Apostle Paul's ministry is characterized by changing plans and the fragrance of Christ, which serves as an aroma of life to some and death to others. Despite facing detractors who questioned his motives, Paul asserted that his adequacy came from God, not himself, and that true commendation comes from the transformed lives of believers, not letters of recommendation. The sermon emphasizes that God qualifies His servants, and the ultimate measure of usefulness is the impact made on others for Christ.
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I'm going to go back to second Corinthians and while you're turning there to first second Corinthians chapter two we want to begin reading in the last portion of this chapter to say that it happened to me again today and this will be the last time you'll hear this from me because I've I've repented I found myself feeling guilty again that I'm dragging you through such complex scriptures but I believe it was the Spirit of God that reminded me as the writer of the Hebrew says Well, there are some people who, even though they've been saved a while, still need milk. They're old enough they should have gotten rid of their bottles long ago, but they still need the milk. They still need formula. But he said there are others who are mature and they need some solid food.
And I'm convinced that it is the latter that we have here. And so we're working on some solid food here, folks. After all, A good firm stake is definitely better than a bottle of formula, right? Okay, so we're going to work at some good and complex and important scriptures here, and I will stop apologizing for leading you into these difficult passages. Second Corinthians chapter two, we're going to begin reading in verse twelve. Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them I went on to Macedonia.
But thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life, and who is sufficient, adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
You are our letter written in our hearts, known and read by all men. being manifested that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything that's coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
We'll end our reading there. Let's pause again a minute to seek God's blessing. Help us now, Father, again. We come with a sense of need, a sense of need for illumination, for your gracious ministry to our hearts. Speak to us in the page of Scripture this evening. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Now this passage reminds us again as we started noting that one of the characteristics of Second Corinthians is that there is a cyclical appearance of several themes that keep coming back again and again and again in the letter. And you see two of these here in this again.
The first two verses we read go back to the subject of the change of plans. I hope you're keeping that in mind because that theme will come up again and again throughout the fissile. Paul had changed his travel plans after having told the Corinthians that he was going to come there first and then revisit the European churches and then come back there before he sailed back to Judea. But he changed his plans. And he had good reason. We saw that reason last night to spare them another painful visit. And God honored that because in the delay that happened with his change of plans, There was a contrition on the part of the person that had been dealt with in the assembly.
And God seemed to have honored that change of plans so that now Paul could visit without a painful visit. Then that matter of Paul's change of plans comes up again and again. There's another theme that appears here now, and that is that the detractors, the Judaizers, as they are called, the people who followed in Paul's wake after an assembly would be established and Paul would move on to ministries elsewhere, these Judaizers would come in and teach the believers that grace wasn't enough, they needed to keep the works of the law, and they confused the Lord's people by wrong teaching of mixing grace and works and law and faith all up.
And these Judaizers who needed to speak against Paul in order for their points to be heard, they were using this occasion of changed plans to say, ah, you see, you can't trust that fellow. He's always bouncing around and flitting around here and there. He's unstable and on and on and on. And Paul is now concerned. And so the second thing that comes up in this letter, which again will repeatedly come up through the whole letter, is the problem of these Judaizers. that would come in to a local church and teach error and in the process badmouth the Apostle Paul. And we see these two themes coming up again in our passage tonight.
I'm going to suggest three sections here. The first section in what we have read is the first two verses in twelve and thirteen of chapter two, where we get some more about the change of plans. And then flowing out of that, in chapter two verse fourteen to the end of the chapter through seventeen Paul talks about the essence of apostolic ministry and in the early part of chapter three he goes on to talk about the commendation of apostolic ministry now let's go back to the section in chapter two verses twelve and thirteen here we're reminded again why Paul did what he did first of all Instead of sailing west across the Aegean Sea right to Corinth before visiting the European churches, he decided he would delay and not go there immediately and have to pay a painful visit.
And so he traveled north to Troas. Now, if you remember the history of the second missionary journey, it was from Troas that Paul first crossed over into Europe several years earlier on the second missionary journey. And now here on the third missionary journey, after spending a long time in Ephesus, Paul ends up going north into Troas again. And he says, boy, and there was an open door of opportunity there. An opportunity for evangelism. Wonderful. You see the language there? He says, an open door was there. I was there for the gospel of Christ. But something was wrong inside, Paul said.
And even though there was an open door of opportunity, Paul said, My spirit was not at rest. And he said, I was agitated. Why? Because Titus wasn't there. What did that have to do with it? Well, this is another theme that repeats through the letter. Then you'll find over in chapter seven that this is clarified. Paul had sent Titus to Colossae. He had sent Titus to Corinth. to bring him word as to what was happening because after all you remember Paul had in his first letter written about this problem of incest that they had not properly dealt with and then he apparently wrote a painful letter because they still weren't dealing with it and then apparently he paid a quick painful visit and he had heard no further and he was concerned what has happened And so he had sent Titus over there to bring him word, expecting to meet Titus and Troas, but Titus wasn't there.
And now Paul is in a dilemma. As an apostle, one of his missions was evangelism. But God had also given him a commission as a shepherd and teacher of God's people. A door of evangelism was opened for him. but his shepherd's heart was crying out for these Corinthian believers and he was concerned about them now to which do you respond as I have often said if I worked in secular work and struggled with my responsibility as an elder in my assembly I tell myself now I'm not sure I would I tell myself that when it really came down to priorities I would give priority to my commitments in the assembly and my secular job would have to take second fiddle.
However, my work is the Lord's work. I have responsibilities at a Bible college. And I find myself weighing off my responsibilities at a Bible college with my responsibilities in the assembly, and which do you do? That's a tough decision. I'm down here all week. There are important things going on in my assembly back home. There's an elders meeting tonight that I should be attending. we've got a very delicate problem going right now in our assembly folks but I'm here now should I be here speaking teaching the word here or should I be there in an elders meeting it's not easy sometimes and Paul seems to have weighed that two pulling tugging dimensions of service for Christ should he stay there in that open door of evangelism or should he press his burden for the church at Corinth that had a problem.
And in this case, he left the open door of opportunity and traveled across the Aegean Sea into Europe. And there, bless God, as we'll find later on, he did meet Titus. And Titus did tell him that some things had changed in Corinth and that there had been repentance on the part of the person and that now there was a question about how they should go about restoring him, you see. So this all was a very interesting thing that you have to pick up the bits and pieces of the story as it comes to the surface again in the cyclical theme of Second Corinthians. But this reminds the Apostle Paul of his apostolic ministry because he's been torn here now with two dimensions of his ministry, in evangelism and in Christian nurture.
Where does he devote his time and energy? Both are important. There are open doors of opportunities. There are needs in both areas. Now, which do you invest your time in? And it reminds of him his apostolic ministry. And so in the next several verses from fourteen through seventeen, he talks about his apostolic ministry. And to do this, he uses two metaphors. That is two word pictures. The first of these in verses fourteen through sixteen is the procession of triumph. And most expositors recognize that the language of this section, even the unique terminology, is that which you would have seen in the newspapers of the day if they had had newspapers, because it was very common in the Roman Empire, particularly for the people who lived in Rome, to witness a triumphal procession.
When Rome would send out her armies... into various parts of the world to annex more and more nations to the empire or to put down rebellion in one place or another. When the Roman armies prevailed and were victorious, the general would come back to Rome with choice elements of his army, his leading officers and some of his most trusted soldiers, and they would be given a procession, a ticker tape procession down through the center of Rome. And in those processions, by the way, some of you have been to Rome. You've seen that in the ruins of the old forum there, the arch with three openings.
You've seen that. You know, the big one in the center, the smaller one on either side. The Romans loved to build triumphant arches for these occasions. That one, by the way, is for the Roman general who annexed North Africa to the empire and his two sons who were his co-generals. And then there's the arch of Titus. You saw that if you've been to the Roman Forum to celebrate the victory of Titus when he destroyed Jerusalem in seventy AD and then out on the street right there by the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine. What did he do? Well, he had victory over in what is now Yugoslavia and annexed that whole portion to the empire. And so they built a triumphant arch for him. Rome loved her triumphal processions and these conquering generals would come marching down the street cheering crowds strong in the way and there were two categories of people following in those processions first of all of course would be his officers the generals officers and his trusted legions who would be following sharing this victory with him and then behind those the captives in chains coming along in their defeat in their shame most of them to either execution or to slavery or
something and say the historians that as these processions went down the street people would bring armloads of flowers and as the general and his conquering troops would come by they would throw these flowers at them see like people throw their cushions at a bullfight or something you know they they were they were throwing these flowers at their victorious favorite leaders and of course they would get trampled in the street as the troops went by and the aroma of these mountains of flowers would fill the air. And not only that, they would have pots of incense burning all along the way. And unfortunately, this was sort of a worshipful kind of thing, a pagan worshipful kind of thing.
But the combination of these trampled flowers and the incense pots would fill the air in these triumphal processions with strong aroma, heavy perfume. And that's the imagery here. And Paul sees himself being led in a victorious triumph. See it in verse fourteen? Thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ. Now you see, the victorious general is Christ. Paul is just one of his officers following him in this victory celebration. See, that's the image. That's the language here. And you see Paul recognizing that even his move into Troas and then on up into Macedonia, Paul says, look, you may not understand this, but I'm following Christ.
He's the victor. And I'm simply one of his officers, and I'm following in his victory procession. That's the language of the passage. That's the picture, the word picture, the image. And you see, of course, that Paul is a part of the victorious army. The aroma is the fragrance of Christ. And he says, just like the conquering armies enjoyed this delightful aroma of the flowers and the incense. In fact, historians tell us the men fought and died for the privilege of walking down the streets of Rome as a part of a victorious army and smelling the beautiful aroma of those flowers.
But what about the prisoners who came behind in chains? That same aroma was the death knell to them because that same aroma that brought delight to the nostrils of the victorious army was the summons to them that it was all over. They were defeated. And so Paul uses this as a very vivid illustration. And he says, here we are, we are the savor of life unto life to some and of death unto death of others. Paul was aware that as a servant of Christ, when he proclaimed the gospel, there were those who would believe.
There were those to whom he became the messenger of life. But then there were those who would not believe, who rejected the gospel, And the scriptures say, better off not even to hear than to have heard the gospel and reject it. And so Paul says to others, their ministry was a savor of death unto death. Very interesting how that contrast is seen. Some have pointed out that Old Testament picture which seems to convey the idea. You remember when the Ark of the Covenant and the nation of Israel was taken captive by the Philistines.
They took it into the house of their pagan deity, Dagon. You remember all the catastrophes that happened there? Eventually, even the idol of Dagon itself fell down and broke to pieces. The presence of that ark in the house of Dagon was an absolute disaster. And not long afterward, that same ark was returned to Israel and taken into the house of a man named Obed-Edom. Remember that? Now what happened while the ark was in his house? Oh, the scriptures say he prospered. There was health. There was blessing in his family. Same ark. But in the pagan temple, it was a disaster.
In the home of a believer, it was blessing. Same ark. Same ark. The same gospel that brought life to you and to me brings condemnation and death to those who reject. And Paul brings that message here in speaking about the ministry that he had as an apostle. And he concludes in verse sixteen with that awesome statement, And who is sufficient for such things? I'm going to tell you, folks, it is not a light thing to speak the message of salvation to others. It is not a light thing to hear the gospel and to be accountable to for that message of life.
And should there be in this group anyone who has heard the message of Christ and has never received him, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, having rejected his son. A fearful thing. And the same message that brings life to those who respond in faith is a message of judgment and condemnation. to those who reject the Savior. And Paul says, and that message has been on my lips. Who is sufficient for these things? Now he's going to answer it over in verse five of chapter three. So just hold that question in mind. And this brings Paul to his second metaphor, which you find in verse seventeen.
because he is aware not only that his movements, even though the Corinthians didn't understand that, were his following Christ in his victory procession, but he's also aware that his detractors took occasion of his change of plans to marine him. And so now Paul addresses this and reminds these believers in Corinth, look, we are not peddlers. Now it's an interesting word. The word that is a good parallel to this I was familiar with it growing up on the farm. Maybe you remember the use of the word huckster, a huckster. There are some people that will sell anything if they can make a buck or two.
And unfortunately, Paul also uses another term in this. He uses a term which speaks of diluting or watering down. So not only is Paul now using the image of people who will peddle anything to make a buck, but in the process they water it down, they cheat you because they're really peddling an inferior product. And one of the papyri from the first century, for example, a major case in Alexandria of people who were peddling wine that was half diluted with water. It was watered down and they were charging a big price for it.
This same word was used. And Paul says, that's not what we are doing. We're not hucksters. We're not peddling something to get a buck out of it. We're not marketing an inferior product. We are not peddlers of the word of God. Well, what are you, Paul? Well, he says, first of all, we speak from sincerity. The idea is transparency. We have nothing to hide, he said. There's no charade, there's no smoke and mirrors. You see what you get. We're transparent. How important it is as servants of Christ that our lives be transparent.
The second thing Paul says to defend his ministry, not only says are we transparent, as from sincerity, but he said, as from God. We are messengers of God. So I remind you of what Peter says when he says, if any man speak, let him speak as the very mouthpiece of God. So Paul says, that's the second thing that I will tell you about our ministry while you're listening to these people who are maligning me. We're not cheap peddlers of an inferior product. We're speaking from God. And of course, we speak in the sight of God. Oh. Paul is aware that every movie makes every word he speaks.
He speaks in the presence and in the sight of a holy God. I'll tell you folks, when you live to the audience of that one, you don't play games. And Paul says, we speak not only as mouthpiece of God, but we speak in the sight of God. And of course he says, and we speak in Christ. His name is our authority. Now the Judaizers couldn't claim that, but here's the apostolic claim. And so that leads him to the next theme.
Are we beginning to commend ourselves? Ah, issue of commendation. And in these opening verses of chapter three, there are two issues. One is the issue of credentials, and the other is the issue of qualification. Listen carefully, folks. We have these problems in our assemblies. You see, it's possible to have credentials without qualification. It's possible to have qualifications without credentials. Let me illustrate that. I'm thinking of a man on our faculty. Some of you know Mr. Ken Fleming. Twenty-seven years on the mission field. And through his ministry, along with his wife, God established several assemblies there in South Africa.
He has written several books, has been serving the Lord in a number of countries in the world. And yet, technically, he really doesn't qualify to be a faculty member at our institution because our accrediting agency says you have to have an earned master's degree in your field of teaching. And Kent doesn't have a master's degree in missiology. very qualified to teach missions but he doesn't really have the credentials doesn't bother us by the way but and then there are those who have credentials but you wonder if they're qualified there's a seminary in our city of Dubuque not far from our campus and they have impressive impressive faculty members wow But you know they don't offer a single course in Bible in that seminary?
Not a single course in Bible in a prestigious seminary. In fact, they have been known to say to people, well, if you want Bible, you'll have to go over to Emmaus. We don't offer that here. Now, if you had your choice of a servant of Christ, here's a man Well, it's qualifications, but he doesn't have the credentials. Here faculty members have all kinds of credentials, all kinds of degrees. But are they qualified to be servants of Christ? They don't even know the word, don't even care if they don't even teach it. And so Paul now is dealing with these two issues of credentials and qualifications.
And he begins by talking about letters of commendation. This is credentials. And he says, do we need these really? They're in Corinth. No, he says... We don't need to come to Corinth with new credentials as servants of Christ. Now, he doesn't say it's wrong to have letters of commendation. No, no, no. In fact, the New Testament teaches that that's a very ordinary expected thing in the service of Christ. When an assembly sends someone out, they give them their blessing and verify to others. that they stand behind them in the ministry that God has called them to with letters of commendation. Paul isn't saying that's wrong. What he's saying to the Corinthians, do we need that all over again with you? No. You are our letter.
And people look at you and they know whether or not we are apostles or servants of Christ. Wonderful thing to be able to say that. The people that you have touched for Christ. are really the authentication that God has been at work through your life. Let's face it. And you can have credentials as long as your arm and your life not amount to a hill of beans for God. Which would you prefer? Paul says, do we need letters of common? No, you are our letter. And it's not something written with ink, not even something engraved on tablets of stone. And he's going to pick up this theme a little bit later.
It's things that the Spirit of God has written on human hearts. And if people want to know whether I'm an apostle or not, I say, just go to Corinth and see what God did there. That'll answer your question. Marvelous to be able to say these are the lives that have been touched. And as far as qualifications, well, he comes back to that question. Remember he asked the question over in verse sixteen. Who is adequate for these things? And now he says in verse five, not that we are adequate. I didn't give these credentials to myself. I am not here because I am qualified to be an apostle.
No, no, no, no. Not adequate in ourselves, Paul says. Not at all. Why then, Paul, do you presume to speak as the oracles of God? Well, the answer is right here. God has made us adequate as His servants. Verse six. That's pretty direct, folks. And whether you're impressed with that or not, I don't know. But that's what the apostle claims. Credentials, there's something better than a letter of commendation. It's living letters of people that have come to Christ through the ministry. And as far as qualifications...
It's not anything that I claim or I've bestowed upon myself. God has made us his servants. That's my qualifications, folks. God has made us his servants. I'm not a self-made man. He doesn't. He had been to the rabbinical colleges. Let's face folks, this man had a PhD. But you see, he doesn't claim. He doesn't say it's wrong to do that. No, no. But that's not what really qualified him for apostolic ministry. What qualified him for the service of Christ is that God had made him a servant.
And that's why he was adequate for the service. I want to tell you, friend, don't back away from opportunities you have to serve Christ. And don't apologize if you think you don't have the credentials that other people are looking for. Speak for Christ. serve him and if Jesus Christ is giving you a servant's heart then serve him it's all the qualifications you need all you need now there's some important principles in this and I just want to mention several of them here very very quickly I see in the Apostle his struggle in that change of plans and and then Whether he should stay in Troas where a door had been opened or whether he should follow his shepherd's heart and try to help the Corinthian church.
You know, sometimes believers face difficulties like this. A statement was made to me a long time ago that has helped me many, many times because as Christians in the matter of guidance, we often have difficult choices. But for a Christian, the difficult choice should not be a choice between the good and the bad. That should be easy for a Christian. Should be. Sometimes we make bad choices too in our weakness, in our humanness. But that shouldn't be the hard choice for a believer. The hard choices for believers are the choice between the good and the best. See, and if I talk to a young person who is trying to decide whether or not they're going to, well, let me just use an extreme. Maybe I've talked about this here before, but here's a young lady.
Should she be a bar fly or should she be a school teacher? Well, I'll tell you what I'll recommend to her. Wouldn't you? That should be an easy choice for a Christian. But I talked to a young lady who wondered whether she'd go into nursing or should be an elementary school teacher. Ooh, that's tough. See, why? Both are good. She can serve God in both areas. Both are honorable. Neither one is wrong. Ooh, that's tougher choice. And sometimes we find ourselves in this. And when it comes to the struggles of guidance for really honest Christians, these are the struggles that I find are the difficult ones.
And we need to encourage one another and reinforce one another and learn those important biblical issues of guidance. Because sometimes the real difficult choices are not the bad good choice, but the choice between the good and the best. And that's what Paul was struggling with here. And he even walked right out of an open door in evangelism to fulfill a burden he had for the nurture of the Christians in Corinth. And there's certainly nothing wrong with evangelism. No. The second principle I'll mention here is, of course, that a need does not constitute a call. There was a need in Troas. A lot of people who needed Christ.
The door was open. But the Lord led Paul some other place. Sometimes we may not understand that with each other, but a need doesn't constitute a call. If a need constituted a call, any honest Christian would become schizophrenic in five minutes because there are needs everywhere. Another way to state that is that an open door of opportunity is not inevitably divine appointment. We don't need to think that we're God's gift to mankind. What we need to do is to discern what God does want us to do because you can't do everything and I can't do everything. And we need to focus our attention in those areas where the Spirit of God may guide us and use us.
Even if somebody else thinks I ought to be doing this or this or this. And I have a friend, I won't name him, because probably many of you would know him. Every time he sees me, he growls at me for ever accepting the ministry that I have at Emmaus. He thinks I missed my calling. Well, I must admit that his words have caused me to get back on my knees many, many, many times and research my whole heart before God. But you're not going to please everyone, folks. And you need to prayerfully discern the mind of God and then focus your life in the area that you believe he's given to you. But you can't meet every need in the world. You know that, I know that. Paul couldn't do it. And we need to be charitable in encouraging one another in this realistic matter of guidance.
Because the believer who walks with Christ can be of service in any situation. I really believe that what you are, what I am, is far more important than where I am. And if my life and heart is open to God and to His Word, and I'm committed to serve Him, whether I'm in Dubuque, Iowa, or Chicago, Illinois, or wherever I am, in a sense that's secondary, what you are is far more important to God than where you are. So don't major on the minors. Serve God where you are. Don't waste your time wishing you were somewhere else or younger or better health or whatever.
Serve God where you are because what you are is far more important than the externalities of your condition, far more important. One final thought, and that is that the ultimate credentials and the ultimate proof of the usefulness of your life and mine in this world will be seen in terms of the lives we touch, not the papers we carry, not the people we impress, but the lives we touch for Jesus Christ. That's what really counts.
And may God give us the heart of the apostles. who had this as the priority of his life to be the true servant of Christ and touch other lives for Christ. That's what really counts. May God help us to keep that focus in our service for Jesus Christ. Because the day will come, as Paul foresees it here, And we will stand in the presence of the Savior. And God grant that in that day there will be some trophies of His grace with us.
There because God made you adequate. He made you His servant. He qualified you to speak His word. And then the Spirit of God just took over. and did all the work that was necessary. So God give us a heart to touch other lives helpfully for His glory. That's what we'll count to the heart of God. That's what we'll count in eternity. Father, thank you tonight for this glimpse into the heart of the Apostle Paul.
Some of his struggles to clarify the decisions he made, some of his struggles with priorities, struggles to meet the accusations of those who were maligning him, struggles to communicate his heart to a church that had begun to question him. And Father, we thank you that he did not become defensive, but he just bared his heart, and as the Spirit of God moved him to write this glorious letter, We get teaching for our hearts that teach us that you qualify your servants for your service and that what really counts is how our lives touch others for the sake of Christ.
We pray, Father, that you will give us this heart, a heart of service, a heart of being your instrument in touching other lives. And to this end, we pray that you will deliver us from majoring on the minors.