We Are Treasures in Jars of Clay | Josh Landen

What if your weakness isn’t something to hide, but the very place where God’s power is revealed? This sermon by Christ Methodist Church Executive Pastor Rev. Josh Landen explores how suffering, faith, and eternal hope are deeply interconnected in the Christian life.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ. We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.

Welcome to Worship

The Paradox of Suffering and Glory

Treasure in Jars of Clay

The Power of Weakness

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Good morning. My name is Josh Landon, and I get the honor and the privilege of serving as executive pastor here. We are so glad to have you in worship. If you are a visitor, maybe you're coming to see your family or your friends be baptized or confirmed into the church. We welcome you especially. If you is there anything that I can do for you, any questions I can answer for you about the church, I would love to connect with you afterwards, and you can always find more information about this church at our website, Christchurchmemphis.org. I will ask you, go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We will begin with verse 7 in just a minute. We are in that current series, the Prodigal Church. Now last week we heard Nathan's call to allow God's light to shine in our hearts to give others knowledge of the glory of God and the face of Christ. But the Corinthians weren't so sure. They had some questions. They weren't sure that Paul's life was worthy of emulating. And they may have been asking themselves, this is the guy whose life we're supposed to follow? Because it didn't align with their understanding of what glory looked like. And so they're asking, how is the life of Jesus revealed in the suffering of his followers? And in Paul, in us. Today's section there is a paradox of the life of a Christian minister and believer, how suffering and glory are tied together in the believer's life, and how that truth actually gives us hope, not just for eternity, but for now also. We should expect that our lives look like Christ's in every way. That's what going on to perfection looks like, and that may mean suffering even as he did, and thereby sharing in his life even more. So here now the word of the Lord. Paul writes, But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We're afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what has been written, I believed, and so I spoke, we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and bring us with you into his presence. For it's all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light, momentary affliction is preparing us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. This is the word of God for the people of God, and we say, Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Lord, what we do not know, teach us, and what we do not have, give us. And Father, what we are not, make us for your Son's sake. Amen. So when you begin to look for Jesus in suffering, we first notice that his power is manifested and seen in our weakness. Jesus' life is revealed through his power in the midst of weakness. The section begins with treasure in jars of clay. That treasure is what we heard preached last week. That treasure is the gospel itself, the ministry that we use to carry it to others to share it with the world. This beautiful thing stored in these jars of clay, now that is us. We are the jars of clay, and it's not negative, but fragile, destructible. Think of a terracotta planter that you might have and you knock it over. Did it break? Did it chip? Of course, how weak we human beings can be. Yesterday I was out in the sun doing some yard work for a few hours, and was worn out and beaten down from too much sun. You can also get unhealthy or ill from not enough sun. Don't have enough food or water, you get sick. Have too much food or water, you get sick. Too much oxygen, not enough oxygen. We are weak vessels. But Christ still entrusts his gospel to us to have and to hold and to share and to spread. The very power of God for salvation of everyone, Romans 1, everyone who believes, is given to these ordinary and weak and breakable creatures. Well, why? Why is that? Have you ever participated in a focus group? Focus group is where a company hires a researcher to learn about what people think about their company. It might be a store or an airline or a retailer, it could be anything. It might be a restaurant or a food manufacturer. You get there with that, you're in that conference room with that one-way mirror and they're asking you questions. If you've been in one of those where they test foods, they give it to you in plain white cups and on plain white paper plates. There's no fancy China, no silverware here. It's all disposable. Why? Because they don't want you to be influenced by the container, by the delivery method. In the same way, we who are broken, when we are broken, it takes away our temptation to put the focus on ourselves, or to put it on others instead of Christ. If we've got it all together, if we're seemingly perfect, then maybe we would receive the glory, whether that's intentional or not. But if even in the midst of suffering Christ's light shines forth, then maybe there really is something to this carpenter from Nazareth. There's a story about Jarsac Lee in the Old Testament. It's in Judges 7. Gideon is gathering and about to fight the Midianites. And it says that he has 22,000 men. But God says that's too many. And so they cut it down to 10,000. And God says, that's too many. And they eventually cut it down to 300 men who are going to attack this other group of Midianites who are orders of magnitude bigger than them. And they give them trumpets and they give them jars and they put candles in the jars and they give them instructions. They say, We're going to go out. And when you hear me blow my trumpet, you blow your trumpet, you give a shout to the Lord, and you break the jar and let the light shine forth. The Lord had reduced them from their strength of 22,000 to 300. He only let 300 go fight, that they might not boast in their own strength. When people see our natural weakness, when they see the afflictions and the sufferings that we endure for Christ, then they will know that the spiritual power that they also see must come from God and not ourselves. Some of us need to be broken.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Who? Well, I do. You do.

Embracing Our Weakness

Death and Resurrection

SPEAKER_01 8:05

We all need to be broken for Christ. We might be too independent, we might be overly dependent, we might be unteachable or prayerless or dried eyed or secretive and on and on and on. Paul gives us this list of contrasts that he's experienced. Afflicted and hard pressed, perplexed but not despairing, confused but not confounded, in doubt but not in despair, at a loss but not lost, persecuted but not forsaken, not abandoned. God offers his deliverance to us. He is the unfailing friend who will never forsake his people. When the Corinthians heard this list, or when they when they saw it printed, they would have understood. There were philosophers of the day who would list these lists. They would write out the things that they suffered, and they would say, Look how I have overcome these. I endured all of this stuff, yet I overcame it and I was successful. Paul turns it around. He says, No, in spite of these things, not because of them, I am sustained by the power of God. He's countercultural. He is appealing to human weakness. And it's precisely that inadequacy that is this occasion for the manifestation of divine power. Well, why is this? Well, can you serve the Lord better if things are always easy? Haven't times of difficulty been times of growth in your life? These difficulties can be used to break the earthen pitchers that God's light may shine forth through them. Paul says here that we are living lives of daily endurance, not depending on our own human virtue and character, but on the extraordinary power of God. We might be persecuted by men, but we're never abandoned. We might be at our wit's end, but we're never at our hopes' end. We might be knocked down, but we're not knocked out. And whatever we must endure is bearable, because God has promised to be with us. Psalm 34, David writes, The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34 is one of those rare Psalms that actually tells you at the beginning why it was written. David was fleeing King Saul, and he went to the kingdom of Gath in the Philistine country, and they recognized him as the man who had killed, or the boy who had killed Goliath previously. And he was afraid that he was going to be found out or at least turned in eventually. And so he decides to act like a madman. He changes his behavior. He starts drooling, he starts scribbling nonsense on walls and gates. And it worked. The king dismissed him out, said get out of here, and he was able to flee and go find refuge in a cave. This psalm was composed as a song of thanksgiving for his narrow escape. God offers us an escape. He won't let you be crushed or forsaken or abandoned. He promises to be with you and to offer you salvation. And even in our weakness, and maybe especially in our most weakened state, we see Christ. Jesus' life is revealed even in the midst of death. Listen to what Paul says. He says we're always vicariously participating in the life of Jesus, constantly aware that we're in the same process that He is. When we've died or when we are in the process of continually dying, then we are freed to live. Because you've shared in the death of Christ, you can share in the life of Christ even before you die, your natural physical death. Christians have frequently faced the risk of death every day, and that we don't do that here is a bit of an anomaly historically. But we're being crucified to the world, we're being crucified to its calls of power on our life. When Christ is teaching in John 12, he says it like this very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and it dies, it'll remain only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves his life will lose it, and anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. That's what Paul is saying here. He's putting a point on what Jesus was teaching. That we gain when we seemingly lose. That's the whole message of 2 Corinthians, that God is glorifying and being glorified through means that confound the world's ways. And so we carry forth Jesus' death to show his life. That's what Paul did. That's how he lived.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Do you want me to list out the trials that Paul endured? Do you want me to list out the trials that Paul endured?

The Cost of Discipleship

Resurrection Hope

Inner Renewal Amid Decay

Rejoicing in Suffering

The Purpose of Our Trials

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yes, thank you. I heard one yes. Whoever said yes, God bless you. Yes, he was flogged and beaten. He was stoned and left for dead. He was slandered and stripped down. I'll keep going. He was placed in stocks, imprisoned multiple times, run out of town, shipwrecked, exposed to the elements, dealt with bandits. Even more. He faced riots and mobs, difficult churches, abandoned by friends, attempted assassination plots, a thorn in his flesh that the Lord did not remove. Even still, the light of the gospel shone through his life. He couldn't do it on his own, and neither can we. Part of God's redemptive purpose is to use our being delivered up to a thousand deaths throughout this mortal existence to ignite and nurture life in others. In the believer's life, death and resurrection, they just simply coexist. It's how it is. In Christ, death leads to resurrection. There is no resurrection without life without first being given over to death. The death and resurrection of Jesus transpired not only in place of us, he had to be the one to do it because we couldn't do it ourselves, but also ahead of us in a way that we must follow. He is both a substitute and a pioneer, blazing a path that we will follow him down, being both Christ for us and Christ in us. You see, the unbelievers are the living dead, feeling themselves to be alive, but most deeply and truly dying, and believers are the dying alive, feeling ourselves to be dying, but slowly, most deeply possessing the resurrection life. What is in Paul the sign of the cross is in the church the sign of the resurrection. Ministry is sometimes supposed to be a ministry of suffering. His critics thought, well, this would be, you know, this should be someone that we can emulate, someone whose power and presence they could respect and they could admire. But it was the suffering that he endured that released the resurrection life of Jesus into their lives at Corinth. They asked, Well, where is this glory of the new covenant? He says, even in the midst of outward decay, he experiences inner renewal. When there is weakness in believers, it enhances rather than hampers our boldness in ministry. That is the paradoxical nature of life in Christ. Paul's message was always the message of the cross. In his ministry, he was resolved to know nothing except Jesus and Him crucified. He testified that what he wanted to know above all was Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in death. So the very act of God, which the gospel is, is an act of suffering. It's through our dying that the life of Christ is brought to others, because his life is revealed through our faith, which leads to speech. We are impelled outward in speech towards others, and we draw our minds forward in clear hope toward the future that awaits us. In verse 13, he's quoting from Psalm 116, which is about life coming out of death. The psalmist recounts the experience of distress at death's door when there's no humanly escape possible. But the Lord delivered him. When God shows up and fulfills his promises, our faith is strengthened. How can he speak so boldly? Verse 14, because he knows that the one who raised the Lord from the dead will raise us also with him. This faith is enlivened, it is motivated by the reality of resurrection and the new age that was begun with it. Paul goes back and forth between resurrection experience of believers and the future resurrection of the body. Because Christ was resurrected, we're guaranteed to be resurrected also. There is a wonder of knowing the resurrection of Christ in our lives here and now, and anticipating its completion in the future. We must have that same faith that God who raised the dead will raise us also. And so how can we keep but from singing in the words of that old hymn? The weakness of the human vessel demands the intervention of divine power for the very preservation and usefulness of the vessel. The character of divine life convinces those who share it of the resurrection power of the gospel. And from the vantage point of convicted faith, Paul was willing to suffer first for Jesus' sake, then for the sake of the Corinthians, and ultimately for God's eternal glory. My last point. Paul writes of a present inner renewal that is accompanying his outer decay. This is the bridge to the next chapter that will begin next week. He writes, verse 16, to give them encouragement. He says, We do not lose heart. And he begins to name the ways which may cause us to lose heart. We're wasting, decaying, eroding bit by bit. That word is the same word that Jesus uses when he talks about moths who have come to destroy the treasure that we've saved for ourselves. I want you to picture a healthy cicada. I don't know if this is the year of the cicadas or not. They seem to come around every now and then. They might be. I know it may be kind of a gross picture. I pray you get beyond that. But picture that healthy cicada struggling to break out of its decaying body. And then that dead outer shell. It's still there, but it doesn't define it. Soon it will not be a part of its existence anymore. That cicada has a new life that it has begun to experience. Our inner self. Friends of you that were just baptized, I'm talking to you. When you come up out of the waters, you are a new creature in Christ. You are empowered to live differently. God is giving you his Holy Spirit. You're in a new age and you are a new person. The eternal self has emerged. The person in Christ has come forth. And day by day you're getting closer to that age to come. That new body is waking up and it's beginning to stretch its limbs. It's preparing for this new life. Even when there's outer decay, the inner life is being revived. That's why Paul will glory in Christ and the cross. Through his inadequacy, God's divine power is unleashed. What is wasting away even accomplishing, you might ask? How in the world can you call this light? When people are sick, when people are dying, when people are struggling, when people don't have their needs met, when people have their friends and their families turn on them and abandon them. The answer lies in the comparison. Paul doesn't just talk about the glory of God. He characterizes that glory and what it looks like in verse 17. It's not just the glory, it's the weight, the glory, the heaviness carrying around. It's not just the heaviness and the weight of glory, it's the eternal weight of glory. It goes on forever. And it's not just eternal, but it's exceedingly eternal. And not just exceeding, it is more exceeding. And not just more exceeding, it is far more exceeding. It's in the comparison. It cannot be compared to anything of this age. Whatever you're in doing pales in comparison to the glory of Christ and the life that you have in Him now and the life that is to come. It is not downplaying the tragedy that exists in this world. But in comparison, they're light as a feather. The coming glory is eternal. We can't compare the eternal to the temporary. We can't compare the light to the heavy. If a child cuts a finger, they may get very upset. But as an adult, you You realize with a different perspective that it's just a temporary thing. Troubles that are born for Jesus' sake are producing a glory in you beyond all measure. And they're going from light and momentary to eternal. And that glory will outweigh everything of this world. In God's economy, suffering produces glory. It says that in Romans 5. So we should expect it. Apostle Peter put it like this. Don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal that's come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. If it's not strange, it's normal, right? But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. We're not called just to suffer through the troubles of this world, to not just endure them, to not just tolerate them, but to rejoice when they come, when these sufferings of Christ present themselves, because we get to share in his glory through them. Paul says in Romans, I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that's to be revealed in us. There is something coming that is greater that he's inviting us into, friends. And even as we waste away, we're being refined more and more into his likeness. If you've gone to see the statue David that Michelangelo created, that masterpiece, it's in Florence. Down the hallways, off the side of that gallery, there are other works that were left undone when the sculptor died. Here's a picture of one of them. Michelangelo says, The more that the marble wastes, the more the statue grows. Bit by bit, being chipped away, being scratched off, being smoothed out, being refined. Christ wants to grow you. Christ wants to be glorified through you and wants you to understand the beauty of complete dependence on Him. So we rejoice when these parts of us are chiseled away. What we can see here is only temporary. So let's fix our eyes on the next world of coming glory that we can only see with eyes of faith. One day, friends, Revelation 21 says, the invisible will explode onto the scene in a way that is visible for all to see. But this new age has already begun with Christ's resurrection. If we only look to what can be seen, we will quickly become discouraged. So take heart and look to the eternal. Eternity is built into our very existence. My favorite way of putting it is from a letter that C.S. Lewis wrote to his friend. William, I thought you were a Tolkien guy, but I guess you're C. S. Lewis guy. C.S. Lewis wrote to his friend, he said, Notice how we are perpetually surprised at time. How time flies. Fancy John being grown up and married. I can hardly believe it. In heaven's name, why? Unless indeed there is something in us which is not temporal. Friends, you were made for eternity. Don't allow the struggles of this world to blind you to the glory that they can produce in Christ. Is your life perfect right now? Is everything going exactly how you want it to be and has been for the last twenty years? No. Of course not. We all have something that we're carrying. We all have some sort of suffering that we're enduring and going through. We have something that we might be suffering with or suffering from. But don't take your eyes off of Christ. This weekend, the March Madness basketball tournament began. Forty-three years ago, that tournament was won by NC State, and it was coached by this man right here, Jimmy Valvano. Thirty-three years ago, ten years later, he was on platform at the very first SP Awards. This is March of '93. He stood there that night knowing that he'd been diagnosed with stage four metastatic adenocarcinoma. And that by all accounts he would probably be dead within the next couple of months. But he was a devout Christian. He gave a five-minute speech that talked about his life and the lessons that he had learned. And he ended up with his tagline that has become the motto for his foundation. It says, Don't give up. Don't ever give up. How can a Christian speak so boldly? Because we, as believers, possess a certain future that is beyond death, a future that has broken into the presence with Christ's life and ministry and death and resurrection, one that gives us assurance. So like Paul says in Philippians, he says, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. The gospel for today, friends, is that even your worst sufferings, even those worst sufferings in Christ will be used by him for his glory, for the salvation of others, and for your own sanctification. There are storms in life that we all must endure. There are storms in life that we may not know how they will end. And if we are speaking frankly and boldly, they may end in ways that we will not have chosen for ourselves. But Christ can take them. He can use them to let his light shine through them. When you are broken down by the circumstances of this world, and you still show Christ through them, people will see you and they will see Christ through you, and he will be glorified. It may bring them to faith, it may inspire their faith, it may bring them to deeper faith. God is not surprised by the storms that you have in your life. And if you will let him, he will shine his light through you and give you strength to press on, to persevere, to not give up, keeping the eternal glory in sight as you go through your regular, everyday life. He won't leave you or abandon you. He promises never to forsake you, to not let you be crushed or destroyed because of his great love in you. So whatever you're carrying today, give it to Christ. Whatever burden is shackling you, whatever you feel like you are stymied by, you can't get going in life, whatever you wake up and it's the first thing that you think of, or maybe it wakes you up in the middle of the night. Maybe it's your closing thought as you go to bed. Whatever suffering you're enduring right now, give it to Christ. Let him use it for his glory, let him use it to draw all men unto himself. Let him use it for your own good and your own sanctification.

A Prayer for Strength

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Let's pray. But you love us so much.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

You've loved us so much, Lord, that you have not just given us Christ and His life and his atoning death and resurrection to bring us back to you, Lord, but you have entrusted the message of this gospel to us. Lord, we look to the ways of the world so often. We look we look at credentials and we look at status, we look at wealth, we look at health, we look at all these things that said, This God's got it together. And Lord, we look at our brokenness and we say, Why me? Why do I have to have this? God, I pray that you, by your Holy Spirit, give us the power to respond to you, Lord. Give us the ability to hand over our sufferings to you, to see them in an eternal perspective. That all the cares and worries of this world are just the blink of an eye compared to the eternity that we can share with you. So Lord, help us entrust them to you. Help us, Lord, to trust in your goodness. Help us, Lord, to love you more, to show your love to others. In Jesus' name we pray.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ. To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at ChristchurchMemphis.org. We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.