2 Corinthians | Chapter 4 – Scripture Supply

2 Corinthians 4:1-2

“No Towel to Throw In”

I. Intro.

Paul’s critics in Corinth believed that his difficulties were an indication that God was not with him, and they used those observations to heap insults upon him, thinking that it would discourage him. But here he writes that it didn’t have that effect upon him. Some see this passage as Paul’s answer to four charges from his critics:

Vs. 1 “We do not lose heart”: This addresses the charge that some said he had become apathetic and fickle to the ministry, which is why he never stayed put in one place.
Vs. 2a “Renounced the hidden things of shame”: They accused him of being a dishonest man, using things that furthered his reputation.
Vs. 2b “Not walking in craftiness”: This applies to the charge that he was asking for money, not for the saints in Jerusalem, but to line his own pockets.
Vs. 2c “Nor handling the Word of God deceitfully”: The charge here implies that Paul was diluting the message to support his claim of righteousness by faith in Christ alone.

Paul will tell them twice (first in verse 1 and then in verse 16), “Therefore we do not lose heart.” I’m thinking of adopting that verse as the theme for this fellowship in this New Year, 2012. What do you think? With all of us getting older, facing greater economic uncertainty, health, family, and career difficulties, by the world’s standards, life seems to be on the decline. But Paul says, “Not so fast,” as our hearts are growing closer to Jesus each and every day! “Whom are you proclaiming, not only in your speech but by the way you are living?” And let’s be certain that we understand the question. It is not what “theology” but whose life and character is visible in our lives?

II. Vs. 1-2 The Ends Do Not Justify the Means

Vs. 1: The first six verses of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 4, answer a lot of questions as to why so many people do not believe the gospel when they hear it, or even why many who do believe the gospel quit after they have been professing Christians. It also answers the question as to why some people whom you think will never believe it, suddenly do so.

The key to unlocking these six verses is Paul’s phrase in verse 1 where he says, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.” The theme of this section is Paul’s assertion to these Corinthian believers that even though they had made him and his ministry something that they attacked, it hadn’t had the effect they wanted to have upon him. He didn’t feel like quitting, he hadn’t become discouraged, and instead, he was confident and encouraged. Paul was using this situation as an opportunity to reveal to them what he had been ministering to them all along: that his view of success was not how they or the world defined it.

I find many Christians who are ready to quit; they are giving it all they can but are not seeing the results they thought they would with all the effort. They have come to the place, like the great prophet “Popeye,” where he would say, “It’s all I can stands and I can’t stands no more!” And unlike Popeye, they haven’t been able to find the can of spinach. The problem is they just do not see themselves as Paul did; instead, their focus is on what they are doing for God. They do not understand that the basis for this life is what Paul calls the “new covenant,” which is all about what God has provided in Christ.

Vs. 2: Gone from Paul’s life and ministry was the world’s view of success, and because of this, he no longer needed to engage in faulty techniques to compete! He didn’t practice the world’s mantra that “The ends justify the means” because his life and ministry were not the basis of God’s love and acceptance any longer! Paul had been set free from the “tyranny of the urgent” that demanded that he perform or he was out of favor with God. Even more remarkable was that such freedom was being manifested all the while those in Corinth among the Church were still judging him along those lines! The seduction of the world’s popularity would come at the cost of God’s unconditional love and favor, which were not earned nor could ever be—they were a gift! And Paul was not about to let go of Someone so precious for something so fickle and elusive! In this verse, Paul gives us two reasons why the new covenant does not allow for discouragement.

Vs. 2a “We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully”: Paul says that he “had turned his back on the ways and practices that bring discouragement.” He then goes on to describe the things that would cause discouragement: the hidden things of shame, walking in craftiness, and handling the word of God deceitfully. Apparently, there were folks in his day who defined success like the world did, just like they do today. They were relying upon clever methods and even tampering with the word of God to get folks to follow what they were teaching. Paul wanted nothing to do with any attempt to compete for God’s love and acceptance based on people’s responses. It seems, based on this text, that these techniques followed two patterns:
- “Hidden things of shame… not walking in craftiness”: We cannot be sure what exactly Paul was speaking of here, but I know what would fall into this classification today. Last year at Easter, I read about many churches around the country that offered cash and prizes if you were among the first 100 to church on that day. These ministries were bribing people to come to church by offering 60-inch flat-screen TVs and the like. But Paul wanted nothing to do with these gimmicks to manipulate people or to pad his stats. Sometimes I think the Church has just become the “greatest show on earth,” and you wonder where it will end. Years ago in California, one church became famous for its Christmas pageant, and every year they made it even more spectacular than the year before. Live animals, a choir of hundreds, and finally, they went to the air and got a specialist who was harnessed into a wire, dressed as an angel who would hover over the manger singing “Glory to God in the highest.” They practiced for months, and on opening night, the 2-hour performance was ready and going great. Up went the angel, but before he began to sing, the guide wire snapped, and he began to fly around uncontrollably, banging into the walls. All the commotion drew the attention off of baby Jesus and onto the out-of-control angel, who began yelling and cussing at people to get him the hell down. The more he thrashed about, the more he began to spin faster and faster until he began to throw up on the audience. I think that is what can happen when we think we need to make Jesus about a performance: “We just end up taking everybody’s eyes off of HIM and onto us as we spin out of control, hurling stuff that doesn’t smell very good.”
- “Handling the word of God deceitfully”: Others just offer a “feel-good” message and don’t say anything in the Bible that would ruffle people’s consciences. In 2 Timothy 4:3, Paul spoke of this time saying, “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to right teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear.” Anyone who relies on this type of teaching may gain an appearance of success. But Paul says that he did not want to twist the scripture or use stories that played upon people’s emotions. He wasn’t a “showman” to attract people to come to church. The most common way of twisting the Scriptures is to resort to what is called “proof-texting,” which is coming to the Bible with an idea of something you want to teach and then going through it, picking out a few isolated passages here and there that sound like what you want to say, so that when people hear you, they will say, “That it was biblically supported!” These teachers use the Bible to inspire people to manipulate them, not because it is inspired!
Vs. 2b “But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God”: The first reason why he in the New Covenant wasn’t discouraged had to do with what he didn’t do. Here in the second half of the verse, it has to do with what he did. Paul did not get discouraged because he did not have to think through some new gimmick to get people out to hear the good news. He knew that the truth is the most exciting and attractive thing in the world is Jesus. When you come to people with the truth about themselves, about their lives, and about the world in which they live, when you strip off all the veils of illusion and delusions by which people live and reveal the basic reality of what is true, you get instant attention. The test of any religion is not whether people like it or whether they are comfortable with it or whether it makes them feel good. The test is, “Is it true? Does it fit reality?” In Matthew 7:28-29, after Jesus had taught on the mountain, the people who heard Him commented that “He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” When you have the word of God by the spirit of God, you don’t need gimmicks; you don’t need to tickle people’s ears because it “speaks to the conscience, and not merely to the mind.” Paul says, “I don’t have to depend on my personality and my ability to persuade people. I can go with the simple teaching of the truth of the Word of God and the conviction that God is able to reach the conscience even though the mind and the emotions may reject what I have to say.”

It was with great joy in his calling to present Jesus unhindered from view because Paul, like John the Baptist before him, had Jesus increase in his life to such a degree that he had decreased. Paul presented an undiluted Jesus that was straightforward without any deviation! That is what he meant by the use of the phrase, “In the sight of God”! There are far too many “superstar” personalities in the pulpits today who crave popularity to such a degree that they teach a “synthetic gospel” to appeal to the masses as “relevant” and “intellectual,” all the while pandering to further boost their self-worship. They fail to realize that their calling has nothing to do with making themselves more popular and richer; Jesus doesn’t need them, and He isn’t lucky to have them!!!

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

“Was Blind But Now I See”

I. Intro.

Ever wonder why not everyone becomes a follower of Jesus? I mean, think about it: Receiving Jesus is a far better deal than winning the lottery, going on a dream vacation, or even finding the love of your life. He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, a Warrior King who guarantees victory, the Groom who will always love you and will never leave you or forsake you. Why, even at death, He will usher you into the house that He has been preparing just for you. Not to mention the fact that He alone has wiped out our debt of sin—past, present, and future—and has even made it possible for us not to live under the power of sin. With those truths, it is just illogical not to receive Jesus, yet there are far more people who don’t accept Him than those that do. As Jesus Himself predicted in Matthew 7:13 when He said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”

The Bible speaks of two reasons why a person who has heard the gospel doesn’t receive Jesus as their Lord:

In John 3:19, Jesus said that He “the light” had come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Simply put, the number one reason a person rejects Jesus is not a lack of evidence, but they don’t want to stop living in sin.
The 2nd reason is what Paul touches on in this passage as well as in 2 Timothy 2:24-26. In that passage, Paul writes to Timothy about the qualifications of leadership in the local Church, saying that “the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.” Then in verse 25, Paul writes that the reason for these qualifications is so that, “In meekness,” they will be able to “instruct those that oppose themselves.” Clearly, Paul viewed the rejection of Jesus as an “opposition against one’s own self.” Paul goes on to say that being “apt to teach” might grant those who are in “opposition against one’s own self” the opportunity that “God might give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” and in so doing, that they “may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” Here in 2 Cor. 4:4, Paul writes of that “snare,” saying in the NLT that “Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them.”

The fact remains that in spite of the power of the gospel, some remain deaf to its appeal and blind to its glory. The question is, what can we, the Church, do about that problem?

II. Vs. 3-4 Behind the Curtain

Vs. 3-4: Paul concedes this accusation against him as they said that he taught things that were hard to understand and didn’t produce the numbers as others did. His argument is that the lack of reception had nothing to do with the message or the messenger but rather the hearers. There was nothing wrong with the gospel, and Paul had not tried to “water it down” to make it palatable. The problem was that those who didn’t receive did so because there was a veil in their minds and hearts that caused blindness to it. Calvin put it this way: “The blindness of unbelievers doesn’t detract from the truth of the gospel any more than the sun is less real to a person who is blind and cannot detect its light.”

Some commentators on this passage interpret this as Paul answering the question, “Why are people perishing?” and that his answer was, “Because they are blinded by the devil.” They then say that Paul asks and answers, “Why are they blinded by the devil?” and his answer is, “Because they won’t believe.” If it is interpreted that way, then this means: “That the basic reason for people being lost is because they refuse to believe, and that is what gives the devil an opportunity to blind them.” But that is not what Paul says. It is the other way around: People are perishing because they do not believe; and they do not believe because they are blinded by the devil. The god of this age is behind the scenes of world events and has brainwashed them. Paul says that the devil’s tool is the veil. He has described that “veil” as the delusion that we are adequate to handle life by ourselves, that independent sense of pride that says, “I don’t need any help; I can handle it by myself; I need no religious crutch; I don’t need a savior.” In the words of William Henley’s famous poem, Invictus: “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” The devil’s purpose is to keep people from seeing that Jesus Christ is the answer. One of the great proofs of the Bible is that it confirms that people everywhere, in any generation, in any culture or background, long to be like God. They want to be in charge; they want to run things; they want to make final decisions about what happens to them; they want to control others and the events of their lives, and they are frustrated if they cannot. They long to be like God. It may surprise you that this was the intent of God from the very beginning—that on this earth we would manifest His qualities and His character. He has implanted that in the hearts of people everywhere. The problem lies in assuming that such God-like behavior is self-serving, arrogant, and that in this prideful arrogance, we can do this by ourselves, by our own efforts, by our own power, by our own abilities. The great secret the devil seeks to hide is that Jesus Christ is the secret. Jesus said it in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father but by me.”

III. Vs. 5-6 The Great Secret

Vs. 5: So what hope is there that anybody who has been blinded by the devil will ever believe the good news? People cannot remove the veil themselves; only Christ can take it away. So how then can people be saved? Paul says, “That is where preaching comes in. That is why I have been sent.” In Romans 10:17, Paul wrote that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” But the question is: What can we do about this condition in which those who are blinded seem to be deaf as well? In Matthew 12:29, Jesus said, “How can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” A few chapters later, Jesus said in 16:19, speaking to His Church, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” So here is what the scriptures say we must do with regards to people’s blindness and spiritual captivity: We need to go to God in prayer, asking that God bind the “strong man satan,” who has blinded the unbelieving’s eyes by veiling Jesus to them so that they will stay in captivity. We are to be praying that satan’s work will be bound and God’s work will be released, which will enable those who are blind to see. I’m afraid that the Church has abandoned the Spirit-led and empowered necessity of prayer as we continue to persevere for those who are under the snares of satan. Paul says, “It’s for this reason we don’t come preaching ourselves. If you want to know where we fit in, we are your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

Paul didn’t preach personalities, programs, principles, or procedures; NO, he preached a Person who is Jesus Christ as Lord! He is NOT going to be Lord someday when he returns; He is Lord NOW! When He rose from the dead, He said in Matthew 28:18 to His disciples, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” He is in control; He is in charge right now; all the events that occur in the world today occur because He has permitted them or has brought them into being. A lot of people misinterpret salvation as, “If you receive Jesus as your Savior, you will be saved.” But you won’t find that verse in the Bible; He must be Lord of your life in order for you to be saved. Friend, Jesus is Lord whether you believe it or not, whether you receive Him as such or not. Your unbelief won’t change that, but it will change whether or not you are saved. Lord is who He is; saving is what He does.

Could it be in today’s world that in part, people don’t see Jesus because all they hear is Jesus as “Savior,” not “Jesus Christ as the Lord” who saves? People will receive a “savior” who will deliver them from messes, self-made or otherwise, but they aren’t interested in a Lord who is over their lives! There are a great many who remain blinded because they only want a savior so that they can go back to the mess they have made out of their lives. They aren’t wanting a way OUT; they are looking for a way to REMAIN without the natural consequences of their choices!

Vs. 6: Paul knew what it was to be blinded and to see the light, as that had been his experience, as told by Luke in Acts 26:13. It is God’s work to remove the veil, as it was His work to bring light into darkness at creation. The God of creation who called light out of darkness can alone bring light to blindness! No one is beyond His love, no one has outrun His grace, and no one is so blind that He cannot bring them into light! Paul goes on to say that the moment a person sees that Jesus is Lord, God’s creative power begins to operate in his life, and light comes into their darkness, and the veil is removed. He takes us back to creation when the whole world lay in darkness. Nobody could do anything about it except God, who said in Genesis 1:3b, “Let there be light,” and suddenly, out of the darkness, light sprang up in obedience to the creative word of the living God. Where do you find the light of the glory of God? In the face of Jesus Christ. And where do you find the face of Jesus? The Bible is all about Jesus:

The Old Testament is full of anticipations of His character and His being
The Gospels give you the record of His amazing life on earth
The Epistles explain the implications of that life, His death and resurrection, and His working for us

As you read through the Bible, the Spirit of God interprets them, and the “face of Christ” comes clearer and clearer, and light comes into a darkened heart.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

“The Great Exchange”

I. Intro.

Paul has been describing his ministry of warfare against the “god of this age,” who has “blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2 Cor. 4:4b). This comes as no surprise to most of us as we are surrounded by evidences of this seen in the decay in society. But how does that stack up next to Matthew 5:13-14 where Jesus said to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Salt in Jesus’ time was a very important commodity; in fact, it was so valuable that Roman soldiers were often paid with salt, which is where we got the phrase, “he is worth his salt.” There was no way to preserve food except by use of salt; used on dead things, it kept them from spoiling. But salt does not change decay; it cannot change corruption into incorruption. All it does is prevent it from spreading. Jesus was saying that His Church is called to be the preservative to impede corruption. Salt was also used in wounds as an antiseptic, providing healing to those that were sick, stopping the spread of decay so that healing can take place.

The purpose of light is to illuminate. This is a positive principle in contrast with salt. Salt prevents the spread of decay, but light reveals what is present. Yes, it exposes what is hidden, but more than that, it reveals what might be. It is clear what the Church’s problem is: “we have lost our flavor” and “we are not a city set upon a hill.” Jesus is saying that if we lose our preservation, then the world will use us to be able to continue on the paths they are still on. We cannot merely put on a front of being salty; we have to be salty! That is what Paul is writing about here as verses 7-12 are a detailed description of how to exercise the power of the Holy Spirit.

It reminds me of the plaque that is at the base of the great Hoover Dam dedicated to the 112 people who died during its 5-year construction; it reads in part, “These died that the desert might bloom.” George Müller was once asked what his secret was as provider for thousands of orphans. He responded by saying, “There was a day when I died.” Then he hung his head to explain what he meant: “Died to George Müller.” That is Paul’s topic in this section as he explains the mystery of our weakness and God’s power that produces “blooms in the desert.”

II. Vs. 7-9 Common Containers

Vs. 7: Clay jars were like plastic or paper bags today! They were used to transport goods and hide family treasures, but they had a short life span. Every archaeological dig contains their fragments, even though no one in their day considered them valuable. There are two things that Paul’s analogy tells us:

It was no big deal when one of them broke as they were cheap and easy to replace. Paul uses this as a metaphor for humanity and the followers of Jesus. Some clay is more refined than others, but be it fine china or adobe, it’s still just dirt!
The other thing that is very descriptive to me is that these pots are, by design, made to contain something. That is what all of humanity is by nature—“common containers.” We are not “superstar entertainers” but common containers! We are, by design, meant to hold someone, and as such, we will either be full of Christ or full of ourselves! God’s purpose for our life is that we live in such a way that people will look at us and say, “I don’t get it. I know that person; they are ordinary, yet when they go through life, they live so remarkably. I just don’t understand it.”

The treasure Paul speaks of in verse 7 was described in verse 6 as “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” To many, it is an utter mystery why God would commit the hope for fallen humanity in the gospel to insignificant, fragile followers. But Paul tells us the reason: We Christians were never designed to be powerful in ourselves; we are only vessels in which God’s power is to be exhibited. It is important that we don’t misunderstand what Paul is saying: He is not saying that we need to embrace our weakness as a means to enhancing “OUR POWER.” The equation is NOT: My weakness + God’s power = My Power! It is about His power being manifested through our weakness! It is in our frailty and weakness that God’s power is most visible as we are designed to leak, as our weakness is essential and necessary for the display of God’s power.

Vs. 8-9: To illustrate this, Paul gives four paradoxes of his own personal experiences, and we know that they are his because he prefaces each of the four with the words “WE ARE.” And in each of these four personal experiences, he contrasts his weakness with God’s power pulsating through his life by using the words “BUT NOT.” William Barclay translates these verses: “We are sore pressed at every point, but not hemmed in; we are at our wit’s end, but never at our hope’s end; we are persecuted by men, but never abandoned by God; we are knocked down, but not knocked out.” Here we are told of the things that bring out the weakness of our clay pots. These stresses cause us to realize that we are ordinary, but they also cause us to realize that what we contain in Christ is extraordinary. Nothing ever changes that weakness, but in that weakness, we realize that we are a picture frame of God’s power!

Vs. 8a “Squeezed but not squashed”: As much pressure that was exhibited upon Paul’s life, he proclaimed that such squeezing was ever met with a filling of God’s power that even with all the pressure of the world pressed upon his fragile earthen life, it was never able to crush him. Have you found that to be true, dear saint? The Holy Spirit fills our clay pots with more strength than the world has stress, more power than the world has problems!
Vs. 8b “Bewildered but not befuddled”: As weak as Paul’s life was, at loss because of the work of the Holy Spirit, he was never “at a loss.” He may have been driven to the place of confusion, but he was never confounded! It was said of Napoleon that he had a magic for victory but no technique for defeat. But not so for Paul, as defeat and weakness only meant that the surpassing power would be of God and not of himself! In 2 Tim. 4:5, Paul would encourage his young friend by saying, “keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” Friend, this is only possible in our weakness as God’s strength is perfected.
Vs. 9a “Hounded by the world but hugged by God”: Paul knew literally what it was like to be persecuted as this word literally means to be “hunted down,” but he had also found out what King David knew so well: that God would never forsake him. Nothing and no one could ever convince Paul otherwise because God’s abiding presence was always with him.
Vs. 9b “Knocked down but not knocked out”: The word “struck down” means to be hit by a weapon, but Paul said that he may have been put down, but he was not put out! In Acts 14:19-20, Paul experienced having people pick up rocks and strike him until he was unconscious, where they dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead, only for him to get back up and go back into that same city.

You can catch the intensity of Paul’s statements when you put them all together: “Squeezed, Bewildered, Hounded by the world, and Knocked down.” That describes the weakness in the flesh, doesn’t it? But look at God’s surpassing power on display through that weakness as we compile these words together: “not squashed, not befuddled, hugged by God and not knocked out.” These words describe God’s power, not Paul reaching down and pulling himself up by his own strength. Paul’s weakness became the occasion for God’s power. Theodore Steinway, who came to fame building the pianos that bear his name, once said, “In one of our concert pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an iron frame. This is proof that out of great tension comes great harmony.” I believe that this truth about pianos carries over to people as well. It is only as we go through extreme pressures that we gain the right tone in our hearts so that God can play His tune of grace through us. There is a great principle in reaching others for Christ: “It is through the breaking of the earthen vessel that light shines forth onto the pathway for others.”

III. Vs. 10-12 Blooms in the Desert

Vs. 10-11: I know personally that many times as a Christian I’ve felt afflicted and crushed; I’ve had the perplexities that have driven me to despair. I’ve felt abandoned and knocked out for weeks and months at a time. What has made the difference for me in those times so that I can walk in victory instead of defeat? It is to be found in these two verses here:

The death that Paul speaks of is the process of dying rather than the final state. Notice that the “life of Jesus” always rests upon the “death of Jesus.” We must have, in our experience, the “death of Jesus” in order to have the “life of Jesus.” In Col. 1:9-11, Paul prays for the believers in Colossae, saying that he prayed that they may be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.” But what was God’s power to be used for? Was it so they could do incredible miracles? Was it so they could exhibit a supernatural ability to proclaim the gospel? No, Paul tells us that it was so that we could live with “all patience and longsuffering with joy”! That is where the real witness takes place. God’s power is made the most visible where the world sees us as cracked pots living in all patience and longsuffering with joy! We want to be free from anxiety, but only if we can have the pleasure of worrying! We want the kingdom of God, but only if we can maintain our own personal rights as well. But you cannot have both. That is where the new covenant brings us, “always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, in order that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal flesh.”

Vs. 12: The “cross” says that we have to die; come to the end of our dependence on ourselves and rest upon the willingness of God to be at work in us, without any flash. That’s where we struggle, as our flesh wants the power of God, but we want to get credit for it too. “So death is at work in us, but life in you.” This then is the New Covenant as seen in the Cross of Christ: Jesus died that we might live; we die to self so that He might live through us! That is the great exchange: Jesus’ life for ours and our life for His! God’s power in our lives does not come from our pursuit of power: My weakness + God’s power = God’s power! The principal of the world is “self-glorification,” the principal of the Christian is “self-crucifixion.” What a word for the Church: With all our propensity to human idolatry and self-exaltation, we must be reminded that the power of the gospel comes in our weakness, not our strength or greatness. The fact is we are clay pots and cracked ones at that.

2 Corinthians 4:13-15

“Is this all there is?”

I. Intro.

Paul had just explained how our weakness framed God’s power. Using his own personal experiences, he said (and I paraphrase his words) that we are:

Squeezed but not squashed
Bewildered but not befuddled
Hounded by the world but hugged by God
Knocked down but not knocked out

God’s power through our weakness principle was what moved Paul to new and joyous heights. But it was also this principle that motivated him to continue serving in the present. If there is one thing that humanity has become an expert in (albeit it would much rather not have taken the course), it’s death! The great question everybody will ask at some point, usually more than once, is the question: “Is this all there is? What happens after this life I’m living now?” As you examine this, you will see that humanity has come up with only three answers to that question, and people will be in one of these three categories:

First: There are those who answer this question with one word: NOTHING! You simply pass out of existence, like a candle going out; your life just flickers for a while then goes into darkness. There is nothing left, no experience, no feeling, no reaction, no knowledge. People who adopt this view believe that in the end they just simply perish, cease to exist, and that is the end of it. Most notably, people who have embraced this opinion are atheistic in philosophy. Of course, people can hold to this position if they want to, but the trouble with it is that it offers nothing but despair. To hold this view, especially as you near the “end,” is to become fatalistic with no hope for anything meaningful. To come to the end of human personality with all its possibilities and wonders is to arrive at the end of hope. People who have come to this belief live for now, but only because they have no tomorrow. As such, they live a self-centered and self-absorbed life. All their philanthropic pursuits are in the sciences that try to extend the “here and now” because, in their view, there is no “hereafter.” People that have this philosophy, on the extreme if they have the money, will delve into cryogenics in the “hope” that at some future time, humanity will develop a cure for whatever was the cause of their death. Life becomes about trying to shove everything into your “bucket list.”
Second: There is the answer that says that when you come to the end of your life, anything can happen. This position is so wide that the range of answers can’t possibly be addressed in a million books. They vary from eastern religions that say you are going to have to come back over and over again until you work hard enough to become good enough to reach the stage of perfection, then you can enter into a state of Nirvana. Some of the extreme beliefs about this are that we don’t really exist now, as we are all just players in someone else’s dream. Then there are those that tend to the sci-fi that see things out of this world, with aliens and other planets that we will populate with greater intelligence and technology. The trouble with these views is they have no historical basis for trusting in them. In the end, they are at best just wishful thinking and at worst, demonic delusion. Proof of this is seen in the fact that they are all contradictory of each other. The belief in any one of these possibilities is based upon personal “experiences”—a “burning in the bosom” kind of encounter that interprets what happens next through “feelings and emotions” with no factual true evidence. Many of these beliefs have come from those who have claimed to have died then come back to life, angelic beings, or those who have come in visions with words about the “afterlife.” These emotional experiences amount to nothing more than old wives’ tales, myths, and fables that have been around for generations. People who hold to the “anything can happen” possibility, despite their verbal conviction, still live life upon a (pardon the pun) “grave uncertainty.” It is interesting that most folks who hold to this position have changed many times in their opinion about what happens in the end. That tells me that in reality, they have no security, no certainty about the life to come. There may be such a life, but no one really knows for sure, and in the end, they are just as fatalistic as their above counterparts.
Third: Is the Christian answer, which is based upon the Word of God and the eyewitness testimony of many, who proclaim that Jesus is the only man who clearly has risen from the dead differently than when He went into the grave. This testimony is supported by evidence of an even greater magnitude than eyewitness testimony in what Peter calls in 2 Peter 1:19 “a more sure word of prophecy.” By this, Peter confirmed that even though he was an eyewitness of Jesus’ resurrection, the Bible spoke of His coming, His death, burial, and resurrection thousands of years before they ever came to pass. The only way that is possible is if someone existed outside of the realm of our earthly existence of “time, space, and matter” and spoke of these things before they happened as if they had already happened. The evidence is confirmed in science, archaeology, and history, all of which confirms that what Jesus taught and did is a fact. Furthermore, our spirit agrees with the Holy Spirit with absolute certainty and security that we not only believe in a greater life after this life, we can live like it now! With this security, we can live a selfless life to the glory of God designed to make others’ lives better. Our philanthropy is towards others without the concern and uncertainty of the future! We know that at the end of our earthly life, we will begin the “great adventure,” not into the “unknown,” but into a life that is so incredible that it can only be described in this life by what isn’t there in the life to come. The things that are missing are death, sorrow, pain, suffering, darkness, fear, hatred, etc.—these and many more will cease to exist in our future that will never have an end! The question I have for us who believe this to be true today is: Are we living life now based upon that view?

II. Vs. 13-15 Affected in the Present by the Past Because of the Future

Vs. 13: Here Paul quotes Psalm 116:10-12, which is a psalm about David proclaiming his trust in God despite his present circumstances. David declared that his trials and pressures that he was presently going through were going to have a great effect and impact on his life and those around him. In quoting this, Paul is saying, “I may not see life in you through me dying to self, but I know it is coming. I’m going through the squeezing, so I know it is going to have an impact on you.” In quoting David’s trust in the Lord, Paul is giving us another truth: “That our belief in the future changes how we live life in the present!” Friends, what we truly believe about our future always determines the present! You can tell what a person really believes about “life after death” by the way they are living now! The truth is most people spend far more energy and time trying to enhance their wealth and health for how they will spend the final 20 years of their earthly life without spending any time or resources considering how they will spend eternity! Retirement ought not to be a matter of whether you are “saving” for it but whether you are living and spending for it! Dear friends, as believers, all of us ought to realize that this earthly existence is not the place where we are retiring!

Vs. 14-15: The first reason Paul was unwavering in his commitment to proclaim Jesus was his confidence in his future resurrection. To Paul, the resurrection was not a belief; it was a FACT!

It was because of the fact of the resurrection from the dead that Paul was willing to carry about in his body the dying of Jesus.
It was because Paul looked forward to a life in heaven lived with His Lord Jesus that he was willing to die daily.

Paul lived like he believed, and because of the fact of his future, he could live life as it mattered! To Paul, his view of the future was not theological; it was practical. In verse 14, Paul says that such confidence came from looking at the life that was brought about through Jesus’ death. This ought to be seen in the body of Christ, the Church as well. When we give of ourselves sacrificially, serving others, we begin to see the life of Christ become visible in others.

In the 15th verse, Paul says that the first place that you can look for this life to be manifested is in thanksgiving towards God. People who have had their clay pots squeezed to the point where cracks have developed and have become broken—an amazing thing happens: they begin to praise the Lord because they find that God’s strength has been more than adequate to the world’s stresses. And from those very stress fractures, joy and praise leak out onto everyone we meet. Years ago, a man wrote a letter to Decision Magazine, describing this experience:

“For a long time I had been bitter about life. It seemed to have dealt me a dirty blow, for since I was 12 years old I have been waiting for death to close in on me. It was at that time I learned I had muscular dystrophy. All I could see was what I had missed. My friends went away to college, then got married and started having families of their own. When I lay in bed at night thinking, despair would creep from the dark corners to haunt me. Life was meaningless.”

He went on to say what had caused the change was that his mother brought home Billy Graham’s book World Aflame, and he started reading it. He said, “As I read, I realized that I wanted God. I wanted there to be a meaning to life. I wanted to receive this deep faith and peace. All I know is that now my life has changed, and I now have joy in living. No longer is the universe chaotic. No longer does life have no goal. No longer is there no hope. There is instead ‘God who so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ I continue to grow weaker. I am close to being totally helpless and am in pain most of the time, but sometimes I am so glad I am alive that it is hard to keep myself from bursting at the seams.”

Upon an old tombstone were these words as an epitaph: “Remember me as you pass by; as you are now, so once was I; as I am now, so you will be; prepare for death and follow me.” Apparently, someone had stopped by and read those words and considered their warning, then wrote on the tombstone a final stanza that said, “To follow you I’m not content; until I know which way you went!”

At Christ Church cemetery in Philadelphia, where Benjamin Franklin was laid to rest, is his tombstone that reads: “The body of B. Franklin, printer: Like the cover of an old book (its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding), lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by its Author.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“Living in Light Affliction”

I. Intro.

Given Paul’s recorded history and own statements with regards to his afflictions, the phrase “we do not lose heart” is amazing.

One reason for this was that Paul looked to a future home that was a certainty.
The other reason for this is that Paul saw that such squeezing was part of his preparation for this future home.

In other words, his present transformation was a security in his final transformation. His old fleshly sin nature was being deconstructed while his new inward nature was being constructed. Thus, when he was being deconstructed, he was also being constructed, and that gave him hope! C.S. Lewis once said, “Whatever is not eternal is eternally out of date.” The tragedy of many in the church is that they have lost their eyes for the unseen because they have become blinded by what is only visible for a short time. This truth is what will cause Paul to write in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” We constantly think that the “old things” that have “passed away” refer to the things of the flesh and sin, but in the next few verses, we see that Paul didn’t specify as he says, “all things have become new.”

II. Vs. 16-18 Becoming Real

Vs. 16-18: Paul starts this last section with a great conviction based upon the truths he just proclaimed, “Therefore we do not lose heart.” Paul has from the beginning of this chapter all the way through been able to look beyond his circumstances, beyond their accusations, and be thankful. Paul describes this reality in three ways: Trivial, Temporary, and Transforming, as he gives his readers three reasons why, even though he was being squeezed to the point of death, he leaked praise.

Trivial: In verse 16, Paul agrees that “the outward man is perishing.” The “outward man” should not be confused with the “old man,” which is the flesh or old carnal nature. The “outward man” is the body and mind, which, if you haven’t noticed yet, is slowly falling apart. The fact is that the outward man is deteriorating, growing weak and feeble. But Paul wasn’t discouraged by this because the inner man was being renewed day by day. And by the “inward man,” Paul means the “real me,” the human spirit inside that has its conscious expression in the soul, that unique character, that combination of soul and spirit that marks mankind as different from the animals. Paul says that this is daily being renewed. Even as his outward clay pot was breaking away and falling apart, he was becoming more like his real self. That is the hope of the believer. Even though their physical man is being squeezed, the end result is that God is leaking out through the cracks, and we become more real all the time.
Temporary: In verse 17, Paul says our hope for the future is the basis for this kind of renewal. The amazing thing is that Paul links it directly to the afflictions and the struggles of our present time. There is a direct tie between the affliction and the glory—one is preparing for the other. That means that no matter how great the trial may seem to us, two things are always true of it:
1. It is not that bad: When compared with what is coming for us in glory, it is extremely light. Now, if that was all you ever read of Paul, you would be tempted to say, “Obviously he didn’t have to go through what I have had to go through.” But we know this is not the case, as in chapter 11 of this very letter, he goes through a long list of his afflictions, and there is nothing like it in the annals of literature. Nobody has ever gone through more than Paul, other than our Lord himself. He speaks of being beaten five times, of being beaten with a rod three times, of being thrown into jail many times, of enduring hunger and thirst, hardships as being shipwrecked. All this was part of his life experience, yet he sums it all up in that wonderful way, “this slight momentary affliction.” In Romans 8:18, Paul put it this way, saying, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us.”
2. It is preparing us for something great: C.S. Lewis put it this way, saying, “The door on which we have all been knocking all our lives will open at last.” Our present sufferings are preparing us for something so incomparable, so amazing, and so marvelous that there are no words to describe it. That means that no trial, no pain, no isolation, no heartache, no loneliness, no weakness or failure, no sense of being put aside is without significance. All of it is playing its part in accomplishing God’s work in your life and the lives of others. It is building for us an incomparable weight of glory.
Transforming: In verse 18, Paul answers the question, “How do we know that is true?” It has always been difficult for men to believe that there are unseen realities, invisible to the human eye and investigation, but nevertheless, very real and very important. What are the real things? Paul calls them “the things that are unseen,” the invisible forces at work, which the world is almost totally unaware of. The Bible tells us what they are:
1. The Word of God: God spoke, and it was. Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 that “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” The Word is the one reliable thing in the unreliable universe. We understand by the Word of God that all things are held together by him. He is the Creator and the supporter of all things.
2. We learn that there are angels, both good and bad, working both for and against human beings. We are part of a great invisible conflict in which we are both under attack and supported by invisible hands. Paul put it this way in Ephesians 6:12, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” These invisible forces are the ones behind headlines every day.
3. Ultimately, there is God himself. Invisible to the human eye, the Lord Jesus, Lord of earth and heaven and the created universe, and though we do not see him yet, we love him and follow him. He is in control of history. As we approach the end of life, these things will become more and more significant to us.

Paul’s basis of coping with his life’s experiences was twofold:

He experienced daily renewal of his inner man, even though his outward man was perishing.
He had a different worldview that linked his affliction to eternal glory.

D. L. Moody’s last words were, “Earth is receding. Heaven is approaching. This is my crowning day.” That is looking at reality. Nothing is more encouraging to me than to realize that when I believe the Word of God, I am becoming more and more realistic. It is these truths that caused G. Campbell Morgan to write, “Happy is the man on earth who lives in a tent not literally, but spiritually.” Did you know that the Church is the only organization in the world that exists entirely for the sake of those who are not its members!