This week we look at the Great Commission and learn that the church of Christ will grow as disciples of Jesus obey his commands and continue to make disciples who do the same. For some of us that may mean going to the unreached nations of the earth, and for others that may mean reaching out to our neighbors God has placed in our lives to share with them the love of Jesus. Although sharing the gospel can be intimidating, Jesus tells us not to fear for He has all authority and He has promised to go with us. 

This week we are challenged to go from doing nothing to doing something, to form habits of obedience so that spending time with Jesus becomes something we do without thinking about it. In what way this year will you grow closer to Jesus and live a life saturated with His Word? 

This week we look at the overarching theme of the Bible - God's work in redeeming/restoring a fallen creation - and ask what is God doing in the world, what is God doing in the church globally, and what is God doing in the church locally? What is our role in the story of God's redeeming work in the world, and how does knowing the end of the story encourage us and give us confidence today? 

The final group of people that Jesus says are blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. While this blessing may seem out of place with the other blessings that precede it, Jesus is telling us that the persecution we face as Christians when we live as he has already instructed is a blessing because it reveals that we have genuine faith. If we are going to live as Jesus lived, we can expect to be persecuted as He was persecuted, but we can be comforted even in persecution knowing that it is a blessing to live a life that looks like Jesus'. 

In the second half of the opening section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks toward our posture towards the rest of the world. He says that those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, and those who are peacemakers will be blessed. We should keep in mind, however, that we do not strive to exhibit these qualities in order to earn our way into the Kingdom of God, but rather, because we are adopted into His Kingdom, we are able to follow the example of Christ and through His power we can live the "Blessed Life".

As we continue our series through Matthew, we reach Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. This week we focus on three ways in which Jesus tells us we can have a blessed life: being poor in spirit, mourning our sinfulness, and in meekness toward God. This approach to the "blessed life" is as counter-cultural today as it was back then. Jesus does not instruct us to become self-reliant or to fix our own problems, but rather tells us to be honest with how sinful and broken we really are so that we can learn to rely on Him. 

Capping off our series looking at Jesus as our great High Priest and our True Prophet, we look this week at Jesus the King - specifically why we need a king and what it means for Jesus to be the king in our lives today. 

God gave His people priests in order to mediate between the people and Himself through sacrifice. In Hebrews we see that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this as He makes atonement for us once and for all on the cross. We can rejoice, therefore, knowing that Jesus has purified us and reconciled us back to God. 

In this passage, Paul exemplifies praying for others by praying that the church would know God more deeply through experiencing Him, that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to the work God is doing through the Spirit, and that we would be comforted in knowing that no matter the circumstance, all things must work together for good. 

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we can always go to Jesus in prayer. Having experienced the trials and temptations of life himself, Jesus is able to be our advocate when we pray. He knows what we are going through, and we ought to go to Him first in prayer.