True Worship

Intro

Let us remind ourselves where we have been in Luke, we have been watching Jesus march towards Jerusalem for his death

We have been looking at Jesus’ authority to clean out the temple, to ride in like a king on a donkey, to determine that God’s image is great than that of Caesar’s on a coin, and his authority as the Messiah and the pending Judgement that will come

While Jesus is in the temple and in Jerusalem he points to something we all find disgusting, but ultimately we all struggle with: hypocrisy

It doesn’t take very long for you to conjure up a story of a famous pastor that has come undone by an uncovered affair, sliding into someone’s DM’s, or some other moral failure

A few names: Art Arzurdia, Ravi Zacharius, Carl Lenz, Mark Driscoll.

Martin Luther had vehement raging anti-semitism

MLK was unfaithful to his wife multiple times, Wesley was a terrible husband, Westfield owned slaves

You will not find any church theologian, pastor, or lay person without flaws

So how are we to deal with the problem of our actions and lives not living up to the level that Jesus commands and desires we live to?

In these few verses, we see what we need to strive for, a heart of worship,

That even when we fail to live perfectly, we still bring honor and glory to God, after-all, we are all broken vessels that God uses for his glory!

The Parading Scribes (v.45-47)

So after all the prior teachings and discussion about Authority, Jesus turns and looks how those in authority use it

So to his disciples, he says to be aware of the Scribes that go around flaunting their status, wealth, and importance to people

Jesus tells them to ‘watch out’ or ‘beware’ of the scribes and the way they act

Jesus is giving them a warning to watch out for them

How do they do this?

They show off long robes

These robes might of been what was only supposed to be worn on special sabbath days during the festivals, so they were showing off these things

Luke (Jesus Warns Against the Religious Leaders / 20:45–47 / 197)

The white robes were supposed to be worn for religious duties; however, the religious leaders had taken to wearing them in public, such as to the marketplaces, for attention. The white robes singled them out and thus caused the people to recognize them as authorities and to greet them respectfully. These actions were motivated by vanity.

Yet, by wearing these long robes, they were showing that these men were part of the upper class

That is because anyone that worked for a living with their hands would find those types of clothes quite cumbersome!

Many of you know that my Dad grew up in Tennessee before coming up to IL when he was young, but there were Petros Coal Mines

I have uncles and great uncles that worked in the coal mines, and several that passed from black lung

So imagine coming out of the coal mine, you are not going to be wearing your Sunday best, or in this context, temple best anywhere near that mine!

So yes, dressy clothes are not something people that do dirty jobs are always looking to adorn themselves with

Greetings in the Marketplace

This would be greetings of respect that people would give them when they were in the marketplaces

They would have people move out of the way, bows of respect would be given

Of course, everyone would know because they would be noticed immediately with their long robes in the crowded marketplaces

Best Seats in Synagogues

Luke Jesus Warns Against the Religious Leaders / 20:45–47 / 197

They loved the seats of honor in the synagogues and at banquets because those seats were reserved for the most important people. In the synagogue, the seats of honor were situated in front of the box containing the scrolls, facing the general congregation.

Places of Honor at Banquets

Luke Jesus Warns Against the Religious Leaders / 20:45–47 / 197

At banquets, such seats were generally the closest to the host. Those seated there received special treatment during the meal.

At these banquets, your social status was shown by how close you sat to the host of the banquet!

Now, the things we just looked at could be considered just a bit of excessive narcissism, yet, what Jesus says next cannot have any excuse

Jesus says they ‘devour’ widow’s houses

This is a term that means to consume completely, and in the context of cheating someone out of something

In fact, this same word is used and translated as consumed in Rev. 11:5

Revelation 11:5 CSB

5 If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and consumes their enemies; if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

This would happen because Scribes were not allowed to collect money for their teaching, they would be given free will offerings, and they were quite lucrative

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary F. Warning against the Scribes (20:45–47)

It was forbidden to scribes to accept money for teaching. They must, and did, make their knowledge available without charge. But there was nothing to stop people making gifts to teachers and this was regarded as meritorious.

So it seems that some of these scribes would encourage the widows to give gifts beyond their means

It would often happen that Scribes would be trusted as the pension distributors of the widows, and so they would take excessive commissions on the widows!

Quite the irony coming form people who despised the tax collectors!

This seems quite similar to what Jesus condemns in Mark 7:8-13

Mark 7:8–13 CSB

8 Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.” 9 He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition! 10 For Moses said: Honor your father and your mother; and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 11 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit you might have received from me is corban’ ” (that is, an offering devoted to God), 12 “you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things.”

What the Scribes were doing was completely opposite of what God commanded the people of Israel, in Exodus 22:22-23

Exodus 22:22–23 CSB

22 “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to me, and I will certainly hear their cry.

These men were doing an unspeakable evil in God’s sight!

Then after devouring the widow’s homes, they went on with lengthy prayers

This was chief hypocrisy, since even their prayers that were to be before God were long, and just for show!

Not only did they lack the self-awareness to apply Exodus 22 to their own lives, they wanted people to be sure that they they were the most holy due to their many words

This is why Jesus teaches us to pray like Matt. 6:5-8

Matthew 6:5–8 CSB

5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.

What a reminder to us, God does not hear us because of our eloquence or our length, but from the heart of our prayer

Some of the best prayers I have ever heard have been from young children, nervous to pray in front of people, but with a heart that God exalts and loves, with no ulterior motives

Kids do say the darnedest things in their prayers

You might be eloquent in your prayers, but what is important is the heart behind the prayer

The final thing Jesus says in the section, is that these scribes will receive harsher judgement

If you think about the rest of Scripture, you might read through the book of James, written by Jesus’ brother

James would of gone to the same temple and seem the same same practices, and so when you flip through the pages of James, you see a small dissertation on how not to be like the Scribes

Topics he covers are doing what the word says, instead of only hearing it, the sin of favoritism, controlling your tongue, and wisdom from above, God’s love for the poor and humble and warnings to the rich

Yet, in light of this story in Luke, what most resembles this is James 3:1

James 3:1 CSB

1 Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment.

You can almost hear Jesus saying these words to James as he writes in Jerusalem near that very temple a few years later!

So here we are left with these Scribes, utter and compete hypocrites, using religion and the poor defenseless widows to line their pockets,

Then Luke adds another related story to this to show how bad this situation has gotten

The Poverty Stricken Widow (v.1-4)

So the critique becomes a reality, when Jesus looks up and sees one of the widows that is completely destitute give a offering in comparison to the rich scribes

The rich scribes give out of their wealth, but this widow gives 2 copper coins, which are the smallest coin possible, it would be like giving 2/10 of a penny as an offering

What would happen is that when the rich would go to the temple, there are these boxes with metal funnels into the boxes for offering

These boxes made loud noises when coins went through, so the two small coins of the woman would make hardly noise

However, what would happen is that the rich would often take their large amounts of money and trade it out for smaller coins so it would sound like a rain of money to show off how generous they were to God’s temple

Yet, what does Jesus says that the widow has done far more than anything the rich have!

The reason is when you give out of abundance, it doesn’t hurt as much

If you make a million dollars and give 10% to the Church you are giving a whopping 100k to the church

Now if you are making the poverty income: which is just over 27k in IL for a family of 4, that same 10% is 2700 to the church, and it is far more difficult to give than the 100k!

In essence, the rich make a show out of their piety, and the giving takes no hit to their opulent living!

The poor are forced to reckon with the faith it requires for God to provide for them when they trust God

Which does leave us with a very difficult question in our own lives, do we leave any area for God to cover? Or do we just give out of excessive abundance?

To put it more bluntly, do we live as money as our safety net, or do we really have to trust in God?

Luke A Poor Widow Gives All She Has / 21:1–4 / 200

As a widow, she had few resources for earning money and may have been without financial support. Jesus watched as she gave her gift, coins that amounted to no more than a fraction of a penny. Two lepta were the smallest coins in use, valued at about one-eighth of a penny or one-hundredth of the average daily wage. Yet these were put in the freewill-offering box, meaning that this was not a required tax but a gift.

This leaves us with some questions with what is going on with the Temple!

The religious leaders consumed the houses of the widows, but they didn’t stop there, even in devouring the widows homes, the money given in the temple never went out to help those in need!

The temple treasury itself feeds off those that cannot fend for themselves, and that is even worse because it is in God’s house, and gives an inherent claim to divine legitimition

So those that interpret God’s law care more about their public image than obedience to Scripture, which result in a temple system that was supposed to be the embodiment of God’s presence in Israel, becoming a place that is set in opposition to a people God has given particular care towards

Application

So this brings us to the difficult and important application:

God cares about our hearts and actions just as much as the theological knowledge that is contained in our brains

We must care for the poor, the orphan and widows

We must never use any power we possess to build our own empire, but build the kingdom of God, that is about radical love and care for others

Our religion cannot be for show! Our faith cannot be about wanting the credit for ministries, or as you see some extreme examples like those millionaire pastors on TV

The Gospel of Luke 6.1.6. The Despotic Authority of Jerusalem’s Leadership (20:45–21:4)

Seeking abundance in the public arena of status honor, they will instead receive abundance in the area of divine condemnation.

Yet it also shows us that how we use money is a good thermometer of where our relationship is with God

How much of your spending money goes towards supporting missions, the church, or other kingdom work?

How much do you spend on your hobbies?

The religious rulers led people away from God, and instead of using their wealth to care for those in need, they hoarded it

Jesus was on mission to bring the good news to the poor, including that widow, not to impoverish her even farther!

Hypocrisy is a great evil in the church, and often times it is hidden amongst the very leaders called to protect the church

So what can you and I do about hypocrisy found in the church?

First we need to realize that we are all part of the problem, and I am the worst offender

I have the most theological training, and yet I do not perfectly live in that knowledge!

Second, to leave the church for hypocrisy is not a good reason!

I know many that have left the church because of various hurts and unChristlike things that have been done to them or others

Yet, what if we changed church to the gym

When you go to the gym, do you get upset because there are fat people there?

The difficult part of church is that there are people that come in with already deep and full relationships with God, just as when you go to a gym you see people already fit and ripped!

Yet, just like those at the gym not in shape, so too we have people in the church that are brand new Christians

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone leave a gym because there are too many unfit people there, because a gym exists to help make people healthier, stronger, and more fit

A church exist to help make people more like Jesus, but every one of us is on a different level of spiritual fitness

The church exists because we are trying to get everyone to that intimate relationship with God! It is the church that exists to help eliminate hypocrisy just as the gym exists to eliminate unhealthy bodies

So how do we avoid that hypocrisy?

First we must do a check on our own hearts, where are we two-faced in our faith?

Is it how you treat your parents? Or parents is it how you treat your kids? Parents, do you apologize to your children when you mess up?

How do you treat those at work? What do you think you are owed?

Do you take your spouse for granted?

Is giving money an act of worship, or drudgery?

How does the prospect of serving in an area that has need, but you are not passionate about seem?

Story of thermometer

Recently Tabitha’s and I’s oven has started to act up

I would cook food and then notice it was still cold when I went to eat it, or still raw in the middle!

I had to look into what was wrong, the readout of the oven was right, it would still light and get hot, but the issue was that the thermostat inside the oven was not reading the correct temperature and so the inside of the oven was off by 50-100 degrees

So what is the point?

My oven was a hypocrite! The brains of the oven knew the temperature, the fires of the oven would boot up to go through the motions of heating up, but there was a disconnect giving me raw, uncooked food

So I had to buy this extra thermostat to sit in the oven and view what the real temperature of the oven is

This passage and Jesus’ words are the thermostat to allow you to see if there is hypocrisy in your heart!

I bet there is something in your life that doesn’t match what we are called to do in Scripture, this is the call to fix it!

I will be going home after church to replace that faulty thermostat in the oven, I hope you can replace that faulty action, thought, attitude, or sin that is making your faith not fully in line with what God desires