Clay Pots With a beautiful Treasure II Cor 4
Notes
Transcript
Who is Paul? The question that started the practical answer that we spelled out in these first chapters.
You remember that Paul is working planting churches through the country side. He spent a year and a half with the People of Corinth for the work of building this church and then set them loose with a pastor.
In that time false teachers the super apostles crept into church and began questioning the authority of Paul. It is too this church that Paul wrote in Chapter 3 “you are my letter of recommendation”.
What Paul does in chapter 3 is the explanation for why they should listen to him. It is that Jesus did the calling through Paul’s ministry.
His second reason has to do with the message itself. This message Paul refers to as “this ministry” is the Ministry of the Gospel.
Opener with Grip...
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
There was a temptation to back off this Gospel and to change the message.
Jesus Lived
Jesus Died
Jesus Rose Again
This is not an easy ministry for Paul to under take. He acknowledges this from the beginning. It would be easy for him to quit or to faint.
Where does Paul see the danger to give up and quit? I think this is important because you and I have this same Gospel and we are suseptible to quit on this awesome ministry.
The great threats to the Gospel and its servants are:
1. Handling the word of God Deceitfully. (1)
The first threat he highlights is the one they are most familiar with. It is the false teacher that earns his place through flowery words and influence. He may have bought his way into the place of trust the church placed in him. But either way he is leading and has no business there.
In their nature they...
Conceal their dishonesty.
You are not going to see the dishonest. False teachers are good at looking good. They are manipulators of reality. They earn their way in they buy their way in but know that the hand hidden in their bosom is leperous and will destroy those that dare follow.
They bind you back to live in bondage. They speak sweet things that tickle the ear. They elevate the sinner and minor on the Savior.
Very concerned about their image.
They craft a beautiful persona. They have too because if you see it for what it is you will leave them. So they hide themselves from view.
They use God’s Word to execute their agenda.
The great threats to the Gospel and its servants are:
2. The god of this world has blinded minds. (3-4)
Satan’s ploys are wicked in their simplicity. All Satan has to do is blind the minds of them which believe not.
Entertainment
Ease
Endowments (good works)
Estate (money)
The great threats to the Gospel and its servants are:
3. Distressed; persecuted (8)
I don’t think we do ourselves favors by declaring martyrdom when it isnt happening but it is okay to point out that your culture has proved to you in the last two years that they don’t care about you, your family, or your God. And we are fools to act like they are.
Now it would be perfectly fine if Paul simply stopped here and said look you should believe what I have to say because I paid a price for you. But this struggle is what the decievers in the church were using against Paul. Namely, “If Paul has God on his side why does God bless us with wealth and happiness and not Paul?”
So Paul points out the real reason that the Gospel is worth the sacrifices and threats that come with it...
The reason the Gospel is worth the threats is that it comes with the promises of God.
The Gospel Promises...
1. Resurrection (14)
The Gospel is worth it because the Gospel gives the Saint the assurance of Resurrection. You don’t have to fear the threats of standing for the Gospel because our resurrection is assured. There is a day of Reckoning… That isn’t a bad thing if you have your faith in Christ Jesus.
The Gospel Promises...
2. Glory of God (15)
The Child of God finds no higher rejoicing that knowing that they participate in the Joy of Bringing God his proper glory.
Church he is worthy of Glory today. He is worthy of your praise, your devotion, your dependence, your adoration, your obedience. He is worthy of the hardship, he is worthy of you fulfilling your role in the home, church, and community.
The Gospel Promises...
3. Renewed inner man (16)
God is working out a new man in each of us. This Gospel and the work that comes with it is actively changing the one who leans on it.
When I am living a Gospel life I depend more on him and less on the sinner every day. The renewing of lining up my thinking to match his Word draws the new man up and the old man out.
Practically Paul explains the renewing comes from being Daily in his Word.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The Principle of this passage is woven through the passage...
Verse 7 reveals the Reason that many Servant cower away from the ministry of the Gospel is the sense that we are fragile.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Paul addresses the issue of our fragility. We are but clay pots. One wrong move and it is over for us.
Our workplace gets awkward.
Friends and family cancel us.
Social Media marks us.
In the First century you died for this.
It’s more comfortable hidden in the middle...
It is easy to be seen as a weirdo. By the way that cuts both ways. The blue and pink haired abortion lover screaming in a bullhorn is a freak, and she is easily marked as one.
One of the temptations in any moral argument is to be seen as clearly on one side but thoughtful and considerate. Our temptation is to swing away from any extreme. For every locust eating John the Baptist there are dozens of people hiding in the crowd.
Paul embraces the fragility of weak vessels. Paul’s answer to being fragile is not to back down from the threats but to see the Gospel as a treasure that has been trusted to the fragile and weak and the motivation to go forward into the dangerous is to focus on the value of what we have inside us from Christ.
He underlines this with a closing though just 10 verses later...
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
You are not as fragile as you think...
You are eternal, and the glory of the Gospel will last a lot longer in eternity than the shame of the Gospel here now.
The key is to the see the truth of the eternal life to Come promised to those that would cling to the Gospel purchased by the Blood of Jesus.