Phil 4.14-20b

I Knew a Rich Man—Part Two

Philippians 4:14-20

¹⁴ Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. ¹⁵ Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; ¹⁶ for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. ¹⁷ Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. ¹⁸ I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. ¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. ²⁰To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

A few weeks ago I told you about my breakfast with Pastor Jose Reyes from Norwalk. Jose was born in El Salvador and often knew real hunger during his childhood. I told you the story of how he and his wife gave their only bed to a single mother. After Jose was in the U.S. for a few years, INS finally caught up with him and were planning to send him back to El Salvador. Jose told me that when illegals are caught by INS, the first thing they usually do is contact an attorney who may be able to file enough paperwork to allow them to stay in the U.S. A few years back, Karen and I filed affidavits to help a friend of ours from Prairie du Sac with her immigration battle. Jose told me that some attorneys have a profit motive—they like to take your thousands of dollars in legal fees even if there is little chance that they can actually help you. But when the lawyers examined Jose’s case, they concluded that his chances of success were so slim that they weren’t willing to take his case or his money. They told him that he had two choices—either leave Wisconsin or stay in Norwalk and be deported back to El Salvador. If he ran he might be able to avoid INS, but if he stayed, he was doomed. His wife and two children were still in El Salvador, but if he was deported, they would lose any chance of ever coming to the U.S.

Jose’s attorney and all of his friends counseled him to run away, but Jose was determined to stay and trust God against all odds. The verse that he claimed as a promise was Luke 1:37, “Nothing is impossible with God.” But here’s the twist in the story. Jose told me that in his Spanish Bible, this verse is translated as “Nothing is impossible to God.” Do you see how that one word can make an enormous difference? Jose knew that any chance of success did not depend on him cooperating with God, but on God alone. Jose didn’t want to make the same mistake that we make with verse thirteen, “I can do all things though him who gives me strength.” We usually misinterpret this verse and make it mean, “If God gives me a little strength, then I can do anything,” or “With God I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.” Jose knew that he had to take himself out of the equation. A few weeks before his hearing, a local group of anglos gathered around him for support. The judge was impressed that Jose was integrated into the local community of Norwalk that he granted him his immigration papers. Jose was right! Nothing is impossible to God.

It’s a great story, isn’t it? But as I thought about that one word difference in his Spanish translation, I started to wonder if the translation was accurate. Sure, things turned out well for him in the end, but had he been trusting in a faulty translation? Later that day I checked it out for myself. I went back to the Greek and sure enough, the Spanish Bible was wrong. The Greek clearly reads, “Nothing is impossible with God.” But then I looked at the larger context of the verse, which is the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear a virgin son.

³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” ³⁵The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For nothing is impossible with God.”

Here is the key question: How much did Mary have to do with her virgin conception? After Gabriel finished his explanation, did Mary say, “Yeah, that makes sense. If God gives me some of his strength, I can accomplish anything I set my mind to—even a virgin conception. ‘Nothing is impossible with God.’ I need God and he needs me. Together we can get this done.” You could make the case that Mary was a willing vessel—literally—but she had nothing to do with the virgin conception. So then, is Jose’s Spanish translation correct? Technically speaking, it is inaccurate, but its meaning is exactly right—nothing is impossible to God.

This leads to our fifth principle in these two messages on generosity.

5. When we are generous, God will meet our needs.

In verse nineteen Paul wrote, And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. The church in Philippi gave generously out of their poverty. They worshipped God through their giving. They shared in the work of the gospel through their generosity. But do you think any of these people ever asked the question, “If I give this money to Paul, how will I feed my family?” You can be assured that most of them asked that very question. They were stricken with poverty of a sort that is only known today in third world countries. This is not the kind of poverty where I have to cancel my satellite TV subscription or trim down to a more affordable cell phone package. This was genuine, “where will I find enough food” kind of poverty. So we can be certain that they wondered aloud or on the quiet of their bed at night, “How can I be generous and feed my family?”

The answer is verse nineteen, And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. This is another way of saying, Nothing is impossible with God. When we are generous, who is going to meet our needs? God will. Do we have to do it with him in some sort of powerful alliance? No, he does it alone. Do we have to know where the provision will come from? No, we only need to know the One who provides. My God will meet all your needs.

And how does he meet these needs? According to his riches in Christ Jesus. Can we even begin to conceive of his infinite riches? We have a difficult time conceiving of limited riches. For example, did you happen to check out the link I sent a few weeks back that illustrates a trillion dollars? (see below) If you knew a guy that had ten million dollars and you also knew that he would always be willing to help you if you had a need, would you ever worry about a single need ever again? What if you knew an equally generous person who had a trillion dollars—would you lay awake at night wondering if you were going to make it? If you had such a generous friend and you still worried about your basic needs, then one of two things would have to be true. Either you don’t actually believe that your friend has enough money or you don’t believe he is generous, because if he is both wealthy and generous, then you don’t have to worry. Do God’s riches stop at a trillion dollars? We can barely fathom a trillion dollars let alone an infinite supply of riches, but the very essence of who God is, is his infinity. He has no limit, therefore he has limitless riches. So when we worry, we are doubting one of two things—either we don’t believe that God has infinite riches or else we don’t believe he is generous. Put another way, we don’t believe that God is infinite or we don’t believe he is good—or we don’t believe either. When this happens, we are casting doubt upon the very character of God—his infinity and his goodness. If we know a rich man we don’t have to be a rich man.

6. When we are generous, we practice the grace of God

At the beginning of this series in Philippians, I gave you this formula.

POVERTY + x = GENEROSITY

Do you recall the value of x? The answer is given in Paul’s description of the church in Philippi found in 2 Corinthians.

And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ² Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ³ For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ⁴ they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints (2 Co 8:1-4)

As this passage plainly tells us, x = joy. POVERTY + JOY = GENEROSITY. But did you notice what I left out from this equation? The Philippians not only had poverty, they also had trials. But they didn’t have average trials or run of the mill poverty. They had severe trials and extreme poverty, but they also had overflowing joy which welled up into rich generosity.

Now how can this possibly add up? How do you begin with severe trials and extreme poverty and have it become overflowing joy and rich generosity? How does that happen? Go back to the beginning of the passage. And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Did you see it? All of this was possible because of the grace of God given to the Macedonian churches. Grace was given to them and the church practiced this grace through their rich generosity.

We have lots of reasons for a lack of generosity. Someone might say, “I can’t give money because I am poor.” But the Philippians did. “I can’t give money because I am undergoing a difficult trial right now.” But the Philippians did. When we say these things, what we probably mean is, “I can’t give money because I don’t have any joy.” Trials and poverty did not stop the rich generosity of the Philippian believers because they had JOY! But where does the joy come from? From the grace that God has given. Did the church in Philippi have more grace than any other church? Did they have more grace than we do?

7. When we are generous, we practice contentment.

It’s no surprise that the subject of generosity followed closely on the heels of the subject of contentment. Recall from verse twelve that Paul said, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Content people can be generous people. Not all generous people are necessarily content, but all content people are naturally generous.

8. When we are generous, we teach discipleship and trust immediately after conversion.

On his second church planting journey, Paul traveled through Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. There were several conversions in Thessalonica, but the Jews became jealous and started a riot to drive Paul and his companions out of the city Thessalonica did not give any support to Paul, but that was not surprising given their character. But surely the Bereans would be generous with Paul. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11) But not even these otherwise noble Bereans donated toward Paul’s ministry. We know this is true from verse fifteen. When I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only.

No one else shared with Paul—not the Thessalonians, not the Bereans, but only the believers in Philippi. Yet five years later when he wrote the second letter to the Corinthians, all of the Macedonian churches were giving with joyous generosity. And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ² Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. How did this happen? What transformed the other churches into generous givers? My best guess is that the church in Philippi changed them. I believe that their joy and their contagious giving spilled ober into these other two churches.

Do you see how generosity can be contagious? How will our kids learn to be generous if they don’t see it in us? Furthermore, the believers in Philippi were absolutely baby Christians. They were spiritual newborn but no one told them that baby Christians aren’t supposed to gibe generously and sacrificially. They started giving within weeks of their conversion. Teach your children about generosity at an early age. Disciple new believers by instructing them about generosity.

Rich Maurer

May 3, 2009