You Have A Treasure
Sermon Notes
We want City Awakening to be a church that goes from being recipients of grace, to being instruments of grace. We want to be a church that’s full of people living as instruments of grace, helping to bring hope and joy to the people in our city. I mean if you could bring hope and joy to a person who’s suffering, would you do it?...If you could bring hope and joy to a person who’s suffering, would you do it?...I think the answer for both skeptics and believers is yes, especially if the person suffering is somebody you love. But the reality is you’re surrounded by people who are suffering every day, which means every day you have a chance to bring them hope and joy. Every day you have a chance to be an instrument of grace in someone’s life, and that’s what we’re talking about today. So let’s turn to 2nd Corinthians 4:7 and get into it. You’ll find 2nd Corinthians in the last quarter part of your bible, we’ll be in 2nd Corinthians 4:7-5:10. The title of today’s message is You Have A Treasure, and here’s the big idea. You have a great treasure of hope, for a hurting world...You have a great treasure of hope, for a hurting world.
Context:
Here’s your context. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to address false teachers in the Corinthian Church who were questioning his authority and teachings. They’re even saying he must be cursed by God considering how much suffering he’s experienced, which he did. Paul certainly experienced a lot of suffering, and he shares some of his sufferings in ch 11. Paul says, “I’ve been imprisoned, flogged, received 39 lashes 5 times, beaten with rods 3 times. I’ve been stoned, shipwrecked 3 times, spent a day and night in the open sea. I’ve been in danger from rivers, robbers, my own countrymen, and Gentiles. I’ve been hungry, thirsty, cold, naked, and weak.” Paul’s been through all kinds of suffering, yet he still considered himself blessed not cursed, and he’s about to tell us why. He’s about to share a treasure of hope that constantly sustained him regardless of the suffering he faced. I broke the text down into 4 sections: Our Treasure (vs. 7a), Our Fragility (vs. 7b-18), Our Groaning (ch. 5:1-4), and Our Purpose (vs. 5-10). Let’s start with the treasure, let’s see what the treasure of hope is that constantly sustained Paul.
The Word:
2 Corinthians 4:7 states, “Now we have this treasure...” There’s our 1st point, it’s our treasure. Paul says we have ‘this treasure!’ What’s the treasure? In vs. 6 he says, “It’s the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus,” meaning it’s the gospel. Paul’s talking about the treasure of the gospel, the treasure of Jesus! The treasure of the gospel is that Jesus is our infinite God, our infinite Creator who chose to enter into his finite creation. He chose to put on human flesh to live like we live, suffer like we suffer, and die like we die. He did this to empathize with us in every way, and to allow us to know him in a very real, personal, loving way. He came to live a perfect life, die for our sinful imperfect life, then rise again to prove he has the power to grant us not just eternal life, but an eternally joyful life! It’s an eternally joyful life that’ll one day be free from all sin, suffering, sickness, and sadness. It’s an eternally joyful life where we get to have friendship with Jesus and be a part of his redemptive plans, as instruments of grace in his redeeming hands! This is the great treasure of hope Paul’s talking about. It’s the treasure of all the redemptive promises of the gospel, it’s the treasure of Jesus!
Again vs. 7, “Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.” Okay so this is our 2nd point, it’s our fragility. Paul says we have this treasure ‘in clay jars,’ meaning we’re the jars of clay! Jesus is the treasure, and we’re the weak, fragile, jars of clay. Jars back then were made out of clay, out of hard baked dirt. They were cheap, breakable, and easily replaceable. But they were also very useful and served many different purposes. For example they were used like a vault or safe. People would put valuable things in them like gold, silver, jewelry, their savings, and then they’d burry it so the jar acted like an underground vault. The jar didn’t have value, but the content it carried did.
They were also used to store things like valuable documents, such as the many historical documents we have from antiquity. In fact this is how the Dead Sea Scrolls were stored in the caves at Qumran. A couple of teenage shepherds were throwing rocks in caves and suddenly they heard a sound like glass shattering. It was the clay jars the Dead Sea Scrolls were stored in. The jars contained very accurate manuscripts of the Old Testament that predate Jesus’s birth, and they revealed how perfectly the bible was preserved throughout history. Paul’s point is that we’re the weak, fragile, jars of clay that can be easily broken at the toss of a stone, but we have a great treasure of hope inside us. Paul never ceased to be amazed by the fact that Jesus would give him such a great treasure. He never yawned at the fact that Jesus would care enough to save our sinful, weak, fragile, jars of clay lives, and entrust us to carry this treasure of hope, this message of salvation to the entire world! Despite our fragility and futility, Jesus is using us as instruments of grace, to spread this treasure of hope and accomplish his redemptive plans.
Vs. 8, “We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; 9 we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.” Notice Paul makes numerous contrasts, and he makes even more contrasts all the way up to vs 18. It’s contrasts between our temporary sufferings and the permanent promises of Jesus. We’ll put them on the screen so you can see the contrasts he’s making, and so you can see the permanent promises that’re given to those who treasure Jesus. Some of you will relate with these suffering emotions far too well, but let your weary fragile soul find rest in the permanent promises of Jesus. I’ll read it in 2nd person singular form to personalize it. Here’s the hope we have in Jesus:
Temporary Sufferings Permanent Promises
(vs. 7) You’re a Jar of clay -But you have a treasure of hope!
(vs. 8) You’re afflicted -But not crushed!
(vs. 8) You’re perplexed -But not driven to despair!
(vs. 9) You’re persecuted -But not forsaken!
(vs. 9) You’re struck down -But not destroyed!
(vs. 10-12) Death is working in your life -But so is the life of Jesus!
(vs. 16) Your outer self is wasting away -But your inner self is being renewed!
(vs. 17) You will face many afflictions -But they’ll be light and momentary
compared to the eternal weight of glory!
What Paul’s saying in all this is our sufferings are temporary, but the treasure of hope we have in Jesus is permanent. He’s saying let the promise of eternity, outweigh the burdens in your hearts. Let the great treasure of hope you have in Jesus, outweigh the burdens in your heart! He’s saying sometimes in life you’ll feel like you’re being crushed by the weight of suffering, but it won’t crush you! Sometimes you’ll feel like you’ve being abandoned, but you’re not abandoned! Sometimes you’ll hopeless like you have no future, but you’ll always a future if you trust your life in the eternal hands of Jesus. In his book “Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands,” Paul Tripp states, “Your world is not a world of constant chaos controlled by impersonal forces. Your destiny is not in your hands or in the hands of other people...You’re a child of the King of Kings, and you live under the shadow of his wing. You’re a part of his plan, which means the exercise of his power and authority is for your blessing. You and I can rest...We can press on, when little around us makes sense.” Tripp says we can press on! Paul says in vs 16, “Therefore don’t give up!” The reason we can press on, the reason we don’t have to give up is because we have a great treasure of hope in our Redeemer’s hands! As one scholar put it, “You may think you’re at the end of your rope, but you’ll never be at the end of hope.” You may think you’re at the end of your rope, but you’ll never be at the end of hope, when Jesus is the treasure of your hope.
This is what makes Christian fragility different than secular humanity’s fragility. Both experience the pains of fragility, but Christians always have hope despite their fragility. I mean consider the secular view of suffering. The secular view is we simply live, suffer, have a few pockets of joy, then we die. There’s no hope or remedy for suffering, so enjoy life while you can since this life’s all there is. In the famous Pulitzer Prize book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, author Annie Dillard addresses the issue with a secular view of suffering. She basically moved by a creek in the woods of Virginia to observe nature. She was hoping to find clarity and answers to the societal sufferings and injustices she’d seen. But what she found was praying mantises eating each other and a giant water bug killing a frog, then sucking its brains out. So she left sickened by the violence of nature, and this is what she wrote. Dillard states, “Evolution loves death more than it loves you or me...I thought to live by the side of the creek to shape my life to its free flow. But I seem to have reached a point where I must draw the line. I must part ways with the only world there is.” That’s the secular view. If this world is all there is, then the only relief is to part ways with the world and die. Dillard continues, “We value the individual supremely, and nature values him not a whit...We are moral creatures in a universe running on chance and death...I crawled by chance out of a sea of amino acids, and now I must whirl around and shake my fist at that sea and cry Shame!...The frog that the giant water bug sucked had presumably a rush of pure feeling for about a second, before its brain turned into broth...Let us all go have lobotomies to restore us to a natural state. Then we can leave the library, go back to the creek lobotomized, and live on its banks as untroubled as any muskrat or reed. You first!...” That’s the secular view without a treasure of hope in Jesus. Dillard says it’s violent! It’s survival of the fittest, the strong eating the weak, the intelligent oppressing the unintelligent, and there’s no remedy. The secular view offers no hope or remedy for suffering because in the end, death gets the victory...But we have a treasure of hope...We have such a great treasure of hope in Jesus!
Ch. 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. 2 Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” This is the 3rd point of the text, it’s our groaning. Paul’s making another contrast here, it’s a contrast between our weak, fragile, jars of clay bodies, and our strong, unbreakable, imperishable eternal bodies. He calls our earthly bodies tents, and our eternal resurrected bodies a building or dwelling; the Greek can also translate as a house. Now when he says tent he isn’t talking about glamping. Some of you are glampers, but he isn’t talking glamping. He’s talking more Bear Grylls ‘Man vs. Wild’ kind of tent, and you know what happens when I take my wife camping like this instead of glamping? There’s groaning...You know what happens when I go camping like this? There’s groaning...I love camping, but I’m getting older and my body can’t handle sleeping on the hard ground anymore. I’ll stiffen up, I’ll have rigor mortis for a week, and I’ll groan.
But this is exactly Paul’s point! His point is we’re groaning because we want out of these mortal bodies that’re slowly fading away. Our hearts are like a wind-up clock that started ticking the moment we were born. It’s been beating, ticking, winding down even as I’m speaking right now. Your body’s fading, your physical appearance is fading, your physical abilities are fading... Your family’s fading, friendships fading, relationships fading...Everything is fading until the day your final breath leaves your lungs...Everything we’re clinging to is slowly fading away. The minute we experience its joy, it starts receding from our hands like waves on a seashore. We can try holding onto it, but it’ll just keep receding from our hands like waves on a seashore...Unless... Unless the resurrection’s true, the treasure of hope we have in Jesus is true! If the resurrection’s true, then it means life can come out of death, immortality can come out of mortality, celebration can come out of groaning. But the reason we’re groaning now is because we’re longing for the day when we’ll never have to groan again! We’re longing for the day when this weak, fragile, jar of clay tent will be turned into a strong, unbreakable, imperishable eternal home. We’re longing for the day when we’ll be absent from the body and present with the Lord, like Paul states next.
Vs. 5, “Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. 6 So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” This is the 4th and last point Paul makes, it’s our purpose. He says our ‘purpose,’ our ‘aim’ while living in these jars of clay tents, is to please him! It’s to please Jesus by living as instruments of grace! In fact Paul says in vs 10 we’ll be judged for how active or inactive we’ve been at living as instruments of grace. A lot of Christians don’t realize this, they don’t realize Jesus will judge their inactivity. We won’t be condemned eternally, but we’ll be judged for our inactivity. In Matthew 7 Jesus even said there’s some people who think they’re Christians, they’ll cry out “Lord, Lord,” but in the end I’ll say “I never knew you.” It’s because if they truly knew Jesus, they would’ve lived with a desire to please Jesus. The same is true for us. If we truly know Jesus, we’ll live with a desire to please Jesus. We’ll live with a purpose, an aim to please Jesus as instruments of grace! Jesus didn’t intend us to just be recipients of his grace and love, he intended us to be both recipients and instruments of his grace and love. We’ll be judged for our lukewarm passivity and inactivity in spreading the great treasure of hope we have.
Paul Tripp states, “An instrument is a tool that is actively used to change something, and God has called all his people to be instruments of change in his redemptive hands!” City Awakening Jesus has given you, he’s given us such a great treasure of hope, and we want to be a church that pleases Jesus by spreading that treasure of hope with our hurting world. We want to be a church that helps bring much hope and joy to the people in our city, by living as instruments of grace. That’ll be our focus in 2021, it’ll be on helping us to live as instruments of grace.
The Big Idea:
Look the big idea is we have a treasure!...We have such a great treasure of hope for our hurting world...There’s no shortage of suffering people in our city, so let’s not have a shortage of instruments of grace coming from our church. Paul’s point isn’t for us to keep our jars of clay all clean without cracks or blemishes. His point is our jars of clay are already fading, so why not risk our entire lives for Jesus! Why not risk our entire lives for the sake of bringing as much glory to Jesus as we can!...Paul’s jar was dirty, cracked, busted up, beat up from all the floggings and suffering he faced sharing this great treasure of hope with others. His chief aim wasn’t to live a comfortable life, it was to risk his life for the glory of Jesus...See the question isn’t will your fading clay jar life experience groaning, because everybody experiences groaning in life! Instead the question is will you use your fading clay jar life for a purpose?...Will strive to please Jesus, to bring glory to Jesus, as both a recipient and instrument of grace?
COMMUNION
Communion is a reminder of the treasure of hope we have in Jesus. It’s a reminder of the gospel and how Jesus lived as the greatest instrument of grace, when he died for our sins on the cross. If you haven’t received the gospel, please refrain from participating in communion so we can talk with you about the gospel. We’d rather you learn the importance of communion and the gospel rather than going through the motions of it. But Jesus told us to do this in remembrance of who he is and what he did for us on the cross. So let’s take a few minutes to prep our hearts, and for those watching online to prep their tables. Let’s take a few minutes to pray asking Jesus to forgive us of our sins, then let’s thank him for being the greatest instrument of grace in our lives...
On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took some bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it saying “This is my body which is to be broken for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you eat it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done for you.” When supper ended he took the cup, blessed it, gave thanks for it, and said “This is a symbol of my blood which is to be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink it, do so in remembrance of me, in remembrance of who I am and what I’ve done.” City Awakening let’s eat, let’s drink, then let’s stand and sing in celebration of the great treasure we have in Jesus.