By this time it’s too late to do much about it, but it is not too late to encourage you in what you have done and to make sure you’re ready when your children ask in time to come, “What do these presents mean?” They mean the world.

A gift is something handed to another, willingly and without payment. The word used for gift (χάρισμα) in the New Testament connects it with grace (χάρις), with something undeserved, with benefit(s) bestowed by favor.

The whole world is a gift; all are yours. None of us have anything that we have not received (1 Corinthians 4:7). The first five and a half days of earth were gift creating days, which God presented to Adam for his blessing. Eve was a gift, resulting in lyrical praise. Food was a gift for mankind to share; “Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth.” All is gift: life and new life, breath and bread, sun and moon and stars, the Word made flesh and the Word that richly dwells in our hearts. Through the Logos all things were made, and in the name of the Lord all things can be received with thanks and enjoyed (1 Timothy 4:4-5).

Among the false gods of men none matches the Lord God Almighty in magnanimity, in generosity, in freely given good things. Bacchus/Dionysus gave wild parties, but he stole freedom in making men slaves to pleasure. But as we worship the true and living God we see that gifts are good, giving is good. Giving is godly. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)

We come to our final Advent Activity for this advent season. This is it, the fourth Sunday before Christmas. We’ve been Waiting all this time. While waiting we’ve feasted and we’ve sung; we’ve had a feast of singing and we’ve sung at our feasts. We’ve been preparing to remember the Son of God’s birth, while also remembering the Son of God’s promised return. A King was born, joy to the world. The King comes again, let every heart prepare Him room.

And to the advent activities of Waiting, Feasting, and Singing we add Giving.

One more reminder for this cycle: there are no verses, let alone biblical laws, that require giving gifts on December 25, or on days leading up to this recognized holiday. We are not required to shop, purchase, bake or make, wrap, or place gifts under a tree to be opened in a coordinated manner on an appointed day, worldwide. But, giving is godly. Bearing gifts is true image-bearing, as our heavenly Father gives and gives and gives. Advent season is as good a time as any to exercise ourselves for the purpose of godliness. It is as good a time as any to be blessed.

God’s Word has much to say about giving and receiving, about generosity and gratitude. Scripture also gives us a quote of Jesus that we don’t learn about until after Jesus had ascended. It’s worth considering the context.

In Acts 20 Paul met with the elders of the church in Ephesus for his final time. It’s a well known passage, including Paul’s claim that he did not shrink from declaring to them the whole counsel of God (verse 27), and his exhortation to the pastors to pay attention to themselves and the flock, the church of God which He obtained with His own blood (verse 28). Paul commended them to God and the word of His grace which builds up and gives an inheritance (verse 32). And then as he finishes, he reminded them of how they knew they could trust him. He didn’t come to take from them, he came to give to them.

“I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:33–35 ESV)

It’s that last quote that not Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John recorded in their Gospels. Paul leaves no doubt, though; this isn’t just consistent with a principle, this is explicit teaching, “the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said.”

It is more blessed to give. Why? How? Is this just a rhetorical device to manipulate giving?

One way we know it’s not manipulative is because he’s in the middle of telling them that he hadn’t tried to get anything from them. He was explaining his own blessedness in giving.

Another reason why Paul isn’t being manipulative is because he knew that there was a way to give, and give big time, that was useless. “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).

But the greatest reason is that Paul knew Jesus’ teaching accords with how God made the world to work. God, who is the happiest being, with the ineffable felicity, is the Father who gives. The principle here applies: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17 ESV).

God gives. Giving is loving, it is love manifest, love incorporated. The Father: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son” (John 3:16). The Son: “Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us” and this pleased the Father, “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). Husbands are called to imitate this giving, “as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). The Spirit: individual spiritual gifts for each member of the body for the whole body’s good (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

So we receive from God to reflect Him. Jesus told His disciples, “You received without paying; give without pay” (Matthew 10:8). There is wisdom in this worldview.

Once gives freely and grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give,
and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,
and one who waters will himself be watered.
(Proverbs 11:24-25 ESV)

Or old school:

The liberal soul shall be made fat:
and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
(Proverbs 11:25 KJV)

It turns out, the blessed giver is getting something in return: blessing. That’s an act of faith, and it makes our souls fat. The one who gives grows more considerable.

The world works the way it does because God is not stingy. He is not reluctant to give. He gives to those who hate Him, sun and rain and breath and kids. He gives even to the ungrateful, and all their gifts weigh them down in accountability. The world is changed through gift, of course in Jesus Himself, and also as earthly fathers mimic that giving work to their children, even as entrepreneurs give to the market. So give and be blessed. Give and be made fat.

Connecting some of this back to Acts 20, pastors are again a big part of the problem. It’s fairly easy to identify the ones grabbing at prosperity off the backs of the sheep. But then there are the pietists, discouraging the sheep from feasting and giving feasts, warning them away from a boogeyman materialism which keeps them from the blessing/joy that comes through giving to others.

Can you spoil giving? Of course! Give to be seen, to get recognition from men (as Jesus warned against in Matthew 6). You can give to make it so that you don’t have to give yourself, giving without love, giving to distance. You can give to cover a guilty conscience. You can give without wisdom, too far beyond your means.

But if you give by faith, out of love, you are imitating the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

Conclusion

Giving is an advent activity, a Christian practice. It is not the only act of stewards; we earn or provide paychecks (from which to have something to give). Ownership of private property (at some level) is the prerequisite for generosity. So also giving isn’t primarily about expense, but it is about love.

Jesus was “born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth” (“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”). The Wise men brought gifts to Jesus, which is right, Jesus is the King. But now, we can give gifts to fellow servants of the King, in the King’s honor, while we wait for His return.

Live in alignment with God’s invisible law that blesses the world. It is more blessed to give than to be reluctant. Don’t hold back.

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Charge

The world is changed through gift, in the gift of Jesus Himself, and also as earthly fathers mimic that giving work to their children. Some of you are trying to break generational sins, others to build generational inheritances. Give blessings by faith and be blessed. Give and may you and your people be made more and more soul fat.

Benediction:

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18 ESV)