The Widows Mites (The Last Week of Jesus, Part 7) - Frank Brancato

As we begin and look at the passages under consideration, we

do need to do this and I promise, I'm not going to

reteach what we've already taught, but I need a few minutes

to lead into what we're going to discuss because marks account

shows a tremendous distinction and comparison between the

scribes that Jesus just speaks to, and about, and this poor

Widow. Now, I know that there's a fine

line between review and bringing everyone up.

Up to speed of where we are from last time.

There's a fine line between that and being redundant and teaching

it again. I'm not going to do that.

You know, interestingly though, my dad used to tell me that a

person only only absorbs about a third of what he's told.

I don't know if that's true or not, but that's probably why I

told me everything three times. I'm not going to do that but I

do have to bring us up to speed. The first thing I want to notice

is is going back to verse 38. And Jesus said, the Bible says

that he said to them in his teaching, this actually means in

the course of his teaching, he said, and what he says is, he

says, Beware of the scribes and then he's going to list six

things that really go a long with these people with regards

to their wicked Tendencies. And the first thing that he

says, is they desire to go around in Long robes.

And we talked about what all that meant that was different

from the Normal cloak that an average person would have used.

It was also different from the cloak that Jesus would have War,

which was shorter and also the disciples.

But these that went along in these robes, what they would do

is they would go up and down the streets of Jerusalem and they

would be in the Garb of these long robes, which simply was how

kings dress and how pre-stressed and they walk up.

History tells us up and down the streets of Jerusalem, like they

were doing something that was It was very official also they love

greetings in the marketplaces. Now this phrase actually means.

Greetings here is translated in the King James it's translated

salutations. And what that is that is long

wordy or worldly or titles of Honor.

That picture this. It's kind of like a person that

gets a PhD and demands that everybody calls him doctor.

Now I understand about being called dr.

In the professional world but it'd be kind of like this.

What if I had a PhD and I wanted my brothers and sisters in

Christ to call me doctor. No, just call me Frank, call me

brother. You know what they wanted to do

though? They wanted the greetings, the

salutation, is they one of the titles and some of those titles

were these number one, Rabbi a wrap.

I was a Jewish scholar, they wanted to be called that number

two, rabona, I, which meant Master teacher, they wanted that

too. Thirdly, even believe it or not,

the word Abba, which is an intimate term for God as we read

about in the New Testament. That's what they wanted.

Also, though they wanted the best seats in the synagogue's.

You remember last time we talked about this idea of the best

seats in the synagogues and the synagogue were talking about on

the Jerusalem and of the building, there was a platform

or a stage and standing on that platform would have been the

prayer leader or the scripture reader.

You know what they wanted to do? They wanted to be plagued placed

up here, where dignitaries sat, we're honored guests at and they

wanted to sit there facing the audience, with their back to the

speaker. Like there's some kind of

something important. Didn't Jesus says they want the

best seats in the synagogues and finally the best places at the

feasts. You know, when James talked

about this very idea, He said really, it's a Christian

principle to demand or want the other seat.

In fact, James talks about giving the rich person, the

great seat, and then given the poor person, the seat on the

floor and James actually condemned that describes into

the scribes were all about that. They wanted the best places at

the feast or best couches now. That's not the worst part of all

and we're almost finished with our introduction in verse 40.

Jesus says, they devour widows houses.

Now, we don't know. Now, keep that in mind about

widows houses, please, as we go further in our study, we don't

know exactly what all was in place.

Other than this somehow, some way, they exploited the

generosity of widows, I'm going to tell you.

It takes a special person, I guess.

And I say that very lightly. And I say that in a very

negative way to take advantage of a widow.

This was a person though, the scribes sought after they did

that. And you know what they did.

And for a pretense, they made long prayers.

In other words, in order to gain influence among these poor

widows, they would pray, long long prayers.

And you remember what I said about long prayers, there's the

difference between somebody praying a long prayer because

they really have a lot to say, and what they say is from the

heart and it's going to God or in a public assembly, it's to

cover what everyone would need or whatever in that prayer.

So they could say Amen to. There's a big difference between

somebody that words along prayer because of that and somebody

else that words along prayer because they want to be heard.

Heard for their much speaking. Jesus, condemned that guy.

In 19. 90, well actually would have been in the 80s still when

I was at Cal Poly Some of you may have heard me give this

illustration years ago, I did years ago, but I was in the egg

Department that was my major agricultural business

management. And every Monday at the egg

building, there was all these students that would gather out

there. And they'd hold hands.

I'm telling you Monday morning around the egg building was

really busy. There was all kinds of people

there and it's interesting. They chose 8 a.m. on Monday

morning so you don't they were do they'd go out there and they

hold hands. And they would pray.

And everybody that drove by all. Look, look at those Christians

over there. Praying Now, we don't ever want

to be ashamed of praying to God. When other people are looking at

us, that's not the point. But the point is, if you do

something just to be seen of men, Jesus said you have your

reward. What's the reward?

The pat on the back. Oh look at this fellow over

here. What a Christian he must be.

That's the point. You know, these scribes wanted

to do to gain influence so they could take advantage of these

precious widows. They Woodward long prayers.

In fact, these two things go together.

Scholars would tell us that devouring widows houses and

making long prayers went together.

In fact the Amplified Bible says who devour widows houses and to

cover it up. They made long.

Prayers. Now that brings us to verse or

this last phrase in this verse verse 40.

These will receive greater condemnation.

Now, we understand this. There's not all kinds of

different sentences I don't think there's different kinds of

reward either. I think if I make Heaven I think

what Peter said is true. I'm not going to barely squeak

in. I'm not going to be a

Streetsweeper in heaven. Although I'd take it.

I take it. If that was, my only shot, I

take it. That's not going to happen.

If I barely squeak in, I'll take it.

But that's not going to happen either.

Because Peter says that when you make Heaven, it's an abundant

entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom.

I don't know how else to put that other than the fact we're

gonna blow the doors off and we go in.

So if I make Heaven, abundant entrance into the Everlasting

Kingdom and there won't be any difference in reward that I will

get that anybody else will get that makes heaven right?

The flip side. There's not degrees of

punishment in hair and he'll either.

So that's not what he's talking about.

The greater condemnation is the assessment that the judge which

is Jesus will place on what they were guilty of.

In other words, they're still going to be lost but he places a

greater assessment and a greater sin on those that did this

horrible thing. Taking advantage of these

precious widows. And that brings us to verse 41,

and that brings us to our lesson.

There's a clear distinction Between religious hypocrisy and

the greed of the scribes and the true wholehearted Devotion to

God, by this unnamed Widow. Jesus shows by example to help

poor. Widows should be treated there

to be helped and praised when Praises in order rather than

exploited and abused. And you know what, this is not

the title of our sermon and maybe someday I'll preach it

talking about what a widow. Indeed really means in the King

James it talks about widows indeed or Truly widows in the

new King James, I'll just say this in passing will not go any

further, the Bible even says that the treasury or the

contribution or what we have at the collection that money is for

widows to but not just any Widow, it's talking about widows

and needy Saints and is talking about furthering.

The gospel, the work of the church and all of that.

There's a difference between someone that has lost their

spouse. And who becomes a widow and

somebody that is indeed a widow or widowed indeed and Paul

writing to Timothy gave the criteria.

I just give you a few. Just got to be over 60, it's got

to have no family. It's got to have no one to help

take care of her. It's got to exhaust all of that.

And by the way, we exhaust our family, when somebody's in need,

in the family, before we ever go to the church, to help the needy

Saints. So there's a whole list of

things that a widow falls into that cry, that category or

criteria. What I'm saying is this we take

care of widows, we don't steal from We don't exploit them.

We don't do what these people did, now picture this, all of a

sudden in verse 41. Jesus, sat opposite the

treasury. Now, I want you to notice this

right here in this area right here.

Jesus had just spent where the, where the number 12 is Jesus

has. Just spent all this time, this

is the court of the Gentiles. And incidentally, these are

those Royal porticos. It's just a picture of that in

that picture there. But Jesus had been out here in

the court of the Gentiles. That's the only place that the

Gentiles could go. But Now it was time is teaching

was done. His enemies had taken off and

that's over with, and it was time for Jesus to cross through

this barrier here, which by the way, is where the beautiful gate

was or the gate. Beautiful.

And here, there was a short marble wall and Jesus crossed

and he went into the inner sanctum or the precinct the area

where Jews Gentiles should be Gentiles could not go.

That's the word I was looking for.

He entered the precinct where Gentiles could not go and that's

this area right here and it was called the court of women.

Now, all of a sudden as he enters that area, he sits on

some sort of bench and he views the treasury.

The word treasury is a compound word that comes from these two

words. One is Gaza.

And it's Persian for Treasure and the other word means to

guard or Safeguard. So the word refers to a

receptacle into the treasures or gifts, that could be dropped in

safely kept. Now according to the mishnah,

There were 13 trumpet shaped containers that were placed

around the wall in the court of women.

And, you know what they were for all different reasons and they

were distinguished by a Hebrew letter.

For example, one perhaps would be for sacrifices for the

temple, one would be for oil. That would be purchased one for.

Would that would be purchased one for this that or the other

incense I have read was for another purpose and what people

would do is they would come into the of women around the wall and

these trumpet shaped containers they would drop their money in

And you know what's interesting about that?

Jesus is viewing or watching the money that's going in the

contributions for the temple. And notice what it says, he saw

how people he saw how people put money in the treasury.

Now, do you remember when Jesus was talking about your are

giving In The Sermon on the Mount.

He was talking about giving. I think this is really

interesting because I didn't know until studying this, this

last week that they were trumpet shaped containers that people

put money in. I didn't know that.

I now know that. Okay, when Jesus says, don't

sound your trumpet or don't Blow Your Horn.

When you do your giving, do you know what?

A lot of the rich people actually did.

This is amazing to me. Not only did they come and put

as we noticed here, put their money in Inside those trumpet

shaped containers. They would even bring with them

often times a trumpet ear and that guy would stand there and

blast that trumpet. So everybody can look and see

what the rich guy put in. And no doubt.

Jesus says, don't sound your horn when you do your giving do

not Blow Your Horn, don't do that.

And Jesus is sitting here, by the way, this right here, would

have been the treasury area where number 10 is right there

and he's sitting on a mar perhaps a marble bench, we don't

know and he sees this and he saw how people put money into the

treasury and you know, Hendrickson said this in a sense

The Lord's been doing that ever since.

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 verses 6 and 7.

Paul says but this I say he who sow sparingly will also reap

sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap

bountifully. But how do we give?

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not

grudgingly or of necessity for God, loves a cheerful Giver.

Here's another one in Hebrews 4:13.

Hebrews 4:13

There is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are Are

naked and open to the eyes of him in whom we must give an

account. Now, going back to the verse

that we just noticed about Jesus witnessing, how people put money

into the treasury. The word money.

They're actually means copper or brass and becomes a general word

for all of money. It is probably though use

literally here because very few Scholars would say very few

would have given silver. So Jesus is sitting there

opposite the treasury watching people put stuff in there and

all of a sudden he notices some that are rich and he notices

that they put in much. They put in large sums now

picture this. It's Passover time.

Okay? It's Passover time.

Thousands of pilgrims would have journeyed to Jerusalem.

Among the thousands that journey to Jerusalem.

There would have been often times many wealthy people too.

now, I'm going to tell you if you only give because of what

you get in return, the gift is worthless.

And if you only get or give because you want something to be

credited to you by way of getting, some sort of Praise or

credit than the gift is also worthless.

Jesus is sitting there and he sees many who were rich and they

put in a whole lot. Liberal contributions of that.

But then there was one poor little Widow.

And she came and marks accounted shows, a sharp contrast between

the rich possibly of whom were among the scribes that either

devoured widows houses, or these poor woman, is there maybe her

house is devoured either by the scribes or maybe even the

circumstances of life. Have you ever stopped to

consider that Jesus? Always, he never missed

anything. You know, there are things that

sometimes if I was sitting there, maybe I would have missed

that. Maybe I would have been carried

away with all the hoopla, the rich people blowing the horns

and the trumpets and all that, all of a sudden Jesus sitting

there, he sees this poor Widow and she comes quietly and she's

all alone. She captures the Lord's, I in

the Mist, midst of all of this and the Bible says she threw in

two mites. How much is that?

My whole life. I've talked about Mike's my

whole life. I've talked about a Widow's Mite

for example, if she is a widow and she gives a little, I refer

to her as maybe someone who gave two Mike's, how many times have

we heard the phrase? She gave all she had her songs

that we have sung that deal with two mice, but how much was it?

How really little is the amount to mice?

Well, first of all, the Bible says, then one poor Widow came

and threw it to Mike's, which make up a quadrants In the King

James version, it says, a farthing in the word might hear

is the word lepka. And the word leptin is a Greek

coin, and it's the smallest of All Greek coins.

So we're starting there, right? But Jesus says that all of a

sudden two, might she puts in and marks account says she puts

into Mike's two, mites make up a quadrants, which means a

quarter, a quarter of what quarter of a dollar, no one

quarter of a Roman, a serious A Roman is serious, is 1/16 of a

Denarius that we all know about a Denarius, right?

The Bible talks about a Denarius, a Denarius was

equivalent to the average daily wage.

Somebody works all day and they get a Denarius in fact, when

Jesus gave the parable of the vineyard and he said that he

makes a deal as it were with people, that would come and

labor in the vineyard. And each one was promised at the

End of the day regardless of how long they worked, they were all

given one penny that word, penny is the word for Denarius.

So we know what that is might is the smallest Greek coin.

Two mites are a quadrant, which is 1/4 of robbing a serious, a

Roman, a serious 1/16 of a Denarius.

A Denarius is the average daily wage.

And by the way, what if we were to do this, what if we were to

try to lay it out and compare it to Today's means of exchange.

What about weights and measures? Now, what about American money?

How much would that have been? Okay, I've got to defer to

Scholars and historians so I'm going to do that, but I am told

that a Denarius today would be worth about 16 to 18 cents.

Not very much. You see the point?

And a serious is 1/16 of a Denarius.

A Denarius, a 16 to 18 cents. Let's just say 16.

So what's that? Mean that means in a serious is

about one penny. Okay.

It's still less than that. You know why?

Because it's a quarter of that, a quadrants of two mics was 1/4

of a penny. That's it.

You think the amount matters? Here were these rich people

putting in a ton of money. You think the amount actually

matter Jesus says, he looked and saw this woman, and he's going

to teach a lesson to his disciples.

How much did she give? She gave about a quarter of a

penny in American money. That's all.

Notice. The next verse by the way, this

is what they would have looked like, this is a picture of what

two mites would have looked like.

Not very, but not a very big deal.

That's what she put in. But then the next verse he

called his disciples to him. Now, evidently his disciples

were not with him. We're not standing there in that

proximity, but it was teaching time for Jesus.

He calls his disciples to him. There was a very valuable lesson

that needed to be learned desperately and he rivets their

attention on the wonderful example of generous or

generosity and self-sacrificing. Love now, he says to them, I say

Assuredly to you. Another words, what I'm about to

tell you, is extremely important and I need you to pay attention.

That's what that means. Assuredly, I say to you.

What I'm going to tell you is a lesson that you need to learn.

So may I say this to what we're about to talk about is a lesson

that we all need to learn too. This poor woman.

This poor Widow has put in more than all these who have given to

the treasury. She gave a quarter of a penny.

Why did Jesus say that? Gould says this, by the way,

that the meaning of this verse, Where it says that this poor

Widow has put in more than all those who have given to the

treasury. Gold says, the meaning is this,

that that this woman cast into the treasury, More than all of

the others combined. In the eyes of Jesus, she gave

more than all the others that put in all these large sums

combined. And here's why.

For they all put in out of their abundance.

But she out of her poverty, put in all that she had her whole

livelihood. Now, what makes this widows

gift. So precious in the Lord's eyes,

the rich gay from their abundance, but she gave out of

her poverty. In fact, she sacrifices

everything, he illustrates Jesus does the standard, by which all

men should measure their gifts to the Lord.

It is not the amount of the gift that earns the Lord's approval.

But it's the spirit of the giver and the sacrifice involved.

And I want to make a point folks because I'm not just being

exclusive to the contribution and are giving.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about a sacrificial life.

I'm talking about a sacrificial life.

If you had to sacrifice a great deal, would you still serve God?

We're not just talking about passing the plate around for the

contribution or the basket. We're not talking about that.

We're talking about something far more than that.

Jesus dealt with things far, more than that we're talking

about something that she gave all she had.

And by the way, that's what it's going to take for you living, a

Godly life in a Christian Life, it's going to take.

All you've got That's not new. Any coach worth his salt?

Will tell his team, All I Want Is Everything you've got That is

nothing new at all. I don't care.

You're the slowest guy in the team, so what whatever you are,

I want it all. Haven't you ever stopped to

consider when Jesus gave the parable of the talents?

That's exactly what he was talking about.

He was saying whatever you are. I want all of it.

If you're the one Talent man don't bury it.

I want it all. If you're the five Talent, man

don't bury it. I want it all produce 10.

And you see the point. It's not just sacrificing your

bank account, it's about sacrificing your life for God.

He looked at this poor woman you know these guys were doing they

were putting in all the way they came out of their abundance.

They had it leftover no big deal when she gave what she had.

She heard a little bit hurt a lot.

And why is that significant? when you give of yourself, And

you put the Lord and his church first.

When you do that, even if even if Even if you lose your job.

Or you can't work for a particular company because they

tell you, you can't worship on Sunday morning.

When you put your faith and trust in God and you give of

yourself with everything, you have what you're saying is I am

willing to sacrifice whatever it takes and I'm putting my life in

the hands of God in both Time and Eternity. and when I do

that, I have given all that I have and I put it in God's

hands. You know what we do though the

table we do and we all do it, we all do it at some point in time

in our life we start to think by our actions and reactions, we

start to think that we have to make those decisions on our own.

Because we know best, the point is we either trust God and serve

him and submit to him with everything that we have or we

don't You can't have it both ways, folks.

This poor woman gave everything she had.

She wasn't worried. One bit about a meal.

That would come her way. She wasn't worried about

anything, she gave all that. She had JW McGarvey said this,

We are disposed to measure the value of actions quantitatively

rather than qualitatively. Moreover, we are better judges

of actions than motives and can see the outward conduct much

clearer than in word character, but God's word constantly

teaches that he looks inward in the case of the value of the

woman's gift. It was measured by quality and

not by quantity in quantity. She gave two mites.

In quality. It was the gift of all she had,

that's great. Now, here's the thing.

Folks I can't look inside neither can you?

I can look inside of me but I can't look inside of you.

God can so we look at things from the outward part and we can

judge that we could see that we could judge righteous judgment.

We can look at things on the outside we can make judgments

and determinations we can do that.

But all the while God is looking inside, and that's what he did

with. This woman McMillan said this,

it is more difficult for a rich man to enter Heaven.

Do you remember when Jesus said it is easier for the camel to go

through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven?

Incidentally, there's a whole theory of people out there in

the world that try to discredit what Jesus said there.

So you know what they say they said over in Jerusalem, there

was an area that you would come through into the Gates of

Jerusalem and which kind of shaped like an eye of a needle.

And he's talking about a camel actually going through that.

That's not what he meant. If you look up those words, he's

talking about a literal camel. Going through the, a literal eye

of a needle. What he's saying is this, it's

easier for a camel to go through.

Go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into

heaven. Here's why McMillan said, it's

more difficult for a rich man to enter Heaven simply because of

the virtual impossibility of his making any real sacrifice and

thereby coming to know the devotion of that kind of

discipleship large gifts out of abundant simply cannot be

compared with a total gift of one's poverty.

Give it everything you got. Okay, I don't want you to walk

out of here though. Misunderstand me.

And I don't want you to walk out here and think, oh, the preacher

said, we can't make any money. Preach said, we can't make good

Investments. We can't have any money.

I didn't say that. I didn't say that at all.

And nowhere in the Bible. Does it say that a rich man will

go to hell and say that either? But it talks about all of The

Temptations that are rich person would have That's what it talks

about. Why do you think that the gospel

is flourishing in the Philippines?

When they have nothing? Because when the more we have

the greater we are at getting derailed from what's important

and we get things out of whack because we got all this stuff.

in the words of Uncle Everett, what we need is a good

old-fashioned depression and you just watch the church Grove,

Well, Amen, brother. Yeah.

Yeah, amen. We get derailed the sidetracked.

Here's the question. I'm done with this point.

If you had a million dollars, here's the point.

If you had a million dollars, How much would the Lord have?

That's it. How much would the Lord have?

How much have you would the Lord have?

One final scholar and I'm done. Cranfield said this the gifts of

the rich though, large were easy gifts.

The winners gift though, tiny men are real surrender of

herself to God and trust in him and therefore it honoring of God

as God as the one to whom we belong completely and who is

able to care for us. That's what it's about folks,

it's about surrendering, our self to God and putting God

totally in control. Now, if your red marks account,

yes, What happens? It's Tuesday, and it's over and

there's nothing else. So if we only red marks account,

we would find that this ends right here.

And the next thing that Mark picks up is the upper room,

okay? But when we go to John's account

and Matthews account, we find that there are several other

things that still happen on Tuesday and Wednesday is

Scholars. Say seem to be a down day.

Nothing. Specifically recorded on

Wednesday, I don't know if that's true or not.

But there's a lot of James and John and Matthew that are not in

Mark, that still make it Tuesday and will notice a few of those

things in a couple lessons going forward, I'm through I told you,

it wouldn't be that long. I preached for 32 minutes,

that's enough. And I hope something was said

that was edifying and encouraging to you a little bit.

If there's one lesson to take, please take this, just take

this, whatever you have, whatever you are, and whatever

your circumstances are in your life.

The Lord wants every aspect of you, that's what he wants,

whatever that is in the capacity, in the role that God

has given us to have whatever that is men and women in their

role in capacity and within the town.

Talents that they've been given, he wants everything.

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