A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 12:38-44 Kingdom Clash: Religion vs. Truth
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Jesus reveals the stark contrast between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of man through his interactions with religious leaders and observations in the temple.
• Beware of scribes who seek attention through long robes, public recognition, and seats of honor
• Religious leaders who appear holy often "devour widows' houses" while making long prayers for show
• Jesus highlights a poor widow who gives her last two coins at the temple treasury
• The widow's small offering means more than large donations from the wealthy because she gave everything
• Jesus warns his disciples that the impressive temple buildings would be completely destroyed
• Only God's kingdom lasts forever – earthly kingdoms and achievements are temporary
• What truly matters is investing in things with eternal value – people and God's work
Let's invest in things that last forever. Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.
All right, all right, mark, chapter 12, finishing it out. Oh my gosh, it's awesome. I love the energy. All right, mark 12,. 38 is where we will start today, and perhaps you remember that we were in the middle of Jesus last week before the cross. You remember.
Speaker 1:The religious leaders have been questioning and testing Jesus. They want him to fail Ultimately, they want to get rid of him. And Jesus is challenging them. Right, and we've seen so clearly the kingdom of God in opposition to the kingdom of man. Testing and counter-testing. And we've seen.
Speaker 1:Round one Pharisees came, should we pay taxes to Caesar? And Jesus responds render to Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that are God's. And then, round two, the Sadducees. And they come with this crazy question about a woman who ends up being married to seven brothers Strange question. And they ask in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? And Jesus responds very pointedly with you don't know the scripture or the power of God. Victory.
Speaker 1:Round three the scribes come and they ask Jesus out of all these 360 plus commandments, how many? Or which is the greatest commandment? And Jesus says love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself. And we've seen Jesus come out on top. In each one of these encounters, the kingdom of man's religion is falling to the truth.
Speaker 1:Now, in verse 38, jesus offers a little bit of a counter here in verse 38. It says this he said to them in his teaching beware the scribes who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, they love the best seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts. They devour widows' houses and, for a pretense, make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation. So the scribes. Jesus in particular points out the scribes and he says beware, be careful, be on guard for the scribes. Well, what's wrong with them? Well, we see here they desire. They desire, they love and they devour. If you kind of simplify this, they desire to go around in their long robes. Right Now, what's wrong with long robes? Nothing. If you want to wear a robe, it's cool if you want.
Speaker 1:But Numbers 15, 37, we see some instruction that the children of Israel were to put tassels on the corners of their robe. That doesn't sound too bad, right? Little tassely things there. What was it for? It was to remind them of the commandments. This is Numbers 15, 37. Remind them of the commandments and to remind them to do the commandments. So as they looked down at these tassels, they remembered what God said they would rehearse God's word and they would be encouraged to actually live by God's word. So it's kind of this physical reminder.
Speaker 1:Well, they took it another step further. That's always what religion seems to do. Take it just one more step further and they would make these tassels and these robes extra long, ridiculously long, right, and people would look and go, wow, nice tassels, and they go. Well, you know, I really love God's word and God's commandments. That's why I have these tassels. And it became this kind of thing of the longer your tassels were and your robe was, the more holy and religious you were, the more righteous you were. So it's kind of the status thing, right. And for the scribes, even, they would make their robes long. It's hard to do manual labor in long robes, right, and they weren't expecting to do any manual labor, they were expecting to sit and have people listen to them and appreciate them. So these long robes they kind of made the man in those days and it was an outward sign of holiness and religiosity, right, and that is one thing that they desired. Notice.
Speaker 1:Also, they loved greetings in the marketplaces also. They loved greetings in the marketplaces. So as they would go out into the marketplaces, they just loved the prestige of being a teacher of the law. And you know, the more greetings you got, the more well known you were. The respect and the recognition, right, we know this. In a small town, right, in a small town, it's hard for some of you to go anywhere and not be recognized, you know, and for some that feels good, for others it's somewhat annoying. But for the scribes they loved it. Everywhere they went, the people went oh, teacher, teacher, oh good, I love your study, great study, I listen to you all the time. Well, thank you, thank you very much. And it was like a little bit of celebrity for them. But notice, they didn't just love that, they loved the best seats in the synagogue, the place of respect in the synagogues, the best place at feasts, right, were saved for the best teachers. And so they really appreciated that. They loved it, they lived for it. Little celebrities in their own world. But notice what else the scribes do here.
Speaker 1:Verse 40, they devour widows' houses, they devoured widows' estates. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But to kind of mix the metaphor here, the Bible considers us as sheep. That's one thing you kind of find. You find David, psalm 23,. We all know it. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, and he leads me and he has me laid down and he provides for me and he leads me all over the place into, ultimately, where I'm with him in the house of the Lord forever. So David looks at the Lord as a shepherd. Sweet David looks at himself as sheep, as a sheep, someone who's in need of help and provision and protection, and we look at it as though God is our shepherd and he takes care of us. It's wonderful to be with the good shepherd, jesus. Now, here we see that they devour widows' houses.
Speaker 1:The Bible also talks about wolves, right. Jesus talks about wolves in sheep's clothing. Luke, chapter 10, verse 3, jesus says Go your way to his disciples. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. In Matthew 7, verse 15, jesus says this Now listen to this. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but are inwardly ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. So there's this warning as sheep, we're warned to be careful for wolves who devour sheep. That's how you know a wolf, right? How do you know a wolf in the church by what they eat. Right, wolves eat sheep, destroy lives and we see that.
Speaker 1:Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 20. Paul had a concern about these devouring folks Acts chapter 20. Good time to turn. Acts chapter 20. It's a sort of you could say ministry workers convention here. Paul is there on an island, he's meeting with some Ephesian elders. Acts 20, verse 28.
Speaker 1:And Paul has this huge concern for people that people would not be devoured, that people would be okay. Look at verse 28 there in Acts 20. Therefore, paul says take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Now, verse 28 for extra study is a great way to see all persons of the Trinity. Right, we have the Holy Spirit, we have God, the Father, and we have the fact that God purchased the church with his own blood. That's Jesus all in one verse. Very interesting. But notice verse 29, as he's concerned.
Speaker 1:He says this for I know this that after I leave, after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, night and day with tears. So Paul here warns these pastors there, these Ephesian leaders in the church you guys are overseers. Beware of yourself and for the people that God's trusted to you. Now I feel in some ways God's trusted y'all to me as much as it depends on me. But you have people in your life that you're responsible for. In your family, in your friend circles. You know there are wolves that want to devour us. They go around and just want to take advantage of people and, as Paul says here, lead people to themselves, be on guard and be careful.
Speaker 1:And I think, as Jesus says this back in Mark, chapter 12, he's got some of those same concerns. The scribes, you guys need to know. They devour widows' houses, they take advantage of widows. Now, as we move on here, notice what he says in verse 40, the end of verse 40. These will receive the greater condemnation. Now here's a scary thought A greater condemnation to people who know it's been said I think it was Spider-Man who made it famous that with great power comes great responsibility. Now, it wasn't exactly Spider-Man.
Speaker 1:Luke 12, jesus says to whom much is given, much is required. Right, it's the same idea. But here Jesus warns these scribes, there's a greater condemnation. Scribes, because you study the Bible and you know better, and yet you're devouring widows' houses, you're devouring people. We take comfort in this, not because we're going to go out and bust people. Tell the truth to people, stand up for the truth, know how to rightly divide the word of truth. But one day and we'll see this in the end of our time today one day God's going to set it all straight. There will be a judgment and God will set it straight once and for all. But this is a real heavy thing. Here Jesus says you got to be aware of these guys. They're wolves. They devour people and widows' houses. Now let's move on to verse 41, and we'll see a little more here In an obviously connected account.
Speaker 1:Jesus is people watching here, people watching Verse 41. Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how people put money into the treasury and many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites which make a quadrants, just in case you were wondering. So he called his disciples to himself and said to them Assuredly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all who have given to the treasury, for they put in out of their abundance, but she put out of her poverty or she put out of her poverty. She put in all that. She had her whole livelihood. So Jesus is here in the court of the women. Men and women could go in the court of the women.
Speaker 1:And there were treasuries there, these boxes. They were plated, I think, with gold, maybe it was bronze, look it up. But there were treasuries there, these boxes. They were plated, I think, with gold, maybe it was bronze, look it up. But there were these boxes that were shaped kind of like trumpets. They were kind of narrow at the top and at the bottom they were wider and some of the reason why they looked like that was acoustics. Right, you could put your money in there and you would kind of hear the echo of the clank, clank, clank, clank. So if you put in a little bit, it was like fun, you know, clank, clank, clank. If you were rich, right, and notice, as Jesus' people watching here notice the rich come and it's like they got buckets full of money, you know, and they're like pouring it into the treasury and it sounds like jackpot at the casino. You know, ding ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding. You know, and you know it's fun. But it's their heart. They're looking at it and it's like I gave everybody. Can you tell I gave? Now they got their reward.
Speaker 1:And Jesus speaks on this in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, matthew 6, when you do your charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory for men. Assuredly, I say to you they have your reward. But you, when you do a charitable deed, when you give, do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. So, jesus' encouraging giving here is guard your heart right, guard your motives. We are all capable of having our motives to be seen right. The big old check that says how much we gave. You know the applause of oh, wow, very good, you know.
Speaker 1:But Jesus says it's so important that you guard your heart, because the heart is what matters. If we give now listen, if we give to be seen and appreciated, that's our reward. When people appreciate us and say, oh, thank you so much, oh, you're so kind, and they pat us on the back. That's our reward. But God looks at the heart. We know this. God looks at the heart. He wants our heart to be to glorify him, not ourselves. Right, that's hard to do, and Jesus knows what we're made of. And so he says don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. That's a little game you can play when you give right. Don't even let right hand know what your left hand is doing. They're pretty close, they're kind of connected. But to be doing it in secret, the motivation, god you see, god, I just love you so much. Paul says the Lord loves a cheerful giver, a hilarious giver is what that means, someone who just says God, you've been so good to me, why wouldn't I give you, whatever it is, that there's a need, I don't have to be seen, I don't have to be acknowledged. And it's an important thing because God sees the heart. And here we know the story.
Speaker 1:Jesus, people watching it's something maybe you did, it's what I did as a kid. People watching, he sees the rich pouring their loads of money in and he's like oh. And then he sees this little widow. She's lost her husband, she doesn't have much right. And she comes and she puts in two little coins. They're called mites here. Even the name kind of had this idea behind it. They were like little flakes of metal, right. So you put coins into the treasury and it's clink, clink, clink. You put those mites in and it was like they just kind of floated down. You know what I mean. There was no clink or clank in that, you know. And yet she put it in. It was like one thirty-second of a day's wage, not much. And she put it in and Jesus sees her doing it and you almost get this idea like he gets excited, right? Oh my goodness, do you see this? Guys, look, do you see this? Because her heart was into it. Her heart was right and Jesus sees it Now.
Speaker 1:That's a wonderful story here, a wonderful account. The widow gave all that she had out of a grateful heart. She just loved the Lord and she gave it. That's a great account. That's something to remember in our giving. But I don't really think that's the point of all this Because, really think about it. You could give everything you have, you could lay down your life for a cause, but yet if you haven't come to Jesus in faith, it absolutely doesn't matter for anything. She still wouldn't be saved even if she gave her two mites right. So it's a good application, for sure, to watch our hearts. But I don't know if it's really the whole point of this.
Speaker 1:Notice the scribes. The scribes desire to go around in robes, desire to go around in robes, love greetings, best seats, and they devour widows, houses. And perhaps the point of all this is to get a little emotion in us. Here comes this little widow lady and, and she's got nothing, jesus says this is the last bit she had and because she feels like it's the right thing, that's okay, she gives her very last. But these scribes, they're sitting around with the bullhorns, you know. They're sitting around on the radio and on the TV saying you got to give, you got to give until it hurts. Little widow lady, you got to right, give your everything and God will return it a hundredfold. And you see this little widow lady and I think you see Jesus going and look, she doesn't even have anything to eat. Now God can take care of her for sure. She's trusting God, I think. But here's the scribes that have just wrung every little bit out of this widow lady devoured her estate, taken advantage.
Speaker 1:Widows were the most vulnerable in that society. We look at it and go yeah, I've known widows in my life, but you know they do jobs and they have options In that world. There weren't really any options but begging, unless your family helped you, which your family should help. In fact, paul says in 1 Timothy that if you don't help your own family, you're worse than an unbeliever, right? So it's important that we help our own family, but in that day, widows and orphans like James talks about widows and orphans. They were on their own and they were helpless. Now, now, here we see this little widow lady coming and the swindlers have gotten to her right, the frauds and the fakes, the scribes had gotten to her and she came and gave everything. Again, there's a balance there.
Speaker 1:Paul says this, though in 2 Timothy 3.6, talking about the last days, the way the world will be in the last days, that there will be those that creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away with various lusts. I think there's no better description than modern TV evangelists, right, I know it's a little bit of a springboard, but they creep into houses, they take advantage of people and say oh, you know, what God really wants is your money. Send your money tithe to me, you know. And they give Christianity a horrible name, right? They give all of us a horrible name, and that's not God's heart.
Speaker 1:Now, it's good to give. That's something that I think we fall short of here, because we don't have needs necessarily all the time. It's good to give, it's wrong to be stingy, but God absolutely doesn't need your money. Think about it. God doesn't need anything. God could take care of the problems of the world any way he wants to. God doesn't need you for it. He doesn't need your money.
Speaker 1:If anyone ever comes begging and saying God needs your money, they're liars, right? Don't listen to them. There's a document in the early church known as the Didache, and they said if someone comes into town asking for money, they're a false prophet, right? So I think that's a good gauge for life. If somebody comes asking for money false prophet, safe to say. But here that's the way that the scribes were. Now we see this warning from Jesus. We see a picture of what it did, I think, there in the little widow, and then we don't have what comes next here in Mark In Matthew 23,. Good read, even better, maybe, to listen to. There's a dramatized Bible that I've watched and I think this brings me to tears every time Matthew 23. But Matthew 23 is a good like.
Speaker 1:It feels like a good 10 minutes of Jesus just going off on the Pharisees and the scribes the religious leaders. So picture it After this happens Jesus just goes off on the scribes and he says things like this Let me just read you a little piece from Matthew 23, verse 13. Take it in like you're there, but woe to you, scribes, pharisees, hypocrites. You shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither go in yourself, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You devour widows' houses and, for a pretense, make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you. Long prayers, therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You travel land and sea to win one proselyte and when he is one, you make him twice the son of hell as yourself. Whoa, jesus goes off on these guys. You're hypocrites, you're taking advantage of people, you're a fake right and you're a son of hell. Jesus says it like it is Now.
Speaker 1:The book of Revelation ends with some woe right. There's a point where everybody in heaven says woe, woe, woe. This is heavy and God is judging the earth. This is heavy and God is judging the earth. God's going to bring judgment on wolves and sheep's clothing. And here I think we see Jesus bringing this major condemnation on the kingdom of the scribes, the kingdom of men, an earthly kingdom. He's going off on it. Now, mark, chapter 13, we have a big old chapter break. Right, we've exited the back door there of Mark 12. We're heading into Mark chapter 13. But realize this there are no chapter breaks in the original book, it just keeps going. Now, we'll look at it in detail next week, but let's read what happens next, chapter 13, verse 1.
Speaker 1:Then, as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him. Disciples said to him teacher, see what manner of stones, what buildings are here. So, as Jesus has just said all these things, matthew 23, he's headed out of the temple there and one of his disciples says but, but I mean Jesus, look, look at how big these stones are, man, look at how wonderful this temple is. Now, the temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world. Right, it was a masterpiece, even this temple, which wasn't Solomon's temple. It was a later rendition of it. It had gold plating and massive stones. The foundation stones of the temple were as big as cars, right. So picture that Massive stones. And he comes out and he's looking and he goes look at the architecture, man at. These stones are huge and impressive. Right, and Jesus says this in verse two. Jesus answered and said to him do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another. That shall not be thrown down. Jesus says, yeah, it's a big building. Jesus says, yeah, it's a big building, but there's not going to be a single stone left on top of another.
Speaker 1:By AD 70, we're talking less than 40 years later that temple would be rubble. Every stone was pulled apart from that temple. And that's a crazy thought. As you're looking at this huge, magnificent building, it's a crazy thought to think it's going to be a pile of dirt and rocks. I think that's one of the things that made 9-11 extra terrifying, wasn't it? The loss of life huge, but the fact that in less than an hour, these two massive buildings had come crashing down and there was nothing left. Man, you feel pretty safe when you're in a big office building. You know what I mean Like this is forever, this thing's forever. And then a plane comes around, two planes come around and knock it down and there we're standing just looking at it going. What happened? I thought it was forever.
Speaker 1:The kingdom of man seems so permanent. Our little kingdom, right? The scribes kingdom, the Pharisees kingdom, our little kingdom, right, the things we look at and go. This is just forever. And God wants us to know that none of it is forever. Not one stone would be left upon another. That's heavy, right. And it tells us don't invest in the kingdom of man, don't invest in things that aren't forever. That's anything on planet Earth.
Speaker 1:But I love the way Daniel's vision. It's actually Nebuchadnezzar's vision in Daniel, chapter 2. Daniel's vision and statue represents the empires of Earth. They're amazing, they're grand, they're sparkly, right. And then at the end of that vision, check it out. Come back. At the end of this vision, this rock comes and flies and hits this image on the feet and the whole thing crumbles. You can picture it Crumbled. It turns to dust and blows away in the wind. Then that rock becomes a giant mountain that fills the whole earth and it's a picture of god's kingdom. One day, god's kingdom is going to come and take possession of the planet earth, right, and there's all sorts of things go along with that in the book of revelation. You can read it, time frame and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But here's the. It's the only thing that's eternal. It's the only kingdom that lasts forever and ever and ever. And we can invest in so many things in our life, we can put stock in so many different things, but God's kingdom is ultimately the only thing that will last, is ultimately the only thing that will last. Good reminder, god. Now the hard part of applying it to our own lives. And we know all the hopes and dreams and things that we're working for, and those aren't all bad, but, god, none of them are eternal and none of them will be forever.
Speaker 1:God, help us to lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven, where thieves can't steal and moth and rust can't destroy. Jesus said where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. I also ask that you would help us to just invest in things that are eternal. God, help us to just invest in things that are eternal. God, help us to invest in people, lost people and saved people. Help us to have the patience to invest in people. Souls are eternal. God, help us to invest in your kingdom, whatever that looks like, with money and time and energy, whatever it is. Help us to invest in your kingdom, whatever that looks like, with money and time and energy, whatever it is. Help us to invest in those things that last forever, and show us this week what that means in our real life. God, thank you so much that we know the end of the story. God, help us to be living for your kingdom. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.