CLAY POT…YOUR HIDDEN TREASURE
You cannot tell the value of something by the package it comes in. Like the treasure of salvation buried in the dirt in the parable that Jesus told, the treasure was so precious that the man sold everything to buy it and a pearl is found in an ugly oyster shell. The container does not always reflect the value of its contents.
2 Corinthians 4: 1-11
Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not despair, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor falsifying the word of God, but by the disclosure of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience before God. But even if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. Because it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who shined 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 VESSELS, SO THAT THE EXTRAORDINARY CHARACTER OF THE POWER MAY BE OF GOD AND NOT OF US; in everything being oppressed, yet not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that also the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. For we who are living are always handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our body.
Let us speak about Paul for a moment, as I do not think that Paul, when he founded the church, had any idea how much they would break his heart. They did. It was not long after he had unburdened his grieving heart over their sin when false teachers came into the church and brought doctrines of demons. Hypocritical liars who wanted to achieve status. They had to become believable. They had to rise to the place where they were recognized as teachers, and to do that, they had to destroy the people’s confidence in their pastor, Paul.
So, they came, and they assaulted Paul relentlessly, mercilessly, and consistently for months and months. They attacked Paul and they undermined his integrity and his credibility, his apostleship, and his message. He was so devastated by this on one occasion that he went for a visit, and when he got there, to straighten things out and to call them back to himself, not for his own sake but for the sake of the truth, a man in the congregation apparently stood up and blasted Paul to the face and nobody defended him, and he left with a shattered heart.
How many of us has had that happen?
Second Corinthians is the hardest thing for a man of God to do because it is a letter that he must write to defend himself, and the fact is he knows he is nothing. He must defend himself as the teacher of the truth, as the apostle of Jesus Christ, as the messenger of God. And yet he knows himself to be nothing. If you go back to verse 1, he says, “Since we have this ministry” It is mercy, that I am saved, that I am called. It is like I am what I am by the grace of God.
We have a lot of reason to lose heart, but we do not lose heart. This ministry is too glorious, and despite what they are saying to you, “we have renounced the things hidden because of shame.” What the false teachers apparently were saying was, “If you really knew Paul, you would know he is a hypocrite, he is a phony, he is a fake, he’s a deceiver. On the surface, on the outside, he looks holy, the fact of the matter is he has a secret life of shame. They even went further, then, to attack his character. They went further, then, to attack his theology. They even attacked him personally.
2 Corinthians 10:10
"For his letters," they say, "are severe and boisterous, but his bodily presence is feeble, and his speech amounts to nothing."
Who were they talking about?
He is not particularly good looking, he cannot speak very well, and he has a disfigured face! (Gal 4:13-15). He obviously is not to be believed or followed because God’s man does not look like that. He is not charismatic enough, fit enough or blessed enough!! He is just like everyone else. He is just an ordinary human being. There is nothing unique or gifted about him. If he were the real thing, he would have it all together. He would be super capable. He would be much better than that. He is a phony. Sound familiar?
They say that Paul was a small hunchback with some physical deformities, he was aging and scarred, he had lack in personal charm and attractiveness. He did not have the personal power it takes, limitations in speech. And yet, as assaulted as he was, He says, what do you want out of a clay pot? “When I’m weak, then I am strong.” He does not argue against their accusations of weakness, he affirms them. And they are not defects, they are credentials of his authentic apostleship. That is humbleness.
Whom of you is so humble?
And like all ministers, he was put in a very embarrassing position. He was being criticized by people much more sinful and weaker than he, and I am sure that he found it extremely hard and very painful to defend himself because he knew he was nothing. But at the same time, he knew the new covenant was everything.
That is why God puts the priceless treasure in clay pots, verse 7.
Preachers, ministers are men, that is all. And men are not perfect, so there is no hope of perfection in the ministry. If God could not use poor instruments and feeble voices, He could not make music. Abraham, guilty of duplicity, yet he became the man of faith and the friend of God. Moses, stuttering speech, quick temper, yet he was the man chosen to make a nation and commune with God and receive His law. David, guilty of adultery, conspiracy, murder, unfaithfulness as a husband, father, repented, became a man after God’s own heart. Elijah, who had stood on Mount Carmel, defied Ahab and all the prophets of Baal and heard the still, small voice of God at Horeb. Then Isaiah, in the presence of the heavenly vision, says, “I’m a man with a dirty mouth, I live among people with dirty mouths, I’m certainly useless to you, O God.” But when he had been cleansed, he said, “Here am I, send me,” and God said, “Go.” And Peter. Another clay pot. The leader, the spokesman of the twelve apostles who denied his Lord with oaths and curses, who even had the audacity to correct the Lord and was restored by the compassion of Jesus during his disobedience and was enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit to speak with such force on the Day of Pentecost. Paul was a persecutor, was a violent aggressor, and yet was shown mercy, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant.
Are you getting the picture here? So, it is with Paul. He is under assault unjustly. He is falsely accused. He is battered and hammered and it is serious, it is physical as in Ephesus when he started a riot and had to escape. It is physical as he records it in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 where he lists all the of the beatings, five times beaten by the Jews, thirty-nine stripes, three times beaten with rods by the Gentiles, shipwrecked, and on and on and on. It was physical.
2Timothy 2:20
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honour and some for dishonour.
This “treasure” Paul is talking about is the incalculable riches of the gospel (Col 2:3,9; Rom 8:2; Heb 2:14; Rom 8:1; Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18) Amazingly, the God of the universe chose to deposit the priceless truth of Christ and His gospel into “common” and “unimpressive” human vessels. The word “earthen” refers to a baked clay pot or container. They were cheap, easily replaceable storage containers most often used for handling garbage and human waste. The term “vessel” means a hollow instrument or tool.
Let me tell you about clay pots. It is baked dirt, baked clay, cheap, common, breakable, replaceable, essentially valueless. You have them around your house, don’t you? You go down to the gardening place, and you get clay pots. Drop one, no big deal. Clay pot is a clay pot. Now, you know, your wife will put a ribbon on it. That is why preachers wear ties. Does not have any value, but useful. It is amazing what beautiful thing you could put in it, like a flower.
Clay pots in ancient times were used for several things. Sometimes something important was in a clay pot, like the Dead Sea Scrolls was in a clay pot.
Four types of clay pots were used in ancient Israel as holders of Wine, Water, Grain/Wheat and Oil, now what is important to know here is that for these to be used they had to go thru a process.
The grain and wine represent the Holy Communion, which speaks of the broken body of Jesus and the blood that He shed. To make bread, you take the wheat or grain, then crush and beat it to make dough. Then, you punch the dough and put it into the fiery heat for it to become bread. That is what happened to our Lord Jesus on the cross, He became our Bread of Life.
To get wine, the grapes not only have to be plucked, but they also need to be crushed and trodden upon. Likewise, our Lord Jesus was trodden upon by the judgment of God and He became new wine for all of us.
Olive oil comes from the olive fruit. But when you press the fruit real hard, you will not find oil, only a white sap. Also, the fruit tastes very bitter. To get the oil, the fruit and its seed must be crushed by a great weight in an olive press. The crushing also removes the bitterness. In the same manner, Jesus was crushed under the burden and weight of our sins, and under the judgment of a holy God. He was crushed to become the anointing oil that heals us today.
The New Testament was not written by the elite of Egypt or Greece or Rome or even Israel. The greatest scholars in the world at that time were down in Egypt. He passed them all. Why? God never used any of them, none of them. He just used clay pots. We had peasants and fishermen, smelly guys and tax collectors, clay pots who were chosen to hold and to proclaim and to write the priceless treasure of gospel truth. God is still doing it, He is still passing by the elite, isn’t He? He is still passing by the hard-hearted, non-listening, proud intellectuals. They may be sitting in their ivory towers in universities, and sitting in their ivory towers in the seminaries, and sitting in their bishoprics and in their positions of authority in the church, and God is finding the humble who will carry the treasure of saving truth. It is amazing that God delights in using humble, common people like me and you to be His instruments! By using frail, fallible people, God makes it clear to all that the power of the gospel lies not in the human messenger but in Him! Paul responded to his attackers by saying the one true and living God uses humble, common, garbage containers, those considered worthless by the world, to be the vessels He uses to manifest His power to transform hearts through the gospel.
You ask, how can that work?
Let me explain it this way, we are not the message, we preach the truth, that is powerful, we are weak, common, plain, fragile, breakable, dishonourable and disposable clay pots who should be taking the garbage out but instead, we’re bringing the glory of God.
Are you hiding a treasure in your clay pot?
Are you under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?
What is your hidden treasure?
We are clay pots at best, and we have nothing to offer, beauty or power. If you want to be used mightily by God, get yourself out of it. Get yourself out of it. Just see yourself as a garbage pail. Or in the words of Peter, “Clothe yourself with humility.” It is not you; it is not your personality; it is the Word of God.? I am an unworthy servant, but God has given me the treasure. What a privilege.
What is the ministry? The ministry is the gospel, verse 4 of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. The gospel is the treasure, it is the story of God incarnate in Christ, redeeming sinners, that great, shining gospel. And that is what is described in the wondrous third chapter where he unfolds the new covenant. He says the treasure is the truth. It is the truth that God is in Christ, bringing good news of salvation. This is the treasure.
Father, we thank you. Help us never ever to commit that sin of placing our own selves above the divine revelation. And may we ever and always know that we are just a clay pot and what makes us powerful is not in us, but in you who abides in us. May the Word go forth, not just through the preachers, but through all the believers here who are also clay pots containing the glorious treasure. And may you, through the truth of the glorious new covenant gospel use us humble servants as instruments to bring many to righteousness. And in the end, there will be no explanation for our lives and no explanation for our impact except the message we preach. We give you the glory. In Jesus name. Amen.
