Jesus begins to use a series of "You've heard it said...but I say to you" statements to show what was required to fulfill God's law. Our temptation towards self-justification regarding God's commandment not to murder falls utterly short in light of our sinful anger towards our brother.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus promised that three days after he died, he would rise from the grave. In a veiled way to the Pharisees and plainly to his disciples, Jesus repeatedly spoke of the necessity of his resurrection from death.

After being anointed, Jesus rode into Jerusalem to declare to His people “fear not,” for their king was coming to them. His declaration of peace on a donkey’s colt fulfilled prophecy that one day war would be cut off.

Our prayers become less frequent and our reliance upon God dwindles when we become confident in our own perceptions. We must receive the wisdom that only comes from God through His word and by prayer.

Like salt in the earth and light in the world, the disciples were never to make life about them, but to extract and illuminate what God has done, both in this world and ultimately in the kingdom.

Jesus begins his great sermon with a description of what blessing looks like, which happens to be the exact opposite of how the world sees it.

As Jesus preaches good news of the coming kingdom, he demonstrates one of its greatest realities: the absence of every kind of disease and sickness.

All of our natural life is reoriented to the kingdom when we become disciples. As Jesus calls his first disciples, he begins by reorienting their earthly work as fishermen to their kingdom work as fishers of men.

As Jesus moves to Capernaum to begin his earthly ministry, the people of Galilee will be the first to witness the dawn of the kingdom. But that kingdom was coming in ways that couldn’t be observed by sight, only faith.

As Jesus is led to the wilderness to be tempted, the schemes of the devil all have one thing in common: forgetting God. But Jesus doing nothing apart from the Father is yet another fulfillment of all righteousness.