Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Ephesians 4:17-24
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  August 5, 2018

I noticed him right when I walked in. Perfectly polished shoes, the shiny silver watch, a pinstripe suit nicer than the one I wore to my own wedding. Everything, from his tie chain to his chrome coffee cup, made it seem like he might have just walked out of a Men’s Warehouse catalog into real life. It was a reminder to me of just how much our clothes communicate. You see, I was at a bank and I’m pretty sure this guy’s whole job was just to roam around the room and look well-dressed. (At least that’s all he did while I was there.) But it makes sense doesn’t it? They are taking care of your money and so they want to look successful; they dress the part.

Dressing the part is important in our society. If you are a soldier or a bus driver, a waitress or a policeman, you have a specific uniform. You have to dress the part. Most of our jobs and schools have a specific dress code. And even when we don’t have any code to follow, what we wear still speaks volumes to anyone who sees us. Whatever we wear, for better or worse, intentionally or accidentally, expresses a bit of who we are or what we’re doing. This is precisely Paul’s point in Ephesians, chapter 4: What we wear is important relative to who we are.

As we continue to talk about Gospel Unity today, the connection is obvious: If you’re a Christian, you ought to dress the part. Just like players on a baseball, followers of Christ should follow Christ, we should look like each other. Now Paul is not talking about a Christian uniform, not a tee-shirt with Jesus’ face on it or a bumper sticker on the back of your car, not a certain hairstyle or a cross tattoo. That isn’t the idea; it’s nothing physical. Paul is talking about spiritual clothes, the life we conduct, our thoughts words, and actions. He says that if we have become new people in Christ, there are some new clothes that match. Ephesians 4:22-24, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

In the early Christian Church, it was customary that when a new believer was baptized, their old clothes were thrown away or burned, and they were given a white robe as a symbol of their new identity in Christ. The idea was that their old self died in baptism and a new person was born. So the clothes which were worn, then, were the clothes someone died in and were no longer fit for the living to wear. This is Paul’s thought here as well, when a Christian comes to faith, whether at the baptismal font or later in life, we are taught to “put off,” to throw away the dead clothes of our old self, those sinful habits and selfish desires, and put on the new self, dressing spiritually with a life that mirrors our God in righteousness and holiness.

It’s pretty incredible to think about that, isn’t it? What we wear should spiritually should tell a story of death and resurrection, of an “old self” and a “new self”. Martin Luther said it beautifully, again in speaking of baptism. He wrote: Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily sorrow and repentance, and die with all sins and evil lusts, and, in turn, a new person should daily come forth and rise from death again to live forever before God in righteousness and purity.” If you have come to faith, if you have been baptized, if you are a Christian, then it is your joy and challenge to, each day, put off your old, sinful self, and dress the part of your new self in Christ.

My grandfather did very well for himself owning apartments in Appleton and Milwaukee. He once told me a story of a time he and my grandma went to the movies. They didn’t dress up at all and had been working around the house that day so they were, in his words, looking a bit “disheveled.” They drove to the theater, got into the ticket line, and my grandma got out a large bag of quarters. You see one of the perks of being apartment owners is that they always had excess quarters from all the laundry machines. My grandma hadn’t gone to the bank that day and decided to count out some quarters to pay for the movie. But when they finally got to the ticket booth, the woman said that the man ahead of them had purchased their tickets for them. At first, they couldn’t understand why, but then it dawned on them. He must have mistaken them for being poor because of how they were dressed. That man just saw two disheveled seniors trying to scrape together enough change to pay for a movie and in sympathy, he paid for their admission. They tried to find him inside the theater, but couldn’t. My grandpa always said they hoped he didn’t see them drive away in the Mercedes that night.

In a similar way, I’m afraid there are some Christians who could be mistaken for being someone else by the way they dress spiritually. There are many who claim to follow Christ but don’t dress the part with their lives. A common indictment of the Christian Church is this type of hypocrisy. Now the difference between a hypocrite and a Christian isn’t that one sins and the other is perfect. We all fall into sin.  The difference lies in how we acknowledge that sin and turn from it in repentance.

It isn’t enjoyable to dwell on, but before we can put on the new self we need to address the old self. We need to be honest about the part of our heart which is corrupted by “deceitful desires”. You see, the Devil dresses up sin and tries to deceive us into trying it on. He lies and in some sick, twisted way, it seems attractive to us. We know that it is not kind or good to gossip about others, but when the opportunity presents itself we can’t help ourselves. We know we are to be gentle and loving to our spouses, but when they make us mad, we know just what to say so that it hurts. We know it is wrong but the perfect insult seems like it will be so satisfying. We know that looking at pornography is wrong. We know that it destroys relationships and warps our perception of people. We know that every click supports the abuse of young men and women in those films, but when the deceptive desire strikes it somehow looks good. We know that God calls us to tell the truth, but when we need to get out of a jam, the outfit of a liar fits so well. The hard part is that we often only realize this after it’s over. Perhaps you know the feeling after falling into sin…when the deed is done and the deception is lifted, you feel gross or dirty. And when you look down you see that somehow you have slipped into the rotting clothes of a corpse. You say, “What am I wearing? This isn’t who I am, this isn’t who God made me to be. I don’t want to be this.” The good news is that after you throw away those old clothes and burn them, after you kneel down in sorrow and repentance, God has some new clothes waiting for you. You get to wear the clothes of your Savior.

Scripture says little about the actual clothes Jesus wore. There’s really only one reference to Jesus’ garments and it comes when they have been stripped off of him: When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the tunic remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. (John 19:23) It is just a small detail, but I can’t help but think that it is also a picture of the clothes Jesus wore spiritually. Just like the tunic he wore, Jesus’ whole life was seamless. The clothes he wore spiritually were perfect. He never sinned in thought, word, or deed. But when he was nailed to the cross, Jesus took off that robe of seamless perfection and assumed the outfit of our sin. He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. (1 Peter 2:24) Jesus was stripped of his righteousness so that we would be clothed with it. He took our rags and we got his robe. That is what you put on with the “new self”. Take a moment just to run your fingers through the fabric. Realize just what a price was paid and how unconditionally it was given. Realize how your sin is truly gone, forgiven and forgotten by God. Realize that you stand unashamed, holy and pure, before God Almighty. Know that you are loved and cherished eternally.

On this side of heaven we sin will continue to bother us. It will run to the closet, drag out our cruddy spiritual clothes, and say, “Put these on today.” It will bother us and tempt us. But it can no longer define us. We stand in Jesus’ white robe of righteousness, pure and blameless in the eyes of God! And through his Spirit we are empowered to dress the part, to live in true righteousness and holiness. Sometimes we are fatalistic about sin. We say, “I’ll try my best to be better.” Which isn’t a bad thought, but that sort of thinking too often resembles the idea that God has just refurbished us. That he just shined us up with forgiveness and waits for us to come back when we get dirty again. But God didn’t just clean us, he didn’t just improve us, he has recreated us! Jesus said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh but Spirit gives birth to spirit.” That’s God’s design. You are different, you have the Holy Spirit’s divine power coursing through your veins to resist sin and live in righteousness and holiness. Some people believe that no one really changes, but our God speaks of radical, fundamental change. He promises you that in his power you really can overcome an addiction. You can repair a broken relationship. You can forgive others and yourself, for past pain. You can heal your marriage. You can take on a new school year with confidence. You can go to work and be an accurate reflection of your Savior’s love. You can live with the joy and peace, knowing that heaven is yours. You can dress the part. Instead of thinking, “I’ll try to better..” think “In Christ, I can and I will!”

The new school year is right around the corner here at Eastside. Do you remember the first day of class when you were in grade school? When you stepped off the bus with a new pair of jeans, a new shirt, (maybe a new pencil box) and you felt like a million bucks? Today, that is what you are in Christ. When you walk outside and step into the sunlight know that, spiritually, you’re better dressed than that guy at the bank. You have Jesus’ righteousness wrapped around you. You are brand new. My friends, God bless you this week as you remember your baptism, as you daily die and rise in confession and absolution. God bless your Spirit-led effort to dress the part of true righteousness and holiness. God bless all of us as we strive toward Gospel Unity and “put on the new self”.

Amen.