The Characteristics of a Genuine Worshipper (Mark 12:35–44)
Pastor Jason Soto
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 39:08
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Notes
Transcript
CPT: Jesus describes a correct understanding of the Messiah and contrasts the worship of scribe versus the worship of a widow.
Purpose: To develop an evaluation of godly worship within the congregation.
CPS: Genuine worship comes from a heart of godly understanding, humility, and sacrifice.
A genuine worshipper desires godly understanding.
A genuine worshipper evaluates their motives.
A genuine worshipper lives a life of sacrifice.
Introduction
Attention
We are going to talk today about worship. Worship involves so much more than music. Generally today, when someone asks about worship, they are not asking about the prayer time at your church, or the biblical teaching at your church, or the fellowship time, or anything else. They are referring to the music style that you have. Is your worship music contemporary? Is it more conservative?
But worship is more than music. It involves everything that happens. It is everything we do in our service, and worship extends to how you live your own life. Worship is more of a lifestyle than it is one thing. Worship is our prayer life, our Bible reading, the way we apply God’s Word to our life. God desires genuine worshippers. What we’ll learn today is that genuine worship comes from a heart of godly understanding, humility, and sacrifice.
The opposite of authentic is fake. I grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of kids who didn’t have a lot of money. Yet, a lot of these kids, even though they were poor, would try to wear name brand clothing. Some parents, even though they couldn’t afford it, would buy their kids name brands so they wouldn’t be made fun of in school.
But if you couldn’t afford it, there were places where you could buy fake name brand clothing. It typically had the name brand big on the shirt so everyone could see it, but change some letter. So Nike became Mike. Adidas became Abidas.
If you wanted to buy the latest record (this was back in a time with record stores, where you would have to buy individual albums), there were guys, they usually hung out around the train stations, that would sell fake copies of the cassettes. The front of the tape had a photocopy of the album cover, and you would get a cassette that was a copy of the original.
Now, these fakes were never as good as the authentic. The t-shirts would fade and shrink in a weird way. The cassettes would cut off on one side of the cassette. But if you were poor, you would try to get away with the fake version.
But while being fake might get you by in this world, being fake with God never works. God knows the heart, and he is seeking genuine worshippers who worship him with an authentic and humble heart.
How can we spot the fake from the genuine? What are the characteristics of a genuine worshipper? We will look at that today from Mark 12:35-44. This is in your pew Bible, page X.
In the context of where we are today, Jesus was confronted by a scribe. The scribe asked Jesus a question about the commandments. He asks him, “Which is the most important commandment?” Jesus responds by reciting what is known today in Judaism as the Shema, which begins in Deuteronomy 6:4 with “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Then he says that this is the greatest commandment in Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” He follows up in Mark 12:31 with “The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
What proceeds after this, where we are today, is an expansion on this teaching. I believe the Holy Spirit placed this in the gospel of Mark to teach us what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Starting in verse Mark 12:35.
Scripture Reading
35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David?
36 David himself says by the Holy Spirit: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’
37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can he be his son?” And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
38 He also said in his teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who want greetings in the marketplaces,
39 the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.
40 They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.”
41 Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums.
42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little.
43 Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had—all she had to live on.”
Pray
In this scenario, Jesus is expanding on the greatest commandment, teaching us what it means and what it looks like to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. When someone loves the Lord in this way, they are a genuine worshipper.
What is worship?
Worship is first a response. We talked about this last week when we talked about love. This command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, is a command of response. The command doesn’t start with us. It starts with God. He loves us first, while we were still sinners, and in response to his love, we love him.
Worship is a response and an expression of love to God. It’s the act of showing love, reverence, and adoration to God. It is how we express our gratitude and devotion to Him. Worship can take many forms, including singing hymns, praying, reading the Bible, and living a life that honors God.
You can hear the heart of a genuine worshipper in the Psalms. One such Psalm is in Psalm 95:6-7. Listen to the heart of a genuine worshipper.
6 Come, let’s worship and bow down; let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his care. Today, if you hear his voice:
A worshipper is someone who loves God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, someone who shows love, reverence, and adoration to God. If you are one of God’s people, if you are a sheep under his care, then you are called to be a genuine worshipper of God.
What are the characteristics of a genuine worshipper? In this passage today, we will see three characteristics of a genuine worshipper. The first one is this,
A genuine worshipper desires godly understanding.
A genuine worshipper desires godly understanding.
Jesus asks a question to the crowd about the Messiah. First, you must understand that the Old Testament Scriptures, which by they way, were just the Scriptures in Jesus’ day and were the Scriptures that he preached from, the Old Testament spoke of a Messiah that would come.
Messiah means “Anointed One.” The Messiah was the promised Savior that would come to Israel to save them. From the books of the Law, to the Writings, to the Prophets, they spoke of a Savior that would come to Israel to redeem God’s people and to usher in the kingdom.
There’s only one person in history who has ever fulfilled the prophecies and promises of the Messiah we see in God’s Word. He was Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. God’s Word is true, and it points us to the Savior, Jesus.
Among the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, the rabbis agreed that Psalm 110 was a Messianic psalm, that David spoke prophetically in this psalm about the coming Messiah. Jesus teaches in the temple and points out a curious thing about Psalm 110:1. He says in Mark 12:35-37:
35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David?
36 David himself says by the Holy Spirit: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’
37 David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can he be his son?” And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
Jesus is reminding them of something about the Messiah. The prophets said that the Messiah would come from the genealogical line of David. The Messiah would be the great, great, great, however many greats, grandson of David. He would come through King David’s genealogical line.
In that lineage then, David is higher up in the pecking order. It even says in the ten commandments in Ex. 20:12 that we should honor our father and mother. King David is above the Messiah in lineage, and would therefore receive honor from his lineage.
However, there is a curious thing in Psalm 110:1, which is the verse of the psalm that Jesus is quoting in Mark 12:36. Now, this is where we get into an issue with translation. Every English Bible that we hold today is a translation. Whether you are talking about the King James, or the ESV, the CSB that I preach out of, or the New Living, they are all translations. The Bible was not written in English. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic, and the New Testament was written in Greek.
When they translate some words from a foreign language into English, English has a way of grouping foreign words together, because English derives meaning from context. A famous example of this is with the Greek word for love, where it has multiple words to describe different types of love, where in English, when those words are translated, we just say, “love.”
The same is true for the words for God in the Old Testament. The Old Testament will use the words like Yahweh, or Adonai, or Elohim, to express terms for God, and each one will have different nuances, but when we translate them into English, we get God or Lord.
So when you read Psalm 110:1 in English, it says, “The Lord declared to my Lord.” But when you see this in Hebrew, we have the declaration of Yahweh to Adonai, God said to God. God is speaking to the Messiah in Psalm 110:1, and is using a term for God. Furthermore, David is speaking of the Messiah as my God, “The Lord declared to my Lord.”
Jesus is appealing to the intellect. He is saying, “Listen to this and think about it. What is David saying about the Messiah? The Messiah is God, the God of Israel, his God.”
When you become a Christian, you don’t leave your intellect behind. Worship involves the mind, “Love the Lord your God with all your mind.” Worship certainly involves more than intellect, but it is certainly not less than our intellect.
A genuine worshipper loves the Lord our God with all our mind. Worship is more than intellect. If it is just the intellect, than it becomes a stale academic exercise without real application or life change. But God gave us the ability to think about things. The human being can think, and reason, and learn so that we can understand more about God. Paul said it this way in Romans 12:2:
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
There is an intellectualism that is engaged in the human mind as our thinking is transformed by the truth of God’s Word. Human beings are designed for discovery, and we are called to discover more about God through his Word, so that our thinking is renewed as we love God with all our mind. We are called to be people who meditate on God and think deeply about him.
When I became a Christian, there was a sense that I had that I needed to just take this leap of faith into Jesus, and no matter what the science said or anything else, I needed to abandon reason and just take this leap of faith.
But there was something that troubled me. I went to a secular college in New York, and I remembered this one history professor. I don’t remember too much about his class, but I do remember this one thing: He was zealous about Darwinian Evolution. He spoke about the wonders of Darwinian Evolution, and then spoke about the Bible’s view of creation as a myth, the same as other creation myths.
Well, I got the impression from his class, as well as from other classes I’m sure, that all the smart people were atheists, and all the dumb people were Christians. But that troubled me as a Christian, and I decided to look into it and see if there were Christians who dealt with this issue.
I was suprised to find out that there were scientists, and philosophers, and really smart people who made arguments to support what the Bible said was true. I remember thinking, “Wow, there are smart people who defend the Bible!”
See, I had bought a lie from the world that said, “If you want to be a Christian, you need to abandon your intellect.” That is not true, and in fact, God is calling you to worship God with your mind, to think deeply about who God is in creation, and who he is in your life.
God has given us an intellect. He has given us a mind.
A genuine worshipper desires godly understanding.
A second characteristic of a genuine worshipper is:
A genuine worshipper evaluates their motives.
A genuine worshipper evaluates their motives.
As Jesus continues teaching, he warns the people about the scribes. If your remember, the scribes were people who were employed for their ability to read and write. There were scribes who were Pharisees. The scribes were experts in the Law, as they would spend time copying the Law, and many were teachers.
The scribes were of an elevated status in Jewish society. They were people of high social standing. They were educated, were legal experts, had religious influence, and were publicly visible. Look at how Jesus describes them in Mark 12:38-40.
38 He also said in his teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who want greetings in the marketplaces,
39 the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.
40 They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.”
The scribes expected things from others in response to their position. They walked around in religious outfits, expected elaborate greetings from others in public, wanted the best seats and expected people to treat them with honor.
But the fruit of their actions spoke louder than their religious show. Jesus described them as devouring widows’ houses and saying long prayers for show.
What is Jesus describing here? He is describing motivations. What were the motivations that developed within the scribes in their position? They were motivated by the position itself, by the social prestige of the position. Their false religion showed by they way they treated others. They did not love their neighbor as themselves.
To love the Lord your God with all your soul is to evaluate your motives, to love God in humility and submission to him. The very picture of worship is to bow before God and praise him. We are called to have regular times of evaluation of our soul. Paul says in 2 Cor. 13:5:
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test.
How can you be someone who tests themselves to see if they are in the faith? We need ways to evaluate our faith.
We have all kinds of benchmarks of ways to test ourselves to see if we are actually doing what we would like to do. I have a smart watch on my wrist, and it is constantly trying to get me to live healthier. I have been fighting back, but I’m working on it.
My smart watch will measure my daily steps. It’s constantly trying to encourage me, saying, “Only a few more steps to reach your goal.” It has a benchmark for my steps.
It measures my heartbeat, so whenever I start getting into a cardio routine, it congratulates me for having a healthier heart that day. It has a benchmark for my heartbeat.
My watch measures my sleep patterns. It will let me know how long I slept, different times I was awake during the night, and if I’m reaching my benchmarks for good sleep.
Finally, the fitness app connected to my watch also has benchmarks for stress. I can tell the app what my stress levels were, and it will let me know how I’m doing there.
In the same way, you can evaluate your motives with all of your religious activities. One way to do this is to take a sheet of paper and create two columns.
On the left side of the sheet, in the first column, write down your religious activities. These can be your benchmarks. So you would write down, “I go to church once a week. I attend small group once a week. I pray in the morning, when I eat, and before I go to bed. I read my Bible in the morning or at night.” You just list down all of your spiritual activities, your benchmarks.
Then, on the right side of the column, you write down your motivations. Why do you attend church once a week? Why are you reading the Bible in a year? Why do you pray in the morning or before you eat?
Loving the Lord your God with all your soul says, “Am I doing what I’m doing just as a religious activity, or am I going to church, reading the Bible, doing these things because I love God and want to know Jesus more?” A genuine worshipper has a soul that cries out, “I love you Lord!”
A genuine worshipper desires godly understanding.
A genuine worshipper evaluates their motives.
A third characteristic of a genuine worshipper is:
A genuine worshipper lives a life of sacrifice.
A genuine worshipper lives a life of sacrifice.
The last verses in Mark 12 is Jesus describing a widow’s gift at the Temple. This is a direct contrast to the picture of the scribe. Remember, the scribes had an inauthentic faith that devoured the houses of widows. In direct contrast to that, Jesus describes the offering and heart of a widow.
It’s described in this way in Mark 12:41-44:
41 Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums.
42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little.
43 Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had—all she had to live on.”
The Temple in Jerusalem had a place called the temple treasury, where people would put in their offering and donations. Even long ago, there were offering boxes! The Temple would use these offerings for the maintenance of the Temple, sacrifices, and to support the priests and Levites.
The treasury had these trumpet-shaped receptacles where people could deposit offerings, and was in an area where both men and women could access. Jesus describes wealthy people giving large sums of money. Perhaps they made a show of their large offerings to others.
It says that there was a widow there who dropped in two tiny coins that were worthless. These two tiny coins were a Jewish coin known as a lepta. They were made of copper and were pretty worthless. One commentator described the lepta as being worth 1/64 the value of a denarius, which was the amount of a daily wage. In other words, they were a fraction of a penny.
But look at how the Lord described her offering in Mark 12:43–44 “43 Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had—all she had to live on.””
You could word it this way, “What she gave was weak in the world’s eyes. But she is a genuine worshipper of God living a life of sacrifice. She is loving the Lord with all her strength. What the world says is weak is strong in the eyes of God.
Think of the contrast. You have the scribes and the wealthy giving what seems to be in the world’s eyes from a position of strength, but God knows the heart. The widow, the one who appears weak, is loving God with all her strength.
God doesn’t use the world’s standards. God doesn’t need people who brag that they gave a thousand dollars or a million dollars. God doesn’t need people of prestige or power. God is looking for people who love him enough to live sacrificially, people who love him with all their strength.
Many times strength looks like weakness. Listen to this interaction between the Lord and Paul in 2 Cor. 12:9-10:
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.
10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
“My grace is sufficient for you.” Boasting about our weakness is moving from self-sufficiency, saying “I can do this,” to God-sufficiency, saying, “I need God.” As you get closer to God, you realize how insufficient you are, and how much you need Jesus.
When you embrace your weakness, when you take pleasure in weakness, you realize that God’s grace is sufficient for you. Living a life of sacrifice says, “God, I am laying this at the altar because your grace is sufficient for me.”
The world says you should stand up for yourself, get into that argument with your co-worker or your spouse, because you’re right. God says, “Let me stand up for you, because my grace is sufficient for you.”
The world says you should hold on to what is yours, and hold everything with a tight fist. God says, “Open up your hand, let it go, my grace is sufficient for you.”
The world says to live your best life now, because you only have one life. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. God says, “Give your life to me, let me have it, because my grace is sufficient for you.”
We love a God who loves us with everything he had. John 15:13 says:
13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus laid down his life for us on the cross, sacrificed everything, because his grace is sufficient for us.
It reminds me of this:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
The gospel is powerful. The cross is powerful. His grace is powerful. When you live in weakness because his grace is sufficient for you, you live in strength. To live in God, to seek to live as a genuine worshipper is live in strength, because his grace is sufficient for you.
We desire godly understanding because of his grace. We look at our souls and evaluate our own motives because of his grace. We live a life of sacrifice because of his grace. We love with all of our strength because he loved us first with everything that he had.
My prayer for our church is that we would grasp on to his grace. That we would realize that his grace is sufficient for us. That knowing his grace would drive us to love him and worship him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength. Let us live out our calling as genuine worshippers of Jesus Christ because his grace is sufficient for us.
Conclusion
A genuine worshipper desires godly understanding.
A genuine worshipper evaluates their motives.
A genuine worshipper lives a life of sacrifice.
Conclude
Prayer
Last Song
Doxology
24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you;
25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’
24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
You are dismissed. Have a great week in the Lord!
