Treasure in clay pots

2 Corinthians 4

Treasures in clay pots

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Let me draw a picture for you of two people. The first is one of the most famous men in the world. His name  is Moses. He’s been appointed by the living God to be leader of the people of Israel. He’s spent weeks on  Mount Sinai in the presence of God, in something called the glory cloud. He’s seen the finger of God carve  the ten commandments on two slabs of stone, the documents of God’s covenant with the people of Israel.  Now he comes down the mountain and his face is so radiant with the glory of God that people run away  rather than come close. His experience on the mountain was accompanied by thunder and earthquakes. It  was a brilliant, unique, and awesome period. That’s our first person coming to 2 million Israelites with the  documents of the covenant carved on stone by the finger of God.

The second picture is of an unknown woman. For thirty years she’s quietly taught children the truth about the  Lord Jesus Christ. She’s taught it to her own children and in the church’s Sunday School. It has been one of  the most important elements in her life to pursue that ministry. Here and there is a child who has come to  true faith because of that woman’s ministry. Here’s little Johnny Smith, for example, who went home from  Sunday School and told the Lord he was sorry for his sins, and asked the Saviour to come into his heart and  change him. And the Lord has begun to live in and work in the heart of that 5 year old.

According to 2 Corinthians 3 what that Sunday School teacher did with Johnny Smith is infinitely more  glorious than the experience of Moses. The ministry of the Gospel is infinitely more power-filled than the  ministry of the law of Moses. The law of Moses can bring about condemnation, because no one can keep it;  the Gospel that Jesus loves me and died for me can bring me to an experience of God in which the Spirit of  God writes the law of God on my heart, on Johnny Smith’s heart. The Spirit gives us a heart that wants to  become more like the Lord Jesus, and He works in us to change us stage by stage into that image.

Paul spells out that principle in chapter three. He’s dealing with the accusation made by some new teachers  in the Corinthian church that his ministry was weak and powerless. Paul’s response was this - I AM weak  and powerless, but the Gospel God gave me isn’t. It’s more powerful and effective than the ministry God gave  to Moses. By the power of God my Gospel can transform people and give them an experience of life and  holiness. And since these new apostles were probably basing their new message on the Jewish Scriptures,  what Paul says is devastating to their position.

We come to chapter 4. It’s an important chapter to everyone who wants to be part of the mission of the  Gospel to win a lost world for Christ. It deals with a fundamental issue all those face who want to be true to  the apostolic message. It’s this:-

THE LOSS OF HEART

See verses 1 & 16. Now, this whole chapter is crafted in such a way as to indicate that it’s all too possible  to lose heart if you’re involved in a ministry that is based on the true Gospel, Paul and Peter’s Gospel. If it  wasn’t a dangerous possibility he wouldn’t have said it twice here. He’s saying - We could have lost heart  in the ministry of this Gospel but we didn’t, and here's why. “Therefore, since, through God’s mercy, we  have this ministry we do not lose heart. ....” Paul’s opponents in Corinth knowing about his distress and  anxiety over the situation in Corinth accused him of a loss of heart, a failing courage. He’s not got much of a  Gospel, he’s so prone to spiritual heart failure, they said. Here’s why you shouldn’t lose heart if you’re  involved in the authentic Gospel.

1. WE SPEAK - GOD SHINES

You know it very often happens that when a new movement arises in the life of the church, it gains a great  deal of initial success. It seems that life and power and vigour are over there. People flock to the new  movements. There’s a buzz and stir and an excitement which draws them away from traditionally evangelical  churches like this. The new movement tends to look down on the old ones and feel sorry for them.

Trevor Pearce was on a journey a year ago with two men from one of the new movements. They referred to  someone he knew; someone who used to come here from time to time. Oh, they said about him, he  sometimes goes to a really dead Baptist church in Chessington. REALLY dead. I remember the leader of  one of the new movements coming to preach in my church in Penn. He preached on the stories of King Saul  and King David. He said that traditional churches were like King Saul - the Spirit of God had departed from  them and they were going nowhere, useless to God and going nowhere. But the new churches, like the one  from which he came, were King David churches, full of new life and power, walking in the victory of the Lord.

Well, these new leaders were saying things like this about the Apostle Paul and his ministry. People weren’t  flocking to his ministry in large numbers like they were flocking to theirs. That’s why he speaks as he does in verse 3. He’s having to explain why there were people who didn’t respond to his Gospel. It’s not a sign that  my Gospel is powerless, says Paul, it’s a sign that Satan has blinded their spiritual faculties. And they’ll  stay blind unless God does for them what he did for us - and for you Corinthians.

What did God do? What does God do? When Paul’s Gospel is preached, the God who who commanded the  original creation light to shine in a dark universe, commands that the light of His truth shine in our darkened  hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. This is what happens  when you become a Christian. Sometimes it happens all at once, sometimes gradually. But it’s as though  someone has switched on a light in your heart, and you become aware of the person and work of the Lord  Jesus. We speak - God shines. People who thought the Christian message was an irrelevant pile of rubbish  for freaks suddenly see in Jesus the glory of God. They’re amazed they didn’t see it before. And,  astonishingly, they’re even more amazed that their friends and family still can’t see it. Why can’t my  husband see that Jesus is a wonderful Lord and Saviour, it’s so obvious.

This is why we don’t lose heart, even though there are a lot of spiritually blind people out there. We don’t lose  heart because our glorious God takes what we teach people, from children to pensioners, and he uses it to  shine the light of the knowledge of the glory of God into their darkened lives. And it keeps us going. Paul  once went out at dawn to a prayer meeting by river in a brand new mission territory. He spoke his Gospel to  these women, and it says of one of these women, The LORD opened Lydia’s heart to respond to the  things spoken by Paul. That’s why this man didn’t lose heart despite the immense pressures and difficulties  of his ministry, and the opposition of the leaders of the new movement.

2. WE DIE - YOU LIVE

Maybe we’re too near it to appreciate its majesty - but when you became a Christian it was because the God  who made the creation come into being by speaking words of power, made you into a new creation by  speaking words of Gospel power. There’s nothing more wonderful in the world than the power of the Gospel  making a person like you into a new creation. Paul describes this Gospel and what it does as a treasure  (verse 7). In other words, says Paul, I’m a clay pot. I’m weak and vulnerable. I’m not a superman. I can be  broken. I’m fragile. This miracle of new creation which happens when I preach is the result of God’s power not  mine.

Then he describes his fragility in verses 8,9. If you look at my experience, says Paul, you won’t find a piece  of fine jewellery carefully protected from anything that might damage it. You’ll find a battered, wounded, and  desperately tired man. I’m not overwhelmed but I am a poor cracked pot that’s been badly abused.

But listen. Out of the cracks of my brokenness something wonderful happens, life leaks out. It’s like we’re  having to die to self and self-interest and self-protection and self-comfort every day. But in that dying to self  God causes life to come to people like you Corinthians. We die, you live. We experience persecution,  battering, hurt, hatred, and through our brokenness Gospel life flows into you people. If we’d been committed  to taking care of ourselves, and preserving our lives, you would never have known the life of God entering your  hearts through the Gospel.

Listen to this. The only reason why the life of God came to you was that someone died for you. Someone put  to death the desire to sleep and got up and prayed for you. Some youth leader refused to save their time and  energy for themselves and their family, but gave that time and affection to you, and the life of God came  through it. Some JF leaders took their precious holiday time, time they could have used to go to the beach,  and they gave it up for teenagers so that you might hear the Gospel and know God’s life in you.

You will not be useful in the work of the Gospel of God unless you are willing to die to self. Paul shows us in verses 10-14 that this principle is built into every cell and sinew of the life of Jesus. He died on the Cross so  that you might live. He gave up everything that was precious to him, every comfort, every right and privilege,  every opportunity to escape the pain of Christian ministry - so that by His death the life of God might come to  your heart. It’s resurrection life, but it comes through death. A self-interested, self-protected, self satisfying  Christian is a contradiction.

There’s the principle in verses 11,12.

Jayne Newman was baptized recently. She says of one person who was instrumental in her coming to Christ  - I was amazed at this relative stranger’s care and concern. Someone died to self. She finally trusted Christ  on Good Friday through the ministry of a man who has given himself to the work of the Gospel against the  background of his wife’s serious illness. He has given himself lovingly and joyfully to the care of his wife, and  together they have put the cause of the Gospel first. I’ve never heard them complain and I’ve never known  them do anything less than serve the Gospel. And life has leaked out through their brokenness into the lives  of others.

If you’re going to be willing to die to self so that others might live you need to be deeply and personally  persuaded of the truths of verses 16-17. This weight of glory to which Paul looks forward is referred to back  in verse 15 - it’s the people who have come to know the life of God through the Apostle’s willingness to die  and be broken.

I don’t lose heart. My Saviour died, rose again, entered into glory, and there in the glory enjoys the results  and rewards of his ministry. I’m Paul. I too am dying every day, Dying to self so that others might live. I’m on  my way to a better world. A resurrection world, an eternal world. a world of glory. And in that glory I shall  enjoy the results and rewards of my sacrifice for the Gospel. And that glory will be so outstandingly and  blindingly beautiful, that the pain of sacrifice, and the sufferings of Christian service will seem but a pinprick.  And you super-apostles who live for prosperity and comfort and dilute the Gospel in the process will lose it  all.