Teaching & News From Eastgate PCB

Matthew #43: The Triumph of Peace (Matthew 21:1-17) Rob Woodrum & Janelle Greene (3/22/26) Download This Sunday we’ll be reading the account of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, something we’ve called the “Triumphal Entry”. It’s a very familiar event from the Gospels, and one that we might miss the significance of because of that familiarity. We’ll be reading Matthew 21:1-17 as we continue our study of...

Matthew #42: The Power of Mercy (Matthew 20:29-34) Rob Woodrum (3/15/26) Download This Sunday, in our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we’ll be reading Matthew 20:29-34 . Like all the gospel writers, Matthew loves a good contrast. In this text, we find two blind and desperate men who are presented right on the heels of James and John seeking greatness in the last section. Instead of two self-assure...

Matthew #41: The Path To Greatness (Matthew 20:17-28) Janelle Greene (3/8/26) Download This Sunday, we will continue our study in the Gospel of Matthew as we read Matthew 20:17–28 . In this passage, Jesus predicts His death for the third and final time (see also Matthew 16:21 and Matthew 17:22 ). Yet instead of seeing the disciples wrestle with or process what Jesus has just revealed, we immediate...

Matthew #40: The Radical Exchange (Matthew 19:27-20:16) Rob Woodrum (3/1/2026) Download This Sunday we’ll be reading  Matthew 19:27-20:16  – which includes a parable that is unique to Matthew’s gospel. It is the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. In chapter 19, after witnessing what happened with the rich young ruler, Pete asks the question that is basically “after sacrificing all...

Matthew #39: Treasures The World Misses (Matthew 19:13-26) Janelle Greene (2/22/2026) Download Last week my son carried his piggy bank to the store and exchanged months of saved change for a pair of upside down goggles. After carefully looking at each item in the toy aisle, he chose to spend his own money on something that would flip his view of the world. The goggles use small mirrors to turn eve...

Matthew #38: A Controversial Trap (Matthew 19:1-12) Rob Woodrum (2/15/26) I will warn you, the topic of our passage this week is going to be uncomfortable. One may be tempted to skip this teaching, but I can assure you we’ll be treading very carefully here, and you may even be relieved as we get into the cultural and historical elements that surround this text – those elements make this section fa...

Matthew #37: The Call To Community (Matthew 18:15-35) Janelle Greene (2/8/26) Download Did you know that April 15 marks Eastgate’s 31st birthday? Last year at a staff meeting, we talked about how amazed we were that our little church community had reached 30 years. Now here we are, a year later, celebrating 31. Instead of throwing a big party, we realized we would rather invest our energy into the...

Matthew #36: The Humble Standard (Matthew 18:1-14) Rob Woodrum (2/1/26) Download My dad used to say: “If it weren’t for my great humility, I’d go on about how humble I am”. It was a joke, of course, but how often do we find it difficult  not  to go out of our way to make sure the people around us have taken note of our gracious and humble attitudes? That’s the struggle we have with our f...

Matthew #35: Sacrificial Freedom (Matthew 17:22-27) Rob Woodrum (1/25/26) Download We’ll be reading Matthew  17:22-27  this Sunday. It’s a highly unusual story. One that’s unique to Matthew’s gospel, but understandable considering his tax-collector background. The story opens in v22-23 where Jesus once again announces his upcoming arrest and execution, as well as his resurrection. Again,...

Matthew #34: Christ's Glory Revealed (Matthew 17:1-20) Rob Woodrum (1/18/26) Download Are you familiar with the phrase “a mountaintop experience”? It’s describing times of glory and exuberance, especially as it touches our spiritual journey. Those experiences are great, but usually…actually, always short lived. This Sunday we’ll be reading  Matthew 17:1-20  and we’ll read about the origi...

Matthew #33: The Cost of Belief (Matthew 16:13-28) Janelle Greene 1/11/26 Download In Matthew 16:13-28 , Jesus asks a question of his disciples that still confronts each of us today: “Who do you say I am?” There have always been plenty of opinions about Jesus. Even to this day, some say Jesus was merely a prophet, teacher, or a well meaning individual. However, Jesus presses past secondhand answer...

Matthew #32: A Contrast of Intent (Matthew 15:29-16:12 Rob Woodrum (1/4/26) Download This Sunday we’ll be returning to our study in Matthew, and we’ll read  Matthew 15:29-16:12 . It’s a big section, but I think you’ll see how it all goes together pretty well. As you read through this section you’ll notice that, even connected with last section, there is an ongoing bread theme. The Canaanite w...

Matthew #31: The Canaannite Woman Who Outwitted Jesus (Matt 15:21-28) Don Guidas (12/14/25) Download This Sunday we’ll be reading Matthew 15:21-28 . This is a distressing section of Scripture. We are confronted with a Jesus who seems strange to us; uncharacteristically distant and even apparently rude. He and his disciples have left Israel and are 50 miles north in the coastal region of Tyre and S...

Matthew #29: Traditional Trouble (Matthew 15:1-20) Rob Woodrum (12/7/25) Download Do you have any traditions for Christmas that your family has passed down through the years? I think the most delightful for Robbie and I is the annual watching of Die Hard as we put up the Christmas tree. “Ho, Ho, Ho…now I have a machine gun.” C’mon? What’s more Christmasy than that? Traditions are great. They can k...

Matthew #29: Faithful In The Fury (Matthew 15:1-20) Rob Woodrum (11/23/25) Download “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” ~ Captain Edward A. Murphy Jr . (Murphy’s law ) This Sunday we will continue our study of Matthew –  14:22-36 and we’ll be reading about things going very wrong for Jesus’ disciples, and the awe-inspiring revelation they get in the process. I believe this is an acco...

Matthew #28: The Parallels of Power (Matthew 14:1-21) Janelle Greene (11/16/25) Download Have you ever found yourself wondering where God is in the middle of a chaotic or painful moment? Many of us have been there. Plans fall apart, people are hurt in ways that seem needless, and violence can spread with unsettling speed. In moments like these it is natural to ask, Where is God in all of this and...

Matthew #27: The Valuable Kingdom (Matthew 13:44-58) Rob Woodrum (11/8/25) Download It seemed to me that my mom was on a perpetual hunt for some valuable antique that would somehow turn the tide of her fortunes. She wasn’t materialistic, per se, but just had this indefatigable hope that some day she would discover treasure. By and large, the stuff she had (either passed to her from her family, or...

Matthew #26: The Hidden Work of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:24-43) Janelle Greene (11/2/25) Download My brother Daniel used to work as a manager in the Publix deli. It seemed like a hard job with long hours, demanding customers, and endless sandwiches. Yet when I asked him what it was like, he said he loved it because every day he got to “feed the hungry.” That perspective changed how I think about or...

Matthew #25: Learning To Listen (Matthew 13:1-23) Rob Woodrum (10/26/25) Download Have you ever been talking with someone and then, with a chill, realized you’d tuned out and had no idea what the person was talking about? Not listening can be frustrating in a conversation; it can be devastating spiritually, when God is trying to communicate and people don’t seem to listen. That is going to be the...

Matthew #24: Identity Issues (Matthew 12:28-50) Rob Woodrum (10/19/25) Download One thing about human society throughout history is, we love to label stuff…especially people . It’s usually born from a quest of trying to get a grasp of who our fellow human is by generalizing them. It’s easier to interact with someone if we can fit them neatly into our categories. But this is, of course, a broken wa...

Matthew #23: Choosing Sides (Matthew 12:22-27) Kevin Barron (10/12/25) Download We live in an extremely polarized society. Everyone seems to want to divide up into teams. Usually these divisions are along socio-philosophical lines. But some choices we are confronted with have big consequences. We’ll be considering that in our study of the Gospel of Matthew this week. In our text we’ll be reading t...

Matthew #22: Rest From Religion (Matthew 11:1-21) Janelle Greene (10/5/25) Download I remember back in high school hearing about the Exxon oil spill in Alaska and feeling so bad for all of the wildlife that was hurt as a result. In fact, I was so affected by what had happened that I decided I would never get gas from an Exxon gas station again. One day, I came home bragging to my dad about how muc...

Matthew #21: Rejecting or Receiving God's Wisdom (Matt 11:20-30) Rob Woodrum (9/28/25) Download We live in an unprecedented time where incredible amounts of information are readily at our fingertips, and at the same time we are starving for wisdom. We know that information is not the same as wisdom, but the keen observer will also recognize that human wisdom will only take us so far. In fact, the...

Matthew #20: The Anomalous Kingdom (Matthew 11:1-19) Rob Woodrum (9/21/25) Download Anomalous: deviating from what is standard, normal, or expected. We face a lot of disappointments in life, all of which extend from our own expectations. Have you ever been disappointed in how God’s plans seem to be working in your life? If we’re honest about it, there are probably a lot of times when God doesn’t s...

Matthew #19: Preparing For The High Calling (Matthew 10:26-42) Janelle Greene (9/14/25) Download One time I came across a church’s advertisement for their Sunday morning service. The video showed someone walking into church carrying “100 problems.” As they experienced the service, the number of problems kept dropping until, by the time they left, they had “0 problems.” I believe the ad was trying...