PRINCE OF PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH
The Jesus Literacy Project
a timely message from Pastor Zelt
People truly need to know about Jesus. He is the critical revelation of God to humanity and without knowing about Jesus, what God wants us to know and believe is lost.
It would be impossible to overemphasize how important it is for people to learn what Jesus did and taught. Paul reminds us that in Jesus “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden” (Colossians 2:3). The reason we believe in him flows from his remarkable life, so without knowing his life people would have no reason to believe in him.
For those who grew up knowing about Jesus, it is hard to conceive of what little knowledge of Jesus and the Bible there is today. According to Gallup research, in those thirty and younger only 24% could list four miracles of Jesus. 18% could correctly tell two of his parables. When presented with a list, 4% could identify words he said when he was on the cross. Wheaton College – a premiere Christian college -- has been monitoring the Biblical knowledge of incoming students. One-third could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost. One-third could not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names. George Lindbeck, a professor of theology at Yale, recently said, “When I first arrived at Yale, even those who came from nonreligious backgrounds knew the Bible better than most of those now who come from churchgoing families.”
This gives us a call to action! Parents, we must make it a priority to work hard at teaching our children about him. Grandparents, read Jesus’ stories to your grandchildren and find books about him they can read on their own. . As a fellowship, we have to be dedicated to letting the message and life and teaching of Jesus live among us as we talk and sing about it together.
This is one of the reasons that our Vacation Bible School is such an important ministry. We make this week all about Jesus. We teach about Jesus, we sing about Jesus, we play games which we connect to Jesus, we make crafts that are in some way about Jesus. The goal: If kids know about Jesus they will trust in him.
How awesome is it that God chose to make himself understandable to us. Amazingly he cloaked himself in a form that could speak to us and do things that show how much we can trust him. His desire to forgive us moved him so far as to even suffer hideously on our behalf. Oh how much is wrapped up in the person of Jesus! What a blessing waits for us as we dive into Jesus!