Well, it is January 1. Another year is beginning . . . filled with a number of “tomorrows.” As you start another year, have you made any resolutions? Anything you want to add to your life in 2020? Anything you want to remove from your life in 2020? Any progress from this past year you want to sustain?
If you are like me, you probably have several goals in mind for the new year. For me, one of the things I am looking forward to in 2020 is to complete our preaching series that have focused on the Gospel of Matthew. Since Christmas 2016, I have been preaching through Matthew’s Gospel . . . a journey that has already encompassed 12 specific series and included 67 individual sermons. It has been such a joy to focus on the Person and work of Jesus Christ on Sundays mornings these past 3 years. It is a vivid reminder that Jesus really came to the earth and shows us who God is and what He is like.
Over the next 4 months at Wildwood Community Church, we will have our final 2 series from Matthew’s Gospel covering Matthew 24-28. These final 16 sermons from Matthew will walk us through the most critical events in all of human history. I am so excited for us to be on this journey together!
The first of these series will begin this Sunday. Entitled “Tomorrow: Preparing for the Son to Rise Again,” this series looks at Matthew 24-25 – Jesus’ predictions about the future and His promise to come to the earth again one day. These words are super important for us to see. Some view Biblical prophecy as a topic of little contemporary significance. If that is how you view prophecy, it is likely that you may have simply avoided reading much of it out of fear or confusion, OR you have been taught prophecy only as an academic exercise.
If you are either bored or confused by prophecy or consider it irrelevant to your current life, then let me encourage you to allow JESUS CHRIST to be your teacher on the end times over the next 6 Sundays, as we look at what He had to say about the topic. His teaching and comments on the subject are exciting, straight-forward, and carry with them imminent personal application and response. I can’t wait to look at these passages together.
Our outline for the next few Sundays will be:
- January 5: “Tomorrow – part 1” – Matthew 24:1-14
- January 12: “Tomorrow – part 2” – Matthew 24:15-31
- January 19: “Tomorrow – part 3” – Matthew 24:32-51
- January 26: “Tomorrow – part 4” – Matthew 25:1-13
- February 2: “Tomorrow – part 5” – Matthew 25:14-30
- February 9: “Tomorrow – part 6” – Matthew 25:31-46
I encourage you to read ahead as we look at these passages together!
New Testament scholar Michael Green says, “The return of Christ has another important facet to it, which this chapter underlines. History is going somewhere. It is not meaningless. It is not random. It is not eternal. There will be a real end just as there was a real beginning. And at the end we shall find none other than Jesus Christ.”
History . . . including OUR history . . . is headed someplace; ultimately headed to Someone. Are we prepared for that meeting? And how should we live our lives today knowing where we are going? That is the subject of this month’s sermon series. Hope you make plans to be with us on Sunday mornings this January at 9:45 or 11:00!