The Fragrance of Christ — 2 Corinthians 2

0:00 Alright. Let's let's open up in prayer as we consider the word of god. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the holy spirit. Lord, I pray that today that I'd be able to communicate your word clearly, that the Holy Spirit would apply it to our hearts and our lives, that it would be worked out in how we live.

0:23 In Jesus name, amen. Today's passage will be two Corinthians chapter two. I will be presenting primarily from the NASB, but I'd like to read it in the NLT, which is a very good thought for thought translation, just so we get a better understanding at first glance of the passage. So first Corinthians, two Corinthians two:six-four from the NLT, Actually, verses four through the end. I wrote that letter in great anguish with a troubled heart and many tears.

1:19 I didn't want to grieve you, but I wanted to let you know how much love I have for you. Verse five, I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me. Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough. Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, he may be overcome by discouragement.

1:49 So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him. I wrote to you as I did to test you and see if you would fully comply with my instructions. When you forgive this man, I forgive him too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ's authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us, for we are familiar with these evil schemes. Verse 12, Now I came to the city of Troas to preach the good news of Christ.

2:25 The Lord opened a door of opportunity for me, but I had no peace of mind because my dear brother Titus hadn't yet arrived with a report from you. So I said goodbye and went on to Macedonia to find him. But thank God he has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ's triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ like fragrance rising up to God, but this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.

3:10 To those who are perishing, it is a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this? You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the Word of God with sincerity and with Christ's authority, knowing that God is watching us.

3:39 I hope that was helpful to you to understand the general flow of the passage. As we look into this, we see that Paul had a very tender heart towards the church at Corinth, and he desired that they'd be spiritually strong. The church had taken some action based on his previous letters, and now we have some further action for them to do as they were growing spiritually. The issues had to be dealt with severely and promptly, and now that the offending parties had repented, it was time for them to be received back with love and to be reconciled. And this chapter in two Corinthians is applicable and practical even today.

4:50 We're going to spend quite a bit of time on the last point. But first off, looking at this issue of church discipline, and now that the church discipline had been taken care of, and that the man who was needing to be dealt with had been repentant, he used to be brought back. Let me start. Let me just I'm going go verse by verse and hopefully not bore you with that. But just look at some observations and some idea of what is speaking and then some applications.

5:22 So verse five, but if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree in order not to say too much to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is his punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. The sin of this individual had caused widespread harm and disunity within the church at Corinth. So the question is, who was this person who had caused the widespread harm?

6:03 There's a lot of commentators who think that it was the man in one Corinthians chapter five who was living in gross immorality. Other commentators think that it's perhaps just a person who had rebelled against the authority of Paul as an apostle. After studying it, I think it is mainly focused on the man in one Corinthians chapter five, who they were told, the church at Corinth was told to put him out because he was living in gross immorality, and yet coming and trying to be in fellowship with the church, which is wrong. What's interesting is that I have to ask this question, who was the man who was being talked about here? And this is very clearly Paul is being very kind, and he's trying to bring together the church.

6:57 He's trying to foster forgiveness. And so he doesn't mention who this person is or what this person did. And I see that as just parsed Paul's tender heart towards the church. He wants to bring this man, I assume it's a man, back into fellowship. Verse eight, he says, wherefore, I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

7:22 For to this end I also wrote, so that I might put you to the test, what is the test? Whether you are obedient in all things. Obedience is hard. Growing up, was kind of more forced to be obedient in a sense, but now that I'm a little bit older, it's more of a choice. And each of us have the choice to be obedient, because each and every one of us has, someone who's in higher authority than us.

7:53 Each of us is under authority to God, but even as as we, work with ourselves, we must submit to authority and to be obedient. And so the church at Corinth must be obedient in two ways. The first one is that they were to put out those who live in open sin within the church and those who reject His authority. And they had done that, and the man had repented. And so now, they were told, they were urged by Paul to receive back those when repent.

8:27 When they repent, to receive them back, to formally and then personally receive them back into fellowship. Obedience is important, and so the question I'd like to ask today is, are we obedient to the word of God? And why why and why not? Why why do we obey certain things and why do we disobey certain things? Are there things that we know to do and yet we ignore?

8:57 I know that God is still working in my life. He's promised in Philippians that He who began a good work will complete it until the day of Christ. I know that there are things in my life that I'm obeying in, and there's other areas that I'm not obeying in yet. And it's it's confounding to me why I don't obey because I know that it's God's plan. It's so much better than what I'm I'm going through now, and yet there's something in me that rebels against obeying.

9:22 And so my encouragement this morning is that to consider those ways that we aren't obeying yet, and to ask God to give us strength to conform us and to help us to truly repent and turn away from those areas of sin, of those areas of disobedience. Verse 10, but one whom we forgive anything, I forgive also. For indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ. So what is the keyword in this verse? I think I think it's pretty clear.

10:34 So I have three examples of forgiveness across a wide spectrum and three examples. When Narvaez, the Spanish patriot, lay dying, his father asked him whether he had forgiven all his enemies. Narvaez looked astonished and said, father, I have no enemies. I've shot them all. Right?

11:00 So that's not really an example of forgiveness, but I think there's some relevance to that. Secondly, is an illustration I found online, and it's completely not based on anything true, and it's probably better that way, I can't really relate to it, but here it goes. A couple married for fifteen years began to have more than usual disagreements. They wanted to make their marriage work and they agreed on an idea. For one month, they planned to drop a slip in a fault box.

11:33 The boxes would provide a place to let each other know about daily irritations. The wife was diligent in her efforts and approach. Leave the jelly top off the jar, wet towels on the shower floor, dirty socks not in the hamper, on and on until the end of the month. After dinner, at the end of the month, they exchanged boxes. The husband reflected on what he had done wrong.

11:59 Then the wife opened her box and began reading. They were all the same, and the message on each slip was, I love you. This is getting closer to forgiveness, to give up the idea of any, retaliation, just to forgive, to accept the harm, and to move on because of your love for the other person. So lastly, an example that I know is true, because it's from the Bible, Jesus while on the cross said, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Here in the context, this is talking about receiving, someone who is being who is under church discipline.

12:44 And it's important that we as a church, as a body here at Westlake, that we are ready to forgive and to receive those who will repent. It's hard. We're going to, you know, if someone's sinning grievously against us as a body, there's going to be hurt collectively, but there might be hurt personally. And so each and every one of us has to be willing and ready to receive back someone who repents. The wrong doesn't go away, right?

13:15 But when they're repentant, we are charged to receive them back. There's also, we can take this as a personal application. Whether there's somebody here in this meeting that there's some conflict and that needs to be resolved. Because this too will have a negative effect on the ability of us to work together, negative effect on the work as we go out and share the good news and as we make disciples. It's very important that we be reconciled with one another.

14:17 Satan loves to take advantage of unresolved conflict between Christians. So there's a couple different real areas where much harm will be done by unresolved conflict. The first is that the individual will be hardened against the local church, they'll be hardened against God because here they had done sin, they had repented, they'd come back asking for forgiveness, and it hadn't been granted. And what hurt? They might turn away from that out of hurt for the rest of their life.

14:54 And so we need to be very careful that when someone comes and asks for forgiveness, that it's granted. Next, the world will see the hypocrisy of unforgiving Christians. This is important because each of us have been forgiven so much. And who are we to withhold forgiveness from another brother or sister in Christ? As I alluded to earlier, Satan will use this opportunity to cause much discord and harm for the gospel.

15:27 J Baxter J Baxter writes, Satan uses all matters of stratagems to turn souls from the truth. A sieve to sift them, Luke 22, devices to trick, as in this passage, weeds to choke, Matthew 13, wiles to intrigue, Ephesians chapter six, the roaring of a lion to terrify, first Peter chapter five, the disguise of an angel to deceive, second Corinthians 11, and snares to entangle them, as in second Timothy chapter two. So we do have an adversary who likes to deceive and take advantage of us when we are not obedient to the word of God. Next, we're going read in verse 12, a spiritual consequence to sin. Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened for me and the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, not finding Titus my brother.

16:34 But taking leave of them, I went on to Macedonia. So here Paul comes to Troas and he's looking for Titus. Why is he looking for Titus? Well, he was hoping that Titus would have some news about Corinth. He wants to hear, he wants to know how they're doing.

16:51 And because of that, even though there was a good opportunity for the gospel, God was opening up doors here in Trasse, he moved on because of his heart to see the church at Corinth to be encouraged. He wanted them to... He wanted to see how they were doing. And so he gave up this opportunity for the gospel because of, having to deal with the church at Corinth. And so there are spiritual consequences of sin.

17:17 And we know practically that there's many natural consequences of sin. I don't think I have to, expound upon that. So Paul was concerned about the well-being at the church in Corinth, and he moved on despite a fruitful gospel area. I wonder how many times, someone is pulled away from a fruitful gospel area because of having to go minister somewhere else where there's, heartache and trouble and and disunity. So we're on to the third point.

18:34 So with thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For we are the fragrance of God for we are the fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. There's a lot in here, and the image the imagery that Paul is using is a Roman triumphal procession. Now here, it's important to get the characters right. Christ is the returning conqueror, and we are actually those he has conquered.

19:20 Right? Before we were serving ourselves, we were serving the world, and now we serve Christ. And so, in this day and age, to think that we were serving someone else seems like kind of a downgrade, but we know that, from the truth of God's word, it is a pleasure, it's a joy to serve Christ. It's a burden to serve Christ. And so this is actually an incredibly great thing that we're able to serve Christ, excuse me, that he is leading us, and that he has accomplished ultimate triumph.

20:01 God has revealed himself to us, to the world in many ways. He's revealed himself through creation. It says that he's, said in Romans chapter one, so that they are without excuse. It's hard to look at the world around us and not see that there is incredible design. It's hard to see that there isn't incredible power in creating the in creating the universe.

20:30 Just the size of it, the mass of it, the the energy involved, and then how well it works together. It's just incredible. He's revealed himself through our conscience. He's shown us what things are right and general understanding of what things are wrong. Secular, in the secular world, is kind of a sticky issue because, many people deny the existence of God and yet, they're very confident that some things are right and some things are wrong.

21:02 But we know that that is given from God. Next, he's revealed himself through the Bible, the written word of God. He's revealed himself through the living word of God, Jesus Christ. And the one that I'd like to expand upon a little bit as is shown in this passage, he's revealed himself through followers of Jesus Christ. We have experienced, the power of Christ in our own life.

21:31 And this is a powerful witness when people around us can see that we've been changed by what God has done in our hearts. It's not out there. It's not it's not a book. It's not, Jesus Christ who is... I mean, these these are all ways, but in addition to that, we as followers of Christ are a testimony to the power of God and his character.

21:59 Looking back at verse 14, it talks about how we are in manifest through us a sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. The word behind the knowledge of Him is an experiential knowledge, that we've experienced that God is good. We've experienced, just the wonders of Christ. Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. And so as we as we follow Christ, we are, a fragrance of Christ.

22:31 We we follow him. He is our victorious, leader. Verse 16, it says, to the one, an aroma from death to death, and to the other, an aroma from life to life, and who is adequate for these things? So here's an interesting, phenomenon. As we imitate Christ, as we work on obeying God, we're going to remind people of Him, of the work that He's done in our lives as well.

23:16 And there's going to be two consequences of the same thing. That's generally a bad thing when you have two consequences of the same thing, but here it's a good thing and it's fact. It's from the Word of God. So as we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are rejecting Him, we see that some will be saved. Our lives will compel those who are being saved.

23:45 We are living advertisements of God's grace. And some others will reject the testimony. They'll see God's work in our life and they'll reject it. To them, because of the the evidence of God's work in our life, in a sense, lives condemn them because they see the truth of what we have. And so even though they reject it, we are a testimony to them as well.

24:15 And so I just really wanted to encourage, I was encouraged by this stunt, and I wanted to encourage you with it, not to be discouraged as we live for Christ. Sometimes, we'll meet somebody or lots of people, and they'll be very negative towards us living for God. They think we're silly for living for God. They think we're silly for trying to, they call it pushing your view on other people, when we're just sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ. And others will accept it.

24:45 Others will be interested. They'll want to listen to what God is able to do in their life as well. And I'm just speaking from personal experience. Sometimes I have a experience with somebody who's very negative, and then after that, it might be a while before I share my faith again. I think this is a very real thing.

25:07 But just I want to encourage you to keep in mind that this is a natural thing God says is gonna happen, and so if you have a negative experience with sharing your faith, if you are ridiculed for living for God, don't be discouraged. Keep sharing your faith. Keep living for God. Because we are, you know, even though we are in a aroma of death to death to the one, we're also in a aroma of life to life for the other. And so it's important that we continue on even though, we face that persecution.

25:41 It's spoken of many, many times in Scripture, but two Timothy three twelve guarantees. It says, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. There's a lot of very definitive statements or definitive words in that verse. Indeed, all who desire to live God in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So let's not think it's strange when we're persecuted for living for Christ.

26:16 Now, it's important as in other places in the scripture that we're persecuted not for making bad decisions, but for being... For living as lights, for for doing good. Let's be, persecuted for for being a positive influence. It's interesting that Paul uses the analogy of an aroma to communicate how we are interfacing with other people, how they perceive us. Aromas have a strong tie to memories.

26:50 I don't know if you've experienced this, but sometimes you'll smell a certain smell, and it might take you back to your childhood. Maybe it takes you to somewhere else. I know sometimes I'll smell something, and I'll take you back to a vacation in Canada maybe twelve years ago or something. Smells are very powerful in reminding us our inner memory. And I think it's important that I think Paul uses this because people when they experience Christians, it sticks in their memory.

27:22 We're held to a very high standard, and it's important that when they they experience us that we don't cloud the smell of Christ with our own stink. That smell Christ, because if they smell Christ, that's a beautiful thing. But if there's a lot of other stink going on in our life, then they might confuse our stink with the aroma of Christ. So my question today, this is kind of application. As people recollect past experience with Christians at Westlake Bauer Fellowship, what do they recall?

28:48 Paul was countering a situation where people were coming in and using the Gospel, adding things to it for profit. You look at when, an example, when Jesus was on earth, He cleansed the temple a couple of times because there they were taking this area of worship and they were turning it into a marketplace. And today, there's still that opportunity with the gospel. We can take the gospel and we can exploit it for money or whatever gain, maybe not monetary, but other ways. And so we need be very careful that we're not peddling the word of God, that we treat it with the respect that it deserves, that we understand it, and that we live it.

29:47 If you remember back in Acts chapter eight, Simon was kind of a magician, and he saw that they were bestowing the Holy Spirit. And so he said, wow, that's kind of cool. And he wanted to buy the Holy Spirit, and I think it was Peter who said, your money perish with you. In other words, we need to be very careful that we are not peddling the word of God, that we just preach it out of obedience to God, out of love for God, and out of love for our fellow man. It's important to have tools when preaching the word of God, when sharing the gospel.

30:31 Tools are great, but let's be very careful that we're not trying to have this gimmick and that gimmick as we share it. Needs to be genuine. You can have gimmicks, but if you don't have the aroma of Christ in your gospel message, you're missing out on the power. Instead, it says, for we are not like many peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, the world really does value sincerity, and we need to be sincere. But as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

31:07 We need to preach the gospel of the power of Christ in the power of Christ, and to realize that God is still very living and active today, and we need to live to please Him. So moving on to the conclusion, let's look at some points of application, and there's seven of them. I would probably rather that we just think about a few of them, so pick one that maybe resonates with you and focus on that. The first one is that church discipline is biblical and relevant today. Secondly, when a person is under church discipline or repents, the church must receive them back with open arms.

32:27 Are, Christ has won the ultimate victory. Fifthly, we need to clearly understand the gospel and keep it real and relevant in our lives. There's so much power in living a life where we we share the gospel, we also live the gospel. But it's important to have both. Living the gospel without sharing the gospel is not what is good, but we need to share it because we need to go out and make disciples of all the nations.

33:06 Number six, the fragrance of Christ will be received differently by different people. So this was the encouragement that even though you might share the gospel or just the way you live your life, that you do certain things and you don't do other certain things. That some people will sense Christ in you, and other people will just push it off and just reject that. And so just an encouragement to keep on being obedient to the word of God. So we should not be discouraged when someone is turned off by the gospel, nor should we take credit when someone believes the gospel and is saved.

34:12 He wanted them to deal with this issue that there was someone living in open sin, and he wanted them to receive back this person who had repented. And, he also wanted to communicate how we are fragrance of Christ. We need to be careful what we smell like, to put it bluntly, that we are a fragrance of Christ and not covered in the stench of sin as we live our lives. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.

34:58 Help us to be changed today. Lord, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would continue to, He will continue to sanctify us. Help us to find ways of, really having sustainable spiritual growth. Thank you for the Lord Jesus and the work that He's accomplished, that is finished, complete, that we have victory. Help us to be victorious Christians.

35:30 Help us be reliant upon You. In Jesus' name, Amen.