Manifested in Our Corporate Life

Driving home: He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose.

Martin recounts Philip Henry's practice of giving a tenth of his income to the poor and his saying, 'He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose,' to introduce the 'life out of death' principle.

Even though he lived and labored nearly 300 years ago, most of us are acquainted with him in reference to his immortal commentary on the Bible. However, the name of Philip Henry is not so well known. Yet it was Philip Henry, Matthew Henry's...

5:15 - 5:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin elaborates on the metaphor of 'treasure in earthen vessels' (2 Corinthians 4:7), explaining it as Christ entrusting His riches to weak human followers. He uses an extended…

Martin quotes Mr. Hughes' commentary on 2 Corinthians, describing how gold and silver were carried in inexpensive earthen vessels during Roman triumphal processions, to explain the metaphor of 'treasure in earthen vessels' in 2 Corinthians 4:7.

of we have the treasure in earthen vessels? Well I believe perhaps the most helpful answer to that question is given to us by Mr. Hughes in his commentary on 2 Corinthians in which he writes, in Roman triumphal procession it was customary for gold and silver to be carried in inexpensive earthen vessels or clay pots. Thus Plutarch describes how at the celebration of the Macedonian victory, of Aemilius Paulus in 167 BC, 3000 men followed the wagons carrying silver coin in 750 earthen vessels, each containing three talents of silver and gold and carried by four men. Paul has already shown his fon...

18:33 - 19:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin elaborates on the metaphor of 'treasure in earthen vessels' (2 Corinthians 4:7), explaining it as Christ entrusting His riches to weak human followers. He uses an extended…

Martin uses an extended analogy of two large football players lifting a car off a trapped person versus a small child doing the same, to illustrate how God's power is made evident through weak human instruments, magnifying His glory rather than human strength.

This marvelous treasury of gospel ministry, certain fundamental facets of which Paul has described for us in verses 1 to 6, he says this amazing treasure of gospel ministry through which satanic blindness is overcome when humble men with a servant's heart proclaim Christ in the creative power of the living God, that treasure is housed in clay pots so that the excellency of the power, the superabundance of the power may be all of God in reality and it may be seen to be such. Let me try to illustrate what is embodied in that text, in that verse. Suppose we were on a large throughway, perhaps one...

19:54 - 21:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And so he says, we have this treasure in fragile clay. That's how Paul describes himself and his fellow workers. Fragile clay. That the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves.

Martin quotes Lenski, the Lutheran commentator, who describes Paul's experiences in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 as a 'mortal chase and a flight,' to explain the gradation of Paul's suffering and God's sustaining power.

The last part of each couplet to the mighty power of God that keeps that particular thing from accomplishing its natural end, which would be the utter casting down and destruction of the poor clay pot in which the treasure is held. Lenski, the Lutheran commentator, has captured the sense of it very succinctly when he writes, notice the gradation and the picture of a mortal chase and a flight. Hard pressed, at a loss which way to flee, chased, caught, and thrown down. Ever carrying around this hostile action of being put to death.

26:09 - 26:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Focusing on 2 Corinthians 4:10-12, Martin explains that 'bearing about the dying of Jesus' refers to the constant experience of God's servants being on the verge of death and…

Martin references the Apostle Paul being stoned and left for dead, only to rise and preach again, as an almost literal experience of 'bearing about the dying of Jesus' and the manifestation of Christ's life.

That is, we are kept alive by the power of Christ, even His resurrection power. And in the case of the Apostle Paul, that came to an almost literal experience one time when they stoned him and left him for dead. And when the disciples gathered around him, the next thing we know, Paul rises up, shakes the dust off, and goes off to preach again. This was their constant experience.

30:49 - 31:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Death works in us, but life in you.

Martin recounts Paul's fear and weakness at Corinth (Acts 18), where God encouraged him, to illustrate how 'death worked in him' (his vulnerability) yet 'life worked in you' (the Corinthians), leading to the establishment of the church.

not at the clay pot, but at the God who keeps it intact, the God who puts in a thousand pieces, utterly ground to powder, utterly scour them off the face of the earth, and he says, in that process a marvelous thing happens, death is constantly working in us as we selflessly give ourselves a life of obedience to the will of God, as we determine that we shall not promote ourselves, preach ourselves, pursue our own ambitions, pursue our own goals, as we give ourselves to Christ, to be obedient, obedient to Christ, and to the commission of Christ, and to the proclamation of Christ, as crucified me...

33:49 - 35:19 Read in full sermon