Sermon Tone Analysis
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Jesus warns his disciples about the teachers of the law.
They enjoy the status of being religious leaders.
They wear special robes, receive respectful bows in the street and are given the best places in church and society.
But they are hypocrites.
They exploit widows by taking over their property.
Their long prayers are merely to impress an audience.
They are heading for judgment.
Jesus’ warning is not only about Jewish leaders.
His words are a caution for all religious people.
Nearby, some rich people are putting money into the temple treasury.
This takes place in the Court of Women, for all to see.
Like long prayers, large gifts can be made to impress spectators rather than to honour God.
As Jesus watches, a poor widow puts in two lepta.
These are the smallest copper coins, worth almost nothing.
To most observers, the widow’s gift seems pitiful and pathetic.
To Jesus, it is the greatest and most generous gift of the day—because she has put in all she has.
INTRODUCTION: Things are not always as they seem.
Someone said, many years ago, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
This is a true statement.
So many times in my life, I have been guilty of making assumptions about people and situations only to discover I was completely wrong.
My assumptions were based on the way things “seemed to be.”
My judgments were based on partial information, or one side of a story, or just based on what I wanted to be true.
However, time and time again I have been proved wrong when all of the facts came out.
This may be one of the reasons Jesus said, “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
We are called to judge with righteous judgement and to do so we must know all of the facts.
SCRIPTURE INTRODUCTION: In the Scripture before us today we are introduced to two people: we are introduced to a group of people known as scribes and a lady who is simply called “a poor widow.”
If we were sitting where Jesus sat we would assume by outward appearances that the scribes were very devout, spiritual people.
They had on the religious garb of the day.
If we believed in the prosperity Gospel, as so many people in our world today do, we might assume this poor widow woman was suffering her plight because of her wicked lifestyle or because of some sin in her life.
Yet, both of these assumptions would be untrue.
BIG IDEA: While it appeared that the religious scribes had everything going for them they couldn’t be further from God and while it appeared that this poor widow woman had nothing to offer she was commended by God.
Sometimes MORE IS LESS and LESS is MORE.
Things are not always as they seem!
As we read from this morning notice first of all . . .
The Bible Guide True Religion (20:45–21:4)
Jesus warns his disciples about the teachers of the law.
They enjoy the status of being religious leaders.
They wear special robes, receive respectful bows in the street and are given the best places in church and society.
But they are hypocrites.
They exploit widows by taking over their property.
Their long prayers are merely to impress an audience.
They are heading for judgment.
Jesus’ warning is not only about Jewish leaders.
His words are a caution for all religious people.
Nearby, some rich people are putting money into the temple treasury.
This takes place in the Court of Women, for all to see.
Like long prayers, large gifts can be made to impress spectators rather than to honour God.
As Jesus watches, a poor widow puts in two lepta.
These are the smallest copper coins, worth almost nothing.
To most observers, the widow’s gift seems pitiful and pathetic.
To Jesus, it is the greatest and most generous gift of the day—because she has put in all she has.
More is Less When The Outward Appearance is More Important Than the Heart
EXPLANATION
Jesus begins this new section with a warning.
The warning begins with this statement, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes . .
.”
There is certainly nothing wrong or sinful about “long robes,” however, it is very obvious Jesus had something else in mind.
The problem was not the long robes, but the motives behind the long robes.
You see for some people, keeping up appearances is EVERYTHING!
For the scribes, the long robes, were just a part of keeping up appearances.
ILLUSTRATION
Americans are experts at “keeping up appearances.”
One website reports in an article entitled, “How Much Do We Spend on Beauty” that over 20% spend more than 30 minutes each day working on our appearance before we go out in public.
Nearly 42% of women spend another 30 minutes if they know they are going out for a night on the town.
The cosmetic industry brings in over $55 BILLION annually!
Over a lifetime a “typical woman” spends $15,000 on cosmetics.
Investing that money in an IRA would yield about $100,000 at age 70.
There were 13.4 million plastic surgeries in 2013 and 1.6 million of those involved invasive procedures such as rhinoplasty and liposuction.
Put simply, Americans will spend BIG MONEY to make ourselves “LOOK GOOD.”
Americans are experts at “keeping up appearances.”
Matthew 6:
Note one of the key words in that passage . . .
“that they may be SEEN by others.”
They problem here is not public praying, the problem is the motive behind public praying.
They were intentionally praying in public, not to be HEARD by the Father but to be SEEN by their peers.
God is not interested in this silliness!
God is not attracted to public displays of religiosity motivated by self-centered interests, but God is attracted to humility . . .
that’s why Jesus went on to say to avoid improper motives regarding prayer, make sure we are spending time ALONE and in PRIVATE with Him in our prayer closets!
Prayer is not about impressing others, but rather prayers is about communicating with the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe!
As you may know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are known as the Gospels.
The first three are called the synoptic Gospels and are very similar in nature, although each of them take a look at the life of Christ from different perspectives.
Matthew gives us a little more insight than Luke does about this conversation.
In the parallel passage about this conversation in , Matthew gives us a little more information about what Jesus said.
For instance, He says about the scribes and Pharisees . . .
One website reports in an article entitled, “How Much Do We Spend on Beauty” that over 20% spend more than 30 minutes each day working on our appearance before we go out in public.
Nearly 42% of women spend another 30 minutes if they know they are going out for a night on the town.
The cosmetic industry brings in over $55 BILLION annually!
Over a lifetime a “typical woman” spends $15,000 on cosmetics.
Investing that money in an IRA would yield about $100,000 at age 70.
There were 13.4 million plastic surgeries in 2013 and 1.6 million of those involved invasive procedures such as rhinoplasty and liposuction.
Put simply, Americans will spend BIG MONEY to make ourselves “LOOK GOOD.”
More is Intended to Draw Attention
Once again we are given some insight as to WHY they do their deeds.
They do their deeds, not to glorify their Father in Heaven, but rather to glorify themselves.
They put on this religious garb to be on public display and seek to impress men rather than God.
I remember a time when my life was all about “keeping up appearances.”
I wanted people to THINK I was a lot more spiritual than I really was.
I could argue with the best of them on social media.
I could quote Bible verses.
I could preach loud and proud.
I was the epitome of
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