NO OFFENSE! – Mark 9:42

But for this morning, let’s consider those particularly serious words in verse 42.

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Now; look again with me at that verse—and specifically at its individual aspects.

First, notice that the theme of this verse is “stumbling”. In the original language, the word that is translated “to stumble” or “to be offended” is the word from which we get the English word “scandalize”. Skandalizō means ‘to cause to stumble’; as in causing someone to trip in their walk, or to stumble out of the path, or to be offended or harmed in some way. And the particular intention of that word, in this case, is to speak of those occasions when someone is caused to trip in their walk of obedience to the Lord, or to stumble out of the path of faith in Him. In the New International Version, it’s translated, “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin . . .”

And then, look at the persons mentioned in this verse. First, of course, is the person of the Lord Jesus Himself. He is to be the object of faith and obedience. He makes the astonishing claim in this verse that anyone who interferes with faith in Himself or obedience to His commands is subject to dreadful judgment. And second would be the one who believes on Him and trusts and obeys Him. Our Lord makes it clear that it doesn’t matter who that person is or what station they may have in life. They may be as small and seemingly-insignificant as the little child that was in His arms; but if they love Him and trust in Him, He greatly values and treasures their faith. And third would be the person who causes an offense with respect to that little one’s tender faith. And note that it doesn’t matter who it may be that might cause that tender believer to stumble. Jesus simply says “whoever”. In the verse before this one, He spoke of “whoever” gives one of His followers even a cup of cold water in His name, they will be rewarded. And now, He makes clear that “whoever” causes one of His followers to stumble—whether it is a professing believer or a hard-hearted unbeliever—is subject to a frightening and ominous prospect of very dreadful judgment.

And then, finally, look at the judgment itself. Jesus said, “it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” The millstone was a heavy stone used in grinding grain. I know a little something about such millstones now; because when I was in Israel recently, I and a friend were invited to take hold of a shaft of an upper millstone and walk it around for grinding against the lower millstone. We were proud of ourselves; until the tour guide let us know that this particular job was usually reserved for donkeys. The stone we were turning was often called “the stone of a donkey”, because it was so heavy that it was usually turned by a beast of burden. And that’s the actual name of the stone that Jesus is speaking of. In the original language, He called it “a stone pertaining to a donkey”. To have that heavy stone tied to your neck, and for you to be thrown into the sea with it, meant that you’d never be coming back up again. You’ll be sleepin’ with the fishes. It’s an expression that describes a very violent kind of death.

And I ask you to notice carefully that Jesus does not say that someone who would dare to cause one of His believing ones to stumble from Him would have such a thing happen to them. Instead, what He says is that it would be far better for them if it did! Whatever that could mean is something I tremble to even imagine! But I believe that this shows us how seriously He treats this whole matter of causing any of is beloved followers to stumble from their precious faithfulness to Him.

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Now; if you’re like me, you read that and you’re tempted to isolate yourself from other people so you won’t dare ever cause a believer in Jesus to stumble. But I don’t believe that’s the kind of response that the Lord Jesus wants from us. Instead, I believe that the key to responding rightly and in a practical way to this warning is to embrace the high value that the Lord Jesus places on the human soul.

You see; when we look around at each other, we don’t gaze upon the soul. What meets our physical eye is one another’s outward form—the outer person. God has made that outward form; and it is precious and important. But some outward forms look impressive to the human eye; and some don’t. Some appear big and mighty, and some appear small and seemingly-insignificant. Some demand our attention; and others are easy to ignore. And yet, housed within each of those outward forms—however that outward form may seem—is an eternal soul that is immeasurably valuable and precious in the sight of God. Just a page or so back in the Gospel of Mark—in Mark 8:36-37—Jesus asked

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37).

Think of that! One single, human soul is more valuable than the treasures of the whole world! In Mark 10:45, we’re told that Jesus came into this world not to be served, “but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many”. He so valued the human soul that He gave His all on the cross in order to save those souls that were lost through sin. And I suggest that the key to all of this is for you and I to embrace—with all our being—the high value that the Lord Jesus Christ places on the soul of even the smallest and seemingly most insignificant person.

If we do that, then we will be naturally inclined to do all that we can to protect the tiniest little shred of faith that even the most outwardly insignificant human being might have in Jesus. We will do all that we can to protect that soul, and to enhance and advance that person’s faith in Him. We will be extremely careful never to do anything that might harm that faith or cause such an immeasurably valuable person to stumble from Him.

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Now; how might a tender believer in Jesus be caused to stumble from their faith in Him and from obedience to Him? What might some of these ‘offenses’ be? I have tried to think about that; and I’ve come up with a few thoughts. They aren’t in any particular order, and it certainly isn’t a full list; but these are at least some things that I believe the Bible clearly warns us about.

Id’ have to say that the first and most obvious way would be when someone directly opposes and attacks some poor young believer’s faith. This isn’t something that I necessarily think a professing believer in Jesus would do to another believer. This would be something that a hard-hearted unbeliever would do. This would be those occasions when someone aggressively attacks some new believer’s faith in Jesus, or belittles and mocks them, or somehow tries to shame and humiliate them or threaten them out of trusting Him and following Him.

I don’t know if you have ever had something like that happen to you. I have. I was subjected to just such treatment very early in my Christian walk; and it has given me some of the most horrible memories I have. And even today, whenever I hear of an unbeliever trying to scold and shame one of their children or another family member or friends or colleagues out of following Jesus, it raises a powerful emotion in me that is hard for me to contain.

Jesus spoke of this, I believe, when He spoke these words to the scribes and Pharisees of His time:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13).

It’s bad enough that someone refuses to come to a faith in Jesus; but they move themselves into a whole different level of guilt when they actually try to stand in the way of others coming to Him. And Jesus warns that those who do such a thing are subject to grave judgment. He later told those same scribes and Pharisees;

“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (v. 33).

Let’s make sure we never do such a thing! And even more, let’s never stand by and allow such a thing is done to another tender believer! Let’s always remember that we might not only be protecting that young believer’s precious faith, but we might end up saving an unbeliever from the horrible retribution of the Lord Jesus Himself!

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Another way a young believer might be caused to stumble is somewhat like that. But it’s something that those of us who are more ‘experienced’ believers can—and, I’m sorry to say, all too often—do. It’s when we exclude someone, in some way, from the blessings of knowing and serving Jesus.

You can see an example of this in the context of our passage this morning. After the Lord Jesus held up that little child and said whoever receives such a one in His name receives Him, the apostle John spoke up. Perhaps his conscience bothered him. He said;

“Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.” But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is on our side. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Mark 9:38-41).

Any time we communicate to someone who is developing a tender faith in Jesus, and who is reaching out imperfectly toward Him, that they are not welcomed, or that they are not worthy, or that they are somehow on the outside, we cause them to stumble. I can tell you that I’ve talked to many people who were initially drawn toward Jesus, but who had been driven away from Him by an over-zealous Christian who made them feel like they were unworthy to serve Jesus. Many of them are so offended that they refuse to set foot in a church ever again. Let’s never do that!

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Another way a young, tender believer can be made to stumble by us is when we talk them into compromising morality and entice them into sin. Something that I have learned over the years about those who compromise their moral walk with Jesus is that “compromise loves company”. If we’re engaged in sin in our lives, we tend to persuade others—especially tender, growing followers of Jesus—to join us in our compromise.

It’s bad enough that we are engaged in sin. But when we bring another of Jesus’ followers into that sin with us, we become subject to His severe judgment. The apostle Paul spoke of this when he wrote to the Thessalonian believers. They lived in a culture that was given over to moral compromise—especially in the sexual area. He told them;

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7).

Look at that warning; that “the Lord is the avenger of all such . . .” May God always keep us from sexual immorality of any kind. And more; may it be that we are never guilty of leading another believer down immoral paths!

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And in a similar sense would be the way we can harm the faith of a tender believer whenever we set a careless example before them. It may be that we think we have the right and the liberty to engage in this or that “questionable” practice—those moral “gray areas” of life; but we all to often fail to realize that those actions cause harm to the tender conscience of another believer. When they see us engaging in something that their conscience convicts them to be sinful—and yet, because of our example, are then encouraged to violate their conscience—we have caused them stumble by our foolish use of our ‘liberty’.

Paul wrote about this to the Corinthian Christians. Many of them felt the liberty to go to the local pagan temples and buy and eat meat that had been offered to an idol. They reasoned, of course—and correctly so—that there is no other god but the one true God; and that the meat had really been offered to nothing. But in doing so, they were trampling on the consciences of their tender brothers and sisters who had recently left paganism, and who still struggled with the idea that offering something to an idol really meant something. Paul wrote and told the more mature believers that food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble (1 Corinthians 8:8-13).

In a similar way, Paul wrote to the Roman Christians and told them, “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food” (Romans 14:20). What a mistaken sense of priorities that would be!—to destroy the work of God in the life of another, and to harm the precious conscience of someone for whom Jesus died; and all so that we can selfishly gratify our own desires! Let’s not let that happen! Far better to deny ourselves a few liberties here or there, than to have to give an accounting to the Lord for causing our brother to stumble!

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There are a few other ways that we can cause a tender believer to stumble. One way is when we hold on to bitterness and anger in our lives. If we are resentful toward someone else in the body, it hurts the whole body—including that tender believer. The writer of the Book of Hebrews put it this way:

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled . . . (Hebrews 12:14-15).

It may be that you hold on to bitterness and resentment toward someone else in the body of Christ—and it may even be that you feel justified in doing so. But in the process, you end up ‘defiling’ others—and particularly that tender believer who is looking for the body of Christ to be a safe and peaceful place to grow.

Another way—and this is becoming a big one right now thanks to social media—is when we get wrapped up in foolish debates and arguments about non-essential things. It may be over political matters, or it may even be over theological speculations. You can usually recognize one of those kinds of arguments by the fact that, when it’s over, you feel a little dirty inside. Such useless debates invariably lead to a loss of our spiritual bearings—and ultimately to the harm of everyone. The apostle Paul once wrote to a pastor friend named Timothy and told him;

Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some (2 Timothy 2:14-18).

Think of that! These two ‘debaters’ actually strayed from the faith, and caused the faith of others who believed in Jesus to be ‘overthrown’! What a dreadful thing to give an account to the Lord Jesus for!—and all for some argument ‘to no profit’! May God keep us from such things!

And yet another way we harm the faith of a tender believer is when we engage in corrupt language and inappropriate joking. We can minister to someone’s tender faith, and encourage them in every other kind of way, and then completely blow it all with an off-color joke, or a stupid and insensitive comment, or by letting a curse word fly out. The apostle Paul wrote;

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:29-30).

I believe we grieve the Holy Spirit not only by the fact that we offend Him with such words; but also because we harm the faith of someone else. I’ll never forget hearing about a pastor who went to visit a dying man and tried to persuade him to trust Jesus while he could. The man said to him, “You don’t remember me, do you? Many years ago, I went to your church. I remember listening to you give an invitation to trust Jesus as my Savior; and I was almost persuaded. I wanted so much for it to be true—that Jesus really could save a sinner like me! But then, when several of us were walking home with you later that night, you told a joke that a Christian should never tell; and it convinced me that Jesus doesn’t change anybody. And after that, I wanted nothing to do with the Jesus you preached!” That man died a bitter unbeliever.

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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I don’t want to have to give an accounting to the Lord Jesus for any of those kinds of things. I fear, though, that I have already hurt the faith of far too many tender believers. I’m grateful for God’s forgiveness. I believe He has already forgiven many of my failures in this area. But I don’t want to do it anymore.

Instead, I want to do the opposite. I want it to increasingly be my priority to help and encourage the tender faith of those that Jesus is drawing to Himself. The apostle Paul gives us a good exhortation about this in Romans 15:1-7. He wrote;

We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God (Romans 15:1-7).

I’d much rather give an accounting to the Lord for that; wouldn’t you? May God help us to do so—and to give no offense!