A Special Offering

What this episode covers

Old Testament Reading The Old Testament reading is Exodus chapter 25, verses one through nine. Exodus 25, one through nine. This is the infallible and inerrant word of God. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them. Gold, silver and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen, goat’s hair, tanned ram’s skins, goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst, exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all of its furniture, so you shall make it. New Testament Reading Let’s turn now to 2 Corinthians chapter nine for the New Testament reading. 2 Corinthians nine verses six through nine. I decided to shorten the New Testament reading from what’s printed there in the bulletin, Second Corinthians chapter 9 verses 6 through 9. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. So you can turn back to Exodus chapter 25 for our sermon text this morning. Introduction: From Resurrection to Giving Last week for Easter Sunday, we took a break from the book of Exodus so that we could focus our thoughts on the resurrection of Christ and the hope that we have for our own resurrection when the Lord Jesus returns from heaven. And so today we are returning to our study of the book of Exodus. And we are considering a subject this morning from our passage, and it may feel like something of a letdown after having just celebrated the glorious truth of the resurrection of Christ. And that’s because our subject today is our giving to the church. It is though we’re going from the sublime to the mundane, from the hope of the resurrection, the glorious reality of the resurrection, to the Christian’s responsibility to give to the church. And I had that thought in my mind this past week, and I noticed that there was actually good biblical precedence for the seemingly abrupt transition from the resurrection glory to the much more prosaic subject of giving. In first Corinthians, the apostle Paul, he spends all the chapter 15 unpacking the wonders, the glories of the resurrection of Jesus and declaring that because of his resurrection, we have this promise, this hope of victory over death. And so he extols the wonders of the resurrection of Jesus. And then immediately at the beginning of chapter 16, he starts to give instructions to the Corinthians about their giving to the church. And so in one moment, Paul takes us up to heaven, so to speak, and then the next moment, he brings us back down to earth, as if he were saying, and speaking of the resurrection of Christ, by the way, set aside some money every Sunday so that when I come, I’m ready to pick it up to take it to Jerusalem. But the fact that Paul doesn’t hesitate to deal with the subject of giving in virtually the same breath in which he deals with the subject of the resurrection shows us that in God’s eyes, our giving to the church has everything to do with the grace and the salvation that God has given to us. In other words, the Bible doesn’t treat the topic of giving as something that is less spiritual or less spiritually significant

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