Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Aroma of Christ Among the Nations*

October 29, 2006 By John Piper

*2 Corinthians 2:12-17*

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.

Today is the second Sunday of our Fall Missions Focus.

It has been our pattern for many years to close this service with a call to come to the front of the sanctuary for everyone who believes God is stirring in your life to move you sooner or later toward cross-cultural missions longer term.

So please pray with me that God would confirm in this service what he has been doing in your life, or may begin to do today.

*The Apostle Paul: Frontier Missionary*

Before we turn to the text from 2 Corinthians let me put it in a missionary context.

The apostle Paul was a missionary.

We have seen that with crystal clarity in Romans 15 where he said that his ambition—his holy ambition—was “to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation” (Romans 15:20).

He was called to the frontiers, where the church was not yet established.

We call this frontier missions, or pioneer missions, or missions to unreached people groups.

Paul was the first and probably the greatest.

But O what a lineage of lovers followed in his train!

Right down to this day and this church and this service.

You can state the reason for this two-thousand-year lineage of missionaries in lots of different ways.

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The last thing Jesus said to us in Matthew 28 before he went back to heaven was: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . .

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

He has all authority over the souls of all people and nations, he promises to be with us to help us, and he commands us to go.

That is valid today because the end of the age has not come.

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Or you can give the reason for missions like this: “Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all the peoples!” (Psalm 96:2-3).

God created the world to display and magnify his glory.

People who don’t believe don’t magnify the glory of his grace.

We want them to.

We want the earth to be filled with the (acknowledged!) glory of the Lord like the waters cover the sea.

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Or you can give the reason for missions like this: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The love of God extends salvation to all.

Everyone who believes on Jesus has eternal life with him, and everyone who doesn’t perishes.

Missions is the answer of our heart to that love.

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Or you can give the reason for missions like this: According to the rigorous statistical efforts of the Joshua Project, there are 15,988 distinct ethno-linguistic peoples in the world.

Of these, they count 6,572 as unreached, that is, fewer than two percent of them are Christians.

2.6 billion people live in those unreached people groups.

Just to give you a flavour: Of the 100 largest unreached people groups, 44 are in India, 8 are in China, and 7 are in Indonesia and Pakistan.

The three largest are the Japanese in Japan, the Bengali in Bangladesh, and the Shaikh in India.

Of these 100 largest unreached peoples, 43 are Muslim, 36 are Hindu, and 9 are Buddhist.

22 of them have populations over 20 million.

In other words, there is a great work to be done in obedience to Jesus.

And Jesus has all authority to get it done.

One of the great longings of my life is that we at Bethlehem would be the sending base of ever-increasing numbers of missionaries to the unreached peoples and that we would send them with ever-increasing effectiveness and ever-increasing biblical-faithfulness and ever-increasing care for them and their families.

When I think about not wasting my life, this is what I think about as often as anything: study and pray and write and speak and lead in a way that results in more and more visionary young people and restless mid-career people and wise, mature retired people who pull up their stakes, pack their tent and go with Jesus and the gospel to unreached peoples of the world, no matter where they are—far or near.

*God Uses His Word in the Missionary Call*

So with passion in mind, and praying as we go, let’s look at one missionary’s testimony about what it means.

Keep in mind that God often—very often—uses his word to awaken and confirm his calling to the work of missions.

May that happen now, as I simply unfold 2 Corinthians 2:12-17.

The situation behind this text is that Paul wrote a painful letter to Corinth and is anxious about whether had alienated them or healed them.

So he sent Titus to Corinth to find out how they were doing.

It may help to have the geography clear: Corinth is in the southern tip of Greece.

If you go up the east coast, you come to the northern part of the peninsula called /Macedonia/ where Thessalonica and Philippi are.

Just to the east across the Aegean sea that separates Greece and Turkey today was Troas.

*Leaving an Open Door to Follow a Restless Spirit*

This is where we pick up the story in verses 12-13: “When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened 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.”

So, even though there was an open door for the gospel in Troas his heart was so troubled by the situation in Corinth that he decided not to stay but to keep moving to where he might meet Titus on the way back from Corinth.

I’m not going to linger here, but this is very striking and may relate to where you are in your life.

A door is wide open where you are.

Much needs to be done—right where you are.

But your spirit cannot rest.

So it was with Paul.

And amazingly he left the open door of Troas behind and followed his restless spirit.

Should he have left Troas?

Should you?

He did.

And because he did, we have this amazing portion of scripture.

*Paul Was Conquered in Christ*

So now Paul is in Macedonia and at last Titus comes.

He doesn’t say that here.

But he does in chapter 7 (vv.

5-7):

For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

That is what’s behind chapter 2. But here in chapter 2, Paul exults in a very different way over this news.

He chooses two metaphors or word pictures that are shocking.

First, he says in verse 14, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.”

This doesn’t mean what you probably think it means.

The word translated “lead in triumphal procession” (/thriambeuonti/) refers to what a great Roman general does when he leads in captivity those enemies he has conquered and takes them to their death or to slavery.

The word is used one other place in the New Testament.

You can see this meaning there (Colossians 2:15): “[God] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by /triumphing over/ (/thriambeusas/) them in him.”

So in Colossians, Paul says God leads the devil in triumph, and in 2 Corinthians, he says that God leads Paul in triumph.

Both have been defeated in their rebellion against God.

Both are being led in triumphal procession and shamed for their rebellion.

But the great difference is that Paul is “in Christ” and Satan is not.

Verse 14 again: “But thanks be to God, who /in Christ/ always leads us in triumphal procession.”

In other words, Paul was defeated and taken captive; but he was brought to faith and forgiven and justified and made a glad and willing servant of the greatest General who ever was.

Paul was “in Christ” and that makes all the difference.

*A Picture Accomplishing Two Purposes*

So why does he use this word picture?

Because he wants to accomplish two almost opposite things at the same time.

One the one hand, God is triumphant and Paul is in his service.

But on the other hand, God is like a great general and Paul is conquered and called to suffer in his service—even die.

That’s what this word picture accomplishes.

One the one hand, Paul wants to rejoice and thank God that the Corinthians have repented and that his painful letter did not alienate them but blessed them.

That’s a triumph worth exulting over with a triumphal procession.

But on the other hand, he knows that there are many adversaries in Corinth who do not accept his authority as an apostle and who have preached a different gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4).