Clay Jars
2 Corinthians 4:7-12

What kind of preacher was the apostle Paul? Were his sermons clever? Were they powerful examples of oratorical skill? Was he brimming with fearlessness as he preached? Did his preaching grab people by the throat and all but drag them to faith?

Let’s listen to one of Paul’s own descriptions of the way he proclaimed the gospel. Please take your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 and follow along as I read.

And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Paul tells Christians in the city of Corinth that he came to them when he was weak and fearful. He also tells them that his preaching was not full of "plausible words of wisdom." Sounds like a pretty crummy presentation doesn’t it? A speaker who is weak and fearful and who does not even sound particularly wise.

But because of Paul’s preaching in Corinth a church was planted. So there must have been something good about it. What was it? Paul tells us. He says that his "proclamation [was] . . . with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God."

Paul’s words here reveal something that I believe was central to his view of Christian ministry. Paul believed that ministry in the name of Christ is effective because of the divine power that generates it. It is not the person ministering who makes it transformative. It is the Spirit and the Spirit’s power.

About a year after Paul wrote 1 Corinthians he wrote another letter to the same church, 2 Corinthians. I want to look at a passage from this later letter which makes the same point found in 1 Cor 2:3-5. Please open your Bible again, this time to 2 Cor 4:1-12, and follow along as I read.

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, "Let light 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.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are 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 made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Notice some of the statements that Paul makes here. In v 5 he says, "we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake." And in the very next verse Paul says, "For it is the God who said, ‘Let light 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." In other words, it is God who has caused Paul and those who work with him to shine; God has generated that shining by shining in their hearts. Then, in v 7, Paul refers to himself and those with him as lowly earthen vessels, probably the commonest vessels in the ancient world. Paul says, "we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us."

In our day there is much talk about human potential and human achievement. There is also much talk about self-esteem and self-worth. Paul seems to me to have had little confidence in his human potential. He certainly saw nothing in his ministry that should be referred to as his achievement. Paul’s focus was not self-esteem, not self-worth. Paul was focused upon making sure that God was esteemed, making sure that God was known as the One who alone is worthy. He and the members of his ministry team were clay jars, nothing more. The "extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us," he says.

Victor Paul Furnish in his commentary on 2 Corinthians writes concerning the clay jars to which Paul refers. He says of them that they were "cheap but fragile, and therefore of no enduring value. That means, also, that they are expendable" (II Corinthians, The Anchor Bible series, vol 32A, p 278).

Paul was a person with a profound sense of purpose. He was a person who lived life to the full. No one would say he led an empty or meaningless life. But Paul knew that all the credit went to God. It was because God had "shone in [his heart] to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" that he was who he was. It was because of the "extraordinary power" that came from God. That was where all the credit had to go.

Paul then goes on to describe in experiential terms what being a clay jar entails. In vv 8 & 9 he writes, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." This list of antitheses reveal two points that Paul sets alongside each other to form a powerful paradox. He sets those items which illustrate "clay jar likeness" alongside those realities which illustrate the power of God. To be "afflicted," "perplexed," "persecuted," and "struck down"––as Paul reveals they were––is to be like cheap and expendable "clay jars." But the fact that these "clay jars" were "not crushed," "not driven to despair," "not forsaken," and "not destroyed" is the proof that there is a "treasure" within these "clay jars," and that "treasure" is God’s "extraordinary power."

This is an incredible portrait of servants/ministers of God. They are fragile, expendable earthen vessels that God has filled with the treasure of God’s extraordinary power.

Here is what I want us to take from this passage. We are all to be ministers of God. I believe we are all to be earthen vessels filled with God’s extraordinary power. How does such a person live? Number one, no pride. How can earthen vessels be proud? How does such a person live? Number two, with absolute confidence in the treasure with which God has filled us. No pride. Absolute confidence. Those are the attributes that God’s earthen vessels can take into the world as we serve according to the model of one of God’s greatest servants, the apostle Paul.

Are you here this morning and know you need to be filled with the extraordinary power of God? Are you here this morning and know you need the saving power of "Jesus’ blood and righteousness"? Please, put all of your hope in God. Put all of your hope in the power of God’s Son who died so that you might be filled with the power of God. Receive the treasure which God longs to give you. Please put your faith in Jesus, repent of your sins, confess Jesus as Savior and Lord, and be buried with Christ Jesus in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life. Please come now as we stand and sing.