Emphasis Preaching Journal

There is something wonderfully paradoxical about the Christian church. Its origin as a unique social phenomenon clearly dates from the Pentecost events described in Acts 2. Yet, at the same time, Jesus’ disciples, who were at the center of the church from its very beginning, would say that this “new” community of faith was simply part of a centuries-old already existing people of God, stretching back all the way to Abraham and his family. The connection between the old and the new is rooted in several theological axioms.