For and Against

Mark 9:38-41
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, November 01, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Broderick

In Mark 9:38–41, Jesus teaches several important lessons to His disciples.  Our Lord is now in the homestretch of His earthly ministry.  And as He prepares to go and to die on the cross, to bear the full wrath of God in our behalf, He is also preparing the disciples for the future.  They are going to have to go on without Him.  Not in the ultimate sense, of course—He is with them always, even to the end of the age, just as He is with us.  But they will have to forge ahead and carry out this important work of building the new church without the daily physical presence of the man, Jesus Christ, in the flesh.  So He is getting them ready for that task.

Beginning in Mark 8:27, when Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, we can see a deliberative preparation going on.  First, Jesus tells them what is coming.  He tells them that He will be rejected by the elders, by the priests, that He will be killed, and then He will rise again.  He then reminds them to stay focused on eternal matters.  He rebukes Peter for having in mind the things of men rather than the things of God.  And He tells them what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose His soul?  They are to forge ahead, but they are to keep their eyes on the prize: eternity.

He tells them what is coming, but He also encourages them.  In Mark 9, He takes some of them up on a mountain and shows them His glory, as He is transfigured before them.  And when He comes back down the mountain, Jesus drives out an especially difficult demon, telling them, “This kind can only come out by prayer.”

He also teaches and corrects them.  Like us, the disciples are slow to learn, even with Jesus there to directly teach them.  Peter confessed Christ as Lord in one breath and then rebuked Him in the next.  But Jesus rebukes Peter and instructs him about the bigger picture.  Or on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter becomes so frightened that he babbles on about shelters and they wonder what this “rising from the dead” meant, and they ask Jesus, “Must Elijah come first?” and so on.  And again Jesus instructs them and prepares them.

It is the same pattern with the difficult-to-drive-out demon.  They are all arguing about how to drive it out, but they forgot to pray.  They forgot that they were not the source of the power and authority to do these works.  So Jesus reminds them to pray.  And, of course, they shamefully argue along the road about who is the greatest.  Again, Jesus teaches them to lead, not as the world does, not to rule over them for the sake of power or for the sake of pride, but as humble servants of God and His chosen people.

Basically, Jesus is preparing them for when He is not going to be there to tell them how to operate day to day.  And that trend continues in our text this morning.  We see the disciples blunder again by interfering with the work of a man driving out demons in Jesus’ name.  And, again, Jesus instructs them how to operate.

We will look at three key lessons this morning from this passage.  First, there is a “for” and “against”; an “us” and a “them.”  Second, as God’s workmen, we must do our work, stay in our own lane, and support other God-called men.  Third, our deeds done in the kingdom, whether big or small, matter.  Indeed, they have eternal significance.

1. There Is an “Us” and a “Them,” a “For” and an “Against”

Some have argued that this passage is a call to ecumenism or even universalism.  The idea that anyone using the name Jesus is a Christian, anyone using the generic name God is doing the same work, or that anyone doing good works or living a moral life is a Christian, that we are all on the same team.

That is false.  The use of Jesus’ name alone is not sufficient to prove saving faith.  Just look at the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19.  They tried to use Jesus’ name as a magic incantation to drive out demons, but they received a shameful beating instead.  Just uttering the name Jesus is not going to get it done.  Nor are even good works supposedly done in Jesus’ name sufficient.  Just look at the “Lord, Lord,” people from Matthew 7.  They said, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles.”  They did good works in Jesus’ name.  Was Jesus impressed?  No.  He says, “Depart from me, you evildoers, workers of iniquity.  I never knew you!” In other words, you can do things in the name of Jesus but still be a fake.

So, no, this passage is not a lesson in diversity and inclusion or ecumenism.  To the contrary, this passage expressly recognizes that there is an “us” and a “them.”  There are those who are for God and against God; those who are for God’s people and against God’s people.  Look at verse 40.  It says, “Whoever is not against us is for us.”  So, obviously, there are those who are against us and those who are for us.

If you need more assurance, Luke 11:23 and Matthew 12:30 also record Jesus as saying, “Whoever is not with me is against me.”  So there is a “with” and an “against.”  And if you are thinking that these two passages are in conflict, they are not.  There are only two categories of people.  You are either with Jesus or against Him.  So if you are not for Him, you are against Him, and if you are not against Him, you are for Him.

The truth is, wherever God is operating, wherever He has His true people, there are those who are against Him.  Look at Psalm 2.  The nations conspire and plot against God.  They take their stand against Him and His Anointed One (v.  2).  Against, against, against.  We would like to think that there is no “against,” but there is an “against.”

It has always been so.  Even in heaven, wicked angels led by Satan rebelled against God.  On earth, as soon as God established His first little church in the garden, there was the devil, against.  Where there is an Abel, you will find a Cain.  Where there is an Isaac, there is an Ishmael.  Where there is a Jacob, there is an Esau, and so on.

Most often this enemy arises from within.  In heaven, the devil and the wicked angels did not come from outside; they came from within.  And so also these unregenerate sons of the patriarchs—they are against God, but they came from within.  Moses was opposed by Pharaoh and by Balaam, but also by Dathan and Abiram, from inside.  David defeated every external enemy—the Philistines and others—but he nearly fell before Saul in his youth and before Absalom in his old age.  Jesus and the apostles were directly opposed by their close friend and confidant, Judas.  And St. Paul was betrayed by the false believer, Demas.

This trend continues even to our day.  Jesus warns us of the synagogues of Satan in Revelation 2:9 and Revelation 3:9.  It is not the mosques of Satan or the Hindu temples of Satan.  No, they are synagogues of Satan—false churches filled with people who say they are believers but are not.  Jesus warns us about such people.  They are liars, He says.

As is so often the case, what is promised in Scriptures is borne out in our own personal experience.  Just look at the world all around us.  False churches are claiming the name of Jesus, but teaching lies and heresies and opposing true churches and true pastors who preach the orthodox biblical doctrine.  We have seen it even here among our own number.  People who joined with us in sacred covenant, who walked with us for many years, only to turn away, and not just turn away, but turn against, to go out spewing vile hatred for that which they once proclaimed to love.  And for what?  For some sin?  No, because we would not compromise the word of truth.

Of course, we also have enemies outside.  This is not to downplay the enemies outside.  But they are easy to spot and, in fact, easy to deal with.  We oppose them by the blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony, standing firm by the power of the Holy Spirit.  But at least that enemy comes and announces itself as an enemy.  The enemy within is always more dangerous than the enemy without.

These savage wolves within do not spare the flock but instead, dressed in sheep’s clothing, they distort the truth to draw men away for their own purposes.  There have been and always will be those who are for us and for God, and those who are against us, against God, against His people.  For God and against God.  That is what it boils down to.  We must stay on guard and stand firm.

2. We Must Do Our Work and Support Others

What was Jesus teaching them, if He was not teaching universalism here?  First, He warns His disciples to beware of spiritual pride.  Jesus, is the Lord of the church; we are not.  Ephesians 4:11 reminds us, “It was He,” not us, “who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be pastors, and some to be evangelists.”  Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matt.  16:18).  Not, “You will build my church,” but, “I will build my church.”

Like the disciples, we may think that we who are doing that work—God’s work through us to build His church—are the source of power and authority.  But, no, it is God working through us.  He works the work; we are merely the tools.

He may call others besides us to do the work.  And He may not seek our counsel before He does so.  In fact, He may not even inform us that He has done so.  It is His church, not ours.  It is His people, not ours.  That is what He did with St. Paul.  He chose the great persecutor of the church and made Him its chief advocate and evangelist.  Others were understandably nervous about this choice.  You remember Ananias whom God sent to Paul to commission him for the work.  Ananias questioned God on the subject in Acts 9:  “God, we have heard a lot of reports about this man, and you are calling me to put him into the ministry?”  But God chose Paul, and God would not hear the argument.  In verse 15 of chapter 9, God answers Ananias: “Go! This man is my chosen instrument.”  God chooses, and Ananias does not get a vote.  God chooses who He wills to do His holy work.  We do not get a say.

This seems to be what is happening here in this passage.  In verse 38, John reports to Jesus, “We saw a man driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop because he was not one of us.”  Did you hear that?  “Not one of us.”  Jesus will decide who is “one of us” and who is not.  He may choose a man born and raised in the church and who looks and acts and comes from what we expect.  Or He may choose a small but fiery Indian genius and send him across the world to minister to His people.  Or He may choose some wild olive shoot to become ingrafted branches to minister to His people and to the world.  We do not know what He is going to do.  The truth is, He uses all kinds of people—lowborn shepherds and highborn priests; ordinary, unschooled fishermen and scholarly Pharisees.  He may even choose a lawyer or two or three.

He chooses whom He chooses.  The proof is not in the pedigree; the proof is in the work the Holy Spirit is doing through that person.

If you look here in our passage, you can see their objection to this mystery exorcist is not to the work the man was doing.  It is more political or tribal than that.  The Greek in this verse actually translates more literally like this: “Someone who does not follow us is casting out demons in Your name, and we were forbidding him because he was not following us.”  You see the idea.  The problem the disciples had with this man is that “He is not following us.”  Jesus never said, “Follow us.”  Jesus never said, “Follow them.”  He said, “Follow Me.”  And that is what this man was doing.  He was a follower of Jesus Christ, apparently commissioned by God for this work.

We are not told a lot about this mystery exorcist.  There is a lot of speculation out there on who he might be.  But his status as a true follower of Christ is evidenced by at least two things in our passage.  First, he was casting out demons in the name of Jesus, and it worked, so he was not an imposter like the seven sons of Sceva.  His work bore fruit.  But, second, and more importantly, Jesus endorsed this man’s work.  “Do not stop him.  Do not forbid him,” Jesus said in verse 39.  We must be very careful not to get into such tribalism—any territorial views of Christianity and Christian ministry.  The issue is not whether someone follows us, but whether someone follows Jesus.  That is the proper standard.

We can easily get into it.  There are so many bad churches, there are so many false churches, that we are justifiably suspicious of anything that seems a little new or different.  But we must be careful to judge as God judges and not add our own extra qualifications to the word.  That is part of the lesson here.  Anyone who does the work of God is one of us, our brother and sister in the family of God.  They may do it in a different part of the world.  They may do it in a slightly different way.  They may get there by a different route.  None of that matters.

We must look only at what God looks at.  Is this person doing God’s work (2 Tim. 4:5)?  Does this person preach the word faithfully (2 Tim. 4:2, 15)?  Does this person live a holy life (1 Pet. 1:16)?  Does He manage His own household well (1 Tim. 3:4)?  The key inquiry is not whether the man went to our preferred seminary or any seminary at all.  It is not whether the person is ordained by our preferred denomination.  The key issue is not even whether we agree on every point.  There are many debatable matters where Christians can come to different conclusions because the word of God is not determinative on that point.

None of those are the key.  It doesn’t matter if they use the NIV 1984 or the King James Version.  No, the key is, is this person called by God as demonstrated in orthodoxy, correct belief, and then orthopraxy, correct life?  Do you follow the Biblical doctrine on essential matters and then live it out?  That is the key.  Titus 1:9 says, “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine,” Biblical doctrine, “and refute those who oppose it.”

Whoever does the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is our brother and is entitled to the right hand of fellowship as well as our prayer and support.  Whatever label you place on yourself, so long as you preach the word faithfully and live it out, you are God’s workman, no matter where you come from or what you look like.  If you preach the word and live it out, and persevere to the end, you are God’s man.

The converse is also true:  No matter what you call yourself, no matter what your pedigree, no matter what your title, if you do not preach the word, the whole Bible faithfully, then you are not God’s man.  If you do not preach the word and do not live it out, I don’t care if you are the pope or a bishop or if they call you the Reverend Doctor Right Honorable—you can put any title on it—if you do not preach the word and live it out, you are not God’s man.

God calls whom He calls, and it is not up to us to judge His servants.  We must not judge by mere appearances but we must make a right judgment (John 7:24).  Like the noble Bereans in Acts 17, we must search the Scriptures to see if what that person is preaching and doing is the truth.  If that  person is not preaching and doing the truth, we will oppose it.  If what that person is preaching and doing conforms to the truth, then we will support that person, no matter the provenance, no matter the degree, no matter the wealth, no matter any other outward appearance.  Instead of opposing this man because He was not following them, the disciples should have supported him as God’s fellow worker.

Jesus is also teaching His disciples to stay in their lane—essentially to mind their own business.  As God’s workmen, we are assigned our duties by God (Eph. 4:11).  We are to focus on and attend to our duties, the duties that God gave us, not to insert ourselves in the work that God has assigned to someone else.  God assigned these disciples a very important job.  They were to be the principle witnesses to the work of the Lord Jesus and to document in writing and teaching all that the Holy Spirit wanted recorded and inscripturated.  Also, they were to pass that on to the fledgling church.

So this was a very big and important job that they were given.  But that doesn’t mean that they were in charge of everything.  Jesus himself, or perhaps the Holy Spirit, commissioned this man to do work as an exorcist.  And likely he was also commissioned to preach the word.  We are speculating, but likely he was also commissioned to preach the word.  After all, he drove out demons in the name of Jesus.  It seems likely that as he did so, he witnessed and spoke about who this Jesus was that he was driving out in His name.

Recall that at this time, Jesus’ name and work were spreading all over the Judean countryside.  Surely it was not only the Twelve who did that work.  Surely those who saw the miracles He did and who heard the words that Jesus preached also went about, preaching and teaching it to others.  Think of the legion-demon man.  Jesus healed him, and he went all over, telling about the work that Jesus did.  So certainly there were others called and commissioned, even though they were not of the Twelve.

Instead of opposing the work the Holy Spirit is leading someone else to do, we must recognize and support that authentic work of God.  Think of Priscilla and Aquila when they met Apollos in Acts 18.   He had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, and he taught about Jesus accurately, it says.  They didn’t say, “You don’t have the right papers,” or, “You don’t have the right background.”  Instead, they helped Apollos, making sure he had complete understanding, recognizing him as God’s fellow worker.

So also Paul in Acts 21.  He went up to Jerusalem, and they recognized God’s work in him despite Paul’s former status as their chief persecutor.  St. Paul was commissioned directly by God—not by Peter, not by James, not by any of the other authorities.  Paul was commissioned directly by God, and they recognized the work of God in him.  They welcomed that work of God and gave him the right hand of fellowship.

We must be careful not to have spiritual pride.  We can grow very judgmental, very territorial, and sometimes even jealous of the work that God is doing in others or through others.  Let us put aside all such views.  Let us oppose all such fleshly temptations.  Otherwise, if we grow judgmental, if we grow territorial or jealous of the work God is doing in others, we will find ourselves opposing the work of the Holy Spirit, to our detriment.  In fact, we will become tools of the devil if we do so, allowing him to sow division and strife.

The truth is that God’s true churches and true workers are always few.  We are always a remnant.  Let us not oppose or divide with the few that there are, but let us rejoice with them instead.  We would be the first to rejoice at another true church or five other true churches in Davis or Woodland.  We are not opposed to God doing more work through other people.  We are for God doing more work through other people.  This does not mean that we should compromise the word of truth.  We will never do so.  But we must recognize and support the true work of the Spirit where it exists.

We should also apply this word within the church.  We must not become territorial or jealous of the work God is doing through someone else, even within our local church.  God may use a person born and raised in this church.  You have every advantage.  You learned the word of God from an early age.  Or He may bring someone from someplace else to do this work.  That is up to Him.  He gives some to be apostles and pastors.  He gives others to be sound techs and teachers and co-op aides.  Our job is not to sit in judgment of those God appoints, but to recognize them by their doctrine, by their lives, by their fruits, to recognize them and support the work God is doing through them.  So let us make sure that we do so.

3. Our Works Matter

The third and final lesson I want to speak from this passage is that our deeds matter, our works matter.  This section of Mark 9 concludes with what might at first appear to be kind of a stray comment.  We were dealing with this man casting out demons and the disciples told him not to.  But Jesus said, “Don’t forbid him.”  And then you have this apparently unrelated comment:   “I tell you the truth,” Jesus says in verse 41, “anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to me will certainly not lose his reward.”  So we wonder:  What does this have to do with our passage?

First, every inscripturated word, whether you view it as a stray comment or not, is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.  But, of course, it is not a stray comment at all.  There is a direct connection.  Jesus is speaking, at least in part, about the good work that this man did.  He drove out demons, authorized by Jesus.  His good work will be rewarded.  This is further verification that this unknown man was a true follower of our Lord Jesus, along with verses 39 and 40.

In addition to this direct connection, there is a broader teaching here.  Our work done for the Lord Jesus matters.  It has eternal significance.  Now, don’t be mistaken:  We are not teaching merit-based or works-based salvation.  Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.  It is a free gift of God.  But in the Protestant church in our time, there is little risk of a return to the heresy of earned salvation.  There is a great risk of the heresy of antinomianism, the idea that our works, good or bad, that our actions, good or bad, are irrelevant.  That is the false doctrine.  In its great zeal to oppose heretical teaching of merit-based salvation, a battle largely fought and won five hundred years ago, the Reformed church has careened into the other ditch.  This has resulted in so-called mainstream churches declaring that you don’t have to repent to be saved.  You don’t have to obey the Bible.  You don’t even have to live a holy life.  They say, as our Pastor has preached, you can keep your sin and go to heaven.  After all, if salvation is an act of free grace, then your deeds, good or bad, simply don’t matter.  (GTB)  It is a bad argument, but that is the argument.

This is, of course, a lie, and we preach against this lie all the time.  That is why we preach against it all the time, because it is so prevalent in our age, so prevalent in the church world.  I am not going to rehash the entire thing today.  But just look at verse 41 of our passage.  Jesus is saying your good works matter.  “Anyone who brings you a cup of water in my name because of me will certainly not lose his reward.”  That is what Jesus is saying.

Of course, we know that our sins, our bad works, matter.  We know that inherently when we do them that we have done something wrong.  Our sins, even for born-again people, for people confessing Christ, are evidence that we may not be born-again as we think.  We may have deceived ourselves.  We must say “No” to sin and “Yes” to holiness.  So obviously our bad works matter, even as Christian people, as a warning sign.

But our good works matter too, and that is the focus here.  The born-again man will do good works.  He gives a cup of water in the name of Jesus and for the sake of Jesus.  That is evidence of his new life.  That inner work of regeneration expresses itself outwardly in the doing of good works.  That man does not go on sinning.  But he does not merely stop sinning.  He also does good.  He goes not merely from minus to zero, he goes from minus to plus.  Just look at the classic passage, Ephesians 4:28:  “He who stole” – that is minus – “must steal no more” – that is zero – “but He must work hard” – plus – “doing something useful” – plus – “to give to those in need” – plus.  You see the pattern?  He used to be a big minus by stealing, but now he is a big plus by giving.  And not just one plus: plus, plus, plus.

We are not to arrive in heaven as spiritual paupers leaving behind a zero balance of good works after this life.  No, we should arrive in heaven having stored up treasure which cannot be destroyed or stolen.  We should arrive there as spiritual billionaires.  It is all of grace, of course.  It is part of our progressive sanctification, as we work out what God is working in us (Phil.  2:13).  It is God’s work in us that enables us to do those good works.  But just because we do not and could not earn our salvation does not mean that our deeds and our works are irrelevant.  Just because they are not relevant to the matter of whether God saves us does not mean they are not relevant at all.  No, they are significant in the sight of God.  look at Romans 2:6 and 10: “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done’ .  .  .  glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good.”  Or 2 Corinthians 5:10: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due for him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.”  You see, the things we do in the body matter.  Or Revelation 20:12: “Books were opened.  .  .  .  The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”  Now, why have books if what is recorded in the books does not matter?  In Psalm 62:12, in speaking to God, the psalmist says, “You will reward each person according to what he has done.”  This is speaking of this life but also in eternity.  And in 1 Corinthians 3:8 we read, “Each will be rewarded according to his own labor.”

I could go on and on.  There are many, many more scriptures—too many to ignore or explain away.  If you need further evidence, you can go and read Pastor Mathew’s August 16, 2020, sermon, “Believers’ Final Judgment,” which deals with this matter more fully.  But the point is, our good works done for God matter.

As our text here notes, even our small works done for God are of eternal value.  A cup of water is not much.  Maybe it meant a lot more in the first century than it means to us today, but it is still not much.  However small, good works done for the infinite God are of infinite value.  Notice, also, the emphasis here not just on doing good works, but also on community life.  You cannot give God a cup of water.  Good works done for our fellow believers, for Christ’s people and in His name, is what is in view here.  He didn’t say, “Whoever gives Me a cup of water”; He said, “Whoever gives you a cup of water in My name and for My sake will certainly not lose his reward.”  Those works matter, not just to us but to God.

Application

Let us close with a few points of application.

1. Realize that there is an “us” and there is a “them.” There are those who are for God and against God, and therefore there are those who are for God’s people and against God’s people.  We wish it wasn’t so, but it is.
2. Judge rightly between the two, not based on tribalism or pedigree, but as God judges them. Judge by their fruit:  by the word they preach, by the works they do, by the life they live.
3. Welcome God’s fellow workers with joy. Do not tell God’s fellow worker to stop working.  Do not grow jealous of what God is doing through someone else, whether outside the church or within the church.  Instead, we should rejoice that God is working.  If God brings in some ingrafted branch, rejoice with the angels in heaven.  The angels in heaven are rejoicing at the salvation of one sinner.  Rejoice with them.  Do not become jealous.  Do not become territorial.  Like the disciples, we have not cornered the market on Christianity.  God has other people doing other work in His kingdom, and we rejoice because of it.
4. Realize that your good works matter. They matter to God.  They are of eternal significance in God’s sight, and they will be rewarded by God.  We do not know exactly how, but God says so, so we believe it.
5. Having realized that your good works matter, do good works. Big or small, in public or in private, do good works.  Do those good works in Christ’s name for Christ’s sake and for His people.  And whatever good works God places in your pathway, do them and do them with joy.  They are all big.  They are all important.  They are all of infinite value.  Why?  Because God sees them and God assigns them infinite value.

So brothers and sisters, let us all live for God, glorify Him, and enjoy Him forever.  Amen.