The Purpose of Lamps & Seeds. Mark 4:21-34

Last Sunday morning in our journey through the Gospel according to Mark in the part 2 of the message entitled The Parable Of The Soils, we looked at the Mark 4:10-20 and Jesus explanation of His Parable of the Soils to the Inquiring Minds of His closest followers. While the crowd that was there to listen to Jesus as He told the parable, was in the 10’s of thousands, none of which had any idea what the application was behind the parable, only a few of His closest followers showed any signs of having the Spiritual ears looking for answers. To that small group, Jesus opened their spiritual ears to the mysteries of God.

We learned last Sunday of the importance of looking for answers from God, first and foremost from His Word. While there may be many great tools available in our modern day to seek answers from God, the very best place is and always has been, the pages of God’s Word. We went on to see the Willfully Blind and Deaf, who chose to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to God’s truth and Jesus proclamation that those choices would result in Him removing the blessing they had received from God. Moving forward we learned that The Sower in the parable, was Anyone Who Proclaims the Good News of Salvation. We found out that The Seed Jesus mentioned was a reference to The Word of God that was living and active. In looking at the 4 soils, The Soil On The Path, The Rocky Soil, The Thorny Soil and The Good Soil, we discovered that only The Good Soil was a picture of a true believer, true believers will always produce a crop because they have been transformed by God Himself and those transformed by God Himself, can’t help but grow and produce. We closed our time with the same question we closed out our time with the previous week, with the all important question of, “Which Soil Am I?”

This morning we will look at 3 more parables as we close out this portion of Mark devoted to the teachings of Jesus.

With that in mind, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word?

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Mark 4:21–34 ESV

21 And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” 26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” 30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.

What is: Next Slide

The Purpose Of A Lamp. Mark 4:21 & 22; Luke 8:16 & 17

I mentioned a few weeks back that one of the reasons I wanted to take Liberty Chapel through The Gospel According to Mark, was that I had gone through this Gospel in my personal quiet time in the late 90’s. It was a very special time in God’s Word for me and I got the very real sense that God was speaking to me in a powerful way each time I opened His Word.

It was on Dec. 11, 1998 that I spent time in Mark 4:21-22. Steven had turned 8 the day before and was with me at home and Pam and Brittany, who at the time was 11 months old, were in Nebraska. Pam’s Dad was in his last days here on earth, God had just a few details remaining on his mansion in heaven, so during those last months, Pam went to NE to spend time with her parents several times. If my memory serves me correctly, this was her last visit before God chose to give her dad complete healing through death.

I would like to spend the next couple minutes reading my thoughts from my time in God’s Word that morning.

“So, what is the purpose of a lamp? Its ultimate purpose is to give light. To shed light on an area filled with darkness and shadows. As I write this, darkness covers the area I live in. It is early in the morning and as of yet, the sun has not risen. As I look out into the street, I see lights. Porch lights, lights on the front of garage doors, a streetlight flickering on and off. Without those lights there would be total darkness. The fact of the matter is, none of those lights are amazingly bright spotlights, they are probably 60-Watt bulbs. But in total darkness you see them clearly. Isn’t it amazing how small lights really stand out in darkness? Oh, they may not give you enough light to read or find a lost coin not under that light. But they do light the way.

In the mountains, about 100 miles or so from me, is a little eight-year-old boy who is lost. He has been lost for almost a week now and each night the temperatures have been dipping, the last two nights in the single digits. Freshly fallen snow covers his tracks even as he makes them. We don’t know if he is dead or alive at this time. I have prayed many times for he and his family.

Let me ask you a question right now. Let’s say that little boy is still alive, what would a porch light mean to him right now? Sure, it wouldn’t give him enough light to remove the splinter he may have gotten two days ago, it wouldn’t be bright enough for him to read a trail map. It wouldn’t even give light to his feet or the path in front of him. But if he could get to the source of that light, it would mean safety. It would mean warmth and comfort. It would mean soon he would be reunited with his mom and his dad. It would mean life.

Guess what? If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus, you are more important than a porch light to a little boy lost in a snowstorm. But there is a problem. What if that porch light is hidden behind glass painted black? It wouldn’t be visible would it. Sounds rather absurd, I mean no one paints the glass on the porch lights black! That would be a waste, why even turn the light on? The problem I wrote about earlier is this, the majority who claim to be Christians, constantly hide that life-saving light they are supposed to possess. How tragic! We live in a time when it is becoming increasingly darker every day, and most of those with God’s light inside of them are hiding that light. Jesus said, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?” The answer is of course “No”. Then the answer for you and me is, “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16). You may be thinking that your light is small and insignificant, it is no less significant than a porch light would be to a little eight-year-old boy lost in the mountains.”

So, the purpose of the lamp is to let it shine. That brings us to another question;

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Where Is The Lamp Most Effective? Matt. 5:16

Who all here remembers Bazooka Bubble gum? For those of you under the age of 40, Bazooka Bubble gum cost 1 penny when I was growing up and included a Bazooka Joe comic strip in each pack. Believe it or not, I actually recall one such comic strip. In the comic strip I remember, it was night time and Bazooka Joe’s friend Mort, who wore a red turtle neck that went all the way up and covered his mouth and nose, was looking for a lost coin. If I remember correctly, in the next scene Bazooka Joe leaves to get a flash light, when he returns Mort is looking for the lost coin under a street light. Bazooka Joe asks him why he was looking under the street light if he lost the coin where he was looking earlier? Mort responded, “It was so dark where I lost the coin that I couldn’t see, so I moved under the street light where I could see!”

That is actually a pretty good picture of what we as believers do when it comes to shining our light. The moment we walk into the door of the church, well God’s light shines brilliantly! Our smile is a little bigger, perhaps we tone down our language a bit, God’s light is prominently displayed. But that’s like me walking in the Fellowship Hall when all the lights are on with the screen light on my phone on, and I’m not talking about the little flashlight, I’m talking the screen light. That screen light is hardly noticeable because the room is already well lit.

So, back to the question, Where is the Lamp Most effective? Or to put it another way, Where should we shine our lights? The answer is, where it is dark. This is not to say the light of God shouldn’t be evident in us and on us at church, but if that is the only place His light shines, that would be like looking for a lost coin under a street light when we lost it over in the dark. In other words, the vast majority of individuals who attend church, already have, at least some knowledge of the Gospel. But what about our friends in the neighborhood, our co-worker, our fellow students, people we see at the grocery store or Walmart or restaurants, those we run into when we are out and about? That is where the light of God needs to shine brilliantly. And guess what, that isn’t as difficult as you may think. It might be bringing a meal to a neighbor when you know they are going through a tough time. Maybe mowing their lawn when you know they are going to be gone for a while. Maybe it is offering to babysit their kids for a night so mom and dad can go out on a special date night. Honestly, if you thought through it, you could probably come up with a good list of your own. Often times all it take is just keeping your eyes open for needs.

In Matthew 5:16 we read: Next Slide

“let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

This verse encapsulates us opening our eyes to needs around us and then doing good works that God’s light might shine through us. Which leads us to the next thing we see in verses 24 & 25, and that is: Next Slide

You Reap What You Sow. Mark 4:24 & 25

While Jesus isn’t specifically using an analogy of planting in these verses, that picture does fit with what we are reading. When it comes to Jesus light shining through us, the more we allow that light to shine, especially where it is dark, the more we can expect God’s blessing our efforts. That it what He is saying where we read: Next Slide

“with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” Mark 4:24(b)

In fact even more, God doesn’t just bless us only on what we plant, He blesses us beyond what we plant. That’s what we see in Jesus statement: Next Slide

“and still more will be added to you.” Mark 4:24(c)

Do you get the message here? The message here from Jesus, is that if we are faithful in planting seeds, in shining His light, His reward to us will go beyond just a normal yield. Remember the yield Jesus spoke of in the parable of the soils? A yield of 30, 60 and 100 fold, when the average yield in those days was 6-8 fold. That means that God is just waiting to bless us in huge ways, but if we aren’t planting seeds, if we aren’t shining His light, well Jesus addresses that at the end of verse 25 where we read: Next Slide

“and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Mark 4:25 (c)

In other words, not only will Jesus not bless us if we aren’t obediently planting seeds, obediently shining His light, He will withdraw whatever blessing we may think we have from God. Again I want to go back to what I have said over and over again as we have journeyed through the Gospel of Mark, if you have truly put your faith and trust in Jesus, you WILL live a transformed life, and a transformed life cannot help but plant seeds and shine His light.

This brings us to the next parable this morning, which we see in verses 26-29, where we see: Next Slide

The Mysterious Power Of The Seed. Mark 4:26-29

That is what the parable in versus 26-29 communicates, The Mysterious Power Of The Seed. Surely that is one of the reasons we are told to sow seeds, because there is power in the seed we cannot explain! Power we cannot understand! Power we cannot comprehend! In fact, as we look at verse 27, we read “night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows though he does not know how.” Did you catch that? “Whether he sleeps or gets up.” It is as if Jesus is telling us “You just sow seeds and leave the growing part to me!” The truth is, that sort of erases all sorts of myths that often times prevent us from sharing our faith.

“But God I really don’t know what to say!”

“Just sow seeds!”

“But God, what if they turn their back on me?”

“Just sow seeds.”

“But God, I really don’t understand the Word of God that well”

“Just sow seeds.”

It seems to me that much of the time we work harder at coming up with excuses than we do it sowing seeds. I don’t recall anywhere in Scripture of The Parable of The Life-changing Excuse! However, right here we have “The Parable of the Growing Seed.” So why don’t we stop concentrating on rotting excuses and put our energy into sowing seeds? One stinks, the other has mysterious and life-changing power. Which do you prefer? Stench or mysterious power?

Just sow seeds, and leave the rest in the Hands of Jesus, you know, the One Who created this magnificent world we live in, in just 6 days! I’m thinking He might be able to bring about growth in the seeds we plant.

Just Sow Seeds!

That brings us to the last of the parables included in Mark 4: Next Slide

The Parable Of The Mustard Seed. Mark 4:30-32

While the mustard seed is not the smallest seed known to man, at the time it was the smallest seed they would have been familiar with, and here Jesus is continuing His theme from the previous parable that there is miraculous power in the seed. A mustard seed was as small as a grain of sand, yet would produce a plant that grew to 15 feet high with branches that spread out so far that birds could nest in them.

This was a beautiful parable for the disciples. It was very likely that they were beginning to get discouraged. Here, Jesus had been spending 2 years of more, working miracle after miracle. Teaching with authority that had never been seen before, yet His true following was barely visible. Jesus encouragement to them was, “Just you watch and see! I am going to do things from this small uneducated band of misfit followers that will literally change the course of history. Millions upon millions of lives will be transformed by your message. 2,000 years from now people will speak of you, will study the Words I give you. Will marvel at My work through you!”

You and I are here today because of what Jesus did through these disciples. You know, there are times we may also get discouraged. We try to be faithful, try to sow seeds, to shine Jesus light, but we don’t always see the results we are hoping to. But God is working behind the scene in ways we cannot see. Our job is to remain faithful to His call, and leave the rest to Him. There will come a day when He opens our eyes to the reality of what He is doing, that may not take place until eternity, but He is still at work.

Just Sow Seeds.

Let’s close in prayer.

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