"The Beauty of Christ" Sermon: John 17:1-5

“The Beauty of Christ”

[John 17:1-5]

March 3, 2013 Second Reformed Church

            As we consider and meditate on the idea of the Beauty of Christ, we may find ourselves perplexed:  doesn’t the Scripture say that Jesus was absolutely common looking?  How would we attribute beauty to Him?

Indeed, Isaiah wrote of Jesus, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  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” (Isaiah 53:2-3, ESV).

Jesus was an absolutely average looking person.  But we need not confine the beauty of Christ just to His physical attributes.  We can see that He is beautiful through Who He truly is and through what He does and has done.  As we look at this morning’s text, we see something of what it means that Jesus is beautiful.

Our text takes place on what we now call Maundy Thursday – the day the Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and shared the Passover with them, instituting the Lord’s Supper.  The text we read is the beginning of what is called “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer” – a prayer which concerns itself largely with the care and growth of the disciples after Jesus leaves them.  Do we not see the Beauty of Christ in the very fact that as the betrayal is about to occur and Jesus be taken by force, tried by the Jews and the Romans, and crucified, that He would turn to His Father and pray for His disciples?

            “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come;’

            We may remember that Jesus speaks often of “His hour” in the Gospels – often saying that His hour had not yet come.  But now, we see the Christ praying to His Father that the hour had come – it was now.  What was “the hour”?  It was the hour for Him to suffer and die as part of Their eternal plan to save the elect of God.

            “And Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’” (John 12:23-24, ESV).

            As we saw in our Tuesday evening study, Jesus’ death was part of Jesus’ plan all along.  He had agreed to it in the Triune Council before the Creation, and now it was coming to pass, exactly as They intended it.  Jesus was not surprised – this was what His life was leading to from the beginning.

            One of the beautiful things about the plan of the Triune Council is found in this: Jesus’ dying will cause much fruit to be born. Through Jesus' death and resurrection, many will come to believe.

            Is He not beautiful for giving His very life that you and I would become the children of God – that we would be raised through His death and resurrection to be made into His Image – and brought into His Kingdom on that final day?

            That's why we talk about the day of Jesus's crucifixion being “Good Friday” – it is good because of the beautiful thing that Jesus accomplished – that all those who would ever believe in Him Alone for salvation would be saved. It is good – it is beautiful – that Jesus died the most horrific death that anyone will ever die because it accomplished salvation to the Glory of God.

            Is He beautiful to you? With His body beaten and bloodied, hung on a cross, deserted by God, screaming in torment – for you, if you believe. What more beautiful thing could He do for you?

            ‘glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,’

            Here we see that Christ is beautiful for wanting to glorify the Father – and to glorify Him specifically through the crucifixion and His other sufferings.  Jesus, the beautiful Son, desired that the Father glorify Him that He would glorify the Father.

            Remember what we mean by glorify – glorify means to magnify – in the sense of worship – to praise, honor, and show as worthy.  Jesus asked the Father to magnify Him – to bring praise and honor to Him and to show Him worthy as God the Savior – not for His Own Sake, but having been so magnified, He would magnify and praise and honor and show the Father as worthy.

            We understand – in considering the Trinity – that the Three Persons of the Trinity have equally glorified each other since before the beginning.  The Father and Son glorify the Spirit, the Father and Spirit glorify the Son, and the Son and Spirit glorify the Father.

            It is beautiful that the Son would desire to be glorified by the Father so the Son would glorify the Father because it is good, and right, and holy to do so.  It affirms the Deity of the Son and the Father’s approval of the Work of the Son.  It is beautiful in that the Persons of the One God are not at odds with each other, but in perfect harmony, bringing salvation to the elect in a way that brings the greatest glory to God.

            Are you drawn to Jesus? Do you desire to worship Him? Do you long to be in His presence? Do you feel empty when you are not receiving His Grace? Oh, that our cry would be “glorify Him, glorify Him” – that we would not be satisfied with the things of earth but that we would long to see the full beauty of Christ revealed!

            ‘since you have given him authority over all flesh,’

            Christ is beautiful in His acknowledgement of the procession of the Trinity.  That is, although the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equal in Deity, the Father begot the Son, and the Father and Son sent the Holy Spirit.

            Here we see the Son acknowledging that His authority comes from the Father – not because He is any less God than the Father, but because He is begotten of the Father – He proceeds from the Father.

            The Father is Sovereign, and the Son is Sovereign, and the Holy Spirit is Sovereign.  Still, the Son’s authority comes from the Father, and elsewhere we see that the Spirit’s authority comes from the Father and the Son.  Yet all Three are equally the One Sovereign.  This Truth, and beginning to comprehend it, is beautiful.

            Jesus confirmed His Sovereignty right before He ascended back to the Father:  “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Matthew 28:18, ESV).

            Do you find comfort in knowing this? Can you rest easier knowing that worry is useless because Christ is sovereign over all – all authority is His? Can you look at your circumstances, and your disappointments, and you're not knowing what the future will be, and rest in the fact that Jesus does?

‘to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.’

Christ is beautiful because he gives life to all those who believe in Him – all those the Father has given to Him.

Paul describes our natural situation in this way:  “and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience –“ (Ephesians 2:1-2, ESV).

All merely human children are born dead – spiritually dead – there is nothing that we can do to help ourselves – we are inclined toward evil, and we cannot choose good. The only way we can be spiritually good is for God to intercede, which is what Christ has done – and that is beautiful. That He would choose to incarnate and endure all that He did in this life out of love for us to make us right with God.

John confirms this again as he wrote, “and this is the promise that he made to us – eternal life” (I John 2:25, ESV).

C.S. Lewis once said, “you have never seen a mortal man.”  What he meant by that was that every human being lives eternally. The only question is whether that person will live the life of eternal death or life of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

John described eternal life like this, “and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. The city has no need of sun or moon or shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life” (Revelation 21:22-27, ESV).

In the kingdom, the place of worship is Christ, the light is Christ – what beauty shall we behold!

 “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Christ is beautiful not only because He gives us life, but because He is life Himself.

Jesus explains that eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ – and the reason that eternal life is to know Them is because God is eternal life. Again, the word “know” in our text does not merely mean to have an intellectual knowledge of Them. No, the word means to be in a passionate – intimate – relationship with Them – the same kind of relationship that a man and a woman have who are married to one another.

After Jesus's friend, Lazarus, died, He went to the grave and met Lazarus’ sister, Martha, and “Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:24-26, ESV).

In using the expression, “I am,” Jesus was affirming that He is God. And since He is God, He himself is life. He gives life. He raises the dead. He is the embodiment of life – which makes Him beautiful.

John writes, “and we know that the son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20, ESV).

And again, Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me” (John 14:6b, ESV). Here we have all three images together: Jesus is God. Jesus is Life. Jesus is the Giver of life – the One who reconciles us to God.

Jesus not only knows the way to give life but He is the Way to give life. He does not just do beautiful things, but He is Beauty itself. Jesus, Himself, calls our bodies dead and rotting spiritually and says, “come forth!” And we live. The day will come when our bodies have fallen away and rotted, Jesus will also call for them, and they will come together again with our spirit and we shall be whole and perfect in the Kingdom.

“I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”

Christ is beautiful for His obedience to the Father.

As we mentioned before, even though the Three Members of the Trinity are equal in Their Divinity, we do see a procession the Father to the Son and from the Father and the Son to the Spirit. So the Beauty of Jesus is seen through His obedience to the Will of the Father.

As Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me” (John 5:30-32, 36, ESV).

Jesus did not act on His own, but He listened and perfectly obeyed the Father. And for those with ears to hear and eyes to see, Jesus explained that the works themselves that the Father sent Him to do prove that He was sent by the Father.

In raising us spiritually and sending the Holy Spirit to indwell us, Jesus has given us the ability to obey the Father. Considering what He's done and what we look forward to, might it not be well for us to obey the Father?

 “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

Finally, Christ is beautiful for wanting to be like and with the Father glorified.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed before anything was created and They were glorified and glorified Each Other. In the Incarnation, Jesus put aside His Glory, but now He was asking that the Father would glorify Him again – that the Father would show His Worthiness. That He would praise and honor Him – that the Father would affirm the work that He did, and that He would be seen for who He truly is.

John was allowed a glimpse of Jesus in His Glory when he was on the island of Patmos. And we read, “then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning. I saw seven golden lamp stands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in the furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth, sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the shining sun in full strength” (Revelation 1:12-16, ESV).

Peter, James, and John had been allowed a glimpse of this on the Mount of Transfiguration, but now John saw Jesus as He was in his vision. He saw Jesus holy, pure, mighty, and blatantly affirming the truth and the power of His Word – beautiful.

As we read these descriptions in Scripture we get some idea of what the glory – the beauty – of Christ is, but we don't fully comprehend it yet – otherwise we would fall down and worship and follow Him perfectly. Do look forward to that day when the veil is taken away and we will see Him as He is? I know in my better moments, I want to see as He is. I want the Kingdom to come, and sin and death and evil to be put away. In my heart of hearts, I want to be so overpowered by the beauty and the glory of Christ that I fall on my face like John did in worship. Don't you?

One final observation: this is the only time in all of Holy Scripture that Jesus refers to Himself as “Jesus Christ.” The word “Christ” in Greek is the same as the word “Messiah” in Hebrew – and it means “the anointed one.”  Prophets, priests, and kings were anointed to affirm and confirm their calling.  In this one context, Jesus refers to Himself as “Jesus Christ” to affirm and confirm before the disciples again that He is the Savior that God intended to send from the beginning. Jesus was acknowledging blatantly that He is the One that God prophesied in the book of Genesis would crush the serpent’s head. He is the One that all of the Old Testament Scriptures talked about and prophesied would come to free His people. He is the One Who came and proved that anything other than Himself is an idol, a falsehood, a delusion, a cheap imitation – He is the Beautiful One, the Husband of the Church.

As Solomon wrote, “behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful” (Song of Solomon 1:16a, ESV).  “My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires. His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearing ensues like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song of Solomon 5:10-16, ESV).

Although Jesus did not physically look like this, who He was and what He did made Him this beautiful – and in the Kingdom we will see His Glory and His True Beauty will be exposed to us in all its fullness.

Paul writes, “for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face-to-face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (I Corinthians 13:12, ESV).

Lord, come quickly!

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we thank You for the glimpses that You have given us of the Beauty of Christ, we thank You that He desired to glorify You, that He followed You in humility, that He gave us eternal life, that He is Eternal Life, that He obeyed You, and that He wanted to be like You and with You. We ask that You would stir up that desire within us that we would want to be more like You – more like Your Son – that You would make us beautiful – glorious – that we would desire Your Kingdom in all its fullness and that we would follow You perfectly, according to Your Will. We ask these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.