Psalm 72

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.  Not because there is no value in them, but because by January 6th they are usually broken and I don’t need a reason to add more guilt to my life.  And, someone has to finish the Christmas cookies and Chex Mix, so…

But maybe you do make resolutions.  And maybe you make them for good reasons.  And maybe one of the reasons is because you want to strive harder against a specific temptation or your fruit of repentance involves a resolve to change a certain habit.

Do you really think you will be perfect in your resolve?  Be honest, it won’t happen.  Do you really think you are worthless when your resolve is broken?  Cheer up, I have good news for you.

“He will certainly deliver the poor person who cries out,

as well as the afflicted, and the one who has no helper.

He will take pity on the weak and poor.

He will save the lives of the poor.

From oppression and violence he will redeem their lives,

because their blood is precious in his sight” (Psalm 72:12-14).

Who is “He” mentioned above?  Your Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  On Epiphany he is revealed to you as your Savior.  He has come to rescue you from all of your broken resolve and loads of guilt.  When you  feel worthless because of what you’ve done he tells you that your blood, you yourself, are precious to him.  Because he considers you precious he entered our humanity to deliver, save, and redeem you.

Maybe your resolution involved getting to know your Savior more and to spend more time in his Word.  For that I have a resource for you to assist you.  It is a site called Bread for Beggars. Breadforbeggars.com  It is a site filled with multimedia Christ centered resources that can assist you in your devotional life.  For example, there is a Bible 100 resource that can give you a plan to read Scripture everyday for 100 days to give you a solid overview of our salvation history.  There is also a devotional resource by Pastor Luke Italiano, most recently his You are not… series, that may appeal to you in your own life’s situations.  Check out Bread for Beggars.  You may find something useful.

Because beggars we are.  Spiritually poor, afflicted, helpless on our own, weak, spiritually oppressed.  But we are not without hope.  God’s Word reveals to us our deliverer, our helper, our Savior, our Redeemer.  He considers us precious. 

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Philip Janke

Winnebago Lutheran AcademyCoordinator of Recruitment and Communication

“If there was any other way for mankind to gain righteousness in God’s sight so that God would be pleased with us and welcome us into heaven, it would have been the biggest, most colossal waste of time, energy, and suffering for the Son of God to come into this world and endure what he did.”

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Joshua 3:1-4a

“Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. ² After three days the officers went throughout the camp, ³ giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. ⁴ Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”

Forty years.  The past forty years had been building up to this moment.  After wandering through the barren wasteland of the Sinai Peninsula, then traveling around far to the south of the Dead Sea, through more harsh, arid climate, the Israelites were on the doorstep of the land God had promised to them—a land “flowing with milk and honey.”

But it was a new land, a strange land, a dangerous land.  While it would one day be their home, for the time being, they would be unwelcome strangers in unfamiliar surroundings.  Left to their own devices, the world around them would’ve eaten them up.  The Canaanites, who lived in the land, were brutal, aggressive, and depraved people who, among many other sins, practiced child sacrifice.

Once they crossed the floodwaters of the Jordan River, how would the Israelites know where to go?  The answer: The LORD would lead them.  The ark of the covenant was the visible representation of God’s invisible presence.  It was a reminder to Israel that the LORD was with them.  When they weren’t certain where to go, all they had to do was follow the ark.

Here is a good lesson for all of God’s people whenever they enter new and uncertain territory in life: Follow the LORD.  It could be a change of schools, like heading into high school or moving on to college.  It could be moving away from home to a new city.  It could be starting a new job.  It could be a change in life circumstances—declining health, a debilitating injury, the loss of a loved one, etc.

We need this reminder.  It’s easy to forget to follow the LORD when we are busy with entering a new territory of life.  And when we don’t follow, one of two things happens.  Either we ironically forget the one who blesses our success in the new territory of life, or we struggle precisely because we have not remembered our LORD and his commands and promises.

Let us remember God’s promises.  He will never “leave us or forsake us.” (Deuteronomy 31:6—words spoken to Israel just before entering the Promised Land)  He promises that when we follow him, we “will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)  He promises that when we follow him, we are blessed. (Psalm 128:1)

“If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; ²⁴ though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” (Psalm 37:23-24)

Luke 3:1-2

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.”

As I was preparing for my upcoming sermon on Luke 3:1-6 on December 2nd, 2018, my attention was drawn to these two verses. For a while I seriously considered going into greater depth on them. I even had a good two hundred or so words typed out. But alas, I recognized that it would’ve interrupted the flow of the sermon, and so those words met the delete button. I didn’t even hang on to them for this little devotion.

One of the many accusations leveled against the Christian faith is that the stories we hold to are nothing more than fiction, fairytale, or myth. More often than not, though, these dismissive arguments come from people who may have a strong gut reaction against the Bible, but have not arrived at their conclusions through any serious legwork. Had they done the legwork to investigate the Bible’s claims, they would agree with numerous trial lawyers (Craig Parton being one of them), who have said that both the internal and external evidence for the Bible’s claims passes the bar for reasonable doubt. Some trial lawyers have even gone on to say that they have won convictions with less evidence that what there is for the central truth claim about Christianity: That Jesus rose from the dead.

Legwork…That’s what stands out to me in this reading. At the onset of Luke’s gospel, Luke makes this statement: “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:1-4)

I absolutely LOVE the historian in the person of Luke. In preparing his letter—his account of the life and ministry of Jesus—for Theophilus, he wasn’t content with hearsay or the passing down of stories, the latter of which was common in oral societies. He investigated—i.e. he interviewed eyewitnesses, corroborated stories, got his facts straight.

One of the fruits of that labor was pinpointing the time when John the Baptist began his ministry. It was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. And then he goes on to list another four local rulers. Taking these statements and pairing them up with other, non-biblical ancient documents that we have, we can say with certainty that John’s ministry began either in the year 28 or 29 A.D.

And here’s the great thing about this. It’s not fairytale. Verse 7 says that crowds came out to be baptized by him. Matthew’s gospel reports that people from all over the region went out to see him. Even the religious leaders of the day, Pharisees and Sadducees—i.e. his enemies—could not deny Luke’s report about John.

This is what I value so much about my faith. It’s rooted in reality, not mere philosophy or speculation. It isn’t something that a small group of people conjured up in their minds for the sake of prosperity and gain. The Christian faith is not divorced from history. It’s a part of the history of God’s people—in the days when Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census (Luke 2:1); in the days when Tiberius was Caesar of Rome (Luke 3:1); in the days when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea (Luke 3:1)—a claim Bible critics disputed for centuries until evidence of Pilate’s existence was unearthed at Caesarea Maritima. It is HIS-story: The history of God becoming also man. The history of his teaching and his miracles, both of which even his enemies couldn’t deny. The history of his crucifixion and resurrection.

What is this SO BIG for me? It gives me confidence: Confidence that my faith is not based on a lie or deception. Confidence that I’m not backing the wrong horse. Confidence that “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…” And so “On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.” (CW 382)