Treasure the Treasure (2)

In 1947, while searching for a stray goat in the Judean desert fifteen miles east of Jerusalem, Bedouin shepherds threw a stone into a dark cave. After hearing a shattering sound, the shepherds entered the cave. They discovered that their stone had shattered and broken one of many clay jars containing scrolls that were over a thousand years-old, scrolls that turned out to be the oldest surviving manuscripts of the OT ever discovered! These manuscripts, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls dated back hundreds of year before Christ and contained scrolls from every book of the Bible, except Esther. Talk about random by the way—bedouin shepherds stumbling upon the oldest surviving cash of biblical manuscripts in the world at that time—I’ll come back to the seeming randomness of that discovery later—but what a joy it was for scholars when they finally got the chance to examine these scrolls, like the scroll of Isaiah, and guess what—this scroll from thousands of years ago matches up in nearly identical fashion with the modern manuscripts we have of Isaiah in our English Bibles today! Not a surprise to us who take God at his when he promises that, “Heavens and earth will pass away, but my Words will never pass away.” (Mt.24:35) God keeps his promise to preserve his Word in every age. And by the way, if God takes his eternal Word and places it in you, what does that mean about you? It means you will never pass away either.

Today the Apostle Paul reminds us that we have a treasure stored in jars of clay, but in this case the jars of clay are us. We are frail, we are broken in different ways, we are mortal and subject to decay, but then God takes eternal Treasure and places it safely inside each of us--And in this case, instead of the clay jar preserving the contents of the treasure inside, it’s the treasure that preserves us. The encouragement today is to “Treasure that Treasure.” See how eager God is for us to receive it, to have life through it and to take that treasure out and share it with others.

So what again exactly is the treasure we carry around in these jars of clay? In a word: it’s Jesus. Paul says, (v.6) God has given us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Christ.” Paul mentions light and knowledge here—and by that he means more than just physical light or knowledge in the sense of information--He’s talking about the Light, Jesus Christ, and about experiencing firsthand the glory of God as we learn about him through the Person of Jesus Christ. That Treasure came down to us from heaven—God’s precious Son descended from on high and came down to us, and when we see him suffer and die for us on the cross, when we see Him rejoicing over even one lost sinner that is returned to him, then we see the glory of God. Jesus is the Treasure! See Him, Paul says, and you see the glory of God. God’s glory appears in the face of Jesus Christ.

How eager God is that you receive this Treasure of indescribable worth, who doesn’t just come down to us for a while and then leave, never to return again—No--He even goes so far as to take up residence in us! “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple,” Paul asked the Corinthians, “and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor.3:16)

Someone who comes that close to us with his peace and his hope to despairing consciences, is certainly a great Treasure! There is no greater Treasure than Jesus. Which makes us maybe wonder sometimes...God has this great Treasure...wouldn’t it be proper for him to find something better suited than you or me to store this Treasure in? Something less fragile, something stronger or more secure? But in fact, God does just the opposite—why?! Why does he pick such plain, fragile and sinful clay jars like us?

There’s a purpose in all this Paul says. (vv.7-9) “We hold this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing; persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed.”

Let’s unpack all that because Paul just said a lot there. Take what Paul says about light and knowledge there. The word for “light” here in the Greek is φωτισμὸs (it’s the word we get our English word “photon” from—it’s a light particle—a lamp in a room fills the room with light energy as billions of photons illuminate the room--but of course the light Paul’s talking about isn’t a physical light or light energy—he’s talking about the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And then he says that it’s in seeing the person of Jesus Christ that you see the glory of God. In verse four Paul called Jesus the exact image of God (2 Cor.4:4).

it’s the truth about Jesus—it’s his love, his grace and his mercy and wisdom at work in us as he pours out his Truth and with his Truth he gives us himself abundantly through the Means of Grace in Word and sacrament.

So when we see Christ and him crucified, we see God’s glory.

When Christ comes to our conscience with his saving love, we get a taste of the the glory of God. That’s what Paul means by the light of the knowledge of God in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s a knowledge that’s not just about information. It’s a knowledge that’s experienced by sinners. And it comes to us as a result of the illuminating and enlightening work of the Holy Spirit. The Catechism talks about this light when it says, “The Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel and enlightened me with his gifts...” In one of our hymns we sing, “Holy Spirit, Light divine, shine upon this heart of mine. Chase the shades of night away; turn my darkness into day.” Peter writes, “God has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Pet. 2:9)

Paul says God’s enlightening work in us is just like his power at work in creation. (v.6) “The God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” is the same one who made light shine in our hearts.” Evolutionists insist that the world took millions of years to evolve, but in God’s own record of his work, he simply said, “Let there be,” (Gen.1:3,6,9,11,14,20) and all things that he named IMMEDIATELY APPEARED! When God speaks a word, that thing immediately jumps into existence! We don’t have that power. If I’m stranded on a deserted island and say, “Let there be food,” a large meal isn’t going to appear in front of me without any help from a cook or waiter or grocery store on the island. Or, if I say, “Let there be a helicopter,” a helicopter isn’t going to suddenly appear to take me anywhere in the world. Those things are impossible for us, but not with God. In one of our psalms it says, “God spoke and it was done.” (Ps.33:9)

nd the knowledge he’s talking about isn’t just information--.

tells us it’s, (v.6) “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person[b] of Jesus Christ.”

First, let’s thank God that we have this treasure in the first place. In the verse just

Long ago people hid valuables in clay jars to protect them from the elements, or to keep people from stealing them. An extra step would be to bury the jar with the treasure in it.

In our case, it’s just the opposite. God places his treasure of the Gospel inside us clay jars in order to protect us!

So “Treasure the Treasure” God has placed in you.

First, be thankful that you have this treasure in the first place. In verse just before our text, Paul said, (v.4) “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The blinding of the minds of the unbelievers by Satan is so thorough that not even the glorious light of the gospel shines through. The darkness of unbelief is that powerful and that profound. Not many of us here really can know or appreciate what it’s really like to be in that kind of darkness because we’ve been Christians all our life. When you’re living in that darkness, there’s no way out.

Paul says there’s only one thing that can break that darkness, and that is the Gospel. Until God comes to us with his light, we remain in the darkness. Which is why the gospel is such a treasure. It’s the light of Jesus that brings us out of the darkness of sin and unbelief. (v.6) “For God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” is the same one who made light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person[b] of Jesus Christ.”

Paul surely must’ve had his own conversion on the road to Damascus when he was writing these words. God the Creator, who made light out of nothing, shined into the blackest darkness of unbelief when he met Paul on his way to persecute Christians. He placed his light in the heart of a man who once lived in darkness and rebellion. From that point forward Paul’s ministry was about God’s justification of sinners and a conversion which was entirely the work and decision of God alone, not Paul. He has nothing to say about any contribution whatsoever on his part here. God did it all. That’s why, Paul says, (v.5) “We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So then if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Mt. 6:22-23)

—so we treasure that trgospel is the treasure, not the jar!

And so the jars of clay then and the jars of clay now and the jars of clay through all eternity sing praise to Jesus: the ultimate, real, and only treasure. They magnify and extol the mercy and grace of the lowly and all-glorious Son of God, our Savior. For it has pleased him to use them and to use us also for a work that angels might well have wished for themselves.

In the Gospel Lesson today Jesus said that God made the Sabbath especially with you in mind. Sabbath means rest. Out of all the creatures in his creation, you are unique in that God made you with a soul that can relate to him, and enjoy a relationship with him. The real reason the Garden of Eden was a place of perfect rest was because God was there, and there was no sin.

But when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and fell into sin the perfect joy and rest they had with God was shattered by sin and strife.

In the OT the On the seventh day God rested from everything he was doing and that he blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested form all his work that he had done in creation.

In the Books of Moses the Seventh Day came to be known as the Sabbath, which means “rest.” God planned a day of the week for you to get rest for yourself, rest for your entire self, body and soul.

Because God calls Christians into one Body, it’s natural for them to want to get together for this rest. So, they agree on a set time that works for most of them and they gather for the purpose of hearing God’s Word that provides rest for our souls. Give thanks to God that he gives us time for hearing and studying his Word, the gospel proclaimed through his prophets and apostles. How eager God is that we hear his Word, too—that despite the raging of the devil and the hatred of the world for his Word, he still rules over the world so that his gospel still goes forth Sunday after Sunday in the Church.

The psalmist said that he treasured God’s Word, more “than gold, even better than much pure gold…[Your words] are sweeter than honey, [sweeter] even honey dripping from the honeycomb.” (Ps.19:10) 

But who is one who rightly treasures his Word this way.

I don’t know if realized this, but both evolution and the Bible state that man was formed from dust. The big bang theory, more or less, holds that planet earth and all its life forms developed from stardust—which originates from cooling gasses emitted from pre-solar stars and eventually formed the solar systems. While the Bible says that God formed man from the dust of the earth, from whom he went on to create the first woman from a rib of the man. And surprisingly enough, both the Bible and the evolutionary worldview states that man returns to dust.

Of course, the big difference is that God says that while our body returns to the dust from which it came, our soul returns to the One who gave it.

The psalmist writes, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made. By the breath of his mouth he made the whole army of stars. 7 He gathers the water of the sea into a heap. He puts the depths into storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world revere him. 9 For he said, “Let it be,” and it was! He gave a command, and there it stood.” (Ps.33:6-9)

2 Corinthians 4:6 - For God, who said, “Let light shine (λάμπω) out of darkness,”  made his light shine (ἔλαμψεν 3rd sing aor indic) in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Imagine it—by a mere word of his mouth God brought forth light out of darkness in all the world. And then Paul adds this glorious parallel: this same God performs a second wonder—the cosmic darkness in our hearts was no less profound and intense than the darkness at the beginning of creation.

No doubt that as he writes this, Paul is thinking back to the day of his conversion when quite literally a light from heaven penetrated the darkness of his heart. On that day he came face-to-face with God’s greatest glory. He saw Jesus and, seeing Jesus, saw the glory of God’s love. A light receiver, as Paul was privileged to be that day, cannot help but also be a light reflector (see 3:18).

πρὸς - Use of preposition?

φωτισμὸν (enlightenment, bringing to light, revealing) τῆς γνώσεως (comprehension or intellectual grasp of something) τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν προσώπῳ [Ἰησοῦ] Χριστοῦ. And God uses the Holy Spirit to do this through the Holy Scriptures.

Like the light of the sun, the word is present, addressed to us by a pastor, written in a book, read in the Divine Service. It comes from without, like the light of the sun.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV) “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The blinding of the minds of the unbelievers by Satan is so thorough that not even the this glorious light gets a chance to dawn on them, let alone that it should illumine them.” (Meyer)

5 Indeed, we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,”[a] is the same one who made light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person[b] of Jesus Christ.

7 We hold this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing; 9 persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 To be sure, while we are living we are continually being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12 So then, death is working in us, but life is working in you.

Paul’s thorn reminded him of his weakness, and Christ’s willingness to suffer for us, bearing our iniquity, our griefs, afflictions (he took the sufferings of the world into himself on the cross and died, and then rose again, and gives us resurrection too. He enters this with us, taking it all into himself. Our crosses are taken up into Christ’s cross—into his suffering—he bore our suffering—knowing this means we can endure our sufferings, and they can even be a way to grow closer to Christ.

Every day there are little things that become crosses to us. Boredom at our work, or frustrated at things our child does, or are upset by things in the news. Love and serve our neighbor (or customers) regardless of how exciting it is. Rather sleep in or call in. But instead we go, for the good of our employer, or fellow workers and customers, even when we don’t want to. Or In our parenting, every act of service is going to call for a denial of self.