Clothed In Christ Series

Clothed In Christ

Romans Series

CCCAG October 4th, 2020

Scripture- Romans 13:8-14

How many people here will ever admit to having a fashion disaster?

I admit I have very little concern or even time to care what the latest fashion is.

and I know everyone here is saying we know.

This didn't just start in my adult life. I'm going to take you back to one of the greatest decades that humanity has ever gone through- the 1980s.

If you were a teenager in the 80’s- everything was awesome. Cable, huge, huge projection TV, VCR's or if you were a nerd Betamax video machines, remote controls- remember when one of your jobs as a child was to be the remote control for your dad because he was too cheap to go buy one from the store? Or if you're really early 80s or maybe this is late 70s your job was to go and turn the dial on the antenna and outside your antenna would go around in a circle.

Anyone have one of those?

Fashion was a big thing in the 1980s. I'm not sure how much it hit here in rural America but in the cities any male over the age of 12 had to have a white blazer so he could look like Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice.

Here is another fad that hit for a little while- parachute pants. Does anyone remember parachute pants? Michael Jackson made them famous and a lot of his videos. If you don't remember they were kind of a plastic material that had all kinds of zippers on them. I think about 1984 all the kids wanted them to go back to school. I beg and beg and begged for my dad to buy me a pair, but he thought they were stupid. Finally, I convinced my step monster to buy me a pair as they were on clearance at Shopko.

There was a reason they were on clearance

They had gone out of style about a month before but I was so focused on wanting a pair of parachute pants I didn't even notice.

Monday I walk into my junior high school with a pair of parachute pants on and the reaction was visceral as everyone pointed and laughed at my fashion faux pas.

I don't think I ever wore them again. I tried to give them to my brother and he absolutely refused to take them, so they ended up in the goodwill bag that went to the thrift store.

This world can be pretty fickle about such things can't it?

When I was studying for ministry, I was going through the class on Genesis talking about how God had to kill an animal in order to give clothes to Adam and Eve. It occurs to me then that clothing itself is representative of our fall from grace.

You see it represented in the bible. In Zechariah chapter 3 when a man named Joshua, who was the high priest, is standing before the Lord in what we would consider a courtroom scene. It shows the angel of the LORD standing near Joshua defending him before God the Father, and satan being the prosecuting attorney. The garments that Joshua is wearing are all stained and tattered representing the effects of sin on our lives and satan is accusing him of all of his sin.

The father rebukes satan, and then the angel of the LORD speaks.

The Angel of the Lord, which in the Old Testament is Jesus prior to his incarnation here on earth, orders that new robes be given to Joshua saying, “I have taken away your sin”.

I thought that was pretty interesting.

He didn’t speak peace to him

He didn’t even declare him innocent of the crime.

He, Jesus, gave him new clothes.

When we read other accounts in the Old Testament where people were going to meet with God and were told to stop and wash their clothes before going in in meeting with God, even if it was on the side of a mountain.

Think about God telling you- “I’m sending you the highest mountain in the area to meet with me- make sure you wear your finest suit or outfit to climb the mountain!”

To me, a suit is the last thing I want to wear when climbing a mountain.

Because of these kinds of passages in the Old Testament, it became a tradition of putting on your best clothes to come to church.

There's nothing wrong with that, but I think it misses the major point when it comes to what we cover ourselves with.

No matter how much we spend, no matter whose name is on the label, or how good it looks today, any piece of clothing that we can buy here on this earth or eventually fade, fail, or deteriorate.