False Teachers Examined

Who do you admire? Who are your heroes? Who do you watch? Who do you wish to be like? Are there athletes you wish to be like? Are there actors or actresses you emulate? Who are the personalities you’re trying to emulate?

These are not just questions for children. They are questions every child should consider - who are your role models? But they are not just for children.

And the reason is because you are inevitably shaped by the people you admire. It is baked into human nature. God has made it so. You are surrounded by image-bearers of God, and every image bearer has a gravitational pull. We become like the people we observe. We become like the people we admire.

This is why, by the way, church elders are called to live exemplary lives. They are not called to live fundamentally extraordinary lives. They are not called to have incredible IQs and high level degrees. But they must - without negotiation - be men worth following. They must lead lives worth emulating. Why? Because those who stand before us as leaders will be imitated - for better or for worse. The question is not if leaders will be imitated. They will be. The question is will the church be better off imitating its leaders?

I’ve heard from pastors who have been at the same church for decades say that one of the most difficult things about being in the same place for so long is that eventually you see your own sins reflected back at you. This is just the way it is. The people we watch, the people we observe, the people up front, the people who lead, are going to be imitated. What’s elevated is imitated.

Now, what happens when those elevated into positions of leadership do not lead well? Or worse, what if they’re wolves in sheep’s clothing, using their power for personal gain?

It happened in ancient Israel. It happened during Jesus’ day - we’re about to read about it. It happened in the early church - so much of the New Testament is dealing with false teachers and false teaching. It happens today. It is happening today.

Now our text this morning is a warning against those kinds of leaders. We don’t want to become like these leaders, we don’t want to be enamored by these kinds of leaders, we don’t want to grant influence to these kinds of leaders; it is healthy for a church to be able to identify bad, unqualified, unbiblical leadership. And Jesus helps us here. Let me read the text: Mk 12:38-44.

Again, let’s get some context: Jesus has been teaching in the temple this Tuesday, and every possible representative of Israel’s leadership has come forth to challenge him. The chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees - all of them are in opposition to Jesus, as demonstrated by the antagonistic questioning.

Now, he’s begun to proactively teach. He’s going on the offensive. In verses 35-37 taught his listeners to consider who he really is: David’s son, yes, but also David’s Lord. And now he begins to warn those listening about the false teachers who have been leading them astray. And here he’s going to be crystal clear: Beware.

That word “beware” is a word that means, “watch and be ready to learn something that is needed or is hazardous.” It’s more than “watch out!” - be careful, pay attention, look closely, learn from this. And what does he want them to beware of? “The scribes.”

These scribes are a subsection of the religious leaders who ruled Israel. They were interpreters of the law, they were recognized as having spiritual authority. They were the pious, religious examples for the people. But Jesus says, “Watch out for them.”

And this whole section is about that. It’s about being aware of false teachers, false teachings, and the false systems they set up, and the consequences of these false systems.

Three questions will get us through the text this morning: What do false teachers like? What do false teachers do? and what do false teachers deserve?

What do false teachers like? I’ve said before that so much of the Christianity life is not about the things you do but the things you delight in; the things you desire. Motives matter. It’s not just what you do, but why you do it.

Take a look at the word “like’ there in verse 38 - “like to walk around in long robes” and “like greetings in the marketplace” is the Greek word thelo, it means to wish, to desire, to want. It’s a word that describes the desires of the heart. What do false teachers desire? Four things:

First, “they like to walk around in long robes.” As a kid, I liked to put on an old robe because its length made me feel like I was wearing a cape; but that’s not what he’s talking about. The long robe was likely an expensive garment worn by only those who were distinguished and successful. It was impressive attire, and it would make them stand out from ordinary people.

False teachers like to dress in ways that make them appear different, impressive, distinguished. They use their clothing to separate them from ordinary folk. Their clothing is a billboard that says, “Look at me, look at how important I am, look at how unique I am, I am not like you!”

It seems so silly when you sit back and examine it, that men and women are more like peacocks than we like to admit, strutting around wearing clothing we hope to impress our friends and neighbors. But we are that way, and Jesus would have you beware the man who loves to wear ostentatious and expensive clothing as a way to impress you.

Last year an Instagram account called Preachers N Sneakers exploded in popularity. The creator of the account was doing something simple: finding pictures of popular preachers’ shoes, and then posting them online with their price tag. These preachers carefully shopped at the right places, purchased the right gear, and then carefully crafted an online persona. Tim Challies wrote an article about the account and said: “They are not first pastors but influencers, their great desire is not to shepherd a local church but to build a personal brand, their personal brand is not in the realm of religion but lifestyle. Their brand is success and they prove their success through ostentatious displays of prosperity. Most of us just see sneakers, but to a select group—the group these people want to woo and win as followers—these sneakers signal far more. They stand as both proof and promise—“I am successful, for I have the sneakers. Follow me and you, too, can have the sneakers and all the success they symbolize.”

The scribes were this way. Many preachers are this way.

Second, they “like greetings in the marketplace.” This probably refers to the fact that many scribes were given respectable titles, like “master” or “rabbi” or “father.” They love being recognized by people they don’t recognize, because it reminds them that they are more known than common, ordinary people.

Every public greeting is a pump to inflate their bloated sense of importance.

They like the “best seats in the synagogues.” In a synagogue, there was a front benched that contained the scrolls of the Law and the Prophets, and the scribes would sit up near it, in front of everyone. And they loved it. They felt important up there. They felt distinguished.

And lastly, they liked “the places of honor at feasts.” They wanted to be at the important dinner parties, with other important people, all recognizing how important one another are.

What do false teachers like? They liked to be noticed. They liked to be honored. They liked to be recognized. They like human approval. They like to be distinguished, set apart, different.

Are the people you admire addicted to the stage? Are the people you follow carefully crafting their persona, so as to impress you? Don’t get drawn in.

Church, learn to admire men and women who are not public figures. Learn to admire the people who do nothing extraordinary, but are faithful in the ordinary. Be willing to follow people who have no platform.

False teachers like being noticed, recognized, and applauded. Biblical leaders don’t care for recognition. They want God to be the center of their work. They know they’ll die and be forgotten. The give up trying to be extraordinary and seek faithfulness in obscurity.

Men, if you aspire to leadership, the way there is not through your clothing, your popularity, your seats, and which parties you’re invited to. It’s through the dirty work of humble service.

Second, What do false teachers do? Now look at verse 40. You might wonder to yourself, “That’s not too bad! Long robes, greetings, and good seats? What’s the big deal?” That’s what they like, here’s what they do.

40: “who devour widows' houses.” The word “devour” here is a word that’s also used to describe birds snatching up and eating seed from the ground. They perch on their branches, waiting, and then swoop down and take up the food. The scribes did this with widows houses - how?

The scribes could’ve done it many ways. They could charge excessive legal fees - scribes were the lawyers of the day. They sometimes made the widows pledge their houses for unpayable debts, and they could guilt and manipulate widows into giving to the temple and thus funding the scribe’s sumptuous lifestyle. The point here is this: the scriptures say that God has a particular concern for widows, but the scribes were exploiting widows to their own advantage.

I just want to pause and reflect on this. In Scripture, the worst of nations, the worst of civilizations, the lowest you could go, would be to become a people who did not care for their widows. There was only one way to go lower, to be worse: to actively exploit widows to your own advantage. God’s people were supposed to care for the widows, care for them, provide for them. They were to care for them because God himself said that he cares for the widow. In Psalm 68:5 God says that he is the defender of the widow. To prey upon widows is to abuse those dearest to God’s heart; it is to be a thief in God’s household.

But these false teachers preyed upon widows. And what makes it all the more sickening is that they did it while they, verse 40, “for a pretense make long prayers.” The Greek for “for a pretense” is literally, as a show, or for a performance. Their prayers are not sincere, they’re only a way to keep a hold of their power and manipulate public perception. It’s all a fraud. They make themselves fat while letting others starve, and they’re using God’s name to make it happen.

It is sickening. And frankly, it’s enraging to God. If you want to tremble a little bit, read the passages about what God thinks of those who oppress and exploit widows in his name. In Deuteronomy 27:19, God pronounces a curse upon anyone who perverts justice to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. In Isaiah 10:1-2 pronounces “Woe to those who…make widows their spoil and the fatherless their prey.” In Malachi 3:5 God says he will draw near to judgment against those who oppress the widow.”

They love money, and they prey upon the most vulnerable. This reminds of what happened a few years back to Ashley’s grandparents. Her grandpa had dementia, and that’s when he started getting letters in the mail asking him for money, telling him to send cash, telling him to tell no one, telling him he had to do it. And at that point, he didn’t have the mental capacity to understand why he shouldn’t. And you just think, “How utterly despicable, to prey like wolves on the most vulnerable of people! How sick! How depraved!”

But here, you have guys doing it while posing as spiritual leaders! Preying on widows.

Now it’s in this context we need to look at verses 41-44, which I believe is tied directly to the previous section. I’ll be up front: I think that the most common interpretation of this text is wrong. We usually interpret this section to be a shining example of faithful generosity in the midst of a corrupt and immoral system, and that we should be like her. I don’t think that’s the point.

Let me read it. 12:41 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.”

What’s happening here? Jesus sits down and looks around. He’s been teaching for a while, engaging with antagonistic questioners, and now he sits down to watch what’s happening in the busy temple. In the temple courts there were 13 horn shaped receptacles that were for people to give. The money would support the religious leaders, the sanhedrin, who led the temple and its activities. This is the offering box mentioned.

There are rich people “putting in large sums.” Apparently, Jesus could see them giving and could tell the amount of their giving. Jesus taught that giving was to be done privately, in secret, so that no one would know how much, but apparently the giving here is overt and obvious.

Verse 42 says a “poor widow came” - there are two Greek words for poor, one denotes a person who has enough to live day to day - penichros poor.. The other word (ptochos) is a person who has nothing, who is completely dependent upon the generosity of others. This widow is the second. She is ptochos poor. Destitute. She has nothing. She has no job, no day labor, nothing.

She puts in two copper coins. The Greek is two leptos, which were 1/128 of a denarius, a denarius being a day’s wage. I read someone who did the math, and in today’s dollars it’s about 90 cents. Not even a dollar. But it’s all she had, and she put it in.

Jesus sees it, and in it sees a teaching moment. He, vs. 43, “called his disciples to himself” and says, “Truly, I say to you,” which is a way of saying, “Listen up, this is important.”

“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.” She gave more because she gave everything. She has none left. It’s clear that Jesus evaluates the amount of a gift not by the amount you put in, but by how much you have left over.

Are we to understand that Jesus is commending this woman? That this woman’s giving is a model for all Christians everywhere?

I don’t think we are supposed to see her as the model of Christian generosity. First, because Jesus was just describing the corruption of the leaders, and he specifically mentions how they prey upon widows, and then, vs. 41, he sits down and what do you know? A poor widow donating the last of the money to this perverted system.

Second, the whole theme of the section we’re in is judgment. Think of what’s been happening since Jesus entered into Jerusalem in chapter 11. He cursed the fig tree, demonstrating God’s curse on Israel. He cleared the temple as a symbolic act of judgment upon Israel’s leaders. And this is why, if you look ahead to 13:2, Jesus knows the whole temple will soon be destroyed. Israel is under judgment because it has become apostate, and this poor widow is an example of the collateral damage of Israel’s apostasy. She’s a victim of the corruption of Israel’s leaders, like a poor woman giving to a prosperity preacher who only wants her money. Jesus points her out because she is a living illustration of Israel’s leaders' failure to care for widows.

Another reason I don’t think we should see her as a model of Christian generosity is that Jesus nowhere actually commends her. Let’s not add to the text. He doesn’t say, “Go and do likewise.” He doesn’t say, “I’ve never seen such faith!” He never says, “She did the right thing.” Mark and Luke both contain this account, and in neither does Jesus actually say that she is doing the right thing. We must not add to the text. All it says is, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.” Nothing about her virtue. Nothing about her generosity. Nothing about her faith. Only that proportionally, she put in more than the others. A valid lesson is that Jesus evaluates the amount of your gift not by how much you give but by how much you have left over.

And lastly, but importantly, nowhere does the Bible issue a command to all Christians that it would be good for them to literally give away everything they have. Jesus said that to the rich young ruler for a very specific reason, but that command is not issued to Christians anywhere. Christians should recognize that all money is God’s. They should be generous. They should be faithful. But nowhere does the BIble instruct anyone - particularly widows - to give away the last of their finances.

In fact, if Christians did see this as a commendable action, then all of us should empty our bank accounts and give everything to the church. That actually doesn’t make any sense! We might get a nice building over here but we’d all go home and die of starvation. Is that God’s plan?

In fact, if a widow appeared at our church with a $20 bill and wanted to give it, and I somehow found out it was her last bit of money, and that after giving it she couldn’t buy a meal, she couldn’t pay rent - I’d say, “We don’t want your money. You keep your money, and buy yourself a square meal, and let’s help you get what you need.”

A system that willingly takes the last dollars of a poor widow, leaving her without anything, to me is a corrupt system that is not actually caring for widows as they ought.

Our question is, “What do false teachers do?” The answer is that they prey on the poor and vulnerable. They fatten themselves while the poor starve. They bilk the common folk, under the pretense of spiritual authority.

Just think of the Roman Catholic Church, especially before the Reformation. They were building massive, beautiful cathedrals. How? They told the poor and uneducated that if they gave to the church their sins would be forgiven. The guys at the top have unspeakable wealth and they got it from the pockets of the poor and destitute.

Take a look at TBN. How often are these guys begging for money? They fly their private jets and they stay in $10,000 a night hotel rooms, and they get on TV and tell you you can be blessed if you give to their ministry. I read this week about a man with scoliosis, a sick daughter, with both cars just broken down, take the last of his money and send it to a TV preacher who said if he gave $273 as a “seed” it would return to him in God’s multiplied financial blessing.

Watch out for preachers who are all about money, telling you that you can get what you want from God if you just give a certain amount. It’s a scam.

Maybe some of you have heard of Justin Peters’ ministry. He’s bound to a wheelchair because he’s had cerebral palsy since he was a boy. As a teenager a friend told him that God had promised to heal him, if he had enough faith. And so he heard about a faith-healer that was coming to town. He was told that it’s always God’s will for people to be healed. When the faith-healer came to town, Peters waited all the way until the end of the service and was disappointed when nothing happened. But the healer said she’d be leaving at 4:30am the next day, so the teenage Justin Peters said, “I’ll show how much faith I have - I'll be there before she leaves.” So he asked his dad, and his dad brought him, and when they met her she pulled his dad aside and asked, “What’s your financial situation like? Because the more you give to the Lord’s work the more likely it is to be healed.”

Preachers like Benny Hinn and TD Jakes and Joyce Meyer and Creflo Dollar and Paula White - and a thousand lesser known ones - They do the same thing. And this false gospel has spread all over the world. Third world countries eat this stuff up, because it promises they can get out of the poverty they’re in. People think Jesus will make them rich if they believe and give.

These false teachers use the name of God, they make promises they cannot keep, and they build their brand on the backs of the desperate poor, who listen to them and hope God will take away their ailments. God will show up to judge.

What do they deserve? I remember in seminary a young student asking Dr. Rosscup, an old, cheerful man, seasoned with many years of teaching and pastoral ministry, this question, “Why is God allowing such misuse of the Bible?” The old, gentle man got serious. “He is not allowing it. There will be an accounting. There will be a confrontation.”

The confrontation in the temple all those years ago is nothing compared to the confrontation false teachers will experience on the Day of the Lord. Look at Mark 12:40, the last part: “They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Now, all sin is serious. All sin deserves hell. But not all sins are treated equally. It is a more grievous sin to be in leadership and oppress the ones you lead. It is a more damnable sin to be in power and abuse the ones you’re supposed to serve. There will be a hotter hell for those - particularly in religious positions - who use their positions for personal glory and feed off the people they’re supposed to lead. They are wolves, they are predators, they are oppressors, and they will be confronted by the Lord Jesus, and justice will be served, and they will be condemned.

Church, run from these kinds of spiritual leaders. Don’t buy their books. Don’t listen to their sermons. Don’t envy their platforms. Don’t covet their lifestyle. Don’t embrace their teaching. Don’t fund their corruption. We should expose them, because they have taken many captive.

For those of you who’ve been cheated by these wolves, you can thank Jesus Christ, your rescuer, who freed you from the enemy’s grip.

The true gospel is not about gaining money, power, influence, or recognition in this life. Jesus said, in his first recorded public sermon: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

When you know the holiness of God, when you know the depths of your own sin, when you know your guilt and shame, when you know your complete inability, when you know that you are spiritually bankrupt, you are humbled. And when you see that God has provided salvation in Christ, by his free, unmerited grace, according to the riches of his mercy, you are amazed. Your affections turn Godward. He becomes the object of your affection. Money loses its luster. Fame is boring. Human approval is weak. Instead you say, “Christ must increase, and I must decrease.” Have you received Christ by faith?

In other words, the most fundamental mark of a true, godly leader is simple, honest humility. Not extravagant, ostentatious prosperity.