Take Jesus' Advice!

19th Sunday after Pentecost, 10/18/09
Mark 9:38-50

Take Jesus’ Advice!
I. Seek peace among believers.
II. Avoid sin in all cases.
III. Be salted with God’s word.

Without any difficulty at all, you can find all sorts of books and websites that offer advice for how to live. The subjects are many and varied, everything from weight-loss to parenting to organizing to sleep aids. I’ve read precious few such books, but the ones I’ve read have always offered me at least one piece of advice that I’ve found useful. There’s usually more than one. I’m sure you’ve read similar books and have found them useful as well. You followed some of the advice, made some changes in your life and your life, at least in that area of it, improved somewhat.

But in reading any advice, you must always be careful of who’s giving it. You always have to read with a discerning mind. You have to ask yourself questions such as, "Is this good advice for me?" "Is this advice the right thing for me to do?" "Will taking this advice eventually bring harm to me or others?"

But there is some advice that you can always take without questions. There is some advice that will always be best for you. There is some advice that will never bring you harm eternally. And that’s the advice of your Savior, Jesus Christ.

He gives us his advice for living in today’s text from Mark 9. Do you understand what he’s saying? Maybe not entirely. So let’s look at it together this morning and then take it. Take Jesus’ advice! May the Holy Spirit lead all of us to do just that as he enlightens us through his word.

Part I.
I mentioned various books on advice a minute ago. One huge category that I didn’t mention is books on interpersonal relations. How to get along with your spouse. How to get along with your children. How to get along in a blended family. How to get along with your employer. The topics are seemingly endless.

One you probably won’t find is "How to get along with other Christians." With other advice books, you can decide whether the topic fits your situation or not, but not with this one. You can’t say, "Pastor, this one doesn’t apply to me." It certainly does. By its very definition, as one who believes in Jesus as your Savior, you have a relationship with everyone else who believes in Jesus as their Savior. It’s one of the blessings of being a Christian. Jesus wants to bless you with things like encouragement and support and help and strength through your fellow Christians.

But sin ruins it. Sins like jealousy, pride, impatience, selfishness, self-centeredness, apathy. Those sins and a host of others don’t bring believers together; they drive believers apart.
That’s exactly what was happening among the believers Jesus dealt with in this morning’s text. Mark tells us that John said, "Teacher, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." We have a lot of questions about this incident. Who was this man? We don’t know his name, but it’s apparent from what Jesus says about him that he was a believer. So why did the disciples have a problem with what he was doing? For the same reason Joshua did in our reading from the Old Testament earlier. They felt this was a power and right that Jesus had only given to them to use in very limited situations. But they were wrong.

Jesus instructs them to live in peace. First, they should assume the best about this unnamed fellow believer. He said, "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us." We should always assume the best about another person. That’s exactly what the 8th Commandment requires—to take another person’s words and actions in the kindest possible way. Boy, there’s some daily advice we can all use!

Second, as Scripture tells us elsewhere, if we have a problem with someone else, we should speak to them. We should seek out the truth. We should speak the truth in love to them and they to us. That builds the bond between two Christians instead of destroying it. That builds peace.

Take Jesus’ advice! Seek peace among believers.

I can’t emphasize how important that is. As a congregation of believers, it’s critical for us to seek peace among ourselves. And what is it that ruins our peace? Sin. Usually sins of the tongue. James refers to the tongue as a fire (Ja. 3:6). It’s able to do a huge amount of damage in a person’s life in a very short time. What we say and how we say it to and about another person are so critical to the peace that we have as believers. And not just here, but also at home, at school and at work. But instead of bringing peace, so often our words drive people apart. Jesus came to bring us peace. He established peace for us with God by sacrificing himself for our sins. His holy blood cleansed us of all sins, even the sins of our tongues. That sacrifice not only established our vertical peace with God, it also brought us the blessed horizontal peace with each other. Seek that peace!

Part II.
A court official recently said, "I don’t know what the definition of pornography is, but I know it when I see it." I think you’d probably agree. In fact, I’m pretty sure we’d say that about any sin. We know what sin is when we hear and see it.

Oh, really? Then why do we flirt with it? If we know what sin is, if we know that sin only brings us sorrow and frustration, if we know that sin destroys our relationship with our God and with each other, if we know that sin drives wedges between us and others, why do we flirt with sin? The easy answer is, "Because our sinful nature loves it."

That’s why Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms to avoid it. He says, "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." That sounds rather harsh, doesn’t it? But Jesus isn’t overstating the case. He knows how we flirt with sin, and when we do, we harm the faith of little children. It does no good for a parent to tell their children to do as they say, not as they do. If a child sees us modeling how to sin, we damage their faith. If we give our children reason to think that hearing God’s word and being taught the truths of his word are something we can do next week or next month, we damage their faith. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms to avoid sin.

And not just for the sake of others, but for our sake as well. He tells us to take drastic measures, if necessary. He talks about cutting off a hand or foot or plucking out your eye if they are causing you to sin. Please understand his words correctly. Removing both hands, both feet, and both eyes isn’t going to stop you from sinning. That’s because evil lives within us. Jesus talks about sins coming out of our sinful hearts. But his point is still valid. Don’t flirt with sin. Take Jesus’ advice! Avoid sin in all cases!

But how can we do that? We’re battling a sinful nature that loves to sin and a Tempter that is more powerful and vastly more knowledgeable than we are, and he’s incredibly deceptive as well. We’re no match. We’re going to sin. We can’t help it. But Jesus can. He defeated sin and Satan at every turn. He bought us with his blood and washed us clean. His victory over sin is our victory over sin. And now he gives us the power to live for him. Take Jesus’ advice! Avoid sin in all cases.

Part III.
I began by speaking about books of advice. I’m not going to urge you to go out and buy one. Instead, I’m going to urge you to read the one you already have.

That’s exactly the advice Jesus gives you with these words, "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other." There’s no little debate about Jesus meant about salt losing its saltiness. I think what he means is that such salt is worthless.

The same is true of us. Salt in this instance equals God’s word. If we don’t have it in us, we’re worthless.

So use the word. First, read it for yourself. Your faith in Jesus as your Savior grows as you read God’s word. Imagine growing in your confidence that your sins are forgiven and heaven is yours. That daily confidence will affect every moment of your daily life. Jesus says that with a faith as small as a mustard seed you can move mountains. Imagine what you can accomplish with a stronger faith!

And then share that word with others. Of course the ultimate opportunity would be to share with someone a message of our sin and what Jesus did to save us. But those opportunities aren’t as common as the opportunity to share simple truths from God’s word with others. Be ready for those opportunities! Create them! But before you do so, take Jesus’ advice. Be salted with God’s word.

I had a seminary professor who told our class, "If you men are going to stand before God’s people and tell them, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ then you jolly well better know what it says." There’s a lot of truth to what he said. And not just for me, but also for you. Lord, forgive us all for not knowing what your holy, saving word tells us. Forgive us for not sharing it every opportunity we get. Renew us through that word and fill us with that word—for our own eternal good and for the eternal good of others.

Take Jesus’ advice! Be salted with God’s word! Amen.