Jesus begins his ministry with a BANG in Galilee, the rural area north of Jerusalem, which was prophesied by Isaiah long before Jesus' arrival.

Jesus's first act as the Anointed Messiah-King is to be led by the Spirit to be tested by the Devil. Ouch. But he aces the test, and shows us more deeply who he is in the process.

Jesus, in his baptism, is commissioned as the Messiah-Savior-King of humanity. What does that show us about him, and about us?

John the Baptist was the long awaited forerunner to the Messiah. His message was "The Kingdom of Heaven has arrived. Are you going to embrace it?"

We are all obedient ... to something, but what we are obedient to really matters. Is it the narrow path that leads to life, or the wide path that many will indeed follow that leads to death?

Surprisingly, the first worshipers of Jesus in Matthew are pagan astrologers from a distant land. We learn that from the start, God has a heart for the "outsiders", and longs to draw them to Jesus.

This is the moment - when the God of the universe invades humanity. What does it look like? How does he do it? What is our part in it? We'll see that God both sovereignly steps in and yet graciously partners with us in a scary invitation to participate. Will you?

What if Christian singleness were more than a curse of loneliness for the sake of the Gospel? Discover how Jesus invited his people to consider singless for the sake of those on the margins while also experiencing life-giving connection among the family of believers.

Buried in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus we find a theology of God's sovereign mercy, justice, and faithfulness over the long haul. He has truly told, and is telling, a long story of human redemption.

Matthew, a book that concludes with a forward reach to the end of time, begins by reaching back to the beginning of the book of Genesis. According to Matthew, Jesus fulfills all the hopes and dreams of Israel, and provides the only solid hope for everyone else.