Notice how Zechariah\u2019s vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this world:<\/p>\n
\n67<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u201cPraise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.
69<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>He has raised up a horn <\/a>of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us- 72<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nZechariah sees God about to do a marvelous work: <\/p>\n
* redeeming God\u2019s people
* through the horn of salvation
* which means \u201csalvation from our enemies\u201d and \u201cfrom the hand of all who hate us\u201d
* which means mercy to our fathers and the Abrahamic covenant people
* which means rescue from the hand of our enemies
* so God\u2019s people, Israel, could serve\/worship in holiness and righteousness.<\/p>\nGood grief: everywhere it\u2019s the rescue and redemption of Israel, God\u2019s people. Christmas is about God\u2019s people being liberated.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Notice how Zechariah\u2019s vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this world: 67\u00a0His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:68\u00a0\u201cPraise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.69\u00a0He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1749],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent"],"yoast_head":"\n
Acts of Advent 13<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Notice how Zechariah's vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Acts of Advent 13\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Notice how Zechariah's vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-17T05:10:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/\",\"name\":\"Acts of Advent 13\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-17T05:10:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-12-17T05:10:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Notice how Zechariah's vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Acts of Advent 13\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Acts of Advent 13","description":"Notice how Zechariah's vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Acts of Advent 13","og_description":"Notice how Zechariah's vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2008-12-17T05:10:18+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/","name":"Acts of Advent 13","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-17T05:10:18+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-17T05:10:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Notice how Zechariah's vision of what God is about to do on the First Advent was completely shaped by building the community of God in this","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/acts-of-advent-13\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Acts of Advent 13"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}