Good morning and a very, very Happy Sabbath to each and every one of you this morning who are joining us, whether you're listening on the radio, watching live on our website at saccentral.org, or on the various television networks, whether you are in a remote part of africa or you're at the north pole in an igloo, however you are joining us, we welcome you this morning. And we give you a very special California welcome from the Sacramento central Seventh-day Adventist Church. This morning we're not going to be singing our regular hymn request from our Sabbath school family that is around the world. We're going to have a special treat. And we are joined this morning by songs of ascent.
This is a group from the arise ministry, which is--stands for a resource institute for soul-winning and evangelism. And David asscherick is the director. So I'm sure those of you who watch the television networks, they're familiar with David asscherick. Songs of ascent is comprised of former students who are using their evangelistic skills in music. And we know that music has a wonderful way of reaching people.
You can go, and you can do evangelistic sermons. You can give Bible studies. And you can also use music. It's very powerful. So these students are doing just that.
They are currently in the middle of a tour through all of California, visiting 20 churches in just 6 weeks. And there are seven members in their group, and this morning four of them you will meet. The first group, two, is josh and jackie cunningham, husband and wife team. They will be singing, "nothing but the blood." And then the second song that you will hear is called, "pilgrim." And that is by eric and monique Johnson. And if you would like more information about songs of ascent, you can go to their website of songsofascent.
org, and find out more information. So this morning, "nothing but the blood" and "pilgrim." [Music] º what can wash away my sin? º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus º º what can make me º º whole again? º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus. º º and oh! º º precious is the flow º º that makes me white as snow º º no other fount I know, º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus. º º what can for sin atone? º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus; º º naught of good º º that I have done, º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus. º º oh! º º precious is the flow º º that makes me white as snow; º º no other fount I know, º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus.
º º glory! º º glory! º º this I sing. º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus, º º all my praise º º for this I bring. º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus. º º oh! º º precious is the flow º º that makes me white as snow; º º no other fount I know, º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus. º º oh! º º precious is the flow, º º nothing but the blood º º of Jesus.
º amen. [Music] º walking down this wide road, º º I've got nowhere left to go. º º this burden on my back º º bears a heavy load. º º and there you try º º and find me, º º your spirit's hit reminds me º º of all that you are, º º of all that you are. º º come home, dear son.
º º come home, dear daughter. º º my yoke is easy, º º my burden is light. º º come home, dear son. º º come home, dear daughter. º º I am the way, º º the truth, º º and the life.
º º and there you say º º come follow. º º I'll lead you to the narrow. º º the prophet you º º should follow º º the way back home. º º Lord, please take me º º and break me, º º mold and use and fix me. º º I want to live through you.
º º I want to live for you. º º follow me, dear son. º º follow me, dear daughter. º º my yoke is easy. º º my burden is light.
º º follow me, dear son. º º follow me, dear daughter. º º I am the way. º º do you believe? º º I believe. º º I believe in you, Jesus.
º º you are healer, º º you are Savior, º º take control of my life. º º I believe. º º I believe in you, Jesus. º º you are creator, º º life sustainer, º º take control of my life. º º take control of my life.
º [music] were you blessed by that? Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, songs of ascent. And those of you who are watching online, you will be able to see them do special music for church coming up shortly. If you would also like more information about the group, songs of ascent, don't forget, visit their website songsofascent.
org. At this time, let's bow our heads for prayer. Father in Heaven, thank you so much for the gift of music and for allowing us to be here this morning to be here and listen and sense your presence. We thank you so much for blessing us with a beautiful Sabbath day, the gift of fellowship and the opportunity that we have to open up Your Word and study together. We thank you for the freedom that we still have in this country.
And I pray that you'll be with those around the world who have hard times, that are persecuted for just saying the name of Jesus. Be with them in a very special way on this Sabbath day. Thank you so much for Pastor Doug and his ministry here. And of course around the world, he touches many, many lives. And we just pray that you will continue to give him health and strength, in Jesus' Name.
Amen. At this time, our lesson study is going to be brought to us by our senior pastor here at Sacramento central, Pastor Doug Batchelor. Thank you debbie. She took a double take just to make sure it was me today, teaching the lesson. And I want to thank the group songs of ascent.
We know some of those folks. Good to see each of you here. I want to welcome our friends that are studying with us online, our extended member of the Sacramento church family. And we have a lot of people who are scattered around the country and the world that don't have a local church they can attend, but somehow they're able to get online and they've sort of adopted central as their church, and we're glad that you're with us today as well. I'll be covering lesson number 12 in just a moment.
But that means we're almost in the home stretch on our garments of grace. In a couple of weeks, we'll be entering into a new quarter already, dealing with one of the supreme subjects of Scripture, "worship." Should be I hope edifying and interesting. There may even be some controversial subjects that are in the contents. And so we're going to be talking about worship in next quarter's lesson. Just telling you that in advance, so you can prepare for that.
Again, want to welcome all of our visitors who might be here today at central church. We are in lesson number 12 dealing with, "more clothing imagery." We've been talking about garments of grace, clothing imagery in the Bible. And we're on lesson 12 today, looking at a number of different stories. I don't think I'll get through it all, but I'll do my best. Today's memory verse--oh, before I do that I always forget the free offer.
We have a free offer that goes along with our study today. You just call, it's free. We'll send it to you. It's called, "the armor of God." That's a book by yours truly that talks about how we put on that very important clothing, the armor of God, to live the Christian life. And if you'd like to receive a copy of that, and you don't already have one, it's 866-study-more.
That's 866-788-3966. We'll send that to you simply for asking. Alright, I started to tell you the memory verse. Mark 5:28. I'd like if you could say this with me.
Mark 5:28, give you a moment to find that in your Bibles, or you can read it from your quarterly. Are you ready? "For she said, 'if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.'" What kind of strange superstition is that, that you could touch somebody's clothes and be healed. And did the Lord allow that? Well, we'll find out more as we go. Now a lot of our lesson today is going to be drawn from Mark 5. Go to Mark 5, verse--well, I'm going to start with verse 21 to understand the story of this woman who reached out and touched the hem of Jesus' clothing and was healed.
Got to start where the story begins. Mark 5:21, "now when Jesus crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him; and he was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet and he begged him earnestly, saying, 'my little daughter lies at the point of death. Come, lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.
' So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him." So he's just being pressed by this crowd and thronged on every side. And then this next story that we're going to study takes place in the context of Jesus going to the house of jairus or jairus, it's said a couple of different ways. Like darius and darius in the old testament. By the way, the name jairus means jai--who knows what "jai" means? That's short for jehovah. And "rius" means to enlighten.
It means jehovah or the Lord enlightens. That was the name of the ruler of this synagogue. So Jesus is going to heal or resurrect that daughter. And on his way this happens. Now it says in verse 25, "now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years.
" I may as well say this now as opposed to later. That number comes up twice in this story. Jesus is on his way to raise a girl. Who knows how old she was? It tells us in both Luke and Mark. Matter of fact, if you look in Mark 5, and you read in verse 42, "immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was 12 years of age.
" And you see that this woman is bleeding for 12 years. And you have two women in one story that touched Jesus that are healed. What does a woman represent in Bible symbology, typically? It's the church. There's a lot of Scripture for that. And so here you've got Jesus is on his way, he's en route, to touch a girl who's 12 years old that was alive that died, that comes back to life.
And another woman who has been bleeding for 12 years reaches out and touches him on the way. I'd like to submit to you that these two women, something like the book of Ruth, you've got those two women, represent the old and the new covenant, the old and the new testament. In the old testament, what did they do when they wanted forgiveness? They'd bring an animal, and they'd sacrifice it and it would bleed. They'd cut the throat, and it would bleed. And I read, I think andrew jones sent me this week some recent archeology in the Bible.
They found one of these--well they call it a sewer. It's a drainage ditch in Jerusalem, over 2,000 years old that went from the temple out to the kidron valley that ran off to the dead sea. And it carried the blood that flowed from the temple. Now just to give you an idea about that flow of blood, Josephus, the Jewish flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, he said during the passover they would offer, back in the time of Christ, as many as 250,000, 250,000 goats, sheep, oxen, lambs. And there was a river of blood, a continual flow of blood that went from the sanctuary, ostensibly for sin.
But did any of the blood of those animals cleanse anybody from sin? Does that really--or was that a symbol of something else? So keep that in mind. I'm not gonna finish this analogy until we get a little deeper in the story. And again, by the way Luke 8:42, "for he had one daughter who was 12 years of age." It's very interesting in that it mentions that time period. Revelation 12, not that the chapter means anything, there's a woman who represents God's church. She's got 12 stars above her head, representing the authority of the church, 12 apostles in the new testament, 12 tribes in the old testament.
So 12 is a number. By the way, some have suggested they add up the Judges and it seems there were 12 Judges in the old testament as well. That depends on if you count Samuel as a judge, and I do. So you've got this number 12. And it says, "on his way," we're back in our story, Mark 5, "a certain woman who had this flow of blood.
" Matter of fact, I'm not going to read that. I think I gave that verse out to someone. Mark 5:25-26, who got that? "Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years, and had suffered many things of many physicians. And had spent all that she had and was nothing better, but rather grew worse." I always thought that it was interesting that in Luke's account of this story, he doesn't mention that she wasted her money on doctors and didn't get any better. What was Luke's occupation? A doctor.
Isn't that interesting? He deleted that thought from his account of this story. But she had suffered for many years with this ailment. She had a continual hemorrhage, probably left her anemic, not to mention the most important thing that you need to remember here is it meant that she was unclean. She spent much, but didn't get better, but got worse. What happened to the children of Israel in the old testament, that continual flow coming from the sanctuary.
Did they get more spiritual as time went by? Or did they get worse? They just--it seemed like the nation of Israel from the time of Solomon on, it went downhill. Now I prayed about how much to say and how to say it, to deal with this subject and be biblically accurate and still sensitive about a delicate issue. But the nature of her illness biblically rendered her unclean. I think most of us know that. Look with me in Leviticus 15.
I want you to read. This is all from the Bible, and it relates to garments in a very unique way. You can't understand this story without understanding this aspect of it. Leviticus 15:25, and I'll read through verse 27. Now there is the--in the course of things in the life of even a healthy woman, there is a cycle.
It's interesting that that cycle follows a lunar cycle to some extent. It's about the same amount of days. It might be different with every woman, but it's about the same amount of days as the cycle of the moon, which is one reason that you hear it referred to as a menstrual cycle. And there's a connection there in the words. And during that time when a potent egg, a healthy egg is lost and drained out, and a new egg is released, she was considered unclean.
"If a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, and it runs beyond the time of her separation," the regular cycle, there's something beyond that, "all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation; she shall be unclean. Every bed whereon she lies all the day of her issue shall be unto her as the day of her separation." Now there were already laws given in the levitical law that during that time of the month she was considered unclean. "And whatever she sits upon shall be unclean," her bed and anything she might sit upon. "And whoever touches those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean." And she couldn't go to the temple. So the nature of her disease separated her.
You notice the word "separation" mentioned several times? Who does this woman represent with this continual flow of blood? Let's call it the old testament church, separated by uncleanness. What is our condition before God? Separated. And it says anything she sat upon. Do you ever notice that story in Genesis when rachel stole her father's idols? Laban had these idols. And there's some question what does that mean? Some think that these were really the deeds to his land that were rolled up, scrolls inside these idols.
And she had stolen his land deeds that were in these idols. And that's why he was so upset. And he chased her down and found Jacob, and Jacob said, "let whoever has that die." I don't know if you remember that. Who was the first of Jacob's family to die? Rachel. He didn't realize that she had taken them.
And he said, "search all that I have." Now sometimes we might say that as a bluff, not thinking a person would take us up on it. But laban said, "okay, I will." And he began to search all through Jacob's camp. Well rachel, in the saddle bags of the camel, she had hidden these idols she stole from her father. And she did something kind of clever. It says, "he searched all the tent and found them not.
And she said to her father--" oh by the way, I'm in Genesis 31:34 and I think 35, "and she said to her father, 'let it not displease my Lord that I cannot rise up from before thee; for the custom of women is upon me.'" Now what laban understood by that was whatever she sits upon is unclean. Did you catch that from levitical law? And she's looking around the test, she says, "dad, I just, I probably ought to let you know, it's that time." And she's sitting there on the saddle bags. And he goes, "ah!" You know, he doesn't look. Well, she knew that that would be a pretty safe way to scare him off. Now why am I saying all this? Isaiah 64:6, Isaiah 64:6, matter of fact, I'll have somebody read that.
I didn't give it out, so this is just on the fly. You have that? Alright. "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities like the wind, have taken us away." In this story of that woman who reaches out for the hem of Jesus' garment, there are two garments involved. There's his and there's hers. Now we live in a very modern age, and I am thankful, I'm sure you are, for a lot of the modern conveniences and a lot of the modern sanitary things that are available.
There's a part of the supermarket or walmart that most men avoid. And I might be cutting across the store, and if I'm going down the aisles and I see that the shortest route between the sporting section, or wherever it is I want to go, and where I am now, has to go through feminine hygiene, I go up one more aisle. And ladies, you may not know this, but it is cruel and unusual punishment to ask your husbands to go to the store, and among the things that you put on the list, to have those products. No, it's not that cruel. But there ain't no normal man that feels normal going up that aisle.
I just want to tell you that. Can I get an amen, men, from you? Amen! Okay, I just want to, I just, I just wanted a little support there so they wouldn't think I'm the only oddball in the room. And but do you know what that word says here in the original? Isaiah 64, that word for "filthy rags" comes from the word "ehd," and it means set as a period, the menstrual flux as the impurity. Now if you look in the modern king James version, it says, Isaiah 64:6, "we are as an unclean thing and our righteousness is as menstrual cloth." Now when that woman, with that continual flow who is unclean, reaches out to Jesus, you have a contrast of our unrighteousness, our filthy rags--you see it now--and his righteousness. And one of two things happens when someone unclean touches someone clean.
Biblically if a leper, who is unclean touches someone that was clean, the clean person becomes unclean. If I'm contaminated, and I touch you who are a clean, you now are going to be quarantined, you're unclean, unless you're Jesus. Because Jesus had so much righteousness flowing out of him that it reversed the flow, so to speak, that an unclean person touching Christ became clean, instead of Christ becoming unclean. And this woman had faith. She decided, "if I can reach out and touch him, the opposite will happen.
Instead of me becoming unclean, I will be contaminated with his righteousness." It's probably an oxymoron to say it that way. "And when she heard about Jesus," I'm back in Mark 5:27, "when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and she touched his garments." Now why do you think she could only get ahold of his garments? Why didn't she just talk to him, and say, "Jesus, I'd like to visit with you. I've got a problem, maybe you could help me." Does the Bible tell us what the problem was? He's being thronged on every side. I mean it was an embarrassing problem. For her to go to that crowd, if she had confessed what her problem was, everyone might have run from her.
But she took a risk. And this is one of the many stories you'll find in the Bible where the crowd around Jesus becomes an obstacle that someone must get through. These four men brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus, they couldn't get him in the door of Peter's house. They had to go through the roof. How many remember the story? The crowd around Jesus is an obstacle.
Bartimaeus wants to talk to Jesus and have his eyes opened, and he calls out, "son of David, have mercy on me." But the crowd around Jesus says, "be quiet. You're disturbing him." Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus, but there's a problem. What's the problem? The crowd is too tall. If there was no crowd he would have seen Jesus just fine. Jesus is surrounded by a crowd.
The crowd around Jesus is often the greatest obstacle. I've got some neighbors that I've tried to witness to, and you know what their answer is about Christianity? "I see what these Christians do." Oh, some of you know. Harold camping, of family radio, was announcing to the world that judgment day would come, that there'd be great earthquakes and cataclysms. And got a lot of people stirred up. You say anything often enough someone's gonna believe you.
And he said it for years, and pretty soon he got some followers. And they sold their homes, they quit their jobs. We know of people that did this. Amazing Facts interviewed some of them, very sincere. I never could figure out the math of how he got to that date of may 21, 2011 that judgment day was going to come.
And got all these people stirred up. Even a few people in the world started to hedge their bets a little bit and ask questions. And some of you remember I preached on this back in February. I talked about no man knows the day and the hour, because I worry about all these folks that get deceived. Jesus said there'll be false Christs and false prophets.
And it confuses people. It not only hurts the people when Jesus didn't come--oh by the way, I don't know if you realize it but some of you remember I made an offer in church, I finally put it in writing and emailed it to family radio. I don't know if you all know that. And we offered them $100,000 for their station if Jesus--figuring if Jesus doesn't come by may 21, that you don't really deserve a radio station. If he does come, we're glad we gave you $100,000.
And you're right. And the news agencies picked up on that. Cnbc picked up on it, put it national. It was in the Sacramento bee and the san francisco chronicle and charisma magazine. In 24 hours, we got 3 national radio interviews.
And we were on fox news on that Friday, the 20th, before the end of the world was supposed to happen. I don't know if any of you saw the news report. It was on three times that day. And sorry, I wish I could have done a better job, but it's hard to talk about the end of the world in 2 minutes. And that's all they really had.
But what really hurt me about that false prediction was it gives scoffers more opportunity to mock Christianity. What's the greatest enemy of the Christian church? The crowd around Jesus that don't represent him. You've got to get through the crowd. Because there are all kinds of people that say they're Christians and they misrepresent Christ. So she pressed through the crowd, believing, she had faith.
She said, "if I might only touch his clothes," I might be made well? She said, "I shall." She had faith. And she fought her way through the crowd. And I just picture Jesus is going by and she can't get to him. You know, people's torsos typically are wider than their ankles. And she finally gets down where she can see through this sea of ankles.
And she reaches out and gets a hold of his robe. Now why his robe? Numbers 15:38-40, "speak to the children of Israel and bid them that they make fringes," this isn't just the priests, "speak to the children of Israel, and bid them that they make fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and they'll put a fringe on the border a ribband of blue: and it shall be unto you for a fringe," that means a hem, a border, "that you might look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them, that you will not seek after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you go a whoring: that you might remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto the Lord your God." So they were, as a symbol, many of the Hebrews had on their clothing, a ribbon, a border, whatever their clothing might be, of blue. And that meant, "I am consecrated to the Lord." Wherever my little feet go, when I look down there's a hem of blue. Guard your feet. Whatever your hand finds to do.
You look. Stretch out your hand. Remember, to obey the commandments of the Lord. Around the neck, in your thoughts, in your hands, in your feet, consecrated to the Lord, hem of blue. Now who among The Sons of men really only had a right to wear that, that was totally obedient to the law of God, is Jesus, right? So she reaches through that sea of ankles and she gets hold of that hem of blue.
And it would have been interesting to watch and see what happened. But something physically happened. It wasn't just her faith. She felt this surge of vitality, and she was healed. Now I want you to read for me Matthew 14:36.
This is a disconnected story. "And begged him that they might touch only the hem of his garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well." Alright, so here you've got a number of people besides this woman that believed that they could reach out and touch the hem of the garment. And you may remember there were others, even during the apostles time, they took a handkerchief from Peter or Paul, and they would bless it or something. They'd take it to people and whoever touched his handkerchief, they were healed.
There's another example of a garment of healing, or a piece of cloth. Well, she reached out and touched him. But as soon as she did this, verse 30, "Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power--" I think some versions say, "virtue--" "had gone out of him." The word in the Bible is "dunamis." That's where we get the word "dynamite" or "dynamo." Like an engine is called a dynamo, or dynamic. It means power went out of him. He sensed that.
And he stopped in the crowd and he says, "who touched my clothes?" "Don't touch my threads," the movie star said. And the disciples are wondering, has Jesus been out in the sun too long. Has the stress and the pressing crowds gotten to him? Because here he's being jostled in every side. He's got this entourage of 12 body guards around him trying to protect him. And that's probably the only way that woman could get through the crowd around Jesus and touch his clothes.
And Jesus stops and goes, "who touched my clothes?" And have you ever seen a movie star moving through a crowd before? And people just reaching out so they could say, "I touched him." Or they go along the stage with their hand, just you know, "oh, I touched him!" I went to an elvis presley concert in madison square garden. My mother took me to a press interview with elvis before the concert. It was first and only time he ever performed in New York city. And I watched him wipe his forehead with a hanky or something and threw out in the crowd. Oh, the girls, these sophisticated, educated, New York girls, I was surprised that they would just lose all composure like that.
Everyone was wondering how would the New Yorkers respond to elvis, and it was just as bad as anywhere. And they all swooned and fell and clawed each other. It's like going after a homerun from babe Ruth that gets out into the stands, all fighting for this hanky that he's touched. And Jesus says, "who touched my clothes?" Copyright infringement. What was he thinking? He felt healing go out.
Now why did he do that? Why couldn't he have thought--did Jesus know everything? Did Jesus know who this woman was? Yeah. Why did he want to draw attention to her like that? For one thing, would the story be in the Bible if he hadn't? So it had to be recorded. Another thing is he wanted her to bear testimony. When God does something for you, don't keep it to yourself. He wants you to bear testimony to it.
"And the disciples said, 'you see the crowd is mobbing you, and you say, 'who touched me?' And he looked around to see her who done this thing. The woman, fearing and trembling," she thinks, "oh no, maybe he'll ask for a withdraw of the healing." "Knowing what had happened to her, she came and fell down and told him the whole truth. He said, 'daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.'" He says, "I want to reinforce your healing. Don't be afraid.
" And while he's still speaking--i just got to finish this story even though it's not really in the lesson. "While he's still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, 'your daughter is dead. Why do you trouble the teacher any further?' As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, 'don't be afraid.'" His faith began to sink. "Only believe." "And he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw the tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly.
" Hired mourners are already there. "And he came in and said to them, 'why do you make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.' And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he took The Father and the mother of the child, and those who were with him," Peter, James, and John, "and he entered where the child was lying." Maybe she had that death shroud already over her body. You know what they do as soon as someone dies in our culture? They got problems with flies all over the world. They cover 'em up.
And Jesus pulled back that cloth. "And he took the child by the hand, and said to her, 'talitha, cumi, which is translated, 'little girl I say to you, arise.' And immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was 12 years of age. And they were overcome with amazement." And then he commands them they should give her something to eat. Now you see the whole story here? He's on his way to the 12-year-old girl, a woman who's bleeding for 12 years old touches him. She is healed.
She reaches for Jesus, and she is healed. Jesus reaches for the dead girl. They both touched Jesus that day. One represents the new testament church in my thinking. Now don't take this symbology too far, but for me it works.
I think it makes sense. And that woman with a continual flow of blood represents the old testament church trusting in the blood of lambs, continual flow of blood, no better. She gets her healing the day she touches Jesus. Jesus touches the girl. New testament church looked like it was dead when he died on the cross.
But when she arose, she came back to life. And you know what he said? He said, "do you have anything to eat?" He ate in front of 'em. He ate with them by the sea. Several times when Jesus appeared after the resurrection, he ate with the church, symbolizing he opened the word to them. In the breaking of bread he revealed himself to them.
He said to the parents, "give her something to eat," the little girl. The new testament and old testament church intersect at Christ. They both touch Christ. They're both healed by faith, right, in these stories. People in the old testament are saved by faith, looking forward to Christ.
People in the new testament are saved by faith looking backwards to Christ, all saved by faith in his righteousness, which is symbolized by his clothing. Does that make sense? I think that's a beautiful story in the Bible and you can see it there. Alright, now I want you to go with me to, "he laid aside his garments," our next passage we're considering. And if you read in your Bible in John 13, this is what this comes from. John 13, during the time of the passover dinner, knowing he was about to go to The Father.
Verse 4, John 13:4, "he riseth from supper and he laid aside his garments, and he took a towel and he girded himself." Now he takes aside his robe garment, and he girds himself with another kind of garment. He takes aside his robes that the rabbi might wear, and he puts on the garments that a servant would wear, a towel to wipe the feet. What is the imagery here in clothing that you see? Somebody read for me John 21:7. I think we gave that to somebody here. "Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, it is the Lord.
Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and did cast himself into the sea." Alright, thank you. You know why I inserted that verse? Does a person wear the same kind of clothes when they're working as they wear other times? Or is there something called work clothes? What kind of clothing does a Christian wear? When we were in the military, any of you that were in the military, today of course is memorial day--i was in military school, I shouldn't say it that way. But I went to two military schools, I think it adds up for at least one year of real service. By the way, I heard about, you know the guy that dropped the bomb on hiroshima? He went to military school also. And he said when he entered the army air corps, he said it was easier than military school.
Just want you to all know that. But they have different uniforms. We had our dress uniforms for parade events. And when you went around, you polished your buttons, they're very attractive, but you didn't do any work in those. When you did work, what did you put on? Your fatigues.
You put on your fatigues. You planned on getting them dirty, and they were washed frequently. And so you got your work clothes and you got your display clothes. Jesus laid aside his garments and he girded himself with the garments of a servant. What kind of garments do we wear? Is our Christianity the parade Christianity once a week? Is that what we wear all week long? We just got the parade garments on? Don't ever get any work done, but we're parading that we're Christians.
Polished buttons. Or do we have the garments of a servant? What kind of garments does Jesus say we need to wear? Matthew 20:24, this is in your lesson. "When the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers." James and John asked to sit on the right and left of Jesus in their marine blue uniforms, parade clothes. "And Jesus called them to himself and he said, 'you know that the rulers of the gentiles Lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you.
But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave, just as The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." You know when the pastors come to the church on Friday, we meet every Friday, and we pray. But when we come to the church on Friday, when we meet together Wednesday, we have our jackets and our ties on. We have our official staff meeting. When we come Friday, I'm in my blue jeans and baseball cap.
And I'm glad yesterday, because there's often stuff to do around the church. Some of you know we had a big afcoe graduation on Thursday. And the church had already been cleaned Thursday. So in order for the church to be ready Friday, all of the pastors were around the church cleaning. And I'm so proud--yeah, I did a little bit too--and I'm so proud of our pastors that they not only wear their suits, but they'll put on their jeans.
And pastor mike actually had his tie and his suit on. He was out there sweeping and vacuuming with his suit and his tie on. And but that's part of Christianity is being willing to roll up your sleeves. I read about a monarch. It's a--matter of fact, many monarchs have done it.
Some believe Song of Solomon. Solomon used to take off his uniform, his royal robes. Even Jesus talks about even the garments of Solomon weren't like the flowers. Solomon had the best threads of any king, glorious. But legend is that he used to like to take them off and get out and rub elbows with the people.
And that's how he met the shunamite girl that he fell in love with, who was a shepherdess. And he wrote The Song of Solomon. Because he was getting out there in the common clothes of the people. And then he'd disappear and she'd say, "where is my love?" He just disappeared again. It's like he was living incognito.
All through history there's a lot of stories of monarchs who could very easily--they didn't have all the televised pictures back then. A lot of people never got close enough to even know what the King or queen looked like, other than some paintings or statues. And the Kings or the queens would sometimes take off their regular royal garments. They'd put on the garments of the regular people, and they'd mix among the people as one of them to get to know them better. Did Jesus do that? Matter of fact, there's even a story in the Bible, the wife of jeroboam took off her royal robes and went to abijah the prophet.
I think it was abijah. And she disguised herself as a common woman. And he was blind, and the Lord said--well she knocks on the door. He calls out and says, "come in thou wife of jeroboam." He knew who she was. She tried to disguise herself as one of the people.
But Jesus came from the palace. Out of the ivory palaces, he laid aside his royal garments. He put on the garments of a servant that he might come among us. And he's asking us to do the same. You know when--we've got a couple people here, I won't mention their names and embarrass 'em, but before they were members of our church, they were involved in--they call 'em a roadie.
And you go with rock groups around the country. And you help them set up and take down for the concerts. And you do all the grunt work. I was a roadie, but I did it with the heritage singers. All of us were roadies back then.
You know, you have to go and you break down for the concert; you set up for the concert. There's a lot of grunt work that goes on. There's a whole lot of maintenance before your few moments of magnificence when you're on the stage. Then there's a whole lot of maintenance that goes on. But sometimes you've got the star of the show.
And when everybody's setting up for the concert and taking down for the concert, they just kind of stand around and watch everybody work. And they say they're gold bricking. This person's a gold brick. They're valuable and they just kind of sit there like dead weight. They don't do anything.
Now some of us in the church are gold bricks. You all heard the story one time about the man years ago who wanted to take a stage coach ride. He needed to go somewhere, cross-country. And he went into the stage coach office, and he saw there were three prices for the tickets. You had first-class, second-class, third-class.
And right then the stage coach pulled up from one of its trips. And he saw all the people pulling out of the same cabin sitting on the same seats. And he thought, "why would I bother paying for a first class ticket when they all sit together?" And he thought, "I'm going to buy a third class ticket. I get to sit. I'll get there the same time as everyone else.
" And he thought he was pretty smart. So he climbed in. And they're riding along, and he's sitting next to those who paid first class and felt pretty good about it. Then they came to the first very steep hill. And the driver of the stagecoach said, "okay, all of the second-class passengers get out and walk.
All of the third-class passengers get out and push. First class remain seated." And I heard a pastor say one time, "problem with the church is we got too many first-class passengers." A lot of people come once a week while everybody else either walks along side, and then you've got your 20% that do 80% of the work. Did you know that, in a church? Twenty percent do eighty percent of the work, and the other people kind of come and go. And am I being too hard on you, or is it true? All of us need to be servants. You got a hand full of people, we need people right now at central church, help in the children divisions.
Some folks are just worn out. They've done it for years. And we need new people. And we need people to be willing to serve. Everybody ought to be part of the body of Christ, using our gifts somehow in the service of God.
We don't need more gold bricks. Amen? Too many first-class passengers. We need to be involved, take off our garments, roll up our sleeves, and go fishing. Get involved in the work of the Lord. Alright, "nor rend his clothes.
" Oh, I'm running out of time. Leviticus 21:10, "the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured who is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes." It was a custom back then when you were in mourning--job rend his clothes when he found out that his children had died. It was very common. And job goes way back even before Moses. They would tear their clothes as a sign of mourning.
And when Elijah went to heaven in a fiery chariot, earlier lesson talked about that, what did Elisha do? As a sign of mourning he tore his clothes. But the high priest, his clothing represented Christ whose garments were not to be torn. You remember they did not tear the robes of Jesus but they cast lots. It's later in our lesson. Psalm 22:18, matter of fact, who will read that for us? We gave that to somebody.
"They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." A thousand years before Jesus died, king David said there in psalm 22:18, "they would cast lots for my clothing." Why? Matthew tells us in verse 35 of chapter 27, "they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled that was spoken of by the prophet: they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they did cast lots." They--John 19 says the soldiers, when they crucified Jesus, verse 23, John 19:23, "they took his garments and made four parts." Of the other different parts of his garments, they just divided them among the soldiers, "to every soldier a part." Now why four parts? Four in the Bible represents the four corners of the earth: north, south, east and west. The righteousness of Christ would be enough to go to the whole world, four parts. But his main robe--i mean Jesus may have had a turban. There were evidently four other things. But his main robe was seamless, representing that there was no flaw in his righteousness.
"Woven from top throughout." They said among themselves, "let us not rend it." That high priest that condemned Jesus, he tore his clothes. But Christ's garments, the real high priest, they were not torn. They cast lots. They said it's too good to tear. And there's been a lot of speculation about whatever happened to the soldier that got that, that won that bet that day.
You know, it's interesting that there were two tearings in the old temple. The veil in the old temple tore when Jesus died, and the garments of the high priest tore, representing a new temple. You are the temple of God. And a new priesthood. We are a part of that royal priesthood now, right? But Jesus' garments were not torn.
Caiaphas, the high priest, he tore his clothes. He was not supposed to do that. Even aaron, when his sons nadab and abihu were slain by the Lord, fire of God came down from heaven and burnt them up because they went into the sanctuary drunk, and they brought strange fire, God told aaron--matter of fact, it's right here in Leviticus 10:6, he said, "do not uncover your head, or tear your clothes; lest you die, and lest he be angry with all the people. Let your brothers of the whole Israel mourn the burning of jehovah that he kindled." In other words, "if you want your brethren to mourn, fine. But you are the high priest, you represent Jesus, who his clothing represents the perfect righteousness of God.
You're not to tear it." Also I'm thankful, I'm assuming you are, that Christ did live a perfect, flawless life, and that we can be covered with those robes of righteousness. Amen? One more time, we do have a free offer called, "the armor of God." We'll send it to you for asking. Call 866-788-3966. I think you can call 24 hours a day and we have operators there. They'll take your information and send you the book for free.
Thank you for studying with us. We'll be in our last lesson dealing with garments of grace next Sabbath. God bless you, friends, until we study together again. In six days, God created the heavens and the earth. For thousands of years, man has worshipped God on the seventh day of the week.
Now each week, millions of people worship on the first day. What happened? Why did God create a day of rest? Does it really matter what day we worship? Who is behind this great shift? Discover the truth behind God's law and how it was changed. Visit Sabbathtruth.com.