HOFC Sermon Archive

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SERMON TIMELINE

10. Jesus Cleanses the Leper

11. Jesus Heals the Paralytic

12. Jesus and the Tax Collector

13. Jesus Questioned About Fasting

14. Of Wine and Wineskins

15. Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath & Resurrection Sunday 2025

16. Hard Hearts and Hard Thoughts

17. Three Responses to Jesus

18. Jesus Appoints the Apostles

19. The Family of Jesus

20. The Unforgivable Sin

21. The True Family of Jesus

22. Parable of the Four Soils

23. How Well Do You Listen

24. Parable of the Growing Seed

25. Parable of the Mustard Seed

26. Benefits of Private Teaching

27. Jesus Calms the Storm

28. Who is Afraid of Jesus?

29. The Touch of Jesus

30. When Familiarity Breeds Contempt

31. Principles of Evangelism

32. Weakness in the Seat of Power

33. The Need for Rest

34. Feeding 5000

35. Jesus Walks on Water

36. Healings at Gennesaret

37. The Danger of Traditions

38. The Source of True Defilement

39. Gentile Blessed for Her Faith

40. He Has Done All Things Well

41. Jesus Feeds 4000

42. Jesus Sighs

43. Beware of Leaven

44. The Blind Man at Bethsaida

45. Who Do You Say That Jesus Is?

46. Mindful of the Things of God

47. The Cost of Discipleship

48. The Value of a Soul

49. Ashamed of Jesus and His Word

50. The Transfiguration

51. The Disciples ask Questions

52. The Unclean Spirit

53. The Way to Greatness

54. Principles of Discipleship

55. God Hates Divorce

56. Jesus Blesses Children

57. The Problem with Wealth

58. The Cost and Reward of Discipleship

59. A Couple Days Before Palm Sunday

60. The Cup and Baptism

61. Greatness in the Kingdom Comes from Serving

62. Blind Bartimaeus

63. Triumphal Entry

64. Cursing and Cleansing

65. Faith and Forgiveness

66. Is it from Heaven or from Men?

67. Parable of the Wicked Vine Grower

68. Our Duty to God and Country

69. The Resurrection of the Dead

70. The Two Greatest Commands

71. David’s Son and David’s Lord

72. Beware the Pretentious Scribes

73. The Widow’s Mites

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE

Mark 12:341-44

“And He [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the crowd was putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. ⁴²And a poor widow came and put in two lepta [equal to approximately $3.00 in 2026], which amount to a quadrans. ⁴³And calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all those putting money into the treasury; ⁴⁴for they all put in out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

INTRODUCTION

Jesus has spent the entirety of Tuesday, the week of the Passover, His time before the cross, teaching in the temple. Over the course of our last few messages, we have read about Jesus addressing the doctrines of the religious leaders, their practices, and answering what they believed to be unanswerable traps they tried setting for Jesus.

Now, at the end of the day, this being the last incident of His public ministry, Jesus chose to purposely sit across from the Temple treasury, where people were giving their money.

Giving to the Temple was the continuation of Leviticus 27:30

“Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is Yahweh’s; it is holy to Yahweh.”

The tithe was not merely a voluntary donation. Under the Mosaic covenant, one-tenth of Israel’s agricultural increase was regarded as belonging to Yahweh.

The tithe was for supporting the temple and the priests.

Numbers 18:21 “behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting.”

God commanded His people to support the temple and His priests.

The New Testament does not repeat the Mosaic tithe, but it does, however, plainly continue organized, regular, and sacrificial financial giving to support the church and its ministers.

In 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 we see the command for the collection of the saints. Paul directed the churches in Galatia and Corinth to take a collection on the first day of each week; the saints are to set aside, saving whatever they prosper, so collections could be made.

Each believer was to give in proportion to how God had prospered him. Believers are called by God to give voluntarily and sacrificially.

2 Corinthians 8:3-4 tells us that giving to the church as God calls us to, sharing according to their ability, and even beyond their ability (sacrificially), allows them to share in the ministry of the saints.

2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

The New Testament standard reaches beyond a merely mechanical percentage. Christian giving is purposeful, willing, proportionate, cheerful, and shaped by grace.

I heard it said, it’s not about how much of “your” money you are going to give; rather, how much of God’s money He has blessed you with that you are going to keep.

Giving to the church is what pays the bills, feeds the pastor, and funds the ministry.

Luke 10:7 speaks about the minister, saying, “the laborer is worthy of his wages.”

1 Corinthians 9:13–14 “Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.”

1 Timothy 5:17–18 “The elders who lead well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor at preaching the word and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing,’ and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’”

Elders who devote themselves to preaching and teaching should not be expected to labor without adequate provision.

Galatians 6:6 “And the one who is instructed in the word is to share in all good things with the one who instructs him.”

I. NARRATIVE

a. Putting money in the treasury

i. Jesus observed all those who were placing money into the treasury

ii. In the temple were 13 receptacles, each marked on how the money would be used.

1. You notice offering envelopes have areas for you to write on

b. The contributions of the rich

i. Jesus notes that many who were rich gave large amounts from their abundance.

ii. That in itself was commendable, reminiscent of the first contributions for the tabernacle in Exodus 35:20-29; Exodus 36:2-7

c. The widow’s contribution

i. Then Jesus makes mention of the widow’s contribution

ii. Stating she was poor. Destitute.

iii. She put in her two mites (leptos) 1/64^th of a day’s wage

1. Jesus said it was all she had

iv. Jesus commented on this

v. Though it was commendable for those to give from their riches, as they should, she gave all she had, her entire livelihood.

Jesus was impressed. He called to His disciples, and stressed the importance of this observation by stating, “Truly I say to you…”

II. OBSERVATIONS

a. A lesson to the disciples

i. We must pay attention to the fact that Jesus called His disciples to Himself in verse 43.

ii. This indicates He was about to teach them.

iii. What did he want them to understand?

b. The value of a gift

i. We must remember that God measures our giving, not by what we give, but by what we keep for ourselves.

ii. The value of a gift is not the amount given, but the cost to the giver.

2 Samuel 24:24 “²⁴However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

iii. The Lord measures our giving by;

1. Our motive: Why we give what we do

2. The Lord measures our giving by our means: He knows what resources you have and how you spend them.

3. The Lord measures our giving by how much we have left.

iv. We see sometimes that some of the greatest givers are those who have less.

c. The importance of the person

i. What matters in the sight of God is not what a person has, but the devotion which causes one to give, especially when it comes at great personal cost.

ii. This is why James 2:5 states that even the poorest of the poor can be considered rich (in faith).

iii. The Lord measures people by their faith, not wealth.

d. Jesus is still watching how people give today.

i. The giving of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 did not go unnoticed by the Holy Spirit

ii. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 and 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 tell us that those who give liberally, sacrificially, and cheerfully are also noticed.

iii. Just as Hebrews 4:13 reveals that God notices all that we do.

Our giving, or lack thereof, does not escape the careful eye of our Lord.

CONCLUSION

The story of the widow’s mites should prompt prayerful reflection regarding our own giving to the Lord’s cause, ministry, and charity.

We may think we excel in giving, but do we really?

FINAL THOUGHT

The story of the widow’s mites also prepares us for what is to come in Mark’s gospel. She exemplified sacrificial giving in the service of the Lord.

Soon, we will read of the Lord who gave all in service to us!

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Thursday, July 30, 2026

Gospel of Mark Part 73: The Widows Mites