Sermons – Grace Church

As we continue through chapter 9 of Matthew, we find two situations where Jesus is the source of controversy. But it certainly isn't because Jesus is wrong or that he is stirring the pot for no good reason. The presence of the Son of God on earth signals a complete and monumental change of everything.

In last week's passage, we were given a taste of what it costs to follow Christ. But for this week, Matthew gives us a fuller view of the one we are following. Through the three stories presented to us in this text, we see a display of power that separates Jesus from anyone or anything before him.

Last week's passage gave us a glimpse of the authority that Jesus has from his healings and miracles. This week, we get a look at what it really means to follow him. From the response that he gives to two different people, Jesus bluntly describes the nature of discipleship.

As we turn the page from the Sermon on the Mount, we are immediately confronted with three different stories of Jesus' miraculous healing work. But the reason for the recording of these healings goes far beyond Jesus being kind to the people around him. The people who he serves and the way he does it tells us a great deal about the nature of our Lord.

This week's passage concludes the Sermon on the Mount. And in it, we are given an illustration that sums up the consequences of what we do with it. It is a passage that certainly holds a warning for the reader, but also serves as a great encouragement.

Matthew 7:13-23 presents to us some of the most difficult teaching from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a passage that draws attention to the fact that real followers of Jesus must be a transformed people and that there is no room in the kingdom for mere pretenders.

In verse 12, Jesus wraps up a major section of his teaching with one of the most quoted portions of the Bible. The “Golden Rule” is a text that is known well beyond the walls of the church, but it serves to bring a proper close to a great portion of what Jesus has already taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

As we start to wrap up Jesus' teaching on how we treat others in the Sermon on the Mount, we come to another passage about prayer. But instead of teaching us how to pray, our Lord gives us a word about the confidence we ought to have when we pray. It is an encouraging word about the level of access we have to our loving father in heaven.

This week, we shift from the personal nature of what our hearts are serving and depending on, to our interactions with those around us. As we consider the concept of judging whether someone else is right or wrong, Jesus had strong words for us to consider before engaging in casting that judgment on others.

Last week, we looked at Jesus' teaching on earthly versus heavenly treasure. In this Sunday's passage, Jesus addresses a consistent pitfall that everyone experiences: anxiousness over necessities. Jesus provides a perspective that serves to free us from the worry that takes our eyes off the kingdom. He encourages us to remember that God knows us better than we know ourselves and that our daily needs do not take him by surprise.

After multiple weeks focusing on the Lord's Prayer, we now move onto the next part of the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus begins to teach on money and possessions. And although the way we view and spend money is not a popular idea to be confronted with, it is indicative of what our heart truly values.

We now reach the last part of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 and it covers something that we may not give much thought to in our prayer lives, temptation and evil. Matthew 6:13 is an acknowledgement that evil truly exists and that we are vulnerable without the protection of God. And so our Lord commands us to include these things in our prayers to God.

After a week in First Kings, we are back to the Lord's Prayer. And in verse 12, we are taught to pray for our forgiveness. In fact, verse 12 is such a key part to Jesus' teaching in this section that he adds commentary in verses 14-15. How we approach forgiveness is a chief indicator of the condition of our hearts.

In reflecting on a great week of VBS, we took a slight detour this Sunday from the Sermon on the Mount to look at the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal from 1 Kings 18. It serves as a reminder that the Lord we worship really is the One True God.

In Matthew 6:11, we come to a short petition asking for God to give us our daily bread. And while this may be a familiar phrase to many of us, our regularity in praying this way might be lacking. In this verse, Jesus is teaching us something very important about God and the way that we daily interact with him.

***Due to storms during service on 6/16/24 we lost power several times. You will notice the breaks in audio when listening*** We continue through the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:10 with a plea from Jesus concerning the kingdom. He is teaching us to have a heart that prays for the Kingdom's arrival and willing obedience from its citizens to the King. Though the words of this verse are often repeated weekly in churches without much thought, it is a request for the up-ending and restoration of everything.

This Sunday, we start to narrow our focus onto individual sections of the Lord‘s prayer. And while this may be a passage that is very familiar to many of us, there is much to glean from looking at it so closely. In 6:9, we see how Jesus addresses the Father as well as a prayer concerning his name.

This week, we begin a new chapter in Matthew and a new section of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. Here, Jesus warns his listeners of practicing their righteousness before others in order to be seen. It is a message that shows us that God not only cares about what we do, but why we do it.

We now come to the end of chapter 5, as well as this section of the Sermon on the Mount. This section concludes with a command that, at first glance, might make us think that Jesus couldn't actually be serious about. He calls us to be perfect. And while our normal use of the word “perfect” might cloud our understanding, it is a command we are meant to obey.

In this final paragraph of Matthew 5, Jesus gives a teaching that is truly emblematic of the high calling of being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. We are called to love our enemies. While this certainly would have been radical in Jesus' day, it's still radical when it is truly lived out today and confounds a world that is watching.

Jesus' teaching throughout chapter 5 has set a different tone for what true righteous living actually looks like. His words on retaliation in this week's passage are no exception. Like the rest of this chapter before it, Jesus' words here present to us a standard for dealing with insult and injustice that can only be categorized as radical by those looking in.

As we continue on with Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, we come upon his words concerning oaths. While we may not live in the same type of oath-taking-culture as his original hearers, the principles remain the same. We are to be people of our word that follow through with what we promise

In this week's passage, Jesus seamlessly moves from the subject of lust to divorce and remarriage. And in these topics, he continues to teach a righteousness that goes much deeper than the surface. While these subjects may make us uncomfortable, how we approach them as citizens of the kingdom matters immensely to the Lord.

In this week's passage, Jesus talks about the sin of lust. Just like anger, it is a far deeper issue than what we see on the surface. For citizens of His kingdom, it is not only a matter of how we outwardly act, but also of what we entertain inwardly. Jesus is calling us to a fuller righteousness.

As we enter into the main body of Jesus' teaching, he begins with a word on anger and dissension amongst brothers. And while it may seem excessive at first glance, Jesus' instruction on these matters is a testimony to how serious God takes our relationships with one another.

After a break for Holy Week, we are now back to our Lord's teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. This passage is the first one that comes after the Beatitudes and connects us into the main body of Jesus' sermon. Here, the Lord shows us that following him is a higher call than what we may expect.

Today, we celebrate together the resurrection of our Lord as Holy Week and the Lenten season come to a close. Resurrection Sunday is the highest holy day in our calendar because if Jesus isn't raised from the dead, then we don't have a foundation for our faith. As we see in Psalm 16, not only has God raised him, but this was the plan all along.

We begin Holy Week by celebrating Palm Sunday together and walking through Psalm 118. Throughout the week we will dive into psalms that apply to the events of Christ's passion throughout the week. Psalm 118 is not only quoted during the events of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem, but it also tells us so much about our Savior and the nature of his deliverance.

We have now come to the end of this section called the beatitudes, and Jesus concludes it by comparing his people to salt and light. We get a chance here to see the impact that living rightly has for those who witness it. If last week's passage (Matthew 5:10-12) was about the world's effect on God's people, this is about the effect of God's people on the world.

This Sunday concludes our time together in the beatitudes and it ends with a word on the world's response to the righteous. Hostility and persecution are not just a probability, they are to be expected. And even though this is the reality for God's people, we are to rejoice because of what we already have reserved for us.

As we approach the end of the beatitudes, our Lord gives the penultimate description of the citizens of his kingdom as peacemakers. And while peace is a term that the world uses quite frequently, the worldly understanding of it certainly lacks the fullness of what Christ means by it. So as God's people, we go forward as His representatives of the kind of peace he offers.

We are now into the latter half of our Lord's beatitudes in which we are getting a clearer picture of the type of people who are part of his kingdom. In verse 8, Jesus calls us to purity of heart and promises the gift of seeing God. It is a simple statement, but holds profound weight that gives us a hope beyond anything before.

We have now reached the fifth beatitude which tells us that the merciful are the blessed ones. This is a unique beatitude amongst the list of others in that the outcome replicates the command. The merciful will be shown mercy. It is another insight into what citizens of the kingdom are to be like.

In verse 6, we learn that it is those who hunger and thirst for righteousness who will be satisfied. While this is something that Christians would almost certainly nod their heads in agreement with, it may be an idea that we don't often meditate on personally. Our approach to righteousness is fundamental to who God's people are to be.

In this third beatitude, Jesus tells us that the blessed ones are people who are meek. It is a word that we sometimes use, but rarely think about what it means and what it actually looks like in day to day life. But it is a quality that our Lord holds at a high value and is connected to our inheritance as his people.

This week Pastor Isaac took us through the second beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount. In this short statement, Jesus teaches something that should strike us as odd. It is the ones who mourn that are truly blessed. This is another signal to us and all of his hearers that reminds everyone that his kingdom is unlike any other kingdom. And the people who he seeks out to populate this kingdom are not the type that anyone would expect.

Now that we have taken a broad view of the entire Sermon on the Mount, we dig in to look at it in pieces. And when Jesus opens his mouth to teach, he begins with a series of statements known as the Beatitudes. It is in the Beatitudes where we start to get a good picture of what his kingdom is all about. It is certainly nothing that we would expect; but through his teaching here, the true heart of God is revealed.

This week is unique, instead of the usual short scripture passage, we are studying the entire three chapters of the Sermon on the Mount this Sunday. While we will be taking time to examine it in more bite-size pieces in future Sundays, it is important to first look at it as a whole. What we discover, is the level of authority that Jesus holds and the heart of God in what he commands of His people.

In this first week of 2024, we are taking a short break from the book of Matthew to look at Psalm 1 together. But truthfully, Psalm 1 is not as much of a deviation from Matthew as we may think; especially as we prepare for the Sermon on the Mount. This opening psalm draws up the boundary between the wicked and the righteous, how they fare in this life, and what will come of them.

In the wilderness, Jesus accomplished what no man could by overcoming the temptation of the evil one. Now it is time to begin building his kingdom, but Christ's kingdom is very different from everything we have come to expect concerning power and reign. All of our expectations are gloriously reversed as we see what he has come to do.

Message from Pastor Mike Matheson on December 24, 2023

We have now reached a point in the book of Matthew where we see Jesus as an adult for the first time. But chapter 3 doesn't begin with Jesus immediately. We are first made privy to the ministry of John the Baptist, who is the one sent before Christ to prepare the way. Between John's work, the appearance of religious leaders to the scene, and the actual baptism of Jesus, Matthew 3 is a passage that is full of examples that give us a greater understanding of our Lord and the work he was sent to do.

This week, we look at a darker element of the Christmas story that significantly contrasts with the joyous elements of the holiday that we are familiar with. It's the story of Herod's plot to kill the child and God's divine intervention in guiding Joseph to Egypt and eventually Nazareth. This is more than an isolated event, Matthew cites Old Testament scripture to show us that something larger and of ancient days is at work in God's plan.

This week we cover a passage that almost everyone has a passing familiarity with, “The Visit of the Magi”. What is truly notable about this story though, is the contrast in reactions to the newborn king. While it is certainly good news for the wise men, it is something altogether different for Herod. This pushes us to consider our own response to Jesus.

After walking through Jesus' genealogy last week, we now dive into the narrative of his life that Matthew has laid out. Matthew begins with a telling of the events surrounding the Lord's conception and virgin birth. While the focus is on Mary elsewhere in the gospels (Luke), Matthew zeroes in on Joseph. It is through Joseph's handling of the situation he faces that we see God furthering the plan to bring his people the Savior King.

We now begin a year-long series in the Gospel of Matthew together. And from beginning to the end, the author is going to work to convince us of the identity of Jesus and the nature of his work. In these first seventeen verses, Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus. And while it would be easy for us to skim it or skip over it completely to get to the story, it is there for us to further understand who our Lord is.

Last week, Pastor Mike talked about our thinking rightly concerning political power in light of the true power of the gospel. But another danger that lays its trap for the church is making politics the primary shaper of our identity. The folly in doing this is in the fact that political affiliation is an insufficient substitute for the glorious identity we have in the gospel of Christ.

In this brief, two week series, we have the opportunity to consider the gospel and what it means in our approach to politics and social issues. With a political climate as polarized and often vitriolic as our own, it is necessary for us to consider these things as God's people. If we are to be set apart from this world, then we must also be set apart in our convictions about worldly power.

In this short passage from chapter twelve, we now hear from the narrator who concludes the book. It contains some words about the Preacher as well as some summarizing thoughts about wisdom. But most notably, we are given a command at the end which serves as a unifying statement in regards to what our life is to be about: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

In this penultimate sermon from our Ecclesiastes series we see the Preacher give instructions to remember and rejoice in this life. While this passage certainly applies to all who read it, he has something to say to young people in regards to how to approach the days of youth. The harsh reality is that we will all fade and die. Therefore, how we think about and spend our days matters.

The beginning of chapter 11 addresses the unexpected nature of life and how we ought to respond to it. While we are always drawn to feeling as if we are in control, the uncertainty of what will be is proof of otherwise. But that still shouldn't prevent us from living faithfully today.