Video Notes: 

• Why did the churches in Macedonia and Achaia “owe” the church in Jerusalem the contributions?
  
  • Jesus said the Gospel would be proclaimed in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the world. The Gospel spread from Jerusalem outward. So, they had the Gospel, and thus salvation, because of the Gospel which started to spread from Jerusalem.
• They were responding to the generous giving of God.
• It’s good to see yourself as unified with others in the church, sharing their burden as though they were your own.
  • This includes helping other Christians in need, as we see here that the contributions were for the poor in the church in Jerusalem. Why were there these saints in Jerusalem poor?
    • It’s unclear, but there are some theories…
      • The Jewish Christians may have been cut off from the Jewish economy.
      • Acts 2 describes the early church with people selling all they and donating it to the church community. It could be that they gave away so much (possibly in the expectation that Jesus would return any day) that they now did not have enough for themselves.
  • They even gave out of their poverty, 2 Corinthians 8:1-5.
• Paul asks the Romans to pray in verse 31 that the offering he is bringing to Jerusalem would be acceptable. Why wouldn’t it be acceptable?
  • There may still have been some difficulty for the Jewish Christians to accept the Gentiles (or money from the Gentiles)
  • There were some factions and false teachers who were in the church that were causing problems. (Remember these churches were often likely small house churches.)