Spiritual Treasure from Clay Pots

Many of you, I’m sure will have heard of Joshua Bell the violinist. Recently Joshua Bell sold out Boston's Symphony Hall. Seats started from $100 each, rising sharply. Joshua Bell himself plays a violin worth more than $3 million and is one of the most famous and renowned musicians in the world. Three days after the concert he entered a busy metro station in Washington, D.C. He opened his case and played his violin for up to an hour. Only a few people stopped and gave money (a few dollars), but no one recognised him as Joshua Bell - for them he was just another street busker, trying to make living.

Today, when it comes to the seeing the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ, many too are unaware of him - perhaps uninterested - blind to his glory. Many do not recognise or accept Jesus for who he is, they see him as someone who gave us some helpful teachings - a good man who cared for others - but they fail to see his true majesty and divinity, and therefore do not ascribe to him the honour, the glory, the adoration and the praise he rightly deserves. And regrettably this is all too common today.

As Christians, we do recognise him, we do see his glory and divine, supreme majesty - and we want to do all we can to share his Gospel and spread Christ's glory in the world so that other’s may see him also and come to listen to him and know him through the melody of his word and teachings.

In these verses from 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul addresses how prevalent this indifference was for him and becomes for us in our day - and how difficult it can be to share, effectively, the good news of Jesus - to make him known as he truly is, in such a secularised world. We may become discouraged and desire to quit, but, says Paul, we have been given a ministry by God and good reasons to press on.

How can we display the glory of Jesus Christ - to others in our world - in our communities - in our families - at our workplace even when others show little interest? Do we get discouraged, if inspite of our efforts, we get no response or worse.

This passage teaches us three important things.

I: (vv. 1–2) Firstly, Paul says, Refuse to give up and never distort the Word of God in order to win others

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

In verse 2, Paul contrasts his approach, to the methods of other teachers and scholars of his day who used any means necessary to gather a following. This of course meant altering their message - to tamper with God’s word - to merely tickle the ears of their hearers to win them over - sometimes for their own motives and gain. But Paul and his companions renounced these deceitful and shameful ways. They did not edit God's Word. They simply announced it. "By an open display of the truth" (v.2), the message remained the same for everyone who heard it.

There is a temptation, at times, to alter the gospel and make it more palatable and accommodating, to the culture we live in. As a church we may feel that we are making progress if our congregations are growing - but if this comes at the cost of not revealing the true Gospel, but making it what people want to hear - to win their over, we are only deceiving them, indeed, further condemning them, says Paul.

Recently a well known Christian periodical featured an article titled "Listening to Young Atheists," which recounted the testimony of many young people who grew up in church, but are now atheists. Of the many factors that led to their exit, one staggered many readers. The churches they attended did not take the Bible seriously. The author said, "These students heard plenty of messages encouraging new age theology and the prosperity gospel - but they seldom saw the relationship between that message, and the message of Jesus Christ, and the teachings of the Bible”. Fascinating! This is the result when we distort the message, portray a different gospel to the one given by God: we drain the gospel of its power. While we must take great care to communicate the message clearly, we do not have the option of altering it to suit our own or others preferences or needs. And this of course can have big consequences.

In what ways might we tempted to alter or soften the gospel? Paul is saying - if we are going to spread the glory of Christ in the world, we cannot distort God's Holy Word - it must be both true to the gospel and God’s word and real in people’s lives. This is so prevalent at the moment with the schisms in the church between evangelicals who remain firm to Bible teaching and those of a more - ‘liberal theology’ or ‘progressive Christianity’ that says the church must adapt - it must re-interpret it’s traditions and teachings to fit with the needs of a modern day culture - in other words to fit Christ into the culture rather than the culture into Christ. For many, these things are an acceptable way to bring people into the church and the kingdom of God - but are they? - which leads us into Paul’s 2nd area of concern.

II: In (vv. 3–4) Paul invites us to recognise the work of the devil

The reasons some people don't embrace the gospel are numerous - intellectual, pride, pleasure of sin, fear, could be listed as factors for unbelief. But in verse 4 Paul focuses on the work of the “evil god of this world”, Satan, who he says "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel or the glory of Christ". Pauls tells us that the devil fights for his own glory, and he will do anything to prevent people from seeing the glory of Christ. He knows he cannot defeat God but he seeks to thwart God’s plan in bringing people to a faith in Jesus Christ and replacing this with a parody of his own version of truth and himself being worshipped.

We must keep this is mind. When someone fails to respond to the gospel despite our best efforts to convince them, we tend to question our methods, our effectiveness as disciples and perhaps even the message itself. But blindness to the gospel should not surprise us! (Eph. 6:12) We are at war with powers and authorities that we cannot see. We have the greatest message in the world - in the entire universe and unfortunately, the greatest enemy. J.R.R. Tolkien reminds us: "It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him". (Rev. 12:9) We live near a live dragon who hates the gospel.

III: We are to Rest in the power of God (vv. 5–6)

In verses 5–6 Paul reminds the Corinthians, and us, that only God can save. What a relief! Just as in the beginning God made light shine out of darkness, so (v.6) He can open blind eyes to allow people to see Jesus clearly. (v.5) Our task is simply: to announce that Jesus is Lord. That is the key.

(Romans. 10:9 (RSV)...if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord you will be saved.

And when you recognise his Lordship, when you know and acknowledge that he is Lord, and you consent to him having his Lordship in your life, then he can save you. The Lord is who he is; saving is what he does. When we realize "we are not our own; we are bought with a price" and we agree to that, then he is not only our Lord, but our Saviour. On the basis of his Lordship, Paul, then, goes on to say that the moment a person sees and accepts that Jesus is Lord, God's creative power begins to operate in their life and light comes into their darkness; the veil is removed/hidden revealed. Notice how he puts it:

For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts ...

He takes us back to creation, when the whole world lay in darkness. Nobody could do anything about it except God, who said, "Let there be light," Suddenly, out of the darkness, light sprang up in obedience to the creative word of the living God.

That is what Paul says must happen before any person ever becomes a Christian. God has to say again that creative word, "Let light shine out of darkness." When we acknowledge Jesus as Lord, the darkness disappears; and the light shines into the person’s heart, as Paul says it did in his own heart on the Damascus road: "The light shone into the darkness of my deluded heart, and I saw in his face that Jesus was Lord."

Many are walking in darkness? When people begin to seek and see the "face of Christ." That is when the light shines.

There are many tempting portrayals of Jesus today. But in the Scriptures you have the authentic Jesus, and in the fellowship of the people of God (us) the character and the love of Jesus comes through. In moments of communion and prayer we see the "face of Christ." That is what turns off the darkness, lowers the veil and brings the light of Jesus into our lives. We do not have to walk in darkness in this day and age when we can look at the "face of Christ," for therein is "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" for all to see. Let us press on in the work God has given us, says Paul, proclaiming humbly, and with integrity - as clay pots sharing spiritual treasure - and not lose heart.

Prayer

"Heavenly Father, we thank You for the mercy shown to us, which establishes us in this ministry. We ask that, by Your grace, we do not lose heart or give up, but instead renounce and challenge any distortion of Your word.

Even though the gospel may be veiled to some, we pray that You will remove the veil of blindness from their hearts, that they may see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Especially, we pray for any known to us.