Preached Sunday, March 27, 2011
from
Mark 9:38-413
Theme: We must not think we can exclude others from genuine service to Jesus simply because they don’t follow "us".
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
I’d like to draw your attention this morning to Mark 9:38-41. It’s there that we read of a conversation the Lord Jesus had with His disciples. We’re told;
Now John answered Him, saying, “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).
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These words from our Lord were spoken because of something that John the apostle said to Him.
John was a fisherman that Jesus called to be His disciple—along with John’s brother James. And the Lord Jesus had a nickname for the two brothers together. He called them "Boanerges"—which, being translated, means "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17). I believe He called them that because they were of such a temperament that they would have been willing—if they had the power to do so—to call down thunder on anyone who they considered to be the opponents of their Lord’s cause. In Luke 9, we’re told that Jesus and His disciples had planned to pass through a village of the Samaritans in order to make their way to Jerusalem; but that the Samaritans in that village wouldn’t let them. And when James and John saw this they said to Jesus,
"Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them" (Luke 9:54-55).
Later in church history, John came to be known as "the apostle of love". But I think it took a lot of work in his heart from the Lord before he was worthy of that name. So; it’s not too terribly surprising that we would read that John would say, "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.” If John—one of the Sons of Thunder—could have done more than just ‘forbid’ him, he probably would have.
And consider what it was that John saw that would make him say such a thing to Lord. He and the others saw a certain man—just a "someone", according to John—casting out demons in the name of His Lord. Note that John doesn’t say that this "someone" was merely ‘attempting’ to cast out demons; but that he was actually doing so. And the way this is put in the original language leaves room for the possibility that this "someone" may have done so more than once. He was literally performing miracles—in the plural—in Jesus’ name!
Now; we’re not told that this "someone" knew Jesus personally—certainly not, anyway, with the sort of intimacy that the twelve apostles knew Him. He was not in the ‘inner circle’ that they were in. And we’re not told how it was that this man came to be doing what John and the others saw him doing. But apparently this man—whoever he was—knew that Jesus had authority over demons. Perhaps he had watched from afar as Jesus cast demons out of someone else; or perhaps he only heard about it from someone else’s report. In any case, out of a genuine belief that Jesus had authority over demons—and perhaps being moved with deep compassion for the needy people around him—he went around actually casting demons out of people in Jesus’ name.
Consider also how John felt about what this "someone" was doing. He believed strongly that the man should be forbidden from performing the miracle of casting out demons in the name of Jesus. The man was, apparently, actually in the process of casting demons out of people in Jesus’ name; and John and some of the others came and told him to stop. And the reason John gives for stopping the man was—as he himself said—"because he does not follow us".
And please note very carefully, dear brothers and sisters, what John didn’t say. He didn’t say, "We forbade him because he does not follow You, Lord." Rather, he said, "We forbade him because he does not follow us. He may be casting demons out in Your name, Lord; but he’s not a part of our group. He’s not in our inner circle. He does not follow us."
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Now; I’m thankful that the heart of this man John had been changed by the Lord over time. He truly is, to us, ‘the apostle of love’. We praise God for the precious Gospel the Holy Spirit inspired him to write. We love and cherish his precious letters. But we’d have to say that those words in our passage were spoken by him when his frame of mind was more like one of ‘the Sons of Thunder’ than that of the Son of God.
And I wonder—have you ever run into someone who spoke like John spoke? Have you ever run into someone who looked at people from other groups within the Christian faith and judged that they really couldn’t possibly be in a relationship with Christ?—that they really couldn’t possibly be in His ‘inner circle’?—that they are ‘outsiders’ who don’t even have a right to take the name of ‘our Lord’ to themselves?
Or dare I ask—have you ever spoken like that yourself?
Now; the wrongness of the thing John did is something that we need to define carefully. We’re not talking here about excluding someone from the faith who—biblically speaking—truly isn’t a part of the faith at all. We’re not talking, for example, about individuals or religious groups who deny the fundamental Scriptural truths about Jesus. There are cults, for example, that call themselves "Christian", and who say that they place their faith in Jesus Christ; but who in fact believe in and teach about an utterly different "Jesus" than the one who is presented to us in the Scriptures. This same apostle John—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—later wrote,
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son (2 John 7-9).
To be true to the faith once given to the saints, we need to faithfully acknowledge that those who do not ‘abide in the doctrine of Christ’, and who knowingly deny what the Scriptures teach us about Him, are truly ‘outsiders’. But we’re not talking about such people with respect to this morning’s passage. We don’t have any indication that the man who was casting out demons believed anything but the truth about the One in whose name he cast them out.
Nor are we talking here about individuals or groups who advocate lifestyles and practices that the Bible clearly calls sinful. There have been throughout the history of the Christian faith those who have said that they were followers of Jesus; but who also believed that, so long as you believe in Jesus, it didn’t matter how you live. There are particularly many who do so in our own time. They profess Jesus with their lips, but deny Him through the sinful practices they embrace. Some even dare to say that the Lord approves of their sins. Again, the apostle John wrote,
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked (1 John 2:3-6).
To be true to the faith, we need to faithfully consider those who cling to an openly sinful lifestyle, and who knowingly deny and disregard the kind of holy life that Jesus commanded, to have made themselves ‘outsiders’. But we’re not talking here about those kinds of folks with respect to this morning’s passage either. We have no indication whatsoever that the man who cast out demons in Jesus’ name did so in the context of an immoral lifestyle.
And furthermore, we’re not talking here about individuals or groups who embrace an attitude of hatred toward others, or who intentionally alienate themselves and separate themselves from the assembly of others who love the Lord Jesus. It’s sad to say, but there have always been such groups and individuals found in the history of the Christian faith; and there are even some are making their way into the news nowadays. They may hold to a very orthodox set of doctrines regarding the Lord Jesus, and they may even teach their followers to live strict, moral lives. And yet, they speak and act out of hatred toward everyone else—and even toward other professing Christians. They dare to think that they, alone, are the true church of God. Once again, the apostle John wrote,
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him (1 John 4:20-5:1).
To be true to God’s word, we need to consider those who call themselves "Christians", and yet are characterized by hatred and animosity toward others who love the Lord, to be ‘outsiders’. But we’re not talking about such people with respect to this morning’s passage. We have no indication that the man who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus was characterized by such hate. In fact, if anything, he was acting in great love toward others.
Perhaps you’ll recognize in those various references the three great "tests" that the apostle John himself gave us in his letters with respect to those we’re to consider ‘within the circle’ of the faith. Those three tests give us a good, reliable, biblical, standard for measuring whether or not someone is truly in a relationship with our Lord. There’s the test of doctrine: Do they believe and stay true to what the Bible teaches us about Jesus? There’s also the test of behavior: Do they obey the commandments that Jesus gave us in His word? And finally, there’s the test of love: Do they demonstrate a lifestyle of genuine, sincere love toward others—and especially those who also love the Lord? If those three things are true of someone, then we have no right to consider them ‘outsiders’.
But John—way back in those early days—was still behaving like a Son of Thunder. He had excluded someone on the basis of the wrong criteria. He—and apparently some of the other disciples along with him—had forbidden the man from casting out demons in the name of Jesus strictly because "he does not follow with us."
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Now; I have wondered what John thought would happen after telling the Lord that he sought to stop that man. Did he think that the Lord would say, "Good job, John. You did the right thing. We certainly don’t want some ‘freelancer’ from outside of our group casting demons out of people in My name. Those would be completely ‘unauthorized’ miracles; and we certainly can’t have any of that going on!"
Or could it be that John confessed it to the Lord because he had begun to feel guilty for having done it? In the passage just before this one, the disciples had been arguing among themselves over which of them was the greatest. We’re told,
And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me" (Mark 9:35-37).
And I wonder if, after hearing that, John was saying, "Well, Lord; if that’s the case, then I’m concerned that some of us have been doing something wrong. We all thought we alone were Your "great ones". And when we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, we forbade him from doing so because he does not follow us. Were we out of line in doing this?"
Whatever it was that had moved John to tell the Lord about what they had done—how they had been forbidding this unknown man from casting out demons in Jesus name—Jesus said, "Do not forbid him . . ."; or as it can be better translated, "Stop forbidding him."1
That was as much as the Lord telling John, "I accept that man and what he’s doing. And so should you."
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Now is it just me, dear brothers and sisters; or does this make you a little uncomfortable too?
You see; as a follower of Jesus who believes what the Bible teaches about Jesus, who seeks to obey His commands, and who tries to walk in love, I also have my set of particular beliefs about the Christian faith. I don’t mean to say that I don’t have lots of room for growth; but I happen to sincerely believe that the tradition of the faith that I hold to is the most biblical accurate tradition there is. I have no plans to compromise any of my convictions; and I don’t feel the Lord would ever want me to do.
Yet there are others out there who also love the Lord Jesus as much as I do—who believe what the Bible teaches about the Lord Jesus, who trust in His atoning sacrifice on the cross for them, who seek to live a life of holiness before Him, and who genuinely love those who love Him—but who are of a very different tradition of the Christian faith than mine. As I have tried carefully to stress, we’re not talking here about those who believe in an utterly different Jesus than is found in Scripture. But there are Methodists, and Presbyterians and Episcopalians and Adventists—and to take things even further, Catholics and members of the Greek Orthodox church—who love and trust the same Lord Jesus of the Bible that I love, and who seek to walk in humble purity before Him as I do, and who sincerely love the Lord Jesus—wherever they may be found.
That’s not at all to say that the differences between us aren’t important. They most certainly are. Some of those differences that distinguish the tradition I hold to are so important that I’d be willing to lay down my life for them. But based on what the Lord Jesus said to John, I don’t believe I have the right to do is to say that those others cannot be in a relationship the Lord Jesus that I love, or that the Lord can’t use them or bless them as I hope He does me.
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When it came to this man from outside John’s group who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, the Lord told him, "Do not forbid him . . ."; and really, that’s all that the Lord needed to say. But He also said much more. Look at what Jesus goes on to tell John.
He told John that he should not forbid others from serving His out of the right motives—even if they didn’t have the more complete and more intimate understanding of the Lord that John most certainly had—because if they genuinely sought to served Him,
1. THEY WOULD ONLY SPEAK WELL OF HIM.
Jesus told John, "“Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me" (v. 39). We’re not talking about someone who was trying to go around and perform miracles in his or her own power. Instead, we’re talking about someone that Jesus Himself seemed to concede was actually casting out demons in His’ name—that is, in a way that is consistent with who He is, and in a reliance upon His power. And someone who would perform such miracles in Jesus’ name—and see mighty things done in His power—would not dare speak against Him. They would only testify to His greatness.
Now; I of course would rather wait until people had all the theological matters in order and all their doctrines correct, and be in the correct tradition of the faith (which is mine, by the way), before they could be allowed to perform miracles in Jesus’ name. But apparently, the Lord sees things differently. If they trust in Him as what the Bible presents Him to be, if they turn away from their sins and have sought to walk in obedience to His commands, if they act in sincere love toward others; and they then—in that state of being—pray in His name, see great things done by His power in answer to their prayers, and give glory to Him for it, then the Lord seems pleased.
May God gives us the humility to be pleased by that too.
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Another startling reason Jesus gave for why we should not forbid others from serving in our Master’s name is because
2. THEY ARE ON THE SAME SIDE AS WE ARE.
Jesus let’s John know that, from His perspective, there’s only two sides to the matter. He says, "For he who is not against us is on our side" (v. 40).
In another occasion—when people were opposing Jesus and His ministry—Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad" (Matthew 12:30). That’s one way of putting the matter. It defines things pretty much in black-and-white terms; either one or the other. And the other way of putting the same thing is to say that " he who is not against us is on our side".
Now; this might really make some of us uncomfortable—to think that others who come from such different traditions of the Christian faith from ours, but who truly love and trust the Lord Jesus as He’s present in Scripture, who turn from their sins in reliance on His death on the cross as their atoning sacrifice, and who truly love those who also trust Him—are not our enemies but are actually "on our side". But that’s what the Lord is saying. And who knows better than He?
That helps put many of the differences between us in perspective. May God give us the humility not to make enemies out of those who Jesus says are on our side.
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And there’s one more thing that Jesus said. We should never presume to forbid anyone from serving the cause of our Lord because—as He Himself promises—
3. THEY WILL BE REWARDED BY HIM FOR THEIR SERVICE.
In fact, He made that promise in the most serious terms possible. He said to John and to the other disciples, "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" (v. 41).
Look at the details of this. It’s a matter of universal application—"whoever" acts toward us in Jesus’ name because we belong to Him; not just someone who is from our group, but "whoever". It’s a matter that involves our Lord’s recognition of the most minimal act—even the giving a cup of water (which is far less of an act than that of casting out demons). And it’s a matter of absolute certainty; prefaced by the affirmation "assuredly"—or literally "amen, I say to you", and followed by an emphatic negative—"he will by no means lose his reward".
We’re accustomed to thinking that no one outside of our group could ever do anything that pleased the Lord. But I believe this promise from the Lord shows that we’re all in for some amazing surprises, on the great day of His return, with respect to who He rewards!
May God give us the humility to rejoice over whoever the Lord may reward—even if they don’t "follow us".
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Now; as I hope I’ve made very clear, I believe that the essentials of our faith still stand and must never be compromised. As the apostles declared, there is salvation in no one else but the Lord Jesus—the crucified Son of God. As the Lord Jesus Himself said, unless someone is ‘born again’, they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. As the Bible teaches, justification before a holy God is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone.
But as this passage also shows us, God’s work in the lives of individual people through His Spirit is far more remarkable than we can understand; and the breadth of His grace is much wider than we can imagine. And if this upsets our sense of exclusiveness toward our own group, and if it means that we have to change our thinking about ‘outsiders’ who also love our Lord, then so be it.
If there’s someone does not ‘follow us’—someone in a tradition of the Christian faith with which we are in profound disagreement—and yet, they themselves desire to serve Jesus from out of a sincere faith in Him as the Bible presents Him, and a humble desire to walk in holiness before Him, and a genuine love for the brethren, then what place is it of ours to forbid them? Our Lord has taught us how to think of them when He 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."
1This is a prohibition in the present imperative, which indicates the cessation of an action already begun and in progress. See R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Mark’s Gospel (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1946), p. 397.