Explanation of Mark 9:38-41

Last week, I received a note from a church member here in the United States. He was puzzling over a scripture. His wife had brought it up to him. It was a scripture that usually we don't cover very much. She wanted to know the answer. What is this about? How are we to understand it? So he put it on my lap. Sent it off. I do have the privilege of getting all kinds of questions from people in the U.S. and from the Doctrine Committee here. They send information, and you're always learning. There's nothing more that I love than to study God's Word and try to understand it better. That's one of my great goals in life. What Christ mentioned about seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness, and then everything else. Along with righteousness, you include wisdom, that godly wisdom. It's so interesting that now we have so many helpers that we can check things out better than we ever did before. As Enrique mentioned, you don't need a big encyclopedia nowadays. You have all of these helpers. But here's the question that was sent to me.

The question said, my wife asked me, who are these individuals in Mark chapter 9 verses 39 through 41?

Would you elaborate and help both of us to understand it?

So this is the scripture in Mark chapter 9 verses 38 through 41.

Now John answered him, saying, A teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us, casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us. This was the Apostle John. It kind of reminds me of the, that's why John and his brother James were called sons of thunder. Because boy, I tell you, they really got on the ball right away. They didn't have any problems with what Enrique was talking about, doing things halfway. Sometimes Christ had to rein them in. They were just too impetuous. And in this case, they had told the person, well, you're not part of our group. You're not a disciple of Jesus Christ. We don't know who you are. How dare you use Jesus' name to cast out demons? And you can project that 2,000 years later. You know, where people, you're not authorized to do this. And how dare you go? You didn't go through all the proper channels.

But what did Jesus say? He said, Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me. For he who is not against us is on our side. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. So here we have a person who is not a disciple of Christ. He's not part of the church group at that time.

There are probably about 120 in the book of Acts. It mentions that they all knew each other and helped each other. He wasn't part of that church group, but he was using Christ's name to cast out demons.

Now some take this to mean that anyone who uses Jesus' name is legitimate. You should listen to people that use Jesus' name or that cast out demons in Jesus' name. That you automatically can just fall in line and heed what they say.

Or some will say, well, you see, it doesn't make that much of a difference. In the church, there are miracles made, and outside the church, there are miracles made. If you use Christ's name, everybody that invokes his name should be okay.

After all, they're preaching Christ.

Some have come into the church, and some have left the church because of that. Oh, look, this nice preacher, and he says things so nice, and look, he's doing all of these works and things like that, and pretty soon they go follow them.

But before we reach a conclusion, let's go to the scriptures. Let's look at certain biblical points. Number one, the disciples thought they had exclusive right to cast out demons in Jesus' name.

Jesus let them know that people will follow his teachings to a point and be blessed by it, although they may never enter the church.

At least they are acknowledging Jesus as coming from God, and especially in those days, almost all the Jews were hostile to Jesus because of the Jewish leader's animosity toward Jesus, and that they denied Jesus was the Messiah. At least this person was friendly toward Jesus and his followers and was willing to use his name to do some good.

No, he wasn't going using Jesus' name and stealing something out of a store. No, he was casting out demons, and somebody was benefiting from that. That was a good work. Now, we have a parallel with what Jesus said and what Moses said. Let's turn to Numbers 11.

Numbers 11, verse 26. And by the way, this type of sermon is called a difficult Scripture sermon. We have difficult Scripture sermonettes, which is to take a Scripture that's hard to understand and then use the time to explain it. So here's a sermon based on that. We really don't have enough that are given in this way, in my opinion, because I love to hear those types. You always end up learning more about the Scriptures. Numbers 11, in verse 26, it says, But two men had remained in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle? Yet they prophesied in the camp. In other words, God inspired them. People saw that God's Spirit was working through them. And a young man ran and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp. So Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of his choice men answered and said, Moses, my Lord, forbid them! Not part of their chosen group. Sometimes people get all concerned because here Moses had not authorized these people. They didn't go through all the channels to get approval. And then Moses said to him, are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. And Moses returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel.

You know what it takes to do that? It takes humility. A spirit of humility. For God can choose to use people outside the quote, official calling to do miracles, like cast out demons or answer prayers. Paul also had that humility. He brings up the same point, but from another angle. Let's go to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1 verse 15, all the way here to 18. It says, Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains. Paul was at that time in chains in a jail.

But the latter, out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. I'd like to read it from another translation. It's a bit clearer. This is the Passion Translation. It says, It's true that there are some who preach Christ out of competition and controversy, for they are jealous over the way God has used me.

Many others have purer motives. They preach with grace and love, filling their hearts, because they know I've been destined for the purpose of defending the revelation of God. Those who preach Christ with ambition and competition are insincere. They just want to add to the hardships of my imprisonment. Yet, in spite of all this, I am overjoyed. For what does it matter as long as Christ is being preached? If they preach Him with mixed motives or with genuine love, the message of Christ is still being preached. And so, again, Paul realizes that at that time, of course, the name of Jesus was not that popular or that well-known. The church was still a tiny group in the midst of the Jewish nation and also all the Gentile areas. So, at least they would become familiar with the name of Jesus. And they could begin studying the Scriptures, learning about those truths.

So, a person might not be in the best attitude, but some of the truth was still getting out, and some could be called by God, and God would be glorified. Now we come to the second point. However, there are some caveats or limits to consider.

As they say, the plot now thickens.

First, you do have to be very careful when you use Jesus' name in this way. There is a similar case, but with a tragic end in Acts 19, verse 13. Let's go to Acts 19, verse 13. It says here, Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, We exercise, which means we expel you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. So they knew the name of Jesus Christ was powerful, demons detest hearing the name of Jesus Christ. It goes on to say, verse 14, Also there were seven sons of Siva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit in that person answered and said, Jesus, I know, I'm going to respect him. And Paul, I know, I know he's coming from God, but who are you?

You're using the name like you're representing him, that you're following him. But these were still Jewish itinerant exorcists, and they were still following the Jewish leaders of the time.

Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them so that they fled out at that house naked and wounded. Even if the man was one against seven, because the demon was so powerful that they couldn't do anything, they couldn't handle it.

This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. People said, wow, that happened. So these demons actually did recognize that Jesus had the authority, and they recognized Paul. And these others tried to use that authority, and it didn't work for them very well, did it? And so we see there are limits. You have to be very careful in this case.

It was quite popular in those days to use a powerful name to cast out demons. But we see the results of this.

Apparently, they're invoking the name of Jesus had worked up to a time and up to a point, until they confronted a very powerful demon. They were way over their heads, for they lacked the true faith and were badly mauled. Yet it was a powerful witness. So Jesus was saying to leave the person alone. He wasn't being called at that time, but some good was coming out of acknowledging Jesus as coming from God, and others could be called as a result of the miracle. Let's go on to the second caveat, or the second limit. Notice Jesus didn't say to his disciples, oh let's bring him along. He's doing this in my name. Let's bring him along. He didn't say that.

Jesus left with his disciples, but he said leave him alone. He didn't say even worse, oh go follow him. Leave me behind. After all, look what he's doing. Of course not.

It's also important to consider what that person was teaching at that time. He had not been a disciple of Jesus. He didn't know how to teach the scriptures properly.

And this person wasn't setting up a church that would be a rival to the church that Jesus Christ was establishing. Unfortunately, that's exactly what would happen in the future. Some would take Jesus' name, some of his teachings, and set up rival organizations and deceive many. Jesus himself was the first one to warn his disciples that this was coming in the future. This other person was just doing it while Jesus was alive and pointing people toward Jesus. But after Jesus Christ died, was resurrected, and this small church started preaching, there would be some that would take the contents and start using it on their own. Notice what Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 24, verses 4 and 5. Matthew 24, verses 4 and 5.

And Jesus answered and said to them, this is in the Olivet prophecy of future events that would happen, he said, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.

Also in verse 23 and 24, it says, Then if anyone says to you, Look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it, for false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So yes, the problem is sometimes they're going to be using Jesus' name, but not the power from Jesus. They're using Satan with deceiving miracles and all kinds of things. And so it confuses people. It confounds them, say, Well, this organization is using Jesus' name, and they have these works, or they're doing these things, and maybe we should follow them. Jesus said, Be careful, because this was prophesied that there would be a lot of imitations, a lot of churches that would imitate the true church and deceive many. The Apostle Paul also warned about the same thing, using the name of Jesus to deceive with false doctrines. Even he mentions the term using another Jesus. So here you've got these falsifications of Jesus himself that are being perpetrated by other organizations. Notice in 2 Corinthians, 11, verse 3, he says, talking to the Corinthian brethren, But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. The fundamental doctrines that were taught that are not complicated, they're not mysteries, they're not all this high theology, not at all. It's the simplicity that is in Christ. Verse 4, For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. He's saying, don't do it. Don't put up with it. In verse 13 he goes on to say, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of whom?

They're using Christ's name, saying they represent him.

And no wonder, for Satan himself transformed himself into an angel of light. So Satan is behind, and he uses his power, and he deceives by looking as a wonderful being, and that all of these miracles are being done for the good.

So he is imitating Christ and using his satanic power as a counterfeit to the truth. Goes on to say, Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers, so yes, Satan has ministers using the name of Christ, sometimes doing wonders.

His ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. Oh yes, they say they follow the Bible, that they teach only the Bible, whose end will be according to their works. They will have a day of reckoning. They will have to face the music in Christ's judgment.

And so we see here that what that person initially did about using Jesus' name, for that moment in time, it was acceptable. But he wasn't to go and say, Oh, I'm going to found and establish my own organization. I'll be a rival to the apostles. That's not right, although it did happen in that New Testament era.

Here's a third point. We also have to be careful because using Jesus' name does have a limit, as he pointed out in Matthew 7, verse 20 through 23.

He says, therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. So he's saying, just because they're using my name, that doesn't give them the authority. That doesn't mean they are accepted by me.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Yes, they preach in his name. They cast out demons in your name. So here, thousands of years later, from that initial person, there are still people that are using Jesus' name to cast out demons and done many wonders in your name. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Notice the description here, the definition, what upsets Jesus so much. You're breaking my Father's laws. You are breaking God's laws. You're breaking the Sabbath. You're breaking the Holy Days. You're breaking all of these principles that Jesus taught. And so these are counterfeiters. They are deceivers, even if many of them even don't realize it consciously. Notice the term lawlessness here is the Greek word anomia. Anomia. And the word study dictionary says about this word. In most cases in the New Testament, it means not the absence of the law, but the violation of the law, the breaking of the law. That's what it means, chiefly in a divinely instituted law. In other words, God's laws. So he's basically saying, get away from me, you breakers of God's laws.

How many would be in that group? A great majority. The great majority of using Jesus' name. They're not keeping the fourth commandment. Many of them are not keeping many of the other ones properly as well, not in the spirit and the letter of the law. The word for those that practice lawlessness is actually a term called antinomians, which means against the law. This was one movement that started a little later than the New Testament church, but here they started creeping in and trying to deny the obedience of God's law as a requirement to be faithful and a member of God's true church. The antinomians teaching that the keeping of God's commandments are not necessary. They've been done away through grace. You remember what Jude, the pistol of Jude, verse 4, it says here, Jude verse 4.

It says, for certain men have crept in unnoticed. In other words, in the church they entered, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. Jesus Christ said there would be these deceivers, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness, which means lust, breaking of the law, and deny the only Lord God in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so they started using grace to eliminate the need to keep all of God's commandments, to follow him faithfully. And so this all reminded me when I was going into the research of this topic about a certain chapter in Mr. Herbert Armstrong's autobiography in chapter 19. It's a story that I'd like to tell you, because here's just like the person that was using Christ's name to cast out demons and such a way being used. Well, here's a case where Mr. Armstrong had to face a person like that.

This was a person that actually prayed when his wife was very close to death. And yet, after he was able to pray and Mrs. Armstrong was healed that very night, then Mrs. Armstrong brought him a new Bible truth, and that person did not accept it.

Let's see what happened. Let me read to you from chapter 19 of Mr. Armstrong's autobiography. By the way, that's online. You can read. I would certainly recommend reading his autobiography. He says about this person, He had been a trusting and deeply sincere, if simple, man. Not much education, but very dedicated is what he meant. God had used this man. God used him to bring my wife and me the knowledge that God actually performs miracles for those who trust him. He heals if we obey and believe.

And how many other people God had helped through this man's prayers I did not know. Evidently, until God used me to test him by bringing to him a new truth, which had to do that the resurrection was not on a Sunday, that Christ actually was in the grave three days and three nights, and that removed the prop, trying to use a Sunday as a resurrection day and justification for keeping the first day of the week. When Mr. Armstrong brought him that truth, he said, until that time he had not deliberately rejected truth, nor disobeyed God's commands knowingly. God looks on the heart, and until this man followed his preacher in deliberately rejecting light and truth from God, which he acknowledged to be truth, and which led to willful disobedience, his heart had been honest and sincere in his simple way. But he had rejected God's knowledge, and now God had rejected him. His prayers were no longer answered. He was now guilty of disobedience of God's law, and God reveals through John that, quote, whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. 1 John 3 verse 22. This man no longer complied with the divine conditions. Yet, if I ever met a man who had the, quote, gift of healing spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12.9, this man had it. God had used him to bring us to a truth. We accepted that truth and began to walk in it. Then God used me to take him a truth. He acknowledged that it was the truth. He had seen it proved, yet he rejected it and walked in disobedience instead of in the light.

God used this man no more. Of course, he had much to learn. Had he continued as an instrument in God's hands. True Christians must continually overcome and grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The servant of God cannot stand still. Either he advances and grows spiritually against opposition and obstacles, or he falls by the wayside to be rejected. It is not an easy road. This incident just described is but one of the many of its kind.

Later, Mr. Armstrong says, I was to encounter many more whom God used to help me in his work, only to see them endure but a while and fall aside. Several of these have been among our closest and most loved personal friends. These experiences have provided our greatest suffering in God's service. They were pictured by Jesus' parable of the sower and the seed.

It seems the majority, who start out on this straight and narrow road of opposition, persecution, trial and test, self-restraint, continuous attitude of repentance, overcoming and growing, fail to endure until the end. It has grieved Mrs.

Armstrong and me deeply to see so many for whom we were grateful, who had helped us in God's work, whom we learned to love so much, turn aside finally, and drop out of the race for eternal life. Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. And then he ends saying, how about you? So the lesson here is we need to continually grow into truth. And if a person is being called and God is using him in a certain degree, if he continues to yield to God, he will eventually come into the church.

I remember one of the cases right at the beginning of my ministry. I was ordained back in 1976 in Mexico City and I was left there to take care of the Passover. And you know, I never officiated a Passover before and they just left and left me there. And we had the group in the Mexico City congregation. And I remember the situation of a little lady who asked to be visited. And so she, I had an assistant with me and we visited her. She must have been 80 years old. And I remember she said, I wrote to you to visit me because some while back I was baptized into a Pentecostal church.

And after I was baptized, I asked her, did you have hands laid on you? And she said, yes. She said, I started learning. The Bible opened up and I realized I should keep the Sabbath. So I went to those who baptized me and said, this is what the Sabbath is saying about obedience. And they said, oh no, you know, we can't do that. And so she said, well, I've got to start keeping the Sabbath day. And then she came to the knowledge of the Holy Days. Yes, they're in the Bible too.

And so I had to start looking for a church that kept the Sabbath and the Holy Days and you are it. And we asked her about the immortality of the soul. Oh yeah, I didn't see that. I know there's going to be a resurrection. I know that you die and you go to sleep in that sense. She had all of this knowledge that was given to her at that time. And so she became a member of the church. And it's just remarkable that we all were in harmony with the teachings and anything she didn't understand, we'd say, well, look at what it says here.

Oh yes, I see. That's I should put that in the practice too. There was this yielding, humble mind. And so we see the lesson that if a person is starting to be used by God, maybe they're in another organization or whatever, and God starts using them, that they eventually will come to more of the knowledge of the truth.

And they will eventually come to the church that has that truth. And if they don't, if they reject that truth, then they will diminish. God will cut off more and more of that power of God's Spirit, and God will see to that. But we shouldn't join that person or listen to their teachings if it's not according to the biblical truth. Most are teaching antinomian beliefs, as we mentioned.

They're against God's laws. They're against keeping the Sabbath, the holy days. And God is consistent. Jesus said, get away from me, those breakers of my father's laws. So we go back to that scripture in Mark chapter 9 to realize that, yes, we're going to face people throughout life. Sometimes they can impress us. They can know a lot about scripture. They might have some power. But remember, that's up to the knowledge that they understand. How about this next level? I remember I had another case in Mexico visiting in a baptizing tour, same one that I mentioned before. And we visited this gentleman, and it was in the southern part of Mexico. And he came out, and it was very friendly. And boy, he was just out there saying, you know, I praise God every morning. And I praise God in the afternoon. And I praise God in the evening. And I'm doing this and studying. And we're all thinking, man, I don't praise God all that time. I mean, He's doing a better job than I am. And then I asked him, well, did you come across the Sabbath and keeping the Sabbath? And he said, well, yes, but I don't think I need to do that if I praise God. And, you know, all of a sudden, he just shrunk. It's like a balloon. Just just all the air was coming out. We realized this was a hearer of the word, but not a doer of the word. And so just because people are hearers or speakers of the word doesn't mean they are doers of the word. So after going over this topic, remember, if Mark chapter 9 verses 38 through 41, somebody has a question about that, you already know what the answer was to that man who used the name of Christ to carry out certain things.