MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
Jesus rebukes the Sanhedrin in Luke 20:41 - 21:4 | Pastor Will Hawk | February 9th, 2025
We venture into the fascinating dynamics between Jesus and the religious leaders of His time, exploring themes of authority and sacrificial generosity. By unpacking Psalm 110, we unravel the Messiah's unparalleled authority, reshaping our perspectives on faith and giving. Through the inspiring example of the poor widow's quiet act of generosity, we are reminded of the true essence of giving and faith. Join us in this enlightening journey where we embrace our weaknesses and God's gracious provision, all while sharing a light-hearted laugh about a baptism setup hiccup reflecting our readiness to support each other in faith.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Hey, good morning church and welcome and welcome to y'all who are outside. It's amazing how many people we got here today. So y'all who are outside are kind of taking it back to the early days of Midtree, right when we were all outside. But thank you guys for coming this morning. My name is Scott.
Scott Carrow:I'm one of the elders here and this morning as we were singing, I was thinking last week I got to do a member follow-up, which is kind of the last step of the process to become a member here, and it was great. I got to sit down with a lady named Rita Davis, and if you all don't know Rita Davis, you're missing out. All right, so she usually goes to second service, but gosh, what a great lady. But anyways, the reason I bring all this up is because when we do these member follow-ups, the last thing that we do is we go through the expectations what you as a member can expect from us as a church and what we as a church will expect back from you as a member. And the first thing on the list of things that you all, as members or people who attend this church, can expect is gospel-saturated community, and that not just the sermons but everything that we do is gospel-saturated, and I just wanted to point out that, man, we did that this morning, right, Like it's starting from the beginning, right, but my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness, Like that is the story of the gospel. And then the songs that we sing right, Living, he loved me. Right, Dying, he saved me. Burying, he carried my sins far away. And rising, he justified freely forever. Like this is the gospel. We have sung it together. We have sung this gospel to each other and with each other, and we have participated in sharing the gospel and the good news of the gospel with one another this morning. So we just thank you for coming here today to be a part of our service as we move forward.
Scott Carrow:I just want to point out a couple of things that we usually point out here. If you are new, we would love to get to know you. There are cards in front of you called the Connect Card, where you can write down your name and info and we can find out who you are, and we'd love to get to know you. And then also on the back of that, whether you're new here or you've been here for a while we invite you to fill out a prayer request. All right, it is our joy as elders and leaders in this church to pray with you and for you and to praise God with you and for you for the things that are going on in your lives. And so if you fill these things out, or if you have offerings to give, you can put those in the boxes that are on your way out of the room here as you go through the double doors. And the last thing is, again, if you're new here and you want to know more or, for that matter, if you're not new here, there's a lot of people who've been here for a while and maybe haven't looked at these. But anyways, we have a folder in front of you that tells you all about the church. So if you're wanting to know ways that you can serve or ways that you can get involved, or just things about what we believe and what we do here at Midtree, we invite you to take a look at that folder in front of you.
Scott Carrow:All right? So thank you. We are glad that you're with us this morning and would you please pray with me? Lord, we are thankful this morning for the good news of the gospel and we are just so thankful that you have sent Jesus to die for us and that you have made this known to us through your word. We thank you for this room, for the people who fill it, for the chance that we have to celebrate these truths together, to encourage one another with these truths together, and for us to go through life together in community here with Midtree Church.
Scott Carrow:Lord, as we move forward in this service, we just pray for each heart in this room that you would prepare us to hear and respond to and understand the gospel. We pray that, as we hear it, that your word would take root in our heart and that it would change us not just today, but even tomorrow and throughout the week as we go through the rest of our lives. That we would carry this gospel and this good news with us. Lord, we thank you for Midtree and for this place that we are, and pray that Midtree Church could be a light for this community, that we could shine the gospel brightly, that we could serve and light for this community, that we could shine the gospel brightly, that we could serve and love our neighbors well and that we could be just a place where people find rest in you.
Scott Carrow:Lord, we thank you for the chance to gather this morning for so many believers in this room and for so many of our children who are across the hall in the kids' rooms. We pray that they would also hear and respond to the gospel this morning. Lord, we love you and we thank you for the chance to gather in your name and pray that you would be honored by the things that we do here this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, and now I would like to invite Lily up to the front and she is going to read to us in preparation for the sermon. Thanks, Lily.
Lily Stephens:Good morning If y'all want to join me. In Luke, chapter 20, verse 41, and in the Bibles in the pews, that's page 880. But he said to them how can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. David thus calls him Lord. So how is he his son?
Lily Stephens:And in hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces, in the best seats, in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for pretense, make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins and he said truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance and she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
Will Hawk:Thank you, lily. Well, good morning guys, excited to spend time in God's word with you. I hope you are excited as well. I can already tell you that a small group of us who got together and prayed for your time this morning, we're already seeing God answer the very prayers that we had prayed and asked for, and so super glad that you guys are with us. We're looking at a really sort of an interesting text. One of the reasons it's interesting. If you are holding it in your Bible, go ahead and look down. I didn't put this up on the screen, but you'll notice that Lily read from the end of chapter 20 all the way through the beginning of chapter 21.
Will Hawk:By the way, all of the word of God is inspired. God authored it, he filled it with his spirit. Not one word is by mistake or by accident. We're the ones who put the numbers on there. That doesn't mean God wasn't involved at all in that process, but we're the ones who are the numbers on there. That doesn't mean God wasn't involved at all in that process, but we're the ones who are like these scrolls are a little bit difficult, a little cumbersome.
Will Hawk:Let's put this thing in a book, let's put some chapters on there and let's put some verses. I don't love where chapter 21 begins, and the reason I don't love it is because Jesus has this sort of heady theological statement. Fair warning, I'm going to ask you guys to put on your thinking caps for five minutes today and we're going to go back to Miss Sims' ninth grade English class at least I am and we're going to look at diagramming a sentence, and the fact that Valdepears just got real excited about that shows that you are in the minority here. But we're going to go from Jesus making what we'd read to us in our sort of normal English vernacular, a pretty complicated statement. Then he points to the religious leaders and he sort of throws them under the bus and that ends chapter 20. Then chapter 21 begins and into church comes this poor woman no husband, maybe children and all she has in her hand are two copper coins and Jesus looks at one and he looks at the other and he looks at us.
Will Hawk:And in this text I think this is what God is saying Can you see what I see? Can you see in you what I see in you? And I think that really is gonna be a two-edged sword. Can you see in you the desire and the fact that you are prone to really try to look and be impressive, but can you recognize that inside of you is just this desire to come to God, needy, with empty hands and trust that he will fill them. And so, really, I think there's going to be a wrestling for us this morning as we have to decide, okay, which person that I can be, am I ultimately going to end up being?
Will Hawk:Now, as we think about that, there is a question that I have for you, and that is this what truths oh wow, I don't usually Best slide of the day. What I don't usually Best slide of the day? What? All the, all the, yeah, pervasive thoughts. I'm just shutting them down right now.
Will Hawk:What truths have we heard so often that we no longer hear them? What truths have we heard so often? Here's some that we hear in the church. If you take this out of the church, every sector of life has this. When I was playing little league ball, here are the things that I heard every game Choke up. I weighed about five pounds more than the bat that they handed me. That's a pretty lightweight dude, so they just kept yelling it from the dugout Choke up, choke up. I was basically holding the barrel hoping for a bunt by the time they quieted down. Eye on the ball right Aim small, miss small. If I was on the mound, probably from the Patriot. I don't know if my dad had watched it the night before.
Will Hawk:But in church life these are things that we hear all the time. Hey, we do life together. That's what we do. Hey, we do life together. God helps those who help themselves, by the way, is not true? The first one is that's not true. God doesn't help those who help themselves. He helps the helpless and he shows them that through his spirit, he can enable them to help others around them. Life happens in circles, not in rows. Seth, do you have that video? Can you hit play? This is one of my favorite little like truisms when the church just latches on to something circles are better than rows.
Scott Carrow:Life is better in circles than in rows.
Will Hawk:Take your row and turn it into a circle. Circle Circles being in circles In a circle, in circles, versus rows Out of rows and in a circle, circles are better than rows. Circles Doesn't happen in rows, it happens in circles. Circles are as important as rows. We grow more in circles than we do in rows. Circles, circles, circles.
Scott Carrow:Circles are better than rows, that's good.
Will Hawk:That pretty much covers it All, right. So everybody up, let's pull these pews. They're not that heavy, swing them around. Look, let me just give a very brief theological statement on this. I understand everything that they are saying. We are a huge church that believes in community and sitting in circles on couches looking, this is great too. This is wonderful in the sense that everybody is like, hey, we are putting our eyes not on some dude, but all of us are looking at the same truths, we're looking at the same songs. We are aligning our varied lives and our varied hearts and our varied influences to the one true good God with the cross of Christ at the center of it.
Will Hawk:But I say all of that to say there are certain phraseologies in Christianity that you can become inoculated to. You can hear them so often that they begin over time to lose their meaning, and one of those is God cares about your heart. We talk about this all the time, in lots of different places, in lots of different ways, and I don't mean we midtree, I mean we, the church. But I just want you to kind of eyes on those five words at the bottom. You have heard this if you've been in the church so many times. God cares about your heart. Yes, he cares about your thoughts. He cares about your actions. He knows that you are going to fall short in life. What God really cares about is your heart. The reason that I want to point this out to you is I want you to walk into the doctor's office of the word of God and I want you to realize that, even though you have heard this a million times before, even though you have received this reality into yourself, I want you to choose today to ask God and maybe it's a silent little prayer, maybe it's just a meditative thought in this moment. God, I do believe that you care about my heart. Will you show me if my heart really cares about you? That's where I would want all of us to be and where I think Christ would have us be as we dive into this text together. Here is why we're about to see the richest people and we're about to see the poorest people, side by side. And whenever a pastor talks about money, whenever we talk about finances, whenever we talk about influence or importance, it is very easy for us to sort of say yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that's church stuff, so I'd rather give you.
Will Hawk:Maybe a more compelling question why would a God who needs nothing ask for anything? Seriously, if it is true, since it is true that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills he doesn't even have a bank account because he doesn't need anything. He wants for nothing, has everything. If there is anything that he desires, he creates it and makes it. Why would a God who has everything want anything from you, a God who, literally, is lacking in no way in his being, a Trinity that is full and complete and whole? Why would a God who needs nothing ask for anything, especially the last two coins from the hands of a widow? Is that your God? Is that the way you think of God? Well, how do we end up getting there? Here's how we get there Luke 20, verse 41,. But he said to them now, as we begin reading this and Lily has already begun reading this for us I just want you to notice the Bible is assuming something. The Bible is assuming that you know who Jesus is talking to, that you know Jesus is talking to them. Well, who are they? This is what comes right before it. Then some of the scribes this is who he's talking to. Then some of the scribes answered. Teacher, you have spoken well, for they no longer dared to ask him any questions. Let me assume that you weren't here last week and let me give you a 15-second synopsis.
Will Hawk:The Pharisees walk up to Jesus we're going to catch this guy, we're going to show that he's a fraud. People are going to start following us again. Hey, jesus, who should we give our money to? Should we pay taxes to this horrible government? And Jesus takes it and he knocks the ball out of the park and they're like okay. And the Pharisees begin to back up. They're bruised, their egos are hurt. The Sadducees slide in Religious elites, impressive people, well-funded, run the sanctuary of their day and they ask Jesus a question. But they one-up the Pharisees and they say Jesus, here's what Moses says. All right, we got the Bible in our back pocket, we'll be in good shape here. Jesus says you don't even know the Bible, you're leading people you don't even know what you're talking about. And they leave bruised and bloody.
Will Hawk:Well, there's another group in the Sanhedrin that make up the religious people called the scribes, and the scribes decide, after watching all of their buddies get verbally beat up by Jesus, to just sort of slide back into the background. All right, we've seen this. We do not want to be round three where Jesus takes somebody out. So then some of the scribes answered teacher, you have spoken well. They no longer dared to ask him any question. And I love this so much. I feel like we see so much of the sarcasm in the Bible and the prophets and here I feel like Jesus is itching for a fight.
Will Hawk:Now, listen, jesus comes in grace and truth, and one of the biggest things we talked about was how to deal with difficult people in a gracious way. But I just want you to see this. What's about to happen in this complicated sentence that we're going to look at is Jesus knows this poor widow is about to walk in the door. He knows she is about to walk into a church where people are so concerned with putting on airs and being impressive. She's not going to have a place. So when they begin to sneak back, jesus goes round three fight. And he grabs the scribes by the back of their pants and he says whoa, don't you go anywhere? You're not dipping out on me. That's not how this thing is about to play out.
Will Hawk:And so now this is the Sanhedrin. This would have been the religious rulers of Israel. He's dealt with the Sadducees. He's dealt with the Pharisees. We haven't seen the elders. But this specific group of scribes and lawyers by the way, this is how the Sanhedrin is generally made up this one small sect is like we're out of here, we're not gonna get caught. And Jesus says don't you go anywhere, for they no longer dare to ask him any questions. But he says to them All right, fair warning.
Will Hawk:This is one of the parts of scripture that, three months out, the pastor is like dear God, how, how am I going to make this hit home and seem irrelevant? I believe every one of your words is we're about to read a portion of scripture that, if you were just reading through it, it is okay for you to feel like what? Okay, just start there and then we'll take it apart a piece at a time. Jesus' argument to keep the scribes from hiding is this. But he said to them how can they agree? That's a little inflexive and hyperbolic and maybe a bit confusing. I need feedback. Can we agree? Okay, all right. My favorite part is that and Jesus is not disconnected.
Will Hawk:Jesus's understanding of people and the word and the world is so deep that even when he gives a zinger, it takes the world time to catch up. Most of our zingers are like got him. And you know the moment it happens like you just got got. When Jesus does it, even the wisest among us are like huh, david's son, lord, yes, lord, how is he his Boy? You showed those scribes, jesus, we're on board. Yeah, yeah, got him All right. So take a moment. I promise you I'm not gonna go into this for more than a couple of minutes, but I think it is worth our time.
Will Hawk:So this is the text, verse 41 to 44. This is Jesus's attempts to catch the scribes so that they can't get away with poorly leading people. This is important because he knows who's about to walk in the door, a woman who needs to know that anyone and everyone is accepted, even if they're not impressive, even if they do not have much to give. This is what's coming, and how does Jesus prepare us for this? What I'm about to do? I'm taking all of this text except for but he said to them, and I'm now gonna transpose it so it looks more like a logic statement for you in English. I've not changed any of the text.
Will Hawk:Here is what Jesus is doing in this argument. He's asking a question to begin with. How can they say that the Christ is David's son? How can they now this? They would have been all Jews, all Jewish people, the Pharisees, sadducees, scribes, lawyers, elders, regular people, men, women, children all of them would have looked at this. And when Jesus said how can you say that the Messiah is going to come from David's line? They would have looked at this. And when Jesus said how can you say that the Messiah is going to come from David's line? They would have looked at him like he was crazy. Wait a minute. You're the one who keeps fooling people. You're the one who's smarter than everyone else. We all know this. Now, how did they know this?
Will Hawk:This is out of second Samuel 7. This, by the way, written to David when your days are fulfilled, when you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you. So there is someone coming from the line of David who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. So since this was written in the earliest days of Israel, they have known David was the gold standard. By the way, david has not been king for something like a thousand years.
Will Hawk:At this point, when Jesus is talking to them, if I were to ask you, in not modern America, but historical America the most impressive president that we have ever had, most of you are going to say one of two people, okay, most impressive, well-known gold standard of a president. One of the names I'm going to hear is Washington, and then the one that follows right after is Lincoln. Okay, what I need you to understand is you, in this room, can do exactly what Jesus is knowing they can do here. All right, none of you met Washington. None of you met Lincoln. All of you know everything that you know from them, from a book or an internet search or a teacher who is really into it. They are also a couple hundred years removed. They are talking about a king that, in a nation that is a thousand years removed, they would ask a room of people who's the best king we have ever had? David, david, david, david, david, david, david, david, david, david. That's how it would have played out. So when Jesus says this, they would have looked at him sideways. How can we say that the Christ, that the Messiah, is going to be David's son? And they're like, because it's in the Bible, because that's what we have based our hope on forever.
Will Hawk:Keep your thinking cap on for just another moment, for David says himself in the book of Psalms by the way, this is Psalm 110. If you want to look this up, you can look it up in your own time. I'm not going to go there, because I've only asked for your brains for like five minutes and I need them right now. Then he makes this semi-complicated statement the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. When I read this, I get confused. I get confused because, for me, lord is a title, but it is also a person and I'm like well, who exactly are we talking about here? If you wanted to go deep on the Greek, you could. The word here is Kyrios. So here you can see the text we're looking at, and this would be the Greek Kyrios. But what I want you to notice is this it means master, okay. So now, if we go back to this text, what it's really saying is this the master said to my master sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. David is overhearing a divine conversation between God the Father the Master, and God the Son, his Master. When we read it this way, what we see is the Father said to the Son Jesus, son, come and sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Can you see it now? Do you see the picture David is saying in Psalm 110, I've seen in advance, a millennia away, what God has promised to do, because I sought him with my whole heart.
Will Hawk:And he isn't doing it for me, he's doing it for a people, and he isn't even doing it for just our people. He is going to do this for all people. The father has said to the son Jesus, come, sit at my right hand. To get to this seat, you're going to have to go down on earth. You're going to have to live like they live. You're going to have to struggle like they struggle. You're going to have to know what it is like to go through the brokenness of the world that their sin has created. But once you have, and once you have given yourself as a free offering, you will defeat death. You will rise from the dead which, by the way, we celebrate in the weeks ahead and then you will sit down as authority, as ruler, as Kyrios, as master, as Lord, and all enemies will be below you Enemies like poverty, enemies like war, enemies like broken relationships, enemies like sin, enemies like war, enemies like broken relationships, enemies like sin, enemies like disease, all of these things that tear us down.
Will Hawk:Jesus is telling us in advance this is what's going to happen. The father is going to tell the do sit and rule over it as I bring in children and family and brothers and sisters to a world that will be remade. And then Jesus finishes his question to them. David calls him master. How can he be his son? What Jesus is trying to do here is he's trying to put something on display.
Will Hawk:Their assumption was that the Messiah was going to be David's son, and they're correct in the genealogical sense, but Jesus is not equal to David and they were not ready for that. Jesus is not subservient to David and they were not ready for that. What Jesus is telling them here is that God is sending a king greater than you have ever known. If you think that Washington was great or you think that Lincoln accomplished good things, if you Jewish people believe that David is the gold standard, you are not even ready to see the kingdom that I am going to build for my people. Listen, you can take off your thinking caps for a bit. Scripture can be complicated, but here's what you must know. Now I'm gonna serve those of you who are like Will. None of that has helped me at all. I'm still confused.
Will Hawk:I'm now gonna give you the Cliff Notes. I don't know if y'all know what that is. The Cliff Notes is a yellow and black book that we bought in high school that summarized a tale of two cities and the Iliad. Because those of us who went to dances and were popular did not read those books. And dances and were popular did not read those books. And so what we did was we bought the Cliff Notes version so that those of you who made A's in school didn't look better than those of us who made B's and C's in school and we could still play sports. So that's what Cliff Notes is.
Will Hawk:Let me give you the Cliff Notes version of what just happened. They're expecting a savior from David's line to bring a great kingdom like David's. But God is sending from David's line a king and a kingdom that is far greater than they could have imagined. That's truth one. Truth number two the leaders who should have known this and been looking for it, missed it. The people who are shepherding God's, people, who should be pointing to Psalms 110 and saying when is this Messiah gonna come? When, from the line of David, is going to come this king, this ruler, this master to lead us? The people who should have been saying that instead said let us continue to lead you indefinitely. We want the places of honor. We do not wanna give our honor up, and truth three, the greater king and the greater kingdom, is in their midst. That is the argument that Jesus is trying to tell and if you've paid a little bit of attention, you know that when Lily read this, this passage has some history and genealogy. It talks about pride and giving and generosity and faith.
Will Hawk:But what you need to understand this whole thing, what I'm about to read to you and what I'm about to close with, when we get to this widow, the whole thing is about authority, the whole thing is about Kyrios, the whole thing is about master, the whole thing is about Lord. So when we talk about money, the whole thing is about Lord. So when we talk about money, don't squirm in your seats. And when we talk about poverty, don't squirm in your seats. There is only one question in this entire text who has authority in your life? Who has authority when your closet is full? Who has authority when your calendar is full? Who has authority when you sit at the best tables? And who has authority when you can't rub two pennies together? Does it change or does it not? Take your thinking caps off. Don't completely disengage. It's still God's word. But the rest of this is pretty straightforward. However, now we're going to begin looking at our hearts. However, now we're going to begin looking at our hearts.
Will Hawk:As soon as Jesus says this, he turns, and in the hearing of all the people this, to me, is one of the best all the people he says to his disciples. So you have to appreciate the situation here. The scribes were trying to scurry away and Jesus grabs them by the back of their belt and they're like got a quick question for you, boys. Hold tight, don't disappear. Yet. Then he asks them this. They do not know how to respond to this. So, with them there and all of the normies at church watching this happen, jesus says loud enough so that everyone hears it, but he looks at his disciples, he looks at his followers, and here's what he says Beware of the scribes. I love this Jesus moment. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love the fact that these guys thought they were gonna go hide in the bathroom until Sunday service was over, that the Pharisees had gotten their licks and the Sadducees had gotten their licks. They're too smart for that we are dipping out. Gotten their licks. They're too smart for that we are dipping out. I'm grabbing some coffee. I'm going to go check on the kids hall. We need to make sure things are working here. I'm going to be in the back prayer closet. Jesus is like don't you go anywhere? And in front of the congregation he says watch out for these guys. Disciples, are you listening to me? Because when I go and die, I'm going to be sitting somewhere. I'm not not gonna be here with you anymore. You need to watch out for these guys and you need to watch out for people who are like them.
Will Hawk:Beware of the scribes. Please remember this word for just a moment Warning, red, flashing lights. Beware of the scribes who like to pay attention to what happens next, because I'm gonna have a question from this little section. Beware of the scribes who like to walk around to what happens next, because I'm gonna have a question from this little section. Beware the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor. At feasts, who devour widows' houses and, for a pretense, make long prayers. They will receive greatness, but their greatness will be in their condemnation. It's a heavy statement, so let me lighten it for just a moment.
Will Hawk:Which of these things is not like the other? Just take a look, give me your opinion. If somebody feels brave enough to shout it out, shout it out. Y'all remember Sesame Street. Eight apples would walk by and then one banana and they'd be like. One of these things is not like the other. Which one stands out Devouring widows' houses?
Will Hawk:What is this? It's one thing for Jesus to look at this group of people and be like guys. Quit trying to impress people with your clothes. Quit trying to be the ones who open the doors and everybody's like they've got the most followers. Let's get a picture with them. That's what's going on in number two. When they go into meeting places, when they go into the market, everybody flocks to them. They've got these followers literally, not digitally.
Will Hawk:They get the best seats at church, which used to be upfront, but now nobody wants to sit upfront because I guess we're just preaching more like convictional than we ever have before. I don't know, but at church everybody's like how can I show up late so I can sit on the porch? How do I get that? W? All right, they wanted the best seats. I'm going to drop to the bottom making long, insincere prayers. Oh Father, you know, and we have seen in the gospel of Luke the difference in these long, beautiful prayers and the man who gets down on his knees and pounds on his chest and his only prayer is God, forgive me, a sinner. And God says I'll tell you which.
Will Hawk:One of those guys went home, justified, but tucked into this, this little list, is Jesus saying. And they devour widows. What, yikes, yikes, that's a bit all right. Y'all are looking at me like I'm crazy. Can we agree? That feels a little different than the rest. Feels a little different than like a nicely starched collar devouring widows.
Will Hawk:What is actually going on here? What's happening is that these are people with full closets. These are people with full calendars and if you saw their Google calendar, you would be so impressed at how important they are. They have full tables wherever they sit. They've never walked into Chick-fil-A and sat alone, because there have been seven people who would have come and sat with them to praise them for their intellect or their teaching or their wisdom. They're sought out for their counsel. They would never sit alone. They wanted to be seen, they didn't want to be known by God, and this obsession with appearance or status is serious sin, as serious as mistreating the lowliest among us. What probably was happening is these guys would have had a certain role in society where, when a widow's husband died, they would take over the care of the estate and instead of caring best for the widow, and instead of caring best for the widow, they would add a few more robes to their closet, a few more meetings that they could pay for to their calendar, they would add a few more parties to their agenda, and this woman in need and in poverty would remain there.
Will Hawk:One of the things that you and I must realize about Jesus that pushes so far against our culture is that Jesus gave up the influence that others fought to gain, and this must have maddened the religious leaders of that day. Can you just appreciate and imagine this for a minute, that here are people who I don't know if any of us can relate to this. Here are people who want to put on an outfit and invite you into their decision-making for the outfit that they put on. They might have even videoed themselves getting dressed and tell you just who tailored this shirt, this robe, these shoes. These guys would have wanted as much power and influence as they could have. They tried hard to get it. They'd steal money from widows if it would help.
Will Hawk:And in comes Jesus. And almost every time he does something fantastic, miraculous and amazing. Jesus then says don't tell anybody about this. Do you know how infuriating that must have been? How do you heal a man whose arm has been folded up and crippled his whole life? How do you take a demon-possessed man who's been chained in the woods and barely can keep clothes on himself and you give him a mind that is covered in peace. You give him his life back and he says Jesus, I just wanna go wherever you go. I wanna tell this story, I wanna be an example of your greatness. That others would come and Jesus says shh, just go home, tell them what God has done for you.
Will Hawk:I recognize that influence and prestige tends to trend younger, but I think it only trends younger, digitally. I think all of us want to feel important, but do you see this in Jesus? He was so ready to give up influence, even influence that others would fight to get. Now, how is it that we go from diagramming sentences and looking at Greek to all of a sudden wondering what we should post and how we should act on Tuesday and who we should sit with at Chick-fil-A? Because the word of God is living and active.
Will Hawk:And this is what happens when you open yourselves to say God, I need to know if my heart is for me or if it is for you. My wife. I was reading this passage to her and she said well, why didn't Jesus just make them see it? He could have. He had the power. Just make them see it. He could have. He had the power to make them see what was happening. The reason they don't see it is because they don't want to. But anyone who is humble will see God as great and will see themselves as lowly. But if you like greetings, if you like the best seats, if you like stylish clothes and long prayers, if you like to eat up the little to make yourself great, you are not going to see much today, you are not going to see much tomorrow. Following God is going to feel like a fairy tale to you and it will not make sense. Fortunately, there is hope for you, because in walks the greatest example of this. As we turn there, let me just give you an answer to our opening question.
Will Hawk:Why would a God who needs nothing ask for anything? Because when our hands are full, our hearts forget. Because one of the easiest ways to forget the goodness of God is to instead look at the goodness in your own hands. It's by far one of the most dangerous things. In fact, we're never more proud than when our hands are full with our own efforts. You're never more proud than when you can say look at what I y'all remember in Survivor, when Tom Hanks builds the fire. This, to me, is what I always think about Look at what I have created Now. Look, he's trying to live. I'm with him. I'd have been doing the same thing.
Will Hawk:But there is a sense that all of us have a fire inside of us, that when I have done something great, when I have done something impressive, when the world can look around and bask in the glory of how I closed that sale or disciplined that child, or navigated that relationship or whatever it is. We wanna say look at this thing that I have created. But we are never more proud than when our hands are full of our own efforts. So why would a God who needs nothing ask for anything? Because it is so bad for your soul to keep filling your hands up. Your soul needs a filling and an emptying. A filling and an emptying. And sometimes we empty it in an offering plate at church, and that's what you're about to see. Sometimes we empty it in serving our wife or our husband, serving our community, serving as an employer, an employee on the soccer field, as a coach.
Will Hawk:But you, every Christian in the room, you need to hear this. This is not what the faith of pursuing God looks like. This is what pursuing God looks like, and is this not what we see Jesus do from day one unto the cross? Full closets, full calendars and full tables become this greenhouse of self-trust, and it just keeps self-trusting and self-trusting and self-trusting. It's always easy to do the right thing when people are watching, but true faith does it when only God is, and that's where I would want us to get. I only care that God sees this. I only care that God sees my heart in this, because God sees, he doesn't miss one sacrifice and he never misses one kindness that you show. So watch the God who doesn't miss one sacrifice or kindness.
Will Hawk:As we look at the last passage in this text, jesus looked up. He's holding the scribes by the back of their pants, he's talking to the disciples so everyone can hear, and then in comes a poor widow. Jesus looked up and he did see the rich putting in their gifts into the offering box and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. Do you see this? Jesus sees, he never stops seeing. And this widow puts in two small copper coins and he said, probably in the presence of all. Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more, she has put in greater than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on Time out. I want you to imagine for a moment that we took this as prescriptive and this is how we did church. Okay, just want you to imagine In walks, by the way, it would be so great if it happened, but whatever, in walks, a poor widow with nothing but two coins and the pastor says oh woman, don't you know that God loves you dearly? Come and give me the two small coins you have. What would you think of that pastor? Not very highly right.
Will Hawk:This is not what any of you who have ever read a Dave Ramsey book are going to recommend. Sam, I'm looking at you, bro Sam's, like I've never struggled with the scripture more in my entire life. None of us would recommend this, and yet Jesus is commending it. By the way, we are not a health, wealth, prosperity gospel. You're not about to have a plate get passed through here. I'm not gonna ask that you give until you have only two pennies left and then give it so that you could show you have faith, because that is not the point. By the way, these are the sermons I wish I could preach at Tim's church in Albany. These are the sermons I wish I could preach at Jamie's Church south of Atlanta or at Crosspoint, because none of them think Will cares about their money.
Will Hawk:You guys might think Will cares about my money. I don't care about your money. I care about your heart. What I care about is who is the authority over you? What I care about is how prone are we to fill our closets and fill our calendars and fill our tables and miss who actually is the hero of this entire story. This woman walks in and nobody asks it of her and maybe she looks and for all we know, she had children too. And if I'm talking to this woman, I'm saying listen, we're going to try to help you, we're going to try to support you, we're going to make sure that you have a meal at the end of service today. Where are you living? We want to make sure that your yard is taken care of. We're going to send some guys over. We've got some meals in the freezer so that we can help you. That is how we would respond. Please hear me on this. Jesus watches her from a distance, put in the last two things she has and that's the end of the story.
Will Hawk:There are 16 questions that a group of us who get together and look at the text apply whenever we're reading God's word, and one of those questions is what part of this passage do I wish wasn't here? What part of this passage do I wish wasn't here? It's too hard, it's too difficult, it's too confusing. I'll show you which part I wish was not here. I want a comma. I don't want that to be the end of the story. I want to hear she put in all she had to live on comma and the church loved her and she was supported for the rest of her days and she had children who were not hers biologically that she cared for for the rest of her days, and religious leaders took off their robes and covered her in them and she never sat at a table alone again. That's what I wish was different about this passage. I wish it was a comma, but it's not. It's a period, and tucked into that period is, I think, the most difficult reality.
Will Hawk:We see it in the Old Testament when there's a widow that Elijah the prophet goes to and he sees her outside picking up sticks. I don't know if you know this story. I'll just summarize it for you. I jotted it down for you. It's in 1 Kings, chapter 17. He sees this woman who has nothing and she's picking up sticks and he says what are you doing? She says, well, I'm gathering these sticks to start a fire. I have just enough bread for my son and I to eat, and then we're going to die.
Will Hawk:It was a famine. There was no food. It was common for people to die of starvation. And do you know what Elijah says to her? He says make bread for me first. Can I tell you that does not come across to me as loving. That comes across to me as somebody who devours widows' homes across to me as loving. That comes across to me as somebody who devours widow's homes. But she does. She does in faith, probably the same faith this woman had when she let go of her last meal. She was probably just saying God, what's the difference in whether or not I eat lunch? At the end of it I have nothing left. And just as Elijah provides, I have to believe that there is a comma to that story. But there might be a reason. God doesn't show it to us. Why would a God who needs nothing ask for anything? Because faith is a gift found in giving, not getting. You believe your faith is going to be increased if you get the thing that you ask for. Your faith will actually be increased when you don't have what you think you need and God makes you make it anyway.
Will Hawk:The way that we tend to think about giving is so different. Generosity isn't measured in dollars. The way God looks at it, generosity is measured in dependence, which is why he said she just gave more. Do you realize you could give more to God than Jeff Bezos potentially ever could? Do you realize that those who have less than you could give more than you ever could? We feel like building allows us to give more, but in God's economy that is not how it works, because we think of quantity while God is thinking of quality and we think of gift while God is thinking about the, and we think of gift while God is thinking about the giver. And how could we not know this? Because if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son. God had one great thing at his disposal and he emptied his hands of it. And not only did he empty his hands of it, the thing he most loved emptied his hands of his life. And if this is how God gives, if he will not spare his own son but give him up for us all, how will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things? Generosity isn't measured in dollars, it's measured in your dependence.
Will Hawk:And those scribes gave to be seen, but she gave unseen. They gave of their excess. She gave everything that she had. They were seeking honor. She was seeking god. There is no comma here. Did she know that Jesus saw her? The Bible doesn't tell us. Did she know that Jesus cared? The Bible doesn't tell us. Did she know that Jesus commended her? Did she even know that he points to her as the example? Does this widow even know she made the book before she made it to heaven? For all we know, this whole thing is happening and she is off in the corner, brokenhearted, empty, and Jesus is saying she's becoming a hero of a story she doesn't even know is being told. Why would a God who has everything ask us for anything? Because God's heroes are often small, quiet and often overlooked people. This is why, is why she was greater than them and they never would have seen it coming.
Will Hawk:And I'll just close with this and Stokes, you can head on back up here. Please realize this. Let me just hit pause and engage you for one last second here as we get ready to worship. Here's what you must know. I'm not talking to you about your wallet, I'm talking to you about your heart period. That's what I'm most concerned with. If that is something you need to clean up, then yes, please give Generosity 101, don't give begrudgingly, because God loves a cheerful giver 2 Corinthians 9. Don't give begrudgingly, because God loves a cheerful giver 2 Corinthians 9. Don't give to be impressive, because God loves a humble giver whose right hand doesn't even know what their left is. You need a pick. I can cover Capo. All right, you get the capo. I'll keep going. I got more stuff.
Will Hawk:The way we are actually called to give is expectantly, quietly, knowing that whether I'm giving time or talent or treasure, I don't need anybody to see it. I just need God to know my heart. But please do not miss this. This woman's example of faith would have been invisible if she wasn't poor and needy, and I would be willing to bet that your example of faith requires something in your life to seem poor and needy, and it may have nothing to do with your finances. Do you want to be an example like this woman? Then lean in to where you are poor. Do you want your life to be commended like this woman's? Do you want to have faith like this woman's? Do you want to have faith like this woman's, because she is the hero of the text? Then find in yourself where you are most needy and give even what you have there and say God, will you provide, even for me? Because if he will give of his son, how will he not graciously give us all things? We're gonna stand and we're gonna sing and we are gonna praise God and I want you to know we'll have a couple of folks on this side and on this side to pray with you, to praise God with you or for you.
Will Hawk:I'm just now realizing you guys are waiting on a baptism. We set it up a week early. That's on me, my bad. Y'all are like Will, we can't wait for it. It's coming. Sorry, our water valve is very, very slow. We've just been filling it all week. If you need prayer, if you need praise, you want to share praises, please do, but let us respond in worship to a God who meets us not in our strength but in our weakness. And would you ponder where you are needy and not run from it, but run through it and find the one who provides all things.