2 Corinthians, 8:1-6

Second Corinthians chapter 8. Let's read through the first six verses which we didn't get through last week. Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power I bear witness, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves, beseeching us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift. and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God, inasmuch that we besought Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

And in terms of background, and I didn't give you all a background last week with respect to Paul's letter here to the Corinthians, and he's writing to them, and as you see he's talking about these believers in Macedonia, about their giving. who's talking about here in terms of these believers in Macedonia and Philippi was one of the chief cities or the chief city in Macedonia and Paul talks about their giving and the giving out of their deep poverty and Macedonia, excuse me, Philippi was probably the chief city in Macedonia probably stripped by the Romans in terms of its wealth. So there were a lot of poor people. The only rich people in Philippi were the Roman aristocrats, and those who maybe worked for them had money, but everybody else. So that may be accounted for about 25-30 percent of the people and the rest were just in deep poverty.

So Paul and Silas visited Philippi on their second missionary journey and then if you remember in Philippi Paul met who? By the riverside. Do you remember who she was? Lydia? Maker of purple whatever? So he met Lydia and Lydia was Paul's first convert in Philippi.

Then after they encountered that the fellow who had this gal who could do divination and there was a demon in this young woman and people were making profit and gain from her and Paul cast out the demon out of this gal and what happened then? Cast the demon out and what did the owners of this gal do? And why weren't they happy? They took away their revenue, their social livelihood.

And so, of course, they came against Paul and beat him and threw him in prison. And that was a very interesting experience Paul in terms of Paul and Silas in prison and then comes this earthquake and their chains are loosed and the Philippian jailer who thought that they were gone and he knew that if they're gone, he's gone. So he was just about to take his sword and just kill himself and commit suicide. And Paul happened to look up and see him and said, hey, do thyself no harm.

We're all here. What's interesting is this, is that all the prisoners were loosed. All of them, not just Paul and Silas. But yet they all stayed. And the thing is, I mean, you can see Paul and Silas maybe staying, right? But how about the others? Why did the others stay?

The only thing I can think of is Paul and Silas, you know, they were witnessing, they were singing hymns of praise. beaten in that prison, even though they were beaten and chained. And I think Paul and Silas had a tremendous influence on all the other prisoners. Paul and Silas convinced them, hey stay, don't leave. And boy, there you have the Philippian jailer being converted. It was incredible.

Okay, so now I want I want you to look at verse 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, in terms of these churches in Macedonia and it says how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. We looked at that last week and just as an introduction this morning We saw that the trial was really great, probably had lots of trials, not only lots of trials, but the degree of their trials was really deep.

And their poverty. They were absolutely poor. As we saw last week, they were just living from hand to mouth. The observation that you make in verse 2 was in terms of their circumstances. Think of us in our circumstances and what our response is when the circumstances are pretty bad and pretty grim. Look at their circumstances. Great trial of affliction, but there was this abundance of joy.

Now that's unusual, isn't it? and their deep poverty abounded in their generosity. Hold it. If I don't have any money, There's no way that I'm going to give away any money, right? But yet they did. So the question is, how? We talked about, as we ended last week, how? How could this possibly happen?

And we went through Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 5, just looking at what that says. And we saw this beautiful cycle that is in Romans chapter 5. where they were rejoicing in the hope of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And hope is the absolute certainty, the confidence that you can have in who Christ is.

And they were rejoicing in that. And then comes along the trial, the deep trial, and the poverty. And they didn't miss a beat. They were still rejoicing. And the reason why they're rejoicing is because of their faith, in terms of just focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the Lord then uses the circumstances and the trials to work towards something, to produce something, impatience, that abiding under, that beautiful word in the Greek, koupa mone, to abide under. And it's an intimate term. It means to be at home. So we can be at home in whatever trial that comes at us.

And I don't know of any greater trials or any greater circumstance that is so, that to the natural mind is so bad, so what appears to be tragic, than what these believers in Macedonia were going through, but yet there was joy, and the Lord was working patience, this abiding under, they had that intimacy with Christ, and bringing them to the trial. And their focus, their focus was not on that trial or their poverty. Their focus was on the Lord. As a result of that, that patient produces what we saw was trite character. What do we say about trite character? What is trite character? Whose character? The very character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is Christ manifesting himself, living through these beliefs.

Others are seeing that. Others are seeing Christ through these believers. And it comes in full circle, that tricharacter, works, or hope, or that absolute certainty. And then, I love the way it ends, in terms of that the love of God is shed abroad, or gushed out from believers. So as we go through a trial, I mean, this can be us. Not only Macedonian believers.

I want to take a look at verses 3 and 4. We'll look at that. It says this, For to their power I bear witness, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves, beseeching us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints." Okay, what does all that look like? When Paul says that I testify according to their ability, and that word testify is a word for being a witness, like being a witness in a court.

And Paul had nothing to do with what was happening in these believers' lives. He was just observing what the Lord was doing through these believers, and he marveled. Paul just marveled at what he was doing, or at what God was doing through these believers. Paul saw this, that their focus was not on their circumstances, not on their trials, not on their poverty, but for the need of the poor at Jerusalem. Because the giving that it's talking about here, that they gave out of their deep poverty, there were the poor saints in Jerusalem. And in looking at this, I'm thinking, wait a second, there's the poor in Jerusalem, but there's this deep poverty of these believers in Macedonia. I mean, really deep poverty. and I know that I think as you look at this passage it appears that Paul is so amazed at what's happening that, hold it, that these believers in Macedonia who are in deep poverty are giving to these poor in Jerusalem but not as poor as those in Macedonia.

Get the picture? I mean, and so Paul is testifying to this, and I think he's saying, wow, this is how the Lord works. So there's a principle here, you know, that it's interesting in terms of how grace works, and it always acts on the behalf of others rather than self. Grace doesn't look at self, it looks at others. And when we're focused on self, then we can't be focused on others. They were focused on the needs of others.

So it goes on to say they gave beyond their ability or their means. How do you do that? You know, how do you give beyond your ability or means? I mean, they gave everything. So it's very much like, the only way I can think of an example, it's very much like when the Lord was telling the story and watching these people coming by and putting money in, right? And this little old lady put in how much? Well, she had two mites and others were putting in hundreds, right? She just had two mites. And what did the Lord say about that? about her giving. She's given the most. And she was giving out of her deep poverty.

Now, the thing is this, as you read this, it would appear that Paul is, he's trying to get these, wrong word, He's telling this to the Corinthian believers. The question is, why is he telling this to the Corinthian believers? Because a collection is going to be made for the poor in Jerusalem. But he's telling the Corinthians this story about the Macedonians, the churches fled by.

Now, why is he doing that? Christianity, or modern Christianity, quote unquote, do that today. So you turn on TBN, right? And you have all of these guys asking for money. These guys in wonderful, tailored suits, right? And asking for money. And they use levers and they use prize to get you to give.

Is Paul using this example of the Macedonian believers to get the Corinthian believers to give because they got a lot more money than those in Macedonia? And so is he saying, hey look, you guys really are loaded and you can afford to give more? What do you think? What principle would that violate?

Cheerful giving, grace. We haven't got to 2 Corinthians chapter 9 in terms of giving grudgingly or of necessity. But God loves a cheerful giver or a hilarious giver. So the thing is this, as we read this text, Paul is not using this as a lever to get the Corinthians to give.

He is just a witness saying, this is what grace giving looks like. This is what it is. He's using this as a teaching point as to what grace-giving is all about. Now, key, it says that they gave of their own accord in verse 3. no appeals, no pressure from the pulpit, nobody coming knocking at your door and saying we would like you to pledge X number of dollars per year, we've got this program going, that program going, here's our budget for the year and we need X number, there's none of that. There was, you know, none of the gimmicks in terms of the big drawing of the thermometer with here's the goal. Right. And this is where we are in the red mark rising. Right. There's none of that. It was of their own accord. Here's the kicker.

And this is why Paul is just in awe. Because they had to beg him. They actually had to beg Paul to receive their gift. And Paul knew about their deep poverty. And I think Paul said, no, you know, but they had to beg him to take the gift. So the only way that that was possible, that the giving was out of God's grace. And they thought nothing of it. The only thing they thought of was those poor in Jerusalem. and they didn't care that maybe they were not as poor as they were, but there was a need and they were focused on that need.

Interesting that in verse 4 it says, with much urging for the favor or the grace of participation, that word participation, what does the New American Standard say? Anybody have New American Standard, verse 4? Participation. And the word is koinonia. It means fellowship. And what's interesting is that it's calling giving here a fellowship, a sharing in common. And so you can look at giving as a fellowship or sharing of common. And what were they sharing? And here's a question.

Who does everything we have, whatever we have, who does it belong to? the Lord. We come in with what? Nothing? And we leave with? Think about that again. I tricked you into saying that. We come in with nothing, but don't we leave with everything in terms of our spiritual blessings and who we are in Christ? Right? We come in with nothing spiritually. but we leave with everything. So, in a monetary sense, we come in with nothing and we leave with nothing.

Okay. When it says their own accord, it makes me think of the human nature, not the spiritual. How do you know that's not the old man? Oh, okay. Okay, good question. Marilyn's question, it says, When they gave according to, they gave of their own accord, how do you know, how do you know that it's not coming out of the old man, old nature? Probably the old man wouldn't do something like that. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. Would the old man ever do that?

And just, do you see the grace? behind their giving. I mean, this could never happen, other than the source is grace, God's grace. Could never, ever happen. It would never happen. So, I think in the whole context of these first six verses, you just see the grace of God.

And that's how you know when it says, of their own accord, it's out from God's grace. Because look back at verse one. It says, Moreover, brethren, we make known to you what the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. So this is how this is how grace operates.

Harry? It may not be entirely true as I think of the example of getting these people to throw down their money with promises that if you give anything tomorrow you're going to have ten times as much in your mailbox. That's not from the Lord. Yeah, absolutely. But that's because he entreated them to do that and this says in the poem of verse 5 that they gave of their own accord and verse 5 says not as we had expected them to do. Yeah, exactly.

It was interesting and since Harry brought it up, I saw a program, a TV program And I guess Benny Han is used to go around the world to, I don't want to say encourage people to give. How do I want to say this? He's the one that is used to get Christians to give as Glass was saying, grudgingly and not being a cheerful giver. And boy, he uses the pressure. And there was this one program, as Harry was mentioning, that he was telling these people that You give. You give. Scripture commands you to give. And not only that, you're going to be blessed. And you give today and tomorrow in your mailbox, you're going to receive tenfold.

So verses are picked out of Scripture, out of context and used. and you just could not believe the scene I mean people were doing this and if I you know people were taking all their money and just throwing it off the balcony onto the floors and these guys were coming up in baskets and just picking up all the money now here's a kicker Somebody who was there said that Benny Han told all these people that picked up the money, sort it out, put the hundreds in one stack, I'll take those, you keep the rest. How's that? Sad. That's the opposite of grace.

Okay, Susan brought up verse 5, and verse 5, And this they did, not as we hoped or expected, but first gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. in so much that we besought Titus as he has begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also." Look at verse 6. What can we say about giving in verse 6? If you were to list some principles of giving And look, excuse me, verse 5, what principles of giving would you find? In fact, the first five verses. But verse 5 particularly. They first gave themselves. Okay. They first gave themselves and complete that. to the Lord. Okay? And then what? And then to us. And when he says to us, what does he mean?

Your doesn't say that. Marilyn, we've got to get you a new Bible. Well, he just says they gave unto us. I would take that to mean money or something like that. Okay. Okay, and unto us. And talking about us and what he stood for, what he was doing, the ministry, right?

So look at the principles there that we see in terms of giving. And as I've listed them, there's three principles here in terms of our giving. I just want to underscore our giving. It's giving ourselves to the Lord, I think, is primary. Does He want your money or my money if we haven't given ourselves to Him? Does He need any money?

And then, the second principle is giving of ourselves to the ministry of God. And God's ministry, as we've looked at, is ministering God's eternal purpose. What's God's eternal purpose? Declaring His glory. Sharing His glory. Revealing His glory. And then in turn to glorify Him. You could list God's eternal purpose in those four points. And then thirdly and lastly is giving of our finances. Now, here's the question. How do we do this? How do we give ourselves to the Lord? So tomorrow morning, how do you give yourselves to the Lord? When you go home today, how do you give yourselves to the Lord? Or whenever, how do we give ourselves to the Lord?

And I'm not going to say a word until somebody answers. Okay, by glorifying Him, by trusting in Him. You know, when I go through this lesson, I've got to ask myself these questions. I say, well, okay, they gave themselves to the Lord. What in the world does that mean? And so I've got to think for hours in terms of what does that mean to me in terms of when I wake up in the morning, in terms of giving myself to the Lord.

Turn to Romans chapter 12. And I think this comes closest. And all that was said is absolutely true. Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. How do we do this? It says, we present our bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable.

And the word acceptable in the King James, I'm not sure how it's translated in the American standard. But the word means pleasing. And does anybody have another? What's the American standard? Acceptable. Acceptable. OK. Acceptable. bothers me in terms of that, you know, you think, well, okay, did I reach the mark to be acceptable unto Him? Right? New International says perfect. Perfect. Maryland says it, New International says perfect. I think the translation is pleasing.

It's the same word that's used, I think, in Hebrews 11, 6. For by faith, without faith it is what? impossible to please Him. So this is where faith comes in. And the way I think of Romans 12, 1 and 2, in summary, is, Here am I, Lord. Here am I. However you want to use me. Whatever you want to do with me. Here am I. Giving ourselves to the ministry of God's eternal purpose.

And we've gone through the first few chapters here, seven chapters of second corinthians so turn back to second corinthians chapter three and i just want to show you in just a summary fashion how that how that looks in our life so second corinthians chapter three uh... Well, verse 18, of course, is a beautiful one, but we all with unveiled face beholding it, as in the mirror of the glory of our Lord, are changed or transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. What I was looking for, just before that, I guess, And verse three is another, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. And in verse three, it talks about us being an epistle of Christ. And we're an epistle of Christ, being manifested. that as we walk by faith, His life is being manifested through us. He's living His very life through us. We can't live the life. He's got to live His life through us.

And the thing is this, as that happens, as we behold Him, like in verse 18 says, then the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is manifested through our life. And others see. And so we're, if you will, God is using us then for His eternal purpose of revealing His glory. Others see the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And I'll tell you something. When they see Christ through you and through me, they're going to come to us and ask us about the hope that's within us. They're going to say, why? Why do you believe this? What do you think about this? And that's what's going to happen.

And then we can share. We have that wonderful opportunity to share the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. OK. giving of our finances. We won't go through all these passages of scripture. Let me summarize something. Well, no. Turn to Philippians chapter 4. You have to see this. Philippians chapter 4, verses 15 through 18. I'll start at verse 15.

Now you Philippians know, know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me as concerning giving and receiving, but you only. When it says, when it says no church shared with him, it's in the Greek, it's in tense, no, not one. No, not one shared with him. except the Philippian church. Out of their what?

Deep poverty. In verse 16, for even in Thessalonica you sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. So, the point is this. It's interesting in terms of Paul's ministry. Paul never took any money from any church. If he had to soak tents, he made tents. But he did take money from the Philippian church. Is that the church he should have been taking money from? Or should he have been taking it from the Church at Corinth, who had lots more money, or in Thessalonica. So why? Why would he take money from the Church in Philippi, who was in deep poverty?

Because of the attitude. Okay, because of the attitude. And what was the attitude? How did he... Let me ask you it this way. How could Paul not refuse the gift. Even though he knew of their deep poverty, he could never refuse the gift. Why? Because they were giving out of the grace that God had given to them. They were giving out of the grace of God. Can you turn away God's grace? No way. So that's why Paul received their gift, never turned it away. He knew the source. And he wasn't sure of the source of any other church, but he knew the source of the Philippian church. It was out from God's grace. He knew that.

There's some other principles here. that is listed. We talked about one. I showed you that it's a fellowship, a koinonia. The other one is a principle that giving is a grace. It is grace. And again, it has to be in order. Ourselves to the Lord and ministry and then financially. And all of those are a grace gift. They're out from God's grace.

And in chapter 8 and 9, as we said last week, is the most comprehensive chapters in all of scripture on giving. You want to know about giving? Just read chapters 8 and 9. And it talks about grace, that giving is a grace. I'm just going to throw up here in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 all of the times that the word grace is used. In verse 1, in verse 4, this word gift here is the word grace. in verse 6, insomuch that we desire that Titus, so he would finish in you the same grace also, the same giving is a grace, therefore as you abound in verse 7, you abound in everything, in faith, utterance, we'll get to this next week, you're loved, see that you abound in this grace also, in terms of this giving. So as you go through the chapters eight and nine, there's about nine times here where the word grace is used for giving.

If we were to summarize this, and you know me, I like to draw pictures. And in terms of, you know, Christian giving. So when you think of Christian giving, what's the picture of Christian giving? And here's the way I look at it in terms of Christian giving. It's number one, giving ourselves to the Lord. Number two, giving ourselves to ministry. Lastly, giving of our finances. That is in terms of Christian giving. But it has to be done. in a context. What's the context? Grace. Grace. It has to be done out from God's grace.

So, we're not finished with that, so Christian giving has to look like this, is that these three aspects of it, and the source of it all, is God's grace. The source is not us. We are not the source. The source is God's grace. And it's a fellowship. It's a sharing in common of all who we are in Christ, all that we have in Christ. It's a sharing in common. Questions? Comments? I must be so thorough in what I teach that I'd leave no stone unturned. You know, you think about it and what a privilege we have in terms of giving. It's a privilege.

And it's not us. It's out from God's grace as we respond by faith to His grace. And we don't get the glory for any of that. We don't get any? any glory for any of this. And if we're looking to be petted on the back or to get any kind of glory, then we know that the source is wrong. And as Marilyn asked the question before, how do we know when it says up there on the court that it, you know, how do we know it wasn't out from them versus out from God's grace?

It has to be this way. Okay, let's close the word prayer. Father, again, we are just so thankful for your word. And Lord, as we look at this whole subject on giving, it is so distorted in Christianity today. But we thank you for your Word, which gives us just a clear understanding of giving. And Father, how we thank you for your matchless and marvelous grace, and to know that that is the only source out from which we are to give. And as we do that, we pray, Father, that you would be honored and glorified by it. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.