Tanilba Bay Baptist Church
Worship
  • This Is Amazing Grace
  • Across The Lands
  • How Deep The Father's Love For Us

      • Psalm 19:1–6ANGLNIV2011

  • What is beauty

    When we saty that something is beautiful, what do we mean?
    It can be a hard concept to define - but when we see something that is beautiful, we know it.
    We sometimes say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to a degree, there is truth to that, but I’m not sure it’s entriely correct to say that beauty is completely subjective.
    You see, we call something beautiful when it gives a sense of pleasure or perhaps even harmony.
    It can of course relate to physical beauty - the things we see… but it’s more than that. Something is beautiful when it works smoothly with purpose and towards a good outcome.
    We can talk about someone being a beautiful person when they have these inner qualities that make them a pleasure to be around. Conversely, someone who might be physically attractive, might not be a pleasure to be around. Despite their looks, you might not call them beautiful.
    But why am I talking about beauty?
    Well, sometimes we can have a tendency to reduce Christianity down to a few key concepts. Perhaps you might boil it down to the fact that all are sinners and are in need of forgiveness. Jesus came, died for our sins and rose that we can have life. And you now have the choice to accept that forgive and become friends with God again.
    Now that might be all true, and when properly understood, can actually be understood for the beauiful truth that it is, but yet, it can be so easy to miss the wonder of it all… to lose sight of just how beautiful it is.
    You see, I’m going to contend this morning that beauty is actually integral to what God does. He is more than just functionality. What he is doing in and through this world is actually a thing of beauty.
    Now this is not to say that something being functional is not beautiful.
    When I was in High School, I actually wanted to be an architect. I imagined designing these beautiful buildings that people would marvel at.
    When I got to about year 11, I had a realisation. I was actually not that good at designing visually attractive things - what I was good at was maths and logics and problem solving.
    I actually became an engineer, and I discovered the beauty of a problem well solved.
    What I’ve started to see is that there is something beautiful about large and complex and making it workable so that it can achieve a purpose.
    And this is what we see as we look at the Christianity. The gospel speaks into a complex and at times trerrifying world, and it makes it beautiful. It gives it purpose and meaning and everything changes.
    Today we’re continuing our series through May Mission Month with the overarching theme of ‘What’s Love Look Like’. And the aspect of the answer that we are going to look at today is perhaps not the one you might first answer - but I’m going to suggest that the love that we see from God is beautiful.
    So if we are to be people who are to shine love into the world, we are to be beautifiers.
    Now I don’t know how you feel you might go with that idea - but if you have the gospel, then I’m going to suggest you have all you need.

    Creation

    Now, while I’m going to be arguing that being beautiful is more than physical appearance, the first point I’m going to make is actually going to start with physical beauty.
    And that’s because I’m going to start with creation.
    Psalm 19 starts: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
    It’s good to start with creation, because here we can learn something about God.
    When we look at creation - we see exuberance.
    Go for a walk in the Tilligerry Habitat. Look out over the water and see all of the land formations. Look at the colours of the sunset. Take a closer look at the trees, and the plants. Everywhere you look, it is just amazing.
    I love looking at the photos that Chris Barrett takes. It really captures the beauty.
    Chris also came up to PNG with us earlier in the year and again just captured the natural beauty of God’s amazing creation. Up at Gono, you would just stand on the top of a ridge, and it wouldn’t matter what way you were facing, the view was spectacular.
    Now I want to suggest that all of this beauty is actually a reminder of God’s love for us. Could it be that God created things so beautiful for our enjoyment and pleasure?
    Love looks like the beauty of creation all around us.
    Now, while we’re talking about the beauty of creation, I’m going to suggest that we should consider creation care as part of our mission mandate.
    I don’t know if this is something you have ever thought of or not. Often we think of mission purely in terms of telling people about Jesus - but mission should really be thought of as joining with God in bringing about his purposes.
    If God cares about his creation, then so should we.
    When we care for creation, we are creating an environment where God can be glorified. And also, when the environment suffers, it is often the most vulnerable people throughout our world that suffer the most.
    So, it’s important for us to consider how best to look after God’s creation.

    Jesus enters in

    We could spend a long time reflecting on all the exquisite aspects of God’s good creation but I want to move on to another aspect of how we can see beauty.
    So let me quickly tell you the story we find in John 5.
    Actually, what I’m about to describe might initially seem like anything but beautiful.
    You see, John 5 starts by describing the pool of Bethesda.
    It was a pool surrounded by disabled people.
    They would wait there because many of them had a belief that it had some kind of healing power.
    So, according to the way they understood it, at certain times the water would be stirred and the belief was an angel was stirring the water, so someone would try to enter the water while it was being supernaturally stirred with the hope they would be healed.
    Now, here’s where things get ugly. We can probably put it down to human nature, but when people get desperate, they don’t usually treat each other well.
    And so, in John 5, we meet an invalid who has been in this situation for 38 years, and yet nobody has ever helped him into the water. People are always pushing in before him.
    This is an ugly situation. And you know what… each of us would not have to think hard to think of a situation where things are just horrible.
    We can look at the housing crisis where we have a growing number of people becoming homeless.
    We can look at people who are stuck in domestic violence situations.
    We can look at countless people throughout the world living in war torn countries, fearful that a missile is about to knock down their building.
    I’ve been talking about the beauty that God brings - but how do we square this with such ugliness that has engulfed our world?

    Jesus brings change

    Well, let’s look at the ugliness we see around the pool of Bethesda… Into the ugliness Jesus enters.
    After a short interchange with the man, Jesus says to him: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk”
    And he does.
    Now, at first, it almost creates more ugly scenes as some of the leaders become more worried about the fact that Jesus is healing on the Sabbath, but the story ends with Jesus interacting with this newly healed man again, and setting him on a new path.
    Jesus turns the ugly into something beautiful.
    And this is the point that I want to make. You see, the world can seem like a very ugly place. That is, until you see Jesus entering into the ugliness and bringing a sense of order.
    The domestic violence survivor finds Jesus. Though the pain and memories haunt her, there is hope for the future. Rather then being weighed down, she finds the strength to keep going. The restoration that happens is actually beautiful.
    Now, I don’t want to simplify this and suggest that everything bad will suddenly vanish once we accept Jesus. Bad things do still happen even with Jesus in our lives.
    But yet changes always seem to happen when we turn to Jesus. We start to experience Shalom - and for those unfamiliar with that word, it’s a word that roughly translates to peace, but is a much bigger concept, looking at all things working together as they should. This is what happen when Jesus turns up.
    Now here’s the thing, once we recognise that things start to become beautiful when Jesus turns up, if we want to be beautifiers, we just need to introduce people to Jesus.
    We look at many situations and think - what can I do?
    We need to recognise that often, I can offer little help, but what I can do, is give them the hope of knowing Jesus.
    Now this isn’t an excuse to say a few words about Jesus and then wash your hands of the situation. Where we can offer practical assistance, we certainly should. That’s also part of being a beautifier. So offer the practical assistance, but know that the real power lies with Jesus.
    So, what does love look like?
    First, God’s love can be found in the beauty of creation.
    And second, love is seen in the transforming work of Jesus when he turns up.

    Christ-like community

    For my third point, let me turn to another picture we get in John’s gospel, this time in chapter 13.
    On this occasion, we find Jesus towards the end of his earthly ministry.
    It’s the night before the crucifixion, and Jesus has his disciples with him as he has one final meal with them.
    In this setting Jesus does something extraordinary. He takes off his outer clothing and wraps a towel around his waist. In other words, he is taking the position of a servant - something that you just would not do if you were not a servant, and even more so if you are a leader or teacher.
    Taking on this position of a servant, he then washes the disciples feet, after which he says: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, heave washed your feet, you also should wash onee another’s feet (v14)”.
    Later in that chapter (v34-35) Jesus will say: “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”.
    So for my third point, is that love that is beautiful can be found in a Christ-like community.
    When God’s people gather together and love people, including both the other people in their own gatherings, and people in the wider community, something amazing happens. We start to see shalom!
    Now I recognise, Christians communities don’t always do this as well as they should - actually sometimes they fail pretty spectacularly. But yet, when it does happen, it is one of the most wonderful things you’ll ever experience.
    What I absolutely love about church communities, including this one, is that you get people from such diverse backgrounds. The rich, the poor, the educated, and those who dropped out of school… you get those who lean on the political left, and those who lean to the right of politics… you get people on all sides of different debates… and yet, as we gather, a love for each other transcends above all of these differences and you experience something unlike anything this world can offer. And it is beautiful.
    People notice when they see this sort of love. They’re despearate for it, because you don’t see it anywhere else.

    The early church

    We actually see a great example of this in practice with the early church.
    In Acts 2, we find ourselves in the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus.
    The word Pentecost comes about because it came 50 days after Passover, and it was one of the three major festivals that the Jews observed. Incidentally, we’ll be recognising Pentecost next week.
    But on this first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus, we effectively see the birth of the church. Bu the end of Acts 2, there are over 3000 peoplee who have been baptised and are now part of the new church community.
    We then get this description of the church… in the midst of teaching and prayer and the breaking of bread, it says: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need”.
    Now that might sound pretty extreme (selling property), but this was their expression of love.
    We might not be called to sell our houses, but yet, sometimes love can call us to do some pretty big things.

    Our challenge

    And so there is a challenge in this for us.
    Are we prepared to love in a self-sacrificial way?
    Are we prepared to love one another, putting aside our differences, in the way that Jesus demonstrated for us?
    When we do, that is when we become beautifiers.
    When we do, we can start to see the complex and often destructive world we live in, become beautiful.
    Because the love we have for one another reflects the love of God for us.

    Conclusion

    What does love look like?
    Well, when we look at how God has loved this world, we find something beautiful. Even in the midst of all the hate and vitriol, God’s love reaches through this and makes a difference.
    We see God’s love expressed in creation.
    We see God’s love when Jesus moves in.
    And we see God’s love when God’s people love and serve one-another.
    When all this happens, the ugly becomes beautiful.
    We are called to be part of this process of making things beautiful.
    You might not think of yourself as physically attractive, but if you have Jesus with you, then you are beautiful.
    Let me pray…
  • Mighty To Save
Tanilba Bay Baptist Church
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http://www.tanilbabaybaptistchurch.com
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