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Guest (Male): Before you give to God, check your heart. That's really what the Lord is concerned about.

Guest (Male): God really doesn't care that much about the amounts. What he cares about is the heart behind the amount. That's always going to be his focus on giving. What's your heart? Why do you give? God doesn't want people to give unless it comes out of a heart that wants to give. If you ever stand on an offering plate or a box and you put money and think, you know, I'd really rather not, don't. Don't. It's not pleasing to God. When you give, give out of a heart that wants to give. That pleases God. Can true love be commanded?

Only if it's more than a feeling. That's a simple answer to a common question. We'll go deeper in just a moment and consider a few other questions today on Study the Word. We begin today's teaching with some questions about the resurrection from the Sadducees and Jesus's answer. Turn if you would to Mark chapter 12. We'll start at verse 25.

Pastor Thom Keller: He says when the dead rise, there it is. There's his answer. When the dead rise. He says they won't marry. They will be like the angels who neither marry nor are given in marriage. Why aren't we married in heaven? Why aren't the angels married? It says we will there we will be like the angels. The reason is because on earth in in Genesis it says that the wife is a man's easer. It's his completer. And the meaning of that is that an easer is one that completes what man cannot complete himself. That's a design of a wife.

It's a complete in a man. In that union of the two, what the man cannot complete himself. So we on earth, if we don't have the gift of singleness, that's something we need to complete us. In heaven that need does not exist because God is our completer. That's why the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage. They don't need a completer. They live in the presence of God. If you live 24/7 in the presence of God, you would not need a completer. You would be completed completely completed. So people say when in heaven, won't I know my wife?

Yes. You will know your wife. How do we know that? The rich man and Lazarus. The rich man in hell identified Lazarus, Abraham knew Lazarus. The rich man identified Abraham. You know, all those connections are going to be made. But won't I be married? No. How do you know that? Jesus said you won't be. You have another question after that one? You know? No. He said you're not going to be. And why? Well, won't I feel special toward her? Oh, yeah, you will. You'll love her more than you love her here. But you're going to love everybody more than you love anybody here.

You're going to love everybody as much as you can love anybody. You won't be able to love anybody less. You getting the point here? You're not going to be able to love anybody less than anybody else. So although you will love your wife, you will love your husband more than you've ever loved them here, you will love everybody the same way. Now me personally, when I get to heaven, I'm going to put my mansion out for rent and I'm moving in with Sue. She's going to have a bigger mansion anyway. And and I know I'm going to love everybody the same, but I still want to be with her.

I remember somebody saying that in heaven, you know, you know, it's it's really there's nothing in the Bible I'm going to go off here too much. There's nothing in the Bible says the universe is all going to be destroyed or go away. It says there's no need for sun or moon in heaven. There's no need for the sun because Jesus is the God is the light. But it never says there isn't a sun or a moon. And I think, do you know how cool it would be? Did you ever think that maybe God created the universe for our enjoyment here and to point to him obviously, but for our enjoyment when we get to heaven to do some Sue and I are going to go to Pluto and watch Venus come up over Neptune.

You know? And that's just one day and that think of all the things we can do. You know, when I was in Sunday school fifth grade, I remember some teacher talking about heaven and I pictured them, you know, me sitting on a harp in a white robe. Bring. Bring. And my teacher said, don't you want to go to heaven? Bring. And I'm thinking Bring. No, I like it here. Even with my older sister, I'd still rather be here. When there's another huge truth in verse 27, he says to God all men are living. All men are living.

When the 12-year-old little girl died, he said remember what he said? She's not dead. She's just sleeping. When Lazarus was in the tomb and the disciples wanted to go see him, what did he say? He's just sleeping. In 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul says this, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. To God all men are living. That's interesting. When you go to a funeral and you see someone in the coffin, that person from God's perspective is living. And that ought to be our perspective.

When we have a different perspective than God's, his is right, ours is wrong or impartial or incomplete, but his is right. They are somewhere. That'll happen to us. We will close our eyes one day and we will open them and be somewhere. We will either be in the presence of God or we will be in a place of incredible torment and terror. This verse 28. One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the discussion. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he said of all the commandments. You can kind of see this guy kind of work his way forward.

The other guys are shut down. They're still upset at him. But this one guy has a heart for truth. This is a religious leader. There's something a little different going on in him. He says of all the commandments, I think he asked this very sincerely, of all the commandments You can almost hear him say Jesus. Of all the commandments, which is the most important? Jesus replied, the most important commandment is this. Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. Uh the teacher of religious law replied well, well said teacher. You've spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all the burnt offerings and sacrifices required by law. Realizing this man's understanding, Jesus said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

And I pictured the crowd just going flat silent. And it says after that no one dared to ask him anymore questions. Matthew 22 the same section it says that of all the commandments, all of the commandments and all of the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. If you keep these two, you'll find that you're doing all the rest. Romans 12 says that love does no wrong to anyone. That is why it fully satisfies all of God's requirements. It is the only law you need. Love is the only law we need. You know, why do you sin?

Why do I sin? Because we don't love enough. Why do we steal? What would keep us from stealing? Well, on one side the law or another side love. How would love keep me from stealing? I love the person that I would be stealing from too much to do that to him. Adultery. Why would I not commit adultery? Because the law says not to. Well, on this side of the cross really the motivator is to be love. I love my neighbor too much to do that to him. I love her too much to ever think of doing something like to her.

It's love that stops us. In Romans 12 he says, if you love someone in this way, you won't want to harm him, cheat him, kill, steal, sin with his wife or want what is his. That's why love is the only law that we need. As I was studying this and I I wondered why do we need both laws? He says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. We know as I thought about it, if if someone just loved God and not their neighbor, think of it.

If Jesus would have said love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, that's all you need to do. Now what that would bring about is no sense of responsibility or involvement for fellow man. He you could cloister yourself away, live in a in a room with your Bible and and your prayer list and stay there the rest of your life and forget about everybody else. And there are a fair amount of people like this. What I tend to call them are lone rangers. You know, they're out there with their Bible and they're into their Bible, but they don't want to be a part of any church because it's corrupt, it 's wicked.

You've heard the excuses. All he wants my money. I knew a pastor once that sinned. I you know, all this there's and so they cloister themselves away and they live by this law because it's a self-centered focus on faith. What about the second one? They there is responsibility to fellow man. This person but this person doesn't want to be held accountable to God. These are people today. I read about the Gates and I'm not sure what the Gates are spiritually, but you know, something's happened and Bill Gates he is giving. You know, he is turned into tremendous giver.

But I think when there's someone that that has come to love his fellow man and to give and to care about and have compassion on, but does not submit to God is because they're willing to take on that responsibility of mankind, but they don't want to be accountable to God. It's a moral issue. There's something about that that they really don't want to give up, but they do want to do good things. And Jesus said, really you can't be complete unless you keep both of those laws. Verse 32. Later as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple, he asked, why do the teachers of religious law claim that the Messiah will be the son of David?

For David himself speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said, the Lord said to my Lord. That's the key sentence right there. The Lord David said this. The Lord said to my Lord, sit in honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet. So then Jesus said, since David himself called him Lord, how can he be a son at the same time? And the crowd listened with great interest. The point here is that the religious leaders knew that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. They knew that. They could not conceive that he would also be God.

They could not conceive that this one who would come would also be God because David who called this Messiah who would be his heir Lord. So they understood the heir part. They understood that he would be of the descendant. The religious leaders knew he would be of the descendant, a descendant of David. They did not begin to comprehend that that descendant of David would be God and would be called Lord. And Jesus understood, but isn't it interesting he never explained it? Isn't it interesting? He just threw it out. He never answers it. He goes on.

Verse 38. Here are some other of the things that he taught them at this time. Beware of these teachers of religious law for they love to parade in flowing robes and have everyone bow to them as they walk in the marketplaces and how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and at the banquets, but they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property. And then to cover up the kind of people they really are, they make long prayers in public. Because of this, their punishment will be the greater. The scribes taught that teachers were to be respected almost as much as God.

Scribes taught, this is very self-serving. Scribes taught that they deserved more honor and respect than any other. Scribes taught that the greatest act someone can do was to give money to a teacher and that there was no higher duty or privilege than to support a rabbi in his comfort. And if this money was given, they the rabbi promised them that it would entitle the giver to a higher position in heaven. Quite a deal, huh? And by using these teachings, they would wrangle and manipulate gifts out of the people that were the most prone to be duped.

And many times it was uh widows, the least able to afford them such as widows. And if you know anything about God from the Old Testament, you know the heart of God is for widows and orphans. And I think when this stuff was going on from the religious elite cheating widows, it was a huge thing to God. It was a huge thing to Jesus. It's also interesting here it says that their punishment will be the greater. There are numbers of places in the New Testament that it makes it clear that in hell there will be differing degrees of punishment.

There'll be more punishment for those that should have known better. There will be more punishment for those who spurned and rejected the gospel more than others. There will be more punishment for the greater of the sin. Don't get me wrong. No one's going to get off easy in hell. Nobody. But in some way that we don't understand, it's not explained. It just says numerous places that there will be differing degrees of punishment in hell. In the same way there will be differing degrees of rewards in heaven. And I don't know about you, I'm just going to be happy to get in.

How about it, huh? I don't care where I am. I 'm just going to be happy to be in. Let's go on. The widows uh offering. Jesus verse 41. Jesus went over to the collection box in the temple and sat and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two pennies. He called his disciples to him and said, I assure you this poor widow has given more than all the others have given. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.

In the temple uh this would have been Herod's temple, which was a a beautiful temple. Pictured on a scene the Holy of Holies being at the top. Then there's a wall and uh and outside that wall is the court of the women, the women's court. Now to the left of that there's a solid wall up and down out to on that side was called the court of the Gentiles. And the court of the Gentiles, if you weren't a Jew, you could come that far and no further. You couldn't cross that wall. If you are a woman, a Jewish woman, you could then go into the court of the women.

And then you pass through a gate, you go into the court of the priests. And then beyond that was the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could go and only one time a year. Well, in this temple this temple court of women, the women's court, there were 13 collection containers called the trumpets. And they were called the trumpets because they were shaped like a trumpet. They think that the trumpets these trumpets would have been made either brass or copper. And so it would have been something that would have made some sound. And so there were 13 of these.

They were probably a lot bigger than this, but it gives an idea. But you didn't put the money in this end. You put the money in this end. At this end you would put your coins in. Remember there was no paper money. So everything was coins. Now do you think the bigger coins were the greater value? Yeah, it was. The bigger coins were were the greater value. There were 13 of these things in the women's court. Nine of them were for legally do gifts and four of them for were for voluntary gifts. Let me go down through this real quick.

Uh trumpet one and two were for the half shekel temple tax. The one was for the current year. One was for the past year. If you missed it last year, you put it in the second one. Third one was for turtle doves, sin and burnt offerings. Fourth was for pigeons. You would put the money and they would buy pigeons and sacrifice them. Fifth was uh to buy wood for the temple. Sixth was to buy incense for the temple. Seventh were for the golden vessels in the temple. Eighth was change. If you got change from your sin offerings, you could put in this temple.

Number nine, if you got change from your trespass offerings, you could put in this one. Number 10 was offerings uh of birds. 11 was the offering of a Nazarite. 12th was uh an offering of a of a leper who had been cleansed. And the 13th was voluntary offerings. There were 13 different trumpets. And when you walked in that front gate, the court of the of the women was about 200 ft by 200 ft. And along the sides there were porticos like little porches that covered it. And those those trumpets were on those porticos. So people would walk into that court, they'd go over to these things and whatever money they owed, it would be kind of like you know, you go down through and you know, you maybe put some in one or you need to put it in three or four, but they put them in.

If you remember Jesus talked about the religious leaders or or that that that he said that when you give, give silently. He said that that people come and they sound the trumpets. They'll blow the trumpets. You remember that? They call attention to themselves by sounding the trumpets is what it says. And the idea was that when they put the money in because it's all coinage, it's going to make a different sound. The idea is this that when people would come and they put in big offerings, you get the picture that these that the people that wanted to be seen, they just kind of stand there and you know, they'd have fun putting this in.

And so picture Jesus and the disciples sitting at the wall watching this, right? Because it says there were many rich putting in large amounts. So they're watching, you know, this bing bang clang thing going on and you know, everybody looking around and go you know, and they're just sitting on the wall watching. And then this widow walks up and she takes these two little coins and drops them in. Ding. Ding. And nobody pays any attention. She's just kind of you know, an afterthought to these large gifts. Now she put in two mites. And a mite that would have been uh 1% of a denarius.

If a denarius was a day's wage and a day's wage was $100, a widow's mite was about $1. And it was all that she had. If she put in everything that she had. The point Jesus is making here is this one of the points. It really God really doesn't care that much about the amounts. What he cares about is the heart behind the amount. That's always going to be his focus on giving. What's your heart? Why do you give? You know, if somebody gives and that's one of the reasons we don't take an offering here, one of the reasons.

God doesn't want people to give unless it comes out of a heart that wants to give. If you ever stand on an offering plate or a box and you put money and think, you know, I'd really rather not, don't. Don't. It's not pleasing to God. When you give, give out of a heart that wants to give. That pleases God. The other point is that it's more important. She gave everything that she had. Everything she had. You know, in closing I'd like to focus on this widow as it relates to us. All she had was $1.

That's it. If she would have had more, it would have said she had more. That's all she had. Now in our society and probably true back in those days, if somebody has just $1 they keep all their money with them because they probably live in a setting where it's not that safe, right? People that have have $1 don't live in million dollar homes. And so it's probably a somewhat unsafe environment she's living in. She would keep her money with her. Here's my point. That day that she went to the temple, she may not have been planning to put that dollar in.

Look at your own experience. Have you ever been in a place where you weren't planning to put in what you had or you weren't planning to put in as much as you ended up putting in? Was it a pre-planning thing? Did you figure that all when you were home and No, the most of the time for us, most of the time for you. It happens at that moment. You make a decision that moment. Something happens. God moves in you and say, you know what? Uh man, I need to give more here. It could be abortion rights, it could something just really grabs you.

You're someplace you think, you know what? I'm going to give more. Instead of that that that bill, I'm going to give this bill. I wonder if she went to the temple planning to give all. You know, I picture her standing at the trumpets, those trumpets watching all of this, holding onto her her dollar, which was in coinage, holding onto that clasping that thing. And God kind of doing something inside of her. And she says, God, it's all I got. It's all I got. And God saying, do you trust me? Yeah, but God, it's all I've got.

Do you trust me? She goes over and drops it. Now we say what what happened out of that story? Well, you know what? They've been talking about that woman for 2,000 years. She made it into the word. Do you think that was noble, worthy of that $1 gift? You know, what about you this morning? What are you clutching onto? What do you have in your hands that you're not quite ready to give up? It could be a relationship. It could be anger. It could be resentment. It could be bitterness towards somebody. It's something that you just don't want to give up.

It could be hurt, disappointment, a dream, some right that you're clinging onto, some right to be right, some right to be heard. It could be some material thing you don't want to give up or you don't want to give up the right to have. It could be time. It could be health. And we we clutch this thing like a baby saying mine, mine, mine. No, mine, mine. And we clutch. We hang on. This morning maybe it's time to let go of those hands.

Guest (Male): We're studying the word with Pastor Tom Keller. And today we've been in the book of Mark. You can hear this study again by going to ccleb.com. Visit ccleb.com and have a look under resources. And there you'll find our teaching archives or call and request a CD copy at 717 507 7862. That's 717 507 7862. And right now we're pleased to offer you Pastor Tom's entire study of Daniel on a flash drive for your gift of any amount. Enjoy an in-depth study of one of the most fascinating books of the Old Testament, Daniel. Again you'll receive this 22 message set on a flash drive.

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We'll pick up where we left off in Mark next time on Study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller. And until then, keep studying the Word.