Pay Attention to What You Hear
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Mark chapter 4.
The Gospel of Mark introduces us to the person of Jesus with these words.
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The book begins with a truth claim about the identity of Jesus and as the story unfolds, Mark makes a case for that truth claim by pointing us to both Jesus’ actions and Jesus’ teaching.
Mark points us to Jesus’ authority to cast out demons, heal sicknesses, forgive sins, and to teach with authority.
In Mark chapter 3 we learn not only from Jesus’ actions, but we learn from how different groups of people respond to Jesus.
The crowds are pressing in on him to benefit from his miracles.
His own family is calling him crazy.
The religious elite are accusing him of being demonic.
Out of the hundreds and thousands who are hearing Jesus teach…, it seems that only a few of his closer disciples are actually listening to what Jesus has to say.
chapter 4 transitions into one of Jesus’ more famous parables, and the parable itself explains whats happening in Jesus’ ministry.
Last week Stephen walked us through this parable about a sower who sows his fields with seed.
some seed falls on hard ground
some seed falls on shallow ground
some seed fell on thorny ground
and some seed fell on good soil.
And so it is with the word of God.
When the message of God is shared.. that word falls on hard hearts, shallow hearts, distracted hearts… and by God’s grace, the word of God also falls on soft hearts.
The kingdom of God that Jesus is ushering into the world is very much a kingdom that is spread by the teaching and the explaining of the Word of God.
From the beginning of Mark, Jesus has made clear that it is his teaching ministry that is primary in the kingdom expanding work.
People must hear and rightly respond to a message from God.
and that is exactly the point of the parable that Mark transitions to now in verse 21 of chapter 4.
So lets read, and then pray that we might have ears to hear.
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.”
Lets Read
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.
In this short parable, Jesus asks a rhetorical question designed to provoke a negative answer.
Is a lamp brought into be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?
The answer is “of course not”
A lamp performs a particular function.
It illuminates its surroundings so that what was hidden by darkness, now may be seen in the light.
To hide a lamp or cover up a lamp would be foolish.
To do so would be to miss entirely and neglect the very purpose of the lamp.
In this parable, Jesus identifies himself and his mission with the lamp.
The lamp’s purpose is to illuminate that which was hidden, but may now be seen.
Jesus’ purpose is to illuminate that which was hidden, but may now be seen.
Truth #1 Jesus Brought Light into the Darkness
Truth #1 Jesus Brought Light into the Darkness
This is the work of God and has been from the beginning.
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
God created a world where light is necessary to see and to know reality as it is.
God created light by the word of his mouth… He is the ultimate illuminator of all creation.
God designed the human eye to need light in order to see reality clearly.
The eye, by itself cannot see without an substance from outside of itself.
The eye needs light to reflect off of reality and back into the eye.
God made it this way… We are creatures who are in need of light by our very nature.
We do not naturally know things in perfection, nor can we see reality without grace that comes from outside of ourselves.
The Gospel of John says that the same illuminating power of God seen in creation… is now seen in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus, the divine Son of the Father, came to illuminate for us what we could not see and he came to make known what we could not know.
In his teaching, in his ministry, in his death and resurrection… Jesus came to make manifest the plan of God and the personhood of God.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
There is a reason that darkness is most often symbolic for evil.
Darkness conceals reality.
Darkness makes it possible to believe a lie rather than the truth.
Darkness is dangerous for us… It causes us to lose our way and to walk ourselves into destruction.
All of us were born into a kind of spiritual darkness which haunts us.
We are blinded and we progress through life without any answers to our soul’s most pressing questions....
Our souls cry out in confusion:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Who is God?
What is he like?
Where can I find joy?
Where can I find peace?
Why is this world so broken?
What happens when I die?
What should I be doing while I live?
Without some divine light outside of ourselves we go on fumbling around in the darkness of our own depression..
Our uncomfortability with the darkness whispers to us that we were made for the light....
Our inward yearning for purpose, for eternity, for life more abundantly, whispers to us that there may be a God who has put eternity into our hearts.
Perhaps the darkness is so inwardly and outwardly destructive to us, because deep down there is an awareness that we were made for the light.
Light reveals reality…
Light brings our beliefs and our actions in line with what is true..
Light brings life, and leads to life.
Light illuminates the reality around us and in us for what it really is.
And Jesus claims to be that light.
He claims to be the lamp which should be hoisted onto a stand to bring illumination into darkness.
45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.
46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
Jesus began his ministry in the Gospel of Mark by proclaiming the message of the Kingdom of God.
He began to reveal answers to some of life’s biggest questions.
He began to point people to what God was doing in the world.... and how people could join God in his kingdom expanding work.
Jesus began to teach about faith, repentance, and the forgiveness of sin.
With ever miracle, healing, and demon exorcism, Jesus pushed back darkness and revealed the type of kingdom that God was going to bring into the world fully and finally.
Jesus taught what it mean to be a part of the people of God… and he showed what the God of the people was like.
When we look to Jesus, we see God in human flesh. We see God embodied.
We see that he is righteous, loving, compassionate, merciful, and personable.
The whole world is roaming about in darkness, feeling worthless, aimless, and depressed because they are unable to bring their lives in line with ultimate reality .
But Jesus came to reveal what ultimate reality is and will be for all eternity.
But Jesus is the light into our darkness, only according to whether we actually listen to his words.
Jesus changes quickly from a seeing analogy, to a command to hear....
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.
Truth #2 Light is for the Listener
Truth #2 Light is for the Listener
Jesus illuminates with his words that must be heard.
Jesus now offers a command “PAY ATTENTION to what you hear!”
in other words take seriously what I say.
Think deeply, and critically, and carefully over what you hear.
Consider the teaching of Jesus, its meaning, its implications for your life and for the lives of others.
ask questions,
seek answers,
strive for understanding.
Wrestle with God over what is true and what is not true.
Jesus invites your wrestling and your wondering and your pondering.
There are no questions that God is scared of....
There are no inquiries that he will judge you for…
He desires for you to seek him in humility and to pay careful attention to what he says.
He wants you to not only hear, but to listen… that is to hear, and think, and respond rightly.
and according to Jesus in this verse, you will be rewarded.
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.
Jesus suggests that with the diligence in which you seek clarity and understanding from Jesus…, God will grant you clarity and understanding .
With the measure that you pursue light and revelation from God’s Word, God is pleased to grant you light and revelation from God’s Word.
“with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”
We absolutely believe that our salvation is by grace alone..
There is nothing we could do to earn our salvation..
Our salvation is a miracle of God. The only way we would ever have ears to hear, is that God would give us ears to hear.
But there is a principle at work here that says we will gain understanding in correlation with our legitimate, humble, and submissive search for understanding.
There are rewards,
There are treasures,
There are blessings, that flow from our seeking, and our meditating, and our reading, and our praying, and our listening.
This is a principle that is consistently taught in correlation with God’s Word.
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
What correlation are you supposed to walk away with in this text?
Blessing, holy living, delight, plantedness, fruitfulness, and prospering flows in correlation to meditation on the instruction of the Lord day and night.
The more we seek God’s will in his Word, the more we find joy in God’s will found in God’s word.
We often don’t know what to do with passages that encourage us to seek, ask and knock… but I think in context, the good gifts God promises upon our seeking, is simply more of God… more light to walk in in this life.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Do you hear what the gift is that we ask for and which God gives?
It’s not a Ferrari… It’s not a new job… Its the Holy Spirit…
Its more of God.
It is an absolute shame how many people have a shallow relationship with God… a very fruitless/ non-existent prayer life…, a very absent disciple-making life… because you don’t want it.... your not asking for it… your not yearning for it… your not listening.... your not paying careful attention to what God is saying.
You don’t have ears to hear…, because in your pride, your lusts, your sin, your independence… you just don’t want to hear what God might have to say.
But its even more heartbreaking how many people just give no deep consideration to God at all.
It is amazing to me how many people just live day to day trying to survive another day.
They don’t know if there is a God, and if there is one, they don’t really care what he has to say anyway.
It is amazing how sinful and how blind we are by our own very nature so that we just don’t care to even ask questions about where we will spend or where our families and our children will spend eternity.
And this leads me to the last verse and truth #3.
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.”
Truth #3 Failure to Listen Leads to Darkness
Truth #3 Failure to Listen Leads to Darkness
Jesus essentially says, the person who does not pay attention, who does not come to the light of Christ Jesus…, any understanding, any light that he might have will be taken away from him.
I don’t know how to take this verse without assuming that Jesus is speaking about eternal realities.
The one who has paid attention, who has faith in Jesus, who has seen by the light of the lamp… more will be given to him..
In other words, the one who pay’s attention and listens to the words of Jesus will gain more understanding… and I think that is true both in this life and in eternity.
One of the most precious promises in the Scriptures is that we will one day see Jesus face to face and we shall no longer experience the darkness of misunderstanding or lack of knowledge.
We shall know God as God intended for us to know him.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
Revelation 22 sort of symbolically speaks to this reality by saying that the new heavens and earth will not have any darkness in it at all.
Revelation 22:5 (ESV)
5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
One day we will walk in total clarity.
We will know God, and ourselves, and our purpose for existing.
We will live always in the light of Jesus Christ.
The promise is glorious but the alternative is almost more than we can bare.
The opposite of eternal life in an eternal light… is eternal death in an eternal darkness.
Jesus taught consistently, that failure to hear and respond to God’s word would result in the loss of the opportunity forever.
11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Hell is described in many ways throughout the New Testament.
It is a place of fire and torment for those who refused to the one true God.
But one of the ways that hell is repeatedly described is a place of out darkness.
It is a place where the luxury of seeing by any sort of light is removed. It is a place of separation from the source of all truth and goodness.
As Jesus says, even the understanding, and hearing, and seeing, that you have will be taken from you in the final judgment.
Hell therefore becomes the place where people are given over to their own desires to dwell in the darkness.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Those who loved living in the dark in this life, therefore, will have taken from them all light fully and finally in the next.
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.”
God has designed it by his sovereign will… that salvation require listening to His Word and trusting it.
We must hear and embrace the message of God’s great salvation for us.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
If this is true there are two simple takeaways this morning.
#1 Pay Attention to the Word of Christ
#1 Pay Attention to the Word of Christ
For the non-Christian, that means for the first time this morning, you need to actually listen to the message of God…, and humble yourself to listen.
For the Christian, that means stop taking for granted the fact that God is a speaking God. He reveals himself in his written word. We should be a listening people. We should listen to God’s word daily, deeply, and expectantly.
“with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
#2 Speak the Word of Christ
#2 Speak the Word of Christ
If God eternally saves people from the eternal consequence of hell through the hearing and believing of a message.
Then it is absolutely absurd that we would be hold that message to ourselves out of fear of having uncomfortable conversations.
We need to be a people who speak about the word of Christ continuously not only with one another but with those who God has placed into our lives who are walking in darkness.
Jesus is the light of the world, but Jesus said that he is now sending you into the world as lights.
Jesus uses the same analogy in Matthew, not to refer to himself, but to refer to his followers who will represent him.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus intends to push back the darkness in the lives of those around you through you who have the light of the word of Christ.
Pay Attention to the Word of Christ
Speak the Word of Christ.
Here is the word of Christ.
God created us.
We have all sinned against our Creator.
We are born into a broken sin-stricken world, spiritually dead and destined to run from God forever.
But God, being rich in mercy with the great love with which he loved us makes us alive in Christ Jesus.
He sent Jesus, God in human flesh, to reveal to us who he is, and to live the human life we failed to live, and die the human death we deserved to die.
On the cross, Jesus took the punishment for our rebellion and three days later he rose from the grave victorious over the darkness and over the penalty for our sin.
And he invites you to believe in him, and to follow him, and to receive forgiveness and eternal life forever.
He invites you to walk in relationship with him now and for eternity.
You have only to confess your sins to God, turn away from the darkness and turn to Jesus in faith. Trust him with your life and follow him as Lord.
23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Lets pray