The Hidden Beauty of the Gospel

As you take your seats, did you open your bibles to a couple of texts, One in the New Testament, one of the Old. Our sermon text this morning will be one Corinthians Chapter one, beginning at verse eighteen. One Corinthians one, beginning at verse eighteen. But before you, before we get there, I want us to look for a moment at Isaiah Isaiah fifty three. I know I say that name incorrectly, but forgive me part of the world where I'm from, it's Isaiah, not Isaiah. But you get the point, right, Isaiah fifty three. My assignment was to talk about the attractiveness of Christ. And immediately when I received that assignment, I recognized that the paradox, and here is the paradox. The paradox is that the Bible tells us that Christ was not attractive, and yet we sing songs like that. That's say, beautiful Savior. That's the theological paradox Isaiah fifty three, beginning verse one. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And this is the this is the the hymn, if you will, of the Suffering Servant, Isaiah fifty three. And as we read Isaiah, I always have to tell this story. I've had the privilege a number of times traveling in Israel, doing leading tours in Israel, and in fact, was supposed to go last year to lead a tour in Israel. I was supposed to leave for Israel on I think October twelfth, and then of course October seventh happened, so that tour didn't happen. But I've been to Israel a number of times and have friends who are there now and friends who live there whom I've been praying for regularly. But they do evangelism in Israel. They do evangelism among Israeli Jews, and one of the things that they use is Isaiah fifty three. And it's really interesting that in many of the reading schedules right that the Jewish people would have, they will read through much of the tour, but Isaiah fifty three is often skipped. And so a great evangelistic tool is just to read Isaiah fifty three and not say where it comes from, and just ask, right, who do you think that's talking about? You think that comes from? And oftentimes Jews who are read Isaiah fifty three from the Hebrew Bible will say that that is probably from the New Testament, and it's probably about Jesus. And they are amazed and dumbfounded when they are shown that it's actually Isaiah fifty three. So here we find it who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. He grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had here's he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. Wasn't attractive, wasn't particularly attractive. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not surely he has born our Greece and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crusted for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us. All that is about Jesus, it's three quarters of it. It was written three quarters of a century before, actually seven hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born. But it's about Jesus. It is about our suffering servant Savior. And among the things that it says about this suffering Savior of ours is that he wasn't particularly beautiful, he wasn't particularly attractive, and yet we sing beautiful Savior. One of the great ironies of this is we have no pictures of Jesus. Amen, we have no pictures of Jesus. Now, it's it's always ironic to me when when people say that there's sightings of Jesus, and the Roman Catholic Church has verified numerous sightings of Jesus, numerous apparitions, if you will. People will see him in in in a wall a painting somewhere, or or or or or or in some rock formation, and they'll look at that and say, that looks like Jesus, and it has been. Many of them have been verified by the Roman Catholic Church, to which I always respond, Riddle me, this, batman, how do you know that that's Jesus. If we don't have any pictures of Jesus. At the end of the day, there have been paintings, artists renderings of Jesus, some of them world famous renderings of Jesus. And when people see these apparitions, what they see is something that looks like a famous painting that one of the grand masters painted of Jesus, which came completely from his imagination, because we have no pictures of Jesus. Same with Mary, all of these adherances of Mary, all of these statues of Mary. That's wonderful. But riddle me, this bad man, how do we know because we have not one picture, not one painting, not one. And whether we're talking about Mary or we're talking about Jesus, these paintings, these artists renderings, are always of beautiful people. When the Bible specifically and explicitly tells us that our Savior was not particularly attractive, he was not particularly beautiful. It was not one of those people that would make you look twice. And we all know and have had that experience. There are some there are some people in the world who are just objectively beautiful. You just you walk by them and you look and you just you're struck. That's a beautiful person. There's there's sometimes there's beautiful babies in the world. Now listen, not every baby is beautiful. Amen, somebody there there, they're there. They're a lot, I mean a lot of a lot of us start off in this world and it's rough, right and and you you know, and and you look at them and you go, that's a that's a wonderful outfit. That's yes, that's through the hat. But still to that mother, to that father, they're beautiful because we're talking about something much more significant, much deeper. And when we talk about Jesus, when we talk about our beautiful Savior, fairer than the sun and moon and stars, and fairer than than than than the blooms of spring, fairer than all of the most beautiful things in the world. Why why do we say that Jesus is beautiful? What is it about Jesus that is beautiful? And if you're here today and you're you're not a Christian, you may wonder that you may just be a curious person who recognizes the fact that we don't have any pictures that we know, don't have any paintings, carvings, or images, and maybe you did know that the Bible says that he wasn't particularly attractive, and you think, why do we choose to say that he's beautiful, not just beautiful, but more beautiful than anything in nature? As the song that we just sang proclaims. Well, I think we can find somewhat of an answer to that in One Corinthians Chapter one, First Corinthians, Chapter one, beginning in verse eighteen, very familiar passage of scripture. Verse Corinthians one, beginning verse eighteen. For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us, who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world, For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demands signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks. Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Christ is beautiful because the Gospel is beautiful. The person and work of Christ is beautiful. When we sing about our fairest Lord Jesus, when we proclaim that he is fairer than anything that we deem fair in this world. When we call him our beautiful Savior, we are not referring to his outward appearance. We couldn't be. What we are referring to is the beauty of the Gospel, the attractiveness of the Gospel, the beauty of Christ that we comprehend and apprehend because of his person and his work on behalf of those who place their faith in him. That is what makes Christ beautiful. It's interesting when you think about songs. Historically, songs that people sing. We sing for a variety of reasons, but one of the most significant reasons that we sing songs is we sing songs to express love. And there are all kinds of songs out there through the years and over the course of history and in various cultures, But interestingly enough, the most famous, the most well known, own the most frequently sung songs in the world are Christmas carols. All over the world. You start Christmas carols and people will sing along with you, and they are about the beauty of Christ and the glory of Christ and his incarnation. One of the most famous pieces of music ever penned is Handle's Messiah. And you can go anywhere in the world and if the Hallelujah chorus starts, people know that it's the Hallelujah. Dumb dumb dum, dumb dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb dumb. You do that, Do that anywhere in the world, and people will respond with the next music a phrase, because we just know why Why has the world been writing music for two thousand years about this man and what he did? Because who this man is and what this man did is more beautiful than anything that any human being could ever or would ever describe as beautiful. Several things about the beauty of our Gospel from this text. The first is this that the beauty of the Gospel is not equally available to all. It's not equally accessible by all. Not everybody sees the beauty of the Gospel. In fact, if you believe the assertion that narrow is the gate and broad is the way. Right, if you believe that assertion, and I do, that the gate is narrow and few are those who find it, that few are those who find the way, then there are more people who don't find the person and work of Christ beautiful than do. There are more people who don't see the beauty of the Gospel than those who do see the beauty of the Gospel. And that is because the beauty of the Gospel is not equally accessible to all. We see this in verse eighteen, for the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. That idea is repeated later look at verse twenty three and twenty four. But we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the g use falling to gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks. Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. It's not equally accessible to all. There are two groupings in our passage. One grouping is the Jew gentile grouping Jews, Gentiles, Jews, Greeks. Another grouping is those who are perishing and those who are being saved. Paul's point here is that the difference between those groups, whether it's the ju gentile, those who are being saved, those who are perishing, the difference between those groups has nothing to do with those things that we would point out about them outwardly, but it has to do with something that is happening with them inwardly. Room with people hearing the gospel, and there will be different responses, and that response is not based on demographics. That response is not based on ethnicity, it's not based on education, it's not based on income or wealth. The response to the gospel. You take two twins who are not only raised in the same family by the same parents, but who share the same DNA, and they can hear the Gospel at the same time, and one finds it beautiful and the other finds it repulsive. Because there's something else at work. The beauty of the Gospel is not equally accessible to all. Why John twelve gives us a little insight into this. John twelve verses thirty six to forty we find these words. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you might become sons of light. When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe him. So that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed to text we just looked at. Therefore they could not believe. For again, Isaiah says, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. Lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. This beauty about which we speak is not equally accessible. It's not like the beauty of a sunset at a picture youre asque location. You take anyone to a you know, a picturesque location and show them a beautiful sunset, and they sit there and they will recognize that was magnificent. It's not like that. This is the kind of beauty that cannot be seen by falling men. This is the kind of beauty that falling men respond to as though it were not at all beautiful. Ephesians two one to three explains why you were dead in the transgressions and sins in which you once walked, following the of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, with blinded eyes scales over our eyes, unable to see the most beautiful truth, the most beautiful reality that mankind has ever known or will ever know. It is not equally accessible to all. But why why isn't it equally accessible to all? Well, it's not equally accessible to all because the beauty of the Gospel is not accessed through human effort. It's not access through human effort Verses nineteen and twenty. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the wise the Gospel is not something that we perceive as beautiful just because we understand the information found in the Gospel. In fact, there are people who understand the information found in the Gospel incredibly well, and yet they are repulsed by it. One former leader in the Anglican Church referred, for example, to the doctrine of substitutionary atonement and horrific. Yes, a leader in the Anglican Church, he referred to it as cosmic child abuse, the idea of penal substitutionary atonement, the idea that God would give his only begotten son, that he would kill his only begotten son as a substitute for sinners. He referred to it as cosmic child abuse. Again, something horrific and ugly. And there are those who hear the gospel and who understand the Gospel and are repulsed by it. So it's not just because we understand the information. It's not just because we've been exposed. It's not just because it's been presented to us in a winsome fashion. Again, you can put twins in the same room, and it has happened on a number of occasions. Many of you have multiple siblings, some of you are here today and you are a follower of Christ, and your siblings who are raised with you by the same parents in the same family, maybe even in the same church, are not Christians. Or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe you're here today at the invitation of someone, and you grew up in the church. You grew up in a family where you hurt the Gospel, and you have siblings and parents and nieces and nephews and cousins and uncles who have come to faith in Christ, but you have not, because the beauty of the Gospel is not something that we access and we understand through our human effort. It's not mathematics. If you at this plus this, then you get that it's not a formula. And I know, to parents sometimes that's maddening. If you've been in pastoral ministry any length of time, you've had that heart wrenching conversation with parents who have raised their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, who have shared the Gospel with their children, who have brought their children to the church, who have exposed their children to godly things and protected their children from ungodly things, and and they've not come to faith there's nothing more agonizing in the world. And often the response from parents in that situation is what did I do wrong? You know why we ask that question because we suffer from theological blindness asking that question what did I do wrong? Is assuming that all a person needs in order to come to faith is just to have the right levers pulled in their life when they're being raised. And if we pull the right levers and push the right buttons, then like magic, the proper input will result in the proper response. Not according to this text and everything else that we read first, Everything's Won twenty six and twenty nine. This is after our text later on in our passage paragraph for consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to the world standard. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not to bring them to nothing, the things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. You know what else is wrong with that statement? I point this out to parents all the time. You've got children who've come to faith, and you've got another child who hasn't come to faith, and you said, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? Stop right there, Stop right there, because here's the problem with that. If you believe that this child didn't come to faith because it's something you did wrong, you believe the others did come to faith because of something you did right, and you're taking credit for God, the Holy Spirit's work. They can't say amen. You ought to say ouch. As pastors, we experienced this, pastors who preached the gospel faithfully week after week and year after year. And there are people who come through the ministry and grow up in the ministry and not all of them come to faith. And as pastors we can get in trouble, and many pastors have, many churches have, many churches have perverted and polluted the gospel in order to try to make it more palatable and more attractive. Maybe if we just add this, maybe if we just subtract that, Maybe if we just did this, Maybe if we just did that, then we could get the response. Maybe maybe maybe maybe if we just But when we think that we are ignoring the fact that the beauty of the Gospel is not accessed by human wisdom or by human means. John six point forty four. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. This is Jesus' words, not mine. Jesus says, no one can come to him unless the Father who set him draws them to him. Luke ten twenty one twenty two. In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my father. And no one knows who the son is except the father, or who the father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. This is a supernatural work of God, and that's humbling and encouraging and empowering all at the same time. I remember when I had a professor of mine this sort of challenge my thinking on this and say that basically, when you understand that this is God's work, then it gives you the ultimate freedom, because what an incredible way to carry if you believe that it all depends on you, that you have to be smart enough, that you have to be winsome enough, that you have to be clever enough. No, but when you understand that this is a supernatural work, that people seeing the beauty and attractiveness of Christ in the Gospel is a supernatural work of the spirit of God, it is liberating. Thirdly, we see that the beauty of the Gospel is unveiled through the folly of preaching Verses twenty one to twenty three. In our text, Paul says, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demands signs, and Greek seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to gentiles. The choice of words here. Listen to this turn of phrase. In the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. In the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. In other words, it was in the wisdom of God that he did not limit people from knowing the Gospel based on the amount of wisdom that they had. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if you had to have a certain level of IQ in order to be able to understand the Gospel, then the difference between heaven and Hell would be how smart you were born. But in the wisdom of God, he did not leave it there. When he says here, Jews demand signs, Greek sek wisdom, he's using an oversimplification here in order to make a point, and his point is not about the type of people who seek supernatural signs versus the type of people who seek intelligent arguments. His point is in the next phrase, for Jews demand's signs, Greek seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified and then listen to this a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles. In other words, this group is making supernatural signs. We will believe you if only you can perform something for us. This group is seeking wisdom. We will believe you only if you can craft this kind of argument for us. And Paul says, we didn't give either one what they wanted. Instead, we preached Christ crucified, which these guys hate, and these guys hate. We did the exact opposite of what the flesh would say we need to do. Jews demand to sign. Okay, Lord, they want to sign. Please give them a sign so they can believe. No, Greeks seek wisdom. Okay Lord, they want a wise crafted argument. Please give me a wisely crafted argument so that I can convince them. Because all we need to do is give them what they want. No, preach Christ and him crucified. Why is that problematic? Because these people over here who are seeking a sign, they hear our savior died on a cross, and they say, not the sign of a savior. Not the sign of a savior. These people say, make a wise argument, and we say Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, and they say, not wisdom, that's not wisdom. We are looking for someone whom we can follow based on their line of argumentation, based on their philosophy. And you give us what someone who died as a criminal. No, thank you. You see in earthly wisdom. Preaching the cross to these two groups of people by the way, everybody falls into one of these two groups. According to earthly wisdom, preaching the cross is folly. It's foolishness, it makes no sense. And yet in the next chapter of First Corinthians, chapter two, here's how Paul starts the chapter. And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I didn't come sticking my wet finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, so that I can know what these people want, and what these people want, and just give them what they want. I committed myself to the folly of preaching the gospel, this beautiful, glorious gospel, and said Timothy chapter four. That's exactly what he tells young Timothy to do. Says I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching, For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. We preach the folly of the gospel. Why because that's where the beauty of the Gospel is evident. That's where the beauty of Christ is evident. That's there, and only there do we understand why he is fairest Lord Jesus. There and only there do we understand why he is beautiful Savior Verses twenty four and twenty five. But to those who are called both Jews and Greece, Christ the power of God noticed those who are called both Jews and Greeks from both of those groups ethnically theologically and philosophically. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. It is the cross that's where we see the beauty. The cross is horrendous, and yet that's where we see the beauty of Christ. The cross is barbaric, it's heinous, and yet that's where we see the beauty of Christ. Why because that's where we see that He is the suffering servant. That's where we see. At the end of Isaiah's words, what did he say, All we like sheep and gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way. But God hath lain upon him the iniquity of us. All. God took my sin and laid it on Christ. Paul says it this way. God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might come become the righteousness of God in him. God demonstrate, and it is love for us in this and that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the beauty. Greater love have no man than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. That's the beauty of the Gospel. Here's the beauty. The beauty is that all of us are guilty before a holy and righteous God. Every man, everywhere is guilty before God, and we all know it. We are all aware of it. One of the first phrases that we learned to say with conviction, I don't care what language you grew up speaking. One of the first phrases you learned to say with conviction is some variation of that's not fair. Amen. I mean, kids can say that with conviction, that's not fair because we know that the world ought to be We know that there ought to be justice. We get that. And because we know that there ought to be justice, we know that there ought to be justice in terms of sin and righteousness. We know it. When we see evil appearing to prevail in the world, we cry out. In fact, there are many people who say that the reason that they don't believe in God is because they see evil in the world. How can there be this good, all good and all powerful God if there's evil in the world. In other words, they recognize the fact that a good and righteous and powerful God has to crush evil, but they fall short of recognizing the fact that if God got rid of all evil last night, none of us would be here this morning. Amen, somebody, because on yesterday you thought and said and did things for which you deserve the wrath of God. You. It's easy to point out there and say that's not fair. It's easy to point out there and say that's injustice. But it's very difficult to point in here and recognize that in you dwells all of that evil and all of that injustice, and that a holy and righteous God owes you wrath. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? The rest of the religious world basically says this, you need to have a religious experience, and then after you have your religious experience, you need to do more good things than bad things and hope for the best when you die. It's all the other religions in the world in a nutshell. Is it an overset vocation? Only slightly, but essentially that's it. That's it. Two problems with that problem. Number one, you can't be good. You can't. You won't. You have your religious experience, and then you go living your life. Maybe you wear some special clothes, you know, that identify you as part of your religion, and you take on, you know, a different vocabulary and different habits, and you know, you go to your services and you do this, that and the other. You get money to the poor, but your heart is still wretched. You still harbor hatred and envy. There is still rage in you, there's still lust in you. Yes, you're going through all the motions outwardly, but inwardly those things are still there. So here's my question. What deals with that sin? Here's the other problem. You have your religious experience, and from that moment on you try to do more good things than bad things. But what about the things you did before your religious experience? What washes that away? What? You don't have an answer? There is no answer apart from Christ. Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God. What is beautiful and glorious about the Gospel? What is beautiful and glorious about Christ? He is the only answer to our sin problem. He is the only hope that any of us has of facing a righteous and holy and just God and coming away from that encounter with anything other than wrath, death, and hell. Because you deserve that, And that's all you deserve. Wrath and death, hell, that's it. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ by grace. You've been saved by grace. There is nothing more beautiful than that. That's why we sing songs like amazing grace, How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. We sing songs like what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus? What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow that makes me white as snow. No other fountain. I know nothing but the blood of Jesus. And we could go on and on and on, and it's beautiful and it's precious, And there is nothing more beautiful and nothing more precious in all the world. The beauty of Christ is found and the beauty of the Gospel. I don't need a picture, a painting or a carving to know that Christ is fairer than anything, that he is indeed a beautiful savior. And if he is anything other than that to you. Then I would beseech you. I would plead with you to flee to Christ, to place your trust in Christ and Christ alone, to save you from your sin, to save you from the wrath of God. Because you know that justice is required, and you know that righteousness is required, and you also know that your righteousness is insufficient. My prayer for you is that you now know that Christ's righteousness is beautiful and glorious, because it is indeed more than enough, not only for you, but for all who would call on his name. Let's pray, our Great God and Heavenly Father. We thank you and praise you for your goodness and mercy and kindness toward us through the person and work of your beautiful majestic Son, our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ. To his fair then sun, moon, stars, flowers of spring, meadows, anything anything that we have ever seen or will ever see, Christ too, shines brighter than anything that we will ever see. We praise you and thank you for the beauty of the Gospel. Praise you and thank you for the grace found therein that grace, whereby we might be saved from your wrath. When we come to you in repentance and faith, grant by your grace, that we would do precisely, that that we would trust you today, that we would cling to the cross today, and only to the cross to Christ, and only to Christ. For it is in his name that we pray and ask all these things. Amen.