Follow Series | Week 1: The Name Above Every Name

We're beginning a new series through the Gospel of Matthew called "Follow." We didn't title it that way just to preach a series or dissect theology, but because our desire is to actually learn to walk in the footsteps of Jesus — to do like him and become like him. In week one, we meet Matthew himself: a former tax collector who took from his own people on behalf of Rome, and who got up and followed the moment Jesus called him. We look at how his Gospel came to be, why he wrote to a Jewish audience to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah, and then we dig into the genealogy that opens his account — including the five women Matthew deliberately includes, each one showing us something about the kind of Savior who was coming. Four hundred years of prophetic silence had passed since Malachi. Matthew breaks that silence with a list of names, and it ends with the only name worthy of being called Immanuel — God with us. 📖 Scripture referenced: Matthew 28:18-20 | Matthew 9:9 | Matthew 1:1-17 | Hebrews 12:1 | Matthew 1:18-23 | Revelation 7:9-12