Experience TRUTH - #27

Woodrow Kroll here. When you train one pastor in Ecuador, some donor friends are standing by to train a second pastor. Call 833-443-5467 or go online at trainapaster.com. Every gift counts and now every gift is doubled. trainapaster.com. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. One of the greatest gifts ever given to God by a widow.

It's called the widow's mite, and we're talking about it this week right now on Experience Truth. I'm Stu Epperson, Luke chapter 21, verses 1 through 6 is our text today, and it's a good one. I'm going to start reading it, and if you're able to find a copy of God's Word and read this with me, please do. We meet every week and read the Word and study the Word together in a group called Wednesday in the Word at Dario.

We also do it on Facebook if you want to check out one of our studies there. It's an awesome time with a bunch of messed up guys like me journeying through the Word, drawing closer to God, studying his Word, and we've been in this book of Luke and it's just been so rich and encouraging. So let's read the passage together and we'll continue our study. Verse 1, Luke chapter 21, And he looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and he saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So he said, Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all, for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had. Then as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, he said, These things which you see, the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. This is God's Word. May it be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. So first question is the context question. How do we see the beware of the scribes warnings from Jesus and the devouring widows warnings from Jesus on display here?

Wow. Who so reproaches the poor? Who so abuses the poor? Robs from the poor is a reproach upon the Maker, it tells us in Proverbs. Jesus excoriates these scribes, these Pharisees, up until now.

Remember what's happened. So the first part of this verse, verse 1, and he looked up and he saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. So what's going on here? Well these words, and he looked up, what had just happened? Jesus made his triumphal entry. Chapter 19, we studied that. He comes into the temple. He turns over the tables.

He's excoriated the scribes, stood down the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, cleansed the temple, and they come to him saying, hey, wait a second. You're costing us a lot of money here. A lot of people paying a lot of money. They had been robbing these people on the exchange rate, making a ridiculous exchange rate, and they've been overcharging it.

You know, usury and all kinds of extortion. We've been charging way too much money for maybe, you know, 10, 15 times, 18 times as much as they should have charged for little lambs and goats and turtledoves to be offered. So this is the context, and this is what's been going on. So now you have this treasury, which is a common area that he's sitting with his disciples in the court of the women within the larger court of the Gentiles. This is where the primary giving to the temple took place. When people came up to Passover, they came to give. And of course, we know that these rich people, and especially the religious rich, wanted their gift to be seen. So there are these seven trumpet-shaped receptacles inside the courtyard, set up to receive gifts. And these gifts would be of all different different kind of values, but there wasn't really paper currency, it was more coins.

So every time a coin went in, it went in this trumpet-shaped dispenser, this bin, and there were different ones, there were 13, there are different ones for different categories. Some would be for sacrifice, for oil, for incense, for other materials that would sustain the people. You know, the temple, it didn't run for free, it took money to run the temple. Heard a preacher once say, he said, the ministry is free, but we got to pay the light bill, we got to pay the power bill, right?

And we got to pay the rent. And so that's why it's so important that we give to our churches, that we support our local church, that we are feeding from and drawing spiritual resources from, so we need to keep that replenished and keep giving generously. Well, so it was an important thing to give, but it's another thing if you're giving to be seen. And when these rich would give, there would be a big loud clink. The bigger the coin, the more coins, the more bouncing around in this big metallic trumpet-shaped receptacle, and people would hear it. And it would incentivize people to make more noise, to give more, but not in the case of the widow.

And I put a question here, the next question. What's good or bad about public giving? When you start pledging, Jesus condemned it in Matthew 6. He said, hey, beware about giving your gifts in public. He was decrying hypocritical, prideful, boasting-type giving, just like he decried praying in public. Praying in public is not bad, or half our preachers would be out of work. Praying in public's wonderful, but when you pray to be heard, when you pray to be seen, when maybe your prayer in public is a lot longer and more in-depth than your prayer in private because you don't pray in private, that's a bad thing. So these things, when they're pharisaical, when they're hypocritical, when they're boastful, they're bad, just like giving to be seen.

But it's not bad. Everyone knew what Barnabas did later in the book of Acts, when he gave a bunch of his land and used the money to advance the church. But when Ananias and Zephyr did it in Acts 5, God killed him.

Why? Because it was a hypocritical abuse of that. They did it just to be seen. They knew about Barnabas, and pretty much everyone knew about what Barnabas did, but Barnabas' motive wasn't that everyone would know about it. His motive was to advance the cause of Christ.

His motive was to build a church. So this is very fascinating. So what's good? What's bad about public giving? As you can see, there's some good things. There are some really bad things.

It comes down to your heart. And let's turn to the heart of the widow. Verse 2, He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So her offering was seen but not heard. Why?

Because two mites are absolutely tiny. I want to talk about that. This is really interesting. Her offering was seen by the only one whose eyes matter. That's right, by God and by Jesus. How interesting that Jesus, of all these people, all these pious characters that have traveled from all over the world, and then some local, of course, how fascinating that all the offering that he makes note of. Here at his temple, he's at the Passover.

It's Holy Week. He's been teaching. He's about to tell some parables. He's been preaching, teaching. He's been, you know, doing some miracles.

He's also been confronting the religious leaders who've been trying to confront him and catch him in all kinds of stuff and entrap him. But of all the people he notices giving to God, it's this widow, this poor widow. The poorest, lowest, least noticeable meager widow. It's a little bit like the the woman we studied earlier on in Luke.

Remember the woman who had the condition, the blood condition? And there's a massive crowd. Jesus says, who touched me? Because she touched the hem of his garment.

Isn't that cool? And immediately she was healed. But he notices her. He noticed that poor blind beggar that we saw on the road, on the Jericho Road, as Christ is coming from Jericho to Jerusalem, to this moment, he notices and hears him of all the people thronging him.

He notices him. Just really powerful. What a story. And so Christ is a Savior. He saves individuals. He saves the poor. This woman was poor. Widows were poor.

Why? She had no breadwinner. Her husband had died.

We don't know how she lost him, but she was all by herself. And the plight of widows is very desperate. But yet she's still giving. Yet that hasn't kept her down. She is giving as a contrast to these rich givers who are parading loudly their gifts. She's quietly, faithfully giving. What a deal.

The scribes and religious leaders were supposed to lead the people. These guys were supposed to love the people and support these widows. And here she's giving, and they're giving to fundamentally announce their giving for everyone to see. I wonder how much is two mites? Well, it's basically, and also the language is lepta, L-E-P-T-A, it's one-eighth of a penny, or one-fortieth of a dinaris, and a dinaris is about a day's wage. It's the smallest sized coin in the Hebrew currency. It's the absolute minimal offering allowed. So basically two minas could barely purchase a paltry piece of bread for one person.

Imagine that. Her money she should have probably, and could have used for bread, she used to give to God. By the way, there's a whole bunch in the Old Testament about a widow being allowed to use money. If it came down to eating and giving money to the temple, she should give to her food to take care of herself so she could live. So anyway, let's look at what verse 4 says.

Jesus comments now. He saw a poor widow putting in two mites, so he said, Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all. Now here's a great question. How could, if her gift was so small, how could it be considered more than all the others? There's two minas, two mites, two lepta.

Are you kidding me? That's more than all these others? Such a paltry small gift, but so much more. And let's talk about that.

Why would it be considered more? Well, Jesus explains. Verse 4. For all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God. These folks had plenty that they were giving out of what they already had. They weren't hurting. They weren't struggling. They weren't dying. They weren't maybe missing their last meal to give to God. But she, out of her poverty, put in all the livelihood that she had. So Jesus answers a question. Why did she give more? It's very, very important. This whole idea of what's really important, what's really of value, resonated in the ears of God, this gift that no one else heard, because it was so small. These two little coins are so small. But she gave out of abundance. I'm sorry. She gave out of an abundant heart, but she gave out of poverty.

Really, it's interesting. There's really not a lot of sacrifice in most of our giving today, really, but this woman gave sacrificially. What an example. It literally means she gave of all that she had. She didn't hold back, not one of the two mites. What if she just gave one mite? She gave both of them. The cost of what would have been to exist on a half a piece of bread. Sacrificial giving by the widow. She had nothing left with these two mites, and she gave it all away.

Wow. Now I want to get into a little bit of controversy, because one pastor I read believed Jesus wasn't exalting the widow's act. He was exalting her sacrificial heart. But some folks believe you give in order to get. What about that concept? What about the truth there and some other truths? There's four powerful truths that come out of this that I want to share with you next time right here on Experienced Truth. Thanks for joining us. Please study the Word, read the Word, memorize God's Word, hide in your heart, and share God's Word.

The story of the widow's mite will continue next time on Experienced Truth from Luke chapter 21 verses 1 through 6. Learn more about all of this at truthnetwork.com. Thank you to all of our awesome affiliates that carry this program. Thank you to all of you for your prayers as we continue to share, preach, and teach God's Word right here on this station. We'll be here next time at the same time next week at the same time for Experienced Truth. This is the Truth Network.