111421-"What Do You Smell Like?" 2 Corinthians 2:14-17.

14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? 17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

The setting: Christ’s triumphal procession (vs 14)
During this time kings/captains/generals and their armies would go and fight against other kingdoms. When they would defeat the enemy, they would take the captives and lead them back to the town. When the king would enter the town with all the captives, there would be a parade to celebrate their victory. The people of the town would line the streets with palms to exalt the kings entrance and to see the captives being led by the king.

The captives would follow the king along the road to their doom. Sometimes they would be imprisoned, sometimes they would subjugate them as servants, and sometimes they would kill them.

Jesus is the King that defeated Satan and destroyed his power.
We were under Satan’s realm, but Jesus defeated him, and has captured us. We are like the captives who are led by the king which exalts him and shows his strength. We are captives of redemption, servants of the King – the trophies of God’s triumph over Satan. We are like the captives who are led by the king which exalts him and shows his strength.

There is another group. Those who reject Christ and fight for His enemy. Philippians 2:9-11 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Those who refuse Christ will one day bow before being led to destruction.

Eph 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Fragrance is very powerful thing. What happens when I walk into the house and dinner is in the oven – stomach, salivating. Other smells too – Old Spice. Also stench… Fragrance is powerful, but we are being perceived differently.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. To those who haven’t believed we are like the fragrance of death, but to those who are believers in Christ, we are like the smell of life. Among us believers, we are to give off a good fragrance to each other.

-The task of being a good fragrance is difficult because it demands that we are near to people so that the smell rubs off onto them.
-We need to spend time with people, talk with people, and be near people so that the smell of Christ will rub off on them.
-If we are not interacting with believers and we don’t engage with non-believers to show them Christ, the task of being a fragrance won’t be accomplished.

It’s got to be the real deal. (vs 17)
Generic perfume.
-From sincerity. – Genuine
Not like the peddlers who had come in to build status, to build income, to build praise.
-From God.

It’s not in our own strength that we do this work. But when we live and give the Word of God, we give off the good fragrance of Christ.