Sermon – Fragrance of Christ Feb 12, 2006

T-Shirt Test
A few years ago the scientific journal Nature Genetics raised international interest when it reported the findings of a study that proved women can detect and respond to their preferences of odor in men. Male volunteers slept in the same T-shirt for two nights and then turned in the shirt. Next, women rated the shirts according to familiarity, intensity, pleasantness, and spiciness. The findings revealed that women’s preferences parallel their genetic groupings. In other words, to a woman, a man may smell good while to another woman the same man smells offensive, depending on genetic makeup.

The whole business sounds rather disgusting to me but it highlights a truth we are going to focus on today: That which is a fragrance to one person may be a stench to another. I am going to tell you a story that has a wonderful fragrance to some people but to others, it causes a stench. First, let’s turn to our theme passage for today:

2 Cor 2:14-16
14 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. 15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

Now the story:
A father wanted to demonstrate to his children why Jesus came to save us. This father put a ladder beside the house and got up on the roof. Then he told the kids that the game was that each of them had to come up to the roof with him, but they could not touch the ladder. So the kids struggled and debated until the youngest said, “Daddy, this is not fair and we can’t do it.” The father only encouraged them to keep thinking and trying harder. Finally the youngest said, “Daddy, please come down the ladder.” And the father did so. She said, “Daddy, please bend down.” The father did so and the girl jumped up on his back. Then she asked, “Daddy, please climb back up the ladder.” As the father climbed the other children caught on and took their turns at getting a ride to the roof on dad’s back without touching the ladder.

This wise father then explained to his kids that the reason they played this game was it demonstrated how none of us are able to get into heaven on our own strength. We can never pay for our own sins and trying to be good enough to qualify for heaven is like trying to jump up to the roof from the ground; no one is that good. So God sent Jesus to the earth so all of us, from the strongest to the weakest, from the most holy to the most sinful, could climb onto the back of Jesus and get a free ride into heaven. With Jesus, it is easy for anyone to come up to God; without Jesus, it is impossible.

Sweet or Stink?
When you hear that story, does is create a sweet fragrance in your mind or an awful stench? If at some point in your life you gave your heart to Christ, you said to Him, “I am a sinner and I need You,” than this story probably brings a wonderful smell to you. You can identify with the fragrant truth that you have been given a free ride on Jesus’ back and are now fully accepted by God. So this story makes you nod your head in agreement and smile inside.

However, if you have never thought about how we are all pathetically lost without Jesus or about yielding your life to Him, then this story probably has no sent whatsoever. It does not really make sense to you and causes no reaction.

If you once considered Christ but decided you don’t need or want Him, than this story is probably a real stinker to you. It may even make you angry when you hear stories like this. The whole idea of being dependent on Jesus or the claims that He is the only way, probably sounds narrow and ignorant. I know I once held that attitude. I did not want to do the homework of researching the voracity of Christ or His sayings because I did not want to submit my life under the authority of anyone else. So before I yielded my prideful heart, the Gospel meant nothing to me. The Apostle Paul said:

1 Cor 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Jesus Himself warned us that some would have a very negative reaction to the Gospel:

Matt 10:25
The student shares the teacher's fate. The servant shares the master's fate. And since I, the master of the household, have been called the prince of demons, how much more will it happen to you, the members of the household.

I am so glad I finally got off my horse and bowed to Jesus. Now I understand my previous negative reaction and the reaction of some around me. This reminds me of the time I was flying on Southwest Air and I had selected a window seat and started reading my Bible. An elderly couple came and took the two seats beside me. As soon as the man looked across his wife and saw my Bible, he started talking loud and said, “Oh look here. What do we have here but a gol darn Bible thumper. Oh jeeze.”

I got really mad but I resolved not to say anything back. I remember trying to go on reading but wouldn’t you know it, the very passage I had turned to was something like love your neighbor and pray for those who persecute you. So I started praying for them and soon my heart softened toward the old couple, especially the poor wife who had to put up with her husband’s embarrassments. The Lord put it in my head to offer them my drink coupons and when I did that, the wife thanked my profusely. The husband just muttered something about how he used to give his coupons away when he traveled for business.

What I had forgotten during that encounter was that the old man was not cursing me but rather Jesus whom I represented. Now that I am saved, my old nature wants to be angry with those how will not accept Jesus. I am quick to make much of verses like:

Matt 7:6
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.

Matt 10:14
If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet…

But I am slow to get my arms around verses like:

Matt 5:44
…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…

Matt 7:1
Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Reasons for Patience
I am going to give you two reasons why we need to be patient and loving with unbelievers. The first reason is that not one of us is any better than many unbelievers. Every Christian on the planet is a low-down, scum guzzling, gutter slopping sinner. I do not just mean before we were saved, I mean now. We have heard preachers say things like this before and we think, “I’m sitting here in church for goodness sakes. How can I be sinning right now?” But we fail to grasp the perfection and unapproachable holiness of God. None of us, even sitting here in church, can come into such an awesome and righteous God’s presence without melting into a puddle of carbon.

1 Tim 6:15-16
God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.

That verse needs to be amended to say, “whom no one has seen or can see without Jesus.” We do not need Jesus to save us from just our past, we desperately need Him right now in this very moment. So not one of us can afford to be prideful to say we have it together and the unsaved do not. When we Christians slander the gays, or the democrats, or the republicans, or Hare Krishna we only reveal we do not fully grasp our own desperate need for Jesus.

Reason number two for patience toward unbelievers is hell. If they do not change their minds between now and death, they will spend eternity in hell. We often do not want to consider hell. There are a lot more sermons about heaven then there are about hell, yet Jesus spoke about hell more than heaven. Let me read you a few verses to see what we know about hell.


Hell
Jesus said to those in Capernaum:

Matt 11:24
But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

So we know there are different degrees of judgment.

REV 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened…15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Matt 25:41
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

MT 13:40 As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mark 9:47-48
It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where

"'their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.'

Review:
Hell is not figurative
There are different degrees of hell
It was prepared for the devil and his demons
Everything that causes sin is there
It has fire
There is weeping
Those in hell gnash their teeth
It is never ending
(worst of all) It is completely separated from God

When we think about even the most hardened unbeliever spending eternity in that place, the only right emotion is pity; not anger, or hatred, or repulsion, but pity. None of us is without sin, we all deserve to be exiled to hell because of our continual choices of self over God, and yet:


John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I have eternal life, you have eternal life—paradise with Jesus where we will be completed and everything made right; an eternity of bliss. How could we feel for the unbeliever anything accept what God feels? He is about to loose millions of His children through their own prideful condemnation. That thought should make us sick down to the basement of our hearts as it does God.

Nuclear Reaction
If you and I are living boldly for Christ, we are going to be the fragrance of life to some and the stench of death to others. We cannot help that. That is how Jesus affects humans. A nuclear reaction occurs when a carbon moderator such as graphite mixes with uranium. When you combine the carbon moderator of Jesus with the uranium of men, there is going to be an extreme reaction. It only remains to be seen if the reaction will turn out to be a spiritual energy-producing power plant or an eternally destructive bomb. We cannot control the reactions of others, but we can control our own reaction and our reaction to others. Born-again Christians are called to humble, grateful, joyous celebration of our own condition while maintaining a pitying, compassionate, loving bereavement over the condition of the world.

Call to Action
Let me ask the question again: Are these words the fragrance of life to you or are they the stench of death? Have you given your heart to Jesus? You may be thinking, I hope I have—especially after hearing about hell today—but I’m not 100 percent sure. How can I be sure? I would never presume to give my answer to that question that holds all the difference for eternity for you. I can only tell you what the Bible says.

Rom 10:9
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

At the wonderful Pritzl and Roe concert on Monday they were making fun of churches who ask people to bow their heads and close their eyes then raise a hand if they want to accept Christ. I will confess I have used that technique once or twice but I agree with the musicians. Never do we read in the Bible where Jesus spoke to the multitudes and said, “Now with every head bowed and every eye closed, raise your hand if you want to be a follower. I see that hand.” And do you know how many times the Bible tells of someone praying the sinner’s prayer to receive Christ? Zero, yet that is the most common practice in modern evangelical churches. I am not saying these things cannot bring you to Christ. God sees into the heart. But if we are going to follow the Bible then we have got to do things in Bible ways.

Do you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead? Then according to this verse we just read and others like it, if you will confess that believe to someone else you will be saved. You can confess it in front of a church, or to your best friend. If you have come to the conclusion that you need Jesus, I pray you will let us or someone know of your decision today. In the New Testament, the subject of baptism is brought up over 60 times. The way converts in the time of Jesus made their confession of belief was through baptism. If you want to seal your decision to follow Jesus, I could recommend nothing better.

Prayer