II Corinthians 2:1-17
During an especially long dark winter, a couple from London decided to go to Rome for a long weekend to thaw out. They planned to stay at the hotel where they had honeymooned twenty years previously. They both had busy lives, and the woman needed to be at work until Friday evening, they decided that the husband should go ahead on Thursday and be joined by his wife on Friday night.
The husband checked into his hotel that Thursday evening and was delighted to find a computer in his room. He decided to email his wife at home.
Unfortunately, he left a crucial letter out of the email address and sent it off without realizing his mistake. The email was received instead by a woman in Houston, Texas, who had just returned from her husband's funeral. The dearly departed was a Baptist minister who had died after a heart attack.
The email she downloaded that evening read as follows:
“My Loving Wife - I know you’re surprised to hear from me, but I've arrived! They have computers here now, and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I have just arrived and have been checked in. Everything is ready for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! I hope your journey was as uneventful as mine was. - PS - It sure is hot down here!”
Have you ever sent an email or a text in and then wished you hadn’t? Paul felt something like that when he wrote a letter to the church in Corinth. It was a difficult letter to write (1-4) he had said some tough things to them, and he was very anxious to find out how it went down. Titus who , who had delivered the letter, could tell him, but he had gone missing (12-13) Paul’s team-mate was no-where to be seen!
Worse than that, on his last mission trip he had almost been killed (1:8-9) and Paul was still getting over the trauma of that experience. So when he sat down to write this letter, Paul was a bit of a psychological basket case! That is what makes this passage so surprising – despite all this, he says, we are still triumphant (14-16)
Is he deluded?
Satan – your part in his downfall!
One of the funniest and saddest books about World War that I have ever read is written by the British comedian Spike Milligan, Adolph Hitler, my part in his downfall. It is a great title, because although Milligan was only one of the tens of millions of soldiers fighting the Nazis, he had a part to play! You and I have a part to play in the downfall of Satan, and his empire of evil - to tell others about the Lord and to spread the good news like a sweet perfume (14)
Each Sunday in January, we are going to be thinking about how this works; how we can all be better at spreading the good news. We want to see City Church grow as people who are not yet Christians grow into a personal faith of their own. I cannot exaggerate the importance of your personal contribution to this!
But of course, most of us can’t be effective at spreading the good news, can we? There are two reasons for this:
Firstly, life is exceptionally busy and stressful and difficult. We have so much on and so many things to think about – the job, the family, the kids, the mortgage, the list is endless. Its OK for Paul, he didn’t have our problems. Well look again – there is an interesting insight into this man’s personal lifestyle later in the letter (11:23-33) Paul has already referred to his writing of stressful letters, tearing ‘round Greece looking for his missing team member and worrying himself sick about the congregation in Corinth! I don’t know about you but all that sounds a little like my Tuesdays!
My personal situation may be chaotic but my personal direction is constant and fixed (14) – I am part of the triumphal march of Jesus Christ through world history, I share in his ultimate victory and nothing can take that away from me. However chaotic things are for you right now, you are still part of this!
Second reason I can’t spread the good news – I have no idea what to say! A lot of people feel like this, you get the chance to talk about Christ and you freeze like a rabbit in the headlights. In fact, this is such a guilt-inducing experience that you avoid it whenever possible. You can’t spread the good news because you are no good at expressing yourself, and that is that!
But wait, who said anything about talking?
Walk through a large department store and the chances are that you will be stopped by a pretty lady beside a perfume counter; she just wonders if you want to try a squirt of the latest fragrance from Channel or Yves saint Laurent. She’s wearing it herself and she smells great! She doesn’t bother trying to describe the stuff to you, she just wants you to get a whiff of it and, hopefully, splash out on a bucketful.
Check out verse 15 and you see this perfectly describes our job. You wear the fragrance of Jesus and you waft that odour around with you wherever you go. Long before you say anything the fact that you are a Christian is communicating itself to the people around you. That’s how you begin to be a good news spreader, and you don’t even have to open your mouth!
The fragrance of Jesus
Read verses 12-16 again, you need to know that there is a particular image in Paul’s mind here. The greatest honour a Roman general could be given was to parade in triumph on the streets of Rome. It was a once in a lifetime experience, the general would march his army through the city parading captured loot and hundreds of captive enemy troops. The priests would burn braziers of perfumed wood and fill the streets with a wonderful smell.
Now if you were a soldier in the generals’ army, that smell would always remind you of the most glorious day of your life. But if you were a prisoner being led in chains through the streets knowing you would be sold into slavery that smell would bring back altogether different memories.
To one person it is the fragrance of life, to the other it is the reek of death (16).
Wherever you go, and whatever you do, you spread the fragrance of Jesus. Some sense the reality of God around you and find it very attractive; they secretly long to come with you. People like this will watch you with interest and they want to know more, even if they are too nervous to ask.
Yet others respond in a very different way – you remind them of something that they dislike intensely, they are not in the least attracted to whatever it is you stand for. In fact, they often oppose what you stand for. People like this can make life very tough for you.
This is not personal, it is the fragrance of Christ; they sense the reality of God in you and find it repulsive. (of course, this mostly works at the subconscious level, people feel these reactions, only rarely do they think them)
Why such a strong reaction? Well, think of the Roman triumph, the soldiers are enjoying their victory and drinking in the atmosphere, the captives are dreading the future; they are heading for slavery or death in the arena. Even years later, the fragrance awakens those memories.
We are surrounded by people who don’t believe in God, won’t even think about Jesus and reject the possibility of heaven or hell. But you remind them of something… when you walk into the room your fragrance awakens memories long buried. You remind them that God exists, that Jesus is Lord, and that Heaven and Hell are realities. Some find this strangely attractive, others find it overwhelmingly repulsive.
There, you have provoked a reaction and you have not even opened your mouth! That is quite an achievement.
Of course, sooner or later we must begin to speak about the good news. When you do this that negative reaction sharpens. People who don’t like the message often take the view that we have no right to share it with anyone. “What right have you got to go ‘round challenging what people believe?”
It’s a good question.
What right have you got?
Paul asks the question in a slightly different way (16) Let’s look at Paul’s answer in verse 17, he says that we preach with sincerity and with Christ’s authority.
What is Christ’s authority?
Paul says, “We speak before God…” (NIV translation of verse 17) That is an interesting phrase. We tend to think of evangelism as speaking before men and women, but Paul turns it ‘round here. When I read this I think of Moses and Aaron in ancient Egypt, sent to challenge Pharaoh to let Israel go. Two little guys against a superpower, but standing above them and behind them is God Almighty.
Hold that picture in your mind the next time someone says, “What right have you got to challenge my beliefs!” You have every right, actually! God Almighty, the creator of the universe stands behind you, and gives you his permission and his support. He sent you to be his ambassador.
Of course, I never tell anyone this. Knowing that God gives me personal authority to speak about him to others is my business, not theirs. But it does give me a great deal of confidence when I am dealing with people who don’t like me because of what I stand for.
The more confident you are of this, the less aggressive you become, you don’t have to establish your authority by shouting or being strident. You just have it; no-one can take it away from you!
So you are adequate for this task – you have God’s authority. You are his ambassador.
But wait a minute, why is Paul so aggressive in 17?
The church in Corinth had come under the spell of professional speakers who were getting rich quick by leeching off the Christians. In contrast to them, Paul seemed a real looser – he was poor, had to take a part time job to support himself and he was not eloquent at all. Early documents give good evidence that Paul was a strange looking fellow with a hooked nose and bandy legs! [1] To the sensual Corinthians there was no contest, the beautiful people were telling the truth!
There are cowboys around today who bring the gospel into disrepute. Chief among these are those who make fabulous amounts of money from their TV shows. These are people who link God’s blessing to the generosity of your giving. Gullible Christians give huge amounts to these people and the result is great wealth.
How do you tell the real McCoy – take up references? The church you create, those are our references (3:1-2)
The grave of Sir Christopher Wren lies in his greatest creation, St Paul’s cathedral. On the tombstone the inscription reads, “If you seek his monument, look around you”. Paul himself says the same – “You want my credentials, look around you!”
You judge a craftsman by the quality of the work he produces, and you judge a church by the quality of people it creates. That’s how you tell the shysters from the genuine article.
So here is the challenge – what is the gospel turning you into? Are you a credible advert, an attractive fragrance, do you draw people in or put them off?
[1] Acts of Paul, a document from between 150-200 AD - “He saw Paul coming, a man little of stature, thin-haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows joining, and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace: for sometimes he appeared like a man, and sometimes he had the face of an angel.”