The Aroma of Forgiveness

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

This fall we're studying the book of Second Corinthians.

Second Corinthians is a heartfelt and practical

book calling us back to the life of the cross.

We, like the Corinthians, so often pursue glory,

admire eloquence, shun suffering, hide hurt,

and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel of Jesus

tells us that resurrection comes after a cross.

that comfort comes after being crushed, that

the way up is the way down, that the way to glory

is through suffering, that his strength is made

perfect in our weakness. We'd love to meet you

and we hope you'll consider coming and joining

with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m. in the

heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find us

online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook,

Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God bless. Lord, this morning as we turn

to this second chapter of 2nd Corinthians and

come to the great subject of forgiveness and

as we hear, as we just heard this powerful parable

from your mouth, Lord Jesus, I pray that we might

live into the reality of what you have done for

us and that we might image you in our life with

others. Write these holy words on our hearts,

and would they shape our lives? Amen. Some of

you, maybe many of you know the remarkable story

of Corrie Ten Boon. She was born in Amsterdam

in 1892. She was born to a devout Christian family.

Her parents raised her in the knowledge of the

Lord. At least we have a sense of early on in

her life, around the age of five. Some of you

are close to that age. She had a living and active

faith in Jesus. Well, her dad actually inherited

the family watch shop in Harlem and they moved

there, which is, you may know, nearby to Amsterdam.

And remarkably, at the age of 20, she became

not only the first woman who was licensed as

a watchmaker, but also the youngest one at 20

years old. working there alongside her dad in

their watch shop. She had two older siblings

who were married. She and her sister, Betsy,

they never married. They lived their life with

their parents and they were very active in evangelism

and in caring for those in need. They actually

started a club for younger folk with different

disabilities, sharing the good news of Jesus

with them and giving them fellowship with one

another and enjoying their life. And a remarkable,

remarkable woman When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands

in 1940, she began cycling around as they do

over there. My sister is actually a missionary

in the Netherlands. They ride their bikes all

over the place. And she would cycle to these

different resistance meetings. And she actually

gathered ration books during the war specifically

for the Jews that were not given ration books

for their food. She helped organize long -term

places of hiding for those Jews who were seeking

refuge. And you may know the story, but there

was actually a hiding place for these Jews right

off of her own room, her own small bedroom. Well,

on the 28th of February in 1944, this Dutch resistance

movement that was hiding Jews was betrayed. And

Kori Tenbun was actually not feeling well and

was sort of caught off guard when Jews rushed

into her room and into the hiding place. And

she and her entire family and the Jews there

with her were arrested and caught. And she was

taken to prison. Actually, interestingly, she

was put in confinement because it was believed

that she was one of the great underground resistance

leaders. she later confessed and expressed just

how unbelievably difficult solitary confinement

was, but she was reunited with her sister Betsy

and they were taken off to Ravensbrook, which

was the concentration camp where so many women

went. It actually read, it's estimated that 35

,000 women would be at that camp at any given

time. 35 ,000. They were brought there, they

were stripped naked, they were placed in housing

situations where there were hundreds and hundreds

in a little barracks housing. Lice infected the

mattresses which they shared with one another.

It was an awful, awful situation. They would

rise for roll call at 4 a .m. They were forced

to work long days. They were watched over, they

were berated, they were beaten by the guards.

And of course the smell of dead bodies permeated

those concentration camps. Betsy, her sister

died there at Ravensbrook on the 16th of December.

And Corey was released actually on the 31st of

December, just a few weeks after her sister's

passing. But it was determined that it was a

clerical error, because just a few weeks later

every woman her age was killed in that camp.

Remarkably, her life was spared. But I read this,

that just before her sister Betsy died, she told

Corey, when we are set free from this terrible

place, and we will be freed, Corey, before the

New Year, we must go over the world and tell

everyone who will listen what we have proved

to be true in this terrible place, that the love

of God is stronger than the deepest darkness.

I wonder if you believe that? That in a place

like that, We have been so incredibly sinned

against. The love of God is deeper, stronger

than the deepest darkness. Here's something that's

true. Some of you have been hurt unbelievably

deeply beyond what you ever imagined. Never thought

you could be hurt this much. Some of you have

been betrayed. Others of you have been abused.

Some of you have been mocked. Others of you have

probably experienced the pain of adultery and

betrayal. And the fact is that every single one

of you have been sinned against. We are sinners.

We confess this. This is true. And yet every

single one of us have been sinned against. And

Jesus tells us that if we do not forgive others,

we will not be forgiven. how we have to believe

that the love of God is even stronger than the

deepest darkness. I said last week that at the

heart of 2 Corinthians is the truth that power

is made perfect in weakness. And I think that

one of the places in our lives where this truth

is most known or can be most powerful because

it is so hard is in our acts of forgiveness.

The things that we have to forgive. So I want

you to open up your Bible, okay? If you do not

have a Bible open, I want you to open it up to

2 Corinthians chapter two. We're starting there

in verse five. We went through verse four last

week. We're going to finish this chapter. And

what we're going to do is we're going to look

at a few things. We're going to see a number

of important things that come up when we come

to the subject of forgiveness, okay? Looking

at the idea of forgiveness, 2 Corinthians chapter

two, verse five. We look at that first paragraph,

there's a few things that you see sort of immediately.

And one of the things that I want you to see

first is sort of what I've just said, is that

there is a command to forgive. The command to

forgive, verse seven says, Rather turn to forgive

and comfort him. Verse eight says, so I beg you

to reaffirm your love for him by this act of

forgiveness. Verse nine says, this is why I wrote

you that I might test you and know whether you

are obedient and everything, which is in the

context of forgiveness. Are you hearing what

I'm saying? Do you understand the command to

forgive? Certainly this paragraph is speaking

of this command to forgive. And that command

can be seen all throughout the Bible, but actually

there is no one who says it more clearly and

more starkly and maybe even more sort of stronger

than we want than our Lord Jesus himself. Matthew

chapter six, verses 14 and 15. For if you forgive

others their trespasses, your heavenly Father

will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive

others their trespasses, neither will your Father

forgive your trespasses." The unbelievably strong

command of our Lord Jesus to move towards forgiveness.

Think of the parable that was just read for us

from Matthew chapter 18. the great parable of

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

the unforgiving servant. He was forgiven so much

and he came out from that being just forgiven

so much and he demanded somebody else pay him

back. And I want you to hear again how Jesus

ends that parable. Then his master summoned him

and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave

you all that debt because you pleaded with me

and should not you have had mercy on your fellow

servants as I had mercy on you. and in anger

his master delivered him to the jailers until

he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly

father will do to every one of you if you do

not forgive your brother." It doesn't just say

with your words, it's from your heart. Difficult

thing, but it is very clear in our passage in

2 Corinthians, it's very clear from the words

of our Lord Himself, the mouth of our Lord. that

there is a command to forgive. The command is

clear. But one of the reasons why maybe right

now for you this is sitting a little hard is

because we also know forgiveness is an unbelievable

challenge. Forgiveness is not easy. And this

is also brought up in this paragraph actually.

It's a challenge, first of all, because actually,

if you are actually going to forgive, you have

to acknowledge how deeply you were hurt. You

actually have to face the pain of the sin that

was done against you. We can be hurt so deeply.

We've been sinned against so intensely. It affects

us so incredibly. It affects all of us. Verse

five, Paul says that the pain that one has caused

wasn't just to him, but it was to the community

at large, right? It wasn't just against him.

It's affecting everybody. Which is to say, your

sin, the ways that you've been sinned against,

isn't actually just something that touches you,

but it touches your community. That's one of

the reasons why forgiveness is so deeply hard.

Here's another thing, though, on the flip side

and away, your faithfulness to our Lord also

doesn't just affect you, but it affects those

around you. We should say that the Bible assumes

a communal life that is so much deeper and so

much richer than we imagine, than we have minds

to comprehend. It assumes that our lives are

intertwined that when one is sinned against,

the whole community is affected. When one forgives,

the whole community finds life. Brothers and

sisters, when you hurt another, you hurt us all.

When you harbor bitterness against another, we

are all a little worse off because of it. All

sin separates, it distances, it breaks. And when

one of us is distant because of sin, sure, there's

like practical things like, oh, you're not present

in worship or in small groups or jumping into

volunteer in different ways like English language

classes, stuff like that. But when you are withdrawn,

when you're emotionally withdrawn, when you're

distant, it actually affects the entire body.

That's what the Bible tells us. All of us are

affected by sin. All of us are affected by unforgiveness.

We are not what and who we should be as individuals

and as a community When we are sinned against

and we are not what and who we should be as a

community when we harbor unforgiveness Part of

why forgiveness is such a challenge is Because

sin is so real and the effects of it are so deep

Did you notice I read this in my first point

there of the command but Paul has to beg them

to forgive. He assumes that it's a challenge.

He assumes this is not an easy thing to do. But

he also says he has to beg them and he acknowledges

that Satan wants to outwit them. It's a challenge

because it's hard to do, but also because Satan

actually doesn't want you to do it. That's one

of the things that he's acknowledging there.

What he's saying is that forgiveness is a great

challenge. It's command, but it's not some easy

thing that we should sort of brush off. Yeah,

I forgive you. You actually have to look at the

pain of what happened to you to enter into that.

And you have to acknowledge there has to be a

death of my power grabbing, of my saying, I must

be right and you must pay. Forgiveness is a great

challenge. Paul demonstrates here that forgiveness

can be incredibly liberating. Maybe you notice

this in verse 10. It's kind of wild. He says,

anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed,

what I have forgiven, if I forgive in anything,

has been for your sake. Commentators say, Paul

is actually demonstrating that there is the possibility

of genuinely forgiving and forgetting. Paul's

like, I'm not even sure I completely remember

everything, if I've forgiven everything. Meaning

that he's been so liberated from grabbing on.

He's demonstrating that forgiveness is deeply

liberating, but he is not ever denying that it

is not challenging. He's calling us to something.

It's the great command of our Lord, but he is

admitting the difficulty of it. And CS Lewis

was a little boy. He was nine years old the age

of my son James nine years old that was the year

when his mother died and maybe some of you know

this he was sent off to a boarding school in

England and He writes about this quite a bit

But the the headmaster of that boarding school

was actually a pretty sadistic kind of guy and

it seemed as though he loved to cane The little

boys there at the school to punish them severely

He was a very evil man Meaning he would whip,

you know whip the boys with a cane when they

were in trouble Warren he went by warning see

us. This is brother He went to the same school

and he wrote this I have seen Him this headmaster

lift a boy of 12 or so from from the floor by

the back of his collar and holding him at arm's

length as one might a dog apply his canes to

his calf. I mean, the ways that we have been

sinned against are so deep. You might not have

that story, but I guarantee you have a story.

We live in a world that is infected by sin. And

we can share our stories of how unbelievably

difficult it is to offer forgiveness. This was

a miserable school. Like I said, Lewis writes

about a number of times. And it was a time that

sort of marked his life as one of the worst times

of his life. He'd already suffered the loss of

his mother. He's sent off by his father to this

horrible, horrible place. And it was only shortly

before his death in 1963, a half a century later,

that Lewis could write that he had finally been

able to forgive that man. of the scars that he

had put in his life. Forgiveness is a command

of our Lord, but it is also deeply, deeply challenging.

It's a clear command, but it is a hard one. Here's

the thing, okay, so second Corinthians... to

hear, almost everybody that you read believes

that what he's addressing is actually one of

the sins that was being addressed in 1 Corinthians,

specifically in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, where

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

there was a man who was having inappropriate

relationships with his father's wife. And what

happens in that context in 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

5, if you know it, Paul says, have nothing to

do with him. Discipline him in such a way that

you sent him out from the community. Paul is

so adamant that sin can actually affect the life

of the community that you must deal with it.

It's got to be dealt with. And there are some

sins where you say, if you are persistent in

this, you must actually be, well, the term is

excommunicated, but you have to be actually shunned

from the community. And almost everybody believes

that's what Paul is addressing here in this paragraph.

This man who has sinned so grievously and it's

infecting the life of the community so intensely

that this man actually must be taken out from

the community. One of the things that we're seeing

here though, is that this discipline, this severe

discipline for sin has actually been met with

a tender heart and a receptivity very likely

from this man. And Paul says, as much as you

might want to continue to shun him, that is not

the way of the Christian. You must actually receive

him back. You must actually embrace him. because,

again, the community's life is bound up together.

What happens to one affects the rest. If one

is sorrowful, a blight is cast on the whole community.

If one lives in constant sin, it does affect

the rest. And yet, it seems as though, like I

said, this discipline works. And so Paul now

says, if you don't forgive, It affects the whole

body. Part of the reason, again, why forgiveness

is such a challenge in the Bible is because sin

is taken so seriously. Not brushed aside as nothing,

but it's taken so seriously that Paul says, actually,

this person must be outside of the community.

That's why freedom is so hard. It's such a challenge

because it's such a serious thing. It affects

us so much. Forgiveness is a command. Forgiveness

is a challenge. I'll say this though, thirdly,

that forgiveness is a comfort. And here's another

truth. In the absence of forgiveness and love,

in the absence of those things, there is always

bitterness and division. You do not grow in godliness.

when you harbor unforgiveness. Unforgiveness

always invites bitterness and division. As another

said, unforgiveness is the poison we drink, hoping

another will die. NT Wright says, forgiveness

is a two -way street. By releasing the other

person from guilt, you release yourself from

being crippled by their actions. As a command,

as a challenge, it's also actually a great comfort.

We actually get a little glimpse into this. This

is kind of interesting. If you look down in your

Bibles to the next little paragraph that begins

in verse 12 then, there, just verse 12 and 13.

He says, 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 him and went on to Macedonia. He's there

in Troas, and Troas is, it's sort of the upper

eastern side of the Aegean Sea, or if you can

think of modern day Turkey, it'd be like the

very northwest. It'd be like looking at a map

of the U .S. to be in the Pacific Northwest,

but a map of Turkey. Well, it was a great city,

a great port city. So you would often take a

boat from there, a ship from there, and you would

sail to other places. And one of the places where

it would go would be the city of Corinth. And

so Paul goes to this city of Troas because he'd

heard a door was open for him in the gospel,

which is sort of every missionary's dream, every

pastor's dream. Oh, people that are receptive,

they want to hear, they want to repent, they

want to trust in Jesus. The door is wide open.

Sort of exactly what he probably longed for and

yet What does he say there? My spirit was not

at rest My spirit was not at rest Because Titus

wasn't there and what why does that matter? Well,

we'll actually we'll get to this later to Titus

was supposed to bring the news from the Church

of Corinth Had they lived into the reality of

just how awful sin is, how it infects us, how

it must be dealt with, and have they actually

embraced the reality of forgiveness? What did

the Corinthian church do? Can they hold these

things together? And Paul can't, he can't stay

at Troas even though the door's wide open because

he is not, he's not at rest. Brothers and sisters,

forgiveness heals. Forgiveness brings comfort.

It brings comfort to the offended and to the

offender. And it brings comfort to the communities

that touch them. Parents. Parents. So many of

you are parents. One of the greatest gifts you

can give your children, I promise you, is living

a life of repentance and forgiveness before them.

With one another, with them. It is the fertile

soil of life in your families. And it's the fertile

soil for all of us. It's not a parental thing.

This is the way the world works. You harbor unforgiveness.

It will be bitterness and divisiveness that fester,

live. Bitterness brings comfort. In the absence

of love and forgiveness, the bitterness and division

thrive. It's true here. For Paul and the Corinthian

community, for Titus, it's true for you and it's

true for me, it is. This is the way the world

works. So, forgiveness is a command, it's a challenge,

it's a comfort. But here's what I want to say.

It's precisely because it is this command and

it's this challenge and it's this comfort that

it is also the aroma of Christ. that it's the

fragrance of the good news. You know, forgiveness

is this thing that can be smelled and lovely

that you wonder how in the world, how in the

world could somebody forgive? How could C .S.

Lewis come to the end of his life and say, I've

forgiven? How can you forgive somebody that treats

somebody that way? So if you look with me down

at the next paragraph, the one that begins in

14, What you'll see is that in that verse, as

we spread the fragrance of the knowledge, let

me read it, 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. The next verse grabs onto this

idea of the scent of the good news also, verse

15, for we are the aroma of Christ to God among

those who are being saved and among those who

are perishing. the fragrance, the aroma. And

here's an interesting thing is that most commentators

point out that there's sort of like two references

that are being made in these words of smell,

smelling words. And I wanna say that in a way

these two references point to the cross and to

the resurrection. Christ's victory and His atonement.

But first, the resurrection, okay? So verse 14

tells us that, it says this, okay, 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. The ancient

world would have been so familiar with this image.

It's sort of lost on us a little bit, but it

was a common practice in the ancient world to

have a victory procession. This was very common

in the Roman world, particularly in Corinth was

a Roman sort of colonial hub. So a military leader

would come back from a battle and if they were

victorious they would parade through the streets

and actually oftentimes they would lead their

captives behind them. But they would parade through

the streets and as they did this what would often

happen is throughout the city and throughout

the streets incense would be burnt. And so even

if you weren't at the parade itself you would

smell it. You'd say, oh, we were victorious.

They conquered. There's a fragrance. The greatest

actually parade that we sort of have recorded,

Josephus records this and other ancient historians,

was actually the Emperor Titus, not the Titus

that's mentioned here, the missionary, but Emperor

Titus in 71, in AD 71, when he actually took

over Jerusalem. And the great Titus arch, which

still stands in Rome, that was considered the

greatest victory procession in the Roman world.

But what marked these processions was the sweet

smell of victory. And the Corinthian church,

we're going to get into this later on in other

sermons, but the Corinthian church was inclined

to this kind of triumphalism, this sort of ease.

They wanted to have their ears tickled by the

peddlers of the Word of God. But they often shunned

humility. They shunned giving up of oneself,

giving up our means, our finances, getting low,

living into weakness. And something that's very

true is that to forgive, you actually have to

go down. And the Corinthians shunned that dynamic.

So one of the things that we're getting from

this fragrance is that Christ conquers. He's

leading us in victory. It's a resurrection kind

of idea. And it's precisely because of the resurrection

that you all have both forgiveness and the power

to forgive. As you know, that going down is not

the end of the story. Lift it up when you're

humble. But that kind of victory That kind of

fragrance is empty without the cross. Okay? And

so you first have this triumphal procession with

this fragrance mentioned, and then verse 15 says,

for we are the aroma of Christ. We're the aroma

of Christ. And that word is a word that's used

a lot in the Greek Old Testament. And almost

always it is used, as it is actually, you just

heard that one verse from Numbers chapter 6,

Numbers 6 · chapter mention

but it's used throughout Numbers in that chapter,

as the sweet aroma of the sacrifices that God's

people offered in worship that would ascend up

to the Lord. He says it's a sweet aroma. Sacrifices

are a sweet aroma. Which is to say, we are the

aroma of the sacrifice of Christ. in our living

into what Christ has done in forgiving us. What

he's done on the cross was to accomplish the

great sacrifice for the atonement of sin. What

he's done in that act of offering himself up

as the sweet aroma of the sacrifice is forgive

us. So, This act on the cross was a necessity,

which is to say it was a command by the Father,

right? The Father commands the Son. Jesus says,

not my will, but yours be done. This act on the

cross was a challenge. Paying for sin and forgiveness

is not an easy thing ever. It demands the very

death of the Son of God. for us to be forgiven.

And this act on the cross brought comfort and

peace to our bitter and our divided world. You

see, these sweet smelling aromas are actually

connecting us to this idea that it is the command,

it is the challenge, and it brings comfort. Forgiveness

is never easy. What these words of fragrance

and aroma say is that they demand, forgiveness

always demands death. But forgiveness always

brings life out of death. This is the way of

the gospel. This is how we live into the gospel.

This is why Jesus can actually say, if you do

not forgive your brother, you will not be forgiven.

Because if you taste the forgiveness of God,

you know how difficult it was for our Lord to

forgive us, demand His very life, but how willingly

He does so. We've got to live out of this reality

of being forgiven. Let me end with a portion

of Corey Ten Boone's wonderful book, The Hiding

Place. I will end with this. She says this, the

room full of mocking men, the heaps of clothing,

Betsy's blanched face. He came up to me as the

church was emptying, beaming and bowing. How

grateful I am for your message, Frowline, he

said. To think that, as you say, he has washed

away my sin. His hand was thrust out to shake

mine. And I, who had preached so often to the

people of Blomondal the need to forgive, kept

my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful

thoughts built through me, I saw the sin of them.

Jesus Christ had died for this man. Was I going

to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive

me. and helped me to forgive him. I tried to

smile. I struggled to raise my hand and I could

not. My guess is that you know that experience.

I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth

or charity. And so again, I breathe the silent

prayer, Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me

your forgiveness. As I took his hand, The most

incredible thing happened. From my shoulder,

along my arm, and through my hand, a current

seemed to pass from me to him, while into my

heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost

overwhelmed me." Brothers and sisters, I guarantee

you that you hear the command of our Lord that

you must forgive or you will not be forgiven.

And you have ways that you have been so deeply

sinned against that that challenge is way too

much for you to bear. But our Lord is with you

in it and He promises you to bring comfort in

the midst of it. And our Lord Jesus knows the

challenge of forgiveness. He died. It's a man

acquainted with grief, familiar with pain, because

he was sinned against by you and me. Yet he offers

you his forgiveness, and he calls you to live

that life for others. It is the way of life and

peace. It is the only way of life and peace.

Without it, bitterness and division will grow

and fester. and with it, life and peace. Let

me pray. Lord, I pray that we would not be those

who make light of sin. Brush it aside, that's

nothing. And yet, Lord, I pray that we would

be those who are eager to be like Paul here,

who almost can't even remember what he forgave

somebody for. though we know how much He was

sinned against. How we think of how you tell

us, it's as far as the East is from the West

that you have removed our sins from us. You've

forgiven us. Though they meant your very death

on the cross, it's as though they are utterly

and completely, it's as though they never happened.

And I pray that we would be a community that

can hold these truths. Brush aside pain. Brush

aside the evil of the world. Brush aside the

ways that we have been hurt, cut deep. And yet,

Lord, Would we be a community that is running

to forgiveness? Because running to forgiveness

is running to the cross and to the empty tomb.

Holy Spirit, give us this strength. As Paul himself

says, Who is sufficient for these things? Amen

Thank you for listening to second city sermons

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