Avoiding the Eternal Waste of our Suffering

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

There was a story that circulated recently about a woman who had been in a relationship for over 3 years, but a few weeks ago her boyfriend broke up with her because he suspected her of cheating.

Her boyfriend was vegan and he wanted her to try his dietary lifestyle as well. And she did. But over time she began missing meat.

So she would find excuses to go out without him. She would tell him that she needed to go to the store or run some errands. He would ask if she wanted him to go with her, but she would come up with a reason she needed to go by herself.

So eventually, the man voiced his suspicions that she was seeing someone else. He accused her of cheating and ended the relationship.

But the truth of the matter is that she wasn’t seeing someone else. She was going to McDonald’s and eating chicken nuggets.

Obviously what was in this man’s mind about what was happening, wasn’t happening.

But I think what happened to this couple happens to us. When we aren’t sure what’s happening, our minds begin to try to fill in the blanks and we lose perspective.

One of the areas of life we struggle with the most is our suffering. We wonder, what is God ‘up to’ when we suffer?

And we will all suffer. We suffer physically and mentally as our bodies and brains age and deal with the daily struggles of living in fallen world. But if you truly try to live for Jesus, there will be other types of suffering added to your plate.

You will also will suffer persecution and rejection from outside the church. And unfortunately, there will be times you will experience criticism and division from inside the church. And you will try to fill in the blanks in your mind, wondering what in the world is God doing? What’s His purpose in all of my pain?

And this passage we are looking at today brings us God’s purpose as it gives us an eternal perspective on suffering.

Let’s go back to our rope and our knot from last week. The rope is eternity and the knot is your lifespan. You and I are going to have to deal with some things in the knot that become eternally significant. In Christ, our suffering is not an eternal waste of time. This passage gives us an eternal perspective that will help us see what God is up to in our suffering.

An eternal perspective helps us see:

The resurrection in our affliction. (v. 7-12)

As Paul puts his suffering in an eternal perspective he describes himself as a jar of clay that contains a treasure. Let’s break this down.

What’s the treasure? The treasure is described in verse 6. “For God who said, ‘let light sine 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.” 2 Cor. 4:6

The treasure is the gospel. It is the same voice of God that said let there be light that spoke to our dark, dead hearts that awakened us to salvation in Jesus Christ. That means that those of us who have repented of sin and believed upon Jesus for salvation carry within us a life-altering revelation that resurrects the dead. It saves the lost. It’s a message that will ultimately redeem this fallen creation that Christ is risen and that He is Lord of all.

But God made an odd choice. He gave this message to people to spread to other people. As we’ve stated before. You are God’s plan A. There is no plan B.

So now Paul turns his attention to the vessel. His body. His life. His personality. His abilities or lack thereof. All of it draws a lot of criticism and endures a lot of persecution.

Paul has a lot going on. No one wants him to come to their town. He’s extremely unpopular with those outside the church. Everywhere he goes he gets beaten and imprisoned. A few times he’s been left for dead but somehow survived.

Physically he suffers. He tells us that he has some sort of thorn in the flesh. Given that he was blinded at the Damascus Road and some references in other places, it seems he may have some severe eye issues.

And his testimony isn’t like the rest. He was a persecutor of the church, so a lot of people are skeptical of him, wondering if he’s really changed. His apostleship is not like the other’s apostleship. He didn’t meet Jesus until after the resurrection. He didn’t spend time with Jesus before like the rest of them. So some argue that he is disqualified.

And then apparently, he’s not a good speaker. He’s not very articulate, confident, or persuasive. In Greek culture a great speaker was on par with our great athletes as far as admiration goes. But Paul describes himself as shaky, not very eloquent or confident.

So he calls himself a jar of clay. Notice that he doesn’t call himself a vase of gold or a platter of silver. He doesn’t describe himself as a desirable, beautiful, artisan piece. Of the pottery of the day he describes himself as the cheapest, ugliest, most basic vessel.

If people in our culture like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Matthew McConaughey, Bono, or Oprah are Yeti cups, you and I are milk jugs.

Do you ever feel inadequate? Insecure? There are some people who have a contagious personality, but you feel like the virus.

And if that’s not enough, have you blown it along the way? Have you tried and failed? Do you look at others who seem that everything they touch turns to gold, but everything you touch turns to dust?

And maybe you are going through some health challenges right now. You can’t do what you want to do. Maybe you are going through some mental challenges right now. It’s really nice outside, but it’s really dark on the inside.

And maybe you have tried to express your faith in some situations and it has gotten you in trouble. You feel rejected, unsupported, at odds with everyone else in the situation.

Maybe you are in a position of leadership and you hear a lot of criticism when it comes to your decisions. You can’t win.

That’s life as a jar of clay. Undesirable. Vulnerable. Cheap.

And so now Paul begins to describe how that feels. You may sympathize.

Afflicted in every way - everywhere you turn it’s trouble. There are constant problems. Your work. Your family. Your personality rubs someone the wrong way. You have a doctor’s appointment and it’s bad news. You don’t have enough money. You and your spouse are struggling. Your children are rebelling. For Paul it was the persecution outside the church and the criticism inside the church - afflicted in every way.

Perplexed - you have no idea of what to do. You are at a loss for the right decision.

Persecuted - you are under attack.

Stuck down - it has cost you. It hurts. Wounded.

And you have to wonder why? What’s God up to? What’s eternally significant about my suffering?

The purpose of the jar of clay according to Paul is, “to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

The value of the jar of clay was not what was on the outside, but what was on the inside. It was what was within it that made it significant. Remember, we carry the voice, the revelation, and the power of God in the gospel. The purpose of the jar of clay was to keep from being a distraction from what’s inside.

What’s your favorite drink? Coffee? Coke? Sprite? Pepsi? Have you ever noticed that they package it to draw attention to what’s inside?

And we also know that a container can affect the taste of something. I like Sprite. And I can tell you that Sprite from a can doesn’t taste as good as Sprite from a glass bottle.

When we rely on our own power, strength, talent and ability to do something significant we don’t enhance the gospel, we distract from it. There are a lot of people who are powerful, articulate, and attention grabbing personalities who have made Jesus distasteful to the lost world.

So God likes jars of clay. Crack pots! Why? Because it shows that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. And if we get this eternal perspective, you can probably retrace those most disappointing, critical, and dark moments of your story and see the resurrection power of Christ working daily in them.

Afflicted in every way. Everywhere you turn there are problems. But not crushed. Another translation of that word is trapped. Somehow there appeared a pathway forward. So many problems, but God did something to give you a path and other people saw you take it. Thank you Jesus! Way to go crack pot!

Perplexed. You had no idea of what to do. You couldn’t find the right decision and maybe you made a lot of wrong ones. And a lot of people expressed their opinion of better ways. But you were not driven to despair. You did not give up. God showed you something. He gave you some hope and some encouragement. Every other voice in your life was awful and His became so powerful. Thank you Jesus for pouring into the pot!

Persecuted. You were under attack. Persecution is meant to silence you. Separate you. Drive you away. But you were not forsaken. The implied meaning here is that you were not forsaken by Jesus. That time of persecution became a time in which the closeness of Christ manifested itself to you like never before. When the world was against you, you realized that Jesus is all you had. Thank you God for not throwing away us crack pots!

Struck down. It has cost you. You have lost some things and some people along the way. You were wounded. But you’re not done. The devil comes to steal, kill, and DESTROY - but by the resurrection power of Jesus you are very much alive and you have something left.

And this is the way it is for us. “We who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake.” And what keeps coming of it? The eternal perspective helps you to see the resurrection power of Jesus working in you so that others may not see the jar of clay, but that their attention may be drawn to that unusual, powerful thing that is of surpassing value inside.

The eternal perspective helps you get the perspective that you can criticize me. Others are far more talented than me. But I’m not here to be the center of attention. I’m here to show you the power of what’s inside.

The eternal perspective helps us to see that it’s not for me and it’s not for now. (2 Cor. 4:13-15)

Paul has been persecuted and criticized. What keeps him going is knowing that as more and more people receive this message of grace that it will result in more and more people bringing thanksgiving to God.

I want to share a personal testimony to the truth of this part of the passage. As a pastor you receive a lot of criticism. Through the years there have been a lot of people who have given me reasons to stop doing what I do.

There have been some people through the years who have made a case with others as to why I shouldn’t be doing what I do.

There have been a lot of things I’ve tried and failed.

There have been a lot of times in which things weren’t going as well as I wanted them to.

Throughout all my years of following Christ I’ve heard a lot more “no’s” than “yes’s”.

And you get discouraged and you think that life would probably be a lot easier without all of this.

One of the things we see Paul draw from in this section is other Scripture. He quotes Psalm 116. Psalm 116 is the praise of a man who asked for God’s help in a difficult time and he received it. When we go through difficulty, one of the things that can help the most is to pray Scripture.

As hard as things can become, those Scriptures give us the eternal perspective that reminds you that it’s not for you and it’s not for now. Notice that because of the eternal perspective he can see the resurrection power not only working in his story, but in other people’s story. It’s for their sake that he keeps going and for the increasing thanksgiving that it brings to God.

So we are taking pictures of all of the baptisms in 2021. We are now up to 16 for the year. We’ve had 5 baptisms since we started services last Sunday morning. Praise God.

And those pictures have been a real blessing to me. Because when I want to give in to all of the voices and situations that want me to give up I look at those pictures . . .

And when you see a meth addict that God saved 11 years ago baptizing a meth addict God saved a few weeks ago - when grace extends to more and more people it may increase in thanksgiving to the glory of God!

Imagine what it’s going to be like in eternity when we hear people 500,000 years from now talking about coming to Christ through our CR program.

See what are you serving in and giving to? It’s not for you and it’s not for now! That’s the eternal perspective.

Eternal perspective helps us see several reasons not to lose heart (4:16-18)

I love how Paul ends this portion of the passage. He gives reasons he doesn’t lose heart.

Temporal - Our outer self is wasting away.

Eternal - Our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Temporal - This light momentary affliction

Eternal - is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

Temporal - We look not to the things that are seen

Eternal - But to the things unseen.

And then the statement that pretty much sums up this series, “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Perspective

Conclusion/Illustration

Oscar Wilde you know that he made his whole life about pleasure, but it made him miserable. I think that his story, The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s Book of Ecclesiastes. It all amounts to nothing.

The premise of the book is that you have this young, handsome man that everyone admires named Dorian Gray. And an artist paints a portrait of him. But the portrait brings Dorian to the realization that while the portrait will never age, he will age and change. The portrait captures a moment of his handsomeness and youth that is fleeting.

So he makes a wish of sorts and asks that the portrait take on the effects of age, difficulty, and life while his face remain preserved.

And so he does. And he lives hard. And while everyone around him ages, Dorian remains unchanged. But he has this portrait in his attic that truly shows the man he is becoming. By the end of the book it drives him mad because the picture has become so awful.

According to this passage, the exact opposite is happening to us. Our bodies are wasting away. Life is hard. Serving Christ is discouraging. Sometimes you don’t get the results you are seeking. And we feel it. But there is something in the attic, in eternity, a version of us that is being built into a glorious testimony of the resurrection power of God working in us.

So what is God up to? List summary of main points.

He is using us jars of clay to the deliver the revelation of salvation so that His surpassing power may be clearly seen. He is using our perseverance to see more and more people receive grace and increase thanksgiving to God.