Introduction

I want to set up this text with a reminder of what we saw in the previous passage. Recall the familiar rhythm we have seen in this section: Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, the disciples do something dumb to show their blindness, and Jesus’ teaching is meant to correct their blindness.

This week the disciples have another eye exam. Is their eyesight improving? Here is what we will see: The disciples, in their pride, want to draw a circle around only themselves as insiders and have everyone else be outsiders. Jesus is going to expand that circle in a much greater way.

Outline

1. The Disciples’ Blindness (v. 38)
2. Addressing the Blindness (vv. 39–41)

1) The Disciples’ Blindness (v. 38)

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

Why did I entitle this “The Disciples’ Blindness”? This whole scene is ironic from start to finish. First look at the context and the previous two verses (vv 36–37).

And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

This lesson has two essential pieces: (1) they are to receive people (2) in Jesus’ name. The question is “Will they learn the lesson about receiving others (even unimpressive people) in Jesus’ name?” John’s response is placed in this position as an answer to that question. Did they learn their lesson?

Look at verse 38 again. We have “in your name.” That is one part of the equation (Jesus’ name). The other half of the equation means receiving them instead of rejecting them. But we have the opposite: The disciples rejected rather than received someone doing a mighty work in Jesus’ name. This placement of that teaching and then John’s words has the effect of making this an immediate failure. 

The second reason this verse is ironic is because the disciples had just failed in their attempt to cast out a demon (vv. 17–18) and this person was successful in casting out demons. Did they celebrate this success? No, they tried to put a stop to it because this individual was not part of their team of 12. Commentator R.T. France says it just right, “To see an ‘outsider’ apparently succeeding where they, the chosen agents of Jesus, have failed is doubly distressing.”

Jesus is going to address their blindness by extending the circle in two ways: people and actions.

2) Addressing the Blindness (vv. 39–41)

But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.”

The first thing Jesus does is rebuke John—don’t stop him! A command to cease and desist. Many commentators point to the similarities between this story and Numbers 11:26–29. Some people began to speak as prophets who were not official prophets like Moses. Joshua was troubled that others were speaking for the Lord like Moses. He didn’t want them sharing the limelight with Moses. This is the conversation between Joshua and Moses:

“Moses, my lord, stop them!” Moses answered, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”—Numbers 11:26–29 

The disciples have narrow, prideful hearts that seem bent on cornering the market on ministry—but Jesus’ heart is more expansive. It is as if Jesus is saying O, that all the Lord’s people were exorcists who would war with Satan in Jesus’ name!

Then he gives a series of three reasons for the command. First, don’t stop the one ministering in my name “for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me” (v. 39). Notice that this is now the third reference to the name of Jesus in the space of three verses: 

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”—Mark 9:37

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”—Mark 9:38

But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.—Mark 9:39

Jesus has a standard—what we do and what we say must align. Mighty works must be matched with honor for the mighty name of Jesus. What could Jesus have in mind in terms of someone speaking evil of his mighty name? The Pharisees. This verse has the effect of singling out the Pharisees as a notorious example of maligning Jesus. The Pharisees saw Jesus doing mighty works and then attributed the source of the power to Satan or the prince of the demons (Mark 3:22). 

Jesus makes the point that people can only do miracles in his name if they are in a proper relationship to that name—himself. The Bible teaches this lesson boldly when some people try to use the name of Jesus without a relationship with Jesus in Acts 19:11–20. The seven sons of Sceva tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus (almost like a magic spell): “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims” (Acts 19:13). The demons say to him, “Jesus I know, and Paul I have heard of, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15). Then the man who had the evil spirits leaped on them, beat them so that they ran away naked and wounded. Jesus’ name was held in high honor after word got out about this situation: “And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled” (Acts 19:17).

The second reason for the command: Don’t stop the one ministering in my name “For the one who is not against us is for us.” Notice that Jesus redefines the “us” beyond the scope of the disciples. The disciples pridefully draw the circle of insiders around themselves only. They are the standard of judgment at that point. Who is here with me? Jesus draws the circle much wider: If they are not against us, then they are for us (even if they are not here right now with us).

This is a war—the kingdom of God vs. the kingdom of Satan. One must take sides and there are only two sides. Do you see the problem here? The true adversary in this story is Satan. He and his demons are the ones “against us.” The problem with the disciples is that their pride leads to cutthroat competition that would draw really small circles based on who is part of their group. They see themselves as the official group, and the problem with this person is not what he was doing or the name he was using—he simply failed to be in their company. He was warring on their side but he was not in their company. So they were quick to exclude him and stop him.

We really need to stop at this point and let this text speak to where we are today. I have two ditches in my application and Jesus is addressing this first one to help the disciples out of the ditch of being too narrow-minded and exclusive. Do we ever struggle with that? 

Ditch #1 – Too Narrow-Minded

(theological precision leading to theological pride; a cornering the ministry market)

I love what J.C. Ryle says in his commentary about this verse as a golden rule for us today.

Here is a golden rule indeed, and one that human nature sorely needs and has too often forgotten. Members of all branches of Christ’s church are apt to think that no good can be done in the world unless it is done by their own party and denomination. They are so narrow-minded that they cannot conceive the possibility of working on any other pattern but that which they follow. They make an idol of their own particular ecclesiastical structure, and can see no merit in any other.

This is a word for us, Bethlehem.

North Campus: Do you assume that the only good happening in the North suburbs has a Bethlehem logo? Eaglebrook or Substance church may not do things the way we do, they may not have the doctrinal distinctives that we have— but would you really want to say that they are not doing any Kingdom work? 

Downtown Campus: Aren’t you thankful for Steve Treichler at Hope Church a block away? Aren’t you thankful for our local church plants, like Cities Church and Jubilee? 

South Campus: Aren’t you glad that Berean and Trinity Lutheran and other gospel-preaching, Bible-believing churches are on the Lord’s side in this war against the powers of darkness? Our battle is not against flesh and blood. 

J.C. Ryle goes on to say that it is “to this intolerant spirit we owe some of the blackest pages of church history. Christians have repeatedly persecuted Christians for no better reason than that which is here given by John. They have practically proclaimed to their brothers and sisters, “You must either follow us or not work for Christ at all.”

But Jesus is not done. He expands one more level beyond types of people to types of actions. John’s example focused on a mighty work of casting out a demon. Jesus’ example in verse 41 extends it to everyday acts of kindness like giving a cup of water to drink. 

The phrase “in my name/in your name” has occurred three times in rapid succession in vv. 37–39. Now we come to the climax in verse 41, because now the actual name is explicitly spelled out: “You belong to Christ.” The smallest act has great significance because it is done for the greatest Name. A small act like giving a disciple a drink comes not because the person has earned it or pity dictates, but it signifies something: We belong to Christ together. This is another way of saying Matthew 25: “The smallest acts have great significance when you do them for me—when you do them for me, it can be said you did it to me.”

These instructions are like pride-seeking missiles. Pride is quick to exclude people and draw the circle really small. Pride is also quick to judge the supposed size of the actions. (Is it a mighty, impressive, big-looking work or a small, everyday, puny-looking work?) When the disciples are recipients of this most basic kindness, Jesus will not rebuke the person who does it, but reward them.

Main Point: True unity happens when Christ’s name is exalted high above all our differences.

Personal and individual differences can divide, but the name of Christ and belonging to Christ is big enough to unite Christians of different backgrounds.

Unity comes when the church is filled with the Holy Spirit, not a party spirit that subdivides into affinity groups. What unites us? In Corinth, Paul heard about a division over who was the Corinthians’ favorite party leader: Paul, Apollos, or Christ. Paul’s point is that Christ is not divided. They were not baptized into the name of Paul.

Do we approach corporate worship as having multiple points of reference: Do I like this—is this my preference? Where is my affinity group? Who looks like me, talks like me, agrees with me on politics or schooling preferences or age group or socioeconomic status?

This is what happens when we are the center. Pastor Ken reminded me of a passage from Huckleberry Finn in which he is having a conversation with a runaway slave named Jim. Huck is trying to convince Jim that Frenchmen speak a totally different language than they do. Jim cannot get over it. He wants to know why they don’t speak normal—they should speak like normal men do (Huck Finn, chapter 14, page 2). The point is that we are the standard for normal—and it is hard to accept a different standard than our own. 

We need to live out what Jesus is saying at a few different levels of application. How does the church draw circles for itself of insider vs. outsider?

I begin with the importance of Christ and belonging to Christ as our standard of reference, rather than ourselves. Let’s say that there is someone here at Bethlehem who is noticeably different than you. What kind of narrative do you construct for them? What kind of story do you tell yourself with respect to them? Sometimes we tell stories of suspicion—stories that emphasize the differences. If you are someone who is passionate about public school, you can look at a homeschool family and start spouting off stereotypes: “I bet they make their own clothes, build their own computers, churn their own butter; the kids are probably sheltered and do not know many references from popular culture.

If you are someone who is passionate about home school, you could look at the family that sends their kids to public school as naïve. You wonder if they are actively involved and know where ungodly agendas are at play; you could wonder if they are even able to learn because you have heard there are so many behavioral issues.

Do you have a “belong to Jesus” or gospel narrative for people? That person was a child of wrath without hope and without God in the world …

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.—Ephesians 2:4–7 

That is their story. We had the same dark, sinful, hopeless past. We have the same story of God’s intervention and great salvation; we have the same bright future of having God forever display the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness. If you belong to Christ and I belong to Christ, we belong together in true unity in Christ.

If you are not following Christ today, I wonder if you see that hope has a Name. You could be living a life of absolute rebellion with no hope that you have anything to commend you to God. Here is the good news: Christ is indescribably more eager to receive you than anyone else in this world. When others would stiff-arm you and tell you that you don’t belong or you don’t fit or you don’t do things just right (you have to perform to belong), the gospel is so different. Jesus bought your acceptance. It is not what you have to do to belong—he has done it all. So come! His arms are open wide. This future can be yours today.

Dear friends, if Christ came and tore down the dividing wall by his blood, who are we to build it back up—brick by brick, issue by issue? This is the work of the Holy Spirit—when the church is filled with the Holy Spirit the name of Jesus is lifted high, but when the church is filled with a party spirit, our own name is lifted high. 

The influential evangelist of the Great Awakening, George Whitefield, exemplifies Paul’s preoccupation with the name of Christ over his own name. (See “Whitefield, George,” by Arnold Dallimore, in New Dictionary of Theology, ed. Sinclair B. Ferguson, David F. Wright, and J. I. Packer.) Whitefield decided to hand the reigns of leadership of the Methodist movement over to John Wesley because the movement was in danger of being divided over allegiance to either Whitefield or Wesley. Whitefield’s followers urged him to take back his position of leadership. They warned him that his name may be forgotten because of what he had done. He replied by saying, “My name? Let the name of Whitefield perish if only the name of Christ be glorified.” The singular passion of a faithful Christian minister is to make much of the name of Christ. John the Baptist was content to let his name and influence decrease; his joy was completely bound up with the increasing fame of Jesus (John 3:30). 

This raises the question about envy. Do you rejoice when Kingdom work is done, even if the worker is not you? I always remember Joe Rigney saying, “Envy weeps when others rejoice, and rejoices when others weep.” Is it enough that Jesus’ name gets exalted or do we need our names recognized as well?

Ditch #2: Doctrinal Indifference (Too Open-Minded)

But wait a minute … what about other churches or other people who claim to be Christians? We are supposed to draw a circle as to who is in and who is out, right?

As a congregation, we could drive into two different ditches: doctrinal indifference (quick to include anyone; anything goes) and doctrinal narrowness (quick to exclude everyone; everything is equally important).

I read a stunning quote from John Calvin in his Institutes on this point:

“For not all the articles of true doctrine are of the same sort. Some are so necessary to know that they should be certain and unquestioned by all men as the proper principles of religion. Such are: God is one; Christ is God and the Son of God; our salvation rests in God’s mercy; and the like. Among the churches there are other articles of doctrine disputed which still do not break the unity of faith …. a difference of opinion over these none essential matters should in no wise be the basis of schism among Christians.”

One of the best ways to navigate these questions is something called theological triage.

In a hospital emergency room, a triage nurse is there to make an initial assessment of risk—which patients need care the most (which cases are the most urgent). Obviously, someone with a gunshot wound and loss of blood should be seen before someone with a sprained ankle. If someone could not distinguish between levels of importance here in terms of who needs care first, could be guilty of medical malpractice.

In the same way, we must learn to discern varying levels of theological importance—what is the theological equivalent of a gunshot wound and what is the theological equivalent of a sprained ankle?

Theological Triage uses a three-fold grid (not just a two-fold contrast between essential and non-essential).

1^st Tier (orthodoxy): Christian or non-Christian

2^nd Tier (differences that distinguish denominations): Baptist or Presbyterian or Methodist

3^rd Tier (differences within congregations)

First-order or top-tier doctrines are the essentials of the Christian faith—doctrines that are necessary for orthodoxy. They are a requirement for all true Christians. If you don’t embrace these doctrines, then you are not a believer.

One cannot compromise on doctrines like the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the bodily return of Christ at the Second Coming, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Atonement, and essentials like justification by faith alone. When these doctrines are lost, the Christian faith is lost with it. If someone rejects the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of Christ, then that is a rejection of the gospel itself. The apostle Paul was ready to say it as well—some doctrines are of “first importance.”

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.—1 Corinthians 15:1–5

Second-order, or middle-tier, doctrines are essential for church life and church order, but not for salvation. A church needs to hold an official position on things like baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Reformed theology or Arminian theology. One can disagree on these doctrines with others and yet still embrace those with the other viewpoint as brothers or sisters in Christ. Disagreements here do not cast doubt on someone’s salvation. If someone attends a Baptist church, disagreement on baptism will keep him or her out of membership, but not out of heaven. Someone can believe in Arminian, free-will theology and not be kept out of membership, but out of eldership. Elders must affirm the Elder Affirmation of Faith—and members should know that the staff and non-staff pastors here view it as a discipleship document—we want to disciple you into a greater doctrinal depth and understanding of these important doctrinal truths.

Third-order, or bottom-tier, doctrines are not essential and should not threaten the fellowship of a local church. For example, all true believers hold in common that Christ will return bodily at the second coming, but disagree over the details of the timing and order of the sequence of events that will lead to his return (premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, pre-tribulation, mid-trib, post-trib). One could expand the list of positions that we take on education (homeschool, public school, private school). Positions on divorce and remarriage (never divorce, never remarriage/certain exceptions that biblically allow for divorce and remarriage).

Without proper discernment, every issue is a matter of separation and division or nothing is seen as worth defending. But doctrinal precision should also not lead to doctrinal or intellectual pride. I don’t want to be a crusty Christian who looks sideways at my brothers and sisters in Christ who name the name of Christ and belong to Christ. I want to be a church family where we are easily edified because we are so stunned that we are in the circle of those who are saved.

In the same year at the same ceremony as Michael Jordan, David Robinson gave his Hall of Fame acceptance speech (2009). It was nine minutes, and it was radically different. He took eight minutes to thank everyone who had touched him. David Robinson is an evangelical Christian, and he closed with the story of Luke 17:11–19 and the 10 lepers who were healed, with only one who came back to say thanks. David Robinson presented himself simply as a leper, healed by Jesus, coming to the microphone only to say thanks to Jesus. He said, “If you have seen anything in my life that has inspired you, it was all owing to Jesus.”

Isn’t that why we gather together? We are lepers here to give thanks to Jesus for all that he has done for us. We are not impressed with ourselves. We are stunningly thankful to him.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

1. Disciples’ Blindness (Mark 9:38)
2. Addressing the Blindness (Mark 9:39–41)

Main Point: True unity comes when Christ’s name is exalted high above all our differences.

Discussion Questions

• How does verse 38 relate back to verse 37? Why does it reveal blindness on the part of the disciples?
• The disciples drew a tight circle around themselves as “us,” while Jesus expanded the circle. In what ways does Jesus expand the circle?
• What is “theological triage”?

Application Questions

• Considering the first ditch of being too narrow, close-minded, or having a “sectarian” spirit that would needlessly divide the body of Christ into individual groupings or “sects,” where are we as a church in danger? Where are you as a believer in danger?
• Considering the second ditch of being too open-minded or being too indifferent to doctrine, where are we as a church in danger? Where are you as a believer in danger?
• What can you take from this message and share with others in your life?

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to be both passionate and compassionate with our convictions and to hold the name of Christ higher than anything else.