Don't hide the light
Notes
Transcript
Good morning!
Good morning!
What did the big flower say to the little flower? Hi, bud.
Next Sunday is the 5th Sunday sing! Bring a covered dish and if you wish a song to sing. We will come back in the sanctuary after our meal and fellowship and sing to our King. It is going to be a great time of fellowship and worship.
Today we are going to be in Mark 4:21-25. Last week we looked at the different types of soils(hearts). We saw that there are 2 types of soils, bad and good. Jesus gave 3 examples of bad soils and one example of good soil. The 3 bad soils never gave the seed a chance to mature into a fruit bearing plant. The birds ate up the seeds on the hard path, the rocky soil the seeds germinated and then when the sun came out they withered and died. The thorny soil, the seeds germinated and grew until the thorns choked them out. The one good soil, we saw that the seed germinated and the plant grew and produced fruit for a 30, 60, and 100 fold increase.
Today we are going to look at the light of Jesus and what we are to do with it.
Let’s Pray
21 And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, or under a bed, is it? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? 22 For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. 25 For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
In verse 21 it says He was saying to them. Who is them? We can see back in verse 10 that Jesus is still talking to His followers including the 12. He is telling them another parable using a very common item back in their day ( a lamp). They didn’t have electricity, they couldn’t flip a switch and there was light. When the sun went down, they had to light lamps to give light inside the home. For most homes, these were very simple lamps. They were clay bowls that held the oil and one side was pinched together to hold a wick. The wick was light the then they would put the lamp under a bowl. No, they would put it on a lampstand,( a shelf that was protruding from the wall) only the wealthy would of had an ornate stand for the lamp. It would be ridiculous to light a lamp and then put it under a bowl. Jesus wasn’t blowing any minds with this statement. They new this and they all would have at some point lit a lamp and placed it on the lampstand or shelf.
Jesus was not talking about a literal lamp. In the Old Testament, a lamp was a metaphor for the truth of God. Psalm 119:105
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
There are several places that light or lamp is used to refer to the truth of God. Jesus is telling them that if you have been given the light, you are to let it shine. You are to reflect the light that has been given to you. If you want to refer back to last Sunday, if you have been given seeds, you are to sow them. We are to shine the light that Jesus has given to us. We are to let the light shine among men. That is what Jesus told us in the sermon on the mount. We are not given the truth of God so that we can keep it to ourselves. There is no way that we can produce the fruit of the spirit if we are not shining the light, if we are not sowing seeds of truth. There is no church of one. The church is not the building, we are the church, the people are what matter. It is not intended for the light to be kept hidden for one person. Today we would say that we don’t turn on a flashlight and put it in out pocket. That would be dumb. No we turn on the flashlight so we and the people with us can see. So we are to reflect the truth of God, so that the people with us can see the truth and see the error of their ways. If someone is never told the truth, how can they know that they are sinning. That is the reason God gave the law in the first place, not to save, but to show the sin of man. To show that we can not be good enough. We need a savior. We need Jesus. They need Jesus. Why would we keep the truth of Jesus to ourselves? How can we say we love like Jesus, when we let our neighbors or co workers go with hearing about the light, about Jesus. That is not love. Love tells the truth, tells them that they need Jesus, they need to change their ways.
Next Jesus uses another parable to convey the same truth. He tells them that nothing is hidden, except to be revealed, nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. The purpose of keeping a secret is so that some day it can be revealed, made known. Jesus’ teaching was never meant for just the disciples. It was meant for them to reveal it to the world once Jesus was gone. That is the meaning of the great commission. We are to go and reveal the secret of Christ to everyone. The secret was kept while Jesus was with them, but once He was gone, it was time to reveal. The Gospel is a gift to the world from God for those who will believe. It is our job to make sure they have the chance to either accept or reject it. In order for them to have that chance, they must have it revealed to them. That is our job. We must bring the gospel to light in Duncan, in Oklahoma, to the world.
In verse 23 Jesus tells them anyone who has ears to hear let them hear. Christian, believers and the ones who have the ears to hear. We are to hear the Word of God. There are 4 ways that we are to listen to the Word.
We are to listen obediently.
We are to listen appreciately.
We are to listen dependently.
We are to listen confidently.
Jesus tells us to take care what you listen to. The Greek for this is made us of 2 verbs and a participle. Literally translates to be seeing what you are hearing. The fist Greek word means to see as in normal sight, but also as in with understanding. We are to be understanding what we are hearing. We are to listen carefully to the Word of God. The truth of God is explained to us, we are the ones who have the ears to hear. Be seeing clearly in your mind what you are hearing. In Luke’s account of this in 8:18, he says take care how you listen.
We are to listen obediently. We are to listen to the Word with the objective to apply it to our lives. We can not apply it if we are not obedient to it. If we read it like it is just another historical book, it will not have the intended effect on our lives. We must read it to understand it and apply it to our lives. In order for us to mature our faith and to be more productive in our fruit bearing, we must apply the truth’s of the Bible to our lives. If we just read the Bible and never apply it to our lives, we will be 70 year old infants in Christ. Maturity in Christ, has nothing to do with age. It everything to do with how much we have studied God’s Word and how much we have applied it to our lives. I know teenagers that are more spiritually more mature than a lot of 60-70 year old adults. We must listen obediently to the Word of God.
We must listen appreciatively. We must be grateful for the truth of God’s Word that has been given to us. We must place a high value or regard it highly. It is God’s revelation to us. It is God’s guide to this life here on earth. Everything God wants us to know is in this book. There are no special revelations today. God has given us everything we need to do His will. We don’t need to go looking in other books to try and add to God’s word. Our Bibles are all we need. I have people that will come up to me and tell something about God or what we are supposed to do, and I will ask them where they got that information from, and if they say anything other than the Bible, they are looking in the wrong place. We must listen to the God’s truth appreciatively.
We are to listen dependently. God’s Word is our daily bread. It is what feeds our new creation and causes it to grow and mature. We must be dependent on God’s Word and the truths in it. It is the water that keeps us from being thirsty. It is the bread of life. It is God’s love letter to us. It tells of how much He loves us, that He sent His only Son, to die for us. It needs to be a daily part of our lives. We need to read it every day. We should have a goal of ready through the Bible as many times as we can before we stand in front of God. There is no part of the Bible that is not important. Every word is inspired by God. We must read and listen to it dependently.
We must listen to it confidently. We know that the Bible is true. We must read it with the confidence that comes from knowing that it is the truth, not a truth. We can read it knowing that everything in it will help us and grow us to be more Christ like. The more we read it and the more we know it, the more confident we will be. We should never read the Bible and think well that doesn’t sound right. If it doesn’t sound right, then we are hearing it wrong. There is nothing in the Bible that is incorrect. That should give us a supreme confidence when we read it.
Jesus said that by you standard of measure it will be measured to you and more will be given to you. We will reap as we have sown. The spiritual results which we realize are based on the amount of effort we put forth. If we only go to Church on Sunday and never think about the Bible or God the other 6 days of the week, we are not going to reap very much if anything at all. The more we read, study and apply God’s word to our lives and then go and reflect His light, the more we will reap a harvest. It takes great work to have a great harvest. No one is rewarded for just standing by and doing nothing. If you want to see God move in your life, then you had better move first. You had better study His Word and begin to apply it to your daily life. If we are not be changed day by day, we are not putting forth enough effort. We are never done working until the day we hear well done my good and faithful servant.
Finally in verse 25 Jesus tells them that who ever has more will be given. The more truth from the Bible that we listen to and apply, the more that God will give us. He is not going to reward us for just sitting around. He wants us to read, study and apply. Then He will give us more to read, study and apply. The more we are faithful with what He has given us, the more He will give us. That makes me want to study even more than I do now. I do not know everything there is to know about the Bible. No one who is alive does. Only the one who created it knows it that well. We will always need to read and study the Bible. It is a living book, that reveals more and more to us as we read and apply the truths from it to our lives.
Jesus ends the verse with a warning, those who reject the truth of God’s Word, What little they have will be taken from them. This is a critical spiritual principle. Our spiritual health, our spiritual eternity, it is at stake. How we respond to Jesus day by day is of the utmost seriousness. Do not take for granted the relationship you have today. If could be lost tomorrow. If you truly love God and surrender to Him, you will never reject Him or His word. Only those whose hearts are rocky, or filled with thorns, do they turn away from Him. Those who have the bad soil, will have the appearance of salvation, but when trials or the lure of the world come, they wither and die. We must stay in the Bible daily and apply it’s truths to our lives, so that more will be given to us to apply. The learning never ends, we are to always be reading, applying, and growing. Then we can reflect the light of Jesus and see the harvest!
Liberty we must shine the light that has been given to us. He will be faithful to give us a harvest.
Let’s pray.