Mark 4:21-25 - The Secret of Growth

I’m going to teach you a new word this morning. It’s one of my favorites. Are you ready? The word is:

Opaque.

How many of you know what the word “opaque” means? Some of you? I find myself using it all the time. The dictionary defines opaque as:

not able to be seen through; not transparent.

I first learned the word “opaque” about fifteen years ago when I started messing with Photoshop. They have a setting called “opacity” that lets you adjust how transparent something is. If something is 100% opaque, you can’t see through it at all. If something is 0% opaque, it’s completely see-through. It’s a pretty handy thing in graphic design to be able to make things somewhat see-through.

But the word “opaque” has a different meaning you hear sometimes. Its second definition is:

hard or impossible to understand.

I know absolutely nothing about the way cars work. If you were to give me a professional mechanics manual for a 2018 Jeep Wrangler, I have a feeling I’d find it opaque. It wouldn’t mean much to me.

I know almost nothing about the electrical part of building stuff. I hear electricians talk about 220 vs. 100, different types of wires, and different types of sockets, and it’s opaque. I don’t understand it.

I do know a lot about computer programming. The other day I dropped in on Ayla Pullen’s birthday party and I met her uncle, who happens to be another web programmer. We immediately started throwing around words like Javascript, Swift, front-end, ES6, Firestore, and I imagine if you were in the room you would find our conversation very opaque. You wouldn’t understand half of what we were talking about.

So what does the word opaque have to do with our message this morning? Have you ever felt like God’s word was opaque? Have you ever felt like Christian teaching was opaque? You can’t understand it. It seems like Greek to you.

Have you ever looked around a church building and thought, “These people all really seem to get what this guy is talking about, but I have no idea; he might as well be talking about stuff from another planet, because I have no clue?”

Our text this morning is actually about this very subject. It’s about why God’s Word and why Christian teaching seems hard sometimes, and about how you can overcome that hardness and change it from opaque to transparent—from hard to understand to something that seems easy.

This passage also teaches us an important secret, not just for growing in our knowledge of the Bible, but for growing in our knowledge of anything. Let’s read the text and we’ll get into that.

”21 And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? 22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. 23 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 24 And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. 25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. 26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; 27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. 28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. 30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: 32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. 33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. 34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples. (Mark 4:21-34 KJV)

Last week, we looked at the parable of the soils, and we talked about having a receptive heart to the the teaching of God’s Word. Right after those parables, Jesus gave these parables, which are a little more difficult to understand until you get the key and see what ties them all together:

You see, this whole chapter has a theme. Up until this time in Jesus’ ministry, He taught normally. He taught like I’m teaching now (albeit much, much better). He taught and explained everything, and He would throw in a story or an illustration here or there to make things clearer.

But the main point of this chapter is that abruptly, Jesus stopped teaching like that. Jesus changed His method of teaching completely. Imagine being one of the disciples, and you are used to hearing Jesus teach over and over and over again. Then suddenly, it’s different. Suddenly, you are scratching your head and thinking, “All He’s doing today is telling stories, and He’s not explaining them anymore.”

Imagine if you came to church one Sunday and instead or preaching normally, I started just spitting out a string of stories that started like, “Walking with God is like this plant…” and I tell you about the plant, but I don’t really explain the connection. Then I move on and say, “Walking with God is like having a son…” and I tell you a story about a father and son but don’t really explain the connection.

You’d all be scratching your head and thinking, “Did Pastor lose his marbles? What’s going on?”

And that’s exactly what the disciples did to Jesus. They noticed immediately that His teaching method was completely different all of a sudden, and that most people weren’t getting it, so they asked Jesus about it. You see that in verse 11.

Then Jesus explained the parable of the soils and went on to give these parables we just read. And the theme of these parables is actually a parable in and of itself. The theme of these is understanding what Jesus is teaching when what Jesus is teaching doesn’t seem to make sense. And these parables—the candlestick, the measure, the seed, and the mustard seed—all speak to this theme.

What I’m going to do this morning is give you three points:

• I’m going to talk about the problem these verses are addressing;
• I’m going to explain the promise Jesus gave at the beginning of these verses; and then
• I’m going to give you three principles for growth and learning you can get from these parables.

So let’s pray and we’ll jump into this.

So listen to these parables again:

• We have a light that is hid under a bushel or a bed.
• We have someone measuring something to give it away and getting the same amount back.
• We have two different kinds of seeds being planted and coming back with a big harvest.

Here is what I think these parables were talking about. The first thing I want you to understand is…

1. The problem:

The problem that Jesus was addressing with these parables is that…

Some Christian doctrine is difficult, mysterious, and seems impossible to learn.

Some Christian doctrine is opaque, especially when you are a beginner. It seems impossible to get—impossible to understand.

You hear a preacher talk about redemption, justification, sanctification, the rapture, and the tribulation, and it makes no sense to you. Some of the things in the Bible seem downright mysterious. You read Leviticus or you read Revelation, and you just think, “Huh? What is that?”

Just this week, I was talking to a guy in our church about his Bible reading (I love to hear that kind of stuff by the way), and he was talking about some of the chapters he’s been reading in the Old Testament that he doesn’t get.

It’s like this for all of us. Sometimes the Bible just seems hard. Sometimes Christian teaching just seems hard. It seems hidden like a lamp under a bushel or like a light under a bed. We don’t get it.

These disciples and these listeners were hearing these parables, and it seemed impossible to understand. It seemed like Jesus was purposely trying to obscure the truth.

That’s the problem, and to that problem Jesus gave us a promise. That’s the second point this morning…

2. The promise:

Jesus was talking about why he was using these mysterious parables, and he said in verse 21:

”Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? 22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.”

Jesus uses this candlestick and bushel language in the book of Matthew, but I think He’s making a completely different point here. In Matthew, He was saying we should let our light shine before men, but here He’s talking about His light and His teaching. The point Jesus was making here is this promise:

God is not intending to hide or confuse. Some people are just not ready to receive what will be made plain later.

In other words, the teaching that Jesus was giving these people that made them scratch their head and think, “Huh?” was all going to be explained later on.

I’m going to use a movie as an illustration here. I hope I don’t offend anyone, but it’s a pretty old movie and I think most of you have probably seen it. I think this is a bit like the movie, “The Sixth Sense.” If you’ve never seen the movie, it’s one of those movies where you watch the whole thing, and you think you understand what you are seeing. Then at the very end—literally in the last two minutes of the film—there is a twist. There is a secret that is revealed, and if you go back and you watch the film again, you realize that it was so obvious. It was right there the whole time.

I think the Old Testament is like that. You read the Old Testament and so much of it seems bizarre, but then you get to the gospels and you see the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You read Romans and you find out what it means. Then you go back and look at the Old Testament, and suddenly, it means something totally new. It was right there the whole time; you just needed the key.

So many of the parables of Jesus seemed mysterious to these people because they didn’t have the key yet. They didn’t know about Jesus death, burial, and resurrection yet. They didn’t know about the nature of the kingdom yet. Even the disciples were clueless. But after the fact, they could look back and see what Jesus was saying in the light of what happened to Jesus and think, “Oh, I get it now. It was hidden before, but now it’s clear as a light on a candle. Jesus wasn’t trying to confuse us. It’s been revealed now.”

So what are these parables teaching us? I think there are three principles that these verses teach us that are great secrets for learning anything. They are secrets for growth.

These principles will help you learn to whatever you want to learn—whether that is woodworking, French, or playing a musical instrument—but they will definitely help you as you seek to learn what the Bible means.

3. The principles:

The first principle of these verses I’ve already explained to you. Let’s call it…

A. The inventory principle.

Put simply…

Some things you won’t understand now, but if you hold onto them, you’ll get them later.

When a kid is first learning the ABCs, they don’t really get the concept. But they learn that “A says A as in Apple” and “B says B as in Boy,” and they memorize those things. Then later on, they put them together, and it’s like, “Oh, those were the building blocks of words”. But they had to get A before they could read “Apple.”

Sometimes you learn things in your Bible reading or in a sermon, and at the time, they don’t make sense. You don’t get it, but you store it away in your mental inventory. Then, later on, you learn something else in the Bible, and it’s like, “Oh, I get it now.”

The key to learning that this teaches us is we have to keep going. We can’t give up in frustration the moment we don’t get something. We have to push on and trust that we’ll get it later.

We have to trust that ”For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested.” We have to trust that God isn’t trying to trick us or keep something a secret, and that we’ll eventually get this.

That’s the inventory principle.

The second principle of learning we get from this passage I’m calling…

B. The investment principle.

The investment principle is this:

You are only going to get out of something what you put into it.

Jesus said:

”Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. 25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.”

Listen: If you study the Bible with Netflix on the TV and Facebook open on your phone, then you aren’t going to get much. If you listen to preaching with your mind half-engaged on work problems or some purchase you want to make, then you aren’t going to get much. On the other hand, if you dive in and you focus, it will come.

The key to learning here is you have to focus; you have to pour yourself into what you are learning; you have to give yourself to it, and it will come. But don’t fool yourself into thinking you are going to get much if you aren’t putting anything in. Life just doesn’t work that way.

And this goes for more than just the Bible. This goes for learning anything. If you want to master a new skill, learn how to play an instrument, learn a new language, or whatever, then you have to invest yourself into it. It doesn’t come by osmosis. You have to study.

So there’s the inventory principle: Some things you have to hold onto and you’ll understand later. Then there’s the investment principle: You have to invest yourself in what you are learning or you won’t get anything out of it.

The third principle I’m calling…

C. The initiative principle.

I think this is what Jesus was getting at with the two parables about the seeds and the harvests. The seed had to be thrown into the ground. The seed had to be sown, and then later, it brought a harvest.

The principle I think Jesus was teaching, the initiative principle is this:

You will never start getting it until you jump in to the deep end. You have to cast the seed before you get the harvest.

Starting anything difficult is hard. The other day I was at the mall, and they were having this health fair (I just wanted to see if I could find a cheap tie at Carson’s). I stopped by the CrossFit table, and there was this really buff CrossFit guy sitting there, so we started talking. As we were talking, I glanced down at the material on the table and I saw this poster which showed this guy who was like 350 pounds. Then they showed the “After” picture, and it was the guy I was talking to.

I thought, “Wow, it’s this guy. That’s amazing.” Can you imagine how hard that was to go from this huge, obese guy to being built like Superman? But the more I thought about it, the more I thought I know what the hardest part was. It was getting started. It was those first few workouts. Those first few workouts when he was 350 pounds had to be so unbelievably difficult and disappointing. That first two weeks had to be killer.

I love running but the first few times I did it, they weren’t fun. If I hadn’t opened my mouth and told my college buddy I could beat him in a 5k, I don’t think I ever would have finished that first two mile run, and I certainly wouldn’t have gone for a second one.

But that’s the thing. No one runs marathons without that first run where they think they are going to die going two miles. No one builds fine furniture without that first awkward project that kinda sorta resembles a box. No one becomes a concert pianist without that first awkward time when they are pecking out “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”

The harvest comes after the commitment. You always have to take that first awkward step.

And that’s the way the Christian life is. You have to put your faith and trust in Jesus. You have to commit your life to God. You have to step out by faith and jump in the deep end of the pool. You have to sow that seed of faith, and when you do, God brings a harvest. But you are never going to see that harvest if you are just dipping your toe in the water.

So we have the inventory principle: Some things you have to hold onto and you’ll understand later. Then there’s investment principle: You have to invest yourself in what you are learning or you won’t get anything out of it. Finally, there’s the initiative principle: You have to step out by faith and jump in the deep end of the pool.

Now, let me wrap this up by making two quick points of application.

Conclusions:

The first is this: You will never grow as a Christian if you insist on understanding everything before you follow the Lord. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7: ”For we walk by faith, not by sight.” The truth is, you can understand the whole Bible, and you still will have to have some faith and follow Jesus. If you are insisting on God showing you everything before you follow Him, that’s not the way this works, and you’ll never grow in your knowledge and understanding as a Christian.

God’s Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. It isn’t a full map and itinerary. We have to be walking in faith to use it.

The second thing I want you to understand is this: The key to this whole thing is a relationship with Jesus. That relationship starts with believing the gospel. It starts with believing what Jesus did on the cross counts for you and putting your faith and trust in Jesus as your personal savior.

If you’ve never done that this morning, you will never understand Christianity. But that’s not the worst of it. The Bible teaches that if you don’t trust Jesus as your Savior, you’ll die in your sins and be judged by a holy God.

So if you’ve never trusted Christ, why not trust Him today?

Let’s stand for invitation and prayer.