Sunrise Devotions

Today we read Matthew 21:18-46. Through the cursed fig tree, the parable of the two sons, and the parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus exposes the religious leaders’ hypocrisy and warns them plainly: the stone the builders are rejecting will become the cornerstone, and the kingdom will be taken from them and given to a people bearing its fruit. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through th...

Today we read Matthew 21:1-17 (beginning of Passion Week). The King enters Jerusalem on a donkey as Zechariah foretold, received with Hosannas by the crowds — then goes directly to His Father’s house and drives out everyone who has turned a place of prayer into a market, before healing the blind and lame and accepting the praise of children. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the F...

Today we read Matthew 20:17-34. On the road to Jerusalem, James and John seek the highest seats in the kingdom while Jesus announces His own death for the third time — and then closes the chapter by giving sight to two blind men whose persistent faith puts the disciples’ ambition to shame. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise an...

Today we read Matthew 20:1-16. Jesus tells a parable of a landowner who pays the same wage to workers hired at dawn and workers hired at dusk — not because all deserve the same reward but because grace, by definition, gives what has not been earned and owes no one an explanation. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Delivera...

Today we read Matthew 19:16-30. A rich young man with sincere spiritual desire comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life — and goes away sorrowful when Jesus puts His finger on the one thing he loves more than his soul. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance framework. Week by week, it traces ho...

Today we read Matthew 19:1-15. The Pharisees test Jesus on divorce, and He answers not by adjudicating their legal debate but by taking them back to creation — then welcomes the children the disciples tried to turn away, declaring that the kingdom belongs to such as these. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance fra...

Today we read Matthew 18:15-35. Jesus gives His disciples a careful, step by step process for addressing sin between brothers, promises His presence in their gathered discipline, and then answers Peter’s question about the limits of forgiveness with a parable that shows the debt we have been forgiven makes. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De ...

Today we read Matthew 18:1-14. When His disciples dispute who is greatest in the kingdom, Jesus places a child in their midst and declares that the greatest is the one who humbles himself like a little child — then gives two of the most solemn warnings in the Gospels about causing the humble to stumble and despising those the Father treasures. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the...

Today we read Matthew 17:14-27. Coming down from the mountain of glory, Jesus confronts a faithless generation, heals a demon-possessed boy His disciples could not help, and then teaches them that the power to move mountains is not about the size of faith but the greatness of the God in whom faith rests. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Gra...

Today we read Matthew 17:1-13, On a high mountain, Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John — His face shining like the sun, His garments blazing white — and Moses and Elijah appear with Him while the Father’s voice commands: This is my beloved Son; listen to Him. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance f...

Today we read Matthew 18:21-28, Immediately after Peter’s great confession, Jesus announces that He must suffer and die in Jerusalem — and when Peter recoils in horror, Jesus rebukes him as a stumbling block. The way of the King is the way of the cross, and so is the way of all who follow Him. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promis...

Today we read Matthew 16:1-20, Jesus asks His disciples the most important question anyone can be asked: who do you say that I am? Peter’s answer — You are the Christ, the Son of the living God — is the rock on which the church is built. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance framework. Week by week, it traces how...

Today we read Matthew 15:21-39, a Canaanite woman refuses to be turned away until Jesus heals her daughter, and her persistent, humble faith draws from Him the words “Great is your faith!” — then Jesus heals multitudes in Gentile territory and feeds four thousand, signaling that the provision of God’s grace reaches far beyond the borders of Israel. "Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey throu...

Today we read Matthew 15:1-20. A delegation from Jerusalem challenges Jesus over His disciples’ failure to keep the oral tradition on handwashing — and He responds by exposing how their tradition has been used to nullify the law of God, then declares that defilement comes not from what enters a person but from what comes out of the heart. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four...

Today we read Matthew 14:22-36, Jesus sends His disciples across the sea alone, spends the night in prayer, and comes to them walking on the water in the darkest watch of the night — revealing Himself as Lord over every force that threatens them and meeting even sinking faith with an outstretched hand. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf...

Today we read Matthew 14:1-21. John the Baptist is murdered by a king whose conscience he would not let rest — and Jesus, hearing the news, withdraws to grieve, only to be followed by thousands whom He heals and feeds with five loaves and two fish. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance framework. Week by week, it...

Today we read Matthew 13.244-58. Jesus declares that the kingdom of heaven is worth more than everything else combined — and then immediately shows what happens when it is despised: a hometown prophet, known too well to be believed, is rejected by the very people closest to Him. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliveran...

Today we read Matthew 13.24-43. Jesus teaches that the kingdom of heaven grows in a world where the devil is actively sowing counterfeits alongside the genuine — and that the final separation of wheat and weeds belongs not to us but to God at the harvest. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance framework. Week by we...

Today we read Matthew 13:1-23. Jesus teaches from a boat on the sea, describing the kingdom of heaven as seed scattered across four kinds of soil — revealing that the same gospel produces radically different responses depending on the condition of the heart that receives it. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance f...

Today we read Matthew 12:38-59. When the Pharisees demand a sign, Jesus refuses to perform on command — declaring that the only sign this generation will receive is the sign of Jonah, pointing unmistakably to His death and resurrection. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance framework. Week by week, it traces how G...

Today we read Matthew 12:22-37. When the Pharisees attribute Jesus’ power over demons to Satan, He exposes the absurdity of their charge, warns them of the unforgivable sin, and teaches that words are the overflow of the heart — and will be called to account on the day of judgment. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Delive...

Today we are reading Matthew 11:1-19. John the Baptist doubts from prison, and Jesus answers not with rebuke but with the evidence of Isaiah’s fulfillment — then praises John as the greatest of the prophets while declaring that the least in the kingdom has a greater blessedness still. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Del...

Today we are reading Matthew 10:24-42; Jesus calls His disciples to fear God rather than men, to confess Him openly before the world, and to take up the cross — for the one who loses his life for Christ’s sake is the one who truly finds it. Reading the Gospels Together” is a journey through the Four Gospels, following Cornelis De Graaf’s Promise and Deliverance framework. Week by week, it traces h...