The Beauty of Jesus Encourages Us to Run with Endurance (Hebrews 1:1-3)

Beauty moves us by touching our hearts. History has countless stories of people being moved by beauty. The King Kong story is one about beauty. At the end of the 2005 movie King Kong by Peter Jackson, we see what the movie is really about. Kong has gone on a rampage through New York City and is hanging from the top of a building as airplanes swarm around shooting at him. After a valiant fight, Kong is fatally wounded. The giant ape holds on to life in order to stare into the eyes of Ann Darrow. Staring into Ann’s eyes, Kong’s fingers slip off the ledge. The giant ape falls to his death. The chaos has ended with the death of the giant ape. As he lies on the ground a policeman says, “Come on folks…it’s all over. The airplane’s got him.” You then hear the character played by Jack Black say, “It wasn’t the airplanes…it was beauty that killed the beast.” Kong is deeply moved by the beauty of a woman. He dreams of her, is calmed by her, and even kills and destroys for her. Beauty moves us by touching our hearts.

As a pastor, my number one job while teaching is to simply take Jesus and hold Him up for all to see His beauty. All I should be doing is explaining the Bible by telling you how great Jesus is. You see I can’t change you. I can tell great stories or fascinating little theological insigths, but that will not lead to lasting change. I can get up in the pulpit and entertain you, but only the Holy Spirit can really change you. Only the beautiful truths about Jesus can change you. It is only a love for Jesus that will ultimately lead to a changed life.

With that said, only loving the beauty of all that Jesus is will provide the endurance you need day in and day out. When Christ is not beautiful to us we won’t endure in the Christian life; but the beauty of Christ will encourage us to run with endurance.

Through this next series of posts I am simply going to hold up the beauty of Christ. We are going to look at five beautiful, inspiring, fascinating, powerful characteristics of the person of Jesus and then we will see what we are to do with these truths.

In this series we will be looking at Hebrews 1:1-3 as we look at the Beauty of Jesus. The series is titled “The Beauty of Jesus Encourages Us to Run with Endurance.”