What's that smell??

The Aroma of Jesus

2 Cor. 2:14-16

It’s been said that an aroma is the fragrance of activity, and it’s true.

-if you exercise, you get the natural odor that accompanies it

-if you eat garlic, everyone gets the benefit of what you ate from your breath

-if you’ve had coffee, people can smell it on you and your breath

-if you take a shower and wash with soap, you get a clean scent on your skin

-if you put on perfume, you smell either cheap or attractive

-if you’ve been in a certain kind of restaurant, people know where you’ve been because they can smell it on you.

It’s not you that people are recognizing; it’s the scent on you because of what you’ve done or where you’ve been or even who you’ve been with.

You don’t have to tell people when you’ve stepped on something in the yard. They know it because they can smell the aroma of nature on your shoes.

So it is with our relationship (or lack of) with Jesus.

When people are near you, what do they come away with?

Knowledge of God that they didn’t have before? (vs. 14)

Or a bad after-taste that makes them not want what you claim to have?

It was St. Francis of Assisi (of the 12^th century) who said something that eventually came to be quoted as, “Preach the gospel at all times; only use words if necessary.”

He was talking about the aroma of Christ. Is it on you? Can people smell it on you?

We’re obviously not talking about a literal smell. We’re talking in spiritual terms.

We’re talking about the essence of Jesus being on us and in us and being obvious to those around us.

According to chapter 3:6, He has made us “ministers of a new covenant”, which carries with it great responsibility to represent this new covenant – and Jesus – correctly.

An illustration of not having the aroma of Christ, and of not representing the Lord right, is in Gen. 34.

Jacob’s had bought property outside the gates of the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan and pitched camp there. Jacob’s daughter, Dinah went to visit the women of the city, and was seen by the king’s son Shechem. Shechem kidnapped her and raped her and wanted her for his wife. When Dinah’s brothers found out about the incident, they secretly devised a plot to get revenge making use of the king’s desire to intermarry and mix. They lied and told them that in order for their people to intermarry with their daughters, the men would have to be circumcised like the Israelites. Otherwise, they would take Dinah and go and the King’s son could not be married to Dinah. So, the King and his son agreed to this condition, and had all the men circumcised. While they were recovering, and still in pain (three days later), Jacob’s sons attacked every man in the city of the king – including the king and his son Shechem. They took their sister, Dinah and looted the city and went back to camp. Jacob’s resonse to this was, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land.” (vs. 30)

This story in the old testament sets the stage for us as Christians of the new covenant. Do we make Jesus a stench to the world we live in because of our actions or do we present Him as a sweet, savory aroma that tempts them and draws them in?

So, again I ask you, are you as an ambassador for Christ – a minister of the new covenant – effectively spreading His fragrance?

-Is your life so filled up with Him that His aroma seeps thru your pores?

-Or do you so resemble the world around you that your lifestyle combined with your so-called witness for Him actually repels the world like a stench – much like garbage does our senses.

The world can sense the difference between the aroma of life and the selfish, compassionless, loveless.

As you live for Him a life of separation to Him, knowing Him and loving Him, do not think that every person who comes in contact with aroma will be pleased with it. Even though the aroma of Christ is sweet and fragrant, we’re told that for some that we come into contact with, it will be the fragrance of life, but to others it will be an offense – the smell of death (2:16).

I believe this is warning us of the response we can expect to receive from those those who are religious, but not spiritual – without a true relationship with Jesus. – like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.

The smell of life is the smell of freedom and victory and love and peace and joy when a person is “being saved or perishing” (vs. 15), but start messing with people’s religious routines and legalities, and it smells like death. Why? Because the life of a Christian is death to the world, it’s systems and it’s religious lies. It’s liberating for those that are searching, but not to those that deny the risen savior.

Are you wearing a cheap imitation of the real perfume? Have you settled for second rate? It will be apparent to those whom you come around daily.

Do you only save your perfume for special occasions? Do you put on the perfume of Christ – the aroma of Christ – on Sundays only? Do you like to put it on before you go to meet with other Christians because it makes you look knowledgeable of God? After all, the fragrance of Christ tells those around us that we have the knowledge of Him. If you use it in that way, you are wasting something that is precious and priceless!

Don’t you dare use it in that way. The fragrance of Christ on you should be that thing about you that points the way for others to something you have and that they need. It should be like the aroma of fresh baked bread as you walk by a bakery – it should make them want it.

There were people who found Jesus’ fragrance appealing;

-Mary Magdalene, delivered of demons – His aroma was life

-The woman at the well – He was an appealing scent that awakened in her the desire to live

-The Gadarene man possessed with the legion of demons loved the scent of life on Jesus

-Peter – who exchanged the smelly life of a fisherman with the pleasant aroma of following Him - and the other 11 disciples who gave up everything to follow Him, smelled -the scent of life on Him and followed that aroma the rest of their lives

As these people started following Jesus, His scent got on them and they started giving it off too. They experienced what Jesus experienced. Mary, changed for ever, passionate about her savior and Lord and willing to follow Him anywhere, had later offended people by breaking the expensive box of perfume open and anointing Jesus with it. It wasn’t the smell of the perfume from the box that offended them, it was the scent of life – the scent of Jesus – that she put off.

Just how do we get that aroma of Christ on us?

-By rubbing up against Him

-When my wife has on good smelling perfume, and she gives me a hug, I can smell her perfume on me the rest of the day

-By spending time in His presence

-By the reading of the gospels and spending time in solitude and prayer.

-You read the bible because God is in there. You get alone with Him in prayer and solitude because that’s how you rub up against Him. These are an absolute necessity for a daily walk with Jesus.

-Dwelling with Him not only imparts vision; it imparts His virtue into us. That virtue is detectable like a scent you’ve rubbed on. The woman with the issue of blood that threw aside caution and customs of the day went after Jesus, touched the hem of His garment and His virtue came out of Him and into Her. She went away with not only a healed body, but the obvious signs that she had touched Him.

-By becoming like Him. To love what He loves and hate what He hates.

-By living out our belief in Him and the teachings of the church – which, when it’s lived out, looks and smells like Jesus.

-By following Him, and this is not always easy. The words of Jesus are often hard but always true. If he says forgive, we forgive. If He says turn the other cheek, turn the other cheek. If He says don’t hold a grudge, don’t hold a grudge.

These things don’t come naturally. Carrying the aroma of Christ isn’t natural.

In the natural, it’s easier to conform to society. Haven’t you noticed that you have to fight to NOT conform to society? Haven’t you noticed that if you don’t actively pursue God on a daily, regular basis, your fire can die down?

Just like perfume eventually fades from the body, so too does the aroma of Christ if you don’t spend time rubbing up against Him regularly.

Listen, going to a church meeting once or twice a week isn’t going to get it for you. You will come away with only a trace of Him. You want more than a trace – you want to bathe in it.

Just like Esther had to bathe in the precious perfumes in preparation for being presented to the King as His bride, we must bathe in His presence regularly in order to come away smelling like Him to the point that people will recognize that something is different.

There is action involved in attaining the aroma of Christ.

Do you think that men like Smith Wigglesworth and George Whitfield and John and Charles Wesley and others in church history just innately had the ability to sit down in a train car or walk into a factory and have people immediately recognize that there was something about them? No! It was the essence of Christ – His aroma. It was a witness spoken without words!

The wonderful thing about that is that the witness of spreading the aroma of Jesus is simply setting the stage for further ministry and more outspoken, bold and effective ministry.

If we don’t smell like Jesus when we go out into the world, then chances are we’re putting off a counterfeit aroma – another smell – that makes Jesus a stench to the world. Don’t do that. Don’t allow the world to shape and mold you and cause you to end up with its aroma.

Don’t miss the opportunities He brings your way to spread His aroma. When an opportunity is gone, it may not come your way again.

Remember, the aroma you give off is also affecting someone else – God.

Is your life; are your thoughts, your ways, and your motivations – are they a pleasing scent of sacrifice in His nostrils? Does it smell sweet or does it turn His stomach?

Consider Esther, the Jewish girl who was taken into the King’s harem to be considered among many other beautiful girls to be the next queen. Part of the preparations she had to undergo was 12 months of beauty treatments – 6 of which was devoted to soaking daily for a certain amount of time in perfume. By the time the treatments were completed, her body was perfumed in a way that it was always ready to be in the presence of the King whenever he demanded it. She was always ready, with the aroma of perfume, to please the king’s senses.

You will either be pleasing incense to God or you will cause Him nausea.

Which is the aroma you’re offering God? Do you smell like the world or have you prepared yourself for Him?

This is a call to consider two things:

First, be the aroma of Christ – the knowledge of God. Does your life reveal the character of God or do you smell more like the world to the world? Does your life make others curious about Him or desire Him because of what they smell on you? Is the aroma of Christ an offense to those who oppose Him, or are you so much like them that they couldn’t care less about your so-called witness?

Second, what is the incense you’re life is offering up to God? Have you neglected the beauty treatment provided thru Christ in preparation for God? Do you need to soak in the presence of the King? You will take on His aroma. That smell is a pleasing one for God.