Description
FASHION POLICE
Seamless
April 10-12, 2009
Ed Young
Everyone wears something kind of bright on Easter! We do that, though, don’t we? Most of us do that. These are some pants that a friend of mine from Italy sent to me. So, I had to sport these pants on Easter. So Luca, I’m sure he’ll be watching this, thanks for the red pants. He told me, “Ed, you have to be confident in your masculinity to wear these pants.” So here I go! I’m in the Easter pants.
Anyway, we do love to wear things new. And Easter is one of those times we get together and have a wonderful time. A lot of us go to church. Something is normally new on Easter. We wear a new tie, maybe a new pair of socks; a new dress. We like to wear something new, something different. And normally we like to wear these Easter outfits at church. So it’s kind of a fashion show of faith, if you think about it.
Have you ever wondered, though, why we enjoy dressing? I mean, obviously we dress because it covers us. But why do we like to wear different styles and different types of clothes? That’s pretty good question. I’m a “why” guy and I like to ask questions, and I’m going to be talking about some of those things.
Do you know someone in your life that is fashion unconscious? Ladies, doesn’t your husband sometimes walk out of the front door and you’re like, “Hey, stop! What are you thinking with that outfit, honey? You turn right around and go back to your closet!” And you pick out the outfit for him? Yeah, yeah. Is that kind of familiar?
Do you ever want to walk up to people; you might see someone in an airport or a mall or even around church; do you ever want to walk up and say, “Excuse me. What were you thinking when you put that on?” I’ve always wanted to do that.
Well today, I am beginning a new series of talks called Fashion Police. We’re talking about the Fashion 5-0. There are all these shows these days—What Not to Wear, Fashion Emergency. We’re going to talk about fashion.
And today, I’m going to talk about a topic that you’ve probably never heard about or thought about in your life. At least I’ve never heard about it or really thought about it. I’m going to talk to you about the fashion of Jesus, the fashion of our Lord. What did he wear? Why did he wear it?
Because if you really think about fashion, fashion makes a statement, doesn’t it? You are what you wear. Dress for success. And usually, you can look at someone and tell what that person does for a living, usually by what they wear. So that’s probably the reason we like to wear—we want to make a statement about something.
And people want to wear certain designers. Have you ever seen those interviews on the red carpet? “Who are you wearing? Who are you wearing? Who are you wearing?” And they name all of these names, many of them Italian. I can’t pronounce the name of the gentleman who designed these pants, but he’s definitely Italian.
The fashion, though, of Jesus.
Illus: I love to fish. You know, fishing is a biblical sport. The disciples were fishermen, and I guess that’s why I like to fish. Well, the other day I went online and I was looking at the Under Armor website. Have you heard of Under Armor? This company is exploding! Under Armor has all the gear for all sorts of athletes. Whether you’re male or female, a kid, or if you’re playing in the NFL, Under Armor has an outfit for you.
Well, Under Armor has entered the fishing world. And I was looking at this cool rain suit, because when you fish, you have to brave the elements. And there was this yellow jacket, and when I logged onto their website, there was this plus sign, this little magnifying glass thing, and a minus sign. If you clicked on the plus sign, you could zoom up to this jacket and look at it and see the fabric and all of that. Or you could zoom out. You could click on other areas of the website and get a more of a detailed description and so on and so forth.
The fashion of Jesus; the outfits Jesus wore; the clothes of Christ. What if we could click on, and zoom in on his garments? What if we have the ability to get up close and personal and look at the detailed description of what Jesus wore? Because I’m here to tell you, Jesus was in style. Jesus was very fashion forward. His clothing makes some serious, serious statements.
If you have your Bibles, turn to the book of John, as we talk about the fashion of Jesus. There’s a lot in Scripture about the clothing of Christ. I’ve never really thought about it.
I’ve done masters work, I’ve done some doctrinal work, I’ve studied the original languages. But I’ve never really thought about the fashion of Jesus. Well, here we go.
Let’s look at John 19:23. If you don’t have a Bible, you can relax. Share with someone sitting next to you. Singles, what a great way to meet someone. You might be able to say, “I went to Fellowship Church that one rainy Easter and sat down by this beautiful lady who brought her Bible. And we shared Scripture together and now two years later, we’re sharing marital love as man and wife, living in that white house with 2.5 kids.”
That can happen! I met my wife at church. So that’s cool, sharing the Scripture with one another.
John 19:23, “When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.”
Let’s say “from top to bottom” together. 1-2-3. “From top to bottom.”
Jesus had some clothes, and the Roman soldiers were gambling for the garments for Jesus at the foot of the cross. Here we have Jesus dying on the cross for the world’s sins, and we have some soldiers who were rolling the dice for the robe of Jesus.
Jesus wore a head piece, he had a belt, and outer robe, and sandals. But the seamless garment—seamless—was the one that was valuable. It’s the garment that was expensive. This seamless garment of Jesus.
Click on to the zoom aspect of your mind, of your website. Get close to the garment of Jesus, that seamless garment of Jesus. Because this garment makes a statement, several statements.
The first statement I want you to notice about the garment of Jesus is it reflects his perfection. That’s a statement; I mean a serious fashion statement, about the garment of Jesus. It reflects his perfection.
It was seamless from head to toe. And it shows us his sinlessness and our sinfulness. The garment of Jesus didn’t have a flaw on it, not a hard spot on it. There was not a thread out of whack, nothing funky on it. It was seamless.
Jesus lived a perfect life. Think about it. A perfect life. I can’t even wrap my brain around that. He was fully God and fully man, the Bible says. Our pea brains can’t fully understand that; we’ll never understand that fully until we get to heaven.
Jesus was born in a manger, right? And he was wrapped in swaddling clothes. What are swaddling clothes? Burial clothes, death clothes. A baby born to die. See the foreshadowing?
Jesus began his ministry at thirty years of age. And as he was ministering people, read the gospels, wanted to touch his robe, touch his garment. The clothes of Jesus represent his perfection; his sinlessness and our sinfulness.
Jesus was arrested. And the Roman soldiers tortured him and abused him and laid aside his seamless garment. It wasn’t messed up. It wasn’t ripped. It wasn’t tattered. But they did put on this purple robe, this robe of unrighteousness, this robe that was all messed up. And they began to mock him.
When Jesus died on the cross for the iniquities of the world, Jesus laid aside his seamless robe, his robe of perfection and righteousness and put on your sin and mine. He put on your robe and mine of unrighteousness, this robe that is stitched with sin and ripped with rebellion.
Jesus was buried. And the Scripture writers talk about how he was wrapped in burial cloths. He had a headpiece, part of these cloths. And the writer of John said that after the resurrection, after Jesus came back to life on Easter morning, John looked into the empty tomb, and so did Simon Peter—they had a footrace to the tomb—and as they looked in, they saw the headpiece folded neatly on the bench where the body of Jesus lay.
All they saw were clothes and the headpiece folded neatly. The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty.
Illus: A couple days ago I had dinner with a number of Jewish friends. It was a very interesting meal. I’ll tell you about that later, not today, but later.
But if you do some research about a meal in a Jewish household during the time of Jesus, if you liked the meal and said, “Oh, this is finger licking good!” you would take your napkin, fold it neatly and place it on the table. You were telling the host and the hostess, “I will be back.”
When John and Peter looked into the tomb of Jesus and saw the headpiece folded neatly, what was he saying? “I will be back! He is alive. We don’t serve a Savior who is dead. We don’t serve a Savior whose tomb is occupied. We serve a Savior whose tomb is empty. And in the book of Revelation, it says when Jesus comes back he’ll have this garment of glory. This garment will reflect the nature and the character of God.
Look at him. Check out his clothing. It represents the sinlessness of Christ and the sinfulness of us.
No one taught me how to sin. I’ve never been tutored in the subject. I just know how to sin. And you’re the same way. If you don’t believe you are a natural born sinner, get married and crank out a couple kids and watch them develop. You’ll say, “Whoa! Who taught them that? Where did they get that attitude?”
We just know how to sin.
Here’s some Bible trivia. The first time clothing was ever mentioned in the Scriptural record was back in the book of Genesis. Remember Adam and Eve? They had everything going for them. Everything was perfect; it was a pristine environment. They had this right relationship with God. The Bible says they were clothed in the glory of God. Then they chose to rebel against God, to turn their backs on God.
Then the Scripture begins to unpack this and the Scripture writer tells us that Adam and Eve realized their nakedness and they were ashamed. So here’s what they did. They tried to get some fig leaves and sew the fig leaves together to cover their nakedness. There was one problem. It didn’t work.
So God comes in on the scene, and God takes an animal, and innocent animal. They’d never seen death before. And you know all of creation held its breath wondering, “What’s God going to do? Adam and Eve had it going on. Everything was perfect. They chose to rebel against God,” because remember, love is a choice. “What’s God going to do? Is he going to nuke them? Is he going to wipe them out? What’s he going to do?”
God killed an innocent animal, spilled its blood on the soils of the Garden. Don’t you know they looked in shock and horror as they saw this unfolding! Then God skinned the animal, took the skins and covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve, illustrating and pointing to the fact that it’s going to take the shedding of an innocent third party’s blood to atone for the sins of mankind.
This is seen throughout the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. You remember the Old Testament? Remember the Holy of Holies? It was a place that only the high priest could go once a year to atone for the sins of mankind. And if the high priest fumbled the ball or committed a turnover in the Holy of Holies, boom! God would just take him out.
Then it begins to develop and the plot clots and leads us to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, paying the price on the cross for the sins of the world and then rising again.
So look at his robe. What a fashion statement! The statement of perfection.
But there’s another fashion statement about the robe of Jesus. His position. That’s right. What Jesus wore reflected his position.
As I said earlier, you can look at people and say, “I think I know what she does for a living. I think I can tell what he does for a living.” Or, “I know what hobby he enjoys. I know what she’s into.”
Our clothing counts. It counts for us. But it really counts for Jesus. Jesus’ robe was not touched, tattered or torn or messed up in any way. It was put aside.
Jesus laid aside his seamless robe and put on the robe of unrighteousness so we can put aside our unrighteousness and put on the robe of righteousness.
Jesus, the Bible says, is our high priest. Let me explain something to you.
On one hand, Christ’s garment was not torn. But there were two tearing during the crucifixion of Jesus, during this process.
The first one, and let me just give you the Wikipedia version, was Caiaphas. You saw Caiaphas in the video segment earlier. Caiaphas was the high priest. Now watch this. Caiaphas was the guy who went behind the veil, and the veil was a curtain that was as thick as a man’s hand. It took 300 priests to move it. It was sixty feet tall and twenty feet wide. It separated man from God.
Caiaphas was the high priest. He had a seamless robe, from top to bottom. Say it with me again, from top to bottom. So when Caiaphas is looking at Jesus, he is thrilled that Jesus is going to the cross. He’s like, “This is awesome!” And Caiaphas does something that is whack. If you know your Bible, and I’ll help you with this, the high priest would not mess up his robe. Caiaphas, as he’s locking eyes with Jesus, begins to just rip his robe.
And I thought he was doing that because he was mad or whatever. No. He didn’t know what he was doing. You know what he was doing? He was showing the world that the earthly priesthood is obsolete, that the sacrificial system is no more! Caiaphas was locking eyes with the high priest, our high priest, Jesus Christ.
So Caiaphas tore his robes. He tore that seamless garment.
Illus: I have a friend of mine named Drew. Drew is far away from God. He peppers pretty much every conversation with dozens of f-words and other interesting words, and he talks about subjects that you would pretty much exemplify where he is spiritually. He’s far away from God. However, Drew is definitely investigating the things of the Bible and the things of the Lord.
Well, the other day I was hanging out with him and he said, “Ed, I can’t believe that I even know you.”
And I said, “Drew, I can’t believe I even know you. It’s interesting that we would even meet one another.” But that’s a whole other subject of the story.
So Drew said, “Ed, are you a priest?” I said, “No, I’m not a priest. I’m a pastor.” He said, “Well, do people have to confess their sins to you?”
I kind of joked around and said, “Drew, sin is my business. But no. You don’t have to confess your sins to me.”
And I explained to him that Jesus is my high priest. I can go directly into the presence of God because of Jesus.
That’s why when you and I pray we say, “In Jesus’ name.” So you don’t have to go through some priest or some pastor to talk to God. 24/7 you can talk to God. Microwave prayer. Boom! Talk to God. We can go boldly into his presence. Jesus is our high priest.
When Caiaphas ripped his robe, he was saying, “Jesus, you are the high priest. You are the ultimate sacrifice. The priesthood is obsolete.”
But notice there was another tearing. There was another one. When Jesus breathed his last breath he said several words, but he said this. “It is finished.”
As I was talking to my friend Drew he was asking me about Buddhism and Islam and all these other world religions. And I said, “Drew, Christianity is unique from all the other world religions. First of all,” I said, “you go to the tomb of our Lord and its empty. You go to the tomb of the other leaders of the other world religions? Occupied, occupied, occupied.” And I said, “Drew, I don’t know about you, but I’m putting my money on the one that came back to life.”
I don’t know about you, but that’s what I’m doing. And I think a lot of people here would agree with you. I mean, we’re putting our money on the one that came back to life.
So this other tearing was an interesting one. Because when Jesus breathed his last breath; when he paid the price on the cross for our sins; when he put on your robe and my robe that stitched with sin and ripped with rebellion… In fact, let me let the Bible describe it even more.
Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”
As I was talking to Drew about being a good guy or being a religious person; I mean I don’t care if you’re a good Catholic or good Baptist or whatever, you know what the Bible says? Good isn’t good enough. I’ll say it again. The Bible says good isn’t good enough. God cannot look at sin. He cannot look at your life and mine. He can’t. God is perfect; he’s holy.
“Ed, I thought God loves me unconditionally.” He does! But he can’t look at sin and we’re sinners. We’re in trouble.
Are you dressed for success? Are you walking around naked, trying to sew fig leaves together? Or, have you clothed yourself in the righteousness of Jesus, in the robe of Jesus?
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” he was saying the work has been done.
And I told my friend Drew, “All the other religions are spelled D-O. I’ve got to do this or I can’t do that. We have to jump through all these hoops in order to appease God. There’s one problem. Good isn’t good enough. We can’t appease God. We can’t be religious enough. We can’t! I can’t; you can’t. We’re in trouble.”
What did God do? Because of God’s irrational and unconditional love, he commissioned Jesus Christ to live a perfect life, to die a sacrificial death on the cross for your sins and mine.
He didn’t become a sinner on the cross; he became sin. Because he was perfect, the perfect Lamb of God, he received and took the brunt of your guilt and mine, of your shame and mine, of your game and mine. He took all the anger and greed and lust and immorality, the sins of the world in the past, present and future. Jesus wore it as he hung there on the cross. His father turned his back on him. Why? God can’t look at sin.
I’ll tell you again, good isn’t good enough. So if you’re trying to “good” your way in, you’re going to be gravely disappointed. Good isn’t’ good enough.
“Well surely God grades on a curve.” Good isn’t good enough. When Jesus died, when he breathed his last breath, another tearing took place. You know what happened? The veil of the temple was ripped from; say it with me, top to bottom.
The garment of Jesus—seamless from top to bottom.
The veil of the temple was ripped from top to bottom. No longer do we have this veil separating man from the presence of God.
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
So the only way we can get to heaven is to be perfectly dressed. That’s the only way.
Have you ever been to a party, and when you show up you’re totally casual and everyone else is dressed up? I’ve done that before. And you think, ‘Oh, man! I didn’t get the email. I didn’t read the invitation right.” That’s embarrassing.
Could it be in our Easter finest, in the bright clothes of this day, that we have some people here in this venue and all our other venues in Miami, Fort Worth, Dallas, and Plano and in East Texas and all our overflow rooms; could it be that we have some people here who are underdressed? Could it be we have some people here who are exposed, who are walking around naked, trying to sew fig leaves together to cover tracks? Could it be that we have people here like that?
The veil was torn in two. Jesus is the way. Now we can get into the presence of God because of Jesus. He lived a totally righteous life. And because of his righteousness, and because of his purity, he was able to take our sin. God pours out his wrath on sin.
And God poured his wrath out (and that’s not a popular subject in our politically correct culture) on Jesus; he took it all for you and me—something we’ll never deserve—was buried, rose again, and now he says, “I love you. I’m crazy about you. You matter to me. Here’s my robe. I love you from top to bottom.”
And that’s the story of Easter! God came from the top to the bottom to bring us from the bottom to the top. That’s Easter! The seamless robe of Jesus. From top to bottom. The veil’s been ripped in two from top to bottom.
“Well, Ed, man, I’ve bottomed out. You don’t realize what I did last night. You don’t realize what I’m into.”I don’t. You’re right. I don’t. But I do know this. There is nothing you can do to cause God to love you any more or any less. Jesus is just following you around and extending his robe to you, his robe of righteousness, his robe of perfection, his robe of forgiveness, his robe or holiness. And the nail scarred hands, you can see them there, he’s just saying, “Put it on.”
I had something miraculous happen to me today. I was just walking by my closet, I tripped on a shoe, and when I got up I was dressed!
No. I put this outfit together by choice. And some of you are saying, “Oh, Ed, that’s a bad choice. That red? Oh!” The Roman soldiers were rolling the dice for the garment of Jesus, right? One of them walked away with the seamless garment of God. He got it by chance. We can put on the robe of Jesus by choice!
I cannot make you put it on. You cannot make me put it on. We choose to respond to this unconditional love or not.
But Jesus, I’m telling you, makes some serious fashion statements. The perfection. The position—he’s our high priest.
Notice one more. The provision of Jesus. His seamless robe just reflects his provision.
He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. Once we’re clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, power is on tap—power to have a great marriage, power to understand what our gifts and abilities are all about, power to have real, authentic community, power to understand our finances in this schizophrenic economy, power. Do you have that kind of power?
My friend Drew, the guy has tried it all. You name the sin, he’s probably tried it. You know what brought us together? The love of fishing.
Illus: I went fishing with Drew just a few days ago. He loves it just like I do. And I found myself fishing for fish, but at the same time God was saying, “You’re fishing for Drew.” And I said, “Drew, you’re seeking. And whenever you seek, God will always put someone in your path to be a messenger. There’s no way, Drew that I should be standing here with you in this boat. I mean, our backgrounds and everything are totally opposite. God has put me in this boat and has connected us and given us this common love for fishing for me to tell you that God loves you and that God wants you to be part of his family.”
Maybe just maybe I’m that person today. I don’t know. Maybe just maybe the person who invited you to Fellowship is that person. I don’t know. But I’m telling you, if you are sincerely seeking; if you want to roll the dice for Jesus… We have a lot of risk takers, a lot of adrenaline junkies here. “Yeah, man. I’m an adrenaline junkie! I like to take risks. I’ll try that deal or do that.” And we want to be all hard and mean and bad. But have you ever rolled the dice for Christ? Have you ever said, “I’m fashion unconscious. My robe is tattered and torn and stitched with sin and ripped with rebellion. And Jesus, I want to put on your robe.”
Have you said that? Because your life will never, ever, ever have that purpose and that power until you make that ultimate fashion statement. Because when you do, you’re going to be perfect. That’s crazy, isn’t it?
When God looks at me, even though I’m a sinner (if you don’t believe it, ask my wife); when God looks at me, he doesn’t see Ed Young, sinner. He says, “Ed Young. He’s my boy who has clothed himself in righteousness, who has clothed himself in Jesus.” So he sees Jesus.
And he’ll do the same in your life. There are thousands here who can say the same thing.
Also, you want to talk about the position? You clothe yourself in righteousness, you’re adopted into the family of God. Once you get in, you can’t get out. Isn’t that great? You become a son or daughter. You’ve heard the term “born again,” you are born again into the family of God.
Provision of God? Again, the power is on tap! The resurrection power. You might think your relationship is dead, your marriage is dead, your career is dead, your life is dead; are you kidding me? The same power that brought Jesus back from the grave is available right now.
Who are you wearing? Really. Who are you wearing? There’s only one designer. And his name is Jesus. He is our risen Lord. And that’s the only fashion statement that we can ever really make. Who are you wearing?
{Ed ends in closing prayer.]