The Gospel of Mark: Money Talks
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted
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The Gospel of Mark: Money Talks
Text: Mark 12:41-44
Theme: The passage on the woman’s mite is an illustration of judgment upon a broken religious system that dupes people to giving in hope of receiving blessings from God. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The text of The Widow’s Offering seems almost out of place here. Afer a long day of teaching Jesus has sat down opposite the temple treasury, and is watching people place their offerings into the treasury.
Almost universally the woman is presented as a model of dutiful , faithful giving over against the ugly backdrop of the corrupt pretense of Israel’s religious leaders. And that message preaches well. But when you look at the context, I’m not so sure something deeper isn’t going on here.
The story is sandwiched in between two texts on judgement ... judgment of a religious system that has become corrupted and dupes widows into giving to the false promise of Jewish legalism, and that doing so would bring equal blessing in return — a quid-pro-quo from God. It’s a system that is soon to be judged by God according to chapter 13.
I think that when we use this passage as a stewardship passage (and I have) that maybe, just maybe we are missing the point. No where in the text does Jesus draw any principles of giving.
• He doesn’t condemn the rich in their giving.
• He doesn’t commend the widow in her giving, but simply acknowledges she gave her all.
• He never instructs his disciples to avoid the practice of the rich nor adopt the practice of the widow.
The widow is not the hero of the story, but the dupe of a religious system that preached prosperity to faithful stewards. It’s the story of a woman who has been devoured by a false religious system that has left her destitute. Jesus is angry with a religious system that had literally taken her last cent. And in the very next breath he pronounces judgment upon that system. “As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”” (Mark 13:1–2, NIV84)
Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Over the years the message being preached in some of the largest churches in the world has changed — indeed, a new gospel — a false gospel — is being taught to many congregations today. This message has been ascribed many names, such as the “name it and claim it” gospel, the “blab it and grab it” gospel, the “health and wealth” gospel, the “prosperity gospel,” and “positive confession theology.”
No matter what name is used, the essence of this message is the same. Simply put, this “prosperity gospel” teaches that God wants believers to be physically healthy, materially wealthy, and personally happy. And, if you’re not, you have no one to blame but yourself. Listen to the words of Robert Tilton, one of its best-known spokesmen: “I believe that it is the will of God for all to prosper because I see it in the Word, not because it has worked mightily for someone else. I do not put my eyes on men, but on God who gives me the power to get wealth.” Teachers of the prosperity gospel encourage their followers to pray for and even demand material flourishing from God.
Let me take a few moments this evening to expose their errant theology
I. ERROR #1: JESUS’S ATONEMENT EXTENDS TO THE “SIN” OF MATERIAL POVERTY
I. ERROR #1: JESUS’S ATONEMENT EXTENDS TO THE “SIN” OF MATERIAL POVERTY
1. the Name-It-and-Claim-it theology claims that “both physical healing and financial prosperity have been provided for in the atonement”
ILLUS. Kenneth Copeland, one of the most ardent defenders of the theology, says “the basic principle of the Christian life is to know that God put our sin, sickness, disease, sorrow, grief, and poverty on Jesus at Calvary.”
2. there are two fundamental errors here
a. 1st, many who espouse prosperity theology have a fundamental misconception of the life of Jesus
ILLUS. For example, teacher John Avanzini proclaimed on a TBN program, Jesus had “a nice house,” “a big house,” “Jesus was handling big money,” and he even “wore designer clothes.”
1) this is biblical truth made up out of thin air
“Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”” (Matthew 8:20, NIV84)
2) it’s easy to see how such a warped view of the life of Christ could lead to an equally warped misconception of the death of Christ
a) it Jesus was rich in life, then in his death he died to make his followers equally rich
b. 2nd, error that leads to a faulty view of the atonement is misinterpreting 2 Corinthians 8:9
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9, NIV84)
1) while a shallow reading of this verse may lead one to believe Paul was teaching about an increase in material wealth, a contextual reading reveals he was actually teaching the exact opposite principle
2) indeed, Paul was teaching the Corinthians that since Christ accomplished so much for them through the atonement, they should empty themselves of their riches in service of the Savior
c. this is why just five short verses later Paul would urge the Corinthians to give their wealth away to their needy brothers, writing “that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack” (2 Cor. 8:14)
II. ERROR #2: CHRISTIANS GIVE IN ORDER TO GAIN MATERIAL COMPENSATION FROM GOD
II. ERROR #2: CHRISTIANS GIVE IN ORDER TO GAIN MATERIAL COMPENSATION FROM GOD
1. one of the most striking characteristics of the prosperity theologians is their seeming fixation on the act of giving
a. we are urged to give generously, not out of love, or obedience to God, but out of a quid-pro-quo relationship
b. their emphasis on giving is built on motives that are anything but philanthropic
2. the driving force behind this teaching on giving is what prosperity teacher Robert Tilton referred to as the “Law of Compensation”
a. according to this law — purportedly based on Mark 10:30 — Christians should give generously to others because when they do, God gives back more in return
1) this, in turn, leads to a cycle of ever-increasing prosperity.
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:29–30, NIV84)
ILLUS. In Gloria Copeland’s book God’s Will is Prosperity, she writes, “Give $10 and receive $1,000; give $1,000 and receive $100,000. . . . In short, Mark 10:30 is a very good deal.”
3. it’s evident that the prosperity gospel’s doctrine of giving is built on faulty motives
a. whereas Jesus taught his disciples to “give, hoping for nothing in return” (Luke 6:35), prosperity theologians teach their disciples to give because they will get a great return
b. this is a far cry from what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19–21).
III. ERROR #3: FAITH IS A SELF-GENERATED SPIRITUAL FORCE THAT LEADS TO PROSPERITY
III. ERROR #3: FAITH IS A SELF-GENERATED SPIRITUAL FORCE THAT LEADS TO PROSPERITY
1. whereas orthodox Christianity understands faith to be trust in the person of Jesus Christ, prosperity teachers espouse something quite different
a. to them faith is a force
ILLUS Kenneth Copeland, in his book The Laws of Prosperity, writes, “Faith is a spiritual force, a spiritual energy, a spiritual power. It is this force of faith which makes the laws of the spirit world function. There are certain laws governing prosperity revealed in God’s Word. Faith causes them to function.”
b. this is not merely a faulty understanding of faith, it is a heretical understanding of faith
2. according to prosperity theology, faith is not a God-granted, God-centered act of the will that trusts in His redemptive work through Christ
a. rather, it is a humanly wrought spiritual force, directed at God
3. any theology that views faith chiefly as a means to material gain rather than justification before God must be judged inadequate at best
IV. ERROR #4: PRAYER IS A TOOL TO FORCE GOD TO GRANT PROSPERITY
IV. ERROR #4: PRAYER IS A TOOL TO FORCE GOD TO GRANT PROSPERITY
1. prosperity gospel preachers often note we “have not because we ask not” (James 4:2)
a. they encourage us to pray for personal success in all areas of life
ILLUS. Creflo Dollar, the prosperity preacher who told his church that it was God’s will that they purchase him a $64 million luxury jet, writes, “When we pray, believing that we have already received what we are praying, God has no choice but to make our prayers come to pass. . . . It is a key to getting results as a Christian.”
1) did you hear that? God has no choice
2. prayers for personal blessing aren’t inherently wrong, of course, but the prosperity gospel’s overemphasis on man turns prayer into a tool believers can use to force God to grant their desires
a. within prosperity theology, man — not God — becomes the focal point of prayer
b. curiously, prosperity preachers often ignore the second half of James’s teaching on prayer: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James. 4:3)
c. God does not answer selfish requests that do not honor his name
3. certainly all our requests should be made known to God (e.g., Phil. 4:6), but the prosperity gospel focuses so much on man’s desires that it leads people to pray selfish, shallow, superficial prayers that satisfy our greed, and that don’t bring God glory
a. when coupled with the prosperity doctrine of faith, their teaching on prayer leads people to attempt to manipulate God to get what they want — a futile task
4. this all seem far removed from praying “Your will be done”
Con. There is no nice way to put it: The Prosperity Gospel is a False Gospel. In light of Scripture, the prosperity gospel is fundamentally flawed. At bottom, it is a false gospel because of its faulty view of the relationship between God and man. Simply put, if the prosperity gospel is true, grace is obsolete, God is irrelevant, and man is the measure of all things. Whether they’re talking about the atonement, giving, faith, or prayer, prosperity teachers turn the relationship between God and man into a quid pro quo transaction. As James Goff noted in a 1990 Christianity Today article, God is “reduced to a kind of ‘cosmic bellhop’ attending to the needs and desires of his creation.”
This is a wholly inadequate and unbiblical view of the relationship between God and man.