This morning I want you to open your Bible
to the 21st chapter of the gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 21. And I want to read this somewhat familiar
portion of Scripture to you, to establish it in your mind. And then we're going to look at it, I trust,
in a beneficial way, Luke 21 and verse 1. Speaking of Jesus, the text says, "And He
looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a certain poor widow putting in
two small copper coins. And he said, 'Truly I say to you, this poor
widow put in more than all of them, for they all out of their surplus put into the offering,
but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.'" Now, if you are beginning to say to yourself,
"Here goes another message on sacrificial giving," you might be right to expect that
because that is the universal application of this text. It is always used to tell us we ought to give
the way this widow gave. But let's back up a little bit before we look
at the actual interpretation and remind ourselves where we are. This is Wednesday of Passion Week. This is the final week of our Lord's life. On Monday He entered the city. On Tuesday He cleansed the temple. All day Wednesday He has been teaching the
multitudes in the temple area and has been confronted by the false religious leaders
of Judaism who have endeavored to trap Him in His words so that they might have some
cause to have Him executed. He has silenced them every time with His answer,
thwarted them every time with His answer, so that they're going to have to lie and fabricate
a reason for the Romans to execute Him on Friday. They're done asking questions. It's over. At this point on this Wednesday after a long
day of teaching, He no longer addresses the crowd, the fickle crowd that hailed Him as
Messiah and will cry for His blood not too long after this Wednesday. He has no more to say to the crowds in general. He has no more to say to the false religious
leaders. He has denounced them and given them His last
invitation and given His last invitation to the crowds as well. In fact, follow the flow here because in chapter
21, starting in verse 5, the theme is judgment. The time of invitation is over. The ministry of our Lord in these three years
has come to its end. No more gospel invitations. No more clarifications to the crowds and to
the leaders. He's finished. And their final assessment is that He is not
the Messiah they wanted, and they reject Him, leaders and people. And so, starting in verse 5 comes a long message
on destruction, judgment, judgment that will come in 70 A.D. with the destruction of the
temple and the city and the nation Israel and a judgment of God beginning in 70 A.D.
that will stretch all the way until the return of Jesus Christ through all these 2,000 years
and until our Lord comes. In fact, the last words of chapter 20 are
clearly words of judgment, "Beware of the scribes," warning the people about how dangerous
they are. And you remember that Luke only gives us a
couple of verses regarding our Lord's warning concerning the scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew gives us the full account of His message
on the danger of these false religious leaders. It's chapter 23 verses 1 through 39. He has pronounced judgment on the leaders
and therefore judgment on the nation for following those leaders, and rejecting Him. So, between the condemnation of the false
leaders, and the pronunciation of judgment that will last and has lasted 2,000 years
until Jesus comes, is this little vignette about a widow dropping two copper pennies
into an offering receptacle in the temple. The question is: What does this have to do
with anything? How does this fit? Why does Jesus inject this moment of reflection
on a widow giving an offering in the temple into this section between a diatribe against
false leaders and all the people that follow them and a pronunciation of judgment on the
temple, on the city, and on the nation, and a judgment that will last until the Second
Coming? Why is this here? Universally, commentators tell us that our
Lord is giving us a little glimpse of true worship in the middle of the false worship
that dominates the temple. They tell us that it's a beautiful little
story in the midst of ugliness; a little light in the midst of darkness, an illustration
of giving till it hurts, contrasted with the selfishness of the spiritual leaders. This is the traditional...This is the universal
explanation of this passage. In fact, scholars agree that this is a lesson
on giving, but interestingly enough they can't agree what the lesson is. And if you were to go through say 25, or 30
or 50 or 100 commentators on this passage, they would suggest many lessons. They don't all agree. Here are the options, or some of them. One, Jesus is teaching that the measure of
a gift is not how much you give but how much you have after you give. But that's the measure of the gift. The measure is not the amount of the gift,
but the amount left over. And that's the lesson the Lord is trying to
teach us and many have waxed eloquent on that lesson. Another option, a second one is that the true
measure is the self-denial involved, the cost to the individual, which is a just another
way to say the first one. But that the percentage given is really what
the issue is relative to one's expression of self-denial in that percentage. Obviously, the woman gave the highest percentage;
everything. So it's about the percentage you give. Third possibility, also related to the other
two, is that the true measure of any gift is the attitude with which you give it. Is it selfless? Humble? Surrender? Expressing love for God, devotion to God and
trust in God? The widow, we are told, had the least left
behind, gave the highest percentage, and must have had the best attitude. Fourthly, and this is another option that
some have suggested, that the gift that truly pleases God is when you give everything and
take a vow of poverty. And all of these and combinations of all of
these are defended by virtually all those who write on this text. Teachers have waxed eloquent on all of them. Now at this point I will confess to you, in
spite of the popularity of these views, in spite of the universality of these views,
none of these explanations makes any sense to me, none. In fact, all of those interpretations are
imposed on the text and you know how I feel about imposing things on the Bible text; not
good. You say, "Why do you say they're imposed?" Because Jesus never made any of those points:
Jesus never said anything about what's left behind, what percentage, what attitude, or
do the same and give everything. He didn't. Jesus never makes any of those points. He does not say the rich gave relatively too
little; they had too much left over. He doesn't say the rich gave too low a percent. He doesn't say the widow gave the right amount. He doesn't say the rich had a bad attitude
and the widow had a good attitude, or good spirit. He doesn't say that. In fact, He doesn't say anything about their
giving except that she gave more than everybody. He doesn't say why or with what attitude,
or whether she should have, or shouldn't have, or they should have, or shouldn't have. Her outward action is all that you see. It is no more or less good, bad, indifferent,
humble, proud, selfish, unselfish than anybody else's act. There is no judgment made on her act as to
its true character. There is nothing said about her attitude or
her spirit. She could be acting out of devotion. She could be acting out of love. She could be acting out of guilt. She could be acting out of fear. We don't know because Jesus doesn't say anything. Doesn't say anything about the rich, doesn't
say anything about the widow, doesn't draw any conclusions, doesn't develop any principles,
doesn't command anything, doesn't define anything. Why? Because none of that matters. The only thing I can conclude is if Jesus
wanted to say any of that here, He could have said it. If He wanted to say, "Now you need to give
like the widow, she had a good attitude and she gave a maximum percentage and what she
had left behind was little. This is the kind of sacrificial giving that
we're after." He doesn't say that, doesn't say anything. The story then is not designed to teach any
of those things. It's not designed to teach us about percentages,
about how much you have left over, about attitudes. It's not designed to teach anything about
giving. If there is one thing apparent here, and this
is the bottom line, if there is one thing apparent, it is that she gave everything. So if there's one lesson that would be obvious
and wouldn't need to be stated, it is that God expects you to give 100 percent of what
you have. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. That's irresponsible. That's foolish. It's not designed to talk about the principles
of giving. There's only one comment that Jesus made:
She gave with her two copper coins relatively a great deal more than all the others because
all the others gave out of their surplus, which means they had some left. She gave out of her poverty all she had to
live on. That's all there is. No comment that the Lord appreciated her. No comment that the Lord loved her, commended
her. No comment that she was now in the kingdom
of God. No invitation to the disciples to reach into
their little money bags and go up there and throw in everything they had because it was
good enough for the widow, it should be good enough for the disciples of Jesus. And if she was truly spiritual, they should
be truly spiritual as well. And for these reasons, the traditional explanations
of this text make no sense to me at all. One thing I do know is this, the Lord does
not expect you to give 100 percent of what you have so that you have absolutely nothing
left. But that's the only obvious principle here
if you're going to draw a principle. Besides, why would you inject the principle
in giving in a context like this? This is no place to interject, "Oh by the
way, a few words on giving." That sounds like a traditional Baptist sermon. In the middle of everything you always have
a few words on giving. What in the world does that have to do with
anything? The Lord makes no comment about giving except
that she gave more than everybody else relative to what she had. She is not commended. They are not condemned. No one's attitude or spirit in the giving
is discussed. And no principle regarding giving is drawn
by our Lord. The narrative is not intended to deal with
any of those matters. The reason the Lord doesn't say anything about
it is that's not what it's about. And if you look at the context before and
after, this is all about the condemnation of wicked spiritual leaders and a corrupt
religious system that is about to be destroyed. In fact, in verse 5, the passage immediately
after this, some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones
and votive gifts, and He said, "As for these things which you're looking at, the days will
come in which there will be not left one stone upon another which will not be torn down." This little vignette is in the middle of a
diatribe against a false religious system and a pronouncement of judgment on that system,
judgment that is still going on today. So what just exactly is this about? Now one more comment or two before we look
at it. It's not obscure. Anybody can read it and read exactly what
it says. It's not profound. It's not got some deep, hidden, secret meaning. This is not one of the great spiritual insights
in the Bible. This is not one of the great revelations of
Scripture. This isn't one of the great brilliant things
that Jesus said that has all kinds of deep meaning. It's simple, clear. He saw a widow give more than everybody else. In other words, her involvement in religion
cost her more than it cost anybody else because it cost her everything. That's all, just an observation. And the disciples weren't confused about it. They...They didn't ask questions about it. It was patently obvious. Another thing to think about. The assumption in interpreting this as a model
for Christian giving is that Jesus was pleased with what she did. It doesn't say that. Absolutely doesn't say that. It doesn't say that Jesus was pleased with
her gift. It doesn't say Jesus was pleased with her
attitude. It doesn't say anything about His attitude. In fact...In fact, I think what she did displeased
Him immensely. I think it was more than displeasing. I think it angered Him. I think what she did angered Jesus. Let me put it this way. How would you feel? You're a person that loves the Lord, you're
a person that loves your brother and cares about people and cares about their needs. How would you feel if you saw a destitute
widow who only had two coins left to buy her food for her next meal give those two coins
to a religious system? How would you feel? You would say, "Something is wrong with that
system when that system takes the last two coins out of a widow's hand." That's what you would say and you would be
right to say that. Giving your last two coins to a false religious
system! How would you feel if you saw a destitute,
impoverished person give to her religion her last hope for life to go home perhaps and
die? You'd be sick. You'd feel terrible. You would be repulsed. Any religion that is built on the back of
the poor is a false religion. What a sad, misguided, woeful, poor victimized
lady. It's tragic, painful. And I think that's exactly how Jesus saw it,
exactly. He saw that corrupt system taking the last
two pennies out of a widow's pocket. In desperation, hoping that maybe in that
legalistic system her two coins would buy some blessing, trying to be dutiful. The rabbis had said with alms you purchase
your salvation; trying to buy your way into heaven, trying to buy relief from your desperation,
your destitution. Contemporary quote-unquote "evangelists" call
this seed faith. "Give me your money and God will multiply
it back to you." God doesn't want a widow to give up her last
two cents. You couldn't find that in the Bible any place. That's the last thing God would want a widow
to do. Look at Matthew 15 for a moment and I'll show
you this. Matthew 15, and here the Pharisees and scribes
are again confronting Jesus and they're upset because the disciples don't go through certain
ceremonial washings of the hands which they have invented. And so they say, "Why do Your disciples" verse
2 "transgress the tradition of the elders for they don't wash their hands when they
eat bread?" And He answered and said to them, "Why do
you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" See, what they had done is create a false
religious system in the name of God, a false religious system that transgressed the commandment
of God. And here's a perfect illustration of how they
did it. This is so interesting. "For God said," back in Exodus 20, Deuteronomy
5, "For God said, 'Honor your father and mother and he who speaks evil of a father or mother,
let him be put to death.'" Wow. "But you say," follow this, "'Whoever shall
say to his father or mother, "Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been
given to God."'" That's what they were saying. They were supposed to support their mother
and father. Honor their father and mother boils down to
making sure their needs are met. And in order to get around that and to parade
their righteousness and to buy salvation, instead of giving to their mother or father,
they would say, "Oh, we're giving to God," and leave their mother and father destitute. And so by the tradition of giving money to
God that belonged to the needy, they violated the law of God. Verse 6, He says: "You invalidate the Word
of God for the sake of your tradition, you hypocrites!" Verse 9 He says, "You worship Me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the traditions of men." The point that I want you to understand is
this: God is concerned that people have their needs met. It is respons...the responsibility in the
Ten Commandments of children to provide for their parents when their parents need care
and provision. To say we can't do that because we've given
it to God is to violate the Law of God with your tradition. If you'll notice in Mark chapter 7, Mark's
account of this same conversation, it adds something familiar to us. Verse 8, Mark 7 verse 8: "Neglecting the commandment
of God, you hold to the tradition of men." You've invented a kind of religion that has
nothing to do with the commandment of God. You've, verse 9, you've nicely set aside the
commandment of God in order to keep your tradition, "for Moses said, 'Honor your father, your
mother. He who speaks evil of father or mother, let
him be put to death.' But you say if a man says to his father or
his mother, 'Anything of mine you ought to be helped by is korban ,'" that means they
had a word for it, oh it's korban , it's korban . That means "devoted to God." You no longer do anything for your mother
or father, thus invalidating the Word of God by your tradition. The system that had developed in Judaism abused
poor people. And it abused it on a spiritual...abused them
on a spiritual level. Anyone who withholds money from needy parents
in order to give it to God is in direct disobedience to God and is dishonoring God's Word and substituting
a man-made tradition for God's Word. Basic human needs come first with God before
religious offerings. Listen, God's law was never given to impoverish
people, but to help them. Man was not made for the law but the law was
made for man. We would conclude that this woman was part
of a system that took the last two cents out of her hand on the pretense that this was
necessary to please God, to purchase her salvation and to bring her blessing. She was manipulated by a religious system
that was corrupt. This is not an illustration of heartfelt,
sacrificial giving that pleases the Lord, this is not a model for all of us to follow. Jesus never expects that, in fact He told
a servant who had very little, you should have put your money in the bank and earned
interest because you need that to meet your own physical needs. Something very different is going on here. This is not about Jesus honoring giving. This is about a victim of a corrupt system
who is literally made absolutely destitute trying to live up to that system and earn
heaven. Let's go back to the account now in Luke 21. You'll see how this unfolds. Verse 1: "And He looked up," now stop there. That assumes that He was what? Looking down. Good! You've...That's lesson one in exegesis. If you looked up, you had to have been looking
down. That's really important, really, really important. Mark in a parallel passage, Mark 12:41 to
46 or so, says He was sitting down. And you need to understand what's gone on
here. In verses 46 and 47, at the end of the chapter,
you have that brief, brief statement about His "beware of the scribes" speech, but the
full speech is in Matthew 23, OK, the full speech is in Matthew 23. He had just completed that speech. At the end of a whole day of talking, teaching,
confronting, interacting, conflict, an exhausting day, a whole day, in the midst of massive
crowds jostling, listening, interacting, that in itself, the sheer physical effort in itself
would leave Him exhausted. But then in addition to the physical exhaustion,
He is given this...this denunciation, this damnation speech that is recorded in Matthew
chapter 23. You need to look at it for a moment. It's really...It's the low moment in His life. After all the years of incarnation, all the
years of ministry, all the sermons preached, all the questions answered, all the miracles
done, it all comes down to the leadership rejecting Him and the nation following the
leadership and also rejecting Him. And so He gives this diatribe, this blistering
malediction against the false religious leaders. And He uses the word "woe" repeatedly, which
means curse, damn, consigned to judgment. Matthew 23, it appears in verse 13, "Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; verse 14, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites";
15, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; 16, "Woe to you, blind guides"; verse 17,
"Fools and blind men"; verse 23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; 24, "Blind
guides"; 25, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites," "blind Pharisees"; verse 17,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; 29, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." And it all comes down to verse 37, "Oh Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted
to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and
you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate." It's over; judgment. And it's going to be that way until you say,
"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Judgment will fall and last until Christ returns. This is the sad, final message. The conclusion is devastating, not only devastating
to the leaders, devastating to the nation, but devastating to Jesus. This is where all His efforts end: long judgment
until the Lord's return on this nation. So it's not just the physical weariness. It's the agonizing, sad reality of what our
Lord says. He feels deeply the sinful rebellion and unbelief
of Israel, leaders and people. He shed tears when He walked into the city,
chapter 19, verse 41, and saw it. He wept. And He's still weeping. Preaching these words would be heart wrenching. All these thirty-three years and this is how
it ends, an exhausting emotional experience for Him. It was over. No more calls to the kingdom, no more invitations
to salvation, only a pronunciation of damnation that would last 2,000 years and send generation
after generation after generation after generation of these chosen people into a godless eternity. After those tragic words, the acknowledged
end of salvation hope for the nation, He had come to His own and His own received Him not,
He must have been exhausted, He must have been spent, He must have been heart-broken. And so, Mark says He was sitting and His eyes
must have been looking down as He contemplates the damning religion of Judaism and the fact
that the temple where He sat, which He had earlier cleansed, was so corrupt, its religion
so ungodly that it along with the city of Jerusalem and the whole nation of Israel had
to be totally destroyed and kept under judgment for millennia. So there He sat in moments of thought before
He turns to pronounce the judgment for all his disciples to hear. No wonder He was looking down. And when He looked up, Mark 12:41 says, "He
saw opposite the treasury, observing how people were putting money into the treasury." Jesus had said in Matthew 6 that you were
to do your giving in secret. But the religious system had developed a very
public, prominent way to do it and Pharisees came along and had trumpets blown announcing
their arrival to give, according to Matthew 6. So He looks up and there He sees the people
coming, the treasury and He observes how people were putting money into the treasury. What is the treasury? Well the court in which Jesus was sitting
is a very, very large open court in the temple area. It was called the Court of the Women. There was an inner court where only the men
could go but this is the court where everyone could go, men and women. Jesus taught here as indicated in John chapter
8, in fact, He taught on the light of the world on that occasion. And He taught in the Court of the Women, the
great open court, because it was where everyone could come. He calls it the treasury, because there was
a section of it that the leaders had designed as the place you give your money. They had set up thirteen shofar (trumpet)
shape... You know what a shofar is. It's a horn. They had set up thirteen of those in which
people dropped their money. And each of them had a sign on the bottom
of it indicating exactly what that money was to be used for. Old shekel dues, new shekel dues, bird offerings,
wood, incense, gold, free will, they all were labeled and people would go by and they would
in very open courtyard, publicly put their giving on display. The treasury is actually the word gazophulakion
from two Greek words, gaza meaning treasury, phulakē meaning prison. Once you dropped them in, they were held in
there. This is the real heartbeat, folks, of false
religion, right? This is the real center of false religion. The center of false religion is the treasury,
folks. It's all about the money. They do it, says Peter, for filthy lucre. Luke 16:14, Jesus said, "The scribes and Pharisees
were lovers of money." We know the Sadducees who ran the temple franchises
were lovers of money, because Jesus said you've turned My Father's house, a house of prayer,
into a den of robbers, as they extorted money out of people for sacrifices and coin exchange. False religion is always about the money. When you get to the treasury, you get to the
heart of false religion. And so, as the wearied and spent and sad,
heart-broken Savior lifts up His eyes and watches, He sees the normal course of false
religion, poor, deceived souls putting their coins in, trying to buy blessing and salvation. And He sees, verse 1, the rich putting their
gifts into the treasury. Rich is plousios in the Greek. It simply means they have a full supply, those
with enough. Not mega-rich, very rich, super-rich, just
they had enough, those who could put some in and have some left, the non-poor, people
who could make offerings and still have enough to live. In fact, Mark 12:41 says they were putting
in large amounts, polu , much, they were putting in much. They were putting in a substantial amount
and they still had plenty left over. The religious system demanded money. It demanded money to make the guys who were
in charge of it comfortable and prosperous and wealthy. And that's what false religion always, always
does. This was the pattern then. Here they were in the open court where everybody
could see, coming along, dutifully following the prescriptions and the demands of their
leaders in the self-righteous acts of giving to buy favor from God, literally to purchase
their salvation. And for the most part, Israel was a prosperous
country, people did OK. They could afford it. But in watching this, the Lord sees one widow. He saw a certain, poor widow. The word is penichron , meaning poor and needy
but not totally destitute. It's way down there, but it's not the bottom. It would mean somebody with very, very little,
penichros , a certain poor widow putting in two small copper coins, lepta, lepta , Jewish
coins, the smallest coins they had. She puts this coin in there. Now wait a minute. A poor widow, does that sound familiar to
you? My mind immediately goes back to verse 46
of chapter 20, doesn't it? "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around
in long robes and love respectful greetings in the marketplaces and chief seats in the
synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widows' houses, who devour widows'
houses. They build their success monetarily on the
backs of widows. Wow! Our Lord indicts them for their severe abuse
of widows, along with the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the scribes had a system that abused the
poor and the defenseless for whom they had only disdain. They viewed any poor widow as being under
the judgment of God. That's why she was a poor widow. And they would aid God in making life tough
for them to punish them for whatever sins God was punishing them for. Furthermore, widows were women and women were
second-class, and Pharisees every day prayed, "Lord, make me not a Gentile or a woman." And because they were widows, they were defenseless
and easy prey. What do you have here? You have a destitute widow them, one of them
ones just discussed in verse 47. How could you not make that connection? Here is just a couple of sentences later an
illustration of a poor widow who is being devoured by a religious system. Her last two cents, her life she gives to
this system, dutifully, along with everybody else. Trying to live up to the system, trying to
buy her salvation in an act of charity in a hope that it will earn her favor with God,
she gives up her last two small copper coins, smallest coin, she dropped two of them in
one of those thirteen shofars. That was all, nothing is said about her attitude,
nothing is said about her spirit, nothing said about whether she did it in desperation
or devotion, whether she did it in legalism or love, it doesn't say anything about that. The Lord doesn't commend her, doesn't make
her an example, doesn't validate what she did, doesn't say it was a worthy spiritual
act that greatly pleased Him. All He said was, this religious system is
preying on widows. This cost her more than everyone else. She put in relatively, comparatively more
than anyone. Yes, the religious leaders were devouring
widows and the more desperate they became, the more they needed, they thought, to buy
God's blessing. Belittled by the establishment because they
were thought to be in that state because of divine punishment; second-class women, they
were defenseless, easily exploited and the system exploited them to the max. Took the last two cents of that poor woman
and it was all, the end of verse 4 says, she had to live on. It was literally her life. She'll go home and die. Now Scripture is full of commands and instructions
for the people of God to take care of widows, is it not? I wrote down about twenty of them here which
I won't take you through, but you can check a concordance, look up widows and find them. There are warnings all throughout Scriptures
to care for the poor, care for the widows, and do not abuse them. The real tragedy that struck our Lord was
the abuse of widows taking place in the name of God in the temple, the temple of God. They had turned it into a den of robbers and
they were robbing those who had the least. It is ugly exploitation of...of widows in
the house of God in the name of God. Verse 2 says, "A certain poor widow," penichros
, poor but not ptochos . But then Jesus says in verse 3, this poor
ptochos because once she gave up the last two coins, she went from penichros to ptochos
, destitute, nothing. She gave up all her life. Cost her... This religious system cost that widow her
life. She's going to go home and die. Do you get the picture? Jesus isn't commending her. She's a victim. He's not proud of her. He's not making her an example of sacrificial
giving. This is an absurdity. He is observing the corruption of the system
that is going to be destroyed under the leadership of these corrupt, condemned leaders. They're exploiting the most defenseless, the
most impoverished. Jesus certainly is not saying she gave her
last cent and that's what you should do. Of course not. He doesn't want you to give up everything
you've got and go home and die. He's given us richly all things to enjoy. It says nothing about percentages, nothing
about proportional giving, nothing about giving with the right spirit, nothing about the measure
of the gift is what you have left, nothing about giving up everything and living on faith. That's not here. He's observing the false religion that preys
on the weak and the desperate and the defenseless and holds out hope to the hopeless if they
just give their money. I think Jesus was not happy. I think Jesus was angry. And that's why He says in verse 6, "As for
the things which you're looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left
one stone upon another which will not be torn down." And the disciples say, "When's it going to
happen?" And He says, "It's going to happen," and He
describes it in the remainder of the chapter. Isn't this obvious? If you saw a widow give her last two cents
to some religious organization in the hope that she could purchase salvation or purchase
blessing, or buy healing, or buy prosperity, you wouldn't commend her, you'd want to stop
her and you'd want to shut down that religious system that preys on the desperate. This act did not please our Lord. She's simply been taught and she bought into
a system that destroyed her. No praise is given of her act or her attitude. She's caught in the corruption of the system
at the hands of those wretched leaders. She has given her last coins to a false religion. Jesus is angry. And that's why He'll destroy this den of robbers. Judgment came, 70 A.D., and it continues now
on that temple, on that city, on that land until Jesus comes again. You know, this continued to go on through
history? For Martin Luther in the Reformation it was
a Catholic Church abusing the poor that in his mind invalidated the whole system. They were building massive cathedrals. They were building St. Peter's in Rome. They were building it from the money of the
poor, destitute, impoverished people to whom they were selling indulgences to build St. Peter's, promising the people that for money
their sins would be forgiven. When it became so abusive, Luther reacted,
the people reacted, and you had a Protestant Reformation. I've been in cities around the world where
I've talked with people in cathedrals and I've asked the question a number of places:
Why are none of the cathedrals ever finished? Why do they keep building them? And the answer is because the church can tax
the people as long as construction is going on. Sometimes it goes on for 1,000 years. The history of the Roman Catholic Church in
the world is a history of massive, unbelievable wealth at the top, out of the pockets of the
destitute and the poor trying to buy their way into heaven. In a perhaps more familiar role for some of
us, the largest segment of givers to the charismatic prosperity gospel preachers are single women,
desperate for healing, desperate for money. Sometimes they're promised money, health and
the new one is a spouse, a man. That's right, if they send in their money. So I say: Woe to you who sell your miracle
water and your miracle cloths that promise to heal the desperate if they send you their
money. Woe to you wealthy, self-indulgent preachers
who become rich on the backs of the lonely, poor, disillusioned, diseased and desperate
who are told to give you their money as an act of faith so that God is obligated to make
them healthy and wealthy. Woe to you who indulge in $10,000 a night
hotel rooms, claim revelations from God, spend $112,000 a month on your private jet with
money taken from the most desperate people. Woe to you, you will not escape judgment. One person I read about this week worked for
a five-star hotel, stole $400,000 from the hotel. They tracked the employee down. Found him in a small, dingy, rented apartment
in a slum with no car. When they asked where the money was, he had
given it all to a prosperity preacher on the promise that it would be multiplied. This is not true religion, never has been. Listen to James 1:27, "This is pure and undefiled
religion in the sight of our God: to visit orphans and widows in their distress." True religion does not abuse the poor. It ministers generously, graciously to their
needs. Isn't it amazing? Of all the little things...of all the little
things that could have been the trigger to set off the destruction of the temple, it
was one illustration of an abused widow that our Lord puts on the pages of Scripture. Woe to you who abuse women, widows, the distressed,
the downcast, the poor, the sick, with your lying promises to get their money. That's false and it will be destroyed. Father, we hear this message and we know that
it's consistent with Your heart because You care for the downcast and the poor. Jesus came and He fed the crowds. Jesus came and He healed the sick. Jesus came and He poured out love and grace
to all who would come to Him and said His burden is light, His yoke is easy; a contrast
to the wickedness of false religious systems that prey on people, especially the defenseless
and the destitute and the desperate and the hurting and the needy. Lord, would You bring that to an end and would
You exalt Your true church and the true Christian faith. This we ask only for Your glory. Amen.
