Hi, I'm David Bercot, and today we're going to be talking about the gospel of Jesus about the poor. Today's message is going to be divided into two parts. First, we're going to look at what Jesus said about being poor, and then secondly, we'll look at what Jesus taught about helping the poor. So let's begin with what Jesus said about being poor. One of Jesus ' most revolutionary teachings concerns the very thing that most humans seek, wealth and prosperity.
Our king has commanded us, " Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. " What? I can't accumulate treasures on earth? Why not? Well, Jesus explains, " For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. " You see, Jesus won't allow us to relegate Him to a secondary role in our lives.
In fact, he went on to say, " No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. " All of these quotations are from Matthew chapter 6. So in short, Jesus is saying he has to be our only master, and material pursuits are always going to conflict with the call that his kingdom has in our lives. Now does that mean we're supposed to quit our jobs or leave our businesses? No, not usually.
Because Jesus went on to explain, " Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? Therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. So Jesus didn't tell us that we couldn't provide material things for ourselves and our family. In fact, other passages in Scripture shows that that's exactly what we are expected to do. But he did say that we have to be seeking the kingdom first in our lives.
Our jobs and our businesses have to be relegated to a secondary place if we want to remain citizens in his kingdom, if we want to remain on the vine that he talks about in the book of John. And what does Jesus promise us if we seek His kingdom first? Material prosperity? No, He simply promises us that God will provide for our basic needs, food, clothing, and shelter. But when it comes to material possessions, not only does God's kingdom have revolutionary laws, but it has a completely different set of values.
Jesus said, " Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. " You know, most of us have become so deadened to hearing the " beatitudes " read that we don't even recognize the radical revolutionary statement that Jesus made right there. " Blessed are you poor. " It's a blessing to be poor? Now, how many of us really believe that? When we drive by a poor Christian's house, do we say in our hearts, " What a blessing! Look how God has blessed that family! " Let's be honest, very few of us do that.
Because we don't really believe in our hearts that poverty is a blessing. In contrast, I can't tell you how many times Christians have shown me their lovely houses in abundant possessions, saying, " Look what the Lord has given us. " You know, the next time someone tells me that, I'm very tempted to reply, " Really? Now why on earth would he do that? Do you have any idea why God is cursing you? " I mean, when will we wake up and really believe what Jesus says? Prosperity is a snare. It is not a blessing.
Godly poverty is a blessing, not a curse. So this calls for a radical paradigm shift in our thinking. And unless the Spirit is thoroughly indwelling in us and reigning in us, we're not going to be able to see things that way because it's completely opposite to the values that humanity has. Paul told us, " Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
" But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness. That's 1 Timothy 6 verses 6 through 10. So if I'm poor, does that mean I automatically have a good standing with Christ? No, because it isn't enough simply to be poor. Just because we're poor, it doesn't mean that we're seeking the kingdom of God first.
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used a slightly different expression than He did in the Sermon on the Plain recorded in the sixth chapter of Luke. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. " That expression " poor in spirit " isn't used anywhere else in Scripture. Now, many modern commentators say that it means " down-hearted " or " humble ".
The problem with that explanation is then it doesn't relate to what he said in Luke, because there in a very parallel passage, he simply said, " Blessed are the poor. " So by adding poor in spirit, I think it's hardly likely that Jesus is suddenly talking about something else, feeling downhearted or something like that. One of the early Christians, Clement of Alexandria, interpreted it quite differently.
And as far as I know how he interpreted it is the same way that other Christians of his day understood it as well. He understood Jesus to be saying, " Blessed are the ones who are poor in their souls. " That is, regardless of how little or how much they have, their souls are detached from material things. After all, a person can be literally poor, yet be very covetous in spirit. In fact, the vast majority of the poor in this world are not poor in spirit. Their souls are not focused on the kingdom, but on mammon.
They are externally poor, but inwardly they're rich, or at least that's what they're seeking to be. After all, worldly poverty is not by choice. The worldly poor have their hearts set on obtaining more material things. So often they envy the rich and the middle class. In fact, their desire for mammon is so strong that they typically will go into debt to buy things that they can't afford, at least in countries like America. Some of the worldly poor steal or are inclined to dishonesty.
In the United States, typically they're behind on their payments that they have agreed to make. They might skip town, leaving a lot of bills unpaid, or they may declare consumer bankruptcy and leaving their creditors holding the bag. Actually, the worldly poor are sometimes just as much into conspicuous consumption as are the rich. That is, they want to wear the most stylish clothes or drive an eye-catching car. So in the end, they are just as much lovers of money as are the rich.
And there are poor persons in the world who are simply lazy or irresponsible. They may devote little time to earning mammon, which is commendable. However, they end up being a burden on others, their church, their parents, friends, or the government. Now I'm not talking about people who are truly unable to work, the elderly, the sick, or the disabled. I'm talking about people who have the ability to work.
If this second type of worldly poor, the ones who are just simply lazy or irresponsible, profess to be Christians, often they're doing very little for the kingdom. They don't work for mammon, but they don't work for Christ either. Sometimes they have no money simply because they squander their money on gambling or liquor or illegal drugs, things like that. In contrast, kingdom poverty is by choice. Perhaps a person was formerly a wealthy Christian, but he has given away his wealth to help the needy.
Or perhaps the person was already poor and they remained poor by choice. The godly poor are not just poor externally, but internally as well. Their hearts are focused on the kingdom, not how to acquire more mammon. The kingdom poor don't envy others who are more prosperous, for they truly believe that being poor is a blessing. So why would they envy the rich? For after all, the rich are missing this blessing. And the kingdom poor are not lazy. Rather, they're hardworking people.
Depending on their circumstances, they may have to work full-time to provide for the needs of their families. They will know that the Scriptures teach if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. But whether they work full or part-time, they are also hard workers for the kingdom of God. Finally, the kingdom poor are not covetous. They don't buy things they can't afford, and they don't buy on credit. They honor their obligations because their yes means yes, and their no means no.
Perhaps the kingdom poor might live by means of the gospel. And that's honorable before God, as long as they're working hard in the service of their king. But the kingdom poor don't live off their parents and friends and welfare agencies and that sort of thing. They're not a burden to others. If they are truly working for the kingdom, God will provide for their sustenance just as Jesus promised.
Theoretically, a person can have a relative abundance of this world's goods and yet still be poor in spirit, that his mammon is his servant, not his master. Paul is a good example of someone who was poor in spirit. And he told the Philippians, this is Philippians 4 verses 11 and 12, " I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
" So whether he had plenty or had little, Paul was detached from his material possessions. He had no hesitation to let go of them when the need arose. Yet even in his abundance, I doubt Paul was ever rich. And we should all realize that it's extremely difficult to be literally rich, but still poor in spirit. Because as Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If we own treasure here on earth, our heart will be on that treasure.
We're going to fret about maintaining it, and we're going to worry about perhaps losing it somehow. For that reason, Jesus said on another occasion, " It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. " Again, Jesus told us quite plainly, " Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. " It's in Luke 14:33. So obviously, the more things we have to forsake, the harder it is to let go of them.
I mean, we can fool ourselves into believing that we are still poor in spirit, but we're not going to fool Jesus. He knows where our treasure lies even if we don't. And these radical teachings of Jesus on wealth should shake the souls of all American Christians. Why do I say that? Because we are the wealthiest nation on earth. In fact, the United States is the wealthiest country that has ever existed in human history. I want to share with you some statistics.
Now these are from the year 2004, so they'll be slightly different today, but the pattern is going to be exactly the same. Based on those figures, each year Americans as a nation earn enough to equal $34,280 for every man, woman, and child in America. In fact, half of the families in America earn at least $56,000 a year. And I'm sure it's a little higher than that now in the year 2006. At the same time, the typical American family doesn't feel particularly wealthy.
That's because our standard of living is about the same as the other families that live around us. In fact, more often than not, we Americans are typically complaining about how tight things are, how expensive gasoline is, or something like that. We whine about how hard it is to make ends meet. If I can tell you what the sure cure of that is, take a trip to a third world country. I really encourage you to do that.
I don't know of any other experience that opens our eyes to the fact of how enormously wealthy we are in this country. The vast majority of Americans are truly rich, whether we recognize it or not. Because throughout most of the world, any family that earned $56,000 a year, which half of the families in America do, would be considered wealthy. Perhaps extremely wealthy. As I've mentioned, the per capita income in the U.S. is $34,280 per person every year.
In contrast, the per capita income in Mexico, just across the border, is only $5,530 a year per person. Less than a sixth of that of the United States. It's easy to see why so many of them come illegally into the United States. Yet the per capita income of Mexico is higher than two-thirds of the nations of this world. It's nearly twice as high as a per capita income in Brazil. Their per capita income is only $3,070 per year. Less than a tenth of that of we in the United States.
Yet the per capita income of Brazil is nearly twice as high as that of Egypt, which is only $1,530 a year. And that's considerably higher than Honduras at $900 a year. Or China at $890 per year. In other words, the per capita income, what this nation produces for every man, woman, and child in the country, is over 34 times that of the Chinese. So where does that put us in relation to the kingdom of God?
Well, the simple fact is, we Americans are rich, and Jesus said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So contrary to what most Christians think, the riches of America are not a blessing from God. Equating material prosperity with God's blessing is a vestige of the Old Value system, of the value system of this world, or of the value system of the Old Testament. It shows that we have not made the necessary kingdom paradigm shift.
Because in the kingdom of God, the poor are blessed, and the rich have to struggle with getting a camel through the eye of a needle. So does that mean that we American Christians are without hope? No, for Jesus gave us the slenderest of hope. When His disciples heard His words and the difficulty of a rich man entering the kingdom, they were astonished and they asked, " Who then can be saved? " But Jesus looked at them and said to them, " With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
" So there is hope for the rich thanks to God's intervention. Which brings us to the second part of this message, what Jesus taught about helping the poor. Turn with me to Luke chapter 16 verses 1 through 10. Here Jesus gave a parable that I find I rarely hear anything ever taught about in our churches. It reads, " He also said to his disciples, " There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.
" So he called him and said to him, " What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be my steward. " Then the steward said within himself, " What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I'm put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. " So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first, " How much do you owe my master?
" And he said, " A hundred measures of oil. " So I said to him, " Take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. " Then he said to another, " How much do you owe? " So he said 100 measures of wheat. And he said to him, " Take your bill and write 80. " So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of the light.
And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. You know, I had probably read that passage several hundred times, but I had never thought about it very much until I read the writings of the early Christians. Because I couldn't help but notice that quite a number of their writers refer to it, and they take it very seriously.
For example, Irenaeus wrote, " There follows us a small and in some cases a large amount of property that we have acquired from the mammon of unrighteousness. From what source do we derive the houses in which we dwell, the garments in which we are clothed, unless it is from those things which when we were Gentiles, we acquired by avarice or received from our unbelieving parents. " This is not to mention that even now we acquire such things when we are in the faith.
For who is there that sells and does not wish to make a profit from him who buys? Or who is it there that carries on a trade and does not do so that he may obtain a livelihood thereby? He goes on to say, " Whatever we acquired from unrighteousness when we were unbelievers, we are proved righteous when we have become believers by applying it to the Lord's advantage.
" So these riches that we have, as he said, they may have come from unbelieving parents, or just in the ordinary course of business in commerce, that we can use those to the Lord's advantage. And that's exactly what Christ expects of us. Hermas wrote this, " The rich man refreshes the poor and assists him in his necessities. He believes that what he does to the poor man will be able to find its reward with God. For the poor man is rich in intercession and confession, and his intercession has great power with God.
" Or again, Clement of Alexandria wrote, " Contrary to what is the case with the rest of men, gather for yourself an unarmed, unwarlike, bloodless, peaceful, and a stainless army. An army of godly old men, orphans dear to God, widows armed with meekness, and men adorned with love. Obtain with your money such guards for your body and soul. All these warriors and guards are trustworthy. Not one of them is idle. None are useless. Some of them can obtain your pardon from God. Others can comfort you when sick.
And still others can weep and groan in sympathy for you to the Lord. Now I realize that that's not what we're used to hearing in our churches. We never talk about helping the poor in those kind of terms of gathering friends who can pray for us and intercede for us and through whose intercession we can obtain everlasting homes in heaven. But it's not something the early Christians made up. It's what Jesus Himself said. And if we think about it, we think of how incredibly generous God is.
He allows us to take His resources. I mean, whatever we have on earth ultimately has come from Him. And you know professing Christians all say that, " Oh yeah, this is all God's and all of that. " But then we keep it for ourselves, so we're just playing games. But it is true that our possessions came from God and He expects us to look at them as stewards. These are His goods. I'm exercising stewardship over them.
But then in that parable, Jesus says, " Okay, so we take His goods and we give them to other people that this unrighteous steward went out and helped all of these other people. I'm going to change your bill so you only owe 50 measures of oil or 80 measures of wheat instead of 100. " I mean, we read that parable and we think what a rotten steward that was, what he did, and it was a very selfish thing.
He heard his own master, robbed his own master, to make friends for himself who would then help him out when he needed help. But Jesus says, " Learn from that because that's just how it works in eternity. " You're really taking somebody else's goods, your father's, and you're giving them to people. And he says, " That is the very thing I want you to do is take your father's goods and give them to the poor and accumulate for yourself friends in eternity.
" As he said, " Make friends for yourself by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. " So Jesus is saying that helping the poor isn't just a worthy thing to do. It actually will affect our salvation, because he added that they may receive you into an everlasting home. I realize that may sound strange to you. In fact, it might even sound heretical.
But Jesus brought home the point with even greater clarity in Matthew 25, where he said, " When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, " Come, you blessed of my Father.
Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, " Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you?
Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? " And the king will answer and say to them, " Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. " Then he will also say to those on the left hand, " Depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take me in. Naked and you did not clothe me.
Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer him saying, " Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? " Then He will answer to them, saying, " Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. " Now, what could be more clear?
I mean, here he has plainly told us what it's going to be like on Judgment Day and what the criteria will be to judge people, to separate them as sheep or as goats. I mean how wonderful it is that he has told us in advance what he is going to be looking for on Judgment Day. Let me give you an illustration. You may have heard this from me before.
It would be like a college professor before exam time came telling his students, " Now I'm going to give you an exam, and these are the questions I'm going to be asking you on the exam. These are the things you need to know. " And then not only that, the professor is telling them, " Now these are the answers to those exam questions and giving them all the answers. " Now, how easy could he make it for his students? He tells them what the test is, he gives them the questions and the answers before the exam.
They should all make 100. But now imagine one of the students in that class coming up and telling the others, " You know, I don't think that the professor is really telling us the truth there. " Because he's made other statements that would indicate, " No, that's not what he's going to be asking on the exam. " So forget all that stuff he told us in class today. Here's what we really need to be studying, here's how we're going to pass that exam, and he gives you a bunch of different information.
Now, do you think any student would believe their classmate? It's hard to imagine that any would if the professor himself had just got through saying that. They would certainly have to believe that their college professor was an absolute liar and a deceiver. And yet as absurd as that would be, that is precisely what has happened today. Jesus has told us plainly. Here are the exam questions, and here are the answers.
This is what I'm going to be asking you on judgment day, and this is what you're going to have to be able to answer me. And our theologians say, " No, uh-uh. Not that at all, not that at all. Don't start thinking that, or you're going to be misled. " Martin Luther had the gall to say this: " Now John writes very little about the works of Christ, but very much about his preaching. But the other evangelists write much of his works and little of his preaching.
Therefore, John's gospel is the one tender true chief gospel far, far to be preferred to the other three and placed high above them. So too, the epistles of St. Paul and St. Peter far surpass the other three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He continues, " In a word, St. John's gospel and his first epistle, St. Paul's epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St.
Peter's first epistle are the books that show you Christ and teach you all that is necessary and good for you to know, even though you were never to see or hear any other book or doctrine. What incredible gall to say we don't need Jesus ' teaching because there is more teaching in the book of Matthew from Jesus than there is in the book of John. To say we don't need those three gospels.
Instead we should go to Romans, and that will give us the true gospel along with the book of John, which of course totally cuts out what Jesus just said there in Matthew 25. That's not repeated in John. It's not repeated in any of Paul's letters. If we throw out Matthew, we throw out the answers to the final exam. And of course, we've all been exposed to the theme of Luther's message: " We are saved by faith alone. " Now, nowhere in Scripture does it ever say that.
It does say we are saved by faith, not by the works of the law, but it never says we are saved by faith alone. The only passage where that phrase " faith alone " appears is in James, where it says, " We are not saved by faith alone. " Jesus made it crystal clear in his gospel that our internal faith must be accompanied with the works of faith, or we're not going to stay on his vine. He said that the person who hears his words, but doesn't do them.
He didn't say the one who hears his word and doesn't believe them, but the one who doesn't do them is like a man who builds his house on the sand. Yet back to our illustration, we would say that would be absurd that those students would believe their fellow classmate who claimed to know more about what was going to be on the final exam than their own professor. But that is precisely what today's Christians have done. When we're witnessing to people about salvation, do we go to Jesus ' words there in Matthew 25?
Is that what we share with people? No, we say this. Now right now, if you just died and you were at the gates of heaven, and Jesus asked you, " Why should I admit you into heaven, what would you say? " And if the person says anything except, " Oh, because I trusted in you alone and did not trust my own works for salvation, then Jesus was going to bar you from heaven. " But the answer to his exam question is, " Christ, I trusted solely in my faith in you for my salvation. " And Jesus will say, " Blessed are you.
Come inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. " I mean, that's not what Jesus said at all. He gave us the final exam, the answers, and the questions. And we totally ignore that, and we make up a different final exam question and a different answer. And please don't go back to Matthew 25 and explain away Jesus ' clear words by buying into some of the nonsense that theologians have made up in order to harmonize Jesus ' words with those of Martin Luther.
They say, " Well, Jesus said He's going to gather the nations. " So he's talking about how different countries, how they treat Israel, and they're going to be judged based on how they treat Israel, his brothers, or how he treats the missionaries who are sent to those countries. Oh, come on. Do we really think that on Judgment Day we're going to be judged collectively as countries? Either to inherit the eternal kingdom or to be sent into everlasting fire based on what our government did?
Anyone who thinks that does not understand the doctrine of the two kingdoms. Jesus ' kingdom is not of this world. He's not going to be judging governments. He's going to be judging people. Every passage of Scripture shows that salvation is an individual matter, not a group process. The Greek word there that's translated nations in our English Bibles is ethnos. And it equally means peoples. Christ is going to gather before him all of the peoples of earth, not the governments.
We're going to be judged individually based on the things that he told us there, what we did, personally, not what some government did. Now again, please don't misinterpret me or misquote me. We have to look at everything else Jesus taught about salvation, not just this passage alone. For example, in another passage in John chapter 3, Jesus told us that we had to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. We can't throw that out. On the other hand, we can't take just John 3 and ignore Matthew 25.
But we can't just go out and feed the hungry and visit the sick and think that somehow we're going to earn our way into heaven by doing that. No, we have to surrender our lives to Christ and enter into an obedient love-faith relationship with Him. He talked of this in John 15 in the parable of the vine, that we're on this vine once we surrender our lives to him when we are born again. But he said we had to bear fruit. And he said, if we love Him, we will obey His commandments.
And if we don't love Him, then we're going to be pruned off the vine, because we're not going to be producing the fruits of love. Matthew 25, I think, certainly constitutes one of those commandments that if we love Jesus, we're going to obey, but it's not the only one. Now the early Christians took Matthew 25 very seriously, but they never imagined that somehow they could mechanically win eternity simply by helping the poor.
Nor did they imagine that somehow they could inherit Christ's kingdom without doing any of the things that he mentioned there, feeding the hungry, clothing the destitute, visiting the sick, and visiting those in prison. No, they took Jesus ' words very literally, but they took everything else in the Scriptures equally literally. In light of what Jesus said, I find it so strange that among Bible-believing Christians, conservative evangelicals, helping the poor is typically viewed as a second-class ministry.
If you're not out saving souls, then many Christians consider your ministry to be essentially worthless. However, in the kingdom, we let Jesus dictate what's valuable and what's not. And he says that serving the poor is a central ministry. In fact, he says it will be the prime determinant of who inherits the kingdom and who doesn't. He didn't say in Matthew 25 that he would look at how many souls you saved or how many decisions for Christ you obtained.
He said he was going to look at whether you fed the poor, clothed the naked, visited the sick, et cetera. Now I'm certainly not putting down evangelism and winning souls for Christ. That obviously is a very important ministry. But helping the poor is on an equal basis in the eyes of Jesus, or perhaps even a higher ministry in his eyes. And all of the ministries that Jesus mentioned there in Matthew 25 are gender neutral. That is, all of these ministries are just as appropriate for sisters as they are for brothers.
In fact, in many societies and ages, women have actually had more time to devote to these ministries than men have, so certainly Christ has not put them at a disadvantage. These ministries are also neutral as to a person's income, his age, or social standing. The poor can visit the sick, so can the young or the old, just like anyone else can. Anybody, rich or poor, young or old, can give to the hungry and the thirsty. Perhaps a young child can't give very much, but he can give something.
And we have to keep in mind what Jesus taught about the widow's mites. He said that in putting those two tiny coins in the temple treasury, she was actually giving more than what everyone else had given because she gave out of her need and they gave out of their surplus. So actually the poorer you are, the more effective your giving to the poor is because you're giving out of need rather than out of excess.
So on Judgment Day, nobody, no matter what period of time they lived, regardless of whether they're a man or woman, rich or poor, young, old, regardless of their social standing, nobody can protest to Jesus that they just didn't have the time to help the needy, or they didn't have the means to do that. Because everybody has at least one or the other. If you don't have time, you certainly should have the means to do it. And if you don't have the means to do it, you certainly should have some time to do it.
And most of us have both time and means to be able to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and visit those in prison, the five things that he mentioned. Now, if you've been conditioned like I have, you're probably still having a hard time being convinced that helping the poor is really a central part of the gospel. In the sect that I grew up in, evangelism was everything. Helping the poor was hardly ever mentioned.
Now they did help one another in times of distress and need and things like that. But as far as just helping the poor out there in the world? No, I mean the only time we would ever do something like that is if it was a means to convert them to Christ. But to just do something nice because we loved them and wanted to help them, that was never stressed. And it's that way in a lot of churches today and in a lot of ones that see themselves as radical churches of emphasizing discipleship to Jesus Christ.
But in case you're still having a hard time with this concept, let's look at some more passages from the New Testament. Now we've already looked at a rather definitive part of Jesus ' teaching there in Matthew 25, and we've looked at His parable about the unjust steward. But those aren't the only teachings Jesus gave about helping the poor. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, " Give to Him who asked you, and from Him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.
" So those of us who are committed to living by the Sermon on the Mount, this is a commandment. Just the same as His commandments about divorce and not resisting evil, not taking oaths, all of those things. Giving to Him who ask is likewise a commandment. He also said in the Sermon on the Mount, " When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly.
" Now you notice he didn't say if you happen to do a charitable deed. Rather, he said when you do a charitable deed. So he assumes his disciples are going to be doing charitable deeds and that it's going to be a normal thing that he has to add these other instructions. Make sure you do it in secret. In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus told the listeners there, " Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old.
A treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. " See, it's not enough to just simply say, " I'm not going to store up treasure here on the earth. " We have to also be storing up treasure in heaven. And he's told us that we do this, one way that we do this at least, is to give alms, that is, helping the poor and needy. But you know just the expression of giving alms is viewed as suspicious, something unworthy of a real Christian in so many circles today.
That's because there was such an abuse of the concept during the Middle Ages that Martin Luther and others totally overreacted and went to the other extreme. That giving alms has no connection with our salvation, despite what Jesus plainly said, that we're not storing up treasure in heaven, et cetera, et cetera, contradicting the very teachings of Christ.
When the rich young ruler came to him, Jesus told him, " If you want to be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. " Again, all of the things he could have told that young man, the thing he told him was to sell his possessions and give to the poor. And he then said, " You will have treasure in heaven if you do that.
" I mean, really, I don't know how Christ could have made his teaching more plain about this, but his gospel about the poor is something that is just sorely forgotten in today's churches, particularly among the conservative Bible-believing churches. The liberal churches tend to do more than we do in ministering to the poor, or they certainly give a higher priority to it, to our shame. Again, in Luke 14:13, Jesus said, " But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind.
" What about Zacchaeus? We remember he's the one who was up in the tree watching Jesus, and Jesus invited him to come down, and Zacchaeus said, reading from Luke 19:8, " Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. " Now that's the only declaration that he made to Jesus, what he was going to do for the poor and for anybody that he cheated. And then Jesus said, " Today salvation has come to this house.
" So here's another example of Jesus tying salvation in to giving to the poor. Now we all know, and we're going to talk about it more in a few minutes, we all know that this cannot be a mechanical thing, that somehow we can earn our salvation by giving money to the poor, or earn forgiveness in heaven, by giving alms, even though we live wickedly. We need to forget about how this teaching was abused in the Middle Ages, and look at what Jesus said and what He expects us to do.
And please don't think that somehow all of this changed after Jesus died, that the only ministry the apostles had any concern in was to spread the gospel. No, from day one, they were concerned about helping the poor. Go to Acts chapter 6 verses 1 and 2. This is very early in the history of the Church. It says, " Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, " It is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. " And so we all know what happened. They appointed seven men to take care of that. So already they had a system in place in the church to help the needy widows. And it says there was a daily distribution going out to them.
Now beyond a doubt, the responsibility of teaching God's Word is a more weighty responsibility in the church than being a deacon and serving the material needs of people. But again in Matthew 25 and the five ministries listed there that Jesus said would be determinative of whether we would be placed on his right hand or his left, teaching the Word of God was not one of the ministries that he named. Acts chapter 10 verse 4 is very interesting.
It's about Cornelius, and the angel tells him your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. So even before a person becomes a Christian, God takes note of their prayers and the alms that they give. Do they help the needy? And obviously these were determinative factors why God chose Cornelius as the first uncircumcised Gentile to be allowed in the kingdom. Perhaps the passage in the New Testament that most impressed on me the importance of the ministry to the poor is Galatians 2 verses 9 and 10.
There, Paul recounts his being in Jerusalem and meeting with some of the leaders in the church there. And verses 9 and 10 say, " When James Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do. Now that's amazing.
Of all of the things they could have been concerned about in Paul's ministry, the one thing and the only thing they mentioned was that he should remember the poor. And Paul said, " That was already first in my heart too. I was eager to do that. " So helping the poor is not a second-class ministry. It should be at the top of our list as individual Christians. Again, we certainly don't neglect evangelism. Jesus wants and needs people to spread the gospel.
And I would feel very neglectful if I didn't support evangelism in any way and if I never shared my Christianity with anyone else. But we should feel equally deficient if we're not doing anything to help the poor. You know, James described true religion as this: " This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father. " Just think for a minute. This is the pure and undefiled religion.
All of the things that he could have listed there, and this is what he says, " to visit orphans and widows in their distress. " A second-class ministry? By no means. Now it's important that we keep in mind 1 Corinthians 13:3 when you contemplate everything that I've said today about helping the poor. There Paul said, " And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
" And this eliminates any thought that this is something we can do mechanically, that we can somehow earn our way to heaven by giving alms to people, like so many persons in the Middle Ages thought they could do. They lived wicked lives, but because they were wealthy, they could give a lot to the poor, and somehow that would purge away all of their sins. Now some of them may have been truly repentant and have done it out of love. I can't judge them.
But the point is, if we're not doing it because we love our fellow man and we love our Creator, then it will profit us nothing. It will still benefit the people that we've helped, but it will be of no profit to us in eternity. So Jesus ' gospel about the poor was continued on through the ministry of the apostles, and this should have been so clear to me from reading the New Testament.
But again, because I was brought up in a sect that placed so little emphasis on helping the poor, that somehow all of that just escaped my notice. I mean, I knew it was there in the teachings, " Yeah, we should help the poor. " But as far as it being a central part of being a Christian, no, I never thought of it like that. What finally opened my eyes to what is there in the New Testament was when I read the early Christian writings and notice how much they had to say about helping the poor. It really surprised me.
I'm going to read just a few examples to show how after the apostles died, Jesus ' gospel was carried on by the church. It was part of the historic faith. In his apology to the Roman rulers, explaining to them who the Christians are, what they do, he said this: " Though we have our treasure chest, it is not made up of purchase money as of a religion that has its price. Rather, on the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation, but only if it is his pleasure and only if he is able.
For there is no compulsion, all is voluntary. These gifts are to support and bury poor people, to supply the needs of boys and girls ' destitute of means and parents, and of old persons now confined to the house. In other words, they were taking care of the widows and orphans. He goes on, " These gifts also help those who have suffered shipwreck.
And if there happens to be any of us in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for no reason other than their faithfulness to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurselings of their confession. So they were taking care of a lot of people based purely on voluntary giving. In fact, Tertullian went on to tell the Romans, " Our compassion spends more in the streets than yours does in the temple.
" They were out spending the wealthy Romans who adorned the temples in what they were spending just in the streets helping the poor. Commodianus, who wrote about the year 240, said this, " If your brother should be weak, I speak of the poor man. Do not visit such a one empty-handed when he lies ill. Do good under God. Pay your obedience by your money. " Similarly, if your poor sister lies upon a sick bed, let your matrons begin to carry food to her. God Himself cries out, " Break bread to the needy.
" There is no need to visit with merely words, but with aid. It is wicked for your brother to be sick because of lack of food. Do not satisfy him with words. He needs food and drink. Cyprian wrote, " By alms giving to the poor, we are lending to God, " quoting there from the Proverbs, " when it is given to the least, it is given to Christ. Therefore there are no grounds for anyone preferring earthly things to heavenly, nor for considering human things before divine.
" See how much he sins in the church, he who prefers himself and his children to Christ. Such a person preserves his wealth and does not share his abundant estate to relieve the poverty of the needy. How much more could Christ stimulate the works of our righteousness and mercy than by saying that whatever is given to the needy and poor is given to himself?
One last quotation from Lactantius, written in the early part of the 4th century, he said, " Someone may say if I do all these things, I will have no possessions. What if a large number of people are in want, suffer cold, have been taken captive, or should die? If anyone does these things, he's going to deprive himself of his property in a single day. Shall I throw away the estate acquired by my own labor or by that of my ancestors? Must then I myself live by the pity of others?
" Well, Lactantius answer was, why do you fear to turn a frail and perishable asset into one that is everlasting? Why do you fear to entrust your treasures to God as their preserver? For in that case, you will not need to fear thief and robber, nor rust, nor tyrant. He who is rich towards God can never be poor. If you esteem justice so highly, lay aside the burdens that oppress you and follow justice. Free yourself from bondage and chains so that you can run to God without any hindrance.
Well, we've certainly talked about some challenging things today. And the reason why these things are challenging is because they are the values of God's kingdom, not the values of this world, not the values we were born with. And I pray that you won't lightly dismiss this message. Because according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, your eternal destiny and your eternal reward are tied to the things we've discussed today, helping the poor and needy.
And no doubt you have helped the poor from time to time, and no doubt you've visited the sick. You would be a rare Christian if you'd never done any of those things. But I want to challenge you to make it a central part of your life. Don't be content with simply giving money to your church unless your church has made helping the poor a central part of its ministry. I know that for most churches today, their budget is spent primarily on buildings, utilities, programs, and salaries.
Practically every church does something for the poor, but for most churches, it's a rather small part of their budget. No, I encourage you to personally make certain that a substantial part of your giving is actually going to the poor. If you can actively participate in a ministry to the poor, I recommend that you do that. But if not, through your giving, support a ministry that does feed the poor and needy, and there are many very good ones out there.
But I particularly encourage you to help the poor in third-world countries. So much of the giving to American churches is spent on helping other Americans, people who would be considered well off by the standards of most of the world. So please, don't close your eyes to the poor and needy in Africa, Asia, Central America, and South America. Make yourself a friend and neighbor to them. Just like the Good Samaritan made himself a friend and neighbor to the man who had been beaten and robbed.