Preached August 2, 2009
from
2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Theme: God demonstrates the power of His gospel by presenting this precious treasure to the world in weak vessels like us.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you (2 Corinthians 4:7-12).

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For those of us who are in Christ Jesus, this passage speaks of a precious treasure that has been entrusted to us; and of how the bearing of that treasure is the greatest privilege anyone could possibly have on this earth.

It’s your and my privilege, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to bear the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ—in this dark world. And do you ever stop to think of what a fabulous thing it is that has been entrusted to us by God? The message that we bear is truly the most powerful—most life-transforming message the world could ever hear. It touches on the highest of themes anyone in this world could ever think of. It’s backed-up with the greatest of authority anyone in this world could know. It’s far more powerful than any force this world could possess. And it has the most glorious consequences that anyone in this world could experience.

This precious treasure we bear is a message that the Bible itself says is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16-17). In other words, you and I bear the message to this world that has the most astonishing effects imaginable in the lives of those who hear and believe it. God uses it to set people free from the clutches of the devil, to wash them clean of their sins, and to make them to stand “righteous” in His sight! Through the proclamation the glorious message that He has given you and me, He ensures by His grace that fallen human beings will live forever before Him in glory! What a fabulous treasure it is!

Of course; the people of this world talk about how other things are needed far more than the gospel. They say that there are so many problems in this world right now that we don’t have time to think about preparing for the world to come. They tell us that our economy’s a wreck; and that our planet’s in danger. They tell us that the whole system needs to be fixed by the experts—and that we need to turn things over to these experts as quickly as possible, no matter what the cost. And all this talk about “Jesus”—they say—just doesn’t get to the real needs. In fact, if anything, it gets us distracted from the things that really matter!

But don’t let any of that kind of talk fool you, dear fellow-believers. Nothing about humanity has fundamentally changed in all its history. The one thing that people need most today is the very same thing that they have always needed—and that is to be made right with God. It’s a lack of being right with God that’s the cause of all the problems in this world in the first place! And it is your and my privilege to bear the only message to the people of this world that makes them right with the God, and that prepares them to live eternally with the One who made them for Himself.

Our message—the gospel of Jesus Christ—is the message that truly fulfills the deepest needs of the human soul. What a privilege it is that we have been entrusted with such a powerful and precious treasure! It’s good to be reminded of that; isn’t it?

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Now; the words of our passage this morning were written by the apostle Paul; and nobody felt the greatness of this privilege more than he did. He thrilled to think that God had called him to preach the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ to this world. As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t simply some abstract and theoretical thing. He knew the power of the gospel by personal experience! He had himself encountered the risen Christ; and that encounter had utterly transformed his life. From then on, he was all about the proclamation of the gospel that had been entrusted to him. He gloried in the great privilege of telling the world about Jesus!

And as you read Paul’s story in the New Testament, you also have to say that nobody suffered for preaching that message more than he did. He outlines some of the things he suffered for the gospel in 2 Corinthian 11:23-29; where he writes that he bore the gospel of Jesus to the world

. . . in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? (2 Corinthians 11:23b-29).

What a beating Paul took in preaching the gospel! What opposition he experienced! What obstacles had been thrown in his way! And at the same time, how little there was about him personally that would have been impressive to the people of this world! The critics of the day said that “his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” (2 Corinthians 10:10). His own testimony was that he spoke “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling”; and that his preaching was “not with persuasive words of human wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:3-4).

So; how do we account for the fact that the gospel preached through this weak and frail human instrument named Paul changed the world? And what’s more—how can you and I have his confidence in our own testimony to Jesus Christ in this world, as we bear the same gospel that he preached? The answer is found in that first verse of our passage; that we—Paul, and you, and me, and everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ—have this precious treasure of the gospel in weak, frail earthen vessels; “that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (v. 7).

In other words, God has chosen to demonstrates the greatness of the power of the life-changing gospel of His Son through the weaknesses of we who are its proclaimers—and all of this to His own glory.

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Now; look at that first verse again. Paul says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (v. 7). Everything else in this passage is simply an expansion of what Paul says in those amazing words.

So let’s take the time to consider every element of this passage carefully. Specifically, let’s consider the ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of this great treasure that has been entrusted to us to bear to the world.

First, note . . .

THE ‘WHAT’.

You see it hinted at in the word that begins this passage . . . the conjunction “but”. That word joins this passage to the verses that come before it. And it’s in those verses that we see what the precious “treasure” is that we bear.

In the verses just before this passage, Paul says that it is “the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” that is being made to “shine” on the people of this world (v. 4). “For we do not preach ourselves,” he says, “but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (vv. 5-6). So; that’s what Paul means when he speaks of “this treasure”—the preaching of the gospel that brings lost people into the knowledge of God through Jesus His Son.

What a wonderful thing it is that God’s word refers to the gospel as “a treasure”—a valuable and precious deposit! May we learn to see the immeasurable value of the gospel entrusted to us as God Himself sees it!

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Second, consider . . .

THE ‘WHO’.

The “who” of this passage is found in the word “we”.

Now; to be accurate to the context of this passage, we have to say that when Paul says “we have this treasure”, he means that this precious treasure is entrusted to himself and to his co-workers who had first ministered the gospel to the Corinthians. This is clear from the last verse; where he says, “So then death is working in us [that is, in the gospel preachers who suffered to first bring the gospel to the Corinthians], but life in you” [that is, to the Corinthians themselves who believed and were saved by it] (v. 12). It was the great privilege of Paul and his missionary co-laborers—Apollos, Silas, Priscilla and Aquilla, Titus, and others—to bring the gospel to the Corinthians in the first place.

But I don’t believe Paul meant to communicate the idea that the privilege of the gospel belonged exclusively to only a select few. Elsewhere, in his first letter to the Corinthians, he wrote, “For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21b-23). There is no special “privilege class” in the body of Christ.

In fact, later in this passage, Paul makes the “we” become very broad. He speaks of “we who live . . .”; that is, we who have the life of Christ in us by faith in Him. And so, I believe we should take it that the privilege of bearing the precious gospel of Jesus Christ belongs to each one of us who are in Jesus Christ. We, too, have this treasure.

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Third, we note . . .

THE ‘WHEN’.

The “when” of this passage is suggested in the word “have”; as Paul says that “we have this treasure . . .” The verb that’s translated “have” is in the present tense; indicating that we who are in Christ and have been entrusted with this treasure, bear it constantly. As it says in verse 10, we are “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus . . .” As it says in verse 11, “we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh.” So, you could translate this, “We constantly, and as a regular pattern of life, have this treasure . . .”

Even when you and I don’t feel worthy to bear this precious treasure of the life-changing gospel to the world; it doesn’t make any difference. If we are in Christ, we nevertheless do constantly bear it! God has left us on this earth for that very purpose; and one way or the other, “we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15).

Just think of that! In every trial of life, we who are in Christ are bearing the precious treasure of the gospel! In the midst of every temptation to sin, we are still bearing the treasure! When the devil throws all his fury at us, and the world comes against us like a flood, we are still bearing the treasure! Whether we’re at home, or at work, or at school, or at church, or at leisure—wherever we are, and whatever we may be doing—we are always vessels that bear the treasure! We may not be making that treasure as clear to the world as we should, but we still bear it. Even when we blow it, and stumble into sin, and think that we’re utterly unworthy of the treasure, we are still the instruments by which God has chosen to have it borne to the world! God has placed this treasure in no other vessel than us; and we always bear it.

The realization of that fact ought to change the way we view the trials and temptations we undergo in life, shouldn’t it? God lets us go through those trials and temptations for the sake of advancing the gospel that we bear. How important it is, then, that we quickly and constantly repent of all known sin in our lives, and always seek to live in such a way as to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things” (Titus 2:10); because no matter what, it’s in those “all things” that the treasure is “always” being borne by us.

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Fourth, we can see . . .

THE ‘WHERE’.

Paul says this unspeakably precious treasure is stored—”in earthen vessels”; or as the New International Version has it, “jars of clay”. You would have thought that such a powerful thing would be better off stored in a high-secure installation in some undisclosed location; or kept in a very expensive “safe-box” made of solid gold or alabaster. But no! God has chosen to place it in unimpressive “earthen vessels” like us—containers made of common clay that are fragile and that can be easily broken.

Just how weak and fragile we “earthen vessels” are is shown in verses 9-10. The containers of the most precious of all treasures—the most powerful of all message that this world could hear—are “hard pressed on every side”; that is, they are squeezed in and pressed down by this world to the point of distress and affliction. Many of God’s faithful gospel-proclaimers have felt as if they had to stand against the tide of this whole world in order to do so!

These “earthen vessels” are also “perplexed”. The word that Paul here uses means “to be in a narrow place”, or “to be in straits”. Metaphorically, it refers to being so without the necessary ‘means’ of doing what needs to be done that we’re perplexed over how it will ever happen. Isn’t it amazing how those who are called by God to deliver the most powerful and most precious message in this world often have to do so under a humanly-impossible lack of resources? It seems as if there’s never enough money, or time, or energy, or man-power to do what needs to be done.

These “earthen vessels” in which the gospel is placed are often “persecuted”. The word itself, in the original language, refers to being “pursued” with a clearly malicious intent. That’s been the story of the church from the very beginning. Throughout its history—and in many places of the globe even today—faithful proclaimers of the gospel feel as if they have no safe place in this world.

Finally, Paul says that these “earthen vessels” are “struck down”. That means, basically, to be cast down and made prostrate. Paul certainly felt that often—particularly when he was scourged or stoned or jailed for the gospel. But it may even refer to being put to death; and certainly Paul—who was once left for dead, and who ultimately did laid down his life for the cause of the gospel—was constantly aware of the threat of being “struck down” in his work.

As Paul said, “we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake”. In other words, God has chosen to put this precious treasure, the gospel of Jesus Christ, into weak and frail vessels like us—vessels that can suffer and die.

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This leads us, fifthly, to . . .

THE ‘WHY’.

Why would God put such a treasure—such a powerful and precious deposit—into such weak vessels as you and me—vessels that are subject to being “hard pressed” and “perplexed” and “persecuted” and “struck down” because of what they contain? Paul tells us that it’s “that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (v. 7).

Look again at Paul’s words. He says, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (vv. 8-9). The vessels in which the life-changing, world-transforming gospel of Jesus Christ seem to be constantly subject to weakness. The people of this world look on and marvel that such a message can succeed when it comes from such weak and frail instruments. And they understand that such a message cannot be from a human source. They can’t give the “vessels” any of the credit. They realize that it cannot be anything but God’s power that makes the gospel successful in this world.

And that, by the way, was Paul’s boast in the gospel to the Corinthians all along. He told them that, even when he first brought the gospel to them;

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

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Finally, let’s consider . . .

THE ‘HOW’.

Paul hints at the ‘how’ of our work of bearing this precious treasure in verse 10, when he says that we are “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” We are to live according to Jesus’ example of self-mortification; who Himself said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).

Paul goes on to say, “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake . . .” (v. 11a). The normal pattern of the Christian life is to lay one’s self down as a sacrifice on the altar in the service of Jesus. As Paul put it, we are to die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). And this is “that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our mortal flesh”. The less of us there is to get in the way, the more the power of God is demonstrated through the precious treasure of the gospel He has called us to bear.

I read a story the other day about the great Christian George Mueller—that man through whom God did such amazing work in Bristol, England 150 years ago. Someone once asked him, “Mr. Mueller, would you be willing to tell me the secret of your great work and the wonderful things that God has done through you?” George Mueller apparently looked up for a moment, then bowed his head for a long time, and then said, “Many years ago there came a day in my life when George Mueller died. As a young man I had a great many ambitions, but there came a day when I died to all these things, and I said, ‘Henceforth, Lord Jesus, not my will but Thine,’ and from that day God began to work in and through me.”¹

As Paul says at the end of this passage, “So then death is working in us, but life in you” (v. 12). There’s no other way for the light of the gospel to shine through such vessels as us unless we become completely broken to self and constantly bear about in us the dying of the Lord Jesus. As Paul put it elsewhere,

. . . Therefore most gladly will I rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10).

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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; let’s remember that we bear a precious treasure in this world that is of immeasurable value. But let’s also remember that we do so as earthen vessels—subject to pressure, and perplexity, and persecution, and to being struck down.

This is so that “the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us”. In those times of trial, let’s be faithful to keep on proclaiming the gospel entrusted to earthen vessels like us—and know confidently that God truly is producing life through that precious treasure!

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^{1H.A. Ironside, Addresses on The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Publishers, 1939), pp. 112-13.}