上帝仍然使用瓦器GodStill Uses Clay Pots
作者: John MacArthur 譯者: Maria Marta
新約聖經既不是埃及的精英們編撰的，也不是希臘、羅馬，甚至以色列的精英們編撰的。當時世界上最傑出的學者們都聚集在埃及；他們都集中在位於亞歷山大城古代最宏伟的圖書館裡。最著名的哲學家在雅典；最有權勢的領袖在羅馬；宗教天才在以色列會堂。但上帝從不使用他們！上帝只使用瓦器。上帝一一略過歷史學家希羅多德（Herodotus）、哲學家蘇格拉底（Socrates）、醫學之父希波克拉底（Hippocrates）、數學家歐幾裏得（Euclid）、力學之父阿基米德（Archimedes）、天文學家喜帕恰斯（Hipparchus）、演說家西塞羅（Cicero）、詩人維吉爾（Virgil）等等這些人。祂將這些人悉數略過。為什麽？因為瓦器更適合祂使用的目的。從人類的觀點來看（也許在他們自己的思維裡），所有重要人物都是極好的器皿。但深刻銘記自己價值的人，看不到福音中的價值。因此，上帝揀選農民、漁夫、身上有股異味的小夥子、稅吏-------蒙揀選的瓦器來傳遞、宣揚、寫下我們稱之為福音的無價珍寶。
上帝仍然以這種方式作工。祂仍舊忽略內心剛硬、充耳不聞、妄自尊大的知識分子。他們可能坐在大學和神學院的象牙塔內，或者高居主教職位和教會的權威位置，但上帝卻尋找傳遞救恩真理之寶藏的卑微者。
這怎能行得通呢？確實可行，因為「我們並不是傳揚自己」（林後四5）。我們不是信息。我牧養的教會向來蒙上帝賜福，因為上帝賜福祂的真理，而不是我。當保羅說：「我甚麼時候軟弱，甚麼時候就剛強了」，他的意思既不是指他是一個沒有信念的人，也不是指他是一個無紀律的人、懶惰的人、不負責任的人、或不努力工作的人。他所指的「軟弱」是：「我把自己擱置一旁。當力量變得明顯的時候-------正是我躲開讓路的時候。」
倘若你想被上帝重用，就要把自己擱置一旁。要學會視自己為垃圾桶，或者用彼得的話來說，就是以謙卑為裝束（彼前五5）。上帝的工作不是關於你自己；不是關於你的個性，而是關於上帝的聖言。上帝不需要知識分子。祂不需要偉人、傑出人士、或名人。人不是能力。能力是信息！祂把財寶在瓦器裡，「是要顯明這極大的能力是屬於 神，不是出於我們。」（林後四7b）。
倘若你為保羅的成功尋找人類的解釋，將徒勞無功。人們對我說：「我正在研讀聖經，探討保羅為何成功。」我會告訴你他成功的原因：他宣講真理。真理大有能力。或者他們會說：「我們想來你的教會, 找出使教會運作的因素。」我會告訴你這因素是：上帝的真理。上帝的真理和上帝的能力是教會運作的因素。至尊者向那些聽到真理的靈魂解釋源自上帝的超然能力。我們這些傳道人充其量不過是瓦器！我們在本質上沒有什麽可以奉獻，我們既不俊美，也沒有能力。保羅知道這一點，因此說道：「又軟弱又懼怕，而且戰戰兢兢」（林前十二3b）。
最後，我們是如此的軟弱和害怕也沒關係。無論如何，我們的信心不應依賴我們自己，而應依賴上帝的大能。我們什麼都不是。如保羅在哥林多前書所說：「栽種的算不得甚麼，澆灌的也算不得甚麼，只在乎那使它生長的 神」(林前三7 )。上帝乃是一切！
丹尼( James Denney )於年前曾寫過：「凡見過保羅的事工，見過如保羅那樣的牧者的人，都不會夢想能在他身上找到解釋，一個醜陋矮小猶太人，其貌不揚，沒有雄辯口才，沒有賄賂或強硬的手段，其身上不可能找著這種勇氣的來源，和這種轉變的緣由。不要在他身上尋找，而是要在上帝那裏尋找。」羅伯遜（A. T. Robertson）於1911年在其著作《事工的榮耀》（The Glory of the Ministry）中引述丹尼的說話：「世上總有些人是如此之聰明，以致於上帝無法使用他們。他們從未做過上帝的工作; 他們就這樣在自我陶醉中迷失了。上帝的工作從不依賴他們，現在也不依賴他們。能力不是人類天資、聰明、技能、智謀的產品；福音的大能在福音裡。」我們這些牧者是軟弱、普遍、簡單、脆弱、易損、非榮譽、一次性的瓦器，我們應當把垃圾扔出來，但相反，我們將上帝的榮耀帶給人。
令人驚奇的是，這種軟弱並不能證明對福音是致命的。感謝上帝，福音非源自我們。偉大的現實是，上帝的瓦器策略對福音來說是必不可少的，因為它清楚地顯示了能力的真正所在。我們是無用的仆人，但上帝賜給我們福音這珍寶。這是何等不可估量的特權！
本譯文的聖經經文皆引自《聖經新譯本》。
本文摘錄自《Feed My Sheep: A Passionate
Plea for Preaching》。
《Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching》
作者有: Albert Mohler Jr., James
Montgomery Boice, Derek W. H. Thomas,Joel R. Beeke, R. C. Sproul , R. C. Sproul Jr. , Sinclair B. Ferguson, Don Kistler , Eric J.
Alexander , John Piper , John MacArthur 等。
这本書中已翻譯的篇章:
God
Still Uses Clay Pots
FROM
John MacArthur
The
New Testament was not written by the elite of Egypt. It was not written by the
elite of Greece, Rome, or even Israel. The greatest scholars in the world at
that time were down at Egypt; they were in the greatest library of antiquity at
Alexandria. The most distinguished philosophers were in Athens; the most
powerful leaders of men were in Rome; and the religious geniuses were in
Israel’s temple. But God never used any of them! He just used clay pots. He
passed by Herodotus, the historian; Socrates, the philosopher; Hippocrates, the
father of medicine; Euclid, the mathematician; Archimedes, the father of
mechanics; Hipparchus, the astronomer; Cicero, the orator; and Virgil, the
poet. He passed by them all. Why? Clay pots served His purposes better. From a
human viewpoint (and perhaps in their own minds), all those prominent people
were magnificent vessels. But someone deeply impressed with his own value isn’t
going to see value in the gospel. So God chose peasants, fishermen, smelly
guys, and tax collectors—clay pots chosen to carry, proclaim, and write the
priceless treasure we call the gospel.
God
is still doing it that way. He is still passing by the elite. He is still
passing by the hard-hearted, non-listening, proud intellectuals. They may be
sitting in their ivory towers in the universities and seminaries, or in their
bishoprics and their positions of authority in the churches, but God is finding
the humble who will carry the treasure of saving truth.
How
can that work? It works because “we do not preach ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:5). We
are not the message. The church I pastor has been blessed because God has
blessed His truth. It’s not me. When Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am
strong,” he doesn’t mean that he is a man with no convictions. Neither does he
mean that he is an undisciplined man, a lazy man, an irresponsible man, or a
man who can’t work hard. What he means by “weak” is this: “I got myself out of
the equation. And that’s when the strength became apparent—when I got myself
out of the way.”
If
you want to be used mightily by God, get yourself out of the way. Learn to see
yourself as a garbage pail, or, in the words of Peter, to clothe yourself with
humility (1 Peter 5:5). It’s not about you; it’s not your personality, it’s the
Word of God. God doesn’t need the intellectuals. He doesn’t need great people,
fancy people, or famous people. The people aren’t the power. The power is the
message! He puts the treasure in clay pots so that “the surpassing greatness of
the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7b).
If
you look for a human explanation for Paul’s success, there isn’t one. People
have said to me, “I’m studying the Bible to see why Paul was successful.” I’ll
tell you why he was successful: he preached the truth. And the truth is
powerful. Or they will say, “We want to come to your church to find out what
makes things tick there.” I’ll tell you what makes things tick there: the truth
of God. The truth of God and the power of God; those are what make things tick.
The surpassing greatness explains the transcendent might of superlative power
from God on the souls of those who hear the truth. We preachers are clay pots
at best! In and of ourselves, we have nothing to offer, neither beauty nor
power. Paul knew that, which is why he says, “I was with you in weakness and in
fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3b).
In
the end, it’s OK that we’re so weak and so afraid. Our faith should not rest in
ourselves anyway, but in the power of God. We’re nothing. As Paul says
elsewhere, “Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but
God who causes the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7). God is everything!
Years
ago, James Denney wrote: “No one who saw Paul’s ministry and looked at a
preacher like Paul could dream that the explanation lay in him. Not in an ugly
little Jew without presence, without eloquence, without the means to bribe or
to compel could the source of such courage, the cause of such transformation,
be found. It must be sought not in him, but in God.” In 1911, in his book The
Glory of the Ministry, A. T. Robertson quoted Denney: “There always have been
men in the world so clever that God could make no use of them. They could never
do His work; they were so lost in admiration of their own. God’s work never
depended on them, and it doesn’t depend on them now. The power is not the
product of human genius, or cleverness, or technique, or ingenuity; the power
of the gospel is in the gospel.” We ministers are weak, common, plain, fragile,
breakable, dishonorable, and disposable clay pots who should be taking the
garbage out—but instead we’re bringing the glory of God to our people.
The
amazing thing is that such weakness does not prove fatal to the gospel.
Thankfully, the gospel is not from us. The great reality is, God’s clay-pot
strategy is essential to the gospel, because it makes crystal clear where the
power really lies. We are unworthy servants, but God has given us the treasure
of the gospel. What an inestimable privilege!
This
excerpt is adapted from John MacArthur’s contribution in Feed My Sheep: A
Passionate Plea for Preaching.