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2 Corinthians 2:12-17
12 When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
I invite you to open your bibles to second Corinthians chapter 2. 2nd Corinthians chapter 2. And we'll begin reading in verse 12. When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was open for me in the lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
Joel Brooks:But thanks be to god who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to god among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death. To the other, a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
Joel Brooks:For we are not like so many peddlers of god's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by god, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Pray with me. God, I pray that your truth, your gospel would ring loud and clear tonight, and that it would not quit ringing here. The Lord, we would take that gospel to our neighborhoods and to our workplaces, and may we ring clearly for everyone to hear. Lord, in this moment, we need to hear from you, not from me.
Joel Brooks:Just may my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Perhaps there has been a time in your life where you've been hurt by someone close to you or somebody that you care about. This person's made some stupid decisions, some very hurtful decisions that have affected both you and, of course, them.
Joel Brooks:And you've tried talking to them about it, but you could just never really get things through. So you've decided to do the email, in which you would you would write this this long, stinging email. It it was it would be packed full of truth, but it was gonna be truth that that had bite to it. Truth that was going to hurt. And and so perhaps you you have written a blistering email like this, and and your your finger just kinda hovers over that that enter button, over send.
Joel Brooks:And you just you you wanna look over it one more time before you send something like this because you know the moment you hit send, the relationship is never the same. The the moment that gets out in the cyberspace and hear that, you know, goes over to them. Everything about your life is is different at this moment, and you think this is what I'm supposed to do, and so you send it. Now the moment you hit send and so the moment you hear back from them, your life is in somewhat of a crisis. You're you're just wanting to know how this person is gonna respond to that.
Joel Brooks:Where are they really gonna hear it? Are they gonna hate me? Are they gonna love me? What's what's gonna be the outcome of that? And you're just kind of in limbo until you get a reply.
Joel Brooks:That's the context of the text we have before us in second Corinthians. The situation here, it's not email, but but Paul has written a letter to the church of Corinth. It's a very painful stinging letter. Had bite to it. It it was a very direct letter about their sin and their need to repent from this sin, and now he's he's waiting to hear back from them.
Joel Brooks:And he sent Titus, his his good friend and servant, to deliver this letter. And Titus was supposed to get back to him with news, but but Titus hasn't come back to Troas where he is, and he keeps waiting and waiting. And anxiety is building and building as he's waiting to hear what was the outcome of this letter. How would they respond? As Paul is waiting for this response, he's in, and so he does what he always does when he's in a new city.
Joel Brooks:He proclaims the gospel. And the lord opens up a door. He says a door was opened for me in the Lord. Now, this is Paul putting it mildly, because in 15 years that I've done ministry, I have never seen a door open like it opened in Troas. He was only there for a few weeks, and he established a church.
Joel Brooks:Few weeks, church established. He raised somebody from the dead. That was a first even for Paul. God was doing the miraculous through him. And he says, you know, a door's a door's open here for the lord.
Joel Brooks:You'll read about his time in Troas in acts 20. I love the story about him raising somebody from the dead. It was Uticus, you know, up on the 3rd floor. Paul's preaching well into the night. Eutychus gets tired, falls asleep, drops 3 stories dead.
Joel Brooks:And it's almost comical because Paul goes up to him and was like, it's okay. He's only dead. You know? I can fix this. And he raises him from the dead.
Joel Brooks:An open door. But it was. And God was speaking through Paul and using Paul in miraculous ways. However, Paul says my spirit was not at rest. So so there was a there was a huge open door here.
Joel Brooks:God's using his preaching. God's doing the miraculous, but but his spirit wasn't at rest because all he could think about was the Corinthians. How how were they responding to this letter? Would they listen to him? Would they abandon all the divisions that they had in the church?
Joel Brooks:I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Peter. You know, they're they would would they abandon that? Would they abandon the sexual immorality?
Joel Brooks:Would they abandon the incest that was there? Would they abandon the the getting drunk during communion? Would they abandon everybody thinking the spiritual gifts was about them and how they could use them at the expense of the church and not for the church? And most importantly, would they quit abandoning the gospel? And would they believe the gospel?
Joel Brooks:These were pressing questions that Paul just had to know. How did they respond to his letter? Why why hadn't he heard back yet? Why hadn't Titus returned? This can't be good if he's delayed this long.
Joel Brooks:And he's likely waiting by the shipyard there. And when the last ship comes in from Corinth for the winter, that's probably why he heads to Macedonia, because then Titus would have to travel by foot. And so it shows how desperate he is that he he leaves Troas, and he goes to Macedonia hoping he could catch Titus and get news. So Paul leaves a thriving ministry here because of anxiety. Scripture is silent, on saying whether that this was the right choice to make, whether this was the wrong choice to make, just simply records because of Paul's uneasiness in his spirit, his anxiety over this situation in Corinth, he left.
Joel Brooks:You would think god opens a door for ministry so you could step through it, but Paul saw that and he it wasn't necessarily clear cut for him, and he walked away from that door. Whether this was right or wrong for Paul, what what I appreciate about this text is it shows the strains of ministry. It it shows how ministry just really kinda rips at your heart. As a minister, you're always divided between wanting to reach new people, do this new work versus dealing with kind of the sin and the squabbling that's going on back home, back in your own church. And and you're always kinda divided between the 2 and and your and your heart is torn.
Joel Brooks:Anyway, in this situation, Paul Paul's anxiety for the Corinthians was stronger than than his, wanting to stay in Troas. And so he leaves. And I'm sure the people of Troas were confused. They were likely hurt by Paul's departure, but Paul is anxious. Paul is depressed.
Joel Brooks:He is so severely depressed at this point. He really has no zeal for any kind of new ministry. And so he goes. This is that dark time that we looked at earlier when we started 2nd Corinthians, that dark time that Paul was talking about, where he says in chapter 1, he says, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt like we had received the sentence of death.
Joel Brooks:That's what Paul's describing here. This is that discouraging dark time. Now I have never felt that, to the depths that Paul has felt that, that kind of length of or depth of despair. But I do want you to know that Lauren and I definitely have dark moments in ministry. We definitely have weak moments where we go through times of borderline despair.
Joel Brooks:And there's always there's there's good things that happen, and then it we're amazed at how quickly those cards come crashing down. And so, you know, for instance, we love having home group at our house. We're having 2 home groups at our house now. We we we love this. And then there's times we're like, we've just had too much community.
Joel Brooks:Alright? Enough of the community. We we're we're tired of having our house trashed. And we and we we we fall into this little downward spiral. God's called us to live into the city of berm in the city of Birmingham, a city with failing school districts, in which how are you gonna educate your children?
Joel Brooks:What you know, once once they get to junior high, what are we gonna do? And sometimes we're really good about that, and we have great faith. Like, God's called us here, God's gonna provide. Other times when things are going bad at church, bad in ministry, we're like, forget this. We're leaving.
Joel Brooks:And so, Lord, we have times of these little mini crisis that that God has to continually remind us of the gospel and of our calling. And we never know when they're gonna happen, but they happen. And for Paul, it it it was pretty severe. I I think everybody goes into ministry kinda like you go in having trying to have a baby. Alright?
Joel Brooks:It's gonna be really fun. The process and the product gonna be fun. And so that's all you're thinking about here is is how much fun a baby is gonna be. And, you know, you get to sniff the baby's head and just incredible, the little giggling, the smiles. And then you realize when the baby comes, there's a lot of other things.
Joel Brooks:Babies produce other smells. You know, babies make other noises. And and babies keep you up. And they make you drive around at 2 in the morning with a baby in the back seat, just pleading with God to make the baby, you know, quit crying and go to sleep. And in those moments, you you begin thinking, why in the world did I have a baby?
Joel Brooks:Why? And ministry is like that. There's both the joys, which are deeper than you ever thought, but then there's the pains that are a lot deeper than you ever thought. And I'm not just talking about professional ministry. Don't think this is just about me.
Joel Brooks:This is about anybody who wants to live a missional life. Anybody who seeks every opportunity is an opportunity to share the gospel, to further the kingdom. Anybody who does that knows what I'm talking about here. So how does one come out of such a dark time? Well, Paul, he gives 2 word pictures, 2 unusual word pictures to, to remind him of his calling and to help him through this.
Joel Brooks:And so I want us to look at the first one. It's in verse 14. But thanks be to god to when Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. So this is the first word picture that Paul uses, triumphal procession. It's actually a technical term that was used.
Joel Brooks:The Corinthians would have been familiar with this. It had a very significant meaning in the Roman world. The Romans would have something called a triumph or a triumphal procession. It's one word in Greek. They they would have a triumph when when a general would go, when he'd be victorious in battle, and he had to kill at least 5,000 of the enemy in battle.
Joel Brooks:He had to bring peace to that part of the land. He had to enlarge the the Roman territory. And then if he did all of those things, they might give him this highest honor of a triumph or a triumphal procession. And that means he got to come into the city of Rome in a giant parade. And the parade looked like this.
Joel Brooks:He would first first thing that would come in would be all the booty, all the wealth that he had acquired. And so all the precious artifacts from the kingdom they had conquered would come in first. You actually have a description of the the triumph that happened after Jerusalem was conquered. And it described all the articles from the temple being brought into Rome. So first, you're showing all the wealth that's entering into the land.
Joel Brooks:And then came the captives, The, the opposing generals, the opposing rulers would all come in in chains, and they would be paraded through the people as the people mock them, likely going to their execution. And then finally would come the general himself, and he would he would come and he would have a a chariot drawn by 4 horses. He'd be wearing a purple toga. He would be given a scepter, and they would put the crown of Jupiter on his head. And the people, as he was going through the streets, would yell triumph, triumph, triumph.
Joel Brooks:And and this happened very few times, and it was certainly quite a spectacle. It was something to be celebrated in this day and something all the Corinthians would have been well aware of. And Paul takes this image here, and he uses it to describe Jesus. And this is how Paul begins pulling himself out of despair. He sees Jesus.
Joel Brooks:He's like the general come into the city and triumph. And so far, I really like the metaphor. I I really like it. It's really good. However, the image gets a a a little tricky because apparently, Paul doesn't see himself with Christ and the chariot.
Joel Brooks:Paul sees himself as one of the captives being led off to suffer and die. The the common meaning of the phrase lead us in triumphal procession, that is Paul is not the subject. Paul is actually the direct object of the verb. He is the one being led. He is one of the prisoners.
Joel Brooks:That's the common meaning of it. John Calvin, when he was translating this, had such a problem with this because he thought this this makes no sense. I know this is common way you translate it. It's the common meaning of the words, so he changed it. And he said that God leads us in triumph in Christ.
Joel Brooks:And it's translated that way to this day in the King James, even though there's no Greek merit for it. You'll find this same phrase in Colossians 215, and it says this, God disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Christ. Same word. That triumphing is the triumphal procession. Sac same word.
Joel Brooks:And Paul here is saying clearly that God has defeated the devil, defeat defeated all those authorities, and is now leading them in a triumphal procession with Christ as the victor. So what Paul is saying here, and it hurts to kinda hear this, but he says, listen, I was once an enemy of Christ. I was once very hostile to him. But Jesus was the general who came and he conquered me. And now he has made me his slave.
Joel Brooks:And now as he returns home, he will get glory. And if by life or death, I bring glory to him, so be it. There's my comfort. That's my comfort. That is why I suffer like I do.
Joel Brooks:Now is that a comfort to you guys? You know, y'all y'all feeling pretty comforted right now? You like that? One of the reasons it is a comfort to Paul is because of the the two little words we've looked at that are peppered throughout the new testament, that phrase in Christ. Look at verse 14.
Joel Brooks:But thanks be to god who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. You see in Colossians, when god triumphs over the rulers and authorities, he doesn't do so in Christ. But for Paul, he does so in Christ. And and that makes all the difference in the world because what Paul is saying is when I was conquered, I know it was not done by some vengeful god. It wasn't done just to hurt me.
Joel Brooks:But but when god conquered me, he changed my heart. He forgave me. He reconciled me to god. He did all of this in Christ. And now out of love, I freely serve him.
Joel Brooks:Paul will later allude to this in chapter 5 when he says that the love of God constrains him or the love of God captivates him. The love of god holds him hostage. And so Paul is gonna look at this and he's gonna say, my rebellious heart was conquered and it was captured by the love of Jesus. And that makes all the difference. And so for Paul, he he uses this image to convey 2 2 things.
Joel Brooks:And it's one of the reasons metaphors are very powerful, but they can also be confusing. But but he picks this metaphor to convey 2 things, and they're polar opposites of one another. 1st is this, one, God is like a triumphant general, and now Paul is joyfully in his service, But also, God is like a general who has conquered Paul and possibly called Paul to suffer and die. And he's holding both of those images together to remind him of his calling. If this sounds familiar to you, it should, Because Jesus said something very similar when he said, if any man wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Joel Brooks:Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And remembering this puts all this current suffering into context. This should comfort us when we become discouraged, if we remember that we were an enemy of God and God has overcome all of our hostility. He has conquered us with love and he has called us into service with him.
Joel Brooks:And that service very well though might mean suffering or even death. We should not expect a life of ease from suffer from his calling. We should not expect a life of comfort from his calling. The only thing we have bargained for is a cross. Let's move on to Paul's second word picture, And that's of a fragrance.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 14, but thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one a fragrance from death to death, to other a fragrance from life to life. So here, Paul, he sees his life being lived out like a sacrificial offering that's giving a sweet aroma or a sweet fragrance to god. Now, what he's essentially saying is, I live my life on the altar.
Joel Brooks:I live my life on the altar, and I'm being consumed, and I give the fragrance of the gospel at all times. And and first off, he says that, let's just look at 15. I wanna break down 15 for just a moment. It says, for we are the aroma of Christ to god. I want you to notice that he he's saying that this is this aroma I'm giving off is not primarily to others.
Joel Brooks:I'm to be sacrificed. I'm to suffer. I'm to possibly even to die, but it is all primarily to God. And this is huge for us. It was huge for Paul because it means when we sacrificially give our money, when we sacrificially give our time, when we give our energy, when we, when we sacrifice some of our friendships, when we do all of those things, it's not for others.
Joel Brooks:Primarily, it's for God. And if he's the only one who notices, then that's okay. We live our life as worship to him. And so if the Corinthians never noticed a single sacrifice he gave, It's okay because it was a sweet aroma to god. 2nd, as we move on, let's look at verse 15 16.
Joel Brooks:For we are the aroma of Christ to god among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one a fragrance from death to death, to others a fragrance from life to life. Lauren and I have a very different response to cut flowers. Lauren, she smells cut flowers. And, instantly it's weddings, you know, it's beautiful table arrangements.
Joel Brooks:It's spring. And so she loves the smell of cut flowers. I have the exact opposite sensation. When I smell them, I think of death. I think of funerals, because I went to a lot of funerals growing up.
Joel Brooks:And, you know, sense, your smell is one of the most powerful senses and it's associated a lot with memory. And so when I smell, you know, flowers, I'm insulin back at my dad's funeral. It's one of the things I just, I smell that. And so for me, I do not like that smell at all. Whereas Lauren loves it.
Joel Brooks:And so we have the exact same aroma, and we have 2 very different reactions. Paul is playing on that here, that you can smell the same thing and you can have 2 very different reactions. Paul says every sacrifice gives off an aroma. And when you live a life of sacrifice for the gospel, you're going to give off this aroma to others. And let me just say real quick, I'm not talking about, when I say a sacrifice of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:I'm not talking about in general being kind or just being giving to others. That's not a sacrifice. The sacrifice of the gospel is if you're kind, then you proclaim the gospel. If you're a kind, then you're generous, you proclaim the gospel. There's always proclamation with the sacrifice of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Okay? It's not just talking about being generally kind or generally loving or any of these things. Paul would have never been thrown in jail if he was just loving. But if he's loving and says, I'm doing this in the name of Jesus, he's thrown in jail. So that's the sacrifice here.
Joel Brooks:Let me be clear about that. But when we sacrifice for the gospel, we give off this aroma of Christ to others. And when they when they smell that, to some, it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be life giving and to others, it's going to be repulsive and death. 2 different responses.
Joel Brooks:And what this says is as Christians, we always give off a fragrance. And our fragrance was either gonna steer people towards Christ or away from Christ. But if people are around you and smelling nothing, it means that you are sacrificing nothing. So if you can go to the office and you've been to the office every day for years, and people are not even either being steered towards Jesus or away from Jesus, it means you don't smell at all. You're not living a life of sacrifice for the gospel.
Joel Brooks:If you're in a neighborhood and your neighbors are not either being steered towards Jesus or away from Jesus, it means that you are not living sacrificially for the gospel. Because if you are being sacrificed or as Paul would say that you are a living sacrifice, you would put off an aroma. And it's either gonna be repulsive or it's gonna be life giving. And some of us need to confess that we have been places for years, and we've not given off any smell. None at all.
Joel Brooks:We don't put off any aroma. Jim Elliott was a a missionary to Ecuador. One of my heroes in the faith, he was martyred there, and you can read his journal. And I love he wrote a prayer out in his journal that reminds me of this text. Says, father, make me a crisis man.
Joel Brooks:Bring those eye contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road, but make me a fork that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me. That's exactly what Paul is talking about is that when people encounter me, it's not just a little milepost marker and they can just go right on by. It's a fork. I always bring people to a point of decision either to life to life or death to death.
Joel Brooks:What what I want us to do, my conclusion is actually gonna be a time of prayer. We've been thinking a lot about this as the leadership, the elders, staff, the church, an area that I think we are especially weak in here at Redeemer, and that is sharing our faith, something we've been praying about for years. But I could tell even as I was preaching this and looking around at the room when I was just talking about what some of you have been around people for years. What aroma have you given? And I could just tell for some of you, you're like, none.
Joel Brooks:Absolutely none. I want us to take time to pray for one another that we would live sacrificially for the gospel. And by that, I mean, it's not just acts of kindness, acts of generosity, but it is with that, the proclamation of the gospel to the people around us. Because that's the only way they could come to know. That's the only way they could either accept or to reject.
Joel Brooks:And so I want us to take time, and what we're gonna do is I like us to break up into groups of of 6 or 8. We do this