“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.