The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Did you notice the strong themes of rejoicing, feasting, and wedding celebration in all the readings today; even the Psalm on the front of your bulletin insert, that we didn’t use? They’re all also themes of Christian worship. Every Sunday we gather for rejoicing and a feast, as our worship is centered around Jesus, our Heavenly Groom, and the Lord’s Supper that He gives to His Bride, the Church, as a foretaste of the feast to come. We hope and rejoice each week because of the presence of Jesus and His outpoured blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Paul says “Rejoice in the Lord,” because true joy is found only in Him. The Old Testament reading describes the heavenly celebration when God swallows up death forever, wipes away the tears from all faces, and takes away the reproach of His people. The Gospel describes a wedding feast filled with undeserving guests, while those w...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. During this month of October, we’re going to celebrate again a “Reformation Month” where we’ll take the opportunity to highlight some themes of our Lutheran Reformation heritage. We’re closing in on the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, which falls on October 31 st , 2017. The Reformation played a large role in returning the church to the foundational authority of the Bible, and the centrality of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Today we look to the theme of “righteousness” to consider what Paul was teaching about it in Philippians, and how that informs our Lutheran understanding of our relationship to God. Imagine for a moment that you were the most successful person in your field—whatever that may be. Maybe it was that you were the employee of the year, or the world’s best mom, or the winner of the beauty pageant, or the valedictorian of your graduating class, o...

Sermon on Romans 11:1-2a, 13-32, part 9 of a 13 part series in Romans, "God's Greater Story." This sermon is not adapted from the series. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today in Romans chapter 11, we come to another challenging and often misused Bible passage, which is partly why I expanded the verses included in the reading, from what you find in the bulletin insert. Paul renews his discussion from Romans 9 about the make-up and identity of the church, the relation of Jews and Gentiles (non-Jewish peoples) in the church, and the mysteries of God’s eternal choosing or predestination of His people. Part of Paul’s aim in Ch. 11 is to reign in a dangerous attitude of pride or arrogance. From any Gentile Christians who might look down on or even ignore the Jews who had fallen away from God through unbelief in Jesus, and so were under the present “partial hardening” that Paul describes. Paul wants to teach us Gentiles of our place...

Sermon Outline: ·          Last in our Reformation series: Christ alone. Previous weeks—faith, grace, and scripture alone. Triangle diagram: three points with Christ alone at center—all are interconnected. How does faith, grace, and scripture intersect with Christ alone? Christ stands as heart and center of our salvation, because faith or trust depends on Him—without the powerful Savior, faith would be aimless or helpless. Faith aimed toward anyone or anything else than Jesus Christ, is a vain and empty hope. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:60. Christ alone is our salvation. There is no other name under heaven, by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). ·          Without Christ, we would not know grace, as scripture says, “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Because of Jesus’ incredibl...

1. Is it important to know the way if you’re looking to get somewhere? Finding your way—directions, maps, GPS, Google maps, a navigator or guide. How important is our destination? a. Want to get to heaven; Father’s mansions. b. We’re lost if we don’t know the way. Directionless. c. Try the Dave Ramsey test—close your eyes, all point in the direction you think is north. How many are right? Have all point South. Does that change which way is North? How is this like our faith in Jesus? d. Are you spiritually directionless? Multitudes of answers how to get there. 2. Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” Christian author put it this way: “Without the Way there is no going, without the Truth there is no knowing, without the Life there is no living.” a. Without the Way there is no going—can’t get to the Father, to heaven without Jesus. Jesus is the only way. Thomas thought he was lost, but he had Jesus. Not a map or a GPS or list of...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Faith Alone or Sola Fide. One of the mottoes of the Reformation. A phrase that emphasizes how our salvation comes to us, by the pure reception of faith. On Reformation Day we celebrate a living remembrance of the Reformation, where the teaching of faith alone was placed back into prominence by Martin Luther and the Reformers. We live on in that same confession of faith that was handed down through the ages. Today we’ll look more closely at what saving faith is. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Salvation is by faith alone. Alone because all boasting and all works are excluded. Boasting has no place in salvation because the law of God silences every mouth. Every sinner is crushed under the verdict that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There isn’t any place for pride, arrogance, or claiming to be better than anyone else. Likewise...