The Joshua Victor Theory

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today’s parable of the Ten Virgins is a parable of readiness and faith. God has set a day known only to Him as a definitive, final cut-off date. Judgment Day, or the Day of Christ’s Second Coming, when He returns to judge the living and the dead. We confess every week in the Creed that “ He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead”. The final judgment. On that day, God will finally determine who are the just, who will join Him in eternal life, and who are the unjust, who will be sentenced to eternal punishment. The Parable of the Ten Virgins symbolizes this “final cut-off date” when the Bridegroom arrives for the wedding celebration. Upon His arrival, five wise virgins are ready, prepared, and waiting. Five foolish virgins are not. They’ve left just before His arrival, and it is too late to enter in when they return. Pleading at the door emphasizes the fi...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today we celebrate the festival of Pentecost, which began as an Old Testament festival of harvest. While we might think of autumn as the time for harvest, the festival of Pentecost marked the ending of the late spring barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest, as these grains were the first crops to bear fruit, and people were to give their first and best as offerings to the Lord. Today we don’t pattern our lives so much by the cycles of planting and harvesting, of summer and winter. Especially here in Hawaii, where produce can be grown year-round; especially in our modern age of international food markets and grocery stores, where you can get tomatoes or apples or just about anything else, almost any time of year. We notice some local fruits or vegetables are best “in season,” but unless you watch carefully, you probably don’t notice much about those seasonal cycles. And with food coming in from al...

Sermon Outline 1. Concern for Christians—what happens on the day of Judgment? Grace? Good works? How am I saved? How to be one of the sheep? How does Jesus know who are His sheep? 2. After Jesus’ separation of blessed from cursed, He evaluates their works. Yes, He will see our works. Particularly here mercy. Did they show mercy or not? Surprise in the parable is that Christ was hidden in the needy neighbor, the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick or imprisoned. He saw through the eyes of the needy neighbor whether we showed mercy or not. These merciful deeds or good works, are evaluated in the judgment. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matt. 5:7) 3. In our preview of the Day of Judgment, God shows mercy to those who were merciful. But whose mercy came first? Did God show mercy in saving the sheep because they had first shown mercy to others? Or did the sheep show mercy to others because God had first showed mercy to them in saving them...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is the last Sunday in the Church Year, and as our readings again focus on Judgment Day, we listen to the Old Testament reading from Malachi. The situation was that the Jews were complaining against God how unfair it was that the wicked prospered. As we study this reading, we’ll consider how we’ve complained against God, what God’s response is to the injustice of this world, and how that sets a pattern for us as Christians to respond to it as well. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. “But it’s not fair!” a child exclaims. “Life isn’t fair, kid; deal with it” the adult replies. It’s a pretty familiar exchange, and we’ve all been there. “When life deals you a bad hand, you do the best to play the hand you’re dealt,” goes a common proverb. Everyone has had times in their life when they grumbled or complained that things just seemed unfair. In the ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is part three of our sermon series, “Easter Letters,” and is on the letter to the church of Pergamum. Last week we heard about the church in Smyrna, whose believers faced difficult persecution, poverty, slander, and even death, but were called to endure and not be afraid as they trusted in their conquering Lord. Today in the letter to the church of Pergamum, we find a church that is in the midst of a hotbed of false worship to other gods, and the temptation to live a worldly and impure life. They are called to repentance, and victory with their Lord who fights with them against temptation and idolatry. He promises to the conqueror, to eat of the hidden manna. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The introduction of Jesus in this letter to Pergamum immediately strikes us as fierce. “These are the words of Him who has the sharp, two-edged sword.” ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is the Last Sunday in the Church Year, a day on which we particularly focus on and remember the promised return of Jesus to judge the living and the dead. The text is the Gospel of Mark. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. If the popularity of Hollywood disaster movies is any indication at all, the spectacular and terrifying end of the world and/or civilization as we know it is a topic that fascinates a lot of people. Several times a year we’re treated with the newest scenario for the end of the world/judgment day. Humanity is alternately wiped out by aliens, giant asteroids, killer diseases, rampaging robots, vast computer intelligences, nuclear holocausts, global warming, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. What’s popular this month is the movie 2012, which says the Ancient Mayans ended their calendar in that year because they predicted doomsday then...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text is Matthew 25, Jesus describing His return for the Final Judgment. Only a short time before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, He is prophesying about the end of time. Confident of His coming victory over sin and death on the cross, Jesus looks to the Final Judgment, where He will be exalted on His throne of glory, seated at the right hand of God the Father in power. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Drawing close to the end of the church year, themes of Jesus’ return and the judgment prevail. For some, these Scriptures are frightening, and put us in mind of our mortality. For others they raise fears about how we’ll face the Final Judgment and how we’ll come through it. For still others, ignorance means bliss, and we pretend not to think about these things, but carry on business...