The Joshua Victor Theory

Into a Net that Christ Prepares Text: Joshua V. Schneider Meter: CM (86 86) Melody: MCKEE (LSB 653 In Christ there is No East or West) 1. Into a Net that Christ Prepares A world of sinners swim His Gospel promises He shares And whole, encircles them. 2. Though nets may strain, they will not break His church, it firm shall stand, For this confession it shall make: “Christ is Living God and Man!” 3. Before His holiness we cry: “Have mercy, Lord, on me!” And on our knees hear His reply, “From all your sins be free!” 4. “Caught live for purposes my own, Gifts I bestow on you; Are to be used as I have shown, Serve them as I have you.” 5. Beholding Christ with unveiled face, His image we will take; Drawn on our service He will trace, To live for other’s sake. 6. Into the world the Gospel casts The joy of Christ’s new life! Releases us from dreadful blasts, Of sin and bitter strife. 7. God’s kingdom prospers by His grace ...

Sermon Outline:  1.       Jesus calls the first disciples. Ordinary, fisherman, at their occupation, uses their talents in a new endeavor. Not prominent teachers of the law, Pharisees or priests He encountered. Not powerful politicians, judges, or military commanders (although in time, they would follow the fishermen, tax collectors, and other commoners who came to call Jesus as Lord). He could have come for the rich, the powerful, and the intelligent, and the poor and the common would have remained the “have-nots” in more way than one. But instead He came to proclaim good news to the poor, and to use ordinary men to carry and spread His message. So that the exceeding power of God might be seen, rather than the glory of men. You too are called from whatever station or position in life you may be. Come! Follow Jesus! 2.       Some men may also have the call to leave their profession for full-time service to Christ as a pastor. ...

Sermon outline 1. Today’s Gospel: Life Under the Cross. More ways than one: 1) discipleship leads on a path where we will encounter suffering; 2) under the cross of Christ—forgiven 2. Peter’s false view of suffering—God forbid! This shall never happen to you! Was suffering not fitting for the glory of the Christ in his eyes? Idea today that “real love rescues from all pain” (Koukl). T or F? Sometimes as parents we let our children suffer under certain circumstances for their own good, because a greater good is in view (Koukl http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7540). God can teach through suffering. 3. Peter wants to steer Jesus away from the cross. Avoid the path of suffering. Unwittingly the mouthpiece of Satan…just earlier had been a mouthpiece for God “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” 180 degrees. Rock of Confession to stumbling block for Jesus. 4. Which is a greater shock? Peter daring to rebuke God? Or Jesus rebuking Peter (and call...

Sermon outline 1. Do you ever get the feeling like God is trying to get your attention? Alarm bells? Financial collapse, disasters, personal illness, consequences of bad choices hit home, chaos in cities. All shake our security or peace. No clear message. 2. God is trying to get our attention, in His Word—notice all the “attention-getters” in Isaiah 51:1-6. “Listen to me...look to the rock...Give attention to me...give ear to me..lift up your eyes...look at...” Are we hitting “snooze” when God’s trying to get our attention? Spiritual sleep, unaware of God, ignoring. Alarm doesn’t shut off (Law). Wake up and listen…good news comes on. (Gospel) 3. What is He calling our attention to? He interprets (v. 6) the instability we see all around us. Not only the health, peace, and financial security are at risk, but the very heavens and earth, and those who dwell on it, are passing away. Attention! Peace isn’t in these! Look to Jesus, to His promises, to His salvation and righteousness...

Sermon sentence outline 1. The Gospel reading is thick with tension. Different than we expect. Ignored, rebuffed, rebuffed again. Finally she turns the tables…one final rebuff to send her away? Surprising turn as He praises her faith and grants her request 2. John Gerhard compares this to Jacob wrestling with God—a test of faith where she had to wrestle against Jesus and prevail. “Often times Christ, our best friend, hides His blessed, kindly-disposed face from us, and He presents Himself against us as a stranger whom we have to engage in a wrestling match.” Just like Jacob wrestled and had the victory of faith (insisting on a blessing), so the woman had a victory of faith and held Jesus captive to her request. She persisted in chasing after His mercy. He was willingly held captive by His own words. Imagine a father play-wrestling with their child and surrendering to them. 3. How would our faith stand up under this kind of trial? In the shoes of that woman, would we have give...

Sermon outline 1. “Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food. The Christian does not offer out of his bounty. He has no bounty. He is simply guest at His Master’s table and, as evangelist, he calls others too.” Daniel T. Niles a. We can’t witness to Christ unless we first have Him ourselves. It’s not out of sharing our poverty that others will come to Christ, but by sharing Christ and His bounty. b. So we must constantly hear the Word of Christ ourselves and know the love of Christ that He came into the world, God’s loving act to join Himself to the fallen creation, fallen mankind, and to collect our sin and guilt upon Himself, so that Jesus could pay the ultimate price on the cross. God was justifying us in Christ—declaring us innocent in His eyes, because the guilt had been paid, and Jesus’ perfect life stands to our credit. It is this good news, what we call the “Gospel”, that we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in...

1. Imagine you are a pilgrim on your way to celebrate Pentecost: OT festival of harvest. Pilgrims, farmers gather to Jerusalem, one of three times a year. Bring the “firstfruits” of harvest as a freewill offering to God—thanksgiving for the harvest, trust in His provision. a. Expectation, crowds of people, distant lands, farmers led by a flute player, sing the Psalms of Ascent, 120-136, while moving in procession up Mount Zion to the Temple b. Then presenting their firstfruits to the priest, they were to recite the following, from Deut. 26: ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6 And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 7 Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstret...

“Can you hear me now?” We’ve probably all heard the mildly annoying cell phone advertisements on TV and radio that claim one provider has better “coverage” then the next company. The idea is that you don’t want to be caught in gaps where there is no cell phone coverage, or where your calls might be dropped. Certainly on Maui with our high mountains, any cell phone user has experienced losing coverage on the way to Lahaina or Hana, or other “gaps” where there are no broadcast towers, or the signal is interfered with or spotty. As I’m composing this newsletter, I’m returning from our Fall Pastor’s Conference in Minden, Nevada, where our presenter spoke about “Church Simple.” The speaker was President Randy Golter, of the Rocky Mountain District churches of our LCMS. He spoke about the simplicity of what the church is: God speaking and the church hearing. The church is created by God speaking to us in Christ, and gathering us together as His body to hear and believe His Word. The church i...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. As we come to the last two churches in our Easter Letters series this week and next, we come to the best and the worst of the seven churches, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Last week we heard of Sardis, which was called away from a false trust in their own reputation to a living exercise of their faith and love, and to walk with Christ in white. Today we hear the letter to the church of Philadelphia, noteworthy in that it was given no specific call to repent, and that it received a strong commendation from Christ. Jesus addresses a church that had little power, but held fast to His Word and Name, and Jesus had set an open door before them. Let’s consider today what our own open door is here on Maui. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Philadelphia. The city whose name means “brotherly love.” Struck by the same earthquake that devastated Sardis in 17 AD, ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The sermon text today in connection with our special gift of the New Testament in audio is Romans 10:5-18. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 or “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there i...