Did Jesus Die To Make You Rich?

Hi Friends, did Jesus die to make us rich? Is the abundant life He promised a life that is full of money, wealth and luxury? Does the Lord truly want His servants to live in opulence and luxury like the world? These are some of the questions that will be answered through this sermon.

1. What is the Bible’s view on prosperity?

Psalm 35:27 (NKJV) says, ‘Let the Lord be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.’ Friends, yes, it is the Lord’s desire that we should be blessed and not live in lack. Psalm 34:9-10 (NKJV) says ‘Oh fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.’ Indeed, when Jabez prayed ‘Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your Hand would be with me and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain’; God granted him what he requested (1 Chronicles 4:10 (NKJV)). Proverbs 10:22 (NKJV) says ‘The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.’ Proverbs 22:4 (NKJV) says ‘By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life.’ Scripture clearly evidences that God will take care of us because He is our Shepherd (Psalm 23:1).

However, there is something especially important that we must understand now. Whenever God gave promises of blessing in the Old Covenant there was a condition preceding it or following it. When God promised the Israelites in Exodus 23:25 (NKJV) that He will bless their bread and water and take sickness away from the midst them; there was a condition preceding that. That condition was ‘so you shall serve the Lord and your God, and He will bless your bread and water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.’ Under the Old Covenant God promised material blessings for the children of Israel when they walked in obedience and a curse when they disobeyed and went after other gods. What about the New Covenant?

What did Jesus and His apostles say on prosperity?

Well, what did Jesus say about prosperity? What does the new covenant tell us about prosperity?

In John 10:10 (NKJV) Jesus says, ‘I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.’ Is Jesus talking about money? Is Jesus talking about our earthly life? What is Jesus talking about in that whole chapter? What does John 10:9 say? What does it say from John 10:11 onwards? The Lord Jesus is clearly and in detail speaking about eternal life in His message. In John 10:28 Jesus says, ‘I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.’

2 Corinthians 8:9 (NKJV) says, ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.’ What is 2 Corinthians 8:9 talking about? Let me explain this verse phrase by phrase, point by point.

Paul in this chapter is writing to the Corinthian church about supporting the work of the Lord with their finances just like how the Macedonian church was doing. Verse 9 starts by saying ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’. What is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Romans 5:8 (NKJV) says ‘in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ Ephesians 2:8 (NKJV) ‘for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.’ We have received unmerited favour and a free gift from God to be saved by Grace through faith in Jesus. That is Grace.

What does ‘though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor’ mean? The answer for this is Philippians 2:5-8 (NKJV) ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.’

What does ‘that you through His poverty might become rich’ mean? The word ‘rich’ is used to signify all that we receive as sons and daughters of God because of Christ’s great sacrifice. What do we receive because of Christ’s great sacrifice? The book of Ephesians commences by promising us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ from God the Father. As we study the book of Ephesians, we begin to understand the riches that