Sermon Tone Analysis

2 Corinthians 8 & 9

Let’s begin with a little bit of background to this section of the letter, the 1st 7 chapters were basically an expression of Paul joy and gratitude for the Corinthians and their positive response to a difficult letter.

Here in chapter 8 there is a transition and he switches to the topic of charitable Christian giving.

This theme actually carries through both chapter’s 8&9.

Now if you’re a pastor like me, who simply teaches through the Word of God, verse by verse and page by page, then a section like this is a dream come true if you really want to hammer the people on giving, you might want to break these chapters up into like a 6 week sermon series, but I don’t want to do that.

Somebody tell me what that old expression means, “You’re preaching to the choir!”

See that’s really what I think I’d be doing here in this church if I were to dissect every aspect of giving that we find in these chapters and the opportunities they offer for jumping off points to everything else the Bible says about giving, and tithing.

You guys know that we have been digging into this book and we’ve been averaging about a half chapter per week, so this could easily be broken into 4 Sundays, but if you guys will allow me a little liberty, I’d like to give you a little history on the Jerusalem church, a little history on our church, and then I think we can breeze right through both of these chapters, with me still being respectful of your time.

Let pray and we will see how far we get.

In the first 4 verses that I read Paul is talking about a gift, this grace that he talks about being bestowed on the churches, giving according to ability and beyond…all that only makes sense if we use the Bible to explain the Bible.

Paul is talking about a collection he has been receiving for the church in Jerusalem.

So he is the history lesson.

The birth of the church occurred in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost that you can about in Acts 2. Prior to this we read about Judaism, worship in the Tabernacles and in the Temple, but then Jesus comes on the scene to fulfill the Old Covenant and He did that on the cross and through His resurrection and then prior to ascending back into Heaven He gives the great commission and tells the Apostles to go into all of the world and make disciples.

In Acts chapter two we read about Peter, the Apostle that was so much of a coward that he denied even knowing Jesus prior to Him going to the cross....now just a little while later He is full of the Holy Spirit, bold as he is now empowered from the Spirit of God, preaches this incredible sermon, I won’t read it all this morning, but it is important that we are aware of the result of that sermon.

3,000 souls and the church was doing all the right things continuing steadfastly in the Word of God, in fellowship, the breaking of bread or communion and praying together, and in our last verse there we read that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

That was a lot to deal with.

They combined resources to talk care of each other.

But if I sell all my stuff and you sell all of your stuff, pretty soon, we’re out of stuff.

The church was growing in size, but also in poverty.

To make matters worse they began suffering incredible persecution, we see just a taste of that a few chapters ahead in Acts, picking up and the end of chapter 7, concerning the story of Stephen who was the very first Deacon, we read.

Acts 7:54-57

They were scattered, so even the support they were receiving from one another diminished, and as you guys know there remained division between Jews and Gentiles in the early church, and Paul saw this great need as a great opportunity for the Gentile churches to minister to the church in Jerusalem and let the Lord use that to heal some of that mess.

So he began receiving these offerings from the churches.

Principles of giving.

In the Old testament they had the title, 10 zucchinis you give one

So this section starts with Paul talking about the churches in Macedonia.

2 Cor 8:1-4

In chapter 9 Paul begins this section on how to administer this gift.

And in this chapter we are going to find these principles

 You’ll find more abundance in giving than in keeping, because giving bears its own harvest in season.

 God loves it when His people give freely and cheerfully, but disdains begrudging gifts.

 There are no needs that you have which God cannot supply.

Giving bless others, but also stretches our faith to greater trust in God.

 One of the qualities of Godliness is the value of helping others over hoarding possessions.