The Forgotten Beatitude

And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, " It is more blessed to give than to receive."  (Acts 20-35)     An experiance pastor tells of hearing both the pastor of his college church and the pastor of his seminary church preach a series of sermons on the Beatitudes of Jesus. Neither included this beatitude that Paul preserved for us. Later in a church of his own, he also preached on the Beatitudes, and he did not include this beatitude either. Why not? His testemony was, " I forgot it." Then he added, " I suppose the two pastors i heard and the authors of the six books I read in preparation for my series forgot it also." Ask almost any christian, even the most careful Bible student, to name the beatitudes, and he will name those listed in Matthew 5. Not one out of a hundred would name the one given in Acts 20.     So it is fair to call Acts 20:35 the forgotten beatitude.   A. There is no question as to the authenticity of this beatitude.  That this is a genuine saying of Jesus there is no doubt. Beyond doubt, this was a current saying of Jesus with which the elders in Ephesus were familiar. Moreover, the writer, Luke, who heard Pauls address to these pastors and preserved it, also wrote the gospel that bears his name; and his gospel preserves , in slightly varied form, Jesus' beatitudes. ( Luke 6:20-23)     B. There can be no doubt that Jesus demonstated this beatitude in His life and ministry and death;  Just as surely as He dsemonstrated meekness, mercy, and purity of heart, so did He demonstrate that " it is more blessed to give than to receive."    C. There is no fault found with the form in which this beatitude is given; Paul prefaces his statement of the beatitude with a twofold caution: "Laboring," he said, " you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, " It is more blessed to give than to receive." His caution " To remember" is certainly in place for us, for this is the forgotten beatitude. Lets look at three questions concerning this beatitude.    1. Why is this beatitude forgotten?   A. We have never understood it; Taken together the full impact of these words has never hit us as Jesus intended they should. We tread lightly on the first half of the saying and let our minds dwell on the latter half. But Jesus' emphasis is the other way around: " It is more blessed to give than to receive." This turns the normal attitude of the carnal mind upside down. There is a blessedness in receiving, and our Lord does not discount this fact. None of us could live for ten minutes apart from what receive. It is blessed to receive, but it is more blessed to give.     B. We have never believed it; If we doubt that this is the most disbelieved truth in the Word of God, all we need to do is look first at the average church treasury and after that into the faces of the average congregation when the offering is being received or when the pasor mentions money. Many look at giving to the church as a necessary nuisance, a bother, a thing to be dreaded. It isn't so at all if our hearts are right. The sense of our text then is this: " It is a far happier experience to give than to receive." And it surely is if our hearts are right with God.    C. We have never actually tested it; Oh, a few have! And their testimony tells us that it is the very Word of God. They say, " It IS more blessed to give than to receive." Those who love the most give the most. But the majority of christians cannot testify one way or another. They haven't tried it out!     2. What are the results of this beatitude bring forgotten?    A. We have missed the main emphasis of Jesus' teaching; This beatitude stands supreme among a the beatitudes of the Bible. It is the center of the Bible's teaching, the supreme emphasis of Jesus. To give was the purpose of His coming: " The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt 20:28). Selfish-ness is self-destructive; giving is redemptive, creative, permanent. We lose what we keep and keep forever what we give to God.    B.  We have missed the greatest joy, the supreme blessing of christian living;  What is christian living? It is doing our best to give more than we receive for  Christ's sake because we love Him and because we love a lost world. What is the christian philosophy of life? It is believing in and trying to live by this Word of the One who redeemed us: " It is more blessed to give than to receive."    No amount of earthly things can ever satisfy the spititual part of us that God made to be blessed by giving. The writer of Ecclesiases tells us: " He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase: this is also vanity" (5:10)     C. We have failed to take the gospel to the whole world; Why has the gospel made such a slow conquest of the world? Why have missions and evangelism lagged and dragged? It is because preachers have been so timid about preaching the joyous truths of the Bible about giving and because people have been so rebellious and unbelieving when they have presented it.    There is no danger of exaggerating the measure in which this beatitude has been discredited in the world and even by Christ's own people. Selfishness is the dominant note of humanity, the cancer of society, the mud on the chariot wheels of Gods army; and selfishness finds its supreme expression in man's attitude towards money. The world believes it is more blessed to get than to give; and therefore, for two millennia we have not carried the gospel to all the world.   3. What blessings would follow a recovery of this beatitude?   A. Blessings on us as individuals; " It is more blessed to give than to receive." That is true for each one of us as individuals. We love our Lord because there was no trace of selfishness in Him. He gave and gave and gave, and it was His joy to give. The writer of Hebrews says of Him:" Jesus.....who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross" ( 12:2) Jesus demonstrated the truth of this beatitude as He did all the others. We are to be like Him.     When pastors persuade their congregations to give " not grudgingly, or of necesssity" (2Cor 9:7), but joyfully and liberally, they are doing a real service to their souls.     B. Blessings on our churches; It would mean that our churches would have the means, the resources, but above all the spiritual power to attempt to carry out the Great Commision.    A young seminary graduate was in his first pastorate in a rural setting. Both the church and his salary were small. With three young children he was having a hard time making ends meet. One kind farmer in his church brought him a fine milk cow and the feed to feed her. " Pastor, milk this cow. She'll give all the milk your children need."  Some weeks later when the farmer asked about the cow, the young pastor replied, " She went dry. I don't know why. We were very careful. We milked only the milk we had to have." That is bad for a cow. It is bad for a church. Because of their failure to give liberally, most of our churches have gone spiritually dry.    C. Blessings on unsaved souls; " It is more blessed to give than to receive." If they would only heed these words, churches would challenge an unsaved world by an exalted testimony and witness. The churches would beginto do the thing they were brought into existence to do. They would start knocking of the doors of the world with the gospel; the world would heed, and some would be saved.   The beatitudes describe the traits of character of a happy christian; and this one, so often forgotten, is the most joyious of all!