As disciples of Jesus, we recline at the table with Him to eat and drink in peace (Mark 14:18). In Him, we see “the God of Israel” (Ex. 24:10), and yet He does not lay His hand on us to punish us.

Good Friday calls for sober reflection on the cost of our redemption. Jesus, the Lamb of God, is led to the slaughter of His cross as the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sin of the world.

By the shed blood of Christ, eternal death has passed over us, and now we pass with Christ through death into life everlasting. For Christ the crucified One is risen!

On the fortieth day after His resurrection, our Lord ascended to the right hand of the Father. But although Jesus is hidden from your eyes, He is not absent from you. For He now fills all things in heaven and on earth.

The word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek word pentekostos which means “fiftieth.” Exactly 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the form of flames of fire.

The Church continues to confess the confident truth that the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — has given himself for our salvation.

The Church continues to confess the confident truth that the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — has given himself for our salvation.

Faith-filled saints from every place and time with unified voices eternally magnify the Lamb of God. The Holy Spirit through faith in Christ propels us forward, fortifying us in Word and Sacrament, to our eternal home.

The season of Advent focuses on the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this first Sunday establishes this theme for the rest of the season.

Advent, a season of repentance, waiting and watching, looks forward in hope. Our Christian faith rests on the hope that Christ, who came in the flesh in history to accomplish our salvation, will also return in the same way to be our judge on the last day and bring us into eternal life.