Every time someone is baptized, every time bread is broken and wine poured, every time a sinner hears, “Your sins are forgiven in Christ,” Pentecost happens again.
They were still praying, trusting, and hoping. Why? Because they knew who was with them and who was for them: the risen Christ.
So Christ is risen, but what now?

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There is no evidence whatsoever that Christmas was or is, by some outlandish stretch of the imagination, a pagan holiday, or a semi-pagan holiday, or that it doesn’t pass the “smell test” for paganism.
Despite its familiarity and frequent usage, the imagery in "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," is often underappreciated.
God does not combat the impending armies of Satan with might and power, but with the weakness of a babe.
The Son of Eve disarmed Satan’s hold on humanity, not with an earthquake, atomic bomb, or brilliant essay, but with his dead body and final words, “It is finished.”
Under the lordship of the crucified and risen Emmanuel, our existence is one of blessedness. Blessedness means we are not under the condemnation of the Law, but the benediction of God’s favor here in time and, hereafter, in eternity.
Through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, you are not so much coming up with something to preach about as you are coming upon it.
Isaiah 11:1-10 provides us with an Advent text capturing the beauty, excitement and reality of both the first coming of the Messiah and the second coming.
Paul argues that now as the Messiah has come and has achieved what the entire Hebrew Bible (i.e., the Old Testament) has been moving toward, the Scriptures can be read as an open book.
The problem is not that we are unrepentant. The problem is our contrition is too small.
Come, Lord Jesus, and steal our navel-gazing worship, and replace it with love for our adversaries, ears to listen and mouths to shut up, and hearts brimming with compassion for all.
Instead of defining the true church in the way of the law, Augustine approaches the issue pastorally in the way of the gospel.
Advent draws us to the Lord who comes. We might even say that Advent really does begin in creation as the Father through His Eternal Word breathes His Spirit over the depths of darkness and calls into existence that the culmination of things that are not.