Beware of False Teachers
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning!!
I was upset the other day. I had to throw away a brand new box of animal crackers.
The label said “Do not eat if seal is broken” and sure enough one of the seals was missing its head.
Today at our lunch we are going to kick off a new outreach campaign. More details on that as we eat lunch!
Those that came to the singing Friday night, thank you. I thought we might get rained out, but God held back the rain and it was muggy but not to bad. It was a good time of worship and fellowship.
We have some more fun events scheduled for July! Keep an eye out on the announcements and the bulletin.
Today we are going to be in Mark 12:38-44.
Our last time in Mark, we saw Jesus ask the questions. He asked about how can the Messiah be the son of David if David called Him Lord? Jesus was teaching them the true identity of the Messiah. He quoted from Psalm 110. This is a psalm from David and David said that God said to his Lord (Jesus) to sit a my right hand. This is the highest honor to sit at God’s right hand and there is only one who is worthy to sit at this place, Jesus! The Messiah is more than just a man, He is the Son of God, He is Jesus Christ!
Today we are going to see what Jesus has to say in His last public address. After this He is only going to be teaching His disciples. Jesus’ public ministry ends with the end of chapter 12. As this is His last public teaching, I believe that it is a very important topic! He is going to teach and warn the people to beware of the false teachers and that they prey on the weak and lonely. They prey on the widows! We are also going to look at the passages about the widow’s offering of the two small coins. I am in the minority on this passage. Many if not most people teach that this is about giving. I do not believe that this is the case and I hope that by the end of my message you will agree with me.
Our big idea today is going to be that a true believer will care for, provide for and protect the widow and the orphans, all those who are vulnerable and in need. A true believer is never a predator and will not take advantage of the less fortunate.
Please stand as we read God’s word.
38 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces 39 and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 40 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. 43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Jesus begins by telling them to beware of the scribes! We are not told that the scribes and the religious leaders have left, so I assume that they are still there and can hear what Jesus is teaching. Jesus is calling out their sin. He says that they like to walk around in long robes. In that time all the religious sects had different looking robes that were longer than the normal length robes. They thought that it made them more religious, made them stand out. These robes would be all the way to the ground. They wanted them as long as they could be. They also had tassels on the corners of their robes. This was a commandment from Numbers 15:38-41
38 “Speak to the sons of Israel and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a violet thread. 39 It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so that you will do them and not follow your own heart and your own eyes, which led you to prostitute yourselves, 40 so that you will remember and do all My commandments and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord your God.”
They were even making the tassels larger and larger. I can just imagine how big some of their tassels were. They were probably pretty funny looking. They were more concerned about their appearance than their hearts, than actually doing what the Bible commands us to do. Jesus called them white washed tombs! They were all clean and dressed fancy and looked very nice and sophisticated on the outside, but on the inside they were dead! They were no closer to God than a Gentile. They cared more about what people thought about them than what the Bible said about them. We can see that today with some of the false teachers that are wearing suits that cost more than I make in a month at my day job. I personally have a hard time justifying clothing that costs that much. It is like a celebrity that has a list of requirements that have to be met for them to come to a location.
Jesus said that they care about how they are greeted when they are in public. They wanted people to address them as Rabbi. We can see that today with the people who have doctorate degree. They are called Dr. They have earned the right to be called that and it is proper to use that in a formal setting. I think it takes it a little far to require people to call you that just in passing our when you are out in public. I think that is when people begin to act like the scribes. They put themselves on a pedestal.
Jesus also said that they want to have the best seats in the synagogues and the seats of honor. I could see one of them arguing with Jesus about His seat at the right hand of God! They believe that they are the most important people in the room. They should be revered and honored everywhere they go. They put themselves first in every situation. They are the scholars and they know more than anyone else. There is nothing about them that shows any signs of humility, any signs of caring for the poor or the orphans. They only care about themselves and how people look at them and how they talk to them. Personal honor is all that they care about. They would never give up their seat of honor to give it to someone else let alone a widow or poor person. They truly are white washed tombs.
Jesus saves the most condemning comment for last. They devour widows’ houses and they make long prayers just for show and they are not sincere in the prayer. The word pretense in this case means - insincere or false profession. They were not talking to God, they were trying to make themselves sound more righteous than everyone else. They were flaunting their piety with their wordy prayers. They were not devoted to God, they were devoted to being revered by the people!
How did they devour widows’ house. I am so glad you asked! Scribes were the lawyers of the day. They would provide the service we call today of estate planning for the widows. They would convince the grieving widows that they would be serving God or the Temple by supporting their holy work. They would tell them that if they gave them money they would have more time to devote to praying for them and seeking God for them. They would rob the widows of what their husbands had left them.
There are numerous verses in the Bible that talk about how God protects and provides for the widow and the fatherless. God has a special love for the widows and orphans!
5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation..
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
God cares for the widow and the orphan, so should His children! It breaks my heart to hear about a widow or children being taken advantage of by some who calls themself a Christian. I believe that those people will be in the hottest places in hell.
Next Jesus sits down opposite the treasury and watches the people. We are told that many rich people put in large sums and then Jesus tells us about this one widow who came and put in two of the smallest coins that they had at that time. They totaled up to 1/64th of a denarius, one days wage. This offering that seemed insignificant Jesus tells us was more than all that was put in the offering box that day! How can that be? I am glad you asked! Jesus tells us that all the others gave out of their abundance! She gave out of her poverty! She gave all she had, all she had to live on! That means that unless someone came and help this widow, she was going home to die of starvation! Jesus said she gave all she had to live on!
Many pastors and preachers teach that these last 4 verses are about giving and tithing. I do not believe that is what Jesus is teaching here. I will explain.
Jesus just got through teaching about how the scribes devour the homes of the widows. He taught how they robbed them of their estates. I believe that Jesus is using this scene here at the treasury to prove His point. Here is a widow who has nothing left and she gave it to the temple and in all intent and purposes is going off to die. Jesus is showing the effect of the scribes on the widows. He is proving His previous point.
Jesus ending the teaching on the scribes with condemnation and in the following verses in Chapter 13 there is more condemnation. I think this widow is not about giving, it is more about the effect of false teachers on the widows and the less fortunate. This widow should have never have felt like she should have to give her last two coins and then just go home and die. The temple should have been caring for her and taking care of her, instead it has robbed her of her estate and she is ready to die. The temple and the scribes have robbed her of all her hope! False teachers are predators that prey on the less fortunate.
To those who think this is about tithing or giving, we are given no information about the state of mind of any of the givers, the rich or the widow. We are even told if they are believers. We are not told of their attitudes while giving. We are not told about how much faith they have while they are giving. All we are told is that the rich gave a lot out of their abundance and that the widow gave all that she had left.
There are two ways to teach this about tithing or giving in my opinion.
1 - We are to empty our bank accounts and give all that we have to live on and be destitute. We have to be willing to live in poverty. That is a message that a false teacher would give.
2 - This is the way I would teach it. We are to hold loosely to what we have and trust in God to be our provision and not our money. It doesn’t say that we should give all we have! There are several other passages that teach about giving. I don’t believe that this is one of them.
I believe that this is proving Jesus’ point about the religious system taking advantage of the ones that it should have been caring for.
God loves the widows and the orphans. He cares for them and protects them.
We should be a part of His plan to care and protect them. Not preying on them.
I think we do a good job of helping we a care or need is presented, but there is always room to grow.
It is impossible to read the Bible and not come away knowing that God cares and protects the widow and orphans.
We need to take special care of the ones that God cares for! We need to be ready to be Jesus to them.
Anyone God is for, that is who we need to make sure we are watching for and caring for also! I never want to be on the opposite side of God!
I am so excited about our new outreach campaign! Stick around for lunch to find out more about it.
Let’s pray
