying with this idea of a sacrifice being required to follow Jesus will lead us right into our last clear and present warning.
Mark 9:49 (NLT)
49 “For everyone will be tested (think of sacrifice) with fire.
The ESV gives us the literal –
Mark 9:49 (ESV)
49 For everyone will be salted with fire.
This is a really hard sentence to translate. But there’s a definite connection here to the Old Testament sacrifices which were required to be salted. So, keeping with the previous context, there is the fire of the believer’s “sanctification” (cutting off sin), and there is the fire of hell. And Jesus seems to be saying that everyone will be tested by one fire or the other, either the short-term fire of sanctifying our lives for God or the eternal fire of hell. The good news is, we get to choose which fire we want to be tested by.
If we choose to follow Jesus Christ, there is a “refiner’s fire” that sanctifies us. To be sanctified means to be “set apart” for God’s use and God’s glory, and we need to embrace the refiner’s fire that sanctifies us because that sanctifying makes us the salt of the earth and makes us usable by God. And that sanctifying is what confirms (not earns, but confirms) that we will not experience the alternate fire of hell.
And so, hopefully, it is easy to see that the refiner’s fire that sanctifies is better than the fire of hell that separates us from God’s presence for eternity.
Finally, because of the literal words of verse 49, For everyone will be SALTED with fire, Jesus continues with the salt analogy, which we often find in the New Testament. And so, Jesus closes this section in Mark 9:50.
Mark 9:50 (NLT)
50 Salt is good for seasoning (that’s us – salted by the Refiner’s Fire). But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again?...
This is the third clear and present warning, salt is good – it preserves things, and it causes thirst. That is what we are called to be in the world; a preserving influence on a fallen world and causing a thirst in an unbelieving world. That is what God is transforming us to be: the salt of the earth – a preserving and thirst causing influence.
But, the second sentence in verse 50 says, if salt loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? This is a rhetorical warning implying that once salt (that’s us) loses its qualities, it is impossible to make it salty again. It is a more subtle – but just as scary – warning as the previous warnings today, right?
And so, three clear and present warnings.
#1) BEWARE of CAUSING a Believer to fall into sin
#2) BEWARE of CODDLING sin in your own life
#3) BEWARE of LOSING your saltiness
All three warnings with really graphic and serious consequences tied to them.
#1) BEWARE of CAUSING a Believer to fall into sin
Better to tie a millstone around your neck and be cast into the sea.
#2) BEWARE of CODDLING sin in your own life
than coddle sin and risk an eternity in hell.
#3) BEWARE of LOSING the “salt qualities”
of the Gospel in your life…because you may not be able to get them back again.
Hard-core clear and present warnings.
So, what do we do with these warnings?
I think the best one-word response is – repent. And I think there is an urgency and a drastic-ness in these words of Jesus to support the need to repent now; turn from these things now and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration and transformation. Genuinely seek the daily “filling with the Holy Spirit” and the daily “closer walk with Jesus” that the refiner’s fire would purify us, transform us and make us usable by God for our good and for his glory.
And that is how Jesus finishes this section at the end of verse 50.
Mark 9:50(b) (NLT)
50 . . . You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.”
As Christ-followers, we must have the preserving and thirst-causing qualities of salt, and we must live in peace with each other.
Today, the language that Jesus himself uses is so graphic and so intense, that (to me) it makes up this same kind of intensity. And so, we’ll call the three warnings that we’ll look at today three Clear and Present Warnings.
How do we handle serious and dramatic warnings in the Bible? Sometimes we avoid them – just kind of skip over them. Maybe that’s because we think certainly God can’t mean what he says.
And often, Bible teachers focus on the counter-balance of the rest of scripture, and it is important to balance the warnings with the big-picture truths of all the Bible. But – sometimes we do that so much that we take away the impact of the warnings.
But when Jesus delivers dramatic warnings like he does today, he doesn’t soften them. He doesn’t counter-balance them. He drops them with startling force, and he allows us to wrestle with them.
And so, I’m going to try and do that today.
Let me start by listing the three clear and present warnings from Jesus in our text.
#1) BEWARE of CAUSING a Believer to fall into sin
#2) BEWARE of CODDLING sin in your own life
#3) BEWARE of LOSING your saltiness
All three of these warnings come with very graphic descriptions that we have to wrestle with in our own lives.
We’re continuing our context from last week, where we looked at three “we still don’t get it” situations. And the third one was the Disciples explaining to Jesus that they saw someone who was not in their group using the name of Jesus to cast out demons and so they told him to stop it. In response, Jesus told the Disciples in Mark 9:39, “Don’t stop him!” And then Jesus explained anyone who is operating in the name of Jesus and who is not against Jesus is for Jesus.
And that leads Jesus into a contrast which begins our text today. So, let’s back up one verse to Mark 9:41 to start (from last week).
Mark 9:41 (NLT)
41 If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded.
If anyone helps or supports you in the name of Jesus, and because you belong to Jesus, that person will surely be rewarded – Praise the Lord.
But then, the contrast verse comes.
Mark 9:42 (NLT)
42 “BUT (in contrast to helping a Christ-Follower) if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.
That is a clear and present warning. Now, this phrase, “Little ones who trust in Jesus,” it certainly can (and does) apply to children, but it is also used in a spiritual sense for new or young believers.
So, if you help someone, (verse 41 says), because they are a Christ-follower and in the name of Jesus, then your reward is sure. But, if you cause a new believer or a believer young in the faith to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.
A millstone is a large stone used to grind wheat – even the smallest ones weigh over one hundred pounds. And so, Jesus says wearing a necklace made out of a 100-pound stone and being thrown into the sea would be better for you than what is waiting for you if you cause a new or a young believer to fall into sin.
In contrast to this first clear and present warning, the entire New Testament calls us to come alongside one another; to help carry one another’s burdens; to strengthen one another, and to follow Jesus together with one another. So, this first dire warning from Jesus is about our influence, and our impact on other believers (especially new or young believers) and God help us if we cause them to fall into sin.
Okay, let’s move on, but you’re probably going to wish that we would’ve spent more time on the first warning because this second warning gets even more personal.
Second clear and present warning – these are the words of Jesus in the very next verse.
Mark 9:43 (NLT)
43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands.
I told you it was going to get even more personal. But instead of me explaining just cutting off your hand, let’s continue in order to get the full picture.
Mark 9:45 (NLT)
45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet.
Alright, so far, we’re going to heaven with one hand and one foot rather than going to hell with all our appendages, right? But Jesus isn’t done with this warning yet.
Mark 9:47-48 (NLT)
47 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’
There is a Gehenna Valley that the Kidron Valley runs into in Tyro-Phoenician Valley. There are three valleys there around Jerusalem. The Gehenna Valley is where, at a time in the Old Testament, the pagans were sacrificing children to Moloch there. And when Israel took Jerusalem and then fell away, Israel actually started sacrificing children to Moloch in that valley.
And so, when King Josiah came and did phenomenal repentance and revival in Israel, he turned Gehenna into a trash heap. And so, the fires would continually burn in Gehenna. And the stench was there, and the maggots were there. And so it became a perfect picture of hell.
It’s not graphic enough for Jesus to just say be thrown into hell, and so he adds a detailed description of hell in verse 48, where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out. And in the King James line of translations, that verse is actually inserted after each of these three clear and present warnings.
Cutting off your hand. Cutting off your foot. Gouging out of eye. This is all hyperbole. Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally. We all know that, right?
So, what is Jesus talking about? Let me quote R. Kent Hughes here. What Jesus is calling for is not physical mutilation, but spiritual mortification—the cutting off of harmful practices from one’s life.
It is generally accepted the hand symbolizes what we do. The foot symbolizes where we go. The eye symbolizes what we are looking at. Jesus is using very graphic hyperbole to try to get this clear and present warning across to us.
Are there things that we are doing that are causing us to sin? Jesus says radically cut that off. Are there places we are going that are causing us to sin? Jesus says radically cut that off. Are there things we are looking at that are causing us to sin? Guess what? Jesus says radically cut that off.
This graphic metaphor of cutting off an appendage is clearly conveying the decisiveness and the sacrifice required to conquer our sinful habits. Jesus is metaphorically saying better a little blood on the ground now than an eternity spent in hell. Can we just accept this clear and present warning for what it is and not rationalize, justify or debate the issue?
So, staying with this idea of a sacrifice being required to follow Jesus will lead us right into our last clear and present warning.
Mark 9:49 (NLT)
49 “For everyone will be tested (think of sacrifice) with fire.
The ESV gives us the literal –
Mark 9:49 (ESV)
49 For everyone will be salted with fire.
This is a really hard sentence to translate. But there’s a definite connection here to the Old Testament sacrifices which were required to be salted. So, keeping with the previous context, there is the fire of the believer’s “sanctification” (cutting off sin), and there is the fire of hell. And Jesus seems to be saying that everyone will be tested by one fire or the other, either the short-term fire of sanctifying our lives for God or the eternal fire of hell. The good news is, we get to choose which fire we want to be tested by.
If we choose to follow Jesus Christ, there is a “refiner’s fire” that sanctifies us. To be sanctified means to be “set apart” for God’s use and God’s glory, and we need to embrace the refiner’s fire that sanctifies us because that sanctifying makes us the salt of the earth and makes us usable by God. And that sanctifying is what confirms (not earns, but confirms) that we will not experience the alternate fire of hell.
And so, hopefully, it is easy to see that the refiner’s fire that sanctifies is better than the fire of hell that separates us from God’s presence for eternity.
Finally, because of the literal words of verse 49, For everyone will be SALTED with fire, Jesus continues with the salt analogy, which we often find in the New Testament. And so, Jesus closes this section in Mark 9:50.
Mark 9:50 (NLT)
50 Salt is good for seasoning (that’s us – salted by the Refiner’s Fire). But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again?...
This is the third clear and present warning, salt is good – it preserves things, and it causes thirst. That is what we are called to be in the world; a preserving influence on a fallen world and causing a thirst in an unbelieving world. That is what God is transforming us to be: the salt of the earth – a preserving and thirst causing influence.
But, the second sentence in verse 50 says, if salt loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? This is a rhetorical warning implying that once salt (that’s us) loses its qualities, it is impossible to make it salty again. It is a more subtle – but just as scary – warning as the previous warnings today, right?
And so, three clear and present warnings.
#1) BEWARE of CAUSING a Believer to fall into sin
#2) BEWARE of CODDLING sin in your own life
#3) BEWARE of LOSING your saltiness
All three warnings with really graphic and serious consequences tied to them.
#1) BEWARE of CAUSING a Believer to fall into sin
Better to tie a millstone around your neck and be cast into the sea.
#2) BEWARE of CODDLING sin in your own life
than coddle sin and risk an eternity in hell.
#3) BEWARE of LOSING the “salt qualities”
of the Gospel in your life…because you may not be able to get them back again.
Hard-core clear and present warnings.
So, what do we do with these warnings?
I think the best one-word response is – repent. And I think there is an urgency and a drastic-ness in these words of Jesus to support the need to repent now; turn from these things now and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration and transformation. Genuinely seek the daily “filling with the Holy Spirit” and the daily “closer walk with Jesus” that the refiner’s fire would purify us, transform us and make us usable by God for our good and for his glory.
And that is how Jesus finishes this section at the end of verse 50.
Mark 9:50(b) (NLT)
50 . . . You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.”
As Christ-followers, we must have the preserving and thirst-causing qualities of salt, and we must live in peace with each other.