Through Weakness

Andy Barnes

2024 Missions Month • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

2 Corinthians 4:7–12

0 ratings

· 2 views

Notes

Transcript

Context

A brief word about 2 Cor.

The church in Corinth was burdened by problems with which are familiar to us today. They were consumed with surface or immediate impressions. In other words, they were about appearances, they seemed to measure success according to worldly standards. They wanted leaders that were impressive… in their appearance, through their eloquence. They gave their attention to causes that would ultimately have little impact on the church or the world for the cause of the gospel. They lost sight of the gospel, and when this happens in the life of a church, things begin to fall apart.

This was a church that Paul founded. He labored among these people and came to love them. He left to continue his efforts to plant other churches, and sometime after leaving he received news of factional problems and other difficulties. They were divided, tolerating sin among themselves, they were being mislead by eloquent false teachers that Paul called super apostles (11:5; 12:11). This church that Paul loved, turned on him and began hurling baseless accusations at the apostle Paul.

It is often said about this letter that it is the most personal of Paul’s letters. God had called him to be, as he says in the third chapter, verse 6, a minister of a new covenant. He was a proclaimer of the saving knowledge that shines into the darkness of the human heart and grants life. But it wasn’t easy. In fact it was intensely difficult and painful at times.

In the midst of the hardships Paul faced, he had a concern for the health of this church. He confronted them regarding their misplaced priorities and affinities. Paul brought the gospel to bear on the problems of this church, and in doing so he highlighted the fact that people are not impressive. We do not need impressive people to honor God. God works through unimpressive, burdened, weak people to bring glory to himself.

2 Corinthians 4:7–12 ESV

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Inroduction

2 Corinthians 1:8–9 ESV

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Paul’s ministry… Paul’s life was not easy.

burdened beyond his strength

despairing life itself

believing at one point that his life was going to end

And we know some of what he and his partners in ministry experienced. Later this the letter he outlines some of his trials:

2 Corinthians 11:25–28 ESV

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

When you put all this together, we may be wondering how it is that someone would keep going after experiencing all of this. Is it that Paul was a particularly resilient man? We know people like that, right? Maybe you don’t consider yourself one of them, but we know people who face intense difficulty everyday, and somehow they keep going, and we think to ourselves, wow what a display of strength.

We need to see our trials and the affliction that’s all around us the right way. We could make nothing more than suffering as an indication of human resilience. Seeing people keep going as they suffer may lead us to focus on human strength. Or maybe we observe people, we do this ourselves, end up despairing life because of the suffering. Too much. No more.

Which ever we we may tend, we need to be careful not to think of suffering as something separate from the purposes of God. We may be ready to acknowledge that affliction is part of life, but are we prepared to see affliction as part of God’s design for life? Human weakness is what undergirds this. We are vulnerable. Vulnerable to illness, to emotional distress, to attacks from others, to the unplanned, unwanted events we have all experienced that has lead to our suffering. Trials, tragedy… indications of the fact that we are weak

FCF: We need to be on guard as we experience suffering because we can begin to think of our suffering… our weakness as being untouched by the redemptive purposes of God.

My aim today is to point us to the connection the bible makes between God’s redemptive purposes and human weakness.

Main Idea

Our weakness is not untouched by God’s redemptive purposes.

Analytical Question

How does God manifest His redemptive purposes through weakness?

God manifests His power through weakness (7)

Notice in verse 7 that Paul says that he, Timothy and really all Christians have a treasure. What is this treasure? Pastor Josh helped us see this last week, but go to verse 6.

2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So the treasure in verse 7 is this. The saving knowledge of the glory of God that shines on the sin-darkened hearts of people through Jesus Christ.

But we can trace this back further up to verse 1.

2 Corinthians 4:1 ESV

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

So the saving knowledge that Paul and all other Christians possess is a ministry. The treasure is a ministry. But what ministry?

Trace it back one more time a little further. 3:6

2 Corinthians 3:6 ESV

who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

God made Paul, and I suggest all of His people, ministers of a new covenant. The message that sinners are made righteous before God, are set free from the bondage of their sin and assurance that they will not be subject to the condemnation of God. Paul goes on, in chapter 3 to compare this with the old covenant which is described as a ministry of condemnation in verse 9.

Back to chapter 4 verse 7, Paul says he has from God this treasure… this ministry of freedom from sin and condemnation. He has been entrusted as a minister of this message.

But there is something peculiar about this. Something so priceless. Something so precious. Something so powerful. Where do you put something like that. To whom do you entrust this message?

Well, Paul describes the stewards of this treasure as clay pots… earthen vessels. Containers that were of little value. Nothing impressive. Everyday objects that served an everyday purpose. To contain, that is, hold something.

Our equivalent are the containers that inevitably accrue in our lost and found month to month. Casserole dishes, Tupperware containers. Disposable. Not noticed, not missed when gone.

And what this imagery makes clear is that value of the message is not dependent on the minister. Remember, people were down their noses at Paul. They wanted the super apostles, not an ordinary guy like Paul.

Paul doesn’t seek to counter the people’s low esteem of him. He doesn’t list his accomplishments here. He doubles down on the fact that he isn’t anyone special. Nothing particularly impressive about him. Like a jar of clay.

BUT what God did and what He does, is He entrusts His priceless treasure… the ministry of the New Covenant to what is weak.

Why does God do this. Why would he entrust the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ to flawed, weak people? We’re told in v. 7:

to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

In other words, the exceeding quality of the power of this message that proclaims freedom and no condemnation, that power belongs to God. It comes from God.

Paul testifies to this truth - that GHod manifests his power through weakness later in this letter.

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 ESV

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God manifests his power through weakness. This is one way we know that our weakness is not untouched by the redemptive purposes of God. Another is

God sustains His people in their weakness (8-9)

We have noted that Paul was not unacquainted with suffering. He was literally painfully aware of his weakness.

Paul moves on to expand the image of a treasure contained in jars of clay by presenting 4 pairings that capture his experiences as an apostle and minister of the the New Covenant.

These are paradoxes that point to God’s supernatural sustaining power in the midst of suffering.

2 Corinthians 4:8–9 ESV

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

afflicted in every way (distressed, intense, overwhelming pressure) but not crushed. Paul experienced intense pressure in his ministry. Last week, Josh pointed out that the losing heart involves resisting the temptation to given up… to react with cowardice to the trials of our lives.

He faced intense pressure, but was not crushed. Was not distressed to the extent that he gave up. Not hopelessly distressed

Perplexed (disoriented) but not driven to despair.

Paul experienced disorientation but in that he did not fall apart. He maintained a a view of the truth. A view of God. A view that God is sovereign and in control and that His purposes for Paul are still in tact.

Persecuted but not forsaken (left behind)

Paul was a target. Both from within the church and without. He was pursued as an enemy, and this was his reality everyday he followed Christ. And when you and I feel as if we have been targeted, we can end up feeling alone, that we’re on our own. Lost on the shuffle. And Paul is saying, I know I have not been left behind. Maybe people have disregarded me and even wish me harm, but God is there. I haven’t lost sight of this.

Struck down but not destroyed.

struck down pictures an assault with a weapon. Damaging blows that hurt us and cause pain, but what Paul says here is that these attacks have not resulted in his destruction. And again, this is because God sustained him in his weakness.

This is how God unfolds His redemptive purposes. He sustains us in our affliction. It’s not necessarily removing the affliction, but providing us what we need to endure.

But again, isolating verses 8 & 9 from the rest of the context can result in these verses sounding like the familiar resilience message of the world. I think just about anyone would find Paul’s words inspiring. Afflicted not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. What makes Paul’s message different from the world’s. Why should we not conclude that with a little Christian jargon infused into these words, we can adopt a “when things get tough, the tough get going” kind of approach to our trials? We need to see that Paul is addressing more than just getting through difficult times. There’s much more in view here.

You see:

God overcomes death through weakness (10-11)

Paul anchors the paradoxes from verses 8 & 9 in Christ in verse 10.

He sees his difficult experiences through “christological lenses”. Notice the first phrase of verse 10: always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. A big key to understanding what Paul means here is found in the word death.

There were two greek words available to Paul to use for the word death. One is common in the NT and the other is less common. In verse 10, Paul uses the less common word, and this word carries the idea of deadness. Paul is referring to the enduring state of the death of Jesus rather than the historical event of the death of Christ.

I suggest that Paul is referring to the enduring reality of Christ’s death here. He’s referring to the truth that makes it possible for what he said in Gal 6 to be true:

Galatians 6:14 ESV

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

The reason that the world can be crucified (put to death) to Paul and Paul to the world is because of the enduring reality of the crucifixion of Christ. Sin defeated in the death of Jesus. Death put to death in the death of Jesus. This is our reality.

Mark Seifrid in his commentary on 2 Cor. said this: Jesus’ resurrection does not undo [the death of Jesus] but overcomes it.

Jesus is crucified, but we cannot loose sight of the fact that He is the crucified one who lives. I think this is what Paul is presenting in v. 10.

So church, we live in the reality in which Christ has been crucified, taking on our behalf the condemnation of God. This is a filter of sorts through which we can process our sufferings and weakness. Just as the deadness of Jesus is overcome in Jesus’ resurrected life, so the Apostle Paul again and again is delivered from danger and death. This is why he is not hopelessly distressed, not falling apart, not believing that God has abandoned him and is not convinced that he has been struck down beyond the point of return.

So yes we suffer and yes we are weak, but our weaknesses and trials are the reminders of the glorious truth: the people of God are used to (look at the end of verse 10) manifest the life of Jesus in our bodies.

And I don’t think we are meant to take the reference to the body as just to our physical selves. I think Paul is referring to the whole of our existence. It is through our existence as ministers of the gospel in our weakness and trials that the fact that death was overcome by the death of Christ is proclaimed.

As we remain steadfast in our commitment to Christ in the midst of our suffering, we show or manifest the life of Jesus. This is missionary work. Understanding our weakness and trails in light of the redemptive purposes of God.

Verse 11, in many ways is a restatement of what Paul said in verse 10. But what Paul does is explain further his christological framework for the paradoxes he outlined in verses 8 & 9.

Notice at the beginning of v. 11: for we who live. Though we possess earthly life or though we live as people who are being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, we manifest is manifested in our living.

There is a reenactment of sorts of the death and resurrection of Jesus as we die to ourselves and the world, and as we exercise the ministry of the gospel by displaying the victory we have been given over our sin through the supernatural resolve in our weakness.

But look at the end of verse 11: the life of Jesus… is manifested in our mortal flesh. Verse 10 said that the life of Jesus is manifested in our bodies. Now Paul sets our bodily lives within the context of this present age. We are perishable, that is, we are subject to death. We are crying our, as Paul will say in the next chapter, for our mortal lives to be swallowed up by life.

But now, in this life, God’s will is to manifest the life of Jesus in weak, temporary vessels. Clay pots.

So our weakness is not untouched by God’s redemptive purposes. He shows this in that

He reveals His power through weakness

He sustains His people in their weakness

He overcomes death through weakness

and finally

God grants life in the midst of weakness (12)

The treasure that all followers of Christ have been entrusted is manifested in our sanctified experience of our trials.

God uses the affliction and weakness of His people to invade this world. Our sufferings are connected to the sufferings of Christ, and as people see this in our handling of our suffering, they see the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It seems to me that the more we strive to show forth the treasure we have been given, the more affliction we can expect. But the more affliction that comes into our lives as a result of our commitment to this missional work the greater the spiritual blessing will be in the lives of others around us.

I think this is what Paul is getting at in verse 12: death is at work in us, but life in you. This is something we cannot loose sight of as we suffer. As we experience our weakness and God’s redemptive purposes in our weakness, we are used by God to bring the life of Christ to bear upon others.

And this is the paradox that the gospel calls people to accept: Loosing your life for Christ brings greater life.

Conclusion

Our weakness is not untouched by God’s redemptive purposes.

So church, we are weak people. We are therefore vulnerable to the trials of the world. Suffering is part of ur lives.

Yes our suffering is used by God to strengthen us and to teach us more about God and our need for Him.

But our trials are much more than that. God uses them to display Christ to the world. This is our hope. This is our encouragement. The redemptive purposes of God are born our in the world through suffering. Through our suffering.

So, I am not suggesting that we ignore the unpleasant affects of our trials, or that we pretend that there is not sadness and loss as a result of our difficult experiences. But knowing that our reality is one that has been defined by the death and resurrection of Christ. Our weakness is no match for God’s redemption of our lives. The death of Jesus manifests the life of Jesus. So we die to ourselves, we die to the world and we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ that God’s grace is sufficient.

Benediction

1 Corinthians 15:53–58 ESV

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.