So you see, how you handle your money will have a great deal to do with how God uses you with His people. And then He goes on to say, you can't serve God and what?
Money. So there are a lot of Christians who need to realize that maybe the reason that they're not having great spiritual ministry is because they haven't really dealt with the financial area of their life. In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin recalls hearing the famed evangelist George Whitefield. As Whitefield concluded his sermon, he called for a collection to support an orphanage.
Franklin resolved to give the orphanage nothing. But as the preacher made his case, Franklin thought he could part with a few pennies, and by the time Whitefield left the pulpit, Franklin was so impressed by Whitefield's oratory and so moved emotionally that he emptied his pockets wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all. Well, where supporting the work of the church is concerned, an important question is this. What role should your emotions play in that? What's the connection between how you feel and how much or how little you should give? Keep those questions in mind as you listen to John MacArthur's lesson today on Grace to You.
Here he is to continue his series on God's plan for giving. If you will, take your Bible and let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 16. In the ancient world, poverty was a real issue. Many people were poor. And when I say poor, I mean poor like we don't see poverty in our particular country. If you visited Tijuana, you see poverty. If you visited, like I have, places like Cairo, Egypt, you see poverty. There are places in the world where poverty would be somewhat like in biblical times.
Our society knows very little of that kind of poverty. Now, I want you to understand that this poverty situation had brought to bear on Paul's ministry a very strong commitment. When Paul first began his ministry, he was called by the Lord Jesus. But later on, he visited Jerusalem and he got sort of an official commission from Peter, James and John, this James being different than the one in the gospels, this one being the head of the Jerusalem church, the half-brother of Jesus himself. But these three men, according to Galatians chapter 2 and verse 9, met with Paul when he was to be sent out with Barnabas.
And they said, we commission you to go to the Gentiles. And then they said this in Galatians 2.10, only that we should remember the poor, the same which I also was diligent to do. Now, when Peter and James, the leader of the church and John, commissioned Paul and Barnabas, they told them, remember the poor. And so they were instructed from the very beginning, before they ever took their first missionary journey to remember the poor. And Paul said, I did this.
And it's true. Here he is in the 16th chapter of 1 Corinthians collecting money, notice, for the saints. What saints?
That's very clear. The saints at Jerusalem. The end of verse 3, I will send to bring your liberality to Jerusalem.
And why? Because there was an abundance of poor Christians in Jerusalem. There was a real poverty problem there. And so Paul is collecting and offering to take to the poor saints at Jerusalem. And he is now writing the Corinthians to ask them to have a part in this collection. This is not the first time they've heard about it.
It's evident to me that they had even asked him about it. That's why he begins by saying now concerning the collection. 1 Corinthians is written in response to a letter from the Corinthians asking about a lot of these issues. And so he's responding to their questions about what they're to do in the collection.
How are we to collect this money? And what Paul really does with that is he gives them instruction that sets out principles for all the church's history as to how the church should best be receiving its funds. Let's begin to look at the principles outlined here for receiving the collection. Number 1 is the purpose of giving. Now Paul is going to outline for us some basic directives for Christian giving. They go way beyond this occasion in Corinth. And I think that's why the Holy Spirit put them here because they have such an impact on us.
What is the purpose for giving? Verse 1. Now concerning the collection, here comes the purpose, for the saints. And then he adds, it's the same collection that I have given order to the churches in Galatia.
This is what I want you to do. In other words, the same collection that's going to go to the saints in Jerusalem. The one that I told the Galatians about. I told the Macedonians about it. I told the Achaeans about it. Those in Asia Minor know about it.
And I want you to get in on it. But notice the purpose, for the saints. Now I am convinced that this is not only the purpose for this collection, but as you study the New Testament, you will find again and again that the primary purpose of all collections was to come back to the church. From Acts chapter 2, they shared everything and they held it in common. In Acts chapter 4, they shared again and they held it in common.
They were very involved in meeting their own needs. In Acts chapter 6, they were distributing food to the widows among those in the church who could not support themselves. So that the church gives to support itself. The church is to invest in its own life and in its own people. Now I am not saying that we are to have nothing to do with people outside the church. In Galatians, the Apostle Paul says that we are to do good unto all men, especially those that are of the household of faith. But we are to do good to all men. And the story of Luke chapter 10, the story of the good Samaritan who went out of his way to minister to a Jew who was in a different culture and a different religion and a completely different set of circumstances is indicative to me that there are times when God wants us to do good to those who are not of the household of faith. God wants us to do good to those that are bleeding on the highway, whoever they are. But Paul's point here is that the church's primary responsibility is to make sure that it funds its own needs.
That's basic. Now notice also that it is not one local church funding only that local church, but one local assembly here in Corinth caring for the needs of another local assembly in Jerusalem. So that the church, when it really is the church and when it understands what it is universally, will meet its needs anywhere.
Not just selfishly pouring it on at its local point of existence. But the church is to meet its own needs. Let me share with you two things. We are to give to support those among us who are poor and needy.
That's number one. In other words, we give for the people, for the congregation's needs, whatever they are. There are people in our church who from time to time have their needs met as we give, as we give money to them, as we supply what they don't have.
This is a primary thing. The church in that day in fact had a great advantage over us. They didn't have to do things the way we do, building things and all of the kind of complexities that we have today. We believe God has led in his church today the way it is, but in that day the monies would be directly poured back into the lives of the people to meet their physical needs, to meet their spiritual needs. Just as Paul's offering was not only an act of sociological welfare with economics in mind, but it was an act of binding together a unity and a love. So we are to give money that can be used not just to meet physical needs, but to meet spiritual ones as well.
And that's a primary area the church has responsibility to cover. Real sharing and real unity will come to the place where it finally resolves itself in the giving of money. In 13 of Hebrews in the 16th verse it says, do good and share, for with such sacrifice God is well pleased. And Jesus said in Acts 20, 35 it is recorded that Jesus said it is better to what? Give than to receive. A basic Christian truth. We are to give to support those who have need in the church.
Now that's just basic. Whatever you have should be available to anybody else who has need of it. But let me take you to a second thought under this first point. We give to support the church not only its people, but its leaders as well. Not on this occasion, but on other occasions the Apostle Paul received collections for himself. For example, in the fourth chapter of Philippians, Paul responds to the Philippians by thanking them for the offering they gave him. He says in verse 15, Now you Philippians know that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my necessity. In other words, Paul says, you gave me money.
You supported me. And he had every right to that as a leader in the church. Look with me at 1 Corinthians chapter 9 for a moment. I don't really feel self-conscious preaching about this because it's right here in the Scripture. And I want you to understand what the principle is about supporting those who are in leadership in the church. By the way, I don't have any ulterior motive.
I want you to know that. The church already gives me too much. And one time I asked an elder why they give me too much. And they said, because you're always talking about stewardship, so we want to watch how you do it.
So I guess that's fair enough. Chapter 9 verse 1 says, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not you my work in the Lord?
And look, he says, I'm an apostle and if I'm an apostle, then look at verse 4. Have we no right to eat and drink? Do I have a right to eat and drink? Have we no right to lead about a sister or wife as well as other apostles? In other words, do I have the right to eat and drink?
Do I have the right to have a wife? Do I have the right to have a little coterie of people that go around with me and minister with me? Do I have a right, Barnabas and I, to stop working so that we can do this job? Because if I have a right as an apostle to eat and drink and have a family if God so designs, and if I have a right to have a group of people that go along with me and are dependent on me, and if I have a right to stop working to preach, then somebody's going to have to pay me. He says in verse 7, who goes to war at his own expense? Do you know any soldier that has to raise his own money to fight?
The government pays him. Who plants a vineyard and doesn't eat its fruit? Who feeds a flock and doesn't drink the milk of the flock? And even Moses said in the law, you shouldn't muzzle the ox while he treads the grain.
If you want the ox to really tread the grain, let him eat a little as he goes. And so what he's saying here is there's a basic principle. Verse 11, if we have sown to you spiritual things, is it such a big deal if we reap carnal things? In other words, if we give you spiritual food, then you need to provide for us in return. So that the church then has two responsibilities. It has a responsibility to give in order to meet the needs of its people and its leadership. Now look at another verse, 1 Timothy 5 17.
This is most interesting. It says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. Now here you have another verse that deals with the financing of the ministry. Let the elders, an elder is a synonym for pastor or elder or bishop or presbyter or any of those terms, the leaders of the church, those who are the teachers and the leaders who rule. It says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
Now you'll notice something. There are elders in the church. Some of them rule well, which means that there may be differences in how effectively they minister. And some of those who rule well labor in the word and doctrine especially hard. And those who rule well and those who labor in the word and doctrine with great diligence are worthy of double pay, the Greek said. So not only is the church to support its leadership, but it is to support its leadership not necessarily on an equivalent basis, but dependent upon how diligently its leadership works. And that's a basic principle. So, the church then is called upon to support its people and its leaders. And that's the interchange and the share. And you know one of the great joys of the pastor, one of the great joys of receiving from the church is the joy of giving back.
Not only the spiritual thing, but giving back into God's church some of what God's church has given financially. See, so we're just sharing it all. Just sharing it.
Now when any one of us gets off in a corner and starts piling up his own closet, then I don't know that we're always being honest and faithful with the whole picture. So we need to understand that. I'm not saying that God wants us all poor and barefoot either. If God made Abraham and Job rich, then God wants to make some of us rich.
That's fine. It just says in 1 Timothy 6, charge them that are rich that they don't hoard it, but that they be willing to share it. So the church is to give to its people and its leaders.
That's basic. That is the purpose of giving. Secondly, and this is all we'll talk about just briefly, the period of giving. He even discusses here when we are to give. Verse 2, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him that there be no collections when I come. That collection word there is the same as the word in the first verse, lagia.
It means something opposed to a tax, something opposed to a prescribed amount. I don't want any of those collections when I come because it ought to be taken care of on the first day of the week. Now the normal day for the church to meet was the first day. Did you know that?
It always has been. In John chapter 20 is where it all started. People say, well, how did we ever get away from the Sabbath and how did we ever get on Sunday?
Well, here it is. In John 2019 it says the same day at evening, this is resurrection day, when Jesus rose, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst. The first post-resurrection service was held on resurrection day, Sunday, first day of the week.
Well, that became such a great day, such a glorious day, resurrection day, that that became the standard day. And you move over to the same chapter, the 26th verse, and eight days later, again the disciples inside, the eight days later would be the next Sunday, Thomas with them, then came Jesus. The second service they ever had after resurrection was also on a Sunday and that became the pattern. And so later on as you move into the book of Acts, you see them gathering on that day. Over in Acts chapter 20, for example, it says, And we sailed away from Philippi, and we came to Troas, and on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them. So by the time you're into Acts 20, it's the pattern of the church to meet on the first day of the week.
And by the time you get to Revelation 1, 10, that day has a name and it's called the Lord's Day, the Lord's Day. You might also be interested to know that the day of Pentecost in which the church was born was a Sunday, the first day of the week. You might also be interested to know that the church never did celebrate the Sabbath as such. In Colossians 2, 16, Paul says don't let anybody bind you to a Sabbath. In Romans 14, he says the same thing. And it is the only one of the Ten Commandments not repeated in the New Testament. So the Sabbath was set aside in favor of Resurrection Day. And the church was to come together on the first day.
And that's why he says what he says here. On the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store. Now you say, well why? Why on the first day of the week? Because that's the day of worship. And how you handle money is inextricably tied with the depth of your worship.
I think people say, well you know how I do it. I wait until the end of the year. On December I figure out my whole thing and then I write a big check. That's not what God wants. That's really disobedient to this principle. Because you see then you're only dealing with the stewardship of your money once a year and God wants you to deal with it how often? Every week. Do you realize that how you handle money and how I handle money is a barometer of my spirituality?
It really is. In fact, listen to this. In the book of Luke and the 16th chapter. And this verse really speaks to my heart. Verse 11 says, If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous money, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Boy, what a verse. In other words, he says, MacArthur, if you're not faithful in how you handle money, I'm never going to give you people. I'm not going to entrust to you the true riches, souls, if you can't handle dollars. So you see, how you handle your money will have a great deal to do with how God uses you with His people. And then he goes on to say, you can't serve God and what?
Money. So there are a lot of Christians who need to realize that maybe the reason that they're not having great spiritual ministry is because they haven't really dealt with the financial area of their life. I know a guy who's out of the ministry, totally out of the ministry for no other reason than that. He could preach with the best of them. He could lead with the best of them.
Fantastic personality. Great beloved man, he's out of the ministry because of that reason and that reason alone. Couldn't handle money.
And he had no credibility. And God wasn't about to entrust to him the true riches. Beloved, God wants to use you in marvelous ways. But until you're dealing every day, every week with the reality of the fact that every dollar in your pocket, every dime you have, every dollar in your bank account is a stewardship entrusted to you by God, until you're dealing with that on a constant basis, I don't think you've really come to grips with what Paul's saying here. Why is it that we are to give each week? Why is it that we are to give week by week by week rather than sporadically or hit and miss or whenever we feel like it? It's because God wants us to deal with the reality of stewardship of money constantly moment by moment. Now you're saying, well I only get paid every month. Does that mean I have to put a check in every week and sort of spread it out?
No, I don't want you to be legalistic about it. I don't think that's what it's saying. I think he's not saying on every single first day of every single week make sure, buddy, you drop something in there.
No, no. I think what he's saying is that let there be a consciousness that when you come to worship God, you can only worship God and break bread at His table and fellowship with His people when you have dealt with how you handle your stewardship of money. That's the issue. So that you need to deal with it. Now if you're paid every two weeks and you only place that gift in every two weeks, you still need to be sensitive on that off week.
Who knows but what the Spirit of God might say to you, you know there's somebody who has a real need. Maybe you're going to meet them today and they're going to need $50 and you ought to be ready with $50 that you have available to give to that person if they need it. In other words, you need to be ready to deal with that thing every week. You may say, well I only can give my check once a month or once every two weeks but the stewardship is still there for the rest of those weeks too if God so speaks, right? That's why Patricia and I have been able through the years to keep a little fund. Just kind of a little fund that's in the background that we don't mess with until there's a need and then we have a little to draw out so we can be available to God.
Don't all come at once or you'll ruin our little fund, you know. But those are things that you have to deal with on a constant basis and you have to be ready even on the week you're not giving or the time you're not putting that check in the offering to be sensitive to what God's Spirit is saying and to be dealing with that issue if nothing more than to say, God this was one week when my stewardship would speak well of my commitment. You know, you see it isn't just the money you give, it's the rest of the money too that has to be entrusted as a stewardship. The purpose of giving in is to support the church, the people and the leaders.
And then beyond that to reach out to anybody you see on the road who's bleeding and has a need whether he's a Christian or not. And the period for giving is the first day of the week. That's the only time we take on offering here.
Not on Wednesdays or other times. Unless there would be some special missionary need or some need at the moment. But the regular giving is on the Lord's Day because that's what they did then. So that when a need comes along we don't have to get up and holler at you and get you all emotionally traumatized and get you all worked up so you give emotionally.
We want you to learn to deal systematically week by week with stewardship so that when needs come there's money available because you've been faithful. And you've given out of love to God and out of some emotional stimulation. Thank you Father for the great truth that we learned from our Lord Jesus who was rich but for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich. And we know that the most of all the thing he gave us was salvation. He gave himself on the cross. He gave everything. He gave his life for us. Help us to be willing to do the thing that expresses love in the supreme way. Greater love hath no man than this than that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Oh Father teach us that we can't look upon our brother and close up our compassion and really say we love you. So help us to love you and to love the fellowship to love the body and even to love the ungodly enough to reach out and give and give to meet the need and know full well that we'll never out give you because you'll pour on us abundant blessing. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.
Thanks for tuning in today. John has been Grace to You's featured speaker since 1969. He's also Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in the Los Angeles area. And his current study is showing you God's plan for giving. Well, today's lesson and the rest of John's messages this week come from 1 Corinthians 16. And John, it's kind of amazing how the trends and issues facing the first century church in Corinth are the same issues the church today faces. The spiritual problems that Christians deal with span not only cultures, but even time itself. Yeah, and that speaks to the very reason that Grace to You exists. This isn't Dr. Phil. We aren't trying to help people with current problems, with current insights.
I mean, we're not dealing with the wisdom of sociology or psychology or whatever to help people. The uniqueness of the ministry of Grace to You in any biblical ministry is because problems are always the same, because people are always the same, we deal with contemporary problems, current problems with an ancient book. We deal with the issues of life by going back 2,000 years to the New Testament, 4,000 more years back to the Old Testament, because this is the living and abiding Word of God that never ever grows old and is never out of relevance. So the ministry of Grace to You brings to bear the living Word of God on the issues of every culture and every time.
That is the timeless reality of Scripture. And in the case, for example, of talking about 1 Corinthians 16 in our series on giving, I would just remind you that I've written a commentary on 1 Corinthians that deals with the entire book, every verse, every phrase, in many cases every word. You'll find this gives you a deep and comprehensive grasp on the book that you're looking at, in this case 1 Corinthians. And by the way, I've also written a commentary on every book of the New Testament. The composite is the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series.
If you've not read commentaries, you need to start doing it. You can start with the one on 1 Corinthians. It's about 500 pages of clear explanation of everything in the text, like speaking in tongues, Christian liberties, singleness, marriage, spiritual gifts, the resurrection, love, so many things, as well as this section on giving. I think if you've not tried going through a commentary, you will find that this will be an experience the likes of which you haven't had in the past, because it's not a devotional.
It's in-depth. I would encourage you, start with one of the commentaries, maybe 1 Corinthians or any other favorite book you have, and begin to get more. In fact, the entire New Testament Commentary Series is available, 34 volumes in all.
Add to your commentary collection if you already have them, or order one today, or even order the whole set. Yes, and these commentaries are not just for pastors or theologians. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series explains even the toughest Bible passages so that anyone can better understand God's Word and apply it to their lives. To get the 1 Corinthians volume or the entire MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series, contact us today. The 1 Corinthians volume, as well as any individual volume in the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series, costs $19 and shipping is free. To order, call 800-55-GRACE or visit our website GTY.org.
And keep in mind, you'll enjoy a substantial discount if you order the entire 34-volume set, which includes a helpful index for the entire series. Again, to order John's commentary on 1 Corinthians or his entire commentary series, call 800-55-GRACE or shop online at GTY.org. And remember, there are thousands of free resources available at GTY.org. If you are looking to grow in your love for God and His Word, or if you're wondering what Scripture says about how to be a better parent, or if you want to know how to interpret a particular passage, you will likely find a sermon or a blog article or a devotional that will meet your need.
That website again, GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day, and make sure you're here tomorrow when John continues his study on God's plan for giving. Don't miss the next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.
