Matthew 5:1-5 (ESV) - When Jesus began to teach His disciples with the Sermon on the Mount, He began with the Beatitudes. Even though our English Bibles say “Blessed are such-and-such,” the Beatitudes are not blessings as we normally think of that word. Instead of announcing a blessing, Jesus was saying, “The people with these characteristics, they have an irrefutable good thing, a nearly transcendent ideal. As long as they have that good thing, that good life, they are fortunate and blessed beyond measure.” But the sort of characteristics Jesus describes are not the sort we call happy or fortunate. Having a poor spirit? Being mournful and meek? Where’s the blessing in that? As we prepare to begin reading through the Beatitudes, let us pray for humility to learn from the feet of Jesus and willingness to be shaped by His good will for us.

Matthew 4:23-5:1 - Jesus Christ is famous for a great number of reasons, several of which we are discussing in our sermon passage this Sunday. He was a teacher, a preacher, and a healer, among many other things. And people really loved that he could heal them. In a day when medicinal science access was limited, to have a man who could wipe away a disease or a disability with a word was amazing. That was something to see and experience. But was Jesus’ ministry focused only on healing their bodies? And if not, why not with all the suffering in the world? Matthew will show us what the point of Jesus’ healing ministry was, and how it was all in service of his ministry to save us from the power of our sin.

Matthew 4:12-22 (ESV) - What happens when you shine a light in a dark room? The light illuminates the darkness and makes things brighter. Shine a brighter light and things become even brighter. In our passage today, we will see how God promised that a light would come to the spiritually dark Galilee and bring hope to people living in the shadow and power of death. Jesus is the prophesied light, and we will see how from the beginning of His ministry and ever after, He brings light that chases away the darkness of our sin, and replaces it with holiness from the Lord.

Matthew 4:8-11 (ESV) - When Satan brought his first two temptations against Christ, he came with a certain subtlety. In both cases, he tried to convince Jesus that it would be to His benefit if he were to do as the devil said. Satan didn’t reveal what he wanted for himself out of the bargain. This time, he lays out what he is filling to give Jesus (rule over the whole world) and what he wants in return (for Jesus to worship him). The starkness of the temptation combined with high stakes Satan offered made it a very serious temptation even for the Son of God. But at the end of the day, the power of this temptation served only to show the faithfulness of Jesus to His Father and His refusal to offer worship to anything other than God alone. As we read of this final temptation, let us see clearly that God alone is worthy of our worship and devotion.

Matthew 4:5-7 (ESV) - There are some phrases and commands that show up frequently throughout Scripture. One such phrase is, “Putting the Lord to the test.” People are asked why they are putting God to the test. The Lord directly warns people not to put Him to the test. It’s clearly a negative thing to do, and it’s highly discouraged. As we continue to read about how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, we will see Him refuse to test His Father. But what does it mean to test the Lord, and why is He so fiercely opposed to it? And what does jumping off a roof have to do with putting His Father to the test? We will see that to test God means to lack faith in Him. And we will see Jesus’ faith in His Father in heaven withstand demonic assault so that our salvation could be accomplished.

Matthew 4:1-4 (ESV) - After Jesus’ inauguration as the Messiah, we might have expected a time of celebration for the Savior. Perhaps He would begin to recruit followers and start preaching His message of forgiveness of sin right away. In reality, the very first thing Jesus did was go into the wilderness for well over a month. No food, no family, nothing familiar and comforting. And, to top it all off, He was under attack from the devil himself. Yet this all took place according to the will of Jesus’s Father. The Son of God, though perfect, needed to learn obedience in the midst of suffering in order that He could save those who are themselves tempted to sin. Today we will examine the first of the three temptations Jesus suffered in the desert. But we will see more than His suffering; we will see Him reject the devil as only the Savior of the world could do.

Matt 3:13-17 (ESV) - Up to this point in our series on Matthew, we’ve seen that Jesus is the focus of the gospel. His birth was predicted and provided for. His mission was divinely announced. Foreigners came to worship Him while a hostile king tried to kill Him. From his earliest days, Jesus was clearly important. But you might have noticed, He hasn’t actually done anything yet. After His family settled in Nazareth, Jesus grew up but nothing happened of any apparent significance. He just went about life. Our passage this Sunday will show how all that changed. The time for Jesus' ministry was about to begin, but one thing needed to happen first: He needed to be baptized by John. As we read about the Baptism of Jesus, may God show us why that event needed to happen and how it was the formal beginning to the work that saved us from all of our sins.

Matthew 3:1-12 (ESV) - Up till now in Matthew’s gospel, the events we’ve read about were mostly private. Jesus’ birth was announced to Joseph, not all of Israel. A small group of wise men were the only ones to see the star and go to worship Jesus. Even Herod kept his intended assassination of Jesus as secret as he could. Up to this point, God had been keeping things quiet, waiting for the time when He would start doing things publicly and obviously. When John the Baptist arrived on scene, it was because the time for secrecy had ended. The time for mighty works and signs was about to commence. The kingdom of heaven was about to arrive. Very soon, the Messiah would make his own appearance, so John was sent to get Israel ready. As the last prophet of the OT era, this powerful man called their attention, and ours, to the one who would baptize them, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit of God.

Matthew 2:13-23 (ESV) - Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen some amazing heights of joy and God’s power. We’ve seen the bloodline of David guided so that one man would be born at just the right time. We’ve seen the Son of God enter the world to save His people from their sins. We’ve seen foreigners from a distant land honor and worship Him. But then, after those high points, we enter a deep valley, and things take a dark turn. King Herod knew that Messiah had been born, but he didn’t celebrate; he immediately started looking for a way to kill the agent of God’s salvation. He took drastic measures, deadly measures, to kill his rival. But despite the power and cruelty of Herod, that wicked man wouldn’t have the last word in Jesus’ life or God’s plan to redeem a world lost in sin. We will see a powerful, deadly opponent to Jesus this Sunday, but we will also see him lose to the Lord of Hosts.

Matthew 2:1-12 (ESV) - We are coming to one of the most mysterious stories of Jesus’ early life. The wise men who came from the east have so many questions surrounding them. Where did they come from? What kind of star did they see? How did the star lead them to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem? Many of these questions we can’t fully answer. Matthew simply doesn’t give all that information, and this passage is unique to his gospel; none of the other gospels record this event, so we can’t compare Matthew’s account with theirs. But I think the heart of the passage is clear. We’ve seen that Jesus’ birth was predicted by Jewish prophets and announced to his family. In this passage, we will see that the Savior, the King of the Jews, brought salvation for the Gentiles as well. From Jesus’ earliest days, His Father revealed His birth to Gentiles and led them to His Son. And when they found Jesus, they did what all people must do when confronted with Jesus: they worshiped Him.