Humble, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, rejoicing in hard times… that’s the kind of people we see as Jesus begins this message… then he says, You are the salt… you are the light. My question, are you tasty, are you visible, do you attract or repel?
Salt without desirable flavor, “it’s no good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled”. If you are light… what do you reveal? “Let your light shine before others so that they may see… and give glory to your Father.”
Nothing radical, or revolutionary here right? You decide. Often people say, “We are under Grace now, not The Law.” Ok, but that doesn’t release us, but rather binds us to deeper things. Jesus says, “I did not come to Abolish the Law, but to fulfill.” And then, “whoever breaks one of the least… and teaches others to do the same will be called ‘the least’… but whoever DOES and teaches theses… will be called ‘great’ in the Kingdom.”
Point? (warning oversimplification alert) Much of the rest of Jesus’ sermon is not releasing us from but taking us to a greater level of living.
Hateful thoughts / unjust anger is like internal murder – SHINE the Right Light
Failure to settle disagreements quickly and honorably – SALTLESS gritty sand – useless
Impure thoughts – we are already walking an adulterous path – Light is shining that within and without
Unfulfilled Promises, Fake commitment – Taste Terrible and don’t Point to Jesus. What’s the light? Where’s the flavor?
Go the Second Mile, show faithfulness and give more than is demanded – again we are talking Light and Flavor.
Love your Enemies, Pray for Persecutors – Just like the Sun Shines on everyone, our light should shine on anyone/everyone. Salt tastes good on every tongue that tastes it. The reward is in the giving and the shining, not in choosing the Recipient.
My questions for myself today are
to whom do I shine?
from whom do I desire a reward?
am I tasty or tasteless?
Is everything I do to Please the Father and Portray the Love of God?
If I can give to the Father this way… he repays in His time, and there may be a personal return of people in heaven thus my investment resulted in Eternal Dividends
Read Mark 4:21-25 – we have been in this chapter for a couple of weeks now. Light, Lamps, and Lampstands are scripture images of importance.
If you haven’t read my last two posts here in Mark 4 – please go back and read them so this all fits together.
In Revelation 1:13 and 20 Jesus is seen walking among the lampstands and those lampstands are identified as the Church.
In Mark 4 Jesus has begun speaking in parables to large crowds to spark interest and to encourage those who wanted to know more to seek him out privately for fuller revelation.
Already in this passage, he has talked about casting seed, and for different kinds of soil encountered by the Sower. We have looked at that and made the observation that 3 of the 4 types of soil produced growth, but only one produced a good crop.
Jesus then explained it in more depth to those who came to him in private conversation seeking deeper truth.
Then he “abruptly” seems to change the metaphor from seeds to a lamp, in v21. is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? – NO he isn’t changing the subject, he is making an observation about the revelation. He is saying, “I’ve taught you something, what will you do with it?” Because in v26 he goes back to talking about the seed and harvest.
The question then is what do we do with light?
In Revelation 1:20 the church is seen as a Lampstand – lychnia. A GOLDEN lampstand, but still just a vessel for display of light. As a church, we have light, but we are not the source of light. In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus talks about light, lamp, and lampstand, but let’s not get too far chasing a rabbit.
Jesus is saying, “I’m giving you revelation here about light from the lamp, what will you do with the revelation, will you shine it or ignore it?”
What do we do with light? It’s like when James talks about the Word of God being like a mirror and we need to do something with what we see, or will we walk away and forget? When you wake up in the morning, and look in the mirror, will we comb our hair, or just imagine we look like our best photo on the wall, and go away with bedhead?
The Holy Spirit gives us Light, he Reveals Jesus to us, and his work in the world. We can be lit by the revelation and become light – (Phos) as in Matthew 5, but we are not the source. We are not the Lamp, we are light from the Lamp (lychnos), and we are Lampstands (Lychnia) who just hold up and shine forth the light.
So, with this light about the work of Sower with Seed and the Soils, Jesus asks: “do you bring in a lamp and put it under a basket or under the bed?”
I had to laugh at that image and think, there are some churches where the only fire in then is when they hide the lamp under the bed, catch “on fire” but they are burned up. Their only “fire” is on their tails as they run out. That made me laugh and then made me tear up a bit.
Will we hide the light of revelation here? NO! Let’s take the truth that Christ is revealing… put it on our stand, read, learn, adjust to what we see, and let it SHINE, change us, transform us.
Then v23 – if anyone has ears to hear… let him Listen
v24 – and he said to them PAY ATTENTION to what you hear
Pay Attention is the word blepo = beware, careful, consider – and is in the present active imperative – So Jesus is saying this is IMPORTANT, and needs to be done RIGHT NOW. Young Literal says take heed. NIV – carefully consider
This is important – what is the light being given? Be Careful, Pay Attention and Adjust to it!
If you are outside on a stormy night, in complete darkness, trying to get home, and lightning flashes and in that split second you see you are dangerously close to a Cliff… you need to Take Heed, and Give Care, Pay Attention to your Steps.
If we receive instruction, what will we do with the light?
Then here Jesus speaks of Conditional Results to How we respond to the Light… v24 by the measureyou use it will be measured to you. What do we do with the instruction we have will determine the proportion of results. Then v25 whoever has, more will be given, whoever does not have, what he has will be taken.
Well, that doesn’t seem fair. Oh yes, it is. When you put this with the revelation regarding sowing, seeds, and soil, I cannot help but process this in a couple of way. If I have lots of seed, and lots of land, then just cast away and let the 4 soils do whatever they will… BUT… if we have limited land and limited resources, then develop the land you have to it’s fullest and use the resources in the best way possible for harvest.
“Pay Attention”, Jesus says. If we do the most with the light, with the resource, and see the result… God will enlarge our measure of responsibility. But if we hide the light, fail to use the resources, fail to develop the land, then he will invest his resources elsewhere…
And then notice the beginning of v26 and I’ll pick up there next week…
In Exodus 20 the Lord had summoned Moses to Mt. Sinai and vv1-17 are the “Ten Commandments”. The people couldn’t go on the mountain, but they, “witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain surrounded with smoke.When they saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.” And their response in v19 was “you speak to us and we will listen, but don’t let God speak to us or we will die.”
Certainly, when God speaks it can be frightening. but Moses says, “don’t be afraid… the Lord has come to test you so that you will fear him and will not sin” v20.
Now, what follows that got my attention today v21, “the people remained at a distance as Moses approached the TOTAL DARKNESS where God was.”
TOTAL Darkness – Total DARKNESS – that is the absence of photons that create light. The absence of radiant qualities – that made me on a short run down a rabbit hole on the internet and to a physics forum – no that’s not my normal surfing place, but I ended up there. Many would say that ultimately it’s impossible for there to be “total darkness” because the waves, like radio waves, could come and go, and space between, not show much of anything but still would be light, and wouldn’t ever be fully absent. They even said that if you “went into space and put your head in a box, there would be some radiation in the air, some light, and even when not your brain may fill in the gap and you ‘see things’.
So – Darkness – even total darkness – I would add that God is there. That’s what Moses experienced.
In Genesis 1:2, “the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of watery depth, and the Spirit of God was hovering over… and God said, ‘Let There Be Light.’”
Sometimes in “darkness” we are praying for God to “show up” but he is THERE we just aren’t experiencing it or seeing him, hearing him.
Moses went into the darkness, because God was there. Darkness is only bad if God doesn’t want us there.
Isaiah 45 is a powerful passage. God is speaking.
45:3 –“I give you the treasures of darkness and riches from the secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD (YHWH)
6-7 From the rising of the sun to it’s setting… there is no one but me.I am the LORD and there is no other.I FORM the Light and Create Darkness… success and disaster”
WAIT – is God doing bad things? Dark Things? No – God does not evil, but he is in all and however we define it, he is on the throne in all things. He is the Maker, the Potter, we are just the clay.
Many would take some of those statements and say that God is the “CAUSEATION” of all things good and bad, and I think we are overreading. God is talking to us using our words and saying, YOU may define it as light or dark, you may define it as success or disaster, but I am busy doing something and it can be GOOD. The whole intent of these passage is to talk about Salvation and the Way that people come to God.
Isaiah 45 continues in
vv14-15 saying that from non-believing people groups will come many who draw near the people of God and believe and find salvation, in the light and dark, success and failure as God moves.
v19 I have not spoken in secret somehow in the land of darkness… a wasteland… I speak righteously declares what is right”
It’s as if God is saying, “Darkness” is not dark – Silence is not silent, wasteland is not wasted, I am speaking, I am revealing, I am moving.
v21 … There is no other God but me a righteous God and Savior there is no one but me.
Then comes the blessed Isaiah 45:22
Turn to Me and be saved ALL THE EARTH for I am God and there is no other.
Darkness is still an opportunity for God to shine Light and us to See and Believe and Be Saved.
It seems that those would be and in reality physicists are right in saying there is no true darkness. There is not absence of light, as they say that even when there is no light, our brains make up the difference and start “seeing things.”
Back to the Mountain – Moses walks into the Total Darkness (araphel = deep darkness, thick cloud, thick gloom)
Exodus 20:22 Then the Lord told Moses, ‘this is what you are to say’”
He gives some keys to hold on to in the darkness
You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven – We have seen, we have heard, so do the last thing that we know God said to do. Believe what you have seen and heard, and know the source it is from God, from Heaven
Do not make false gods – my my, whatever we worship, invest our time in, is the determiner of our calendar, defines our treasures, rules our decision making is in danger or in reality of being our god – false god, even expensive god, but in reality, is just a man-made god without power.
make an altar for me – that is worship me – confess your sin to me and confess me as Lord, true God, Savior, King.
Know that I will COME to you, Bless you in every place where I cause my name to be remembered – Oh my, the presence of God is always the place where God Comes and Blesses – whether Dark or Light, Loud or Silent – Remember there Who God is, remember What, How, and Why he is and in the Darkness is Light
Several years ago, living in USA military community in Germany, I was invited to participate in physical training (PT) with the Chaplain Corp of the army. So all the chaplains and assistants, commissioned and non-commissioned. The Command chaplain gave me my own PT uniform. Shorts and a T-shirt – he didn’t give me socks. They had just changed from light color to black. So I wore Black Socks. I was the only one, in about 50 with Black Socks. I was “out of uniform”. And everyone was asking, “who’s the guy in black socks?” They all wanted to be able to wear black socks but couldn’t
Philippians 2:12 Paul doesn’t say “work it in” but “work it out.” Jesus told us we are a City on a hill that can’t be hidden, a light meant to be visible, not covered. Then in v13 Paul continues, God is working IN us to both will and do what pleases him. I know some days we don’t WANT to “work it out”, but keep it in, yet God in You, the Holy Spirit, in the will of the Father, with the message of the Son’s Gospel, makes you WANT to, and creates the opportunity while giving the power to work it OUT.
Then Paul tells us HOW to work it out.
V14 – cut out the grumbling and arguing … Hello Somebody, Hello Church.
V15 Why? So you may be blameless, pure, and faultless.
The challenge for the church of Jesus Christ is great and we need not make it worse by ruining our reputation with our grumbling and arguing. Paul reminds that we are in the midst of a crooked and perverted Generation, and we need to be different in the best ways. Oh my have you read “Christians” on social media, come on. We are to SHINE like STARS
V16 “BY”… see here is the thing. The people of God WILL stand out… we ARE different… One BLACK Sock in a sea of WHITE will stand out. The Question is “by what will we be known?”
Will they say, “there are those people of God, always complaining about something, always fighting with someone”. Is that how we are to be known? No
V16 “by holding firm to the word of life” – what is the word of life? John 1.4 “in him (Jesus) was life and that life was the light of men 5 that light shines in the darkness and yet the darkness did not overcome it.”
If we would be known for being people that shine light, offer life, give hope in the darkness, oh my if only that is what we were known for. Love where there is no love, life where there is no life, hope where there is no hope.
I don’t have to argue with darkness just shine light. I don’t have to put down darkness, make fun of darkness, just shine the light.
And if I give my life to be a pure, faultless, blameless giver of light, then I, like Paul, v17 “I am glad and rejoice” why because it was an act of worship on the altar of God, a gift of life to a dying world. And Paul closes as do I v18 “and you should also be glad and rejoice with me.”
By the way, a few weeks after my PT with the chaplain corp the army changed the “uniform” to black socks to match the rest of the uni and I was then known jokingly as the “civilian pastor who got our socks changed.”
Pastor Goforth 