Sermon Transcript

0:00:14.0

Well, thanks to Hollywood, Indiana Jones is the most famous archaeologist in the world.  And I’ve said it before, but it’s always worth saying.  I am Indiana Jones.  My last name is Jones, I’m from the State of Indiana, and some people do call me Dr. Jones.  Besides that…It got a bigger laugh in the last service.  You’ve had plenty of time to have coffee this morning.  But most archaeologists are not as famous as Indiana Jones, and they’re not going after the ark of the covenant, although that would be a great find if they could find that.  Most of them are turning the dirt over in various parts of the ancient world and unearthing various artifacts that give us a glimpse into that part of the world and into those civilizations.  Oftentimes what the archaeologists have discovered are clay jars.  Clay jars, just earthen jars that are all over the ancient world.  Some are beautiful.  Most are plain and common.

0:01:17.6

In past civilizations, skilled potters would take raw clay from the earth and use their hands to shape it for a particular purpose.  The jars were created mostly for cooking, for carrying water.  With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we discover that some clay jars were used to protect important documents like the Word of God as we discovered with the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Some clay jars were simply painted.  They were glazed.  They were beautifully decorated.  They were put on display.  All of that is part of the ancient world.  You can go to museums today and find the archaeologists artifacts and all of that.

0:02:00.1

So it shouldn’t surprise us that the Bible…which is ancient document, right?  It takes us very much into the ancient world, not just 2000 years ago, but thousands of years prior to that.  But there are many references to pottery making in the Bible, most noticeably Jeremiah 18:1-6.  “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, ‘Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you year my words.’  So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel.  And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.  Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.’”

0:02:57.2

There is a well-known church in the Dallas, Texas area called The Potter’s House, and it gets its name from this particular text of scripture.  This word of the Lord that came to the prophet Jeremiah also reminds us that the God of creation, He was a potter from the beginning when He made Adam out of the earth’s clay.  The creation story in Genesis gives us the first clue that we are but earthen vessels in the hands of a heavenly potter.  Even the psalmist acknowledges this.  He remembers in Psalm 103:14, “For he knows our frame, and he remembers that we are but dust.”

0:03:37.7

Now, the apostle Paul picks up on this pottery imagery in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4 and verse 7 when he says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”  That phrase “jars of clay” is rather interesting.  There is a well-known Christian music group that borrows that as the name of their group, the Jars of Clay.  But it’s an interesting way to describe our humanity, is it not?  It suggests that we are beautiful and functional.  It also says that we are weak and easily broken into pieces.  We are formidable and fragile at the same time.  Or as I like to say, we’re just a bunch of cracked pots.  Isn’t that true?

0:04:29.3

And today I’m starting a series of messages by that title, “Cracked Pots.”  And throughout this series we want to demonstrate how the power of God flows through our brokenness, flows through our weakness and our fragile places and how the glory of God shines through it as well.  You read through the Bible, and you’ll discover all kinds of heroes of the faith.  But the reality is they’re imperfect heroes of the faith.  They possess deep personal flaws.  They’ve made mistakes.  They had a difficult time doing what was right in God’s eyes, and they didn’t always get it right.  And throughout this series, we’re going to take five or six weeks to scan through the lives of some of these Bible characters, little vignettes each week.

0:05:15.1

And some of the characters you’ll recognize.  They are well-known, famous heroes of the faith.  I’m thinking of people like Moses and Jacob, even King David.  But Moses was not only a murderer, but he had deep insecurities, especially by the time the burning bush experience took place and God was calling Him to go back to Egypt.  Jacob is the one to whom God gave the name Israel, but not until it was after a night of wrestling with the angel of the Lord.  And Jacob…who was a cheat.  I mean, you wouldn’t go into business with Jacob.  He’d cheat you out of your last dime.  But God used him to carry on the covenant promises of God.  And then there’s King David.  I mean, it doesn’t get any bigger, it doesn’t get any more famous than King David.  The editorial space in the Old Testament given to King David is enormous, and for good reasons, because the line of Messiah comes through David.  But David’s brokenness, his sinfulness is known all over the world.  He not only had committed adultery with Bathsheba, but he committed murder.  But David.  

0:06:33.4

And then there are a couple of others that we’ll scan through their lives as well.  Lesser-known people, or at least we know lesser about them.  Mary Magdalene.  She literally had her demons, didn’t she?  Seven of them to be exact, according to the New Testament, before she met Jesus Christ and was set free from what broke her.  And then there is a guy named Onesimus.  You may not be as familiar with him, but we learn about him in Paul’s little postcard to Philemon.  Onesimus was a runaway slave crushed by the slave market of the Roman Empire and broken in some other ways, too, that we’ll discover.  But God used him in a mighty way.

0:07:11.0

There is something humbling about being compared to a jar of clay.  And in a lot of ways we resist it, do we not?  We’d rather present ourselves as strong and capable, not weak and fragile.  For example, I was thinking about those who run for political office.  If you’re running for political office, the last thing you want to do is let your constituents and, especially, your opponents know even a hint of the weakness that might be a part of your story, because your opponent will pounce on that. And so you present strength.  You present you’ve got it all together and you have all the answers as a politician.  Or think about the last time you interviewed for a job.  I always hate the question, so tell me about your weaknesses.  I don’t know.  I don’t think about my weaknesses that much.  We don’t want to, because we’re presenting our strengths and what we bring to the table.

0:08:05.5 

But in the kingdom of God, it’s all different.  And the idea that we are mere earthen vessels, jars of clays, captures some of the ironies in the Christian life. I’ve made a list of them in your notes there.  Let me just touch on these for a moment.  This is very kind of upside down from the way we often think, that in the kingdom of God the weak are strong. Let’s just start right there.

0:08:32.7

Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse 9 or so, he talks about how three times he prayed, “Lord, will You take this thorn in the flesh away from me?”  And the answer came back to him—do you remember this—“My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Paul says, “That very thing that made me weak and powerless, I wanted God to take away.”  We don’t know what the thorn in the flesh was, but God said, “No, that’s the very thing through which My power flows.  My power is made perfect in weakness.”  Ironic, isn’t it?

0:09:14.5

Here is another irony.  The foolish are wise in the kingdom of God.  That which the world says is foolishness, that’s something through which the wisdom of God is shown.  1 Corinthians 1:27 and following, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.  God chose,” here it is again, “what is weak in the world to shame the strong.  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

0:09:46.5 

The weak are strong.  The foolish are wise.  How about this one?  The humble are exalted.  Jesus said this in Luke 14:11. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

0:10:02.3 

One more.  The broken are beautiful.  Remember when David sinned against Bathsheba?  It took about a year before he confessed his sin.  And he came to the Lord humble, and in brokenness, Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  God is drawn to our brokenness.  He finds it beautiful.

0:10:33.6

Let me say it in a way that hopefully you can remember it.  In the kingdom of God the broken are beautiful, the weak are wonderful, that which the world says is foolish is fabulous, and the humble…well, that’s when heaven shouts, “Hallelujah.”  I’m not done yet.  The jars of clay will one day inherit the earth.  I know Jesus didn’t exactly say it that way, but it’s the same idea.  The meek…are you kidding me…the meek shall inherit the earth.  What I’m trying to encourage us to do at the beginning of this series is not to get comfortable in our brokenness, not to get comfortable in our weakness, but at least to embrace it and to understand that the Potter, who made us out of the clay of the earth, He is not to be at fault because of our brokenness.  No, our sin breaks us.  We live in a fallen, broken world.  But He picks that up, and He puts us all back together again.

0:11:31.2

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.  Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.  All the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  Only Jesus Christ could do that.  Only the healing power of God could take the brokenness in your life, those weak places, those fragile places, and through the miraculous hands of the potter who created us, reshape us and mold us into a purposeful and useful vessel into which He can place His treasure.

0:12:04.0

Go back to 2 Corinthians 4.  Paul says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay.”  Circle those words “this treasure.”  What does he mean by “this treasure”?  We understand now a little bit about the jars of clay.  But what does he mean when he says we have, we possess—and he’s speaking to Christians here, believers in Jesus Christ—“we have this treasure in jars of clay.”  Well, you have to back up in the text to see the larger context of what he’s saying.  Really just go back to verse 6 for starters.  And he mentions something he describes as “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.”  Now, that’s a mouthful, isn’t it?  It’s a theological headscratcher.  What does he mean by “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God”?  It has something, if not everything, to do with this treasure that we possess in jars of clay.

0:13:09.3

Back up to verse 3, and he explains it in a slightly different way.  “This light of the glorious gospel of the glory of Christ.”  Another theological headscratcher.  What exactly does that mean?  “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God.”  “The light of the glorious gospel of the glory of Christ.”  What Paul is saying here is there is something so valuable, so treasured by God…this is the part that will just blow categories…is He chose to take His treasure that has something to do with the knowledge of the glory of God and the glory of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and place it inside of us, in cracked pots, in broken vessels.  If you have something treasured in your house, that last thing you want to do is to put it inside something broken.  Usually we take valuable things and treasured things, and we put them in beautiful display cases, don’t we?  But God chose to do just the opposite.  He knows we’re broken, not because He’s at fault as the potter- he didn’t make us correctly.  No, because of our sin.  Sin broke us.  And sometimes our brokenness is related to other people sinning against us, what they’ve done to us.  Sometimes our brokenness results because of sin that we’ve committed against God.  And we don’t realize how broken we are, but the fact of the matter is we’re broken. We’re fragile.  We’re cracked pots.  But when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, here’s what God does.  He takes His treasure-the glory of the knowledge of the glory of God and the light of the glorious gospel of the glory of Christ—and He places that treasure inside of us.

0:14:57.6

Now, two things I want you to get here.  Number one, the treasure is more valuable and more important than the vessel.  That’s not to say that you and I are 99 cent clay pots, easily discarded.  No, He created us out of the dust of the earth, the clay of the earth, and created us in His image.  That makes us priceless, the fact that we are created in the image of the Potter, in the image of God.

0:15:25.0

You add to that that He takes His treasure and places His treasure inside of us—again, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, the light of the glorious gospel of the glory of Christ is inside of you as a believer in Jesus Christ—you can’t even calculate your personal value.  But still the treasure is more important and more valuable than the vessel.

0:15:51.0

The other thing all this tells me is this.  As a believer in Jesus Christ, you and I are chosen vessels.  Let that sink in just a little bit.  God chose you as a believer in Jesus Christ to place His treasure in you.  He didn’t just create you in the image of God.  That’s true of all of humanity.  But of those who place their faith and trust in Christ, He goes one step further to add value to us.  He takes His treasure and places it inside of us.  You are a chosen vessel if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ.

0:16:28.8

Now, the apostle Paul was a cracked pot.  Actually, Saul of Tarsus was a cracked pot, if you know his story in the book of Acts.  Saul was a 1^st century terrorist who went around killing Christians.  And he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.  And shortly thereafter, there were some of the followers of Jesus that the Lord said, “Hey, you need to kind of reach out to Saul,” who later became Paul, “he’s now one of Mine.”  They were all pushing back, saying, “We’re not going to invite this guy as the guest speaker at our church next week.  He’s a terrorist.  Are you kidding me?”  But the Lord said to one of those followers, “Go, for he [that is, Saul] is a chosen vessel of mine,” Acts 9:15. “He’s a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel.”  Only God would have done something so topsy-turvy, so upside down, so ironic as to choose a guy like Saul of Tarsus and say, “You’re a chosen vessel of mine.”

0:17:47.9 

I want to encourage you to receive that this morning as a follower of Christ. You’re a chosen vessel.  Inside of you is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and the light of the glorious gospel of the glory of Christ.  No wonder Jesus said to His disciples, “You are the light of the world.  I’m putting My treasure in you.”  But that treasure is meant to shine through your broken places, through the cracks, through the chips, through those weak places, through those fragile places.  The problem is we want to cover those places up, don’t we?  We’re presenting our strong self.  We even come to church with our Sunday school masks on.  “How you doing today?”  “Just fine, just fine.  Got all my cracks covered up so you don’t see them.”  And we wonder why the power of God doesn’t flow through our life.  Because at that exact place where you feel the weakest, the most fragile, the most broken, that’s where the power of God flows.  That’s where the glory of God shines.  We have this treasure in jars of clay.

0:18:55.4

Now, there are more implications to this, and let’s unpack this a little bit further. (0:19:00.0) Because we are cracked pots…and I hope we’re all in agreement by now.  Because we are cracked pots, number one, God is glorified when His power flows through our weakness.  And I’ve been saying that.  But let me just nail down a little bit further.  2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay”—and here is the reason—“to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”  You see, when we’re always about the business of showing our strong side, then it’s all about us, isn’t it?  It’s because of my background, my resume, my experience, my this, my that.  I accomplish this because of strong me. God wants to accomplish something through you and through me through the broken places in our life and those fragile places and those weak places that we’re trying to hide (0:20:00.1) from others.

0:20:01.6

Now, for that glory to shine and that power to flow, we as believers in Jesus Christ do have a responsibility here.  I want you to hold your place in 2 Corinthians 4 and turn with me to 2 Timothy 2.  We have a responsibility to keep our vessel clean.  I think this is what Paul has in mind.  2 Timothy 2 beginning in verse 20 he says, “Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.  Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”  He changes the analogy a bit from the potter to a homeowner who has a number of different vessels.  And the implication here is that God is willing to take His treasure and put it in a broken vessel, just not a dirty vessel.  It’s our responsibility as followers of Jesus Christ that if there is anything in our lives that are not rightly related to Him, then what do we do?  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us, to cleanse this vessel from all unrighteousness.  A clean vessel is the best vessel through which the power of God flows and the glory of God shines.

0:21:37.8

So again, some of our brokenness and some of our weakness is a result of sin that other have committed against us.  I’m thinking of maybe some of you who were abused either physically or emotionally or verbally by somebody in your family or extended family.  And you’re sitting here with the broken pieces of your life.  The mere mention of that person who abused you just puts you in a place of brokenness.  Other times…and you’re not unclean because of that.  I’m not suggesting that.  But other times we’re broken because of sin that we’ve committed against God.  David was in that spot.  David was in a very unclean, weak spot as a king when he was living in sin.  And it was time to clean the vessel, to come clean before God even as he did in Psalm 51.

0:22:27.9 

So I’m just suggesting that, yes, God is glorified when His power flows through our weakness.  But if our weakness and brokenness is a result of something we have done, not what others have done to us, then it is time for some spring cleaning, right?  Clean up the vessel if there is an area of your life that is not rightly related to Him.  But if your brokenness is simultaneously a result of something that somebody has done to you, just know that the Potter stands ready to pick up those pieces and to put you back together and to reshape and to mold and to heal and to redeem that which is broken in you.

0:23:05.5

Secondly, because we are cracked pots, we may be knocked down, but we are not knocked out.  Let’s go back to 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.  Paul says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”  Does that describe anybody here today?  You come here to church, and you feel afflicted.  You feel perplexed.  You feel persecuted.  You feel struck down. You feel knocked down.  But here is the good news.  You’re not knocked out, not where God is concerned.  I think of the heavyweight boxer who is battling it out from round to round.  It’s a brutal fight.  And in round three he gets a right hook across the jaw, and he is down.  And he hears, “One, two…”  Oh, he’s back up again.  And now it’s round five, and he gets a left hook to the jaw.  And he’s down.  And he hears the referee counting down, “One, two, three…”  Back up again.  It goes round after round, all the way to the tenth round.  He’s knocked down, he’s knocked down, he’s knocked down, but he’s not knocked out.  And he wins on points.  That’s kind of the Christian life.  That’s who we are in Jesus Christ.

0:24:19.6

I borrow this phrase from J.B. Phillips who paraphrased the New Testament. And here is how he paraphrases 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.  “We are hard-pressed on all sides, but we are never frustrated.  We are perplexed but never in despair.  We are persecuted but never desert.  We may be knocked down, but we are never knocked out.”  That’s the good news today, friends.  It may be uncomfortable for you to even interact with those weak parts of your life, those broken parts, those parts that you’re trying to hide from everybody else, that you're trying to put in the past.  But as God is healing and as He is redeeming, He is looking to shine His light and to flow His power through those difficult places.

0:25:14.2

Finally, number three, because we are cracked pots, the death of Christ means life to us.  Look at it against in 2 Corinthians 4, now in verse 10.  “Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you.”  Again, one of the great ironies of the Christian life, so ironic that the world doesn’t understand the death of Christ.  The world looks at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and says, “Oh, the sad ending to a good, moral life and a good teacher.  Too bad for Jesus that He got on the wrong side of politics in Jerusalem and ended up on that Roman cross.”  No, to the believer in Christ, the cross of Christ is the power of God unto salvation.  But to the world, it’s foolishness.  It’s foolishness.  How can life come from death?  Well, again, we understand death of Christ to be the life of God flowing through us.  He paid the penalty for our sins on that cross.  And the power of God flows three days later when He rose triumphantly from the grave.

0:26:41.6

But it’s not just that the cross of Jesus Christ leads to eternal life.  The cross of Jesus Christ is also how we live the Christian life.  And it leads to the abundant life, the blessed life, the fruitful life.  Didn’t Jesus tell us in Luke 9:23, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me”?  He said to His disciples, “Listen, guys, the way to live the victorious Christian life is by daily denying yourself.”  To indulging yourself as the world tells you to do.  And not saving your life, but dying.  Dying to the very things that keep the life of Christ from you.  Again, sometimes our brokenness is the result of our own mistakes, our own sin.  Cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, but we have nobody to blame but ourselves.  And we need to come to the cross of Christ.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse us, to cleanse this vessel and to lead us in the way everlasting.  But it’s the death of Christ that means life to us.

0:28:02.6

Maybe you’re here this morning, and what feels like death to you is a dream that you once had.  A dream of a particular future.  You know, you put all this time and investment into going down a certain direction, and it just didn’t work out. And here you are with the broken pieces of your life trying to figure out, where do I go from here?  And God is waiting for you to just hand it to Him, the Potter who will put the pieces back together and reshape you and remold you and repoint you in the direction.  But you’ve got to die to the dream.  Maybe it was a dream that was not rightly related to God.  Maybe it was a dream you came up with that you never considered what God might have thought.  But there is a death there.  There is this feeling of death.  It’s the death of a dream.  But the death of that dream gives life to a new dream when you hand it over to God and the Potter takes it.  He takes those shattered pieces and those broken pieces and begins to reshape you and repoint your life in a different direction.  Again, the death of Christ not only gives way to eternal life, but the cross of Christ also gives way to the abundant life and to the life that God always dreamed for you and dreamed for me in Christ.

0:29:19.3

It’s a lot to digest in week one, isn’t it?  We’re cracked pots.  We’re cracked pots.  We’re either cracked pots—and that’s all of us, all of humanity—or we’re cracked pots in whom the treasure of God resides. What’s the difference between the two?  Romans 3:23 says that, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  That describes all of humanity.  Yes, we were unearthed by the Potter and molded by the dust of the earth.  He created us in His image.  But our spiritual and physical forefather Adam rebelled.  And we inherited that sin nature.  And we are sinners.  All have sinned.  We are broken sinners in a broken, fallen world.

0:30:13.8 

But there are some, though cracked pots, still possess the glory of God and the treasure of God.  You say, “Well, how does that happen?”  By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, apart from Christ living in you, through the cross of Christ and His redemption through His blood, apart from that you’re just a cracked pot.  And, yes, created in the image of God, but apart from the treasure of God, one day discarded from His presence.

0:30:48.2

Today could be a day when you not only recognize your brokenness and that you’re chipped, that you’re cracked, that you’re not all that…You’re not all that the strong you present to the world.  It’s a day of coming to terms with, yes, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  And that gift is the forgiveness of your sins, eternal life with Him forever, and the placing of His treasure—let me say it again in case you forgot- the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and the light of the glorious gospel of the glory of Christ—His treasure placed inside of you.  And as Jesus said to His disciples, let your light shine through the brokenness, through weakness, through the fragile places, so that the glory of the knowledge of God and the glorious gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ will touch other people’s lives.

0:32:11.1