Sermon Tone Analysis

*/2 Corinthians 2:14/**/ through 2 Corinthians 2:17 (NIV)/*

14But

thanks be to God,

\who leads us

\always

\in procession

\triumphal

\in Christ

and

spreads the . . . . . . . .

.fragrance of the knowledge.

\everywhere                                          \ of him

\through us

 

15For

we are the aroma of Christ

        \ to God

        \ among those

                        \ who are being saved

and

\those who are perishing.

we are the smell of death; the fragrance of life.

\16To the one                \ to the other,

 

And

who is equal to a task?

                                    \such

17Unlike so many,

we do not peddle the word of God

\for profit.

On the contrary,

we speak before God

            \ in Christ

\with sincerity,

\like men sent

\from God.

 

\\  

 

 

 

*/2 Corinthians 2:14/**/ through 2 Corinthians 2:17 (NIV)/*

14But 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.

15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

And who is equal to such a task?

17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.

On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

 

*Introduction:*

* *

!

I.                     March Ahead

!! A.     Commanded

   In his book Forever Triumphant, F. J. Huegel told a story that came out of World War II.

After General Jonathan Wainwright was captured by the Japanese, he was held prisoner in a Manchurian concentration camp.

Cruelly treated, he became "a broken, crushed, hopeless, starving man."

Finally the Japanese surrendered and the war ended.

A United States army colonel was sent to the camp to announce personally to the general that Japan had been defeated and that he was free and in command.

After Wainwright heard the news, he returned to his quarters and was confronted by some guards who began to mistreat him as they had done in the past.

Wainwright, however, with the news of the allied victory still fresh in his mind, declared with authority, "No, I am in command here!

These are my orders."

Huegel observed that from that moment on, General Wainwright was in control.

Huegel made this application:  "Have you been informed of the victory of your Savior in the greatest conflict of the ages?

Then rise up to assert your rights.

Never again go under when the enemy comes to oppress.

Claim the victory in Jesus' Name."

Huegel observed, "We must learn to stand on resurrection ground, reckoning dead the old-creation life over which Satan has power, and living in the new creation over which Satan has no power whatever."

!! B.     Conquerors

In his 1942 devotional Abundant Living, E. Stanley Jones, Methodist doctor and missionary to India, writes: The early Christians did not say in dismay: "Look what the world has come to," but in delight, "Look what has come to the world."

They saw not merely the ruin, but the Resource for the reconstruction of that ruin.

They saw not merely that sin did abound, but that grace did much more abound.

On that assurance the pivot of history swung from blank despair, loss of moral nerve, and fatalism, to faith and confidence that at last sin had met its match.

!! C.     Contagious

***   In some meetings of the Salvation Army in Birmningham England one of the worst men in that city was converted.

It was not long before some of his evil associates began to make fun of him, and such a conversation as the following ensued: "You say you are a Christian; who was the father of Jesus Christ?" "I don't know."

"Who was his mother?"

"I don't know."

"When did he live?"

"I don't know."

"How old was he when he died?"

"I don't know."

"How did he die ?" "I don't know."

"Well, you are a pretty Christian; you don't know who was the father of Jesus, or who was his mother or when he lived or when he died or how he died; what do you know?" Then the rough but genuine Christian man lifted his head, and looking those who were taunting him in the face replied, "I know that he saved me." --R.

W. Dale

!

II.

Make an Aroma

!! A.     Of Christ

--- We need to smell like Jesus, so that the sweet smell will entice others.

***  One three-year-old's explanation for being in the kitchen atop a chair, eating cookies: "I just climbed up to smell them, and my tooth got caught."

!! B.     of Life

I am of the opinion that Christians should be a little like a

paper mill.

Zig Ziglar tells of a story  he once heard about a mama skunk and her babies.

The skunk family one day passed close by a paper mill.

(If you've never been close to a paper mill you'll get the drift of this right away.)

One of the baby skunks, almost overcome by the odor sniffed the air and said, "Mama, what in the world is

that smell?"

The mama skunk sniffed and answered, "I don't know, but we've sure got to get some of it!"

I believe as Christians, we need to live an exuberant, joyful

life so that when anyone sees us they sill automatically say, "I

don't know what that person has, but whatever it is, I've got to

have some of it.

!! C.     Of Death

***  Speaking of his ministry as an apostle, Paul wrote, "To the one we are the aroma of death to death, and to the other the aroma of life to life."

Charles Simeon commented on this text:  "To some, we are an occasion of deeper condemnation.

To others, we are the means and instruments of their salvation."

One of the authors of Pulpit Commentary, R. Tuck, wrote, "There are only these two issues.

The gospel must either take us by the hand and lead us up into the sunlight, or it must bid us away down into the dark."

What a warning this should be to the unsaved!