#168 Lu. 21:1-4  A GREAT EXAMPLE IN GIVING TO THE LORD

Introduction:

    In our text today Jesus teaches His disciples a lesson
concerning the giving of our money to the Lord.

I.  The setting for the lesson

    When Jesus and His disciples arrived at Jerusalem for the
observance of the Passover, a controversy between Jesus and the
Jewish leaders broke out immediately.  On the first day after His
arrival, Jesus went into the temple, overturned the money tables,
drove out the money changers and drove out those who sold animals.
Then on a daily basis the Jewish leaders came to Jesus with trick
questions.  They tried to trap Jesus into saying something that
could be used against Him to get Him arrested and put to death.
    Jesus used their trickery against them.  He answered their
questions in such a way that He gained even greater popularity
with the common people and embarrassed the leaders before great
crowds of people.  Jesus so thoroughly defeated them that they
Jewish leaders did not dare to ask Him any more questions.
    Jesus then asked them a question about the identity of the
Christ.  They claimed to be the experts in the teachings of the
Old Testament Scriptures and, therefore, they were supposed to be
the experts about the coming of Christ.  Jesus showed before all
that great multitude of people that the scribes and Pharisees did
not know enough about the Old Testament Scriptures to be able to
identify the Christ whenever He would come.
    He followed that with a warning to His disciples and to all
the multitude that they should not to follow the scribes and
Pharisees.  He denounced them before the multitudes in no
uncertain terms.
    In our text today Jesus has left the main courtyard of the
temple where all of the controversies had taken place.  He begins
His exit from the temple never to return again during His earthly
ministry.  But He does not leave the temple in defeat.  Rather He
leaves the victor.  He had soundly defeated the scribes, Pharisees
and the Sadducees at every point.
    Now on His way out of the temple, Jesus stops inside the outer
courtyard near the main entrance to the temple grounds.  According
to Jewish writings there were thirteen offering boxes located at
this main entrance so that they would be convenient to the people
as they entered.  When the people entered they would approach one
of the thirteen boxes and put in their offering.
    Mark said that Jesus found a seat near one of those boxes so
that He could watch the people as they put in their offerings.

II.  The giving of the rich men

    V. 1, "And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their
gifts into the treasury."  Mark said that Jesus observed how they
placed their money in the box as well as observing how much they
put in.  Mark tells us that the rich men put in some very sizable
offerings.  He does not tell us how they put these huge offerings
into the box, but it would not be hard for us to get the picture.
The boxes were brass boxes and the people would drop their money
into a funnel that was shaped like the mouth of a trumpet that
would funnel it down into the box.  They did not use paper money
in those days and so all of their money was in gold, silver or
copper coins.  The rich would approach the box with huge handsful
of coins.  We can be sure that some of them sort of tossed the
coins down into the funnel so that they would make a lot of
racket.  It would attract everybody's attention and make it
obvious to all that these men had given huge offerings.  As the
people would all walk in, it would be very noticeable when one of
these rich men would dump in his handsful of coins.  Everybody
would know that he had given very generously.  We can almost
envision the smug expression on his face as though he were quite
proud of himself.  Perhaps he might even have a little bit of a
smile on his face as he walks away from the box.
    Lest we become overly critical of these men I would point out
to you that Jesus did not utter one word of criticism toward them
for their giving in either Scripture record of this event.  Jesus
did not criticize them for their giving.  They should have given.
They should have given generously and they did.
    What Jesus did was to praise someone else instead of them.  It
would seem that Jesus would praise them.  These are the ones who
gave the larger sums of money.  But Jesus did not praise them.
Rather, Jesus gave lavish praises to one who would not be expected
to receive any praise at all.

III.  The giving of the poor widow

    V. 2. "And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither
two mites."  A mite was a copper coin and was, therefore, less
valuable than the silver or gold.  It was also the smallest coin
used by the Hebrew people.  The two mites combined was far less in
value than our copper cent.  The sound made by those two small
coins could hardly be heard at all.  It would appear to some that
she did not give at all.  Some probably thought that all she did
was to put an empty hand to the funnel and merely pretend to give.
I suspect that she was greatly embarrassed and that she hung her
head in shame as she walked away.
    In verse 3 Jesus speaks up about the offering that this woman
gave.  Luke does not say just who He was talking to, but Mark
tells us that He called His disciples to Him and pointed out this
woman to them and discussed with them the size of the offering she
had given.
    V. 3, "And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor
widow hath cast in more than they all."  Jesus said that the poor
widow who gave only two mites had given more than all of the rich
men.  She had given more than anybody else.
    Now Jesus did not mean that she had give more in dollar value.
Not so.  Her offering was the very smallest in dollar value.  But
Jesus was counting the size of her offering according to her
ability to give.  According to her ability to give, her offering
was greater than all.
    V. 4, "For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the
offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the
living that she had."  Jesus said that the other people,
especially the rich, had given out of their abundance.  They had
given large sums of money, but they also had large sums out of
which to give and they had large sums left even after they gave.
They did not hurt their finances by giving.  They did not
sacrifice in order to give.
    But this woman, Jesus said, gave out of her penury.  She gave
out of her poverty.  Jesus said that she gave all the living that
she had.  She had not kept back one thing for herself to live on.
Somehow she had gotten hold of two mites.  Perhaps she had done
some work for somebody and they paid her two mites.  Perhaps she
sold some possession for two mites.  But however she got them she
gave both of them to the Lord.  She did not know how she was going
to put food on the table, but she gave all she had to the Lord.
She did not know how she was going to put clothes on her back and
shoes on her feet, but she gave all she had to the Lord.
    Why would she do that?  Why would she give all of her living
to the Lord?  Does it not seem to you that the wise thing to do
would have been to keep back one of the coins for herself?  But
she didn't.  She gave it all to the Lord.  Why would she do that?
    She most certainly did not do it for show.  Nobody but Jesus
would praise her for her generosity.  They probably praised the
rich men who gave the large sums of money, but nobody praised the
widow.  She knew they wouldn't praise her, but she gave it anyway.
Why?  Why would she do that?
    I'll tell you why.  She did it because she loved the Lord and
it just broke her heart that she was unable to give as much as
the rich men gave.  She wanted to give to the Lord and even though
she was shamed by the smallness of her gift, yet she was happy
that she was able to give that little bit.  There was a great deal
of joy and satisfaction in being able to give even that little
bit.
    I want to ask you a question.  Do you think the Lord let that
woman stave to death?  Remember that she gave all her living into
the treasury at the temple.  How do you think she fared as a
result of giving away all she had?
    I don't know about you, but I think she fared quite well.  I
do not believe that the Lord let her starve to death.  To tell you
the truth, I wonder if the Lord didn't send her one of those rich
widowers to marry.  He might not have, but I am convinced that He
took care of her very generously.

IV.  The things that Jesus wanted His disciples to learn and that
     we. too, are to learn

    I pointed out to you that Jesus had called His disciples to
Himself and that He pointed out to them the greatness of this
woman's gift.  Jesus had been with His church for about three
years.  He was now about to leave them.  He would soon be
crucified and even though He would arise from the dead He would
spend very little time with them.  He would soon go back to heaven
and leave His church behind to carry on His work here on earth.
    Jesus was using this event at the offering box at the temple
to teach His disciples some lessons about giving to the support of
His church after He was gone.  Just as it took money to carry on
the work of the Lord at the temple, even so it would take money to
carry on His work in the church.  Jesus had already set up a
treasury and appointed a treasurer.  Judas was the treasurer.
Judas was a scoundrel, but the office was an honorable office and
they would need to fill that vacancy when Judas would commit
suicide.  They would also need to dig down into their own pockets
to keep funds in the treasury to carry on the work.  They would
need to teach all disciples to give and to support the work.  So
Jesus was using these last few minutes in the temple to teach His
disciples a very important lesson that would help to finance the
work after He was gone.
    But the lessons which He taught were not intended for them
alone.  The Lord had this event recorded in Scripture so that
through this record would also be a lesson for us in carrying on
the work of the Lord today.
    I want to call to your attention several things that Jesus
wants us to learn form this record.  First of all, Jesus wants us
to know that He watches our giving.  He watches how much we give
and He watches how we give it.  He takes notice of the amount and
He takes notice of the attitude in which we give.  As for how much
we give, Jesus does not call upon His people to give all of their
living.  God's plan for Christian giving calls for us to learn to
give at least a tenth.  That is just a starting place.  Yet as we
grow in grace we should learn to give above the tenth.  He does
not want us to give for show, but He does want us to give
cheerfully.
     Jesus wants us to give because we love God.  Jesus knew that
some of those rich men gave in order to make a show of their
giving.  They wanted people to brag on them.  He knew also that
this poor widow gave simply because she loved God and wanted to do
something for Him because He had done so much for her.  That
should be the motivation for our giving.  We are not to give to
make a show of our giving.  We are not to give so that others will
brag on us.  We are to give because we love the Lord and want to
do something to promote His cause.
    Jesus wants us to give to support the local church.  Just as
those Jews were to give through the temple, even so Christians are
to give through the local church.  We can and should give to the
poor and to support missions throughout the world, but our primary
responsibility is to support the work of the local church.  No
matter how much we give to support other causes that does not
relieve us of our responsibility of supporting the local church.
    Jesus wants us to learn to depend on the Lord to supply our
need.  Just as that poor widow gave all of her living and then
just trusted the Lord to supply her need, even so we should give
and trust the Lord to help us meet our personal needs.  I have
already said, that God does not require us to give all our living,
as that widow did.  Yet we should purpose to give the tithe and
offerings above the tithe to the Lord through the church.  We
should not use money that should go for tithes and offerings to
pay our bills and buy luxuries for ourselves.  We should set aside
a certain amount for tithes and offerings and make sure that it
goes there.  Put the Lord first and then trust the Lord to take
care of your needs.
    In this text Jesus has taught us Christians about Christians,
but He would not have those who are unsaved to misunderstand this
lesson.  He would not have you to think that any unsaved man,
woman, boy or girl has to give one red penny to the cause of the
Lord in order to be saved.  Nobody gets into heaven  by giving
money.  Nobody goes to hell because they fail to give.  Supporting
God's cause financially has nothing whatsoever to do with going to
heaven or to hell.
    The only way that a lost sinner can be saved and stay out of
the fires of hell is to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in
Him for the salvation of the soul.  Salvation is absolutely free.
That is, it is free to the lost sinner.  It cost God His only
begotten Son and it cost Jesus His life, but it is free---
absolutely free---to the lost sinner.  Whether you in your whole
lifetime ever give one penny to the church never enters into the
picture.  The hymn that says, "Jesus paid it all" puts it very
well.  You don't have to ever give a penny to the cause of the
Lord in order to get saved.  If you are lost and hell-bound and
you really want to get saved, then you come this morning and trust
in Jesus Christ and get saved.

Conclusion:

    We are going to have an invitation hymn right now and ask you
who are lost  to come and get on the road to heaven.
    We are asking you who are  and Christians who need to renew
your commitment to the Lord to come now and present yourself to
Him.
    We are asking you who are Christians who wish to unite with
this church to come now.