THE CHURCH AND PROSPERITY

                                                IS JESUS THE POOREST MAN EVER? 

One of the most common of quotations from the Bible we hear today is: Jesus was made poor that we might become rich. It does produce hope for the average Christian so as to soot the pains in his lack of financial sufficiency.

2 Cor 8:9

9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

IS JESUS THE POOREST MAN EVER? 2

Before we move further let’s ask ourselves two questions which are as follows:

1.      What is the definition of poverty?

2.      . How poor was Jesus?

Poverty can be defined as gross lack of financial resources to meet one’s basic or fundamental needs. When Jesus carried out his ministry on earth, can any man alive today come out with substancial evidence that Jesus was so lacking in financial resources that he could not meet his financial obligations?

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Let us now have an overall view of Jesus activity while he was on earth. 5,000 men had been with Jesus in a solitary place for 3 days and nights. Now to every one man present there would be atleast three women present for that is the statistics under which most churches operate. Now to every woman present there will be atleast three children and teenagers present. In all the population could have run into atleast 50.000 people that were fed with five loaves of bread and two fish., is this not so?

Wherever Jesus went, similar number of people followed him on  daily bases. Sometimes these people give offerings. Imagine the amount of money they would give willingly as offerings per day.

 

IS JESUS THE POOREST MAN EVER? 4

When Peter did not pay his tax, Jesus asked him to go catch a fish, open its mouth and use the coin inside it to pay the tax. If God could put a coin in the mouth of a small fish for his children to use, was it not also in HIS province to put billions of tons of gold coins into a thousand large whales which would in turn throw up the coins at night into one of the numerous beaches where Jesus normally pass the night in prayers with his disciples?

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If all these money was not enough, couldn’t Jesus who raised Lazarus from the grave after he had been dead for four days use that same power to command the sand which is in the sea shore for multitude to transform themselves into gold coins and they would obey him without delay?

Can any man alive on earth today boldly claim that a man who commanded and had such great resources at his disposal, say that he is a poor man?  When men have proposed in their hearts to commit evil, they would go to any length to drum up support, hence it is not strange to see many financial experts cum pastors quote passages from the Bible to support actions which from the deepest part of their heart they know it is wrong.

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For those of us who preach and act as though money and materialistic acquisition of earthly things is every thing, let us learn from our LORD, the great Master himself who humbled himself and suffered death on the cross of calvary that we might be saved from our sins.

Had Jesus wanted, he could have been born in Caesar’s palace but he chose to be born in the house of a carpenter. He could have bought five of the best chariots in Palestine for himself and one each for his disciples to ride on and one horse for each of the other people who regularly followed Him in His crusades but he chose to walk on foot from town to town like a common servant.

IS JESUS THE POOREST MAN EVER? 7

Had Jesus wanted, He could have built a palace in every town, city and village where he would ultimately preach but He chose to sleep in open field and mountain places. Or are we trying to say He could not afford these things?

When the Bible talks about Jesus making himself poor, couldn’t there be a more suitable explanation of this verse than to take it literarily and begin to confuse ourselves? When Pilate interrogated Jesus, he said, “You speak of a kingdom, that means you are a king.” Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world, else my disciples would fight.”

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When Jesus had finished cleansing of the temple that is driving out the people who did business in the temple, the following occurred.

John 2:18-21

 Then answered the Jews and said unto him; what sign show thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body.

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There is what we call the riches of his glory.

Rom 9:23-24

23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

There is no contradicting the fact that Jesus CHRIST is GOD. Had He come down to earth in the form of GOD by the which he existed in Heaven, no man could have been able to stand before him as GOD.

 

IS JESUS CHRIST THE POOREST MAN EVER? 11

No mortal man could have been able to see his face and live.

Ex 33:20

20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

He would have been too awesome, too great and wonderful for any man to interact with, hence he had to humble himself and deny himself of the exceeding riches of His glory so that haven become like one of us he could resist sin and break the power of death caused by sin once and for all.

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The great musician of our time, Don Moen put it this way: He walked where I walk, He stood where I stand, He touched what I feel, He understands, He knows my frailty, shared my humanity, tempted in every way, but without sin.

It is to be able to do this thing that was why Christ denied himself of the exceeding riches of his glory and made himself poor that we might become rich in faith like Abraham towards God. Jesus was never a poor man or a destitute so that all men would become millionaires. Anyone who continues to preach this get rich quick syndrome without sweat because Jesus made himself poor so you can become a millionaire overnight is wasting time promoting idle talk.

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If it is true that we are all to be come financially wealthy as a result of Jesus poverty, why then did the apostles of Jesus not follow this trend as we see today being canvassed vigorously from our churches? Were we to assume as some argue that the Apostles were unschooled men so they could not come into the full reality of the divne provisions that God has made for them, can we also say same about the Holy Ghost who gave them the inspiration to write the scriptures admonishing the saints to abstain from the pursuance of worldly desires?

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What about Paul, what about the other highly educated saints of old? Were these men and women also unschooled and ignorant, not knowing those things which the LORD has freely given them also? If the answers to these questions are no, how come it now looks as if it is only the Christians of this age especially in Nigeria that have suddenly woken up from their slumber and begin to enter the fullness of the reality of God’s provision for the acquisition of materialism so much so that this gospel of financial prosperity is being preached from one Sunday to another, week in week out, throughout the year to the detriment of other topics that should have been preached to the edifying and salvation of the soul?