Introduction:
A. Some smells are very pleasant and very pleasing, and some are not.
B. Reader’s Digest carried this funny quip:
1. One day a woman was filling up her car at a gas station, when she accidentally spilled gasoline on her shirt.
2. When she went inside to pay, she noticed that the woman standing next to her was crinkling her nose.
3. She tried to put the woman’s mind at ease at by announcing: “If you smell gas, don’t worry, it's me.”
C. Have you ever paid attention to the names of some perfumes?
1. One day a teenage girl was shopping at the mall and stopped at the perfume counter.
2. She noticed the names of the perfumes, “Insolence,” “Obsession,” “Desire”, and “Ecstasy”.
3. She said to the salesperson, “I don't want to get myself into trouble...I just want to smell nice.”
D. What are some of your favorite smells?
1. Coffee brewing? Bacon frying? Popcorn popping? Cookies, brownies or bread baking? Freshly cut grass? How about Thanksgiving morning? Vanilla? Summer rain? Lilacs?
2. Isn't it amazing how certain smells transport you to another time or place?
3. Smells can penetrate recesses of memory and imagination that the other senses can’t get near.
E. In our text for today, we notice that Paul talks about being the aroma of Christ – the fragrance of life and death.
1. We also notice that he talks about being a letter that can be read by everybody.
2. So today we want to talk about becoming something to smell and something to read.
3. Let’s work our way through 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12 through chapter 3, verse 6 and see what lessons God would want us to learn.
I. The Explanation
A. Look at 2 Cor. 2:12-13: Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia.
1. Paul began by telling how his anxiety to know what was happening in Corinth made him so restless that he could not wait in Troas, even though there was a lot of opportunity there, so he moved on to Macedonia in search for Titus.
2. Titus finally arrived and gave Paul the good news of the favorable Corinthian reaction to Paul’s tearful letter.
3. The Corinthians had repented and Paul’s role and reputation among the Corinthians was restored (2 Cor. 7:5-7).
4. This caused Paul to launch into a shout of praise to God who had brought all things to a happy ending.
B. Look at verses 14-16: But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.
1. When set against the background which was surely in Paul’s mind, these verses become a vivid picture for us.
2. In Paul’s mind must have been the picture of the Roman Triumph.
a. The highest honor that could be given to a victorious Roman general was a Triumph.
b. It was their equivalent of the American “ticker-tape parade.”
c. To attain it, the general must satisfy certain conditions.
1. If a commander-in-chief won a complete victory over the enemy on foreign soil, and if he killed at least 5,000 enemy soldiers and gained new territory for the Emperor, then that commander was entitled to a Roman Triumph.
d. The processional would include the commander riding in a golden chariot, surrounded by his officers.
1. The parade would also include a display of the spoils of battle, as well as the captive enemy soldiers.
2. The Roman priests would also be in the parade, carrying burning incense to pay tribute to the victorious army.
3. The procession would follow a special route through the city of Rome and would end at the Circus Maximus where the helpless captives would entertain the people by fighting wild beasts.
e. It was considered a very special day in Rome when its citizens were treated to a full-scale Roman Triumph.
3. That is the picture that was surely in Paul’s mind when he wrote these verses.
4. He viewed Christ marching in triumph throughout the world with himself marching in that conquering train.
a. Paul was certain that this triumph of Christ was something that nothing could stop.
b. In that sense, we believers in Christ do not fight for victory, we fight from victory.
5. As the Roman priests burned the incense in the parade, the odor affected different people in different ways.
a. To the triumphant soldiers, it meant life and victory and was therefore a pleasing aroma.
b. But to the conquered enemy, it meant defeat and death. They were on their way to be killed by beasts.
6. Using this image of incense, Paul pictured the Christian life and ministry as giving off a fragrance that is appealing to some and offensive to others.
7. We will talk about that application in a few minutes.
C. All this caused Paul to write the following: And who is equal to such a task? 17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. (2:16-17)
1. In verse 5 of the next chapter, Paul will answer the question by saying that his sufficiency is from God. “Who is equal to the task?” Only those who depend on God.
2. He then reminded them that his heart was pure and his motives were sincere.
3. Others, including his opponents there at Corinth, had expected or demanded payment for their teaching services, and had converted preaching into a means of personal gain.
4. But Paul knew that he had God’s commission and God’s approval.
D. As Paul finished those statements of verse 17, he felt as though he was beginning to brag about himself, so he wrote: Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 3You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (3:1-3)
1. Behind these verses is the custom of writing letters of recommendation which was a common practice in Paul’s day, as well as in ours.
a. I am frequently called upon to write letters of recommendation or to act as a reference for someone who is applying for a job.
b. Here’s cute cartoon: “Are all these letters of recommendation from your mother?” Those kind of recommendations don’t count, right?
c. In Paul’s day, if someone was going to a strange community, an authority, or a friend who knew someone in that community would give him a letter of commendation to introduce him and to testify to his character.
d. We know that early church employed this practice. Paul often sent a letter or commendation with men like Timothy, Titus, and Ephaphroditus as they were sent to minister in a new area.
e. This practice in the church was certainly needed to be sure that people who showed up out of the blue, claiming to be servants of Jesus, were actually genuine and not just those peddling the word for profit.
2. Perhaps Paul’s opponents in Corinth had come with some kind of letters of recommendation and pointed out that Paul had no such credentials.
3. Paul responded to such criticism saying that the most complimentary letter he could possibly possess had already been written.
a. The very lives of the men and women in the church in Corinth were the result of Paul’s ministry and were an eloquent letter for all to read.
b. To bring another letter would amount to a personal insult to the Corinthians, and it would ignore the past and present work of Christ in their hearts.
c. They themselves were Paul’s testimonial, guaranteeing his apostolic status and authority.
4. Paul further developed the image by saying that his letter of recommendation was no human document recorded in ink, nor was it a divine composition engraved on stone, rather it was indeed written by the Spirit of God on living tablets of human hearts.
a. The proof of Paul’s genuineness was to be found not in written characters, but in human characters.
E. Paul concluded the section by insisting that he could not take credit for anything he had accomplished, for God was responsible for making him capable and competent for the ministry.
1. Paul wrote: Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (3:4-6)
2. It is God who has made Paul adequate for the task and all glory should go to God.
3. Paul was a brilliant and well-educated man, but he did not depend on his own adequacy; he depended on the Lord.
4. Paul understood that to be divinely commissioned was to be divinely equipped.
5. So Paul was quick to give all glory to God.
F. Harritet Beecher Stowe authored Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852.
1. It was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of any kind that century, second only to the Bible.
2. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s.
3. The book's impact was so great that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the Civil War, Lincoln declared, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.”
4. Tolstoi ranked the book among the great achievements of the human mind.
5. Harriet Beecher Stowe, however, refused to take any credit for what she had written.
6. She said, “I, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? No, indeed, I could not control the story; it wrote itself. The Lord wrote it, and I was but the humblest instrument in his hand…To him alone be the praise.”
7. Her adequacy was of God, and so it was with Paul, and so it should be with us.
II. The Application
A. There are two lessons I want to encourage us to wrestle with from today’s study as we try to live a life that glorifies God.
B. The first lesson has to do with smelling and reading.
1. What is the fragrance and what is the story of our lives?
a. What does my life smell like? What does your life smell like?
b. Are people smelling the fragrance of Christ coming from us?
c. Is that fragrance an attractive one?
d. For most people, Christian and non-Christian, someone smelling like Christ would be a pleasing aroma.
e. But for some, who are militantly non-Christian, our smelling like Christ will be an obnoxious odor to them.
f. Ultimately, our job is to smell like Christ whether they like it or not.
2. Let me also ask – what is the story of our lives.
a. If each of us is a letter from Christ, then what does that letter say?
b. I like this little quote written by someone:
“The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Are read by more than a few,
But the one that is most read and commented on Is the gospel according to you.
You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day
By the things that you do and the words that you say.
People read what you write, whether faithless or true.
Say, what is the gospel according to you?”
3. Is the gospel according to you a true and faithful gospel?
a. Do our lives reflect the love and grace of God?
b. What about purity and truthfulness?
c. Do our lives reflect the right kind of priorities?
4. DC Talk is one of our family’s favorite contemporary Christian groups.
a. They are a Grammy winning trio which began in 1988 and have taken an indefinite hiatus since 2000.
b. The group is considered by many to be the most popular Christian act of all time.
c. On their album called Jesus Freak, they used a quote as the prelude to the song titled “What If I Stumble?”
d. The quote is from Brennan Manning and is: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today are Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
5. We can debate whether that is the “greatest single cause of atheism” or not, but it certainly is a contributing factor.
a. When the testimony of our words doesn’t coincide with the testimony of our lives – when there is a great dissonance there – Christianity is harmed.
6. Here are a couple of observations by Mahatma Gandhi
a. “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
b. “If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.”
7. So let’s commit ourselves today to being better reflections of Jesus Christ.
a. Let’s give the world something good to smell and something good to read!
C. The second lesson has to do with the power to be all that God wants us to be.
1. The late Larry Burkett, an expert in financial management for Christians, told of meeting a Chinese evangelist who had endured persecution for his faith.
a. When Burkett asked the man what he thought about Western Christianity, the evangelist replied, “What amazes me most is how much you are able to accomplish without God.”
2. I’m afraid that many times I’m living my life and attempting to serve the Lord in my own strength and not in His.
3. One of the things that comes through loud and clear in today’s passage and in so many that Paul was inspired to write was that Paul was living and serving with the power of God.
a. 2 Cor. 3:5-6: Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant...
b. Next week, Lord willing we will study 2 Cor. 3:18: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
c. Colossians 1:28-29: We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. 29To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.
d. Probably the best known verse on this subject is Philippians 4:13: I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
4. Here’s a thought provoking little poem – “Where is God’s Power?”
“A city full of churches, Great preachers, lettered men,
Grand music, choirs and organs; If these all fail, what then?
Good workers, eager, earnest, Who labor hour by hour;
But where, oh where, my brother, Is God’s Almighty power?
Refinement: Education! They want the very best.
Their plans and schemes are perfect, They give themselves no rest;
They get the best of talent, They try their uttermost,
But what they need, my brother, Is God the Holy Ghost!”
5. What we need to do is to focus on being connected to God - We need to tap into God’s power.
a. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5)
b. So we need to walk closely and be bound strongly to the Lord, and to anticipate and to expect that God’s power can work mightily through us.
6. Years ago a lady named Theresa wanted to build an orphanage, but she had only three shillings.
a. Someone mockingly said to her, “What can you do to build an orphanage with only three shillings?”
b. She replied, “Theresa with three shillings can do nothing, but with three shillings and with God to help her, there is nothing that Theresa cannot do.”
7. I’ve often said, “What God expects, God enables, and empowers.”
a. Imagine God saying, “I have something for you to do, but I know you won’t be able to do it. I won’t be able to help you, but give it your best shot anyhow.
b. That’s like a parent saying to their child, “Go out there and mow the lawn even though the mower doesn’t work and there’s no gas. Give it your best shot anyhow.”
D. God wants our lives to emit a beautiful fragrance and tell a powerful story, and knowing that we cannot do it on our own, He promises to provide the wisdom and strength we need.
1. We simply must stay humbly connected to the Lord!
Resources:
Paul for Everyone, 2 Corinthians, Tom Wright, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003
2 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary, Scott J. Hafemann, Zondervan, 2000
2 Corinthians, John MacArthur, Nelson Impact, 2007
The Letters to the Corinthians, William Barclay, The Westminster Press, 1975
Be Encouraged, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Warren Wiersbe, Victor Books, 1989
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Murray J. Harris, Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, Zondervan, 1976
“Aroma Therapy,” Sermon by Jerry O’Sullivan, SermonCentral.com
“Living Epistles,” Sermon by Damian Phillips, SermonCentral.com
