This morning I want us to answer a very important question together. It is not a particularly difficult intellectual question. Instead, this question is more personal. In fact, how each of us answers this question will significantly impact our leadership in the community. In reality, it just may determine the eternal destiny of those in our community. So here is my question………How do you ‘smell’ today? Yes you heard me correctly. How do you ‘smell’ today?
In the book of 2 Corinthians the writer Paul tells that we are to be the aroma of Christ among people. He tells us that our personal relationship with Christ and our followership of Him express themselves to others in the same way an aroma fills a room and affects people. Well as I read that passage it spurred me to do a little research about the power of smell that I want to share with you.
I googled the word ‘smell’ a couple weeks ago and discovered that there is actually a real research organization called the Sense of Smell Institute. This is no joke. This place really exists and there front page boasted of a researcher who had won a Nobel Prize for smell research. Anyway, one of the links on their website was Fun Facts About The Sense of Smell with Professor Nosetradamus. Really. I’m not kidding. I even have a picture. So here are a few fun facts about our sense of smell.
1. The average human being is able to recognize approximately 10,000 different odors. Dogs can recognize about 200,000 different odors. I have learned that little boys can make about 300,000 different odors.
2. A woman’s sense of smell is keener than a man’s. This answered one of the great mysteries of life for me. It explained why my wife changed most of the diapers when our children were young.
3. Everyone has his or her own unique odor-identity or “smell fingerprint”. I don’t think that needs further explanation.
4. Our sense of taste is greatly influenced by our sense of smell. Our sense of smell in responsible for about 80% of what we taste. Without our sense of smell, our sense of taste is limited to the taste sensations of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. All other flavors that we experience come from smell. This would seem to say that we smell before we taste. That we choose to taste something because it smells good to us. That we smell our food and wine before we taste and drink. This reminds me of what Psalm writer David said in Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
So when we think about our community I believe we need to think about how we smell to them? Are our lives so saturated with the person of Jesus Christ that our “aroma” causes people to want to discover for themselves how good the Lord is? Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 2 verses 14-17 and let’s see how Paul put this. READ PASSAGE.
Paul is drawing on a common experience that many of his readers would understand. He uses the phrase “triumphal procession” to draw us toward the event of a victorious general coming home from battle leading his soldiers and their captives through the city streets. These ancient processions or parades were spectacular events that could last for days. Let you imagination run wild for a minute as I describe a Roman victory parade.
Imagine a conquering general in his chariot slowly riding through the streets of Rome as the parade winds its way from the dusty outskirts of the city toward the center of the city and the temple. The city was massive and the streets are lined with thousands of people. People are lined up 4,5,6,7 deep. The parade moved slowly because celebration is meant to be enjoyed and not rushed.
At the head of the parade came the city politicians: senators and magistrates wearing full ceremonial regalia accompanied by a large number of trumpeters announcing the parade. Then followed the spoils of war carried on the backs of men or in wagons. The wagons moved slowly under the weight of silver plates and cups and gold tables and lamp stands that had been plundered from his defeated foes. Other carts carried weapons and armor. Still others were filled with treasures such as sculptures, scrolls and banners. A group of big burly men come along with gold statues and local gods from the defeated country on their backs. A host of musicians accompanied this part of the parade playing local fights songs stirring the crowds to celebration.
The spoils of war were followed by prisoners of war; usually the royal family or conquered general or other important prisons. These came bound in chains to demonstrate their defeat.
Next came the priests and their attendants carrying censors of burning incense and leading white bulls that would be sacrificed at the temple. Just like the music, the incense was intended to saturate the area with the pungent aromas of victory. To the victors the incense was the smell of triumph and supremacy but for the defeated it was the smell of death. You see, the incense was meant to remind the prisoners that when they got to the temple the bulls were not the only things that were gong to be executed. For it was a common custom to use incense to cover the smell of death.
Finally the general himself and his soldiers were seen. He would stand erect in a chariot of ebony and silver drawn by four great white stallions. He would be clothed in a purple cloak thrown over a toga sown with golden stars. In his right hand he would carry a scepter crowned with an eagle and in his left a laurel branch; both symbols of victory. The soldiers were behind him cheering with words such as “Hurrah, triumph!” and pointed toward there leader.
The general had been sent to battle and has returned victorious. He now enters the city to celebrate; to give thanks; to proclaim victory. Everything you see, everything you hear and everything you smell communicated victory, supremacy and strength.
Now let’s return to our passage. Paul is describing a victory parade but there is no ordinary general being celebrated. The One in the chariot is the true King of the universe, Jesus Christ. The conqueror is the One who left from heaven on a mission to conquer death and Satan and to restore life to humankind. He was victorious and now sits enthroned in power awaiting the day He would culminate His kingdom. But there is more.
You and I are walking in this vast parade with King Jesus and the reality of Jesus Christ in our life is flowing through us to our community. Verse 14 says that God spreads everywhere the fragrance of Christ through us. The picture is that our personal relationship with Christ and our followership of Him acts as a fragrance that permeates the places in which we walk. Don’t miss that key word “everywhere”. Our personal knowledge of Him so transfixes us and so consumes us that we express the living Christ in our words, actions and choices everywhere we go. So when we take a walk in our community and encounter a neighbor the aroma of Christ flows from us. When we go shopping at Giant and talk with the cashier while we check out the reality of Christ is expressed. When we eat at Glory Days or shop at Target or work at the pentagon or attend a school function…everywhere our feet touch the ground the person of Christ flows from us. But there is more.
Paul goes on in verses 15 and 16 to tell us that not only does the fragrance of Christ flow through us but he makes the audacious claim that we ourselves are aroma of Christ to God. Our followership of Christ creates an aroma that pleases God and informs the spiritual condition of those around us.
The idea of a pleasing aroma harkens back to the Old Testament. Time and again as the Israelites made their offerings and sacrifices by fire the scripture says the aroma was pleasing to the Lord (Lev. 1:9, 13, 17). So the idea is this. As our lives become saturated with Christ and as we proclaim Him we delight the heart of God because we focus on the Son whom He loves.
The last part of verse 15 and verse 16 show the results of our lives flowing with the knowledge of Christ and our lives being the fragrance of Christ. To those we encounter that are spiritually seeking we become the fragrance of life because we have Christ to offer them. To those who smell the aroma of Christ through us and turn away in disgust, we are to them the smell of spiritual death. An old Rabbinical saying states, “As the bee reserves her honey for her owner and her sting for others, so the words of the Torah are an elixir of life for Israel and a deadly poison to the nations of the world.” Expositor’s Commentary, Vol. 10, page 332. We are both the honey and the sting to those in our community.
A few ways we can become the aroma of Christ in our community.
1. Include yourself as part of the community. Leadership in the community…of which I am a part. We have a tendency to forget that we ourselves are the community. It’s like the way our family photo albums were going before we realized what was happening. My wife is the photographer of the family and after some time we began to notice that she was not in very many of the pictures because she was taking them all. We had to re-adjust to make sure she was in the photos as well. Many of us have a picture of our community without us in it. I cannot separate my life from those I live around, shop with, attend school with, play on teams with or swim with. It is not us and them. It is we the community.
In fact we need to think of our community as not just the area around BCC but include ourselves as part of our nation. As you know hurricane Katrina has wrecked havoc in the coastlines of Louisiana and Mississippi. We also know that many of you want to respond to this need and so do we. Therefore, the Elders agreed this week that 10% of our general budget giving during the month of September will be sent to World Relief to help with relief efforts. We desire this to be a corporate response rather than an individual response. If you want to give more directly then please do so by getting in touch with one of the many relief organizations.
2. Christ is the One who rides in the chariot of victory.
Christ has won the victory and it is His parade that moves through the streets of planet earth toward a culmination of His return. The parade we walk in is clearly His and our first and primary role is to cry, “Hurrah, Triumph! Christ is King” and to point to Him. Listen to the words of God in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 15:54-55. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting.
2 Timothy 1:10. It has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Hebrews 12:2. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Revelation 17:14. They (last armies of the earth) will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings.
3. Invite people to experience the parade with you.
That is the heart of what is means to lead in our community. Over the years I have seen several parades and I’m sure you have as well. As I think back about all those experiences there is a common emotion that I felt. I wanted to be part of what was happening. I wanted to ride on a horse or in one of those cool cars or on a float. There is something about the excitement and the look of people’s faces that drew me in to them; that make me want to be a participant rather than a spectator.
So as we walk in the parade of Christ you can rest assured that it is causing people to wonder, to question and for many, to want to participate. So invite them to join the parade with you. Invite them to taste and see that the Lord is good by letting your life be a fragrant aroma of Him. Perhaps there are some of you here this morning who are not part of Christ’s parade. Then I encourage you to talk with myself or another pastor or the friend you came with and ask them how you can join the parade. Here are a few ways people are inviting others into the parade.
In a recent issue of TIME Magazine, there was a six page spread called Praying For Profits. While TIME got the message wrong the focus of the article was intriguing. They described how evangelical Christians are integrating their work and businesses into the community…but with a purpose. They talk about Cindy Griffin who started Classic Body Image Salon and Day Spa; a Christian beauty parlor in Blacksburg VA. AND millionaire Aurelio Barreto III who started C28, a chain of “funky Christian shops for teens”. Since opening in 2001 C28 has yet to make a profit but expects to next year. But what motivates Barreto is the 1,512 who have found Christ. And David Gadow who felt called to start a Christian driving school for teens. Now there’s a real prayer warrior.
Let me finish with a couple important reminders.
It’s Christ….not us. First let’s keep in mind that God’s power finds its full expression in our weaknesses. 2 Corinthians 4:7 says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” As we are the aroma of Christ to our community be wary of ever thinking that we smell good in and of ourselves.
One final thought. One of my favorite foods is pizza, specifically supreme pizza. I love the taste but remember that smell precedes taste. So I love the smell of the pizza as its cooking knowing I’m about to have a great taste experience. But let’s back up one more step. Before we smell we must prepare. Go through the process of cutting and preparing a supreme pizza. Ingredients to cut: onions; peppers; ham; mushrooms, olives, sausage and hamburger meat.
Now that is a pizza that smells good and will taste good. As I look at all those ingredients I see one thing in common. Each ingredient had to die so that I could have a great smell and taste experience. The vegetables began to die as soon as they were plucked from the vine or pulled from the ground. A pig and cow gave their lives.
Ephesians 5: 1-2 say, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
2nd Reminder: Model Christ….sacrifice yourself for others
What does it mean to imitate Christ? It means to love people. How to we imitate Christ’s love for people? We sacrifice ourselves just as He did. What happens when we sacrifice for others? When we sacrifice ourselves for people in our community the aroma of Christ spreads among them…and some of them are going to want to taste and see that God is good. And you and I will be there for that moment.
