MARK 4:21-34

MARK 4:21-34

MARK 4:21-25 - A candle or lamp is not to be hidden under a bushel (which speaks of business), nor under a bed (which suggests the love of ease), but is to be displayed on a lampstand in order that it may give light to all in the house. The meaning is clear. If we profess allegiance to Christ we are not to allow the claims of business or selfish desires of any kind to hinder our faithful testimony to Him whom we have acknowledged as our Saviour and Lord. 

   All unreality will be manifested sooner or later. Nothing can be hidden from the holy all-seeing eye of the Lord, nor kept secret from Him who knows the innermost thoughts and intents of the heart. All will be revealed in the clear light of His judgment seat. Happy are we if we are among those who, having ears to hear, give heed to His words!

We are warned to be careful as to what we hear and how we judge, for we ourselves will be dealt with as we deal with others; and as we hear in faith the truth of God, our knowledge will be increased. 

MARK 4:26-32 -

“So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground.” Preaching the Word is sowing the seed, whereby the kingdom of God, in its spiritual aspect, is spread throughout the world. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Cor. 1:21).

“The seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.” Just as inexplicable as the mystery of life in the seed, leading to development of the plant, so is the wonder of the new birth (John 3:6–8).

   “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” The law of growth in the natural world illustrates growth in grace and in the apprehension of spiritual realities. Men do not suddenly become mature saints. While we are saved in a moment when we trust the Lord Jesus, our growth is a matter of years. It is as we assimilate the truth by study of the Word, prayer, and devotion to Christ that we bring forth fruit to perfection.

“When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” So the great Husbandman is watching over His tilled fields (1 Cor. 3:9, margin) until the yield is at its best—then He takes to Himself the fruit for which He has waited so patiently (James 5:7). 

  “Like a grain of mustard seed … less than all the seeds that be in the earth.” It is not exactly that there are no seeds anywhere smaller than those of the mustard plant, but in a garden of herbs the mustard seed is the least of all. This pictures the small and seemingly insignificant beginning of the kingdom of God in the world, following the ascension of the Son of Man to the right hand of the Father. 

  “It … shooteth out great branches.” The mustard tree is the largest of all the herbs and fitly pictures the kingdom as a power to be reckoned with in the earth. In other words, it sets forth that which the Lord foresaw Christendom was to become—a vast all-inclusive society where “the fowls of the air,” which, we are told, are representatives of Satan and his emissaries (Matt. 13:19; Mark 4:15; Luke 8:12), find a hiding-place. The fowls of the air, that were so busy devouring the good seed in the first parable, are now seen hiding in the branches of the mustard tree. How well the Lord knew the turn that events would take! The mustard-tree-growth of the professing Church looks well for a time, but its evanescent character will soon be manifested. 

Contrasted Views of the Kingdom. There could scarcely be a greater difference in looking at the kingdom of God in its present mystical state than the distinction made by our Lord in these two parables. A field of wheat is made up of many thousands of stalks, all more or less alike, differing only in the heaviness of the heads of grain. This is what the Church of God should be in the world. The mustard tree is, in a sense, an imitation of a great world-power, such as the cedar tree of Assyria (Ezek. 31:3–6) or the great tree of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:10–12). In both instances, as in the parables, the fowls of the air—the emissaries of Satan—find lodgment in the branches. It might have seemed impossible that the kingdom of God could ever become like this. Yet that was what our Lord predicted, and it has come to pass throughout the centuries since.

 MARK 4:33-34 - Jesus always took into account the moral and spiritual conditions of His hearers and gave the Word as suited to each group. He used illustrations of the most clear and yet simple character. “Without a parable spake He not unto them.” If they showed any further interest He was glad to explain the meaning of any similitude which His hearers could not comprehend. He ever ministered to the needs of men. He never sought to charm or allure by “great swelling words,” as do the representatives of evil systems, but He used language easy to be understood, and was ever prepared to instruct any seeking soul. In all this He was the Master-Preacher, an example to all who seek to serve Him by proclaiming His Word.