Mark 4:21–34 — Seeing in the Light of Jesus

This sermon is from Mark chapter 4 verses 21 through 34 and is entitled "Seeing in the Light of Jesus."

Mark 4:21–34

It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, July 20, 2025.

Today's passage is really a continuation of the passage from last week that began with Jesus getting in a boat

and teaching people on the shore about the kingdom of God.

And in the section we covered last week, Jesus honed in on this idea, specifically with his

disciples, that only by putting their faith in Jesus would they understand anything else

in the kingdom of God. Putting your faith in Jesus was a prerequisite for anything else.

And beyond that, those who really receive Jesus end up producing fruit, which we described as being

the fruit of a life changed by Christ. Think of the fruit of the Spirit, the kind of life

change that comes from repenting of your sin and obeying all that Jesus commands.

Put simply, disciples of Jesus must first put their faith in Jesus. But by doing so,

They also obey Jesus and become something new altogether.

So that idea resounds through these three remaining parables in this section of teaching that we'll

cover today from Jesus. Remember, this gospel is being written originally to the Christians in Rome

who are likely facing a good deal of persecution. And we are not under the threat of persecution

here today. Thank you, Jesus. But I think even we in America can identify with them when we look

around at the world today and say, "Is this really what the kingdom looks like?" I was actually

having a couple of conversations this week where some version of this came up. Earlier this week,

I was talking with somebody about a member of their family who was really struggling to understand

the existence of tragedy in the world. They looked at the floods in Texas and the camps there and

the loss of life and just couldn't make sense of the world as it stands because they didn't know Jesus.

And because of that their sorrow over the situation turned into hopelessness and apathy.

And you just contrast that with a clip that I saw, for example, of one of the parents

who had just lost their daughter, their daughter who was around my daughter's age, around 12,

and their daughter was a believer, and they were believers. And what they said was,

"I'm so grateful for the years that God gave me with her, and that we will see her again."

Man, when it comes to tragedy, knowing Jesus makes a world of difference.

I talked with someone else about the challenges of discipleship because you just can't see what God's doing in the heart.

And sometimes it looks like nothing is happening.

And in fact, God is working where we cannot see to change a heart.

And other times it looks like someone's responding to the gospel,

and then six months later, they're back to living like they never knew Jesus.

And so it's hard to not see what God is doing and trust Him anyway.

I talked to someone else about the state of the church in America,

and specifically the struggle with shallow surface level faith

that does not endure when hardship comes.

And they asked me the question about their current church situation.

They said, "Is this what the church is supposed to look like?

Is the kingdom really coming when the church is struggling the way that it is?"

And I honestly, I wish I had studied this passage and preached it one week earlier

because then I might have had better answers for them from God's word.

But I do trust that God's timing is perfect.

And I hope that this will be encouraging to you and I as we ask similar questions.

I hope today that the Holy Spirit uses these passages to help us with the way we see Jesus

and the world in light of Him.

I hope that we can trust God more with the things that we can't see.

And I hope that we learn to long for and see the kingdom in the way that Jesus wants us to see it.

because the truth is that until we learn to see Jesus,

we will see nothing else clearly.

So let's begin by reading this first parable together.

This is Mark chapter four, verses 21 through 25.

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?

For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest,

nor is anything secret except to come to light.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

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.

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."

So this is the parable of the lamp.

I wanna point out one quick change

that I would make to the translation here.

I recognize that making this change

reads a little more awkwardly,

but that's how Jesus actually said it.

So sometimes translations write things

in a way that is easier to read.

That's part of their job,

to write it in a way that rolls off the tongue

in English better, that's easy to understand,

but sometimes I have to insist on a little awkward.

Just ask my family, right?

The lamp is introduced here using a definite article.

So it is not just a lamp that is brought in.

Jesus said to them in verse 21,

a better translation here is,

is the lamp brought in to be put under a basket?

It's not just any old lamp, it's the lamp.

Why would he be saying it that way though?

Well, we have to look at what a lamp was representing

in the Old Testament, because that's their frame

of reference, these people that Jesus is talking to

are very familiar with Old Testament metaphors.

And a lamp was a common metaphor

for a few things in the Old Testament.

When Jesus says the lamp,

he's making that connection pretty obvious

to his original audience.

So in 2 Samuel 22, verse 29,

2 Samuel 22:29

the lamp is used as a metaphor for God.

In 2 Kings, chapter eight, and in Psalm 132,

a lamp is used for the coming Messiah.

And then in Psalm 119, 105,

we have the lamp used for the word of God or the law.

And so we know a few things about Jesus

at this point in time, we know that he is in fact God,

that he is in fact the long-awaited Messiah,

and in the Gospel of John,

he's actually introduced as the living Word of God.

So who is the lamp?

It is Jesus, and this is another example

of Jesus saying something about himself.

So Jesus is saying that he has come,

that he is God in the flesh, that he is the Messiah,

that he's the living Word.

He's the fulfillment of the Word of God, right?

And he's come to illuminate and make things clear,

to reveal the reality of God's kingdom.

And yet, in verse 22, we have this paradox on our hands,

because Jesus has just finished telling his disciples

that some things are not being revealed to everyone

at this point in time,

but only to those who have ears to hear.

Namely, at this point, that's the disciples.

This is the purpose of the parables, right?

But even here, Jesus includes some understanding

for us in verse 27, saying,

"Nothing is hidden except to be revealed."

And things that are made secret

are made secret to come to light.

So it is true that there is a temporary concealment of truth

for the people listening. This temporary concealment of truth served God's purpose

so that Jesus would finish his mission, that he would actually be crucified, and that people would

come to understand all that Jesus came to do. But after his resurrection, that truth would be

revealed and the gospel would be preached to everyone, and the light would shine for everyone

to see. And so today, we are able to come to these parables knowing that Jesus is the lamp,

and we are able to understand the teaching of Jesus when we believe that Jesus is all of the

things that the lamp has ever stood for, right? That he is God in the flesh, when we believe that

Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the living Word of God. So let's be clear, this parable

has Jesus at its center as the lamp,

as the light by which we see clearly.

It does not have us at the center.

This parable is actually not about

uncovering your light and letting it shine, right?

We can go to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.16

and talk about being salt and light,

and we can sing this little light of mine together,

but not here.

That's not what Jesus is talking about here.

Here he's explaining that you have to see him

or you are in the dark.

And in verse 23 and 24, the next two verses,

he issues this invitation to listen to him, to hear him,

because without knowing him,

we cannot understand anything else about his kingdom.

Like I said last week, unless we know the king,

we can't understand his kingdom and how it functions.

So in these next two verses, he presses in a little bit more.

And these are the verses that you may have heard quoted

in all kinds of ways.

The verse that say, "With the measure you use,

"it will be measured to you,

"and still more will be added to you."

So I've heard this verse used by prosperity gospel teachers.

I've heard it to say that you can give X number of dollars

to the church and then God will multiply your wealth

by so many times.

That's what Jesus is saying here.

I've heard this verse used by people pushing a tolerance of sin, saying that if you exercise

godly discernment and call something a sin that is a sin, you are being judgmental and you will be

judged by God. For the record, it is saying neither of those things in context. It would be a twist

to try to make it say those things. When we read it in the context of what Jesus is saying,

We understand that Jesus is saying, "If you receive me, if I am your light to use the language of the parable,

you will be given so much more in addition to that. But if you don't receive me,

you will lose everything, even the things that you thought you had."

If you see Jesus clearly, you will see that He is the greatest possible treasure that you could

ever have. And you do end up giving generously of your wealth and your time and your energy,

not because you're expecting to be paid back, but because your love for the Lord stirs generosity

in your spirit towards Him and towards His kingdom and towards His people. If you see Jesus clearly,

you will not only learn to hate sin, but your love for the lost will not permit you to stay

silent when it comes to telling them the truth and love and calling them to

repent and know Jesus and be saved by Him. When we see Jesus clearly, we start to

see everything else more clearly. And I want to add that the way we see Jesus

most clearly is through the Word of God. You want to know Jesus? You want to know

who he is and what he commands and how he loves and how he saves? You read the

of God. You want to have sight that's fixed on Jesus and sees people in the world the

way that he does. You read the Word of God. Psalm 119.105 says, "Your word is a lamp to

my feet and a light to my path." And so I thank God for his word in Scripture that

so thoroughly equips us and prepares us for a life of following Jesus.

So the next question that Jesus addresses is, "What about the things we can't see?"

If Jesus is the light by which we see, what about the things that we can't see clearly?

There's a lot going on in the world that we can't see or wrap our heads around.

We can't understand it.

Every week there's another research article published showing that we know less about

how things actually work than we thought.

Particularly when it comes to the depths of the sea, the far reaches of space, and apparently things like the economy are something that we just can't wrap our heads around.

Nothing, though, is more confusing to us, is harder to search than the human heart.

Nowhere is this more challenging than in the area of discipleship for the Christian, whether that's trying to understand what's happening in you or in the people that you are walking with following Jesus.

As we submit to the work of the Lord in us,

sometimes it's hard to see what's going on

inside of ourselves, right?

Lord, are you really doing something in me?

We ask, am I becoming more like you?

I'm so often more aware of my shortcomings

than anyone else and I can't even completely trust

that perspective.

I can't even completely trust what I see

is happening in myself.

Jeremiah 17.9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things

and desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

Even my perspective of myself is flawed."

And as we walk with those who are,

we are leading and praying for

and instructing in the way of Jesus,

sometimes we see the outward appearance

and we say, Lord, what is going on in there?

At least once a day, I look at one of my own kids

and I say, what in the world is going on in there?

especially those who are approaching adolescence, right?

And I'm sure they could say the same thing about me,

if we're being honest.

First Samuel 167 says,

"For the Lord sees not as a man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance,

but the Lord looks on the heart."

The truth is there is a lot that we can't see.

So what do we do with that?

Well, let's read this next parable.

This is verses 26 through 29.

And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man

should scatter seed on the ground.

He sleeps and rises night and day.

And the seed sprouts and grows."

He knows not how.

"The earth produces by itself first the blade,

then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle,

because the harvest has come.

This parable is similar to the parable of the sower

that we heard a few verses ago,

but it's highlighting not what the sower is doing,

but rather what the farmer or the sower isn't doing.

People are probably thinking in the beginning of verse 26,

the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed.

They're saying, oh, another farming story.

And then Jesus begins verse 27 with,

"He sleeps and rises night and day."

The seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how.

He watches it grow and he watches it

start to develop fruit,

but he's completely ignorant of the process.

He goes about his business.

He has no idea whether the seed is actually growing or how

because it's not his job or concern to know

about those things that are happening

or to make it grow.

His job is so simple, it's to sow the seed

and to bring in the harvest.

We already know that the sowing of the seed

represents the introduction of Jesus

and the gospel to people,

which in this parable leaves the harvest.

The harvest we know from other places in scripture as well

is the coming of the kingdom.

And here it is the people who have received the gospel

and it has taken root in them,

and they are responding to Jesus.

They're producing fruit.

So what is our part?

Well, according to Jesus,

our part in this process is we sow and we reap.

We plant the seed of the gospel with all people

and we continue planting that seed,

and then we welcome in those who would respond to it

by repenting and turning to Jesus.

We welcome them in, we welcome them in,

we walk alongside them, we disciple them,

make disciples. We tell about the gospel and we make disciples.

You know, a really popular belief in Jesus' day was that the kingdom of God could be brought

in by human efforts of some kind. There was a group called the zealots that thought that

they could bring the kingdom of God through political revolution. They thought if they

They could just take over the government and push their agenda hard enough they could restore

the kingdom to Israel.

Does that sound familiar at all?

You could probably make a couple of modern-day parallels to that kind of thinking, even within

the church.

The Pharisees thought that they could bring the kingdom, but they thought that they would

bring it through strict law-keeping and legalism and being set apart through their

of the rules, and they thought if they could just make it look good enough on the outside,

it would fix what was broken on the inside. They thought that they could earn the approval of God

and then he would bless them. That sounds like something you've heard recently, perhaps.

The truth, Jesus says, is that God is working in the unseen hidden places to bring the kingdom.

that God is working in the soil of those who would admit that they cannot earn the favor of God

and that they must receive it by grace through faith in Jesus. God is working there.

God is working in the soil of those who would forsake the building of their own kingdom

and would instead pursue the kingdom of God. But the key point here is that God is working to do

All of this.

God is the one bringing the kingdom come

in those who would respond to him with faith and obedience.

So what does that kingdom look like?

Well, let's read the last parable together.

This is verses 30 through 34.

And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God?

Or what parable shall we use for it?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of

all the seeds on the earth.

Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts

out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

With many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.

He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained

everything.

Jesus begins by asking a question of his audience, and perhaps it's a rhetorical one, but a

question nonetheless.

He's asking, "What does the kingdom of God look like?"

People throughout all of fallen history have asked this question, and they've come up

with a lot of their own answers.

People in ancient times once tried to build a city that stretched to the sky, thinking

that they could bridge earth with heaven via their city of stone and mortar.

It was called Babel.

And magnificent as it was, it fell to ruin when they couldn't communicate with each other

because God confused their speech.

That's probably a lesson for another day.

People in the Roman Empire had certainly seen some wonders among them, the second temple

built in Jerusalem.

And so perhaps they thought the kingdom coming would have a bigger temple.

That temple, for instance, was torn down less than 40 years after Jesus ascended, by the

way.

Instead, though, Jesus is going to use a plant, which does keep in line with the examples

he's been using so far.

But he's not going to use the plant that people would have expected.

You got a variety of plants that probably would have made sense.

A cedar tree, for example, was well known as being tall and hard and impressive.

And they grew in the area that the cedars of Lebanon.

An oak tree, full grown, is an incredible sight.

If you've ever seen, for example, a California redwood, you might be tempted to use that

as a metaphor for the grandness of God's kingdom.

But Jesus chooses a mustard seed.

This isn't a plant that we actually have a lot of, this variety anyway, around here,

though it has spread throughout the world in the years since.

This particular plant was probably what we would call black mustard today, and it is

native to that Mediterranean region.

It is not the smallest seed in all the world, but it is unique in that it is a very small

seed in relation to the size of a plant that grows from it.

Making this metaphor stranger still is that this plant isn't even a plant that was widely

cultivated as a crop.

It was kind of considered a pervasive, almost weed in the region.

And then we have the birds added in here.

with the birds? Well, Mark doesn't clarify that specifically. But again, we know that the Old

Testament would have been ringing in the ears of these people as Jesus spoke, imperable, because

that's their frame of reference. That's what they're trying to use to make sense of what Jesus

is saying. And so if we go back to Old Testament prophecy, we have the prophet Ezekiel and the

prophet Daniel using birds. In Ezekiel 1723 he says that the coming kingdom will be planted in Israel

and in the shade of its branches, birds of every sort will nest. So this idea that this kingdom

that's going to be planted is going to provide shade or rest for the birds of all kinds.

Then we have the prophet Daniel. And he interprets a dream for King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 412.

And he says that this kingdom will have the birds of the heavens living in its branches,

and all flesh was fed from it. That's even more interesting for us with Jesus in mind, right?

So there is certainly a picture that Jesus is pulling in here of outsiders being welcomed in

and finding a place and rest in God's kingdom.

So what do we understand about how the kingdom of God looks based on Jesus' parable here?

Well, for one, we know that its inception begins with something that is so small,

that it will be overlooked by most. That seed is so small and unimpressive.

One person deciding to leave their old life behind and follow Jesus. One person deciding to die

to their old way of living and pursue obedience to Jesus. One family of disciples that fits in a

living room on a Sunday morning. These are the kinds of small and to the world unimpressive

seeds. But what results from this seed? A tenacious, persistent plant that plants more

and spreads and provides a place of rest for the birds of all places. It's a place in which

people from all nations, nations that were previously outside the kingdom,

are going to find refuge and belong to this new kingdom. This kingdom of God was different from

what was expected by his audience. His audience was expecting the restoration of the kingdom of

Israel to come to power, the temple standing on the hill, the grandness of it all. Instead,

It was the power of God to restore His people to Himself and put His church in every city

across many homes. The surprising reality of the Kingdom of God is that it doesn't look impressive

in the way the world sees impressive things, but for those who are seeing the Kingdom

in the light of Jesus, the view is incredible. Just think about this for a moment.

People seeing in light of Jesus are trusting Him with everything and being brought from death

and restored to eternal life. They are seeing Jesus as the Savior and they are trusting Him

and proclaiming Him as Lord in baptism. People who are seeing in the light of Jesus have hope

that He is working in ways that they cannot see or understand, that He's working in each of us

in the ways that we most need it,

that he's exposing what is broken in us

and allowing us to see ourselves clearly

for the first time in light of Scripture,

maybe through the faithful wounds of a friend

who wants to see us restored to Christ.

We believe that God is at work

in the people too that we can't imagine responding to the gospel

and we plant the seeds anyway.

People seeing in the light of Jesus,

See the kingdom and they see the church and it is beautiful because they see Jesus clearly.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Councilbluffs,

Iowa and in homes throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching

from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith

and contact a pastor by visiting ecclesiachurches.org.