Jesus: The Beauty of the Cross

It would be natural to think that there is nothing beautiful about the cross. That it only highlights shame and humiliation, demonstrating darkness and defeat. 

But arguably, the beauty of God is most supremely displayed in the cross of Christ. Nothing more fully reveals the beauty, the glory, the magnificence of Jesus than the cross.

The beauty of the cross reveals the glory of God, accomplishes victory over sin and death, and changes how we live.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today we'll look at the beauty of Jesus in the cross. It would be easy to think that there's nothing beautiful about the cross, that it is only shame and humiliation demonstrating darkness and disgust. I've even heard pastors claim that some churches and even people either are focused on the cross or those are focused on the resurrection. In other words, there are those who never move beyond the preaching of the cross, our need of the cross. And then there are those who instead preach the victorious life of gladness and excitement and seeming more hope. I've even heard some to encourage people not to live in reflection of the death of Christ because it can feel depressing. But instead, we should focus on his resurrection that doesn't bring shame and sadness. But I argue today that there is nothing that more fully reveals the beauty, the glory, the magnificence of Jesus than the cross. In fact, the beauty of God is most supremely displayed in the cross of Christ, which is why we will see today that John describes it as Jesus' moment of glory, not his moment of shame, his glory, the revealing of his holy beauty. Similarly, John Calvin writes, the glory of God shines most brightly in the face of Jesus Christ, and nowhere, nowhere more brightly than at the cross. Also, Jonathan Edwards, similarly, there we meet in Jesus Christ infinite highness and infinite condescension, infinite justice and infinite grace, infinite glory and the lowest humility, infinite majesty, and transcendent meekness, the beauty of God demonstrated most fully in the cross of Jesus. That's why Paul says the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So today we will gaze at the beauty of Jesus as demonstrated as seen in the cross. With that, I will pray, and then we will get started. The Lord Jesus, we do just thank you for the cross. We thank you for its meaning, for Lord, just its purpose in our lives, for the fact that it reveals your beauty, reveals love, reveals mercy, reveals kindness, reveals your gentleness, reveals your perfect justice, reveals so much of you that, as John Calvin says, that nothing reveals more fully the glory of God than the cross, than at the cross. So Jesus, I just pray that we would be moved to beauty today, not in shame or disappointment or condemnation, but just in amazement and awe and wonder that we would continue to grow into becoming a people of worship. Amen. Well, there's a man by the name of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf and lived in Germany in the 1700s. He was very wealthy, came from a very wealthy family. His father died at a young age, so he his grandmother actually raised him. She transferred a lot of the inheritance at a very young age, which is it's kind of unheard of today, but at a very young, very young age, in his teens. He was a very wealthy German guy. His mother was a grandmother was a Lutheran pietist, so they're very strict in the home. He was trained in the Bible. And at 19 years old, he was at a museum or at a in and looking at this painting by this Italian painter called Behold the Man. Behold the man. And he was gazing at the reflection of just this Jesus with the crown of thorns and the face of sadness and defeat almost, and desperation, hunger, um, even weakness. And he just felt a whisper in his heart. This I have suffered for you. What have you done for me? It became just a massive turning point in his whole life. He went on to write. I had loved him for a long time, but I never actually had done anything for him. But from now on, I will do whatever he leads me to do. His personal motto became, I have one passion, it is Jesus, and it's Jesus alone. He went on to study law at Wittenberg, which is the same place Martin Luther taught and lived. And many today describe him as the most influential German theologian between Luther and Schleimacher. I mean, he had a theology that was radically Christ-centered from his early teens, radically Christ-centered, imploring believers to rest in the wounds of Christ's side, spiritually married to the crucified Christ. Because he was a man of means, he eventually formed a community of refugees on his land. Later they were known as the Moravians, and they would spend hours every day, 24-7, praying and reflecting Jesus, particularly the death of Christ, having their heart and affections stirred to surrender in knowing the sacrifice of Jesus. And it's no surprise that from this small community began what was probably the first Protestant 24-7 house of prayer, a small community praying 24-7, as well as the first organized Protestant missionary movement. They began evangelizing the world with a handful of committed believers equipped with passionate love for Jesus and prayer. Probably one of the most influential communities that's ever existed, ever existed. Small community impacting nations. The Wesleyan movements were influenced by the Moravians. In my opinion, it and the Moravians themselves, through Wesley, laid the foundations for the whole Pentecostal revival movement that we see today. And it all began with Zinzendorf beholding the man, his weakness, his sacrifice, his submission. And the Moravians were known to reflect on the cross of Christ throughout their life. So today we will be looking at the cross. The cross is the reason that Jesus came to earth as a man and the very centerpiece of his life. We mentioned last week that John and his gospel highlights the centrality of the cross, emphasizing it as the very reason Jesus came to the earth, the central focus of his life and ministry. And if you remember, John does this through these hour of Jesus passages, of which they are seven. And it starts in Cana, right? His mother comes to him. They needed more wine. And what was his response? If you remember from last week, my hour has not come. The beginning of his ministry, he's saying, My hour has not come. John is trying to highlight Jesus has an hour that he came for. And that hour we'll see in the passage today of John 18 and 19. Then in John 7 and 8, religious leaders were seeking to arrest him two different times. It also says, But his hour had not come. Then we get to John 12, where we find the turning point of the whole gospel. It's the middle of these seven-hour passages. And it is Palm Sunday, five days before the Passover meal, six days before his crucifixion. And it began with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey with crowds waving branches, crying out, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus said on that Palm Sunday in the book of John, and now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. The transition point starting with John 12. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Glorified. John is unique of the gospels, and then he doesn't demonstrate the cross as one of shame and torment and pain, though it is that. He emphasizes it as a moment of glory. This is Jesus' moment of glory. Then on Monday, Jesus cleansed the temple. He's saying his house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. The city is stirring with anticipation, fear, anxiety, curiosity, right? The Messiah had come into Jerusalem. Then on Tuesday, he promised the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, building even more tension with religious leaders. Then Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with expensive perfume, preparing him for his burial, which angered Judas because of the supposed waste. So Tuesday, Judas left, bargained with religious leaders for the money to betray him. Then in John 13, on Thursday, the day they celebrated the Passover meal, says Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world into the Father. Goes on to celebrate the meal in the upper room with his disciples, stooping down to wash their feet, instituting what we now celebrate as the Lord's Supper. Then he prays with his disciples. Apparently, all night while his disciples couldn't stay awake, the night before his crucifixion, and his prayer is recorded in John 17, known as the highest priestly prayer, the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the Gospels. We read it last week. It begins with him crying out, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. The centerpiece of Jesus' life is the cross. The reason he came, John is emphasizing, is the cross, and that cross again is his place of glory. Then we pick up in John chapter 18, verse 3. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Where did he go? To the garden where they were prey. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, Whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am he. Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them when Jesus said to them, I am he. They drew back and fell to the ground. If you remember, a couple weeks ago, there's another theme that's developed throughout John, and there's the so-called I am statements, of which again there are seven with the predicate. And they are revealing two things about Jesus. First, they define Jesus' role in the salvation of humanity, that he is the bread of life, the manna from heaven. He is the light of the world, the gate unto salvation, the good shepherd. He is the resurrection from the dead and life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the vine. John is through these seven I am statements revealing Jesus' role in salvation. But secondly, they're declaring the deity of Jesus, defining him as the very Yahweh of the Old Testament. If you remember from John chapter 8, verse 56, Jesus says, He tells the leaders, your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad. They responded, But you're not yet 50 years old, they said to him, and you have seen Abraham? It's absurd. Very truly I tell you, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am. At this, they picked up stones to stone him. Jesus is declaring that he is the great I am. If you remember from Exodus chapter 3, when Moses asked God, tell me your name. God responded, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. John is emphasizing through these I am statements that Jesus is in fact Yahweh of the Old Testament. At this, they picked up stones to stone him because they knew what he was declaring. He was declaring he was the God of Moses. So in John chapter 10, they say, We are not stoning you for any good work, they replied. We're stoning you for blasphemy because you, a mere man, claim to be God. So in John chapter 18, when Jesus says to them, I am, it says they drew back, they fell to the ground. It's not entirely clear what that means, but apparently John is trying to emphasize they are on holy ground, right? There's a sense, a sentiment. They are standing before the Yahweh of the Old Testament. Continues in verse 12. So the band of soldiers and their captors, captain, and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and they bound him. First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. I know that sometimes it gets confusing the sequence of what's happening, of where Jesus is going, from which place to which, especially in his arrest. And not every gospel can records every event. So I thought it'd just be helpful to just give an overview of where Jesus went, starting with Annas. Anis was the high priest during Jesus' youth. He was the first high priest when Jerusalem was under direct Roman rule. And Annas was removed fairly early, but he retained massive influence. He was the key religious leader. Five of his sons became high priest, and his son-in-law as well, Caiaphas, also became high priest. So they started and bringing him to Annas. The religious, not necessarily the authority at the moment, but kind of the religious father of the Sadducees, of the Sanhedrin, many of his children, again, being high priest. Anis examined him, then he sent him to Caiaphas, his son-in-law, who was the official high priest during Jesus' death, and it just referenced it in John chapter 18. But if you remember from John 11, Caiaphas says, You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish. He was saying, This one man should die instead of all of us at the hands of the Romans. As high priest that year, he prophesies that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation and not only for that nation, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. Without him even knowing he was prophesying the function of Jesus' death. After Caiaphas, apparently early the next morning, the whole Sanhedrin gathered. The Sanhedrin was a Jewish religious council that ruled on religious and civic issues, that led by the chief priest, but also included elders, teachers of the law, probably Annas, and the membership reaching 71. There are primarily Sadducees, but also Pharisees. Apparently the Sanhedrin, though not recorded in John, but in other gospels, gathered that morning and they referred him then to the Roman leaders for crucifixion, starting with Pilate. Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea. He lived on the coast, but he came to Jerusalem during festivals. And why was he in Jerusalem? Because we're in the festival of Passover. So Pilate is examining Jesus, and Pilate sends Jesus to Herod Antipas. Who is Herod Antipas? He was the son of Herod the Great, who was the ruler when Jesus was born, who received the Magi. If you remember the story from Matthew, who killed the young children to prevent speculation about a promised Jewish king, Herod the Great ruled as a client king, and after his death, his territory was divided between his sons. And by the time Herod, or by the time Jesus was to be crucified, Herod Antipas was still ruling over Galilee and Perea. He was the Herod who imprisoned and executed John the Baptist. Why did Pilate, ruler of Judea and Jerusalem, send him to Herod? Because Herod was overseeing Galilee, and neither of them really wanted to deal with the issue. Herod Antipas sent him back to Pilate, and it was Pilate who had him crucified after washing his hands with water, declaring him innocent, picking back up in verse 25. Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. This is in the house of Caiaphas. So they said to him, You also are not one of his disciples, are you? He denied it and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had recently cut off, asked, Did I not see you in the garden? Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed. If you remember, Jesus prompt prophesying that Peter would deny him three times. And we read from Luke, at this moment, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Not sure what his face, what his expression looked like. Was it one of compassion? Was it one of truth? Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly. Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters, which was the guy the governor of Pilate. It was early morning. So Pilate went outside to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered him, If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you. Claiming to be king, he's not submitted to Caesar. John 19. He doesn't include the exchange with Herod, but then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, arrayed him in purple, and they came up to him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. They struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

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Pilate said to them, Behold the man.

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When the chief priest and the officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. But the Jews answered, We have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God, declaring himself to be Yahweh. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, You would have no authority over me at all, unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, who he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Druze cried out, If you release this man, you were not a friend of Caesar. Every one who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement in Arimac Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover, it was about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews, Behold your king. And they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over them to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. And there they crucified him, with two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross, and had read Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Behold, the man, the king, the Lamb of God, our Savior, a crucified King, the humiliated God, which probably stirs discomfort and questions naturally.

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Where is the beauty in any of this? How is there beauty in such torment?

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The beauty of the cross. I propose there are three aspects to the beauty of the cross. And first, it reveals the glory of God. The cross reveals the glory of God. As I mentioned, the pivot in the book of John is John 12, where on that palm Sunday, Jesus declares, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Then in chapter 17, in his prayer the night before his death, he cries out, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. As I mentioned for John, it's not Jesus' moment of humiliation, it is his moment of glorification. And throughout the book, he is transforming the cross from one of shame to one of glory, which is challenging for us to see. Another way he is highlighting the glory of the cross is through three so-called lifted up passages. We read in John 3 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And John 8 28, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. John is intentionally referring both to his literal lifting up on a tree, crucified and hanging naked, and also the figurative lifting up of Jesus in glory. It's such an odd contrast. The beauty of God is harmoniously revealed. I see holiness and love. I see mercy and truth met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other from Psalm 85. I see all the eternal attributes of the everlasting God, all of them displayed at the same time in the cross. There is no contradiction between the righteousness, the justice on one side, and the love and the mercy and the compassion on the other side. They are all there, and they are all there in the plenitude or the fullness or completeness of the Godhead. There's only one thing to say when you have seen things like that, and it is this God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is there I know God as He is, and as my Father. I see His glorious character vindicated to the last iota. Therefore, I trust my soul to him. I rest upon his word, the unchanging, everlasting God. The beauty of the cross is that it reveals the glory of God. A common question often in the church, but also outside the church, is why does evil exist? Or why does sin exist? Why did God, the creator, even allow it as an option? If he is good, could he not have created a world that allowed no option for sin? I mean evil. God did not certainly create evil or sin, but he created a world in which sin was an option. It was a choice for both humans and angels. But even in allowing that choice to exist in the gospel, he also had the foresight to create a way of salvation for humans choosing sin from the very beginning. Jesus existed in the beginning. There was a way of salvation from the beginning. But the question is why? Why? And one suggestion is that it's the way of the cross most fully reveals the full character of God. Because without sin, there was no sacrifice, there was no forgiveness, there was no mercy, there was no grand demonstration of the amazing grace and love of God. And as such, much of the character of God would remain theory. It's true, but not fully revealed. But in the cross, sacrificial love becomes tangibly demonstrated. God took on flesh and dwelt among us. And now for all eternity, the fullness of God is seen and known. And that while we were still sinners, enemies of God, hostile to God in our mind and deeds, He died for us humbly, gently, sacrificially, in full submission to the Father, revealing the fullness of his character. Romans says that the riches of his glory is made known in and through the vessels of mercy, which is you and me who have to receive his forgiveness in the cross through faith. So now we declare his glory, the beauty of his holiness as vessels who know the grace, the mercy, the love of God. The beauty of the cross first is that it reveals the glory of God. Secondly, the beauty of the cross is that it causes victory over sin and death. There's four ways that this victory is described in Scripture, but it's really one victory described in four different ways. The first is propitiation. When we read in Romans 3, for all have sinned, we have all sinned, we all fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. Propitiation is a big word, it's a Bible word, but it's appeasing the righteous wrath and anger of God by bearing the punishment we are due. He took the punishment we deserved in our own sins against him. We were due punishment, but God took the righteous punishment in our place. Theologically, this concept is developed throughout the Old Testament, most clearly seen in the Passover Lamb, a foreshadowing to Christ, where Christ substituted himself for humanity by offering himself as a sacrifice, bearing in his own body the penalty of our sin, of your sin, of my sin. He died in our place for our sins. The victory over sin and death is propitiation. Secondly, it is redemption. We read in Ephesians 1: in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. What is redemption? It's all about liberation, liberating us from slavery to sin. He paid the ransom price of his own blood, canceling our debt. We are now free, liberated from the bondage to sin and death. Third, there's justification. Read in Romans 5, we have been justified by his blood. How much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? What is justification in Scripture? It is legally declaring guilty sinners, you and me, to be righteous in right standing before God. And fourth, there is reconciliation. And in Romans 5, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved from by his life? What is reconciliation? It is overcoming the hostility with God, that we were enemies of God, so that we can restore deep personal relationship with God. How does the cross demonstrate the beauty of God and victory over sin and death through propitiation that he substituted, he took the punishment we were due through redemption, liberating us from the sin and death through justification, legally declaring us right before God and through reconciliation, restoring us unto relationship with God. Victory over sin and death in the cross. The beauty of the cross is that it accomplishes this victory. And finally, the beauty of the cross is that it changes how we live. If you remember from last week, we talked about submission, and submission being the voluntary yielding of our will, and it's rooted in knowing our dependency on God, for our need for God. So chiefly we submit to God, we voluntarily yield our will to God in our realization of our great need for God. We are nothing without Him. We can do nothing without Him, and the realization of our dependence produces our submission. And from there, in submitting to God, we can then submit to secular leaders, elders, ministers, husbands, one another. But again, our submission, the yielding of our will, begins with knowing our need and desperation for God. In view of God's mercies, nothing reveals our great dependency and need for God more than the cross. Submission to God or the yielding of our will is not a matter of willpower. It is a matter of revelation of the cross. Paul writes, far be it from me to boast in anything. No success, no wealth, no status, no accomplishment, nothing, boasting in nothing, far be it from me, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. See, it is in view of God's mercy that we offer our lives, our bodies, our time, our everything we have and do as a living sacrifice. And realizing what he has done for us, we are compelled to do the same with him. This is our worship, rooted in the revelation of God, the beauty of God that is most supremely displayed in the cross of Christ. To put it more practically, Paul tells us to do nothing from nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, empty glory. Do nothing for empty glory, but in humility consider, count others more significant than yourselves. The only way we can begin to live in such humility, if we're honest with ourselves, is in view of the mercies of the cross. It can't be willed, is the fruit of revelation, or when we are commanded, do everything without grumbling or complaining or arguing. We cannot possibly live that way outside of reflecting on the cross or forgive one another as Christ forgave you. No one can do that outside of the revelation of the cross or even walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us exactly as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. That only happens at the foot of the cross. It's in the cross that we can rejoice in so far as we share in Christ's sufferings as we are intolerant, that we may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed, sharing in suffering as good soldiers of Christ Jesus. Again, Paul going back to Galatians, far be it from us to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus, by which the world has been crucified to us, and us to the world. So let us behold the man. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my riches gain I count but loss, and pour content on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast. Save in the cross of Christ my God, all the vain empty things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingle down. Did ere such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose, so rich a crown, were the whole realm of nature mine, that were that were a present far too small. Because love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. May we never move beyond the cross. Because the beauty of God is most supremely displayed in the face of Jesus, and his beauty is profoundly and completely displayed in his hour of glory, and that while we were still sinners, he died for you, for me. We'll move to a time of communion, and when Jesus instituted communion at the last Passover, he didn't tell us to remember him generically, right? He told us to remember his body broken for you, his blood poured out, shed for you. So if if maybe a couple folks want to just get the plates and then we can pass them out. And anyone who's a believer in Jesus is welcome to join us, and we'll all take communion together.