“Back Up”


BIBLE READING: Mark 9
DISCUSSION                                                                                        
Text: 9:43-44
Jesus had a way with words, no doubt! I’m pretty sure the things he said in our text probably turned some heads and caused people to say, “did he really just say that?” Cut off your hand! Cut off your foot! Tear out your eye! Wow! The truth is, Jesus was the only one speaking about sin like this because he was the only one who truly understood the horrible consequences of it. He knew just how horrible the eternal punishment was, the temporal “joy” of indulging sin. I’m sure that on that day many began to understand the gravity of sin. I’m confident many more people went about their day afterwards taking the common attitude I see today:
“Yes, sin is bad, but Jesus is just a little extreme. A little here, a little there, under control, is not what he’s talking about. Sure, if I was going to kill someone I should cut off my hand, but my thing isn’t like that.”
The bad news is, your thing is that bad. My things are that bad. Sin is bad. We don’t hate sin like we should. James 1:15 says “then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and when it is full grown, it brings forth death”.  Me and some friends like to say “you gotta back that up” when a bold statement is made. As we’ve already discovered in the book of Matthew, Jesus backs it up when he takes our sin and shame straight to the cross. Let’s do our part to back up our commitment to Him.


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