If you have your copy of God’s Word, I would invite you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. This morning and this evening we will spend our time together, Lord willing, looking at this text. We can’t go into all the details that are here, but Lord willing we will be able to see some wonderful principles about how understanding the truth of the Gospel changes how we think about giving and going and what service to the Lord Jesus Christ means.
Before I say that, I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to your elders and to your mission committee to come and preach. And thank you for sending now two teams to Honduras in the last year and a third one on the way. We are so grateful for your support. But most of all as I listened to Jamie pray, thank you for praying. We have a prayer-hearing, answering God. I just want to say thanks for taking the time to pray for us. Last year when I came to do this, I just want to say this as an aside as we start, I was sitting next to Pastor Strain right before I did the men’s dinner and he said right before I walked up, he said, “Okay, Aaron, go up there and cry like you always do!” So I want to put that out there as we start. I am weepy, I am a weepy guy, and I will probably be weeping at some point during this sermon because most of all what I want us to see today is that our Christ became poor for us that we might be rich, and that changes everything.
So with that in mind, let’s read the Word of God and then look to Him in prayer. This is the Word of the Lord:
“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.
I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 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. And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, ‘Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.’”
Let’s turn to the Lord in prayer.
Gracious heavenly Father, we come before You this morning recognizing that we have not come to hear from a mere man. We ask that You would preach a better sermon than the one that is before me. We pray, O Lord, that we would be convinced and convicted and reminded of the beauty and truth of the Gospel, that Christ would be lifted high, that we would see Christ and be astonished by Him once again. Lord, we ask that Your name would be magnified. We have not come just to check a box this morning. We have come because we long to know more of our Savior. We ask that You would do it. We ask that if there are any amongst us who don’t know You, that today, at the hearing of Your Word, they would come to saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord, for Your fame to grow within our own hearts that we would be captivated by who You are and what You have done and the wealth that we have been given because of Christ Jesus, spiritually speaking. And we ask, O Lord, that You would be magnified. We ask that You would use a crooked stick and strike a straight blow, and we pray this in Christ’s name, amen.
As I mentioned in a little bit of the introduction, if you were to look at verse 9 of chapter 8 and then verse 15 of chapter 9, there’s two mentions of this idea of an inexpressible gift that Paul is recognizing. He’s doing two chapters on what it means to give, what it means to be those who are captivated by the Gospel, and he’s using this as a way to encourage believers in Corinth to now give to the work of that is going on in Jerusalem. There is a famine and there is need and so he is constantly, it seems, in different situations raising money and raising funds so that he can support the church in Jerusalem. And so this is where we find him coming to the church in Corinth and encouraging them with the way that the Macedonians were giving. And it is in light of verse 9 that he gives us these principles of what or how we should be giving. He shows us how the Macedonians have an attitude towards their money and towards their giving to this need. And I think this morning what I would like for us to do is just move through a few of these principles, a few things that come from the text about what it means to be those who give and what is the joy or how is the way we should give.
So the first principle I would like for us to see this morning is we see that the Macedonians give joyfully. We see that in verse 2. It says, “for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity.” So we see that these Macedonians, in this situation, hearing of what’s going on in Jerusalem, now are desirous to give. They are finding it a great joy to take part in this. We know that because not only does it say that they have an abundance of joy, it also says that they pleaded in verse 4, “begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.” There is a great desire to involve themselves in what is going on in Jerusalem. Their hearts are captivated and they are overwhelmed.
And I loved what one pastor said, thinking about this idea. He said, “Oftentimes in our giving” – and I have been very convicted during this week thinking about my own giving and how we give – he said, “Oftentimes our giving looks a lot like parents taking their kids to the nursery or their oldest child to the nursery for the first time.” That mom drops their first oldest in and has everything packed, all the diapers, all the right snacks, the right oils and all the creams and all the things, and then walks, “Are they going to be okay for 30 minutes? Are they going to be okay for 45 minutes? What happens if the pastor goes too long? There’s an extra snack!” So they’re making sure that everything is dealt with. And by the time you have five kids like mine you are asking if you can just keep them all day, right? You just walk up and you say, “Do you do this all afternoon? Can they stay here from morning service till evening service?” and there’s a joy in handing your kids off, right? There is a great delight in saying, “This is wonderful! I can go into the service. I can go and do this. I can sit in my Sunday school class and listen.”
And oftentimes, the way we give is not with abundant joy. We give holding back. We give thinking, “Is this the best thing to do?” But these Macedonians are overwhelmed with the need at Jerusalem and so their great desire is to give joyfully and to give joyfully in a way that they show that forth and that they are going to Paul and they are begging Paul for the grace of being able to participate. We’re going to get to this point later on in the text, but it is a grace to take part in this. They get to be involved in the grace of giving.
I want to commend that to you. We just had a church planter stand up here a few minutes ago and thank you. Many of you have given faithfully for years and given for the work of ministry and you’ve looked for ways to support the work of the ministry in other places and you’ve done so joyfully. I would encourage you to keep doing that. Keep looking for ways to joyfully give to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ through the local church. Give to your church and allow your elders to send that money to places all throughout Jackson, all throughout Mississippi, all throughout the United States, all throughout the nations that that money can be used for the glory of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel and the establishing of churches that God’s name might be proclaimed in all the world. That’s what we long for. The giving is not just, “Oh, we want to give joyfully and say we want to do it,” but, “We have a desire to see that Christ would be magnified.” They are overwhelmed for the need of the church in Jerusalem so they give joyfully and they give readily. They are longing to take part in this process.
But not only are they willing to give joyfully, they also are willing to give sacrificially. We see that in verse 2 as well. It says, “for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their parts.” So there is a desire even in their situation to give sacrificially. Oftentimes we think that if we just had a little more we would give more. But oftentimes it shows that our hearts are captivated by what we have. And what you see in this text is that even in their poverty, they are ready to give. They are ready to put forth money to give towards whatever the need is in Jerusalem. As one pastor mentioned, he said there was a pastor who asked a farmer in his church, “If you had $1,000 would you give $500 for the work of the Lord?” He said, “Of course, pastor. I would do that.” So the pastor said, “Well, if you had two cows would you give one for the Lord for the service of the church.” He said, “Of course, pastor. I would do that.” He said, “Well if you had two pigs, would you give one for the work of the Lord for the glory of Christ?” He said, “Well hold on, pastor. You know I have two pigs!” Right?
And so the idea is, we’re okay with the idea as long as it’s out there. And then it moves closer in and so these brothers and sisters in Christ are giving out of their poverty. They’re giving in an extreme affliction where we might even say this is unwise of these Macedonians to give in this way. But what it shows is that their hearts are so captivated by Christ and who their God is that they are willing and ready to give out of their poverty. So the question is not whether or not your bank account is full or empty. It’s whether or not what is in the bank account has a hold of your heart. Right? This is where the widow’s mite comes in, where the woman gives out of her poverty. Did that change the budget of the church, her two pence? No, but it showed where her heart was.
And so maybe you’re a kid who gets your allowance on a weekly basis and you think, “If my mom and dad give me $5, my 50 cents will not do much.” Yeah, financially it might not do much, but it does something in your heart. It does something about what’s going on inside of you. Young people who are working and have jobs, think about ways to give to the local church. Don’t think that that’s something for other people to do. No, what we should see is that in poverty or in wealth, what we have to understand is that our hearts are so captivated by this Christ that we are ready to give and ready to give sacrificially to the point that we are giving things up for the glory of Christ to honor who Christ is.
And so we see that they not only give joyfully and then they give sacrificially, but they also give of themselves. We see that in verse 5. It says, “and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord.” That is a key piece in all of this, brothers and sisters. What this shows is that their focus was in serving God first and foremost, that they’re overwhelmed and captivated by who God is and what He has done for them, that they then give themselves to the Lord. And so they’re not seeing this as, “Oh, Paul is here telling us we’ve got to give and we feel bad about it and that’s what we have to do.” I’m going to tell you the honest truth, even as a visiting missionary coming and preaching on this text, it feels a little bit like that. Right? “Aaron’s here to tell us and make us feel bad that we need to give more, we need to give more to the work of missions and all that kind of stuff.” I would love for you to give more, but if you notice in the text Paul even says, “I say this not as a command.” Paul has all the rights to say, “I am an apostle. I command you to give!” But he doesn’t because what he wants them to do is see and understand Christ and that’s why he comes to the crux of this text in verse 9 and lifts up Christ.
But beyond the idea of giving of themselves, beyond the idea, he also says that they should excel in this gift. In verse 7 it says, “But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.” You see, Paul is saying, “I want you to continue to put this grace to work in your life. I want you to continue to think about what it looks like to excel in this grace of giving and what it means to participate in this.” Because he tells them it’s not a command but he mentions grace four times in these first eight verses talking about this grace that they are, in essence, taking part in and they are spreading this grace around. As they excel in their giving, they are spreading this grace around to others and they are showing forth what Christ has done in them. And so they’re liberally giving. And he wants these Corinthians, as they are so good in other areas, to continue to work this out. We know that in Romans chapter 12 there are gifts that are given and one of those is those who have a gift of generosity. But he’s wanting us to continue to cultivate this grace of giving and to excel in it.
And what that means in all of our lives and how that applies to Aaron and how that applies to y’all is going to look differently but it is going to be that the principle remains the same – to excel in this grace of giving and to desire to do that and to give. Every time we travel we normally stay at a – and when I think about this idea of how to give liberally and work in this grace – we will stay at a hotel normally, and with our five kids, oftentimes we go to the pool. And when they get in the pool, it feels like more water is outside the pool than in the pool. And when I think about that, that’s how the grace of giving should work in our lives. God has abundantly gifted us that we can jump into that pool of His grace and mercy and kindness and just splash around and cause it to go everywhere because it is an opportunity to excel. I’m not saying to do it unwisely; I’m saying to enjoy the grace of giving. That every time you get to give to a seminary student or give to a ministry of give to the local church or give your tithes and your offerings that there is a great moment to think about, “This is a great chance to grow in the grace of giving.” And such a wonderful principle that Paul is trying to press forward to them – that they would excel in this, that they would continue to work this out in their lives.
But brethren, there’s a reality in this text that I could give you all these principles and most likely if we don’t deal with verse 9 we will just all walk out thinking, “I’ve just got to do better. I’ve got to just advance myself in this grace of giving.” But you see what Paul does in the middle of this text, after he’s made these references, after he’s encouraged them to give, he grabs them and he gives them the “why” of it all. Because he says in verse 9, “For you know, for, for – I’m telling you to pay attention! – for you know.” And what do you know? “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You have heard the good news of the Gospel. You have been saved by His grace. You have remembered and been reminded of and been preached to that Christ came and died for sinners such as us.” And so knowing that, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” – what is that grace? “That though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor.” And when you look at that in the Greek there is an idea of, it is not just that He stopped being rich. No, it is that remaining rich, being the God of all glory, the one who is deserving of all honor and praise and all glory, He remains rich, and yet at the same time, He takes on poverty. And what does that mean that He takes on poverty? It means that the Creator of the universe took on flesh, He went into the womb of Mary, He fed off of Mary, He learned as we all learned. He sat with His father and studied the Scriptures. He sat beneath the limitations of what it means to be fully human. This God who by whom and through whom and for whom all things were made, is not in the form of a babe, taking on poverty.
But it doesn’t stop there! He learns and He grows but then He tells us He has nowhere to lay His head. The one who has created the birds and created the foxes has nowhere to put His head. And then as He stands before men that hate Him, He is exhausted, He is misunderstood, He is slandered. You can see the depth of His poverty as He stands before judges that are unworthy to judge the God of all the universe. This is the poverty of Christ! A Christ who has taken on flesh and gone and sat and put Himself under the judgment of men. He is beaten and He is mocked and He walks to Golgotha. This is the poverty of your Christ that Paul so quickly says He who was rich, the one who had trinitarian wealth and had communion with the Father, the one who became flesh and took on poverty for us. As He walks to Golgotha, the cross upon His shoulders, feeling the weight of all the exhaustion, His back beaten, His body broken, He goes to the cross and we see the skies darken and we hear the cry, “My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”
The poverty of your Christ. The poverty of your Christ. For being rich – to poverty, for me and for you and for the brothers and sisters in Africa and in India and in Honduras, in Jackson! And the glory of that reality is that if you can hear my voice He is willing and able to save! If you have sat here Sunday by Sunday and never, never recognized the wealth that is being offered to you in Christ Jesus, I bid you come. I bid you run to Him and rest in Him! This is a Savior who is willing and ready to save! The poverty doesn’t stop. He cries out and then He gives His Spirit unto the Father and then He goes into a tomb. That is the poverty! And what does He give you in return? What does He give us in return? He gives us justification. He gives us adoption. He gives us inheritance. He gives us eternal life. He gives something to look forward to in the fact that not only will we be in glory but we will be with Him! The glory of heaven is that we will be with our Christ! That’s the beauty of this whole text, brothers and sisters – that Christ is lifted high and that is the driving force of why we desire to give. The Macedonians understand – “For you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” – and he is pressing that home to the Corinthians. He’s pressing home this idea of, “Stare at the wonderful face of our Savior and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we receive is all the benefits that are ours in Christ Jesus. There was none richer and none that became poorer. He took abandonment for us and became poor to death so that we might have life, that you might have a promise of eternal life. And so what does that cause in us? It causes us to be overwhelmed with the grace that has been shown to us. It causes us to delight in the glory of our God. It causes us to think about how wonderful our God is and what He has given to us. As we think about Romans 8 and all that Christ has done and then all that is ours in Christ Jesus, what it does is it lifts our eyes to heaven and we realize how rich we truly are in Christ Jesus. And then it constrains us, it propels us out. It causes us to say, “He has given His very own Son for the likes of me and my response is to give myself.” What does Romans 12:1 say? “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” Because the response to all the wonderful theology of Romans 1 through 11 is, “Here’s my life! Take my life, let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee!” And if it’s consecrated to Thee, then what we will sing in closing today, this idea that, “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Take my intellect and use, every power as Thou shalt choose, every power as Thou shalt choose.” You see, as we are captivated by the Gospel, as we are overwhelmed by our Christ, we are thrust out towards giving, towards going, as we will see even this evening.
And so as we study Christ, as we look, it causes us to think about the grace of giving – how we can give better. The idea is that as we hold up, maybe a false bill, if I were to bring here some Lempiras from Honduras, they would mean absolutely nothing to you. They’re not worth that much. It’s 24:1 right now in Honduras so twenty-four of them are not worth that much. But when we hold our giving up next to Christ and how He has given, we are overwhelmed by the grace that He has shown to us. And so it propels us forward. And what it makes me think of, we’re just finishing preaching Luke in the evenings at our church in Honduras. And we were just preaching through the rich young ruler and then Zacchaeus in chapter 18 and 19 of Luke. And you think about the rich young ruler. He comes and he asks what he needs to do to be saved and the Lord gives him the law. And he says, “I’ve done it.” And He says, “Sell it all and follow me,” and he goes away sad. But the next chapter, we get Zacchaeus who is extremely wealthy and Jesus goes and meets with Zacchaeus and runs Zacchaeus down and has a divine appointment with Zacchaeus. And then Zacchaeus, in coming to know Christ, what is his response to this? He says, “I’m going to give half to the poor and four-fold what I have defrauded.” Jesus never mentioned paying or giving to the poor. With the rich young ruler He did, but with Zacchaeus He didn’t. Why? Because Zacchaeus understood who Christ was. Zacchaeus came into saving knowing with the Lord Jesus Christ was, and the response was, “Everything that I have is Yours! Nothing can be held back!”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, as you think upon the Lord Jesus Christ, as we think about what He has done for us, as we think about this idea of a Savior who is rich but became poor while remaining rich so that we might have wealth, the response is to be those who delight in the joy, the joy of sacrificial giving. It’s a gift of grace that we get to spread around because God has given us to give.
I’ll close with this short illustration. Keven DeYoung mentions the fact that when he was in seminary there was a family that would give him $200 for one year, each month they were going to send him $200. And he said, “When I was in seminary that felt like the most amount of money that anybody could give me.” And he said, but they told me, “You have to use this $200 for something fun. You can’t use it on anything except just enjoying.” And so he said that he took that $200 and he would take his friends out and he would go get meals and buy their meals. And everybody was like, “What’s happened to you? Where did all this money come from?” But he said it was such a joy to get to give liberally because others had given liberally. And when we look at Christ, we get to give because Christ has given so liberally to us. He has shown us grace upon grace and we can delight in that, brothers and sisters. So my encouragement to us this morning is to stare at the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, on what He has done on the cross, and respond in a way that brings glory to God. Let us pray.Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Word is sharper than any two-edged sword. We pray that Your Word would penetrate us deep within our hearts, that You would convict us and convince us of our need of You. O Lord, we ask that Your name would be magnified in our lives. Lord, we ask that we would be captivated by King Jesus. We ask that we would be overwhelmed by the wealth that Christ has given to us in adoption, in sanctification, in justification, in eternal inheritance, O Lord, that our eyes would be fixed upon You. Lord, we ask that today those who are backslidden would be reminded of the goodness of Christ. We ask for those who are struggling and limping along that seeing the wealth of Christ and the poverty with which You took, O Lord, would be a reminder to press on. We also pray for those who don’t know You. We ask that they would see that You are willing and able to save, that You took on poverty that they might have access, O that they would repent. We pray all these things in Christ’s name, amen.