He Who is not Against Us is for Us
May 3, 2026 · Daniel Coughlin · Mark 9:38–50 · Gospel of Mark
Sermon Notes / Transcript
Scripture Reading — Mark 9:38–50
This is God's word, and it is eternally true.
"For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good. But if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another."
This is the word of the Lord.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bless this word, that the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts will be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and redeemer. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
The Man They Didn't Recognize
Our passage this morning — the apostles see a man they didn't know, they didn't recognize, and he was doing the work that they had just struggled to do. We had the transfiguration, and Jesus and some of the disciples come off the mountain. And what were the other disciples doing? They had been trying to cast a demon out of a man, and they weren't able to do it. Jesus does it, and he says, "This one can only come out by prayer."
And then we turn the page, and there's that guy over there. Who's that guy? Who gave him permission to preach God's word? Who gave him permission to cast out demons in Jesus' name?
You ever think you're part of the in crowd for a minute, and then you look, and it turns out somebody else is actually a part of the in crowd? The disciples were there. They were the ones walking around with Jesus. They were the ones hearing his teaching. They were the ones serving the food. And here they are struggling to do this thing, and then this guy shows up and he's able to cast out the demons.
I don't know about you, but that wells up something inside of me — this pride, this desire to be the one that everyone relies on. "I paid my dues, and now that guy's able to cast out demons? What happened?"
Whose Side Were They On?
And so what do the disciples do? They're like, "Hey now, calm down. Who gave you permission? Don't be doing that. Stop." They tried to stop this man from casting out demons.
Now, just think about that for a minute. They tried to stop him from casting out demons. Which means — whose side were they on?
There's a man with a demon. Are demons good or bad? Bad. We're all on the same page — demons bad. There's a man with a demon, and there's another guy who's removing the demon from him. And the disciples walk up and say, "Cut it out."
Whose side are the disciples on? Who does it look like, in that moment? The demon side. Is that the side the disciples should be on? No!
So what was going on in their heads? They weren't concerned with Jesus' kingdom. They weren't concerned with this cosmic conquering of God over Satan. What were they worried about? Themselves. They were worried about their own little kingdom. Their little group. Their control over who's on the in and who's on the out.
And Jesus says, cut it out.
He Who Is Not Against Us Is for Us
Verse 40: "For he who is not against us is for us."
It's like — listen, calm down, guys. He's casting out demons in my name. Don't get worked up about that. That is what we're doing here. I know you don't recognize him, but that's what we're doing.
We know about three things about this guy:
- He was doing good work — he was casting out demons.
- He was doing it in Jesus' name — it wasn't like he was casting out demons by the name of a worse demon.
- He wasn't part of the in crowd — he wasn't part of the disciples' group.
That's all we know about this guy and all we're going to know.
Paul Learned What the Disciples Had Not
But it's not the only time that we hear about something like this in the New Testament. Philippians 1:15 says this — and buckle up, because it's hard to understand sometimes. We're so easily set in our ways. This is what Paul says:
Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed. In this I rejoice.
So what's the difference? Paul had learned something that the disciples at this point had not yet learned, which is — the point is proclaiming Christ. The point is the real presence of the kingdom of God. The point is casting out demons, destroying strongholds. Whatever it takes, God is accomplishing his purposes. He is establishing his kingdom here. He is bringing his kingdom in a very real way.
And the other option is death. We're back to the idea of there being two paths in life. One is a path of life that leads to Christ. The other is a path of death that leads where? To hell. And that's right here in our verse today.
Consider the significance of the phrase, "He who is not against us is for us." There really are only two pathways. You're either against us over here or you're for us. And who is "us"? I don't want you to get the wrong idea — it's not "me and my group." "Us" is Jesus and his church. That is the us. The other path is rebellion and death. What matters is being on the path of life. What matters is following Jesus.
One of the consequences is to be grateful for anyone laboring for Jesus Christ — anyone who is doing the work.
A Severe Warning: Stumbling Blocks
Jesus' warning here is severe. Look at verse 42: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble..."
Now, we don't deal with millstones. So we have to think about this one a little bit. A millstone — and specifically a millstone driven by a donkey here. A grinding stone so heavy that you had to use an animal to move it around. You couldn't move it around yourself. Probably a couple hundred pounds.
So imagine taking a couple-hundred-pound weight and strapping it to your neck and being chucked into the ocean. What happens? Not pleasant. It would be better for a man to be drowned in a horrific manner than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. To interfere with someone on the path of life. And especially someone young in the faith. Someone humble. Someone yearning after Jesus. Someone willing to go cast out a demon in Jesus' name.
What Should Our Focus Be?
Instead, what should our focus be? As a church, we've just had some baptisms recently. What should our focus be when it comes to those young Christians? It should be to help them grow, to help them learn, to help them mature in their faith.
Our church covenant is good on this point. It says — and this is what everyone who's joined the church has covenanted to, agreed to do, contracted to do:
We engage therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love. To strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge and holiness and comfort. We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love. To remember each other in prayer. To aid each other in sickness and distress. To cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy and speech.
So if we've got somebody who's young in the faith, who's immature, who's humble and willing to learn and grow — what should we be doing? Caring for them. Rachel and Addie Solzenberger are two that were just baptized. And they're not here today. I am glad to hear that my wife stopped in to check on them. That should be something that we're driven and compelled to do — to check in when people go missing. To care for them when people go missing.
And sometimes it's going to be awkward. Sometimes people leave and they're not happy. And yet, what is our responsibility to one another? To make sure that we don't put a stumbling block in someone's way.
Because you know what usually happens in churches? We make each other mad. We annoy each other. We put a stumbling block in the way of somebody else. And you know what happens when they stumble? When they trip over our inconsiderateness? They leave. They just go away. And you never hear from them again.
Chris Dollinghaus and Nathan — I saw Nathan yesterday at the homeschool thing. They've been here for several weeks in a row. Where are they today? I hope someone — and maybe it'll be me, hopefully it'll be me — but I hope someone reaches out to them and just says, "Hey, how you doing? We missed you today." Not like, "Hey, you got a check mark because you weren't there." I'm not into perfect attendance records. I just want to know that we're caring for each other.
Whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone hung around his neck and he had been cast into the sea. We need to be careful. This was a rebuke of the disciples — that they wanted to go squash down the work of the kingdom, the work of proclaiming, the work of driving out demons. And Jesus is like, "No. Listen, you're not getting the picture. You're not getting what's going on here. This is bigger than you. This is bigger than this little group here."
The Eye, the Hand, the Foot: What's Dear to You
And this is serious. This is so much bigger than you that you have to see — one, be careful how you act with other people. But then two, also be careful for yourself. It's not just for others that we need to be concerned about. It's for our own lives, our own bodies. The things as dear to us as our eye.
Can you imagine losing your eye or your hand or your foot? The kingdom of God is so valuable — you should think about it as more dear to you than your hand or your foot or your eye.
And listen, if any one of us had some sort of disease that was hurting your eye or hurting your foot or hurting your hand — would you not go to every doctor to try and figure it out? Would you not persevere in figuring out why? My dad has had trouble because of his diabetes with his hands and his feet. He's had surgeries and seen doctors — it's a lot of work for him to protect his hands and feet. Because what? They're dear to him. What happens if you lose your hands? How do you eat? How do you live? If you lose your feet — think of Deb who hurt her foot. All of a sudden, she just lives right across the street, and it's hard to get places.
So it sounds harsh, right? Cut off your eye. Cut off your foot. Cut off your hand. We came to that kind of church today, huh?
The Grand Canyon
We value the kingdom of God like we value our own body. It wouldn't sound harsh then. Think about war. A man goes off to war and he comes back and he's lost a part of his arm. What would we say? He's lucky he lived. If a mortar goes off right next to him, he's lucky he didn't lose more — his whole life.
If we really looked at this life as the kind of dangerous thing that it is.
I've been thinking and trying to figure out how to integrate this, so go with me — because we're going to get into unexplored territory. Have you ever traveled to the Grand Canyon? I have not, but I've seen pictures of it. You all know what I'm talking about. A giant hole in the ground with a very sharp edge.
We've talked about going, and we have all these children. And I'm like, how do you take a crew of children to the Grand Canyon? Because that's scary to me. It's flat and nice — like the edge of the pulpit here. Flat and nice and you're safe. You can play tag. You can throw a ball, whatever. And then — sudden, instant death right there. If you take one step in the wrong direction, you're dead. That's how I envision the Grand Canyon. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter — that's how I think about it.
I just don't think we think about life like that. I don't think we think of life as dangerous. I think we think of life as very safe — maybe not easy. Sometimes there's hardships. We struggle. I'm not trying to say that we never struggle. But not to the point that we really think, "My foot's causing me to sin. My eye's causing me to sin. I should gouge it out."
Because if we're going to the Grand Canyon, I'd be like, "Hey, kids, listen — you can get this far away from the edge. And any further, I'm going to tear your ear off your head." But would that not be a merciful thing for me to do? If it was between my kid falling to their death?
Should you not rather lose an eye and enter eternal life — be a part of the kingdom of God — than to proudly walk with two good feet into hell? This is the warning that Jesus gives us this morning. Not exaggerating.
Hell: The Unquenchable Fire
And the other thing is — because now we're going to talk about hell. Just in case you are not uncomfortable, we're going to talk about hell. Because this is where Jesus goes in his warning.
I used the pulpit for my demonstration — you're up here and then you fall over the edge. You can see the pulpit. You can envision, you can make that mental connection between what I'm talking about, what I'm demonstrating, and the reality. But how does the Grand Canyon compare with this pulpit? This is what — eight inches, maybe six inches? Versus what — a mile? I don't know how deep the Grand Canyon is. Deep.
Jesus says, reading in verse 47:
"If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched."
So what do we learn about hell here?
What does it mean that the fire is unquenched? It never goes out. It's insatiable. It's never satisfied. You start a bonfire and you put a certain amount of wood on there and it's going to burn out, turn into embers and coals and then be cold again. One thing we learn here is that hell — it goes on.
"Their worm does not die." What do we learn from that? And this is horrible. Let's not try and sugarcoat it. There is no end to the fire or to the sufferer. Their life — whatever's left of them — does not go away.
Three times the Lord Jesus here speaks of hell. Three times he says the fire is not quenched. If you know anything about Scripture, three times is a way to emphasize something. If you want to know something's true, listen when Scripture says something three times in a row.
We Must Not Hide Our Eyes
So we've got to be careful. We must not hide our eyes and our ears to the fullness of God's word — his warnings as well as his good promises. We must not be ashamed to confess our belief in eternal punishment, because that is what God's word testifies to.
And it's tough. There are all sorts of ways to try and get out of the harshness of God's teaching of hell. And maybe we would be right to be ashamed of this reality — if there was not the boundless mercy in Jesus Christ for all who believe in his name. Maybe we would be right in being ashamed of hell if there was no possibility of hope, of escape, of life.
But there is a mercy. There is a mercy for all who ask in Christ's name.
The Road Into the Canyon
Think about a road — we're going back to the Grand Canyon here. There's a road that goes right into the Grand Canyon. If there was no way to stop, then okay, you don't have to talk about it. But let's say you're in a normal car and there's brakes and you know the road goes straight over the Grand Canyon. If you cared for someone — wouldn't you implore them to stop? Wouldn't you beg them to stop? This is death. There is no hope. You must apply the brakes.
And so in this life, there is an escape. There's a cure. There's a better path. There's a fountain open that washes all sin clean. Therefore, let us boldly and without fear hold to the fact that there is a hell — and implore men, beg them, plead with them to flee from it before it's too late.
The Error of Saying Too Little About Hell
Because this is a problem — an error that we commonly fall into in our modern evangelical church world. We could never say enough about Jesus Christ. We want to keep proclaiming God's love for mankind through Jesus Christ. How he lived a perfect life. How he died and paid the punishment for our sins on the cross. And it feels like we could just talk about Jesus and his goodness all day long.
But it's very possible — and this is the error we fall into — not to say too much about Christ, but to say too little about hell.
Does that make sense? We want to just talk about the goodness, the good things, the hope, the mercy — and we avoid the uncomfortable things. We avoid the punishment and the sin. We avoid even referencing what God saves us from. And it's possible for us even to diminish the fear of hell in our own minds, such that we make peace with our sins and we decide that the eye is more valuable than our soul.
Let that never be.
Complacency and the Call to Flee Sin
When we view ourselves as safe and secure in this life, we become complacent. Now listen — I don't want you to go doubting your salvation. If you've got your trust in the Lord, good. Praise God. Let that continue. But if you look at your life and you've got these sins that keep overwhelming you, keep coming back, that you don't know how to fight or that you've given up on fighting — those are the kind of things, those are the conversations. Bring that to the elders. Bring that to me as your pastor. Be strengthened to overcome those things.
If we become complacent, we see no need for a Savior. We see no need for plucking an eye out, cutting a hand off. We see no need to actively flee from sin.
The Eye, the Hand, the Feet — In Our Day
And listen — cutting a hand off. Just think about what that means in our day and age. The phone. The computer. There are things in our life that cause us to sin.
The feet — where do we go? In Israel and Judaism and Hebrew, they used the organ of the body as a shorthand for the thing itself:
- The eye — the things that you're looking at
- The hands — the things that you're doing
- The feet — the places you're going
Are you going places you shouldn't go? Stop it. Cut it off. You're not going to overcome that just by trying harder, doing better next time. Are you doing things that you shouldn't be doing? Stop it. Cut it off. Are you looking at things that you shouldn't be looking at? Stop it. Cut it off.
There's nothing that's so dear to you that you should love it more than your soul.
So if we really look — if we really see in God's word these warnings about hell, these warnings about eternal punishment, an unquenchable fire — the idea of losing a hand or a foot or an eye doesn't mean that much. If you could go to World War II and come back with only having lost an arm — God is merciful and good. If you could be a rebel against the great high King and you can limp into eternal life, having only lost a foot — praise God for his mercies.
Have Salt in Yourselves and Be at Peace
So let us be careful. Let us live in peace with one another — not seeking great things or striving for preeminence like first place, like it seems the disciples were doing — but rather clothe ourselves in humility and love all who love Christ in sincerity. These things seem simple. But walking in them — there's great reward, and they're certainly avoiding the real risk, the real danger, the real fall, the real tragedy.
So let us put our hope in Christ for this.
Heavenly Father, I pray that we would go forward remembering your goodness and your mercy, that you would strengthen us for walking in your ways, for loving and caring for those who walk in your ways — for all those who proclaim the name of Jesus — that we would be quick to come alongside and help them and comfort them. Give them a glass of water.
That we would watch for putting stumbling blocks in the way of those around us — that if we do, we would see it, and that we could flee from it. We could repent. We could be drawn toward you, Father.
Be merciful to us and kind to us, as you have been to us in Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.