Be Generous to the Poor

Luke 12:1-34

One of the central practices of early Christians was “almsgiving,” which was basically generosity to the poor, but they would often give not only money, but time and relationship as well.

The Didache, one of the earliest Christian writings we have outside of the New Testament, says this: “Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give.”10

In the early Church, people would regularly bring offerings of money and extra food to the weekly church meal for those who were in need to take home. 

The Lord’s Supper itself was an act of social justice.

But because so much of this work has since been taken on by our governments, it’s easy for us to forget that this is a core part of our calling as followers of Jesus. 

Now, this raises all sorts of questions about how to practice almsgiving today.  But NO ONE denies that it’s clear in scripture that almsgiving or caring for those in need is CENTRAL to the way of Jesus.

The poor are often invisible to those of us who are middle-class and up because of the hurry of life, lifestyle enclaves, and because most of us live in zip codes with people in the same tax bracket.

And it’s hard to know what to do with the scale of the modern nation-state, the cost of living in our cities, and how it’s all tied to taxation.

All through the library of Scripture (before and after Jesus) we read again and again of what Pope Francis called “the preferential option for the poor.”

There are roughly 500 verses in the Bible on faith and another 500 on prayer, but over 2,000 on God’s heart for the poor. 

And we see this heart on display in Jesus’ teachings. 

I want us to examine a few key phrases in this passage.

(1) “Be on guard”

motives will be exposed

no virtue signaling

Virtue signaling is the act of publicly expressing opinions, values, or moral positions mainly to show others that you are a good, caring, or morally correct person, rather than to create meaningful action or change.

Example 1: A company posts on social media about supporting a cause but does not change any of its policies or practices.

Example 2: Someone loudly criticizes others for not recycling while rarely recycling themselves.

It’s worth noting that not every public expression of values is virtue signaling. People can genuinely care about a cause and speak about it publicly; virtue signaling implies that image or social approval is the primary motivation.

Leaven or Yeast is a value system that cultivates the wrong actions of allegiance.

it’s hardly detectable; but it overtakes your heart. It starts with having a wrong perspective…an unhealthy Eye.

…summer study: 4wks starting July 12, 6pm; Paid childcare will be available; Registration opens next week…exploring how to stay faith to Jesus in a secular age.

In Luke 11, we see Jesus talking again about our eyes, and then while speaking to pharisees, says this:

Luke 11:39–44 (CSB)

39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil. 40 Fools! Didn’t he who made the outside make the inside too? 41 But give from what is within to the poor, and then everything is clean for you. 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others. 43 “Woe to you Pharisees! You love the front seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 “Woe to you! You are like unmarked graves; the people who walk over them don’t know it.”

(2) “Fear God.”

The proper motive for caring for the poor:

Love/Fear of God

Moving toward heart of God

Love one another.

We start in our world with a poverty of Spirit… an inability to change our hearts and inner life alone.

Everyone can meet a need, but not every need is your’s to meet.

Luke 12v13-34

• 13-14: “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’” 

Two siblings are fighting over the family inheritance and Jesus refuses to get sucked in. 

• 14: “Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’”

Notice again: Jesus has a very different vision of the good life. 

• 16-19: “And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”

That line can be translated:“Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” (CEV)

Or: “You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!” (The Message) This line was a saying from the Epicureans; it’s the life philosophy of pagans, not the people of God

20-21: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” 

(3) “Don’t be a fool…”

Now, this sounds a bit harsh to our modern ears. 

But a little backstory: Most people in Jesus’ day were poor tenant farmers and a very small number were wealthy landowners. There was a merchant class — in fact, a few of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen — but the middle class was very small. 

It was also an agrarian economy.

This man is a wealthy landowner, but instead of sharing his excess with the poor all around him, he builds bigger barns. 

And Jesus calls him a “fool.”

•The irony is, this guy is living the American dream! Literally! 

Two Harvard Business School graduates wrote a great book where they re-write Jesus’ parable for the modern world: 2“The stock options belonging to a manager vested after a major run-up in share price, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I already have enough saved to send my kids to college, my house is paid off, and I already max out my 401k every year?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will open an investment account and create a passive income portfolio, and I’ll exercise my options and put the money there. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have a big enough portfolio to be financially independent; retire early, plan some vacations, play golf.”

There are so many people whose life goal is exactly this! Make a ton of money, retire early, and live it up. 

The villain in Jesus’ story is our culture’s hero.  Yet, to Jesus, he is a fool. 

Jesus was speaking biblically, not based on feelings of perceived inequality.

“A generous person will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭9‬ ‭CSB‬‬

“Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich — both lead only to poverty.” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭16‬ ‭CSB‬‬

“Don’t rob a poor person because he is poor, and don’t crush the oppressed at the city gate, for the Lord will champion their cause and will plunder those who plunder them.” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭CSB‬‬

“The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:25 NLT

Fool vs Wise

Wisdom is not just knowledge.

Wisdom is doing what knowledge taught you.

Wisdom is applied truth.

It is possible to know a lot about the Bible and still be spiritually foolish.

Here is the difference:

Knowledge without obedience produces pride. But knowledge applied produces wisdom.

Jesus cares deeply about living with wisdom.

God blesses us to give more, not just to have more. The American dream of independently wealthy is antithetical to the Kingdom of Heave.

(4) “Be Rich toward God.”

Then look down at verse 32. Jesus says this: 

32: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

It’s interesting, we tend to assume that the motivation behind wealth accumulation is greed, but for a lot of people (especially those that grew up in scarcity), it’s fear. 

Fear of not having enough. Fear of being poor like our parents. Fear of looming disaster. 

We’re back to Jesus’ abundance mindset: God is our Father-provider; his heart is to give to us, not take. We don’t have to be afraid. 

How can we do that?

We are generous to the poor and we care for those in need. That’s being rich toward God.

Instead, we can do this:

33: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”

Do you see how Jesus ties his call to be generous to the poor to his view of the age to come?

Jesus’ teachings on generosity will never make sense unless you view your financial decisions not in light of a human lifespan, but of eternity.

In light of eternity, giving is not loss, it’s gain! It’s an investment. 

As Randy Alcorn put it, “... We store up eternal treasure in the coming age by giving away temporary treasures in the present age.”

Think about when you put some money into an investment. There’s often a little feeling of pain as you might have loved to use that money to buy something else.

But you don’t lose that money.; you put it where it can accrue interest over time, because of the longer-term dreams in your heart.

In the same way, giving is investing in the Kingdom of God; it’s putting your money where it can grow over time, in the one place where it can last forever.

In the upside-down kingdom, what we give away we actually keep.

And what we keep, we lose. 

So, give it away, Jesus says. 

34: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We covered this sacred law of the universe in our first session: Our heart follows our money.

And when we spend our money on things that do not last, our hearts are racked by fear and greed.

But Jesus has a solution: Give your money away to the poor. 

(5) “Give to the Poor”

Interestingly, this is actually the second time Jesus has said this in Luke’s Gospel. 

Which is key because ancient writings were hand-copied. Every word was expensive, so if an author wanted to really emphasize a point, he would repeat it. 

Meaning if there is a silver bullet for greed, a practice to clean our hearts out and set our hearts free, it’s this: Be generous to the poor. 

It comes as no surprise that Jesus’ first apprentices did exactly that. 

The Early Church: 

In Acts 2, the first story we have of the early church, we read this famous passage: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”5

Luke and Acts were both written by the same author like a two-volume story. 

Did you see Luke repeat Jesus’ line in there? Luke 12: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.”

Acts 2: “They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”7 

They did it!

And in a following passage, we read this:“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own [See the stewardship language there?], but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

The early Church was wildly generous to the poor! 

Tim Keller called it “financial promiscuity.” He said:“The early church was strikingly different from the culture around it in this way — the pagan society was stingy with its money and promiscuous with its body. A pagan gave nobody their money and practically gave everybody their body. And the Christians came along and gave practically nobody their body and they gave practically everybody their money.”9 

We must really take Jesus’ teaching seriously.

The poor are “anyone who has need” around you.

Become a NEED MEETER.

not every need is yours to meet, but we all can meet a need.

Everyone can help someone..

Avoid the lie, my needs are too much to help others.

Avoid the lie, if I bless them, I’m enabling them.

Avoid the lie, someone else will do it.

Avoid the lie, i gave money so i don’t have to give my time.

Avoid the lie, I gave my time, so i don’t need to give my money.

Avoid the lie, I need more me time, so i can’t refresh others.

Caring for those in need, retracts the selfishness we naturally cultivate.

Serve someone else

Join a team for the summer (10 adults to serve in Kids)

Practice: Give, not just your money, but your time.

We create outreach partnerships, so we can continue helping them move toward their mission.

We don’t want to act like the great american saviors who are experts in everything.

We add fuel to their efforts as they care for those in need.

ASELSI

CORE

School

Benevolence

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Talk it Over (being honest & open with friends, a spouse, or your Group)

This week we looked at one of Jesus’ teaching on money. What is one idea from Sunday’s message that impacted you?

Read Luke 11:1-12. What are some observations the Holy Spirit is highlighting to you?

How can we ensure our motives for giving are pure and not simply an act of virtue signaling?

Read Luke 11:13-34. What are some observations the Holy Spirit is highlighting to you?

Why does Jesus emphasize the importance of being 'rich toward God' in Luke 12, and how does that challenge societal views on success?

In your everyday life, how often do you find yourself proximate to those on the margins of our society? What has it looked like to share your resources with them?

What invitations to generosity do you sense the Spirit extending?