And He was saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." 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. "For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him” (Mark 4:21-25 NAS95).
At first blush, this passage says some things that are hard for the casual reader to pick up on. The first part is easy enough; you obviously don’t put a lamp under anything. You put a lamp on a stand or table so the light can illuminate the room.
The next part is a little more obscure. That is nothing is hidden except to be revealed. You would think the reason you would hide something is to keep it hidden. Therefore, one can assume, the hiding is only for a specific time period or perhaps listening audience, or both.
The first clue as to this meaning follows immediately after when he says, If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. It seems reasonable not to think He is teaching people how to use a lamp. Instead, He is using the lamp to illustrate the importance of a parable He has just taught—the parable of the soils or sower depending on your viewpoint.
That parable gives a simple agricultural example of sowing seed and how where it falls determines whether it produces fruit or not. He spoke the parable so that the lost leaders would not understand.
Note: As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN" (Mark 4:10-12 NAS95).
Why would Jesus do this? It seems likely they had committed an unpardonable sin, and that He would now hide the truth from them in parables. You see, The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons" (Mark 3:22 NAS95).
So Jesus goes on to say, And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. "If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! "But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit" (Mark 3:23-30 NAS95).
With that background, we can begin to look for connections as the word parable means to lay-along-side. What was being laid along side what? It seems likely, at least in a loose sense, the lost leaders fall into the category of bad soils. If this is true, then it is not hard to see the disciples as those who could be categorized as good soil—fruit producing soil.
Now the disciples didn’t understand the parable at first either. It was for them that the mystery of the kingdom of God would be explained. It is after that explanation that He tells them the parable of the lamp.
While things had been hidden in the past, it is now time to let the light shine in the world. The disciples are being told, now is the time to proclaim Jesus. They didn’t have the whole message yet, however, they had enough to know Jesus was the messiah. Unlike the lost leaders, who thought they were right about Jesus being evil, the disciples were being encouraged to sow the true message about Jesus, the Word or the seed, knowing some of it would fall on good soil and produce fruit. Jesus’ true identity was hidden to the lost leaders, but was now being taught to the disciples. Perhaps, more importantly, this marked for the disciples a clear point of demarcation—the lost leaders in one camp and the disciples in another.
To drive His point home, Jesus says, "Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. "For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him." (Mark 4:24-25 NAS95)
In other words, listen carefully and apply what you have learned. If you do apply these words, then even more will be given to, unlike the lost leaders, who will be shut out from now on.
As believers what can we take away from this? First, how blessed we are to know the truth about Jesus Christ our Savior. Believers have an understanding that comes from God. The truth has set us free. We did not acquire that truth through superior intellect. No, we were dead in trespasses and sin like all men when God made us alive and raised us up (Eph. 2:1-6)
Second, we have a privilege and responsibility to sow the Gospel seed. The parable of the sower describe the natural outworking of the Gospel in agrarian terms. A sower sows the Gospel seed, it falls on bad and good soil, the good soil produces fruit—more sowers in this case, and cycle continues.
Third, it is God that produces the increase. Don’t try to force it. Our responsibility is to sow good seed—the true Gospel message. The natural outworking of love causes us to seek success. We want to see people saved—its a natural response. This is a good thing as long as it doesn’t cause us to modify the message. We should never contextualize the Gospel in an effort to see more people saved. That does the lost no favors as it plays into the hands of the enemy. Never placate a guilty conscience. If God is convicting them, their hope is in Jesus Christ—not a false gospel. God has His elect; and they will be saved. Trust in God’s sovereignty, and scatter as much seed as possible.
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