Luke 21:1-6 - The Beginning of the End
Introduction:
Today we are going to be speaking about the beginning of the end. As we just saw in this video, the Temple has been destroyed. This event was the beginning of the end. We will discuss this more in a bit.
However, for those familiar with this section of Scripture, the first four verses might seem a bit out of place. The account of the widow’s offering seems to be a strange segue into Jesus’s conversation about the destruction of the Temple in verses 5-6. However, these two accounts do go hand-in-hand.
Jesus is going to show the heart of most of the people in Israel - specifically the wealthy influencers including the religious leaders. He has railed against their hypocrisy throughout His ministry.
He has already called them out for taking advantage of widows in Luke 20:47. Their legalism was pervasive, and they used their rules and laws to benefit themselves and harm the weakest among them.
We will see Jesus praise this widow while predicting the judgement to come for the unrighteousness throughout Israel. If only all of Isreal practiced what this poor widow practiced - then things might have been different.
But that wasn’t the case then, and sadly, it often isn’t the case today either. May we learn a great lesson from this poor widow’s offering as we consider the beginning of the end as taught by Jesus.
Read full Scripture:
Luke 21:1–6 ESV
Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box,
and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said,
“As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Prayer
Today we are going to be going through the first of our three-part series through chapter 21 of Luke. This chapter is a chapter about eschatology - which means the study of end times. Jesus is going to give us a glimpse of what is to come in this chapter. Starting in verse 7 - which we will get to next week, He begins what is referred to as His Olivet Discourse. This beautiful sermon that He preached can also be found in Matthew 24 as well as Mark 13.
I pray that the next three weeks are a time of growing for your faith and trust in the Savior of the World Who is sovereign and reigns forever. His promises are sure, and He will return just as He said He would.
As Jesus prepares to begin His discourse on the end times, He starts with illustrating the current situation in Israel. He takes the opportunity to observe and teach the Disciples the kind of heart that is pleasing to God - which brings us to our first point…
I. Our Sovereign Lord and Savior Always Perceives (1-2)
Luke 21:1 ESV
Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box,
Everything is noticed by God. He perceives everything. Nothing that is done under the sun escapes His attention and knowledge.
We are told in the parallel Scripture of Mark 12:41 that Jesus was sitting down opposite the treasury. As Jesus is sitting there, likely tired from absorbing verbal blows and defeating the myriad of attacks of the Sadducees, Scribes, Pharisees, and Herodians, He sees the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. In fact, Mark informs us that the rich were not just putting in any offering, but they were putting in large sums.
This offering box, or treasury, was likely in the Court of Women at the Temple (see the diagram for reference). It was at this location that there were 13 trumpet-shaped collection boxes that were provided for various offerings. These offerings were designated for specific purposes. And the offering boxes were in a place with much foot traffic so many would see those who gave.
As Jesus watched, He could hear the clanging of all of the coins falling down into the collection boxes. The rich likely beamed with pride as they listened to every coin hit the bottom. These offerings were a source of pride for the rich. Because they weren’t required, many of the rich would boastfully offer their gifts publically so that others thought highly of them. Some would painstakingly take their time so that people could see or at least hear every last coin they dropped in. Some commentators even assert that some went to such lengths for praise that they would exchange all of their coinage for the smallest type of currency to seem like they were giving even more!
It would be like someone today going to the bank and asking for 100 dollars of pennies and dropping them one at a time in our front offering box! How outlandish!
We know that Jesus is not pleased with such boastful behavior. Although His teaching in Matthew 6 is directed toward giving to the needy, the principle that Jesus teaches is the same in Matthew 6:2-4:
Matthew 6:2–4 ESV
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
May we learn from the sinfulness of the religious leaders and wealthy influencers. We are not to give in order to receive praise and recognition from people on earth.
Don’t give for the cheap reward on earth such as getting your name on a plaque, getting a pat on the back, or receiving praise from people. Instead, may you seek a reward that is eternal in heaven.
Jesus’s attention has been focused on the rich and their hypocritical giving, but in the midst of this group of affluent individuals, Jesus perceives a poor widow…
Luke 21:2 ESV
and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
Don’t you love that Jesus notices the poor widow? In a world where you only seem to be noticed if you are wealthy, influential, or powerful - it can sometimes feel like no one notices you. What does what I do matter anyway?
Many judge their importance by measuring how many followers they have on social media. This can become incredibly tempting for just about any of us. We can start to believe the lie from Satan that what we do doesn’t really matter. No one is really influenced by us. Our life isn’t really that important anyway. Our post, or video, or comment didn’t even get acknowledged by the social media world. Doesn’t that mean we are a nobody? Doesn’t that mean that we don’t matter?
Jesus would say otherwise, my friends. He sees every single thing you do and don’t do. He cares about every move that you make. He cares about how you spend your time, money, and talents. We are to live our lives for an audience of One. The court of public opinion accounts for nothing in eternity. There is only One Whose verdict truly matters - and that is God’s.
Some people out there have tons of followers. Their videos have more thumbs up than imaginable. It seems that the entire world has ‘liked’ them. Yet, they are missing the one approval that matters. Don’t settle for the world. Live for the King of Kings.
And here we see Him notice this poor widow place an offering in the treasury.
Exactly how much were these two copper coins worth?
In fact, two lepta would not even buy a quarter of an hour of a day laborer’s time.
In other words, she couldn’t have even hired someone to work for 15 minutes with what she gave.
Yet, Jesus sees her and is pleased with her offering.
Moving forward, we will see how Christ sees and judges these two different offerings that He has just observed - which brings us to our second point…
II. Our Sovereign Lord and Savior Always Presides (3-4)
Luke 21:3 ESV
And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
This statement likely catches the Disciples off guard. How can her two small coins be more than what all of these wealthy individuals have just placed in the offering box?
Most people would have seen the widow’s offering as a waste of her time. She spent more energy bringing that offering all the way there than it was even worth.
However, note the intensity of Jesus’s statement here.
The actual literal translation here is comparing her small offering to all of the offerings that they have just witnessed combined. Jesus sees things differently. His balance looks like the balance shown here. In eternity, things are weighted differently.
You see, this poor widow was called penichros (peni-chrose) in verse 2. This Greek word refers to someone who is poor and needy but not destitute. However, in verse 3, after giving her two coins, she is called ptōchos (pa-tow-hose) which refers to someone who is completely destitute and has nothing.
She has given everything to God. Without God she has nothing at all.
Listen to Jesus continue in verse 4…
Luke 21:4 ESV
For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
The rich gave out of their abundance. After giving, they still were able to do everything they wanted to do. Their giving was for show, and there was no sacrifice in their giving at all.
Their heart was far from a true commitment to God.
Yet, this poor widow was fully committed to the cause of God. She cared so much for God that she was willing to give her last two cents.
The problem here wasn’t that the rich didn’t give. The problem was their heart in giving. They gave from a proud and arrogant heart. They gave as if everything was actually theirs. They saw their money as their money and not God’s money entrusted to them.
1. God requires a complete commitment to Him. We are to be all in.
R. Kent Hughes reminds us that God wants us and not our money. However, we cannot give God all of us without giving Him our money as well. Matthew 6:21 clearly teaches us that where our treasure is our heart will be there also.
God wants every part of us. Our time, talents, and treasures.
This widow held nothing back. This account does not literally teach us that we are to give every single last cent to the Church or to a cause. Although some might be called to do so, we know that God does teach on wise saving (albeit not hoarding). However, we are not to have certain parts of our accounts that are off limits to Christ. He owns it all. Whatever He calls us to give we are to give.
This is the same with our entire lives - which brings us to another aspect of this teaching:
2. God requires us to follow Him in a way that costs us.
God does not call us to a leisurely comfortable life of following Him. The Gospel requires one to deny one’s self and take up his cross daily and follow (Luke 9:23). This speaks of sacrifice, persecution, and suffering that will come in following Christ.
For some of us, this may mean leaving the US and going to a hostile nation as a missionary. For others, it might mean going to the inner city of Charleston or Huntington and serving the homeless or destitute and sharing the Gospel there. For some, it may mean having some tough Gospel conversations with our unsaved family or coworkers or neighbors that might lead to conflict. Whatever it means, we know that true followers of Christ understand the cost of true discipleship.
And finally, #3…
3. God looks at the heart and not what appears on the outside.
Jesus cared more about what was held back than what was given. He cared more about the heart of the widow’s offering than what she was able to give. Her heart was entirely set on glorifying God alone and not herself.
God’s economy is different than man’s. God desires that we love Him and love others. Listen to 1 Corinthians 13:3 which is right at the beginning of the 'love chapter’ as it is often called.
1 Corinthians 13:3 ESV
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Here we see that God was not just pleased with the widow’s offering - He was pleased with her heart. She could have given everything but not had a heart of love toward her God. Yet, Jesus saw her heart for Yahweh and rejoiced because of it.
Our Lord perceives, or sees all that we do. However, He sees even our hearts and motivation for why we do or don’t do something. And with this knowledge He presides in judgement over us. We will each give an account for what we do and don’t do. Our account will not be before man, but instead it will be before God, Himself.
Romans 14:12 ESV
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
With this in view, there is a really important question that each of us needs to ask ourselves:
Is He pleased with what He sees or not? Picture Him sitting opposite of the figurative treasury of your life as He observes what you give to Him. What does He see?
Are you more like the poor widow who sees everything as God’s or are you more like the rich who only give what they want to give?
Brothers and sisters, Jesus gave us everything on the cross. He took our sin and judgement on the cross so that we could have the greatest gift imaginable - eternal life with Him in heaven for all eternity.
I pray that each of us here has received that wonderful gift. We can by repenting of our sins and placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. By believing that He died on the cross for our sins, rose three days later, and now is at the right hand of the Father ready to intercede for those who repent and believe. There is no more important decision my friends. Be sure that you have made that decision. If not, make today the day you that are reconciled to your Savior.
Moving forward we come to our final point which is…
III. Our Sovereign Lord and Savior Always Correctly Prophesies (5-6)
You might be wondering why I have entitled the sermon, The Beginning of the End.
We have just seen a multitude of rich Jews giving to the Temple but with a heart not directed toward God. Jesus rejoiced over the poor widow but was troubled by the multitude of givers who were self-focused. This short account represented an accurate description the heart of the nation in Israel. They were far from God. They were rebelling against God. And judgement was to come.
Jesus clearly lets us know later that this time of the end is an extended time period. It doesn’t happen overnight. We are almost 2000 years from the Temple’s destruction. However, the end is closer today than it was yesterday. The pains of birth are being felt already. We will discuss much more about the specific prophecies to come in the next two weeks. However, before the end can come, there must come a time called the time of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24). This prophesied time of the Gentiles necessitates a devastating judgement upon Israel through the destruction of the Temple. This brings us to verse 5…
Luke 21:5 ESV
And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said,
Mark tells us that the disciples and Jesus are on their way out of the temple as this conversation starts (Mark 13:1). They are on their way to the Mount of Olives where Jesus will deliver His final and most thorough end times sermon. On their way out, the disciples are admiring the beautiful architecture of the temple.
They speak of its noble stones which referred to the beautiful material that made up the temple. The picture shown here is an artist’s rendition of what it might have looked like. There were huge marble stones - some of which reached as much as 67 feet long according to the historian Josephus. There were columns of white marble in the portico that reached over forty feet high.
Solomon’s Temple had been destroyed back in 587 BC by the Babylonians. The Second Temple was rebuilt at the same site being completed around 515 BC, but it was clearly smaller and not nearly as beautiful as the original. However, in 20 BC, Herod the Great started a massive reconstruction project which continued under those who followed him until AD 63. According to historians, the new temple may have even exceeded the beauty of Solomon’s Temple.
Not only was the structure beautiful but so were the offerings - which refers to the decorations such as the tapestries, the gold used to overlay many parts of the Temple, the carved images of grapes as large as men that represented Israel, among other beautiful ornamentals in the Temple.
Jesus, hearing the raving of His disciples, gives a somber prophecy of what is to come…
Luke 21:6 ESV
“As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Jesus most certainly rains on their proverbial parade here. Jesus has just taught the disciples not to look upon the outside but instead to look upon the heart in His commendation of the widow’s offering. His teaching here again is not to look upon the beauty of the structure of the Temple, but instead to look upon the evil that goes on within it. Jesus saw the ugliness of spiritual poverty and wickedness that was within those who worshiped at the Temple.
Jesus has already wept over the coming destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 19:41-44 and then cleansed the Temple of the money changers and sacrifice sellers who took advantage of their fellow worshipers in Luke 19:45-47. He has had multiple hostile encounters with the religious leaders in Luke 20.
Despite all of the obvious signs of wickedness and evil, the disciples had become captivated by the beauty of the world.
Brothers and sisters, we can learn a lot here. The disciples quickly forgot about their mission because they became enamored by the allure of the world. They became captivated, not by their Savior who was right in front of them, but by a beautiful structure that would not last more than a few decades longer.
Paul, teaching his protege Timothy, says the following:
2 Timothy 2:4 ESV
No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
We are soldiers for Christ. Our aim must be to do the will of God and to please Him alone. It is so easy for us to get entangled in civilian pursuits - or things that are common and not everlasting. However, Christ reminds us here to stay focused on the mission.
Because Jesus makes one thing clear here at the end of verse 6…
Luke 21:6 ESV
“As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
This beautiful temple will be destroyed. We know that Jesus speaks in hyperbole (or with figurative extreme language) because we know that there is one wall left that we saw in the video before the sermon. The wailing wall reminds us of the truth of Jesus’s prophecy. His prophecy was a strong statement meant to describe the great destruction that would take place. The temple would be almost completely unrecognizable.
The temple was thrown down. No one goes to the temple and speaks of its beauty and grandeur any longer. They only can speak of what once was and not what is.
Jesus’s prophecy was literally fulfilled in AD 70, only a few decades later, as Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.
And it is after this destruction of Jerusalem that the end times begins. The next two weeks we will discuss what is to come after the destruction of the Temple.
Conclusion:
However, today we have seen the sovereignty of Jesus. He always perceives - meaning that He sees everything. He always presides - meaning that His judgement is sure and just and righteous. And finally, we see that He always correctly prophesies - meaning that all He says will come to fruition.
As we reflect on today’s sermon, I pray that your focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ and not on the things of this world. Don’t be misled or captivated by the things that you see on earth that will all pass away. Instead, be captivated by the majesty and beauty of our eternal Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ. There is nothing greater and nothing more sure than Him.
