This is a message by Pastor Mark Fox of Antioch Community Church in Elon, North Carolina. For other sermons from Antioch, you can visit the church website at antiochchurchnc.org. Now, let's turn our hearts to the word of God. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, truly I say to you, this poor widow had 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. Amen. Welcome this morning. We are finishing up a section of Mark that you may recall Jesus has seven different encounters with seven different groups. Now this is not an encounter with an opposition. In fact, this is the culmination of all those encounters with people who are opposing him and trying to trap him and trying to trip him and trying to bring him down, if you will. And this is a culminating moment where he points to a poor widow as an example. So we'll get into that in a moment. So it was Sunday morning and the ushers passed the offering baskets down the pews and my great-grandma, Jessie Maud Hooser, I just called her great-grandma, was panicked trying to find her offering envelope. Those who grew up in the Southern Baptist Church know all about offering envelopes. And she's rifling through her purse and she's muttering under her breath, I know it's in here, I know I put it in here. And she looks up and the offering baskets are getting closer, the men are getting closer, and she's beside herself. Meanwhile, an elderly lady beside of her is poking her on the arm saying, Jessie, Jessie, whispering. And she says, finally, she turns the pocketbook upside down and dumps all the contents onto her lap. And she says, if I live to get home, I'm gonna clean out this pocketbook. Finally, the lady gets through to her. She says, Jesse, that's my pocketbook. Bless her heart, Grandma Hooser. Love her with all my heart. Well, it's offering time in the temple today, and the scene has moved to the court of the women. where Jesus is watching people, right? He's watching them come to give their offerings. And let's look at this text today under three main points. This is gonna be a short sermon. You guys who are power nappers, this is for you. The gift of the widow, the observation of the Lord, and the practical applications for us. We'll be at the park in no time. All right, here we go. The gift of the widow. Remember the outer court in the temple was for the Gentiles, and it was not an enclosure, right? It was just a big courtyard, and the Gentiles could come in there, and they could, worship, but they could not go into the sanctuary, and the first part of the sanctuary was called the Court of the Women, and that's where women and children could go and worship. I know that's not politically correct, and that's one reason Jesus came to break down those walls and break down those barriers so that there is no division between Jew and Gentile, and between male and female when it comes to access to the Holy of Holies. But in the Court of the Women, there were 13 offering baskets, if you will. Now they were shofar shaped. I looked for a good picture of these and I couldn't find one, but you know the shofar, the trumpet, right, that they use to blow at times of battle or whatever, or call people to ceremonial gatherings. Well, the basket or the chest, treasure chest, was shaped this way. They were made of gold or silver, had to be gold or silver in the temple. And the offerings were put in the mouth of that trumpet, and then they worked their way down into the gold or silver chest. And a priest was there, and he was kind of, you know, administrating the offerings. you went to the priest and you told him what your offering was for. And each of the 13 of these shofar-shaped chests had a particular purpose for it. Maybe you wanted to give to the temple or you wanted to give to support the Levites or whatever. And so he would ask you, what's your gift for? How much are you giving? And then let me check your currency. Let me make sure it's real. He literally checked the currency that you're giving. And then he would direct you to the place your gift was given. Now this was all done verbally, right? It wasn't like he had a megaphone, but people could hear. Wow, this guy's giving what? He's giving that much? So this was all verbal. And remember, there was no paper currency then, right? There was no Venmo. There was no Apple Pay. Everybody gave to God's offering in coins, right? So it was not just a visible offering. It was what? an audible offering. We like to talk about, hey, we want a silent offering in here. Don't you be pulling those coins out of your pocket. Pull those bills out. We want a silent offering. Just bills, just checks, please. No, no. Back then, it was a visible and an audible offering. Now, some people believe that this part of the temple was a popular place to sit and watch people. How many like to watch people, right? Go watch people. Come on now, admit it. Jesus liked to watch people, too. Right and and he's watching here here. He sits watching and Jesus people watching skills Can you stipulate with me that they are beyond compare? Okay, so Jesus is watching this whole thing and he's seeing rich people coming up there and they're dumping in large sums now Let me ask you something If you're a rich guy and you're gonna give a huge offering and you got like a wheelbarrow size container with coins in it, do you let them trickle down slowly so the offering just takes forever? It's just like a long offering and people just go, wow, this is just never gonna stop. Or do you do the thunderous crash kind of thing, right? You throw as much of it in there at one time as you can so it's dramatic. Well, we're not told, so I don't know the answer, but maybe you can figure that out for yourself. But here they are, and they're dumping in huge amounts of coins, and Jesus sees it, and he doesn't comment. Doesn't say a thing. Not until the poor widow comes along. Now I know poor widow is, what is that called? A redundancy. Because most widows in first century Palestine were what? Poor widows. There were exceptions, but most widows were poor. And certainly we know she was based on her offering. We know she was just a poor widow. No question about it. Now if you're people watching in the temple that day, you're sitting there, I'm not talking about Jesus, but you're just a normal average Joe in Israel, and you're watching people give offerings, and you see these guys in royal-looking robes, very rich, finery. And they're dumping in huge amounts. And you're just watching this like eating your popcorn. It's like, wow, this is good TV. And then this poor widow walks along. She's not carrying a bucket. She's not pushing a wheelbarrow. She doesn't even have a bag. She's just got something clutched in her hand. Do you pay any attention? Or do you turn back to your friends and start talking about lunch? Right? Nobody was watching this woman, as far as I know, except Jesus. Mark tells us she put in two copper coins. They're called lepta, which together in those days were worth a penny. Now remember, Mark is writing to a Roman audience, so he actually translates it for them. He breaks it down for them in their terms. 2 lepta equal 1 quadrans. If you see in the bottom of your Bible, you might have a note that says it was equal to a quadrantes, or a quadrans in Latin. So 2 lepta was equal to 1 quadrans, which was a Roman coin, which was 1 64th of a denarius. That's a lot of math. Let me help you with that math. Okay, here's the thing. Here's the thing. If you were a day laborer in those days, then you got paid a denarius. If you were a skilled laborer, you probably made more money than that. But a day laborer gets a denarius for a day's work. All right, what's a denarius? Well, if we translate it to modern times, a day laborer in our culture, unless you're paying him under the table and paying him a lot less, right, in North Carolina, you're gonna get how much per hour? What's the minimum wage? $7.25. $7.25 an hour means you make $58 a day for eight hours work. If you divide $58 by 64, you come up with about 91 cents. Now, the minimum wage in that day, I'm guessing, was lower, right? So this woman gave way less than a dollar. Her offering was less than a dollar, and that's all she had to her name. The Bible says she gave all that she owned, and no one noticed, except the only one who matters when it comes to our giving. Jesus is a people watcher, is. He likes to watch our giving. That leads us to the observation of the Lord. So Peter says, hey, hey, Peter, James, John, Andrew, guys, come here, come here, come here, I wanna see something, right? And then he points to this woman, and by this time, she's moved away from the shofar, you know, chest, and she's shuffling along, and she's shabbily dressed, she's a poor woman, And Jesus points to her and says, she gave more than all the rest. Maybe pointing to these scribes who are strutting from the court of the women, admiring, looking at all their admirers who are still talking about and patting them on the back as they pass, if they let them pat them on the back, and just talking about how great these men are and how much they give to God. Jesus said, she gave more than all of them. Now if you're a disciple, there's no mention here of how the disciples responded, but how do you think they responded? What? Jesus, are you sure? I mean, I'm pretty sure she didn't bring a wheel, she doesn't have a wheelbarrow, she's not carrying a bucket, she doesn't have a big sack that she just emptied. I mean, what did she give? How could she have given more? Lord, come on, a wheelbarrow full of denarii is worth more than two pennies, isn't it, Lord? And 100 pounds of coins is a lot more than two ounces or one ounce of coins, isn't it, Jesus? And this is where Jesus teaches them and us that even though by human standards, what she gave was insignificant, by God's standards, it was priceless. Because they gave out of their abundance, she gave out of her poverty. They gave a lot, and frankly, folks, they would probably not even notice the difference in their bank account. But she gave all that she had. She gave all that she had. You see the contrast? I think the way Mark put this story at the end, and I don't think he was changing anything around, everything kind of follows to this point, this crescendo, because the contrast between the pretension of the scribes in their showy robes and wanting the best seats and demanding to be recognized in the marketplace. You better stand when I walk by. The contrast between these scribes dumping huge amounts into the offering plate and the humble faith of this widow is amazing. We can't overestimate the difference and the contrast because of her faith. In fact, William Hendrickson writes, in fact, she, knowing that God would not fail her, sacrificed everything. I like that, knowing that God would not fail her. How could she give her last money, only thing in her possession, how could she give that to God? Again, the contrast is stark. Remember the scribes by this point and really much earlier than this, they're seeking to take Jesus' life. And into this woman, into this temple walks a poor woman who is seeking only to give her life. She came to give all that she had to God. James Edwards writes that the sacrifice of all that she had, and I love this, is the arch, Mark's arch of faith, the keystone in Mark's arch of faith. The keystone in an arch is the stone that holds the arch together, right? It's what makes the arch work. He says, this is the keystone. The initial call of Jesus to leave all and come follow me is perfectly fulfilled in the giving of two simple lepta, which symbolizes an undivided heart. So I think what's going on here, I think the reason that the Holy Spirit directed Mark to write it in this manner is that this is the whole of discipleship. It's come to this point. Jesus has been trying to teach his disciples, not trying, he's been teaching, he's been hoping they would learn, right, eventually. He's been telling them what discipleship is. And it's about to get messy. We're just about done until we move into the last days of Jesus' life. And he points to this woman, says, guys, come here, look at this. This is what I'm talking about. This is what it means to follow me. Come follow me. You know, it's a woman, and I thought about the last time we saw that discipleship was on such stark display and so rich in power was the woman with the issue of blood. Remember that? We talked about how Jesus put that as the meat of the sandwich, that Marking Sandwich, because this woman's faith was informative for Jairus' faith. Jesus says, if you believe, I can do anything. He's telling Jairus, believe like this woman. You see, remember that woman was desperate to get to Jesus. Nothing was gonna keep her from getting to Jesus to touch the hem of his garment so that she could be healed. She believed and her faith was on display. And she, like this poor widow, was willing to do anything even touch Jesus as an unclean woman in the midst of a crowd. And Jesus points to this rich widow, this poor widow and says, she is a picture of what I'm calling you men and those who will follow you to be. It's a picture of faith that follows no matter what. And we're reminded in this scene here, guys, and then I'll get the practical application. I told you this would be short. We're reminded in this scene that it doesn't really matter how big or how small your gift is. And I'm talking about, we're having some people join the church today, and one of the last things we talk about in the new members class is, what do we expect of you? And this is just a reminder for all of you in here who are members already. What do we expect of members? I told them what they can expect from leadership. Here's what we expect of you, that you give of your time and your talent and your Money, your offering. We talked about your ministry, your morals, keeping a clean conscience, and your money. And here's the thing, it doesn't really matter how large or how small the gift is, it's that you give it to the Lord without holding anything back. You give it to Him. Because all of you, how many people in here are born again? If you're born again, you have a spiritual gift, right? Probably more than one. God has gifted you spiritually, read about it in Romans 12, read about it in 1 Corinthians 12, read about it in 1 Peter 4. Spiritual gifts are important to the prosperity, the flourishing of the body of Christ. Everybody in here has a spiritual gift. And the point is not how big is your gift, how flashy is your gift, that's not what the gifts are for. The point is, are you using your gifts for the stewardship of the body? And we learn from this lesson here, no matter how small our gift of money or time or talent, it's precious when it's given to God. spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts just like money and just like time, when we use them to serve the body of Christ, they shine. And when we don't, they grow mold and they make us sick. Spiritual gifts, time, money, They make us sick when we don't use them. We get spiritually sick when we're not using what God has given us. Okay, some practical applications. Practical applications, number one, God does not need your money. Look, if you put money in the plate because you think God needs your money, let me just disabuse you of that idea today. God does not need your money. In fact, who owns your money? God, who owns everything, God. Notice Jesus does it, wring his hands and go, guys, guys, come here, come here, come here. How will the temple survive if people like this woman give such a paltry sum to the offering? We need to do something, we need to start a campaign and we need to get people to give more. No, no, no, he wasn't concerned about the temple, he wasn't concerned about God's existence, he was concerned about the hearts of his disciples. Look at Acts 17, just flip back, or flip forward, I'm sorry, to Acts, Mark, Luke, John, Acts 17. This is such a good verse. Verses 24 and 25, Acts 17, 24 and 25, proof that God doesn't need your money. The God who made the world and everything in it, Paul's preaching in Areopagus in Athens, The God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by hand, by man, I'm sorry, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. There it is. God doesn't need our money. And that's why Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 4, 7, what do you have that you did not receive. Let's say that together. What do you have that you did not receive? In other words, God gave you everything, including the breath that you're breathing right now. And for us to give money in the plate, As if we're giving something to God or something He needs. It's like children who are given money by their father so they can go out and buy a birthday present for their father. It's the same thing. We're giving God His money when we give in the offering plate. Not because God needs it. We give not because He needs it, but because we need Him. And you say, well, I have Him, don't I? I mean, this is not connected to how much I give. No, no, you have Him, but you need to be more like Him. I need to be more like Him. What is God if He is not a giver? In the beginning, God created. He created the heavens and the earth. And then God, because of our sin, did what? gave his only begotten son. The greatest of all givers is God and we want to be like him. So we don't give because he needs it. Number two, giving is proportional, is measured by proportion, not by addition. Borrowed that from Sinclair Ferguson. The woman gave more because she gave everything. God doesn't require us to give everything in the offering plate every Sunday. We would all be poor beggars if we did that. That's not the point. But the gift was measured with regards to the sacrifice that it required. How much does our giving cause us to sacrifice? You know, this same lesson is gonna be taught again in Mark 14, which we're not gonna get to for a while. I'm gonna take a short break after we finish 13. You don't wanna miss 13. That's end time stuff. Oh yeah, exciting. End of time, signs of the age. But then after that, 14, 15, 16, we're gonna come back to that after I do a short series on the church. Just wanna, the elders, we've talked about this. It'd be a good time to insert this series. I've done it before. What is the church? Why do we need to be members of the church? what is the purpose of the sacraments, the communion, and baptism, et cetera. So we're gonna take a short break. When we come back in chapter 14, we'll hear about a woman who is praised by Jesus, who gave an incredibly expensive gift to him. She didn't hold anything back, she gave him everything. How much was it worth, do you remember? Alabaster jar of ointment, she broke and she poured it over Jesus, anointing him for his death. And the Bible says it was worth 300 denarii. That's 300 days wages. We don't even work 300 days in a year, so it was worth more than a year's wages. And she gave it all to Jesus. And you know what? Jesus praises these two women equally. He doesn't in chapter 14 say, now I told you about the widow, but this one, oh yeah, this is the one right here. No, no. In both cases, the women are praised because of their sacrificial gift to the Lord. It's the sacrifice that matters. It's the heart of the giver that Jesus sees. And that leads us to the last point. Giving is always inside of Jesus Christ. We always give with Jesus looking on. This was true in Acts chapter five. Right? Sad story about Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Holy Spirit and to Peter about the amount of their gift. They sold property, they told Peter that they were giving all of the proceeds to the church, and in fact they had held back some of the proceeds, which was perfectly their right to do it, but it wasn't their right to lie about it. And Jesus looks at Ananias and says, why do you lie to the Holy Spirit? And Ananias dropped dead. Sapphira comes in a few hours later, not knowing any of this has happened, and Peter asked her, did you sell the land for this much? And she said yes, she lied, and she drops dead. Now that brought great fear upon the church. as you can imagine. But here's the point, Jesus was watching that transaction. That's the only time it happened, as far as I know, in the early church, but it made a statement. Jesus is watching our hearts. He cares about that. And Paul, in his book, 2 Corinthians, he spends two chapters talking about giving. And he says to the church of Corinth, I want you to excel in this grace. Just as you excel in all these other graces, this is where you lack, church. You have all the gifts, you have all the stuff, you know, prophecies and all this stuff going on in your church, but you are pathetic when it comes to giving. And he says basically this, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. And then he goes on to say, each one must give. Listen, Saints, to how giving is described here. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart. Not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And, and, listen, here's the result. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. There it is. God sees the heart, which is where we decide to give before we actually do it. Decide in your heart. And then we are to give bountifully and we are to give cheerfully, not grudgingly, cheerfully. God loves a cheerful giver. And with great hope that does not disappoint because we know this woman had faith to believe God would take care of her if she gave everything she had. We know that God is bigger than us in giving. God is the biggest giver of all. We can't even begin to out give God. We can't even come close to giving to the amount that He gives. So we know that He will take care of us. In fact, we know that we will have grace abound to us so that we will have what we need. at all times. That's the grace the poor widow was depending on. And that made Jesus call his disciples to himself and say, in fact, I forgot to say this earlier, what did Jesus say first? Truly I say to you. Whenever Jesus says to his disciples, truly I say to you, or truly, truly I say to you, what's he saying? Listen, listen, this is important, guys. Everything Jesus said was important, but when he said that, you better take notes and then walk it out. He basically says this, and I'll close, look at this woman, believe and trust like she believes and trusts and you will live and you will give as she does. Let's pray. Lord, we are thankful that you are a good God and you have given us everything that we have, everything that we have. Lord, from the breath that we breathe, to the heart that's pumping blood through our veins, to the money that we have in our possession, and to all the properties and things that we enjoy in life, and you are a good God, and we are to delight ourselves in you, and enjoy your creation, and enjoy the good gifts. But Lord, also help us to learn from this lesson of the poor widow who gave everything that we might give what we are supposed to give, to your kingdom, to your kingdom's work. Thank you for this gathering of saints who love you and love you more and more day by day. Help us to continue to grow as Paul said that we may excel in this grace as we do at Antioch and so many others that we may excel in this as well. And we're thankful for the way many people in this church are already walking that out. And I just rejoice in that. Lord, teach us and instruct us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Mark Fox of Antioch Community Church in Elon, North Carolina. Antioch meets every Sunday for worship at 10 o'clock a.m. at 1600 Powerline Road in Elon. You can download other messages by Pastor Fox at antiochchurch.cc. You can also learn how to order his books or subscribe to his blog at jmarkfox.com. you