Sunday Sermons

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.

s 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 n...

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...

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...

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...

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.