Advent Season

There are many wonderful and godly Christians that do not like to celebrate Christmas. It goes against their conscience to make one day more special than another (such as a holy day of obligation). The very word ‘Christmas’ comes from Roman Catholic tradition, where Christ was sacrificed again in the mass, a deplorable sentiment to Protestants. And then on top of that, the world injects its materialism into the season like no other- ‘the gift of Jesus’ becomes a lure into gift giving to entice consumers to buy presents for one another. Jesus gets lost in the shuffle and I can certainly understand their objections. I used to be one of them.

So, what changed? I became convinced that it is wise and good to celebrate annually the incarnation. Jesus Christ came in the flesh. And he didn’t just suddenly appear, but he was born as an infant and grew like any other human being. And it is due to his perfect obedience as a human that he can present himself as the perfect substitute in our place. All of this was under God’s sovereign decree that is apparent in scripture. That is good theology, and it goes right to the heart of our protestant doctrine of justification by faith. So why not have a time to celebrate his advent? December seems to be the perfect time to point people toward the incarnation, as it is on the minds of most of the Western world.

That is what we aim to do at PBC. We desire to celebrate the coming of the Christ and also remain in anticipation of His second coming. This year, during our Advent readings and services we will be focusing on a Biblical Theology. There were many themes in our study of Hebrews that we didn’t get to flesh those out. We wanted to elaborate on those and just did not have the time. Shadows of Jesus appeared in past Old Testament history that pointed towards his first advent (and the second as well). Therefore, at each of our Advent services we will have a sermon on those themes, which are: tabernacle, feasts, offerings, priesthood, and revelation. We hope you will join us Sunday mornings starting November 30 as we develop each of those themes as presented in the Old Testament through the New. Come and learn how Jesus fulfills all of them and allow this season to bless your soul as we think deeply upon the first advent of our Savior.

Pastor Blair