The Greatest Artist Ever

The Greatest Artist

    I would like to tell you who, beyond all question, is the greatest artist of all time.  There have been many great artists in the history of the world, but the one who I wish to tell you of is far and away the greatest. He is greater than Phidias who was the greatest sculptor in Greece 's Golden Age of the Arts.  Phidias' sculpture adorned great public buildings and he was expert at sculpting human forms out of marble so that the stone almost seems to move and act.  He is greater than Leonardo Da Vinci who many agree was the greatest artist of the Renaissance, a period of time when artists rediscovered how to portray space and forms accurately through different techniques involving perspective. Da Vinci's painting of Mona Lisa is in all likelihood, the best known painting in the world. He is greater than Rembrandt Van Rijn who was able to capture the essence of his subject's personality on canvass like none before or after him.  He is greater than Pablo Picasso, the most successful artist of modern times, who with his abstract art work had a way of awakening thoughts and feelings deep inside people.

    All these famous artists have only a small bit of the creative power that the greatest artist in the universe possesses.  Before I name him to you let me point out to you that since no one was before him all his work is completely original.  He is the one that created the human form who Phidias so excellently sculpted into stone.  He is the one who created all depth, form and space that Renaissance painters learned to paint.  He is the one who put a unique personality into each human heart - the personality that Rembrandt so delighted to capture with his brush. Picasso's art work might have the ability to get men thinking and feeling but the great artist of whom I wish to tell you is the one who gave men the ability to think and to feel in the first place.

    If you haven't guessed who he is yet, let me tell you -- it is God.  He alone is the Master Artist of the universe.  He is the one who brought all the beauty of the stars, the skies, the seas, the sunsets, and everything else into existence.  A verse from Ecclesiastes in the Bible reads, "He hath made everything beautiful in his time." The beautiful creation we live in began in a moment of time when he spoke a word.

    You can go to a museum and view the work of great artists, and their work may cause you to marvel that such skill and insight belonged to men.  To see the handiwork of God you don't have to go to a museum, all you have to do is open your eyes to the world around you.  Glance at your own hand.  How marvelously it is made with joints and sinews so that it can open and close at will.  Glance at the night sky with its trillions of stars, at a baby in a cradle, at a dog running across a field, a fish in the sea, a forest, a desert; wherever you look you see the incredible handiwork of the great Creator.

    "Day unto day utters speech and night unto night utters knowledge.  There is no speech nor language where the voice is not heard."  Everywhere you look you see the handiwork of God and it should speak to us, revealing the greatness of the One who created it, and we should stand in awe of his power and wisdom.
   
What is the most beautiful thing he ever did?

    The very One who made the world took upon himself the form of a servant and came to earth.  He was born in a stable, and grew up in a town that had a reputation of nothing good coming out of it.  He worked as a carpenter until he was thirty years old at which time he began to preach.  For three and a half years he went about the countryside of Israel telling the people of God's love and performing wonderful works of mercy and power the likes of which the world had never seen. At the end of this time he was betrayed by a follower, tried in a Roman court of law, and died an excruciating death of torture on a cross.  He knew all this was going to happen to him beforehand and told his followers of it before it took place.  He also told them that he would "rise again" from the grave on the third day.  His disciples had a difficult time understanding this saying and reacted with astonishment when it actually happened.

    So let me ask again, what is the most beautiful thing he ever did?

    Was it creating the world?  Was it laying aside his glory and coming into the world as a man?  Was it dying on the cross so that sin might be put away?  Was it rising from the grave so that the entire world might have the hope of better things to come?

    Maybe more important than answering the question is realizing that whatever he does he does marvelously well.  Like men said of him who heard him speak and saw him heal the sick while he was on earth, "This man doeth all things well."

    He is your Creator and he would be your Savior.  He loves you and the depth and beauty of his love are fathomless.  His precious blood shed at Calvary can wash away the sins of the entire human race if they would but trust in him. 

    This is the beauty he has for you.  He will take away your sins, your blindness, and your hard heart and will begin to transform you into the person you were meant to be. He will take away your sins and wash you whiter than snow.  He will heal your blindness so that you might see who he truly is and all the wonderful things that he has done.  He will take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh so that you can know and understand him.  All this he will do if you place your trust in him.

    How can he do such things?  Never forget that he is the Master Artist of the universe.  All that he does, he does marvelously well.  If you take him as your Savior he will be with you to help guide you every step you take for the rest of your life.  He will be with you as you work, sleep, or play.  He will be with you when you are young and with you when you grow old.  The One whose love changes not will be with you through all the changing scenes of this life, and when this life is over he will welcome you to his glorious home above where there will be fullness of joy for evermore.

    All this will be yours if you place your faith in him.  And all this will be lost to you if you never come to him.  With his unerring ability, power, and wisdom he will make it happen.  Artists through the ages have created many beautiful works.  The Lord Jesus who is the Master Artist of the Universe wants to work the beauty of his salvation in you.  He alone has the Master's touch that can make your soul whole and fit for heaven.  Do not close your heart to him.  No one has ever loved you like him.  O believe on him as the Son of God and come to him as your Savior that you might have the gift of eternal life.

    "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life."