May 12, 2025 • 32 mins
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Jesus reveals the stark contrast between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of man through his interactions with religious leaders and observations in the temple.
• Beware of scribes who seek attention through long robes, public recognition, and seats of honor
• Religious leaders who appear holy often "devour widows' houses" while making long prayers for show
• Jesus highlights a poor widow who gives her last two coins at the temple treasury
• The widow's small offering means more than large donations from the wealthy because she gave everything
• Jesus warns his disciples that the impressive temple buildings would be completely destroyed
• Only God's kingdom lasts forever – earthly kingdoms and achievements are temporary
• What truly matters is investing in things with eternal value – people and God's work
Let's invest in things that last forever. Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
All right, all right, mark, chapter 12, finishing it
out.
Oh my gosh, it's awesome.
I love the energy.
All right, mark 12,.
38 is where we will start today, and perhaps you remember that
(00:33):
we were in the middle of Jesuslast week before the cross.
You remember.
The religious leaders have beenquestioning and testing Jesus.
They want him to failUltimately, they want to get rid
of him.
And Jesus is challenging them.
Right, and we've seen soclearly the kingdom of God in
opposition to the kingdom of man.
(00:54):
Testing and counter-testing.
And we've seen.
Round one Pharisees came, shouldwe pay taxes to Caesar?
And Jesus responds render toCaesar the things that are
Caesar and to God the thingsthat are God's.
And then, round two, theSadducees.
(01:14):
And they come with this crazyquestion about a woman who ends
up being married to sevenbrothers Strange question.
And they ask in theresurrection, whose wife will
she be?
And Jesus responds verypointedly with you don't know
the scripture or the power ofGod.
Victory.
Round three the scribes come andthey ask Jesus out of all these
(01:40):
360 plus commandments, how many?
Or which is the greatestcommandment?
And Jesus says love God witheverything and love your
neighbor as yourself.
And we've seen Jesus come outon top.
In each one of these encounters, the kingdom of man's religion
(02:02):
is falling to the truth.
Now, in verse 38, jesus offers alittle bit of a counter here in
verse 38.
It says this he said to them inhis teaching beware the scribes
who desire to go around in longrobes, love greetings in the
(02:25):
marketplaces, they love the bestseats in the synagogues and the
best places at feasts.
They devour widows' houses and,for a pretense, make long
prayers.
These will receive greatercondemnation.
So the scribes.
Jesus in particular points outthe scribes and he says beware,
(02:49):
be careful, be on guard for thescribes.
Well, what's wrong with them?
Well, we see here they desire.
They desire, they love and theydevour.
If you kind of simplify this,they desire to go around in
their long robes.
Right Now, what's wrong withlong robes?
Nothing.
(03:10):
If you want to wear a robe,it's cool if you want.
But Numbers 15, 37, we see someinstruction that the children of
Israel were to put tassels onthe corners of their robe.
That doesn't sound too bad,right?
Little tassely things there.
What was it for?
(03:30):
It was to remind them of thecommandments.
This is Numbers 15, 37.
Remind them of the commandmentsand to remind them to do the
commandments.
So as they looked down at thesetassels, they remembered what
God said they would rehearseGod's word and they would be
encouraged to actually live byGod's word.
(03:51):
So it's kind of this physicalreminder.
Well, they took it another stepfurther.
That's always what religionseems to do.
Take it just one more stepfurther and they would make
these tassels and these robesextra long, ridiculously long,
right, and people would look andgo, wow, nice tassels, and they
go.
Well, you know, I really loveGod's word and God's
(04:14):
commandments.
That's why I have these tassels.
And it became this kind ofthing of the longer your tassels
were and your robe was, themore holy and religious you were
, the more righteous you were.
So it's kind of the statusthing, right.
And for the scribes, even, theywould make their robes long.
It's hard to do manual labor inlong robes, right, and they
(04:36):
weren't expecting to do anymanual labor, they were
expecting to sit and have peoplelisten to them and appreciate
them.
So these long robes they kindof made the man in those days
and it was an outward sign ofholiness and religiosity, right,
and that is one thing that theydesired.
(04:58):
Notice.
Also, they loved greetings inthe marketplaces also.
They loved greetings in themarketplaces.
So as they would go out intothe marketplaces, they just
loved the prestige of being ateacher of the law.
And you know, the moregreetings you got, the more well
known you were.
The respect and the recognition, right, we know this.
(05:20):
In a small town, right, in asmall town, it's hard for some
of you to go anywhere and not berecognized, you know, and for
some that feels good, for othersit's somewhat annoying.
But for the scribes they lovedit.
Everywhere they went, thepeople went oh, teacher, teacher
, oh good, I love your study,great study, I listen to you all
(05:42):
the time.
Well, thank you, thank you verymuch.
And it was like a little bit ofcelebrity for them.
But notice, they didn't justlove that, they loved the best
seats in the synagogue, theplace of respect in the
synagogues, the best place atfeasts, right, were saved for
(06:03):
the best teachers.
And so they really appreciatedthat.
They loved it, they lived forit.
Little celebrities in their ownworld.
But notice what else thescribes do here.
Verse 40, they devour widows'houses, they devoured widows'
(06:24):
estates.
We'll talk about that in alittle bit.
But to kind of mix the metaphorhere, the Bible considers us as
sheep.
That's one thing you kind offind.
You find David, psalm 23,.
We all know it.
The Lord is my shepherd.
(06:44):
I shall not want, and he leadsme and he has me laid down and
he provides for me and he leadsme all over the place into,
ultimately, where I'm with himin the house of the Lord forever
.
So David looks at the Lord as ashepherd.
Sweet David looks at himself assheep, as a sheep, someone
(07:05):
who's in need of help andprovision and protection, and we
look at it as though God is ourshepherd and he takes care of
us.
It's wonderful to be with thegood shepherd, jesus.
Now, here we see that theydevour widows' houses.
(07:26):
The Bible also talks aboutwolves, right.
Jesus talks about wolves insheep's clothing.
Luke, chapter 10, verse 3,jesus says Go your way to his
disciples.
Behold, I send you out as lambsamong wolves.
In Matthew 7, verse 15, jesussays this Now listen to this.
(07:48):
Beware of false prophets whocome to you in sheep's clothing
but are inwardly ravenous wolves.
You will know them by theirfruits.
So there's this warning assheep, we're warned to be
careful for wolves who devoursheep.
That's how you know a wolf,right?
(08:10):
How do you know a wolf in thechurch by what they eat.
Right, wolves eat sheep,destroy lives and we see that.
Turn, if you would, to Actschapter 20.
Paul had a concern about thesedevouring folks Acts chapter 20.
Good time to turn.
(08:34):
Acts chapter 20.
It's a sort of you could sayministry workers convention here
.
Paul is there on an island,he's meeting with some Ephesian
elders.
Acts 20, verse 28.
And Paul has this huge concernfor people that people would not
(08:57):
be devoured, that people wouldbe okay.
Look at verse 28 there in Acts20.
Therefore, paul says take heedto yourselves and to all the
flock among which the HolySpirit has made you overseers to
shepherd the church of God,which he purchased with his own
(09:17):
blood.
Now, verse 28 for extra studyis a great way to see all
persons of the Trinity.
Right, we have the Holy Spirit,we have God, the Father, and we
have the fact that Godpurchased the church with his
own blood.
That's Jesus all in one verse.
Very interesting.
But notice verse 29, as he'sconcerned.
(09:38):
He says this for I know thisthat after I leave, after my
departure, savage wolves willcome in among you, not sparing
the flock.
Also among yourselves, men willrise up speaking perverse
things to draw away disciplesafter themselves.
Therefore, watch and rememberthat for three years I did not
(09:59):
cease to warn everyone, nightand day with tears.
So Paul here warns thesepastors there, these Ephesian
leaders in the church you guysare overseers.
Beware of yourself and for thepeople that God's trusted to you
.
Now I feel in some ways God'strusted y'all to me as much as
(10:24):
it depends on me.
But you have people in yourlife that you're responsible for
.
In your family, in your friendcircles.
You know there are wolves thatwant to devour us.
They go around and just want totake advantage of people and,
as Paul says here, lead peopleto themselves, be on guard and
(10:47):
be careful.
And I think, as Jesus says thisback in Mark, chapter 12, he's
got some of those same concerns.
The scribes, you guys need toknow.
They devour widows' houses,they take advantage of widows.
(11:08):
Now, as we move on here, noticewhat he says in verse 40, the
end of verse 40.
These will receive the greatercondemnation.
Now here's a scary thought Agreater condemnation to people
(11:32):
who know it's been said I thinkit was Spider-Man who made it
famous that with great powercomes great responsibility.
Now, it wasn't exactlySpider-Man.
Luke 12, jesus says to whom muchis given, much is required.
Right, it's the same idea.
But here Jesus warns thesescribes, there's a greater
(11:57):
condemnation.
Scribes, because you study theBible and you know better, and
yet you're devouring widows'houses, you're devouring people.
We take comfort in this, notbecause we're going to go out
and bust people.
Tell the truth to people, standup for the truth, know how to
(12:19):
rightly divide the word of truth.
But one day and we'll see thisin the end of our time today one
day God's going to set it allstraight.
There will be a judgment andGod will set it straight once
and for all.
But this is a real heavy thing.
Here Jesus says you got to beaware of these guys.
They're wolves.
They devour people and widows'houses.
(12:43):
Now let's move on to verse 41,and we'll see a little more here
In an obviously connectedaccount.
Jesus is people watching here,people watching Verse 41.
Now Jesus sat opposite thetreasury and saw how people put
(13:03):
money into the treasury and manywho were rich put in much.
Then one poor widow came andthrew in two mites which make a
quadrants, just in case you werewondering.
So he called his disciples tohimself and said to them
Assuredly I say to you, thispoor widow has put in more than
(13:26):
all who have given to thetreasury, for they put in out of
their abundance, but she putout of her poverty or she put
out of her poverty.
She put in all that.
She had her whole livelihood.
So Jesus is here in the courtof the women.
Men and women could go in thecourt of the women.
(13:48):
And there were treasuries there,these boxes.
They were plated, I think, withgold, maybe it was bronze, look
it up.
But there were treasuries there, these boxes.
They were plated, I think, withgold, maybe it was bronze, look
it up.
But there were these boxes thatwere shaped kind of like
trumpets.
They were kind of narrow at thetop and at the bottom they were
wider and some of the reasonwhy they looked like that was
acoustics.
Right, you could put your moneyin there and you would kind of
(14:10):
hear the echo of the clank,clank, clank, clank.
So if you put in a little bit,it was like fun, you know, clank
, clank, clank.
If you were rich, right, andnotice, as Jesus' people
watching here notice the richcome and it's like they got
buckets full of money, you know,and they're like pouring it
into the treasury and it soundslike jackpot at the casino.
(14:35):
You know, ding ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding.
You know, and you know it's fun.
But it's their heart.
They're looking at it and it'slike I gave everybody.
Can you tell I gave?
Now they got their reward.
And Jesus speaks on this in theSermon on the Mount.
(14:57):
He says, matthew 6, when you doyour charitable deed, do not
sound a trumpet before you asthe hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets,that they may have glory for men
.
Assuredly, I say to you theyhave your reward.
But you, when you do acharitable deed, when you give,
do not let your right hand knowwhat your left hand is doing.
(15:19):
So, jesus' encouraging givinghere is guard your heart right,
guard your motives.
We are all capable of havingour motives to be seen right.
The big old check that says howmuch we gave.
You know the applause of oh,wow, very good, you know.
But Jesus says it's so importantthat you guard your heart,
(15:41):
because the heart is whatmatters.
If we give now listen, if wegive to be seen and appreciated,
that's our reward.
When people appreciate us andsay, oh, thank you so much, oh,
you're so kind, and they pat uson the back.
That's our reward.
But God looks at the heart.
(16:02):
We know this.
God looks at the heart.
He wants our heart to be toglorify him, not ourselves.
Right, that's hard to do, andJesus knows what we're made of.
And so he says don't let yourright hand know what your left
hand is doing.
That's a little game you canplay when you give right.
Don't even let right hand knowwhat your left hand is doing.
(16:23):
They're pretty close, they'rekind of connected.
But to be doing it in secret,the motivation, god you see, god
, I just love you so much.
Paul says the Lord loves acheerful giver, a hilarious
giver is what that means,someone who just says God,
you've been so good to me, whywouldn't I give you, whatever it
(16:47):
is, that there's a need, Idon't have to be seen, I don't
have to be acknowledged.
And it's an important thingbecause God sees the heart.
And here we know the story.
Jesus, people watching it'ssomething maybe you did, it's
what I did as a kid.
People watching, he sees therich pouring their loads of
money in and he's like oh.
(17:09):
And then he sees this littlewidow.
She's lost her husband, shedoesn't have much right.
And she comes and she puts intwo little coins.
They're called mites here.
Even the name kind of had thisidea behind it.
They were like little flakes ofmetal, right.
(17:30):
So you put coins into thetreasury and it's clink, clink,
clink.
You put those mites in and itwas like they just kind of
floated down.
You know what I mean.
There was no clink or clank inthat, you know.
And yet she put it in.
It was like one thirty-secondof a day's wage, not much.
And she put it in and Jesussees her doing it and you almost
(17:54):
get this idea like he getsexcited, right?
Oh my goodness, do you see this?
Guys, look, do you see this?
Because her heart was into it.
Her heart was right and Jesussees it Now.
That's a wonderful story here, awonderful account.
(18:14):
The widow gave all that she hadout of a grateful heart.
She just loved the Lord and shegave it.
That's a great account.
That's something to remember inour giving.
But I don't really think that'sthe point of all this Because,
really think about it.
You could give everything youhave, you could lay down your
(18:38):
life for a cause, but yet if youhaven't come to Jesus in faith,
it absolutely doesn't matterfor anything.
She still wouldn't be savedeven if she gave her two mites
right.
So it's a good application, forsure, to watch our hearts.
(18:59):
But I don't know if it's reallythe whole point of this.
Notice the scribes.
The scribes desire to go aroundin robes, desire to go around
in robes, love greetings, bestseats, and they devour widows,
houses.
And perhaps the point of allthis is to get a little emotion
(19:22):
in us.
Here comes this little widowlady and, and she's got nothing,
jesus says this is the last bitshe had and because she feels
like it's the right thing,that's okay, she gives her very
last.
But these scribes, they'resitting around with the
(19:47):
bullhorns, you know.
They're sitting around on theradio and on the TV saying you
got to give, you got to giveuntil it hurts.
Little widow lady, you got toright, give your everything and
God will return it a hundredfold.
And you see this little widowlady and I think you see Jesus
(20:09):
going and look, she doesn't evenhave anything to eat.
Now God can take care of herfor sure.
She's trusting God, I think.
But here's the scribes thathave just wrung every little bit
out of this widow lady devouredher estate, taken advantage.
Widows were the most vulnerablein that society.
(20:30):
We look at it and go yeah, I'veknown widows in my life, but
you know they do jobs and theyhave options In that world.
There weren't really anyoptions but begging, unless your
family helped you, which yourfamily should help.
In fact, paul says in 1 Timothythat if you don't help your own
(20:51):
family, you're worse than anunbeliever, right?
So it's important that we helpour own family, but in that day,
widows and orphans like Jamestalks about widows and orphans.
They were on their own and theywere helpless.
Now, now, here we see thislittle widow lady coming and the
(21:15):
swindlers have gotten to herright, the frauds and the fakes,
the scribes had gotten to herand she came and gave everything
.
Again, there's a balance there.
Paul says this, though in 2Timothy 3.6, talking about the
last days, the way the worldwill be in the last days, that
(21:39):
there will be those that creepinto households and make
captives of gullible women,loaded down with sins, led away
with various lusts.
I think there's no betterdescription than modern TV
evangelists, right, I know it'sa little bit of a springboard,
but they creep into houses, theytake advantage of people and
(22:00):
say oh, you know, what Godreally wants is your money.
Send your money tithe to me,you know.
And they give Christianity ahorrible name, right?
They give all of us a horriblename, and that's not God's heart
.
Now, it's good to give.
That's something that I thinkwe fall short of here, because
(22:21):
we don't have needs necessarilyall the time.
It's good to give, it's wrongto be stingy, but God absolutely
doesn't need your money.
Think about it.
God doesn't need anything.
God could take care of theproblems of the world any way he
wants to.
God doesn't need you for it.
He doesn't need your money.
If anyone ever comes begging andsaying God needs your money,
(22:43):
they're liars, right?
Don't listen to them.
There's a document in the earlychurch known as the Didache,
and they said if someone comesinto town asking for money,
they're a false prophet, right?
So I think that's a good gaugefor life.
If somebody comes asking formoney false prophet, safe to say
(23:04):
.
But here that's the way thatthe scribes were.
Now we see this warning fromJesus.
We see a picture of what it did, I think, there in the little
widow, and then we don't havewhat comes next here in Mark In
(23:29):
Matthew 23,.
Good read, even better, maybe,to listen to.
There's a dramatized Bible thatI've watched and I think this
brings me to tears every timeMatthew 23.
But Matthew 23 is a good like.
It feels like a good 10 minutesof Jesus just going off on the
(23:52):
Pharisees and the scribes thereligious leaders.
So picture it After thishappens Jesus just goes off on
the scribes and he says thingslike this Let me just read you a
little piece from Matthew 23,verse 13.
Take it in like you're there,but woe to you, scribes,
(24:13):
pharisees, hypocrites.
You shut up the kingdom ofheaven against men, for you
neither go in yourself, nor doyou allow those who are entering
to go in.
Woe to you, scribes andPharisees, hypocrites.
You devour widows' houses and,for a pretense, make long
prayers.
Therefore, you will receivegreater condemnation.
(24:33):
Woe to you.
Long prayers, therefore, youwill receive greater
condemnation.
Woe to you, scribes andPharisees, hypocrites.
You travel land and sea to winone proselyte and when he is one
, you make him twice the son ofhell as yourself.
Whoa, jesus goes off on theseguys.
You're hypocrites, you'retaking advantage of people,
you're a fake right and you're ason of hell.
(24:57):
Jesus says it like it is Now.
The book of Revelation ends withsome woe right.
There's a point where everybodyin heaven says woe, woe, woe.
This is heavy and God isjudging the earth.
This is heavy and God isjudging the earth.
God's going to bring judgmenton wolves and sheep's clothing.
(25:23):
And here I think we see Jesusbringing this major condemnation
on the kingdom of the scribes,the kingdom of men, an earthly
kingdom.
He's going off on it.
Now, mark, chapter 13, we havea big old chapter break.
Right, we've exited the backdoor there of Mark 12.
(25:48):
We're heading into Mark chapter13.
But realize this there are nochapter breaks in the original
book, it just keeps going.
Now, we'll look at it in detailnext week, but let's read what
happens next, chapter 13, verse1.
Then, as he went out of thetemple, one of his disciples
(26:10):
said to him.
Disciples said to him teacher,see what manner of stones, what
buildings are here.
So, as Jesus has just said allthese things, matthew 23, he's
headed out of the temple thereand one of his disciples says
but, but I mean Jesus, look,look at how big these stones are
(26:35):
, man, look at how wonderfulthis temple is.
Now, the temple was one of thewonders of the ancient world.
Right, it was a masterpiece,even this temple, which wasn't
Solomon's temple.
It was a later rendition of it.
It had gold plating and massivestones.
(26:56):
The foundation stones of thetemple were as big as cars,
right.
So picture that Massive stones.
And he comes out and he'slooking and he goes look at the
architecture, man at.
These stones are huge andimpressive.
Right, and Jesus says this inverse two.
(27:19):
Jesus answered and said to himdo you see these great buildings
?
Not one stone shall be leftupon another.
That shall not be thrown down.
Jesus says, yeah, it's a bigbuilding.
Jesus says, yeah, it's a bigbuilding, but there's not going
to be a single stone left on topof another.
By AD 70, we're talking lessthan 40 years later that temple
(27:42):
would be rubble.
Every stone was pulled apartfrom that temple.
And that's a crazy thought.
As you're looking at this huge,magnificent building, it's a
crazy thought to think it'sgoing to be a pile of dirt and
rocks.
I think that's one of thethings that made 9-11 extra
(28:04):
terrifying, wasn't it?
The loss of life huge, but thefact that in less than an hour,
these two massive buildings hadcome crashing down and there was
nothing left.
Man, you feel pretty safe whenyou're in a big office building.
You know what I mean Like thisis forever, this thing's forever
(28:25):
.
And then a plane comes around,two planes come around and knock
it down and there we'restanding just looking at it
going.
What happened?
I thought it was forever.
The kingdom of man seems sopermanent.
Our little kingdom, right?
The scribes kingdom, thePharisees kingdom, our little
(28:47):
kingdom, right, the things welook at and go.
This is just forever.
And God wants us to know thatnone of it is forever.
Not one stone would be leftupon another.
That's heavy, right.
And it tells us don't invest inthe kingdom of man, don't
(29:09):
invest in things that aren'tforever.
That's anything on planet Earth.
But I love the way Daniel'svision.
It's actually Nebuchadnezzar'svision in Daniel, chapter 2.
Daniel's vision and statuerepresents the empires of Earth.
They're amazing, they're grand,they're sparkly, right.
And then at the end of thatvision, check it out.
(29:32):
Come back.
At the end of this vision, thisrock comes and flies and hits
this image on the feet and thewhole thing crumbles.
You can picture it Crumbled.
It turns to dust and blows awayin the wind.
Then that rock becomes a giantmountain that fills the whole
(29:54):
earth and it's a picture ofgod's kingdom.
One day, god's kingdom is goingto come and take possession of
the planet earth, right, andthere's all sorts of things go
along with that in the book ofrevelation.
You can read it, time frame andstuff like that.
But here's the.
It's the only thing that'seternal.
(30:15):
It's the only kingdom thatlasts forever and ever and ever.
And we can invest in so manythings in our life, we can put
stock in so many differentthings, but God's kingdom is
ultimately the only thing thatwill last, is ultimately the
only thing that will last.
(30:35):
Good reminder, god.
Now the hard part of applyingit to our own lives.
And we know all the hopes anddreams and things that we're
working for, and those aren'tall bad, but, god, none of them
are eternal and none of themwill be forever.
God, help us to lay up forourselves treasure in heaven,
(30:58):
where thieves can't steal andmoth and rust can't destroy.
Jesus said where our treasureis, there our heart will be also
.
I also ask that you would helpus to just invest in things that
are eternal.
God, help us to just invest inthings that are eternal.
(31:18):
God, help us to invest inpeople, lost people and saved
people.
Help us to have the patience toinvest in people.
Souls are eternal.
God, help us to invest in yourkingdom, whatever that looks
like, with money and time andenergy, whatever it is.
Help us to invest in yourkingdom, whatever that looks
like, with money and time andenergy, whatever it is.
Help us to invest in thosethings that last forever, and
(31:39):
show us this week what thatmeans in our real life.
God, thank you so much that weknow the end of the story.
God, help us to be living foryour kingdom.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
All right, all right, mark, chapter 12, finishing it
out.
Oh my gosh, it's awesome.
I love the energy.
All right, mark 12,.
38 is where we will start today, and perhaps you remember that
(00:33):
we were in the middle of Jesuslast week before the cross.
You remember.
The religious leaders have beenquestioning and testing Jesus.
They want him to failUltimately, they want to get rid
of him.
And Jesus is challenging them.
Right, and we've seen soclearly the kingdom of God in
opposition to the kingdom of man.
(00:54):
Testing and counter-testing.
And we've seen.
Round one Pharisees came, shouldwe pay taxes to Caesar?
And Jesus responds render toCaesar the things that are
Caesar and to God the thingsthat are God's.
And then, round two, theSadducees.
(01:14):
And they come with this crazyquestion about a woman who ends
up being married to sevenbrothers Strange question.
And they ask in theresurrection, whose wife will
she be?
And Jesus responds verypointedly with you don't know
the scripture or the power ofGod.
Victory.
Round three the scribes come andthey ask Jesus out of all these
(01:40):
360 plus commandments, how many?
Or which is the greatestcommandment?
And Jesus says love God witheverything and love your
neighbor as yourself.
And we've seen Jesus come outon top.
In each one of these encounters, the kingdom of man's religion
(02:02):
is falling to the truth.
Now, in verse 38, jesus offers alittle bit of a counter here in
verse 38.
It says this he said to them inhis teaching beware the scribes
who desire to go around in longrobes, love greetings in the
(02:25):
marketplaces, they love the bestseats in the synagogues and the
best places at feasts.
They devour widows' houses and,for a pretense, make long
prayers.
These will receive greatercondemnation.
So the scribes.
Jesus in particular points outthe scribes and he says beware,
(02:49):
be careful, be on guard for thescribes.
Well, what's wrong with them?
Well, we see here they desire.
They desire, they love and theydevour.
If you kind of simplify this,they desire to go around in
their long robes.
Right Now, what's wrong withlong robes?
Nothing.
(03:10):
If you want to wear a robe,it's cool if you want.
But Numbers 15, 37, we see someinstruction that the children of
Israel were to put tassels onthe corners of their robe.
That doesn't sound too bad,right?
Little tassely things there.
What was it for?
(03:30):
It was to remind them of thecommandments.
This is Numbers 15, 37.
Remind them of the commandmentsand to remind them to do the
commandments.
So as they looked down at thesetassels, they remembered what
God said they would rehearseGod's word and they would be
encouraged to actually live byGod's word.
(03:51):
So it's kind of this physicalreminder.
Well, they took it another stepfurther.
That's always what religionseems to do.
Take it just one more stepfurther and they would make
these tassels and these robesextra long, ridiculously long,
right, and people would look andgo, wow, nice tassels, and they
go.
Well, you know, I really loveGod's word and God's
(04:14):
commandments.
That's why I have these tassels.
And it became this kind ofthing of the longer your tassels
were and your robe was, themore holy and religious you were
, the more righteous you were.
So it's kind of the statusthing, right.
And for the scribes, even, theywould make their robes long.
It's hard to do manual labor inlong robes, right, and they
(04:36):
weren't expecting to do anymanual labor, they were
expecting to sit and have peoplelisten to them and appreciate
them.
So these long robes they kindof made the man in those days
and it was an outward sign ofholiness and religiosity, right,
and that is one thing that theydesired.
(04:58):
Notice.
Also, they loved greetings inthe marketplaces also.
They loved greetings in themarketplaces.
So as they would go out intothe marketplaces, they just
loved the prestige of being ateacher of the law.
And you know, the moregreetings you got, the more well
known you were.
The respect and the recognition, right, we know this.
(05:20):
In a small town, right, in asmall town, it's hard for some
of you to go anywhere and not berecognized, you know, and for
some that feels good, for othersit's somewhat annoying.
But for the scribes they lovedit.
Everywhere they went, thepeople went oh, teacher, teacher
, oh good, I love your study,great study, I listen to you all
(05:42):
the time.
Well, thank you, thank you verymuch.
And it was like a little bit ofcelebrity for them.
But notice, they didn't justlove that, they loved the best
seats in the synagogue, theplace of respect in the
synagogues, the best place atfeasts, right, were saved for
(06:03):
the best teachers.
And so they really appreciatedthat.
They loved it, they lived forit.
Little celebrities in their ownworld.
But notice what else thescribes do here.
Verse 40, they devour widows'houses, they devoured widows'
(06:24):
estates.
We'll talk about that in alittle bit.
But to kind of mix the metaphorhere, the Bible considers us as
sheep.
That's one thing you kind offind.
You find David, psalm 23,.
We all know it.
The Lord is my shepherd.
(06:44):
I shall not want, and he leadsme and he has me laid down and
he provides for me and he leadsme all over the place into,
ultimately, where I'm with himin the house of the Lord forever
.
So David looks at the Lord as ashepherd.
Sweet David looks at himself assheep, as a sheep, someone
(07:05):
who's in need of help andprovision and protection, and we
look at it as though God is ourshepherd and he takes care of
us.
It's wonderful to be with thegood shepherd, jesus.
Now, here we see that theydevour widows' houses.
(07:26):
The Bible also talks aboutwolves, right.
Jesus talks about wolves insheep's clothing.
Luke, chapter 10, verse 3,jesus says Go your way to his
disciples.
Behold, I send you out as lambsamong wolves.
In Matthew 7, verse 15, jesussays this Now listen to this.
(07:48):
Beware of false prophets whocome to you in sheep's clothing
but are inwardly ravenous wolves.
You will know them by theirfruits.
So there's this warning assheep, we're warned to be
careful for wolves who devoursheep.
That's how you know a wolf,right?
(08:10):
How do you know a wolf in thechurch by what they eat.
Right, wolves eat sheep,destroy lives and we see that.
Turn, if you would, to Actschapter 20.
Paul had a concern about thesedevouring folks Acts chapter 20.
Good time to turn.
(08:34):
Acts chapter 20.
It's a sort of you could sayministry workers convention here
.
Paul is there on an island,he's meeting with some Ephesian
elders.
Acts 20, verse 28.
And Paul has this huge concernfor people that people would not
(08:57):
be devoured, that people wouldbe okay.
Look at verse 28 there in Acts20.
Therefore, paul says take heedto yourselves and to all the
flock among which the HolySpirit has made you overseers to
shepherd the church of God,which he purchased with his own
(09:17):
blood.
Now, verse 28 for extra studyis a great way to see all
persons of the Trinity.
Right, we have the Holy Spirit,we have God, the Father, and we
have the fact that Godpurchased the church with his
own blood.
That's Jesus all in one verse.
Very interesting.
But notice verse 29, as he'sconcerned.
(09:38):
He says this for I know thisthat after I leave, after my
departure, savage wolves willcome in among you, not sparing
the flock.
Also among yourselves, men willrise up speaking perverse
things to draw away disciplesafter themselves.
Therefore, watch and rememberthat for three years I did not
(09:59):
cease to warn everyone, nightand day with tears.
So Paul here warns thesepastors there, these Ephesian
leaders in the church you guysare overseers.
Beware of yourself and for thepeople that God's trusted to you
.
Now I feel in some ways God'strusted y'all to me as much as
(10:24):
it depends on me.
But you have people in yourlife that you're responsible for
.
In your family, in your friendcircles.
You know there are wolves thatwant to devour us.
They go around and just want totake advantage of people and,
as Paul says here, lead peopleto themselves, be on guard and
(10:47):
be careful.
And I think, as Jesus says thisback in Mark, chapter 12, he's
got some of those same concerns.
The scribes, you guys need toknow.
They devour widows' houses,they take advantage of widows.
(11:08):
Now, as we move on here, noticewhat he says in verse 40, the
end of verse 40.
These will receive the greatercondemnation.
Now here's a scary thought Agreater condemnation to people
(11:32):
who know it's been said I thinkit was Spider-Man who made it
famous that with great powercomes great responsibility.
Now, it wasn't exactlySpider-Man.
Luke 12, jesus says to whom muchis given, much is required.
Right, it's the same idea.
But here Jesus warns thesescribes, there's a greater
(11:57):
condemnation.
Scribes, because you study theBible and you know better, and
yet you're devouring widows'houses, you're devouring people.
We take comfort in this, notbecause we're going to go out
and bust people.
Tell the truth to people, standup for the truth, know how to
(12:19):
rightly divide the word of truth.
But one day and we'll see thisin the end of our time today one
day God's going to set it allstraight.
There will be a judgment andGod will set it straight once
and for all.
But this is a real heavy thing.
Here Jesus says you got to beaware of these guys.
They're wolves.
They devour people and widows'houses.
(12:43):
Now let's move on to verse 41,and we'll see a little more here
In an obviously connectedaccount.
Jesus is people watching here,people watching Verse 41.
Now Jesus sat opposite thetreasury and saw how people put
(13:03):
money into the treasury and manywho were rich put in much.
Then one poor widow came andthrew in two mites which make a
quadrants, just in case you werewondering.
So he called his disciples tohimself and said to them
Assuredly I say to you, thispoor widow has put in more than
(13:26):
all who have given to thetreasury, for they put in out of
their abundance, but she putout of her poverty or she put
out of her poverty.
She put in all that.
She had her whole livelihood.
So Jesus is here in the courtof the women.
Men and women could go in thecourt of the women.
(13:48):
And there were treasuries there,these boxes.
They were plated, I think, withgold, maybe it was bronze, look
it up.
But there were treasuries there, these boxes.
They were plated, I think, withgold, maybe it was bronze, look
it up.
But there were these boxes thatwere shaped kind of like
trumpets.
They were kind of narrow at thetop and at the bottom they were
wider and some of the reasonwhy they looked like that was
acoustics.
Right, you could put your moneyin there and you would kind of
(14:10):
hear the echo of the clank,clank, clank, clank.
So if you put in a little bit,it was like fun, you know, clank
, clank, clank.
If you were rich, right, andnotice, as Jesus' people
watching here notice the richcome and it's like they got
buckets full of money, you know,and they're like pouring it
into the treasury and it soundslike jackpot at the casino.
(14:35):
You know, ding ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding.
You know, and you know it's fun.
But it's their heart.
They're looking at it and it'slike I gave everybody.
Can you tell I gave?
Now they got their reward.
And Jesus speaks on this in theSermon on the Mount.
(14:57):
He says, matthew 6, when you doyour charitable deed, do not
sound a trumpet before you asthe hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets,that they may have glory for men
.
Assuredly, I say to you theyhave your reward.
But you, when you do acharitable deed, when you give,
do not let your right hand knowwhat your left hand is doing.
(15:19):
So, jesus' encouraging givinghere is guard your heart right,
guard your motives.
We are all capable of havingour motives to be seen right.
The big old check that says howmuch we gave.
You know the applause of oh,wow, very good, you know.
But Jesus says it's so importantthat you guard your heart,
(15:41):
because the heart is whatmatters.
If we give now listen, if wegive to be seen and appreciated,
that's our reward.
When people appreciate us andsay, oh, thank you so much, oh,
you're so kind, and they pat uson the back.
That's our reward.
But God looks at the heart.
(16:02):
We know this.
God looks at the heart.
He wants our heart to be toglorify him, not ourselves.
Right, that's hard to do, andJesus knows what we're made of.
And so he says don't let yourright hand know what your left
hand is doing.
That's a little game you canplay when you give right.
Don't even let right hand knowwhat your left hand is doing.
(16:23):
They're pretty close, they'rekind of connected.
But to be doing it in secret,the motivation, god you see, god
, I just love you so much.
Paul says the Lord loves acheerful giver, a hilarious
giver is what that means,someone who just says God,
you've been so good to me, whywouldn't I give you, whatever it
(16:47):
is, that there's a need, Idon't have to be seen, I don't
have to be acknowledged.
And it's an important thingbecause God sees the heart.
And here we know the story.
Jesus, people watching it'ssomething maybe you did, it's
what I did as a kid.
People watching, he sees therich pouring their loads of
money in and he's like oh.
(17:09):
And then he sees this littlewidow.
She's lost her husband, shedoesn't have much right.
And she comes and she puts intwo little coins.
They're called mites here.
Even the name kind of had thisidea behind it.
They were like little flakes ofmetal, right.
(17:30):
So you put coins into thetreasury and it's clink, clink,
clink.
You put those mites in and itwas like they just kind of
floated down.
You know what I mean.
There was no clink or clank inthat, you know.
And yet she put it in.
It was like one thirty-secondof a day's wage, not much.
And she put it in and Jesussees her doing it and you almost
(17:54):
get this idea like he getsexcited, right?
Oh my goodness, do you see this?
Guys, look, do you see this?
Because her heart was into it.
Her heart was right and Jesussees it Now.
That's a wonderful story here, awonderful account.
(18:14):
The widow gave all that she hadout of a grateful heart.
She just loved the Lord and shegave it.
That's a great account.
That's something to remember inour giving.
But I don't really think that'sthe point of all this Because,
really think about it.
You could give everything youhave, you could lay down your
(18:38):
life for a cause, but yet if youhaven't come to Jesus in faith,
it absolutely doesn't matterfor anything.
She still wouldn't be savedeven if she gave her two mites
right.
So it's a good application, forsure, to watch our hearts.
(18:59):
But I don't know if it's reallythe whole point of this.
Notice the scribes.
The scribes desire to go aroundin robes, desire to go around
in robes, love greetings, bestseats, and they devour widows,
houses.
And perhaps the point of allthis is to get a little emotion
(19:22):
in us.
Here comes this little widowlady and, and she's got nothing,
jesus says this is the last bitshe had and because she feels
like it's the right thing,that's okay, she gives her very
last.
But these scribes, they'resitting around with the
(19:47):
bullhorns, you know.
They're sitting around on theradio and on the TV saying you
got to give, you got to giveuntil it hurts.
Little widow lady, you got toright, give your everything and
God will return it a hundredfold.
And you see this little widowlady and I think you see Jesus
(20:09):
going and look, she doesn't evenhave anything to eat.
Now God can take care of herfor sure.
She's trusting God, I think.
But here's the scribes thathave just wrung every little bit
out of this widow lady devouredher estate, taken advantage.
Widows were the most vulnerablein that society.
(20:30):
We look at it and go yeah, I'veknown widows in my life, but
you know they do jobs and theyhave options In that world.
There weren't really anyoptions but begging, unless your
family helped you, which yourfamily should help.
In fact, paul says in 1 Timothythat if you don't help your own
(20:51):
family, you're worse than anunbeliever, right?
So it's important that we helpour own family, but in that day,
widows and orphans like Jamestalks about widows and orphans.
They were on their own and theywere helpless.
Now, now, here we see thislittle widow lady coming and the
(21:15):
swindlers have gotten to herright, the frauds and the fakes,
the scribes had gotten to herand she came and gave everything
.
Again, there's a balance there.
Paul says this, though in 2Timothy 3.6, talking about the
last days, the way the worldwill be in the last days, that
(21:39):
there will be those that creepinto households and make
captives of gullible women,loaded down with sins, led away
with various lusts.
I think there's no betterdescription than modern TV
evangelists, right, I know it'sa little bit of a springboard,
but they creep into houses, theytake advantage of people and
(22:00):
say oh, you know, what Godreally wants is your money.
Send your money tithe to me,you know.
And they give Christianity ahorrible name, right?
They give all of us a horriblename, and that's not God's heart
.
Now, it's good to give.
That's something that I thinkwe fall short of here, because
(22:21):
we don't have needs necessarilyall the time.
It's good to give, it's wrongto be stingy, but God absolutely
doesn't need your money.
Think about it.
God doesn't need anything.
God could take care of theproblems of the world any way he
wants to.
God doesn't need you for it.
He doesn't need your money.
If anyone ever comes begging andsaying God needs your money,
(22:43):
they're liars, right?
Don't listen to them.
There's a document in the earlychurch known as the Didache,
and they said if someone comesinto town asking for money,
they're a false prophet, right?
So I think that's a good gaugefor life.
If somebody comes asking formoney false prophet, safe to say
(23:04):
.
But here that's the way thatthe scribes were.
Now we see this warning fromJesus.
We see a picture of what it did, I think, there in the little
widow, and then we don't havewhat comes next here in Mark In
(23:29):
Matthew 23,.
Good read, even better, maybe,to listen to.
There's a dramatized Bible thatI've watched and I think this
brings me to tears every timeMatthew 23.
But Matthew 23 is a good like.
It feels like a good 10 minutesof Jesus just going off on the
(23:52):
Pharisees and the scribes thereligious leaders.
So picture it After thishappens Jesus just goes off on
the scribes and he says thingslike this Let me just read you a
little piece from Matthew 23,verse 13.
Take it in like you're there,but woe to you, scribes,
(24:13):
pharisees, hypocrites.
You shut up the kingdom ofheaven against men, for you
neither go in yourself, nor doyou allow those who are entering
to go in.
Woe to you, scribes andPharisees, hypocrites.
You devour widows' houses and,for a pretense, make long
prayers.
Therefore, you will receivegreater condemnation.
(24:33):
Woe to you.
Long prayers, therefore, youwill receive greater
condemnation.
Woe to you, scribes andPharisees, hypocrites.
You travel land and sea to winone proselyte and when he is one
, you make him twice the son ofhell as yourself.
Whoa, jesus goes off on theseguys.
You're hypocrites, you'retaking advantage of people,
you're a fake right and you're ason of hell.
(24:57):
Jesus says it like it is Now.
The book of Revelation ends withsome woe right.
There's a point where everybodyin heaven says woe, woe, woe.
This is heavy and God isjudging the earth.
This is heavy and God isjudging the earth.
God's going to bring judgmenton wolves and sheep's clothing.
(25:23):
And here I think we see Jesusbringing this major condemnation
on the kingdom of the scribes,the kingdom of men, an earthly
kingdom.
He's going off on it.
Now, mark, chapter 13, we havea big old chapter break.
Right, we've exited the backdoor there of Mark 12.
(25:48):
We're heading into Mark chapter13.
But realize this there are nochapter breaks in the original
book, it just keeps going.
Now, we'll look at it in detailnext week, but let's read what
happens next, chapter 13, verse1.
Then, as he went out of thetemple, one of his disciples
(26:10):
said to him.
Disciples said to him teacher,see what manner of stones, what
buildings are here.
So, as Jesus has just said allthese things, matthew 23, he's
headed out of the temple thereand one of his disciples says
but, but I mean Jesus, look,look at how big these stones are
(26:35):
, man, look at how wonderfulthis temple is.
Now, the temple was one of thewonders of the ancient world.
Right, it was a masterpiece,even this temple, which wasn't
Solomon's temple.
It was a later rendition of it.
It had gold plating and massivestones.
(26:56):
The foundation stones of thetemple were as big as cars,
right.
So picture that Massive stones.
And he comes out and he'slooking and he goes look at the
architecture, man at.
These stones are huge andimpressive.
Right, and Jesus says this inverse two.
(27:19):
Jesus answered and said to himdo you see these great buildings
?
Not one stone shall be leftupon another.
That shall not be thrown down.
Jesus says, yeah, it's a bigbuilding.
Jesus says, yeah, it's a bigbuilding, but there's not going
to be a single stone left on topof another.
By AD 70, we're talking lessthan 40 years later that temple
(27:42):
would be rubble.
Every stone was pulled apartfrom that temple.
And that's a crazy thought.
As you're looking at this huge,magnificent building, it's a
crazy thought to think it'sgoing to be a pile of dirt and
rocks.
I think that's one of thethings that made 9-11 extra
(28:04):
terrifying, wasn't it?
The loss of life huge, but thefact that in less than an hour,
these two massive buildings hadcome crashing down and there was
nothing left.
Man, you feel pretty safe whenyou're in a big office building.
You know what I mean Like thisis forever, this thing's forever
(28:25):
.
And then a plane comes around,two planes come around and knock
it down and there we'restanding just looking at it
going.
What happened?
I thought it was forever.
The kingdom of man seems sopermanent.
Our little kingdom, right?
The scribes kingdom, thePharisees kingdom, our little
(28:47):
kingdom, right, the things welook at and go.
This is just forever.
And God wants us to know thatnone of it is forever.
Not one stone would be leftupon another.
That's heavy, right.
And it tells us don't invest inthe kingdom of man, don't
(29:09):
invest in things that aren'tforever.
That's anything on planet Earth.
But I love the way Daniel'svision.
It's actually Nebuchadnezzar'svision in Daniel, chapter 2.
Daniel's vision and statuerepresents the empires of Earth.
They're amazing, they're grand,they're sparkly, right.
And then at the end of thatvision, check it out.
(29:32):
Come back.
At the end of this vision, thisrock comes and flies and hits
this image on the feet and thewhole thing crumbles.
You can picture it Crumbled.
It turns to dust and blows awayin the wind.
Then that rock becomes a giantmountain that fills the whole
(29:54):
earth and it's a picture ofgod's kingdom.
One day, god's kingdom is goingto come and take possession of
the planet earth, right, andthere's all sorts of things go
along with that in the book ofrevelation.
You can read it, time frame andstuff like that.
But here's the.
It's the only thing that'seternal.
(30:15):
It's the only kingdom thatlasts forever and ever and ever.
And we can invest in so manythings in our life, we can put
stock in so many differentthings, but God's kingdom is
ultimately the only thing thatwill last, is ultimately the
only thing that will last.
(30:35):
Good reminder, god.
Now the hard part of applyingit to our own lives.
And we know all the hopes anddreams and things that we're
working for, and those aren'tall bad, but, god, none of them
are eternal and none of themwill be forever.
God, help us to lay up forourselves treasure in heaven,
(30:58):
where thieves can't steal andmoth and rust can't destroy.
Jesus said where our treasureis, there our heart will be also
.
I also ask that you would helpus to just invest in things that
are eternal.
God, help us to just invest inthings that are eternal.
(31:18):
God, help us to invest inpeople, lost people and saved
people.
Help us to have the patience toinvest in people.
Souls are eternal.
God, help us to invest in yourkingdom, whatever that looks
like, with money and time andenergy, whatever it is.
Help us to invest in yourkingdom, whatever that looks
like, with money and time andenergy, whatever it is.
Help us to invest in thosethings that last forever, and
(31:39):
show us this week what thatmeans in our real life.
God, thank you so much that weknow the end of the story.
God, help us to be living foryour kingdom.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
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