The profound generosity of a poor widow who gave her last two mites to the temple treasury, demonstrating that true giving is measured by sacrifice, not by the amount given. Jesus contrasted her selfless act with the abundance given by the rich, emphasizing that her offering represented all she had. This act of devotion, occurring at the close of Jesus' public ministry in the temple, served as a bright spot amidst the opposition from religious leaders and the disciples' lack of understanding. The widow's example teaches the importance of sacrifice, submission, and service, offering a refreshing contrast to the hardness of heart and hatred she faced, ultimately revealing a heart filled with devotion to God.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 1.57 → restored 4.58
Would you turn to Mark's Gospel, chapter twelve, please? The Gospel according to Mark, chapter twelve, reading from verse forty-one. After much in the cave experience thirty years ago, it might be well if you brethren put up a book table back there today. Some might carry something from the conference anyhow. Mark chapter twelve, verse forty-one. Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury and many that were rich cast in much.
And there came a certain poor widow and she threw in two mice which make a father. And he called unto him his disciples and said unto them, Verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance. But she of her want did cast in all that she had even all her living. This was the last time the Lord Jesus Christ was ever in the temple in Jerusalem during his earthly ministry.
The very last incident that closed his public ministry in the temple was the incident of this poor woman who put in two mites in the treasury. The very first time the Lord Jesus Christ was ever in the temple, there was a widow there as well. When it was about six years of age, his mother brought him into the temple and Simeon took him up in his arms and blessed God for him. A widow woman by the name of Anna came into the temple at that very moment, and learning of him she prayed and gave thanks to God and spoke of him to all those in Jerusalem who looked for the redemption. And now the last instance in our Lord's life connected with the temple, there's a widow there as well. In the first instance, the Lord Jesus Christ, as an infant of no more than six weeks of age, would have been completely unaware of that woman who spoke so well of him.
And in the last instance, The widow, the woman herself, was completely unaware of the Lord Jesus Christ. She did not know that he saw or took notice of what she had done. In that first instance, it was a prophesying woman because Luke tells us she was a prophet. In the last instance, it was a poor woman who had but two mites for all her living. In that first instance, that widow gave thanks to God she gave the fruit of her lips. In the last instance the woman gave the fruit of her life, all her living she gave everything she had to God as a gift. And in this last instance in the Lord's ministry in the temple, when he closed his public ministry to the people of Israel, this woman is the one bright spot in the last week from the time the Lord Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem until his crucifixion.
this woman was that one bright spot. I'm taking it for granted that John's chronology is correct where he puts the anointing of the Lord by Mary of Bethany prior to the triumphal entry, so that in this last week this woman's act was a grasp of refreshing water for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to look at what she did as the answer to two things First, the hardness of the disciple, and secondly, the hatred of the religious leaders, and what this woman's gift meant to the Lord Jesus Christ in the light of those two things.
And if our hearts are filled with the Lord Jesus Christ as we've been so beautifully exalted already today, then this to me will be the automatic result. What this woman did will be the result of a heart filled with the Lord. One of the most important pieces of work the Lord Jesus Christ did in his earthly ministry was to train twelve men, one of course of whom was a traitor, but to train twelve to carry on the ministry once he would ascend to the right hand of the Father. And as you trace through the Synoptic Gospels particularly, you notice the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in training these twelve men.
You find it so forcibly brought to our attention in Mark's Gospel. In the first eight chapters, after the Lord Jesus Christ has called his disciples and chosen twelve and then takes them with him, that they might be with him, that he might send them forth to preach and to cast out demons and so on, You notice how over and over again he teaches them certain things, he illustrates those teachings by miracles, he gives them parables to inform them, to instruct their minds, use as common everyday terms and items of life to try to bring before them the truths are so necessary for them to know before they can successfully carry on the work of the Lord.
And the first thing they had to learn is the thing that's been brought before us as they already Who this man Jesus is? And patiently the Lord Jesus is trying to instruct them in the first eight chapters of Mark's Gospel as to who he is. Miracles are performed in the sight of his disciples that they might see through that parable accident, who this man is whom they are following, and how slow they were to learn it. You remember in the fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel where the Lord gives the parables that should have instructed these men not only as to who the Lord is but as to the effect of the Word.
Why were so many people rising up in opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ? And in that parable the Son of the Lord teaches his disciples, why? Why is it all don't flock to him as they have done? The parable of the story is the answer. But after all those parables, After all the miracles were now put to the test. To close this chapter four, they failed miserably. Out in that little boat on a storm-tossed sea, with the Lord Jesus Christ of sleep and behind your part of the vessel, filled with fear, they come to wake him.
Master, carest thou not to be buried. And mind you, they were in danger. The ship was filling with the water, we're told. They were in danger. And being experienced fishermen, knowing that sea as they knew the back of their hands, they realized the danger they were in. And yet they couldn't trust the one with whom they'd been walking for all these months. And when the Lord stilled that tempest and then rebuked the disciples, You remember their question in their heart, what manner of man is this? Who is this that even the wind in the sea obeyed him?
They didn't yet know who he was. You remember after feeding four thousand? He got into a boat again with his disciples and crossed the sea. And when they reached the other side and were walking in the region of the Thessalonians, the Lord began to warn his disciples, Beware of eleven of the Pharisees and of the Herodians. And the disciples began to argue or think among themselves. He's saying that because we forgot them to bring any bread. They had only one loaf with them. And on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, that could be tragedy. On the western side, no, because it was a populous land, and bread could have easily been secure.
But where they were going on the northeastern side of the Sea of Galilee, it would have been very difficult to secure bread. And here were twelve disciples in the Lord, thirteen men with one loaf of bread. And when the Lord mentions leaven, all they can think about is a loaf of bread. And then in Mark's account are nine pointed questions. The Lord trusted his disciples. Do ye not yet understand? I have fed five thousand. How much did you have left? Twelve batches. I fed four thousand. How much did you have left over? Seven large hamperes. And you're worried about having only one loaf of bread when I'm here?
Haven't you yet grasped who I am? And it may have been those questions that opened the minds of the disciples because it's in that same eighth chapter that the Lord Jesus asks them, who do men say that I am? And there was a very response. And then finally the Lord tells them, but who do you say that I am? And finally the light has broken in upon Peter's soul, thou art the Christ. He had learned the first thing the Lord was trying to teach his disciples, who he is.
Now immediately, for the first time, the Lord plainly tells them he's going to die. Once they have learned who he is, they must next learn why he had come. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must be rejected and suffer many things and be killed. And the third day rise again. Three times in Mark's Gospel, chapters eight, nine, and ten, the Lord Jesus Christ plainly unfolds to his disciples his approaching death. And in increasing detail, he tells them of the events that await him in the city of Jerusalem.
on all three occasions they fail to understand. In chapter eight, the response is given by Peter, this be far from thee, Lord. No, Lord, I just discovered who you are. You're the Christ for whom we've been waiting. You can't talk about dying now. in chapter nine as they're on their way up to Jerusalem and the Lord walking on ahead of his disciples deepened thought about his approaching death the disciples marked the scribes and coming a little behind him amazed and then behind them the multitude and as they went the Lord began to teach them again of his suffering and death and resurrection in Jerusalem And they were afraid to ask you.
And when they reached the house, the Lord says, what were you disputing, by the way? And they were ashamed to respond. For they had been disputing which of them was the greatest. And all the time the Lord had been teaching them of his death. they were concerned with which one of them would be the chief among the twelve apostles. In chapter ten, when the Lord from the third time plainly tells them of his coming death, he is almost interrupted by the eagerness of James and John to make a request of him, they brush aside the Lord has this strange teaching of an approaching death.
And they would ask him that in his coming glory they might sit, one on the right hand and the other on the left. They're only interested in approaching glory. Each time the Lord teaches them a lesson, in chapter eighty, teaches them the lesson of sacrifice. Beautiful sacred life will lose it. But he that loses his life for my sake and for the gospel is the same shall save us. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. And that's the voluntary association of the Christian with the death of Christ.
Let him take up his cross and follow me. What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world? and lose his own soul. And I'm persuaded we should translate his life. It's the same word he's just been talking about. Whosoever would save his life, whosoever will lose his life. It's the same word. What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life? And he teaches a malignant sacrifice. And he asks two questions. What will a man get is the first question.
And what will a man give is the second question. So a man is willing to sell his life. He knew in the language of the Lord Jesus during the whole world. But now the second question the Lord asks is what will he give in exchange for his life. When that disciple comes to the end of his earthly journey and he discovers he has done the wrong thing with his life, though he has changed the whole world, he's gone in for things of time and not for things of eternity.
And the result of his diligence and the use of his life for the things of time is that he has done the whole world and now life has come to an end. And he realizes he made a mistake. What is there that he can give to get that life back again? Nothing. Nothing. It's God. He can never get it back. Will we as disciples learn something today? You must lose your life.
You must lose it. You are going to lose it now, so far as the estimation of the world is concerned. Or you're going to lose it in the day of the Lord's glory. But lose it you must. You can save it now and go in for what you want. But in the day of the Lord's glory you'll discover you must. Or you can lose it now. and discovered that they saved. But they couldn't understand. In chapter nine, the Lord teaches them the lesson of submission.
He takes a little child to become as a little child. And while you disciples were arguing about which should be the greatest, The lesson is the lesson of submission, the low place. In chapter ten he uses himself for an example. Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And he taught them the lesson of sacrifice. Or rather the lesson of serving. The first time he taught them the lesson of sacrifice, the second time the lesson of submission, and the third time the lesson of service.
The third. Now over against the hardness of the disciples in not understanding, here is this woman who didn't even know him, who only knew the Lord God of Israel, whom knew nothing of his Son, whom he had sent into the world. But a heart taken up with the Lord God of Israel was the answer in every respect to the hardness of the disciple's heart. She had learned the lesson of sacrifice. She gave everything she had on her list.
She had learned the lesson of submission. She had come unobtrusively, where as the wealthy came and as the Lord described them, when they gave alms, they blew a trumpet so that all could see. It may have been the Lord had reference to the trumpet-shaped mounds on the thirteen chests that sat in the court of the women where the people could give their money. and that the riches they came in would fling their coins against that brazen mouse so that all could hear the rat laws. And those standing by who were watching people give could admire publicly with their praise the generosity of these folks.
But if the Lord hadn't called to the disciples' attention what this woman has done, No one would ever have known. She'd learned that lesson of submission. And as we shall see, I trust, if we missed time, she had learned the lesson of service to give to the Lord and to her fellow men. For those chests were divided into two sections, nine of them were marked for the Lord. Four of them were marked for the poor. I don't know that she divided them, but she had two mice. She could have kept one for herself in her poverty-stricken circumstances, but she gave both.
And I'm guessing you understand. It's imagination. I hope it's a sanctified imagination. But I rather imagine she put one of those mice in a chestmark for the Lord, and one of those mice in a chestmark for the poor. She had learned a lesson, sir. She was also refreshing to the Lord's heart in that she answered the hatred of the religious leaders. As you read the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark, you'll find the opposition to him beginning in chapter two and reaching a real crux and climax in chapter eleven. In chapter eleven, when the Lord Jesus Christ enters the city of Jerusalem, on that first day, according to Mark's account, he simply entered the temple and looked around on all things within the house.
And the next day he came in and cleansed the temple. A den of robber, kill even thieves, and the chief priest, furious at what he has done, determined how they might He had robbed them of their ill-gotten gaze in having charge of the sale of the animals for sacrifice, of breaking off a fifteen percent return on the changers of money. And now it was all gone at one stroke in the righteous indignation of the Son of God as he cleansed that temple from its filthy Canaanite is God.
And now they lay a deliberate plan by which they can destroy him. They first attempt to arrest him, but failing in that, they seek to disgrace him publicly. Four times at the close of chapter eleven into chapter twelve of Mark's gospel, certain people try to trap the Lord. in deliberate question, the chief priest sent certain ones publicly to impale the Lord on the horns of a dilemma from which he could not escape.
The first question they asked themselves, at the close of chapter eleven, they asked the question, By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? And it was a question of authority. Now the Lord's response was not cleverness. The Lord wasn't being clever. When he asked them in return, the baptism of John wasn't of heaven or of men. And they found a question they couldn't answer. For if they were to say it was of heaven, they would say, then why weren't you baptized? If they were to say of men, the people holding John to be a prophet would have stolen them.
Now, the Lord wasn't simply trying to escape their question. He was answering it. There has already been a man sent from God with the authority of Herod for his ministry, and he rejected it. you have already publicly rejected the authority of heaven. And publicly he shows that if seeing authority they could recognize it, they refused it. And if the refusal was due to ignorance, then they couldn't recognize authority when they saw it.
A question of authority. They were the rulers of the temple. What right did he have to come in and interfere with the way they were running God's house? Or the Lord revealed that in chapter twelve in the early verses, the parable of the vineyard. God sent messengers, stoned, beaten, killed. What is his authority? Having therefore one son. he sent him. There's his authority. God had sent his son. To get the fruits of the vineyard of Israel from its keeper, these very chief priests, there was his authority.
But those who made sense formed an ungodly coalition of Pharisees and Herodians, who doctrinally were at each other's throats. The Herodians profess outwardly to desire subjection to the Empire of Rome through Herod, the Tephthah, the Pharisees' intense nationalism, felt that it was a disgrace to the people of God to be subject to Caesar at all, but they can unite in a common hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they come together. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or no?
Now if he says yes, it's lawful to give tribute to Caesar, then his public entry into Jerusalem is a farce. The cries of the multitude, Hosanna! Blessed be the kingdom of our Father David. It's all a farce. If he says yes, he raises the ire of the people against him. if he says, no, that's all they need to put an accusation before Pilate. Here is a man who is teaching rebellion against the authority of Rome. And he calls for a silver coin which couldn't be found in the precincts of the temple. Only Jewish money could be used there.
And I wonder what went on during that wake in the silence of that crowd while someone went out to get that silver coin and when it was brought in the Lord, held it up. Whose image and superscription is this? or whatever bears Caesar's image, you render to Caesar. And then the crux of it, whatever bears God's image, you render to God. And man was made in the image and likeness of God. And had they given to God what belonged to God, they would never have had to give to Caesar what belonged to Caesar.
The next question was raised by the Sadducees, immediately upon the heels of the other. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, neither angels nor spirits. And they asked a fantastic question about a woman who had seven husbands in the resurrection whose wife would she be. And they thought the only answer the Lord could give was to admit his error in believing in a resurrection, because here's a possible situation with an impossible solution. There couldn't be any resurrection from the dead. This woman had had seven husbands. That would create an impossible situation if you raised all seven of them at one time and raised the woman, which one is to be your husband?
Oh, I marvel at the wisdom of the Lord. I marvel at the depths of Scripture. Out of a passage I suppose no one of us would ever have dreamed of as proving the resurrection. The Lord takes a word that God gave to Moses in Exodus three. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not I truly the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Sir Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have been dead for centuries. and out of their own scriptures, for they believe the Pentateuch. Out of their own scriptures, he answers them.
And the last question asked the Lord was asked by a scribe, which is the greatest commandment? That was a perennial question among the doctors of the law, and the Lord sums it up very nicely. Taking his text from the Old Testament, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength, and thy neighbor is thyself. And the questions were finished. You remember the Lord asked the question, but it's not to remain to our subject this morning. And now passing from that court, the court of the Gentiles, where the multitudes could gather to hear his teaching, he went into the court of the women where the treasury was kept.
And he sat down over against the treasury. and what, how, not what. He wanted how they did.