(A) Introduction. (Read the reference)

Earthenware vessels were used in the time of Paul for a great variety of purposes - as containers for water, wine, grain, refuse, oil and valuables. Clay pots are still being dug up stuffed full of Roman coins.

One very small, simple vessel was especially important namely, the humble lamp. It contained olive oil upon which a wick floated and when lit provided one of mankind's greatest treasures - light. We need to keep this image in mind because it is probable that Paul thought of himself as a clay lamp shedding forth the gospel light.

The humble, earthenware lamp is like the Christian evangelist in at least four ways:

(B) It needs to be prepared for use.

The small clay vessel that makes up the body of the lamp needs to be emptied, cleaned, filled and lit.

No one can broadcast the gospel effectively without preparation. This was certainly true of Paul. When the light shone on the road to Damascus Saul of Tarsus was emptied of self, his pride and anger. When he submitted to Jesus he was cleansed of his sin. After being escorted to Damascus Ananias laid hands on Saul and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then we read in Acts that at once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. He began to shed the gospel light. That is what Jesus prepared him for. See Acts 26 v15 to 18.

Paul's experience is shared in some degree by all Christians. We may not see a blinding light but we do have to: be emptied of self, submit to Jesus, look to him for cleansing and be filled with his Spirit. It is the Spirit that sets us a glow for Jesus.

(C) It is of little value compared to its contents.

(1) A lamp is not worth a lot.

Earthenware lamps were two a penny. They were a mass produced item. Many still turn up on excavated Roman rubbish dumps.

Paul was a very ordinary man:

(a) Unassertive. He admits to being: "Timid" when face to face with you. 2Cor10v1.

(b) Unprepossessing. The Corinthians described him thus: In person he is unimpressive. 2Cor10v10.

(c) Unexciting. Paul's critics said: His speaking amounts to nothing. 2Cor10v10.

(d) Unhealthy. The little apostle suffered from a thorn in the flesh. 2Cor12v7. Paul was troubled by some recurring illness or a habitual sin he longed to be rid of.

(2) A simple vessel does not detract from the light.

A fine painting needs to be hung against a plain wall, a gorgeous piece of jewellery is best displayed against simple, black velvet and a fine singing voice demands an unobtrusive accompaniment.

If light is given from splendid candelabra it is possible to be so impressed with the candelabra that the light is taken for granted.

Most individuals respond to the gospel light brought to them by very ordinary folk - friends and acquaintances - people just like themselves. Far more souls are saved by means of unremarkable witnesses than by famous preachers.

Frank Pastore was a budding baseball star with Cincinnati Reds when he received an injury that eventually ended his career. During the period when he was struggling to get fit again some of his team members invited him to a Bible study. Frank Pastore was a lot brighter than most of his fellow baseball players. He had all the arguments ready as to why the Bible couldn't be trusted. His team mates knew they were no match for him in debate and so gave him C.S. Lewis', 'Mere Christianity,' to read. This was the means of bringing him to saving faith in Jesus.

Frank Pastore was glad that the Christians who played for the Reds witnessed to him when he was a smug unbeliever. It is his testimony that not only did they have this treasure in jars of clay, but that it was good that they did. Frank Pastore never got distracted by the men who brought Christ to him. They were so unimpressive in their account of the Christian faith that he paid little attention to them and found himself face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ instead.

Frank Pastore is now an adjunct professor at Biola University with an apologetics and evangelism ministry, an articulate spokesman for the gospel of Christ.

(3) A plain earthenware container cannot take credit for the light

This is the main point Paul makes: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. v7.

The great danger of a tremendous evangelical rally featuring a speaker of superlative eloquence and personal charisma is that such conversions that occur will be attributed to the preacher. There is no danger of this when the source of the gospel light is only a jar of clay.

I love the account C.H. Spurgeon gave of his conversion: I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was: "Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth."

When he had gone on and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable." Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, "and you always will be miserable - miserable in life, and miserable in death, - if you don't obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved." Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin' to do but to look and live." I saw at once the way of salvation. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ, and simple faith which looks alone to Him.

This is a much loved testimony - oft repeated. Part of its appeal lies in the fact that the earthenware vessel from which the gospel light shone was of the humblest sort imaginable. What was he? - Only a thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of the sort - a stupid man with little to say. But that snowy morning in the Primitive Methodist chapel in Colchester the light shone for C.H. Spurgeon. See also story in exposition on Psalm72.

(4) The lamps value does not lie in itself but in its contents and the light it emits.

In modern merchandising packaging is everything. Some very low value goods come in large garish boxes. There is no mistaking a packet of Kellogg's Cornflakes. In some instances the packaging is of higher value than the contents. As much as 60% of the cost of a bottle of perfume can go toward the bottle and box it comes in.

The drawback of making much use of celebrity testimonies is that the celebrity shines more than the gospel light. Yet it is common policy! William Booth had the much better strategy of using converted drunks from the East End of London to witness to other drunks.

What is the most important thing about a Christian? It isn't his or her personality, gifts, orthodoxy or knowledge of Scripture. The most important thing is for Jesus to be seen in us. Paul said: We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus, himself, said: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Mt5v16. In Bury St Edmunds street pastors patrol the centre of the town between 10pm and 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. They do so to help young people who are the worse for drink or drugs. The street pastors don't preach. They are just there to provide assistance to those who need it. If asked why they do it the pastors reply, "Because it is the sort of thing Jesus would do."

(D) It is surprisingly robust.

The clay lamp may look fragile but it turns out to be more robust than it looks. Paul wrote from experience. He claimed:

(1) We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed - or as William Barclay puts it, hemmed in.

However restricted we feel ourselves to be by circumstances there is always some room left for praise, prayer and witness. When Paul wrote to the Philippians he was imprisoned in Rome. It was not where he would have chosen to be. But he could still write: It has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Phil1v13.

David Woodford was an able speaker for much of his life. In old age sickness confined him to his own home. He was very much a veteran clay lamp. But this did not stop David shining and bringing his carer to Christ.

Many Christians in an unwholesome and oppressive environment are able to rise above it by God's grace as the words of Matthew Arnold's poem indicate:

'Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green,
And the pale weaver, through his windows seen
In Spitalfields, looked thrice dispirited.
I met a preacher there I knew, and said:
"Ill and o'erworked, how fare you in this scene?" -
"Bravely!" said he; "for I of late have been
Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the living bread."

(2) Perplexed but not in despair or, as Barclay puts it: at wit's end but not hope's end.

I have referred more than once in these expositions to Christian and Hopeful's experience in Bunyan's, 'Pilgrim's Progress.' The two pilgrims strayed into By-path Meadow where they were apprehended by Giant Despair and thrown into Doubting Castle. There the two fellow travellers had a taste of the giant's crab-tree cudgel. Christian and Hopeful were sore perplexed by their predicament until Christian remembered the little key called, 'Promise'. Then hope revived. That little key opened the dungeon door and even the great iron gate of Doubting Castle and set the prisoners free.

The good man Job was deeply puzzled and distressed by his predicament. He told his companions: "Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice." Jb19v7and8. But still Job could say: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" Jb19v25to27.

Jesus can be present on the darkest days as Frances Thompson's mystical poem suggests:

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry--and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry--clinging to Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Gennesaret, but Thames!

Today there are many things that perplex the Christian not least the increasingly hostile, malign opposition to the Faith on the one hand and the amazing indifference to the saving work of Jesus on the other. But we are not without hope because God the Holy Spirit has turned the tables on the wiles and strategies of Satan on many occasions in the past.

(3) Persecuted, but not abandoned.

Joseph suffered a great deal: sold by his brothers to be a slave in Egypt; falsely accused by the scorned wife of Potipher and imprisoned; forgotten by the butler whose dream he correctly interpreted and left to languish in jail for 2 years. But we are told in Genesis: The Lord was with him. Gen39v21. God did not abandon him.

Paul and Silas were stripped, flogged and imprisoned in Philippi but so conscious were they of God's presence that they prayed and sang hymns at midnight. God had not forgotten them.

In his book, 'Tortured for Christ,' Richard Wurmbrand describes his experience of solitary confinement in communist Rumania:

In solitary confinement, we could not pray as before. We were unimaginably hungry; we had been drugged until we acted like idiots. We were as weak as skeletons. The Lord’s Prayer was much too long for us — we could not concentrate enough to say it. My only prayer repeated again and again was, 'Jesus, I love You.' And then, one glorious day I got the answer from Jesus: 'You love me? Now I will show you how I love you.' At once, I felt a flame in my heart, which burned like the coronal streamers of the sun. The disciples on the way to Emmaus said that their hearts burned when Jesus spoke with them. So it was with me. I knew the love of the One who gave His life on the cross for us all." Christ had not abandoned him.

(4) Struck down but not destroyed or as Barclay put it: knocked down but not knocked out.

There are some fighters who could never be stopped. Such a one was undefeated heavy weight champion of the world, Rocky Marciano. He may have been knocked down but he got up to relentlessly wear down and defeat his opponents.

Paul was like that. He was knocked down more often than Marciano - but he always came back fighting. He took some heavy blows from the Corinthians but they could not destroy his confidence in his calling.

Richard Wurmbrand in his book, 'Tortured for Christ,' provides a remarkable example of the indomitable spirit of imprisoned Christians in Communist Rumania:

The following scene happened more times than I can remember. A brother was preaching to the other prisoners when the guards suddenly burst in, surprising him halfway through a phrase. They hauled him down the corridor to their beating room. After what seemed an endless beating, they brought him back and threw him — bloody and bruised — on the prison floor. Slowly, he picked up his battered body, painfully straightened his clothing and said, 'Now, brethren, where did I leave off when I was interrupted?' He continued his gospel message! I have seen beautiful things! What a glorious instance of being knocked down but not knocked out.

All of us have taken some hard knocks in Christian service. There have been times when we have been unsupported, disappointed and frustrated - but God has given us a verse of Scripture, a few words of encouragement or a gesture of love and we have been able to carry on.

(E) It may eventually get worn out in service.

Many earthenware lamps became damaged through use - chipped, blackened and cracked. The more use the lamp gets the more worn and broken it becomes. Thinking about this Paul makes three points:

(1) He is like a damaged, broken lamp drawing near, perhaps, to the end of his usefulness. He wrote: So then death is at work in us. v12.

Paul means by this that he has had to suffer. He died to: wealth, reputation, freedom, family life, comfort, ease, security and health. The life he led for Christ took its toll.

Sacrificial Christian service always takes its toll. Successful evangelists like William Booth and Charles Spurgeon succumbed for a time to stress and depression. Ministers of small independent churches have financial worries and must despair over small, stagnant congregations.

(2) The lamp is abused and damaged as it serves its purpose and gives light. Paul wrote: We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. Paul was intent on making Jesus known - his death for sinners and the new life to be had in him - WHATEVER THE COST.

(3) The lamp was damaged to benefit others. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. v12. Paul's losses brought gains to others.

Warren Wiersbe points out in his commentary, 'Be encouraged,' that the "super- apostles" did not suffer loss: Instead of winning souls, they stole converts from Paul's churches. Instead of sacrificing for the people, they made the people sacrifice for them. The false apostles did not have a treasure to share. All they had were some museum pieces from the old covenant, faded antiques that could never enrich a person's life..

Every month Evangelicals Now carries news items about Christians in Islamic countries who are still prepared to pay the price for shedding the gospel light. The heroes of faith are being added to from day to day - men and women of whom the world is not worthy. Therefore says the writer to the Hebrews, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Heb12v1.