The Joshua Victor Theory

Who is Jesus? That’s the most important question that we can ever ask, and should be asking this Christmas. We’ll find the answer in reflecting on God’s Christmas gift to us tonight: the Gift of Two Names—Jesus and Immanuel. Those two names will help tell us Who is Jesus? Matthew 1 is Jesus’ genealogy. His earthly family tree. A genealogy has a rather monotonous rhythm: “so and so the father of so and so the father of so and so…” and so on, down through all the names. But there are a couple of key places where the cadence is broken, like this one: “ Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.   The cadence doesn’t end with the predictable “Joseph, the father of Jesus”—because J esus is not the son of Joseph, but as the angel told them, He would be the Son of God. The Virgin birth! Jesus the Son of God, the Son of Mary. Joseph, her betrothed (legal) husband is only Jesus’ adoptive father , not his natural father; the relatio...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. During these three weeks of Advent we’ll be looking at three prophecies from the book of Isaiah that point forward to Jesus the Messiah and King. Today we look at the first, from Isaiah 7, the prophecy of Jesus’ virgin birth. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. This Scripture passage is all about faith. It’s about faith in God’s promise to carry out salvation through His Son, the Virgin-born Messiah. It’s about the having the faith to trust in God and His continuing presence and action in our lives, even when circumstances dictate otherwise. It’s one thing to do whatever is in your ability and trust God to provide a way through challenge and difficulty when the way is uncertain. It’s another thing altogether to disbelieve God and try to engineer your own solution to a problem through dishonorable means. The reading from Isaiah describes just such a s...