The Aroma of Life - 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

"walking into the ancient wall city of Rome, Italy alone, that 2000 plus year old original stone Laden Appian way is without a doubt, one of the most memorable walks of my life. It was on these very stones that the feet of Paul and the feet of Peter walked as they entered their final places of historical gospel spreading ministry. Before the crushing hand of Rome."

Family Discussions:

1. Why is your witness on aroma of life to the believer?
2. Why is that same aroma, the aroma of death to an unbeliever or to a scoffer?
3. Compare the relative severity of the ridicule you might receive as your life bears the witness of your faith in Christ to the martyring that Peter and Paul and the other martyrs of Rome received in their triumphal march into Rome?
4. How can you make your aroma stronger?

Transcription:

00:13          You know, I don't know that there's a candle in our whole office building or in our Kamp, but I feel like the most fortunate guy alive because there's a fragrant aroma everywhere I go. I get to work with the neatest people in the world. My little office. These people that I get to work with have this fragrant aroma and it's a fragrant aroma of Christ around them. And all over the sports Kamps. These guys and these women of faith that I get to work with, there's just this fragrant aroma of Christ that follows them every where they go. 2 Corinthians chapter 2:14-16 says this about that. It says, "But thanks be to God who always leads us in the triumphal precession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere. The fragrance of the knowledge of him, for we are of God, the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved. And among those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death, but to the other, the fragrance of life."

 

01:22          You know, walking into the ancient wall city of Rome, Italy alone, that 2000 plus year old original stone Laden Appian way is without a doubt, one of the most memorable walks of my life. It was on these very stones that the feet of Paul and the feet of Peter walked as they entered their final places of historical gospel spreading ministry. Before the crushing hand of Rome. The hedonistic Roman government rendered their relentless testimony of their risen savior. It became a national political problem and brought capital punishment upon them and their untimely final judgment. The Appian way also, if you've ever got a chance or we'll get a chance to walk it, was the main artery and it was the most powerful city in the world which the Roman armies would return in their infamous, they call it the parade of triumph.

 

02:15          Here, the proud Roman generals would display their troops and their captured throngs of slaves and condemned prisoners to the wildly cheering crowd that land the great walled thoroughfare into the heart of the city. You know, tradition held that burning aeromedical incense would accompany the chariots and officers that govern the parade. To the Roman conquerors, it was an aroma of life. To the prisoners, it was an aroma of death because like Peter and Paul, this would be the last walk upon which their feet would ever take them. In a matter of weeks, a cruel Roman death awaited them by Roman's favorite form of punishment, the same fate that was given to Jesus in the neighboring Jerusalem, crucifixion upon the Roman cross. So to some, the fragrant of life. To some, the fragrance of death.

 

03:06          And I think that tell-tale questions that hopefully will make sense in your life today is this, when you carry your Bible to school, or when you carry your Bible to work or you've live out and you speak out for the true trueness of the gospel of Christ, you know, while a scoffer will jeer you, why is your witness on aroma of life to the believer? And why is that same aroma, the aroma of death to an unbeliever or to a scoffer? And then secondly, compare the relative severity of the ridicule you might receive as your life bears the witness of your faith in Christ to the martyring that Peter and Paul and the other martyrs of Rome received in their triumphal march into Rome? And how can you make your aroma stronger? To some your the aroma of life and you know what? To some you are the aroma of death. But hopefully to those that will see the spirit of Christ in you and some of those that are dying would come to life because of the aroma of Christ was too much for them to ignore.