Let Him Hear | Mark 4:21-41

Last week we opened up chapter 4 diving into a parable given by Jesus.

Does anyone remember the parable we talked about last week? Parable of the farmer scattering seeds

And remember we saw 4 different types of plants that represented four different responses to the gospel.

Do y’all remember our four types of plants?

footpath: the devil takes the seed of the gospel away

shallow soil: falls away when life gets hard

thorns: lets the desires of the world choke up the gospel

fertile soil: plant that produces a ton of fruit

And something really cool about the way Jesus is telling this parable is He is actively sowing the gospel in them through His teaching. And you see these different plants play out in front of Him as He’s telling the parable.

After He gives the parable He says this phrase in verse 9…

Mark 4:9 NLT

9 Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Then Jesus explains why He said this in verses 10 through 12. The disciples came to Jesus and asked Him what He meant when He gave this parable about this farmer scattering seeds. And Jesus replies in verses 11 and 12 that those who learn and understand will turn to Him and be forgiven. So He’s saying that those who hear AND understand the gospel will receive eternal life in Heaven.

And we see the meaning of this in the parable as well. The plants that fall on the fertile soil are those who hear and understand the gospel.

Now the reason we took a few minutes to recap last week is because this week is a continuation of last week’s parable. In our passage tonight, we’re gonna see Jesus give three more parables that relate to our parable from last week, then we’re gonna see Him preform a miracle that demonstrates why He’s worthy of being our King.

Mark 4:21–41 NLT

21 Then Jesus asked them, “Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine. 22 For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light. 23 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” 24 Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. 25 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” 26 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. 28 The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. 29 And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.” 30 Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it? 31 It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, 32 but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.” 33 Jesus used many similar stories and illustrations to teach the people as much as they could understand. 34 In fact, in his public ministry he never taught without using parables; but afterward, when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them. 35 As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” 36 So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). 37 But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. 38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” 39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

Alright we’ve got a lot of ground to cover tonight so let’s dive right into the meaning of our first parable tonight in verses 21-25. Which will be our first point tonight…

1. Jesus will be known in His kingdom (Mark 4:21-25).

So we open up tonight with Jesus giving this parable about a lamp.

Let me ask y’all a question. Have y’all ever put a lamp under your bed?

I haven’t. Can’t say that I’ve heard anyone say they’ve done that (until now?). So when Jesus says this to the crowd, everyone’s immediately tracking with Him. The purpose of a light is to light up the room, so why would it be under the bed?

Here Jesus is showing us that He is the Light. And He won’t be hidden. Jesus is King and everyone has the opportunity to know Him. Now a question that hit me while I was pondering this and maybe you’re wondering this as well, “How does everyone have the ability to see Jesus? There are people in unreached parts of the world with 0 Christians to tell them about Him. Can He really be seen everywhere?”

So I wanna ask y’all. Does everyone on Earth have the ability to know that God is out there?

The answer is yes. Everyone has the opportunity to see God in the world. God designed the world in such a way that it is clear that He exists. From the beauty of the sky and nature to the complexity of everything whether it be our DNA or the rules of nature to even our natural human instinct of morality that we don’t see in the animals around us. God is everywhere. And anyone on Earth has the ability to see that.

But what isn’t readily available to EVERYONE on Earth is access to the gospel. God doesn’t write in the clouds, “Hey this guy Jesus died for your sins and if you accept Him as your Savior you can have eternal life.” While He 100% could do that, He chooses to spread the gospel in a different way. He chooses to use His people, us, to spread His gospel to the world. So while everyone has the ability to see that God exists, not everyone can hear the gospel simply because His people haven’t gone to them yet.

And in that way, we are God’s light to the world. In Matthew 5:14, it says that we are the light of the world.

How can Jesus be the light of the world and we be the light of the world? Simple, Jesus lives in us through His Holy Spirit.

So Christ will be known to the world. He will be known to everyone through nature, and as His people takes the gospel to the entire world, everyone will be able to hear and understand the gospel and be saved.

But get this, He adds to this in verse 22. He says that anything that is hidden will eventually be exposed. So not only is Jesus clearly seen by everyone, but it is also by Jesus that everything else is seen. Through Jesus, everything will be brought to light.

One of my favorite quotes by anyone not named Jesus is this quote by C.S. Lewis, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

By Jesus, everything is seen. So the things that we do behind closed doors, or the things we think and feel that we don’t tell anyone else, Jesus knows. And if that doesn’t somehow come out while we’re still living on Earth, it will one day when we stand before Jesus. It’s so important for us to confess our sins to others today and trust in God to bring us out of that sin.

Then we see that phrase again that we saw in last week’s parable. “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Then we see Jesus continue on in verses 24 and 25.

Mark 4:24–25 NLT

24 Then he added, “Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given*—and you will receive even more. 25 To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.”

This is so valuable for us. Jesus is telling us here that if we listen to Him, actually listen, not just show up to church on Sunday and Wednesday and check our boxes, but actually listen and obey what Jesus says, He will show us more of who He is.

And Jesus isn’t saying here that we have to earn our way to Him. He isn’t saying that the closer we listen, the closer we are to going to heaven. He’s saying those who know Him have His Spirit living in them. Because it is only through the Spirit living in someone that they can even understand the gospel. And as the Holy Spirit moves in our hearts, we listen to Jesus, we obey Jesus. This doesn’t mean we’ll live sinless lives as Christians. But it does mean we’re always seeking to grow.

And those who don’t listen don’t have God’s Spirit living in them. So they’ll live in eternal separation from Him in hell.

An understanding of what Christ did for us on the cross; knowing the incredible grace Jesus showed us by dying on the cross for our sins and conquering death by rising from the grave brings us to seek after more of Him. It brings us to want to know more. And to obey Him.

Alright we still have a lot more ground to cover so let’s move on.

2. Jesus will bring growth to His kingdom (Mark 4:26-34).

Here we see two parables where Jesus describes His kingdom.

In the first one starting in verse 26, we see a farmer who plants seeds and waits for the growth. The farmer doesn’t know how the plant grows, he just trusts that it will and he plants the seeds expecting them to grow. And one day when the seeds ripen, they are ready for harvest and the farmer goes out to the field to harvest the crops.

These are very comforting verses for all of us. In this parable, we’re the farmer, and those we share the gospel with are the crops. We trust that God, in His mysterious ways that we don’t understand, will cause those we share the gospel with to grow, and one day they’ll be ready to accept Christ as their Savior.

This could mean that we share the gospel with the same person 50 times before their ready, but it shows us that God is responsible for the growth in His kingdom. While He uses us to grow His kingdom, it doesn’t all depend on us.

The pastor as Connection Church Dublin, his name is Buck, told a story one time where he shared the gospel with a guy over lunch one day and he completely botched his delivery of the gospel. He was nervous, tripping over his words, sweating like crazy, but he got through it. The guy he was sharing the gospel with looked at him and said, “So I think what you’re trying to say is that I’m a sinner, but Jesus died for my sins so that I could have a relationship with God.” And that day he gave his life to Christ.

Buck didn’t cause that. If it all depended on Buck then that man would not have been saved. He completely botched his delivery of the gospel. But the Holy Spirit moved in this man’s heart to help him understand the gospel as Buck was tripping over his words trying to explain it to him.

There’s a great passage in 1 Corinthians that explains this for us. This is Paul writing to the church at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 3:6–7 NLT

6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

It doesn’t matter who plants the seeds or who waters it, God causes the seed to grow.

Jesus then tells another parable of a mustard seed. He says that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It is the smallest seed planted in the ground, but it eventually becomes the largest of all the garden plants. Here Jesus is showing us that the gospel started with just Him who knew about it. But then He told the 12 disciples and more. And those disciples would tell many cities about the gospel and the gospel would grow to an insane number of people. We actually see the end result of the gospel in Revelation 7.

Revelation 7:9–10 NLT

9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”

Wow… the gospel started with one and one day will advance to a multitude of people too great to even count made up of every single nation, every tribe, every language, every single people group. That’s the power of the gospel. God will grow His kingdom, and there will be a ton of people that He reaches.

And that gives us comfort when we share the gospel with people. Yes, not everyone will accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but Jesus WILL grow His kingdom. So we can trust that He will use us to help others understand the gospel and grow His kingdom.

So going back to the name of this point. Jesus will bring growth to His kingdom. We saw this in the parable of the farmer who trusts God to bring growth to his crops. JESUS will bring growth to His kingdom. Not you, not Aunt Sally who shares the gospel with every person she meets. Jesus.

And in the next parable of the mustard seed where we see that Jesus’ kingdom will grow to a huge kingdom, we move the emphasis in our point. Before it was, “JESUS will bring growth to His kingdom.” Now its, “Jesus WILL bring growth to His kingdom.” It doesn’t say, “Jesus might bring growth to His kingdom.” It says He WILL.

So we can trust that it is Jesus who will grow His kingdom, and we can trust that He definitely will do that.

Alright last point, we’re almost done.

3. Jesus will watch over His kingdom (Mark 4:35-41).

We’re switching gears here. Before we were taking a look at parables Jesus taught, but to close out chapter 4, we’re actually gonna look at a story of Jesus preforming a miracle.

So Jesus hops in a boat with the disciples and suddenly an insane storm comes through while they’re crossing the lake. And as this insane storm is happening, Jesus is just chillin at the back of the boat. He’s prolly tired from healing people so He’s just sleeping at the back of the boat.

Finally the disciples decide to wake up the boss and apparently things have gotten pretty drastic at this point because they ask Him as they wake Him up, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind and the waves and everything stopped.

Quick side note. The Greek word used for rebuke here means to correct. So it’s like if Trevor was eating his pizza crust first and I corrected him by saying you’re actually supposed to eat the crust last. And Jesus just did this to a storm. No big deal.

So Jesus gets up and corrects the wind and the waves, then He turns to the disciples and He says, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

The disciples at this point don’t know what to be scared of. They were just scared out of their mind that they were all gonna die from this crazy storm, then their teacher just got up and told the storm to chill, and it listened. They don’t know whether to be scared of the storm or Him (get it… weather?). So the disciples ask each other, “Who is this dude? Even the wind and the waves obey Him?”

There are two big takeaways from this story that show us what the disciples are trying to figure out. Two things we learn about Jesus.

First, Jesus literally has authority over weather itself. Why wouldn’t you follow this dude? He can just smite you where you stand apparently.

Second, no matter what storm you’re walking through, and no matter how little trust you have in Jesus, He will guide you through the storms in your life if you belong to Him. Everything we’ve been talking about tonight has been about listening and obeying Jesus and boldly declaring the gospel to others. And guess what, it’s gonna be hard. There are gonna be people who reject the gospel. There are gonna be times where you’re gonna be looked down on, shunned, and hated because of your obedience to Jesus. But no matter what storm you walk through, Jesus is with you. Even if you are having trouble trusting Him in that moment.

If you’re here tonight and you’re wondering what I’m talking about when I talk about being a follower of Jesus, let me explain who Jesus is.

Jesus is the Son of God who came down from Heaven to die for our sins. As humans we have a problem. We’re sinful people. And God requires that anyone who enters heaven be a sinless person. So it’s impossible for us to earn our way into heaven. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to Earth and took on the wrath of God that we deserved for our sins so that we could have a relationship with Him. All we have to do is accept Him as our Savior for our sins and we can be a follower of Him and spend eternity in Heaven. If you want to make that decision tonight, please come talk to me or one of the leaders and we’d love to talk about that with you.

For the rest of y’all who already know Jesus, I want to challenge y’all to trust and be obedient to Christ no matter what you face in your life. It doesn’t matter what storms you face in your life, trust Jesus because He has the power to guide you through the storms and He will guide you through the storms. He’s King of this kingdom. He will bring the growth to this kingdom. Trust in Him and His will even if you don’t want to. Because He knows what’s best and He wants what’s best for you and for the kingdom.