INTRO :
I can’t hear what you are saying because your actions speak louder than your words.
Do as I say not as I do.
We lead by example.
Christ is the greatest example of selflessness.
BACKGROUND :
Most teach on 2 Cor 8 in the context of giving money.
I am speaking in the context of giving ourselves (8:5).
In I COR 16:3 Paul speaks of collecting an offering for believers in Jerusalem.
They had pledged an offering a year ago and were delinquent. (8:10).
Possibly because :
1) They were Gentiles, Jerusalem Christians were Jews.
2) False apostles entered the Church. (Ch 10 &11).
Paul uses examples to encourage them to give :
1) The Macedonians gave out of poverty.
Macedonian Churches : Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica.
They were selfless.
2) Christ was rich and became poor.
Not monetarily, He gave of Himself.
He wants them to give of themselves, not just their money
He wants their heart
I) YOU KNOW THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
A) WHY DID HE SAY THIS ?
To point out correct motivation in giving
Let the grace of God be your motivation.
Strange things motivate people - 17th cent. Queen Eliz.
Why did so many people look so pale ? Tuberculosis.
THE PURPOSE DRIVEN CHURCH – Rick Warren.
3 wrong motivations :
i) Tradition –
Perpetuate the past, no flexability, Tradition becomes Gosple.
Matt 15 Tradition is so strong it can nullify the Word of God.
Nonrockaboatus - hardening of the catagories.
e.g. - person who wanted their seat.
ii) Personality – Everything revolves around one figure.
The sole source of motivation, power, and excitement.
iii) Finances – How much will it cost ?
The bottom line is not who got saved but how much was saved.
What should our primary motive be ? Grace. (Vs. 1)
We didn’t deserve for Him to become man.
B) WHY DID HE SAY THIS NOW ?
Ch 8 & 9 seem out of context, abrupt.
He was addressing the root cause of their problems – SELFISHNESS.
It was the root cause of :
- Lawsuits
- Gluttony at the Lord’s table
- Sectarianism
- A man having his father’s wife.
Vs. 5 - He wanted them to give themselves to the Lord first.
That would result in their involvement, participation, commitment, fellowship.
He wanted them to love the Lord - develop this. Loving the Lord in rel to selfishness.
He didn’t write Ch. 8 & 9 for money – he wanted their fellowship.
Giving is more than money – he wanted them to give of themselves.
“It is easier to give of our substance rather than ourselves”.
C) WHAT WAS THE GRACE THEY KNEW ?
It was not knowing Christ.
Grace – charis – also trans. gift.
Charis speaks of God’s giving.
The grace of God is that He became man for us. .
They knew His example of selfless giving.
THE MISER OF MARSEILLES by Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1944
There is a legend about how, years ago, there was an old man who used to walk the streets of that seaport town whom they called "The Miser of Marseilles." He was an object of derision throughout the whole city and even throughout the south of France, for everybody seemed to know him. Apparently he loved nothing and had no other object than to hoard every bit of money he got hold of; for what purpose, none knew.
He was hated whenever he appeared on the streets. When he died, he was so despised that only a single person attended his funeral. Then his will was read, and these were its strange terms:
“From my infancy I noticed that the poor people of Marseilles had great difficulty in getting water. I noticed that water, the gift of God, was very dear and difficult to obtain. And when they could get that water, it was not as pure and clean as God intended it to be. Therefore, I vowed before God that I would live but for one purpose, for one end. I would save money, money, money; that I might give it to the city on one condition: that an aqueduct be built to bring fresh, pure water from yonder lake in the hills to Marseilles. That I now make possible by leaving all my hoarded wealth to this city. This is my last will and testament”.
Travelers in Marseilles today hear the poor people say as they drink the pure, sweet water from the lake in the hills, "Ah, when the miser died, we misunderstood him, but he did it all for us! We called him the miser of Marseilles, but he was more than that; he was the savior of Marseilles. "
If we human beings could but learn the one inescapable meaning of that parable we would know the secret of how to get the most out of life which is to give the most to life.
Just as they knew of the miser’s giving
so the Corinthians knew of Christ’s selflessness.
D) HOW DID THEY KNOW THIS GRACE ?
They knew it experientially.
KNOW –Gr. - Ginosko :
Vine’s Expository Dictionary : to understand or to understand completely. Such knowledge is obtained, not by mere intellectual activity, but by operation of the Holy Spirit consequent upon acceptance of Christ.
They experienced grace and remained selfish.
I don’t want to experience the grace of God and not pass it on.
How can I pass it on ?
How do I act toward the : homosexual, homeless, a brother in sin,…
II) HE WAS RICH
A) HE PREEXISTED AS GOD
MIC 5:2 “…Whose goings fourth have been from of old, even from everlasting.
i) He was rich in glory – JN 17:5
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
He had the worship of the angles – HEB 1:6,8
And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
ii) He was rich in power – COL 1:16, 17 c.f. JN 1:3
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
He had the power to create – ex nihlo.
He had the attributes of Deity because he was God.
III) FOR YOUR SAKES HE BECAME POOR
A) HE BECAME A MAN – PHIL 2:6,7 (KENOSIS PASSAGE)
He took on an additional nature.
He was 100% God and 100% man – the hypostatic union.
He didn’t cease to be God – what did He empty Himself of ?
He temporarily laid aside the glory of His divine majesty,
the constant use of His divine attributes.
B) HE BECAME POOR
Forbes magazine reported Bill Gates is the richest man in the world at $60 Billion.
Could you imagine him walking Pacific as a bum ?
Jesus was the richest, He became the poorest.
He was a scrounge. He borrowed :
A manger,
Food
A place to sleep
A coin for an illustration
A donkey
A tomb
ISA 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and aquatinted with grief.
C) HIS MOTIVATION WAS LOVE
Jesus had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
RO 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Description of crucifixion
Human motivation can be impure.
e.g. pres. & V.P. – Lake Tahoe environmental act.
When there are personal gains motives are questioned.
V) THAT YOU THROUGH HIS POVERTY MIGHT BECOME RICH
A) WHAT ARE TRUE RICHES ?
Are true riches $$$, fame, wealth ? No, look at Hollywood.
Money comes and goes. – don’t trust in the uncertainty of riches.
True riches = serving God.
QU. CHARLES SPURGON - The prince of preachers
“But remember, O saint, that thy wealth does not all lie in thy possessions just now; remember thou art rich in promises. Let a man never so poor as to the metal that he hath, … And so the Christian can say “If I have no riches in possession, I have the promise of them, my God hath said, “No good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly” – this is a promise that makes him rich”.
CONC:
You are rich in : grace and mercy
An intimate love relationship with God.
In the H.S. dwelling in you.
You are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.
You have a guarantee of heaven.
Why has he made us so rich ?
So that we can become poor – give away the grace of God and make others rich.
