Rich – Poor – Rich
2 Cor. 8:9
Al Lingren, a professor at Garrett Evangelical Seminary, tells about taking his junior-high-school son fishing years ago. It was one of those days when the fish wouldn’t bite, so the two of them had a lot of time to talk. Out of the blue his junior-high son asked, "Dad, what’s the toughest thing God ever tried to do?”
Al said that the question caught him, a minister, off guard. He didn’t know what to say, and so like a good teacher answered a question with a question. "What do you think it was son?”
His son responded, "Even though you’re a minister you don’t know much about God, do you, Dad?” The boy then proceeded to answer his own question.
"Since taking science in school, I thought the creation of the world might be the hardest thing God ever tried to do,” he said. "In Sunday School we got to talking about some of the miracles, like Jesus’ resurrection, and I thought that might be the toughest thing God ever did. Then after thinking some more and talking to others, I decided that no one knows God really well. So now I think that the toughest thing God ever tried to do is to get us to understand who he is and that he loves us.”
The father could simply say to his boy, "Son. I think you’re right. That is the hardest thing that God ever had to do and there was only one way he could do it.” (From a sermon by Dr. Donald Strobe who cites the bulletin of the Metropolitan UMC, Detroit, Aug. 23, 1987 as his source.)
God becoming man is what Christmas is about. The incarnation is spoken of in the NT many ways: as the full revelation of God; as the final step of redemption’s plan; and with other metaphors.
In 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul uses it as the greatest motivation for giving:
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9 NIV)
What Christian wouldn’t understand the correctness of this example of God’s extravagant giving and be motivated by it? And how perfectly and succinctly this verse captures the essence of Christmas.
1. FROM RICH TO POOR
All Christians confess that Jesus was Divine, that He had a pre-existence with the Father. He had all the prerogatives and knew the glory of God. John in the beginning of his gospel puts it this way (John 1:1-4, 14, 17):
Jn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jn 1:2 He was with God in the beginning.
Jn 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Jn 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Jn 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jn 1:17 … grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor…”
A Helpless baby… totally dependent, unable to help himself... [expand]
“Think about it: when people are struck with a serious illness, something progressively debilitating, so that they know over time they’re going to become less and less able to care for themselves, one of the things they fear most is losing control. Becoming dependent on someone else, at first needing someone to drive them places and perhaps prepare meals for them, and then eventually having to rely on other people for the basic necessities of life – to dress them, and feed them, and bathe them. Yet Jesus voluntarily took on this kind of complete helplessness, the kind that we fear so much.” (- Alan Perkins from the sermon, The Humility of the Incarnation)
He grew… from a child into a teen; who knows more than their parents…he thinks… [expand]
Unlike us, Jesus humbled himself and willingly yielded to his parents authority over him. He respected their authority, whether he agreed with them or not, or thought he knew better than them. He submitted because it was the right thing to do, because God the Father had placed him in a position of subjection to them. If Jesus could do it, then so can we. By His power, we can show respect and honor to those in authority over us, even when they don’t deserve it, even if we’re convinced they’re wrong.
But Christ’s humility didn’t end with his birth or his childhood. It continued throughout his life.
As he walked here among men, he said of himself, "The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work" (John 14:10). He became poor, he surrendered his will to the Father.
He became so poor that Isaiah prophecy accurately described Him,
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not… we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted," (Isa. 53:3-4).
He once was so rich (and now is again!) that Paul can write in Rom. 11:36, "For from him and through him and to him are all things.” Yet on earth. Jesus said of himself, "the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Matt 8:20).
He had no home, they had to borrow a manger in which he could be born; he had to borrow a penny when he wanted to perform a miracle; he depended on others for his clothes; and when he died they had to borrow a grave in which to lay his body. He had no place, nothing of his own. He had no home to go to; he had no place to lay his head. Is it not strange that we who call ourselves Christians seek to live as kings, but he who was the King of Kings lived like a pauper?
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9 NIV)
2. THAT WE MIGHT BECOME RICH
A. The Grace of Our Lord
Paul describes the Incarnation in a little fuller way in Phil. 2:
“Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped [=held onto at all costs], but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” – Philippians 2:2-12 (NIV)
Christ is our example; Christ is our power.
Rich – Poor – Rich, just like Christ, our Lord.
By His grace & in His power.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
Search for Grace Illust:
In His book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace”, Philip Yancey traces his own search for grace; What is it, really? Where can it be found? Why does it seem to be so lacking both in and outside of the church?
He said, “As I look back on my own pilgrimage, marked by wanderings, detours, and dead ends, I see now that what pulled me along was my search for grace. I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else.”
We fail to show His grace because we don’t truly allow Him to be Lord. Savior, yes. We receive His love, but don’t like to obey His commands.
But the Son of God, says the apostle, "became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."
It’s what the angel said to Joseph before the baby was born: "You shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins" (Mt 1:21). Those sins that stood between us and God and provoked God’s anger so terribly - God the Son laid aside His heavenly glory and became one of us in order to take those offending sins away. By so doing He gave to all who received Him "the right to become children of God" (Jn 1:12), "and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17).
In a word: all the wealth of God becomes our inheritance; "for all things are yours: whether … the world or life or death, or things present or things to come - all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s" (I Cor 3:21ff).
B. The Riches We Think Of
Rich = Freedom, power, respect, Quality life, peace of mind, health, happiness.
To a degree, it is true. Abject poverty does not have those things. But wealth beyond a point does not have them either.
2 Examples from this week’s news: [Expand on both]
1) West Va. Woman in paper this week whose husband won one of the biggest lotteries in America and wishes he hadn’t bought the ticket. Nothing but heartache and trouble.
2) “The Aviator” begins showing this week – it’s the story of early years of Howard Hughes. He was the richest man in world at time of death and totally miserable. Had lost each of the qualities of being “rich” above.
C. True Riches
Jesus said;
Mt 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
Mt 6:20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Mt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Mt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
True riches in life come from: love, relationships (only eternal things), purpose, giftedness, forgiveness, assurance of life after this life, freedom from addictions, freedom from fear – especially fear of meaninglessness and death.
Jesus provides all of that – and only He can.
Rev 3:14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.
Rev 3:15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot [=neither refreshingly cold or healingly hot]. I wish you were either one or the other!
Rev 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
Rev 3:18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Rev 3:19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
Rev 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Rev 3:22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Illust:
[See Material in The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren, p. 27-29]
Listen to what Paul writes in Ephesians 1, according to The Message:
3How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. 4Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 5Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
7Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people--free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! 8He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, 9letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, 10a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
11It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, 12part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free--signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit.
These are the true riches available to us in Christ!
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9 NIV)
He spoke in Rev. to believers like us – not to unbelievers - who somehow had pushed Him outside their heart’s door. He wants back in, to the central place in our lives, to his rightful place. Let him in today.
[Conclude with a Prayer of Recommitment/Salvation.]
