The Beauty of God

Media, Other Sermons | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

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Summary

Beautiful things surprise us, take our breath away and send chills down our spines. Beauty can be visual, audible, or spiritual. We are fascinated by beauty. It captivates the human heart, mind and soul. But, we rarely stop to ask where beauty comes from. The Bible tells us that all beauty finds its origin in God – particularly in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Introduction

Today marks our first birthday as a newly forming, Jesus-following, Bible-believing, gospel-centered people in downtown Seattle. Happy birthday, Downtown Cornerstone!It was exactly one year ago this weekend we officially “launched”, marking our birth as a new church. Jesus has been exceedingly gracious to us in our first year. We’ve seen new faith, deepened faith and fresh faith. We’ve seen communities multiplied, the city served and souls soothed with the sin-shattering news of the gospel. We’ve seen sin repented of, relationships restored and addictions broken. We’ve seen disciples forged, the gospel spread and His church built. What a year! This morning we gather to thank Him for all He has done and ask Him to do even more in the year(s) to come. He’s only just begun His work in, among and through us.

This morning we’re going to look at a simple question: Why plant a church? In other words, what are we doing? Why are we here? Lets answer that by first answering a different question. What do you think of when you hear the word “beautiful”? One dictionary defines beauty as “the quality or combined qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses.” Beautiful things surprise us, take our breath away and send chills down our spines. Beauty can be visual, audible, or spiritual. We are fascinated by beauty. It captivates the human heart, mind and soul. But, we rarely stop to ask where beauty comes from.

The Bible tells us all beauty finds its origin in God. God is beautiful. Creation is a living exhibition of the beauty, splendor and excellencies of the Creator. The earth is the bowl into which God’s beauty is poured. The beauty of the world is intended to function like a big flashing neon sign to the beauty of God. In other words, beauty exists to point us to the Beautiful One. God has planted figments of his beauty in creation in order to stimulate our faith and draw us to Him. Have you thought of God as beautiful? Not only beautiful, but the origin of all beauty?

“The beauty of trees, plants, and flowers, with which God has [decorated] the face of the earth, is delightful; the beautiful frame of the body of man, especially in its perfection, is astonishing; the beauty of the moon and stars is wonderful; the beauty of the highest heavens is transcendent; the excellency of angels and the saints in light is very glorious: but it is all deformity and darkness in comparison of the brighter glories and beauties of the Creator of all…think of the excellency of God and the moon will not seem to shine to you, God’s excellency so much outshines it. “
Jonathan Edwards, Works 10, 421

All worldly beauty is an echo of God’s beauty, the source. My prayerful goal this morning is that we would be overwhelmed afresh by the incomprehensible and inexpressible beauty of God. He is bigger, better and more beautiful than anything you have ever imagined. Here’s the crux of the matter: We were created by God, for God, to delight in the beauty of God in Jesus Christ. This gets to the very heart of Christianity and why Downtown Cornerstone exists.

This morning we’re going to skim the surface of the beauty of God. His beauty is like a multi-faceted diamond of attributes in their purest form. Each attribute works in sync and symmetry with the others. Let’s think, consider, and reflect on the beauty of God together.

Self-existent, Independent, Eternal and Timeless

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Acts 17:24-25

Everything begins, except God. Everything depends on something else for existence, except God. He created existence. He depends on no one and no thing. No beginning and no end. Perfectly content, perfectly happy, perfectly self-existing within a perfect, eternal, triune community. Everything else depends on Him for its being. The entire universe takes its queues from Him. All power, all wisdom, all excellency, all glory, all joy, all love, all goodness, all justice originate in Him.

Great, Powerful, and Omnipotent (i.e. all-powerful)

“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” Ps 33:6-8

He is unlimited in power, strength and glory. There is nothing and no one greater. He isNOT weak, small, limited, impotent, shallow, dependent, needy, discouraged, distressed, or helpless. He created and sustains the universe with a word and without help. There is ntohing and no one bigger, stronger, faster, more beautiful, more powerful, more knowledgeable. He always wins. He holds absolute control over all things, everywhere, at all time. His will always comes to pass. His purposes are never frustrated. He never sweats. He’s never surprised. He never worries. He never ages. He’s never tired.

Wise, Brilliant and Omniscient (i.e. all-knowing)

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” Rom 11:33
Holy, Pure, Just and Righteousness
“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy…” Rev 15:4

Wisdom, knowledge, intellect and brilliance originate in Him. There is nothing He does not know. He never makes mistakes. He never lies. He never needs to “think about it”. He never leads us astray. He is always right, always true. Wisdom of man is foolishness to God. Before him everything is exposed.
He knows the beginning, middle and end of all things – at the same time – becasuse he exists outside of time.

Holy, Pure, Just, and Righteous

“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy…” Rev 15:4

He is perfectly pure with no spots, no darkness, no cynicism, no blemishes, no sin and no faults. He always does what is right, best, virtuous, just and beautiful. He does no wrong, ever. Therefore He hates and abhors sin, darkness, impurity because they are opposite to his very nature.

Loving, Good, Merciful, Gracious, Patient, Just, Personal and Faithful

“The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…” Ex 34:6
Unchanging and Omnipresent (i.e. everywhere)
“For I the Lord do not change…” Mal 3:6
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways…” Ps 139:1-3

He is the pinnacle of all that is good, loving and kind. He overflows in steadfast love. He has unlimited storehouses of grace and mercy that we will be unpacking forever. He delights in making his people truly happy. He knows you perfectly, personally, entirely, deeply. There is nothing he does not know about your past+present+future. He maintains all of creation by his goodness. Every single good thing in your life is from Him – every one of them.

Unchanging and Omnipresent

“For I the Lord do not change…” Mal 3:6
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways…” Ps 139:1-3

He is self-existent, independent, eternal, timeless, great, all-powerful, wise, brilliant, all-knowing, holy, pure, just, righteous, loving, good, merciful, gracious, patient, and faithful…and He has always been like that, everywhere, at every moment. He is unchaning and omnipresent.

All these attributes meet in the person and work of Jesus Christ – never has such a figure existed.

• In humility, God became man, in Jesus Christ.
• In holiness, he lived the perfect life that we should live but don’t and can’t.
• In love, he died for sinful rebels.
• In justice, he took the punishment we rightly deserve for our sin.
• In mercy, Jesus substituted himself as a sacrifice, in our place.
• In grace, Jesus extends forgiveness of sin, adoption as sons/daughters, life with God forever.
• In faithfulness, Jesus gave himself up to death, even death on the cross.
• In power, Jesus bore the sins of the world and defeated Satan, sin, evil and death thru resurrection.

“[Jesus] has true excellency, and such great excellency, that when [weary souls] come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there … it sees that till now it has been chasing shadows, but that now it has found the substance; that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean. The excellence of Christ is an object adequate to the natural cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill the capacity…Every new discovery makes this beauty appear more ravishing, and the mind sees no end; here is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the bottom… Christ’s excellency is always fresh and new, and tends as much to delight after it has seen thousand or ten thousand years…” Edwards

If this is what God is like, question not “Why plant a church?” But, “How could we not?”This is why we’re here! To spread the supremacy, beauty, glory and excellencies of God in Jesus Christ.

Five ways the beauty of God changes us:

#1 The beauty of God changes the source of our joy.
He wants our joy to be in something so much deeper, more rooted, concrete than our circumstances, relationships and possessions. Knowing, seeing and relishing in the beauty of God should make us a people marked by joy, awe, love.

#2 The beauty of God changes our definition of success.
Yes, we want to see God do something special, awesome, and previously unknown in Seattle. But, our primary goal has nothing to do with a number of people or programs. Jesus is the prize, goal, treasure, pearl of great price. It’s about Jesus and a earnest, unrelenting, soul-satisfying pursuit of Him. Jesus is our success.

#3 The beauty of God changes our hope.
“What we are doing is not just difficult, it is impossible.” (Schaeffer) There is no time in the Bible when God calls someone/group to do something that won’t be hard, require a lot of resources and take considerable time. That never happens. Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah to Jesus. What God has called us to is not easy. It won’t happen over night, but it will come at a very high cost. But, our hope is not in any of this being easy, but in Him, whatever happens. He is worth it.

#4 The beauty of God changes our mission.
When we are gripped by the beauty of God in Jesus Christ, our mission changes. When we see Jesus as beautiful, we want to share that beauty with others. He won’t come back meek/mild but as a conquering King. It is imminent. It could happen at any time. Until then, He sends us on mission to spread His message and mercy, calling the city to repentance and faith in Him.

#5 The beauty of God changes our people.
Jesus’ people, the church, is a thing of beauty. His church exists to reflect beauty, excellency, holiness, good of God. We are not a building but a glorious society, an outpost for displaying, exhibiting beauty of Jesus in dark world. Let’s display beauty in community, holiness, service, generosity, sacrifice, art. Let’s not concede art to the unbelievers in this city. Jesus does not down our imaginations, but fuels them.

Together, let’s spread the supremacy, beauty, glory and excellencies of God in Jesus Christ in our city and the cities of the world. Happy Birthday, DCC. May King Jesus give us many more.