Mark: I Love You... So Please Listen
In this section of Mark, Jesus gets very intense about a subject we refuse to consider in this secular culture. He loves us enough to speak important truths we all need to consider.
Let us beware of the slightest inclination to stop and check others, merely because they do not choose to adopt our plans, or work by our side. We may think our fellow Christians mistaken in some points. We may fancy that more would be done for Christ, if they would join us, and if all worked in the same way. We may see many evils arising from religious dissensions and divisions. But all this must not prevent us rejoicing if the works of the devil are destroyed and souls are saved.
Is our neighbor warring against Satan? Is he really trying to labor for Christ? This is the grand question. Better a thousand times that the work should be done by other hands than not done at all. Happy is he who knows something of the spirit of Moses, when he said, "I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!" and of Paul, when he says, "If Christ is preached, I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." (Numbers 11:29; Philippians 1:18.) J.C. Ryle The Gospel of Mark
Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:
Why did Jesus get so intense in this passage?
What did He teach us about: excluding others, giving cups of water, causing someone to sin, cutting off things?
How do we do this?
Why is it not mean, but in fact, very loving when Jesus talks about the scary subject of hell?
