Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript: 1 Corinthians 16
Pastor Dennis Tuuri
Reformation Covenant Church

Ascension of Christ is ruling over the nations. We just sang that truth. Today we focus upon the work of God in missions and specifically how we as a church and as individuals can contribute and make commitments to help churches and help global missions to accomplish our vision as a church to exercise compassion and mission by extending the grace of God to others, other churches in areas less fortunate than we are, and blessings and also to spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the nations of the earth and specifically the ones that we’ve targeted.

Today is the second and last time we’ll have the commitment forms on the back of our order of worship to make pledges to support the work of global missions here at RCC either generally or specifically to three sets of churches specifically that we’re working with in Poland, Russia, and India.

So it’s our church helping less fortunate churches. And we know that as the mighty wind of God blows forth in the world that all the nations will indeed be brought to submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can have a significant part in that role in that activity through our work as a church, through our prayers, through our money, and also through our encouragements to those that are missionaries in lands that are not primarily Reformed and Christian at the present time.

So that’s kind of the purpose of today. And we want to begin—I want to talk today from 1 Corinthians 16. And remember that I gave a couple of sermons on 1 Corinthians 15, the implications of the resurrection and the immediate application that Paul draws from this. At the end of 15, he tells us to abound in the work of the Lord. What work? And he tells us specifically in chapter 16.

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. 1 Corinthians 16. We’ll focus on the first few verses, but I’ll read the entire chapter.

*1 Corinthians 16:*

Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also. On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. And when I come, whomever you approve by your letters, I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem. But it is fitting that I go also. If it is fitting that I go also, they will go with me.

Now I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia. And it may be that I will remain or even spend the winter with you, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not wish to see you now on the way, but I hope to stay a while with you if the Lord permits. But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

And if Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear. For he does the work of the Lord as I also do. Therefore, let no one despise him, but send him on his journey in peace that he may come to me, for I am waiting for him with the brethren.

Now, concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren, but he was quite unwilling to come at this time. However, he will come when he has a convenient time.

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong, that all that you do be done with love. I urge you, brethren, you know the household of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints, that you also submit to such, and to everyone who works and labors with us. I am glad about the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus. For what was lacking on your part, they supplied, for they refreshed my spirit and yours.

Therefore, acknowledge such men. The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

The salutation with my own hand falls. If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this concluding chapter of First Corinthians, building on the work and the doctrine set out in the previous chapter. Help us, Lord God, by your Holy Spirit. May your wind, Lord God, transform us. May he judge us. May he heal us. And may he transform us by the power of your word. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

We are in the middle of a missions weekend for us. You had the privilege—those of us that attended Friday night—of seeing young people kind of reaching a place in their lives where they’re going forth in a different kind of mission, graduating from high school and putting off childish things and becoming men as Joel reminded us of and his dad that Friday night. Wonderfully so. And then last night, those of us that attended got to see wonderful 15 to 20 minute presentations on six different countries and the mission work going on in them and then have a dinner in the context of that. It was really a nice evening.

We’ve desired to have a progressive dinner for quite some time here in terms of missions and using it to both inform us as well as motivate us all to be involved in global missions. And that last night was a wonderful event, a great start to what will be further dinners in the future in coming years. Thanks so much to the young married couple that did all the work last night. It was really an excellent evening. I’m so sorry that most of you weren’t there, but you’ll hear from the ones that were there how wonderful it was and how fulfilling of this vision we have of having a missions emphasis.

As I mentioned last night, this church the first 10 years or so really didn’t do anything in terms of global missions—kind of didn’t know what to do. And then Chris W. became part of our church and he encouraged me to go to a missions conference, a one-day missions conference, which I did. And that began the missionary emphasis here at RCC. One man encouraging one other man. And the end result of that is that RCC was then encouraged in this work.

Many of you put your hand to the work and have over the years given sacrificially of your time and money, accompanying me to Poland, doing other things, hosting people that come here. And RCC is now sort of a light to the CRC in terms of global missions and acknowledged as that. So see, one man’s pushing me to go to a missions conference. And I would just encourage you to be encouraged today to get involved, to have a vision for global missions, and specifically if the Lord lays it on your heart by the end of the service, to fill out the mission pledge commitments for the coming year which will help those works know what to count on from us.

And we’ll see today in 1 Corinthians 16, in these first few verses, the collection of the saints in Jerusalem. We’ll see that was a planned kind of thing that Paul later would come and receive what they had pledged or committed to.

The other thing that’s going on today this evening is the global day of prayer and it’s at Hilltop Community Church in Oregon City from 6:00 to 7:30. I know that most of you probably won’t be able or wouldn’t prioritize that, but I’ll be there with a few other people perhaps. Pray for that event. Pray that one more little tiny step in terms of the unity of the Oregon City churches comes together and specifically in the context of desiring to serve others. This is how unity happens.

And this whole chapter 16 is about community and the purpose of community and the kind of life that flows from person to person, from church to church. That is really about global missions as well as local missions. So that’ll be going on this evening from 6:00 to 7:30. I’d encourage you to maybe think about going if you don’t have other plans for the evening.

Now the context, as I said, for 1 Corinthians 16 is 1 Corinthians 15. And in it we see very important truths about the kingdom and what the eternal state is. It’s—we don’t go away from here. Jesus comes back here. We don’t go to heaven away from earth. Earth and heaven are united in the eschaton. Jesus returns. Heaven and earth come together.

We just sang a nice song set to, I think, a Chinese tune, which is why we picked it for today. John 3:16—God’s eternal love set on the world, not just individuals but the world. We sang about that. And the only problem with that song was it—we read we sang “till we reach our home above.” Not quite true. Our home is here. Now above is here ultimately. So we can sing that and not be lying. But ultimately Jesus returns and what 1 Corinthians 15, in describing this to us, the maturation of humanity in the earth in the transformed state of eternity. What it does is Paul then says that your work here has significance. It’s not in vain.

So he—the end result of a proper understanding of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as articulated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 is a renewed sense of the importance of who we are here and now and the work that we engage in that has eternal—has an eternal perspective and has eternal significance. What we do here has this kind of eternal significance. Our labor in the Lord is not in vain.

So that’s kind of the context. And Paul’s going to go on then to talk about what that labor is in the concluding chapter. And this chapter is filled with greetings and stuff. It’s filled with community action. Then it’s filled with an exhortation specifically to give money to help another church—from the church in Corinth to the church in Jerusalem during a difficult economic time.

And so it’s tied into what we’re doing today, helping these churches in impoverished regions or regions that are very, you know, anti-Christian to help these other churches in Poland, in Russia, and in India. This church helping that church to create a better situation in which they can spread the gospel there in the context of their own nation and culture.

So 1 Corinthians 16 says this is the application. The significant work that we’re doing is this mission of God, the *missio Dei* that I talked about last week. The mission of God is established in eternity. I read an article and I don’t remember now who wrote it, but I wanted to quote from this article again. And he says this. He says that mission was born in the perfect community of the Trinity, was assigned to a people in the forming of God’s holy community of believers, and has the purpose of expanding that peaceable community to all people for God’s glory.

And we can see that at work in very specific ways in 1 Corinthians 16. So the mission of God to create this community that reflects the glory of the eternal community of love and action in the context of the Trinity. Love is not just a divine attribute. It’s a divine experience in the context of the Trinity. And it results in loving actions. What is love? Well, love is helping poor people. Love is having compassion. Love is trying to assist other people in the context of the church and other churches around the world. This is what love is.

It and it finds its basis in the Trinity and works its way out to our community. This writer says that God’s ultimate intention for creation is the establishment of community. That’s what he’s doing. That’s the grand story for 6,000 years. It’s been played out. God is establishing Christian community. And that community is a light to others so that the whole world will eventually reflect the kind of community life that we see pictured for us, for instance, in 1 Corinthians 16.

The big plan, he says, is directed to the establishment of a reconciled people from all nations to live within a renewed creation and enjoy the presence of their redeemer God. So the eternal thing is about this same thing as we establish community on this earth. At the eschaton, when Jesus returns. It’s about living that community life into eternity. This biblical vision of community is both the goal of history and the experience of each person who has come to know God. So there’s a global perspective and there’s individual actions. Individuals are named in 1 Corinthians 16 even while the global perspective has been articulated by Paul in 15 and then specific action in chapter 16.

He says that Israel was to serve and bless the world largely as a model of redeemed community. That’s what the church is—we’re to bless this world as a model of community through compassion, giving to others, church to church, individual to individual. We are, as I said last week, these free samples to the broader world. And that’s primarily how the gospel goes forth.

And so we’re the army of God, but we’re an army living in community. And that community life is what is emphasized in the scriptures.

All right. Now, to the text itself. The book ends and our self-identity. So we have this discussion of the offering for the poor church in Jerusalem during drought and starvation. That’s what’s going on in 16. And that leads into a discussion of when he’ll be there and who’s coming and who’s going to be with him, etc. And all that is bounded by some bookends, a couple of verses.

Verse 58 of 15 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren”—so the outworking, the beloved brethren, this community, who are they? Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. And he’s going to tell them the sort of work that he wants to abound them in. This community work, community labor in chapter 16. I want you to always abound in this, which means don’t just do it and be satisfied with what you’ve done in the past. It means always abounding, increasing in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord because it has this eternal significance.

So that’s what 58 says. And then down in verse 13 and 14 of 1 Corinthians 16, then we have a similar statement. Watch, be wakeful, be alert. Don’t be sluggish. Don’t be slothful. Watch, stand fast in the faith. He’s repeating the same thing he just told him. Be immovable, stand fast, stand fast in the faith. And now he adds a couple of other terms to this. Be brave and be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.

So those are the bookends of this admonition to engage in church-to-church assistance and benevolence and mission. The bookends for that. And it gives us a sense of who we are in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You ever think about that? You know, my trips to Poland seven times kind of have changed the way I look at myself. And I know that my self-perception be according to the word, but you go to Poland and you see the historic manifestation of culture there that goes back several thousand years and you see these castles and you see the warfare that’s plagued Poland.

And I came away after my first visit there and ever since I’m reinforced in this with a perspective that I’m a Christian soldier, that I’m a knight—you know, the kind of medieval picture of the strong Christian knight who has worked for the Lord Jesus Christ, if necessary that would engage in warfare, but more often than not it meant establishing a culture in the context of a wilderness, turning it into a garden. And you know, I think that if we think of these things—okay, if we think of these bookends—we have kind of a beginning identity of who we are as a Christian. How? What does that mean to you? What’s the image in your head by which you kind of evaluate yourself?

There’s specific actions that he talks about, but he gives these general bookends that kind of give us a sense of what we’re supposed to be like. We’re supposed to be steadfast, immovable. We’re supposed to be alert. We’re supposed to be steadfast in the faith. We got strength to us. And we’re supposed to be strong, young and brave, courageous Christian men and women, boys and girls, kings and queens, princes and princesses. This is the image, I think, that Paul tells us. That’s the context for love.

Now, Christians are supposed to be meek. That’s one of the Beatitudes. But being meek is not being weak. And too often that’s the way we think of it. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, you know, not harming anybody. No, he was the Lord of all creation. He’s the king as we just read responsibly and sang Psalm 47, the king of all the world. He is a strong warrior. God is the Lord of hosts, an army. Armies for him.

Meek—the particular Greek word that’s translated meek originally meant to be broken to harness. A meek horse was not a weak horse. A meek horse was a strong, brave, courageous, steadfast, alert horse, but a horse that had been broken to the harness of his master. That’s who you’re supposed to be.

Setting up everything else we’re talking about today are these bookends that give us a nice sense of identity of who we are. We’re to be strong, brave, steadfast, alert, diligent, loving is what all that means. Christians, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we’re to be meek, broken to harness. Yes, absolutely. At the bidding of our savior, we do what he wishes and his word and spirit instruct us. But we’re supposed to be strong people.

And this world in American evangelicalism, this hasn’t quite always been the model. And so it’s important for us to remind ourselves that Paul says that this work that we’re supposed to abound in comes from a character that involves these valiant knightly sort of virtues of strength and bravery and courage and steadfastness and alertness and diligence. That’s who we’re supposed to be. Mighty men and women, warriors for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this love that he talks about—do everything in love. Love is the motivation for specific actions. And what he’s going to say is that this strong, courageous, steadfastness should find itself ushering forth in acts of benevolence, helping other people, living in community. That’s what this strength is primarily applied to. He says there would be adversities. There’s adversaries to his work in Ephesus. So you got to be brave, strong, courageous, all that stuff. But you’re to help other people. So you’re a strong soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ who engages in acts of community kindness and benevolence.

Secondly, then we get to this earthly discernible fruit of resurrection. I stress that because again most people in their commentaries on First Corinthians 15, there is this stuff, you know, these vague Christian virtues that will go into eternity with you. But Paul makes a big point about the fact that the whole world is being transformed and it is going to enter into eternity as well, and particularly the acts we do. There is earthly. So here in the context of what we do—not detached from here, not in the sweet by and by—right here, now, fruits of resurrection. And they are discernible. They can—in the case that Paul immediately makes—you can count up what you did and your pastors can count up what you did and make a record of what you did. It’s discernible. It’s countable. It’s not abstract. It’s not gnostic. It’s very incarnational. The work that you’re supposed to put your hand to, do now—it’s not just about money. He’s going to make that application.

But whatever it is, it’s discernible fruit. There’s not an idea here of community love being stuff that other people really can’t see. So I think Doug Wilson says theology flows out of your fingertips, and maybe we could see out of your wallet in the case of pledging money to help missions or to help the mission of benevolence to the PRC which continues to be our alms offering today and into the next month. You know, it comes out of your wallet as well. Comes out of your fingertips as you reach into that wallet. Do what Paul says you’re supposed to do normally.

Now, maybe some of you don’t have the means to do it. That’s okay. Well, it’s not okay. You should be working to try to get means to do it. But there’s a lot of other things you can do besides money to help other people. That’s what it’s about. That’s really the sum of what 1 Corinthians 16 is about. And it’s earthly. It’s discernible. And it’s the fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What Paul begins in 1 Corinthians 16, in the second epistle of Corinthians, he sort of picks up at the end of it and now makes further arrangements for the collection of this offering for the church in Jerusalem. So under this discernible fruit there are voluntary designated offerings in 16 and also in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. They’re supposed to pledge money to give to the church in Jerusalem and we’ll see that as we go through this.

So first of all these offerings in verses 1-4 that Paul talks about for Jerusalem and in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are specifically designated for famine relief for the saints. And this is told to us in various places in scripture. And he says here that the motivation—and this is from 2 Corinthians 8:13-15. He says that this is in relationship to a certain equality.

Verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 8: “I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but by an equality that now at this time your abundance may supply the lack. That their abundance also may supply your lack, that there may be equality. As it is written, he who gathered much had nothing left over and he who gathered little had no lack.”

So this is like Christian socialism, I suppose. I mean in a way it is. It’s not imposed by an institution or a government, but it’s the work of the Holy Spirit to bring a degree—a certain degree of equality. And he’s talking specifically amongst churches, not people. I mean we can think of it in its application to personal needs as well, but what he’s talking specifically about is your church in Corinth has a lot of money right now. You’ve got food. The church in Jerusalem needs help to continue its mission there in Jerusalem. It needs some of your money. And there should be a sense of equality amongst the churches.

And then he says, “The time may come when you’re going to need help from them. And if you supply their needs and keep them living, they’ll be able to help you when it’s your time for help.” So the motivation for these is this famine that was going on in Jerusalem and a certain sense of equality. And we can make application to the personal level as well. It would be a curse from God—that’s what he says at the end of this. If you don’t have this love, you’re cursed.

We would be cursed as a church if we had people in the context of this church starving or homeless and we didn’t try to do something about it. Now, sometimes if people are sinning, you got to deal with the sin. But you see, that’s the idea here. And the same thing’s true. These churches that we’re supporting in India and Russia and Poland—they’re impoverished. Now the Polish churches are self-supporting in terms of their own particular little local church, but to do mission work into their country they need help, and that’s where we come in. The same with Russia. The same with India. West Bengal is a very impoverished region, and by our money we can help these churches in the same way.

So this designated offering that Paul talked about was for famine relief, that there may be an equality in the context of basic necessities.

So Paul tells them this. Secondly, these offerings were voluntary. Now, it sounds a little different here. Paul says, “Well, here’s the rule. I set down for Galatia. This is what you must do.” He’s not talking about whether you make a pledge or a commitment to help people in Jerusalem. He’s saying the way it’s going to be administered. This is what I’ve decided, he says. So the necessity in 1 Corinthians 16 is understood in terms of the process, not that they each had to contribute something.

We know this from 2 Corinthians 8. He says this: “I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment this benefits you.”

So he’s saying it’s not obligatory. Not everybody here has to fill out the pledge sheet for global missions. Not everybody here has to give to the PRC. And in fact, if we made it mandatory, it sort of defeats the whole purpose. And that’s the problem with socialism is that it’s an attempt through the coercion, the specific coercion and compulsion of others to bring about the sort of thing that the spirit of God is bringing out through the preaching of the gospel and living out the resurrection life. So the whole point is that in the context of the triune God, there’s community and this community is supposed to exist in our context and specifically it’s a voluntary community. It’s a willingness to enter into these sorts of labors on behalf of others.

Third, these offerings were a response to an act and a demonstration of the grace of God. So, you know, 15:58, therefore, why are you supposed to abound in these works? Because God has brought about victory through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ dying for your sins. We’re the recipients of the grace of God. And in 2 Corinthians 8, he says the same thing over and over again. And throughout these extended discussions of what they’re supposed to do in terms of helping the saints in Jerusalem, he uses the term grace. Grace, grace, grace, grace. Grace is what it’s all about.

2 Corinthians 8: “Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yet and beyond their ability, they were freely willing—see, freely willing, voluntary offerings—imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering of the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God.”

So we urged Titus that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you. So they’re the recipients of grace. They respond in grace. The Corinthians have been the recipients of the grace of God bringing them salvation. They’re supposed to respond by grace.

“But as you abound in everything in faith and speech and knowledge and all diligence and your love for us, see that you abound in this grace also.”

So Paul says that the purpose of the giving, the thing that motivates us, is the grace of God to us. So the coloring sheep for the young kids today is the good Samaritan again. We’re the ones bruised and beaten by the side of the road. Jesus, the outcast, heals us and brings us to new life. And we’re supposed to then be like him, to be good to those that are oppressed and beaten—not as a result of their sin, but as a result of various implications of the providence of God.

So we’ve received grace. We’re supposed to be gracious to others. And the person that thinks you’ve got it because you earned it ultimately is the person that won’t give it. But the person that knows that the Lord God has blessed you freely, you have been given freely—you have received. Jesus says in Matthew 10:8, “Freely give.” That person will be liberal in extending the grace that he knows he’s a recipient of.

And if you don’t know that, then you’re really not a Christian. If you think that your hand got you anything ultimately apart from the grace of God, and as a result you don’t want to help people in need, well, the Bible says—I think by implication at the end of this epistle—you’re cursed. He uses a strong word. If you don’t have this kind of foundational love, this kind of community spirit, you’re cursed.

Sorry. You thought you could get through with a good, you know, belief in your heart or whatever it was, but at the end of the day, if your actions show that your belief is in your own self-sufficiency, well, then you remain under the curse of sin, not under the redemption of Christ.

Fourth, these offerings were committed to for a particular period of time. And so we should also make plans the way they made plans. So what am I saying? Well, in 2 Corinthians 8:10, he says, “And in this I give advice. It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago, but now you also must complete the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be completion of what you have.

For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has and not according to what he does not have.”

So he says, “You committed to these offerings a year ago, and now I’m going to come through and collect it.” And in verse 5 of 2 Corinthians 9, continuing on this story, he says, “Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not of grudging obligation.”

So I’m coming. He says, I’m sending some advance guys ’cause a year ago you said you’d raise this money and it better be there. You better meet what you obligated, what you pledge to, unless there’s some good reason why not. Providence of God may stop such a thing. But they—they had made previous plans to commit to this kind of work. And that’s the basis for our pledges today for global mission for the next year. And Paul—it was about a year that he talked about.

Fifth, these offerings were spurred on by written and personal exhortations. So that’s what he’s doing here, right? In 1 Corinthians 16, he’s exhorting them: abound in the work of the Lord. Oh, and what this means is there’s going to be a collection over the next year for the saints in Jerusalem. I know you’re going to want to contribute. Do it. So he tells them, well, from now on, you know, for the next year, lay up money on the Lord’s day in the context of worship because worship drives everything else. And I’ll collect what you promise to at the end of the year.

So he’s encouraging them. We should make plans. Christians are ones who make plans. We don’t go willy-nilly through life. We make plans. And that’s what Paul says here. They had made plans to help another church that was impoverished. And he says, if you’re going to make plans, you should want other people to encourage you to complete the plans.

I know some of you personally, probably a lot more of you that I don’t know of, who should apply this principle immediately in the context of their finances. Make plans—not just about missionary giving, but about your budget, about what you’re going to do with your money. Plan what you’re going to do. That’s half of the battle, not all of it. Because usually men make plans and they think they’ve accomplished it already. You need other people to encourage and exhort you to complete your plans.

Husbands need wives. Wives need husbands. Husbands sometimes need other men. They need the pastor or Bob Evans or somebody sitting down with them and going through their budget, making the plans, but also encouraging them to follow through on what they committed to.

Young men, if I tell you nothing else in preparation for the rest of your lives, do this one thing. Make plans and get someone to hold you accountable to your financial plans. Money is important, and this world right now is headed towards such a debt spiral that it’s going to gobble up all kinds of and derail all kinds of people, including those in the Christian community. It’s very difficult to try to live as strong, brave Christian soldiers, free of debt generally—maybe a house mortgage—but it’s hard to do that in this culture.

So, you know, make a commitment today to help global missions. Only if it’s only five bucks a month. But beyond that, see that as an indication of the sorts of plans you should be making for your money, and that you should want, as the Corinthians had, someone to spur you on to action.

Calvin says he takes up the whole of these chapters—that’s 2 Corinthians 8 and 9—in exhorting the Christians to be active and diligent in collecting alms, money to be taken to Jerusalem for relieving the indigence of the brethren there. The whole point of those two chapters 8 and 9 is to be a verbal spur to them, an encouragement to follow through on their commitments. And today’s mission pledge form is intended as that. It’s an encouragement from your elders to make a plan and commit yourself to follow through in the context of that plan.

Now, these offerings were not to impoverish the giver. He says, “I’m not hoping for you to be impoverished. If you can’t afford it, don’t commit to it.” It’s not, you know, faith isn’t about just hoping and wishing and “Jimmy Cricket” sort of stuff—that maybe God will give me enough money to give missions $1,000 a month. That’s not the idea. And if you have to give that $1,000 and it’s going to impoverish you beyond your necessities, don’t do it.

He says the purpose is not so that you—we read this verse earlier—be impoverished. The purpose is a sense of equality among churches in terms of necessities. So he says, don’t impoverish yourself. Don’t dip into the capital reserves. Now, you know, it’s easy to take that as an excuse not to do a darn thing. Not good to use as that excuse. It’s better to be encouraged to be gracious in your money. But again, it’s not to impoverish you.

And seventh, these offerings were to be generous, relying on God’s provision. So they weren’t supposed to be impoverished. He says, “If there’s first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has and not according to what he doesn’t have.” So if you have the money, you know, you make good plans for that, that you anticipate the Lord God giving you this money, make the commitment. If you don’t, don’t. But the other side of this is to be generous.

Proverbs 11:25 says, “The generous soul will be made rich. He who waters will also be watered himself.” Generosity is greatly encouraged in the wisdom literature.

Proverbs 28:27: “He who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have many curses.”

And Paul kicks up that refrain. If you’re not going to help people and you’ve got the ability to do it, at the end of the epistle, he says, “You’re cursed. If you don’t do this kind of loving action, you’re cursed.” Same thing that Proverbs says.

Proverbs 19:17: “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord and he will pay back what he has given.”

So tremendous encouragements to be charitable and generous. Don’t impoverish yourself. But the other ditch is don’t be so concerned about building your family fortune or this or that or the other thing that you’re not gracious. The way to get wealth, God says, is to give it away. It only lives if you give it away. Bruce Cockburn says: “It only grows if you give it away.” God says that over and over again. The generous soul will be made rich. He who waters will be watered himself.

So the wisdom literature tells us that the way to accumulate wealth and capital is the reverse of what the world teaches us. Not to grasp it and hold on to it tightly, but to be gracious and generous to, for instance, these churches around the world who need our assistance financially. So he who has a gracious generous eye, the proverb says, will be blessed. Blessing is certain, he says, to the one who has a generous eye. His perception of what he sees around him is with a view toward generosity, to help other people. He gives of his bread to the poor.

So, you know, don’t impoverish yourself, but be generous.

Again, to quote Calvin on this text: “For what makes us more close-handed than we ought to be is when we look too carefully, too far forward, and contemplate the dangers that may occur when we are excessively cautious and careful, when we calculate too narrowly what we will require during our whole life. Or in fine, how much we lose when the smallest portion is taken away. The man that depends upon the blessing of the Lord has his mind set free from these trammels and has at the same time his hands opened for beneficence.”

So, you know, it’s sort of like—if you think you got it, God says you’re cursed. If you think you can hold it, God says wrong plan. Trust God. Don’t be over scrupulous and, you know, being concerned about impoverishing yourself. Rather, your eye, your discernment of the world should be generous. You should understand the mission of God is to see the world experience you as a free sample of the kingdom. And they’re to see you giving to other people, giving to those who have need—primarily in the context of the church, to the saints. That’s what’s being talked about in 1 Corinthians 16, 2 Corinthians 8.

That model community is a sample to the world. So, you know, recognize that’s your mission and calling: not to be conservators, but to be expanders of wealth through generosity.

And then finally, these offerings were overseen by godly men, ensuring financial stewardship. He says in 1 Corinthians 16:3, “You approve men to bring the gift, and I may come too and be with it also. But you pick some guys up.”

Some people think he’s talking about voting here. You vote on some guys to be the financial stewards. And then he says the same thing in 2 Corinthians. He says the same thing in verses 19 to 21 of 2 Corinthians 8. He says this: “These men he says who was also chosen by the churches to travel with us with this gift which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord himself and to show your ready mind. Avoiding this that anyone should blame us in this lavish gift which is administered by us. Providing honorable things not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men.”

Financial accountability and stewardship of churches is basically what’s going on here. And this is one of the key verses that says churches should be open, transparent, and held accountable. Be willing to have your books audited. Okay, that’s what it means. And Paul, to assure this kind of sensitivity, says you pick the guys that’ll bring the gift. I don’t want anybody accusing me that I stole your money somehow or that I tricked you out of it. You pick the guys to complete this plan of yours.

So these principles—the immediate application is the mission pledge sheets today. And again, I would encourage you to be generous, have the generous eye, knowing that the Lord will bless you. Don’t impoverish yourself. Make a plan and try to get your wife or a friend to hold you accountable—not just for this part of your financial plan, but for the whole thing.

So today we are committing to help churches in Poland, Russia, and India. The churches in these countries don’t have much money. And so we’re making commitments to help them in their evangelism in the context of their own countries and to help them with our dollars. Okay.

Now, a few closing comments on the broader context of this. We’ve kind of talked about the specific implication, but there’s some broad things going on in this chapter, 1 Corinthians 16, as well. And I want to address those as we move toward a close.

First of all, understand that these are instructions given to Gentile churches and they’re going to give money to the Jewish church in Jerusalem. So, you know, this generosity thing is tested by whether we’re generous to other people that are different than us. Differences exist in the context of the church. Friday night, some graduates were homeschooled all their life. Some graduates were in private school. Maybe others were. I don’t think any of them were mostly in private school, but they all were educated in Christian and for the benefit of the glory of God and in Christian training. So there’s differences that exist.

There were differences—big differences in customs and social conditions between the Jewish church in Jerusalem and those that were going to give them money, the Gentile church. And those differences were overcome by Paul saying, “Now, don’t let that hang you up. Community has lived across differences as well. The test of our love, the true test of our love, I think, is how we treat Christians that are different than us. Are we, you know, gracious and kind to people that are quite different than us?”

Secondly, there’s an anticipation of possible problems, grace given, and effective communication. So we can talk about this in terms of money, but Paul is doing with his speech really what he wants them to do with their money. What I mean is Paul’s exhibiting community-minded grace of speech, which is what he’s calling them to do with their money. But he’s doing it in words. And so if we walk away from 1 Corinthians 16 and just think about money, we’ve kind of missed a really big point because Paul is being gracious and kind to others—this church in Corinth—and he’s anticipating problems they may have with what he’s doing and with his speech.

And so he goes out of his way in 1 Corinthians 16 and again in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 to avoid setting before them a stumbling block. Paul goes out of his way. According to Paul, love is useful to other people. That’s one way to put it. It’s useful to the Jerusalem church for the Corinthian church to give of what they have. Love is patient. Love is kind. Kind means useful. The specific word—love—of these actions of usefulness.

But Paul is being useful to the Corinthians in his carefulness of speech that he uses in these three chapters. He’s telling them, you know, well, I’m going to come to you if the Lord permits. I’m going to do this, maybe this. I’m planning on this. But why is he doing that? Because he doesn’t want them to stumble, that—oh, he said he was coming and now he’s not going to come. Now, that’s the way we should interpret.

We don’t always have to say to each other, “If the Lord permits, I’m going to meet you this afternoon at 5.” Paul went out of his way to do that. See, in this particular setting, Paul is being useful in his speech to span differences of people and try to avoid them falling into a stumbling block by what he says. And his entire manner of speech in 1 Corinthians 16 is this same way. He says this over and over again.

That’s why, you know, he was a financially capable guy. He was above reproach. But still, he didn’t want them to stumble or others to stumble. So he said, “You pick out the guys to carry the gift.” Paul is living in community by phrasing his speech carefully so as to avoid offense.

In like manner, we should be kind and useful to the church in Poland and the churches in Russia and India with our money. We should also be kind and useful to them as you have done. Praise God for this congregation. You have done a world of difference—not just in these little areas but in the CRC and other places you have contributed greatly by sending speech to edify and build up the church in Poland, for instance. And speech—you know, Chris W. and John S., John A., Doug H., Amy H.—speech to build up the churches in India. You have been useful in your money so that others could be useful in their speech.

And we should, in general, take as an exhibit of how we live in community here the same truth. We should become mindful in our speech and our attitudes. Love is an attitude. Of course, it puts on lenses of trying to be useful to others and patient with them. And specifically, while these chapters are about money, Paul is being very careful in his speech. Are you careful in your speech not to cause offense to people that are different than you?

I think as a congregation, you know, we should recommit ourselves to this fairly regularly because our speech can be offensive whether we intend it to be or not. We should think about the implications of the words we use as we try to minister grace to each other and love each other in the context of this community.

If we’re not careful in our speech, see, Paul knew that if he didn’t go out of his way to assure transparency of the gift, people would assume he’s going out of his way to hide what’s going on. That’s what starts to creep into minds. People, if you’re not careful—why did they say it that way? What was really going on that didn’t seem right. You see, you can help people avoid that stuff if you’re careful in your speech.

So an implication of these messages to benevolence is yes, and to money, yes. But also, Paul gives us a model of careful loving speech in the context of people that are different one to another. By talking carefully, by choosing our speech carefully, we can do what Paul did. We should help others to not sin, to not sin.

So, you know, if we get all worked up about the fact that we’re homeschoolers—that’s great. Or we get all worked up about the fact that we’re private schoolers—that’s even better. If we get worked up about the fact that this is the way we do it at our home in terms of discipline and somebody else’s the way I do it. Now, everybody’s got to do what’s best in their own eyes. Everybody’s got to make wise choices. But when we become distributors of speech that puts stumbling blocks in front of others, that’s wrong.

And beyond that, we should be thinking of our speech to not cause other people to stumble in ways that we’re sure they will otherwise. See, Paul didn’t just, you know, avoid kicking them off. He went out of his way on the other side to make sure they weren’t ticked off if they possibly could get ticked off. Paul was careful, kind, loving community.

You know, there’s a lot more speech that goes on than the transfer of money. And so we must make this application to our speech. He says, “If the Lord permits,” working hard and accurate communication, acknowledging the sovereignty of God in everything that we do. If you make a pledge today—you’re employed, you think things are great, you get laid off in two months. Well, we understood. You didn’t have to tell us “if the Lord permits.” We understand that’s the context of what you’re pledging to do today. But that’s what we all should do. We should have this kind of gracious speech that says, “God being my witness, God being my helper.”

And Paul did that explicitly.

Fourth, individualization of exhortations. You probably noticed here he says, “Well, you know, Timothy, I don’t want to be fearful when he gets to you guys. I want you to send him on his way with peace and assurance. Why did he say that? Well, we don’t really know, but it was an individual exhortation about an individual person.

So we can look at 1 Corinthians 16. The earthly discernible fruit of resurrection life and the importance of living community here is reflected in our money. It’s reflected in our speech. And our speech must consider the individuals involved. There’s individual exhortations. In terms of Timothy, he may stumble this way. Seems to be the implication. Go out of your way to help him.

Oh, he should be a strong Christian. What? You know, we should be able to talk to him like anybody else. He should just grow up and get over it. No. Paul says the way he’s going to grow up and get over it is if you’re on his side and if in your speech given to him individually is an encouragement to help him not to become fearful over what’s going on.

So, you know, Paul gives individualized instructions here and we should as well. So you know, love means this kind of personal and community involvement. It means living in community. But it also means taking into account each individual. And he uses speech.

Okay, I got one concluding remark before we go to the very end, and that is to be found in verse 16—chapter 16. Verse 1. When he gives this kind of speech, listen to what he says: “I have given orders to the churches of Galatia.”

Churches of Galatia. Now, he wrote to the church at Ephesus or he wrote to the church in other particular cities. But when he’s referring to a region, he uses the term churches. Now, I think this is pretty universal in the New Testament—maybe possibly based on one variant reading different—but it seems again, and we’ve made this point over and over. But this text is one of them that shows us that it seems like the basic unity of the church is in the context of city churches.

And that’s why I’m going tonight to the Oregon City Global Day of Prayer. We’ve had a vision for 20 years that the idea of unity of the church—the church is designated in the context of cities. And if we talk about our broader region, we talk now about churches, not the church in Galatia. So there seems to be something very important in the Bible about cities. And that’s why I’m going to the Oregon City meeting tonight. It’s playing out, working out this verse.

I bring it up here to ask for your prayers. The CRC is discussing our Constitution and what we are. Are we a denomination? Are we a church? Are we not a church? What’s the deal? This has been going on for a couple years. And you know, there’s a lot of speech happening. Pray that we could in our speech be as gracious as Paul is here and that we could use the text of scripture to help us think through this.

Some people think the CRC is a church in the same sense as these regional churches in the Bible, the same sense as a church in a city church. But others say well no. Regions like the Northwest or all of America or all the world in the case of the CRC—there are churches in these regions. So there’s no one church in America. So this is discussion that’s going on and I would ask for your prayers as I engage in these discussions and as we move toward some kind of votes and discussion at our council meeting in October of this year.

It’s part of the way we live in community. We see the importance of the local church here, the city church in Oregon City. We also see the importance of the doctrinal distinctives that have led us into that broader community. And the question is how we live in the context of that community with kind speech and biblical attitude. So Paul gives us a little something here. He’s talked about community being the fruit of the resurrection and he talks about it in interesting ways. And some of these verses have a lot of implications that aren’t obvious at first.

But here he seems to be giving us—inadvertently perhaps, or advertently by the Spirit—instructions about what a church is and what churches are and how they relate to regions, countries, cities, and ultimately to the CRC. So he does this.

So Paul says that the resurrection should produce earthly discernible fruit in the context of our lives. And specifically, he makes a direct application to your money and to helping churches that are impoverished—the way we’re asking you to help spread the gospel and disciple the nations of Poland, Russia, and India. So he makes that as the primary application.

But in the context of this, I’ve chosen also to focus on Paul’s gracious speech and the importance of speech. The impact, the earthly discernible fruit of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that what we do here is important. Your money is important. It’s holy. It’s been given by God. He accepts it in holy worship by way of tithes, and he accepts it by way of offerings. So your money is very important. And of course, obviously, your speech is very important as well.

Paul says you can either live in this kind of love or not. And he concludes by saying this. He says, “If someone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed.” Well, I love Jesus. I just have trouble with my neighbor. Well, no. He’s just told you what loving Jesus is. He’s just told you that loving Jesus is explicitly having this view of our finances as belonging to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And he’s going to move finances and funds. He’s going to bring a degree of equality amongst churches and nations and people.

So loving Jesus means loving other saints who are in distress. It means loving those little babies that are going to be killed if the PRC doesn’t continue its work. It means loving those wonderful people that in Sunday school we saw singing praises to God in more mature ways in Poland, and helping them to establish footholds in other cities over there. It means loving—Jesus means loving Blake and the folks in Russia, Oleg and Edith as they go about the prison work and building churches that they’re doing. It means loving those dear saints in India—Sujoy, Roy, and Sukhree—and they’re helping orphans, children that would be abandoned. The father was specifically what the Bible businesses were supposed to do. What true religion is about is building Sujoy building important daughter churches that have the goal of being self-sustaining. That’s one reason why we’re working with Sujoy.

So loving Jesus means engaging our money for the work of the kingdom. And secondly, by implication, if we say we love Jesus and aren’t careful in our speech and don’t care about whether we’re careful or not, then we’re not really loving Jesus. Loving Jesus means loving the people in this church. And in that love, using your speech to not just not offend somebody but to go out of your way in your speech to season it with grace, that you may minister grace in your very speech to other people.

You see, so this is what Paul says by explicit command and by example in 1 Corinthians 16. This is what love is. This is the earthly discernible fruit of the resurrection love that God in his love has given you the resurrection life. This is what loving Jesus is.

And he goes on to say, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.” So there’s a benediction. But before he says that, he says, “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, what? Let him be accursed.” End of a response to the gospel. Two paths: heaven and hell. That’s what he says at the end of Isaiah. Paul says at the end of these admonitions to live the resurrection life with earthly discernible fruit. Two paths: either live in love, be blessed, grace of God, or be cursed. And it’s interesting because in between these he says, “Oh Lord, come.” I don’t know the placement, but it is interesting that it seems to be, primarily, at least maybe the implication is that God hopes that the accursed ones would be the subject of the Lord’s presence in return quickly.

So what’s he talking about? Jesus, come. Well, it seems like he’s saying, “Fulfill this cursing of people that won’t love you. Take out the prideful of the world—whether they’re in the church or not, take them out. Come, Jesus, to bring your curse upon those who don’t love you and don’t love your kingdom.” And remember, these are earthly discernible fruits. It’s not an attitude in your heart. Your love of the Lord—it has to be seen in a desire and a follow-through to make plans to help other people. It’s that simple: to help other people.

So when you come forth with your tithes and offerings today, do that. Ask that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ might be with you, that you might look for ways to have that generous eye. Look for ways to be kind to people with your love, with your speech, with just helping them, doing acts of kindness.

Again, praise God for those young married ones. This is what they did. They were motivated by a love for you, a love for global missions. They put a lot of work last night into preparing these six rooms and the banquet that those of us that were here enjoyed. Praise God to each of you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, his blessing be upon you. Understand that is what kingdom life is. And praise God for that. And may they be an encouragement and inducement to us to receive the blessings and benediction of God as we come forward, recommitting ourselves to find simple ways that we, with our given capacities—economic, intellectual, you know, in terms of speech—what we can do to help and minister to others.

If you weren’t here Friday night, I know a lot of you were. You missed one of the most encouraging things I’ve ever heard in my life from one of our graduates. I won’t embarrass him, but he was a man of grace to us in the way that he presented a talk on strength and weakness, big animals and little ones, and in his preparation for that day through confession of sin as he was about to make the transition from becoming a child and becoming a man.

God doesn’t need, you know, all kinds of capacity in people. You can do a speech to make as simple as you can do but do it well and do it to the glory of God and you’ll minister to all kinds of other people. All kinds of other people. And this young man was—I won’t forget, you know, what he did and what was said about him the rest of my life. It’ll be an encouragement to me, you know, to do what God says I can do, given his gifts to me, financial, by way of speech, by way of whatever it is, to use them to serve other people.

We were served wonderfully by the power of the Spirit Friday night. May the Lord God grant each of us as we come forward and give ourselves to him afresh. Grant us that generous eye that assures blessing.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for this church. We thank you for their love for Poland and the other nations we’ve talked about today for years. Thank you for Chris W. and his individual action encouraging me and then the church on to engage in these wonderful acts of service and love that are so much a fulfillment of this earthly discernible fruit of the resurrection of Christ. Thank you for your grace to us.

Help us to have a gracious eye to others, looking for ways that we can practically help others. Help us to be strong, courageous, bold Christian warriors, meek, broken to the harness of Jesus and engaged in these acts of love and service and kindness to one another and to others.

In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.