I know what people are saying. I know all the smart people don’t understand me. They just don’t think old Saul's playing with a full deck anymore. They see my life, they listen to my hearty and feisty preaching, they hear my happiness and excitement and they just don’t get it.
I mean…I think of what happened that night years ago in Philippi. We were traveling around Phrygia and Galatia and we were going to turn right and head up into Asia. But the Spirit prevented us so we went down to Troas. And as we were sitting there, wondering what in the world to do, I had a vision of man in Macedonia calling out to us. We were thrilled and took off at once, excitedly convinced God had a great work for us. But when we finally got to Philippi, one of the leading Macedonian cities, there wasn’t even a synagogue so we went down to the river, where we expected to find at least a prayer group of some kind. We found a bunch of women. How funny is that? Almighty God gives me a vision of a man in Macedonia calling out and yet when I get there, we end up planting His church first among the women!
Anyway, we ended up staying with a local business woman and preaching around town. As we were doing so one day, we were bothered by a demon-possessed, fortune telling slave girl who kept following us around yelling out to the crowd who we were. She wasn’t necessarily telling lies about us, but have you ever tried to preach or teach when someone in the room just won’t shut up? Yelling and screaming and carrying on. It was just annoying! So finally I just turned to the spirit inside her and commanded it to come out, which it did. End of problem…
I thought everything was going to be fine, but I underestimated how business people react when they discover their little demon-possessed money maker was no longer demon possessed or, more importantly, a money maker. Never mess with the money train, fellas! Boy, did they ever get mad! They dragged us through town to the magistrates, stripped us, beat the daylights out of us with rods, locked us in irons and tossed us into the deepest, most dangerous part of the prison as if we were the most evil criminals they had ever seen.
And yet about midnight, the Holy Spirit overwhelmed us and, before you know it, we were praying and singing hymns to the LORD. We were having church! And the other poor prisoners down there in the pit were joining in. It was wonderful! What should have been the most depressing, disillusioning experience of my life became a gorgeous moment with God.
But people don’t understand stuff like that. People think you’re cracking up when you start enjoying the awful moments. They just don’t understand where the joy comes from.
So let me take a moment to explain it to you. I know you’ve had some pretty brutal business weeks around here lately. The old slave girl really got the demons kicked out of her, didn’t she? I understand. I know there are many of you wondering right now how much worse things might possibly get and where the joy is supposed to come from when the market gets bad. So turn to the fourth chapter of my second letter to the Corinthians (page 1055) and let me remind you of some things you need to understand about our joy…I like the way I put this.
…We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV)
Do you see? Do you understand?
There are four life truths in this passage we’ve all got to grasp if we are ever going to joyously survive the coming darkness and difficulty.
We’re Not Preaching Us
And the first thing we’ve got to understand is that we’re not preaching us. This thing we’re doing, this life we’re leading isn’t about us anymore. In many ways, it never really was. We’re not preaching us. The great Saul of Tarsus, the epic Pharisee and famous student of Gamaliel was tragically killed years ago in a freak riding accident on the road to Damascus! He was knocked off his prideful high horse by a bolt of lightening; he was completely blindsided by the loving voice of the very one he was persecuting. Saul of Tarsus is dead now. This thing isn’t about Saul of Tarsus anymore. I don’t want people impressed by Saul of Tarsus – I want people impressed by Jesus of Nazareth speaking through what used to be Saul of Tarsus.
This thing isn’t about me. We’re not in this thing for ourselves. We aren’t trying to gather a following, win your praise or achieve some sort of prestigious worldly success. We aren’t trying to get rich or build an empire. We’re not preaching ourselves. We’re preaching Jesus. So it doesn’t matter what you do to us, because this thing isn’t about us. You can beat the daylights out of us, toss us in a jail cell and say whatever you want about us and we’ll come up singing because we know we can’t lose.
For us to live is Christ and to die is gain!
We’re Cheap Cracked Pots
The second, fun-filled fact we’ve got to grasp is that, in many ways, the world is right about us. We are cracked pots! We are all cheap, cracked, clay pots struggling to hold water.
God didn’t choose to use any of us because we were so slick and smart. In many cases, He chose us in spite of our slick smartness. God chose leaky, cracked and cheap vessels like us because especially in us, and through the difficult places He brings us, it is that much easier for Him to shine through. God chose us and allows us to go through the things He allows us to go through in life because that is simply the best way to reveal Himself to the world around us.
We’re Just Leaking Jesus
So the world is partially right. We are cheap, cracked and unimpressive clay pots. I am just a happy crackpot! But what the world doesn’t understand is that we are all cheap, cracked pottery. We are all weak, clay vessels struggling to contain whatever we have inside us. The only difference with us is that the leaky pot that is our life is filled up with Jesus. And so when you kick us, when you beat us, when you crush us and break us, what comes out of us is Jesus. We’re all just supposed to be leaking Jesus. That’s the way this whole thing is designed to work. That is the third truth you’ve got to take home today. This is what it’s all about.
So don’t be shocked and surprised when God allows you to go through difficult things. Don’t be destroyed or dismayed when another crack gets beaten into the pot that is your life. We aren’t preaching ourselves. This thing isn’t about us. What matters is what leaks out of us when we are kicked, cracked or broken. This whole thing is about leaking Jesus.
What comes out of you when bad stuff happens? What is leaking out of your life?
We’re Fixing Our Eyes
We don’t continue to preach because we long for bigger crowds, more money or higher honors. And we don’t preach or live the way we do because in some sick, twisted, masochistic way we have learned to love the beatings. Eeew! How stupid would that be? We preach and live as we do because we have weighed our light and momentary troubles in this life against the overwhelming glory and joy we believe awaits us. We have fixed our eyes on Jesus, “the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We have fully considered him who endured such opposition from sinful men and so we do not grow weary and lose heart.”
We have fixed our eyes on Jesus, who endured far more for us than we could ever possibly endure for him. That is the fourth, final and most important component of the joyous life. Only by fixing our eyes on Jesus will Jesus leak out of us when we suffer. Only fixing our eyes on Jesus will allow us to accept our cheap, cracked pot status. Only fixing our eyes on Jesus will keep us from fixing our eyes on ourselves and preaching ourselves. And so we fix our eyes on Him and we are rewarded with overwhelming joy and lovely songs in our jail cells.
That’s it. That’s all there is.
Do you remember what finally happened that night Silas and I spent in that Philippian jail cell? Do you remember the rest of the story? I sure do! The joy of the LORD descended on that place and an earthquake opened the doors and the chains fell off every prisoner. And when the terrified jailer saw we were all too happy to leave the prison, he fell on his knees and begged to know this Jesus leaking joyously out of us! He took us out of that jail cell that very night, washed our wounds and introduced us to his family. I love the way my friend Luke told the story in his Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, verse 34: “The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.” My jailer found joy because of the joy leaking out of us.
That’s the way this thing is supposed to work.
May you find joy in your jail cell today! May we all so fix our eyes on Jesus we won’t be interested in preaching ourselves anymore! May the joy of Jesus leak out of us constantly!
Amen.
