Thrive in Death
Notes
Transcript
Take your Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 are currently in a series from this great book called Thrive. We have been learning how Christians can do more than just survive. Christians can thrive even in adverse situations.
Thus far we have learned how to thrive in affliction, how to thrive in despair, how to thrive in criticism, and how to thrive when wronged. On this Easter morning, our text is going to teach us how to thrive in death.
You might be wondering what this has to do with Easter. It has everything to do with Easter. The only way a person can thrive in life is through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, Easter is all about the saving work of Jesus. We call it the good news of Jesus, or the gospel.
There are many different people in this room this morning, but we all have one thing in common: death. We are all going to die. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we learn how to thrive in death.
The poet Philip Larkin writes these words about death:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread,
Of dying, and being dead
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.
…Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon nothing more terrible, nothing more true
What I believe Larkin is trying to say is this: In the midst of life, we are in death. This is true of everyone. Though we are in life, unresting death is a whole day nearer now. However, there are those who in the midst of death, are in life. How can you have life in the midst of death? How can you be in the midst of death, yet death have no dominion over you? The answer is the message of Easter. The answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Easter enables you to thrive in death, to have life in the midst of death. Our passage today talks about life and death.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 “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?”
Everyone in the midst of life is also in death. But not everyone who is in the midst of death have life. Not everyone is thriving in death. Only those who have Easter in their lives.
I was tempted to title this sermon “Got Easter.” But that question is not the right question to ask. The right question is “Does Easter God you?” Does the good news of Jesus have such a grip on your life that you can say, “In the midst of death, I have life?” Those who thrive in death are those who have been conquered by Christ.
1.Conquered by Christ
1.Conquered by Christ
Verse fourteen, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.” Paul used a metaphor that the Corinthian believers would be familiar with, the Roman triumphal procession.
One of the most majestic spectacles in the Roman world was the Military process that was granted to a conquering general. Of course it only happened if the condition were fulfilled.
The victory had to be complete and decisive. At least 5,000 soldiers form the opposing army had to be killed in a single battle. The Roman state had to extend to the conquered territory at the end of the war. When condition where fulfilled, the Roman senate would order a triumphal procession.
The streets would be gathered with people. The temples of the gods would be opened and decorated with flowers, and incense was burned on every altar. Fragrant odors filled the air.
At the head of the procession came the magistrates and the senate, followed by trumpeters and some of the spoils from the war. Then came the flute players ahead of the white oxen that would be sacrificed in the temple. Behind the oxen and the flute players were some of the captives of war, which included dignitaries and kings. They were chained to the ornate chariot behind them, which was occupied by the conquering general. Behind the conquering general were victorious soldiers shouting, “Hail, triumphant one!” That is the imagery that Paul is using when he says, “Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.”
There have been some who have misunderstood this metaphor by suggesting that followers of Christ are the victorious soldiers shouting “Hail, triumphant one!” Jesus is the triumphant one, but followers of Christ art not the victorious soldiers.
Paul uses the Greek word that is translated “triumphal procession” only one other time in the New Testament.
In Colossians 2:15 it says, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphating over them in him.” The same structure seems to be used in 2 Corinthians 2:14. Therefore, most scholars believe that Paul sees followers of Christ, not as victorious soldiers, but prisoners conquered by Christ. This fits well into what Paul has said elsewhere in the New Testament.
Before we become followers of Christ, we are all enemies of God, condemned, and objects of the wrath of God. Yet, while we were still the enemies of God, Christ reconciled us to God through his death. He provided salvation through his life. Christ conquered his enemies through his death, burial, and resurrection.
Followers of Jesus Christ are willing captives of the Lord Jesus Christ, surrendered to his grace, mercy, and Lordship.
The conquered life in Christ is by no means a life of comfort. The conquered life is about being conformed into the image of Christ through hardships and afflictions. It is about dying to self, and living for Christ.
When Christ conquers you, you have to surrender. You have to deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Jesus daily. To be a prisoner of Christ means you lose your life so that you can gain it. You die so that you can live! You die so that in the midst of death, you are in life. You thrive in death when Christ has changed you.
2.Changed by Christ.
2.Changed by Christ.
“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” In the last part of this verse the imagery is once again from the triumphal procession.
People would burn incense along the procession route, spread spices and spray perfume along the streets. The result was a pleasant fragrance that spread all along the processional route.
It is through the Christian that the fragrance of Christ is spread. Paul says, “Through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” He spreads the knowledge of him through us by a changing us from the inside out. The changed life comes from being conquered by Christ, being known by Christ, and knowing Christ.
For Paul, the knowledge of Christ that is spread through us is not intellectual knowledge, all though it is part of it. He is speaking about the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ that comes from a life that obeys and loves God with heart, soul, mind, and strength.
You can always tell when a person has been working out in the hot sun for hours by how they smell. You can always tell when a person had onions with their meal by how they smell. You can always tell when Christ has conquered a person by a changed life, a changed life that puts off the fragrance of Jesus.
People should know that you are a follower of Christ without you saying anything because of the fragrance you put off. They should see Jesus in your life. They should see the fruit of the Spirit in your life. This fragrance comes from a changed life.
Have you seen the Fabreeze commercials where they get people to go into a room that stinks blind folded? They spray fabreeze before they take them into the room, and then ask them what they smell. All they can smell is the fragrance of febreeze, although they are in a filthy room. Christians should be the fabreeze that brings the smell of life to those who are in the midst of life, but are in death. This comes from a life that has been conquered by Christ and changed by Christ. We thrive in death when we are consumed with Christ.
3.Consumed with Christ.
3.Consumed with Christ.
Verse fifteen, “15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” I believe that Paul has changed his metaphor in this verse from the triumphal procession to the Old Testament sacrifice.
Notice the direction that the aroma of Christ is going. It is going to God, much like the aroma of a burnt offering that was pleasing to the Lord. When a person is consumed with Christ they become an aroma of Christ that is pleasing to the Lord.
Paul was consumed with Christ and dedicated to Christ. And when we are devoted to Christ, God is pleased with the sweet fragrance of our lives because he smells the fragrance of his Son Jesus Christ.
Not only does a life consumed Christ have a vertical affect upon the Lord. It also has a horizontal affect upon people who are perishing, or who are being saved. Notice the affects in verse sixteen, “to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” For those who are perishing, Christ is a deadly perfume that leads to death. Why? Because those who are perishing reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For those who are being saved, Christ is the living perfume that leads to life. Why? Because those who are being saved have been conquered and changed by Christ, and are consumed with Christ.
The aroma of Jesus irritates those who are perishing, but inspires those who have life in Christ. What fragrance are you wearing? Is Christ the fragrance of life or death to you?
Dr. Martha Myers was an obstetrician who surrendered to missions as a young girl growing up in Montgomery, Alabama. She served as a Southern Baptist missionary doctor in Yemen, a Muslim country, for 25 years.
On December 30, 2002, the husband of one of Dr. Myers patients came to the Baptist hospital in Jibla, Yemen with a rifle tucked in his coat. Ali Abdul Razek was concealing the rifle as if it were the new baby that Dr. Myers had just delivered. Ali pulled the riffle out and killed Dr. Myers and two others.
Ali was finally captured and asked why he killed the Americans. He said that his wife came home from the hospital and said that Dr. Myers had show her love that she has never experienced in her whole life. Ali was a member of the Islamic Jihad and was convinced that he had to kill Dr. Myers. In his own words he said, “such love could turn my people from Islam to Jesus Christ.” He was irritated by the aroma of Christ, and he tried to blot it out.
Dr. Myers had already decided that when she died she would be buried in Yemen as a testimony of the aroma of Christ.
Since her death, almost ten years ago, thousands of people in Yemen have come to Christ because of her life and death. It is not unusual of the Yemen believers to go out to the grave of Dr. Myers and worship and sing songs. One of the songs they sing frequently in Arabic goes like this, “He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and he is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord. Dr. Myers thrived in death. In the midst of death, she had life, the life of Christ. Or should I say, Christ had her.
In the midst of life we are in death. Are you perishing? You don’t have to stay that way. You can have life in Christ. The deadly perfume that leads to death can turn into the living perfume that leads to life. Just say yes. Yes, Lord Jesus conquer me. Yes, Lord Jesus change me. Yes Lord Jesus consume me. Say Yes to Easter….
“At the edge of death, I never felt so alive”