The Advent season offers a message of peace in the face of fear.
The human experience is often marked by anxiety and worry, from childhood fears to adult anxieties. However, the birth of Jesus Christ and the promise of his return bring hope and peace.
The Bible provides numerous passages that address our fears and offer comfort. Through faith in Jesus, we can overcome our anxieties and experience lasting peace.
The Advent season is a time to reflect on this message and find solace in the promise of Christ’s love and grace.
This Advent, come hear and experience how in and through Jesus, “His Gospel is Peace!”
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10
There are times we put on our best. For many that was for big, special occasions, like weddings, funerals, anniversaries, and Sundays. (Remember, “Sunday best” for clothes?)
There’s something to that. Something about dressing up in our best attire for special occasions. But it can go further than that. We can also tell some people by the clothes they wear. Military uniforms tell us branches, campaigns, and ranks. Royalty can be observed with crowns and ornate robes. And, in liturgical traditions, some pastors and priests can be differentiated by their garb.
This was true in Scripture as well. In fact, when God commanded the Israelites to build a tabernacle in the desert, He also gave detailed instructions on how the priests were to dress. The outfits were very ornate. They included many aspects, but one that I find interesting is the gems on the ephod (breastplate). There were twelve, each with the names of each tribe, so that when the priest entered into the “Holy of Holies” (or “Holiest Place”), their names would be born “as a continuing memorial before the LORD” (Exodus 28:29).
But we’re getting ready for Christmas. And we see a Savior born for us and bear our name before the Father, not with gems on an ornate breastplate, but through a manger and swaddling clothes!
There is a “great exchange” which takes place tonight: a priestly intercessor for the Great intercessor. Our wretched sins for His perfection. Our worst for His best. Our hurts and pains born by Him on the cross. Our shame on His cross. Our attempt at a holy projection for the Holy One, naked and dying.
Is dressing up in our best good? Sure! But seeing the One born humbly in the manger; the One who died naked on a cross, well, that’s infinitely better!
Through faith in the One born for us, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: we have been clothed and covered with a robe of righteousness, so our soul will exalt!
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Jonah 3:6
This is a tough one. It involved being “clothed” in sackcloth and ashes. (A far cry from “Louis Vuitton” or whatever the fashionable wear is now!)
Jonah was dreading this. He knew of Nineveh’s true, utter, undisputed wickedness cruelty. And he also knew of God’s mercy for those who repent. In the off chance Nineveh would head God’s Word, Nineveh would be spared and their evil continue.
And that’s what happened.
What a disaster!
But this is precisely the point of God’s call for repentance – a turning from sin and back toward God and His ways.
So what does that have to do with clothing or sackcloth and ashes?
Being clothed in sackcloth and ashes was a sign of one’s sorrow and repentance. A sign that they were truly sorry for what they had done.
God didn’t spare the people of Nineveh because they changed their cloths and got a little dirty. He spared them because they changed their hearts and saw that they were very dirty.
The call is for us, too. We are called to repentance. True repentance. Soulful repentance. Deep repentance. Full repentance. Not an outward change of clothing or actions, but an inward transformation of the heart which produces from our very being a want and desire to change our actions.
If our repentance is done only for God and others to see, well, God sees through that; and He isn’t fooled. He wants to see that our sins, which break His heart have broken ours too. He wants to see that the actions He despises are despised by us too. He wants to see our hearts in sackcloth and ashes because we see the seriousness of our sins.
But He doesn’t leave us there! Where there is faith in Jesus there is forgiveness of our sins! Where there is confession sins there is mercy freely given! Where we were covered in ashes, He has traded us Light. Where we were drowning in sorrow and mourning, He has lifted us to peace and rejoicing. Where we wallowed in despair and hopelessness, He has stood us up in Life and hope.
Take to heart your sins, for they are serious.
Even more, take in His heart the forgiveness of all your sins through faith in Jesus, for it is certain and everlasting!
Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.
Genesis 37:3
Jealousy is ugly in people. It produces hurts and feelings of inferiority. It feeds insecurities and wounds to the core of who we are, what we do, and our feelings of importance within the scheme of things. It focuses us on others, then ourselves, instead of working toward God’s good and the common good.
This can be especially true in families and for siblings. Comparisons of favor – perceived or real – can be the cause for emotional and spiritual wounds that can last a lifetime.
The story of Joseph and his father’s display of favoritism toward him in this special coat give evidence of this and the consequences that can follow.
He is sold into slavery and communicated dead to his father.
Flagrant hubris displayed through clothing produced devastating jealousy.
But that’s not where things end.
God used Joseph and the special gifts He blessed him with to save people – including those who were hurt by him and, in turn, hurt him.
God used this favorite son of Jacob to save his family, a country, and countless others!
But it goes even further: Joseph as a type of Christ!
Said differently: God’s one and only, special Son saved all!
Are we to be jealous of Jesus’ place? Of the clothing He had to wear to accomplish salvation? That would be foolish.
So it is also foolish to be jealous and hurt by others God is using for His purposes, whatever they are.
And here’s another truth: God blessed you with special, unique gifts and abilities to do His will, too! Gifts and abilities He didn’t give anyone else.
He has clothed you in your beautiful, unique skin and package to work, will, and share a message that clothes and saves others. To share Him in everything you do.
That is a truth we can all celebrate and never have to be jealous of!
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21
The first clothes we find in the Bible are all the way back in Genesis. Adam and Eve have just committed the first sin, corrupting humanity and all creation, plunging them into a fall that fundamentally separates from connection and intimacy with God.
The importance of this rebellion cannot be overlooked or minimized. It forever changed the course of history. It brought with it death and sin and shame. A shame that needed to be dealt with. Put off. Covered.
Adam and eve tried to cover this colossal mistake with fig leaves. But that won’t do. A simply external covering will not – can not – cover the sin itself. Sin demands death. It demands the shedding of blood. And so God shows His first act of mercy in not shedding the blood of Adam and Eve, but instead making the first sacrifice of an animal. Spilling its blood to cover the sin and its hide to cover the nakedness.
Whatever your sin and shame is, through faith in Jesus it is covered. Atoned for. On the cross. Forever. His blood covered your sin. His resurrection covers your shame.
“Thank You, Lord, for covering us in every way and restoring us to You!”
For our Advent and Christmas journey we are going to look at various aspects of and the importance given to different clothes in Scripture.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
Mark Twain
This may seem odd or trivial, but clothing in the Bible is more than a tangential detail. It often has significant implications for revealing God’s plan of redemption.
Consider: God covered Adan and Eve’s shame and nakedness. He designed and meticulously instructed the Israelites on the priestly garments of the Tabernacle. The Savior Himself was wrapped in swaddling clothes (and later was crucified naked on the cross).
We are going to look at some stories of “The Clothing of the King.” Stories that describe a wardrobe at once splendid and sin-stained, with fabrics that reveal who we are and cover us through His love and redemption. The clothing of the King is both tattered and worn and also incorruptibly glorious – which He freely gives to us!
Join us as we see texture and shape given to the threads of Scripture!
Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
Luke 2:15b
As if there wasn’t enough going on, now, as a community-ostracized, pregnant young woman, we have to make a prolonged trip with thousands of others to another city with what seems minimal support!
If God is going to ask so much of someone, why would He allow such struggles?
We may wonder that, too.
But God doesn’t promise we won’t have struggles. In fact, the opposite is true.
Jesus says that in this life we are guaranteed to have struggles, but to take heart, because He has overcome them and is with us through them!
Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
Luke 2:15b
The angel is gone. Perhaps Mary is starting to show. And Joseph has to be told.
Being found pregnant out before a wedding was not good!
What would this mean for her marriage; for the raising of this prophesied Son; for her family; for her standing in the community? Indeed, what would it mean for her literal life?
Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
Luke 2:15b
Mary is amazing!
An incredible, special women who “found favor with God” and submitted to His will for her and, through her, for all!
Yet one has to wonder what was in her mind. She must have had questions. Perhaps a chief one being, “who am I”? Why was I the one who found favor in God’s eyes?
In this series for Advent and Christmas we will look at “Mary’s Advent” for the time leading up to, including, and just following Jesus’ birth, as well as our own Advent in the process.
We will begin a new sermon series for Advent and the Sundays after Christmas: “Mary’s Advent / Our Advent”.
In this series for Advent and Christmas we will look at “Mary’s Advent” for the time leading up to, including, and just following Jesus’ birth, as well as our own Advent in the process.
