Unmasking Religion: The Scribes' Encounter with Truth

The new sermon series is entitled Apocalypse Now.

That's the new sermon series.

It starts next week and you're gonna see

that it's actually a sequel to this sermon series

and it comes right in right after the next verse

that we're gonna be studying today.

But for those who have been here for a while,

you know right now we are in the final sermon

of a four week sermon series entitled Religion.

It's not what he wanted.

Where Jesus has interactions, conversations, arguments

with the religious leaders of his day.

And as he has these interactions and arguments,

Jesus addresses the aspect of religion

versus a relationship with God

through the one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

And today's sermon is entitled The Scribes.

The Scribes.

What is religion itself?

If we're gonna be talking so negatively about religion,

as I opened up the entire sermon series

by giving a clear definition of what religion is,

I wanna summarize it and I wanna specify it.

I wanna get very, very intricate as it relates to

what I mean by religion in common vernacular.

And here's what we mean.

Religion.

My way to happiness,

my way to heaven.

Religion.

My way to happiness, my way to heaven.

God says I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man goes to the Father but by me.

But mankind says thank you very much Jesus

but I'm gonna determine my own way to heaven

and my own way to happiness.

Anybody here ever heard of the name Michael Bloomberg?

Anybody here of Michael Bloomberg?

If you raise your hand, how many of you?

All right, Michael Bloomberg, he's a,

oh, lots of opinions about,

seems like some of you are very opinionated about my,

are you from New York?

Somebody, no?

All right, Michael Bloomberg was the mayor

of New York City for many, many years.

I think he's still around, I'm not sure.

But Michael Bloomberg was one day asked

about all of the political accomplishments

that he's been working on.

And I guess that he was able to pass a lot of laws

that he believed were really good

for the people of New York City.

And I thought it was interesting

because he was asked specifically

about his political accomplishments

and this was his quote, he said this.

I am telling you, if there is a God when I get to heaven,

I am not stopping to be interviewed.

I am heading straight in because I have earned my place

in heaven, it's not even close.

That is a big statement.

That is very bold.

I've heard politicians say some weird stuff.

But let me say it again so you understand.

I am telling you, if there is a God when I get to heaven,

I am not stopping to be interviewed.

I am heading straight in.

I have earned my place in heaven.

It's not even close.

That is, that's religion.

That is the essence of religion.

Now you might say, well, Michael Bloomberg

is not a very religious person.

Oh friend, that's the big misunderstanding

that many people have about the world.

Just because he doesn't go to a religious ceremony

doesn't make him not religious.

He is deeply invested in the religion of my way to heaven

and my way to happiness.

Every single person you know is religious.

They just follow different religions.

Some of it's hedonism, some of it's secularism,

some of it's materialism,

some of it's Democrat party,

some of it's Republican party.

By the way, I find both of the parties interesting

because if you were to interview the politicians

from both sides, I guarantee there would be very famous

politicians from both sides who would make the same argument.

I have made incredible laws and God is so impressed

with the laws I've made.

I don't need to stop at the gate to be interviewed by Peter.

I'm going straight in.

I have earned my place in heaven because of what I've done.

And it's interesting because many of their laws

contradict the other side's laws.

But this is humanity.

And so you have a choice when it comes to religion.

You actually can create your own religion for yourself.

A lot of people have done so throughout history.

You can create your own religion

and if you're a really good salesman,

you can actually convince people to follow your religion

or you can pick one of the pre-selected many hundreds

of religions that are out there

and you can follow one of them

but they all are doing exactly the same thing.

They're saying it's my way to heaven

and my way to happiness.

That's what religion does.

And it's corrupt because Jesus,

when he was asked about God,

he said there is only one way.

I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man goes to the Father by me.

See the antidote to religion is a relationship with God

through his son, Jesus Christ.

Religion is not what he wanted.

What he wants a relationship with you

and the only way he can have that is through Jesus Christ.

And in this passage, he ends his conversations

with the religious leaders,

never to talk with them again throughout his life

and explains what is wrong with religion.

So what is wrong with the religion

in three words according to this passage?

We're gonna see three words that help describe

the rest of this interaction Jesus had

with the religious leaders.

Here's what's wrong with religion.

Number one, religion is irrational.

Religion number two is ridiculous.

And religion number three is harmful.

Religion is irrational, ridiculous and harmful.

All from the teachings of Jesus.

Let's go ahead and see.

First and foremost, I would claim that religion is,

as I've defined it, my way to God, my way to happiness.

It's absolutely irrational.

After three rational logical conversations

that Jesus had with the religious leaders of his day,

they had nothing that they could say to Jesus.

They had no argument left.

Look at what he says in verse 39.

We pick up where we left off last week,

Luke 20 verse 39.

Luke 20:39

And some of the scribes, the religious leaders of the day,

answered Jesus and said,

teacher, you have spoken well.

Rabbi, you did well.

You said exactly, there's nothing else we can say.

But after they had dared not question him anymore,

Jesus asked them a question.

Jesus says in verse 41, so Jesus says to them,

here's a question I have for you.

How can they say that Christ is the son of David?

Now Jesus is the Christ.

He is the Messiah.

And he's saying of himself,

how is it that the Old Testament writers

could say that the son of David,

or that the Christ would be the son of David?

He's giving them a riddle.

Now David himself said in the book of Psalms,

the Lord said to my Lord,

sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

Therefore, David calls him Lord.

How is he then his son?

Now that riddle may not mean as much to you,

living in the United States of America 2,000 years later,

but this was a heavy riddle for them.

And the reason it was because of the society

in which they were raised,

not just knowing about the Messiah,

not just memorizing the song that Jesus is quoting,

but because they lived in Palestine 2,000 years ago

in what we would refer to as an honor, shame society.

A society that was focused upon not shaming yourself,

not shaming your family, not shaming your community,

and giving honor to the people who deserve honor most.

It was a very big value to them.

And for a man in the days of antiquity

to call his son Lord made no sense at all.

It was taking honor and flipping it on its head.

It would have been one of the highly irreverent things

you could possibly do.

And so Jesus asked the question, here's a question.

How is it that David, who is the father of Christ,

calls Christ his Lord?

Now, two questions come to mind

when I look at this riddle from Jesus.

The first question is, why is he bringing up this point?

The conversation is already over.

Why does Jesus care?

Like literally, why doesn't Jesus,

these people have already proven they hate Jesus,

they don't trust Jesus.

We've read argument after argument

from the Herodians and the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

You remember the Sadducees, right?

They didn't believe in the afterlife.

That's why they were...

Sadducees.

See, I told you you'd remember something.

I knew you, I knew you'd remember something.

And all these religious leaders have proven

they hate Jesus, they want nothing to do with Jesus.

So why is Jesus bringing up this point?

The answer to that question is found

in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew.

You see, there are three, there's four gospels,

that's the stories of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And three of those gospel accounts,

the stories of Jesus, Matthew, Mark and Luke

are called the synoptic gospels, meaning they rhyme,

they go along with each other.

A lot of the same stories are found,

but they have different views of each story.

And so you can actually find extra content,

extra understanding, a different viewpoint

of every story or most of the stories.

It's like extra DVD content

to understand how the scene plays out.

And when you look at this story in Luke,

it doesn't include specifically what Mark says

about the story and it tells us Jesus' motivation

for asking this question.

Mark chapter 12 and verse four, I'll put it on the screen.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

It's verse 34, it says,

now when Jesus saw that he had answered wisely,

Jesus asked them a question.

Or Jesus said to him, you are not far

from the kingdom of God.

Why does Jesus ask this riddle?

Here's why, because he knew that there were some listening

that were this close to getting saved.

Yeah, it could be true that the majority

of those self-righteous religious leaders

were gonna die and go to hell, but not all of them.

And Jesus doesn't just care about the sinner,

he cares about the self-righteous.

Let me ask you this question.

Does Jesus love the sinner, yes or no?

Yes.

Does Jesus love the self-righteous religious leader

who thinks they're better than everybody else?

Does he, yes or no?

And so what Jesus does is he addresses one last question.

Maybe he could win over one last individual.

Why is this true?

Why is this important to understand?

Because he was holding out hope for the scribes.

See, among the people Jesus was talking to

in the temple that day, there were men

who were ready to get saved, perhaps in the group,

you know, who may have been in the group.

Maybe Nicodemus was there.

Remember Nicodemus?

Nicodemus, all the way back at the beginning

of Jesus' ministry, was a very important Pharisee,

a very important man, and he came to Jesus by night

and he talked with Jesus, and we're gonna find out

a few days later after Jesus does die

and is buried and rises from the grave,

Nicodemus is one of the ones who helped take Jesus

down from the cross.

It could be that Jesus keeps interacting with him

because he wants Nicodemus to get saved.

It could be, it could be not just Nicodemus,

there could be a man in the crowd called

Joseph of Arimathea, who's he?

Joseph of Arimathea was a very powerful religious leader

who was a member of the Sanhedrin.

Remember that court I talked about last week?

He was so powerful and so wealthy and so connected

and so religious, and maybe what Jesus was trying to do

is win him over.

It was Joseph of Arimathea who later on

would help take the body of Jesus down

and would take Jesus and bury him in his own tomb,

the tomb of a wealthy man.

So maybe Jesus was interacting because of this.

It could be, it could be that Jesus was interacting

because there was a young Pharisee

that was listening to every word

that had been trained in the temple.

He was like the next generation of the Pharisees

that would lead the temple.

A young man who we would not meet

for many, many years to come.

Does anybody know who this young Pharisee

who could have been right there in the crowd

listening to Jesus?

As Jesus said, I have a riddle for you,

a logical young man.

Anybody can think of who might have been in the crowd

in that moment, who was it?

Saul of Tarsus.

Who eventually becomes the apostle Paul

who writes much of the New Testament.

So the question is, why does Jesus interact

with these people who hate him?

And the answer is because some of them

might still get saved.

Jesus doesn't give up on people easily.

Neither should we.

Who is it in your life that has rejected Jesus Christ?

And you think, man, they're hopeless.

Maybe they're following their own religious way

to happiness, their own religious way to heaven.

And you think, man, they're never gonna be a believer.

Can I tell you this?

God says in Ezekiel chapter 33 in verse 11,

Ezekiel 33 · chapter mention

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,

but that the wicked would turn from his way and live.

Maybe you're here today and you think,

well, if God hates me then let him damn me, friend.

God doesn't hate you.

He loves you.

And he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

There may be those who desire your harm.

God is not among them.

There may be those who desire your hurt.

God is not one of them.

God loves you.

He created you.

And he's wanting the best for you.

But what you must do in order to get from God his best

is you must give up your own way.

Way.

And for some of you, your own way is your way to heaven.

For some of you, you're already Christian,

but you don't wanna give up your own way.

Your religion is my own way to happiness.

I will not be happy unless I do it my way.

And God says, no, that door's closed, we're moving on.

And the question is, will you follow God's way,

or are you gonna backslide into your way?

2 Peter chapter three, verse nine says,

the Lord is long-suffering.

Long-suffering.

Say it with me.

Long-suffering.

Do you know what the word long-suffering means?

Does anybody know?

If you know, say it out loud.

I knew you'd say patience.

It means no to suffer long.

Long-suffering means that you suffer for a very long time

with somebody.

How many of you are married?

Can I, I'm just, I'm just, let me make my segue.

Let me make my segue.

You've put up with, they've put up with you

for a very long time, right?

Long-suffering.

It, you said patience, that's exactly what it means.

It means that God is patient with you.

I know what some of you are thinking,

man, God is just like at any moment ready to damn me.

I love this about God.

God is patient.

And whether he's patient with your sin

that you won't give up, or your own self-righteousness

that you're better than everybody else and you're a victim.

Look, your sin or self-righteousness,

God is sitting back saying, it's okay, I understand.

You're hurt right now.

I love you.

And he's not willing that any should perish.

He doesn't want your life to die and go to hell

or spiral out of control.

The Lord is not willing that any should perish,

but that all should come to repentance.

What is repentance?

He wants you to repent of your way

and say, God, your way is what I want.

That's what he wants.

So why is Jesus bringing up this point?

That's a good question, which we've addressed.

Number two, here's another question.

Who is Jesus?

That's the essence of what Jesus was getting at

with this riddle.

To really get the Pharisees, the scribes,

the Sadducees, the Herodians to recognize him,

he needed them to understand who he was.

So the question is, who is Jesus?

Say it with me.

Who is Jesus?

The religious leaders believed that the Messiah

was the son of David.

They knew that.

Everybody knew that.

They believed him to be merely a man.

The Messiah would be mere,

they did not believe Messiah would be God.

They believed that Messiah would be merely a man,

a good man, the best of men, but still just a man.

And that's why the riddle is so fascinating

because in the book of Matthew,

the other account of this story,

Jesus sets up the question by saying,

while the Pharisees were gathered together,

Jesus asked the question saying,

what do you think about Christ?

What do you think about the Messiah?

Whose son is he?

And they said, oh, everybody knows that.

The Messiah is gonna be the son of David.

And so then Jesus quote took Psalm

that was written by David.

Psalm 110 verse one.

The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand,

that I make thy enemies thy footstool.

So here is the riddle that Jesus gives them.

David said about the Messiah, his own son,

you are my Lord.

You are my savior.

You are my king.

You are my God.

See, David believed that his own son would be Messiah,

king, Lord and God.

And that's the riddle.

That's why in Matthew, Jesus said it this way to them.

He said, if David then calls him Lord,

how is he only his son?

And no one was able to answer the question.

Jesus proved in that moment logically and rationally,

I am the Messiah, I am God, I am your Lord

and I am your king.

Nobody could argue with it.

So some of you might say, so they believed?

No.

Do you know why they did not believe?

Why they did not believe?

Because religion is irrational.

At this point, some of you are thinking,

if I just had all the rational reasons

to explain to my mother, my friend, my coworker,

my neighbor, if I had all the right answers

to just answer them back and I practice on social media

and make everybody know Christians are idiots,

like this is what I do.

If I got all the right answers to argue the point,

then they will rationally and logically follow Jesus.

No, they won't because their religion is irrational.

Friend, listen, listen to me.

Your way to happiness, your way to God,

it makes no sense for you to try to find your own way

and here's why, because you're not God.

And we could give all the rational and logical reasons

in the world to help you follow Christ

and get to God through Christ,

but the rationale and logic doesn't need to happen for you

because it's irrational.

See, the problem with these people

that Jesus was talking about was not rational, logical talk.

It was the fact that they would have to give up

everything to follow Jesus

and they were not willing to do it.

Think about it, think about Nicodemus.

You remember Nicodemus in the middle of the night?

Sitting over a candle talking to Jesus?

Jesus is explaining to him how to be born again,

yet Nicodemus is not a believer yet.

It takes him years of watching following Jesus

to become a believer and follower of Jesus.

Why?

Because when Nicodemus becomes a follower of Jesus,

he has to give up his job, he has to give up his home,

he has to give up his family, he has to give up his children,

he has to give up his wife, he has to give up,

everything to follow Jesus.

Think about Joseph of Arimathea,

one of the most powerful men in the city.

Joseph, to actually believe in Jesus,

means that he has to turn his back on everything.

So it's not about give me a logical reason,

it's about the fact that I have to give up everything I am.

And that's exactly what Jesus wants you to give up.

He wants, for some of you, you have to give up your job

to follow Jesus.

For some of you, you have to give up your identity

to follow Jesus.

For some of you, you have to give up your friends

to follow Jesus.

Here's what Jesus is doing, he's offering you heaven

if you haven't been saved, or if you have been saved,

he's offering you happiness,

but to get it, you have to let go of all your way.

And say, okay, I don't have a way, what do you got?

And then he's gonna send you down a path

that you were not expecting, why?

Here's why, because rationally and logically,

you don't know where you're going.

Real quick question, when I ask the question,

you say, what do you mean I don't know where I'm going?

You're not God, he is.

Now I'm assuming that you're not God,

now I'm assuming, I'm gonna ask the question,

and it's a dangerous question for me to ask in Las Vegas.

Is there anybody here that claims to be

the God of heaven who created all things?

Anybody here is like, that's me,

I'm the God of heaven who created all things,

usher's be ready.

Anybody here who is God, omnipotent, omniscient,

omnipresent, okay, so you're not God, he is, that's the point.

It is totally irrational for you to create your own way

to happiness and your own way to heaven,

when God says, how about I send my son to save your soul

and give you a new path, his way.

Religion is irrational, friend.

Whether you create your own or you find one of the old ones,

with the eight-fold path of enlightenment

or the five pillars or the 10 commandments

or whatever religion you wanna create, it's irrational.

Number two, what's wrong with religion

as the story continues, is religion is not only irrational.

Number two, we're gonna see it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous.

Religion in and of itself is really funny

and it's interesting whenever, well, look at what it says

in verse 45, then in the hearing of all the people,

Jesus said to his disciples, okay, now picture it,

remember Jesus is still there in the temple,

all of the people are surrounding him,

he's been arguing all day with the Pharisees,

the Sadducees, the Herodians, he's talking to the scribes,

and now they're done asking questions

and Jesus is done talking to them.

So now he says out loud in front of them,

he says to his disciples, beware of those people,

beware of the scribes who desire,

who desire to go around in long robes.

They love the greetings in the marketplace,

hello rabbi, rabbi, hello rabbi, rabbi, hello pastor,

hello pastor, hello father.

There's people that's what excites them.

That's the religious hypocrite, the leader.

They love to go around in long robes,

they love the greetings in the marketplace,

they love the best seats at the synagogues or the churches,

they love the best places at the feasts,

however, they devour widow's houses,

more on that in a moment.

And for a pretense, they make long prayers.

Have you ever known somebody to pray,

but they were not really talking to God,

they were talking about God to you

in front of a group of people?

Have you ever heard somebody pray,

oh, Father, we're talking about the name.

God who created the heavens and the earth

and all that is in there in me and in thine heart

and soul and mind.

Super color fraudulistic, expilator.

Yeah.

They don't know what they're saying.

They're not talking to God.

Do you know what it is to pray?

To pray you go to God and say,

Father, I got a problem.

I got a problem.

I need your help.

But for a pretense, they make long prayers

and then it says they will receive the greater damnation.

They do all this and they're gonna go to hell

worse than you're going to hell.

More on that soon.

Special perks, silly rules and suitable damnation.

That's what religion is.

Special perks, silly rules, suitable.

It is ridiculous.

You say, what do you mean long robes?

Are you kidding me?

This is what religion does.

Let's get a bigger hat than the next guy.

Let's get a longer robe.

Let's look more holy.

Let's look more religious.

Now some of you are just catching up.

Some of you are like, wait a second.

He's making, I think he's making fun of religion.

Correct.

Well, I think I'm offended.

Perfect, perfect.

Because now what we're doing is we are reflecting

exactly what happened in the text.

The religious people are offended

because Jesus is pointing out the ridiculous nature

of what they do.

It's ridiculous.

The rules are silly.

By the way, humans are great at creating silly rules,

aren't we?

We're not.

We're not.

We're not.

We're not.

We're not.

We're not.

We're not creating silly rules, aren't we?

Not only for religion, but for local.

Here's the thing that humans love to do.

We love to create rules for other humans.

Don't we love to do that?

For example, in Alabama, did you know

bear matches are prohibited by law?

Bear wrestling.

You're not allowed to wrestle a bear in Alabama.

Hey, if I want to wrestle a bear,

I certainly probably am from Alabama.

It's a joke.

And it's one that's gonna give me a whole night

in the garage.

I'll tell you that right now.

Did you know in South Dakota,

they tell legal to fall asleep in a cheese factory?

Now, of all the rules I'm gonna share with you,

I'm probably for that one.

I'm not sure why.

In Arkansas, it's against the law to honk a car horn

at a sandwich shop after 9 p.m. I wanna know the story

behind that.

There's a sandwich owner shop, shop owner.

This is like four years of his life to get that done.

You know what I mean?

This is dead before God.

You know about the law and the thing?

I did that too.

I love this.

Do you know Alaska?

Flamingo owners, if you own a flamingo,

you are prohibited from bringing that into a barbershop.

Don't, don't, you keep that flamingo out of here.

I gotta be honest, I go to a barbershop

at least once a month.

If I'm sitting in a barbershop

and somebody wants to bring a flamingo,

totally cool with it.

I would love that moment.

I would love that.

Did you know in Fairbanks, Alaska,

it's illegal to serve alcohol to a moose?

It's true.

It's true.

I'm not gonna be on either side of this.

I'm more of a libertarian naturally.

Like I'm like, whatever you wanna do,

you do you, let me do me.

I'm a freedom guy, right?

So I'm interested in this room.

How many of you, let's just split the church over this issue.

How many of you are pro-moose and alcohol like I am?

I'm like, if you got a moose,

I wanna give him a beer, totally fine.

How many of you are like fine with that?

Give your moose a beer, what do I care?

It's your moose.

You know?

Now I get it.

Like if you're gonna give my moose a beer,

we have to talk.

That's my moose.

But how many of you are like, not me, man, not me.

I am like totally against mooses and bear, beer.

Like this is not a good, like this is something,

this is a problem for you.

No beer for mooses.

How many of you are no beer for mooses people?

Raise your hand, all right, yeah, I know.

It's a serious issue.

Did you know in Minnesota, a woman is arrested

if they just a Santa Claus?

There are some things that are sacred, my friend.

This one's great.

Go to the next one.

This one's fantastic.

Did you know in Nicholas County, West Virginia,

a preacher is not allowed to tell jokes from the pulpit?

So I've never told you about my first pastorate.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

That's just a joke, not a good one.

So Jesus is sitting there.

Now get the imagery because it's very funny.

Jesus is sitting there in the temple

talking to these religious leaders

in their long robes with their pompous attitudes,

they're better than everybody else,

and Jesus points them out and says,

don't be like these people, they're ridiculous.

Do you know the ridiculous laws

that they were passing?

Like in the religion of their day.

In their day, you could not spit on the Sabbath day

because if you did, it would disturb the dirt

and you would be guilty of plowing a field.

This was the law that Jesus was under.

During this time, you could not swat a fly

on the Sabbath day because you would be guilty of hunting.

A woman was not allowed to look in the mirror

at her reflection because she might see a gray hair,

pluck it out, which would be doing work.

How many of you are like me?

You're okay with a woman looking in a mirror

seven days a week, totally fine with that.

How many of you are right?

How many of you thinks there's some men around

that should look in the mirror at least once a week?

That's what I'm saying.

That should be the law, that should be the law.

This was all part of the ancient Judaism.

If your house was burning down on the Sabbath,

if you're in your house, the house is burning down.

You were not allowed to carry clothes out.

But there are loopholes.

That's what we do with religions.

We not only create weird rules, silly rules,

but then we have loopholes for the rules

so that we can get away with stuff.

You weren't allowed to carry your clothes out.

However, whatever you were wearing, you could save.

So you could put on as much clothes as you wanted

while the fire was burning the house down

and then run out with that and you were fine.

You could not walk more than three-fifths of a mile

from your house because if you did so, it was too much work.

But if you made a meal the night, the day before,

and put that meal three-fifths of a mile away from you,

then you could walk from your one abode

to your second abode where your food is

and then you could walk another three-fifths of a mile

from there.

Loopholes.

This is how man totally screws up

who our relationship with God is supposed to be like.

Through ridiculous rules, through silly dress codes,

and Jesus says they will receive the greater damnation.

Why?

Because they're keeping people from God.

You say, well, how do I get to God?

Jesus said there's only one way to the Father.

I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man gets to the Father by through me.

And what religion does, it's wrong in so many,

well, what's wrong with religion?

Religion is number one, it's irrational.

Number two, it's ridiculous.

And then number three, it's harmful.

It hurts people.

The next story picks up in chapter 21 verses one through four.

You have to see it and it's connected in context.

Remember, back in the early days,

there were no chapter markings in your Bible.

It would just come in one big scroll.

So the book of Luke would have been one big scroll.

The next story would have not said story number 21.

It would have just been the next story.

Remember where Jesus is?

Where is Jesus physically in this moment?

Where is he?

Where is Jesus standing teaching?

You say it to me, where is he?

He's in the temple, he's in the big temple in Jerusalem.

Now as he's there, the Bible says Jesus now in verse one

moves from the temple where he's teaching

over to the treasury that's in the temple.

And look what it says, look what it says.

And he looked up and he saw a rich

putting their gifts into the treasury.

And he saw also certain poor widow putting in two mites.

You ever heard this story before,

the two mites of the widow?

So the rich were doing what the rich do.

They were coming into the church

or the temple at the time.

They're putting all their money in.

Everybody was giving their tithes and offerings.

And Jesus was watching.

Remember there's a big celebration.

The Passover was coming.

So people were traveling from all over

and part of their worship was to come worship God

by giving tithes and offerings.

And then he noticed a woman, a poor widow,

who the Bible says had two mites.

And later on we're gonna find out these are her last two mites.

This was not a tithe, a 10% of what somebody had.

This was everything that she had.

And she gave her two mites in verse three.

And so he said, truly I say to you

that this poor widow has put in more than all of them.

For all of these have given out of their abundance.

They have put in offerings for God.

But she, out of her poverty,

put in even her livelihood all that she had.

Okay.

Yes, certainly she is to be admired.

And I believe Jesus admires her.

He says, it's amazing that she's willing

to give everything to God.

But the point of the passage is not to ring more pennies

out of poor people.

And that's how this passage is often used in religion.

You don't have much?

Give it all to God like this wonderful.

In context, it's used as an illustration by Jesus

to show what the corrupt religious leaders

are doing to the poor. Of course they can tip God

and give God and sacrifice to God.

They've got lots, but now you've got this poor widow

with two mites and she puts those in and he says,

this is the ultimate ending of what religion does.

I see it all the time.

I see it all the time.

Old women who are stuck at home and they watch on the television

and there's some religious scheister, some shamster

selling God at little bottles of oil and little,

I want God, I want God and living on a fixed income

and send us a check and all you gotta do

is deposit with us and God's gonna give you more.

Some use the name of God, some use the name of their own God,

money, riches, all you have to do is,

and they'll scam you with phone calls and emails

and it's not just that modern religion

of you can have more money if you,

and what are they doing?

They're taking advantage of the poor.

Happens in places all the time.

Friend, can I just be very honest?

I'm not sure if you can.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

Friend, can I just be very clear with you?

Very clear.

If you have and God has blessed you

and you say, yeah, God has blessed me,

I wanna give a portion back to God, awesome.

That's what Heather and I do.

But if you don't have finances to eat and take care of yourself,

take care of yourself.

Take care of yourself.

Don't let some religious con artist

con you out of your last two mites

to harm you.

Religious scammers are constantly doing this.

We see this throughout history and it happens to this day.

This is what's wrong with religion.

Now, hear me.

Jesus is done interacting with these religious leaders.

He ends by saying, don't you see how irrational your religion is?

I proved my point and you still don't wanna believe

because you don't wanna give up your own God.

How ridiculous religion is, don't follow them.

Look how ridiculous they are

and how harmful religious is.

And at that very moment, it must have been awkward for the disciples

because one of the disciples comes to Jesus and says,

Jesus, have you seen the Lord?

Jesus, have you seen how beautiful the temple is?

Come on, let's take a tour.

And so they do, they take Jesus on a tour of the temple

like he'd never been there.

Look at this beautiful thing, this beautiful thing,

and then Jesus says something in the next verses.

He says, I promise you something that nobody knows.

Very soon, there will not be one stone left on another.

And after he said that, it got quiet.

He took his disciples out of Mount Zion,

across the Kidron Valley, up on the Mount of Olives,

and there he shares with them the story of the apocalypse.

And that's where we're gonna pick up next week.

We're gonna find out next week how Jesus saw

all of this corruption was destroying their society

and how the same corruption is destroying ours.

You do not wanna miss next week, let's pray.

Father, thank you for the beauty of this passage

and my prayers that you would help us to be

willing to give up our way for your way.

With your heads bowed and eyes closed,

before we go today, I wanna give you a moment.

For some of you, I believe right now,

God is calling you away from your own way to heaven.

By rejecting your religion and receiving Jesus Christ to savior.

If you're here today and you say,

Pastor Josh, pray for me, I'm not sure

that I've ever been saved, but I need to turn my back

and follow his way to heaven, not my own way to heaven.

At the end of the sermon, would you come forward

and talk with me and say, let's go to coffee

and talk about how I can be saved, how I can give Jesus my life,

how I can follow his way?

For some of you, you need to be ready

for your own way to happiness.

For some of you, you need to let go of your religion

that's leading you to, you think it's leading you to heaven.

For the Christian in the room, maybe right now,

what God is doing is God is saying,

let go of your own way to happiness.

Your way to happiness is only leading to your own misery.

Follow his way.

Let go and give it to God.