The Treasure Inside | Andy Elmes | Sunday 6th March 2022

Family Church Online

2 Corinthians 2:5-11 (NIV) states “For what we preach is not 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 God’s glory displayed 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 also be revealed in our mortal body”. This week, Pastor Andy speaks about the ‘treasure inside’….

Paul’s teaching has some incredible messages here. God has caused His light to shine out of darkness into our hearts to give us the knowledge of His glory displayed on Christs face. There is a comparison with the book of Genesis here where God says let light shine from darkness.

Our lives are compared to jars of clay. Paul is bringing our attention to the content within our life - now that we are born again, our lives have come alive on the inside to God and Christ. Christ lives in us. The Treasure of Heaven, His Spirit, the Spirit of the Risen, Jesus Christ is now living and contained within the earthly of who we are. In many ways, Paul is saying to us, (as he was saying to the Corinthians) “don't be so conscious of the physical you but be conscious especially in troubled times of the spiritual”. We are not to place our confidence or reliance on what we see in a mirror or how we feel in the soul, but rather in the leading and the voice of the spirit of Jesus Christ who has now made our spirit alive!

We may be hard pressed on every side, but we are not crushed. We can be perplexed, but not in despair, maybe persecuted but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. These are powerful words! When we were born again Christ came to live inside our earthen vessel, providing the strength for us to remain unaffected by external things happening and the wisdom and the ability and capacity to keep on running when others don't.

Paul’s message to the Corinthian church then and to ours today is for us to place our confidence in the Treasure within the Spirit of who we are (Christ).