June
14 2009 Reading: 2
Corinthians 4.1-12
Theme: Treasure in earthen vessels
Many years ago, when we lived in
the local paper was
suddenly full of a fascinating discovery made in a back garden, at Dykebar, on
the edge of the town. The television crews arrived to interview the owners of
the house.
What was the discovery ? It was buried
treasure. In a clay
pot at the far end of the garden. The owner had been digging up part of
the garden, and his spade had hit a solid object - a large, old, clay pot, he
picked it up and inside found hundreds of silver coins. They had been hidden
away during a time of war five or six centuries ago
we are always
fascinated by such stories,
there’s such a contrast
between an ordinary back garden, and a treasure hoard,
an old clay pot, and
glittering silver !
It’s a contrast like that that Paul is speaking about in 2 Corinthians 4:
a contrast of the most dramatic kind, treasure -in clay pots, in earthen
vessels.
But here, he is talking about
the startling contrast
between the majesty of God’s grace, on the one hand,
and on the other, the frail and weak human heart to which God’s grace comes
such an immense and wonderful thing
entrusted to such poor, broken beings;
the gospel given to such an ordinary Church.
‘We have this treasure in clay
pots.”
What
possible purpose could there be in this ? Paul’s
hearers must have asked.........
And
his answer is there in verse 7: it is in order to show that the supreme power
belongs to God, not to us !
That
the strength we have comes from beyond,
the faith we live by is a gift,
the power we know in our weakness,
all of these have their source in the living God
!
Contrasts indeed ! We have this treasure in
clay pots.
Let’s think about that treasure for a
moment............
First, the treasure. ‘We have this treasure.” Treasure. What does
Paul mean by treasure ? Well, what he is talking about is the gospel,
the good news of Jesus Christ and His Cross. And
how could we ever forget that the gospel, the old familiar gospel, is
still —even with all the technological marvels that surround us, and the great talk
of billions in profit or loss, the gospel, the old familiar gospel, is the most
wonderful of blessings?
We will recognise right away where Paul got this picture of treasure.
He has borrowed it directly from Jesus. Jesus spoke about the search
for treasure. He spoke of the dealer in
precious stones, who spent his
life travelling across land and sea
to enrich his collection; and how one
day in the diamond market he suddenly
saw before him the most perfect pearl, wonderful beyond his dreams; and how that
man went and sold his whole collection just to get that one priceless
jeweL
That, said Jesus, is what
it means, what it is like to find the
Think for a moment.
What does the gospel offer? Professor J.S.Stewart would say:
It comes to one man, struggling,
crushed by guilt, beginning to wonder if life is worth living. The gospel comes
and says —“Take courage, your guilt and sin are taken away, at the Cross of
Jesus Christ.......live, live again !” The gospel
comes to a woman, weary, burdened with disappointment, and it brings a quiet serenity
never known before.
The gospel comes to
this confused, chaotic, bewildered world, and it
tells of the entrance into history of a force of immeasurable range
which brings a new dimension, a new transformation for the whole human race.
The New Testament declares
this from end to end! No wonder Paul so often writes about “unsearchable
riches” and “unspeakable gifts”. ‘We have this treasure.”
It was this above all else that
drove Paul tirelessly across the earth,
The great snow capped mountain
ranges of
Perhaps
the great need of the Church today is this: a much deeper
sense of the riches we have, a much deeper sense of the treasures we have in
Jesus Christ and His Cross.
Let’s look now at the other side of the contrast. Let’s turn
from the treasure to the clay pots. Actually, at that moment, Paul, we can be sure, had the Church at
How strange, the Church of Jesus Christ in
Paul once
wrote about the Church there - there are “not many wise men,
not many mighty, not many noble”
— yet this was the
We might look at the Church
as it is to-day and be
bewildered,
we see sometimes its
wisdom, sometimes its flaws, and most of the time a not very inspiring ordinariness
and wonder - Is this really the
Funnily enough, there were those in the Church at
who criticised Paul
for exactly the same thing.........
We expected, some had said.................
someone with presence,
someone with charisma, someone eloquent
but this man Paul
“when he is with us in person he is weak and
his words are nothing !”
A man whose body had been tested by the thousands of miles he had
journeyed, the many times he had been beaten, the shock and stress of
shipwreck, for the sake of the gospel.........
“when he is with us in person he is weak “
Paul was not, it seems, a very
impressive figure,
yet within him burned
that ever bright memory
of the day he met
Jesus Christ on the road to
yet within him burned
that ever bright
presence of Jesus Christ
and his Cross.........
Paul, living his life as a frail vessel, like a clay pot,
but whose life
overflowed with the treasures that were his in Jesus.
and this, says Paul, is what God has intended
The treasure has
been put into clay pots, not by mistake,
not because nothing better was available. But because God intended it so,
for it is not through human strength but through human weakness, , that God
chooses to build His Kingdom.
And at this point,
we come to the Cross,
for the message of the Cross, says Paul is just this,
“even
though it was in weakness that Jesus Christ was put to death on the Cross,
it is by God’s power that He lives............”
this mystery: for it is not through human strength but
through human weakness,
that God chooses to build His Kingdom.
despite
our human failings
God is at work to bring glory
to His name !
This is why, as J.S. Stewart says: when you have sunk right down to rock bottom that you suddenly find you have struck the Rock of Ages.
It does not matter how poor and unworthy we feel ourselves to be,
as clay pots.............
God’s purpose is to place the treasures of the gospel,
living
treasure, the Saviour Jesus
Christ