Things are not always as they seem.
It was a lesson that I learned in a hard way many years ago.
Julie and I were in college.
She'd been chasing me around for a little while.
And finally I said, you know, I guess we can go out on a date or so.
But we had been dating actually for a little while.
You may remember this.
We had gone every year.
We went on a student leadership trip.
If you were in some form of leadership on the campus,
we would go on these trips to New York City.
We had to report to campus a week early from all the other students.
And they would drive us up to New York City,
really for no other reason but to enjoy a trip away from North Carolina.
And while we were there, we would have different leadership lessons
and things like that as we would go.
Well, we enjoyed some time with some of our friends from college
going to different places around the city as we always do.
One of Julie's favorite places to go in New York City is Chinatown.
And if you've ever been there, you probably will understand why she likes it so much.
It really is a fascinating area of the city.
For one moment, you're walking through a portion of lower Manhattan
that is really just like any other big city in the United States.
And then suddenly you kind of take a turn,
depending on which direction you're coming,
you take a turn around the block.
And it's like you've suddenly been transported to a downtown area of a major city in China.
And in China, everything changes.
The majority ethnic is Asian at that point.
Just the people everywhere are very different.
There are signs that are not in English anymore.
They're in Chinese.
There's vendors everywhere, which is the reason that Julie loves it so much.
We go and there's all of these vendors that are offering consumer goods
at really extreme discounts.
And if you've been there, you know how this works.
Julie loves it because she loves to go and shop with all these vendors
and all these little tiny shops there in Chinatown.
And if you're really lucky, this is what Julie likes.
If you're really lucky, you get invited to a secret room in the back of the shop.
And there's usually a false wall and they will let you in.
We went into one.
One time that was in a cellar.
There was a walkie-talkie.
I don't know what was going on there.
But there was a walkie-talkie situation.
And once they got the clear, they opened up the doors to the cellars
that go down underneath the city.
And we went down and we were ushered quickly into this area.
Julie loves to go and do that kind of shopping.
And on this particular trip, we were trying to figure out
who was going to get the better deal.
And so, of course, I eventually found a vendor.
And that was selling men's cologne at just ridiculously cheap prices.
And my scent at that particular time in my life was Acqua Di Gio by Giorgio Armani.
That was a step up from the brute that I had grown up wearing.
And I found this vendor.
And he was offering me a $55 bottle of Acqua Di Gio for like $20.
And which seems too good to be true.
But I'm like 21 years old.
That just seems like a good deal to me.
And so I'm looking at it.
And I inspect it.
It looks like anything else that I would have bought at a department store back home.
It even had the tag on the back.
Like the Macy's tag that says $55 or $65, whatever it is.
And he's saying, I'll sell it to you for $20.
And I was like, you got a deal.
$20.
I stick it in my bag.
And I go on.
And of like any good man, I'm bragging about I'm the one that got the better deal of everybody
that was shopping here that day.
And then later on, I opened up the package.
And I pulled out the bottle, which is an Acqua Di Gio bottle.
Looks exactly like it's supposed to look.
And I go to spray it on for some cologne.
And I quickly realized that what was in the bottle was not Acqua Di Gio.
It was more like Acqua Di Windex is what was in there.
It was just some kind of cleaner that had been replaced in this bottle and resold.
And I learned very quickly that things are not always as they seem.
Sometimes even people are not always as they seem.
And that's what we find in these verses that we just read in Mark chapter 12.
Two classic examples of people who we make assumptions about based on the way that they
carry themselves or perhaps the way that they look and the trappings that they have worn
and the behavior that they have demonstrated.
And then come to find out the reality is they are very different than what you might have
originally assumed.
On the one hand is the scribes who maintained every appearance of faithfulness to God,
but were in actual fact religious hypocrites.
On the other hand, Jesus marks a woman who though considered utterly insignificant
and probably outcast by most of the people of her day,
was the one with the truest devotion.
And Jesus makes note of her publicly to the people around.
So as this long day in the temple begins to wane,
Jesus contrasted the inauthentic, pretentious scribes
with the bona fide devotion and worship of the faithful widow.
And Luke's account reveals to us when he writes about this,
that though there were many people within earshot of Jesus in the temple at this moment,
his teaching here was directed specifically toward his disciples.
So when we step back and we consider that fact,
we begin to think about what is actually the purpose of this passage,
of all the things Mark and Matthew and Luke could have included in their gospels,
why did they include these two stories?
And of all the places to put them,
why did Mark decide to put them here?
And maybe you've realized that these two stories in Mark's gospel
actually fit perfectly in this place.
The lesson is another one from the Lord about the nature of true discipleship.
In making these comparisons between the scribes and this woman,
Jesus tells the disciples two things.
Beware of the scribes and be aware of the faithfulness of this lady.
And his point is that discipleship, true discipleship,
does not result in a life that looks like the scribes.
It actually results in a life that looks like the poor widow.
And our aim this morning as we come through these verses
should be to heed Jesus' warning first.
We want to take notice of the lesson that he's teaching us.
And then in conclusion, we want to evaluate our hearts
and see where we line up as far as this text is concerned.
Really just two points to go through.
The first one is this.
I want you to see a warning against religious hypocrisy.
A warning against religious hypocrisy.
Look with me at verse 38.
In his teaching, he said,
Beware the scribes who like to walk around in long robes
and like greetings in the marketplaces
and have the best seats in the synagogues
and the places of honor at feast.
They devour widows' houses
and for a pretense make long prayer.
They will receive the greater condemnation, Jesus says.
Beware of the scribes.
Beware of them.
There are six elements to this warning that Jesus gives
specifically describing the scribes.
If you want Jesus' full treatment of this,
you're going to have to go to Matthew 23.
And I would encourage you maybe to do that
if you have some downtime this afternoon.
There is just the entire chapter
is Jesus going through this condemnation of the scribes.
Mark condenses it down here to three verses.
But Matthew chapter 23 goes into much greater detail.
Let's look at the six elements that Mark mentions
The first thing he says is,
Beware of the scribes.
They like to wear long robes.
But that just seemed like a big deal, right?
What's he getting at here?
These were full length white prayer shawls.
They were meant to be seen.
They had tassels that was according to the Old Testament law.
There were particular ways that they would go about this,
but they had tassels that would be sewn
into the four corners of the robe.
They would be full length.
In fact, when the ESV says long robes here,
the idea in Greek is flowing,
that there is motion that is associated with these.
So they're not tight to the body.
They're very wide.
They're very motion driven.
They're meant to catch your attention.
The common garments of that day were colorful tunics,
and these were always this starch white.
And they were specifically designed to stand out in the crowd.
So that if you're walking through the marketplace,
and there's a few hundred people there,
and they're all wearing the colorful garments of the day,
the tunics of the day,
you would be able to notice,
even from a distance,
when a scribe was around,
they would stick out in the crowd.
The garments were often ornate,
and they communicated a measure of wealth
and superiority over common people.
It was essentially the first century version
of the modern power suit.
That's what these men were wearing.
And they loved to wear them, Jesus says,
because they wanted to be seen.
But he says it's not only about the long robes,
they love greetings in the marketplaces, he says.
They demanded a measure of deference
from the people that they felt was worthy of their status.
They wanted to be called rabbi or father.
In fact, that's something that Jesus addresses
specifically in Matthew chapter 23.
He says, do not call anybody rabbi or father.
But that's what they wanted to be called.
And so as they would make their way through the city,
they would wear their bright, white, long, flowy prayer shawls
that what everyone would notice, this person is a scribe.
And this, unless someone was involved immediately
in their work in the marketplace,
what was expected was that they would stop what they're doing,
stop the conversations that they're having,
make way for the scribe to come through,
and in deference, greet them.
Good morning, rabbi.
Good morning, father.
How are you today?
So nice to see you.
The world stops when the scribes show up.
That's what Jesus is pointing out here.
They love to wear the robes.
They love to get the greetings.
So Sinclair Ferguson says,
they not only craved the trappings of power,
but the adulation of man.
That's what they lived for.
Then we see that they liked the best seats in the synagogue.
This is a description of a platform.
Essentially, there were benches
that would be situated in the synagogue,
and those seated on those benches
would face the congregation.
If you've ever seen a picture,
or perhaps you've been in a place
that has created a replica of a first century synagogue,
you'll notice that there were risers along the walls
that people would sit on these risers,
and then people would sit on the floor.
Then there would be benches up toward the front.
Those seats were reserved for people of rank.
That's where the scribes, they wanted to sit.
And they wanted to sit there for two reasons.
One, they wanted to observe the people below them, right?
They're on the bench at the front.
They want to observe the people below them.
This was a status symbol.
They also wanted the people below them
to see them situated in the place of status.
They wanted to see,
and they wanted to be seen in the church,
in the congregation of the people.
Now, we're not far removed from that idea now.
I can remember in college,
and in the early years of ministry even,
in serving in churches,
going to conferences,
or going to large churches,
and at the beginning of the service,
right when things are beginning to happen,
the significant people in the church,
or in the school,
or in the circumstance that we're in,
are paraded onto the stage.
In some places,
the people stand and applaud as they come out,
but they're paraded onto the stage,
and then there are the seats of honor
that are on the platform.
And just to be transparent,
here's what I would think.
I would see them come out,
and I would think,
I want to sit in that seat one day.
How awesome to be the part of the it group,
the group that gets paraded on the platform
in front of the church,
that everybody stands and applauds when you come out,
that you get to sit on the seat,
and you get to look at everybody else's there,
and then they get to look at you,
and maybe they will look at you,
and say,
I hope I get to sit in Jared's seat one day.
How he must be awesome.
I never got to sit in one of those seats.
It's a good thing.
We all have a little bit of this in us, don't we?
That's the picture of the scribes here.
They love the seats in the synagogue,
the best ones.
They want to be seen.
And then he says,
it carries on not only in the assembly of God's people,
but Jesus said it's also,
they like the places of honor at feast.
So in the cultural city celebrations that would take place,
they were the VIPs of society.
And they settled for nothing less than the honor
that accompanies celebrity and status symbols.
But then it takes a turn in the description here.
It's not just about these things that they desired.
Now Jesus gets into the problem of their actions.
He says that they devour widows' houses.
Literally eat their houses.
And of course,
we don't want to over-literalize that.
They weren't literally eating houses.
They were devouring the belongings of vulnerable people.
You say, well, how does that even happen?
Well, you might even recognize it today.
These scribes were forbidden to receive compensation
for their work in the temple.
So either they had to get a common job
to compensate financially,
or many of them survived on the donations of individuals.
Now here's what they would do.
In the process of raising money for themselves,
they would go to the poor widows,
or maybe the wealthy widows,
the widows who had no one else to care for them,
and they would pray on these people.
They would become their pastor.
They would pray with them.
They would then ask them to support their ministry
as they continued to serve.
And what they would do
is they'd begin to steal the belongings of these widows.
But there's a second way.
Josephus said there was a measure of embezzlement
that went on with this.
They'd go to the widows,
and they'd say,
tell you what,
I'm gonna take care,
Christian,
I'm gonna take care of your contributions
to the church for you.
All you gotta do is give it to me.
I'm gonna take it down to the temple for you,
and I'll deposit it on your behalf.
And so they'd get the lump sum from Christian,
and they'd go to the temple,
and they'd take their portion first,
and they'd put the rest in the donation boxes.
Literally, they're devouring the belongings
of the vulnerable.
Using their spiritual status,
they quite literally robbed them,
robbed the people who had no one else
to care for them.
And that's just as prevalent today.
The scammers love to prey on the vulnerable.
They love to prey on widows.
So do those who claim the name of Christ.
One of the issues with the people
who champion the prosperity gospel
is that they have amassed
an incredible amount of wealth
by doing precisely what these scribes were doing
and that Jesus was condemning them for.
They make careers out of manipulating people
by telling them that they will use their spiritual power
that has been uniquely gifted to them by God.
And they're gonna use that spiritual power
on your behalf if you send some money
to their specific ministry.
And of course, there's the extreme examples
of the TV preachers where
if you will just send in 20 bucks,
they're gonna send a prayer cloth
that they've sneezed on,
and you get to receive the power
that comes along from that particular thing.
But there's much more subtle ways
that this happens all the time.
This kind of abuse isn't just for those
and proponents of the prosperity gospel.
You'll find this kind of spiritual abuse
and manipulation in every circle of religion.
The powerful using their status,
using God as their banner,
as an opportunity to prey on the vulnerable.
Spiritual abusers rather than spiritual leaders.
That's what the scribes were doing.
Using their status to hurt people.
Using their power to hurt people.
And then Jesus finishes up and he says,
they also, out of pretense, make long prayers.
Jesus doesn't have a problem with long prayer.
Jesus doesn't have a problem
with flowery language in prayer,
if you like to do that.
The issue here is that this wasn't real prayer.
They were spiritual monologues
meant to be seen by men and heard by men
and recognized by men.
They weren't actually communing with God in this.
That's not where their heart was.
Jesus saw through that and he said,
there is religious hypocrisy here.
In fact, that's what he's pointing out with the scribes.
Things, men, are not always what they seem,
Jesus tells his disciples.
Just look at the scribes and beware of them
because they look like they've got all of it together
and they look like they're the pinnacle
when it comes to spirituality.
But the truth is you need to watch out for them
because they're a bunch of hypocrites.
We need to understand that term hypocrisy.
Sometimes we misuse it.
Hypocrisy is not a person who takes a particular stand
or professes a particular belief
and then falls short of that in their life.
That's just called being an imperfect human.
A hypocrite is not someone who fails.
The word comes from a Greek word.
It means to wear a mask.
It quite literally is the picture of an actor
who portrays a character on stage or on screen,
but in reality is a totally different person.
That's what spiritual hypocrisy is.
That's what's happening with the scribes.
They're portraying in public to believe something
and to be something that they are not truly in their heart
and Jesus sees through it.
They pretended to be devoted to God,
but in reality, they were only devoted to themselves.
And Jesus says two things about them.
Beware of them, he says.
And I think he means two things by this.
One, beware lest you be fooled by them,
I think Jesus means.
Beware.
This was not permission from Jesus
for us to constantly be critical and suspicious
of every person that we encounter in our lives.
Some of us are experts at finding something wrong
with every person in every circumstance that we meet.
That's not what Jesus is saying here.
Not giving us permission to be suspicious
or have a disposition and critical nature all the time.
He's just saying, pay attention.
Pay attention to the warning signs of spiritual hypocrisy.
Pay attention to the warning signs of spiritual abuse,
lest you become one that is fooled by these men.
Beware of them.
And then I think there's a second part to this
that Jesus is saying.
Beware of becoming like them.
Because the truth is we all have a little scribe in us
who doesn't enjoy honor and recognition and status.
All of us in some way have a tendency toward prideful ambition.
And Jesus exposed these men so that we might watch out
and beware of being like them.
And it's highlighted in Jesus' final statement.
They will incur the greater judgment.
Now most people would look at the scribes
and judgment would never come to their mind.
Jesus is acknowledging that not only will they be judged,
but he's saying in some way
they will receive an even greater judgment than others.
Because God has no tolerance
for someone who uses his name and his glory
and his work to benefit themselves and abuse others.
So beware, Jesus says.
Now if you lived in the days of Jesus,
you would have probably recognized the scribes
as the disciples likely did.
As shoe-ins for the kingdom of God.
Jesus saw this very different.
He looked beyond their robes.
He looked beyond their places of honor.
And he saw the truth in their hearts.
And he can see the truth in your heart too.
It doesn't matter what kind of showmanship
you bring on a Sunday morning.
It doesn't matter what your persona is
on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok
or the newspaper or whatever it is that you like to use.
It doesn't matter.
He sees your heart.
He sees who you really are.
And he's the one ultimately that we stand before.
So beware.
Beware lest you become like these men.
So we see this warning against spiritual hypocrisy.
Secondly, we see an example of authentic worship.
An example of authentic worship.
And so Mark transitions the scene here.
He's moving away from exposing hypocrisy
to acknowledging the devotion of this widow woman
that we read about.
We're gonna divide it into three sections, okay?
Just to help us work through these verses.
First, I want you to see where Jesus sat.
Where Jesus sat.
Look at verse 41.
He sat down opposite of the treasury
and watched the people putting money
into the offering box.
So Jesus, no doubt tired from a full day
of teaching and interacting with people in the temple,
dismisses himself from the crowd
and goes and finds a place to sit and rest for a moment.
And I love these little snippets that we get of Jesus
that just remind us that he's also man.
He's not just God.
He's also man.
He got tired.
He needed a break.
He needed to sit down.
He needed to rest.
And I love what he's doing.
He's people watching.
You ever like to people watch?
I love it.
I love to go into places where the weather's nice.
Julie and I have done this.
We went on an anniversary trip one time to Disney World
and we spent an entire day basically sitting on park benches
watching people and laughing
and enjoying and learning and talking.
It's fun to people watch.
That's essentially what Jesus is doing.
He finds a place to sit and he's people watching.
He's resting his mind and his body.
And the place that he sat was near the temple treasury
which was located in the court of women.
The treasury had 13 offering boxes situated nearby.
They were wooden boxes, big wooden boxes that sat on the ground
and then attached to the top of the box was a trumpet-like shape,
trumpet-like shape that was made of brass.
Sometimes they might have been made out of gold or silver.
We think in this particular time it was made of brass
and there was a more narrow funnel at the top
and that's where people would put in their deposit.
And they would deposit their money into the funnel.
It would cling down through the trumpet shape
and then it would find its place in the secure wooden box at the bottom.
And there were 13 of these in the temple treasury in the court of women.
They were all labeled as well.
So some of them were labeled for the temple taxes.
You could only put certain types of currency in some of those offering boxes.
You had to use the shekels that related specifically to the temple
and there would be people there to acknowledge you
and acknowledge what you've given and keep record of all of those kinds of things.
Six of these boxes in the temple treasury were marked as freewill offerings,
meaning there's no requirement.
You don't have to give that.
It's just when you want to give something
and you want to in some form of worship give to the Lord.
You determine what it is that you're going to give
and you would go and you would put it in those particular boxes.
That's where Jesus is sitting.
And he and his disciples are taking a rest.
And the Lord observed as many people came
and made their contributions in worship to God
and obedience to the law.
Now American Christians wouldn't appreciate that very much.
But biblically, in the Old Testament and the New Testament,
giving was always a very public matter,
not a private one like we often treat it.
And Jesus is sitting over and he's just watching.
He's watching people give.
He's hearing the noise.
He's listening to the attendants as they make their records
and they write down their data.
And he's just watching what's happening in the treasury.
Now we see what Jesus saw.
You see where he sat.
Now let's see what he saw.
Verse 41, again,
many rich people put in large sums
and a poor widow came
and put in two small copper coins,
which make a penny.
So Jesus observes two things.
First, he observed that the rich gave much.
They gave much.
By the way, that's good.
We need to be careful not to vilify them
just because they're rich.
The Bible doesn't condemn wealth.
It only condemns the attitude
that very often can accompany wealth.
And Jesus makes no specific judgment here
about the motivation.
But as we're looking at the context
of this particular chapter,
we can discern that there were probably many people
coming into the temple that day
that the motivation behind their gift
was to be seen.
After all, as goes the leaders,
generally, so goes the people.
And we've already seen in this passage,
the scribes lived for attention.
They lived for credit and recognition.
They wanted to be seen
for the things that they were doing.
Jesus in other places said
they give their alms
in order that they may be seen of men.
We know this was common in Jesus's day.
Now take that and think about
what they were giving.
They didn't have bank checks and paper bills.
They had gold and silver
and these brass coins, copper coins,
all things that make a lot of noise
when you pour it into a brass funnel.
And you can just imagine
the rich that maybe wanted to be seen
bringing in their barrels.
Perhaps they've got a servant
carrying the money for them,
and they walk over
to their freewill offering box
and they begin to pour the bucket of coins
down into this brass funnel.
Everybody can hear
the great amounts of wealth
that they're pouring in
and they're receiving this credit
and acknowledgement as they do so.
Jesus is noticing that.
Now, it's important to notice
Jesus isn't saying
he's not passing judgment on this.
At the end of the day,
his observation doesn't actually relate
to their motivation.
It's just merely that they gave a lot,
which is a good thing.
So the rich people gave a lot.
Then he makes another observation,
one that likely only he made.
Because there was no reason in the world
for anyone to notice this poor widow.
There's no reason for anybody to notice her.
In fact, they probably didn't.
Jesus' eyes were fixed on her.
He's locked on her
as she enters the court of women
and she goes over to one of these
probably freewill offering boxes
and she brings her two small copper coins
and the person next to her
is pouring in their bucket of coins,
maybe with pure motivation.
We don't want to judge that necessarily,
but they're pouring in their bucket of coins.
And then here comes the lady
with two small copper coins
that barely makes a sound
as she puts it in.
And she puts it in
and she begins to walk away.
The two coins she gave,
they were called leptas.
Two of them together made a single coin,
but she's bringing two of these leptas,
which were equal to one 64th of a denarius.
You'll remember the denarius from a few weeks ago.
A denarius was a day's wage for a common laborer.
This is one 64th,
these two coins together,
one 64th of a day's wage.
And I'm gonna put that in modern terms.
Let's say Andy decides,
I'm done with reds,
I'm tired of pruning trees,
and I'm gonna go to Walgreens instead
and work the cash register.
And let's say he goes in
and they hire him for 10 bucks an hour
is what they're gonna pay Andy
to run their cash register.
His daily wage,
his denarius is gonna be 80 bucks.
In that scenario,
the equivalent of what this lady gave
was a buck 25.
It's all she had.
And she comes into the court of women
and it's probable that the box
that she gives in is this free will box,
which means that there was no requirement
on her gift.
She's not paying a temple tax.
She couldn't use those coins for that tax.
That's why we know it's not that.
No one's pushing her to do this
as far as we can tell in the text.
She gave these two leptas
because it was in her heart
to give those two leptas.
And Jesus says it's all she had.
She might have easily taken one of them
and gone to the marketplace
to buy a small piece of bread
so she could have dinner for the evening.
But she didn't do that.
She kept nothing for herself.
And seeing that her offering
was basically nothing
in the grand scheme of things,
she couldn't have been motivated
by adulation
as the scribes might have been motivated.
In fact, she might have even
been embarrassed by this,
by the public nature of giving.
Here she comes
and here's the people
bringing large sums of money
that Jesus is noticing.
And here's this poor widow
that would really probably love
to give a massive amount of money
to the work of the Lord
in worship to her God.
But all she has
is these two little leptas,
a buck 25,
and she goes in
and probably embarrassed,
hoping that nobody notices.
She goes and she gives
these two coins.
Why would she sacrifice like that?
Why?
It doesn't make sense.
Is it not love
that motivates us
to do such things?
That's what Kent Hughes discerned.
He said her humble motivation
could be nothing but love.
She was living out the Shema,
loving God
with all she had.
So Jesus observed
the rich give much
and then he observed
the widow give everything.
Do you see that?
Do you see the difference?
He sees the rich give much,
a lot of money.
He sees the widow
give everything that she has.
Do you know what the difference is
between a person
who is counting on their works
for salvation
and a person who is trusting Christ
for salvation?
One gives a lot.
They give a lot of their money.
They give a lot of their time.
They give a lot of their effort.
The other gives
everything they have.
Everything they have
goes to pleasing their Savior.
That's the difference.
That's the picture
Jesus is drawing here
in this observation.
So we see where he sat.
We see what he saw.
Finally,
we see what Jesus said.
What he said.
Verse 43.
And he called his disciples
to him
and he said to them,
Truly I say to you,
this poor widow
has put in more
than all those
who are contributing
to the offering box.
I love so much
about Jesus' reaction here.
He immediately calls
his disciples over.
I want you to picture this
for me if you would.
Things are busy.
Remember,
this is probably
day before Passover,
day before the day
of preparation at least.
This is busy in the temple.
All these people
are coming in.
They're giving of their money
in the offering box
and Jesus locks his eyes
in on this woman
and he sees what she does
and he immediately
calls the twelve around him.
He says,
Guys, come here.
And what is it that he says?
He says,
Look at her.
Look at what she just did.
Because we know
that their tendency
like our tendency
was probably
to have their eyes drawn
to all the rich folks
who were given
a lot of money
because that's impressive.
That catches our attention.
Their eyes were drawn
to the scribes
and Jesus is saying here,
No, no, no, no, no.
Don't look at those men.
Don't look at them.
Don't look at the phony,
hypocritical scribes.
Look at this woman.
Look at her.
Look what she gave.
Look what she just did.
And can I just remind you today
that Jesus sees you?
He sees you?
Many times we'll say that.
We'll quote,
and rightfully so,
we'll quote the proverb,
The eyes of the Lord
are in every place
beholding the evil
and the good.
I had that verse quoted to me
so many times growing up.
My dad would always tell me.
He would say,
Jared, I may not know
what you're doing,
but God sees you
and he'd quote the verse
and he'd say,
And he's going to tell me
what you're doing,
is what dad would say.
And usually he did.
And I don't mean it that way
in this case.
That's true.
But I don't mean it as a warning.
I mean it as an encouragement.
Jesus sees you.
Because no doubt
there's some of us here this morning,
you feel utterly insignificant
when it comes to
the big picture of things.
Maybe when it comes
to the big picture of your family
or the big picture of the church
or the big picture
of the gospel work
around the world
and you start thinking about
and comparing yourself
to the things
that other people may
be gifted in
or the other things
that they can do
and you may think
that you have no significance
in this life.
That you have nothing
of real value
to bring to the Lord
and his work.
And the truth is
you may not have
a lot of money
you can give.
You may not have
a tremendous amount
of talent
that you can use
but when you give
what you have to God
Jesus always sees that
and he is filled with joy
over your worship.
Whether it's a bucket
full of coins
or it's a couple of leptas
when you give everything
to God
he notices that.
He sees that.
He is glorified
by that.
He sees you.
We don't know
what the result
of this scenario was.
We might easily
make an application
that may not
have necessarily
been true of this woman.
We may say
well I bet
when she got home
there was like
one of those
hallelujah handshake
kind of moments
where there's just
like a basket full
of all this food
waiting for at her house.
But the scripture
doesn't tell us
that that happened.
She may have
spent the night hungry
that night.
But Jesus saw her.
The truth is
she may have never
known Jesus
was even watching.
She may have never
known the impact
of her worship
on others
throughout Christian
history as they've
come to Mark's gospel
and they've read
this story time and again.
But look at how
the Lord used her gift.
Look at how
he has been glorified
for 2,000 years now
because of the worship
of this woman.
And you may never
know the impact
of your devotion
on others either
but you can be sure
that God is always
working.
He's working in you
and he's working
through you
to glorify his son
and uplift his gospel.
And that's exactly
what Jesus did
with this poor woman.
I like how James
Edwards said it.
How powerfully
ironic is the word
more in Mark's
description
because everything
about this woman
has been described
in terms of less
particularly in
comparison to the
scribes and wealthy
crowd.
And yet the contrast
between her genuine
piety and faith
and the pretense
of the wealthy
is beyond compare.
And by Jesus'
account
she gave more
than all of the
other people
who contributed
that day.
And we know
there's some
mathematicians
among the disciples.
Matthew was a tax
collector prior
to coming to Christ.
We know he knew
how to count.
Judas we're told
in John's gospel
was skimming money
off the top
so we know that
he knew how to count
as well.
And perhaps
they're sitting there
and they're counting
up on their fingers
there's no way
Jesus how do you get
that she gave
more than anybody else.
So he explains
in verse 44.
For they all
contributed out
of the abundance
she out of her
poverty
has put in
everything she had
all she had
to live on.
So we find out
at the end of the day
in the accounting
process
Jesus is not
concerned about
the sum of your
gift
but the proportion
of it.
He's not concerned
about the amount
of currency
you give
but the amount
of sacrifice
that you make.
Why?
Because God
doesn't need
our money.
God doesn't
need our money.
Giving to God
is like
at Christmas
this year
the girls
will save money
throughout the year
and as soon
as we go to Target
they'll hit that
$3 section
and they'll blow
all their money
on stamps
and papers
and markers
and things like that.
And then Christmas
will roll around
and Ashlyn's
going to say
dad I really
want to get
mom a Christmas
gift
can you give
me some money
so I can go
get you and mom
a Christmas gift
and I will gladly
give Ashlyn some
money and she'll go
and she'll buy
a Christmas gift
and then on Christmas
day I'm going to
open the gift
and I'm going to
be so happy
to receive that
gift
but it was a
gift that I
bought.
That's what
giving to God
is like isn't
it?
It all belongs
to him.
It's all
controlled by him.
He can take
it away as soon
as he gives it.
It's all from
him.
He owns the
cat on a thousand
hills the
psalm says.
He doesn't need
our money but
just like I will
be just as
pleased with that
Christmas gift
that Ashlyn and
Harper give me
though it even
comes from my
bank account
so is Jesus
so pleased when
we give to him
though he's the
one that has
blessed us to
give to begin
with.
God doesn't need
our money.
He's not concerned
about the sum
here.
He's not biting
his nails every
Sunday hoping that
our church will
meet budget this
week.
God doesn't do
that.
He's not
impressed by
vast sums that
we may give.
He owns it all
and he provides
it all.
But what God
is undoubtedly
concerned about
is the measure
of sacrifice
and worship
demonstrated in
what we give.
And by the way
the point of this
story lest you
misunderstand me
the point of
this story is
Jesus is not
telling us and
commanding us to
give all of our
money to the
church.
That's not what
he's saying here.
He's not even
passing a judgment
on whether or not
this woman should
have given in the
way that she did.
He's acknowledging
what she did.
The lesson here is
that Jesus is
teaching that we
are to give not
all of our money
but to give all
of ourselves to
him.
All of ourselves.
Can't you say
God doesn't want
your money.
He wants you.
But you can't give
him all of yourself
apart from your
money because that's
a part of it.
And this is what
motivated Paul to
write of the
Macedonians in
2 Corinthians 8.
He said we want
you to know
brothers about the
grace of God
that has been
given among the
churches of
Macedonia.
For in a severe
test of affliction
their abundance of
joy and their
extreme poverty
have overflowed in a
wealth of generosity
on their part.
For they gave
according to their
means as I can
testify and beyond
their means of
their own accord
begging us earnestly
for the favor of
taking part in the
relief of the saints.
And here's what he
says.
And this not as we
expected.
We didn't put the
pressure on them to
do this.
He said but they
gave themselves
first to the
Lord and then by
the will of God to
us.
They gave themselves
first and then when
there was a need in
another church it
wasn't a problem for
them to sacrifice out
of their poverty to
give because they'd
already given it all to
the Lord anyways.
They'd already said
Lord I'm yours.
Everything I have is
yours.
My family is yours.
My money is yours.
My job is yours.
My church is yours.
Use it however you
want.
Of course this doesn't
apply only to our
money.
It's about our time.
We give our time to
the work of God.
It's about our talent,
our gifts.
We use them for the
glory of God.
It's about our
affection.
giving it not to
ourselves, not to
meet the cravings and
lust of our life, but
setting our affections on
the things of God.
When we give all of
ourselves to him, it's
no surprise when we're
willing to sacrifice
tremendous resources in
time for his glory and
work.
That's the point of what
Jesus is pointing out.
He's not saying you got
to give your whole
paycheck to the church.
He's saying you got to
give your whole paycheck
to him, which means
glorifying him with it
may be paying the bills
this week, and it may be
helping your kids this
week, and it may be doing
other things to help
others, and it may be
giving to the church and
giving to the Lord.
He's just saying it's all
his.
It's all his.
The lesson Jesus was
teaching in the temple
wasn't new.
It's the same lesson when
we step back and view
these passages together.
It's the same lesson on
true discipleship that
we've seen over and over
in Mark's gospel, right?
Remember in chapter one,
Jesus is walking by the
Sea of Galilee, and he
sees four fishermen, and
he says, hey guys, come
and follow me.
I'll make you fishers of
men.
And Peter and Andrew and
James and John, it says
they left everything.
They left their nets.
They left their boats.
They left their livelihood.
They left their business
to follow Christ.
And we see it time and
again in Mark's gospel.
We get to chapter eight,
and Jesus actually
explicitly says it.
He says, if you're going
to come after me, deny
yourself and take up your
cross and follow me.
For whoever seeks to
save their life will lose
it, but whoever loses
their life for my sake in
the gospels, the same
will save it, Jesus says.
And he says, what does it
matter if you gain the
whole world and at the
end of this life you lose
your own soul?
And he says, if you
want to follow me, if
you really want to be my
disciple, you have to
give everything, leave
everything behind and
follow me with your
heart and with your
affection with 100%.
We're leaving everything
behind.
And then we get to this
woman here and what do
we see in her?
In contrast to the
scribes, we see true
discipleship.
A woman who has been
willing to put everything
behind, everything behind
in order to be devoted
to her God.
And once again, we see
this beautiful picture of
what it means to actually
be a disciple of Christ.
true discipleship is when
we forsake everything, all
sin, all ambition, all
relationships, all
ideologies to believe in
Jesus and follow him as
Lord.
It doesn't look like the
pretentious scribes.
It looks like the
faithful widow.
And the question for us is
which one of those people
do we most resemble?
Are we in this for
ourselves using God's name
and using God's work to
build ourselves up and put
other people down?
Or are we actually devoted
to Christ in reality?
And of course, there's a
gospel parallel here, isn't
there?
It's easy to see it.
The woman gave everything
out of love for God.
Jesus gave everything out of
love for us.
He takes the wrath of God
against our sin as he dies
on the cross.
But he offers eternal life
and forgiveness to whoever
will come to him in faith
and repentance to be a true
disciple.
Will you come to him?
Will you receive him?
Is he the treasure in the
field?
Is he the pearl of great
price?
Yes.
Follow him.
Thank you.