Our Heart Matters

Sermon on Luke 20:45-21:4
路加福音第20章45节至21章4节的证道

Luke 20:45 – 21:4 Our Heart Matters
Shalom.
Today we shall continue with Jesus’ teachings in Luke 20:45 to 21:4. I will be reading from the New King James version as many bible translations translated Scribes as mere “teachers of the law” which I feel may not fully describe them.
Luke 20 (NKJV)
Beware of the Scribes
45 Then, in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples,
46 “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts,
47 who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
Luke 21 (NKJV)
The Widow’s Two Mites
1 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,
2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. [ Greek lepta, very small copper coin]
3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;
4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had”.

Before we go into the teachings, it will be good to know more about scribes besides being teachers of the religious law.
Scribes were Jewish leaders who drew up legal documents, copied the Old Testament Scripture, devoted themselves to the study of the religious law and determine its applications on daily life. They also studied the Scripture with respect to doctrinal and historical matters. They flourished from the time of the Exile until the destruction of the Jewish state in A.D. 70.
In the New Testament period, the scribes were learned teachers and authoritative leaders. They were advisors to the chief priests, teachers of the religious Law, leaders of the community, men in reputation for wisdom and honour, but many were against Jesus and his teachings.

Jesus’ Warning of the Scribes
In verses 45 – 47, Jesus warned his disciples against the scribes. What was the warning about?

1) Go around in long robes
The long flowing robe that the scribes wore was part of a fancy and expensive wardrobe. They also wore full length prayer shawls with tas-sels attached to the four corners. Made of wool or linen, these shawls, known as talliths, distinguished scribes as men of wealth and eminence, and of a significant social status. There is nothing wrong with the clothing, but the intend to impress others was what Jesus condemns.

2) Love greetings in the marketplaces
In extrabiblical material recording, rabbis and other religious authorities received special greetings in the marketplace, e.g. everyone was expected to rise, thus making an impression. It was intended to be a greeting of respect. In the Talmud, the Jewish religious law, stated that such greetings were required for the teachers of the law. The scribes received such greetings, not with humility, but pride. That’s what Jesus was criticising.

3) Best seats in the synagogues
These were probably the benches at the front of the synagogue, which were considered the seats of honour; or the seat of Moses, which represent authority. These “first seats” as they were called in Greek, were reserved for teachers and persons of rank, the best position from which to address the congregation.
In today’s church context, it will probably be these seats at the front rows, closest to the Cross. I can tell that all of you are very humble people, no one rush for the front seats, and many prefer to sit as far back as possible so that the speaker will not ask you question or catch you nodding in agreement.

4) Best places at feasts
They desired the first seats at dinner, in later Judaism record, these seats were probably at the centre of a U-shaped table, nearest to the host. From the picture, you can see that the host family will be seated at the left, the higher status guests at the centre table, while the lower status guest at the right. It’s an honour to sit next to the host, and the scribes loved to have those seats.

Talking about sitting arrangement, similar practices are observed in Mainland China. If you are invited to a formal banquet, especially in rural cities, do observe these practices. The table will have a seat with napkin folded taller than the rest, or rolled up like a candle sticking out from a glass. This seat is reserved for the host, followed by the seniority of the guests, those more senior in position will be seated next to the host. If you attend such business banquet, let the host take the seat and wait for host to arrange your sitting. This is a show of respect, courtesy, and humility.
As taught in Prov 25:7, “It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table than to be sent away in public disgrace”.

5) Devour widows’ houses
At that time, widows represent the most vulnerable in society, and scribes are to serve and help them. Although not clearly stated here, but from other records, scribes could have done the following:
1. Scribes were supposed to help manage the widows’ property but took advantage of these poor widows. They charged a healthy fee for themselves which was not permissible.
2. The scribes took advantage of widows’ hospitality when they were invited to their homes, like gluttons, they freeloaded upon the widows.
3. The scribes took houses as pledges of debts, knowing that the widows will have no mean of repayment.
4. They also took fee for legal advice which they are not supposed to, in accordance to the law. It was also forbidden for them to accept money for teaching as they are to make their knowledge available without charge.
5. Functioning as lawyers, they were to act as guardians appointed by a husband’s will to care for the widow’s estate, but they cheated widows out of their estates
6) Make long prayers
Hypocritical long prayers, appearing to be piety, but did not attend to the needs of the vulnerable, instead took advantage of them.
They took large sum of money as a reward for the prolonged prayer which they professed to make on the widows’ behalf.

Scribes associated their identity and value by the length of their robes, the flattering greetings in public, and the seat of honour at worship and banquet. They forgot that they are anointed to serve the people, to point the people to the path of God, and their identity is in God, not what they wear, where they seat or how people perceive them. Their greed also led them to take advantage of the needy.
So what about our identity? Do we measure our identity by how many “As” we scored in school? How popular we are with friends? What type of job we do? How much money we earn? What type of house we live in? Or what car we drive? Remember, our identity is in Christ Jesus. It doesn’t matter how people look at you, but how Christ look at us, He sees us as His beloved children, made in His perfect image.
Going back to the Scribes, they were prideful, their hearts departed from God, and they failed to walk the talk of helping the poor and needy. Jesus reminded his disciples not to imitate the behaviour of the Scribes. He wanted his disciples to be different, to be a servant leader like himself.

Let us point people to Jesus and deflect all attention away from ourselves. Let’s examine our heart, if Jesus is our Lord, there is no place for pride.
As in Proverb 16:18, “pride goes before destruction”. Whatever resources we have been given, be it knowledge, skills, wealth, use them to bless others and not to fatten ourselves.

In Luke 21:1-4, Jesus was watching the people putting their contributions into the treasury and he noticed the widow whom contributed the 2 copper coins or lepta.
Contributions were placed into the 13 trumpet-shaped receptacles which were placed in the court of women, the only part of the temple to which women had access (This is the first enclosure of the temple in which Jewish women and children were allowed to worship).
The trumpet shape receptacle with the narrow neck, prevented people from dipping their hands to help themselves with the offering.
Each receptacle bore an inscription indicating what the offering would be use for. For example, one for bird offerings, one for wood, one for frankincense, one for gold for the mercy seat, and so on, with remaining 6 meant for freewill offering. Very similar to our church weekly offering, whereby we have general, mission and charity offering.
The monies in the freewill offering receptables were used to support the operation of the temple, those serving in the temple (e.g. priests and Levites), and to meet the needs of the needy, the widow included. In those days, a widow had very few means of earning money and normally found life very difficult.

As you can see, the teaching and practice of caring for those in need have always been part of the church. I was surprised that our early pastor was involved in prison ministry. Are you aware that Jubilee Church used to run an old folks home at Bukit Merah View? That was about 40 years ago.

Ten years ago, Jubilee Church started Jubilee Community Service, with the intend to bless the needy at Tiong Bahru and Tanjong Pagar. I believe many of you were part of our community blessing activities in the earlier years.
From Jesus ministry, blessing the needy is not just giving food, money or material, it includes psychological, social, cognitive, health and spiritual needs. I will not cover them as these will be another sermon.

In Jubilee Church members’ handbook, it is clearly stated that one of the church’s function is to serve others and care for the community.
And church, is to teach this to all members. I say again, church is to teach this ministry of serving and caring for the community to all members. I am not sure if we still give out this members’ handbook to the newly baptised members.

For the next part of my sharing, I am sharing from the bottom of my heart, with humility, not pointing finger at anyone. I remembered very clearly when I first approached Tiong Bahru CC Management Committee to introduce our church and explore how we can partner them in serving the community, the chairperson asked me if Jubilee Church is a new set up in this area or just relocated to Outram. I was dumbfounded, and felt ashamed. We have been in Tanjong Pagar & Tiong Bahru area for more than 130 years, we were very well known, both pre and post war, what happened after we move up to this little hill?

In the last ten years of serving at Jubilee Community Service, I have been asked by people how many converts did we get through our community work. My jaw dropped. With humility, I have read the bible from cover to cover, but I did not find any teaching that says that when we help the needy, in exchange, they are to receive Christ. “I give you a bag of rice now, so next Sunday make sure you come to church to receive Christ”.

What I know is what Jesus taught in Matthew 25, ‘For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink… I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ Blessing the community is to lift Jesus high and give him the glory and honour, not setting a KPI of how many came to know Christ, as people will be attracted to Jesus.
From our early pastor evangelism work and prison ministry, people were attracted to Christ as we can see the number of people whom came to church increased. Our pastor did not stop there, he started night classes to teach English to the Chinese community and this resulted in the setting up of Eastern School. And the story of blessing the community goes on and on…

Just last month, we had a collaboration with TB CC again in blessing the community. The former chair person remembered that Jubilee Church started this yearly community blessing with them, and this is our tenth year. But sad to mention, from a major sponsor of the event, we are now playing a small part.
Remember, God does not need us to bless the community if we do not want to. He will send his people according to his timing. When Jubilee community service decided to slow down and take a back seat, Hope Church from the East came to Tiong Bahru to bless the community, followed by St Matthew Church at Eng Hoon Street. St Matthew Church has set up an Elder Care Centre at Havelock not too long ago. Recently, I was told that AOG church at Tanglin is coming to Tiong Bahru and they are planning a 5 years community blessing programme. So what are we, the 地头蛇 of Tiong Bahru doing?

This year marks the 100th years anniversary of our church Kindergarten, Chinese Kindergarten. We have lined up a series of celebration and thanks giving events.

Chinese Kindergarten, being the first kindergarten in Singapore, started in 1921 with the intend to bless the children with pre-school education. It has not been easy for many Christian kindergartens in the past years, especially after MOE started kindergartens in Primary school, and giving students priority in primary school entry. Many Christian kindergarten had to close for good as they could not sustain, and Chinese Kindergarten is also affected with our number of students sliding. However, the board of Chinese Kindergarten is very clear that we will fight this good fight until God says stop, we want to provide a Christ centred education and instil the right values to our children.

Chinese Kindergarten is committed in developing our children to be “Keen Learners, Joyful Givers, and Confident Team Players” (好学, 乐施, 乐群).

Not only do we invest in cognitive development, we want our children to be Joyful Givers and learn to care for the needy in the community. You can see from the slide on our community work. In line with CK 100th years anniversary, we went to bless the hawkers at TB market just before Chinese New Year. Last week, we blessed the elderly at Dorcas Senior Activity Centre under Presbyterian Community Service. One more community blessing coming up in April or June.
Recently, I heard that one of the preschools set up a prayer and offering table during 7th month and the children begin to imitate the ritual during play. Do you want your child to come home and imitate the 拜拜 ritual or do you rather that they come home singing praises?

For those of you with preschool children, I would strongly encourage you to send your children to a Christian pre-school. If you are living not too far from Jubilee church, send them to Chinese Kindergarten. You will see that we are very holistic in our teachings, both spiritual and academic, we are not perfect, but I believe your child will excel in Primary school, just like many of our students. One of the President Scholar some years back was a CK student.

Going back to the widow whom contributed two lepta. Two lepta are worth about 2/130 of a denarius, and a denarius is a day’s wage at that time. Say you work at Mcdonald at $5/- an hour. and you get $40 a day. 2 lepta will be about 62 cents, a very small amount of money which we can’t buy much in

Singapore today.
The poor widow gave everything she had to God, trusting not in money to provide for her but in God. I believe she exhibited the faith in God’s provision that Jesus calls us to have. The widow is not looking for credit, but how she can humbly serve God. Jesus commented the widow for her generosity, especially in light of how little she had. Others gave out of excess while she gave her all. Jesus shows the disciples that it is not the amount, but the nature of the heart that gives them.

Little gifts can be taken for granted and not even noticed, yet sometimes they are in fact the biggest gifts of all.

In Jubilee’s history, we had many whom gave like the widow. When we were building our church building in late 1960s, we had a sister whom ate only two meals a day and saved the money of one meal to contribute to the church. Nowadays when we eat two meals a day, we are actually on a diet to slim down.
In the early 90s, when we were building this auditorium and the class rooms above us, we had a young boy whom contributed all his pocket money in this plastic bottle. The church kept this bottle in the safe till today, to remind us of how Jubilee members played a part in building this church, and many had contributed like the widow.

About Giving
Giving out of abundance is appreciated, but it cost little. Giving out of life like the widow, means giving all to honour God. What we give to God deserves priority, not our leftovers. For God loves cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7). Remember, Jesus does not need our money, he is the owner of all that we have, he wants our heart.

We can start teaching our children how to manage their finances. How I teach my youngest son whom is in Primary School is, out of the weekly pocket money, $1 (which is 10%) will go to Jesus, $1 for saving and 50 cents for Charity, and the remaining will be divided by five days for his spending. If you like to follow the Jewish practice, you can add one saving item for future investment.

Summary
As you walk out of this auditorium today, let’s remember what Jesus is teaching us:
1. Our identity is in Christ Jesus. He sees us as His beloved children, made in His perfect image.
2. Our heart matters, we need to guard our hearts, for it determines the course of our life (Prov 4:23). Lest we become proud and depart from the path of God like the scribes.
3. Care to the needy is a main focus in Christianity. Those with little to give can contribute by ministering to the needy and care for them in other ways (in psychological, cognitive, social, health, and spiritual needs).
4. Be a cheerful giver and depend on God’s providence like what the widow did.
May Jesus words continue to be the lamp at your feet and the light for your path. Amen.

Prov 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life”.