Audio Transcript

Happy Friday. Today we are taking up the topic of physical appearance, because the Bible speaks often about physical appearance. Scripture contains dozens of references to physical looks — both to attractiveness and unattractiveness. Those categories emerge all over the Bible, so there’s no need to shy away from this topic. We looked at many of these texts when we addressed this topic in APJ 1699. And since listening to that episode, which became pretty popular, we’ve gotten several follow-up questions, including this from a listener named Sean.

“Dear Pastor John, thank you for APJ 1699 — ‘Why Did God Make Me Unattractive?’ That episode was excellent. I wonder, though, if you could expand on your last paragraph, about the beauty of Christ satisfying us despite the pain of rejection. In my younger days, I often lamented that I was not better looking. But now, I realize that I would have ruined my life several times over chasing relationships with ungodly women. I now see my average attractiveness is a massive spiritual blessing that protected me from idols, and that drove me deeper into Christ instead of into shallow patterns of life. I would not trade that joy for attractiveness in a million years.”

Just hearing you articulate the question again reminds me of how many pimples I had when I was 14 and 15, and how nervous I was around people, and how I so badly wanted it to be otherwise. Now I share that same amazement. I think God spared me a lot of junk by not letting me get on the fast track to trouble.

Another Kind of Beauty

Well, anyway, that was a beautiful testimony. I love his testimony. And I use the word beautiful when I say, “Isn’t that a beautiful testimony?” intentionally. That’s what we’re talking about here: beauty. I would rather hear a person say that from the heart than gaze on the most beautiful woman in the world, or on the most beautiful mountain or lake.

Natural beauties — yes, they’re good. They’re not evil. They’re a gift. We should receive them and see something of God in them. Everything good is a partial revelation of the all-satisfying God. But the beauty of soul — the mind and the heart, a beautiful mind — that in much affliction or disappointment finds Jesus to be satisfying, that is a beauty of another kind and a higher level. I love to see it. Just hearing this question was a great joy to me. It was beautiful.

Sean wants me to expand on the beauty of Christ satisfying us despite the pain of rejection. I think what might be helpful is to ponder four changes that need to happen in our minds and hearts in order to find lasting satisfaction in the beauty of Christ. I’ll name them and then just say a word about each one.

We need to shift our focus from the beauty of the body to the beauty of character.
We need to shift our focus from the beauty that satisfies the body to the beauty that satisfies the soul.
We need to shift our focus from beauty as the world sees it to beauty as God sees it.
We need to shift our focus from beauty in time to beauty in eternity.

1. Beauty of Character

First, we need to shift our focus from the beauty of body to the beauty of character. The most graphic illustration of the need for this shift is the appearance of Jesus in the hour of his most beautiful act. Isaiah 52:14 and Isaiah 53:2 say, “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. . . . He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” In other words, he not only became sin for us; he became ugly for us. The ugliness of sin was accompanied by the ugliness of body, so ugly in his torments that it was hard to look at him. And yet, at this good-news-creating moment, he was, in another sense, more beautiful than at any other time.

God, give us eyes. I think that’s what Paul would say: “Give us eyes to see.” But Paul will put it like this: “the light of the gospel of the glory [that is, the beauty] of Christ, who is the image of God.” That’s what we’ll see, according to 2 Corinthians 4:4. The good news is the beauty of Christ at the moment of his greatest ugliness. That’s the shift of focus we need, from the beauty of body to the beauty of Christ — Christ’s character, Christ’s love.

“All of us, men and women, need a deep shift of focus from beauty of body to beauty of character.”

It’s not surprising when the Bible speaks to the beauty of Christian women, for example, with just this emphasis. It says in 1 Peter 3:3–4, “Do not let your adorning be external — the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing that you wear — but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” Now, he’s not saying, “Women shouldn’t wear clothes.” That’s ridiculous. I mean, he’s not saying, “Oh, don’t wear clothes.” He’s not even saying they shouldn’t be attractive. He’s saying, “All of us, men and women, need a deep shift of focus from beauty of body to beauty of character.” Without that, all our talk about the beauty of Christ will be shallow.

2. Soul-Satisfying Beauty

Second, we need to shift our focus from the beauty that satisfies the body to the beauty that satisfies the soul. Now, the point here is not about the beauty we seek to have in ourselves, but the beauty we seek to enjoy in others. This requires a profound change of heart by the Holy Spirit. It comes naturally to us to enjoy good looks in the opposite sex, or beautiful scenery. There is enough of the image of God left in us that most fallen people can even admire and enjoy a beautiful act of sacrificial love and call it beautiful. They see something beautiful in sacrifice and love; they say, “That’s beautiful.” But it requires a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to see God in Christ as supremely beautiful and therefore satisfying.

This is a new kind of satisfaction. It’s not bodily. It’s not the satisfaction merely of the eyes. It is spiritual. The psalmist doesn’t have it by nature; that’s why he prays for it. He says, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love” (Psalm 90:14). This is what God has to do. God has to satisfy us with God. Or Psalm 17:15: “When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.” Or Psalm 63:5–6: “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food . . . when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night.”

“To shift our focus from beauty that satisfies the body to beauty that satisfies the soul, we must know God.”

To shift our focus from beauty that satisfies the body to beauty that satisfies the soul, we must know God — really know him, know him until he becomes the source of all beauty and the sum of all beauty for us. Then we will be able to taste and see the beauty of Christ.

3. Beauty in God’s Eyes

Third, we need to shift our focus from beauty as the world sees it to beauty as God sees it. We live in a time when TV and streaming services and Facebook and TikTok and Instagram and Twitter and texting and FaceTime and a camera in every pocket continually throw into our faces the issue of looks, looks, looks. The appeal is constantly to the immediate response of our eyes. It is almost all outward. Visual appearance and its immediate impact is held up as desirable. But the deeper issues of character are not. Why? Well, because it’s artistically harder to depict character.

The appeal of character is not instantaneous. Most people don’t even have a clear sense of what character is. So the default is to feed the eyes, feed the eyes, feed the eyes. Feed the visual instincts, especially of the men. (Maybe not especially of the men. I don’t know what’s going on in the minds of women; I’m not a woman. I’m a man, and I know what they’re doing to me.)

First Samuel 16:7 says, “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” We need to shift our focus from beauty as the world sees it and shows it to beauty as God sees it and creates it. This will probably require a significant shift in the viewing habits of many Christians.

4. Eternal Beauty

Finally, we need to shift our focus from beauty in time to beauty in eternity. If God created us with a homely exterior — we’re just not handsome or pretty — and in a world like ours, life has been harder because of it, then we need to shift our focus and realize that this light momentary homeliness, which we call a lifetime, is nothing compared to the eternity of beauty we will enjoy (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Here’s 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Which means at least, Jesus says, that we “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of [our] Father” (Matthew 13:43). Finally, the beauty of Christ will be not only what we see but what we are, and we will be supremely satisfied in him.

Audio Transcript

The love of money. When we think of the love of money, we tend to imagine the lavish life of a billionaire sultan in the Middle East. We think of superyachts. Or we think of a big tech CEO who catapults himself into outer space just for the fun of it. Mostly, the love of money we ascribe to the irreligious, the opulent, the secularist living out a lavish lifestyle with no care for God.

But the Bible speaks of the love of money in very different terms altogether, focusing on a love of money inside the heart of the preacher and the religious zealot — an idol that infects even the staunchest religious person, even those who claim to follow the law in detail and with great zeal: the Pharisee. And even those who claim great religious power, like the faith healer. Pastor John made this important and sobering point about the love of money in the soul of the religious in a 2019 devotional message. Here he is to explain it.

“The love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Timothy 6:10). The ESV says, “all kinds of evils” — that’s okay. It does say, “all evils.” “It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith.” So Paul says that underneath all evils, or all kinds of evils, like Pharisaism, is the love of money.

Reason? The love of money is synonymous with no faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). All evils come from this. Hearts that are more content, more happy, more hopeful, more satisfied, more secure in stuff than in God is the root of all evils — all evils, including Pharisaism.

“The love of money is the root of all evils, including Pharisaism and lawless miracle-working.”

So let’s see it. Is that true? Let’s look at the Pharisees, let’s look at the rich young ruler, let’s look at Judas, and let’s look at Philippians 3. And we can do this quickly, because you’re going to see it right away. You won’t need any fancy-dancy exegesis from me to help you see what’s plain as day in the text. You just need to be drawn to it.

Money-Loving Pharisees

So Pharisees, number one. Let’s go to Luke — you don’t need to look these up. I’ll pass over them, but you can jot down the text if you want to, or get the tape. (“Tape” — that’s not the word anymore. Whatever you call it.) Luke 16:13–14:

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.

Matthew 23:25–28: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Sound like “Your God is your belly” (Philippians 3:19)? “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness [akatharsias].”

Almost everywhere in the New Testament where akatharsias is used, it refers to sexual perversion of all kinds — sexual uncleanness. Verse 28: “So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Are you kidding me? The Pharisees, the most preeminent law-keepers? Jesus says, “No, really they’re full of greed, self-indulgence, sexual perversion, and lawlessness” — meaning, “God and his word are not their authority. Their belly, their appetites, their groin is their authority.” That’s what Jesus said about Pharisees.

Not exactly the way I typically think about squeaky-clean sinners called Pharisees. So I have to rid myself of this segregation of legalistic Pharisees over here and libertine lovers of money over here. That’s not the way Jesus sees the world.

Money-Loving Morality

Number two, the rich young man. Mark 10:17–22:

As [Jesus] was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt down before him and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Who’s he? What’s going on here? “I kept them all. I have devoted my life to law-keeping and commandment-keeping. And Jesus says, “Well, let me just probe a little bit about where your heart is.” And as soon as he puts his finger on money, he’s gone. Whatever else was going on in this man’s life, commandment-keeping from his youth was a cloak of the love of money. That’s what Jesus is saying.

Money-Loving Miracle Workers

Number three, Judas. Now, I’m going to Judas not because he is heralded as a law-keeper, a commandment-keeper, but because he’s a preacher of the kingdom and a worker of miracles. Here’s Mark 6:7, 12–13: “[Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two.” I’d love to know who was paired up with Judas. “And [he] gave them authority over the unclean spirits [including Judas]. . . . So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.”

So, Judas cast out demons. Judas preached repentance. Judas healed the sick. We know he did for a couple of reasons. Number one, if they all had this power except Judas, he would’ve been exposed as a charlatan. But in fact, they trusted him to the end, all of them. To the very end they trusted him and gave him the best benefit of the doubt as he walked out from the Last Supper. No suspicions. That would not have been true if everybody could do miracles except Judas.

And second, we know it because Jesus himself made clear that unbelievers like Judas can do miracles. He said in Matthew 7:21–23,

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name [just like Judas]?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Remarkable how that word lawlessness turns up for the Pharisees, turns up for the rich young man, turns up for these folks.

Judas was a worker of miracles, a preacher of repentance, a minister of the kingdom, and he was a lover of money. He was a lover of money. He didn’t care about the poor. It says in John 12:6 that Judas did not care “about the poor, but . . . he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.”

“Judas was a worker of miracles, a preacher of repentance, a minister of the kingdom, and he was a lover of money.”

He sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, after three years of watching this most magnificent of human beings love, and doing the works himself. So, not only must we be aware of segregating religious Pharisees from the lovers of money — that’s a big mistake, if that’s in your head, like it was in mine — but also from segregating lawless miracle workers from lovers of money. There’s a lot of those around today.

The love of money is the root of all evils, including Pharisaism and lawless miracle-working. So Pharisees, and the rich young ruler, and Judas.

Money-Loving Boasters

And now the last glimpse is Philippians 3. Scholars debate who these enemies of the cross are in Philippians 3:18–19:

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

They have hearts drawn like a magnet to the world and not to God. That’s the description in Philippians 3:18–19. And the question is who they are. There’s a big debate about whether they’re worldly libertines or rigorous Pharisees. Paul says they’re dogs, and they mutilate the flesh. They’ve turned circumcision into a mere mutilation because they don’t worship by the Spirit of God. They don’t boast in Christ Jesus. They live according to the flesh (Philippians 3:2–3). “If they want to compete, I’ll compete,” Paul says. And then you list his pedigree, which ends with, “I was a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5).

So, is it those folks or these folks? And now I’m just saying that we don’t need to choose. It’s a big, big, big mistake to choose between those two groups. I think it’s naive. It’s naive in terms of human reality, as Jesus sees it, to say, “I think we need to separate those two out.” I don’t think Paul would say that. I don’t think Jesus would say that.

The Pharisees love money, and they don’t love God. So that’s the relationship between Pharisaism and the love of money that I wanted to point out.

Better Love Than Money

And the last thing is the greatness of God. So Paul said in Philippians 3:5–6, “[I was] a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” So I was the paragon Pharisee, which means, according to Jesus, Paul loved money. He had a heart that was finding more contentment, more peace, more security in the stuff of this world than in the fellowship and faithfulness of God.

In chapter 4, Paul admits this and tells us how he was freed, and I would like us to enjoy the same freedom that he found. Here’s what he says. He had just thanked them for their gifts, and he so much did not want to be seen as craving their money. “Not that I am speaking of being in need, but I have learned” — now that’s an important word because it is a confession. In other words, “I wasn’t always like this. I had to learn this. I was a Pharisee and seethed with discontent, and craved.”

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need [I didn’t know it once. I didn’t know the secret once of being free from the love of money and having deep, sweet, restful contentment of soul]. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13)

And so, we should ask in closing, What was that secret? What had he learned? And he gives us the answer very clearly that the secret that cut the nerve of the love of money and cut the duplicity of Pharisaism with one stroke — the same stroke — is found in Philippians 3:7–8:

Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

That’s his secret: The greatness of all that God was for him in Christ, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. And compared to him, he said all the money, all the world, and all the moral accomplishments with one blow have become garbage compared to Christ.

Can a man really be truly alive who has forgotten how to weep? Can a man of God, or a minister of Christ, truly claim to be fully awake without tears? These are questions, uncomfortable questions, I have been asking myself.

These considerations, dry as my eyes have been, do not originate with me. I consider them somewhat reluctantly. I had studied (and even memorized) the parting speech from Paul to the Ephesian elders before I beheld the apostle’s wet face.

Paul, anchored briefly on the seacoast of Miletus, sends a message forty miles south to Ephesus. He bids the elders come immediately. When they arrive, he tells them what breaks their hearts: “Now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again” (Acts 20:25, 37–38). Paul was resolved to board a ship sailing into dark providences. “I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me” (Acts 20:22–23).

“Can a man really be truly alive who has forgotten how to weep?”

Three years he had spent with them in Ephesus, tending their souls “day and night.” This is their last meeting in this life. His words fell as bricks of gold. Of all the things to say and recall, to encourage and to warn, with so few characters left to compose his final message, are you surprised that Paul mentions twice, of all things, his tears?

Serve the Lord with Tears

He begins his final words to these dear friends,

You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. (Acts 20:18–19)

Paul mentions his crying as a matter of fact — you yourselves know. The Ephesian elders remembered how the dew of his affections fell unashamedly. They saw him cry the “whole time” he lived among them. What an oft neglected picture of the mighty apostle.

If I could, I would try and paint it, entitled, “The Lord’s Lion, Crying.” It is good for me to see this. Paul, in his ministry, lost composure at times. At times — and it appears at many times — his passion for Christ and his pity for souls undid his seeming poise. “Do you remember my tears?” he asks these now elders of the church. Can you see those gracious rains watering my sermons, indeed, those sermon exclamation points from my soul to yours, servants of your eternal good and my gracious Lord?

The scene causes me to ask, Do I serve the Lord with such tears? Do I even want to? Do you?

Warnings Through the Blur

When Paul mentions his tears the second time, he says more. After telling the men to pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit made them overseers, he tells them that vicious wolves will attack from without, and false teachers will creep up from within (Acts 20:29–30) — stay alert, he pleads. But notice what accompanies his appeal:

Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. (Acts 20:31)

“Admonish” means to warn. For three years he did not stop warning them, or weeping for them. What a sight. What a perplexity. Ponder this weeping warrior with me.

This man of industry and blood-earnestness warns them of sin and judgment and the wrath to come — while he weeps warm tears over their souls. As a sentinel, he held up his hands and declared himself free of their blood. He tells them twice he did not shrink back in cowardice from telling them all of God’s truth. He said the hard and unpopular word; he warned and called sin what it is. People did not like what he said — in fact, they were trying to kill him.

Still this soldier wept while warning: Turn from your ruin, flee from the coming wrath, repent toward God and place all of your faith in Jesus Christ! Believe in the good news of the grace of God. Keep believing in the crucified — now risen and soon returning — Christ!

Power of Tearful Pleading

Imagine standing across from such a man.

Your fallen heart has often been on its guard against arguments and criticisms. Your armor is well-clad, and your sin is well-protected. Heartless disputes and playing with words is your sport. But who is this foe striking from horseback? What kind of warrior sheds tears for the man he wishes to conquer? Steel meeting cold steel — this is the battlefield’s familiar soundtrack. Grunts and yells and trumpet blasts you relish, but not these soft and unnerving cries from the enemy — tears for you. This is more than mere truth; it’s love.

You see his redness of eye. You hear the arresting stoppings and startings in his speech. Here is no enemy, no hired hand, no mere debater of this age. He is earnest, to be sure, but earnest for more than an argument. He’s earnest for souls — my soul. He may discard my opinions, yet he bears me upon his heart. He tells me hard things but seems to want good for me. Perhaps more than I want for myself.

Admonitions for Two Men

What a corrective to both tearless stridency and weepy willows today — to the ones like me who have taught on the lake of fire while seldom shedding a tear beside it, and to those crying who would never dare mention hell.

“What a nuisance warnings can become when given without this holy moisture. All lightening, no rain.”

What a nuisance warnings can become when given without this holy moisture. All lightening, no rain. Such repeated scolding gives off dry, hot air and leaves hearts cracked. Bellowings Paul knew too well, “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). In his now-wet eyes, the tearless can find hope that grace may not be done with us just yet.

But neither can we long tolerate the convictionless crier, whose tears have no deep well. Men ever on the verge of crying over trifles need reminding that they should quit themselves like men and be strong. Good tears serve a higher ambition. They serve the Lord Jesus. But above these rise the cries in Ephesus. How that weeping earnestness confounded sinners as Paul pled with the dead to turn and live. The Lord’s Lion — Crying, Warning, Pleading.

Such a one — I am only left to imagine — was hard to argue with for long, and even harder to forget. When is the last time, dear Christian reader, you warned a faithless brother, an apostate mother, a lustful son, a deceived friend through blurred vision?

Should not the truly living, in such a world as this, find times to weep? Do not many live despising mercy and rejecting Christ? Are not souls lost to that eternal place of gnashing and weeping every hour — our friends, classmates, and neighbors — many not knowing a Christian who shed a single tear over their souls? We come with glad tidings; we need not always cry. But is our danger too much tearful pleas for souls?

Weep into Their Souls

A final word, then, for fellow pastor-elders, men like those Paul spoke to that day. Do you have a tear to shed for the lost sinner and threatened saint? Do you serve your Lord with tears? I do not pretend to instruct you in these matters. These are but my sermon notes as I overhear the weeping lion.

Charles Spurgeon said it was a blessed thing for a minister to “weep his way into men’s souls,” a quality he had admired in George Whitefield.

Hear how Whitefield preached, and never dare to be lethargic again. [Cornelius] Winter says of him that “sometimes he exceedingly wept, and was frequently so overcome, that for a few seconds you would suspect he never would recover; and when he did, nature required some little time to compose herself. I hardly ever knew him go through a sermon without weeping more or less. His voice was often interrupted by his affections; and I have heard him say in the pulpit, ‘You blame me for weeping; but how can I help it, when you will not weep for yourselves, although your own immortal souls are on the verge of destruction, and, for aught I know, you are, hearing your last sermon, and may never more have an opportunity to have Christ, offered to you?’” (Lectures to My Students, 307)

Let us all pray for holy tears. Not for their own sake, not to make a vain show that draws attention to ourselves, or tries to manipulate. But let us seek life, full life, abundant life in Christ — a life fully alive, fully awake, fully compassionate within a cursed world of evil times and immortal souls. Lord, raise a generation of lionhearted men and women for Christ who serve you with all their hearts and minds and souls and strength — and tears.