Good morning once again, everyone, and welcome to every one listening on the Webcast too – those that have logged in and making us a part of this Sabbath Day, so welcome to you as well.

I have a riddle for you here this morning:  What do you have until you realize you have it and then you don't have it? 

This riddle reminds me of something a Church leader said thirteen years ago in a sermon - He's not in United any longer.  He said:  I am humble.  What do you have until you realize that you have it and then you don't have it?

In the Clermont County Community Journal – the newspaper that gets thrown onto our driveway every once in a while – there is a column by Lou Guntzelman.  He writes a religious column each issue and his article for April 27, 2011, on page P3, was titled:  The Virtue We May Have Until We Know We Have It. He really nailed the topic of humility very well in his piece.  Mr. Guntzelman wrote in part:  "One of the reasons humility is so difficult for a human to possess is because our egos like to be seen as special and to stand out from everyone else. We enjoy being seen as the best or the worst rather than just an ordinary imperfect human being who sometimes makes mistakes.”

In the sermon today we are going to examine just two or three verses from the book of Luke.  It is concerning an event that took place at the temple in Jerusalem during Jesus' last week on earth.

The sermon today is titled:  A lesson in Humility.  We need to set the stage for our story by getting some background information about the temple area itself.  I would like you to imagine in your mind the scene that unfolded in front of the disciples as Jesus taught them.  Todays message is really a bit of a mix of history, followed by a major point about humility.  We'll see how it comes together in a moment. 

Approximately twenty years before Jesus was born, Herod the Great renovated the second temple for the Jews.  Rabbinic sources say that this temple had stood for about 330 years and so it was time for some major restoration.  Now you may recall from your Biblical History that first of all the Israelites created the Tabernacle in the wilderness but then Solomon created a temple based on his father's plans.  So Solomon created the first temple, built the first temple, and it was called Solomon's Temple.  After the Jews went into captivity under the Babylonians in the 500's BC that temple got destroyed and you recall that when the Jews then return later to Jerusalem and were freed from the Babylonians, Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilt the temple.  So that was the second temple but it wasn't as nice as the first one that Solomon built.  They even moaned about it and said:  Too bad we can't build another really nice one. 

Well, when Jesus…. Just before Jesus was born – about 20 years – like 19 BC or so – King Herod renovated that second temple for the Jews and enlarged its footprint and made it a lot better.  Because it was Herod who had it renovated many historians refer to it as Herod's Temple.  The original was called Solomon's Temple and then the second temple, which became Herod's Temple later.  And when Jesus walked the earth two decades later it was a marvelous complex.

I have a handout for you today – I will have the ushers go ahead and hand them out to you.  There are plenty of copies for everyone – even those way in the back in the dining rooms – plenty of copies.

It is a double-sided illustration of the Jerusalem temple at the time of Jesus Christ.  Now the illustrations on here are quite good.  They are produced by Crossways Bibles and I can hand out copies here for your educational purposes here in the service.  Those listening in on the webcast will have to go online to Crossways Bible to get their own copy.  There are additional illustrations on their blog, on the Bible Society's blog, like a view inside the Temple itself and they have done a really good job with this - one of the best illustrations I could find.  On one side is another view of the whole temple mount and then on the opposite side is a close up of the temple area itself and we are going to go through this and you are going to learn a few things about this as we go along. 

For those who are listening in on line or hear the sermon later, here is the link to the blog, the Crossway Bible's blog, where they have these illustrations and a lot more.  It is: www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001863.cfm and I mention that because the illustrations on that blog are quite good.  They used some really highly qualified artists and some architects and engineers to recreate what we see here and they've done many more of them as well and they are some of the best illustrations I can find. 

As you know, this Herod's Temple only lasted about 90 years beyond its restoration.  It was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans under Titus to end the Great Jewish Revolt that had begun 4 years earlier.  If you visit Jerusalem today and some of you have, only the lower levels of the western wall remain of Herod's complex. So the western wall is the one to the top-left of the overview.  Top-left is the western side; bottom-left is the south; the right is east and the top-right is the north.  And so the western wall, just the bottom part, is all that remains of this today and it is called the Wailing Wall, the western wall, by the locals there.

Now our story takes place in the week leading up to the Passover and Jesus' crucifixion.  Many travellers came to Jerusalem for these Feast Days. A Jew from distant parts of the Roman Empire would even arrive by boat at the port of Jaffa which is now Tel Aviv today, and they would join other travellers there at the port and it would be a three-day trek to Jerusalem.  You can make it in a car today in just a couple of hours of course.  Once lodging was secured and money changed the pilgrims would purchase a sacrificial animal, usually a pigeon or a lamb in preparation for the Passover events. 

The gleaning white marble edifice was visible from well outside the walls of the city and as you know Jerusalem is up on a hill like that and you can see the Temple Mount from miles around.  The scale of the building was designed to impress and it dominated the landscape, effectively becoming the focal point of all of Jerusalem.  Even the three great towers near Herod's Palace would seem small in comparison.  At the top of the overview you see Herod's Palace area at the top there.  Even those were small compared to the whole temple mount area. 

The first thing a pilgrim would do would be to approach the public entrance on the south side of the Temple Mount complex.  He would secure his animal and visit a mikveh, which is a ceremonial washing pool, and you will see a little mikveh washing pool - actually it was rather large - you'd pick it out on the south side, the bottom left of our overview drawing.  So then he would ritually clean and purify himself before proceeding up on the Temple Mount.  Then he would receive or retrieve his sacrificial animal and head to the Holga Gates.  After ascending a staircase three stories in height, 30 feet high, passing through the gate the pilgrim would find himself in the Court of the Gentiles.

So the area surrounding the inner temple complex, round the edges, was the Court of the Gentiles and this area was primarily a bazaar with vendors selling souvenirs, sacrificial animals, food as well as currency changers, exchanging room and money for Tyrian money because the Jews were not allowed to make their own money and they didn't want to use the Roman money, so they exchanged it for Tyrian money.  They viewed the Roman currency as an abomination and of course you recall the account of the moneychangers in the Bible as well.

As we imagine Herod's Temple area here, keep in mind that some of the customs we are talking about, or will talk about today, were added by the Jews.  Not everything was based upon God's original instructions.  Many regulations were later added to the Jewish tradition and procedure and it was not even written down at that time.  It was what they called, an oral law.  It was just spoken – passed on by word of mouth.  Most of this additional Jewish tradition is now written down and found in the Talmud.  It is a record of Rabbinic instructions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs, history and the Talmud has two components today: 

There is the Mishnah which was written in about 200 AD, which was the first written compendium of the Jews' oral law. And then later, in about 500 AD, they added the discussion of the Mishnah, which tried to explain things even further.  In Jesus' time it wasn't written down.  All these traditions were just passed on by word of mouth.  It was their oral traditions but after the temple was destroyed by 70 AD by the Romans, they realized that they needed to start writing things down if people were going to learn it and remember it so that is when they started writing the Talmud – after this Temple Mount area was destroyed.  A lot of what we know about this is found in the Talmud.

So back to the Court of the Gentiles:  Guides even provided tours of the premises and Jewish males had the unique opportunity to be shown inside the temple itself. To the east of the Court of the Gentiles, over on the right hand side of the overview drawing here, was the Portico or the Porch of Solomon and you read about the Porch of Solomon in various places.   So that whole right hand side is a porch with columns and there are rooms underneath that. 

To the north of the area of the Gentiles is the Soreg, which was a structure separating the public area from the area only the Jews could enter.  It is like this low railing you see, kind of in the middle.  Within the Soreg was the Temple itself.  A Greek inscription has been unearthed from Herod's Temple, dated to the late first century BC and they found a stone from the Temple Mount unearthed and it warns Gentiles to refrain from entering the temple enclosure on pain of death.  So if a Gentile, including Herod, would cross that little low railing – it is like a warning area – if a Gentile would go beyond that, they could be stoned to death. 

From the outer Court of the Gentiles the Jewish pilgrims worked their way into the actual temple complex.  The first area within is the Court of the Women.  That is on the right hand side.  If you want to turn it over to the close-up now, you will see the Court of the Women is on the right hand side.  All Jews though, male and female were permitted.  Even a ritually unclean priest could enter to perform various house-cleaning duties in the Court of the Women.  It was also a place for lepers.  You will see the Court of the Women had four rooms, one of each corner, and one of them was for lepers to go to because they were ritually unclean and had to be cleansed. 

There was also a ritual Barber Shop for Nazarites on the bottom left and then two other rooms.  One was used for storing wood.  So that was the Court of the Women.  It is actually quite large.  To get a feel for how big the Temple Mount was and now inside the Court of the Women, 6000 people could gather in the Court of the Women and those four tall lamp posts you see, almost 90 feet tall, like a 10 story building high, with ladders so they could get up and light the lamps at night.  So this is a big area. 

The gate on the east side of the temple complex that leads into the Court of the Women was called the Beautiful Gate or the Gate Beautiful that was mentioned in Acts 3 - On the right hand side as you enter into the Court of the Women.

The next area is the Court of the Israelites and it was exclusively for Jewish men to enter.  The Jewish men could see the animal sacrifices being made by the high priest in the Court of the Priest, which was the next step in.  Now a big gate which was much more ornate and larger than the Gate Beautiful, led from the Court of the Women, west into the Court of Israel.  You see right in the middle of this drawing is a big gate and it led through steps, fifteen steps higher than the Court of the Women to get into the Court of the Israelites.  Women could actually look through that gate and see their sacrifice being put on the altar but they couldn't go through it.  You will see the name of the gate there is the Nicanor Gate.  Apparently it was very ornate and beautiful. 

So once you get into the Court of the Israel, the next area of the Temple is the Court of the Priests. This was reserved for the Levite Priests which performed sacrifices including lambs, doves and pigeons and to the right of the altar there was actually a whole abattoir process where the animals were all lined up and it was very well organized to get them slaughtered and ready for the altar.  And as you know with thousands of people visiting it had to be very well streamlined.  It was a production line pretty much. 

From the Court of the Priests by the altar, the entrance to temple itself appears and then you see the temple building, the large building at the top of the picture.  Between the entrance of the building and curtain veiling the Holy of Holies, were the famous vessels of the temple, the Menorah, the incense burning altar and various other implements.  

So during the time of Jesus the Temple Mount was partitioned off in various segments like this allowing only certain types of people into each area.  Each partition was separated by a set of steps that led up to the next one and higher and higher the Jewish leaders elevated themselves from the rest of the common folk.  In Herod's Temple the name "Treasury"was specially given to the Court of the Women.  The Court of Women held the temple treasury and it was where all worshippers gave their tithes and offerings and it was here where the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus.  So the Court of the Women on the right hand side where those four very tall lampposts are is where the treasury was and on this diagram they put it on the right hand side along the backside of the Court of the Women. 

Turn to John 8 with me for a moment, and let us notice verses 2 through 11.

John 8:2 Now early in the morning Jesus (He) came again into the temple, - and of course He is not coming into the temple but He is coming into the temple area – and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.

So He is in a public area of the temple where everybody could come, except gentiles and He taught them.

V.3 – Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery.  And when they had set her in the midst,

V.4 – they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

V.5 – "Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned.  But what do You say?”

V.6 – This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

V.7 – So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

V.8 – And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground,

V.9 – Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.  And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

So obviously we are in an area where women can be, right?

V.10 – When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

V.11 – She said, "No one, Lord."And Jesus said to her, "neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Notice verse 20:

V.20 – These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple;

We can safely conclude that this court, the court of the women where the treasury was, was the ordinary scene, or the ordinary place, of Jesus Christ's ministry when He was teaching at the temple.

Now let's look further into how the temple treasury was organized with its thirteen offering boxes.  There were 13 chests.  They were narrow at the mouth and wide at the bottom, shaped like trumpets and they were metal.  There were actually 11 treasure chests of the temple for the voluntary offerings of money and also two at the gate of Shushan for the half-shekel tax.  You will see the gate of Shushan here on the diagram as well.  The specific offering allowances were carefully marked on each of the thirteen treasury trumpets.  Nine were for the receipt of what was legally due by worshippers, the other four for strictly voluntary gifts. 

Now there is a book by Alfred Edersheim titled, The Temple – Its Ministry and Services As They Were At the Time of Jesus Christ.  It is a very thorough analysis of the temple area and I have a quote here from the electronic edition from Garland Texas by Galaxy Software from 2000, the year 2000, and Edersheim says:  "Trumpets one and two were appropriated to the half-shekel temple tribute of the current and of the past year.  Into trumpet three those women who had to bring turtle-doves for a burnt and a sin offering dropped their equivalent in in money which was daily taken out and a corresponding number of turtle doves then offered on the altar."So, women will put money into trumpet three and then they count it up later and decide how many turtle doves had to be sacrificed on the altar. 

"This not only saved the labor of so many separate sacrifices but it spared the modesty of the women who might not wish to have the occasion or the circumstances of their offering to be publicly known"– so you just put in some money rather than coming in with a turtle dove – "and it would have been in this trumpet number 3 that Mary, the mother of Jesus, would have dropped the value of her offering.”

Notice Luke 2.

Luke 2:22 Now when the days of her (that's Mary's) purification according to the Law of Moses were completed, they brought Him (Jesus) to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.

V.24 – and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "A pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons."So no doubt when Mary offered these two turtle doves or two young pigeons she would have done that right here at the Court of the Women and put some cash into trumpet number three and then later the priest would then have done the sacrifice for her.  So you start to get a picture now of what is happening in the Bible around Christ's time when you see the diagram and this court of the women with the thirteen trumpet treasury boxes.

Edersheim continues in his book:  "Trumpet four similarly received the value of the offerings of young pigeons."The Jews had this all figured out – all lined up.  You don't find this in the Bible, obviously.  "In trumpet five contributions for the wood used in the temple; in trumpet six, contributions for the incense; in trumpet seven for the golden vessels for the ministry were deposited. If a man had put aside a certain amount for a sin offering and any money was left over after its purchase it was cast into trumpet number 8.  Similarly trumpets 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 were destined for what was left over from trespass offerings, offerings of birds, the offering of the Nazarite, of the cleansing of the leper and voluntary offerings."And then Edersheim notes "In all probability this space where the thirteen trumpets were placed was the treasury where Jesus taught on that memorable Feast of Tabernacles, that last day of the Feast."Remember when He said, "Let all of you who want to drink of living water come to Me?"It was probably right there in the court of the women – is what Edersheim says.  He says "There was also a special treasury chamber like a big room into which at certain times they carried all the contents of the thirteen chests and deposited them in this big room."That was like the store house of God where all the money ended up when they emptied out all the treasury boxes.  He says "There is also a place called the chamber of the silent where devout persons could secretly deposit money without making any noise.”

Matthew 6 – with this picture in your mind of the inverted metal trumpets in the treasury where large donations would make a noise as they went into the chest, notice:

Matthew 6:1 – "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.  Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

V.2 – Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

I guess their reward was who was oohing and aahing as they put in their money.

V.3 – "But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand, know what your right hand is doing,

V.4 – "that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

The Jewish Talmud, that was written 200 AD, actually calls these trumpet shaped alms boxes – these trumpet shaped offering boxes – the Talmud actually calls them trumpets.  That is what the Jews called them and in other places – not just in Jerusalem – they would be carried through the street in the synagogue, or carried through the street to be taken up to the Temple, and Edersheim says that "There is no historical authority whatever that actual trumpets were blown when offerings were given, but that this verse refers to the trumpet boxes being proudly clanged with money,"which I find interesting. 

Christ says don't sound the trumpet.  He doesn't say don't blow the trumpet, He says don't sound the trumpet.  So it is quite possible when Jesus said that, He was referring to the treasury offering boxes that made a big clang when they threw in their money. It is a kind of interesting side-note. 

Now with this background and vision of the area where Christ regularly taught, let's go to our main scriptural passage.  It is in Luke 20 and Luke 21. 

In this particularly story it was Passover week. Christ is about to die.  There was a steady flow of pilgrims depositing their contributions in the trumpets.  The sermon today is a double mix of temple history here, and now, a particularly important point about humility.

Luke 20:1 Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him.

So Christ is up here on the temple mount area and it would have been an area where men and women were allowed, not inside where only the priest can go, so it was probably the Court of the Women where we know that He taught many times from scripture.

Now look at Luke 21:

Luke 21:1 And He (Jesus) looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury.

So one by one wealthy attendees tossed their coins into the coffers.  You could almost hear the clanging now, can't you? The more noise the offering made, the better.  Look at me!  I wonder if everybody is going to notice this one! The loud clanging coins announced:  I am giving a lot today.  Why?  Because I am important; I am wealthy; I am holy.  Don't you wish you'd be more like me and put in a whole bunch of money? 

Keep your finger here in Luke 21 but go back to Mark 12 and look at the parallel account.

Mark 12:41 – We actually read that: Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury.  And many who were rich put in much.

So that is this Court of the Women area.  So He is back there, opposite the treasury, just kind of observing things and the disciples are with Him.  People came and went all day apparently marching past the trumpets and depositing their money in toward what amounted to as noisy offering plates, so observers like Jesus and His disciples sat with an interested crowd, noticing who came and went and how significant was some of the offerings.  Maybe the clothing of the givers in their respective stations in life varied.  Some of the best dressed with their flowing robes no doubt, dropped in a good chunk of change into the trumpet and the disciples themselves who were not yet converted may have been oohing and aahing with the rest of the crowd as they watched the spectacles.  Bags full of coins were clanged into the collection boxes.  But likely the disciples were rather underwhelmed about what Christ was about to point out to them, if they even noticed what He was pointing out to them.  Go back to Luke 21.

Luke 21:2 and He (Jesus) saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.

So always recognizing a good moment to teach the disciples, Jesus called the disciples over to Himself and reminded them of what they had just witnessed.  One after another, rich people had paraded by and deposited large sums of money but by contrast a destitute widow shuffled past a trumpet, perhaps hardly pausing as she slipped two small coins into the container and disappeared into the crowd. 

Mark records it this way:

Mark 12:42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which made a quadrans.

We will talk about quadrans here in a minute.

V.43 – So He called His disciples to Himself – He said:  Come over here, guys.  Look at this. And He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury;

V.44 – "for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

The widow no doubt threw in two small copper coins; the smallest coins in circulation.  The Revised Standard Version says about the worth of a penny.  So you've got a penny in your pocket – that was all she had in life.  Two of these pennies were worth one sixty-fourth of a denarius; one sixty-fourth of a typical days wage.  It was pretty much worthless but these coins were a reality to her, worth more than any days wage.  They were all she had and you know what?  Jesus knew that.  How did He know?  We will see a scripture about that in a minute about how He knew.  How much were these two coins worth to the woman?  Look at Luke 15:8.

Jesus knew that, if a woman is reduced to even ten coins, the loss of a single one of them was a matter of considerable concern and extra work.

Luke 15:8 "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

V.9 – "and when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'

It was a big deal to just get one coin back.

V.10 – "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

So given the grandeur of the temple and the magnitude of its economic base, this lady may have tended to feel that her tiny little gift was insignificant, even futile.  This is the context in which Jesus Christ speaks of her great generosity. 

As a side point, why did Mark use the qualification "quadrans"in verse 42 of Mark 12 where he said these two mites make up one quadran?  Well, as I mentioned at the beginning because pagan coinage, which was often adorned with engravings of political leaders and images from mythology, the Jews didn't want to use such idolatrous money – the Roman coins.  You don't want to use that at the temple and so there were moneychangers to switch it over to the Tyrian money.  They didn't want the Roman coins put in the temple treasury and this is the reason there were moneychangers at the temple to provide acceptable coinage for the offerings that didn't have any mythical figures or anything on it. 

Since the moneychangers were not expected to work for free – the monetary exchange with all the commission, or a measure of profit for the exchanges – much like the money exchanges we have at the international airports today – you change money and then take a commission off of it. And you recall that Jesus took a dim view of some of some of these transactions with the moneychangers. 

These coins, these two little pennies, these lepta, was so small that they had no strict equivalents in the imperial monetary system and because they would not be familiar to Mark's readers at Rome, he explained that two of them were near to equal a single quadran.  In Rome they knew what a quadran was – one of the tiniest coins they had and Mark says you need two of these little pennies of her to even make one quadran.  So he is explaining to his readers what she actually put in:  a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of money.

So what is the lesson for us today?  What is the widow thinking at this point?  Did anybody really care that she was pitching in her lifesavings? Do you ever feel that people don't really care about what is going on in your life as you go by your daily chores?  This widow no doubt felt very insignificant in the grand scheme of things there on the temple mount.  She probably thought:  I am nothing, I have nothing and I am invisible to these men with their flowing robes and big offerings.  Probably if Christ hadn't pointed her out nobody would have noticed. 

So imagine with me for a moment as Jesus calls His disciples over to see the widow and her gift.  Thirteen men gathered round the offering box as Jesus shines His spotlight on her offering.  What else happens?  Maybe other people see there is a crowd gathering by one of the treasury boxes.  Hey, what is going on over there?  These guys are all over there checking it out.  Wonder what happened? What are you guys looking at?  The widow had two copper coins and you wonder what you would have done in the same situation.  What would I have done?  My last two coins.  I would probably be tempted to put one in my pocket and put the second one in.  I have to eat tonight, don't I?  I can't give them both to God.  One for you and one for me.  God wouldn't want me to go hungry.  She put them both in – despite what we might do.

 So back in Luke 21:3.

Luke 21:3 So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;  "for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

They all gave out of their wealth but she out of her poverty put in everything – all she had to live on. And Jesus uttered a shocking comment on the meager offering of the widow.  According to Him the woman gave a better offering to God than the noisy offerings of the rich people. And most of all, Christ knew that she put in everything she had – all that she had to live on.  It meant that the most important point in the offering was not in the amount of money, but the attitude – what came from the heart of the woman. 

Look at John 2:23 for a moment.  Jesus Christ can read our inner thoughts and amazingly He knew what was in the heart of this woman at the treasury too.  You have to remember that Jesus was born as a man but He was also God in the flesh and He had supernatural powers.

John 2:23 We see how Jesus knows what is in our heart.  Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.

V.24 – But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,

V.25 – and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

Christ could discern very well what someone's attitude was and He knew the attitude of this woman when she gave her two mites.  So you can imagine being there as one of the disciples.  It would be rather intimidating to know that Christ knew what you were thinking.  He knew if Satan was in your heart. He'd say, "Get behind Me."He had it figured out very well.  So it would be very intimidating to be one of Jesus' disciples. 

Well, guess what?  Jesus knows your heart now.  He can see into our heart all the time so it is not just back then as one of the disciples. Even now today, right here sitting in this Sabbath service, Jesus Christ and God the Father know what is in our heart.  You think, "Well, what am I thinking about?  What am I doing?  Am I awake in service or asleep?"Jesus Christ knows. And so it can be intimidating, but you have to realize that we live our life in faith through the power of His Holy Spirit – knowing that.

Jesus could see the woman's inner heart so consequently we can understand why the offering of those teachers of the law, the rich guys, was not accepted by God but the offering by the widow, regardless of the small amount of the offering, was acceptable.  People are watching the rich, ostentatiously depositing their large offerings but no one noticed the poverty stricken widow who reached into her rags to draw out these two thin copper coins and deposit them into the collection box.  But God does notice. Jesus Christ does notice.  They notice everything we do.

So He says to His disciples: Did you see that?  They look over to where He was pointing and all they see was maybe an elderly woman shuffling away.  What were you talking about?  And He says she gave more than all those rich people put together and they probably looked at Him in astonishment.  Two pennies versus thousands of dollars?  They probably don't say it but they probably think that Jesus is seriously mistaken.  He is trying to teach them a lesson, a point here.

Back to Luke 21 – now let's read verse 5.

Luke 21:5 Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, 

So here they are sitting in the Court of the Women and the Temple is very tall; sitting in the court of the women you could look up and see this magnificent building.  So they are there with Jesus, His disciples, and then marveling at the Temple, how it is adorned with beautiful stones, marble,
and all these donations are coming in – quite a spectacle:  the loud clanging of all the coins going into the coffers - and Jesus says:

V.6 – "These things which you see – the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”

V.7 – So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?”

It was almost hard to imagine that this magnificent complex could be torn down and destroyed.  The beautiful marble, all the cash coming in – Christ said:  The day will come when it will be all gone.  Of course as we know in 70 AD it was destroyed and all that is left today is the little portion of the western wall, the basement part, for us to see today. 

I worked at the Worldwide Church of God headquarters in Pasadena for 15 years and it housed a wonderful office environment – beautiful landscaping, a world-class college, a beautiful performing art center auditorium. The college later became a University. And I think of verses 5 and 6 here.  Without God, our finery comes to nothing.  The beautiful stones and donations come to naught. And that is what Christ is saying here about the Temple.  He said it will be gone and they said, "Well, when is that going to happen?"And then He gave signs about the end time in the next few verses:  the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the great tribulation, the heavenly signs. He goes into a whole explanation of prophecy after this.

The Temple treasury filled the store houses of God and quite a lot of wealth was in Herod's temple during this time period.  Josephus relates in Books 17 and 18, of his Antiquities of the Jews volumes, how when Archelaus was in Rome petitioning Augustus to confirm the last will of his father Herod, a riot broke out in the temple during the festival of weeks – during the festival of Pentecost we would call it today – and Varsus, pro-consul of Syria, attempted to quell the disturbance.  He tried to stop the rioting of the Jews and according to Josephus, the rioters climbed atop the portico surrounding the outer court and attacked the Roman legionaries from above. 

So on the overview here, you can see the portico's all the way around. Solomon's porch is on the right; Herod has one on the bottom left, that big long porch.  I don't know how many columns it says it had: 40 columns in 4 rows – 160 columns along that one side.  You have these portico's all the way around, these big porches.  The Jews climbed on top of those and started attacking the Romans from above and in retaliation the Romans burnt the porches, feeding the fire with combustible materials until the porches collapsed.  Josephus says that the porticos had some wooden components and even some gold ornamentation.

So pushing their way through their fire, the Romans made their way into the temple treasury, Josephus says.  Of course they didn't worry about the Court of the Gentiles and the little fence then. They proceeded to pillage and Josephus says that when he was procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate illegally expropriated funds from the temple treasury to build an aqua-duct.  So the Romans did from time to time get into that temple treasury and steal funds for their building projects.

Let's notice one more passage about the temple treasury in Matthew 27.  Once again this passage is written at the time of the Passover and when Jesus was about to die. 

Mathew 27:1 – When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death.

V2 – And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

V.3 – Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

V.4 – saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood."And they said, "What do we care?”

V.5 – Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.

V.6 – But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, "It is not lawful to put them into treasury, because they are the price of blood.”

V.7 – And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.  

V.8 – Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 

I want you to notice verse 6 that the chief priest didn't want to put that blood money into the temple treasury.  They didn't want to go up to one of those thirteen trumpets and put that cash in.  They were afraid that that might bring something bad. 

But once again another passage about this whole temple treasury area and you just get a feeling, a picture for what is going on here during Jesus' time. 

So our main point:  The widow who threw in the two mites, the two pennies, all that she had into the temple trumpet, into the treasury, was a truly humble woman.  She gave up all that she had for God.  She gave up her whole livelihood.

What about us?  Are we leaving everything behind?  Is there anything that comes between us and God?  How dedicated are we? 

Humility is often misunderstood.  Some people think it is just means running yourself down. "Oh, I am no good"– acting humble – maybe even denying skills that we actually have or feigning a worthlessness.  Some times people do that in order to have someone else praise them, saying, "Oh no, you are good.”

It has been suggested that next time a really good singer – someone who really sings well – says, "Oh, I really can't sing that well,"that you agree with them and say, "Well, you tried your best."And they probably did try their best, right?  You say, "You tried your best,"and then notice their reaction. 

Humility is truth.  The Latin word Humus, not hummus, but humus means soil, or dust, or dirt. And it is the root word of both the words human and humility.  Humans are made of dirt. Humans are, in God's sight, humble creatures.  Humility.  So just like the humble, faithful widow we, too, must give all to God. And we are not talking about cash here now.

Luke 14:25 is where I want to turn to, to finish up today. 

Luke 14:25 Now great multitudes went with Him (with Jesus) and He turned and said to them.

V.26 – "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

Of course when it says "hate"here, a better translation is to love God more and other things less.

V.27 – "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

V.28 – "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it –

V.29 – "lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,

V.30 – "saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

V.31 – "or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

V.32 – "or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.  Calls it off.

V.33 – "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

In so many respects the story of the widow and her tiny offering is a picture of what we have to become.  Her story is so much more meaningful than that of the rich Jews loudly trumpeting their offerings.  She is the one being exalted in the pages of our Bible now.  Those rich people are being forcefully humbled in the scriptures. 

If you go back to verse 11 – here is the context of what Christ was saying when He said:  If you don't forsake all you cannot be My disciple.  He says:

V.11 – "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

So now we appreciate the widow's mite more than ever, reading her story.

Humility is so important that it is impossible for anyone to have any authentic type of Godly life without the virtue of humility.  It compels us to be true to ourselves and to respect others.  Because of our human nature humility is a very slippery virtue.  You've got to be careful.  In the act of thinking we have it we prove to ourselves we don't.  A person can be humble till he knows he is humble. 

So a riddle:  What do you have till you realize you have it and then you don't have it?