Real Freedom—Matthew 8:28-9:1
We’ve seen that followers of Jesus lose comforts. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
And we’ve seen that followers of Jesus lose connections, even dear ones: “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
But we’ve also seen that followers of Jesus gain true safety. He calmed a storm with a word. What can he not do? If you’re with him, even if the waves look rough, you are truly safe.
And now, in these verses, we see that followers of Jesus gain real freedom.
True Safety—Matthew 8:18-27
In this passage, Jesus puts a magnifying glass over the fine print of the gospel. A credit card company or a pharmaceutical company might put interest rates or side effects in fine print to keep you from reading, but Jesus wants you to know the sacrifices you have to make to be his disciple. There are two things he says you will lose: comforts and connections. If what matters most to you are the comforts and connections you had before you met Jesus, then you aren't ready to follow him.
Then why should anyone follow Jesus? This passage and the ones after it give us three reasons. Yes, you will lose comforts and connections, but you will gain true safety, real freedom, and divine forgiveness. This passage focuses on safety: Followers of Jesus lose comforts and connection, but gain true safety.
A Kingdom for Outcasts—Matthew 8:1-17
In these verses, Jesus gives Galilee another taste of heaven, cleansing a leper, healing a Roman centurion's sick servant, healing Peter's mother-in-law so thoroughly that she gets up and starts to do housework, and healing and casting out demons from a whole crowd of others.
What was the good of this taste of heaven, you might ask, if things just went back to being how they used to be? Galilee today isn't heaven on earth. All those sick people got sick again, and they are all dead. What was the point?
A Rock-Solid Foundation—Matthew 7:21-29
This passage teaches us that Jesus is a king who rejects his flatterers, a king who upholds his followers, and a king whose word is law. He is a king who saves, a rock-solid foundation for everyone who does what he tells them to do.
A Hard Road with a Good Leader—Matthew 7:13-20
"Repent and believe," Jesus said, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." That's good news: you can be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. It's good, but that doesn't mean it's easy. In fact, the way to heaven is a hard road -- but it's a road we travel with a good leader, Christ himself.
Not Judges but Children—Matthew 7:1-12
I have thought of a good birthday present for my children. Not just my children -- I think almost any child would find a use for this. A gavel. Most children, in my experience, think they are judges. All they lack is the gear. I include myself in this. I remember passing judgment on my siblings quite regularly. It was not enough to play the lawyer, accusing them to my parents. I was quite happy to name their crimes and fix their sentences myself.
Christians can be the same. We sometimes think that Christ has appointed us as judges of our neighbors, that it is our job to peer over the hedge and pass sentence on the folks next door, or to glance around the pews and rank our brethren for their holiness.
A Savior from Worry—Matthew 6:19-34
People spend their lives chasing wealth and running from want. The wealthiest people can still think of things they don't have. The poorest people can still think of things they can lose. No matter how far people get from want, and how much wealth they attain, they stay trapped in the zone between the two. That zone is called worry.
But there is a place that is free from worry, and it is called the kingdom of heaven.
How Jesus’s People Find Reward—Matthew 6:1-18
In this passage, Jesus teaches us how to get rewarded for our righteousness.
Does that sound rather mercenary? Would it be better to do what is right without any thought of reward? I think of my two-year-old, who is learning to dress herself. When she puts on her clothes by herself, she comes to us, and she wants us to throw our hands in the air and say, "I'm so surprised!" and give her a big hug. Would it be better for her to say, "No need for a hug. I am diligent simply for diligence's sake"? Hardly. I'm glad she wants us to be pleased with her. And it's equally proper that we should want God to be pleased with us.
Remember Jesus Christ, Risen from the Dead—2 Timothy 2:8-9
Since the first days of the church, Christians have gathered every Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These two verses, 2 Timothy 2:8-9, give us a chance to meditate on that resurrection. I want to draw attention to the four phrases of verse 8: (1) Remember Jesus Christ, (2) risen from the dead, (3) the offspring of David, (4) as preached in my gospel. If you understand what is meant by these short phrases, you know what you need to know to be a Christian. You could start reading this article as an unbeliever and finish it as a believer.
But Paul wrote this for a believer, for Timothy, a pastor Paul himself trained. And he thought Timothy needed to be reminded to remember these things.
The Cross-Road to Perfection—Matthew 5:33-48
Schools and workplaces can be highly competitive environments. At a competitive school, everyone is trying to get the A or the A+, trying to stay on top of all the work, trying to play sports and do extra-curriculars and have friends and please teachers and stay healthy and sane and have fun at the same time. At a competitive workplace, everyone is trying to be an important contributor, a reliable employee and colleague, to stay on top of all the work and be well-liked by bosses, peers, and clients. To survive, it feels like you have to be perfect.
Because of this pressure, people often remind each other, "It's OK not to be perfect." "It's OK to make mistakes." "Just be yourself." Often, I think it's important and helpful to people to be told this.
And then Jesus comes along, and he is supposed to be this really understanding teacher and mentor, and he says, "You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Righteous from the Heart—Matthew 5.17-32
Every kingdom has laws. So it should not surprise us that, when Jesus came to earth and said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," he went on to say what sort of laws that kingdom has.
But, as we will see, the laws of the kingdom of heaven are very different from the laws of other lands. The laws of other lands deal with things that can be seen. They have to deal with specific and observable actions, or they can never be enforced.
But the laws of the kingdom of heaven deal with things that cannot be seen by man. They are laws of the heart. And rightly so, because God can see the heart.
Salt and Light—Matthew 5:11-16
If you don't remember what Jesus has been talking about, it's easy to miss what he really means by salt and light. In this passage, Jesus calls his disciples to be, like him, salt in a world that hates the flavor, and light in a world that loves the dark. If that sounds tough, it's because it is. But if it sounds hopeless, don't despair. Jesus says that his salt-and-light disciples not only offend the world, but also transform it. That's what he himself did. He was a light in a world that loved the darkness so much that it tried to put out the light by putting him to death. But now, risen from the dead, he is giving life to that same world.
The World's Losers—Matthew 5:1-12
Let me give you a list of the sort of people who have it good in life, according to popular opinion. These are the people that most people would say have it good. I'll call them "blessed."
Blessed are the rich. They can have whatever they want.
Blessed are the people who have something to celebrate. There's nothing like a good party.
Blessed are the people who are strong enough to throw their weight around a little.
Heaven in Galilee—Matthew 4:12-25
As we think about the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ, we'll see Jesus doing things for people: healing the sick, making the lame walk, casting out demons. There are no diseases in heaven, where Jesus came from, and where Jesus goes, he makes it like heaven on earth, like heaven in Galilee. But he doesn't bring heaven to earth in the spirit of a wealthy philanthropist scattering money to the poor. He doesn't come just to bring gifts from God to people, but to bring those people to God. And since the people he came for are sinners, the object of his preaching and his miracles is repentance.
In short, Jesus Christ brought heaven down to earth to bring sinners home to God.
The First Test—Matthew 4:1-11
After the prophet Samuel anointed David as the next King of Israel and the Holy Spirit filled him, David soon had to face a test. His test was the giant Goliath, the Philistine. The question was: will David be too afraid to fight Goliath? And if he has the courage to fight him, will he fight in his own strength? Or will he fight Goliath because he trusts in the Lord?
The Time Has Come—Matthew 3
Now we skip forward about thirty years. The Bible doesn't say anything about Jesus doing miracles during this time. For all we know, it was thirty years of normal life: losing baby teeth, catching colds, playing with friends, working in the shop with Joseph. Did Joseph ever wonder again, Was this boy really virgin-born? Well, there was the fact that he never did anything wrong. But even that could be confusing and frustrating at times. (Read Luke 2 for that.)
But now everything changes.
The King from Nowhere—Matthew 2
The English language is full of ways of saying that someone comes from an unimportant place. He's from the sticks. The boonies. Some podunk down. The hood. The ghetto. The middle of nowhere. In western North Carolina, where I grew up, there is a country town called Swannanoa. People sometimes called it Swannanowhere.
Jesus was from such a nowhere. But what I want to show you from Matthew 2 is that Jesus, the King from nowhere, brings joy to a weeping world.
For He Will Save His People—Matthew 1:18-25
Matthew 1:18-25 is a passage packed with core truths of Christianity. Jesus' divinity. His humanity. His incarnation and the virgin birth. Many of these truths are just introduced in this passage, not really fleshed out. If you were a 1st-century Jew reading about these things for the first time, you might not grasp the full implications of, for example, the statement that Mary was "with child from the Holy Spirit." This is a hint of a truth that will be more fully revealed as the book of Matthew goes on.
But one truth sings out loud and clear in this passage, like a hammer hitting a bell. "You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." The angel's announcement is dramatic and clear. At last, the One has come who will save his people from their deepest trouble, their sin.
The Hope of the Ages—Matthew 1:1-17
Some biographies begin with the birth of their subject. Others begin with his parents, or even his grandparents. But Matthew begins his Gospel, his story of Jesus, with a list of more than forty generations. Many of these names have stories that go with them. Abraham leaving for a foreign land that God promised to give him. Abraham preparing to offer Isaac on an altar on Mount Moriah. Isaac's son Jacob tricking him into giving him his brother's blessing. Jacob wrestling at night with God. Judah's nasty sins. Judah offering himself as a slave so that his brother Benjamin could go free. David killing Goliath. David murdering Uriah. Solomon the wise. Solomon the power-hungry idolotrous polygamist. Manassah's sin, and Manassah's repentence.
All of these people had something they were hoping for, someone they were hoping for, and they died with their hopes not yet fulfilled. But Matthew's point is that all the hopes of God's people — Abraham's hopes, Isaac's hopes, Jacob's hopes, David's hopes, Solomon's hopes, Tamar's hopes, Rahab's hopes, Ruth's hopes, and the hopes of the lesser known men and women who came after the exile — all of the hopes of God's people have come true in Jesus, the Christ.
The Gospel of Matthew
A new sermon series from the Gospel of Matthew begins in January 2026.