Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
This fall, we're studying the book of Second
Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt
and practical book calling us back to the life
of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often
pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,
hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel
of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after
a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,
that the way up is the way down, that the way
to glory is through suffering, that his strength
is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to
meet you and we hope you'll consider coming and
joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m.
in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find
us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
sermon. God bless. Oh Lord God, we confess that
you are God and we are not. In your light, we
see light. Please grant us your grace, illumine
this text for us, help us to know you and love
you better. We pray these things in the name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. This is a famous
Quote here try to remember if you have heard
this before and if so where and then come and
talk to me about it later, okay? Good name in
man and woman dear my lord is the immediate jewel
of their souls Who steals my purse? steals trash
to something nothing twas mine Tis his and has
been slave to thousands, but he that filches
from me my good name robs me of that which not
enriches him and makes me poor indeed. That's
a pretty great quote, right? It's a kind of a
beautiful sentiment. My money is not as important
as my honor. That's something we can get behind.
So here's what I think happens. People, when
they want to talk about money, they Google famous
quotes about money. And they see that one, and
they say, Shakespeare, that guy's smart. Score.
And so they put it into their speech or into
their book or whatever. Well, here's a public
service announcement. Beware quoting Shakespeare
if you don't know the plays. Because, as many
of you I imagine know already, those lines that
I quoted for you are from the play Othello, and
particularly from the character Iago, and Iago
is high on the list of wickedest people in all
of fiction. He is cruel and deceptive, without
reason. He causes the catastrophe of the tragedy
of Othello just because he's grumpy. He's a liar.
In the section that I quoted for you, He's lying
about not caring about money. The play actually
opens with a different character, sort of a fool
named Rodrigo, who's complaining that Iago keeps
spending all of Rodrigo's money. Later on in
the play, Iago will tell Rodrigo not to worry
about a girl, Desimona, that he can't get, but
rather just to put money in my purse. Money will
comfort you, right? So the phrase who steals
my purse steals trash it sounds really good But
it's missing important context if you don't know
its origin, right? Shakespeare knows that the
guy who tells you that he doesn't care about
money is Probably the same guy getting trying
to get you to hand over you money to him He doth
protest too much to borrow from another play.
So Let's keep that dynamic in mind as we go to
talk about The Bible. 2 Corinthians 8 is a text
about money and what we do with it, and more
than that, it's a text that's encouraging a church
to give generously. Many of us were raised to
think that you shouldn't talk about money socially
because that's not polite, but the Bible is often
not a polite book. It says impolite things like
that whoever does not believe in the name of
Jesus is condemned already. John 3, 18. It also
says that you, like the Corinthians, should be
willing to give your money. This is uncomfortable.
Now, I want to take a moment and put in a plug
for the kind of preaching that we do here in
this church and in the PCA more generally, and
that is just to preach straight through books.
There's an ancient practice called lectio continua,
which is a Latin phrase which just means read
without stopping. So we'll just choose a book
of the Bible and then preach through the entire
thing without jumping around. Why? Well, it's
the mission of this church to give the whole
counsel of God, as Paul says. And one of the
ways that we do that is just preaching what's
in front of us, not dodging passages that we
don't like, even if they make us uncomfortable.
We believe God put what he wanted his people
to hear in the Bible. So we make a point. of
preaching through it straight to make sure we
get a balanced diet of what he wants to say.
What I'm saying is I did not sign up to say like,
oh, please let me preach about money today, right?
So I say all this to you. And also you guys,
if you're sitting out there and you're a regular
attender, you're thinking to yourself, wait,
but why is he skipping chapter seven? Didn't
we just finish chapter six last week? Yes, we
did finish the end of chapter six last week and
according to Lectio Continua We should do chapter
seven this week, but Peter and I got confused
a couple of weeks ago And so I planned for eight
so that's what we're doing so deal with it all
right, so it's Lectio Mostly Continua Peter's
gonna do seven next week deal with it all right
our text today is about money Let's do an overview
of the chapter. So Paul is asking the Corinthians
to contribute to a big donation to go to care
for the poor people in the Church of Jerusalem,
and he wants to do it in such a way, quote, that
no one should blame us about this generous gift.
That's verse 20. This collection is one of the
big goals of all of Paul's ministry, so in addition
to a reference to it in 1st Corinthians and then
this reference in 2nd Corinthians and chapter
9, so look out for that one too, it also shows
up as part of a fundraising effort in Romans
chapter 15 and then we see in Acts chapter 24
as Paul is defending himself against the governor
Felix, he mentions that he did in fact go and
give this gift to Jerusalem. So he got it done.
So Paul notes at the beginning of this chapter
that the Macedonian churches, which if you are
uninformed about Middle East geography, like
myself, means the churches of Philippi, Thessalonica
and Berea, even though they were poor and persecuted,
just like the Jerusalem church, they really wanted
to give. And so they gave from extreme poverty.
That's verse two. They gave beyond their means.
That's verse 3. And Paul has been bragging to
people about how great the Corinthians have been
doing. That is at the end of our text in verse
24. the Corinthians themselves should give. That's
the sense of the passage. And, since this is
the Bible and we believe it's relevant to our
lives today, I think we can learn good things
from this chapter about how to think about our
own possessions and how we are to worship the
Lord with our substance, as it says in Proverbs
3. Okay, so what I want to say this morning,
in its most general form, is this. If we are
Bible -believing Christians, the Bible should
inform our interactions with money. Money is
not some morally neutral area that's beyond the
scope of the Bible's teachings. So I hijacked
a great verse from the hymn, Be Thou My Vision,
one of my all -time favorites, for my title.
If you remember the verse, it says, riches I
heed not, nor man's empty praise. Well, I think
in this chapter, Paul is saying we have to heed
riches a little bit, in part because we need
to be aware of what other people are saying.
rich as I heed, but not too much. That's not
a knock on the hymn. So here is my argument this
morning. I think in the specifics of this text
itself, where Paul is building his argument that
the Corinthians should give money, we can see
three good principles we can use when we think
about the complex issues associated with money
and faith. So here they are. Here's my three
points. First, most importantly, Jesus is never
irrelevant. Secondly, money is a good, but it
is not an eternal good. And third, people are
more important than money. Okay? Jesus is never
irrelevant. Money is good, but not eternally.
Three people are more important than money. Let's
take a look. At the beginning of the chapter,
We see five verses praising the Macedonians and
interestingly, it's praising God that he's given
the Macedonians their generosity. Then there's
a three verse transition into how the Corinthians
should be generous like the Macedonians. That's
verses six through eight. Then you get this startling
rationale for this claim or this call to generosity.
This is the verse we've already seen today, verse
nine. This is a wild argument. Consider this
as an explanation for your behavior. You should
be generous. Why? Because Jesus died. You should
show your love to be genuine. Why? Because Jesus
died. Let's note what Paul is not saying. He's
not saying, Jesus gives away his very life, so
you should be willing to give me all of your
stuff. That's not what Paul is asking the Corinthians.
It's not what he's asking us. Look at verse 13
in our text. He says, But that's exactly what
happens in Jesus' death. He is burdened and we
are eased. That's how that worked, right? So
Jesus' kind of giving is not the kind of giving
that Paul wants from the Corinthians. Paul is
asking for something far less radical. We're
not being called to die that others might live,
even economically. Look at the rhetorical gentleness
of what Paul is asking for us here, right? Excel
in this act of grace, it says. Verse 7, not as
a command. Verse 8, because you desire to. Verse
10, out of what you have. Verse 11, your abundance
should supply their need. Verse 14, there are
so many qualifiers here. He's simply not asking
us to give in the painful way that Jesus does.
Why? Because it's impossible for us to. Think
about how Jesus gives. He gives extravagantly.
Jesus gives up the very treasures of heaven,
that's when he was rich, to come and dwell with
us and die. And as Flannery O 'Connor says, you
can't get no poorer than dead. And because of
that poverty that Jesus voluntarily takes on,
we get His riches. We get peace with God and
entrance into heaven. And you don't get that
on any other terms but His. So, if we're not
being called to emulate Jesus in His total self
-giving, why is this verse in here? I'll tell
you. It's because For the believer, this, this
verse nine, is the foundational truth of the
universe. Every decision that we make needs to
be made in light of the fact that Jesus's voluntary,
sacrificial death has changed all the rules of
the world. It's a paradigm shifting way to think
about all of life, including finance. So, I'll
give you an analogy. In 1958, economist John
Kenneth Galbraith published his book, The Affluent
Society, in which he claimed that we need, as
a culture, to stop thinking in terms of scarcity
and start thinking in terms of abundance because
our modern conditions have made that possible.
And if we make that mental shift, we can then
make bolder steps toward eliminating poverty
as a whole. I don't know if his argument is right.
I'm not an economics guy, it sounds good to me,
but Paul, you know, 1800 years before he wrote,
has done him one better. He says, abundance and
scarcity are both relative. And by the way, Jesus
Christ endured pain on your behalf, so you could
experience his spiritual affluence throughout
eternity. And so, by the way, we can work to
alleviate poverty. So that was all point one.
Jesus is never irrelevant. He's always going
to be the main point of how we make all of our
decisions. Point two. Money is a good, but it's
not an eternal good. Where do we see that in
this text? Let's take a look at the verse Paul
quotes from in order to anchor his argument.
This is verse 15. As it is written, whoever gathered
much had nothing left over. and whoever gathered
little had no lack." What's this quote doing
here? What connection does it have to the rest
of Paul's argument? So, Paul is referencing Exodus
chapter 16, which we read part of this morning
for our Old Testament text. So, in advising the
Corinthians to give generously to the Jerusalem
church, he cites the Exodus event. That is the
time when the people of God were wandering through
the wilderness, right? the desert and everybody
would have starved unless God had provided them
with bread from heaven think about it You should
give to Jerusalem because more than a thousand
years ago in the time of Moses everybody was
starving in the desert Okay, so if you're like
me you're thinking Paul Exodus doesn't actually
seem to have anything to do with what you're
talking about currently This seems a little bit
like the people who want to quote Shakespeare
on money and use the who steals my purse steals
trash line without knowing the context. It seems
almost random like Paul used the first century
equivalent of Google. Old Testament texts about
fairness. Find me one. If I was grading the Apostle
Paul's essay to the Corinthians in my literature
class, I would take points off. But the problem
with my grading system is that Paul, unlike my
students as far as I can tell, is writing under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So it turns
out that what I thought was a very tenuous connection
is exactly the right connection for Paul's original
hearers and for us today. So let me read a little
bit of the Exodus text to you again. So this
is Exodus 16 starting in verse 16 says this is
what the Lord has commanded Gather of it each
one of you as much as he can eat you shall each
take an Omer get your Omer's right according
to the number of the persons that each of you
has in his tent and The people of Israel did
so they gathered some more some less But when
they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered
much had nothing left over and whoever gathered
little had no lack. That's the part, of course,
that Paul sources. Each of them gathered as much
as he could eat. Now, this is where it gets super
interesting for me. This is verse 19 in chapter
16 of Exodus. And Moses said to them, let no
one leave any of it over till the morning. But
they did not listen to Moses. Some left part
of it till the morning, and it bred worms and
stank. And Moses was angry with them. How interesting.
So that part, that part about the stink, that
comes immediately after the part that Paul quotes.
Stink? Worms? What's the connection? Here it
is. You can't hoard what's not hoardable. You
can't keep what doesn't keep. Shakespeare says,
youths of stuff cannot endure. Moses says, manna
won't endure throughout the night. And Paul,
by implication, is saying here what? Money is
a stuff that won't endure overnight. What does
that mean? Because obviously it's untrue in our
day -to -day life, right? We have a day -to -day
life. Our money doesn't just vanish and get worms,
right? Well, think about it. What about when
Jesus says, the night is coming when no man can
work? What about when the Apostle John says,
children, it is even now the last hour? If you
think big about what a day can mean in biblical
terms, well then you get your answer to what
Paul is doing here. Paul is talking about the
calendar of salvation and the clock is ticking.
Friends, we are spiritually In the last day,
we are in the last hour. The night is coming
and then it's the new day, right? That means
that if we are hoarding up wealth for ungodly
purposes, like the Israelites were hoarding more
manna than Moses told them they should keep,
right? In the analogy that Paul is making, we
are going to be left from our money. We're going
to be left with nothing but a big pile of worms
and rot. You can't take it with you, as the saying
goes, and it will pollute your heart if you try.
All of our hard -earned money is worth nothing
but worms and filth, eternally speaking. Unless,
unless the Lord has enlightened our hearts and
we use our money in a way that is congruous with
his own character. Why? Because the point is
never that manna is bad, right? Manna was necessary
for the Israelites in the wilderness. They would
have died without it. Money is necessary for
us in our society right now. It would be really
hard to live without it. Money is a good. Manna
is a good. But it is only good in the way that
God ordained it. It's good to keep you alive
and thankful and dependent on Him. Because that's
the other point of this analogy, isn't it? Without
God's continuous providential blessing of His
people, they would have starved in the wilderness.
Without God's continuous providential blessing
on His people right now, we would be utterly
lost. So part one, money won't last into eternity.
Part two, everything you have currently is God's
gift. Both of those things are right here beneath
the surface of this text because of this quote
that Paul uses. Okay? And those two things together
give huge emotional support to this idea of generosity
or fairness, the thing that Paul is arguing for
here, right? If everything I have is a gift from
God and what I have can't last into eternity
and we're called to give to others, of course
I should give freely. Think about what else flows
from this argument. If everything we have is
equivalent to manna and we're called to give
to others, it follows we're being called to be
a part of God's generosity. When you put it that
way, it's no wonder the Macedonians begged for
the favor of providing relief of the saints.
We will too if we get what Paul is saying here,
right? We get to be the manna producers, right?
That's the angels. That's amazing. What follows
from this is my last point. People are more important
than money. This is not an obscure point in the
Bible. If you're willing to let yourself think
in monetary terms about people made in the image
of God, that's a big spiritual problem. That's
a no -no. So the clear background for this whole
passage is that people are more important. God's
people in Jerusalem are hungry. Therefore, for
Paul, we try to feed them. There's not even a
question. But what I'm interested in more particularly
in this text is actually the way that that basic
principle works in practice here, right? So let's
make a detour quickly to say that the topic of
money is pretty complex in the Bible. Money is
a good that can very easily become a bad. The
New Testament historian Ben Witherington lists
no less than eight broad ways the Bible speaks
about money, and five of those eight ways are
bad. So in Wutherington's categories, this chapter
is talking about one of the good uses of money,
which is, quote, wealth as a resource for human
needs, but even in providing for others. we have
a biblical obligation to be wise and discerning
about the way that we give. C .S. Lewis put it
really well when he says the fact that you are
giving money to charity does not mean that you
need not try to find out whether that charity
is a fraud. He says that as an aside in a larger
argument because he's brilliant. So what I mean
is that Paul is showing us that as we give, as
we give, we also have to be on guard against
the temptation to sinfully abuse money that giving
money can create. The people that we ask to give
and the people around us broadly in culture and
their consciences are all important too. They're
just as important as the actual money. And so
in Wuthering's terms, we have to guard against
and help others guard against the category wealth
as a stumbling block. So what's the temptation
created specifically when people are giving money
to charity? It's fraud, of course. It's embezzlement.
You might remember from our gospel reading this
morning that Judas was upset when a large sum
of money was not given to the poor. He didn't
care about the poor. He wanted to take it for
himself, right? That's That's the temptation
that's out there when there's a large pools of
money So what we see Paul doing in this text
is guarding against that temptation to take a
little bit off the top We see this how in the
apparatus of giving that he is using First he
sends Titus who the Corinthians know because
they've met him before that's in verse 6 He's
also sending these two unnamed brothers. This
is verse 18 and also verse 22 We are sending
our brother with them. We are sending our brother.
And he says that both of the brothers are quote,
messengers of the churches. That's verse 23.
At least one commentary suggests that that phrase,
messengers of the churches, means there were
special delegates from different individual churches,
probably in different cities. What we see here
is Paul is specifying three different people
who are coming together. probably from different
places, at least two of whom are known commodities
to the people that he's writing to. What this
means is these guys are intended to be able to
report back to each of their individual congregations
that everything's going the way it should. They
gave the money. It all got where it was intended
to go. Great. So Paul's providing guardrails
to keep everybody honest. This is as close to
being better business certified as it was possible
to be. Think about it. This is a time when bribery
and graft were the way that business got done.
We've all heard about this with the Roman tax
collectors of the day, right? So given that situation,
Paul in the early church needed to invent systems
of personal voluntary giving that won't end up
with the money in somebody else's pocket. And
what he comes up with is this. This three -person
system. I think what we can see here is we should
not be secretive with our finances We should
rely on systems of accountability rather than
one person's individual conscience, right? These
are good principles one commentary says this
Paul could write like a poet and think like a
theologian But he could also act with a meticulous
accuracy and integrity of the best accountant
So I think a real application we can make here
is that Organizations should be open, but they're
finances and if they're not you shouldn't trust
them probably Paul aims at what is honorable
not only in the Lord's sight but also in the
sight of man that's verse 21 and Trustworthy
organizations will do the same and on that note.
I want to say in praise of this church that we
do that. We routinely have economic meetings
where the whole budget is available to look at.
We aim to be honorable in the sight of man. So,
in closing, and like Paul, I want to address
some potential grumbles. Some of you might be
out there thinking, come on, stalker, this is
just moralism. Where's the gospel here? And I
want to tell you that I was kind of thinking
that myself when I came up with my outline. And
before that, I was thinking, oh no, I don't want
to preach about money. But then I thought to
myself, well, the structure of the sermon kind
of resembles one of Paul's letters, right? We
address the gospel first. Jesus made himself
poor so that by his poverty, we might become
rich. And then we saw what flows out of that.
We need to give generously and thoughtfully and
wisely. Some other people might be saying, look,
I don't mind a little morality, but I come to
church to hear about spiritual stuff, not money.
Money is not a holy topic. And I sympathize with
you if you're thinking that. I applaud your impulse.
As a rule of thumb, I think if you go to a church
service and the main point seems to be, give
us your money, you probably should go to a different
church. But here's the thing. The Bible actually
is the text that gets to tell us what's spiritual
and what's not, right? So in this text, which
is an entire chapter about the wise giving and
money, we learn that the generous giving of money
in a discerning way is in fact a spiritual good.
Something can be spiritual and practical at the
same time. If it's not practical at all, I tend
to think it's imaginary. So when the wicked Iago
says, who steals my purse, steals trash while
he's reaching for your wallet? You can say to
him, well, you might have kind of an eternal
point, but I feel like you're missing Paul's
metaphor here. In this life, my purse is not
trash. And in fact, I have an obligation as much
as possible to keep my money away from bad actors.
in order that I can give more freely to the people
of God and the work of the church in the world.
Amen? All right, well let's pray. Oh Lord God,
we praise you for you are good. Your mercy endures
forever. We praise you, oh Lord, that though
you are rich beyond all splendor, yet for love's
sake you became poor. that you fill us with the
treasure of the gospel, with the treasure of
the Holy Spirit. We ask, O Lord, that you would
be present with us, that you would open our hearts
to you, that our lives would reflect your generosity
towards us, towards others. Lord, we pray all
of these things in Jesus name. Amen. We hope
this sermon has encouraged you to worship God
and to celebrate the gospel of Jesus. Please
consider subscribing to this podcast and joining
us in person each Sunday at 10 a .m. You can
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for listening. God bless.