Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Walking With Our Beautiful Savior
Through the Means of Grace
God’s grace is his love shown to us by forgiving our sins and giving us eternal life. These are the opposite of what we all deserve as sinners. The means are what God uses to bring the message and power of his gospel to people. They create and sustain saving faith in Jesus as our Redeemer.
The Bible
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16)
It is God’s Gospel message which is the power that saves (Romans 1:16). And that message comes first and always with God’s words (printed or spoken). The open BIBLE presents this. The lighted candle and the words on the page reflect Psalm 119:105 words,
“Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light for my path.” We sinners need Christ as our light because we are by nature in the darkness of unbelief. The symbols on the candle depict Christ who is “the alpha (A) and the omega (W), the beginning and the end” in Revelation 1:8 who was crucified so our sins are forgiven (U). In our life and in our worship, proclaiming God’s Word is our focus.
Baptism
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19)
The SHELL AND WATER DROPS have long been a Christian symbol for BAPTISM. This sacrament has the power to create saving faith in a heart. The Lord chose water, the universal cleansing agent, as the visible element to connect his Gospel with for the forgiveness of sins. The stylized wavy blue lines add to the general concept of the "washing of rebirth." There are three lines, each in a different hue, to represent the three persons of the triune God who adopts the sinner with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Lord's Supper
“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”
(1 Corinthians 10:16)
In the sacrament that Jesus instituted on the night he was betrayed and arrested, he distributed the visible elements—food and drink— BREAD and wine, “fruit of the vine” in the CHALICE. The repentant recipient at the Lord’s Table is reassured that God’s forgiveness is sealed for eternity to the believer. In this way our faith is nourished and strengthened by the miracle of receiving Jesus’ body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine connected with God’s gospel promise.
Through Holy Week
The sequence depicts major events that describe how Jesus fulfilled God’s promise for a Savior to pay for our sins (i.e. to redeem us) so that we are forgiven.
Welcomed
“Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.” (Mark 11:8)
The week that Jesus was crucified began by a triumphal entry into Jerusalem when he was praised as a king by PALM BRANCHES strewn on the path he traveled. He came to the city where sacrifices had to be made to God to forgive sins.
Jesus’ ministry was about to end. The praise to him was short-lived. The time had come for him to suffer and die in our place. In a few days some voices in the Palm Sunday crowd would shout “Crucify Him!” Palm Sunday is the transition into what the Christian Church has come to call Holy Week.
Sold
The disciple Judas Iscariot “ asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins.” (Matthew 26:15)
The sin of greed showed its ugly presence against Jesus through the disciple Judas. The Savior provides forgiveness for this sin and all sins. Jesus redeemed us. He bought us back from the eternal punishment our sins earn with his suffering and death. He was bought and sold with blood money in the process.
This event is symbolized by the red BAG AND COINS. The tragedy is that one, whom Jesus called a close friend, handed him over to the enemy for money.
Betrayed
“And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)
As Judas was on the verge of handing over Jesus to the Jewish religious enemies, Jesus sought encourage-ment and strength from his heavenly Father (PRAYING HANDS) to face the ordeal of suffering God’s punishment laid on him to remove our debt. The DROPS OF BLOOD show the intense anguish he was experiencing as our substitute even before he was arrested. Even in this very stressful time Jesus stayed focused on his mission given by God the Father, “Yet, not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).
Denied
“The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the ROOSTER crows today, you will disown me three times.” (Luke 22:61)
There is no message in Jesus picking a rooster for the night he was arrested. The rooster’s activity simply signaled the passage of time. As that rooster crowed, the timing of Jesus’ prophecy to Peter is fulfilled. At the rooster’s crow Jesus looked at Peter, and the disciple is brought to repentance over his failure to live up to his commitment to be faithful to Jesus. But the denials stabbed the heart and soul of our Savior adding to the suffering he faced.
Whipped
“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.” (John 19:1)
Crucifixion was hanging a person on a cross until he suffocated to death. The Romans had a practice of whipping the condemned as a public spectacle before nailing him to a cross. Before Pilate washed his hands, he tried to save Jesus. He had him whipped hoping to satisfy the crowd and end the call for crucifixion. Since some individuals were known to be whipped to death, both Pilate and the heavenly Father made sure this did not happen. The brutality of torn and bloody flesh on Jesus back was most painful, but that was not the kind of death that would redeem us. He had to go to the cross.
Crowned
“The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe… ” (John 19:2)
Pilate was not unaware of his soldiers’ mocking Jesus’ kingly office. The soldiers staged a mock coronation. The characterization of the kingship of Jesus included equipping him with a crown and scepter. A crown of thorns made Jesus’ claim of a kingdom ridiculous. The feigned homage and sham obedience by the soldiers made sport of Him and encouraged the spectators to conclude that Jesus’ kingly claims were mere pretensions. To the pagan soldiers this was all a game because they were convinced that his power and authority were ludicrous. Jesus’ humbled face with eyes closed in disappointment, pain, and loneliness presents a startling contrast to the three noble faces of his Threefold Offices in later medallions. Jesus’ entire body had to suffer the most dreadful pains from head to foot.
Crucified
“When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.” (Luke 23:33)
The HAMMER AND NAILS depict Jesus being fastened to the cross as the sacrifice for humanity to free us from the guilt of all our sins. It is on Calvary that Jesus is suspended between heaven and earth to suffer God’s punishment for every sin that has been and will be committed on earth.
He experienced all God’s anger leveled against every sin and the absence of a single blessing from him. His words out of the darkness, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34) reveal this. How demeaning it was for Jesus to be ridiculed as a horrible criminal because he was being crucified.
Died
“Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” (John 19:34)
In the Old Testament the warning was clear, “The soul that sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:4). Jesus declared the same verdict in John 8:24. Jesus had to die because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). With the SPEAR the soldier signed the death certificate. He verified that Jesus truly was dead.
The Lord didn’t faint or fake being dead. He had to face everything we face in this life that has to do with sin, from temptations to death. When he put his life into his Father’s hands, when he declared “it is finished,” when Jesus died, his actions announced that all sins had been paid. Nothing remains of our sin-debt owed to God.
Viewing the Offices He Fulfills
Jesus served and continues to serve God, the Church and the world in three roles.
Prophet
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.” (Deuteronomy 18:15)
A PROPHET in the Bible is a person through whom God speaks his messages (the SCROLL in the prophet’s hand). Those messages can report earlier history to which the writer was not an eyewitness, such as Moses writing the events in Genesis about creation and the flood. They can be words about events current to the time of the writer. And they can be words that tell about the future. Jesus is God’s Word in human presence. Jesus spoke what his Father had taught him and did what the Father sent him to fulfill. Everything that Jesus taught we are to learn, believe and follow.
Priest
“In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.” (Leviticus 16:16a)
A PRIEST connected with the Lord had the responsibility to represent the people before God. He did so in the Old Testament with prayers and sacrifices. Jesus did this faithfully when in the greatest show of love he sacrificed himself into death to rescue us from eternal hell. Now he continues to mediate for us in heaven before the Father as the Lamb whom God sacrificed to redeem us. The “U” and the “T” on the high priest’s chest represent the “Urim and Thummim” (Exodus 28:30). This was the way the Priest would receive God’s guidance for the people when there was no answer in his Word. On the priest’s headgear was written “holy to the LORD” (Exodus 39:30). This most definitely describes Jesus.
King
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ” (Zechariah 9:9)
Jesus has returned to his activities of ruling (CROWN) the whole universe (GREEN ORB) to bring blessings to believers. He had set aside this work to a degree for the time when he became our servant as Jesus to redeem us (RED CROSS). We are safe in his powerful loving royal care. He provides all we need. As King he rules our hearts with his word and leads us to his heavenly kingdom.
Tracing Jesus' Earthly Life
The Son of God, who is eternal, became a true human being in the person of Jesus. He is the Christ, the One chosen and sent by God to take the place of every human being as our Savior. He came and lived the perfect life we can’t live, but need to enter heaven. He suffered and died in our place to pay God the debt we owed for our sins and free us from hell. He rose to free us from the grave and take us, body and soul, to heaven.
Christmas
“And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)
The Son of God is eternal because he is, was and always will be God. To redeem us he had to be able to take our place under God’s law and be able to die. This meant that Jesus had to be human as well as God. Christmas is how that miracle took place. Being born from a woman gave Jesus his human nature.
Being conceived by the Holy Spirit (YELLOW RAYS from heaven) brought Jesus into the human race holy, without sin (NIMBUS around Jesus head). The MANGER reflects Jesus’ humble beginnings that support his mission as our servant.
Epiphany
“After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.” (Matthew 2:9)
Jesus was a descendant of Abraham. His first worshipers were Hebrew shepherds. But he came not just for the Jews. He came as the Savior of the human race. Gentiles also came to worship him and bring gifts. With a miraculous STAR God guided the gentiles from the east to where Jesus’ family was living during the census. How special it is that today the Lord doesn’t focus on any single race, but calls out to all races to come to Jesus and believe he is our Savior. Today his Word takes the place of the star to lead people to Jesus. (See the medallion for the HOLY BIBLE.) About 30 years later God presented Jesus to the world to teach by word and example as God’s great Prophet, to do miracles and as King of creation, and finally to pray for us and sacrifice himself as our Great High Priest.
Baptism
“As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.” (Mark 1:10)
This is the event that officially commissioned Jesus into his ministry of preaching and teaching. Jesus walked down the bank and into the WATER of the Jordan River. He was baptized by John, his forerunner, not the disciple/apostle. As he left the water the Holy Spirit landed on him in the form of a DOVE to empower him to carry out his mission of teaching and redeeming mankind. The vertical rays from heaven remind us of God the Father’s voice in verse 11, whose words announced Jesus as his Son, whom he loved, and in whom he is well-pleased. The Father and Holy Spirit were 100% behind Jesus’ message and his work.
We need baptism because we need the forgiveness of sins it gives us (see Holy Baptism medallion). Jesus did not sin. He did not need to be baptized for that reason. But Jesus needed to be baptized so that he could connect himself and his redeeming work to our baptism so that we could be buried with him and raised to eternal life.
First Miracle
“Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.” (John 2:7)
Jesus was in his boyhood land called Canaan. And the miracle of that day reads, “ 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew” (v. 8–9a). Jesus did miracles in his ministry to make it clear that he, although a man, is also God. In the artwork the flowing lines aim to convey the emotion of Christ's abundant care and might and his overflowing grace.
Good Friday
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)
This medallion encompasses the events of the medallions on the other wall of: Crowned, Whipped, Judged, Crucified, Died. The red fruit is significant when paired with the Creation and Fall medallion.
The Cross along with a hint of purple in the pall hanging from the cross connects this medallion with the season of Lent. With these events what we owe God as the penalty for all our sins is totally canceled by Jesus’ sacrifice. The devil has no grounds to demand that God condemn us to hell with him. The cross is empty because Jesus was buried as proof that he had died for our sins in our place as he said. There is no additional payment that anyone will need to make to receive eternal life.
Easter
“Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.” (Luke 24:12)
Do we know if God accepted Jesus’ payment on our behalf? God’s answer is a clear “Absolutely!” He declared this when he raised Jesus from the dead. Here we see Jesus’ open tomb with linens askew, but the head cloth neatly folded by itself as proof that Jesus rose; the grave was not robbed. You can envision looking out the doorway and seeing in the distance three crosses on Calvary. They are very small because that event is past and added for the sake of a more complete picture. Of course, this is artistic license, because the Gospels only talk about where they laid Jesus' body inside the tomb. The fact that the disciples went into the tomb points out that 'buried' means 'laid to rest' not covered with dirt. The large opening signifies that Jesus and every believer is free from death.
Through Old Testament Events
When Jesus came to redeem the world, he was the fulfillment of promises and prophecies God made starting at the Fall and continuing through New Testament times. These promises and prophesies impacted the world. God used one nation, Israel, for the most part as his servant.
Creation and Fall
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)
This is a split scene. God's half is imbued with lively colors; Satan's side is gray and sinister. The HAND is for God the Father who made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them (the WORLD, SUN, SEAS, ANIMALS). People are the crown of God’s creation. He made them holy, with the plan to live in perfection forever praising and glorifying him. Satan ruined this. He used the body of a SERPENT and tempted Eve and Adam to sin by eating the fruit God had told them they must not eat. When they ate (THE FALL) death and all that is wrong and bad in this world are the result. This tragedy did not end the story. God in his love promised to restore sinful people to perfection and give them eternal life through the work of a Savior (Genesis 3:15). All the other medallions trace the promise he kept.
The Flood
“Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (Genesis 9:16)
The ARK came to rest on Mt. Ararat (LAND) after every air-breathing, land-living animal and every human being who were not on that ark were dead. This mass destruction of humans by the FLOOD revealed that God’s patience with repeated deliberate sin and refusal to repent and turn to the Lord for forgiveness does run out.
The Flood was God’s punishment which began eternal death on all those unbelievers. The RAINBOW is the sign of God’s repeated reassurance that never again will he bring a world-wide flood to destroy all life on earth.
The Flood waters symbolize baptism that saves a person (1 Peter 3:21). The water floated the ark and saved the eight people inside. Through our baptism God gives us a good conscience toward him. Having been washed holy through Jesus’ blood and wearing his perfect obedience to God’s commandments, we know we are right with God forever.
The Law
“Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.” (Exodus 34:28)
So far the medallions focus our thoughts on the fulfilment of the gospel: the power that saves, the promise of the life God gives to us through Jesus’ redeeming acts. This medallion of STONE TABLETS the LORD gave on Mt. Sinai tells us God’s standard of right and wrong that he asks us to live by. THELAW (the commandments) shows our sins and declares that we deserve to die because we can’t obey it perfectly and constantly. Our obedience to the law can never earn God’s forgiveness or allow us to enter heaven. However, our obedience to the Law from a heart that believes in Jesus as our Savior is important. As a fruit of faith it is our way to praise and thank him for giving us eternal life. Note: The many rules and requirements given to the Old Testament nation of Israel presented pictures of God’s saving plan and were his tool to preserve Israel until he brought the world’s Savior from this nation as he promised Abraham.