Clothes Make A Man
Luke 2.7; 23.53; 24.12
Stand Alone Christmas Sermon
December 19, 2004
FBC Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
(Prior to worship, you’ll need one-inch strips of fabric, baby powder, & a box. Prior to beginning the message/service place the strips of cloth into a box. I suggest sprinkle baby powder over them just as service starts. As your listeners enter the sanctuary, ask them each to take one of the strips.)* Innovative Worship: 95 Easy Worship-Enhancing Ideas: (Loveland, CO: Vital Ministry) 1999, p 91.
A "Hold up your piece of fabric to your face and feel its softness." (Pause)
Smell it, think about the memories that its touch and smell bring to you.
a It’s amazing to think that God almighty came into the world as a tiny baby – weak, vulnerable, and dependent on a human mom & dad.
What would it have been like to feed Jesus? Rock Jesus to sleep in you arms? Watch Jesus as he slept?
I want to challenge you to hold this human image of Jesus in your minds and continue to feel and smell the fabric throughout this message.
b From the pages of the Old Testament, Baby Moses comes drifting down the Nile in a wicker basket. The ancient word tells us that God used that baby to bring the law.
Today, we see that God used a baby in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes to bring what the law could not . . . grace.
John 1.17 "For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ." (NASB)
*At the same time your remembering the babe in a manger, think of the God on the throne in power, strength, and sovereignty.
B Dr. Luke used two pieces of cloth to bridge the cradle to the cross. (ETS)
a 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7 (NASB)
53 And he took it (the body of Christ) down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. Luke 23:53 (NASB)
12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened. Luke 24:12 (NASB)
b God’s greatest gift to humankind has been unwrapped.(ESS)
C I hope you’ll allow the significance of the two unwrapped pieces of cloth to change your life. (Objective)
a How are the clothes of Christ changing your life? (Probing Question)
b Let’s look at two pieces of cloth that changed the entire landscape of humanity. (Transitional Sentence)
I The first piece of cloth that changed humanity were swaddling clothes.
7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7 (NASB)
A The swaddling clothes that Jesus was wrapped in were perhaps the most normal part of the nativity. (Nothing normal about an Obstetrics wing being in a stable, Cattle trough doubling as a crib, virgin giving birth, or shepherds waiting in the lobby to see a new born)
a When a Hebrew child was born, three procedures took that place that constituted normal infant care. The baby was . . .
1) Cleaned with water, 2) rubbed in salt, 3) wrapped in swaddling clothes.
The Swaddling Clothes were not necessarily dirty rags from the stable.
I speculate that Joseph & Mary may have brought the clothes with them from Nazareth. (SPECULATION: Perhaps they were Joseph’s when he was a baby. Maybe a wedding gift from Mary’s parents.)
b Mom would literally wrap the baby, in mummy fashion, to insure that the baby’s limbs would grow straight and also would give a certain amount of protection to baby. (The baby would quickly grow out of the swaddling clothes)
*What a mental picture think of the Son of God, lying in a baby blanket and a diaper. (Glowing parents!!)
B So much of the birth of Christ is miraculous (Star over Bethlehem, virgin birth, angel choir, shepherd, wise men, old testament prophesies, etc.), but the swaddling clothes remind us that Jesus knows what it’s like to be a real person.
a Rich Mullin’s Song: Man like Me:
"Did you grow up hungry, did you grow up fast? Did the little girls giggle when you walked past, did you wonder what it was that made them laugh?" "Did you ever get scared playing hide & seek, did you try not to cry when you scrapped your knew, did you ever skip a rock across a quiet creek?"
b He knows what it’s like to be tempted, hurt, betrayed, lied to/about, criticized, abandoned, grieve, bleed, separated from his family, . . .
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Heb 4:14-16 (NASB)
C A mom & son went to Church, dad would always stay @ home. Christmas eve no different. Dad waits for them to come home and notices a bird hitting against the window to get to the fire inside.
a Dad goes outside, tries to help, bird rebuffs attempts, Dad, "If only I could become a bird and make him understand I’m offering help." Dad gets Xmas.
b Jesus came so we could understand that God wants to help us, loves us!
II The second piece of cloth that changed humanity was a burial linen.
And he (Joseph of Arimathea) took it (the body of Christ) down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. Luke 23:53 (NASB)
A Condemned criminals lost the right to a proper burial (thrown on to the garbage dump outside of town), but God saw to it that His Son’s body was buried with dignity/love.
a Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin, took Jesus’ body and wrapped it mummy style. (Like Lazarus in John 11.44; "The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go.")
b Jesus didn’t faint/swoon (Pilate made sure Jesus was dead), that tomb cradled his lifeless body the way the manger had cradled him as infant so many years ago.
As touching as it is to image the Son of God in diapers, it’s equally disturbing to image Him in a tomb . . .but He did.
He did so I could go to heaven, but also so I could experience a relationship with Him right now!
B Fast Forward Three Days . . . But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened. Luke 24:12 (NASB)
a The linens that previously had affirmed the certainty of his death now were giving a silent, but eloquent testimony to the absence of Jesus’ body.
b His swaddling clothes told me about his humanness, His empty burial linens tell me about his divinity. HE HAD (HAS) THE POWER OVER DEATH & THE GRAVE!!!
". . . (Jesus) abolished death and brought life and immortality . . ." 2 Tim 1:10 (NASB)
yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— Col 1:22 (NASB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rm. 6.23 KJV)
There is no bridge that God can’t cross.
C Christmas morning (eve), many of you will open gifts with your family.
a The living room floor will be covered with the torn remains of wrapping paper that the gifts came in.
b Jesus burial clothes were the wrapping that the greatest gift given to humanity was wrapped in.
Just as Jesus outgrew his swaddling clothes of the nativity, He also outgrew his burial cloth of the crucifixion.
If you die a believer, you’ll outgrow you burial clothes, too!
Conclusion:
Dr. Luke used two pieces of cloth to bridge the cradle to the cross. (ETS) God’s greatest gift to humankind has been unwrapped. (ESS)
A We’ve looked at two pieces of cloth that changed the entire (and eternal) landscape of humanity.
a Swaddling Clothes (Jesus was fully human)
b Burial linen (Through His divinity, He defeat death & the grave)
B I hope you’ll allow the significance of the two pieces of cloth to change your life. (Objective)
a Option One: Trust God in that there is nothing you can’t handle with Him.
Or Live your life believing God can’t handle/understand what your going through.
b Option Two: Unwrap God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus for yourself. Or Leave this life and loss in the face of death because you haven’t opened God’s gift for yourself.
C How are the clothes of Christ changing your life? (Probing Question)
a When I was a boy in the first grade at Odin Grade School. My teacher, Mrs. Crosby, had a tree decorated with small xmas gifts hanging on dozens of the branches. (Those little boxes were the objects I longed for with all my heart as a six year old boy.)
I snuck into class a little early one Monday morning, I only lived about 125 yards from the school.
I opened up the shinnest little box, tried to guess what what miniture treasure might be inside . . . I eagerly tore open the tiny present and inside . . . I found . . . nothing. (Disappointed, guilt)
b Little did I know that morning that this scene would repeat itself many times in my life.
As I grew up the world enticed me with all sorts of shiny, gaily wrapped "presents" that caught my eye and promised happiness. Too often, when I accepted what the world was offering and tore away the wrappings, my excited expectations were replaced by feelings of emptiness.
Over and over I found myself proving the old cliché: "You can’t judge a gift by its wrapping."
But this one gift whose wrappings I can trust . . . swaddling clothes/burial linen of Christ.
c How are the clothes of Christ changing your life?
I hope you’ll allow the significance of the two pieces of cloth to change your life. (Objective)
