“What Do You Mean, “Sacrifice” ?! 2 Corinthians 8.3–5, Stewardship Emphasis #3, Oct. ‘17

            

1.                   Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word in this 3^rd week of our Stewardship Emphasis, “Prepare our Hearts,” is taken from 2 Cor. 8:3-5, which says, “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.”  The message is entitled, “What Do You Mean, Sacrifice?!” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

  2.                   What does sacrifice look like.  Let me begin by talking about what it doesn’t look like.  On Paul Harvey’s radio broadcast in November of 1995 he shared this insight.  The Butter Ball Turkey Company set up a hot line to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for twenty-three years! The operator told her it might be safe if the freezer had been kept below 0 degrees the entire time. But the operator warned the woman that, even if it were safe, the flavor had probably deteriorated, and she wouldn’t recommend eating it.  The caller replied, “That’s what we thought. We’ll just give it to the church.”

3.                   Farmer Brown was going to support the work of the church by donating the milk, eggs, and bacon for a fund-raising breakfast. The animals in the barnyard were discussing what this would mean. The pig was complaining to the chicken and the cow about their taking the whole thing altogether too lightly. “For you,” the pig explained, “this means a contribution. For me, it’s a sacrificial commitment!”

4.                   Stewardship of the blessings God gives us includes participating in the work of the church with firstfruit offerings that are proportionate and . . . sacrificial. Today, we’re going to talk about sacrifice. We may think, “Sacrifice”?  What Do You Mean, “Sacrifice”?!

5.                   What does sacrifice mean? Sacrifice is giving that makes a difference. Sacrifice is a free act of love. Sacrifice is an expression of faith in God.  I wonder what Isaac was thinking as he talked with his father on the way to the mountain God was going to show him. You know the story of how God told Abraham to offer his only son as a sacrifice.  As they were going along, a three days’ journey, Isaac says to his father, “Father?”  “Yes, son.”  “I’m carrying the wood, and you’re carrying the fire.”  “Yes, son.”  “Father?”  “Yes, son.”  “Where’s the sacrifice?”  Pause. Maybe a long pause. Abraham replied, “God will provide the sacrifice.”  I don’t know how Abraham explained what this meant or exactly what Abraham expected, but he knew God had already provided the sacrifice.

6.                   We don’t worship with that kind of sacrifice today.  The Bible talks about how sacrifice is giving that makes a difference. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:3 of our text, “They gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means.”  Sometimes, people may say about the church, “No matter how much I give, they want more.” Yes, just like a growing child. Isn’t that what we want our children to be like?

7.                   Sometimes when people think about their giving, they want to know, “Well, how much will it take?” It takes a lot. It takes enough to make a difference. But here is the key question: What difference does it make to me?  John tells us in chapter 6:1-15 of his Gospel about the Feeding of the 5000 an example of sacrificial giving. The disciples thought five loaves and two fish weren’t enough to make a difference. They were. They made a difference to thousands of people, but first they made a difference to the boy. The fact that his bread was made of barley shows that he was poor. He had to assume that giving up his lunch meant he would be hungry.

8.                   What do we mean by “sacrifice”? Let’s think, second, about how sacrifice is a free act of love.  Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:3-5, “Of their own accord . . . they gave themselves first to the Lord” (vv 3–5). (Rom 12:1). Why do we take time for an offering during the worship service and not just do it as we go out the door? It’s because, as Paul says in Romans 12, it is an act of worship, like kneeling or bowing.  Actions say something about our relationship. What do you give to the one you love most? When we marry the one we love most, we give her or him a ring, which is a symbol, of our very selves. No one could afford to pay for all the things husbands and wives do for each other. Our self is priceless, but we give ourselves out of love, to our spouse and to our children.

9.                   God loves us even more than we can love one another. He has given us all we have. Mark tells us about a woman who realized this in Mark chapter 12:41-44.  “And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And [Jesus] called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” (Mk 12:41–44)  The original Greek says “she gave her whole living.” Sacrificial giving is giving our whole lives to God.

10.               How did I get into the offering plate? No one picked me up and put me in. I got in by myself. Everyone from Adam to Moses was like this.  St. Paul describes the Macedonians in 2 Cor. 8:3–4 of our text: “of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part” in the offering. Paul goes on to say in v 12: “For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.” And in the next chapter of 2 Cor. 9:7, he advises: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

11.               Think of the ways we tend to use our money cheerfully. It’s human nature to ask, “How little can I pay for what I need?” but also, “How much can I spend on what I want?” Some people will spend on snacks or drinks without thinking about it, and they’ll borrow for vacations or Christmas shopping, but they certainly check to see how much they have for groceries and carefully shop for bargains on household essentials. Notice how advertisers play to what you want, whether you need their product or not, because they know we spend freely on what we want.

12.               The Bible also teaches us that sacrifice isn’t for the sake of getting. Paul writes of the Macedonians in 2 Cor. 8:4 that they were “taking part in the relief of the saints.” They cared about others. It was famine relief.  Why do I get into the offering plate? Some would say that God promises that if we give, he’ll give more to us? Not exactly. It’s the other way around. Paul wrote about God in Romans 11: “Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” (v 35). I sacrifice not because of what I get but because of what I already have. St. Paul tells us that we as the Church are parts of the Body of Christ. We have various functions, but the parts make sacrifices for the Body. In winter, I have cold toes and fingers because those body parts are sacrificing blood and heat for the core organs, for the good of the whole body. 

13.               What do we mean by “sacrifice”? Third, let’s think about how sacrifice is an expression of faith in God.  Once again, v 3 of our text: “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means.” There was famine in Palestine but hard economic times for the Macedonians also. How could they give anything? God obviously gave them more. Maybe they had read what Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (vv 31–33)

14.               I put myself into the offering plate to meet others’ needs. When is it time to get out of the offering plate to meet my own needs? The answer is that God delivers to me right here everything I need. When Isaac asked about the sacrifice in the book of Genesis, Abraham answered, “God himself will provide.” He didn’t know how; he only knew what he himself was to do, and he knew God would do his part. He knew God had promised him a big family through Isaac and that he had already done miracles to keep this promise. Sure enough, God provided a ram, a male lamb that had gotten hung up in a bush. This lamb was substituted for Isaac and saved his life. This, of course, is a picture of Jesus, the Lamb who was hung on a tree as a substitute for us to save our lives.

15.               The only way to understand what sacrifice is is to see that sacrifice is what Jesus did. Paul writes that the Macedonians did what they did “by the will of God” (8:5).  Why do I climb into the offering plate? This is where Jesus is. Jesus is the real sacrifice.  In the Old Testament, there were four types of sacrifices. Two were voluntary: the grain thank offering,  like our Sunday offering; and the fellowship peace offering, eaten together in worship like Holy Communion. Two kinds of offerings were required: the sin offering and the guilt offering, which were unlike anything we do today. The reason we don’t offer those sacrifices today, animal sacrifices burned on altars, is because they were to teach God’s Old Testament people about Jesus’ coming sacrifice of himself.  This is a major theme in the Letter to the Hebrews:  “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” (Heb 9:26–28) 

16.               Why do we sacrifice? Because we are with Jesus, who says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” What does it mean to sacrifice?  Sacrifice is giving that makes a difference to us. It is Jesus’ sacrifice that makes all the difference for us and makes a difference in us. Sacrifice is a free act of love. Jesus was taunted to come down from the cross, but love held him there. Sacrifice isn’t for the sake of getting but for the sake of others. Jesus’ sacrifice was for unworthy sinners who were still rebellious. Sacrifice is an expression of faith in God. Jesus expressed confidence in his Father when he said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Lk 23:46).  This is why we get into the offering plate, giving ourselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to others.  May God grant that this is true for each of us. Amen.

“Ten Bags of Gold Relate to the Plate,” Malachi 3.10, Stewardship Emphasis # 2, Oct. ‘17

1.                   Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word as we continue our stewardship emphasis is taken from Malachi 3:10 and is entitled, “Ten Bags of Gold Relate to the Plate,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                   Picture this.  The sermon is done and here comes the plate—the offering plate! Shall I leave a tip . . . to fulfill my obligation to God for his care? Some of my guilt goes away when I give; I’ll feel less guilty. Or, shall I leave the price of admission? Surely it costs something to put on the Sunday service. I’m a member; I’ll give my dues as a good member. Or, I’ll give “for services rendered.” After all, someday I’ll need those services: Baptism, wedding, funeral.

3.                   Picture all the blessings God gives you: food, clothing, home, land, money, goods, a devout spouse, devout children, good weather, peace, health, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. Picture God giving those blessings to you wrapped in bags of gold. And imagine that with each of these blessings God gives you, he likes to divide the blessing into in a collection of ten golden bags—each blessing divided up into ten portions and wrapped in ten bags of gold. God gives you ten golden bags of groceries. God gives you ten golden bags of clothing; ten golden bags of money; ten golden bags of good weather; ten golden bags of peace; ten golden bags of good health; and the like.

4.                   The question that the prophet Malachi sets before us today is “How do those ten bags of gold relate to the plate?” Those hit-and-miss reasons—leaving a tip, feeling less guilty, the price of admission, dues, for services rendered—they all miss the point of how you relate to the plate. God, in his Word, gives noble reasons as to how your ten bags of golden blessings relate to the plate—the church offering plate.  God Calls for Returning to Him One Bag of Gold Out of the Ten Bags He Gives You.

5.                   Through the prophet Malachi, God says, “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” (3:10).  Of course, let’s recognize to begin with that the offerings you put in the plate are not between you and the plate. The tithes, or offerings, Malachi wrote about were given to God in his house, the temple. All offerings brought to the temple and all the offerings you put in the plate are given to God. Yet, for the sake of this message today, and because the offering plate is passed to you, we’ll speak of how ten bags of gold relate to the plate. So—and this is crucial!—as you look into the plate, see God there in the plate, receiving your offering.

6.                   Now in the prophet Malachi’s time, it had been about 80 years since the Israelites returned from captivity in Babylon. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren now were working the soil and eating of the good of the land. But some drastic changes had come with the new generations. They had fallen back into the same sins that had led to the fall of their great nation to the Babylonian army. They were bringing crippled sacrifices to offer to God. Some were saying it was so tiresome to bring an offering to God. Some promised good offerings, but the offerings they brought were flawed. Finally, God declared that, in fact, they were stealing from him in the offerings they were bringing.

7.                   God gave the Israelites in the Old Testament several laws about the offerings they were to bring to the temple. The law referred to in our text is the law about the tithe. The Israelites had an agricultural society, so the tithe offering was stated in Lev 27:30: “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.” Simply stated, the people were to bring an offering of 10 percent of the family’s increase in goods.

8.                   Another important offering the Israelites brought to the temple was the offering of the firstfruits. Ex 23:19: “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.” As they began to harvest their grain, and as they began picking fruit from the trees, they were to bring the first of those fruits. And they were to bring “the best,” that is, grain with no spoilage and fruit that was juicy and ripe—the best for the Lord.

9.                   In the prophet Malachi’s day, the people again were having heart trouble, the kind of heart trouble the prophet Ezekiel had described two centuries earlier: hearts of stone when they should have had hearts of flesh (11:19). A heart of stone is a hardened heart. A heart of stone shows no signs of life. A stone-hard heart leads a person to serve self. The prime example in the Bible of a hardened heart is Pharaoh, ruler in Egypt: “He hardened his heart and would not listen to [Moses and Aaron], as the Lord had said” (Ex 8:15). People with hardened hearts do not want to listen to what God’s Word says to them.

10.               We look back to the time our ancestors came to this land of plenty, America. They worked the soil and ate of the good of the land. They gathered together in their homes and church buildings to give thanks to God, bringing their thank offerings to God. Are we content, satisfied, with every gift God gives us? Or do we think we need to hold back the best? We have some of the same heart trouble people had in Malachi’s time: hearts of stone that don’t want to listen to what God says in his Word.

11.               God makes it clear that he has something to say about the ten bags of golden blessings he gives us. In Malachi’s time, people were to bring a tithe, 10 percent, as a thank offering to the temple. “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse” (Mal 3:10). We who live after Jesus offered himself for us on the cross and was raised for our salvation no longer have a law from God that we must put 10 percent into the offering plate, nor that we must bring the first of everything we harvest.

12.               But, the Old Testament law of bringing the offering of the tithe and the offering of the firstfruits can be a good guide for us Christians. Could we possibly want to do less? Think of how much more richly blessed we are than were those Old Testament believers—and I’m not talking about the air-conditioning, satellite TV, and indoor plumbing they never dreamed of. They lived every day by the promise that the Messiah would come someday, but when they didn’t know. We live knowing Jesus did come, that he did fulfill God’s Law for us where we so badly fail, that on the cross he did suffer the punishment of hell so that we never will, that he has fully and completely accomplished our salvation so that we absolutely will live in the limitless joys and riches of heaven with him forever.

13.               What’s more, specifically because Jesus’ death on the cross has reconciled us to God, removing the sin that separated us from him, that would have cut us off from every blessing, God has now given us everything we have and everything we truly need: food, clothing, home, land, money, good weather, peace, health, and the like. Today we picture God giving us all those gifts in ten bags of gold. Those ten bags of gold relate to the plate as a firstfruit offering. The first action a family does with those ten bags of gold is to give to God first. The family does that first, before making any purchases, before paying any bills. The first portion goes to God as a firstfruit thank offering. The ten bags of gold also can relate to the plate as a tithe, 10 percent of everything God gives. That means out of every group of ten bags of gold God gives, one bag is placed in the plate. In our cash economy, that means we determine, we work out, what the 10 percent is and write that check first. When you place that check in the offering plate, picture it as the first bag of gold out of every ten bags of gold God gives to you. And, remember, look for God in the offering plate, because he’s the one with whom you’re relating with a firstfruit offering and with an offering of a tithe, just as the Old Testament people did. The remaining nine bags of gold are for the family to use for savings and for living.

14.               The devil and the world around us set in front of us many temptations about the ten bags of gold God gives us. We see how the world uses all the blessings that come from God’s hand. “I worked hard for it; it’s mine. I can do with it whatever I want.” We are tempted to think the same way. Some people use all ten bags of golden blessings only for themselves. They serve themselves, without a thought of God, who gives his blessings to all people alike, whether they be good or evil, just or unjust (Mt 5:45). The temptations to serve ourselves with the blessings God gives us work on us when our hearts are hearts of stone. Hardened hearts tend not to listen to God’s Word.

15.               So God does his surgery on hearts of stone. God promised: “I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezek 11:19). God preps us for surgery by washing us clean in the water of Holy Baptism. That is water combined with God’s Word. Thus it has the power to work forgiveness of sin and to rescue us from the devil and his temptations. Jesus gave his heart for us; he gave his all for us on the cross. Now in our Baptism, those blessings of forgiveness and deliverance and eternal life are ours, and that very Baptism gives us new hearts to believe that.

16.               The new heart of flesh God gives, replacing our heart of stone, is fashioned after the heart of Jesus, a heart that does the will of the Father in heaven. After God’s heart surgery on us, we work at making the ten bags of golden blessings relate to the plate. Our offerings flow as thank offerings, out of our renewed heart. Following God’s surgery comes the recovery—a lifelong recovery. And the prescription for a strong recovery is a regular dose of hearing, reading, and studying God’s Word and regular attendance at the Lord’s Supper, for where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

17.               God used the rule of law in Old Testament times for the offerings brought to the temple. For us people with a new heart, our offerings turn into a rule of gratitude. God sets the stage in Deut 8:18: “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.” That changes our relation to the plate: “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.” The new heart God puts in us leads us to make this commitment, 2 Cor 8:5: “They gave themselves first to the Lord.” That is how you relate to the plate. “They gave themselves first to the Lord.” Then 2 Cor 9:12 describes the bag of gold you put in the plate: “overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.” The new heart God puts in you beats in time with these words from God in 1 Cor 16:2: “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper.” Close up all your thoughts with the words of 2 Cor 9:7: “God loves a cheerful giver.”

18.               In our Malachi text, God makes a promise: he will “open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” This is only a picture, because there are no windows in the sky. But God says he will continuously pour blessings on his people from above. The plate will keep coming to you. “Here I sit, and here comes the plate. God’s blessings keep on coming to me. Those ten bags of gold all relate to the plate. I return to God some of what he gives me.” See God in the plate. Amen.