BaptistWay Bible Series for August 9: Engage in God’s mission together

When it comes to sharing, it seems Christians are like a lot of people. They’d rather use their resources on themselves. A few years ago, Ken Camp wrote in an Associated Baptist Press story that a study done by empty tomb, inc. (www.emptytomb.org ), an Illinois-based research group, revealed that giving to Protestant churches by individual members had dropped to just 2.6 percent of income.  

The surveyors reported that “If church members were to reach a congregation-wide average of 10 percent giving, an additional $156 billion would be available to assist both local and global neighbors in need.”

Wow. Imagine for a moment an alternate reality; a world different from the one we live in. In it, what if American Christians gave a tithe—a tenth of all of their earned resources—to their churches for use in benevolence ministry to others and to spreading the word of God around the world. An additional $156 billion to ministry. The empty tomb researchers did. Among some of their predictions if this happened included:

• $5 billion could help stop the majority of 29,000 deaths a day around the globe among children under 5, most of whom are dying from preventable poverty conditions

• $7 billion could provide basic education for the world’s children

• $124 million could launch a massive world evangelism effort in the ‘10-40 Window’”—an area of global need spiritually and physically.

While that alternate reality seems attainable, the reality seems to be falling further away. The long-term trend points to a downturn in individual giving. Overall, church members gave a smaller portion of their income in 2003—2.59 percent—than in 1968, when members gave an average 3.11 percent.

Another interesting note in the study showed that in 14 surveyed denominations that grew in membership between 1969 and 2003, about 3 cents of every dollar went to denominational global missions. In 14 denominations that declined during that period, less than 1 cent of every dollar went to international missions.

Are we sharing our resources? Financially, statistics would show we are not. But there is more to sharing than finances. If we are among average givers and only give 2.6 percent of our financial resources, what percentage are we giving of our spiritual gifts?

In this week’s lesson, we will learn other ways to share than just financially, and that a church’s ability to share is a good indicator of its spiritual health. It’s a lesson that will show us God’s people are to use their diverse gifts in engaging in God’s mission together and will encourage you and me to increase our commitment to serving God together.

The church as Jesus set it up is never meant to be a one-man or one-woman show. If we are to change the world in Christ’s image, it will take all of us. The question we need to answer today is how you and I will decide to use our gifts to serve God the way Jesus intended us to—together.

Shared charity (Acts 4:32-35)

“Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power, the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.”

This passage shows the amazing amount of unity found among believers in the early church, with the description of them showing they “shared one heart and soul.” Among the indicators of this unity was the sharing of possessions so that less-fortunate members of the body would have no need. It also was a time of great trust among believers, with distribution of the shared charitable gifts being mad equitably.

It is important to note that this was not some form of forced economic socialism, rather it was a voluntary sharing of resources as a result of the “great grace” that was upon them at the time. A good example of this voluntary sharing comes outside of our focal passage in verses 36-37, with the example set by Barnabas, who sold a piece of land to benefit others.  

If you have time to read on, you also will see the account in Acts 5:1-11 of the improper spirit of charity shown by Ananias and Sapphira, who gave charitably, but not completely nor in the right spirit of generosity. Their story serves as a reminder to all of us that giving is a spiritual matter and not to be taken lightly.

Questions for discussion

• Is the giving found in this passage possible in today’s economy? In today’s culture?
 
Shared sacrifice (2 Corinthians 8:1-9)

“We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints—and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you. Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”

Just as we read in Acts 4:32-35, believers in Corinth also practiced shared generosity. But this passage gives us a better picture of their motivation for giving. Here, we find Paul addressing the Corinthian church, appealing to them for an offering to help the church in Jerusalem, their mother church, which was a poor congregation. He also is referring to the gift of the church in Macedonia, which gave an unexpectedly large gift for its means.

Paul points out that excellence in the Christian lifestyle—evidenced by the Corinthians’ faith, speech, knowledge and eagerness—must also be matched by the excellence of generosity or providing a sacrifice to benefit others.

In this passage Paul also uncovers what must be our motivation as believers for this sacrificial giving: the example of Christ. Paul doesn’t reference Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as our example, but goes back to before Jesus became the Word in flesh: human. He acknowledges that Christ, the Son of God, gave up his heavenly riches to become mortal, sacrificing his position for us.   

Questions for discussion

• What is your definition of generosity? Of sacrifice? Were they the same definition?

Unified diversity (1 Corinthians 12:4-13)

“Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;  and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

In this passage, Paul points out that sharing resources is not confined to generosity with our God-given financial resources. We also must be generous with our God-given and Spirit-delivered gifts. Paul urged the believers in Corinth to be unified in the use of their spiritual gifts. Using the analogy of a healthy (physical) body, which has varied limbs and organs working in unison for the good of the body, so the church must be a healthy body, with each of its members working together for a unified purpose. A list of those varied gifts is in order, to remind us that each are needed and need to be exercised by the members who possess them.

• The utterance of wisdom and the utterance of knowledge. Basically, the ability to speak wisdom (Greek “Sophia” or higher, God-knowing thought) and knowledge (Greek “gnosis” or practical thought) and combine the two for the good and guidance of the body of Christ.

• Faith. Not just the faith of knowing that God is in control, it is the faith that brings passion and vision into the body.

• Healing. This refers to physical healing, which is common among the New Testament church (see Acts 3:1-10 as an example).

• The working of miracles. This probably refers to exorcisms like the healing of the possessed fortune-telling girl in Acts 16.

• Prophecy. Rather than foretelling, this may be better defined as forthtelling, or preaching. As Barclay notes, “The prophet is a man who lives so close to God that he knows his mind and heart and will, and so can make them known to man.”

• Discernment of spirits. There is the Spirit of God and the spirit of evil. When dealing with the supernatural, it is necessary to have someone who can tell between the two. It’s not as easy as it sounds, since the spiritual world is outside the realm of most of our knowledge.

• The gifts of tongues and interpretation of tongues. This gift gives Baptists a hard time, since many of our churches have moved away from this early-church gift. It gave the Corinthian church a hard time, too. While many regard tongues as a direct communication from God, they also can be misused if the speaker isn’t genuine. Thus, a God-inspired interpreter is necessary as means of not only translation, but corroboration.

Questions for discussion

• Look at the list of spiritual gifts. Are all of these common in your church? Should they be?  

Shared legacy (1 Peter 2:6-10)

“For it stands in Scripture: ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,  a cornerstone chosen and precious;  and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected  has become the very head of the corner,’ and ‘A stone that makes them stumble,  and a rock that makes them fall.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy,  but now you have received mercy.

Judging from the descriptions of the early church in the first three passages, there was never a dull moment in the life of the early church. But with all of these new things happening to this new and wonderful Way, with the different expressions and characteristics of individual churches, with new believers coming from thousands of different ethnic, national and religious backgrounds, there may have been a sense among some of them that there was little to hold them together as a people. No legacy. Additionally, among the Jewish believers, there may have been the sentiment that by embracing the new Way, they were rejecting the beliefs of their people and nation.

This passage dispels that potential feeling, sharing with believers that they are like a building, solidly built with Jesus as their cornerstone. Recalling Exodus 19:6, he reminds the Jewish believers that it is Jesus who is the stone rejected by the keepers of the law and now forms the cornerstone of their faith and is the basis for a new, holy nation formed under Jesus’ power and mercy.

Question for discussion

• How does the sense of “spiritual nation” seen in this passage clash with our earthly national ties?