Attention Required!

ATTENTION REQUIRED!

An Exposition of Mark 4:21-25

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   March 1, 2020

Series: Mark: Knowing and Following God’s Son

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

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.” (Mark 4:21-25)

THE PRIORITY AND URGENCY OF HEARING

When Jesus told that first parable in verses 3-8, the first thing He said was: “Listen!” (Mark 4:3) Then after He finished that first parable, He exhorted the people to “hear” (Mark 4:9). The parable itself is about how people “hear the word” (Mark 4:16, 18, 20) and whether or not they hear it with true understanding (Mark 4:11-12).

When Jesus finishes explaining the parable about the four soils in verse 20 and then tells us the parables about the lamp and the measure in verses 21-25, He is still pressing home the priority and urgency of hearing. After the parable about the lamp, Jesus says in verse 23: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Verse 23 is an almost word-for-word restatement of verse 9: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Listen! Hear! Let these words sink into you and transform you from the inside out.

Then in the next verse – verse 24 – just before the parable about the measure, Jesus says: “Pay attention to what you hear.” The word that is translated ‘pay attention’ literally means ‘look at’ or ‘see’. The idea is: look closely at what you hear; really see what you hear. In other words, focus your eyes on the teaching, pay careful attention to it, and make sure that you are seeing it with true spiritual perception. 

So as you can hopefully see, verses 21-25 continue to press home the theme of diligently hearing God’s Word. “Pay attention”! Hence my sermon title: Attention Required! 

The parable about the lamp in verses 21-22 gives us one very important reason to attentively hear God’s Word. And the parable about the measure in verses 24-25 give us another very important reason to attentively hear God’s Word.

THE PARABLE ABOUT THE LAMP

First, let’s consider the parable about the lamp in verses 21-22. Listen to what Jesus says:

“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.” (v. 21-22)

The metaphor itself is easy to understand. Whether you are talking about an oil-burning lamp of the ancient world or an electricity-powered lamp of today, a lamp isn’t brought into a room in order to hide its light. The whole point of the lamp coming into the room is to shine light throughout the room and make everything in the room visible. So the lamp is put in a prominent location – “on a stand” or on a table – and its light enlightens the whole room. When the light of the lamp is shining, “nothing is hidden” but everything becomes visible; nothing remains “secret” but everything is revealed. The lamp comes into the room to light up the room, and therefore everything in the room is brought into the light.

Now the question is: How does this metaphor help to illustrate the reality of God’s kingdom?

Let’s start with the lamp. When we think about the lamp, we should be thinking about the light, about the revelation of truth. So what is the lamp in God’s kingdom? The basic idea is clear: the lamp refers to Jesus and His Word.  

In one sense, the lamp of verse 21 corresponds to the word of verse 14: the lamp is the word that gives light. But we can’t separate the word about God’s kingdom from the King of God’s kingdom. In Mark 1, King Jesus “[proclaims] the gospel of God” (Mark 1:14). In Mark 2, “he was preaching the word to [the people]” (Mark 2:2). In Mark 3, Jesus taught the Pharisees (in v. 1-6), the scribes (in v. 22-30), and His disciples (in v. 31-35). Here in Mark 4, Jesus teaches the large crowd in verses 1-9, and then in verses 10-20 He explained things “privately to his own disciples” (Mark 4:34). In the parable about the four soils, “The sower sows the word.” (Mark 4:14) While this sower who sows the word might be legitimately applied to any faithful preacher of the gospel, we must understand that Jesus is the perfect and ultimate preacher and teacher. He not only proclaims the Word; He is the Word! Jesus is “the Word” (John 1:1) who displays the Father’s glory (John 1:14). Jesus is “[the] true light” (John 1:9) – “the light of the world” (John 8:12). Jesus is “the truth” (John 14:6) and He came “to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37). On the cross, Jesus displayed God’s great love for sinners: He paid the price for our redemption, so that everyone who takes refuge in Him is released from the debt of sin and is adopted into God’s forever family and transformed by the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8).

Just as the lamp comes into the room in order to light up the room, so that everything in the room is made visible, so Jesus came into the world in order to light up the world, so that everything in the world is made visible.

Which brings us to the next question: What are the “hidden” and “secret” things that “come to light”? The light of the lamp in verse 21 has the effect of revealing the “hidden” and “secret” things in verse 22: “For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.”

Consider the effect of light. One of the thing that strikes me about the lamp metaphor is how a lamp in a room shows you what is in the room. Picture a room that is dirty and disorganized. Now so long as the room is under the cover of darkness, no one can see the cobwebs, the thick dust, the carpet stains, the hole in the window, and so on. In fact, as long as the room is under the cover of darkness, people can keep telling themselves how wonderful and clean and spacious and inviting the room is. The deception works as long as people are in the dark: the dirt is hidden, the disorganization is secret, the depraved condition of the room is unknown. But when the lamp comes into the room, the nice little game is over: the hidden things are “made manifest” and the secret things “come to light.” Of course, it is entirely possible that parts of the room are quite lovely, and the light would also make the loveliness visible.

How does this relate to the reality of God’s kingdom? In the same way that the light of the lamp shows you the condition of a room, so the light of the Word shows you the condition of people’s hearts.

Do you remember that in verse 13 Jesus told us that understanding the parable about the four soils is a window into understanding the other parables? So we need to understand the parable of the lamp and the parable of the measure in relation to the parable of the four soils.

When Jesus explained the parable about the four soils in verses 14-20, He identified four heart conditions – and three of the four are fatal. Fatal Heart Condition #1: Dismissiveness. Some people are dismissive toward the Word: “when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them” (Mark 4:15). Fatal Heart Condition #2: Superficiality. Some people have a superficial reception of the Word: “they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” (Mark 4:17) Fatal Heart Condition #3: Half-heartedness. Some people have a halfhearted interaction with the Word: “They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19) Finally, there is the one and only Healthy Heart Condition: Fruitfulness. They are fruitful in the Word, and the Word is fruitful in them: “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:20)

Now what I want you to notice is that it is the Word that reveals the condition of the heart. In that first parable, in Mark 4:3-8, we learn that “a sower [goes] out to sow” (Mark 4:3) and scatters seed all over the place. For the purposes of the parable, the farmer doesn’t know where the bad soil ends and where the good soil begins. So he scatters far and wide. How is the bad soil and the good soil going to be revealed to him? By scattering seed everywhere. When the seed is devoured by the birds, he knows the soil is bad and unreceptive. When the seedling quickly withers away, he knows the soil is bad and too shallow. When the sprout is choked and yields no fruit, he knows the soil is bad and infested with thorns. But when the plant grows, endures, and bears fruit, he knows that the soil is truly good and receptive. The seed reveals the quality of the soil, because the soil’s receptivity or non-receptivity reveals the “hidden” or “secret” condition of the soil. By their fruitfulness or unfruitfulness you shall know them!

Likewise, the Word reveals the condition of the heart. Although Jesus knows the condition of everyone’s heart, we often don’t know. We often don’t know the condition of our own heart or the condition of other people’s hearts. But the Word brings it to light. How do you know which people are dismissive toward the Word? By proclaiming the Word to them and observing them dismiss it. How do you know which people are superficial and fair-weather opportunists? By proclaiming the Word to them, and observing that moment when the Word requires of them patient endurance in the face of tribulation, and they bail. How do you which people are halfhearted? By proclaiming the Word to them, and observing how their devotion to worldly cares is always greater than their devotion to the Word. And how do you find good soil? How do you which people are prepared by the Holy Spirit to embrace God’s Word and be transformed by it? By proclaiming the Word to them, and watching the Word produce life and fruitfulness in them.

The seed reveals the condition of the soil. The Word reveals the condition of the heart. The lamp reveals the “hidden” and “secret” condition of people’s hearts. So here’s the rub: who and what you are is going to be “made manifest”; who and what you are is going to “come to light”. Who and what you are is often “hidden” and “secret”, but in due course it will be made known. Of course, it will ultimately be made known at the final judgment, when the Lord judges every man and every woman for the entire character and conduct of their lives, including every secret thing (Acts 17:30-31, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). But even now, in the unfolding of this present life, the Word is revealing the health or unhealth of your heart. The Word is revealing your dismissiveness, or your shallowness, or your half-heartedness, or your fruitfulness, as the case may be.

When Jesus says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear” (v. 23), He wants you to take this to heart. He wants you to realize that who and what you are is going to be made known. In the long run, you won’t be able to hide who and what you are. Therefore, since the light of the lamp has already begun the process of exposing you, don’t you think it would be wise to make sure that you don’t have a fatal heart condition? Don’t you think it would be wise to make sure that you are a true planting of the Lord, and not a seedling that is destined to wither away or a sprout that is destined to be choked and fruitless? Don’t you think it would be wise to make sure that you are the kind of hearer who hears with understanding?

Of course, if you are pondering these things and you realize – perhaps for the first time in your life – that you actually stand on the outside of God’s kingdom even though you have been a churchgoer all your life, don’t despair. If in this very moment the Lord is showing you your fatal heart condition – if there is pressing upon you the truth that the Lord knows the sad state of your heart even though you’ve been fooling the people around you for years – this is happening because the Lord is urging you to do something about it: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Since your true self is going to be made visible to the universe, make sure that you have nothing of which to be ashamed when all is revealed.   

THE PARABLE ABOUT THE MEASURE

Now let’s consider the parable about the measure. The parable about the measure carries the same emphasis on one’s attentiveness to God’s Word. Look at verse 24: “And [Jesus] said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear.”” Jesus is calling us to ‘take heed’ and to give our diligent attention to His Word. In fact, our measure of attentiveness has abiding and eternal consequences.

Jesus utilizes the metaphor of a “measure” in verse 24: “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” In terms of the metaphor, there are obviously a number of different measuring tools at one’s disposal. In the wonderful world of baking, there are teaspoons and fractions of teaspoons, tablespoons and fractions of tablespoons, cups and fractions of cups. Using the right measurement is key to producing a delicious dessert. But if you put in a teaspoon of sugar and a cup of salt, you’re in for a disappointment!

To get beyond the metaphor to the reality, you have to start thinking in terms like plentiful or petty, generous or cheap, overflowing or closefisted, bountiful or meager, bighearted or deficient. Do you have the picture? Now this metaphor could be applied to a number of different spiritual realities, but in this passage Jesus applies this metaphor to our level of attentiveness to God’s Word. Do we open our hearts with an expansive measure to let God’s Word pour in with its abundant and life-giving power? Or do we insist on using a small quarter teaspoon measuring spoon when the great waterfall of God’s gracious Word is offered to us? The expansive measure corresponds to the good soil that hears the Word obediently and fruitfully. The small measure corresponds to the three fatal heart conditions that all fail to properly hear the Word.

Now, in the middle of verse 24 Jesus sets forth a truth that we really need to take to heart. When it comes to the way that we hear God’s Word, Jesus tells us that “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” In other words, your degree of attentiveness to God’s Word (“the measure you use”) determines the overall health or unhealth of your spiritual life (“it will be measured to you”). If you are devoted to God’s Word, then you will derive corresponding benefit. If you are not devoted to God’s Word, then you will derive corresponding loss. As it says in the Old Testament: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him, for he is your life” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). Benefit or loss? Life or death? The blessing or the curse? It depends on “the measure you use” – so pay close attention and make sure that you hearing God’s Word with faith and with love and with obedience. 

Three Bad Measures

The parable of the measure also relates bigtime to the parable about the four soils. Think of those three fatal heart conditions as three bad measures – as three bad ways of engaging with God’s Word.

The first soil hears the Word inattentively. That is the opposite of paying attention to God’s Word.

The second soil hears the Word superficially. Wives and children are not happy when the man of the house gives them his superficial attention and never really hears and understands what they say. God doesn’t like it, either. Superficial attention is also the opposite of paying close attention to God’s Word.

The third soil hears the Word halfheartedly. Halfhearted attention or divided attention is also the opposite of taking heed to God’s Word.

If you use any of these bad measures, “it will be measured to you” accordingly. You will never experience the life-giving power of God’s Word. You will never get durable roots that go deep into God’s grace. You will never perceive the beauty and glory of God’s kingdom. And you will never yield that good fruit which glorifies God and endures into eternity. If you use any of these bad measures in your interaction with God’s Word, the promises of God will never benefit you, and you will remain unchanged and unforgiven.

Furthermore, even what you appear to have “will be taken away” (v. 25). The second half of verse 25 tells us that “the from the one who has not,” that is, for the person who doesn’t perceive and understand the truth of God’s kingdom, for the person who isn’t characterized by a good and receptive heart, for the person who doesn’t use a good measure as they engage with God’s Word, that person is going to lose everything. You see, the first soil “along the path” (Mark 4:15) people got nothing, because “Satan immediately comes and takes away the word” (Mark 4:15). But the second soil “rocky ground” (Mark 4:16) people and the third soil ‘thorny ground’ (Mark 4:18) – they got a little something, didn’t they? Here are little seedlings that spring up (v. 5); maybe they got a bit of emotional experience (v. 16); maybe they got a smattering of Bible knowledge; maybe they got a few notches of Christian activity under their belt; maybe they got baptized; maybe they sometimes ate the bread and drank the cup at the Lord’s Supper; maybe some of the people around them think that they are Christians. But because all this was ‘on the surface’ and never got rooted in their heart and never took full possession of their heart, all of their little somethings “will be taken away” – a lot of it will be taken away as their life unfolds in this present world, and all of it will be taken away at the final judgment, and they themselves will be cast into the outer darkness. Every outward benefit that they experienced because they were acquainted with the Bible or because they rubbed shoulders with the church or because they thought that some of the Bible’s morals were pretty useful or because they had some Christian friends, all of it will be taken away. Since they didn’t have the key, which is lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be forever shut out from God’s kingdom of grace.

Three Good Measures

Now just as the first three soils show us three bad measures – three bad ways of engaging with God’s Word, so the fourth soil shows us three good measures – three good ways of engaging with God’s Word. Every true Christian understands the gospel and is powerfully transformed by it, but have you noticed that among true Christians, Christians exhibit different degrees of understanding, obedience, and fruitfulness? And so it is that there are “thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:8, 20).

There is a contrast here that I don’t recall seeing before, but multiple books pointed it out as I’ve been preparing these sermons. There is a contrast between three unfruitful responses to the Word (no response, superficial response, halfhearted response) and three fruitful responses to the Word (thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold).

To be sure, a farmer is not at all disappointed in a thirtyfold crop, which can only be described as abundant fruitfulness. And yet, as he scans his field, he is thrilled to discover a sixtyfold crop. Then over yonder he is astounded by the hundredfold crop. Meager fruitfulness has no place in the farmer’s field, nor in the Christian’s life. A good measure always leads to good fruit. Every true Christian can be rightly described in terms of “good soil” (Mark 4:20) with deep roots, inward vitality, continual growth, and visible fruit. But not every Christian uses the same measure. The thirtyfold measure yields thirtyfold fruitfulness. The sixtyfold measure uses sixtyfold fruitfulness. The hundredfold measure yields hundredfold fruitfulness. Now you can’t quantify this into a set of spiritual rules, a manual of behavior, or a fruit-weighing scale. And the point isn’t to get into a comparison game with one another. But the point remains: a different measure of soaking up God’s Word yields a different measure of usefulness and fruitfulness.

So I ask you, my Christian brother or my Christian sister: How much of God do you want? How much of God’s kingdom? How much spiritual understanding? How much obedience to God’s will? How much participation in God’s mission? How much do you want your life to be oriented around eternal realities? Such questions beckon you to flourish and grow in the field of God’s grace. What measure are you using?

Remember this: “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given” (v. 24-25). “[The] one who has” is the person who has perceived and understood the truth of God’s kingdom, who has been receptive and responsive to the life-giving power of God’s Word, who has left everything else behind in order to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They use a bighearted and expansive measure as they engage with Jesus and His Word, and therefore they will keep on receiving, will keep on growing, will keep on being pruned, will keep on bearing fruit, and to top it all off, great will be their joy when they see the Lord face to face. 

GO FOR BROKE!

I would like to conclude with a call to clear and increasing devotion. What I say to the young people I say to everyone, and yet I especially want to speak to the young people. There is a sick mindset that infects some churchy people – the mindset is, how little do I have to give in order to be okay with God? That mindset is not a “good soil” true Christian mindset. That mindset betrays a superficial or halfhearted commitment that fails to understand the beauty and glory and worth of Jesus. But if you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, then I urge you to use the biggest measure you can imagine, and then go for broke. Indulge yourself in the superior pleasures and purposes of God’s everlasting kingdom!

There was a fruitful evangelist named Henry Varley in the 19^th and early 20^th century. The Lord mightily used this faithful servant to grow the church in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia, and elsewhere. His preaching in Brantford, Ontario around the year 1874 facilitated a revival there in that town of 12,000 people. Seven years afterward a Christian from Brantford said to Henry: “Never was a revival more lasting in its effects. You left us with an army of young men converted to God. They… closed every drinking-house in the place. Our prison is empty; there is not a criminal in it. Poverty, crime and drunkenness are unknown among us. The police have literally nothing to do, and during the whole of last year only one woman applied for [poverty] relief.”[1]

Why am I telling you about Henry Varley? Because of this: it is reported of him that in 1873 he uttered a sentence that had a significant impact on another emerging evangelist named D. L. Moody. Here is the sentence: “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”[2]

Now I admit that Varley’s statement is a bit of an overstatement – I mean, Jesus was fully and wholly consecrated to the Father, and others such as Moses, Daniel, and Paul were exemplary though not perfect. Even so, the gist of Varley’s comment is helpful: Young people, do you have any idea what God might do “with” and “for” and “through” and “in” your life if you would use the big measure of an open heart that is eager to walk with Jesus? Do you have any idea what God might do with someone who is determined to put aside “the desires for other things” (Mark 4:19) and be single-mindedly devoted to Jesus and His Word?

Where are the ambitious seekers who “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33) and who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6)?

Where are the earnest men and women who so treasure Jesus that they have come to understand in Paul-like fashion that there is no durable value apart from Jesus: “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24)?

Where are the diligent servants who are eager to “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace” (2 Timothy 2:22) so that they will always be “useful to the master…, ready for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21)?

And where are the faithful worshipers who are weary of all the potential distractions, and who pray: “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (Psalm 119:36-37)? Which is the point of Mark 4:24 – “Pay attention to what you hear”! Focus your eyes on the beauty and worth of God’s kingdom!

ENDNOTES

[1] This information about Henry Varley – including the quotation – is drawn from “Life Story of Henry Varley: A Review by Alexander Marshall” (from “The Witness” 1913). Available online on the Plymouth Brethren Archive: https://www.brethrenarchive.org/people/henry-varley/snippets/life-story-of-henry-varley/.

[2] See, for instance, the entry “Wholly Consecrated to Him” in The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers by W. Wiersbe. Available online: https://bible.org/illustration/wholly-consecrated-him.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Victor Babajide Cole, “Mark.” In Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African Scholars. Tokunboh Adeyemo, General Editor. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.

James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Abraham Kuruvilla, Mark: A Theological Commentary for Preachers. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2012.

William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (The New International Commentary on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mark (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Vol. 2). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2017.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001.