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Aug 19, 2018

Beauty & the Gospel

Passage: Colossians 1:15-20

Speaker: Craig Lotz

Series: GRACE DNA

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: art, creativity, culture, metanarrative, stories

The second topic in our 4 week GRACE DNA series. This week we look at our vision for arts & culture and it’s connection to the gospel. Having been created in His image, we spend much of our lives seeking to understand our story; hearing echoes throughout culture. We long to be found in a bigger story and united with the Source of all beauty.  

Order of Woship

Call To Worship: Psalm 19:1-4a,7-8,14 ESV

Reading: Acts 17:24-25,28 ESV

Songs:

Gratitude Reading & Prayer: John 6:32-35 ESV & The Lord’s Prayer

Sermon Title: Beauty & the Gospel

Central Text: Colossians 1:15-20 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Response: John 1:1-3, 11-13 ESV

Benediction: Revelation 21:1,4-5a,6 ESV

Related Scriptures:

  • Luke 24:25-27
  • Acts 17:22-28
  • Genesis 1:27
  • Genesis 1:31
  • Exodus 31:1-5
  • Romans 1:19-23
  • 1 Corinthians 15:49
  • Colossians 3:10

Media

8.19.18 Album

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. What is God like in creativity?
    1. Why are we creative?
    2. How is our creativity different from God?
  2. It has been said, that all artists seek to "make the invisible...visible." Explain.
  3. What exactly is "Christian art?"
    1. Does it only come from Christians?
    2. What makes it more "fully Christian?"
      1. Give examples from the Psalms
    3. What are some of the basic questions all artists are seeking to answer (knowingly or unknowingly) through their works?
  4. Why is all humanity drawn to certain truths in stories?
    1. Are there certain aspects about ourselves as humans we tend to leave out?
    2. In what ways are we trying to tell a Bigger story?
  5. What are we hoping to find in all these stories?
    1. Why does it seem like humanity never really changes (ethically)?
    2. What might it look like to see ourselves more clearly.
    3. What kind of Hero are we looking for?
  6. We long to "unite" with the beauty we create yet it never seems to be enough. Why?
    1.  Is there a deeper connection we're longing for in all creativity?
  7. What kind of ending to the story are all we all hoping for? 

Quotes:

  • “...creation was a result of the laughter of the Trinity” - The Sacred Romance
  • “Every child is an artist. The trick is remaining one when you grow up.”- Picasso
  • “I believe the human imagination is the door at which Jesus stands and knocks in Revelation 3:20.” - Michael Card (Scribbling in the Sand)
  • “We painted to see if what was lost was in the picture. We composed to hear if what was lost was in the music. We sculpted to find if what was lost was in the stone. We wrote to discover if what was lost was in the story.” - Ken Gire (Windows of the Soul)
  • “True artists have always been interested in making the invisible…visible.” - Mako Fujimura
  • “Like rain and snow, the word of God permeates the earth. To say God’s word can be found only in certain places, like the Bible, for example, is to say, in effect, that rain water can be found only in lakes where it is most visible. But everywhere we look there are traces of His word. In history. In circumstances of our lives. In every nook of humanity and every crannied flower of creation.” - Ken Gire (Windows of the Soul)
  • “Some artists may not know that they are consciously showing forth a world view. Nonetheless, a world view usually does show through. Even those works which were constructed under the principle of art for art’s sake often imply a world view. Even the world view that there is no meaning is a message” - Francis Schaeffer
  • “you know the problem is Secular artists ask all the right questions but they don’t have the answers and Christian artists have all the answers but they don’t ask the right questions.” - GMR Teenager
  • “In the gospel, you don’t have one more story that points to a greater reality. It is the reality to which all stories point”  - J.R.R. Tolkein (On Fairy Stories)
  • “These then are the two points I want to make. First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it.” - C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
  • “If he’s just a hero to you…it won’t help. If He’s a hero for you then eventually He’ll be a hero through you” - Dr. Timothy J. Keller (The Story Beneath the Story)
  • “Baptize the imagination and the intellect follows” – C. S. Lewis.
  • “...because your mind, is where the problem is in the first place” - Beautiful Mind
  • “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it...The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing...For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited...At present we are on the outside...the wrong side of the door...We cannot mingle with the pleasures we see. But all the pages of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get “in”… We will put on glory… that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.” - C.S. Lewis (Weight of Glory)
  • (Ghost) “I meant . . . well, all this. It's . . . it's ... I should like to paint this." (Spirit) "I shouldn't bother about that just at present if I were you." (Ghost). "Look here; isn't one going to be allowed to go on painting?"(Spirit) "Looking comes first." (Ghost) "But I've had my look. I've seen just what I want to do. God!-I wish I'd thought of bringing my things with me!" The Spirit shook his head, scattering light from his hair as he did so. "That sort of thing's no good here," he said. "What do you mean?" said the Ghost. The Spirit replied "When you painted on earth-at least in your earlier days-it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too. But here you are having the thing itself. It is from here that the messages came. There is no good telling us about this country, for we see it already. In fact we see it better than you do." - The Great Divorce

Books & Docs:

Sermons / Talks:

The Story Underneath the Story by Tim Keller

John 1:9-18,32-34

All Things Were Created Through Him and For Him by John Piper

Colossians 1:9-20

Your Elusive Creative Genius by Elizabeth Gilbert

TED Talk

All Art is Prophetic by Bono & David Taylor

Fuller Studio