Grace Road Church

Our second Sunday in Genesis continues our journey through the creation narrative. This week, we look at God's creation of the natural world: the sun, moon, and stars, the waters and land, and all living creatures in between. It's here in these first verses of Genesis that we see God's sovereignty and power on full display: nothing is outside of His handiwork or control. How might we draw comfort and courage from the knowledge that God is in control? How might we draw near to Him, and how has He drawn near to us in His Son? Kevin walks us through these questions and more in Genesis 1:1-25.

Continuing our walk through Holy Week in Matthew's gospel, this week we look at the two highest commandments: "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," and "love your neighbor as yourself."While these commands are good, they don't give us the power to follow them. Further, they inspire our sinful hearts to will their opposite. It's God's grace, His one-way love toward us, that fuels our Christian life and inspires us to follow God's law out of love for Him in return. This deep awareness and satisfaction in God's grace shapes into people who show radical grace and forgiveness toward each other.

This week, we take a look at an exchange Jesus has with the Sadducees in Matthew 22:23-33. In this passage, the Sadducees pose a figurative supernatural predicament to Jesus regarding the nature of marriage in Heaven. Jesus responds with another "astonishing" answer. Why does it matter that our bodies will also be resurrected? What is the ultimate meaning and purpose of marriage? And how can our understanding of these things topple the idols of our hearts?

Throughout the Bible, the concept of marriage is used as an image of the relationship between Christ and His church. This week, we look at the parable of the wedding feat in Matthew 22:1-14, in which Jesus alludes to the wedding supper of the Lamb found in Revelation. Through this parable, Jesus demonstrates the consequences of apathy, the lavishness of God's call to us, and the importance of Jesus' imputed righteousness. What does it mean to "put on Christ?" How does our own self-righteousness get in the way? Cody Wilbanks unpacks this and more.We will resume our Matthew series in the fall as we pause for a summer of guest speakers and standalone sermons.

Cody continues our journey through Matthew 21 this week as Jesus' authority is challenged in verses 23-32. Jesus answers this question posed by the Pharisees by giving them a parable of two sons: one who first denies his father's authority but then changes his mind and one who claims fealty but denies in action. Cody charges us to ask ourselves: which son are we most like? What does true repentance look like? Will we be relentless rebels or repentant ones?

In honor of Mother's Day, Kevin Maloney skips ahead this week to Matthew 20:17-28 and unpacks the request made by the mother of the sons of Zebedee. She asks Jesus if He would assign her sons important positions in the kingdom, seated at His right and left hand. Jesus uses this request to demonstrate real greatness in the kingdom of God: a path antithetical to the way we view success in this life.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the final days before Christ's death and resurrection. To commemorate, we are skipping ahead in our Matthew series to look at Matthew 20:29-21:17 and the depiction of Jesus' famous entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. What is the significance of this event in the life of Christ? What do Jesus' next actions in the passage tell us about His character and heart? How does this passage speak to our religious activity today?

This week, Cody Wilbanks unpacks Jesus' words about marriage and divorce in Matthew 19:1-12.

This week, Kevin concluded our three-part deep dive in Matthew 18, exploring what the life lived in Christian community should look like for believers. In the final verses of Matthew 18, Jesus teaches about forgiveness through the parable of the unmerciful servant. Are Christians required to forgive? How can we grow to forgive those who have wronged us?

This week, Cody Wilbanks walks us through the significance of the Transfiguration, a unique event in the life of Jesus. In Matthew 17:1-13, Jesus takes his disciples up a mountain and is transformed before them in the presence of God. What do the reactions of the disciples, especially Peter, show us about our own engagement with this event? How does the Transfiguration point us to the promise of Christ's return prophesied by the apostle John in Revelation? How are we, too, to become transformed unto the likeness of Jesus? Join us as we unpack these meanings found in Matthew 17:1-13.

This week, Kevin takes us through Jesus' call for his followers to take up their cross and follow Him in Matthew 16:21-28. Like Peter, we are all challenged by the centrality of the cross. From church movements that decentralize the gospel to our own lack of trust in it, we often look to other things to be our main power source. Jesus' death on the cross is not only sufficient for us, but it empowers us to take up our own cross each day and live in the light of His resurrection.