June 25, 2023 | Mark 9:30-50 | Pastor Chris Baker

Open your Bibles to Mark 9. If you don't have a Bible, there are some black ones in the pew rack in front of you. Today's text can be found on page 901 in those.

We're going to read Mark 9:30-50 this morning. I'll read it out loud, and I invite you to follow along silently in your copy of God's Word. After I read, we'll spend some time praying for the Holy Spirit's guidance as we study together.

Read Mark 9:30-50. (Prayer)

Introduction

A fibrous mineral was discovered in a Greek quarry around 4500 years ago. It was eventually woven into tablecloths, handkerchiefs, lamp wicks, and theater curtains.

It was thought of as an incredibly versatile and useful mineral. Legendary explorer Marco Polo wrote home about it during one of his journeys.

The mineral showed great resistance to heat. It was as close to fireproof as any natural substance we've discovered. And so it was added as a fireproofing agent to building materials—steam pipes, paint, and wall panels. Over 80 different countries were using products made from this one incredibly versatile material at one time during the 20th century.

But, and there had to be a 'but' or I wouldn't be sharing this with you, in 1955 a major scientific study linked exposure to our little miracle mineral, commonly known then as asbestos, with cancer. Specifically, exposure to the microscopic fibers that are emitted when you do things like cut asbestos.

By the 1970s, it was highly regulated. Today, the removal of asbestos in older buildings—like ours—is highly regulated. In fact, we have quite a bit of asbestos in our education building.

But, you're not in any danger. When you break asbestos tiles or tear out walls with asbestos chemical compounds on them, you release those microscopic fibers into the air. They're dangerous if they're inhaled. They leave a dangerous residue on any surface they come into contact with. They can even contaminate soil and water.

One day, I was touring our education building with a contractor who was working up a bid to remove the asbestos for us, and he said something that stuck with me. In a building built during the 1950s like that part of our building was, it's not "do you have asbestos," but "where is the asbestos."

That stuck with me because there's a characteristic that everyone in this room is born with. It's ingrained in us at the microscopic level. You can live with it your entire life. It doesn't even seem all that dangerous until it gets stirred up by some outside force. And it can very well lead to your physical death... but even more importantly, it can lead to your spiritual death and separation from everyone and everything you've ever cared about in a place called Hell.

That characteristic is pride. Pride is sin, full stop. And it is a sin that is native to our fallen hearts. We're born with it. Pride causes us to see ourselves as more important, more deserving, and more worthy of praise than others.

Every human heart—because it is marred by sin—is prideful. Its default mode is to worship its own desires, its own preferences, and its own comfort. When we consider sinful pride, church, it's not a question of whether we have it. It's a question of where it is. And like asbestos, it becomes most dangerous when something stirs it up. That's when it will kill you and your relationships.

Listen to Proverbs 16:5,

Everyone with a proud heart is detestable to the Lord;

be assured, he will not go unpunished.

Here's why this is such a big deal: Pride leads us to believe that we should be the source of what is good, right, and worthy of praise, not God. It makes us believe that all good things should be from us, through us, and to us, not to God. Puritan pastor Thomas Watson said it well, "Pride seeks to ungod God" (source: https://thecbcd.org/resources/pride-and-humility).

Pride is the sin at the heart of our passage. The disciples model pride, while Christ is setting out to teach humility. Pride and humility are opposite poles when it comes to the human heart, and Christ is the living, breathing example of true humility. As the Christ Hymn of Philippians 2 puts it (2:8): He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. That's humility personified.

A prideful spirit is the anti-Jesus. If Jesus had been prideful, we would still be in our sins. Jesus modeled perfect humility, and in our passage today, He's attempting to teach that humility to His disciples, but their hearts are so blinded by pride that He has to use an extremely graphic illustration to get their attention.

Here's the argument our passage makes today, and the point of this entire sermon wrapped up in one sentence: Radically killing pride and embracing Spirit-empowered humility is a vital step in learning to follow Jesus.

Jesus is all about humility in our text. He predicts His own humble death, lives it in the way He moves through Galilee, spells it out as clearly as He possibly can in Capernaum, uses an object lesson to drive home the point, and still the disciples miss it. So He patiently—but firmly—explains it again and shows the disciples what it means in practice to overcome pride.

Let's walk through it together. The first nine verses reveal to us a humility modeled but missed.

Humility Modeled, but Missed. (30-39)

Jesus is humility personified, and we see it in two ways in the first couple of verses we read. They were moving back through Galilee, but they did so in secret. Remember, everywhere Jesus and His followers went, there were massive crowds that would gather. But what Jesus is teaching in Mark 9 isn't for the crowd. It's for the Kingdom.

We're in the back half of Mark's gospel now, and that's a theme I hope you'll notice. We see less emphasis on the crowd and more of an emphasis placed on Jesus's interaction with His true disciples.

In His humility, Jesus reminds the disciples again that He is soon to die. That, again, is the ultimate expression of humility, and it was a death that Jesus had the power to avoid. He never laid aside His authority. He never laid aside His power. He said Himself in Matthew 26 that He could call on His Father and be provided with twelve legions of angels.

Jesus had the power to avoid death. But He humbly submitted Himself to it to become our substitute sacrifice. Jesus was graciously pointing out what was about to happen, an event that would leave even His closest followers doubting everything they knew about Him. Here He is trying to give them clarity, but they don't understand.

And what is it, church, that stops them from understanding? Pride. In verse 32, they didn't understand and were afraid to ask. What reason had Jesus ever given them to be afraid? They weren't afraid that they'd make Jesus mad. I think the next passage reveals they were afraid of looking dumb in front of one another.

James 1:5 says, "Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him." The disciples were too proud to admit they didn't know what Jesus was talking about.

Oh, church, isn't it painful sometimes to look at the disciples' shortcomings and see our own hearts reflected right back to us? Have we ever tried to look like we know more than we do? Have we ever tried to look like we have it together when we don't? Have we ever tried to give the impression we were 'in the know' to make other people think we're somehow better than them?

Pride makes us want to look down on everyone else. It makes us nod along like we know the answer when we don't have a clue what Jesus is talking about. Pride makes us want to put on a facade that is better than everyone around us. Pride makes us forget that we don't have anything—not even knowledge—that God didn't give us. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7.

Pride makes us more concerned about the opinion of others than truly understanding the Word of God. We care more about impressing the people around us than pleasing the God who made us. They were too prideful to ask Jesus about His death, and they were too preoccupied with the prideful thoughts of their own hearts to even listen if He had answered them. That's revealed in the next scene.

They arrive in Capernaum in verse 33. Jesus asks a question that He already knows the answer to. "What were you arguing about on the way?" The disciples know they've messed up, and their pride keeps them silent again! Earlier, they were too proud to ask. Now, they're too proud to confess.

They were having a foolish argument. Jesus was teaching about humility, and they were arguing over who was the greatest! Jesus was talking about His impending death, and they were talking about their impending rise to power. That's what pride does, church. It blinds us to reality. Jesus laid out the reality of life in His Kingdom in last week's text. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

Yet, almost immediately the disciples are arguing over who is the best at it. It's shameful. It's evil. And each and every one of us is guilty of it, aren't we? We might never stoop so low as to engage in an argument with 11 other guys about it, but somewhere in the deep reaches of our hearts, we've all allowed ourselves to be convinced that we're pretty great. Or we take it in the other direction and are boldly self-deprecating.

Seeing ourselves as 'greater than' is sinful pride, that's pretty easy to see based on the text. But because mental health is such a popular issue in our culture, we need to acknowledge that a lack of self-esteem is also a form of pride. There's a temptation to exhibit low self-esteem because we want people to feel sorry for us, to pay attention to us, to comfort us. It's still me-centric. Low self-esteem can be a declaration of "look at me" just as much as pride. It simply takes a different route to get to the same destination. That's not dying to yourself. That's indulging yourself. At its core, it's the same thing the disciples are doing here.

And Jesus, in His grace, gives them a pass. He doesn't hammer them. He calls them together and He teaches them. Sitting down, He called the Twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and the servant of all."

This is Jesus schooling them in the discipline of humility. He sat down to teach, that's how rabbis taught their students. It's the same thing He does at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

You want to be first? You want honor? You want to be at my right hand in glory? If you want to be first, you become last. If you want to be great, learn to serve. He goes a little deeper in the next chapter:

10:42b, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all. 45 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."

That last verse is the thesis statement of Mark's gospel. This humble Kingdom ethic is at the very core of the gospel story. To embrace the gospel is to humble yourself and to recognize that you aren't able to save yourself. Pride poisons any desire for or understanding of the gospel you may have. Because if we have anything to be proud of, we don't have any need for the gospel.

Paul exemplified it for us in Philippians 3:8:

"More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ."

That's an incredibly humble statement. Everything I earned on my own. Everything that I worked hard for and lost, it's worth garbage compared to what Christ has done for me.

To admit your need for the gospel, church, is to say to the Father that I know I have sinned, I know I deserve death and eternal punishment, and I know that nothing I do on my own can earn your favor. But I trust in the salvation you've offered through your one and only Son. I repent of my sin—I repent of all I've done in my own power—and I come to you empty-handed, begging for salvation. That's what we do when we respond to the gospel.

That’s what it looks like to humbly come to God. We come offering nothing. That’s why in verse 36, He uses a child as an illustration. We come into the Kingdom like little kids. We have no achievements to boast of, no impressive accomplishments. We’re weak and totally dependent.

And then Jesus flips the ethic from your relationship to God to your relationship with each other. Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in my name welcomes me. How you treat others is how you treat Jesus because Jesus comes to you in His children. How we treat others reveals our pride or our humility.

Do we relate humbly to those around us? If we don’t, church, we probably don’t relate humbly to our God. The disciples struggled with pride. Jesus laid their hearts bare right here. And this may come as a shock to you, but the disciples didn’t get it yet. Verse 38 makes it clear they missed it. John said, “There was someone out there casting out demons in your name, but he wasn’t in our club so we put a stop to that.”

These twelve weren’t the only people who had followed Jesus. Over in Luke 10, we learn that Jesus ordained 70 people to go out, and He gave them power over demons just like He did these twelve. This person may have been one of those 70. We don’t know; we just know Jesus’s response.

Whoever this person was, Jesus affirms him so we know that whatever he was doing is legitimate. The interesting thing here is Jesus’s response. It begins in verse 39. Your Bible probably has a header between 41-42. Remember, those section breaks aren’t inspired. Verses 39-50 are all Jesus talking, and I think it’s one full thought.

He characterizes humility again in verses 39-41. And then in verse 42, He begins to paint for us the consequences of unrepentant pride. Pride requires radical repentance.

True humility requires radical repentance (42-50)

Pride pushes people away from Jesus—that’s what the disciples were trying to do with this person who was performing miracles. Humility, on the other hand, points people to Him.

These are some of the most graphic words Jesus spoke during His earthly ministry. He says in verse 42 that you’re better off dead than directing people away from Jesus. And He gets more radical from there.

Discipleship requires radical obedience. Sin is choosing our desire over God’s desire. Pride doubles down on sin, but humility always leads us toward genuine repentance. That means we lay down our sin and walk away from it. We cut it off, to use the language of the text.

Humility leads to radical, severe action against our own sin. Jesus mentions hands, feet, and eyes. I don’t think that’s an accident. He wants us to glorify Him with everything we see, everything we do, and everywhere we go.

If we’re truly part of His Kingdom, we need to get rid of anything that belongs to this kingdom.

Humble followers of Jesus are willing to amputate any part of their life that is causing them to sin.

What’s the outcome for those who don’t? Hell. What’s the outcome of a prideful resistance to repent, a commitment to doing life your own way? It’s hell.

Church, when we talk about pride and humility, we’re talking about the difference between heaven and hell. Faith that leads to salvation will, over the course of time, grow us to be less prideful and more humble. If it doesn’t, according to the Scripture, it’s unlikely it’s saving faith at all.

When you first repent of your sin and trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, you’re committing to turn away from your sin. That’s what repentance means. In turning away from that, you’re turning toward holiness.

We turn away from hell, and we turn to holiness. We can’t pursue both at the same time.

Jesus has turned from the crowd inward to those who are His true disciples, and He has made it clear to them that this call to follow Him is an all-encompassing call. It changes everything about them, and part of that is turning their pride into humility.

Church, is there a habitual sin that is causing you to stumble over and over again in your life? Cut it off. That might mean you need to trash your iPhone, cut off your cable, throw away all the alcohol in your house, go get medical help, confess something to your spouse, or any one of a dozen other things—but whatever it means for you to radically cut off the sin in your life, I can’t urge you enough to do it because the alternative is Hell.

Let me be clear, you don’t earn heaven. You don’t get into heaven based on your merit. So cutting off sin doesn’t earn you heaven. We are saved by grace alone, through Christ alone, through the means of faith alone, to the ultimate glory of God alone as revealed to us through Scripture alone. We’re not saved by any works, even repentance, that we perform.

But remember what Jesus is illustrating to His disciples here. There’s a difference between those in the Kingdom and those outside the Kingdom. Those inside the Kingdom seek to serve others. Those outside the Kingdom seek to serve themselves. Those inside the Kingdom seek to glorify God. Those outside the Kingdom seek to gratify self.

So if you’re truly in the Kingdom, your life will be marked by the humble pursuit of radically eliminating the sin in your life.

John Owen famously wrote, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”

Church, I pray you don’t hear this message as a discouragement. You have sin to amputate. God knew that when He saved you—in fact, it’s one of the things He saved you for.

Jesus says this weird cryptic thing at the end of the passage. 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.”

We’re not going to dig too deep into this for the sake of time, but the place where salt and fire come together is during the grain offering in Leviticus 2. I think that’s what Jesus is referencing here.

The act of humbly amputating sin in your life is how you offer yourself to God as an act of worship.

Paul wrote in Romans 12: Therefore, brothers and sisters, in 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.

Mark 9 is the strongest call to discipleship Jesus ever gave. You either deal radically with issues of sin in your life, or your life is ultimately useless. The word the CSB translates as hell here is the word the Israelites used for the garbage dump. It’s the place of darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth according to Jesus in Matthew.

Pride leads to death. And pride is ingrained in us just like asbestos is ingrained in so many old buildings. You don’t even know it’s there until it gets stirred up, and it’s dangerous enough to kill you before you even see it.

All of us should take a sober step back and evaluate our lives today. Radically killing pride and embracing Spirit-empowered humility is a vital step in learning to follow Jesus. It’s not something we ever finish. If you can’t remember the last time you overcame a sin in your life, that should trouble you.

Maybe you’re here, and you’ve never repented of pride because you’ve never repented of anything. Paul told the assembled crowd in Athens that God commands all people everywhere to repent. That’s still true today. The first step toward a life of humbly following Jesus is to repent of your sin and place your trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

We’re going to transition to a response time in just a minute. As I pray, consider how pride has worked its way into your life. How do you need to address it with the Father? Let’s pray.

Questions for Small Group or Family Discussion

How does our culture’s understanding of pride clash with the Bible?

How does Jesus exemplify humility in contrast to the disciples' pride?

What does it mean to "unGod God" through pride, as mentioned by Thomas Watson?

What are the consequences of unrepentant pride, and how does humility lead us toward repentance?

Describe a time when pride has caused strain on a relationship in your life.

In your own words, why is pride sinful?

Why is it important to identify and address pride in our lives?

In what ways does pride manifest itself, both in self-aggrandizement and in low self-esteem?

Why is humility essential for genuine repentance and discipleship?

Read Daniel 4:30-37. How does pride effect King Nebuchadnezzar?

How does pride factor into James’s exhortation in James 1:19-20?