Mark 12:35-44 Power hungry Pharisees and poor widows

Joel and Mary Nadel, Covenant Church

From: The Holy Bible and J.C. Ryle’s “Expository Comments on the Gospels - Mark”

House Rules: Phones, Respect, Stay on the Text

Pray

Background

The last week of Jesus earthly ministry

Preaching, teaching, performing miracles for three years

Now He is in Jerusalem, to finish His work on the Cross.

Mark 12:35–44 NASB95

And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? “David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet.” ’ “David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; so in what sense is He his son?” And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him. In His teaching He was saying: “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.” And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

Introduction

This week, Jesus is challenging the Jewish religious leaders over their leadership and their corruption - unable to discredit Him they are now secretly building a case to have Him executed

His enemies are trying to “catch Him in His words”

Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Scribes are trying to trip Him up with hard questions - questions designed to promote conflict rather than help people

This question today comes from Jesus and it is very different from the others

He asks His enemies about Christ and the meaning of Holy Scripture

These questions are always helpful - it would be good if we Christians would engage in these kinds of discussions rather than small talk.

Better if we talk about more meaningful things, and things necessary for salvation

Psalm 110:1 NASB95

The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

Firstly, Christ in the Old Testament

We need to learn how much there is about Christ in the OT Scriptures

Here, the Lord shows up the ignorance of the Jewish teachers about the true nature of the Messiah

He does so by quoting a passage from the Psalms and showing that the Scribes did not rightly understand it

Here He shows that one thing David wrote about under the HS several centuries before, was Christ.

John 5:39 ““You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;”

The prophets taught people about Christ by types, figures, prophecy until He came to earth

We need to keep this in mind as we read the OT, but especially in the Psalms.

He is also found in every other book of the OT - His coming into the world, His future glory, His final victory at His second coming are found in many passages of the Bible

Watch out for teachers and preachers who tell you to ignore or pay little attention to the Old Testament

The Old Testament is very important-it provides the foundation - the basis - for the New

There are many rich passages in the OT which we don’t fully understand, but need to be explored

There is much about Jesus in it - people walk over it like gold fields, not knowing what is right under their noses

We need to respect the whole Bible. It is all given to us by God’s inspiration and it is important for teaching and understanding

Old Testament passages help us to understand the NT so we can’t ignore any of it

People who ignore or mock the OT are headed for unbelief

Secondly, Christ hates the sin of hypocrisy

In this lesson, we learn this through the warning He gives to the Scribes

He exposes some of their most notorious practices - their showy manner of dressing; their love of honor and the praise of men rather than God; their love of money, which they disguise as a concern for widows; their display of public prayer in order to get people to admire their piety

He winds it all up with the statement: “these shall receive the greater damnation.”

False profession and hypocrisy seem to be the worst of sins

Every time He speaks of them, Jesus uses the strongest language and the most heavy condemnation

It is bad enough to participate in open sin, but it is worse to pretend to be religious when we are really serving ourselves and the world

We need to be careful not to fall into abominable sin and try to pretend we are righteous

We need to be real, honest and complete in our Christianity - the Lord sees everything and is not fooled by fancy churchy language.

God is not mocked - He knows our thoughts and intents - He sees through all our pretending

The hypocrite may think he is fooling everyone, but the day of judgement will be terrible for him.

Don’t use hypocrisy as an excuse not to become a Christian or join a church.

Just because some are hypcritical is no reason to reject Christ

This is a mistake that happens often, and has eternal consequences

Just because some bring Christianity into contempt, we should not run to the other extreme and keep our faith out of sight.

We need to walk the walk and talk the talk, and be shining examples of our faith in Christ - we need to show the world that there is the counterfeit bill and the genuine bill, that we are the real deal, and the real deal is also a wonderful deal.

Churches contain many great Christians, as well as the Scribes and Pharisees. We need to testify of our Master, the Lord Jesus, modestly and humbly, but firmly and show the world that while some may be hypocrites, others are honest and true

Lastly, Christ is pleased when we give to the church and charity

Jesus teaches us this lesson in a striking way, when He compliments this poor widow.

Mark 12:42-44 “A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.””

Not much more needs to be said on this.

The Lord doesn’t look so much at the amount given, but at the ability of the giver - He looks at the motive and the heart of the giver

Few of Jesus’ sayings are ignored as much as this one

Thousands remember all the teaching, but manage to forget this incident in His earthly ministry

The proof of this is seen is the small amounts of money that are given to churches to do good in the world - the small amounts given to missions in comparison to the wealth of some of the big churches

The stinginess of so many Christians in providing for the Church are one of the serious sins of our day, and a bad sign of the times

Those who give to the cause of Christ are a small section of the Church

The vast majority spend most of their money on themselves and not a penny on Christ.

We need to grieve over this state of affairs and ask God to change it

We need to pray to God to open people’s eyes and touch their hearts and stir up some generosity

Mostly, we need to do our own duty and give generously and gladly to the needs of the Church.

There will be no giving when we are dead, so let us give as people who understand that the eyes of Christ are on us

He sees what we give and knows how much we don’t.

Above all, we need to give as disciples of a crucified Savior, who gave Himself for us, body and soul, on the cross.

Freely we have received, freely we should give.

And that ends Chapter 12. Next week we will begin Chapter 13, and look as what Jesus predicted for the future.

The Gospel

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (ESV)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Romans 10:9 NASB95

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Prayer requests

Questions