For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!—2 Corinthians 9:12–15

Introduction

I like to play opposite day with my kids. We do things in a backwards way—the opposite way that they are normally done. “I am not hungry at all” actually means “Feed me now before I die.” “I can barely stay awake” means “I can’t sleep a wink.”

We are going to do opposite day with this text—not because I play games when I preach. I don’t play games when heaven and hell and the glory of Christ are at stake. What I mean is that I am going to do something intentionally backwards. I am using an outline of three points that are often missed or minimized in this text. If this passage were a basketball team, these points would rarely see any playing time. They would be regarded as second string, and some may even seem like benchwarmers. I am going to put them in the sermon as my starters. Stay with me. Many people may think of them as second string, but we are going to give them the chance to shine even though they are not the main attraction or the main point. In fact, I am not even going to hint at the main point until after we have looked at the three points of the outline.

Paul addresses three horizontal or relational realities that will happen when the Corinthians give. When the Corinthians give, needs will be met (v. 12), a proof will be given (v. 13), and a bond will be made (v. 14).

1. Needs Met (v. 12)

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints

Notice that Paul says “not only,” which means more is happening than “supplying the needs of the saints,” but not less. Paul briefly revisits the point he drew out in 2 Corinthians 8:13–15 regarding the call to “supply their need.”

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.”—2 Corinthians 8:13–15

This is a powerful passage because it acknowledges that the Corinthians have an abundance and the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem do not. Paul appeals to a sense of equality or fairness—their great abundance could fill a great need. Don’t miss the power of the Old Testament quotation about the Israelites’ experience with the manna in which God did not allow hoarding. What makes that passage so powerful is that the Israelites were one people of God in immediate proximity to each other, and Paul treats the Gentile Christians in Corinth and the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem as one people of God. They are separated geographically but not spiritually.

I am glad that point got some playing time because I think it is powerful. The second point is powerful as well. When the Corinthians give, needs will be met, and a proof will be given.

2. Proof Given (v. 13)

By their approval of this service

This word approval does not look like a star player. Frankly, it looks kind of like a lightweight. Appearances are deceiving in this case, because this word carries a megaton of meaning in 2 Corinthians. 

Time for a little review. This is the word for prove that was so important in the sermon on 2 Corinthians 8:8–9. It means “testing in order to form a judgment or conclusion.” A person’s claim is tested, and then the judgment comes. The person is approved if the claim passes the test and disproved if it fails the test. I want to focus on five places in 2 Corinthians where the word prove plays an important role.

First, Paul sent his tearful letter as his test to prove the Corinthians’ genuineness.

For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.—2 Corinthians 2:9

Second, 2 Corinthians 7 shows that the majority of the Corinthians repented in response to this severe letter, although 2 Corinthians 10–13 shows that there is still an unrepentant minority. Now that the majority has come back to him, Paul is ready to resume the offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem. He is going to tell the Corinthians that the opportunity to give is a test for them, but he first shares with them how the Macedonians did on the test. The Macedonians also had a test, and they passed it by the grace of God. Grace came down so that an abundance of joy overflowed out of a severe test (the noun form of the verb in verse 8)of affliction (v. 2).

Third, it is now time for the Corinthians to take the test. Paul says that giving will prove the genuineness of their love.

I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.—2 Corinthians 8:8

Fourth, Paul also lets them know that he is not the only one watching. They are to give proof to all the Gentile churches.

So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.—2 Corinthians 8:24

It is like one of those tests where the people taking the test are in the room below and the people supervising the test are looking in through a glass screen from above.

Finally, the Jerusalem church is also watching.

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.—2 Corinthians 9:13

Now Paul makes it emphatically explicit. Did you notice what their giving proves? It proves their very Christian confession: “submission [which literally means obedience] that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ” (v. 13).

Try to visualize what Paul is saying. In the first sermon on 2 Corinthians 9, I shared a word picture of gospel-drenched giving. I saw some amazing drawings by kids in their sermon notes from that one. Christians say that we have been drenched in the grace of God flowing down from the gospel. Giving means someone looks at us and asks, “What do you mean that you are drenched and dripping? You look bone dry to me.”

Generous giving is proof of gospel grace. Can we agree that we are glad this point got a little playing time? A proof given is an important point. 

Now we are ready for the third point. When the Corinthians give, needs will be met, a proof will be given, and a bond will be made.

3. Bond Made (v. 14)

while they long for you and pray for you

This word long is also an important point to put in the game. It means a longing to see someone or an intense regret at being distant or absent. This word is used to describe how the Corinthians desired to see Paul after they responded to his severe letter—they longed to see him (see 2 Corinthians 7:7 and 11). It has the same meaning elsewhere in Paul’s writings when he writes about longing to visit the Romans (Romans 1:11), the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 3:6), and Timothy (2 Timothy 1:4).

The Jewish Christians would feel an immediate bond with those who came to their aid. They would feel the bond that God has already created, like brothers separated at birth who learn about each other and long to meet for the first time. Remember that the unity of Jews and Gentiles in Christ was one of the biggest issues in the church of Paul’s day.

Supplying needs, giving proof, making a bond—these three things are good points, but they are not the main point. They are good things but not the ultimate thing. We are now ready for the main point, the main attraction, the star of the show: our glorious God. In other words, the big idea in this passage is really, really big—infinite in fact. If you made me boil down the point to a phrase, I would say that this passage is about the praise of his glorious grace. If you gave me a sentence, I would say it like this: the praise of God’s glorious grace is the point of all giving.

Read the passage again and see how this theme runs like a golden thread through it all.

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

The ministry of this service is supplying a need, but not only that. This is not merely a mission to solve a social problem—it is a mission to spread a passion for God’s supremacy. Paul urges them to give because God’s abounding grace will meet many needs and produce many thanksgivings to God (v. 12).

Also, it’s important that the Jewish Christians will verify that the Corinthian Christians’ Christianity, but that response is part of something bigger. Will they just send a thank you letter to the Corinthians? No, they will glorify God. When the Jewish Christians approve this service of giving as a test of the Corinthians’ confession of the gospel, “they will glorify God” (v. 13). 

It is also important that the Jewish Christians now feel like they have long-lost brothers and sisters in Corinth. But what is the most attractive quality of these Corinthian brothers and sisters? What makes the Jewish Christians long to see them so much? They see “the surpassing grace of God upon you” (v. 14). The supreme glory of God shines brightest when we see the surpassing grace of God upon his people.

The supreme glory of God is best seen in the surpassing grace of God. Do you see it in verse 14? The Jewish Christians of Jerusalem will see the surpassing grace of God upon the Corinthian Christians. I want that upon us. 

Doesn’t that phrase almost make you salivate? Are you hungry for the richness of that experience? Oh to be a people where visitors come and look in and say, “The surpassing grace of God is upon you.”

Now Paul sums it all up in the last verse. This is masterful—this is the mind of God. The Spirit carried Paul along to speak from God like this: Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift (v. 15).

Have you ever put together a puzzle? Some puzzles are more difficult than others, especially depending upon the number of puzzle pieces, but there is always something so satisfying about completing the puzzle by putting the last piece in. 

Paul has given us 39 verses in these two chapters, and he makes sure that the first five verses and the last five verses fit together perfectly. For example, there are five repeated words or phrases joining 8:1–5 and 9:12–15.

Here, I have modified a chart from Murray Harris’ book The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005, 647).

The Grace of God (ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ)	8:1; 9:14
Test/Prove/Approve (δοκιμή)	8:2; 9:13
Abundance/Overflow (περισσεύω)	8:2; 9:12 (also 8:7, twice; 9:8, twice)
Generosity (ἁπλότης)	8:2; 9:13 (also 9:11)
Relief/Service (διακονία)	8:4; 9:12–13 (also 9:1)

There is something so satisfying to me about the last piece of the puzzle that Paul gives us in verse 15: “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

Paul finally makes the point of giving clear—I mean crystal clear. He puts in the final puzzle piece that completes the picture when he says, “Grace be to God.” The ESV translates it as “Thanks be to God,” but the word thanks is not Paul’s normal word for thanks. Here, he uses the word for grace. This word choice is a masterful last move. I say that it completes the picture because Paul started with the description of grace coming down. God’s grace came from God, covered the Corinthians, and carried the Corinthians, and now everyone is giving the credit to God. They gave by the grace of God, and now they are giving all the credit to the grace of God. Paul’s masterful way of saying that all the credit goes to the grace of God is this phrase: “grace be to God.”

Notice that Paul says, “Grace be to God for his inexpressible gift!” What gift is he talking about? There are many references to grace in 2 Corinthians 8–9. Some refer to the grace that inspired the Macedonians’ cheerful giving, and some refer to the Corinthians’ giving (which is an act of grace), but the clearest and most indescribable is the grace of 2 Corinthians 8:9, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why end on the note of the indescribable gift of Christ? The giving of Christ is the gift above all other gifts which inspires all other gifts. Praise for God’s inexpressible gift is the point of all giving. Only one gift can have preeminence.

We are ready for the main point—not just the main point of giving but the main point of everything, the main point of the universe. The praise of God’s glorious grace is the point of all giving because all giving points to God’s glorious grace. The point of all giving is to point to the inexpressible gift of Christ. God gets the glory for needs met, proof given, and bonds made because those are all blood-bought blessings. The gift of Christ is preeminent because it made all of those other gifts possible.

Application

Three Groups

Our financial secretary, Paul Johnson, once showed the elders a chart of giving groups at Bethlehem. There were no names—no one except Paul knows what everyone gives at Bethlehem, and I like it that way. We only know giving trends, not the names, and based on these giving trends, I have three groups in mind today.

First, there are a fair number of people who attend Bethlehem but have never given to Bethlehem.

As your pastor, I care about your soul. If you are in this category, the Bible would get your attention by calling you a robber. 

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me.—Malachi 3:8

That gets their attention. So the text goes on:

But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse.—Malachi 3:8–10

But I would also say you are robbing yourself of joy. Jesus taught us that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). For God’s glory and your joy, I call you to cheerfully eliminate the category of “never given” today. We are going to take our regular offering at the end of the service. If anyone is in the never-given category, I am praying that God’s grace will enable you to cheerfully climb out of that category. If that is you and that happens at the end of the service, we will say together, “Grace be to God.”

Second, there are also people who give regularly but not proportionally. In other words, some give regularly but are not giving at the old covenant standard of 10%. Different studies give different statistics, but I the one I hear quoted most is that most Christians give 2.5% of their income. Bethlehem is an unusual place by God’s grace, and I often hear that most people at Bethlehem give 5% of their income. I believe that God could do a work of grace to bring all of us to the point of meeting the old covenant standard of 10%.

One of the joys of my life has been hearing from the people who took me up on my challenge back in November to try tithing. They said, “Well, it feels scary and risky, and it doesn’t seem to work out on paper, but let’s just do it until we have to stop because we don’t have enough.” Everyone who has talked to me about it says they are still giving three months later. Things like extra babysitting jobs came in, and they are still giving every month.

Dear friends, I am not surprised at all. It would be wrong to call it my challenge because it is God’s challenge. This is remarkable. We have commands in the Bible to not put the Lord our God to the test. Jesus quoted that text when Satan tempted him to jump off the temple and trust that the angels would bear him up. So it is stunning that after God calls the Israelites robbers, God tells the robbers to put him to the test in this one regard. 

But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.—Malachi 3:7–10

We are either robbing God or testing God when it comes to giving. God says, “Go ahead, test me. Prove my faithfulness.” 

This raises all kinds of questions. People sometimes ask if Christians should tithe on gross income (before taxes) or net income (after taxes). I believe the Bible’s clearest answer comes in the first-fruits principle.

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.—Proverbs 3:9

Applying the first-fruits principle would mean we honor the Lord first, not the government first, or retirement first. Measure a percentage of your gross income before taxes, 401k, etc. This is the first-fruits principle.

In his excellent book The Treasure Principle, Randy Alcorn says we should think of the tithe not as a ceiling for giving but as the ground floor. It is where you start. Ten percent is like training wheels. God is like the parent saying, “Go ahead, I’m with you. You won’t fall off the bike.”

Third, there are people who do give regularly and proportionally—new covenant Christians who give tithes and beyond. 2 Corinthians 8–9 calls us to praise God’s glorious grace in giving. It calls us to a new standard because we are part of the greater grace of the new covenant. Hear me clearly. We are not holding up tithing as the standard of giving at Bethlehem because it is not the new covenant standard. No New Testament text commands believers to give ten percent of their income to the church. 

Jesus, living under the old covenant, is the last person to talk about it in the New Testament (Matthew 23:23). The tithe commandment came from a paradigm relating to the twelve tribes of Israel. Nehemiah 13:10–12 highlights an example of how much the Levites depended upon the tithe. The Levites did not own land like the rest of the eleven tribes, and thus the tithe was an essential part of ensuring that they could continue to survive and minister.

A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.—Leviticus 27:30

Christians live under a new paradigm. Paul addresses financial themes frequently, but he never specifies an amount or percentage. He calls the Corinthians to set something aside to give “in keeping with how he prospers” (1 Corinthians 16:2). But Paul does not make reference here to a new paradigm.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.—2 Corinthians 8:9

Tithing is no longer the paradigm—the sacrifice of Christ is. Even though Christians can never be limited by a tithe, they can start with a tithe as the training wheels of new covenant giving as long as they don’t expect to stay there.

Alcorn asks an excellent question that we must search our hearts about: Does God expect less of new covenant Christians here today, who live in one of the richest societies in all of human history and who are saved and indwelt by the Spirit, than he demanded of the Israelites, many of whom were poor and unsaved? I want to call you to move beyond the old covenant minimum (10%) to the new Covenant generosity (much more).

But let me be clear. We don’t live in the left ditch where giving is random, and we don’t live in the right ditch where we give just because it’s the right thing to do. Joyless, dutiful giving inspired by Christ’s indescribable gift is a contradiction in terms. We live on the road of rich joy and praising God’s glorious grace, but part of our joy has to be in what our giving is going toward. It goes toward making God’s glory known.

Let me paint a picture for how to think about our budget. Imagine one of those connect-the-dot activities where you connect the numbers and they form a picture of an elephant or spell out a message. Sometimes it is easy for people to look at our church budget and see disconnected numbers, but the numbers connect to spell out a message. Do you know what they spell? We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Communion and the Cost of Discipleship

There are many reports of Christians being captured by ISIS. The murder of 21 Christians and the images are still seared in my mind and heart. This all puts the price of following Christ into perspective. Many Christians are paying a price to follow Christ. These are like our long-lost brothers and sisters. We should feel a family connection—the bond that God made in Christ.

But don’t miss the point of the price. ISIS can make the body pay a price, but they cannot touch the soul because Christ already paid the price for the soul. I love the way Pastor Erwin Lutzer said it: “Islam can destroy crosses, but they can never defeat Christ’s work on the cross.” They can destroy replicas of the cross that were purchased, but they cannot destroy what the cross already purchased.

That is why the book of Revelation says that martyrs “overcome.” Many people hear that word and assume that it means “endure.” It is not the word for endure—it is the word for victory. Jesus says, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Being faithful unto death is victory because it brings the crown of life. The threat of death looks like a taunt of defeat, but Jesus turns the tables on all of that trash talk. The death of martyrs is immediately swallowed up in victory. It is the immediate realization of Christ’s crowning achievement. When Christians are killed, it doesn’t undo Christ’s victory. Instead, it brings the greatest proof of Christ’s victory. No one will be able to doubt the victory of Christ in the presence of Christ. If you die beheaded, you wake up forevermore with a crown of eternal life on your head. Jesus said that you can be beheaded and yet not lose a hair on your head.

You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish.—Luke 21:16-18

There is also another thing that ISIS cannot understand. These martyrs are sowing seed with their blood, and the church will grow. Historically speaking, we see that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The church will grow because the God of the harvest often uses these seemingly weak means to proclaim his victory over death and everything that the world thinks is strong. God’s weakness is stronger than the world’s strength.

Look at the part that Minneapolis plays in this global drama. Minneapolis is a launching pad for Muslims. Nearly all the American Muslims joining ISIS are from the Minneapolis area. Some radical Muslims are leaving Minneapolis to kill Christians.

But Minneapolis is also a launching pad for Christians. We are sending out 10 global partners this year, and the Christians we are sending are leaving Minneapolis not to kill Muslims but to save them. The blood of the Lamb is indescribably powerful, powerful enough to save the persecuted and the persecutors—just ask the guy who wrote this letter to the Corinthians. The blood of Christ can turn Saul the chief persecutor of Christ into Paul the chief preacher of Christ.

So here is how we are ending the service. We are going to have three celebrations: a celebration of receiving (communion), a celebration of proportional giving (offering), and a celebration of sacrificial giving (helping hand fund). We will celebrate communion as all that we have received through Christ’s indescribable gift. Then we will celebrate the fact that this gift which is above all others inspires all other gifts.  We celebrate proportional giving, by faith seeing the riches of his grace and his ability to supply and multiply the seed for sowing, and we pray that he will increase the harvest of righteousness.

After the service, there will be baskets as you leave the sanctuary. We call it our retiring offering for our helping hand fund. We do this once a month when we celebrate communion. Your abundance supplies the lack that many in our body have when they go through heartache and trials and financial loss.

The indescribable gift of Christ is what inspires all of this other giving. In communion, we see the gift that forever defines us. Did you hear that? You may wonder what you bring to the table in terms of this relationship. You cannot bring anything. This is not a potluck. God alone makes the meal. We are saved for him, and we are saved by him alone. He brings everything you need to the table. His sacrifice. His broken body. His shed blood.

You don’t bring any good things that would make him receive you, and you don’t bring any sin that would make him reject you. Soak now in this salvation. Take it all in as you eat the bread and drink the cup. Taste and see how good this indescribable gift is. You can’t put what it means into words. It is indescribable, but it is taste-able. Taste the sweetness that says, “I am not defined by the bitter shame of my sins. In the breathtaking beauty of his presence, I find myself a son or daughter of the king, a beloved child. One drop would be enough to save me, but God gave me more. He drenched me in a flood of grace, an ocean of mercy.”

His surpassing grace is upon us, and it washes over us like waves on the shore of our souls over and over and over again. Your blood has washed away my sin. Jesus, thank you.

 

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

Paul addresses three horizontal or relational realities that will happen when the Corinthians give. When the Corinthians give, needs will be met, a proof will be given, and a bond will be made.

1. Needs Met (v. 12)
2. Proof Given (v. 13)
3. Bond Made (v. 14)

Main Point:The praise of God’s glorious grace is the point of all giving, because all giving points to God’s glorious grace.

Discussion Questions

1. Which of the three benchwarmer points (needs supplied, proof given, bond made) shined most for you and made you glad that they got some playing time in the sermon?
   2. What is God’s indescribable gift? How does it relate to other gifts?
   3. What is the new covenant standard of giving? How does it relate to tithing?
   4. How could a Christian be beheaded and yet not have a hair from their head perish?

Application Questions

1. Have you been testing God or robbing God in your giving? What steps do you need to take to start testing God? If you have put God to the giving test and found him faithful, share these stories.
   2. Take stock of what God has done through this series in 2 Corinthians 8–9. What things will stick with you? Name the graces you have received and give the credit to God—grace be to God!
   3. Don’t just talk about what God has done; pray for what the Lord might be pleased to do next. What does your heart cry out for him to do next?