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Date: Jan 8, 2017

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Title: Making Sense of the Gospel

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 2:14-17

Contributor: Senior Chaplain Jesse Barrett

As we begin our study this morning, I would like to begin by recapping the sermons I preached from the last three months.  In doing so, I will be creating a picture for you, a picture that I believe God would like for you to think about.    

I have entitled this sermon, Making Sense of the Gospel, it was a little play on words.  The gospel of course does make sense, but I am going to use the five human senses to help outline the way in which we come to Christ, and then come to maturity in Him.

So, let me start with the first of the five Senses, Sight.  

Let me ask you, from the sidewalk of this great building, what do you think people see?  How do you think they see us?  Do they see love?  Do they see Peace or hope?  Do they see people who may have an answer for their questions?

As you ponder that thought, think back with me to the first time I was with you back in October.  I preached a sermon called, “Paul’s method for evangelism.”

In this message, I talked about Evangelism, what it is and how we are to do it.  

 (The white picture of the Church)

As a church, Christ gave us the great commission in Matthew 28:19

He says “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This is the Big picture, it goes out to the whole world, farther than the eye can see.  I could not find a picture big enough to cover the whole world, but this is the picture of your church.  

Now imagine the edges without end. The message should leave this place and be carried to every person in the world.  For we have been charged, to proclaim the gospel message in every corner of the earth.  

This corner, here in Interlaken, is our corner, given to us by God.  I would hope that God, who is looking down in love, would see us, as a people, who has embraced the call of God, and is obedient to do what he commanded us to do.  

In that message, I only repeated what the Apostle Paul taught us, on how it is accomplished.

Our Key verse was 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 - Paul taught us that, as we preach the gospel in this church, and as we enter our town on a daily basis as a witness, or as we enter into conversations with people, we are to follow his example, and remain humble. 

The lost and eternally dying people of Interlaken need only to see Jesus Christ in our lives and in our conversations.    

Likewise, we need to be authentic.  We need to be true to ourselves and true to God.  He has made you weak for a purpose, it is so that Christ may be seen in you, and so that Christ will have all the glory.

1 Corinthians 2:3 says, “And I was with you in weakness, fear and much trembling, and not with persuasive words; but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”

In other words, every act of evangelism is meant to be a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, at work in our lives.  If we truly want to see others be reached with the gospel message, then we need to show the Holy Spirit’s power in us as we are being broken, and in our weakness.

-Chris Edwardson, a medical doctor who practices in Dallas, wrote about a visit he had one day.  He writes “One day a judge came to my office.  I asked him what he was really in for because his leg cast didn’t need to be checked.  

He said, “I just thought maybe you could give me a reason to live.”  He broke down and cried.  I led him to the Lord.

I asked him what prompted him to tell me that.  

He said, “When you walked into the room, I saw something in your eyes that told me you had what I wanted.  Something told me you knew the answer to life.  I am a judge, I look at men’s faces all day long, judging the truth.  I could see that you believed with all your heart that what you were telling me was true.  It was enough to convince me I needed it.”

Church, people are looking, they are examining, they are judging us for what they see.  Hopefully we have a truth in our eyes that brings men to ask for the reason of our hope.

Once God has given us the opportunity to reach another person for Christ, through our witness, it is then that we desire for them to hear… the Word of God, and begin to understand the truth about who God is, and how he saves us from our sins.

The second Sense we have as humans is hearing.

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

We all need to hear the Word and in so doing we then come to an acknowledgement of 3 things:

I suggested these three things during my second visit when I preached a message entitled “The Savior and the Sinner.”

First – We need to hear and then acknowledge that we are not God, that we are powerless to control our tendency to do wrong, and that our life is unmanageable.

(The Black portrait of the Bible)

Many in our world will open up to us as we are humble and authentic with them about our own dark and black sins, and how they negatively affected our lives.  

Our testimony has a great impact on the lost and God will use it to bring men to himself.  David wrote about himself in this way, listen to Psalms 32:

Psalms 32:4-5 says, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”

A person who accepts Christ must transition out of denial.

Denial is the single most destructive force in our spiritual growth.  The failure to listen, to accept criticism, to allow others to humble us, or to confess our sins, is all rooted in our largest sin, PRIDE.

We were reminded that pride caused the downfall of Satan, it caused Adam and Eve to be kicked out of the garden because they did not listen to God, and there is nothing more that God hates then pride.

Proverbs 16:5 says, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.”

After we acknowledge our sin, then secondly, we need to: earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me.

Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”

God is a God of compassion, in our time together that week, we were in Matthew 14, and we heard the story of how Jesus Christ was compassionate and fed the 5000 and healed the sick.  Likewise, God heals us because we matter to Him.

It begins by confessing our sins-

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Our God is still compassionate to the lost soul who can admit their life is out of control and who is ready to repent of their sins and turn to Him.    

That is our third step: to choose to commit our life and will over to Christ’s care and control.

Acts 4:12 “"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."  

Just like Peter in Matthew 14:31 who was sinking in the water and waves of the storm in his life, we only have to look to Jesus and say “Jesus, Jesus, save me! and Christ will immediately reach out his hand and take hold of us and save us.  

When you call on the name of Jesus to save you, it happens immediately!  

(The blue circle)

I would like to suggest that this color blue is significant at this point.  The color Blue is used in OT 50 times.  One could say that the color blue is the symbolic color of God.  Let me give you a just one reference:

Numbers 15:38-41 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. "It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God. "I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD your God.”

Imagine if you will a small child in the setting of this scripture.  The child who is just beginning to look at their surroundings and notice things, finally notices these blue tassels on their father’s garment.  

Grabbing one and touching it, the child says, “Dad, what is that blue tassel for?”  The father says, “God commanded us to place them on our clothes to remind us of his work in our lives as we follow him.  It reminds us that he is the God who brought us out of Egypt.”

The Father then begins to unravel the amazing story of how God sent the plagues, but they did not touch them.  How God opened the Red sea so that they could walk across it on dry ground and how they were not touched by the Egyptians who were all drowned by the sea after they crossed.  On and on the amazing stories of the God of the Impossible is told, “the blue tassels”, says the father, “remind us not to forget.”

So, likewise this is the week I spoke on, The God of the Impossible.”

This is the sense of Touch, allowing God to touch our lives by a growing faith in him.

It is the next step in our journey with him.  After we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we need to begin to grow in our Faith.  

My question to you in this sermon was, do you believe in the God of the impossible?  Do you believe that God can do the most impossible things in your life?

How do you get to that point?  Well, unless you have the Faith of a child, it comes through the knowledge of him by meditation and experience.

Let me offer a different illustration…

( Hold up an onion )  

Imagine that you do not know what this is.  

If I were to hold this up in the air, you would first, see it. (point to the white)  

After looking at it you may want to hear more about it.  You say, “What is that?” So, I tell you about this onion.  (point to the black)

Naturally the next thing you want to do is touch it.  You ask, “Can I hold It?”

In the next few moments you turn it over in your hands, you begin peeling away the skin, or feeling it’s texture.  You begin examining it, dissecting it, and turning it inside out to get a better feel for it.

This is where we are with God.  We begin to learn about God, we begin to believe certain things about God, we begin to lay a foundation of “un-disputable” truths about who he is and what he is capable of.

In Luke 1 we began to handle scripture and turn over amazing facts about how God touched the lives of people by impossible means around the times of Jesus’s birth.  

I believe God gives us amazing experiences that begin to increase our faith rapidly.  Things like: the answered prayer, the salvation from a disaster, the healing from a sickness, and so on…

God allows us to handle some experiences to show himself to us and increase our faith.

Which leads us to taste,

(The red stop sign)

Psalms 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!”

***Hold up the onion

Anyone want a bite out of my onion? No? Why not?  Because you have tasted one before, right?

This past week I spoke a message entitled Sideline or Start line.  We were in Matthew 2 and the whole point of that message was to ask you honestly, where are you spiritually?  

Are you like the wise men who saw the star and followed after it?  Or are you comfortable on the sideline, sitting on the bleachers, watching others live out their faith?

Friends, this is where the rubber meets the road.  It should be our goal, our mission, to taste how good God is for ourselves.  We can’t do that unless you bite the onion.

We can gather tons of information about God, we can believe that God can do impossible things, but we don’t experience real joy, and real worship, until we are driven to our knees by the experience of a faith that is walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

***point to the red

How long will we be OK with sitting at the stop sign?  If we are happy to just sit there than we cannot really relate to Psalm 34, turn there with me, it says:

34 I will bless the Lord at all times;

    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

    let the humble hear and be glad.

3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

    and let us exalt his name together!

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me

    and delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him are radiant,

    and their faces shall never be ashamed.

6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

    and saved him out of all his troubles.

7 The angel of the Lord encamps

    around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,

    for those who fear him have no lack!

10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;

    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

In 2017 my goal is for you to taste and see just how good God is!  

That only happens by slamming down the gas pedal of your faith and running through every stop sign posted by our fleshly disbelief.

(The yellow circle)

Well, the last Sense we have is smell, and today I would like to wrap up this series by explaining how we are the Aroma of Christ.

Let me begin with a story…

One time my wife and I were not having a good day.  I felt bad about the conversation because I probably wasn’t acting or saying very nice things.  

I knew she was a tad upset with me, probably very angry with me, so to appease her anger I went out and bought her a wind chime.  

Then… when Margo had left for a few moments to do some shopping or whatever, I went outside and hung them before she got home.

I felt at peace knowing that when she got home she could not stay mad at me because she had always wanted a wind chime but never got one.  I laid down to rest because quite frankly I was not very healthy at the time, and moments later Margo walks through the door.

She comes over to the bed and says “Are you trying to tell me you love me?”

Smiling on the inside I knew she got it, but not wanting to over play my hand I said, “I do.”

For other men, it may be roses or flowers.  And what does the wife think when she gets them? She replies, “what did you do?”  More often than not, she believes you did something wrong and that you’re appeasing her anger by the smell of roses.  She’s more than likely right.

Let me suggest, rather crudely, that - God’s wrath is appeased by his love of a fragrant offering.

Let me show you an example, turn with me to the book of Genesis.

Genesis 6:1-9 “When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

God regretted making mankind… how sad is that!  If our parents said, we regret that we had you, how would that make you feel?  Ouch, we would ask, what did I do to deserve that kind of statement?

Our God would say, that he cannot tolerate wicked men.  We see that God, in the time of Noah, got fed up with the stench of men.  They were wicked, they thought about sin all the time.  They were evil, rotten, and unacceptable displays of his creation.  

He regretted making man.

Let’s keep reading verse 8

8 But Noah, found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the account of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.”

In the following verses the Bible explains the flood and how it all played out.  By God’s divine will, he cleanses the whole earth with water to wash away all the sin from the hand and thoughts of mankind.

skip over to verse 20.

Genesis 8:20 “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

So, we see that immediately following the cleansing of the earth, Noah, rightly offered a sacrifice.  That sacrifice, filled the nostrils of God, and God was pleased by the aroma.

The man who made the offering was righteous, and by the aroma of his sacrifice, God said in his heart, he would never again destroy the earth.  

God cleansed the world with water and Noah offered a pleasing sacrifice to appease a righteous and Holy God.

Centuries later, there was another sacrifice that had to be made, this one was also made by a righteous man, the man of Jesus Christ.

For in the same way, God looked to earth and found us again, full of sin.

The Psalmist writes it this way:

Psalm 143:2-3 “The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God.”

God’s conclusion:

Verse 3: “They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.”

This time, God does not wash away the sins as he did before by sending a great flood, but instead, sends his son.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,9 that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

1 John 4:9 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Propitiation is an important word.  It means the turning away of wrath by an offering. It means that Christ appeased the offense against God, an offense created by a sinful and wicked people who desired to live for themselves, in sin, rather than for God.  

Mankind was too busy living for themselves.  Worshipping the creation instead of the creator.  

This angers God, this is an offense to God.  He did not create us for that, he created us for Him.  Christ satisfied the wrath of God by the atoning sacrifice of His life on the cross of Calvary."

Like Noah, it was a perfect offering, by a perfect, righteous person.  The person of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:2 says “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Christ, like Noah, sends an aroma, a fragrant offering up to God.  God is appeased and turns away his wrath to anyone who will trust in the name of Jesus Christ.

God’s purpose for sending his son was complete.  God saved mankind from their sins and we have become the aroma of Christ.

Secondly then, I want to remind you that we are the aroma of Christ,

-this is part of our identity,

-we are the aroma of Christ.

Flip over to 2 Corinthians 2

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 “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.”

What Paul is saying here in verse 17 is that when he speaks, when he preaches, it is unto God a sweet savour of Christ, he means that by setting forth the sacrifice, and causing it to be known, Paul was instrumental in bringing to God more and more of that glory to God, which arises from the sin offering which Christ provided for the world.

In other words, Christ was slain on the altar, the fragrance of his offering is still lingering in the world today because you and I are here proclaiming the work of God!

We are his aroma, his fragrance, his powerful vessel to reach a lost world.  Amazing!  

Verse 16 and 17 is so important – “to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”

Paul in verse 17 writes that in all sincerity, we speak Christ.  

In other words, we do not need to peddle any other message to the lost.  We are not commissioned to speak words of human wisdom from the pulpits across this land.  

We are not to be peddling a new fancy message, or a watered down positive thinking-Polly Anna sermon.  No!  We should be serious about preaching Christ!  

God fills the earth with his aroma, not ours, but HIS!  

It is life to life and death to death.  It is the only message that brings life to those who are living, and death to those hardened in their sin, who are dying.

Take for example, the sun, it shines on the earth, and for some soils it warms it and life takes root in it, but for other soils like clay, the truth of Christ hardens that soil, bringing judgement to the soul that refuses to repent.

Spurgeon writes – “The minister is not responsible for his success.  He is responsible for what he preaches; he is accountable for his life and actions, but he is not responsible for other people.  “We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, as well in them that perish, as in the saved.”  An ambassador is not responsible for the failure of his embassy of peace, nor a fisherman for the quantity of fish he catches, nor a sower for the harvest, but only for the faithful discharge of their respective duties.  So the gospel minister is only responsible for the faithful delivery of his message, for the lowering of the gospel net, for the industrious sowing of the gospel seed.”

Did you catch that?  

As we consider the scene of the crosses, we see the example of life to life and death to death. One man turned his life to Christ’s care and was saved the other mocked him and entered eternal death.  

We are the aroma of Christ to God – think about that for a minute.  In fact, think of Noah.  Noah’s offering reached God and God smelled it, and was pleasing to him.  We ought to be focused on pleasing God with our aroma, which had better be the fragrance of Christ.

We are his aroma, his fragrance, his powerful vessel to reach a lost world.  

What an honor, what a responsibility!  

It’s no wonder Paul writes in Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

I am the living fragrance of the work of Christ, my purpose is simple, to fan this scent, his scent, all over the world so that he obtains more glory.

As we conclude, let me then suggest, that as the aroma of Christ, we are called to be imitators of God.

Ephesians 5:1-9

“Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).

Church, Paul is here reminding us all, that we need to look like and act like our heavenly father.

We need to be serious about our purity before God.  

We need to walk in love, giving up of ourselves for the cause of Christ.  

The target of our life should be to look like our Dad, and Smell like Christ.

-On September 6, 1995, Cal Ripken Jr. broke the baseball record that many believed would never be broken: Lou Gehrig’s iron man feat playing in 2,131 consecutive games.  Ripken gives much of the credit for his accomplishments to the example and teaching of his father Cal Ripken Sr. who played minor league baseball, and coached and managed for the Orioles.

During the 1996 season Ripken Sr. was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame.  After he gave his acceptance speech, the son came to the microphone, an emotional moment recalled in his book The Only Way I Know:

He writes – It was difficult. I wasn’t certain I could say what I wanted about my father and what he means to me.  So, I told a little story about my two children, Rachael, six at the time, and Ryan, then three.  They’d been bickering for weeks, and I explained how one day I heard Rachael taunt Ryan, “You’re just trying to be like Daddy.”

After a few moments of indecision, I asked Rachael, “What’s wrong with trying to be like Dad?”

When I finished the story, I looked at my father and added, “That’s what I’ve always tried to do.”

What could be more right than to try to be like your heavenly Father?  

If you have yet to notice, I have made a target.  At the center, is a life that looks like, acts like, and smells like Christ.  

I hope you’ll consider this morning, where you are hitting the target.  We should be constantly fine tuning the scope of our life, to hit the center as often as possible.

For when we are on target, hitting the bulls eye, we can truly have the confidence to say:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

Let’s pray