But let me just jump straight into this.
What do you and I have in common with a cardboard box?
I don't know if you've ever thought of yourself in those
terms, but I hope that every one of you will feel encouraged by
the comparison by the time I'm finished here.
Because today I want to zoom in on one of my favorite verses and
reminded remind us why it is such a blessing to be compared
to a cardboard box. I'm going to read from 2
Corinthians 4 verse 7. But we have this treasure in
jaws of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God
and not from us. Of course, if we really want to
dig into just one verse, we're going to need to dig into the
context. So I'm going to touch on the
background of that verse of Paul's second letter to the
Corinthians before I ask some questions like what is the
treasure that Paul is talking about and why clay pots?
And then we look at what it means for all of us.
But before I begin, let us just pray and ask God to help us.
Father God, thank you for Your word and for the truths of your
gospel that you have revealed to us.
Thank You that we can know You as our Lord and Saviour.
Help us as we look at your word today, to rightly understand the
message You have for US. Open our eyes to see and know
You better and to know what that means for our lives in Jesus
name, Amen. Now it is possible that the
first thing most scholars will tell you about Paul's second
letter to the Corinthians is that it wasn't actually his 2nd
letter to the Corinthian church. They will trace the timeline
from Acts chapter 18 where Paul first went to Corinth and he
spent 18 months there teaching and speaking about Jesus while
working with Priscilla and Aquila who were also tent makers
like him and with many people responding to Christ at that
time. We see the growth and the
beginning of the church in Corinth.
Then there is mention of a letter that came before the one
that we have in our Bibles that we know as One Corinthians.
And Paul after that makes another visit to Corinth, which
he refers to as the painful visit.
At this time he was involved in a difficult confrontation.
There was some particular sin in the church that needed to be
called out. And then after he was gone, he
sent another severe letter following up after his visit.
So by the time we get to what we know as Second Corinthians,
there is a lot of back story to that particular context, that
particular church, and what he teaches has to do with the
fallout after that. And in this letter, we see it
starts with Paul comforting the church after all the conflict.
He's now working on repairing relationships within the church
and between himself and the church.
And he also covers some practical matters in the letter,
like explaining the changes in his travel plans and making
arrangements about a gift he's been collecting for the
struggling believers in Jerusalem.
But there's one other thing that's also a primary concern of
his He spends some time confronting challenges to his
own leadership. You see people in the church
have been influenced by a group who were going around known as
super apostles, right? I think actually super apostles
is something you'd probably feel familiar with today.
We've got people who go around with titles and and status as
leaders in these big church movements and these super
apostles have been going around and expressing challenges to
Paul's ministry, saying that they were superior, they were
better in ministry than he was. And in two in two Corinthians
chapter 3, we see Paul has to now defend his ministry, but
let's look at how he defends it. He asks, do you do we need as
some do letters of recommendation to you or from
you? You yourselves are our letter
written on our hearts, to be known and read by all, and you
show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written
not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on
tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.
You see, Paul doesn't feel the need to prove himself as the
Super puzzle impossible super apostles seem to imply that he
should. The very existence of the church
in Corinth is the evidence that Paul's ministry is from God.
He continues in verses 5 and 6 by stating that not that we are
sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but
our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be
ministers of a new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. For the letters, letter kills,
but the Spirit gives life. Paul knows he doesn't need to
prove his qualifications because God is the one who calls him.
God is the one by this, by his Spirit, that makes him enough
for the task. And it is this confidence that
he has in his ministry that leads him into this most
beautiful comparison between the ministry of the Spirit and the
ministry of the letter or the law which was given to Moses.
Now he refers to events that we would read about in Exodus 34,
and he describes how after receiving the law directly from
God upon Mount Sinai, Moses face was shining with so much glory
just from being in the presence of God and that the people, they
couldn't bear to look at him. And as a result, Moses ended up
covering his face with a veil until the glory had faded from
him again. So Paul says of the ministry of
the Spirit. Will not the ministry of the
Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the
ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must
far exceeded in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once
had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the
glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to
an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have
glory. If the ministry of the law that
came through Moses, which only ended up showing how far we fall
short of God's standards, came with that kind of glory that
Moses had to cover his face for days, how much more glorious is
the ministry of righteousness which comes through Jesus and
which frees us from any condemnation because of His
death on our behalf. And if the glory of the law was
temporary, the law acting as our teacher and our guardian only
until Christ came and fulfilled it, how much more glorious will
the unending ministry of the Spirit be.
Paul can't help but get all poetic about the ministry that
he's received from God. It is so much greater than what
came before, and it is his hope in this ministry, this glorious
ministry, not in his own ability, that gives him the
confidence to preach about Jesus Christ so that we all with
unveiled faces seeing the glory of the Lord, can be transformed
into the same image from 1° of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Paul is less concerned with proving himself than he is with
helping people to see the glory of the Lord.
He wants people to see Jesus, to really see Jesus in all of his
glory. And he wants to see lives
changed and transformed by the Spirit as people grow more and
more like him. And this is what keeps him going
despite any opposition he faces. So I'm going to read from
chapter 4 of Two Corinthians from verse one until we get to
our text. Therefore, having this ministry
by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have
renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.
We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.
But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend
ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those
who are perishing in their case. The God of this world has
blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of
God. For what we proclaim is not
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your
servants for Jesus sake. 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.
But we have this treasure in jaws of clay to show that the
surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Paul's response to the Super apostles is simply to keep on
doing what God has called him to do.
He doesn't lose heart because he knows this ministry is a result
of God's grace, God's mercy, and so he continues to commit
himself to be faithful with what he's been given.
He's not going to play by the playbook of the others of the
Super apostles. He's not going to use
underhanded methods to promote himself.
He won't use deceit or trickery to manipulate the church.
He's not going to twist God's word to say what he wants it to
say and make himself look good. But instead, people will know
that he is someone of integrity and honesty because of how
openly he proclaims the truth of the gospel.
These are the criteria by which he expects to be measured.
His credentials as an apostle have nothing to do with how
powerfully he speaks, or the size of the crowds that come to
hear him or the titles that he carries.
No, his qualifications can be seen in how he proclaims the
gospel clearly and faithfully and plainly before everyone.
There are many people today who gain large followings because
they speak the message that people want to hear.
But Paul relies on the gospel to commend itself.
He's not interested in promoting himself.
He wants to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ as Lord, and he
sees himself only as a servant of that in the hopes of reaching
people with his gospel. He already had said in one
Corinthians that his aim was to become all things to all people,
so that by all means he might save some.
The message is what his focus is.
That's what he wants to promote, not himself, but Jesus.
And while he recognises that not everyone will want to receive
the message, he knows that this is because the gospel is veiled.
For those people, those people who don't want to know that God
revealed in Jesus, they've been blinded to the truth, prevented
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
But for those who do believe, he sees the powerful hand of God at
work. For the same 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
Christ. Just think about that.
The same God who spoke into the darkness on the first day of
creation and said let there be light is the one that causes the
light to shine in us so that we can see and know God's glory as
it is revealed in Jesus. The same power that spoke the
universe into being is the one that speaks into us, allowing us
to see and recognize His glory in the person of Jesus Christ.
This Jesus that was born in Bethlehem and walked around in
Jerusalem and Judea. This real person that lived
about 2000 years before we did, that history testifies, lived
and died and rose again from the dead.
He is the one in whom we see the very glory of God.
Hebrews one verse 3 puts it this way.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of
his nature. So if you want to see God, look
at Jesus. And when we see Jesus and when
we recognize him for who He really is, that veil is removed
from our hearts. This is what the Spirit is doing
through the Gospel. It is showing us who Jesus
really is. And when we put our trust in
him, we enter into a relationship with Him and He
begins to change us. But we have this treasure in
jaws of clay. So what is this treasure?
This treasure is the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. This treasure is the gospel that
Paul proclaims. This treasure is the gospel of
Christ Jesus received and believed that transforms us by
his Spirit so that we can reflect that glory to the world
around us. Or Simply put, the treasure is
Jesus. It is Jesus and all that he is
and all that he has done for us in his life, his teaching, his
death and his resurrection. It's the Jesus that the gospel
message proclaims, and it is Jesus that is personally known
and loved by every person who belongs to him.
It is Christ in us that empowers us and enables us to live out
the calling we have as God's children.
Jesus is the treasure, the same treasure that keeps Paul from
losing heart when his ministry is brought into question.
And the good news is, that same treasure is living in each and
every person who confesses Christ today.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay.
Now maybe you think there are better places to keep treasure
than clay jars, and you might be right.
Nowadays we have banks and safes to keep our valuables secure,
but this treasure of such infinite worth God chooses to
keep in clay jars. Now, most of us probably don't
have too many clay jars lying around our houses, so this image
may be a little hard to resonate with, but for most people living
in the 1st century, clay jars were what you used all the time.
If you could afford something more durable, you might have
some bronze containers, but for most people, clay was the
standard storage method of your choice of choice.
You would use your clay jars to store your olive oil, your
vinegar, your water. You would use them to store your
dry goods like your wheat and your barley, your nuts and your
dried fruit, your dates and figs.
They would be in the clay jars too.
They were common. Everybody had them.
But they were also weak and easily broken, so easily so that
broken pieces of clay jars became like note paper in the
1st century. And many archaeological finds
from that time are pieces of broken clay vessels that were
repurposed for the day-to-day use of people who needed to
write things down. Known by archaeologists as
Ostraca, these repurposed shards of play that have been found
include those that were used for things like receipts and records
of payments and taxes delivered inventories, lists of workers
and their attendants, records of deliveries and the source of the
goods, private letters, informal notes, letters of demand,
military correspondence, legal documents, medical
prescriptions, excerpts from stories or poems, and even
sketches and writing practice of people who are learning how to
be scribes. Many different things have been
recorded on these broken pieces of pottery.
Clay jars were disposable containers in their time, much
like our milk cartoons and our cereal boxes.
In many ways, the clay jars of the 1st century are more like
our cardboard boxes. They're everywhere.
So many of the things we buy come in cardboard boxes.
Just take a look around your kitchen and you'll find a few
examples, from cereal to bananas to tea bags and rusks and rice
and and spice refills and many other bigger things like
kitchenware and all of our deliveries from take a lot.
They also come in cardboard boxes.
Cardboard boxes are cheap, they're everywhere, they're
useful, and when you're done with them, you can repurpose
them and pass them on to the children for their artwork and
their craft projects. And yet this is what Paul says
God chooses to use to hold his greatest treasure.
But here is the thing. We are the clay jars.
We are the cardboard boxes that Paul is talking about when Job
was making his case to God. He describes himself in this way
in chapter 10, verse 9. Remember that you have made me
like clay, and will you return me to the dust?
This image appears a few times in the Bible, this comparison of
people to clay vessels, and it is a fitting one because in many
ways we are weak. We are fragile.
Like clay jars, we don't last long in the big scheme of
eternity, and it is this very aspect that Paul is leaning into
as he goes forward. It is this very weakness of ours
that shows that the power belongs to God and not to us.
The same way that when God called Gideon to lead his people
in battle against the Midianites, he said, The people
with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their
hand too many, lest Israel boast over me, saying my own hand has
saved me. And then he proceeded to reduce
the number of Gideon's men in the army from 32,000 to 300,
because that way it would be clear to them that the victory
was God's work and not their own strength.
This also echoes what Paul said in One Corinthians, where he
reminded the Church of his own weaknesses when he was among
them. He spoke not with convincing
words, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that
your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. The whole point of this
combination, the storing of a treasure of infinite value in
such a weak and common vessels, is that there is no doubt that
the power and the glory belongs to God alone.
This is why so often when people testify about God's goodness in
the midst of intense hardship, it is so impactful.
Why when Coritin Boom is able to forgive a man who tormented her
and her sister in a concentration Nazi concentration
camp, the glory goes to God alone.
When the singer Night Bird is able to carry such joy on ATV
Talent show in the midst of fighting a battle against cancer
that the whole world sits up to listen as she testifies about
how God meets her on the bathroom floor, God gets the
glory. When you see a mother openly
holding on to God's sovereignty and goodness and faithfulness
while grieving the loss of a child, God gets the glory.
The less capable we are in ourselves, the more God gets the
glory when He uses us. And This is why Paul loves to
boast in his own weaknesses, because he recognises that his
weaknesses add to God's glory. It is when he is weak that God's
power is displayed. And this power isn't just for
sure. It's the same power that spoke
the world into being. It's the same power that raised
Jesus from the dead. It's the same power that speaks
life into hearts of stone that enables us to persevere in the
hope that we have in Jesus. This is why Paul goes on to
speak about the result of having this treasure.
In the next few verses we reflected 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. And Paul knew what he was
talking about when it came to hardship and persecution.
In fact, he lists a bunch of the challenges that he endured.
A few chapters later, in Chapter 11, he lists, comparing to the
Super apostles, that he's faced far greater laborers, far more
imprisonments with countless beatings, often near death.
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes
less, 1/3 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 the
Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger
at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship,
through many a sleepless nights, 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.
Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall and I am not
indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of
the things that show my weakness.
Paul is able to endure because of God's power at work in him,
and he even boasts about these things because these things that
expose his weakness only make God's glory shine out even more.
He wants the life of Jesus to be displayed through his own
weaknesses. So his response to the request
for his qualifications, asking him to justify himself in
comparison to other super apostles, is to point away from
himself and towards Christ. And if these weaknesses only
serve to display God's glory even more, he will celebrate
them because his concern is not his own glory, but God's.
And he calls the church to join him in this way of thinking and
living, this turning upside down of our priorities.
Because the upside down way of living is consistent with
following the example of God whose character of self giving
love was revealed on a cross and not in a palace.
When we are content with our weaknesses, we are following the
example of the one who emptied himself of glory in order to
take on a weak human body and live among us and die for us.
When we humble ourselves in order to prioritize loving
others, we are following the example of Jesus who humbled
himself to the point of death on a cross for you and me.
When we choose obedience to God's word instead of self
gratification, that is following the example of our Lord who
calls us to deny ourselves and follow Him.
And when Paul experiences suffering and humility and
poverty, he sees that as proof that he is a true representative
of Christ as he follows in the footsteps of the one who
suffered on his behalf. The world around us values
success in terms of wealth and property and career and
reputation. But for Paul, he celebrated the
opposite. The things that make us weak in
the eyes of the world. Because that is where God is
able to work through us, and a greater glory is waiting for us
if we remain faithful in following Him.
This is why Paul doesn't lose heart, he says in chapter 4 from
verse 16. Though our outer self is wasting
away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us
an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we
look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are
unseen. For the things that are seen are
transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
So what then does all of this mean for us?
Well, first I want to ask, what is your treasure?
Do you share Paul's concern for the glory of God and his delight
in and treasuring of Jesus Christ?
Is Jesus your treasure? Jesus Himself warned us in
Matthew 621 that where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also. So take a moment to examine your
heart. Where your heart lingers the
most is a good indicator of what it is that you treasure.
Do you treasure success or wealth or comfort?
Security. Maybe your treasure is your
family or your career. Perhaps it is your image and how
you think people see you, your social status.
Or is your treasure like Paul's Jesus?
The gospel that we read of in the Bible is not just a get out
of hell free card. That's it.
You say yes once and you're good to go.
It's an invitation. It's an invitation to treasure
the one who will complete you, who will come and live within
you by his Spirit, who will help you and guide you and transform
you until more and more you are living out the purpose for which
you are made. As Augustine said, you have made
us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they
rest in you. If you haven't yet seen this
about Jesus, then perhaps you are the person that Paul is
talking to when he says a little further on in his letter that we
are ambassadors for Christ. God is making his appeal through
us. We implore you on behalf of
Christ, be reconciled to God. Don't miss the chance to say yes
to Him and to experience Him and His glory in your life.
And if you want to talk to someone about this, please don't
hesitate to find someone afterwards, whether a friend,
whether an elder, talk to someone, but don't pass on the
chance to receive this treasure for yourself.
Secondly, if you are someone who already sees Jesus as your
treasure, then what this passage is for you and me is a reminder
that we should have that same eternal perspective that Paul
has. The upside down set of
priorities should make perfect sense to us when the world says
work hard to store up enough to have security in this world.
Paul teaches us that we should be generous and trust God to
provide for our needs like the Macedonian church he mentions in
chapter 8 who out of the poverty begged for a chance to give
first to the Lord and then the apostles collection for the poor
in Jerusalem. When the world says promote
yourself and your ability. We are to be humble and content
with our weaknesses because these are the areas where God
can be glorified in our lives. Our lives should reflect the
treasure that lives within us. He died for all that those who
live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for
their sake died and was raised. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, He is a new creation. The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come and finally, once we understand the
nature of the treasure within us, we should also know that
Jesus is the true source of our strength.
When hardships come, and they will come, you also have access
to the same power that Paul knew.
The same Jesus that was his treasure that enabled him to
endure so much is the Jesus Christ that lives within you and
me through the Holy Spirit. In the same way that God told
Paul that His grace was sufficient for him, His grace is
sufficient for you too. Mums, when you are sleep
deprived and struggling to manage your own emotions on top
of the emotions of your children, His grace is
sufficient for you. Dads and single mums, when
you're feeling the weight and pressures of leading and
providing for your families, His grace is sufficient for you.
Workers, When you're facing pressures and deadlines or
navigating tensions between you and your Co workers, His grace
is sufficient for you. If you're in school or
university and struggling with the workload, the exam stress,
the social pressures, His grace is sufficient for you.
Whatever pressures or challenges that you are personally facing
today and everyday, you need to lean into the reality that this
treasure in clay jars, that we have this treasure in clay jars
so that the strength is from God and not from yourself.
Lean into the reality of who He is and who He is for you, and
carry this treasure joyfully, gratefully, because your
weakness is an opportunity for Him to receive glory.
Whatever the difficulties and challenges that come your way,
God's grace is enough. And knowing Him, walking closely
with Him, He will give you the strength that you need to
persevere. God is able to make all grace
abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at
all times, you may abound in every good work.
So be happy to be a cardboard box and let those weaknesses
lead you to a greater dependence on the one who makes you strong,
so that he may receive all the glory.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the treasure
that you are in our lives. Thank you for the way that you
don't look down on our weaknesses, but instead you
choose to come near and live in us.
That you make us worthy by Jesus blood to be carriers of this
glorious message to everyone around us.
Help us to walk in greater dependence on you.
Thank You that your grace is sufficient for us and that your
power is made perfect in weakness.
May the truth of Christ in US transform and empower us for all
the good works you have called us to do in Jesus name, Amen.