Pastor Chris Royce
Sermon Text: 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
Sunday June 6, 2021
“It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done”. When I say that slogan, what comes to mind for you? “It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done”
When I hear that slogan, I think of my first car – 2000 Toyota Camry. Well-used and well loved by the time I acquired the keys. Limited lifespan remaining, it wasn’t a flashy, state-of-the-art ride by any means, but for many years it safely got me from A to B. When you hear that slogan, maybe you think of your first car, too. Like mine, your first car probably was well past its prime by the time you got in the drivers seat, but I’m sure you too could say that your first car “got the job done and served you well”. I think back to some of the stuff I grew up with. I’m pretty sure my parent’s vacuum cleaner predates me – and yet its been a faithful companion for cleaning carpets all these years. I bet you can think of something you possess that’s just like that. Or maybe the “it’s not pretty” slogan applies for hand me down clothes. It might not be the most trendy gear, but it’s still perfectly good clothes. In my Friday Bible class the other day, we got to talking about why flip phones might be better than smartphones. Flip phones might lack all the bells and whistles that are so popular today, but they make calls and texts – which is what a phone is for. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.
That slogan comes to mind as I think of our lesson for today from 2 Corinthians. As we’ll discuss this morning, my life might not always look pretty, but through it the power of Christ is magnified and put on display. This lesson from chapter 4 might contain the most memorable words from all of 2 Corinthians – “jars of clay”. This is our main verse of focus for this morning, verse 7: Paul says “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” If you spend enough time around a church, you might start to hear this as a common reference to believers – “we’re mere jars of clay”. Our next several weeks of sermons will be from this book of the Bible and you’re going to see a similar thread throughout – God has a unique way of doing things. The guidance God gives to us through Paul in 2 Corinthians really goes against the grain of how the world would have us think and operate. But when we walk in this unique path to heaven, we really come to see how blessed and beautiful this Way, God’s way is. The first upside down truth before us today: God stores precious treasure in frail vessels.
Where do you keep your valuables? Somewhere safe, somewhere tucked away. You store your money in banks, or if you’re little – a sturdy well-fortified piggy bank. You don’t leave large sums of money sitting out on the kitchen table or in the cupholder of your car for anyone to see, smash the window, and grab. For your valuable items, you keep them in a metal safe or maybe in a bank deposit box. You put your car in the garage…you get my point. The world keeps valuables well-protected. God stations precious treasure – the message of Christ – a message of eternal life, light and hope – in jars of clay. Seems unconventional, doesn’t it? Clay and pottery cracks very easily. It’s frail. It’s weak. It seems strange to shelter something so valuable in a vessel so fragile. Why does God do this? What is God trying to teach us with this “jars of clay” illustration?
To help us better understand this, we take a look at the life of Paul. After Christ had appeared to Paul on the Road to Damascus and changed his heart – he set Paul on his new life’s mission. This is from Acts 9, talking about Paul: This man (Paul) is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” So not only would Paul have an important mission of bringing the gospel message to different nations, lands, and peoples – but its already foreshadowed here, that this work would be far from easy. And you see that playing out in chapter 4 when Paul speaks to the Corinthian believers. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. Hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down…Christ was right. Indeed Paul and his early ministry team suffered. If you flip through certain parts of Acts, you really see how tough Paul and Co had it, sharing the gospel. I think it’s safe to say that most of our evangelism efforts today pale in intensity to the opposition they experienced. And if you really want to get graphic detail – 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, Paul doesn’t hold back at all. He recounts in specific detail the amount of hardships he’s endured. Five times I received forty lashes, three times I’ve been beaten, three times shipwrecked – encountering death time and time again. How does one have any ounce of optimism or joy throughout all of this?
Paul, a frail vessel was able to press on in peace because of what was inside of him – Jesus Christ, the light of the world. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. God had transformed his heart and filled him, the self-proclaimed worst of all sinners, with forgiveness and endless love. Speaking of upside down – what Paul received from God was so backwards, wasn’t it? Paul made a career of killing God’s followers. That should earn Paul the wealth of God’s wrath. That would be fair and proper and right a punishment. But instead, God gives him abundant grace, and that good news is what changes hearts and attitudes. It changed Paul’s attitude and heart so much that he considers it joy to endure this for the sake of gospel ministry. I look at verses 11 and 12: For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. Still Paul continues sharing the gospel, still Paul finds himself in situations where his life and body could be permanently compromised – and he’s willing to go on and minister! He’s willing to be externally whipped, beaten, cracked and destroyed. Because God has placed in his heart a treasure, a wealth of good news to go and share with others. God didn’t remove the trials from this jar of clay. But God placed in his heart a peace that transcends all logic and reason – a peace that can find joy and contentment in even the worst of situations.
I think this is where some churches get it wrong. I think some churches make too much a deal about the vessels than the light inside of them. Some churches do an “altar call” where there’s a part of the worship service where people can come up to the altar, fall on their knees, and display for all to see how committed they are to Christ. There are some churches that allow people to come up and share a testimony about how their faith held fast throughout the week or how they’re faithfully carrying the banner of Christ in their day-to-day lives. As long as I’m at the helm here, we won’t be doing either of those things. Because I think the danger with things like this is that we can then leave church focusing too much on the vessel than the treasure and power of God. “Gee, Derek really loves God. I wish my faith were more like his.” “Bethany, wow, – she’s like a fortress for Christ whenever life throws curveballs her way. Why can’t I be more like her?” It’s been said before that a church isn’t a museum for the righteous, it’s a hospital for the broken. And whenever you open presents – which is more important? The outer wrapping or the gift inside? We can’t make the focus of what we do on the vessels. We always fix our eyes on Jesus, the all-surpassing power of God, the author and perfector of our faith. That one line from “Jesus Loves Me” is so true – we are weak but he is strong.
We are jars of clay. Our lives right now are filled with weakness. We are not a museum of righteous people but we’re a hospital of broken people. It hurts to say that and it hurts to hear it.
We don’t come here on Sundays to boast in ourselves or how faithful we are to God Rather, we’re here week in and week out because we are weak in every way. How is this life filled with weakness? The first and biggest thing that comes to mind is sin. Sin has broken us and damaged us, we were born as sinners and we’ll die as sinners. Our sins damage those we love, and those around us sin against us. Additionally, Paul was heavily focused on ministry in this section. There might be only one pastor in this room right now but all of us are part of a ministry. We’re a part of a cause, a ministry, that has plummeting stock in this world. A cause that appears weak. If all of the churches in town were to disappear tomorrow, few would notice, many wouldn’t care, many would celebrate it. Paul was hard-pressed, persecuted, struck down. Maybe we’re not in the same danger he was in, but we’re shushed, unfriended, ignored, dismissed by others for what we hold on to. We might not be called workers, but we all are ambassadors of Christ in our personal lives. And we’re weak in how we carry this out. Just this week I’ve heard from 2-3 people I’m close to that God is great and Jesus is good – but their biggest problem with Christianity is the church. Others have noticed our weakness – our failures to love and serve have hindered the spread of the gospel.
We also experience weakness in life from trials. Whatever they might be. We will be burned by those who promised to always love us, we’ll experience physical, emotional, mental pain. God will take away. God will say no. Hardship will wear us down and God won’t necessarily flip the script. Again, just look at Paul. Later on in this book of the Bible Paul tells another story about a time where he pleaded with God three times to remove a certain thorn from his life – and God said no. The world is drawn to success, strength, and accomplishment. God is drawn to weakness. God shelters treasure in frail vessels.
Because light shines through the cracks. That’s why God stores his treasure here. As we, brittle jars of clay, wear weakness all throughout this life – a greater power is visible at work inside of us, the eternally life, joy, and hope that Christ has to offer. The light of Christ shines in our hearts. What does this mean? It means that we know of a greater love than any love the world has to offer, the love of Christ who was abandoned, scorned and ridiculed for us. We have peace in the greatest way – God harbors no ill will against us. Our future in heaven is secure. As we finish out the rest of our pilgrim days here, we will experience so much weakness but we have almighty strength and power on our side! Strength and power that forgive us, strength and power that gives us eyes of faith and greater perspective, strength and power to persevere. Will we always feel strong as sin and hard times kick us in the teeth? No we won’t. Remember, we are weak. But we know the one who is strong! We have the all-surpassing power of God in our favor.
It’s not pretty but it gets the job done. Our lives might display weakness, but through our lives – Christ is magnified. His grace is sufficient for us. We can join Paul and join in saying that famous verse: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” That is, “I can be content in every circumstance, through Christ alone who gives me strength. The power to do this comes not from myself, but through Christ in me, his precious jar of clay. Amen.
