This is a devotional with my thoughts added to verses from the Bible. I highly encourage you to dig into the word with your own thoughts. The Daily Devotion series is one way to do this. However, I know that sometimes we want to read other people’s ideas about Bible passages, so I am starting the Everyday series. I hope and pray that these posts will draw you nearer to Jesus.
DAY 1–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 4:21-25 Evaluation
He said to them, “Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand? For there is nothing hidden, except that it should be made known; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light. If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.” He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear. For whoever has, to him will more be given, and he who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.”
A lamp’s sole purpose is to light up an area that is dark, so it is placed where it can illuminate an area to the greatest extent. Because of this purpose, it would be idiotic to cover a lamp and try to hide its light. In addition, Jesus states that hidden secrets will be revealed. In other words, even if we wanted to hide our lights, someone would eventually see them. There are several lessons here. The first is that our purpose is to shine the light of Jesus’ message to others who are in darkness. To do that, we need to place ourselves where we can shine the greatest light rather than staying hidden in a church or at home. This is not an indictment for choosing not to speak overtly about our beliefs at work; sometimes, that situation is not appropriate for direct speech. Rather, this is a mandate to make a conscious decision to find ways and places where we can share our faith with others. If needed, we must travel to locations where others can see our light, or we may need to create opportunities where we are living to shine love into the darkness of the lives of those around us. Secondly, this is both a warning and a promise that when the light of Jesus is shining from a person, our Savior cannot be hidden. His place in our lives will be revealed whether we choose to announce that we love Him or not. We can prevent our lights from shining by not being connected with Jesus, but if we are in a relationship with Him, His light will be seen.
Next, Jesus says that it is not enough to listen. We must pay attention and measure what we hear. It is ineffective to simply sit in the pew and get emotional. We must think deeply about what we hear, evaluate it, and apply the lessons that God gives us into every part of our lives. In turn, the Master will be evaluating us to see if we are ready for deeper study. In other words, we will be judged according to how we receive and apply God’s word. That judgment will determine whether we will receive more and how much more will be given. The greater the incorporation of Jesus’ message into our lives, the greater the new input we will be able to receive. Some people are still stuck at spiritual baby food because they have not paid attention to God’s teaching and/or allowed it to penetrate into all areas of their lives. Others receive deeper lessons because they have the joined with God to create the foundation to receive more knowledge of heaven.
Finally, Jesus makes the statement that if we have nothing, what little we have will be taken away. This matches the old axiom “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” When we do not assimilate God’s messages into our lives, eventually we lose even the most basic knowledge learned from Jesus. When we hear but do not obey, when we listen and forget, when we do not reinforce our learning and skills, we lose the little knowledge and ability that we have gained. We may be able to relearn it later, but in the re-education process, we may be forced to start over from the beginning stages of faith in order to have the renewed ability to grow in Christ.
DAY 2–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 4:26-29 Seeds Grow
He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, though he doesn’t know how. For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
This parable is only told in Mark’s gospel. In it, a farmer plants seeds and watches them grow until it is time to harvest. However, he is not the force that causes the growth and maturity. It is his job to put the seeds in the ground, wait and watch, and then harvest. Jesus said that this was an analogy of the kingdom of God. Thus, the kingdom of God can grow on this earth, but there is a need for farmers who will plant, watch, and harvest. Jesus commonly referred to the kingdom of God growing in people’s hearts as plants. “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest’” (Matthew 9:36-38). According to this verse, the farmer represents Jesus’ followers. In other words, we are to plant seeds of the kingdom of heaven and harvest at the appropriate time.
Paul also used this kind of analogy. “I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:6-9). In all these metaphors, the growth is from some other mysterious force that the laborer cannot see. The source of all spiritual development is God alone. Jesus sends out workers, but He is the one who makes sure that the seeds that are planted sprout and mature. It is the Holy Spirit working inside of us silently that enables us to become something more. The key here in these verses is that it is the Lord’s harvest, not ours.
Then what is our role in the harvest? We are the servants of the owner of the field. We are to plant seeds where there is no knowledge of God, like Paul did. We are to water the plants that are already growing like Apollos. When the grain is ripe, we are to be there ready to harvest as Jesus instructed us to do with this parable. In other words, we are to spread Jesus’ love to all around us and be ready to meet the needs of those who God has called to us. However, we are never to take credit for the spiritual growth of those around us. The central message is that God has given us three jobs: we are to plant the seeds of His word, and while we may watch them develop, we should take no credit or blame for their progress because it is the Spirit who causes growth, not us. Then, we are to harvest and bring people into the church when they are ready.
The significance of this parable is that nothing can stop Jesus’ message. The seeds that He provides have life already in them. In the beginning, nothing dramatic can be seen, but once the seed is planted, the harvest is inevitable. It is not our job to be fretful about the seed’s growth, but we should simply confidently expect a harvest.
This growth of the kingdom of God is not just in other people. It is also within us. We plant seeds of the kingdom inside of ourselves by reading, listening to, and meditating on the word of God. Those seeds silently grow transforming us as we go about our daily lives. We do not know how they change us, but there will be a harvest. We do not need great spiritual power to make the seeds we plant grow. It is the nature of the seeds that they will grow. We need to simply do our job and plant.
DAY 3–Remember to pray before you begin.
Mark 4:30-34 A Mustard Seed
He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
The mustard seed is tiny at the beginning, but it grows into something new, different, and large. That growth results in a plant that can reach as high as twelve feet. The mature plant becomes a shelter that benefits others. Jesus thought that this plant was a fitting representation of the way that His word transforms our lives. When God’s message is first accepted into our hearts making us part of His kingdom, it seems small and insignificant. Nothing in our lives seems different from before, yet a process has started that will inevitably change us dramatically. If we allow the knowledge of God to grow naturally, that small bit of awareness will transform into something new and immense in our lives. This is not a change to be feared. Our spiritual growth will not only benefit us but also everyone around us.
Jesus’ purpose for this parable was to teach us about the kingdom of God. When most people hear about the kingdom of God, they think of a location somewhere out in the cosmos called heaven. However, God does not think in terms of place in the same manner that people do. Instead, He seems to think in terms of creatures. Thus, the kingdom of God is not located out in space. Instead, God’s kingdom is His people. We need to alter our own thinking so that we focus on people rather than places. When the Bible speaks of the church, this does not refer to a building or a legal organization; instead, the church is the people who belong to God’s kingdom. Each person has received the tiny seed that was planted when they chose Jesus as their Lord. Within each child of God, growth is happening that will ultimately lead to a body of people who reflect their Master in character and actions.
The disciples received the full explanation for these parables in private sessions with Jesus. However, the Bible does not usually provide such full expositions. For example, in this parable, we are given the key piece of knowledge necessary for understanding—the mustard seed is being compared to the kingdom of heaven; then, the gospel simply tells the story without elaboration. The reason is that parables are meant to be pondered so that we can develop our own personalized understanding which allows the seed of God’s word to grow more than if someone just told us an axiom or the moral of a story. It is almost as if God is saying, “Here is the principle of understanding. Now, figure it out for yourselves.” Of course, He does not leave us alone in confusion. His Holy Spirit is there with us helping the lesson to sink deeper and deeper into our characters and showing us the implications for our lives.
In a way, Jesus’ parables were mustard seeds. When people first heard the stories, they only understood the smallest part of the lesson. However, as time passed, the stories stayed in their minds in ways that simple instructions could not. Over time, those stories became their way of life. Just the mention of the Good Samaritan caused them to remember that they needed to help strangers in need. The Sower helped them to get rid of the weeds in their lives. The pearl reminded them of the treasure that they had found in Jesus. The parables grew from simple little stories into life-changing ways of comprehending the world. By telling little stories, Jesus was taking back the earth piece by piece from Satan, or rather human by human. In this war, victory is determined not by who has the most numbers, but by the very fact that God can transform us from the walking dead of Satan’s kingdom into the living givers of God’s kingdom. That growth is the victory that is returning this small rebellious world to the kingdom of God.