James Reed's FORGE

Have you ever wondered why some prayers go unanswered?

“Thoughts are the parents of words and deeds. Let us pray daily for grace to keep our thoughts in order, and let us cry earnestly and fervently, ‘lead us not into temptation’”.

At this point in the life and times of Jesus, His public ministry has been focused on or around the immediate region of the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum. Today, we’re going to see a slight location change. Jesus moves away from Capernaum and Galilee and goes home. He comes back to Nazareth. This is about a 25 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum. While Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in a small village. This is similar to people today in that when asked where we are from, there might be several answers that you could give. Depending on the circumstances, I might tell you that I was born in Virgina, raised in Florida, but I came to GMCC from Three Forks. All of these would be correct. Perhaps the same is true for you. You were born one place, raised in another, traveled around, and now consider yourself to be from a certain location. Jesus, in this sense is the one born in Bethlehem, yet we can truly call Him Jesus of Nazareth. This village where Jesus grew up was so obscure, it didn’t even have a Christian church until the fourth century, under the reign of Constantine in the Roman Empire.

There are 640 acres in a square mile according to what I found on the ever-reliable internet. RC Sproul said in one of his sermons that, “…the people of Nazareth built their village out of a rocky hillside in an area that covered 60 acres. The whole town was 60 acres. (That’s not even a full 10th of a sq. mile.) Less than five hundred people lived there. Of course, having grown up in such a small village, Jesus knew everyone in town.” So, we’re talking small and insignificant by any worldly standard when we talk about Nazareth.

We are going to continue our study today through the end of chapter 4 in the Book of Mark. As I have done several times, I want to point out the harmony of the Gospels. This account we’re reading today is also found in Matthew 8:23-27 and Luke 8:22–25. Over the last several Sundays we have seen a great deal of truth from Mark 4. We’ve learned that Jesus taught in parables in part that the prophecy would be fulfilled from Isaiah—”Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand…” We’ve seen an agricultural them as Jesus taught us about the seed which is scattered by the sower. We’ve had the hard soil of the wayside where the word is given, but Satan symbolized by the birds eats up the seeds. We took a look at the stony ground where the word is received with gladness, but does not endure over time because there is no root. Troubles come, and the shallow convert stumbles. We saw how some seeds fall among the thorns which picture the cares of this world, riches, and other desires. These choke out the word, and there is no fruit. Then we saw the good ground—these who accept the word and bear good fruit—some 30, 60, and 100 fold. We talked about letting our light shine in this dark world, and Jesus promised that to those who truly hear Him will receive even more. He warned us to take heed—that is to know, understand, assign meaning to His words. We do not want to be like those who had some knowledge but did not act upon it, and lost what little bit they had been given. We also had a short and poignant story. We looked at the parable about the mustard seed. I went to some effort to explain how I believe this is a picture of the Church throughout the world and time itself—growing and expanding.

Today, we are going to get into the parable of the lamp. This parable comes right after the parable from last week’s sermon, the parable of the sower. Last week we learned that some are able to receive the message of Jesus, and some are not. There’s an implication here that the mystery of the kingdom of God is already revealed by Jesus, and those willing to embrace it, receive it. The verses we’re covering today are given more extensive treatment in Matthew 25:14-30 which is where we find the parables of the talents. There is also a similar parable of the 10 minas found in Luke 19:11-27. Again, taken together these passages clarify that embracing the kingdom of heaven means we act in obedience, according to the purposes of God.

There are words and ideas used by our Lord in our text today that He used repeatedly on many different occasions. What Jesus says here about the lamp being put under a basket or under a bed is found again in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus tells us that, “…there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.” He also cautions us that whatever measure we use, will be the measure for us. Both of these concepts are found in Matthew, but in both cases in an entirely different context from the passage today’s text from Mark. I think one reason for our Lord repeating these things so often and in different ways, is because He knew He’d be dealing with people like me. Sometimes, I just don’t get it. Sometimes, I need to hear it again, so that I may hear Him without my stubborn traditions.