The Joshua Victor Theory

    Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today in Mark 10, a rich young man asks Jesus how he can enter eternal life. He focuses on what must I do and Jesus answers with obedience to the 10 Commandments. The rich young man confidently examines his life, and finds obedience everywhere he looks, and asks, “ what more?” Jesus then gives the most decisive call to obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it “ single-minded obedience.” That is, no questioning, no if’s, and’s, or but’s, nothing standing in your way—just give up everything, obey this one command: “ Come, follow me.” For all the details and nuances here, the bottom line was that the rich young man, thought he was an obedient follower of God’s commands, but proved he did not have single-minded obedience. He could not obey the simple command: “ Come, follow me.” His wealth. He couldn’t obey Jesus’ command to part with his wealth, give it to the poor, an...

  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The four Gospels only share this one episode between His infancy and His adult ministry—the child Jesus in the Temple. While God obviously did not consider the rest of the “middle years” as essential knowledge about Christ, the Son of God (John 20:31), this one episode frames some important themes in His family life. As the Christmas hymn sings, Jesus is our “childhood pattern, day by day like us He grew” ( Once in Royal David’s City). Some of the themes framed by this window into Jesus’ childhood are the responsibility and trust that Mary and Joseph had for young Jesus. 12 years old was the age of “ bar mitzvah” a “son of the law”, who was responsible to God’s commandments. He was given unsupervised time and was trusted to be responsible. We also see the importance of the community surrounding the children and relatives of Jesus, and the centrality of worship in their lives. But here’s a theme that I want...

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. During October, I am going to highlight some Reformation themes from our Scripture readings as I have done in the past, leading up to the 503 rd anniversary of Luther’s nailing the 95 Theses. October 31, 1517 marked a monumental turning point in the history of the Christian church, as Martin Luther began to reopen the Scripture and led a reexamination of how the teachings of the church compared to the Bible, and led a return to God’s Word. Key among those rediscoveries of Biblical teaching was the teaching of “righteousness.” For October, as “Reformation month”, we will examine the Biblical concept of righteousness. In Philippians 3, Paul contrasts two very different kinds of claims we can make before God. Human beings stand “before God”, who is the Creator and Judge of all. We can’t hide or escape His judgment. Digging our head in the sand and saying there is no God, is like a ...

Sermon Outline: • Context: Prophet Ezekiel, less than 600 years BC; on the world stage the Babylonian empire was rising, and over a couple of decades during the lifetime of Ezekiel, his homeland of Judah was overthrown. Ezekiel > exile early with the king, nobles and officials. Writes of God’s promised restoration of Israel—His redemption plan. • Ch. 36 God lays out His agenda to act for the sake of His holy name. He’s going to act to vindicate His Name. Restore honor and holiness of His Name. Why needed? What had they done? Defiled or polluted the land—not with toxic waste or chemicals, but a pollution of toxic deeds/actions/beliefs. Worship of idols (Ezekiel calls them fecal deities, or something more disgusting..), bloodshed in the land, expelled from their land by the curse for their obscene disobedience. Problem—the dishonor was not “contained” to the people of Israel alone—they had profaned or dishonored God’s Name also. This is the effect when we bear God’s Holy Name—we r...

Sermon outline and talking points: ·          Many passages show Christ as “servant.” Mark 10:42-45—last and servant of all, ransom for many. John 13, washing feet. 2 Cor. 8:9, rich, became poor. Or the humility, lowliness and simplicity vs. His hidden glory and worthiness—birth in manger,   no place to lay His head, donkey entering Jerusalem. But at the cross, humble obedience is clearest. ·          In our everyday world—rank, wealth, power, or birth convey certain advantages or privileges. Owners and CEOs of big businesses don’t do low or menial tasks. Kings and presidents are honored, paraded, and red carpet is rolled out. Don’t usually see people do things that are “beneath them.” ·          Moments of lavish honor paid to Jesus: gifts of Magi, anointing by perfume/oil/tears, Palm Sunday processional, expensive myrrh and spices for burial. Never r...

No sermon manuscript this week--just notes and you can go to the podbean link for the audio file of my sermon. A sermon about Psalm 119, and how is a Christian able to have a positive view of God's law? What resolves the tension in us about how we relate to God's Law? Sermon Talking Points Read sermons at:    http://thejoshuavictortheory.blogspot.com Listen at:   http://thejoshuavictortheory.podbean.com Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and is an “acrostic poem.” It’s divided into 22 stanza, of 8 lines/verses each, and there is one stanza for each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet (176 verses total). There are 8 key words used in the Psalm that are synonyms for the Law of God. These 8 words show up 177 times in the 176 verses, so that the Psalm “overflows” with words about God’s instruction. Read the section from our Introit, or any other section of Psalm 119. What does the author think of God’s Law? ...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In our reading John today Jesus is answering a question—so to better understand the answer, we need to know the question! In John 14:22, just before our reading starts, Judas the son of James—not Judas Iscariot, asks this question: “ Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” It’s the only recorded words we have from this second Judas. Jesus’ answer begins our reading: “ If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s, who sent me.” So Jesus’ answer is that the way He shows Himself to us and not to the world, is by making His home or dwelling place with believers, and creating in them a love and obedience toward God. Just think of what this means! God is going to ma...