New Years’ 2026

New Years’ 2026

We continue celebrating the birth of Jesus this week. Yesterday, in Matthew 1, we saw the royal titles that accompanied his birth—Messiah, Son of David, Jesus, and Immanuel. Next week we’ll look at the Wise Men in Matthew 2 and the conflicting ways in which news of Jesus’ birth was received. There are still conflicting ways that people receive the news about Jesus.

This week is also when we change our calendars from 2025 to 2026. For some people New Years’ Day is a time to think about goals and changes, but others don’t make big deal of it at all. It’s just another day. Can I encourage you to spend at least a little time this year thinking about your commitment to Christ? How would you evaluate your relationship to Jesus? Are there areas of commitment that you could improve? Are there practices you could put into place in 2026 that would help you draw closer to him? We might make changes that will affect our health, our finances, or other aspects of our life. There is no more important or long-lasting change that you could make than a change that will deepen your relationship with Jesus.

We will be looking at Jesus’ life as Matthew recorded it over the next several months. It’s pretty clear that Matthew was writing primarily to his fellow Jews to make the case that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. We’ll see several times that Matthew uses the formula, “this was to fulfill the word of the Lord.” We saw this in Matthew 1:22, for example, and we’ll see it again in Matthew 2:15. Fulfilled prophecy is one of the reasons that I believe in the truth of Christianity.

I hope you and yours have a good beginning to this year and a blessed year to come. Make plans to gather with your fellow believers this Sunday as we participate in the Lord’s Supper. It would also be good to invite someone along with you.

God bless, Brian

Scripture readings for next Sunday

Matthew 2—How would you contrast the Magi’s response to Herod’s response to Jesus’ birth?

Micah 5—What do you notice about the connection between this passage and Matthew 2?

John 12:12-19—What is the contrast here between the crowds and the Pharisees?

Jeremiah 31:10-30—How does Matthew say this prophecy is fulfilled?