Beware

Intro

One of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith is the reality of a fallen world. And in a fallen world there is naturally corruption.

Now defined properly, corruption is taking something good, taking something beautiful, and tainting with the tendrils of sin that makes that good and beautiful thing bad and ugly.

Now, it is no surprise that when most people think of corruption, they think of the corruption in terms of corrupt leaders. And fair enough! This world is replete with people in positions of influence and power who have been corrupted by their sinful nature and have brought that corrupt nature into their position, abusing the powers given to them.

And this corruption has made it difficult for people to trust many of the institutions in our culture! Whether that be government, banks, tech companies, or even the church.

Sadly, history is full of examples of men and women claiming to be pastors or ministry leaders or Christians with influence who abuse the positions granted to them for their own sinful ends.

And in today’s passage, Jesus gives us a clear warning to watch out for those sort of leaders. To run from them and confront their lies and corruption with the truth of the truth of God’s word.

Then, we are given the contrast in a beautiful picture that shows that often, the most godly among us are not the ones with large media platforms or positions of power or the philanthropists who give millions to charity, but it is those who are like Jesus Himself, who are gentle and lowly in heart.

Now, before we dive into this passage, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to humble us and give us teachable hearts.

Quick Recap

So as you all know by now, this is the week of Jesus’ passion. He is on His way to the cross but before He gets there He has several run-ins with the Jewish religious elites.

The Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees and scribes all have their turn trying to make a fool out of Jesus by asking Him questions they believe will discredit His entire ministry.

If you remember from a couple weeks ago, the language that was used describing what these men were attempting to do was that of a hunter violently pursuing his prey.

These men were out on the hunt, wanting to take down Jesus any way they could.

But of course, Jesus, being the very wisdom of God, was not going to be cornered by questions devised by these wicked men. And He answered every question to perfection, giving us vital teaching in the process.

The Scribes

Now, out of what I imagine was frustration and shear exhaustion of losing over and over again, the religious leaders finally stop their questioning. In fact, in Mark 12:34, the end of the passage Paul preached on last week, we read, “And after that no one dared to ask Him any more questions!”

I think that is hilarious. “I’m not going to ask Him another question, you ask Him another question! Well, I’m not going to do it, you do it!” No one wanted to enter again into the ring with Jesus!

Now after these religious leaders gave up, Jesus decides to turn His own attention to the scribes in particular. In verses 35-37 He posed His own question about the scribes teaching on the Messiah, about Him being the Son of David.

Now we spoke on that a month or so ago, about Jesus being the prophesied heir of David, the new and better King, so we aren’t going to take a look at that today.

But in today’s passage, He grows even more pointed in relation to the scribes and beginning in verse 38, gives the crowd He was teaching a straightforward warning about them. Let’s take a look at Mark:12:38-40, “And in His teaching He said, ‘Beware the of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive greater condemnation.’”

Bad Shepherds

Now this is a pretty scathing assessment of those who were supposed to be the biblical interpreters and lawyers and bible teachers of the day. All of these vocations were within the wheel house of the scribes.

So these men, even more so than the average Pharisee or Sadducee, were the ones you would expect to know the Word of God the most. So this rebuke from Jesus hits even harder.

Now one commentator pointed out that one of the most dangerous vocations in life is that of the theologian. Not because of the immediate physical dangers involved. It’s not like they are crab fisherman off the coast of Alaska or are on the front lines in the military.

But listen to this statement from James in his book in the New Testament. James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive stricter judgement.”

What James is trying to get across here is that those in the church who are given positions of leadership and teaching, specifically elders or pastors (the two words meaning the same thing) are held to a stricter judgement because since they have been given the responsibility to feed the sheep of Christ, they hold enormous power to mislead the flock of God and friends, that is a dangerous place to be.

And that is a warning for me, for Ethan and Paul! A warning to ask God, like David, to examine our hearts, to refine our doctrine and to only give you, the congregation, what Paul calls in 1 Tim. 1, the good deposit, the true gospel, with right and biblical teaching. Not my opinion, not what I want to be true, not my politics, but to teach you what is true according to Scripture.

So Paul, Ethan and I are called to watch our doctrine so that we do not mislead the sheep we have been given to care for.

But, as we see here in our passage, not all who have positions of religious authority, take the responsibility given to them seriously. And as one commentator says, that is where Jesus’ warning comes in. Sheep need to know when those who are claiming to be their shepherd are misleading them.

Five Warnings Signs

And so Jesus spells out five behaviors of the scribes who claim to religious leaders ushering people into the hands of God. And these five behaviors expose as hypocrites, as frauds, as white-washed tombs, as Jesus says, the scribes, who look beautiful on the outside but are dead and decaying on the inside.

And these five behaviors also act as warning signs for you as you sit under those who claim to overseers, shepherds, elders, pastors.

So let’s quickly go through these five warning signs:

The first that we see in verse 38 is, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes.” Now it was customary at the time for Jews to wear what was called prayer shawls when they were reciting prayers. It was a sign of respect and submission to God.

But the Scribes had their own special shawls that were so long that they would reach the ground. Not only that, but they had ornate tassels at the ends of them that would drag along the ground. And these shawls depicted the lofty status of these men!

And so Jesus is implying that these scribes were not wearing these shawls out of respect and submission to God, but they were wearing them as a peacock wears its feathers. To grab the attention of their community. To see the admiration in the eyes of the people as they walked by, to flaunt their status.

And sadly this is not something that is unbeknownst in our religious circles today. Sproul pointed out that it is sadly not uncommon to see even in seminaries, professors of the Bible be jealous for respect and titles and to have that be reflected in the garments that they wear, even in academic processions. Great pride can come from have more tassels on your robes than the other professors.

For some, it comes in the form of wearing nice suits, or expensive watches, or being on the cutting edge of fashion! And you see this all the time with celebrity pastors who wear their ripped skinny jeans and Rolex watches to preach in! Their focus is not teaching true doctrine, but on being trendy so they will be seen and admired.

And this flows directly into the next warning sign. Verse 38 ends with Jesus saying the scribes like to walk around in their long robes and they like greetings in the marketplace.

It was customary among the Jews to rise in the presence of a dignified scholar such as a scribe.

So these scribes enjoyed when people would rise and acknowledge their status when they were out and about. They enjoyed when they were greeted in the marketplace and were given the honorific “rabbi” or “master” or sometimes even “father”. They loved the fame of their position.

Now when applying this now, I am taking a specific bent. I think most of you know my thoughts on social media. But another reason I dislike it in terms of personal use is because it turns the pastors mind away from his local church, away from his congregation.

We live in a time of celebrity pastors. Pastors both good and bad, who have gained immense popularity with the help of social media. And sadly, there are many other pastors who look to these religious social media icons, and become envious.

They too want to be known, want to be greeted in the social media marketplace! They long for a following of people they will never meet, they long for the admiration of a flock they will never shepherd.

And soon they begin to see their local church that God has given them to care for, to tend to the souls of, as simply a stepping stone to fame because they love the greetings in the marketplace. Beware of pastors like that.

The third warning sign comes in verse 39, “they also like to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts.”

They essentially craved the best seats in the house. Now in the synagogue, this meant the benches that ran along either side. The commoners would sit on the ground in between. So they loved these seats of honor, looking down on the commoners.

At feasts, they insisted at sitting at the heads of the tables, nearest to the host because if you are near the host, that meant you were essentially the guest of honor or at the very least, someone of great importance!

Again, you see here a pattern of the need for recognition, the burning desire for prominence, for honor for notoriety.

And for men like this, doctrine comes in a far second to their own glory. Jesus says Matthew 23:11-12, “That the greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” To these religious elites these words of Jesus were repugnant.

And those claiming to be pastors or Christian leaders or Christians with influence, the most humbling thing you can do is stand for biblical truth when the world is watching. Which is why many, not all, but many, of these celebrity Christians will water the down the gospel, will soften the words of Jesus, and will waver on biblical truth.

They desire their places of honor on earth more than a place of honor in the Kingdom of God.

Now the fourth warning to the people concerning their religious leaders takes an even darker turn. In verse 40, Jesus said that the scribes, “devour the widow’s houses.”

We see in the Bible that God has a special care for the widows and orphans.

In the time of Jesus they were often the most vulnerable in society and to the shame of the scribes, they would approach these widows and take them for all the money they had.

And their tactics mirrored that of many televangelists and many other religious charlatans in our day. People like Cleflo Dollar, or T.D. Jakes, or Joel Osteen, who say that if you send in more and more money, then God will bless you with health and material wealth here and now.

It is interesting that the prophets in the OT, specifically Isa. 10, Amos 2, and Micah 3, condemn in the strongest of terms those who took advantage of widows and orphans. You would think the Scribes would be aware of those passages.

But when religion simply becomes a pathway for self-promotion and selfish gain, you can read Scripture a thousand times and be completely be completely blind to every word, every spiritual truth found within it.

These scribes, in every meaning of the word were hypocrites.

And they cemented their true status not as great religious leaders, but as hypocrites in the final warning which can be described as displays of false piety, false godliness.

Jesus says in verse 40, “who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense (as a mask to disguise their hypocrisy) make long prayers.”

The scribes, in order to hide the fact that they were religious hypocrites, attempted to flaunt their religiosity with long, drawn out prayers in public. They prayed these prayers not to honor God, not to give Him thanks, but that their piety might be seen by men. Dan Akin said, it was as if they peeked while praying to see who was watching, so that they could enjoy their reputations.

And do not misunderstand, their public prayers were very eloquent, filled with all the right words and cadence you would expect, but Jesus judged them to be nothing more than empty utterances.

Jesus saw directly to their hearts, He knew the intentions behind their prayers. He knew that the intentions behind these prayers were were meant as a distraction. To take the eye away from their hypocrisy.

Surely these men who could pray such prayers could not possibly be corrupt! Could not possibly be hypocrites! Just look at their prayers! All the while they were taking advantage of widows, seeking their own glorification, gorging their prideful appetites on the praise of their peers.

Beware of pastors and Christian leaders like that.

Judgement

Now as we have seen, brothers and sisters, there are many who profess to be believers, who claim to be leaders, who call themselves pastors. And in reality, are wolves in sheep’s clothing who seek to devour the flock.

Who want to distract you from the destructiveness of their teaching and practices by flattering your ears with promises of wealth, with promises of material gain that are never given in Scripture.

Or they will try to deceive you with their piety or even their nice music! they will try to hide their inward corruption with outward garments, they will try to trick you by being popular in our culture and instead of leading you to sing praises to God, they will lead you to glorifying and lifting them up and the false god they believe in.

I’m repeating myself but it is important! Be wary of pastors and leaders like that! Run from them with everything you have!

Jesus’ conclusion for these scribes is devastating. He says in the last sentence of verse 40, “They will receive a greater condemnation.” As teachers of the Scriptures, these men were charged with a heavy responsibility, but they had not fulfilled it. They had failed to lead the people into truth and had failed to serve them humbly. As those entrusted with the truths of God, they would incur a harsher condemnation.

Now, in Scripture, we are not given too many details of what hell is like. We are told of its reality. We are told that is where the judgment and wrath of God is poured out on unbelievers. We are told it is a place of torment and fire, of weeping and of gnashing of teeth, where the worm never dies, meaning it is eternal.

Now what that means on an individual basis for unbelievers who go there, we are not given specific details. Dante’s Inferno is not an accurate manual for understanding hell!

However, what we do know from Scripture, is that those who profess to be teachers of the Word God and yet are hypocrites, are wolves in sheep’s clothing, will receive a greater condemnation. They who claim to be ambassadors of God and yet lead people to destruction will, if I understand this passage and several others like it, will receive a harsher punishment in hell.

God will judge with special severity hypocritical religious leaders who strut like peacocks, abuse the less fortunate, and who traffic in false worship that is all show and no substance.

Let Us Be Genuine

Now friends, a quick aside. This passage, as I said, is a warning for myself and the other pastors to be true to the word of God and to take our vocation seriously!

And it is a warning to you! To be wary of false teachers, to watch out for false doctrine and a hypocritical lifestyle!

But this is also a call to be genuine! To not be hypocritical in your own walk with Jesus! To ask God to examine your heart, to bring to light any traces of hypocrisy in your own worship, any falsehoods in your own beliefs about the Bible, in your own outward expression of your Christian beliefs and values, any hypocrisy in your own prayer life!

J.C. Ryle has a wonderful quote about this very thing. He says, “It is bad enough to be led away captive by open sin, and to serve lusts and pleasures. But it is even worse to pretend to have a religion, while in reality we serve the world. Let us beware of falling into this abominable sin. Whatever we do in religion, let us never wear a cloak. Let us be real, honest, thorough, and sincere in our Christianity.

We cannot deceive an all-seeing God. We may take in poor short-sighted man by a little talk and profession, and a few cant phrases, and an appearance of devoutness. But God is not mocked. He is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. His all-seeing eye pierces through the paint, and varnish, and tinsel, which cover the unsound heart. The day of judgment will soon be here. The “joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment.” (Job 20:5.) His end will be shame and everlasting contempt.”

So brothers and sisters, when you go home today, pray for the Lord, like David prayed in Psalm 139, for the Lord to search your heart and bring to light any source of hypocrisy. Ask Him to lead you into genuine worship and love for Him!

God doesn’t want a show. He doesn’t want loud, eloquent prayers that are empty. He wants your heart, meek and humble.

The Widow

Following his account of Jesus’ warning about the scribes, Mark records an incident that illustrates the contrast between those who serve God with hypocrisy and those who serve Him with true spiritual devotion.

Take a look at verses 41-42, “And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins which make a penny.”

The treasury consisted of thirteen receptacles for donations or alms. It was situated in the temple’s court of the women, so named because both men and women could enter that court; thus, everyone was able to make donations.

The practice of giving gifts to God’s sanctuary was established in the days and weeks after God brought the people out of Egypt. In fact, He commanded the people to brings gifts to be used in the construction of the tabernacle, the very first sanctuary in Ex. 25:1-8.

Later, God gave the people instructions for tithing. Because Israel was an agrarian society, they were told to bring tithes of their grain, new wine, and oil, and the firstborn of their herds and flocks (Deut. 14:22–29).

If the journey to the sanctuary was long, they could exchange their gifts for money and bring that. These gifts supported the priests and Levites. Tithes also regularly helped foreigners, orphans, and widows (Deut. 26:12).

Now, in Jesus’ time, donations were brought to the temple. So much was given and distributed, the temple was something like the central bank of the nation. In fact, the person who administered the temple treasury was one of the most important officials in Israel.

As Jesus sat in the court of the women, He witnessed wealthy people making very large donations to the temple treasury. However, He also saw a donation of a different kind: We read in verse 42, “And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.”

As Sproul says, this is the most famous donation in history. It is better known than all the charitable contributions made by even the most wealthy of philanthropists in the world. The most famous gift was made by this poor widow in the temple as Jesus looked on.

The widow’s gift was especially amazing because it was made in such stark contrast to the manner of the scribes, who wanted people to see their piety. In all probability, the last thing this poor woman wanted was to be noticed.

She may have even been ashamed of the meager donation that she gave. Mark tells us she brought two copper coins, which together made up one thirty-second of a denarius, and a denarius was the average pay for one day’s work of a laborer.

Jesus’ Commendation

Seeing this, Jesus called His disciples over and said to them in verse 43-44, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 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 wanted to point out the contrast to His disciples. The wealthy people who were putting in much were giving out of their abundance. They gave to God what they could spare.

But the widow was different! The widow had nothing to spare, but what she had, she gave. For the vast majority of people who came to the treasury, there was no sacrifice involved at all.

Their gifts cost them hardly anything in terms of their substance. The poor widow, however, made a very costly sacrifice, even though it was a mere two copper coins. Seeing this, Jesus said to His disciples that the widow had put in more than anyone.

As another commentator put it, Jesus was telling His disciples—and us—something about God’s balance sheet. He knew the wealthy people were giving much greater amounts than the poor widow.

However, it was not the money that Jesus valued most. He saw her act and recognized true devotion. She loved her God and wished to obey Him and honor Him. That was why, out of her poverty, she put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.

This is the kind of sacrificial devotion to which we are called. Our Lord, who sacrificed His all for His people, calls us to give of ourselves. Furthermore, He tells us to do it quietly. Jesus says in Matthew 6:1-4, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 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.”

The wealthy and the scribes of Jesus’ day gave from their excess and they did it loudly. They wanted their left hand, right foot, and their left ear lobe to know what they were doing. And in reality, it did not cost them much of anything.

But this widow gave quietly, and she gave everything, without the promise of any immediate return, mind you! She gave everything that she needed for sustenance, meaning that she had to truly and completely trust in God’s gracious provision. And she did so quietly with all meekness and humility.

This is not a passage about tithing, not primarily any way. This is a passage about genuine faith in a God who cares for the needs of those genuinely devoted to Him. This woman did not hold anything back. Are you? I am not just talking about your money, but the entirety of your life. Is there something you are wishing to keep out of the hands of God?

Brothers and sisters, it was to heroes of the faith like this widow who Jesus was speaking of when He spoke of who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God!

Conclusion

The faith of this woman is antithesis of the hypocrisy of the scribes. She lived out her devotion to the Lord despite her difficult circumstances.

That is the true response to hypocrisy! Did you know that? Many believe that the answer to the hypocrisy that can run rampant in religious circles is to hide from religion, to turn away from Christianity.

Others believe it is to make their faith a private affair so as to avoid the stigma that may come because of the failings of those who claimed to be Christian leaders but are in reality hypocrites.

But friends that is not the answer. Instead, we are to be shining lights of the gospel that stand in stark contrast to the hypocrites and false teachers in this world! We are to live out our faith authentically, relying on the Lord in all things so that when the people of this world look at us, see our lives and hear our words, they see and hear the truth of God!

They are to see us as a city set upon hill whose light cannot be hidden! We are to be repositories of the living water that flows freely and powerfully out of our mouths as we preach Christ crucified! We are as 2 Corinthians 2 says, to be to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing!

Our feet are to be the beautiful feet of those who preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings (Rom. 10:15). That is what our response must be to the frustrating hypocrisy religious leaders.

I will end with another quote from Ryle, “One thing, however, must never be forgotten in connection with the subject of hypocrisy. Let us not flatter ourselves, because some make a false profession of religion, that others need not make any profession at all. This is a common delusion, and one against which we must carefully guard. It does not follow, because some bring Christianity into contempt by professing what they do not really believe and feel, that we should run into the other extreme, and bring it into contempt by a cowardly silence and by keeping our religion out of sight. Let us rather be doubly careful to adorn our doctrine by our lives. Let us prove our sincerity by the consistency of our conversation. Let us show the world that there is true coin, as well as counterfeit coin, and that the visible church contains Christians who can witness a good confession. Let us confess our Master modestly and humbly, but firmly and decidedly, and show the world that although some men may be hypocrites, there are others who are honest and true.”

Let’s pray.