Tag Archives: a lamp

LUKE’S GOSPEL…A MOVING STORY – 17

Bible Study, ,

“No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭8‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Life never stands still. Every day is a new page, every situation a new chapter. 

Jesus told many stories, of situations, choices, and consequences like, for example, the story of a farmer who scattered seed in his field. Each seed germinated, grew, and eventually responded to the environment into which it fell. Most of the seeds were unproductive because their circumstances were hostile. One quarter grew, flourished, and produced a harvest. 

“Why are you telling us these stories?” the disciples asked. Jesus explained their purpose. Every parable was intended to draw people into the story, to identify their place in the narrative. “Where do you fit in?” Each story required a response. They were not intended to entertain but to expose. 

“So,” said Jesus, “some people hear but don’t listen. Every story I tell them pushes them deeper into rebellion. Every seed of truth I sow is rejected and becomes unproductive, like the seed falling into hard, stony, or thorny soil. They go progressively backwards into unbelief and towards judgment.” 

“He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “ ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭8‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, even the stories Jesus told were intended to separate His hearers into two groups…those who heard and walked backwards and those who heard and walked on. No listener remained the same. 

James expressed the same thought in his warning…

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭22‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Life is always a moving story. No one ever stands still or remains the same, day in and day out. Each new year is an opportunity to do a “ lifestyle audit”, to check the progress, to gauge the distance we have travelled since the last audit. 

Some have travelled far along the path of faith, faithfulness, and obedience to the one we call “Lord”. Others have slid back into unbelief, disobedience, and rebellion, simply by failing to respond to the Word. 

So, Jesus counsels, whatever you hear, whatever truth to which you are exposed, is not intended to hide but to bring light into every situation and, one day it will. You can be sure that God’s truth will uncover every lie we have believed, every deception, every wrong path we have followed, every instruction we have ignored. 

Our journey through life continues every day and we progress or regress according to the way we hear. 

“Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”

We will either gain or lose wisdom along the way. What we carry into eternity will depend on what we do with what we hear now. 

To be continued…

MARK’S GOSPEL…YOUR RESPONSIBILITY – 14

Bible Study, ,

Mark 4:21-25 NIV

[21] He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? [22] For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. [23] If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.” [24] “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. [25] Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

There is something important that we, readers, need to clear up once and for all, that Jesus clarified in this teaching. Somehow, both preachers and people have become confused between what God has done through Jesus and what He requires us to do in response.

Jesus has done everything necessary to save us from our sin. We can add nothing to His finished work to gain acceptance with God.

Ephesians 1:7 NIV

[7] “In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace…” 

However, the experience of God’s salvation is a two-way street. The grace He provides to overcome our old nature and enjoy the blessings and benefits of our salvation can only come to us through our response of faith and obedience. 

Now, let’s examine what Jesus said about our response to His teaching.

Mark 4:21-23 NIV

[21] “He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? [22] For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. [23] If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

To what was Jesus referring when He used the illustration of a lamp? I think He was talking about His teaching. John called Him “the Word”, and He spoke of Himself as the “light of the world”. Since God’s Word is a lamp and a light…

Psalms 119:105 NIV

[105] “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

…the imagery is obvious. Jesus and His teaching are the light for our path.

So Jesus said, “A  lamp is intended to light a room, not to be hidden under something.” Just as a lamp shines to illuminate a room so, the light of Jesus’ Word must shine in our hearts…lighting up the darkness and showing us the way to live.

This leads to Jesus’ main point.

Mark 4:24-25 NIV

[24]  “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. [25] Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

In His typical, graphic way, Jesus was explaining to His disciples that they were responsible for their own spiritual growth. God has done everything for our salvation. Now, it is up to us to apply the truth to our own lives. God will not do for us what He has told us to do. He has told us to believe and obey the gospel. 

In his letters, Paul has expanded on the way we, as believers in Jesus, must live out our faith in the world. For example, 

Ephesians 4:1-3 NIV

[1] “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. [2] Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. [3] Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

…and so much more.

God will not do for us what He tells us to do. Through His grace, He gives us the strength to obey, but He does not believe or obey for us.

So, Jesus urges us…

Be careful how you listen. The more you obey, the more you will receive. The less you obey, the more you will lose. No one stands still in life. One either goes backwards or forwards.

We need to apply this principle to the church as well. In the New Covenant, there is no teaching about revival. The church does not need reviving since revival is about restoring what is dying. The church needs to obey.

2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV

[3] “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

This is what God has done. Now…

2 Peter 1:5-8 NIV

[5] “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; [6] and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; [7] and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. [8] For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Can you see, then, how clearly Peter lays out this requirement? Building on Jesus’ instruction, the Holy Spirit in Peter reminded him of Jesus ‘ words. So, we must differentiate between what Jesus has done for us and what He will do in us. How imperative this is if we are careful to do as Peter urged in his second letter…

2 Peter 3:18 NIV

[18] “But grow in the grace (His work in us), and knowledge (His work for us), of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! 

THE PERIL OF HEARING

Christian Life, ,

THE PERIL OF HEARING

He said to them, ‘Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ (Mark 4: 21-23)

How does this statement fit in with the parable of the four soils and its explanation? I think Jesus was talking about Himself. He was revealing His reason for this teaching. We have already explored the meaning of being “the light of the world”. We learned from the Tanakh – the Old Testament – that “light” often refers to the Word of God.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psa. 119: 105)

When Jesus described Himself as the “light of the world” He was calling people to follow Him because He walked in the light of God’s Word (John 8: 12). He came into the world to be the light – to show people how to interpret and live by the Word of God. Of what good would it be, then, to be in the world as a light but to put the lamp under a “bowl” or a bed where its light would not shine in the room? It was His responsibility to shine the light by both living and teaching the Word of God so that what was hidden in people’s hearts would be exposed.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1: 4-5)

Every time He told a story, people would either react or respond to it according to what was in their hearts. This was His purpose so that no one would be able to hide behind the excuse that they did not know.

Here we come to the importance of the disciple’s response. Why did Jesus teach in parables? He told them His reason.

The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside everything is said in parables. (Mark. 4: 11)

Jesus taught in parables to differentiate between those who sincerely chose to follow Him and those who were in it for what they could get out of it. The very parables He taught would either harden or soften their hearts according to their choices.

However, with His teaching comes a warning. Even from those who wanted to follow Him, there were degrees of response. Some would follow with their whole hearts and unreserved obedience while others would follow guardedly and with reservations, picking and choosing what they wanted to obey.

‘Consider carefully what you hear,’ He continued. ‘With the measure you use it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’ (Mark 4: 24-25)

Jesus warned that the measure with which they responded would be the measure of what they received. Those who responded to His teaching and obeyed it wholeheartedly would receive more. Those who did not give Him wholehearted allegiance and obedience would lose what little they had. Once again, the measure of the truth they received and the measure of their fruitfulness depended not on God but on them.

Jesus had already made it clear to His disciples that the ones “on the outside” would be taught in parables to confirm where they already were in their unresponsiveness and unbelief. Now He fine-tuned His teaching even further. Through their choices, according to the interpretation of the parable, they had already forfeited the opportunity of receiving Him as their Messiah because they had refused to receive and walk in the light of the Word. His disciples, likewise, would receive light – enlightenment – according to the measure with which they received the Word.

Judas, for example, was one of the disciples – “on the inside” as compared with those “on the outside” and yet, in the end, he was worse than those on the outside. Even from his privileged position as a chosen disciple of Jesus, he had received nothing and lost everything. He was there at that moment, hearing the parable and its explanation and the exhortation and receiving the warning but, like the path where the seed fell and was snatched away, he heard nothing; or like the stony ground, there was no root, or even like the thorny soil, what little response there was, was choked by the thorns that were already growing there.

How, then, did Jesus expect His talmidim to respond? Everything He was to them, everything He had taught them and trained them to do moved them towards this moment. They would determine the measure of truth they would receive and the measure of their fruitfulness. Whether they gained more or lost what they had, whether they were abundantly fruitful in their lives or pathetically unfruitful depended entirely on them.

Jesus promised them the priceless gift of the Holy Spirit – the same Spirit who accompanied Him on His journey to the cross. The same power that enabled Him to live a sinless life, to die as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world and to rise from the dead would be in them to enforce what they believed. Theirs was the choice. Would they hear or would they refuse to hear?

Everything grows from a seed. God’s word is a seed. In it is the potential for abundant fruitfulness. There is nothing to restrict its growth except the condition of the heart. In every disciple’s heart there is the potential to ignore or reject the Word where there are areas of hardness and unbelief, or shallow soil where the roots cannot penetrate, or even thorny ground where our hearts are split by all-consuming concerns or desires. It is up to us to choose the measure of our response and the measure of what we gain or lose.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

YOU ARE LIGHT – BE LIGHT

Christian Life, ,

YOU ARE LIGHT – BE LIGHT

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let you light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt. 5:14-16).

Salt and light – both essential for life. Just as corrupted salt loses its value and is good for nothing but to be discarded, so is a light that is hidden away of no use to the members of the household.  Why would one bother to light a lamp if it is not used to light a room? The purpose of a lamp is to enable those in the house to see.

At the same time, didn’t Jesus tell His disciples not to do their good deeds in front of people in order to gain their admiration? Which one did He mean? Did He contradict Himself? Not at all! We must examine His use of “light” in the context of Old Testament usage.

“Light” was the first word spoken, and the first thing God established on the shapeless and empty earth in the process of creation.

And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light (Gen 1:3).

Strangely enough, though, He only created the heavenly bodies on day four (Gen.1 14-15). What provided the light that God spoke on day one?

John 1:1-5 gives us a commentary on Genesis 1. John presents Jesus as both the Word and the Light. Before God created physical light, Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, provided light on the earth.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world (John 1:9).

The Old Testament often used light as a metaphor for the Word of God. For example:

Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path (Psa. 119:105).

To be light, therefore, in the light of Old Testament usage, is to be a person whose lives his life according to the instructions of God’s Word. When Jesus claimed to be the light of the world, He was, in effect, confirming His purpose to “fulfil the Law” (Matt. 5:17). By fulfilling He meant that He had come to do what the Law both said and intended, not according to what the religious leaders considered “fulfilling” but according to God’s intention from the beginning.

Being light is much more than doing a few “good works”. Being the light is living according to the instructions God gave His people for living the best life which included not only obeying the Law but also being motivated by the right attitude to God’s instructions. Jesus showed, by His life, that obedience was much more than just keeping the letter of the Law. Without a heart of love for God and for one’s neighbour, obedience is nothing more than outward acts which have no meaning to God without the right heart.

Deeds without a heart are like an unlit lamp. However, a life lived to reflect the true nature of Jesus, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, is like a lamp that shines in the darkness. Unlike the Pharisees, who paraded their good works to win the approval of people, doing good deeds simply out of love for Him, unconsciously reflects the light of God’s Word everywhere, like a lamp on a lampstand.

Jesus wanted His disciples to understand the difference between a person who did the right thing on the outside but whose heart was still greedy and selfish, and the one whose life reflected his love for Jesus by his heart attitude as well as his deeds. This inner “light” is not something a person can create by outward behaviour. It is the light of God’s life within that comes from Jesus’ indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the Word made flesh. Only as He lives His life through the believer, can He become the Word made flesh within. Those who try to copy His life without His life within are no better than the Pharisees who tried to live “righteous” lives by doing the right thing with hearts that remained unchanged. Jesus called them “whited sepulchres”, painted on the outside but full of dead bones.

Only the Spirit of God can bring life to our dead spirits. It is a work of God which He does in the heart of a person who “sees the light” and responds in faith to Jesus’ words.

For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.