The book of Acts tells the story of the first church and follows the development of the church in its infant stages. The first church began in Jerusalem around 9:00 AM on the day of Pentecost. The eleven disciples + Mathias were all together in the morning of that day when God-Holy Spirit came upon them. The Spirit filled them all in a miraculous manner and they were inspired to preach the gospel to the crowds in the streets outside. In the streets was a crowd of Jews from many different nations and they heard the gospel of Christ in their own languages. Peter, taking the lead preached his first Christian sermon with such success that about 3,000 souls were added to the church that day. Many of those who trusted in Christ that day were visitors from different countries who had come into Jerusalem for the Passover. When they were saved, they decided to stay in Jerusalem even though they had no homes, no jobs and no money to even exist.
It was in this dramatic environment that the church began, with the care of thousands who were in desperate need. It was in these desperate circumstances that the members of the first church made their first financial offerings. Those who had more than they needed liquidated their holdings, whether it was land, houses, property or savings and gave it to the Apostles for the care of those in need. Initially before the church began to spread to other places, the believers stayed together and shared all of their possessions. In this infant phase and in these dramatic circumstances, the normal system of property and possession was suspended. This situation is not a normal church environment and this article is not suggesting that we abandon our normal way of life and all live together in a commune. Yet in the first 4 chapters of the book of Acts there are principles related to finances that are valuable for the church today.
The first principle is the striking abandonment of worldly financial goals by these new believers. Those who had managed to get ahead financially had invested their extra money into land and houses. The Roman Empire who promoted principles of free enterprise ruled Israel in the first century. Apparently the freedom to trade in the Jewish nation had begun to build a prosperous middle class. Some of those who were saved on the day of Pentecost were prosperous businessmen with investment money that exceeded their daily needs of survival. When they were saved, they renewed their minds about what God wanted them to do with their money. In fact, they appear to have suspended their whole life strategies about financial success and the purpose of money in their lives. When they saw their fellow believers in need, they liquidated their investments, their retirement holdings and gave the money to meet the needs of those who had nothing. We are not told what they did as life went on and these displaced members of the church found employment and fell into a routine. We are told later in Paul’s letters that the believers in Judea were under great persecution and poverty. He took an offering from the Gentile churches to relieve the financial distress of the Jerusalem church. What conclusion should we draw from these early decisions to abandon worldly goals? Perhaps Paul’s philosophy he shared with Timothy will help us. Speaking to Timothy about some who were using the gospel to make themselves rich, he said the following:
1 Timothy 6:5-10 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
The world teaches us that financial prosperity is the road to security and happiness. With money we have security in our old age and the ability to pursue the finer things in life. With money we will not be out on the street when we are old and without it our life will be in jeopardy. Paul, echoing the words of Jesus tells us that enough for today is enough. He teaches us to only pray for enough for today. Those who aspire to be wealthy beyond their daily needs open themselves to desires that will lead them down the road to spiritual destruction. Those to whom God gives financial wealth face a trial of greater temptation than those who struggle with poverty. Like the believers who gave their abundance to other believers in need, are you willing to devote your surplus to those in need to support the body of Christ? I wonder, in this great country where financial prosperity has been so promoted, if there are believers who would be willing to live with moderate means and devote the rest to God.
A second principle that I see in the infant church was that what was given was not used to make the leaders wealthy. The disciples turned into apostles lived day to day for the rest of their lives. They didn’t preach a message that the faithful should give to them so that they could become rich. I am reminded of the TV preachers who sell their prosperity gospel and use the gospel to build their own financial empire. I recently researched a TV preacher that has been on the air longer than most of them to see how he lived. I was surprised to find that he still lived in the same small house he had started with and that all of the money his ministry had raised actually went back into the ministry. I abhor this man’s theology but admire his freedom from greed. The apostles of the early church were not greedy for financial gain. In fact, Paul often worked to support himself when he was on a new evangelism field so that he could preach the gospel without charge. When he wasn’t out on the mission field he took support from the churches for his daily needs. When discussing the support of pastors, he wrote to the church that those who have devoted themselves to the spiritual benefit of the church should themselves be supported financially by those to whom he preached. The support he envisioned was not riches or wealth but moderate support that allowed the man to raise his family without having to focus on financial issues so he could devote himself to the ministry.
A third principle I see in these chapters is that the money given was not used to build fancy buildings for assembly. The early church met in homes, in caves and in places of nature. They didn’t spend money to build monuments as meeting places. I realize that we live in a different time and that a building is necessary to build a strong church. I do think though that the emphasis on buildings is over done. Let us build something useful and decorate it with good taste. Let us not believe that God inhabits buildings any longer. Recently I spoke with a member of a mainline denomination. He spoke of the auditorium in his church as the “sanctuary”. As he called this large room where the people met to worship the sanctuary, I was disturbed. I didn’t correct him by telling him that his body is the only sanctuary in the church age. I just let it go because I didn’t think it would edify him but only offend him. We no longer build sanctuaries, God builds us into His sanctuary.
A fourth principle I will draw from my life as an American. I have heard all of my life about the “American Dream”. To question the American Dream might seem like sacrilege to those of us who love this country. It is not!. The AD is not the same as the Christian dream. The AD is an idea of someone who works hard and builds wealth through the free enterprise system. It is not wrong to work hard or build wealth. It is not Christian though either. The idea promoted as the AD is to build wealth in your working years, retire early and live it up through travel or sitting on a beach. For the Christian, the AD has it wrong in several ways. First, the desire to be rich is a very dangerous motivation. Paul says it opens the wrong doors and leads to ruin. Second, wealth is not necessary for happiness. God is necessary for happiness and he never charges. Thirdly, for the believer, there is no retirement from the ministry of reconciliation or from full participation in the local church. Finally, I hate sand and the beach gets old after about 30 minutes.
A better dream for the believer might look like this. Work hard, be content with a moderate home and lifestyle, build a moderate retirement, devote the rest of your earnings to the Lord and celebrate what God decides to give through you. A far greater joy for the believer is to become a tool for the Lord to use to fund ministries and publish the gospel. I truly believe that if a believing businessman would abandon his worldly financial goals and devote all beyond his moderate needs to the Lord, that God would pour out supply through his life to a degree that would startle us.
In conclusion to this article I will talk about home. The churches that I personally love are in need of a fresh look at the issue of giving and financial goals. In an attempt to teach grace and in an attempt to contrast themselves with churches who teach legalistic giving, I think we took the message too far. My own teaching about giving has rightly emphasized the motivation of love for God and that God only desires what is freely given. What was left out was the warnings about worldliness and the use of money as a means of security and/or happiness. What was left out was the truth that we can be just as happy with moderate means as with wealth. The result is that many give for right reasons but their giving is anemic. They give what little is left over after they have the new house, the new car, designer threads and have taken the extended vacation. With both husband and wife working, they talk about how difficult it is to make it these days. The question is: make what? What are your financial goals and what are you trying to make? If your standard of making it is contentment with a moderate lifestyle, then it might not be so hard. If your standard is to always move up in the world and always have something better, then I guess it is hard to make it. If your idea of making it is to have far more than you need, then you might want to ask yourself where those goals have originated. If your idea of making it causes you to abandon your small children to daycare so your wife can work, then let me ask you, are you crazy or just stupid? I am confident that God doesn’t need money. I am also confident that God doesn’t want anything from us that is not freely and gladly given. I am also confident that God is not pleased with our worldly goals that suck out most of our resources to build a false sense of security. The financial advice of Jesus was to build your retirement account in heaven where neither rust, nor moth nor robber can cause you to lose it. How much do you really need to feel secure in your golden years? Do you believe that God won’t take care of you if you don’t have a magic number in savings when you retire? The words of Jesus become clear for many of us with the recent swings in the market where some accounts lost half their value in a single day. Neither is God pleased with financial goals that place our pleasure and status as priorities over His church. Many a prayer has gone up to be returned with “no” because the motive was to spend it on your pleasures. The worldly require worldly means to find pleasure while the spiritual find pleasure in Him and in edifying others. The greatest joy in this life is to be used by GHS in ministry to others. He doesn’t charge for that.
Finally, God is pleased with those gifts that express our love and commitment to His goals and priorities. His priority is to announce the gospel to the world using every means at our disposal. His priority is to announce the whole counsel of God through the teaching of His word to those who are hungry to hear it. His priority is to use what He gives us to provide for those who have devoted themselves to these lofty goals. He is pleased when His children abandon their worldly ideas about their standard of living and become funnels of grace to make the gospel and His word known to the world. Recently, I had a conversation with a young man who has committed himself to be a missionary in a foreign land. He plans to sell all of his possessions, move to another country and use what he has to set up shop as a missionary. In this foreign country, meager amounts can go a long way. Small money is big money there. I asked him how he planed to support himself and his family. His answer was to work, preach and pray for support from home. I prayed as he walked away that someone with God given means would take him on as their project and support him monthly with more than just coke money. There are many that we know who could fund his whole project with a portion of their excess. I pray that one of us will. I pray that we as His church will abandon our fears and worldliness and devote what God gives us to promote His word to a dying world.
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