Mark 9:31
“For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.”
The ministry of Jesus Christ was all about the Gospel. His whole purpose in coming to Earth was to make it possible for people to get saved. He came to a point in His ministry when He needed to tell the disciples about His death, burial and resurrection. It was right after Jesus explained this that He had to remove some impediments that would hinder the disciples from getting out the Gospel. Let me show you these three impediments which Jesus had to handle so the Gospel would not be hindered.
First, Jesus had to deal with their desire for position. The disciples had disputed among themselves about who would be the greatest. Jesus knew that this would hurt the church from getting the Gospel out if Christians strove to have the highest position. When you have a church where every member is trying to show how great they are, then it will keep that church from getting the Gospel to the lost.
Jesus showed how to deal with this problem by saying in verse 35, “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” The Gospel will never be hindered when every Christian develops a servant attitude. Stop worrying about position and simply develop an attitude to serve everyone. This attitude squelches any disputings about who is the best.
The second thing Jesus had to deal with was the circle mentality. The disciples thought because someone was not following them that they were wrong. Jesus stopped this mentality by saying in verses 39-40, “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.” Be careful that you don’t think everyone has to do everything like you in order to be right. I’m not saying that compromise is okay, but you must be careful about developing a mentality that someone is liberal because they don’t support your meetings or go to the conferences you attend. The circle mentality runs many people off from Christianity and will keep the church from sending out the Gospel as it should.
The third thing Jesus had to deal with was to make sure His disciples kept their distinctiveness. Jesus says in verse 50, “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” One of the areas where you will consistently battle in the Christian life is the desire to be accepted by all. The one thing that allows the Christian to be able to reach the lost is our distinctiveness. If we are exactly like the world, then why should the world want the Gospel? Don’t lose your uniqueness by setting separation aside. The Christian who lives a separated life will keep their uniqueness.
The key to all of this is to simply keep your eyes on Christ. Every problem that develops in Christianity develops when Christians take their eyes off Christ and place them on man. The world is in great need of the Gospel. Don’t let these things become the hindrance from them hearing it.