Ordinary Holiness: Clothes by Ryan Joy
296 | Seven sermon summer surfin’ spectacular
Clothe Yourself in Ordinary Holiness
Surf's up for the grand finale of our Seven Sermon Summer Surfin' Spectacular! To close out the series, Ryan Joy steps into the pulpit to share a lesson from his Ordinary Holiness series on a topic every single one of us engaged with this morning: what we wear. Moving far beyond legalistic checklists and ruler-measured hemlines, this sermon traces the theological thread of clothing from the garden of Eden to the foot of the cross. Why are humans the only creatures who wear clothes across every culture and climate? From the vulnerability of nakedness and shame in Genesis 3 to the social signals our outfits project, Ryan breaks down the what, why, and how of biblical dress. Discover how modesty is rooted in order and propriety, why generosity means looking at our overflowing closets through the eyes of John the Baptist, and how Jesus was stripped bare on the cross so that we could be clothed in His righteousness.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Clothing isn't just a biological necessity or cultural trend, but a redemptive gift from God.
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Summer Surfing Kickoff
Bryan: Well, surf's up everyone, and welcome to the Seven Sermons Summer Surfing Spectacular. I'm Bryan Schiele.
Ryan: I'm Ryan Joy
Bryan: Thanks everyone for tuning back in. Uh, it's been a rad summer so far, and we're getting into another episode, uh, this time with Ryan and his sermon. Really excited about this episode, um, and this sermon.
You did a series called Ordinary Holiness, and there's a whole bunch of, of sermons all kinda packed into this idea.
Shorts Talk and Setup
Bryan: We're gonna talk about one of them today, but before we get in too far to the conversation, Ryan, over the summer when it's a little hot outside, are you the shorts-wearing person, or are you just still rocking the pants all, all year long?
Ryan: Oh, I, I love the chance to, to get some shorts on. I, I, I'm like the wearing the... I, I heard somebody describe someone recently as unironically wearing cargo shorts, and I was like, "Why would that be ironic? Oh, no, I'm such a dad." And so, so yeah, the, the cargo shorts come out on a zoo trip or a whatever's, whatever's going on.
I, you know, it's, it's not quite as hot as Phoenix, but it's been pretty sweltering over here the last few days. So I am, I am wearing jeans right now, and it was a hot day for that. What about you? Are you, uh... What about the tank top? That's what I wanna know. Are you showing the guns off or maybe the muscle shirt?
Bryan: No, no, no, no, no. But, you know, for pajamas, yes, I'll wear my shorts and my, my, you know, silly looking muscle shirts around the house, but I will not, uh, leave the house with those things on. Absolutely not. Uh, I will wear shorts occasionally out of the house over the summer, but I really try not to because I have the pastiest white legs.
Um, boy, I just like... I would be the, I'd be the guy out there surfing in like a burka or something like that. I'd... Or, you know, full on wetsuit. I, I do not, I do not, uh, ascribe to the, uh, showing my, you know, white legs off to everyone thing, so.
Clothes Across the Bible
Bryan: Um, you know, we're talking about clothes here, uh, and what we wear over the summer, and that really is, I mean, not really that specifically about your sermon, but, uh, your sermon's about clothes and ordinary holiness with clothes.
And I mean, what a cool conversation to have because, like, I feel like, I feel like so many sermons about clothes wind up being the same thing or about talking about the same aspect of it, which tends to be about modesty, which you get into in the sermon. But, you know, we're not gonna... I don't think you're gonna lay out here for everybody, like, the correct inches of the, you know, length of shorts that you're supposed to wear or anything like
Ryan: no diagrams are, are given. Yeah. There's no PDF accompanying this with the
Bryan: I like that a lot. No. Um, but it is cool. Like, I think there's something to be said about a sermon that zooms out to the beginning and the end of the Bible. Uh, what is the story here that we learn about clothes from the beginning and the end of the Bible that really helps to inform our understanding of why clothes matter so much?
Ryan: Yeah, it's really interesting that there aren't very many words given to us about what happened at the fall, and yet of all the things to talk about, one of the few descriptions that's given is our nakedness, that, that there's this instant awareness of, "I am naked and I am ashamed." And God even says, "Who told you that you were naked?"
Like, like you need to be told you're naked? What... Like, it's just an obvious fact, but it, like the idea of nakedness didn't exist, and it's almost like, you know, I always think of that moment as a, a early picture of what happens in adolescence. I mean, like it's, it was almost like Adam and Eve's like coming to themselves and realizing this other depth of, uh, of, of awareness that you see, you know, whenever a two-year-old is running around naked, they're completely unashamed.
But whenever a 14-year-old, you know, steps out naked, they, you know, you have nightmares about that kind of thing, right?
Bryan: Oh, for sure.
Ryan: yeah.
Bryan: Yeah, so the beginning of the Bible is obviously where clothing started, and not very well either. They tried to make their own clothes and really had to lean on God to do the job properly for them. But so what about the end of the Bible? We get into Revelation and we see what these new white robes, and we see, like, the clothing that, uh, is going to come there in this new heavens and new earth
Ryan: Yeah, well, and, and those white robes, those garments that are pure and, and holy and dignified and honorable come through great cost as Jesus has his clothing stripped off and carries the curse, carries the shame and the guilt of the cross so that we can be clothed in him really, and in his righteousness and in his goodness and in the new identity that we find only in him.
And it's, it's really interesting the way that John gives us a description of what was taken away from him, and it includes this word for his, basically his undergarment. Like the, uh, it- when he lists that, it's like everything is taken away, and I know we're used to seeing pictures with a loincloth on, and, you know, if somebody wants to say that that was still there, that's, that's fine.
But there is no description of that. It is just he has all of these, these garments taken away in w- not in his shame, you know? He did everything right. But to our shame, he bore that guilt, and then we are, are made clothed and whole through him
Bryan: I mean, eh, I, I love this idea that you're bringing out in the sermon that, that the idea of clothes are, like, just woven, you know, no pun intended, throughout the entire Bible story. Like, you think about Galatians 3 and Romans 13, how we're told to put on Christ, and just that idea that it's, it's so fundamental to, like, wearing Christ.
We've, we've covered ourselves with Christ. And I mean, so this sermon gets into so much depth, and then, you know, you really start to even unpack, like, what it meant for John the Baptist to talk about this idea of, like, giving away your clothes and using them as a blessing for other people. So, like, I mean, just end to end, you're all over the place here.
But I mean, how cool is it that, like, clothes can be used even for ways that we can bless other people? Um, so it's such a cool, like, just travel through the Bible on this topic of ordinary things like clothes
Ryan: Well, and, and when we get to these kinds of topics, like, th- you know, in this series I talked about food, and we've talked about that some, and, you know, work and rest and these different things that are just basics of life. But if, if we wanna look beyond the biology, and there isn't really much of a biological necessity for someone in, say, Tahiti to have clothing, and yet they do, you know?
The-- If we wanna look beyond the science and the basics to why every culture has clothing and why it's creating such meaning for us, we have to look to the ancient wisdom of the Bible to really understand those deeper truths. And so that's what we try to do in sermons like this
Bryan: Well, that's really cool. So, uh, without further ado, we're gonna get into this sermon here, uh, and, uh, really appreciate Ryan for throwing another one in here. Uh, let's get into a whole discussion about ordinary holiness and our clothes
Sermon Begins Ordinary Holiness
Ryan: We have been,
in a study occasionally of this series, Ordinary Wisdom, and the idea of this series is that holiness isn't just something that happens when we come together on Sunday morning. Holiness for God's people is something that pervades every part of our lives, including the most everyday things you do.
We've talked about work, and we've talked about food, and today we're gonna talk about something every one of us did today, which is put on some clothes. Thank you for that, by the way. Every one of us looked in our closet or our drawers and thought about, "What should I wear today? Should I do a tie? Should I do...
Sh- which shoes should I wear? What should I wear?" And there was intentionality in it. Whatever you decided, you made a choice. And there are, there's another thing going on, which is that you're seeing everybody else and where- w- what they're wearing, and try not to be judgmental or carry a lot with that, but you notice.
You notice w- what we all wear. This is a part of life that is just part of society. And why is it part of society? Have you ever thought about this? Why is it that we wear clothes? Well, we're gonna talk this morning about the what, what are clothes, and the why, and the how.
Why Humans Wear Clothes
Ryan: Here's a weird fact and a weird picture.
Humans are basically, you know, forgetting our pets that we like to dress up, humans are basically the only creatures that wear clothes. What is that about? And you say, "Well, I th- I think it's because it, we need protection from the elements." But anthropologists have found that every culture, even those tropical climates, even those areas where you need no protection, wear clothing.
Why is that? If we're just animals and there's no meaning to anything happening in this giant universe, why is it? And in fact, you have to, like many of these questions about our everyday things, look beyond just obvious answers or even scientific answers and think about ancient wisdom into this mystery about the meaning behind it.
And that's, of course, what God gives us in the scriptures. Now, those of you who know me know that I was going to bring up the Olympics today somehow because I love the Olympics, and our family finally got around last night to watching the opening ceremonies that happened Friday night. And there was all kinds of clothing happening there, and my daughter Anna, who loves fashion, reminded us, "Well, Milan is very important in the fashion world."
And in fact, I brought her very well-loved book in, we got this four, four or five years ago maybe, uh, about fashion, and it goes through the many cultural changes through the years of fashion from Victorian era to Lady Gaga's meat dress to everything in between. And we've got all these different, different styles and views and things that were appropriate.
And, you know, you think about if I were to wear what Jesus wore this morning, even though Jesus wore it, it was completely right to wear it, you guys would've thought I was pretty strange and trying to draw attention to myself perhaps with my long tunic robe and my sandals because culture affects it, because clothing happens in the context of our community, of, of our culture and society.
So if you noticed, if any of you watched the opening ceremonies, there was a journey through time where you saw people wearing '80s clothes with the fluorescent colors, and there were people back in the '50s wearing their big sweaters, and all through time. And you saw how these different clothing items and choices changed through the years.
And then you see everybody marching in, and they're... Jeff talked about this as well this morning in our side talk. They're identifying their nation by what they're wearing. Later on this afternoon, couple of teams in a pretty big game will be identifying themselves by what they wear. And you'll know this is on that team and these guys are on the other team in the Super Bowl by just what they're wearing.
That's, that's how you'll know. And they'll mark themselves with wearing a particular jersey that has a particular number. We mark ourselves in all different ways by our clothing
So what is clothing? Wrong answers only we start with on these. Some of them silly, some of them a little more real and heavy. Clothing is the thing that makes you say, "I have nothing to wear," while standing in front of a full closet. I don't know if you've ever experienced that. Or clothing is a human invention designed to ensure your brand new jeans immediately go out of style.
Has anybody else experienced that? But wait, clothing isn't a human invention. Not only a human invention. As we'll see, there is something that God saw and God provided. Or clothing is how we hide our shameful bodies. Now we're gonna talk about shame- But we're gonna see that our bodies did not become shameful whenever there was shame.
It was the same good bodies from before the fall to after the fall
That's not what this is about, that our bodies became bad or evil. That's not what clothing or modesty or covering nakedness is about. But it does matter, and shame is part of this story. And so principle number one, we're gonna have six principles.
Nakedness and Shame in Genesis
Ryan: Principle number one of what is clothing is clothing is a covering for nakedness that restores dignity Clothing is a covering and, you know, it might seem weird to start off talking about clothes and all of a sudden you're f- right a- right away we're talking about nakedness.
But that's where the Bible starts. What's the absence of clothes? Nakedness. And this is a critical part of the story in the Bible of what is happening here Nakedness in scripture isn't neutral. It represents exposure and vulnerability and when improperly applied, dishonor So God created men and women without clothing.
We read in Genesis 2:24-25, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed."
Notice also what the Bible does here. Puts nakedness together in this sentence with, or in this, this passage with the idea of intimacy in marriage properly within the marriage covenant. We're gonna see this play out throughout the rest of the Bible. We're not gonna go into it really today, but the Bible talks about this, uh, this naked and unashamed reality that we can have in the context of marriage, and the garden becomes this metaphor throughout the Bible for that unique marriage relationship where we can be, again, naked and unashamed.
But Adam and Eve did not stay that way We wanna focus on this word naked, and, you know, this is something that's, of course, the Bible is the, the place where we look to to understand these things most. But we can look around, and we can see all the ways, and there's been a lot of research and studies done on this, the way that clothing is a boundary marker between public and private, between shared and intimate across cultures.
And that's... The Bible gives us a rationale, help- helps us to understand why that is and how this works. There are things that are appropriate to leave uncovered within that, these private spaces, these intimate spaces in the covenant of marriage or the family that are not appropriate outside of it. And so reading on in the biblical record, in Genesis 3:7, the next chapter, after they sin with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked."
Their eyes were opened, and they knew. That's the change that happened. They didn't go from naked to not naked. They were naked the whole time, but now they knew I don't know if you've ever had one of those dreams, kind of a famous kind of a dream where you show up at school and then all of a sudden you realize that you're not wearing any clothes or you're in your underwear or something, and all of a sudden everybody else notices too, and you are ashamed, you are embarrassed, you are-- you feel humiliated.
You feel like you wanna hide, hide yourself, run into a closet That is kind of similar to the experience that Adam and Eve have here. They realize, "I'm naked. I'm not covered." So their eyes were open, and they realized this idea of being uncovered. And so what did they do? They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Now, I don't know how much you can cover with figs, but not much, and they're ev- even the fact that they're called loincloths tells you they weren't covering very much. But this is, you could say, the first clothes. And so you gotta notice the journey that happens here. They were naked and not ashamed, and now they're naked and hiding
Something changed. This is one of the few ways, I mean, the Bible is very selective. It is a very short narrative. The few ways that the Bible explains the change at the fall is naked and unashamed to naked and a- and ashamed. Unashamed, ashamed, and it has to do with, with nakedness. So many relationships were broken, were fractured, were twisted, were, were polluted in that moment as sin enters.
Relationship with God, so they're hiding from God who walks among them in the cool of the day. Relationship with one another as they turn on each other, and they're ashamed to n- to be seen relationship with nature. There's, like, the curses that come, the, this garden world that they were harmoniously living with, but also their na- their relationship with theirselves and their own bodies, and the bodies that they have in the context of a broken world, in the context of seeing their vulnerability and their exposure
And so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. "I was afraid because I was naked," says Adam, "and I hid myself. I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself." So now fear has entered into this picture. But look at what happens next. God says, "Who told you that you were naked?"
Isn't that interesting? You don't have to be told that you're naked. You are naked. You can see it. Nobody has to inform you generally. But the idea is nakedness was not an idea before, and now it is, and now there's this opening of eyes. And, and you can see in the biblical record this... how this story is played out in, in some ways in the lives of all of us as we go through adolescence and our eyes become open to see good and evil, and we go from a baby who's happy to run through the living room naked to an awareness of not only good and evil but of shame and of the need for covering
David DeSilva in the Dictionary of the Old Testament of the Pentateuch defines v-, shame as that feeling of vulnerability to inspection that makes urgent the need to hide oneself. And the Bible talks a lot about spiritual exposure, how we stand before God. Hebrews 4, the Word of God is like a sword. It's living and active, and it leaves us exposed and open before Him.
1 Corinthians 14, the visitor among the people of God in the church hears the Word of God, and he sees his sin. He sees himself. He's laid bare before Him, and he repents, and he's, bows down to God, and he says, "Truly God is among you." He has seen himself by hearing the Word of God That's a part of this, this spiritual nakedness that is intertwined in this moment with this physical nakedness that they have a realization of.
And so nakedness becomes an important idea throughout the Bible. And another noteworthy example perhaps is in the high priestly garments in the next book of the Bible, in Exodus 28, where whenever coming before the Lord, the, uh, they had to have not only the fancy tunic and garments and everything, but they needed to have an un- undergarment specially made for the high priest to cover their naked flesh, and that would reach from the hips to the thighs.
So covering nakedness, that's, that's part one of what this is about.
God Provides a Covering
Ryan: But that's not even the end of Genesis 3 in this story, because clothing is a protective provision from God so that we can replace our anxiety with trust through God's care. What happens next? Well, God, as Riley read to us takes their little loincloths, fig coverings, and fig leaves, and he gives them animal skin tunics that would, this word for tunic in the Hebrew would go to your knees or your ankles.
This would be good protection from the elements. This would be what they're gonna need. They're not living in the garden anymore, and they're going out and they received from God what they could not provide for themselves. This is also the first instance we see of a reference to killing an animal for a purpose would benefit humanity.
And it's God who evidently makes this sacrifice of an animal to provide this covering for Adam and Eve. And so whenever we get to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, it's no surprise that he says God will still provide. "Consider the lilies of the field. Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass, how much more will he clothe you? O you of little faith." That's the Sermon on the Plain actually, Luke 12. But he says the same thing in Matthew 6
We find the, um, valiant woman in Proverbs 31 providing for her family as a way that God provides for her family, and providing good things. It's not just clo- it's not just, um, something that covers them up, but it's in scarlet and linen and purple. And God doesn't say, "And why are you so worked up about having these nice garments?"
It's okay to have something that is beautiful. And so she provides. She's not afraid. Why is she not afraid? Because she fears the Lord, and she puts her trust in Him. If you read this whole passage, she's not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet, as she trusts in Him and works with diligence to provide for her family.
Her clothing is fine linen and purple
Clothes Communicate and We Judge
Ryan: Going from what to why. Now I only have one answer on the whys. The what, clothing is, is a covering and clothing is a provision from God that protects us Why do we wear them?
'Cause society isn't ready for the alternative, you could say
Because what you wear says what you're worth. Because, because I take affirmation and, uh, or I take, you know, people looking at me and I, I make it all about my identity. This, this can tell others that I am part of the club or I can afford a fancy thing or whatever it is. Worth is reflected in what we wear.
Of course, the Bible makes it very clear that that's not how God sees people and it's not how we should valuate people. More on that later It's because February in Indiana is no joke. That's why we wear clothes. But it's not just because of that. It's not just because of weather. As we're seeing, there is a deeper and more profound meaning to it.
And so I wanna add to the covering of nakedness and the, and the protection that we receive from God in this provision The fact that clothes convey
Why am I wearing a jacket and not my pajamas? Why are the, are, are the teams today in the Super Bowl or in the Olympics wearing a particular set of clothing? Why do you give care to what you wear to a dear friend's funeral? Why do we think carefully about what we wear to a job interview Why do you feel silly when you're wearing, when you're overdressed for something that was just a casual hangout?
Because clothing express all kinds of things, so many things They send signals about respect, about intent, about what, all, all kinds of things, all kinds of things. And, and again, there's been so many studies on this, but people form judgments of others within milliseconds of seeing them, and clothing is one of the strongest cues.
And these judgments are unconscious and not always fair and not always accurate, but they're real, and they're influential. And so what do we need to do? Two applications as we kind of play this out, and I'll s- I'll get into this more as we hinge from the why to the how. But one is we need to beware of judging others based on their appearance.
Be conscious about that. You're gonna have an instinct. You gotta navigate it. James in James two talks about how people would find the person with the fancy clothes and the gold jewelry and say, "Hey, why don't you come sit in the, in the front seats?" Although nobody wants to sit in the front seats here at most churches.
"But we'll sit you in the really place of honor." And then a poor person comes in that's wearing rags, and you say, "Oh, just put them in the back." He says, "That's, that's evil judgment. You're showing partiality So first of all, we gotta watch how we judge. But second of all, knowing that people are going to, we are going to express something with our clothing, we want to be thoughtful and mindful of what we're communicating.
It's a wisdom matter. It's a skill matter of thinking through How do I increase or decrease my influence? How do I show someone honor and love? How do I, uh, think about what I'm, I'm saying? You know, it's... You may say, "I didn't mean to say anything with my clothes," but they spoke anyways. They said something.
They said something in that job interview. They said something, uh, at your wedding. They said something in your everyday life
And so we have to think about how to live all of this out. And I don't want to just think about how we dress, but how we work with and interact with clothing. How do we apply the Bible's teaching about clothing? By collecting new shoes like a prepper collects canned goods? By desperately matching the cool kids like social camouflage?
By dressing for attention and calling it self-expression. Or sometimes it's not even, we don't even know exactly. This is, a lot of these are very high school, you know? Trying to blend in or stand out, I'm not sure. I kind of want to blend in but a little bit stand out. I want to b- have that right mix of blending in and standing out.
But we're doing something. We're trying to navigate all of the social mix, this ocean of impressions and associations and thoughts, and we're entering into a world, a public world, with our clothing, just like we're a- we're expressing something with our facial expressions or our words, and those things express the inner person of the heart.
Our intentionality in how we do these things express something of the inner person of the heart.
Modesty Shaped by Context
Ryan: And so principle number four and how we live it is dress with modesty shaped by context. Wisely choose clothes that fit the situation and the culture. So modesty is a, is a word that I, I, I feel like sometimes the meaning of the actual word gets twisted, and we don't always understand or, or pay attention to what this word means.
And sometimes we think of the word modesty as meaning a certain amount of covering or concealing. And that could be part of the concept, but we gotta go back and see what does this word mean first. So let's go to 1 Timothy chapter two. And in 1 Timothy two, we see, um, this play out where, um, Paul is resetting what masculinity and femininity should look like in the church.
And he says, you know, "I don't want men to be brawling and thinking that's what it looks like to be a man, you know, uh, but rather raising holy hands without anger or quarreling. And likewise, also women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works."
And of course, he's addressing women here, but also, uh, women shouldn't go around brawling, but should lift holy hands to God in prayer. And men shouldn't think of themselves as trying to, um, draw attention to themselves like a peacock, but rather should think carefully about modesty. So this is a principle that applies to both.
But notice he says, "respectable apparel, modesty and self-control." Respectable. And this word for modesty is about ... The root of it is about order. God is a God of order and not confusion. And the word has to do with what's appropriate. That's a big word in my family's house. My kids are always ... You know, somebody will come out on the TV, "Well, that's not appropriate."
You know? We, we talk about appropriate a lot. That's one word that you could replace this word modesty with, or, um, respectable
or propriety. Or you could just think about it as wisely and skillfully chosen to fit what is needed. Just like in Ephesians 5, we read that we should speak words that are needed for the occasion. Likewise, the idea of modesty is about thinking about the context. I've given the illustration before of whenever we moved to Hawaii as a family.
I was 16, and my dad was used to wearing very nice fancy suits and ties, and that was the uniform for church. And when he got there, he was the only person wearing that. Everybody else was wearing a very nice aloha shirt and some khakis. And eventually, he let go, released his grip on what it looked like to dress modestly and appropriately for this occasion because the context needed to decide.
He was drawing attention to himself unduly. That was not respectable and modest apparel. In another context, it might be something else. And so we think about all of these things. It's not just about what you wear. It's just about everything all the time. Clothing should be wisely chosen because we're reflecting, we're communicating, and what we want to reflect and communicate is the Lord who is leading us.
Generosity and Inner Beauty
Ryan: And fifth, we wanna consider others with clothing. And this shows up in, in several different ways. We wanna love others in how we dress, but we also wanna love others in the mercy in, with mercy in how we judge them, as I said, and also with generosity in what we have. See, clothing is talked about in all of these different instances
We might say, "Well, I have freedom to do ... I'm, I'm free in Christ, and I can live in a particular way and, and not be bound by the structures of so many rules and that kind of thing." W- But we just wanna be mindful. Yes, there's, there's no drawing in the Bible of exactly what appropriate clothing looks like for any context.
There are all of these principles, and we're only covering a portion of them today. There are all of these principles that we want to think about, and we recognize that we're not just dressing for ourselves. We're dressing for others. How am I gonna affect someone else with my clothing? Am I gonna be a stumbling block?
Make no provision for the flesh. Think about other people with the, the things you do. Love of neighbor and love of God is our guiding principle in the way that we dress and in everything else we do. And so in Galatians 5:13, he says, "Don't let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love."
And that's what we wanna do in, in all ways with our clothing and in everything else. But that also means that whenever I have a bunch of ... a closet full of clothes, and this other person I see doesn't have any clothes or doesn't have enough, that it's, it's not just about, well, I'm gonna choose a really great outfit that they can see me in.
It's about, no, share with them. Such a simple and profound principle that John the Baptist gives in Luke 3. They ask him, "What does it look like to have fruit that fits repentance?" And he says, "If you have two tunics, give one to the person who has none." Isn't that profound? It's so simple
This is how God can provide for each other, for those around us. You have five coats? Well, you can take care of yourself and four other people. It's just the idea is to shift our mindset to an others-focused mindset in all of these decisions, how we look at each other, how we give to each other, how we dress, in everything we do, making sure that we have the kind of mindset that Jesus showed us in the way he loved others.
And finally, last principle here is to value the inner person above outer appearance. What is more important? What you're wearing or who you are? It's not even close. It's not even close, and we can get so caught up in that outside picture that we miss what the Lord sees. What did he say whenever, in First Samuel 16, whenever all the sons of Jesse were lined up to choose the next king?
"It's not any of these." Well, here comes this little short runt of a boy named David. Well, it can't be him. Saul was a head taller than everybody. No, the Lord doesn't look at what is on the outside. He looks at the inner person of the heart, right? This is what the Lord sees, and this is what we need to prioritize.
And so that's what's said in First Peter 2:9. Peter says, "Don't let your adorning be external," the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear. It's not that you can't do any of those things, or else we couldn't wear clothing. Don't have any clothing on. No, he's saying, "Don't let your adorning, the, don't let the focus of your adorning, how you try to make, uh, bring beauty into your life, be primarily external, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."
The inner person is the place to put our focus. That's the priority. These principles matter. The Lord talks about them. But it has to start just like when we s- where we go to work on our, our words or any other part of us, we have to start at the root, and the root is the heart, and all the other stuff just flows outward from that.
We, we do our best to try to think fully, wisely and, and as a disciple in all of these other areas. When we think about others, and when we think about ourselves, we have to put the focus primarily on the hidden person of the heart rather than the focus on hair and jewelry and clothing. Boy, is it easy to get caught up in all the ex, outside things?
Sure. Peter says, "No, that's not your focus." Heart, gentleness, quietness of spirit, peace, and meekness under the rule of God in Jesus Christ, that's our focus.
Gospel Thread Put On Christ
Ryan: And let's bring this home to how the clothing story tells the story of the gospel. This is just one more of the many threads through the Bible that tell us the one story that matters most in our lives Remember where we started.
They were naked and not ashamed, and then they were naked and hiding. That's where I was. I went from being naked and not ashamed, little four-year-old Ryan running around, to naked and hiding. Not just about covering my body, but realizing, like Adam and Eve, what I have done, who I am now, broken fellowship, fractured spirit within me, having polluted what was good
We go from making our own inadequate coverings in our shame, saying, "Oh, I'm gonna be more righteous. I'm gonna get it figured out. I'm gonna... You know what? I'm gonna pursue my career, and that's gonna make me feel better about myself. I'm gonna, I'm gonna look great, and that's gonna make me feel better about it.
I'm gonna do something wonderful. Do you know how much I volunteer at church?" Our own inadequate coverings in our shame, just like those loincloths of fig leaves, to discovering the covering we need from God, not based on our goodness, but on His grace. When did God give Adam and Eve those animal skin sacrificed coverings?
Not, not because they were so righteous and amazing, but it was mercy in their need. When did Jesus come and die for us? When we were enemies, while we were yet sinners, Romans 5. This is how He did it. Watch this
In John 19:23-24, the soldiers take both Jesus' outer garment, remember that beautiful one long single piece that he had just like the high priest would have, a single, single outer garment, but they also took his undergarment, his tunik. They took it all leaving him naked. Fittingly. I know that's not how the pictures...
I'm gl- That's fine. They took it all And fittingly, in bearing the shame of our sin, he was stripped of the dignity of being publicly clothed
This is how Uh, the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery talks about this, Leland Ryken. A body stripped of clothing and jewelry is a body bereft of the insignia of social standing and identity. Remember, this is how Ezekiel describes Israel as being left naked and exposed and in need. A naked body is not a sign of freedom from society's constraints, but of incalculable loss of place and honor.
When the naked Gerasene demon- demoniac is delivered by Jesus and restored to his community, he is found clothed and in his right mind, Mark 8:27. Nakedness can be a fitting image of judgment, as in Jeremiah 13:22. The central biblical image, central biblical image of shame and judgment is the naked Jesus hanging on the cross
So Paul says, "In Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many as you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." This is a dressing verb that he's using. Have put on your clothes for the day, have changed out of those, those inadequate garments and put on Jesus. It's a different garment to wear spiritually.
This is profound and more than we can have time to talk about, but the key word in this verse, as you can see by him repeating it, is Christ Christ the Messiah, a representative title for the one who represents us as anointed king so that when we die to ourselves so that he can live in us, when we are buried with him and die and raise with him, we go through his story and we put him on.
And what is true of him becomes true of us. His rightness before God becomes our rightness. His sacrifice applies to our sin. His shame takes away our shame. By his stripes, we're healed Our lives are hidden with Christ and we are in Christ, in union with Christ. And the union with Christ, being one with him, is everything.
If you want to know if you've left your guilt and shame behind, if you are free and alive and right with God and ready for eternal life, you have to ask yourself one question: Am I in Christ Jesus? That is how we go from making your own inadequate covering in guilt and shame to putting on Christ in faith and baptism, not because of His goodness, but His grace.
In
Wrap Up and Farewell
Bryan: All right. Well, I mean, that was, that was awesome. Uh, thanks everyone for tuning in to the "Bible Geeks" podcast to our Seven Sermon Summer Surfing Spectacular. Uh, Ryan, just another killer job. I really appreciate you bringing this one out. Um, thank you for, for telling us all about clothes on the episode
Ryan: Yeah. Well, and this kind of wraps up our summer surfing spectacular. I can't say it all like you. I think this is, this is where we're, we're gonna finish up and start back in a, in a week or two to, uh, some normal episodes. But this has been great to hear everyone's, uh, preaching, and I hope it's, uh, it's kind of, uh, becoming a, a tradition for us to celebrate preaching in the summertime as we kinda take our break and get you moved, uh, where your, your next destination is a- and all of
Bryan: excited. All right, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to this episode, and yes, like Ryan said, we will be back in short order with more episodes coming up. And until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you
Ryan: Shalom