The Upside Down Logic Of Heaven Series

On what was probably a beautiful spring day in the first-century Roman providence of Judea, a large crowd had gathered on the Korazim Plateau, overlooking the southern slopes of Lake Tiberias. It was rumored that the increasingly popular teacher, Yeshua (yay-SHOO-a), would be addressing the crowd that day. Yeshua was a relatively young man that only recently had begun to make a name for himself. In fact, he had become such a captivating speaker who had such a way with words that many of the Jewish people that came to hear him on this particular day were hoping for a political speech in which he would proclaim himself as the leader of an insurrection over the currently ruling party. The Romans, who occupied this Jewish territory, had instituted a brutal regime that saw widespread poverty and violence against the people. Maybe this would finally be the king who was coming to rid the land of the Romans and bring health and wealth to the people once more. So imagine their confusion when Rabbi Yeshua, whom we know as Jesus, uttered these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth…blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”

When Jesus arrived on the scene, his followers want to make him a king. Instead, he brought with him the upside down logic of what it meant to live for the kingdom of heaven. Men and women were no longer to vie for positions of power, instead they were to become one another’s servants. Instead of hoarding wealth in response to an increasingly volatile economy, they were to fling open their doors with joy and give to all in need. And rather than seek justice for wrongdoing, these Jesus followers were to live with open-handed generosity and forgiveness to all. So you can understand why some people started to walk away from Jesus when they heard these words: “blessed are the poor.”

These last few months, we have been studying 2 Corinthians together. It was probably close to 25 years after Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount that Paul wrote this letter. But today we’re going to see him continue this theme that Jesus introduced 25 years earlier of the Upside Down Logic of Heaven. And so turn with me to 2 Corinthians 8…while you’re turning there, for those of you that have said that I’ve never given you anything as your pastor, today is a gift just for you. Because the theme of chapter 8 is about giving and there’s so much to teach that we COULD spend all day on this subject alone. But today is also a day when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper which means we’ll preach one of the shortest messages of the year…on giving—so you’re welcome.

Paul has been focusing much of his letter on the Spirit-empowered life of the believer. And he continues that theme into chapter 8 with a biblical model for Spirit-empowered giving. In verse 1, he teaches that our giving should be motivated by God’s grace. In verse 2, Paul says we should give with great joy and radical generosity. Verse 3 teaches that Spirit-empowered giving is sacrificial in nature. Verse 4 tells us that giving is a privilege, not an obligation. Verse 5 highlights the fact that giving is an act of worship, and verse 8 says that giving is proof, or evidence, that God’s love is in us.

And then in verse 9, where our focus will be for the next few minutes, Paul gives us another one of his famous paradoxes showing how Jesus is the ultimate example of what it means to be generous. 2 Corinthians 8:9 | "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich."

That though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor… So exactly HOW did Jesus become poor? There’s no real evidence in Scripture or in history books that Jesus and his family were any poorer than any of the other Jewish people that they lived with. So I don’t think Paul means that Jesus was poor in an economical sense. Rather, Paul’s referring to the fact that Jesus gave up all the rights and privileges, as God, so that he could become human. Think about this for a minute—he willingly subjected himself to human limitations such as place and time—still as God, but now as God in the flesh. Jesus, the Master Creator of the universe (according to Hebrews 1) stepped out of the majesty of heaven to become one of us. He set aside his glory and his rights as God to experience everything in life that WE would experience.