Sermon Series: Getting to Know Jesus 

Writing Our Biographies 

Mark 12:41-44 

PSBC 9/22/02

In a nutshell: Our use of money and possessions tell a tremendous amount about what is important to us, what we're like deep down where no one else sees, and where our values and priorities lie. In fact, it's not much of a stretch at all to say that our use of money and possessions easily tells the tale of our lives. It tells our biography.

I. Introduction

A. Flip Wilson Story

Some of you may remember the comedy routine that Flip Wilson used to do. He took on the character of a preacher who was trying to get his people to be more enthusiastic about their church.

So he said: "If this church is going to get anywhere, it has to learn to crawl." And the people said, "Let it crawl, Rev., let it crawl!"

And then he said, "And after it learns to crawl, it has to learn to walk." And the people said, "Let it walk, Rev., let it walk!"

Then he got more excited and said, "After this church learns to walk, it has to learn to run!" And the people said, "Let it run, Rev., let it run!"

Finally he said, "And if this church is going to run, it's going to take money!" And the people said, "Let it crawl, Rev., let it crawl!"

When it comes to money, that old saying, "Put your money where you mouth is," often rings very true. In various fund raising efforts that I've been involved in over the years, I've often heard people talk about their commitment, and willingness and enthusiasm for a cause, but you really see if their words are true by whether or not they pull our their checkbook.

Illustration: We've seen that played out in the past year at this church. -When the youth needed a room to meet in, many of you pulled out your checkbooks and tapped your contacts and we turned a storage shed into a very nice youth meeting room. -When our children needed a better playground surface behind the Family Center, you all contributed and paid for the sod and sprinkler pipes to be laid.

Illustration: Just two weeks ago, I rode in a motorcycle charity event out in Temecula to benefit a single mom, whose 16 year old son, Jason, has cancer. Linda, the mom, had to take a leave of absence from her job to take care of Jason during his chemo treatments. The event's goal was to raise $3500 to help Linda with groceries and mortgage payments for the time she would have to be gone from work. But Linda was one of our own. She rides with the secular bike club that I ride with, and the Christian Motorcyclist group. So these two groups came together and put their money where their mouths were, and raised $7142 .

How we respond with our checkbooks tells much more about us than how we respond with our words.

B. Reminder

Well, as we begin this morning, let me remind you of the overall theme of this year long sermon series in the book of Mark. We are getting to know Jesus. We are getting to know the things that are important to our Lord, so we can make them important to us.

In fact, if we really are going to be a unified group of people in this church, following Jesus Christ, making a difference in this Coachella Valley, then we must pay very close attention when Jesus reveals the things that are important to Him. -Because if what's important to Jesus isn't important to us, then we won't be included in His plans to advance His Kingdom. -If what's important to Jesus isn't important to us, then we will cease to be the church of Jesus Christ, and we'll wind up being the country club about Jesus Christ. -If we are going to be collectively and individually used by God in His Kingdom plans, then we must be completely on the same page as Jesus when it comes to issues and values that are important to Him.

And as we'll see this morning, our use of money and possessions are very important issues to Jesus. So we can't avoid this discussion if we are going to be totally devoted followers of Jesus Christ. We have to look at it honestly and exactly as it is laid out for us in God's Word.

C. Money and possessions in the New Testament

Did you know that Jesus talked about money and possessions more than any other single topic during His entire earthly ministry? In fact, He addresses this topic exactly 2,172 verses in the New Testament. That's compared to the 714 verses where He talked about love; 371 verses where He talked about prayer; and 272 verses where He mentioned faith and believing.

And there's a reason for that. Jesus summed up the reason very clearly in…

Luke 12:34 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Our use of money and possessions tell a tremendous amount about us. It tells… …what's important to us, …what we're like deep down where no one else sees, and …where our values and priorities lie.

In fact, it's not much of a stretch at all to say that our use of money and possessions easily tells the tale of our lives. It tells our biography. So, let's turn to Mark 12 to find out what Jesus has to say about possessions and money.

II. The Widow

Mark 12:41-44 41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-all she had to live on."

A. Story of the Widow

This scene takes place in the Court of Women, found in the outer area of the great Temple at Jerusalem. It was called the Court of Women, not because it was to be used just by the women of Israel, but because it was one of the places in the Temple where women could freely come and go. And in that court were thirteen trumpet-shaped boxes into which God's people put their offerings for the Temple's various ministries.

Into that court, Mark records, there came a "poor widow". The statement that she was a poor widow is actually redundant. Without a money-earning male as a partner, most widows in Israelite society lived lives of agonizing destitution, vulnerability, and were utterly dependent upon the charity of others.

Widows were generally regarded as people to whom offerings from the Temple treasury were to be given, not from whom they were ever expected. And yet here's where the story of this particular woman becomes amazing.

Mark reports that this widow came and put in two "very small copper coins"-literally two "lepta". These coins equaled about one sixty-fourth of an average day's wages. It would seem like a very insignificant amount to just about anyone-for sure it was a ridiculously small amount when you'd compare it to the "large amounts" that many rich people were throwing in.

But Jesus is careful to tell us, that for this woman, it was "everything she had"-it was "all she had to live on."

Illustration: It was the equivalent of you or me taking everything in our bank accounts and investment portfolios and giving it over to the service of Someone and Something much bigger than ourselves.

Why do you think she did that? Why did she make such an incredible sacrifice?

B. Why?

1. I suppose that one possible explanation is that she just cared that much for the work of God's temple. Some of us have read stories about people like that and maybe we've even actually met a few.

Illustration: Back in the early days of Sunday Schools, when everyone wanted their children to attend, a little girl was told by a church in Philadelphia that they couldn't take her because there wasn't enough room.

Two years later, the little girl contracted smallpox and eventually died. That wasn't unusual. Lots of kids died of smallpox in those days. What was surprising was what her mother found underneath her pillow when she cleaned out the little girl's room. It was a small coin purse containing 57 pennies which she must have stowed away one-by-one. Along with the pennies was a note, written very clearly in her childlike hand. It read: "To help build the Little Temple bigger, so more children can go to Sunday school."

Friends, what happened next would be unbelievable had it not really happened. The pastor of that church told this story to his congregation. Somehow the newspapers got a hold of the story, first in Philadelphia and then across the country. Soon the 57 pennies grew. They were joined by gifts of $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, $1,000,000.

Today, you can see the outcome if you visit Philadelphia. Now there is a church that will seat 3,300 people; there is Temple University; Temple Hospital; and a large Temple Sunday School building that has been the spiritual home to tens of thousands of children over the years. And it all began with 57 pennies and the heart of a child that wanted everyone to know Jesus.

Maybe the widow who came that day believed that much in the work of God's Temple in Jerusalem.

2. Or maybe she just believed that much in God. After all, you just don't make a sacrifice like that without some kind of backup plan to meet your legitimate needs. To give everything would have to mean that you would have some kind of confidence that you will be okay, or that Someone will send reinforcements to bail your out.

Maybe the widow had that kind of confidence. It could be that she knew God's promise in…

Malachi 3:10 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

I've known of people who have lived their lives totally by faith in that verse-some have been millionaires and leaders in the business world, others have been missionaries, others have been very meek and not-so-wealthy people. But they all trusted God, and did what just seemed right, and found God true to his Word.

III. Why Jesus cares

The truth of the matter is that we don't know for sure if the widow was trusting in God's provision that much, or if she simply believed in the work of the Temple that much. But this we can say…Her actions didn't go unnoticed.

Verse 41 says that Jesus was sitting… "…opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury."

A. It shows where our heart is

Don't you want to know why? I mean, why was Jesus sitting there? Why does Jesus care about what people give or how they give it? And while we're at it, we might as well ask some other questions… -Why did Jesus make 714 references to love; 371 references to prayer; 272 references to faith and believing… AND 2,172 references to money and possessions? -Why do almost half of Jesus' 38 parables focus on how to handle finances and possessions? -Why do approximately 1 out of every 10 verses in the gospels deal with the subject of money?

The answers to all those questions are found in the verse I shared with you at the beginning of this message…

Luke 12:34 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Boy, I hate those words. Don't you? Few of the pastors that I know like to talk about that verse. And few church members like to hear about it, that much. I understand. This statement of Jesus about stewardship is very hard for all of us to hear.

You see, I want to say: "But Jesus…, …take a look at my prayer life; …look at how many people I've introduced to faith in you; …check out my church attendance; …consider all the Bible study I've done; …look at how nice I am to people, and animals."

And I can just see Jesus looking back at me and saying: "Tom, I'm really pleased about all of that. You're on the right track. But in my opinion, those things don't tell me anywhere near as much about your true heart as the way you spend your money. Tell me how you spent your assets last year, and I'll tell you more about your personal priorities, your ultimate loyalties than maybe you've even admitted to yourself."

I wince at those words because I know they're right. The truth of this matter is summed up very well in one of the bumper stickers I saw this summer. Maybe you've seen it, too. It reads: "Tithe if you love Jesus. Any idiot can honk!"

Look at the statement I put on the front of your copies of "This Week…" There is no more reliable indicator of how much of our heart we have really given to Christ's service than the proportion of our time, our talent, and our treasure that we have intentionally dedicated to God's work in the world.

Now, I want you to completely understand what that statement really says. It's a matter of proportion, NOT amount.

A gift of 57 cents would be just the sort of thing that would delight God from one person, while a gift of $570,000 might be too small a gift from another-because it didn't come close to sacrifice. You see, in our service to His kingdom, God does not expect equal sums from all of us; but He does ask for equal sacrifice.

B. Why sacrifice

So, why is sacrifice so important? Well, every parent knows the answer to that. And every follower of Jesus who has truly thought seriously about the Cross has some clue.

You see, friends, when you really love someone, you tend to give things up to meet his or her needs and interests. Maybe that's why Jesus wasn't particularly impressed by the "large amounts" that the rich people dropped into the Temple coffers that day. Maybe they were only tipping or honking, and not really giving from their heart.

But when that widow dropped those two tiny coins into that treasury box... when she acted in love toward God, as God acts in love towards us, by giving everything she had... that gift which was too small to be heard by the next person in line, made a sound that clanged so loudly across eternity that God himself sat up and took notice.

IV. Conclusion

A. Me, personally

Friends, as I read this story of the widow and her coins, this week…and studied and thought about its implications, I started to see what a pauper I am in the face of a faith as rich as that widow's.

Maybe you're seeing it too. Maybe you're seeing how little of ourselves we really sacrifice for the One who left behind the glory of heaven, and crawled through the mud of human existence, and willingly went to the bone-crushing pain of Calvary. Jesus gave…not just 1 or 5 or even 10 percent-but He gave everything that He had, so that you and I might be saved.

B. Personal Stewardship

I don't know where you stand in the stewardship department. I don't know what anyone gives in this church. And I don't need to know. And I don't want to know. But if this story from Mark's gospel tells us nothing else, it tells us this: Someone does know… because He's watching. Christ cares about what you do with the treasure He's given you to care for. Because he cares about what part He has of your heart.

Illustration: Just a couple of years ago, a new biography came out about the Duke of Wellington-if you didn't know, Wellington was the British general who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. The writer of this new biography claimed to have a big edge over all the others who have ever told Wellington's story.

You see, in his research, he managed to find a document that he claimed tells more about Wellington's real values, beliefs, and priorities than all his speeches, all his public appearances, and all his letters combined. What did he find? Quite simply, he found the Duke's personal financial ledger book.

C. Application

Now just suppose that years from now, someone wrote the story of your life on that basis? Regardless of whether you've won any medals or had anything named after you, or if you were famous or not so famous… what would your ledger sheet really say about you? What would it say about your real devotion, your real focus, and your real purpose?

Well, friends, you and I will write our life stories by ourselves through the decisions we make in the days to come. God's a lot like the Suzuki salesman in the TV ads out here-He doesn't care about your past, only your future. How are you going to respond to the truth in today's message from now on? That's what God's interested in.

Let's make them some of the great biographies. The kind that honor God and change lives. But then, again, it's totally up to you..

Amen.