Sunday School "Clothing" July 8, 2018 Part 6

Clothing as Provision in the Biblical Story of Salvation

Upon your son that we may be renewed into his image. That we would know you more that we love you more. And so we ask for these graces. We ask that you would give us your holy spirit and fill us so that your word would have your desired impact in our lives.

We pray these things in jesus name amen. Well we are um on lesson six um on our story the biblical uh story of salvation through the theme of clothing. And again our key word is covered. We can talk about the story of salvation with the theme of clothing.

And in more than one way we can we can think about as we have been doing clothing as provision. The very first time that we see the provision of clothing in the bible is a moment that is very gospel centered.

Adam and eve have sinned. They recognize their shame and their guilt in their nakedness. Or what efforts they employ making fig leaf coverings or hiding in the trees or blaming each other. They can't shake their guilt and shame.

It's only when god gives them clothing skins made out clothing skins from animals. And he places it upon them. Do we see that there's any kind of relief for them. And this very basic necessity of clothing that god provides for them of course requires the death of these animals in which we find the launch of the sacrificial system certainly orienting our thoughts toward christ who is the lamb of god.

And so we can tell the story of salvation in terms of the provision of clothing and the compassion that god had adam and eve and giving them those clothes. And again all throughout the scripture we see the provision of clothing as a symbol of the righteousness of christ.

The white robe given to the saints. Well we also have talked about the story of salvation with the theme of about identity and deception that very often what we wear identifies who we are. It's a very close association we find in the scriptures between what you wear and who you are.

Some of it is you know here's a poor man and you can tell there's a rich man and you can tell just by what they're wearing. Here's someone who worships the one true god. Here's a jew in the testament and you can tell her a jew because they wear clothing that's not made of two different types of fiber two types of material.

And they've got blue tassels on them. Well that's oh this this is definitely a jew someone who worships y 'all way and they claim there's only one god in the whole world. Can you believe that very easily identifiable.

Um just identification wise. And because clothing can be used to identify some people use clothing to falsely identify themselves. I wear this because i want you to think this of me even though it's not true right.

So since clothing is a matter of identity it's also a matter of deception. And we thought about that classic story jacob and esau where jacob is dressed up like esau even down to the uh the furry arms and the furry neck all to fool his blind father and he would smell like him and feel like him.

And isaac was completely fooled and he knew it was the voice of jacob though it was the smell and the feel of esau. And so in that uh awful deception we also see an ironic reversal in the way that christ as the favored firstborn voluntarily gives us the blessing he takes our curse so we may have his blessing and that we would have our identity in him and thus have the favor of our father our heavenly father on us as we can tell the story of the story of salvation through clothing in that way.

Clothing as Mediation and Incarnation

And now we've been talking about clothing as a story of mediation and thus incarnation. Last week we talked about clothing as mediation and we talked about um the different uh we went back to genesis to talk about the image of god and that essential to who adam and eve are is that they um so mediate to the goodness of god and they manifest the glory of god.

What are they mediating as adam and eve in the garden there in creation they're mediating god's authority. Um they are said they are told to exercise dominion to rule by their own authority. No no god's authority.

They are to mediate god's authority throughout all the earth. They are to set aside a special place. They are to guard. And they are to keep and maintain the garden and follow god's example and setting apart the seventh day.

So they're setting aside things as holy. They're mediating holiness their own standards. No gods. They're mediating god's holiness. Adam is to tell eve what god told him of all the trees of the garden we may freely eat.

But of the tree that is in the middle of the garden we must not eat or we will die. This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So adam is told this before eve is created. Adam communicates this to eve.

He's mediating truth not his own but god's truth. He's telling eve how the world works and what it's all about. Also there's wisdom. I mean if they're going to be fruitful multiply and fill the earth and so do it and rule over all the different kinds of animals in the world and employ them to the maximum glory of god.

That's going to require a whole lot of wisdom. We see wisdom in adam as he names all the animals. What we're getting at is that it's god's authority and god's holiness and god's truth and god's wisdom that are inherent all in the way that he made the world as he spoke it into existence set aside time and space.

Everything he said comes true and he's infinitely wise. And these things are mediated through adam and eve. And this is the basis for what we find throughout the rest of the old testament about the mediatorial offices.

The king the priest the prophet and the wise man. These four offices are all in common because they are all mediated. They are all designed to mediate god's authority and holiness and truth and wisdom.

And these four offices are the ones that are anointed. They're anointed oil poured on the king's head oil poured on the priest's head. The prophet is anointed. And the wise men are anointed by the holy spirit.

And they all have a different set of clothes to set them apart very distinct. You know who a king is by what he wears. And then you you know who a priest is by what he wears. And who can forget elijah and daniel and joseph and mordecai are all these wise men dressed appropriately.

Okay. So they are all highlighted. And of course the purpose of highlighting these roles is to direct our attention to jesus christ. When we talk about those who were anointed in the old testament yes there was physical oil dumped on their heads.

But it was it was pointing to something else. It was pointing to the person and the work of the holy spirit. That was the true anointing. And those who were anointed by the holy spirit they had to have the anointing of the holy spirit.

They were going to mediate the goodness of god. Whatever role they were was it authority was it holiness. Was it truth. Was it wisdom. But they were anointed in all these different offices. But when we come to the person and work of christ he fulfilled all those mediatorial roles.

He is the king of kings and he is the great high priest. And he is the great prophet you read about in deuteronomy 18. And he is the wonderful counselor. He fulfilled all those roles. And that's why his name is messiah.

His title is messiah which means anointed one. The greek comes out as christ messiah. Christos anointed one. He takes on all those roles and in essence he puts on all those uniforms of all the mediators.

Because he does it all he's the fulfillment of it all. That's why in the old testament when you find someone doing more than one of those roles you get a real clear picture of jesus christ. Think of david.

David is a king but then he's also a prophet. He's cooking. Peter says he's a prophet. When peter's preaching he says david is a prophet. And he prophesied in his psalms he did not. So we have a king who's also a prophet.

And then even though david is not a priest and he never sinned in the way of entering the temple he did a lot of kind of priestly things. Didn't he made sure the ark of the covenant got brought up into jerusalem in the right way and and was offering sacrifices to god and dancing and praising the lord kind of showing the example of how everyone else should do it.

And then here's something really interesting. You remember this the the famous moment where solomon's wisdom. What's the most famous story about solomon's wisdom. The two women and the baby. Right. The two women claiming the same child.

And to identify who the true servant is or the true mother is. We'll just cut the baby in half and each one of you take half. And the real mother immediately for the protection of the baby says no. Give it to this woman.

Give this baby to this woman. Where'd solomon get that idea. Got it from daddy. Did you know that that same scenario happened with david near the end of david's reign. As you read in uh second samuel absalom has had his uh attempt is his coup attempt foiled.

Um on the way out on the way out david met the servant of mephibosheth survivor of the line of soul. David had compassion on the servant of mephibosheth came to david and told him that um oh i am your i am your true servant david.

And david says where's mephibosheth. Why didn't you bring him with you. And the servant says well because mephibosheth said now the kingdom of saul will be restored and i will be on the throne. And david he's in a rush.

He's got a mess around. And he just says all the land that was mephibosheth i give to you. And the servant says it's great the honor of you david. Yeah thank you. I just got all i just got all the sauls ancestral lands.

And so then when david's coming back to jerusalem he meets mephibosheth who's in a really bad way. And he says mephibosheth what happened. And mephibosheth says my servant came and and and lied to you.

And he said all this stuff. But it wasn't true. I'm your loyal servant. I always will be. And david says i'll take all the ancestral land of saul and i'll divide it equally between you and your servant.

You know what mephibosheth says let him keep it all to be at your table is all i want. You see david already did it. So he's you see david's this wise man. He's got his priestly characteristics. And that's why when you look at david you see so many pictures of christ.

Because you have all these roles kind of coalescing around him even though it's not the full picture yet because he's not jesus now. Now what i want to do this morning is having focused on that. And of course we can go on about that a long time part of our goal in beginning the study we should take these basic necessities of life like food clothing and shelter universal needs to all humanity and use these common commonly felt needs to talk about the gospel.

So we've been talking about ways to use um the clothing to talk about the gospel. And we've talked about uh three ways so far. But here's another way just tell the story of jesus. Just tell the story of jesus and use clothes to keep the story going.

Um i remember sitting across a table from um someone and i was trying to gauge where he was um doctrinally. And i asked and this is what i usually ask. I asked um well if you were going to tell somebody about the gospel if you were going to tell somebody what it means to be a christian or how to be saved what would you say.

And he launched into a summary a survey really the gospel of john and told the story of jesus and the significance of it. And why then we must believe on him. That's pretty good. That's a good way to share the gospel.

Well we can do that as you see on your handout by following the story of jesus. You already know this story. I imagine you already have all the pieces in your head i imagine. But let's just see how it all comes together.

Let's think about clothing and the incarnation christ the pre-incarnate christ the son of god the second person of the trinity had no need for physical clothing before he was born. But what about his birth.

The Birth of Jesus Wrapped in Swaddling Cloths

Let's go over to luke chapter two and talk about this little part of the christmas story of the advent story. Luke chapter two. And i'll start uh before you. Before you read verse seven. Let's just be clear on the details.

Where are joseph and mary. And what's been going on. That will have to pay taxes because they're the family of david. She just gave birth uh to joseph's child. Here's the background of the right. Joseph and mary are betrothed.

They're not yet married. She's found to be with child of the holy spirit. But to all intents and purposes. If joseph decided not to believe what the angel said it looks like she's had an illegitimate birth.

She has an illegitimate child to make matters worse. Um caesar augustus is uh uh wanting some money. So he's gonna have the text. And this is not a normal thing. It's um it's a major interruption in the life of the empire.

And so joseph and mary now have to travel from nazareth down to bethlehem complicated by the no room for them and anywhere to stay right. So so there's verse seven says. And she gave birth to her firstborn son.

And she wrapped him in cloths. First mention of clothing for jesus christ that we have wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger a feed trough. Because there was no room for them in the end. Now now we are conditioned of course to see the the nice comfortable warm glowing neat non-smelly stable.

But this is a fiction that's not in the bible anywhere. I'm surprised how far back the fiction goes. As i read authors from three four five hundred years ago talking about a stable. We don't have stable.

We have a feeding trough. That's the only structure that we have as a feeding trough. All we're said is that they're in the end. They were not able to go to the end. Therefore they have to resort to this.

I don't think they're inside of anything. Feeding troughs are not required to be inside stables. The bible doesn't say they're inside the stable. It just says the baby's wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a feed trough.

I don't think they're in. I don't think they're um inside anywhere. Additionally because shepherds who watching their flocks by night were then informed of this amazing incident. Verse 11. The angels say to the shepherds today in the city of david there has been born for you a savior who is christ the lord.

This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Now now if they're hidden on the back side of the hill somewhere inside how's that going to work. How are you going to find if they go running through bethlehem and there's a baby lying out in a feed trough somewhere.

I mean there's going to be a little bit of a crowd and people are going to be able to see that. Um but i want you to think about and i want you to think about what's going on in the first century. Here is a baby in the eyes of does not have a legitimate father.

The baby is born at the time that the that the mother and the guy she's with. I'm just gonna read it this way are getting their socks taxed off the whole life doesn't look right. The money situation is really bad and there's no place to stay in the father.

In the ancient world there was no better baby for abortion than jesus christ. Only in that day they didn't call it abortion. Uh they would just take an unwanted child after he or she was born and throw the child out into a field somewhere and the child would die of exposure.

That was a very common practice. It was widespread. The technology as we would call it for abortion didn't come around. At the time of tertullian was the church father who condemned it condemned the practice.

They would just take jesus is born. And this is the thing jesus is born outside and he is outside and the expectation is his death. The expectation is exposure. The expectation is this family can't afford this child and we're just going to.

But instead what we have is this baby is outside like all the other babies who have been thrown away. But this baby's not thrown away. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a feeding trough because that's all they had.

And that is an expression of love. That is an expression of love. And i think we're oriented to that narrative because god giving his son to us god giving to this world is an expression of love. And what kind of world do we have.

We don't have a world full of excellent prospects. Do we. We got a world full of sinners and full of sin. Don't we a world that has been rejecting god again and again and again and again if there was ever a prospect if there was ever a prime candidate for abortion it's this world just throw it away and give up.

And god doesn't do that because god has his plan his perfect plan. And it involves this loving action of giving his son jesus christ. So we look at this first expression of this first point on the story this first time we think about the clothing that is put upon christ.

We see the parents love for their child and are reminded of god's love for us. This is a great way to begin the story of the gospel talking about jesus as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Now as we continue forward and think about god's own son living among us having come for us as an expression of god's love we again should think about the clothing of jesus.

The Healing Ministry of Jesus and the Hem of His Garment

Now when we think of the ministry of jesus and we think of his clothing before we get to what we call the passion we before we get to the sufferings of jesus that had to do with his arrest his betrayal his arrest and his his sufferings before we get there.

What emphases do the gospels put on the clothing of jesus. What do we hear about the clothes of jesus during his ministry. Mostly it's about healing right. There's a couple of stories a couple of stories about that.

We think of those sure and and for some reason it was the. There's an emphasis on the hem of his garment. Twice. There was a lady who has a hemorrhage. Hemorrhage that has not healed in uh decades and no one's been able to help her.

But she comes to christ and she touches the hem of his garment because she believes he can heal her. She doesn't feel like she can come to him like others have before him interrupt his progress cry out.

For she doesn't want to interrupt him stop him delay him. All she wants to do is just touch the the back hem of his garment. I don't want to bother you but i know you're you're the one who can heal me.

Um but jesus stops anyway because he knows what's going on. And he dresses her and shows her compassion and love. So this is a powerful moment as jesus is on his way to raise a little girl from the dead he stops and this woman is healed.

What's the other story about the hem of jesus's garment. Can we think of that one jesus has. Um he had gone over the sea of galilee and he had come to an area where he met a man by the name of legion.

His name was legion. Because he was so he was full of uh so many demons that that was and nobody could control him. They tried to chain him but nothing would work. And he lived among the tombs and he was just a mess.

Jesus heals him cast the demons out sends them into the swine. And when the people show up they find someone more powerful than legion. And they never thought that before. And even as peter and the disciples were afraid of jesus after he calmed the storm these people are afraid after they see jesus healed legion.

And they want jesus to leave. And this man now healed wants to go with jesus. Jesus says no. You go back to your home back to your family back to your neighbors and you tell them everything that god has done for you.

And jesus leaves. But he's not done with his area because sometime later he crosses back over the sea of galilee comes back to the same area. And as soon as he shows up everybody and their cousin shows up with everybody who is sick and lame blind so on because they've heard what god what jesus did for this man and healed him.

And now they're all laid out. They're all laid out along the path and jesus just walks among them. And as many were there and had faith in christ they were reaching out touching the hem of his garment.

They were all healed power. That's what we think of when we think of clothing in jesus's ministry we think of the word power. Don't we healing power. When we think about it it seems that it's it wasn't his clothing that had the power.

It was christ. But you see him using his clothing as a means to convey who he is as redeemer and as creator. Um you can think of authority that he has the authority over diseases and demons and so on and so forth.

He's just he controls all of nature. You can see the power his authority. You can see his holiness. Throughout the old testament the expression was that if a leper touched you you were unclean. But when jesus comes around when he touches a leper the leper becomes clean.

And so you see that in his healing ministry jesus is is showing himself to be the one mediator between god and man the anointed one of god the messiah. Now when we come to the next point as we talk about jesus in his birth we see the love of god.

And we talk about the ministry his ministry and the power of god to save the power of god to deliver. So we hear about god's love for those who are unlovely. And we hear about god's power to save those who are truly in desperate need.

And then we hear how the people of this earth treated jesus in his suffering. Think about clothing and the sufferings of jesus. What are the stories that we have in the gospels. And then what do they put on them after they strip him of his clothing put on a scarlet robe a crown of thorns.

They were mocking him. Weren't they. They were mocking him. Let's go to john chapter 19. The the actions of the soldiers was of course exposing who they were in their uh in their cruelties. But also it exposes who we are in humanity outside the grace of god.

So in john 19 in verse uh 2 let's be in verse 1 pilot in his own twisted way was trying to deal with this jesus situation and not get indicted in the process. Okay classic politician. And so he instead of doing what they want him to do the jews want jesus dead.

And so pilot thinks well if i if i scourge him if i mistreat him enough then they'll be satisfied and we can go on. Pilot then took jesus and scourged him which is one word uh that uh behind it is a whole lot of mistreatment and pain cruelty.

And the show and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a purple robe on him after he's been degraded physically. Now they're degrading him uh emotionally. And they began to come up to him and say hail king of the jews and to give him slaps in the face.

Pilot came out again and said to them behold i am bringing him out to use that. You may know that i find no guilt in him. And jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And pilot said to them behold the man and of course the chief priest the officers and the crowd just go into a rage crucify him crucify.

Um it may have been jonathan edwards i don't quite remember. But um someone once said that man is so evil that if he ever had a chance to kill god he'd do it. And the proof is right there in the crucifixion here's the son of god.

And man got the chance to kill the incarnate son of god. And boy they did it we did it. That's how evil we are. That's how hopeless we are outside the grace of god. Um and we have the nations raging according to psalm 2.

The leaders have conspired together. The nations have come to peoples are plotting a vain thing and they rage against the lord's anointed. But he who sits in the heavens and he scoffs at them. For this will this will produce no uh no freedom from god as the as the uh the early church prayed in acts 4.

They took psalm 2 and said this is what happened in jerusalem on that day. But god is in control of the whole thing and he will prevail. When we think about clothing we think about the suffering of christ.

We see our own sinfulness. Don't we the crown of thorns the purple robe the mistreatment of jesus christ. And before we can see this is language from john stott. But before we can see the cross as something done for us we first have to see the cross as something done by us.

We have to take ownership in our sinfulness before god. And so when we tell the story about the suffering of jesus we have to identify ourselves with those who mistreat him. Because we come into the kingdom only by humble repentance repentance through faith.

For christ's suffering was for our behalf. And this is what we see in his death. So we move a little bit further in john 19 to verses 23 through 24 and the christ has been stripped of all of his clothing.

And what happens to his clothing. Verses 23 and 24. Then the soldiers when they crucified jesus took his outer garments and made four parts a part to every soldier and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless woven in one piece.

So they said to one another let us not tear it. Meaning let's not ruin the thing. Okay. But cast lots for it to decide whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture. They divided my outer garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.

Therefore the soldiers did these things. And so we were reminded at this moment as the as the as the soldiers are dividing up christ's clothes at the foot of the cross. Christ is hanging naked on the cross.

And this reminds us of shame takes us all the way back to the garden where adam and eve are in their shame and they have no answer before god because they have lost their inherent righteousness. They were clothed in the righteousness of god.

They were clothed in the in in the favor of god. But when they sinned they lost all of that. And they're they're naked in their shame. But here's christ who has always obeyed his father. He has always done everything the father wanted him to do always said everything the father wanted him to say always walked in complete fellowship with the holy spirit.

Here is the perfect son. Here is the perfect man and yet he hangs in shame. This is what we deserve that all of our shame and all of our guilt would be exposed. But see christ is bearing our iniquities and he's bearing our transgressions and he is bearing our shame and he is bearing our guilt.

And so as christ is hanging on the cross this perfect man but hanging in shame we are reminded of the substitutionary atonement of christ where he takes our place and he receives no mercy on the cross from either man or god that we would receive the mercy of god.

And that's what the clothing reminds us of in his death. Let's think of his burial now and move ahead in john 19. We can and you have the other passages there and i i encourage you to read those too because they um they're all helpful for us.

Now verse 40 of john 19 reminds us what happened after christ died. And we have another another element of the story of the gospel of jesus christ and it has to do with clothing again. So what we're doing.

We're just taking the the theme of clothing and we see that if we just look at the clothing of christ and walk through it we have we're going to end up with the whole story. We're going to end up with the whole story.

So verse 40. So this is nicodemus and joseph of arimathea verse 40 they took the body of jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices as is the burial custom of the jews. And they lay him in a tomb.

So jesus is outside the inn and his mother in love wraps him in cloths. Jesus is outside jerusalem and in love his followers wrap him in claws at the beginning of the story of jesus. And at the end of this of the story of of jesus before his resurrection from his from his birth to his death we see this uh this picture of him being wrapped in claws by those who love him by those who love him.

Now joseph of arimathea and nicodemus are cutting ties with the sanhedrin cutting ties with their standing in society all for the sake of showing honor to christ. They're outing themselves. We love this man we love this jesus.

We are for him. And they do that by the way they honor him and wrap him in these grave clothes. And he's buried in this tomb. Joseph of arimathea mark 1546 tells us that joseph of arimathea is the one who bought the linen.

He went and bought this to wrap jesus in now. Um um of course the story isn't in there. Um and the next part of the story is resurrection. Now what part of the resurrection. Uh features clothing. That's right.

So we have peter and john being informed about the empty tomb and they race to the tomb. And it says that peter marveled at what he saw and wonder at what he saw because the clothing that was left in the tomb was not your ordinary everyday clothes.

Was it. It wasn't a a robe and a tunic. It wasn't a the normal attire of a person in in jewish society. What were these clothes. They're grave clothes. Uh jesus takes off the grave clothes. Why he doesn't need them anymore.

I was dead. I am now alive forever more. I have the keys to death and hades. So he doesn't need these anymore. He's done with him. And he leaves them in the tomb. And that i think beyond the fact that you know if peter if peter at first marveled at the empty tomb and the grave clothes neatly folded and put away like the person who was wearing them folded them and put them away.

And he did. Then the wonder that continues for peter and for all disciples is this. He doesn't need him anymore. He's the first born of the resurrection. He is the first fruits of the resurrection. And all who are his will follow.

And we're not going to need the grave clothes anymore. So this is great wonder and amazement. This is an essential part of the story an absolute essential part of the gospel story that we tell the story of the resurrection of christ.

This this hope of eternal life. The next part of the story is about the ascension of christ. So for that we go to revelation. Revelation chapter one. This is correctly titled the revelation of jesus christ verse one.

And the first part of the verse is the revelation of jesus christ. In other words this is the the revelation of who jesus christ is. And it's jesus christ who's revealing this. Very helpful. When you read the book of revelation remember who's revealing this.

And who is it all about. So where's jesus. Well let's take a look. He begins to speak to john and he's telling him he's going to write some letters to the churches in in asia minor. Now this ephesus myrna pergamon thyatira stardust philadelphia and odyssea is the postal route in asia minor.

Okay. And and and so this is where the letters are going to go. And so then john's okay i'm gonna write seven letters. But he turns to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned i saw seven golden lamp stands in the middle of the lamp stands.

I saw the son of man clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like white wool like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were like burnished bronze when it had been made to glow in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.

When we think of jesus do we think of jesus ascended. We need to. He's he's. He's the one who is at the right hand of god interceding for us. He's the one who has been who has died but is now alive forevermore.

He's the one who's master and lord. Too often we're thinking about um uh the rather refined looking man. Uh in in the white robe and the purple sash sitting under a tree somewhere. And he lived among us.

I don't think he was that good looking but he lived among us. In fact i know he wasn't that good looking because isaiah said he wasn't. He was not some uber super extra human. He was human but look at him in his glory.

Look at him in his in his ascension. And look at the way he's dressed. Look at his appearance. And you know at once he's king of the universe. You know at once he has the power to raise the dead. You know at once he has the power to bring all things to an end and to make all things new.

So when we think of clothing and we think of the story of jesus we shouldn't stop with the resurrection. But we should go ahead and talk about where jesus is now. He's ascended. And look how look how powerful and majestic he is.