Acts 20:35 says, "I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."
Paul was speaking to the elders of the church of Ephesus, and he knew that he was doing so for the very last time. And as he did, he took the opportunity to remind them of some very famous yet unusual words of Christ. Those words were, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
OK, Bible students, where in the gospels do we find that quote? I will give you just a moment.
Before I give you the answer, let me remind you that I called these words of Christ "famous" and "unusual." Everyone knows why they are famous; they are famous because people the world over know about them.
As my church kids would so eloquently put it, "Well, duh!"
But why are they unusual? The answer to that will give you the answer to the question I asked you, where in the Gospels are they found. These words of Christ are unusual because they are not found in the Gospels at all. They are one of the many things that Christ said that the Gospel writers were not inspired to include in their accounts of the life of Christ. But these words were so precious that even though neither Matthew nor Mark nor Luke nor John wrote them down, everyone remembered Jesus saying them. And thus it was that, many years later, Luke recorded them here in the book of Acts as Paul spoke them to the Ephesian elders.
Clearly, then, there is something to this matter of it being a blessing to give.
And so, having been reminded of that as I reread this passage recently, I have decided to give a bit. Specifically, I want to give away some of my Night Heroes books that parents and grandparents can enjoy along with their kids and grandkids. And I want to do so by means of a Bible quiz, something I have not done for quite a few years now in my column. I will post the questions here, and you may email me the answers. Once all of the entries are in, I will put all of the ones who got everything correct into a bucket and will draw out five of them as the winners. And I will also list the names of the winners in a future column.
And please do not Google the answers; let's do this the old-fashioned way, by either knowing or by flipping pages and searching.
So put your Bible thinking cap on, and here goes.
1. Who filled Judas' spot as an apostle after he died?
2. Who gave Moses his name?
3. What three men came to comfort a friend and ended up repeatedly verbally attacking him instead?
4. What king was slain the night Babylon fell?
5. How many trained and armed servants did Abraham have in his household?
6. What lame son of Jonathan did David take care of once he became king?
7. What prophet married a promiscuous woman with the odd name of Gomer?
8. Where did Jeroboam put his two golden calves?
9. Who was governor of Syria when Caesar Augustus decided to tax the entire world?
10. In what event and town did Jesus do his first miracle?
11. What task did everyone else avoid doing that Jesus himself ended up doing at the Last Supper?
12. What human being did Jesus' genealogy trace all the way back to in Luke's Gospel?
13. What lady, after pouring up a glass of milk for him, (pun alert!) "finally got something through a man's thick head?"
14. What Old Testament person and event did Christ speak of as being both literal history and a sign of things to come in Matthew 24?
15. Twice in Luke 13, Jesus told people that if they did not ____________, they would likewise perish?
16. What was Esther's Jewish name?
17. Was Samson a Nazarene or a Nazarite?
18. Was Jesus a Nazarite or a Nazarene?
19. What do we more commonly now know Saul of Tarsus as?
20. Whom did Jesus stand up off of his throne for to welcome home?
I look forward to seeing how well you all do, and I look forward to the blessing of giving some of you a book. Enjoy!
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, North Carolina, a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and at wordofhismouth.com. Email him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.