Generosity and Joy Audio
I wonder whether you read the weekend travel lift-outs in the Age each week. I confess I do, just looking for the perfect holiday destination. What I’ve noticed, though, is the number of cruises on offer. Just imagine getting on a cruise ship in the south of Turkey and cruising around the Greek islands, along the coast of Turkey across to the Corinth canal and through to the Baltic Sea then on to Italy. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? Of course what I’ve described is something like the trip Paul’s just been on, though not with the level of comfort I’d be looking for. Paul’s journey certainly wasn’t a dream holiday.
But it did have something in common with what we might experience. Even if Paul’s travels were much more basic than ours might be, he still had to pay for them and the money he started out with would have been used up just as fast as ours would if we were going on that sort of trip. Just like us he had to pay for his transport and his food and accommodation.
We don’t read all that much about these sorts of details in the pages of the New Testament, do we? If we didn’t know better we could easily think that Paul’s missionary journeys just happened and he didn’t need to worry about money. But of course that isn’t how the world works. Even in the first century money made the world go round. If you had money you could travel. If you didn’t, you couldn’t. So the sort of ministry that Paul was called to do required funding from somewhere. As much as he may have depended on hospitality from people like Lydia in Philippi, he still needed cash to get to the places he was going (at least up until the stage where the Roman governor sent him on an all-expenses paid trip to Rome - in chains). So how did Paul fund his work? We know that on at least one occasion he worked as a tentmaker, but what about the rest of the time?
Well, we get hints of how he managed from time to time as we read through Paul’s writings and one of the clearest instances is here in Phil 4. Paul’s just finished exhorting them to rejoice in the Lord always, trusting God to look after them (in fact the theme of rejoicing has run all the way through the letter). And now he gives them a final example of his own joy in the Lord, joy that bears out what he’s said about asking the Lord to provide what you need.
He says: “I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me.” What does that mean? Is he saying that there was a time when they didn’t really care about what was happening to him? No, he isn’t talking about their emotional concern for him. He’s talking about their practical concern. He’s talking about the way they’ve again sent him material aid; that is, money. He knows that they’ve always been emotionally concerned for him, but it’s only now that they’ve again had the practical opportunity to help him out. And that gives him joy.
What do you think it is about this gift that gives him this joy? I don’t think it’s the money itself. We’ll see that in a moment. Rather I think it’s the fact that by this gift they’ve identified with him in his ministry. He talked about this in chapter 1 if you remember. They’re partners with him. Look at what he says in v14: “In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress.” They may not be able to be there to join him in his prison cell, but they can share with him by this act of financial support. As well as that, he rejoices because their gift is a sign of maturity, of their growth in service to God. He says in v18, “the gifts you sent, [are] a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.” This act of giving is like a burnt offering in the Temple. It’s something that God is pleased with. So Paul rejoices because he can see these people with whom he’s shared the gospel growing in their faithfulness to God, not just in their allegiance to himself.
Mind you, he doesn’t want them to misunderstand. What he said earlier about the peace of God guarding their hearts and minds is true for him as much as for anyone else. He doesn’t want to give the impression that he’s in need or asking for more aid. On the contrary he’s learnt an important lesson in his missionary journeys. That’s to be content. Whatever his circumstances! Whether he has little or plenty, whether he’s well-fed or hungry. It doesn’t matter in the end. Why? Because Christ gives him the strength. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
This isn’t a triumphalist statement the way we sometimes hear it used. He isn’t saying nothing can hurt me. In fact it’s that he’s suffered at various times that gives the power to what he says.
It seems to me that there’s an important and incredibly difficult lesson for us here. We live in an age where we’re increasingly urged to be discontented; where covetousness is the given, where greed is good; where the motto is “I live to shop”; where shopping is called retail therapy. The advertising industry is set up to make us discontented. So contentment is a rare commodity.
I wonder is this one of those memory verses you learnt as you were growing up? “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I wonder what you thought that meant when you first heard it, or when you repeated it later on. Did you think of facing lions in Africa, or of standing up for the gospel before your friends, or of being a faithful servant of Jesus Christ? Or did you think of being content in the midst of poverty, or hunger, or when you’ve been overlooked for promotion. because your Christian values didn’t fit the organisation you worked for? My guess is that few of us have thought about contentment as having to do with being in financial need. That doesn’t sound right at all does it? Yet that’s what this verse is about, isn’t it? And as we’ll see in a moment, this is an important issue when it comes to the question of Christian giving. What do you need to be content? Someone once asked John D Rockefeller, the richest man in the world, how much is enough? His answer: “A little more than you have.” He really understood humanity didn’t he? But if you always need a little more than you have, what’s your attitude to giving going to be? We’ll see in a moment how our faith in God helps us to remain content as we give generously to support his work.
But right now, let’s think about the Philippians. Paul says he remembers the way they supported him from the start. Even when he’d gone on to Thessalonica they sent him aid over and over again. Still, that’s fair enough. They were probably well enough off to support him, do you think? Well, were they?
Do you remember what we discovered about the first Christians in the Philippian Church? Who were they? Lydia, a merchant woman from Thyatira. She would have been well enough off to support him if indeed she stayed in Philippi and didn’t go back to Thyatira. Then there was the jailor, probably not high in the earnings stakes, and the slave girl who was way down the bottom. Those who came out of the Jewish community could well have lost their livelihoods when they converted to following Christ. So in fact this wasn’t a rich Church. Yet, as so often happens, their lack of riches resulted in a wealth of generosity.
Paul actually tells us a bit more about these Philippian Christians in his 2 Corinthians 8. Here’s what we discover there: (2 Cor 8:1-5) "We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; [i.e. Philippi] 2for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, 4begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints-- 5and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us,"
Isn’t that amazing. Here are these Philippians, and possibly also the Thessalonians, being persecuted to the point, as I said, where their livelihoods are taken away, leaving them in extreme poverty, and yet they voluntarily give, not just according to their means, but beyond them. What’s more they beg for the privilege of sharing in the ministry of the saints. They don’t just see their giving as charity. It isn’t just good works that God will be pleased with, though I guess it’s that as well. No, this is a way for them to share in Paul’s ministry. It’s like they see it as buying into a partnership with Paul.
Now it seems to me that this is an important principle for us to come to terms with. (Not the bit about us being poor. There are actually few of us who can claim that.) But we all live busy lives, we have varying responsibilities and calls on our time that limit us in how we can minister. Not that we don’t all have our own ministries, mind you. I don’t care where you are or what you do, you will have opportunities for ministry presented to you, or available for you to discover, but the reality is that the amount of gospel ministry you can do is limited by the time available to you and the other responsibilities you have to employers, family, friends, yourself. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be involved in a wider range of gospel ministries. The Philippians couldn’t go with Paul on his missionary journeys, but they could become partners, shareholders if you like, in his ministry through their financial support. Not many of us may be able to help Steve or Hannah in their ministries (though some may be able to), but we can become partners with them by our financial support of those ministries. The same goes for support of Jon and Deborah or Kylie. You may not be able to go and work with them. You may not have the right sort of personality to handle living and working in a foreign culture, or you may not be the right age, you may not be free of other responsibilities but you can be partners with them through your financial support.
I wonder whether there’s a correlation between partnership and generosity. Which comes first? Do we begin with a spirit of generosity which becomes a desire to partner with others, or is it the desire to be a partner in the gospel that leads to generosity?
Notice what he says about the order in which the Philippians’ giving came. He says “it wasn’t what we expected: they gave themselves first to the Lord and then, by the will of God, to us.” Here’s a major clue in understanding how they could give so generously out of their poverty. As I said before they weren’t just giving out of charity. They didn’t have someone come to the door collecting for the St Paul Foundation, so they looked in their purse and pulled out a few denarii. No, they first gave themselves to the Lord. This started with their worship. Perhaps Paul’s motto from Phil 1:21 had rubbed off on them: “For me to live is Christ but to die is gain.” They’d handed all they had, their entire lives, over to Christ. Nothing they had belonged to them any more. Have you noticed, it’s always easier to give away someone else’s money than your own? If it’s not yours in the first place you don’t miss it, do you? Well, that’s what had happened. They’d handed over everything to Christ so what they were giving to Paul for God’s work, was God’s anyway. They didn’t hold any claim to it anymore.
The question for us is whether that’s our attitude to our worldly goods? Is that your attitude to your wealth, to your riches, as meagre or great as they may be? That they really belong to Christ; to God? For him to use as he sees fit? Or does God only control that part that you put in the plate each week or transfer online and the rest is yours to do with as you see fit?
“During a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” Will your obituary read like that, or will it read “During a life of comparative comfort and security their concern for their comfort and their future security or that of their children and grandchildren, limited their ability to share in the ministry of the saints.” You see, I think that often it’s our desire for comfort, and our fear for the future, our desire for security that stops us from being more generous with our giving.
But what does Paul tell us about the Philippians and their future security. Look back to Phil 4:19: “And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” What sort of security are you looking for? The sort of security that Gina Reinhardt has? That results in her ongoing feud with her children over their trust account?
How does that compare with this: “God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Fully satisfy, every need, according to his riches. Not James Packer’s riches, or even Bill Gates’ riches, but God’s riches in glory in Christ Jesus. What more could we want?
So where have we got to? What do we take away from this passage today that will give us joy like Paul had?
First let’s give ourselves completely to Jesus Christ. If you haven’t ever done that, then now is the time. If you’ve been a follower of Jesus Christ, but never really given over everything to him, then why not do it now? Recommit your life and everything you have to God. Offer him your whole life, body soul and spirit, as a living sacrifice. That’s the sort of language Paul uses to describe their gift: a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
Secondly let’s ask him to help us to be content with what he’s given us; to help to drive out the fear for the future that we all feel from time to time. And out of that sense of contentment with whatever God places in your hands, think about how you can share in the ministry of the saints both here at St Michael’s and in the wider ministry of the church through the various missions we support.
We have a great church here, with lots of potential, but it’ll only grow if people like you and me continue to support its growth by providing for good ministers to lead the way. Let the Philippian Church be both an example and a challenge to us. Let’s be willing to trust God to provide all our needs, let’s be content with what we have, and let’s be generous in the way we share financially in the ministry of the gospel both here and in the wider world.
