7-11-21 The Light of His Face; Mark 4:21-25

We’re back! Last week we looked at the parable of the sower (which is really the parable of the seed or the soil, technically), and we asked ourselves two questions; what kind of heart-soil do we have right now, today, and what kind of heart soil do we want to have moving forward, good or bad? Jesus is a great gardener, and if we’ll allow Him to, He will cultivate our hearts, soften them, and turn them into places where His word, His grace, and His love can flourish, grow, and produce the fruit of the Spirit. In other words, what will come out of us as we allow Jesus to work on our hearts each day will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This week, we’ll look at another parable of Jesus, the parable of the lamp. And during this parable, Jesus repeats a phrase He said during the last parable. How many of you know that if Jesus repeats something multiple times in the same passage, He probably wants us to get it. He reiterates it because it’s really important. During the parable of the sower, Jesus said Mark 4:9 NKJV And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” He repeats almost the exact same phrase shortly afterwards after He tells the next parable. Mark 4:23 NKJV “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” It is vitally important that when we hear the voice of God, we do what He says with an open heart and a humble attitude of praise and thanksgiving for who He is and all that He does for us. And with Jesus’ phrase ‘He who has ears to hear, let Him hear’ in mind, let’s pray and take a look at this next parable, the parable of the light under a basket. Father in Heaven, thank you for this time we have together. Holy Spirit, I ask you to come and manifest Your presence here today. Fall upon us as we open our ears, our eyes, and our hearts to what You want to say. I ask that you would continue to glorify Jesus Christ in this place, that You would help us grow in faithfulness, humility, love and maturity, and that You would fill us with the grace and power we need to keep growing in You. The Light of His Face | 1 Soften our hearts so that we would love what You love and hate what You hate; bring Your peace, Your joy, and Your healing to meet every need today as we open our hearts to You and choose to respond in faith to Your Word. Holy Spirit have Your way in this place this morning, in Jesus’ Name, amen. Today the passage is shorter than last week’s - so let’s take a look at the section and then break it down. Mark 4:21-25 NKJV Also 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? 22 For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. 25 For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” I don’t know about you, but I feel like most of the time I hear someone talk about this scripture about the lamp under the basket, the interpretation and application always goes this way: the light represents the gospel, the good news about Jesus. And as good Christians, we shouldn’t put the good news under a basket. In other words we shouldn’t keep the message to ourselves; we need to tell lots of other people about Jesus and the gospel and then we’ll be letting our light shine and setting it on a lampstand where people can see how bright the light of Jesus is and come to Him. It’s basically an evangelistic message, or a message to help inspire us to go share the gospel because the Bible says to. Has anyone ever heard this passage talked about that way before? The church has a lot of songs about this theme too (if you grew up in church) Shine by the Newsboys, Arise Shine (for light has come), Shine, Jesus, Shine, and more. Anyone? The Light of His Face | 2 Now I’m not putting that interpretation of this passage down. Of course it's true, we should be sharing what we have found in Jesus with other people. 2 Timothy 4:5 TLB Stand steady, and don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Bring others to Christ.” It’s a good thing to tell others about Jesus as the Lord leads. The hope is that over the course of conversation with someone God will give us opportunities to talk about Him, or as they see our lives, how we live and love that they will ask questions about why we operate that way, why we love them, why we care. And this idea totally comes from Jesus. In Matthew’s account of this parable, He quotes Jesus Matthew 5:14-16 NKJV “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. I don’t have time to go into a study of the differences between Jesus saying this phrase during the sermon on the Mount and the passage here in Mark. It doesn’t really matter that much, because, like I said, that interpretation is totally legitimate and correct. But I think that Jesus was saying a lot more than just ‘go talk about Jesus’ in this parable. It goes a lot deeper than that if we care to look. Today I want us to talk a little more in depth about the lamp and what it means to us. As you read the Bible, you’ll see that lamps appear a lot (or shine?) in both the Old Testament and the New. And one thing that a lamp stands for is the message of repentance and salvation that God has brought us through Jesus Christ. This goes with the interpretation I just mentioned. How do we know? Because the Bible says that John the Baptist was a lamp. John 5:35 HCSB John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a time you were willing to enjoy his light.” The Light of His Face | 3 When the Bible says that John was a lamp, it doesn’t mean he stood there and held a torch at night. It means that his message of repentance and reconciliation to God is the starting point for a relationship with God. And we don’t want to stifle the message of repentance, put it under a bushel or a basket, cover it up, or quit talking about it because it’s important. It’s very important that we do all we can to direct people away from hell and eternal death into eternal life in Jesus Christ. Sadly, there are some churches where the message of John the Baptist, the message of repentance (both when we come to Jesus initially for salvation and when we mess up as His followers and need to clear the air to return to deep fellowship and intimacy) is completely left out. It never gets talked about. And when that truth is neglected, it creates a false gospel, this weird message that says we’re basically good already as humans, and God invites people to heaven with no questions asked as long as we want to go there instead of the other place. It's actually a message of secular humanism, not of Christianity because it says we don’t need a Savior, we don’t need God to be holy, moral, good, or saved. The problem is that this version of the gospel without repentance of sin totally discounts Jesus, His work on the cross, the deep love that God has for you, me, and the entire human race, and God’s hatred of things that hurt people. And that’s without even bringing up the fact that hell is a real place and people will go there if they don’t repent, or ask God for forgiveness of sins, turn to Jesus and follow Him. When that message is left out, the lamp of John the Baptist, the light of his message of repentance and forgiveness is totally covered up by a bushel and not talked about. My point here is that we never want to forget the way we came into relationship with Jesus - by repentance of sin and forgiveness by the cross. The Light of His Face | 4 And we never want to forget to live and walk in a lifestyle of repentance, shifting and turning as God makes us mature and speaks to us by His Spirit and His Word. Maybe you’re here today and you’ve never told God you’re sorry for missing His moral standard, for failing to be perfect, for sin and never accepted Jesus as Your Savior. If so, don’t let another day go by without calling out to God, telling Him you’re sorry and accepting His free gift of grace, mercy, love, and eternal life through Jesus Christ. Many of us here would be happy to lead you in a salvation prayer after service if you fall into that category. But one application of the parable of the lamp is that the light of the salvation message, the message that repentance is necessary to have a relationship with the Perfect, Most Holy God of the Universe who created all things is sometimes covered up, and that’s a problem. Another thing the lamp can represent is God Himself. By that I mean the Bible says that Jesus is a lamp, and if we’re not careful, we can cover Him up, we can stifle what He wants to do in us and through us and stop all of the growth and outflow He wants us to walk in. In Revelation, John writes about the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is the eternal dwelling place of God’s people. It can represent both the church now and where we’ll go in the future. It’s where God’s people can live in unbroken fellowship with Him.1 Revelation 21:23 NLT “And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light.” So, first, we don’t want to cover up the salvation message in our lives, but we also don’t want to cover up the light of Jesus Christ in us! Yes, we shine our lights - but that is actually Jesus shining Himself through us by the power of the Holy Spirit! 1 Hayford, Jack W., editor. New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, NLT, P1719, footnote on 21:1,2. Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2013. The Light of His Face | 5 Jesus is greater than John the Baptist; The lamp and message of Jesus, of who He is, shines brighter than the message of John the Baptist and who he is. And the light of Jesus, or His lamp within us, shouldn’t be covered up! To say that in a different way, I mean that once we’ve come to salvation and begin walking with Jesus, we shouldn’t shrink back, we shouldn’t allow our relationship with God to get old, stale, or boring. We should let God’s light shine in our hearts so we can bask in the glow of His love, His healing touch, His peace, joy, and new, resurrection life, available to us right now as long as we don’t put it under the basket of our victim mentality, our pride, our comfort, our reputation, our greed, or whatever heart attitudes or fleshly desires pop up in opposition to it. Remember that God wants the fruit of the Spirit to grow in our hearts. If you forgot about your high school science class, I’m sorry in advance; but plants, especially those plants that produce fruit, need sunlight to grow. The sun provides energy through light radiation. This light energy helps plants grow by providing them with the power to convert carbon dioxide into sugar, which is how they develop and produce fruit.2 And the light coming from Jesus' face, the prefect, holy, loving, Lamb of God does the same thing to our hearts; it provides energy so good spiritual fruit can grow and develop in the soil of our heart. If we look back at the scripture where Jesus said that John was a light, He goes on to say that He Himself is a greater light. John 5:35-36 NKJV He [John] was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. 36 But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. [...] 2 UCSB ScienceLine. UCSB ScienceLine, 3 11 2014, http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=4646. The Light of His Face | 6 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. In other words, it’s Jesus and a relationship with Him that gives life. Jesus is the light that provides life; He provides everything we need to have new, eternal life right now. Repentance and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is, of course, the starting point. We have to receive the seed of the kingdom of God. But it’s only by walking with Jesus daily, letting His light shine on us and over us and into our hearts; it is through continual relationship with Him that we are able to ‘keep the light on’ so to speak, and to grow the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus said not to put the lamp under a basket. Don’t put Jesus-in-you under a bushel. Don’t cover Him up, don’t censor Him. Mark 4:21 NKJV Also 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? Yes, the lamp represents Jesus. But it also represents the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is the One who lives within us. We don’t have time today to do an in-depth study of the Trinity, where they all live and how they are separate personalities but the same and in unity as One. The tri-unity of God is one of the greatest divine mysteries there is. The nature of God cannot be translated into a simplistic formula anymore than the ocean can be transferred into a teacup. When the apostles began to preach the gospel and write epistles, they didn’t waver in declaring The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as God. But they also viewed the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit as One.3 My entire point of bringing up the Trinity is just to say that when the lamp refers to Jesus, it’s also referring to the Holy Spirit. 3 Duffield, Guy P., and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, P73-77. vol. 1, Los Angeles, CA, Foursquare Media, 1983, 2016. 2 vols. The Light of His Face | 7 We also see repeatedly in the Bible the Holy Spirit is often symbolized by fire. Remember how tongues of fire came on the disciples when they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? Yes, we do receive the Holy Spirit at salvation for sanctification and to lead us deeper into relationship with Jesus, but there is also a separate baptism into the Holy Spirit unto empowerment, witness, boldness, and increased anointing for daily spiritual service. I love what Charles Spurgeon said about this verse about putting the lamp under a bed; he said, “If [the lamp] were put under a bed, it would set the bed on fire! And so, if you have true grace in your heart, there is nothing that can smother its light; the fire and the light together will force their way out.”4 We talk a lot here about how the word ‘ministry’ actually means an overflow; it’s the outflow of what God has done in us escaping from our hearts in our day-to-day lives. And as the Holy Spirit is allowed to have His way in us, He, with His tongues of consuming fire, falls upon us and causes us to share the light of God’s presence and the warmth of His gaze with everyone we come into contact with because there’s nothing else we can do! If we think of the light, or the lamp, as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ living in us, how much more will we want to avoid covering Him up! 1 Thessalonians 5:19 AMP “Do not quench [subdue, or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit.” Jesus' message of the lamp is repeated here in 1 Thessalonians; don’t be unresponsive to the work of the Holy Spirit in You, don’t allow your heart to get rocks or stones in it, don’t starve the fruit of the Spirit by depriving the seeds of God’s light. If you do, the bed might catch on fire and burn your entire house down! How do we stop that from happening? Well, we look to Jesus. 4 Spurgeon, Charles. Mark: A Trusted Commentary, P52. David Turner. Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/read/371706495/Mark-A-Trusted-Commentary. The Light of His Face | 8 The lamp represents the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God Himself, but it also represents what we look at, or what we fill our vision with. In other words, a lamp also represents our eyes. This is only halfway referring to our physical eyes; but our eyes represent what we see, what we look at, what we take in, where we go, and what we desire. Jesus says Matthew 6:22 AMP “The eye is the lamp of the body; so if your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive], your whole body will be full of light [benefiting from God’s precepts].” Remember, the big theme is ‘he who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ The point is that if we continue to look at Jesus, and keep our eyes on Him, it will fill our entire body with His grace and glory, including our eyes and ears. We’ll be able to see Jesus better and hear Him better, too. Some ways we cover the lamps of our eyes come through the media we take in. What are you looking at consistently? Do you have your eyes on Jesus consistently or something else? Does what you look at feed the fire of the burning lamp or does it put a bushel on top of it? Another way we can cover up our eyes is by what we look forward to. What kinds of activities do you wait for in anticipation and get excited about? Now, I’m not saying that we can’t anticipate vacations, time with family, outings, downtime, or other fun activities. I’m just saying that ultimately our anticipation, expectation, and what we really want to be looking forward to is Jesus Christ and His coming. Titus 2:12-14 NLT “And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.” You will see a theme repeated here in Titus - we first turn from our sins and repent (baptism of John), and then come to Jesus to receive life, and then live The Light of His Face | 9 our lives full of the Holy Spirit while we continue to look at and anticipate the return of Jesus in physical form. Remember, where we are going with our lives is very important. I said it last week; but God is not so much interested in who you are right now, today, as He is interested in who you are becoming. Jerry Cook said it this way - “as a pastor, I am not in the least concerned about who you ought to be. I am concerned with who you truly are in Jesus Christ. I want to help you live out the new you. It’s natural. It’s so natural, it’s supernatural!”5 The point is that we need to focus our eyes on what we’re becoming, on who we are in Christ, on the light of God found in Jesus and the Holy Spirit. A few last things that lamps symbolize in Scripture before I move on; a lamp symbolizes spiritual readiness. Luke 12:35 ESV “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning.” In other words, don’t stifle your ability to be ready to do what God wants you to do - keep your light shining and your lamp burning. Lastly, a lamp can symbolize the word of prophecy. 2 Peter 1:19 HCSB “So we have the prophetic word strongly confirmed. You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dismal place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” The prophetic word being talked about here is from God the Father, in Matthew 17:5 NKJV While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” It’s a reiteration of the same message again - if we have ears to hear, then let’s really do the best we possibly can to listen to what God is trying to tell us! 5 Cook, Jerry. The Holy Spirit: So...What's the Big Deal?, P61. North Charleston, SC, CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2013. The Light of His Face | 10 Now all of this talk about lamps leads Jesus into His next statement in Mark. You might have caught His meaning in context from that passage in Titus about how one day our hope, Jesus Christ, will be totally revealed for everyone to see, not just us who have our eyes focused on Him right now. Jesus says, Mark 4:22 NKJV “For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.” Let me tell you what Jesus does NOT mean. He doesn’t mean that He is going to completely expose every bad thought you’ve ever had, every secret sin you’ve ever done, and every other way you’ve failed. Remember, in context we’re talking about seeds and lamps, not the final judgment day. God will judge those who don’t put their faith in Christ based on everything they have ever done. But He won’t judge believers that way. 1 John 2:12 AMP “I am writing to you, little children (believers, dear ones), because your sins have been forgiven for His name’s sake [you have been pardoned and released from spiritual debt through His name because you have confessed His name, believing in Him as Savior].” God does not go back on His word. You don’t need to be scared today because of this verse that Jesus is going to expose all the areas of your life that you don’t have completely together and expose your failures to everyone when you get to heaven. Not gonna happen. No, in this passage Jesus is talking about the hidden things of God. His hidden truths and all of the amazing and awesome things about who God is and what He’s done and how He operates. And all of the mysteries of God will be revealed, the ultimate truth that Jesus is the One, True, Almighty God will come to light, and His glory and majesty will shine forth to give us eternal life and light. After God fulfills His great and precious promise to show Himself to everyone, after God reveals Himself, the fullness of His plans in us and for us, and The Light of His Face | 11 the purpose of life, time, space, and eternity for all to see, (our purpose is to love God and worship Him forever), everyone on earth will see and know the Ultimate Truth and bow before the King of Heaven. Philippians 2:10 GNT “And so, in honor of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees.” And as the people in Jesus’ day are listening to Him speak about how all the mysteries of God will eventually be revealed and try to start wrapping their heads around what He’s actually saying, Jesus adds something. He adds something about the way we listen to Him, about the way we hear God. Mark 4:24-25 NKJV Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. 25 For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” Why would Jesus talk about stewardship, or what we do with what we hear, after talking about how God is eventually going to reveal Himself to everyone one day? Because if we don’t listen to what God says, if we don’t steward His word to us, if we close our ears to what He’s saying, then we miss out on His presence, we miss out on His light. We miss out on the abundant, vibrant, new life He offers in the light of His face. We have to live without His presence! You may remember the story of Jonah - I don’t have time to go into it all today; but God told Jonah to do something. He told Him to go preach to the city of Nineveh. It was a city full of people Jonah hated, and so he didn’t obey. He ignored God’s voice and didn’t steward what God said. And when he did that, he was no longer in God’s presence. When we disobey, when we don’t heed, when we ignore what God has said to us, we’re actually fleeing, running from God’s presence! Jonah 1:3 ESV “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to The Light of His Face | 12 Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” God spoke to Jonah and he ignored it. I don’t want to disobey, and I don’t want to live away from the presence of God. God spoke to Jonah with His voice, but when Jonah didn’t heed God’s voice, or pay close attention to what God was saying, God then spoke to him through circumstances. If you feel like you’re not hearing His voice today, maybe you need to look at your circumstances and see if you can gain any insight through them. Has God spoken anything to you that you haven’t obeyed? What’s the last thing God told you to do that you didn’t do? Go back to the last thing God told you to do and do it! We have to be good stewards and obey when God speaks. Take heed how you hear!6 I will add it’s also important to keep a proper, God-centric perspective on what we hear. You might hear something like, “You’re going to minister to thousands,” Or, “I’m going to use you to minister to people struggling with [whatever]. Ask yourself, as you think about God’s word, are you putting the emphasis on yourself or on other people? Joseph told his dream about being in charge of his family to his brothers and it was actually a dream from God. By the way, dreams aren’t always from God, but sometimes they are. God can speak to us in dreams. That doesn’t mean every dream is from God. But in this case, God wasn’t telling Joseph his brothers were going to serve him. He was telling him that he was going to be in leadership. Do you understand the difference? One is all about being served, the other is about serving. I’ve said this before; but to quote Robert Morris, “Leadership in the kingdom is not about how many people you can get to serve you! It’s about how many people you can serve!” 6 Morris, Robert. “Steward His Spoken Word.” Sermon 6 of a 7-part Series: Frequency. Gateway Legacy Library, Gateway Church, 4 June 2016, https://app.gatewaylegacylibrary.com/legacy-library/2/sermon/1621. Pastor's Notes. The Light of His Face | 13 And so today, I want us to close by taking some time to listen. God has given us His light, He has brought us into His kingdom for His purposes and His plans. He wants us to share His light with others by the overflow of who we are and by the growth of His fruit of the Spirit in us. And so the question today is; what is God speaking to you that you need to heed today? What are you hearing? How are you interpreting it today? Have you been living in the light of His presence and allowing His fruit to grow in You? God may speak words of comfort, peace, or affirmation to you today. He might be telling you to do something specific in your life or circumstances, He might put someone on your heart to reach out to or to pray for. He might show you an area where you’ve been messing things up so you can repent and move forward in a different direction. Whatever it is, listen to His voice, obey, and invite His presence to come, invite Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit again so you can bask in the light of His glory and love. I want you to stay seated for now as I sing this song over us. The words will be on the screen, and you can sing along if you want to; but I would really prefer that you take this as a time of reflection and a time to focus on hearing from the Holy Spirit. You may want to close your eyes and/or take a posture of prayer. Then after the song, I’ll pray and Pastor Autumn will come and share what’s on her heart. OK? The Light of His Face | 14