2 Corinthians 4:7-12

May 3, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 16:10 in the audio file.

Or, Death by a Thousand Breaking Points

I was glad to hear that at least a few of you laughed when you saw the title to this message. It is definitely playing with words, teasing out the ambiguity of the word pot. Somehow pot shops, marijuana stores, are deemed “essential” in our coronavirus lockdown, perhaps because WA State gets 37% sales tax. Hmmmm. But, alas, that’s not the kind of pot I’m talking about.

Some of you have heard me talk about this before, and I pray your resolve to not lose heart will be rekindled. For those who will look along for the first time, I pray that you will have some new or sharpened categories of thought for what the Christian life looks like and feels like and accomplishes by God’s grace. Among other analogies, we are all jars of clay, and because we inessential in one way, the pot services we offer are essential.

In this paragraph, we’ll see death at work by considering a pot’s calling (verses 7-10), thinking (verse 11), and effect (verse 12).

The Pot’s Essential Calling (verses 7-10)

Verses 7-10 form one sentence, with one primary verb, followed by three subordinate phrases that flesh out the reality. The main statement is:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay

What is the treasure? One option is that the treasure is the gospel message (verse 3), the new-covenant news. Another option is that the treasure is the light of the gospel (verse 4), the light of the knowledge (verse 6), emphasizing the effect of the message. But I don’t think either of those options are sufficient. I think the treasure is the gospel ministry; the treasure is the service of getting out the message that has the effect of light-giving.

Ministry, that is, everything involved in spreading the message, was the theme in chapter three. It was the topic in chapter four verse 1, “Having this ministry.” So now in verse 7, “We have this treasure.” The flow of the epistle and the similar phrasing of verses 1 and 7 draw attention to the work. The rest of the paragraph, verses 7-12, emphasize not only a certain message, but a certain kind of life that bears the message. The treasure is not less than the gospel, but neither can we put the gospel in a jar of formaldehyde. The treasure we have is to speak and live the gospel in person.

That said, the persons themselves are not much to speak about. We are jars of clay (ESV), “earthen(ware) vessels” (NAS), pots made of dirt. We are not the treasure; we carry the treasure.

Clay pots were simple, common, inexpensive, and easily replaceable. They were made of baked earth, so it didn’t really matter how they were treated or if they got dinged up or even if they broke; there’s a lot of earth. They were meant to be used, not admired. Treasure, on the other hand, was special, uncommon, and valuable.

The service we offer is amazing. We are not. Every pot’s calling is essential even if the pots themselves are insignificant.

The Purpose (verse 7b)

Compared to the treasure, clay pots are cheap. Compared to God’s power, clay pots are weak. That’s good.

to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

God’s intention for using clay pots is to make it clear that God’s power is excellent. In God’s economy, a pot’s weakness is an asset, not a liability.

It’s not just “power” at work, it’s surpassing power (ESV), “the surpassing greatness of power” (NAS), the “excellence of power” (NJKV), the “all-surpassing power” (NIV). No other power is comparable to His extraordinary, superlative power. Causing light to shine in darkness, creating light, is some kind of power indeed (see verse 6). God uses clay pots–cheap, breakable, replaceable–so that the pots don’t forget t[...]