Sermon Tone Analysis

Wow, We just finished chapter 15 that deals with resurrections, glorified bodies, dead leaving the graves, transformations, and becoming the direct, exact image of Jesus Christ Himself.

Then we have Paul saying,

Every glimpse we ever get of future glory is only given to us to encourage us, to a deeper sense of commitment to responsibility here and now.

A glimpse into the future lays great responsibility on the present.

And when the spirit of God, in the 15th chapter, shows us the fantastic reality of resurrection day, and the time of transformation, and the incredible things that God has prepared us, it just has tremendous impact on the way we live right now.

And even on how we put our money in the collection.

Before really fully understanding what Paul is teaching, we need to understand a little background information.

In the ancient world, Poverty was a real issue.

Poverty has always been a problem but we need to understand poverty in and around the time the Bible was written.

Poverty was such an issue, society, whether Greek or Jew, had taken steps to deal with this phenomenon.

The Greeks formed Associations to provide interest free loans for people who reached the place where they couldn’t provide for themselves.

Because of disaster, despair, or destitution, they could apply for these loans.

The Jews did the same thing through their synagogues.

Among the Jews, a needy person could apply to the leadership of the synagogue, out of a fund for welfare, and his needs could be met through those officials making a decision to grant him a certain amount of money for his needs.

Paul after being called by God visited Jerusalem where he was faced with the poverty of Jerusalem and grew a very strong commitment to this problem.

Galatians 2:9 (KJV 1900)

9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

Now, when Peter and James, the half-brother of Jesus, a leader of the church, and John, commissioned Paul and Barnabas, they told them, “Remember the poor.”

In other words there’s gonna have to be some kind of sociological ministry in your preaching to get a hearing for the gospel, in many cases.

We’re gonna have to reach out to some people who have need.

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 an offering to take to the poor Saints at Jerusalem.

It took him well over a year to collect it.

At the end of his third missionary journey, he was in the city of Corinth making his final collection from the Corinthians.

At that time, the end of his third journey, while he was in Corinth, he wrote the Book of Romans.

And at the end of the Book of Romans, this is what he said,

“But now I go on to Jerusalem,” leaving Corinth now, he has now gotten the collection that he’s asking for in 1 Corinthians 16, by the time he writes Romans.

He says, “I now have this collection.

I go to Jerusalem to minister to the Saints,

for it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia”—that would involve Corinth and Thessalonica and Philippi and Berea, some of those cities—“to make a certain contribution for the poor Saints who are at Jerusalem.

It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are.”

It isn’t just a matter of pleasure; it’s also a debt they owe.

In other words these Gentile Christians ought to send for the poor Saints.

Why? “For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in carnal things.”

In other words, he says, “Look, if the Gentiles have benefited by God’s spiritual work through Israel, the Jews should benefit by God’s giving an abundance to the Gentiles economically.”

Now you say, “What does he mean by that?”

Well, what he means simply is this, Jesus said, “Salvation is of the Jews.”

Insofar as the whole Old Testament came through the Jews, most of the New Testament came through the Jews.

Jesus Christ was a Jew; the whole prophetic office came through Jewish line.

The whole message of Messiah came through the Jews and in a sense, we have been made partakers of that, which was given to Jews, and so he says, “If the Jews possession of spiritual things has been dispersed to the Gentiles, then the Gentiles possession of carnal things or money, should be dispersed back in an attitude of thanks.”

And so he says, “I’m taking this collection, as a thank offering to the Jews to meet their extreme need”—this point, and so that really was his plan.

So, here he is; he hasn’t gotten to Corinth yet, he hasn’t written the Book of Romans yet, but by time he gets to Corinth and pens it, he collects this stuff to take back to the Jews at Jerusalem.

And by the way, he had gathered money from Achaia, Macedonia, as well as Asia Minor, which would be Ephesus and some other cities that he had touched there.

So, he had, apparently, a very, very substantial large amount.

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.

Now, these are not commands by God, but these are patterns given by Paul, which I think form a very good basis for the church’s giving, even today.

So, they knew about it.

And it’s another one of the subjects; there’s a clean break in 16, and he moves to this theme about which, no doubt, they had asked questions.

Now, Paul says, “I want you to take this collection and finally, I’m gonna get the whole thing together; I’m gonna take it and I’m gonna deliver it to the Jews in Jerusalem.

And that is precisely what he did.

“After many years,” he says in

, “I am now bringing alms to my nation.”

Finally, after all these years of collecting it, well over a year, and it could’ve been even more than that, collecting these amounts of money.

Not only sociologically did Paul do this, but I believe theologically as well.

Paul desire was God’s desire!

That Gentiles and Jews would become one.

He wants the Jew and the Gentile one.

He wants no bond, no free, no male, no female, no Jew, no Gentile, but all are one in Christ to be a reality.

And he realizes that maybe there’s one great way that he can do that.

And he can in a sense, accomplish two things, in one act.

Not only relieve the needs, economically, of the Jerusalem church, but in an overwhelming act of love, this money from the Gentiles will go a long way to solidify union.

You cannot share money without sharing fellowship.

Money has always been a problem

Purpose of Giving

Saints in Need

The church’s main responsibility is to fund it own’s needs.

Also notice, that one local church is helping out the needs of another local church in another location, Jerusalem.

God’s ministry and purpose is not just locally but globally.

When we understand this, we will be more than excited to help other churches with their needs because they are all God’s needs.

So the offering is to meet needs.

Physical Needs

The Basic Necessities of Life

As a church, we sometimes help individuals with needs.

We use the deacon fund for this.

Sometimes we take special offerings.

Spiritual Needs

Meeting Spiritual Needs by providing classes, facilities, literature, etc. to help you grow spiritually.

The church has responsibilities.

Saints who Lead

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 Philippians 4, 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, be ye only.

For even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again, to my necessity.”

Remember 1 Cor 9:1

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 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?

Then he gives the principle in

Not only does Paul deal with the Purpose of Giving but also the