2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5 (Faithful with Much, Jeff Kliewer)

The Resurrection of Jesus and the Meaning of Baptism

Morning to come into this building, this particular place, for a particular reason, and that is because Jesus rose from the dead. Everything that we believe hinges on that Sunday morning when Jesus conquered the grave, coming out from the grave, and behold, He lives.

And He appeared to His disciples and more than 500 people before ascending to the right hand of You, His Father. And so because Jesus rose from the dead this morning, Lord, we're here to celebrate baptism, that just as Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose, we are buried with Him, our old life dying in the water, and a new life rising from the water.

We thank You for the baptisms that will happen. And leading into that, Lord, we pray that our minds would be focused on Christ, that we would learn from the Scriptures, that we would grow in our relationship with You, that You would speak to us through Your Word.

Your Word is truth. We turn to You now in Jesus' name, Amen. This morning, if you'll turn with me to the book of Zechariah chapter 11, we're going to begin there. It is the second to last book in the Old Testament, so if you're familiar with the book of Matthew and you can find that, if you just flip back a couple of pages, you'll be near Zechariah chapter 11.

And we will be reading the 12th and 13th verses in just a moment, but this chapter, Zechariah chapter 11, is a lament that Zechariah, the prophet, is offering, and it's a dramatic lament. In other words, he is acting something out.

He is playing the part of a shepherd to illustrate for the people a message that comes from God. And he takes two staves in his hands. One staff, one shepherd's staff, is called favor, and the other staff is called union.

And in the course of this chapter, he will snap both of those staffs. Very dramatic illustration of the breaking of favor, because God's people are not following the true shepherd and they're rejecting the true shepherd.

He'll break union, the staff called union, because Israel and Judah should be unified as one kingdom. Instead, they're disintegrating and pulling apart. So he is lamenting the sad state of affairs in Israel.

And one of the things that he grieves in this chapter is the fact that those who should be feeding the sheep are fleecing the flock. Those who should caring for the people are feeding off of the people.

A misuse of funds, a feeding financially off of the people rather than caring for the ones that are in their charge. Now sadly, if we look out across the evangelical world and the Christian world in general, we see it all too often where money is given to a church or to a parachurch organization only to find out that it's being either embezzled or mismanaged or blatantly consumed as preachers live in million-dollar homes off of the backs of the people that are being fleeced on television.

Often poor, shut-in people who are watching on TV and sending maybe the end of their income to a preacher who is getting richer and richer, some of them worth a hundred million dollars. Not by any industry in capitalism, which I would have no problem with, but by the fleecing of the flock, by misappropriating funds and abusing their role as shepherds of the people.

So Zechariah is upset about this. That's why he's snapping staves. He's telling the people. But something very interesting happens in verses 12 and 13. He turns to them and he tells them to value him as a true prophet of God, as a true preacher of God's righteousness.

How much do you value me? Verse 12,. Then I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not keep them. And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them.

So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. We'll see in a minute the significance of what just happened, but I want you to notice three things in the text.

One, they valued him at thirty pieces of silver. That's the handsome price or the lordly price at which he was valued by them. That's what he's worth to them, thirty pieces of silver. Number two, this money which was given to him is thrown into the temple, thrown on the floor of the temple.

That's the second thing. And number three, it was thrown to the potter. Well where does a potter come into play? What what is the potter? We're not exactly sure, but we know that the potter at this point was a very lowly trade, someone who did not make a lot of money.

So this is thrown to the potter. Now we're gonna circle back to this in just a minute, but note those three things. Thirty pieces of silver thrown on the temple floor, thrown to the potter. Fast forward to the New Testament, John chapter 12 verses 1 to 6.

You can turn there with me or just listen. Here is a beautiful story of the valuing of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Here we have a woman named Mary who's been forgiven much, and she loves much. Her Savior, her God, Jesus Christ is worth everything to her.

And when he comes into her house, or a house, I'm not sure it was hers, but in this particular house, she falls at his feet and worships him, and she takes a flask of expensive oil. How expensive you say?

Three hundred denarii. A denarii is the wage of a laborer for one day's work. So if a person works about 300 days in a year, this is a year's worth of salary contained in a jar of oil. And she takes this jar of oil and she pours this oil on Jesus' feet.

And falling down, she uses her own hair to wipe his feet in adoration. And Jesus will tell us that she is anointing him for burial. A beautiful act of devotion, but there's one in the crowd who doesn't like it.

His name is Judas Iscariot. And feigning piety, he says, could not this oil have been sold in the proceeds given to the poor? But in chapter 12, verse 6, we're told the reason he said that is not because he cares for the poor.

Rather, he said that because he used to help himself to the treasury of the Lord's disciples. He was the treasurer of the twelve. Judas Iscariot was a thief. All along, he was pilfering from the offering, taking for himself, and stuffing his pockets.

This was Judas' true motivation. In Matthew chapter 26, verse 15, we find out, and this is where we circle back to our opening, that Judas goes to the high priests. And he asks them, what will you pay me to turn Jesus over to you?

To tell you where he sleeps at night? To lead you to his sleeping place that you can arrest him in private where nobody will notice? And the answer, 30 pieces of silver. So Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

The handsome price at which he valued him. The lordly price. That's what Jesus was worth to Judas Iscariot. In Matthew chapter 27, verse 3 to 10, we see the remorse of Judas. His lament. But it's not a godly grief that leads to repentance.

This is just a sorrow that leads to suicide. Judas recognizes what he has done. And he goes back to the same high priests that paid him off after the deed was done. And feeling so guilty and overcome with remorse, he offers the money back.

And they say, it's yours. We gave it to you. It's yours. So he, in his grief, took the money. And number two, threw it on the floor of the temple. And that money was used to buy a potter's field. And so I tell you, Zechariah chapter 11, verse 12 and 13 was prophetic.

This crazy prophet in the wilderness, carrying staves and breaking them, valued at 30 pieces of silver, throwing coins on the temple floor, given to the potter. It was all prophetic. Pointing forward so that people like us, sitting here 2 ,000 years after Judas, could read it and say, God said this would happen before it did.

So it is with the prophecies of the Old Testament. Everything about the life of Jesus was foretold, from his birth to his death. The details of his birth in Bethlehem, his entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, his betrayal by one of his own, kissed by his friend according to the Psalms, yet betrayed by his dearest friends.

One of them, Judas Iscariot, for 30 pieces of silver. All of this should confirm our faith in the Scriptures, because only God can tell the future before it happens. That a potter's field would be bought by the Pharisees using the blood money, akaldama, the field was named field of blood.

The field purchased from a potter. The prophecies coming true. But the larger thing we're talking about today is not just the prophecies, I always love to talk about that, it's one of my favorite subjects, because our gospel is according to the Scriptures.

God spoke prophetically before he accomplished it through Christ. Larger thing we're talking about today is stewardship. How do we manage the funds that are given to us? And not just the funds, but the time and the talent that each of us have been given.

As a church, how do we receive funds from the people of God, the sheep of God, and steward that gift in a way that glorifies Christ? That's the issue that we come to now in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8. So turn with me there.

We left off last week at verse 15, which means we pick up at 16 this week. We are preaching through the Scriptures, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, because all of God's Word is theanusta, God-breathed.

All of this is for our life and encouragement. We need every, every single word that he speaks. So 2nd Corinthians chapter 8, verses 16 and following. We need to be faithful with much. The context here where we left off, Paul is collecting a gift from the Macedonian churches, and here the Corinthian Church.

The purpose of the gift is to help poor saints in Jerusalem, believers in Jerusalem, who are being put out of their work, who are impoverished. Many of them had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost, and that's on that that special Pentecost day when 3 ,000 were saved.

Many of them remained in Jerusalem apart from their livelihood. They're part of the church, but they don't have employment. They have no means. And so Paul, wanting to bring Jew and Gentile together, wanting to help the poor, the very thing he's eager to do, Galatians 2 .20, he wants, or is it 2 .10?

Somewhere in there. He wants to help the poor. He cares about the poor, and so he's collecting an offering. Now I want you to think about this for a minute. He's been working on this offering for more than a year when Titus first proposed it to the Corinthians, and they made a pledge to help.

He's been traveling to all the churches in the regions collecting this offering. This is a sizable chunk of change. This is a big amount of money. This is no small offering. He's been collecting it for a long time.

Very important. He wants to radically help the church in Jerusalem. So verse 16 and 17, if such a large gift is being given and collected, it's very important it ends up where it's supposed to go. The stewardship here is highly important, so he's going to select three people to steward this money.

First is Titus 16 and 17, but thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he is going to you of his own accord.

So the first steward, the first faithful one that they entrust, kind of an antitype to Judas Iscariot who was stealing from the funds, who do they look to to be faithful with the funds? Answer, Titus.

Now Titus is probably the most prominent person in Corinthians with the exception of the Apostle Paul himself. Remember Paul was grieved that Titus hadn't shown up where they were planning to meet, and so Paul couldn't do the work there in Troas and went over to Macedonia.

And then chapter 7 of this book, he's encouraged because Titus does show up and he's come back and he brings good news and he's overflowing with joy because the Corinthians have turned back to Paul and there's been a reconciliation after a problem.

So Titus is an important player in all of this. Now we see that he is commissioned to steward this large amount of money from Corinth and the churches all the way down to Jerusalem. Titus did not just step into this role the first day he was converted.

Titus was earnestly willing in anything that Paul asked him to do. In fact, we see Titus as early as 49 AD, according to Galatians chapter 2, when Paul first went to Jerusalem for that council where they addressed the issue of the Judaizers who were saying you had to be circumcised in order to be saved, when they went to address that subject, Titus was right there with Paul.

Galatians 2 1 to 3. So he's been around for a long time. Here in the book of Corinthians, Paul is using him as a messenger to Corinth and he's being sent on this mission and he comes back. So what we see in Titus is something that is modeled for every person sitting in this room.

If you are eagerly willing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ as you're found faithful in small things, he will entrust you with greater and greater responsibilities in the kingdom of God. Those who are found faithful in small things will be given much to steward.

At some point that will involve money. Maybe you'll be overseeing a children's ministry or a building and grounds for a church and you will be stewarding money responsible for those things. Like Titus, we grow into these responsibilities.

There is a book of the Bible in the New Testament called Titus that's written to this man, Titus, who was sent to the island of Crete to appoint elders in all of the churches of Crete. His responsibility is growing and then by the time that Paul is penning his last letter in 2nd Timothy, the fourth chapter, he mentions that Titus has gone off to Dalmatia, probably doing missionary church planning work.

He's grown into greater and greater responsibility, but this came from an earnest willingness to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. He was found faithful in smaller things and put in charge of more. Now let's continue.

A second person on this journey. We have Titus and now we have a second faithful steward who's just called the famous one. 18 through 21. With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel.

And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill.

We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us. For we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man.

So we see there is someone named the famous one, but I love Paul's almost wry humor here. He says who he's sending and how famous he is that you all know this guy. He is famous because he's such a preacher of the gospel, but he doesn't say his name.

He leaves that wide open and I think Paul does that intentionally. Because he doesn't want them to be starstruck. He doesn't want them to think highly of man because of that person's gifts. He wants them to think highly of this person because of who he preaches, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we think of the famous ones in our day, John MacArthur, Billy Graham, and centuries before Charles Spurgeon and George Whitfield, Martin Luther, Augustine, the great preachers of the gospel. What made them great is they didn't need their name recognized.

They were servants of the gospel. They preached Christ and all they cared about was that the name of Jesus would be exalted, not their own name. This person's name is never supplied to us and we don't need to know.

But it was good that he was famously gifted. Follow this. He was gifted by the Holy Spirit to proclaim. And in 1st Corinthians 12 verse 31 and at the beginning of chapter 14 verse 1, we are told that we should be eagerly desiring spiritual gifts.

Especially that we would prophesy. Now why would that be the case? Because the heralding of the gospel, the opportunity to stand before men and women and proclaim that Jesus is more than a prophet, he's more than a man, he's more than a carpenter.

He is the Son of God in flesh who was crucified for sinners like me and rose on the third day. This message, this stewardship is our greatest trust. And it is delivered from ear to ear, from mouth to ear I should say, by preachers.

Not just in pulpits but in workplaces. And we should be desiring to grow in a spiritual gifting to steward this gospel well. The famous one here was not famous for playing basketball or rapping or any other thing.

He was famous for preaching Christ. Good news. Just a couple weeks ago in Salt Lake City, one of my heroes was debating an atheist at the University of Utah. James White. A very proven guy. He's debated hundreds of times in different venues.

Mormons and whatever the different religious idea was. He brings the truth of the gospel and heralds the Word of God. Well as James White finished this debate, he and his friend Jeff Durbin drove out from the University of Utah and they drove past a venue that wasn't packed with a couple hundred people like their debate but was packed with 7 ,000 men and women.

And as they drove by, they couldn't find a place to park to go see what was going on, but they could hear the gospel being heralded from a stadium. And the preacher inside the stadium was a man named Adam Tyson.

Again, who's ever heard of him? He was a physician's assistant who decided to leave the practice of medicine behind where he was participating in surgeries as an assistant to a physician. And he went to the Master Seminary in California.

And after graduating and learning the scriptures, he began to preach in a local church. And one day, Kanye West walked in to his service and listened to the gospel. And did that a couple weeks in a row.

And this concert in Salt Lake City, Utah two weeks ago was held by Kanye West who now, just weeks ago, has professed to be converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's turned his concert into a gospel preaching venue.

And Adam Tyson, a reformed gospel preaching pastor, is called on to come to these venues and herald the good news of Jesus Christ. In our text today, we have a famous one whose name we don't know. Now Kanye became famous for the wrong reasons.

But now, if he's willing to die to himself, his fame in the eyes of the world is going to wane. He's not going to become more popular for this. But using whatever influence he has, if he will remain faithful, and time will tell if he will or not.

It's not for us to say. We're to celebrate the conversion of a sinner. In time, as he's using that platform, that day 7 ,000 mostly ex-Mormon young people heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ. God uses famous people, not because they're famous, but for the sake of the lost.

To give them a voice to preach the gospel. So I want us to pray for Kanye West. That he would remain faithful and that he would preach famously. That every gift and natural ability that were given to him from on high in the first place, that all of those gifts would be turned for the sake of the name that is above every name.

That now he would become a preacher and famous, not for worldly accomplishment, but for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul celebrates the famous one here, but he doesn't tell us his name. And finally, there is the behind-the-scenes stalwart of the faith.

This is the faithful treasurer, who for years has rightly administered the funds of the Lord. This is the faithful financial secretary, Bible study teacher, tithing member of a church, who year after year is proven and tested and found faithful.

Look with me at verses 22 through 24. And with them, that's with Titus and the famous guy, we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you.

As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. See, this gives him glory when we're faithful. So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.

The third steward that's being sent with this large amount of money, I would guess this guy's probably done a lot of push-ups, because you've got to get this money from Corinth to Jerusalem without bandits taking it from you.

So they probably picked a guy who can maybe fight off some bandits, maybe they have some bodyguards that are part of it, but the notable thing about this guy is what? Tested. Look at verse 22. Often tested.

The word is, I better get it right, dakamas. The Greek word dakamas. It means to be fit, to be tested, to be proven again and again. The opposite of that word, adakamas, so that's the A negates the term that follows, the alpha in the Greek would negate it.

If somebody is adakamas, they're not fit. There was a practice back in Greece and in Hebrew culture at the time of the writing of the first test of the New Testament, that stones that were being selected for building projects would be tested at the quarry and often someone would come along and put an alpha on a stone, because having tested it they found it adakamas, unfit.

It was unfit. Maybe it was crumbly under pressure, maybe it was sized wrong that it wouldn't work well, so they'd paint an alpha, an A, on that stone and it would no longer be used for building projects.

It was unfit. In the same way, in Titus 1 .16, false teachers, those who have not remained faithful to the word, are called unfit adakamas, unfit for the pulpit, not to be listened to. Titus 1 .9 says the elders are to identify that in a person.

They're not faithful to the Word of God. They're going their own way. They're making their own stuff up, but here we have the proven and tested believer, faithful in the tasks that they are given. Whatever they are, from the smallest matter in in the church, could be cleaning the shed, could be decorating a classroom, or filling a baptism tank, work in the sound booth, running the video camera.

Faithful, tested, proven. This is who they identified, someone who over the years had proven themselves faithful, and therefore they can be trusted with this large sum of money. So finally, in verses 1 to 5 of the next chapter, I just want to show that he's encouraging them to trust these men, trust their stewardship, give generously.

He says it's superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints. I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them, but I am sending the brothers, that's these three, Titus and the famous one and the faithful one, so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready as I said you would be.

Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find out that you're not ready, we would be humiliated, to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead of you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

The point is, I'm sending these three guys ahead of me. Paul's gonna come later, and when Paul gets there, that's the time that they're gonna take the offering. They want them to be ready. These three men are trustworthy.

They're Docomos, proven, tested, faithful. So in closing, and we'll call on the baptism in just a few more minutes, in closing, are you going to hear the most coveted words that any of us would ever want to hear?

We're told in Matthew 25 that when we go before the Lord, when He comes back in His glory and retrieves us, He will say to some, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with little. I will put you in charge of much.

The question that needs to be asked in order to determine, will we hear that one day, is really the original question that we began with. How much do you value Him, Jesus Christ, the Son of God? What is He worth to you?

Is He worth 30 pieces of silver, my friend? It's all He was worth to Judas. That's all that the shepherds of Israel valued the prophet Zechariah, 30 pieces of silver, that handsome price at which they valued me.

We have a Savior who came for us, and He did not withhold anything from us. He suffered in every way that we are, we suffer. He was tempted in the ways that were tempted, yet He was proven faultless. And the only way that the penalty of sin could be taken off of us would be if it were put upon an innocent substitute.

And so He became that for us. He gave His body, His physical flesh and His blood to pay for our sin. That's the value that He offered us, the value of His own blood. And how valuable is the blood of Jesus?

It's not like the blood of animals, lambs and oxes and goats that were offered in sacrifice until the final time of the Son of God. That blood is worth nothing compared to the blood of God in flesh. What made His blood so valuable is that He is God who came into the world to pay for our sins.

He's fully God and He's fully human. He joined His humanity and His deity in one person, and so the shedding of His blood is the shedding of infinite value. This is what He gave to us, and so I say the only appropriate response to a gift like that is to offer everything we are.

Not just money, our time, our talent, our very lives to say, you are my Lord. I offer myself back to you. We're stewards of this one life that we're given, and this is what it's all about, to know Christ.

If you've never understood this until now, two pieces of good news. One, baptism is about to symbolize that for you. When somebody lays down underwater, it's strange. I recognize that this is a strange thing, isn't it?

That we would put people, immerse them underwater, and the world thinks that Christians are strange for doing this. Rightly so. We are. We're strange, but this was ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ as a symbol of identifying with Him.

As He was buried in a rich man's tomb and rose on the third day, we go under the water and rise to newness of life, identifying with His death, burial, and resurrection. And so we proclaim Him. The good news for you that I have to share today is that these baptisms are going to testify.

The water speaks, if you will. Proclaims His death. It's a symbol that we can all visually see the gospel. We'll hear testimonies. It's powerful to hear that the living Christ is still revealing Himself to sinners like me and to those who will testify.

I'm excited to hear what God is going to share through the testimonies of some of His children. And so we'll ask those being baptized, why don't you come on up to the front row? Go get the kids. And the last piece of good news is that if you're a sinner, which all of us are, if you're a sinner, the gift of Jesus's blood is for you as well.

If you will repent, turn from your sin, and trust in Him, you will find Him to be a perfect Savior. So I'm going to just close in a word of prayer, and then I'm going to call on John to come take over here for the baptisms.

But let me just close the sermon with the word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for the gift, the indescribable gift that you have given us. We pray that we would steward our lives, our time, our talent, our treasure well.

I pray that we would be like Titus, willing to.