Psalm 46, Matthew 28:20

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Today, I’m going to share some of the comforting things that God has in store for us in Psalm 46. The Psalm says he is our refuge and our strength. A fortress is how Luther translated it. He’s never absent. Jesus promised, surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age or the end of the world. [Matthew 28:20]

Well, anyway, I love this psalm because I grew up out in Washington state. I was 12 years old on May 18th, 1980, and I know that probably that day, date, probably doesn’t mean a lot to many of you, but for kids from Washington back then, it was an unforgettable day. On Sunday, May 18th, 1980, at 8:32 a.m., Mount Saint Helens erupted. 1300ft, more than that, were blown off of the top and off of the side of the mountain. When the ash finally finished falling and all the dust settled, there’s this gaping crater that this hole in her north side. But still, in spite of that, she’s still there. Saint Helens, she’s over 8000ft to tall.

So with Psalm 46 in mind, think for yourself. What would it take? What kind of eruption? What kind of earthquake? Tsunami? Or God forbid, what kind of horror of nuclear war would it take for all the mountains to be leveled, to be thrown into the midst of the sea? And speaking of disasters, think of the chaos that would ensue in an eruption, in an earthquake. We see when Florida is trying to evacuate in front of a hurricane. The roads are clogged. Hospitals are overrun. Stores are empty. Their shelves are empty. Well, Psalm 46 assures us that if a mountain is gone the next day, if the entire Cascade Range or the Rockies or the Alps, we would wake up and find them gone, that we won’t wake up and find the Lord gone.

God is our refuge and our strength. He is ever present. There’s never a time when he will not be with us. Because didn’t God the Son come here, become incarnate for us? And wasn’t he rejected by those he loved by his own people? Wasn’t he hated by them? Didn’t he breathe his last and give himself into death?

Take your thumb and tuck the last two fingers of your hand behind the thumb. Three right. Three digits. Sort of tucked away, sort of hidden. And then what are you left with? You’re left with two. Two standing there together. Two fingers.

When Christian pastors, priests, ministers proclaim God’s blessing on God’s people, they often put their hand in this configuration, the three the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity are tucked away, somewhat veiled, but those two that stand so prominent for everybody to see. Those two represent the two natures of Christ, true God and true man together, one Christ. And that is how God’s people are often blessed.

So the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge because God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God sent the Son of God here to this world to give himself into death, to rise again for our salvation.

So whether it’s the latest disaster that you’re seeing on the news and all the chaos that ensues, whether it’s rumors of war or real wars, whether it’s false friends or whether it’s your health that’s failing. I pray that the promises God has for you in Psalm 46 and along with Christ himself, will be your strength and your comfort. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Amen.

Psalm 98

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Today’s Psalm, Psalm 98. Let’s take a deeper look at these verses. It says that we are to sing a new song. It’s a fresh song. It’s something that’s never been heard before. This means all the way back to Adam and Eve. No one has ever seen or let alone done this new thing. And again, that Hebrew word has got the sense of being fresh. In other words, it’s not old. It’s not moldy or mildew y. It’s alive, it’s fresh. And it’s a miraculous thing because God has revealed the sense of that word is unhidden or unveiled his salvation.

Now here’s something really cool that Hebrew word for salvation is also the Hebrew name Jesus. Or they would have pronounced it Yeshua. God has uncovered, unveiled, unhidden Yeshua. Salvation. Jesus. And he’s shown this dropping down to verse two, to all people.

In verse two we find a great word goyim. And that’s me. I’m from, my ancestors or from northern Europe, and that’s probably you. Goyim is everyone who’s not Jewish whose bloodline can’t be traced back to Abraham. We’re the filthy masses, the unwashed, we’re the Gentiles conceived and born in sin. But the Psalm says that there’s this new song of salvation, this new song, a fresh song of Yeshua for all people.

Because verse three says, God’s remembered. He didn’t forget his mercy, his love. All the ends of the earth are going to hear about this and see it for themselves. Verse nine, it says that he’s coming. The Lord is coming and he’s coming to judge the world. He’s going to decide about the world and its fate, but he’s going to do it in righteousness. Right before God. So how can the world, how can the people, the Gentiles, be judged to be righteous? Well, there’s a new thing. It’s Christ, the crucified and risen Christ. So that new song, that thing that’s now unhidden for all the world, that salvation is the risen Christ. So that new song, that unhidden salvation fresh and never before seen. It’s God the Son giving himself for you, dying and rising.

We usually hear, see, Psalm 98 on Easter morning. What better day of the year to sing about this new, this brand new, never before seen thing than on the day our Savior conquered sin and death for us? Read Psalm 98 for yourself and the Lord bless and keep you.

Psalm 16, Psalm 23, Acts 2

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The first two verses of Psalm 16, a Psalm of David preserve me, David prays. In other words, keep me safe. I take refuge in thee. I hope in you. I trust in you. Jump down to verse three, it mentioned saints. It mentions holy ones. It uses the word excellent ones as another translation, royal ones, and in other words, God’s people.

But wait a minute. Aren’t God’s people sinful? We are. So how can we be called saints? Well, we’re called saints because we’re made holy. We’re made saints because our sins are paid for. We know that. We believe that. That’s what Jesus has done for us, which means that we are the excellent ones. We are royalty, children of the Heavenly Father, princes and princesses of Heaven itself.

Drop down to verses five and six. Did you ever eat in a school cafeteria or in a military chow line? Maybe you learned to be extra nice to make friends with the lunch ladies, might not have been ladies serving, because they give you a little bit extra food. Well, verses five and six talk about the portion that the Lord has given us. The portion that God serves up is God Himself, the Lord himself. In Psalm 23, David speaks about that, saying that his cup is overflowing. And verse six says that the lines, thats boundary lines, property lines, the place, the home that God has prepared for you is fallen in pleasant places. It even talks about an inheritance. You’re in God’s will so that when God died, you inherit what he has: his righteousness, his holiness, the forgiveness of your sins.

Verse eight says that I have set the Lord, always set the Lord before me. He’s my foundation. What that means is my life is now built on this. It’s built on him. There is no other foundation that anyone can lay, a permanent foundation, than that which has been laid, laid down: Jesus Christ. And this is a foundation so firm that the Psalm tells us it can’t be shaken. It doesn’t budge. It doesn’t sag or slip with age. Soul, my heart, my being, my frail mortal flesh, which grows older and weaker every day, it rests secure. Because even though I do grow weaker every day, even though my grave is somewhere out there in the future, God promises not to desert us. He won’t leave us in death and in hell, in Sheol.

And in verse ten, Psalm 16:10, we’re told how all this is possible. It says, you will not let your Holy One see corruption or see decay. What is that? Who is that? The Holy one. It’s singular. Well, if we jump into the New Testament Acts chapter two, we’ll find Peter preaching on Pentecost Sunday, and Peter quotes from Psalm 16, verses eight, nine, 10, 11. Peter says, first and foremost, this is about Jesus. God didn’t abandon him when he gave his life for us. God didn’t even let his flesh see decay or corruption. And like Peter, we’ve all sinned. In our thoughts, words, deeds. We’ve all denied being his, his saints, his royal ones. But because of Christ, God didn’t abandon us to the grave or doesn’t abandon us to Sheol, to hell. Now all who trust in him will be with him.

Verse 11 captures that. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there’s fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So because of Christ and all that he has done, every single word of Psalm 16 also applies to you as much as it does to him. I hope you’ll open your Bible, maybe even today, and read Psalm 16 for yourself, and be assured that in Christ, because of him your sins, like Peter’s, they’re all forgiven. They will not be your undoing. You will rest secure, established on the rock that is Jesus Christ. So. May he bless and keep you. And I look forward to seeing you again.

Psalm 1

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Psalm one begins with three postures or positions of the believer. He doesn’t walk alongside the wicked. He’s not going in their direction. And the believer doesn’t stand in the way of sinners. They’ve stopped walking, now. They’re standing there. They’re discussing things. Maybe they’re planning, planning to sin, but the believer is not with them. And third, the believer doesn’t sit alongside, sit with scoffers. He doesn’t break bread with those who mock God, God’s way, God’s word. This doesn’t mean we don’t have friends, family members, coworkers who are unbelievers. It means we’re not participating in their sin.

Instead, the psalm goes on. It tells us what the believer delights in. God’s law. God’s word. More than just the commandments, all of God’s word. That’s his comfort. That’s her companion. Let’s look at an example from nature. A tree or any other plant, it needs water to survive. Back home in Washington, where I live, I can walk outside and I can see trees that are over 100ft tall. And I don’t have to be a great botanist, a great scientist, in order to know at least one thing about any tree that’s lived that long and that has reached that kind of height. It’s a tree that’s well watered well. Psalm one verse three says that the believer is like that. You don’t have to be a great theologian to look at someone, maybe someone that you admire, that you sort of look up to, maybe at church, a kind elderly person. You don’t have to be a great theologian in order to realize that person is well watered, watered with God’s own word, the water of life. Psalm one begins by telling us this is essential to spiritual life. God’s word is. Its essential to producing fruit, to growth.

And it contrasts that with the life of unbelievers, despite any seeming profit or success, that their sin may give them. Their unbelief and their sin have already determined their end. And so verse six, the last verse, it makes one last comparison, the comfort that the Lord knows the way of his people, and that means he knows where we are. He knows what we face. He knows what we struggle with and wrestle with in this life. In fact, the Lord is intimately aware of it all. In fact, we could even say he is personally aware of it. How? How can God, who is spirit, God who is perfect, be personally aware with all that that we wrestle and struggle with and as we try to produce fruit and at times we don’t produce the fruit, we should?

Psalm one is a perfect description of Jesus who did delight in God’s Word and who submitted himself to God’s law. But because of Jesus, because of him, his relative Elizabeth once called him the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb, because of him and that fruit all of God’s people are blessed. We’re blessed in him, and we are like trees that are living beside streams of water, trees that are well watered.

So Psalm one, have a read of it yourself, and in it, first and foremost see Jesus, your Savior, the Blessed One of the Book of Psalms, the Righteous One in whom we’re nurtured and in whom we grow. So it’s about him. And because it’s about him who took on our nature, it’s about us, our brother, our Savior. God bless you and we’ll see you again.

Psalm 42:1,11

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I’d like to read the last verse of Psalm 42. This is verse 11.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:11)

When we hear from God’s Word, what God would have us believe and do, we know where we’re headed. Jesus died on the cross for all of our imperfections. We know the goal. He has planned eternal life for us and the joy of that eternal life. We have depictions of that, descriptions of how God wipes away every tear from our eyes when we get to heaven. What a joyful thing that we’ll get to look forward to. The end of this Psalm is an effort at comforting ourselves that will one day come. The soul speaks to itself. I speak to myself and say, I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Especially we’re looking at that praise in eternity with all the saints and angels in heavenly glory and bliss. And in fact, that verse is repeated. It comes earlier in the Psalm as well, almost right around the middle, so we can see how important that is and how necessary it really is for us to remind ourselves of that, because we know where we’re going. We know what’s promised, and we also know it’s not here. We don’t have it. We’re waiting. We’re struggling. We’re in pain so often that it obscures that heavenly glory. It’s hard to see.

I’ve had people say to me, especially when they’re grieving the death of a loved one, we have the comfort that they, because of their faith in Jesus, they are in heaven now in glory and bliss, and so we can be happy for them. And yet it’s also comes up yeah, pastor, I know that, but I’m sad now. I’m struggling now. So where’s the comfort for life? Not just death. There is comfort for life.

This psalm begins with the problem. The first verse is

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God. (Psalm 42:1)

We’re thirsty for God. We’re thirsty for what he can provide. Think of that as parched lips and how all you can think about is water. Just getting rid of that pain, that ache of the parched mouth. We want God to come and comfort us in this. And that’s exactly what he does through His word, not just, oh, just wait, look ahead. This is going to come for you. But no, he is with us right now. We want God, that’s why we want to be in heaven, because we’ll be with God in perfection. And he is with you now. He’s with you in his word. He’s right beside you. He’s behind you. He’s beneath you, holding you up. He is within you. The Holy Spirit uses you as his temple.

We’re looking forward to our Sabbath rest right on the last day. When we come in glory with all the saints and angels, we get to worship God forever and enjoy that Sabbath rest. Well God established the Sabbath also for himself. He wants his Sabbath rest, and he takes that Sabbath rest in his temple. He takes that Sabbath rest in you. God comes into your heart to rest. And where he rests, he brings his joy. He brings his peace that passes all understanding. It’s not necessarily something that will feel every moment of every day. And that’s why we need this word. We need this comfort of the Holy Spirit. We can’t comfort ourselves. It only comes by the Holy Spirit through the word. God does comfort us in life and death. The advice isn’t, oh, just hold on. No, the advice is more here’s God. He comes to you in His Word. He’s with you as you weep and as you wail and as you wait and as you hope. And he strengthens that hope, and he strengthens you in that comfort.

1 John 2:1, Psalm 32:1-5

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Hi there. My name is Tony Pittenger. I’m the pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church out in Port Orchard, Washington. And when I was a teenager, there was a television show on late nights, and the host had these blue cards, and he would do a top ten of this, top five of that. And so sort of in that tradition, dear fellow redeemed, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you top five dumbest things that people have done in the Bible.

All right, number five, messing around with the wife of a Nazarite. This goes back to Samson. It’s in Judges chapter 14. Samson had been promised his wife. We don’t even know her name, but she was eventually given to someone else. And, well, read Judges 14. You’ll see that did not go well for those people.

Number four, dumbest things that people have done in the Bible, making fun of a prophet’s hair, especially a bald prophet. This is in Second Kings chapter two, and there are some kids making fun of Elijah and his lack of hair. That was a very dumb thing to do, disrespectful. As two she bears came and well, taught them a lesson they wouldn’t forget.

Number three, chasing God’s people into the heart of the Red Sea. This is Exodus chapter 14 as Pharaoh and his army, even though there are walls of water on the right and on the left. Hey, if the Israelites are safe down there, maybe we will be to. And in they go.

Number two, going sailing when God tells you to go to Nineveh. That’s the prophet Jonah. And I think you know that story well. Jonah got an up close sort of an immersion class in marine biology for disobeying what God had told him to do.

But the number one, number one, probably dumbest thing that you can find humans doing in the Bible hiding from God after you’ve sinned. This is Genesis chapter three. This is Adam and Eve, and they’ve been told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They fall for the devil’s lies. They fall for his temptations, which is a terrible thing, which is a sin. But then, when God comes looking for them, calling out to them, they hide.

And if you think about what a natural thing, maybe because we’ve inherited that from them, don’t we do that too? Don’t we hide when we’ve sinned? Don’t we avoid God? We avoid his church? Avoid his Word? Because we don’t want to be confronted with what we’ve done. We hide from him when we need him absolutely the most.

The Bible tells us

If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1)

Hiding from him is the worst thing that we could possibly do. I wish the story said that Adam and Eve went running up to him and saying, Lord, Lord, Father, we’ve done something wrong. We did something we weren’t supposed to do. But they don’t. But God does. God goes looking for Adam and Eve to tell them about a Savior. Psalm 32.

How blessed is the person whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the person whose guilt the Lord does not charge against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away as I groaned all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My moisture was dried up by the droughts of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my guilt. I said, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:1-5)

My friends, dear fellow redeemed, remember those dumb things we naturally do. We hide from God. We avoid him. Remember, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. And remember that blessed are you, all those with whom the Lord does not remember does not count their iniquity. Confess our sins. Run to him when we fail. Run to his loving arms because we have a Savior, Jesus Christ.

I pray you’ll remember that. And until we meet again, God bless and keep all of you. Amen.

Matthew 5:48, Psalm 14:3, 1 Peter 1:18-19

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Hitting a baseball is said to be one of the most difficult things to do in all of sports. The ball is coming at you at 95 plus miles per hour. It’s moving, it’s dropping, it’s curving. And the surface area of a baseball bat, they say there’s less than 5% of the bat is the sweet spot, the part that’s going to make contact and result in a hit. Even after that, that hit might just be a pop up. It might be hit straight back to the pitcher, who knows? But hitting a baseball, one of the most difficult things to do in all sports.

In the year 1941, a player named Ted Williams, he had a batting average of .406. Call it .400. What that means, though, at .400, is that six times out of every ten times he was at the plate, Ted Williams got out. He went down swinging. He popped up. He didn’t get on base. Six out of ten times. That was 1941. And since then, no one has had a batting average better, a season average better, than Ted Williams .406. Most modern players would be thrilled to be batting .300. That means they’re failing seven out of every ten times that they get up to the plate.

Well, Jesus said in Matthew five, verse 48,

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

If this were baseball, perfect means you’re getting on base every single time you’re making contact, you’re getting a base hit, or you’re even hitting a home run. But a 1.000 batting average. If we were talking about baseball, if our Lord was talking about it, but he’s not. He’s talking about life. He’s talking about us and our behavior. Be perfect. Not three out of ten, four out of ten, not even nine out of ten times. What the law demands from us is perfection. That means in everything we do, in everything we say, even in everything we think, in every little temptation that comes along that we don’t entertain it. We don’t think about it, but we’re too chicken to do it. Even that is sin. That is imperfection. And that condemns us.

Now, Adam and Eve, there was a time when they could have been perfect, but they chose not to. And because they did all of their offspring, you and me, we can’t do it. Psalm 14 verse three says,

There is none who does good, not even one. (Psalm 14:3)

No one. No one but Jesus.

Jesus was perfect. And if it were baseball, what that means is that Jesus got on base every single time he was up to the plate. He never failed. He never went down swinging. He never struck out. He never got to the base late, the ball getting there before he did. Jesus, if it were, baseball would have a 1.000 batting average. A sure thing, but it’s not about baseball. It’s about our life. His life and our life. Because he was perfect for us. He came and he fulfilled the law. Doing what we can’t do. So that someone would have a perfect record, a perfect average. And he applies that average to you. He gives it to you.

Saint Peter, who knew a thing or two about striking out, right? Three denials. Saint Peter later on in life, Peter wrote this.

You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

So, my friends, the next time you go down swinging, the next time you fail, the next time you fail miserably to be perfect. Remember your Savior who was perfect for you, who stood there for you to do what you cannot, and who has ransomed you from that futile ways that we’ve inherited from Adam and Eve ransomed us with his precious blood. I pray that’s a comfort to you. I’m Pastor Pittenger, and until we see each other again, God bless and keep you. Amen.

Psalm 23:4, Matthew 27:46

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In January of this year, the Pew Research Center released the results of a new study they did on various social aspects of society. And one of the results that really stood out was to do with loneliness. Loneliness has rapidly increased in our society in recent years, and the results were very alarming for all categories, age categories, but particularly for the younger generation. In the 18 to 29 year-old group, 24% of them indicated on the survey that they were lonely all of the time, or most of the time. 24%. That’s a quarter of people in that group are extremely lonely. And the results weren’t much better for the other age categories either.

It seems like loneliness has become a major challenge for us nowadays, and perhaps this is something that our congregations should consider when they’re thinking about outreach and how to serve the community. Now, if you are experiencing loneliness, I have some comforting thoughts for you to consider. First of all, God loves you and he is with you. David said in Psalm 23 verse four,

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4 EHV)

God is with you even in those horrible dark days when you’re going through the darkness of loneliness. He does not abandon you, but he is your companion. Another thing to consider is that God tells his believers that they should gather together in their local areas and love one another as brothers and sisters, like a family serving one another and gathering around his word. And so I would encourage you, if you don’t have a congregation, a family of believers that you belong to, to find one, and I would recommend one of our Evangelical Lutheran Synod congregations.

Now, these congregations, the people there are not necessarily perfect. In fact, they gather together because they are in fact sinners. And they need that forgiveness that they get through Christ and the word, his word. And here is perhaps the most comforting aspect of all of this. Jesus loves you so much that he was willing to experience the most terrible Loneliness so that you could be saved. When Jesus was on the cross at one point. He said,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

At that moment, we recognized that the Father had forsaken his son. Jesus there was suffering the worst pains of hell with your shame and my shame, our sins. But he did it, and he endured it so that we could be saved. And God the Father was satisfied with that sacrifice of Jesus. And that’s why he raised him up on that first Easter Sunday.

God loves you. He forgives you, and he wants you to gather with your fellow believers as a family. You are not alone. Amen.

Psalm 51:10

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This month marks eight years of Peace Devotions. As we remember this big anniversary, it’s good for us to thank God for giving us this opportunity, for us to share His Word with so many over these years, to also thank our pastors who dedicated so much time to writing their devotions, and be willing to sit in the hot seat as well. And of course, thank our producer, Phil Wels. So we certainly thank all of those people for eight wonderful years. It’s kind of amazing to think that this coming year, we are approaching our 1,000th episode that we plan to film this year.

That kind of reminds me of how all of this began eight years ago. I remember I got a phone call one day from my good friend Matt Wiechmann, and he told me, Matt, I want you to write a devotion 2 or 3 minutes long, and I want you to meet me in this park at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. I’ll tell you what we’re going to do then. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but that day we filmed our very first Peace Devotion, and that got this whole thing started.

It’s kind of interesting looking back on that day and on that devotion as well, that devotion actually never aired. And so thinking about coming close to our thousandth recording of Peace Devotions and so forth, I thought maybe it would be nice to share with you the basic context of that very first devotion that we filmed.

Ramone was the four year old brother of a student that attended the school that my church supported when I served down in Florida. His mother brought him to the hospital one day for an outpatient procedure, standard procedure, and while he was there, they gave him an IV. But the nurse made a mistake. The nurse forgot to clear the line of air, and when she put the IV in, the oxygen, went straight to his heart and damaged it. Destroyed it completely. Thankfully, the doctors were able to save his life, but Ramone had to remain in the hospital until a new heart could be found. It was a long six months, but eventually it was and Ramone was able to return home healthy, safe and sound.

God’s Word for us today is recorded in Psalm 51, verse ten, where King David says this

Create in me a pure heart, O God.
Renew an unwavering spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

David in that verse is really asking that God give him a new heart, or create in him a a pure heart, as he says. And why does he ask for this? Well, we know the context. The reason David says this is because he’s thinking about his sin that he’s committed with Bathsheba. Now he’s murdered her husband as well and told so many lies and how all of this was brought to the forefront through God’s prophet who had confronted him. And now David was overwhelmed with the guilt. And so he asked God to wash away his sins. He asked God that he would create in him a pure heart. But how could that happen?

You know, when you think back to little Ramone, what did it take for him to get a new heart? It wasn’t that the doctor had one in the back room that he could easily go and get. It wasn’t that they could grow one on the back of a mouse or something like that. Someone had to die. And someone did die. A child died and the heart was donated so that Ramone could live. It’s a reminder for us as well, when it comes to our own hearts, filled with so much sin that in order for our own hearts to be purified, to be made right with God, someone had to die.

You see, our sin was no small price. Not just sins like adultery and murder, but sins like stealing and lying, gossip and so many others. All of those sins deserve God’s wrath and punishment. And the only way for our hearts to be made right with God is for someone to die. And someone did die. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ to die in the cross for your sins and mine, so that our hearts, filled with so much sin, could be purified. So that they could be made right with God.

What a good reminder that is for us, especially in our own lives, to know that God has given us new hearts. First of all, as he has brought us to faith in His Son Jesus Christ. But even now, as Christians, as we sometimes can feel the weight and guilt of our sin to return again to God as King David did so beautifully in our Psalm, to ask God that he wash away our sins, and that he create in us a pure heart as well, and to know that he will through His Son Jesus Christ, and what he has done for us. Amen.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Luke 23:46, Psalm 31:5

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I believe he died. At the moment of Jesus’ death he said these beautiful words. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46, Psalm 31:5) Those words were a bedtime prayer for Jewish children. And what a beautiful, appropriate way for Jesus body to surrender his Spirit into heaven and into His Father’s keeping at his own death.

When we think about the death of Jesus, we say that so often it’s easy for us to be desensitized to how important that moment is for our salvation. In fact, like every important moment of Jesus life for our salvation, even Jesus’ death is a moment that is under attack. You see, because there’s so much evidence for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, many skeptics will go back and say, well, then perhaps Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. And what they posit is what’s called the swoon theory. That Jesus, because of his physical suffering on the cross just passed out or fainted. And this deceived the people into thinking he was dead. So they took him, place him in a tomb, and later he revived and everyone thought that he had come back to life. And so they were convinced that somehow he was also their Lord of life.

So whenever we come up to speculation, we have to compare it to real history. Here’s some real history about three men that we know of who are taken down from a cross while still alive. This happened in 70 A.D. the historian Josephus had a number of friends that were captured and later crucified after the fall of Jerusalem to General Titus. And so Josephus goes to General Titus, the Roman general, and ask him to take his three friends down from the crosses. Titus immediately complied. He sent men to bring Josephus his friends off the crosses, and they were given the best medical treatment available in the Roman Empire at that time. And despite that, despite even their short time on the cross, two of his friends still died just from the physical trauma of having been crucified. The last friend of Josephus did manage to survive, but he remained a cripple for the rest of his life.

Now let’s apply what we know to the swoon theory. The idea that somehow, after being crucified, Jesus was able to revive by himself with no medical treatment at all. That after his arms and legs have been pulled out of joint, he somehow, crippled and maimed, though he would have been, would be able to roll that heavy stone from the inside, be able to roll that stone away, and somehow escape the tomb. And if we grant all those other things, can you imagine this broken, crippled person trying to convince his disciples that he is the Lord of life, the way, the truth, and the life?

That would be nonsense. You see, we have eyewitnesses that were there at Jesus crucifixion who saw that he was crucified and that he died. And the Roman soldiers in charge of the crucifixion, they had one job. They were not allowed to leave their post until they knew that their charges were truly dead. In most cases, they would break the legs. Other cases, they would light a fire at the base of a cross to speed up asphyxiation. But in Jesus’ case, he found he was already dead. But just to make sure, they took their spear and thrust it through his side, bringing a flow of blood and water, proof that Jesus heart had been pierced, that he was truly dead.

Jesus’ death on the cross is one of the foundational truths of the Bible. It means that by his death, he has truly redeemed us from death. And because of Jesus’ tender moment prayer before his death, giving his soul safely into his Father’s keeping, now every Christian on their deathbed can approach death, being no more afraid than we are to fall asleep. We too can say that same prayer. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, because Jesus truly died. Amen.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, Psalm 41:9, Zechariah 11:12-13, Psalm 22, Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14

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I believe Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. What are the odds of this seemingly simple Bible prophecy coming true? Well, to talk about the odds, I imagine most of you are probably familiar with the lottery. Do you know what your odds are of winning the lottery? It’s 1 in 300,000,000. That number is expressed as three times ten to the eighth power. Eight is the number of zeroes that comes after the three.

If you want to visualize this number three times ten to the eighth power. Picture a football stadium. And if you were to fill that football stadium with golf balls, you would have about 300 million golf balls. So imagine marking one golf ball, dropping it in there, stirring them all up, and three times ten to the eighth power would be your odds of picking exactly that golf ball out of that stadium.

A mathematician by the name of Peter Stoner wanted to know the odds of biblical prophecy coming true. And so he and a team of mathematicians, together with some anthropologists based on population numbers from what we know about ancient civilization, wanted to calculate the odds of just eight biblical prophecies coming true. So they picked some things, like being born in the city of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), riding into Jerusalem on a colt (Zechariah 9:9), being betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9) for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13), and being crucified (Psalm 22). They came up with one times ten to the 17th power, were the odds of those eight biblical prophecies coming true.

Let’s visualize that number one times ten to the 17th power. So we actually have to leave the football stadium behind to visualize this number. And we have to go to the state of Texas, the entire state of Texas, 268,000mi². We’re going to cover the state of Texas with golf balls 37ft deep. Take one golf ball, put a mark on it, drop it in and mix them all up, and one time ten to the 17th power your odds of picking that golf ball up. That’s just eight biblical prophecies.

So Peter Stoner and his team wanted to know, what does 16 biblical prophecies look like? The number is one times ten to the 45th power. To visualize this number, we have to leave the planet Earth behind. Go to the center of our solar system and start building a planet with golf balls. If you were to have enough golf balls to have 45 zeros in the number, you would have a planet with a radius that is 2.7 billion miles long in every direction. Your planet of golf balls would have swallowed up the sun, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and have gone just past the orbit of the planet Neptune. Mark one golf ball, drop it in, mix it up. And one times ten to the 45th power is your odds of drawing exactly that golf ball out.

What if we triple it? What if it’s just 48 biblical prophecies coming true. What are the odds of that? Well, the odds are one times ten to the 157th power. That is a number so big that if you were to use golf balls, you would fill the known universe with golf balls and then some. There are over 400 prophecies directly connected to Jesus, and many of which were already fulfilled in his life on earth.

But of all the amazing prophecies that come together in the life of Jesus, the most profound is just one. In Genesis three, when God says that the seed of a woman would come and crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). In Isaiah, when he would promise that the Virgin will give birth to a child and will give him the name Emmanuel, which means God with us (Isaiah 7:14). Just what are the odds of the infinite God who fills the whole universe, coming down to be born of a virgin, getting nailed to a cross and by his foot being struck on the cross that he would crush the serpent’s head. What are the odds of that? Amen.

Psalm 51:5, Galatians 3:26-29

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My name is Anthony Bruce Pittenger. Pittenger comes from my dad’s side of the family. That was the name of the man who adopted my dad when he was just an infant. And so Pittenger is a part of my identity. Bruce, Bruce also comes from my dad’s side of the family. Grandpa Bruce is the name of the man who raised my father, and I was given his name as my middle name. Anthony comes from my dad’s side too. That was my father’s first name. So I’m Anthony Bruce. He is Anthony Frank. Those are things that are part of my identity on my mom’s side. My mother’s maiden name is Blohm. B-L-O-H-M, an old German name. And you can probably tell just by looking at me that my ethnicity, my roots, are from northern Europe.

What about your identity? Your ethnicity would be a part of your identity. Your name. Your first name. Your middle name. Your last name. Your mother’s maiden name. Our government identifies us with driver’s license numbers. That’s how Washington state identifies me. We have Social Security numbers that the federal government identifies us with. But what is your identity in God’s eyes?

That identity, the beginning of that identity, isn’t very good. Psalm 51:5 tells us that we are sinful even from the time that our mothers conceived us, and so that sinfulness it is, unfortunately, it is a part of our identity. Some of you who are watching this may be living with consequences of your own sinful actions, your own sinful decisions, long term, maybe even lifelong consequences. Someone could be watching this right now from a prison or a jail cell, and as a prisoner that is a part now of their identity because of decisions or actions they’ve made.

Everyone, myself included, we’re all growing older. We get weaker. We’re either racing or inching, at least, toward death and the grave. So sinful and mortal, that’s a part of our common identity. But that’s only a part. Here are some other parts. Loved. Forgiven. Redeemed. Cleansed. Renewed. That’s also who we are. There are a whole lot of verses in the Bible, but Galatians 3:26 through 29, this is one of my favorite identity verses. The Apostle Paul says,

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about identity theft. We need to be cautious and wary using our personal information online. The devil wants to rob you of your identity in Christ. The devil wants to lead you so deeply into sin that you can’t imagine that you could be saved or loved by God. Or the devil wants you to be so ambivalent and carefree about sin that you start to think sin doesn’t really matter. But no matter how he does it, what Satan is trying to do is to steal, to snatch your identity. The identity of Galatians 3. Baptized. Child of God. Heir of heaven itself. Your past sins prove to the rest of us, what? Prove that you need a Savior. Prove that you need saving. Even your present sins that you still commit. These things prove that you need a Savior. Scripture proves that you have one.

God has provided a Savior, a new identity for us in Christ Jesus. We are loved. We are saved. We are redeemed. We are children of the Heavenly Father. That’s who and what you are because thanks be to God, that’s part of your identity. Until we see each other again, God’s grace and peace be with you. Amen.