SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR 11/13/2012 11:18:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus: False
Teachers
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark 12: 38-44
Message of the verses: Mark 12:38-44 “In His teaching He was saying:
"Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like
respectful greetings in the market places, 39 and chief seats in the synagogues
and places of honor at banquets, 40 who devour widows’ houses, and for
appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation."
“41 And He sat down opposite the treasury,
and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and
many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in
two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. 43 Calling His disciples to
Him, He said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all
the contributors to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their surplus,
but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.’”
As we look at the section of
Scripture for Today’s SD I want to say that in true Mark writing that he does
not include all of the things that Jesus actually said to the Pharisees, and
this is probably because of the audience that he was writing to, and the things
that Jesus states at this time to the Pharisees is for Jewish instructions, but
we have the benefit of looking at all four of the gospels to find out more of
what Jesus actually said to the Scribes and Pharisees. I copied the section from Matthew’s Gospel in
an earlier SD, but will mention that Matthew 23: 1-33 contains the entire
message that the Lord gave to the Scribes and the Pharisees. I will also mention that Jesus told it like
it was to them, as He did not mince any words when speaking to them. He uses the word “woe” to them eight times
and this word means that Jesus was filled with grief along with judgment
towards these false religious leaders.
Jesus had given up on the spiritual
leaders of Israel at the midpoint of His ministry on planet earth. He then spent the night praying to His Father
and then in the morning appointed the twelve apostles, and of course Judas
would be replaced after he betrays our Lord.
One of the reasons that Jesus chose twelve men was because they would
replace the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel, for God was going to set
aside the nation of Israel for a while and He would graft into the olive tree
(Israel) a wild olive tree (The Church) until the time when the Church would be
taken to heaven at the event, called the rapture, and then God would once again
work with the nation of Israel, and this would be the time of the tribulation,
the seven year period that Jesus will speak of in the next chapter of
Mark. As the tribulation comes to its end
then we will see that “all Israel will be saved.”
We find Jesus in the temple teaching
His disciples during this section along with rebuking the Scribes and Pharisees
for their false teachings, and when He concludes His teaching perhaps He and
His disciples began to observe how the people of Israel would give money in the
temple. As He was observing people give
their money we see a widow come and put her last two coins into the coffers and
Jesus remarks about this in the last paragraph of chapter twelve. I suppose that I have misunderstood this
section for a long time, but now after listening to John MacArthur’s message on
this section I begin to understand it like never before.
I want to quote Dr. Wiersbe here
before getting into what I want to day about this section. “There were thirteen trumpet-shaped chests
around the walls of the court of the women, and here the people dropped in
their offerings. The rich made a big
production out of their giving (see Matt. 6:1-4), but Jesus rejected them and
their gifts. It is not the portion but the proportion that is important:
the rich gave out of their abundance, but the poor widow gave all that
she had. For the rich, their gifts were
a small contribution, but for the widow, he gift was a true consecration of her
whole life.”
This is all we are told about this
woman. We don’t know her spiritual
condition or her motives for giving her last two coins that she had to live
on. We can see what Jesus said to the
Scribes and Pharisees about widows in verse 40 “’who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s
sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.’” This is what these false religious leaders
did and it could be that they have stolen all of this woman’s money and she
still believed what they taught her and this is you had to pay your way into
heaven and she was doing it with her last two coins. I don’t believe that Jesus is teaching about
giving in this section as some would say, especially some of the false TV
evangelists we find on our TV’s. If you
hear one of these teachers tell you that you have to give your money to them so
that you can receive a blessing and a healing from the Lord you are listening
to the wrong message. This is what these
false teachers of Jesus’ day were teaching and it is still going on today. Jesus rebuked them and we should do the same
today.
When Jesus came into the temple to
“cleanse” it we read these words, “"Is it not written, ’MY HOUSE SHALL BE
CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’
DEN.’” They had these thirteen trumpet
-shaped chests in order to rob the people who gave their money in order to pay
for their salvation, and this was surely what the Lord was talking to them
about. Jesus was right there and soon He
would die for the sins of those who would eventually accept His work on the
cross, but they did not see it.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: There are
many times when I think that I know what the Scripture is talking about, but
then find out that I did not know and this section was one of those times, so I
must be like the Bereans and study the Scriptures daily.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to
put myself inside of a circle and ask the Holy Spirit to bring revival to my
heart, the only one inside that circle, and then continue to pray for a Holy
Spirit revival for the Church in our land.
Continue to learn contentment and be transformed by the Word of God.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 130:1-4
1 Out of the debts I cried to You, O
LORD. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my
supplications. 3 If You, Lord, should
mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You, that you may be feared.
11/13/2012 12:11:23
PM
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