10 Amazing Miracles in Scripture Series
Jesus’ Resurrection: The Event That Changed History (9 of 10)
December 6, 2015 CFBC Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
A Ever heard this saying,“Clothes make the man.”?
1 There are some items of clothing that we immediately identify with a certain season, event or person.
a Dark colors (brown, burnt orange, darker colors usually associated with fall)
aa Red, White, Blue (July 4th, Veterans Day)
bb Pink, Yellow, Powder Blue (Spring/Easter)
cc When I see bold, leopard patterns I think of my mom/nana.
dd When you see people wearing “ugly” sweaters, red/green clothing it must be Christmas.
b Luke 2:7 (KJV) 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
(We identify a piece of clothing in this text that draws our minds to the manger in Bethlehem.)
2 Mary & Joseph had traveled a long way from Nazareth to head towards Bethlehem, and normally, people would have just pitched camp if there were no rooms available or family to stay with.
a Mary’s condition required her to be in a warm, safe place that night, but even more specific that, she had to be in Bethelem.
aa She knew she was in labor, about give birth to her first child . . . and she knew her child was special.
bb She also knew that even if she had to spend the night in the streets of Bethlehem, she had to reach that city. (Micah 5:2 (NASB) "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity." )
cc This child she was carrying must be born in the city of Bethlehem. (Known for it’s wheat fields and sheep: both used in Temple: flour used in shewbread & sheep used for morning/evening sacrifice)
b The inn keeper put them in the stable behind his place where his guests would put their donkeys & other livestock they were traveling with. (Today, we’d consider it a parking garage or parking lot).
aa Her attending physician and nurses were the best heaven could afford . . . her delivery was flawless.
bb There in that ancient parking garage, amongst the livestock, angels, and shepherds. . . Mary gave birth to the Savior and wrapped him in “swaddling cloths.”
3 The swaddling cloths tell us something about Jesus.
a A child who was wanted & welcomed was wrapped in swaddling cloths, a child who was not wanted was left naked and unwrapped.
b Ezekiel 16:4 (NASB) "As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.”
aa The Lord said this to Jerusalem in reference to the city prior to the Lord’s People arriving in The Land.
bb God chose a special mom for His dear Son: “I want you here with me. I’ll hold you.”
T.S.: If we could fast forward 33 years, the cloths still make the man.
B The Baby that been born in a parking garage had now been stripped, striped, spiked, and speared on Calvary’s Cross.
1 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
a Jesus had committed no sin yet suffered death, which is the wage of sin.
aa The death He suffered was humiliating, and was usually only given to the most severe offenders/grievous criminals.
bb Slow, painful, agonizing . . . death by torture.
b As Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified it looked liked death had won; the powers of evil appeared to have defeated Jesus.
aa As they took His lifeless body from the body it looked as if His mission to save humankind from sin had failed.
bb His voice was stilled and no longer to preach/teach: His body was lifeless unable to heal, raise the dead, and quiet the storms.
2 Matthew 27:59-60 (NASB) 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.
a The burial cloth was the voice of the grave saying, “I want you here with me. I’ll hold you.”
b If death could hold Jesus, with God as His father and Mary as His mother (Jesus uniting humanity w/ divinity), then it can hold all of us.)
T.S.: If we fast forward 3 days, we still find “The cloths make the man.”
C
1 There wasn’t an eye-witness to the resurrection because Jesus was alone in the tomb, but we have plenty of evidence.
a 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (NASB) 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
aa You’ve got the testimony of hundreds of people who said they saw Him, on many occasions, at many locations.
bb People saw Him alive!
b The evidence seen in the transformation in the disciples after the resurrection.
aa After the resurrection the scared disciples who had been in hiding became militant preachers.
bb Seeing one alive who was once dead tends to change a person.
2 The tomb was empty & there has never been a body produced.
a John 20:6-8 (NASB) 6 And so Simon Peter also *came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he *saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.
b The linens that welcomed into the grave, silently declaring victory, were no longer covering a body.
aa The empty linen is a proof that our Savior lives,
bb It also tells us that there is not a grave that can hold those who identify with Jesus as their Savior!
Conclusion:
A Jesus birth was unique, changed history.
1 He was born in a stable (parking garage) but it drew a heavenly audience and the star above drew simple shepherds from near & wise men from afar.
a During his 3.5 years of ministry He could feed thousands, but had no wheat fields . . . no fisheries.
aa He wrote no books, built no buildings, didn’t have any money.
bb His death was just as unique as birth.
b This Jesus wasn’t just Mary & Joseph’s son, a simple rabbi from Galilee.
2 His birth, life, preaching, message, miracles, death, blood, resurrection is the event that history revolves around.
a 2,000 years ago He changed the world. . .37 years ago, He changed my world.
aa I brought my filthy rags of a life to Him and said, “I want you . . . I’ll hold you.”
bb He took me and gave me beauty for ashes and said, “Oh son, I want you . . . I’ll hold you.”
b His resurrection makes it possible for us to live forever too.
aa He came to Bethlehem for the purpose of giving us a future resurrection and resurrection powers lives in us.
bb Philippians 3:18-21 (NASB) 18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
c When He returns, my grave clothes will be empty too!
aa 1 Corinthians 15:52 (NASB) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
bb The resurrection changed eternity for all those who believe He is “My Lord and My God.”
B Would you bring Him your clothes today?
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