#19: Responding to the Light
Series: Mark
Chuck Sligh
June 7, 2020
TEXT: Mark 4:21-25 – “And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? 22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. 23 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 24 And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. 25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.”
NOTE: PowerPoint or ProPresenter presentations are available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
INTRODUCTION
In Mark 4:21-25 we have two short parables of Jesus. When the word parable is used, we normally think of long stories spanning several verses, like the Parable of the Soils we looked at last week, or the famous Parable of the Prodigal Son. But as we learned last week, a parable is literally “something thrown beside something else”; it’s a COMPARISON of something earthly with something spiritual. So they can be long narratives or short, pithy comparisons of a verse or two.
Today’s text illustrates how Jesus could use the shortest of little comparisons to illustrate deep spiritual truths. Both of the parables we’ll look at this morning are two verses long, separated by a warning in the middle.
The Gospel writers had a wealth of sayings and parables of Jesus to choose from. Oddly, many sayings are bundled together in one place in one gospel and scattered throughout other gospels. To illustrate what I mean, note that in today’s text, verses 21-25 of Mark 4, are two parables back-to-back, indicating that possibly they were said in one sitting. But note the following:
• Verse 21 is found in chapter 5 of Matthew.
• Verse 22 is found in Matthew 10.
• Verse 24 is repeated in Matthew 7.
• And verse 25 is found in Matthew 13 and also Matthew 25.
So how is it that these sayings are found one after the other in Mark, as if they were said in one place and time, but in other gospels they are scattered all over the place?
One reason might be that the Gospel writers were not so much concerned about the chronology of Jesus’ teachings as they were about choosing the teachings that fit their purposes to weave them into a coherent theme. In this understanding of things, Mark simply chose all five of the parables in chapter 4 from the pool of all of Jesus’ sayings, and put them together here. If so, he did this not necessarily to imply that they were all said in one sitting, but to illustrate something—which in this case seems to be to demonstrate how Jesus utilized parables in His ministry.
But the most probable explanation is that Jesus almost certainly repeated things. He preached and taught almost every day for three years all over Palestine. He had to have repeated His teachings many times wherever He went.
Illus. – When an evangelist travels from church to church, he repeats sermons; he doesn’t have an original sermon every time he preaches in every church he preaches at.
Jesus wasn’t trying to be constantly original; He was trying to drive home certain key points everywhere He went, so no doubt He must have repeated His teachings often. So if this is the explanation, it’s possible that Jesus taught all five of the parables in Mark 4 at one sitting, including the two in today’s text, and also taught them again in different settings as recorded in the other Gospels.
So, let’s launch now into the two parables in these five verses:
I. FIRST, IN VERSES 21-22, WE HAVE “THE PARABLE OF THE LAMP” –
Verse 21 says, “And he said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket, or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand?”
Now we need to look at four textual details in this verse to fully understand it.
• First, Jesus talks about a lamp, not a candlestick.
Candles had not come into existence by this time. The word literally is a lamp. Like the image in the slides, it was actually a little clay pot in which they poured some olive oil and dipped in a wick and lit the end, drawing on the oil to sustain light.
• The word, “bushel” or “basket,” is exactly the word for what Jesus is talking about here.
Remember the Sunday School song you learned as a kid, “This Little Light of Mine.” – One verse says, “Hide it under a bushel, No! I’m gonna’ let it shine.” Well, the word here is not really “bushel” as we think of it as a big basket for the fields. It actually refers to a measuring bowl and was called a “measure.” It was a common utensil that was used for measuring grains in Bible days found in the household.
• The next detail we need to understand in this verse is the fact that where you read the phrase “A lamp,” that in incorrect.
Rather than the indefinite article “a,” the Greek text clearly has the definite article, “the.” It literally says “THE” lamp. So Jesus wasn’t indicating any lamp, but a particular lamp, which will help us in a minute to interpret the passage.
• Finally, the Greek does not ask, “Is a lamp BROUGHT?” but rather, “Does THE lamp COME?”
Now lamps don’t come into a room; they’re brought. So this is an unusual word construction found nowhere else in the Bible.
Realizing that Jesus says, “THE” lamp” and asks “Does the lamp come?” helps us interpret the parable, because in the Old Testament, a lamp is a metaphor for three things: God, Messiah, and the Torah (which is the first five books of the Old Testament, written by Moses). The fact that Jesus is revealing His identity and mission in this entire context indicates that the lamp refers to Messiah—that is, Jesus. Putting all this together, Jesus is saying, “Does THE lamp COME to be put under a measuring bowl or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand?”
Having clearly phrased it in such an unusual way, what does Jesus mean in this verse? Oil lamps, one of the most common artifacts discovered by archaeologists, obviously give optimum light when elevated in the open rather than when placed under something like a bowl or a bed. To put it under something defeats the purpose of a light. Light, no matter what its source, is remarkable in that it dispels darkness. Darkness, with all its power to frighten or trip us up if we walk in the dark, is no match for light. The faintest gleam dispels darkness. The lamp on the lampstand in our text teaches us that, as James R. Edwards puts it, “Jesus is not subordinated to anything, but supreme over all things, and the light by which people are enabled to spiritually see.” The lamp, coupled with the theme of disclosure we’ll see in verse 22 testifies that God’s purpose in Jesus was to enlighten and to reveal.
Now let’s read verse 22 – “For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed; nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come come to light.”
Some have mistakenly interpreted this as referring to the sins of humans and that on Judgment Day, everything we have ever done will come to light. This may be true for the lost, but for the saved, our sins will never be brought into the open. They were judged by God in Jesus on the cross, never to be brought up again.
Colossians 2:13-14 says, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
Micah 7:9 tells us that all our sins are cast into the depths of the sea.
The only place judgment is mentioned for believers is what is called the Judgment Seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 where it is not our SINS that will be judged, but the quality of our WORKS that will be evaluated.
So if sins being exposed is not what Jesus was talking about here, what was He talking about? The key is the word “For” at the beginning of verse 22. This points us back to verse 21, so the word “for” means that verse 22 is an elaboration on verse 21 concerning the eventual full revelation of Christ’s deity.
We have seen before in Mark that Jesus concealed His identity as God for a time. Rather than immediately boldly declare He was God and get Himself killed before he had hardly begun His ministry, He first established His uniqueness through His healings, His immediate and absolute command of demons and His amazing teachings.
Put another way, before making a verbal declaration of who He was, He first established his bone fides. This accelerates later in chapter 4 as He does something more spectacular and unbelievable than anything He had done heretofore: He exercises command over nature itself and later He will raise people from the dead. Furthermore, the purity of His life was so remarkable that no one could find fault with Him, another pointer to His deity
All of these were to show that Jesus was unique and when He would later reveal His deity through His words, His works would already have buttressed that claim for those with open minds. So when Jesus says, “For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed; nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come come to light,” again He was speaking of Himself as in verse 21. That which was hidden about Him, even from His most ardent disciples up to this point—that is, His deity and His mission to go to the cross and pay the penalty for sin—would eventually be revealed so that it should all come to light.
II. IN VERSE 23, JESUS GIVES HIS HEARERS A WARNING – “If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Frequently, when Jesus talks to the crowd as opposed to His inner circle, He gives a similar warning. In verse 3, He begins by saying, “Hearken” or “Listen…” In verse 9 He says the identical phrase we have here in verse 23 – “If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus intended disclosure eventually, but His hearers had to perk up and pay attention. They needed to listen closely, for only those who are listening with open hearts and minds would the disclosures be made plain to. For those too dull to hear, too busy to pay attention, too hardhearted to listen, as we will see in a minute, it would lead to even more loss.
So Jesus was giving them fair warning to listen carefully to His words.
III. THE “PARABLE OF THE MEASURES” IS IN VERSES 24-25.
Verse 24 says “And he said to them, ‘Take heed what you hear: with what measure you use, it will be measured to you: and to you who hear shall more be given.’” This was not an original saying of Jesus. It was an old Hebrew proverb translated into the Greek and then translated into English, so something gets lost in the translation. The literal translation is, “In whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you and will be added to you.”
A “measure” was a measuring container, like the measuring bowl I mentioned earlier in verse 21 as an example. There were various sizes of measures—small ones in the home and large ones for the fieldwork—and they were used for accurately measuring grain or other agricultural products.
Basically, this verse means that what you put in, you get out, plus more.
Illus. – This is true in the financial world with the idea of interest. – You put in a certain amount of money in an investment, and over time you get back what you put in, plus some more.
Illus. – This is true of study. – The more you study, the more you will get out of it.
But remember that in today’s text, Jesus is talking about Himself. He was saying that the measure you put into seeking Jesus, Jesus will seek you in return and reward you more in return.
Understanding this concept makes verse 25 clear – “For whoever has, to him will be given: and he whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
Jesus was teaching that what they got out of Jesus’ teachings would depend on the degree of their commitment to hear it and listen with open hearts and minds. As with Jesus’ warning to the scribes in verse 11, the statement not only concerns ADDITION to those who hear but is a warning of SUBTRACTION to those who will not hear. Whoever listens, to him shall more be given; to whoever does not listen, from him shall be taken away.
As commentator James R. Edwards says, “The degree to which one hears the parables, the extent to which one allows the kingdom to break upon oneself, will determine the measure of one’s understanding. Those who hear, those who knock until the door is opened, will find the kingdom disclosed to them. But those of hurried search, whose knock at the door of life is tentative or brief, will find a once joyous invitation to enter the kingdom to have faded into a mirage of disbelief.”
Illus. – I have seen this many times in my ministry. Two people hear God’s Word about Jesus and each time they hear it, they have one of two responses: They either accept it or they reject it. The next time they hear, the one who listens with a receptive, open heart has GREATER capacity to follow through and eventually trust in Christ because each time the light of truth dawns on him, he responds anew until it finally results in genuine trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior. The other—if he even comes back to begin with—has LESS capacity to understand the message of salvation unless he makes a dramatic change in direction and listens intently and responds to the truth he has been given.
The principle Jesus teaches is that those who receive truth and act upon it receive more truth and those who reject truth will ultimately lose the bit they have.
CONCLUSION
How does God want you to respond to today’s sermon?
First, submit your life to Jesus Christ in every area of your life.
In commenting on the meaning of the lamp earlier, I read this comment by James R. Edwards, “Jesus is not subordinated to anything, but supreme over all things, and the light by which people are enabled to spiritually see.”
Listen, Jesus will not play second-fiddle to any other person or thing in your life. He is THE lamp who came to dispel the darkness. And He must be kept on the lampstand of our hearts so that we let the light of His glory and holiness dispel the darkness of sin in our lives and in our world.
Make Jesus the very center and focus of your life.
• Confess sin faithfully and quickly.
• Be faithful to church to put God first and to hear God’s Word.
• Be in God’s Word daily to know Jesus better
• Get into a homegroup or a small group to grow strong in faith.
• Spend time in prayer.
Keep Jesus in His place—on the lampstand of your heart, not hidden away, plunging you into spiritual darkness.
Second, listen carefully when God speaks.
“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Illus. – When a doctor comes into a patient’s room, the patient and any visitors suddenly become quiet, turn their attention to the doctor, lean in and listen closely to every word he says.
And when Dr. Jesus is speaking, you should have the same attention and focus, because He is the Lord and Boss of your life. He is the one who dispels darkness. He is the one who has the answers to life’s questions. He is the one who knows what’s best for your life.
God will speak to you authoritatively in His Word. When you come to a passage in His Word or hear something in a sermon from God’s Word that is uncomfortable, OBEY it anyway! Be a DOER of the Word and not a hearer only (James 1:22).
God also speaks to us as we go through each day: He impresses us not to respond wrongly to a tense situation or to resist a temptation or to give someone some money or to pray for someone or to witness to someone or to just listen to someone’s sorrow and woe. – When God speaks to you this way, listen carefully and obey God’s promptings.
Let me close with a few words to you who have not yet given your lives to Jesus.
Understand that your response to Jesus determines whether you go to heaven or hell—and that’s for all eternity. But your response TODAY has repercussions for your ability to respond TOMORROW. “For whoever has, to him shall be given: and he whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
If you keep responding to the light of Jesus you receive, you will receive MORE light; you will come to Jesus in faith and be saved. If you keep rejecting the light of Jesus, you will receive LESS light, and you may eventually so harden your heart that you will never be saved. Then all will be lost—for all eternity!
Respond to the light today! Turn to Jesus! Keep seeking Jesus until you KNOW in your soul that He is your possession, until you KNOW He is your Savior; until you KNOW that you are saved.
“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)
