Read: John 12:30-33
Our culture is obsessed with beauty. We want to be attractive. We want to look our best. Walk into any Walgreens and you’ll see aisle upon aisle of products designed to help us look more alluring. Most television commercials seem designed to convince us that their product will make us beautiful. Modern advertising tells us that if we wear the right clothes, drive the right kind of car or drink the right kind of soda we’ll become more attractive to the opposite sex. Though it sounds completely ludicrous, we often buy into those lies. We consume certain products or live a certain lifestyle because we think it’s going to make us more beautiful. Our desire to be attractive is so great that we’re willing to do almost anything to make ourselves look better.
If you don’t believe me, consider some of the weirder beauty products out on the market today. It used to be that injecting botulism into your face (Botox) was the craziest beauty treatment out there. Now, it seems to be getting much, much worse. Keep in mind that you seriously can buy this stuff on Amazon.com:
- SnakeVenom Anti-wrinkle Cream: While the name of the product leaves little to the imagination, the way it works is absolutely fascinating. Apparently, the neurotoxins in snake venom have a paralyzing effect on human muscles. Smearing this cream on your face causes your muscles to “freeze up,” effectively eliminating wrinkles.
- Placenta Cream: Have you ever wondered what effect sheep placenta would have on your wrinkles? No? Me neither. But apparently somebody did, so they created this cream. The companies who produce it claim that the cream can moisturize both your skin and your hair. Seeing as I have no desire to test these claims for myself, I guess we’ll never know.
- Elicina Snail Cream: Did you know that snails can heal their shells with the slime they secrete? This odd fact has led some beauty companies to tout the wonderful qualities of snail slime. Allegedly, snail cream can do everything from eliminate acne to erasing stretch marks and scars. If you want to test these theories out before you commit to buy, I suppose you could always grab a snail off the sidewalk and rub it on your face (author’s note: please don’t!).
I don’t know about you, but I simply cannot imagine using some of these products. Furthermore, I can’t even imagine what would possess someone to invent some of these things. Are we really so desperate to be beautiful that we’re willing to rub snake venom on our face? Seriously? Who would ever do such a thing? It seems our desire to be attractive really knows no bounds.
Sadly, something pretty similar has happened in the church in recent years. You see, the people of God want to be attractive, too. We want people to think the church looks good. It makes perfect sense. As God’s people, we want to be sure we’re presenting Him in a favorable light. If people are going to follow Christ, we want them to see how alluring that way of life is. We want the church to be as attractive as possible.
Yet, some churches have gone way too far in their attempts to make the church look more beautiful. They’ve sold out on God’s standards in order to appease our culture. They’ve decided to avoid the difficult parts of God’s Word because they don’t want to offend or upset anyone. Worse, they’ve wandered away from preaching Christ as the source of salvation because they want to be more “inclusive.” Churches all across our country have taken some pretty drastic measures in their quest to look more attractive to the surrounding world.
So, how does a church really become attractive? What makes a church look good to the outside world? What do we need to do to draw more people in?
As it turns out, the answer to that question is simpler than it seems. As a matter of fact, Jesus Himself told us what we needed to do to create a more attractive church. Take another look at John 12:32:
“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”
As a church, we don’t have to make ourselves more alluring to the world. We don’t have to be attractive on our own. We don’t have to make ourselves look better or more appealing than we are. All we have to do is lift up Jesus. All we have to do is proclaim His name. If we do that, we’ll automatically bring people in. That’s because Jesus draws people to Himself. He is “attractive” enough on His own. When we preach Christ – when we show the world His love and grace – He brings people in. Jesus alone is enough to make any church beautiful.
If we want Cornerstone to be more “attractive” – if we want to be “beautiful” as believers – we simply need to exalt Christ. It doesn’t take anything flashy to draw people in. We don’t have to throw ourselves at the whims of culture, either. All we need to do is tell people about Christ and allow them to see Him as He really is. His beauty – the beauty of the Gospel message – is enough to draw in the hardest of heart. Churches who want to be attractive need only lift Him up in order to draw others in.
Questions to Consider:
How does lifting up Jesus make the church more attractive? What is it about Christ makes him draw all men to Himself?
Read I Corinthians 2:2. How should this verse describe your life? How should it describe the church?