Scribes & the Widow

Morning, church.

Our scripture today is from Mark 12, verses 38 through 44.

Mark 12:38–44

And in his teaching he said, Beware of 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 feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.

They will receive the greater condemnation.

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

Many rich people put in large sums.

And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.

And he called his disciples to him and 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, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Encore.

I can't figure out what he's doing there.

Music.

Yeah, mu music, that's what it is.

I'd also like to hear how you found out about us because whenever anybody does, I always think, wow, I don't know how that I don't know how that happened.

So uh it's usually it's usually providence.

Um and uh so welcome, thanks for joining us.

Uh uh this is a uh wonderful text that we get to move through this morning as we Jesus teaches us how we are to use our eyes, and he teaches us how he sees things.

Um it's also a particularly exciting sermon uh service um because we'll be baptizing uh the ball line girls.

So Alice uh Richie and uh Sawyer.

We don't we're just gonna call her Richie, though, we decided.

Um so that's exciting.

Yeah, yeah.

Nice way to bring the applause.

Um so it's Brandon bringing the applause, who also did our scripture reading this morning.

This is a we've got good show.

So uh would you pray with me before we move into today's text?

Our Father in heaven, we love you and we thank you for your loving kindness towards us.

We love you because you uh show us that you don't see us with the eyes of the world.

Uh you're not a respecter of persons, Lord.

You look directly to our hearts.

Lord, we praise you because that's a uh there's a terror and a fear with the reality that you see plainly into our hearts, Lord.

And with that type of exposure, like the uh nakedness after sin in the garden, which uh it becomes an experience of shame, Lord, you clothe us in the righteousness of your son.

You impute to us his very righteousness.

That way we might stand as righteous as him in your sight and be received with the full glory and honor as sons of God.

Co-heirs with Christ.

Your spirit testifies with our spirit that we are sons of God, and so we cry out, Abba, Father.

Lord, this is an unthinkable wonder, an unimaginable grace.

And there's nothing that we could have done to deserve such a thing, Lord.

And in fact, we were your enemies when you provided us with this grace.

Lord, we pray that we would see it clearly and that it would be to the praise of your glory.

Lord, help us see the way that you see this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So as we're moving through Mark, uh, we've been in Holy Week for uh uh this whole this whole year since we've been in Mark.

And Holy Week is uh that week in Jerusalem leading up to the crucifixion and the resurrection.

And during this time, Jesus spends um most of the week in the temple teaching and in arguments and dialogues with the uh authorities who run the temple, with the scribes, with the Pharisees.

And in these arguments, he is constantly trying to be cornered and trapped.

And in each instance, we see that his truth and the authority with which he teaches overcomes all of the attacks that are thrown his way.

And here at the end of this series of seven attacks against Jesus and his overcoming of those seven attacks, Mark ends this time by showing us uh two observations that Jesus makes.

And there's a way in which these observations really frame the entire interactions that we've seen come previously.

And Jesus shows us how it is that we are to look with his eyes.

What are uh the things that we are to see so that we're able to see him?

Because if our eyes aren't trained by Jesus, then we'll miss who he is.

We won't be able to understand that the man hanging on the cross is the incarnate God.

And so our eyes need to be trained in order to witness who he truly is.

So in these hours of debates, it comes to a close with these two stories that Jesus tells.

One is uh, or these observations is more precisely what he's doing.

He observes the scribes and he gives his disciples a warning with regard to the scribes and who they are.

And then, almost as a climax of his teaching in the temple, he makes an observation of this most unlikely person, someone who you wouldn't have seen if you didn't have eyes trained like Jesus, who is this poor widow who makes almost the smallest possible offering.

And it becomes the most famous gift in the world.

So let's move through and look at these stories.

In Mark 12, 38.

He warns his disciples to beware of the scribes.

And in his teaching, he said, Beware of the scribes.

See, I told that's called it exegesis.

Sorry.

Now the word uh it we treat it's translated into ESV is beware.

This is a good translation, but it's actually simpler in Greek.

It's just the word look.

And it with a preposition, it's just look out.

Look out for the scribes.

And that's why I'm saying that Jesus is teaching us how to see.

Because in both his warning against the scribes and his acknowledgement of the widow who gives this small offering, he's telling his disciples, look.

Be able to look and see.

Look and see rightly in the way that God looks and sees.

That's what Jesus is training them to do.

Now, this look out, look out for the scribes, he tells his disciples.

This isn't the first time that he's used this very phrase that he's told them, beware to look out.

Back in Mark chapter 8, right after Jesus had fed the 4,000, they are in a boat and they're riding across the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus tells his disciples, beware, that same phrase, look out for the leaven of the Pharisees.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

And the disciples, in that conversation, they hear Jesus say, look out for the leaven of the Pharisees.

And we don't know which one, but one of the disciples must have thought, leaven.

We forgot the bread.

And they begin talking amongst one another in the boat, and and they say, We had we collected those baskets of leftover bread to bring with us on the boat, and now we've got no bread on the boat.

That was their takeaway from Jesus saying, Beware, look out for the leaven of the Pharisees.

When they, you know, like after during lunch today, when you guys are talking about the sermon and you're saying, What was your takeaway from the sermon?

That's just a pro tip on what your conversation should sound like.

After church today, there's nothing else in the world that is interesting to talk about, I think.

We didn't get robots this week.

See, that's a different thing than we had last week, didn't have to deal with robots last week.

Their takeaway was we're out of bread when he said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.

Now, I think there's a pattern here between Mark 8 and here at the end of Mark chapter 12, which is Jesus gives this warning, and then the disciples fall into a concern or fear that regards provision and whether or not the Lord will be able to take care of them, or if they'll have to depend upon what they have provided for themselves.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

Of course, they didn't provide the multiplied bread for themselves, but they thought that bringing the baskets was providing for themselves.

And in the same way, we see that sort of pattern where Jesus offers this warning against the scribes, and then the next conversation is about a woman who gives all that she has, so that she has nothing left, no money left, but then is living in utter dependence upon the Lord's provision.

And so these are related in some way, these themes are related, where if we aren't looking out for these seductions of the world, then we won't be able to receive an experience or give right honor or right place to the Lord's provision.

So you tell someone to look out for something because if they weren't paying attention, they'd miss it.

You tell someone to beware of something because that's the type of thing that would sneak up on you.

Now, this isn't like a lookout or a beware because like the scribes might jump out and surprise you.

It's a different type of lookout and beware.

What this is a warning against is the seduction of the scribes.

There's a way in which the scribes, they will not just um uh this is not a surprise attack where you need to beware of the evil people who are creeping around.

This is a you might not see them accurately.

And you might become seduced by them.

And their pattern of life might be the type of thing that you think demonstrates where true value lies, where true provision exists.

And if you aren't looking out, then it will sneak in like leaven, which is so imperceptible when it's first the pinch is just placed into the dough.

But almost imperceptibly it it moves through the whole thing.

And so the whole lump takes on the character of the leaven that was placed into it.

You need to look out for that happening because you'll miss it if you aren't warned about it.

And so what they are told to look out for in the scribes is this particular you're looking out for what it is that the scribes like.

What are they interested in?

What do they truly love?

You're looking out for for what is guiding them and the and their hearts.

So he says in 12, 38 through 40, I'm kind of the verses didn't break exactly the way that I wanted them to.

So a little bit of 38, a little bit of 40.

I was not consulted in the matter.

The scribes who 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 feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.

There's six things that we are told the scribes like, and there's six seductive things that if you don't have trained eyes, you won't be able to tell that they're wrong.

They like to walk around in long robes.

That's the first thing.

So they would wear garments as though they were, as though they were priests or kings, and they would walk around in these garments so that they would stand out from the rest of the people of God, and that they would be honored differently from the rest of the people of God.

They like greetings in the marketplaces because they get to go into the marketplace, and they aren't participants like you know the rest of you.

They get greeted as rabbi or teacher, and they enjoy being honored for this type of wisdom and for the position that they have.

They get the best seats in the synagogues.

Now, these would have been the seats that uh uh would sit facing the congregation in the synagogue because they were set apart.

And they were not the ones who, like the rest of us, would sit and and just partake of the liturgy that was good that they were participating in in the synagogue, but they were the ones that had these seats of honor.

And then there's this one, and this is the one that is particularly negative, this fifth thing that Jesus points out.

They devour widows' houses.

Now that's important because the widows were under care of the synagogue.

The synagogue would have been the ones who cared for the widows who had no one to care for them.

And the scribes who would have been in charge of that structure, rather than caring for the widows, they devoured their houses.

So they would take for themselves whatever money that they had, and they would they would convince them, you know, this ought to just be given to the synagogue, and we'll take care of you.

But then they would render them even more dependent upon their services.

So what it looks like service from the outside, but it's actually devouring them and using them for the purposes of building up the scribes themselves and their own pride and arrogance.

Then finally, they the sixth thing that they like is they make long prayers to be seen by others.

So what's the point of their prayers?

I guess who is who are they praying to?

What's the direct object of their prayers?

It's not God.

They're praying to the people around them so that they might be seen by the people around them in doing these powerful religious ceremonies.

Now you have to beware of those qualities, Jesus is saying, because they're seductive.

You know, honorable people how you should treat honorable people like people who are worthy of honor?

Any guesses?

You should honor them.

Yeah.

They should be honored.

Do you know how you should treat the ones that are delivering the word?

You know, the Bible says this, it's not just me.

They should be honored.

And so there's something about this, like it there, there's there's other than the devouring widows' houses, the the five out of six of these things that are listed, these are not bad.

It's not wrong that a great teacher who is walking through the marketplace and runs into somebody else in the synagogue, that they would say, Rabbi, that's not wrong.

It's not even, you know, there's nothing even intrinsically wrong about a long robe or some sort of distinctiveness in the dress of the one who is bringing the word.

That's not that's not intrinsically wrong.

In fact, uh, long robes, shining white, glorious robes, will be given to all of us, all Christians, one day, by the Lord Jesus Himself.

There's nothing wrong with that.

It's in fact that's wonderful and glorious and good.

Things that are uh honorable should be honored.

Things that are glorious we should we should relish and enjoy.

But this type of honor that he sees in the scribes is not an honor which points towards the intrinsic goodness of these things.

But they are using these external signs and symbols to disguise that they are actually only interested in their own vanity.

They aren't interested in the glory of the Lord.

They are only interested in their own glory.

And so Jesus says, you have to have eyes that can see this.

Because if you don't, then you'll think that this type of honor that they're pursuing for themselves, you'll think that that's the real thing.

You'll think that that's what it looks like to pursue the Lord, is these external vestiges.

But you need to beware of that, because this is actually seduction.

They're actually pulling you into a whole other world where they are only seeking honor for themselves.

Remember when Maximus in the movie Gladiator says the time for honoring yourselves will soon come to an end?

That was cool.

Well, what they are doing is they're just honoring themselves.

These are not patterns of giving honor where honor is due.

This is they have created a world where they are able to prop up their own honor, and they think that the only honor there really is, the only honor that's truly meaningful, is the honor that they are able to give to one another and hold over others.

Now, this warning, there's a sense in which, with this warning, you're you're probably thinking something like, I know that.

Of course, of course I know that.

Of course I know.

Like you've seen a movie, and in the movie, the person who is like dressed most perfectly, and who is standing in the place of honor, and who is walking through the marketplace so gracefully, and people are coming up to and honoring and fawning over them, and they're praying these long prayers, and they're, you know, they're they're uh the one who is in control and they're powerful.

In a in you know, movies, it's not like the per it's not the person who's praying long prayers, but it's like the preppy person in the movie.

And you know, because you've seen these and you know this pattern in stories, that yeah, you don't want to be that person.

The hero is kind of in the corner and is doing like doing like a cool off thing.

You know?

And they're making fun of the the these people who are dressed so well and doing everything just so.

And um, and you know you want to be like that person, that person over there.

They're off.

They they aren't like these people.

And so you you we kind of get this like caricature of what we're seeing, and we think like, yeah, of course, I wouldn't be seduced by that.

Thanks for the warning, Jesus.

But I I kind of already know to look out for the pretentious people, and I don't want to look like that anyway.

So you might think you already know this, but I want to open this category and hopefully bring it closer to home so that you recognize what the pattern of this real seduction is.

And I think the writer who puts his finger on this most precisely of what the shape of this seduction, what the shape of this leaven is, is C.S.

Lewis in his short essay titled The Inner Ring.

In his short essay titled The Inner Ring, he says this he says, Of all the passions, the passion for the inner ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet very bad of who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.

And what is the inner ring?

The inner ring is those folks that you stand just on the outside of.

And you look into them and you see, you know, they're the ones that are actually making the decisions here.

They're the ones that get to go in and be in the room where it happens.

And then they come out and they share what the decision is.

And they're the ones who actually get to be in control.

And you know this because they're in your company, the place that you work.

That and you can you can see, like, you know, when this person says something because they're kind of like a part of this group, even though they don't have the title, they're the ones that get to actually be a part of the thing happening.

They get the glory, and that's where the real glory is.

And then from them, you receive this offer.

Hey, you should join us for lunch right after this.

And you hear them talk, and they they don't talk like the way that they talked in front of everybody else.

Now it's all inside.

And you get to hear the jargon and the jokes that they make, and they're not the type of jokes that would have been made in front of the the rest of you know the plebeians.

They're the jokes that they they make just together.

And it and you you feel this sense of like, am I a part of it now?

Do I get to do I get to be called into this room?

And and you may be able to get called into that room.

And it and in getting called into that room, you'll realize, oh, there's what I have to do is I have to make this deal.

And the deal of being a part of the room is I will agree that we are the ones that distribute honor.

And I'll disregard any honor that isn't agreed upon by this room.

I'll even ignore truthfulness if it would be disagreed with in this room.

I won't say, when something sort of a little off is said, and I and I feel like it's a little off, I I won't say that it's off in this room, and we'll all agree that we don't think it's off.

And in that agreement, we know we're a part of the inner ring.

We're a part of this inner circle.

Now that is what C.S.

Lewis describes as the passion which is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.

Because you are no longer under a judgment that is directly under God that we all share and we all must honor.

Now you're in with the judges, and you get to determine what true honor is and isn't.

And you learn the words and you learn the vocabulary.

Now we know what this is at sort of like macro scales.

You know, this is the true conspiracy behind all the conspiracy theories.

You know, there's probably probably is a conspiracy, is the truth.

Because there is an inner ring.

You know, when I was at the Aspen Institute just last year, I wasn't.

I couldn't go because I was in Davos, Switzerland.

And we were deciding what it is, the types of food that you guys would eat.

Yeah, so at these macro scales, we know what those inner rings are.

But it it it we have them too.

Because we're the we're the Christians, and when we hang out together, you know, we we cuss.

We're the Christians who cuss together.

You know, and it kind of becomes like a little inner ring.

I think I've actually become convicted about cursing.

Some of you that have had grabbed lunch with me might find that to my shame surprising.

But there's this sort of like, um, you know, we don't talk like we we those those other rules, they aren't ours.

They don't apply to us here.

And in order to join us, you get to be a part of those.

You know?

They're in here, I'll do, I'll do both sides, you know.

I'll pander.

That's what that's called when you do both sides of something.

We're the uh they're all asleep.

This doesn't really apply anymore because this word has lost its luster, but we're they're all asleep.

You know, what are we?

What are you when you're not asleep in our culture?

Yeah, but we're not like that.

Because we're red pilled.

And we know that we're not we're not like them.

And you can play these sort of games where you where you we develop these these you can develop these sort of alternative moralities with their own language and their own sorts of things, and then you and then you find, wait, have we developed something here?

This is why uh this is why look out.

Beware.

It's not sneaking up on you, it's seduction.

It's seductive.

Because you've seen the vacations that the folks that get to be a part of the inner ring in your company get to go on.

And that sounds like a pretty good trip.

Now, the issue with this inner ring, well, I I'll bring us back to the text.

Jesus, after saying these six things, and I hope that you see that what these six things are, is they're they're this type of seduction.

Why should you be nervous about the scribes?

It's because you know to look down on them, but if you got the offer that you could get to wear a robe like this, and you could get to sit up here like this, and you would get to be honored like this, oh man.

You might do all kinds of things to fit into that room.

Jesus says, they will receive the greater condemnation.

They'll receive the greater condemnation.

Because there is a true honor, an honor which goes well beyond what we could bestow on one another.

There is a true judge.

A judge who is not a respecter of persons, but a judge who looks directly upon the heart.

And the question that this judge asks, that the true God asks, is do you honor me?

And by that, it doesn't matter what ring you're a part of, it will provide no safety for you.

In fact, it may just prove a greater condemnation to you.

As you saw, that you were unable to resist the seductions of this world.

And so you don't share that you're a Christian and you went to church this past Sunday, because you know that that would mean you're being ostracized from this inner ring, because we're not able to share those sorts of things with our coworkers.

They're able, they're able to share the types of things that they do, but we know that to play in this world and to play this game, I can't share this with them.

And we'll we'll call it like patience and contextualization with the people that we're with.

But it isn't really.

It isn't.

It's it's cowardice and being seduced by this promise of being in, this promise of participation.

It is so good to be in, to have a people who you feel united with, who bless you and who you might bless.

That is good.

It is so good to be justified.

That someone might say, You're fine.

You're fine here.

It is so good to have right authority under God.

That is so good.

But you can see how the the inner ring, it it's almost like this, it's like this anti-gospel, where it's it claims to offer all of these good things that are offered by Jesus, that you are adopted by Christ into the family of God, that he would bless you and say, You are justified in my presence because of what Jesus has done.

That he has, that the Lord Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, and he calls you to share in that authority.

Do you not know that you will judge angels one day?

To have the protection that he offers.

You know, how good to finally have protection, protection, to be a made man.

God is the only one who offers this truly.

And that's why this is a it's seductive, because it's in the pattern of all of these good things, but they're from the wrong source, because the only one who can truly provide all of these good things is the Lord.

It's seductive because there's a sense in which it's it's this anti-gospel because it's the anti-stumbling block.

That's why it's seductive.

The beginning of Mark 12 sees Jesus introduce this concept of the stumbling block.

And I think that there's a way where you can interpret all of these things through this lens of the stone that the builders rejected.

All of the past dialogues that we've seen Jesus with with the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees can be interpreted through this lens of not rejecting the truth because it comes in the form of a rejected stone.

Jesus said in Mark 12, 10 through 11, this is the scripture that he quotes, he says, Have you not read this scripture?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

The seduction of the inner ring, the seduction of the life of the scribes is the anti-stone that was rejected.

It's this promise of you'll get all that the gospel has, and you'll never have to experience the rejection of Christ.

There is no such offer.

The only stone that we can truly build our lives on so that our lives could have a true shape is the stone that was rejected.

Jesus is the stone that was rejected.

And he has become the cornerstone.

That's why you need to look out.

You need eyes that are trained.

Because if your eyes aren't trained, then you'll just be looking for truth in these places that are actually just seducing you.

And they're not pulling you into the truth.

They're saying you can do this and never be rejected.

There's no such place.

There's no such way of following Jesus.

You must be willing to build your life upon the stone that is rejected.

And to see that there is truth there.

That means that in the course of your conversations and your daily life, you'll have to expose that your what you look like to the inner ring is a fool.

Because you'll see fools say true things, and then you'll agree with them.

And then you'll look like that fool.

And finally, this defines its greatest conclusion in that you will see Jesus, the one who is rejected.

You'll say, I am the one, I'm building my life on Jesus.

And you'll look like a fool.

But you won't be.

You'll have rightly trained eyes.

C.S.

Lewis says, to a young person just entering adult life, the world seems full of insides, full of delightful intimacies and confidentialities, and he desires to enter them.

But if he follows that desire, he will reach no inside that is worth reaching.

The true road lies in quite another direction.

And I'm going to use that as a segue into this next story that Jesus tells, which I think is the positive example of quite another direction.

Mark 12, 41.

Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

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 sits down and he just observes the offering box.

You guys ever been there?

And we parked outside, and he said, We're just gonna sit here for a while, and you could see right at the cashier from just park from our parking spot.

And he goes, watch what people buy.

Watch what people spend their money on, and see if you can tell like what type of what type of people they are.

And you know what?

You can.

You can.

You see uh like a person who's obviously poor, and they walk in and buy a lottery ticket.

And my dad would ask, why do you think they're buying a lottery ticket?

And you think, well, you know, there's there's for perhaps just some sort of hope, or you know, they feel stuck in this situation, and so they're looking for some sort of way out, and say, Yeah, those are pretty good ideas.

I think that could be could be something like that.

You know, you you watch the way that where people spend and how they're interacting.

Jesus is doing, I I was reminded of that because I think Jesus is doing sort of something like this.

Where he's sitting and he's he's watching people give in the temple, bring their offerings.

And he sees these wealthy people come in and they are giving uh large sums of money, and that's good.

It is a good thing when wealthy people give large sums of money.

Amen.

It's a good thing.

But then a poor widow came in and put in two small copper coins, which add up to a penny.

And Jesus sees her.

Now you you would have missed her.

Because you know where you know what she's there's no threat of her winding up in an inner ring.

There's no threat of her getting an invitation to come into the room.

And so you're there's a sense in which your eyes are trained to just not really be interested.

Because there's nothing you could gain from this person.

In fact, it would probably just be a just be cost to be in relationship with this person.

So your eyes just glance over.

There, you're not captured by what she is wearing, they would have just bounced off.

But I want us to notice, before we look at before we look directly at her, I want us to notice that Jesus is watching the offerings of his church.

And he has never stopped doing that.

Jesus has never stopped watching the offerings given to his church.

We know this because in Acts 5, the Holy Spirit is very attentive to the offerings that are being brought into the church.

And that's the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

And at this wonderful time in the early church, people were selling all of their possessions and bringing them into the church.

They were, they would have land and they would sell the land, they would bring the fullness of what they had made from the selling of that property, and they'd bring it into the church.

Now, Ananias and Sapphira had decided that they would sell their land and they would tell everyone that they brought the fullness of what they had made on the property into the church.

Now, why would they do that?

Because one of the ways of gaining glory for yourself in Christianity is by generosity.

It's taking these good values of Christianity and turning them on themselves so that you might use them to serve your own glory.

This happens all the time.

This is, you have to understand that this is built into Christianity.

This is why Christian, this is why Christians are often so easily taken advantage of.

Because people are just able to just let's call it compassion juke you.

I want to be kind and welcoming, and then bam, you're blessing sin.

Judas was the uh first one that we really saw got uh do this uh really well.

Well, you know.

The alabaster jar is broken by the woman, and she pours the perfume on Jesus' feet, and it's an incredible sum of money that is poured on Jesus' feet and worship to him.

And Judas looks and he says, What a waste.

That could have been sold, and that money could have been given to the poor.

It's called a compassion juke.

He wasn't interested in caring for the poor.

He was interested in Jesus not being honored and him getting the power and the money for himself.

That's what was actually happening.

But it takes eyes to see that.

I got a little, I that I preached a little sermon within a sermon there that I wasn't intending to.

Now, Ananias and Sapphira bring in so that they are able to gain glory for themselves.

They bring in this money, and the Holy Spirit kills them.

Now, was it the amount of money that they brought in?

Jesus is always watching the offerings given to the church.

But he doesn't watch like we watch.

He doesn't watch like the others that were gathered in the temple watched.

He wasn't looking at the amount.

He was looking at their heart.

Because what they love and what they hope for and where they think their hope rests and where they think their protection is, that's all being shown in their offering.

And Jesus, with his eyes, he's able to look clearly and see that.

So what he saw with Ananias and Sapphira was not, you know, uh their money, it spends just as well as any other money in the temple.

They accept the money given by Ananias and Sapphira, and the money given by the others who it honorably gave is received just as well at King Supers to buy food to pay for the widow's meals as any other money.

But Jesus looks and he says, What I'm not allowing to be brought into my church is that this offering of generosity, which I am calling you to, cannot be as used as a means for your own glory.

Because you cannot come in and use our faith to garner glory for yourselves.

This is not a mechanism of participation into some alternative justification scheme developed by some inner ring.

I'm looking at your heart.

Look, Jesus doesn't need the money.

How many hills does he own the cattle on?

What was it, like fifty?

A thousand.

That's a lot of hills.

To own the cattle on.

And you know what?

I think that was, I think he was underselling himself a little bit.

It's even more than that.

So why is he calling you to these offerings?

Why is Jesus interested, so interested in watching the offerings given to his church?

He doesn't need the money.

He doesn't care.

He's not watching the amounts like we watch.

He doesn't have eyes like we have.

He has eyes like God has.

And he's interested in the hearts of his people.

And so Jesus is always watching the offerings of his church.

So that he might see your hearts and he might protect the hearts of his people in the church.

And that is what Jesus is doing here.

And he watches and he sees this woman bring in these two coins that are, it's it's almost the least you could possibly give.

There's one category of currency that would be less than what this woman gave.

And do you know what it would be?

If she gave one coin.

He sees and he calls his disciples to himself, Mark 12, 43, and he called his disciples to him and 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.

She's put in more.

Now, I'm not an accountant, but no, she didn't.

She put in almost the least possible.

So what is Jesus saying?

That she put in more.

And it practically amounts to almost nothing.

But Jesus is not concerned with those constraints.

He experiences none of them.

He's the one who turned the loaves and fishes to feed 5,000 people.

Why were you concerned about not having bread now?

You have Jesus in the boat with you.

Do you not understand?

So Jesus is training the eyes of his disciples so that they might see what the most is.

Why is it?

She says, Jesus says, Mark 12, 44, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

So what does that tell us about her heart?

She loves the Lord her God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.

You know, she Jesus says she put in all that she had.

Everything that she had, she just put into the offering box.

Everything she had was those two coins.

They're called lepton.

It's where we get our word leaf from because they were so thin.

So when you see leaves that are falling on the ground from now on, I want you to remember this woman.

She gave almost, it was such a thin coin that it's just like a leaf.

She had two of them.

She could have said, one for me, one for the Lord.

But she loved the Lord her God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So she gave it to the Lord.

She could have said, I can't, I need this provision more desperately than anyone else could need this provision.

And it and I know that this money is some sort, some semblance of security for me, that I might receive some sort of provision later.

But she didn't consider that money was the final thing that gave to her what she needed.

She considered that God is the one who provides for her.

So what inner ring was she a part of?

Was she a part of the inner ring of the scribes and the Pharisees who gained this glory for themselves and enjoy plundering the widows that they might use that wealth for themselves and their own glory?

Was she seduced by that?

No, she was a part of the inner ring which bestowed true honor.

The inner ring which she is brought into by God Himself, the one who gives the true honor, and she honors according to the principles of that ring.

And so Jesus looks at her and he sees this one who would have been missed, and he says, This is the greatest gift that was given today.

As it shows her the glory of her heart.

Now, you may think that once you have enough abundance, you will start giving to the church.

You will think that once you are able to satisfy all of the other needs of your life, and once your wealth has grown to such an extent that you could finally take your paycheck and multiply it by 0.1 and then give that amount to the church, then you, once you have enough abundance, you finally will.

I can tell you from experience and from just having pastored a church for these this amount of time.

I'm not, I don't remember, math, seven years, something like that.

If you aren't giving while you don't have abundance, you will not give when you do.

You won't.

Now you can this is a Christian church.

One of the best things you can do is you can repent.

And in any given moment, you can repent and correct that.

But if you think that once you finally have enough, you will then be able to give at a at in a way that shows that that you trust that God is the one who provides for you.

You you will be forever waiting.

Which ring do you want to be a part of?

Where does your provision and your care come from?

The one who makes all the bread is the one who's in the boat with you.

Have you forgotten that Jesus loves you?

That he cares for you, that he provides for you.

He is not a cruel father.

He desires for you to be taken care of.

He loves you.

He laid his life down for you.

He is more generous than you could possibly imagine.

You are safe to give to him.

You are safe in his hands.

His is the honor that you must pursue.

And so don't trip over the stumbling blocks and the seductions of this world and the promise of provision that they offer.

I think part of this is he's trying to train his disciples' eyes at this moment.

And in the next chapter, the disciples will be infatuated with the glory of the building that they're standing in.

And Jesus will retrain their eyes there again.

And I think he's retraining their eyes in this moment because he is about to be hanging from a cross.

And they will need to become convinced that the one that they saw hanging on the cross is God himself.

The one who deserves all honor and glory.

And they might miss that if their eyes are untrained, just like they missed the woman who gave just the two coins.

So let your hearts be shaped by the wonder of what Christ has accomplished on the cross.

Let that reshape all of the seductions that might otherwise creep into you and see there that he was cast out.

We might say cast out of the ring, rejected, so that you might be brought in.

You, as undeserving as you are, might be brought into the ring that matters, where there is true glory, true honor, his white robes that he freely gives to you because of what he has accomplished on your behalf.

Don't miss it because it comes in a stumbling block or a stumbling stone.

Don't miss it because it's the rejected one.

Alright, are there any questions today?

No questions.

Preach on giving?

No texted questions.

Mark 11.

Mark.

First Corinthians 11, 23, and following says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

What is the blessedness that we receive from the Lord?

He took the bread on the night before he was betrayed, and he broke it, and he said, This is my body which is broken for you.

He took the cup and he says, This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

He was cast out so that we might be brought in.

Look to him for your protection.

Let that be your courage when you need it, to be cast out for his name's sake.

Because he was cast out for you.

And his opinion is the one that matters.

It is the only true honor.

And he offers you the wonder of that glory because he purchased it for you.

And he gives it to for free and invites you to celebrate it as a meal, a fellowship with him.

You want to be invited into the inner ring.

Yeah, you do.

That's not even bad.

It's right.

You should want to be invited into the inner ring.

Question is which one?

You want to be a part of the one inner ring that actually matters, the one that actually justifies you, the one that actually honors, the one in which true glory is shown.

The one that Christ gives you for free of his own grace that testifies to his glory.

So we invite all of you who've been baptized and who proclaim the name of Jesus to come to the table this morning and partake of this meal.

Now, if you are not a Christian this morning, we would ask that you don't partake of the meal, as this is in part a proclamation of our faith.

And you wouldn't want to proclaim something to the rest of us that you don't hold.

But you, I know because you're a person that you know what it means to be seduced by the inner rings of the world.

And I know that if you've been alive for any amount of time, that you have, you, you have compromised principles that you thought you never would to partake of those, and that you have come up empty.

There is an offer in Christ.

So that that sin might be utterly forgiven, and you might be freed from the shame that you are plagued by in that.

And you might be welcomed into the glory of the true inner ring, sons of God, because of what Christ has accomplished.

He offers you himself in this free grace.

So please don't leave without talking to me about that or whoever you're sitting next to about that, to come to the table.

So that you might soon, by just receiving Christ, come to the table.

Holy Father, I pray that you would bless this meal, that you would bless our time this morning in partaking, that we would repent of the ways that we have dishonored you, Lord, by the seductions that you warn us against, that you would train our eyes so that we might not be easily seduced, and that we might be fixed upon you and your glory and your honor.

We wouldn't trip over the stumbling block, Lord, but we would build our lives upon the stone that was rejected.

See the true honor and that our lives might render to you the true honor you deserve.

We lift this up in Jesus' name, Amen.