Jesus opens the famous "you have heard it said… but I tell you" pattern in Matthew 5, and we walk through the first two — anger and lust. He isn't correcting Moses or piling new burdens on top of the old Law. He's pulling back the curtain on what the Law has always pointed to: a heart-level righteousness that goes deeper than rule-keeping. Murder begins long before the act, in the slow burn of resentment and contempt. Adultery begins long before the act, in the willful entertainment of desire. Jesus doesn't lower the bar — He raises it.
And the Savior who calls us there is the same One who remakes us from the inside, so the response He demands becomes the response grace makes possible.
CT063 - I Have Not Come to Abolish
April 29, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 5:17–21
Today, Matthew Allen walks through Matthew 5:17–20 — one of the most misread paragraphs in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus opens by heading off a wrong conclusion: he has not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. He has come to fulfill them, in three layered senses — he is the One they pointed to, he embodies the righteousness they described, and he brings the whole story to its intended goal.
From there, Jesus affirms every detail of God's word down to the smallest letter, sounds a sober warning to teachers who soften what God has said, and lands the line that should stop every listener cold: unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom. The point is not that we need more rules. It is that we need a different kind of righteousness — heart-deep, grace-rooted, real. The kind the Beatitudes already described. The kind the Antitheses are about to demonstrate.
The episode closes with three honest questions about how we treat Scripture, where our righteousness actually lives, and whether we are tempted to teach a softer version of God's call than what he actually says.
CT062 - Salt and Light
April 28, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 5:13–16
In this episode, Matthew Allen opens the Sermon on the Mount's pivot from the inward character of the Beatitudes to the outward witness of salt and light in Matthew 5:13–16. Jesus does not tell his disciples to become salt and light — he declares that they already are. From there, the episode unpacks what salt did in the first-century world (preserve, season, and endure as a covenant marker), what it meant to lose its saltiness through dilution rather than removal, and why a city on a hill and a lamp on a stand make hiding the Christian life as absurd as putting a basket over a flame.
The hinge of the passage is verse 16: visible good works that send the glory home to the Father rather than landing on the disciple — the very tension Jesus will revisit in Matthew 6:1. Three honest application questions close the lesson: Am I actually salty? Am I hiding? When good is seen in me, where does the credit go?
Faith Dare
April 26, 2026 • Wilson Adams
YPH 418
April 26, 2026 • Jason Schofield , Matthew Allen
Join Matt & Jason for live bible talk beginning at 8 AM ET!
CT061 - Jesus Makes Us New
April 24, 2026 • Matthew Allen • 2 Corinthians 5:17–21
This Friday Lord's Supper meditation steps away from the weekday walk through Matthew to consider one word at the heart of what the table proclaims: reconciliation. Paul writes to a church he's had hard conversations with and reminds them what they are in Christ — a new creation, reconciled to God, their trespasses no longer counted against them. We trace that word through the passage, holding together God's complete initiative and our active response, pausing at the great exchange that made "not counting" possible, and ending where Paul ends: as ambassadors carrying the message outward. The table gathers us around what God has done, and sends us out with a plea for others — "Be reconciled to God."
CT060 - Blessed are the Peacemakers
April 23, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 5:9–12
In this episode, we close out the Beatitudes with Jesus' final declarations over peacemakers, the persecuted, and the reviled. We unpack a crucial distinction Jesus never makes explicit but clearly assumes: a peacemaker is not the same as a peacekeeper. One avoids conflict; the other steps into it with a goal of genuine reconciliation. Then Jesus pivots to something almost shocking — the righteous life will cost you something, and when it does, the right response is to rejoice. We close by pulling back to see all eight Beatitudes as a single portrait: not a checklist for earning the kingdom, but a description of the people the kingdom produces.
Lesson 2: Why Do I Still Sin?
April 27, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Romans 8:1, Romans 7:15–17, 1 John 1:8–9, 1 John 2:1–2
CT059 - Blessed Are the Meek
April 22, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 5:5–8
Jesus continues the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:5–8, and in today's episode of Cornerstone Today we take four of them at once: blessed are the humble, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, and the pure in heart. The humble are not weak — the word carries the picture of a wild horse broken to the bridle: strength under control, submitted to God. The hungry and thirsty are not casually interested in righteousness — they ache for it the way a starving person aches for bread. The merciful extend what they themselves have received. The pure in heart live with undivided loyalty to God, and they are the ones who see Him — in part now, and one day face to face. These four are not achievements we grind for. They are descriptions of what God produces in His people.
CT058 - Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit
April 21, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 5:1–4
The Sermon on the Mount opens not with commands but with blessings. In Matthew 5:1–4, Jesus sits down on the mountain with His disciples drawn close and begins teaching with the Beatitudes — declarations of what is already true of those who belong to His kingdom. In this episode of Cornerstone Today, we unpack the first two: blessed are the poor in spirit, and blessed are those who mourn. Together they form the foundation of everything else Jesus will say across the Sermon. The kingdom of heaven belongs to the empty-handed. God draws near to the broken, fills the empty, and comforts the mourner.
YPH 417
April 19, 2026 • Jason Schofield , Matthew Allen
Join Matt & Jason for live bible talk beginning at 8 AM ET!
Knowing Him, Growing in Him
April 19, 2026 • M • Colossians 2:6–7
This Sunday
If you've been going through the motions lately — if Sunday feels more like obligation than encounter — this message is for you.
If you're the person who's been around long enough that the gospel feels like old news, this is for you too.
And if you're someone who's genuinely hungry to grow but not sure where to start, Paul gives you the most practical three-part answer you'll find anywhere.
Join us Sunday, April 19, as we dig into what it actually means to be rooted in Christ — and what it looks like when you are.
Colossians 2:6–7. Ephesians 4:13.
CT057 - For God So Loved
April 17, 2026 • Matthew Allen • John 3:16
In this Friday Lord's Supper reflection, Matthew Allen opens John 3:16 — perhaps the most familiar verse in the Bible — and slows down long enough to let it land. Using a four-part framework drawn from the text itself, he walks through the Danger (apart from Christ, we are perishing under the wrath of God), the Design (God's love expressed through the gift of his one and only Son), the Duty (ongoing, present-tense belief that connects us to that rescuing love), and the Destiny (eternal life that begins now and never ends). Along the way he traces Jesus' own connection between the bronze serpent in Numbers 21 and the cross, and closes with the story of John Newton — the slave trader whose near-death experiences finally drove him to look to Christ — whose famous hymn captures the whole episode in four lines. A fitting meditation before the Lord's table.
CT056 - Light in the Darkness
April 16, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 4:12–25
In Matthew 4:12–25, Jesus moves from the wilderness into Galilee — and Matthew tells us this is no coincidence. It's the fulfillment of Isaiah's ancient promise that a great light would dawn on a people living in darkness. Jesus arrives, opens his ministry with a single urgent message — repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near — then walks along the shore and calls four fishermen by name. They leave everything immediately and follow. By the end of the passage, crowds are streaming in from every direction as Jesus teaches, preaches, and heals throughout the region. The mission has launched. The light is on.
Lesson 1: What Just Happened?
April 20, 2026 • Matthew Allen • 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 1:13–14
Nobody warns you about the confusion that follows conversion.
The relief is real. The moment itself is real. But then you wake up the next morning supposed to be a completely different person — and you're not entirely sure how to do that. That disorientation isn't a sign something went wrong. It's exactly where Lesson 1 begins.
Most new Christians approach their spiritual life the way they approach self-improvement: identify weaknesses, work on them, get better over time. Same house, better version. It's understandable. It's also wrong. Paul doesn't say if anyone is in Christ, he is improving. He says new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come. That's not the language of renovation — it's the language of replacement.
Lesson 1 unpacks what that actually means. You don't work toward a new identity. You work from one. God didn't help you find the exit. He came in and carried you out. And the gap you feel between who you are in Christ and how your week actually went? That gap isn't a crisis. It's where discipleship happens.
This lesson also gives you permission to ask the questions you've been afraid to ask out loud — the ones good Christians aren't supposed to have. Real ones. Hard ones. Because faith that's alive enough to ask questions is stronger than faith that just performs certainty it doesn't feel.
Core Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 5:17 · Colossians 1:13–14
CT055 - Tested and True
April 14, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 4:1–11
In this episode, we look at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness — and specifically at what the enemy was really after. Three times, Satan opened with the same pressure: "If you are the Son of God..." This wasn't just an attack on Jesus' willpower. It was an attack on his identity. And Jesus didn't defend himself with arguments. He didn't debate or negotiate. He answered with the Word — grounded, unhurried, sure of who he was. Matthew 4:1–11 shows us a Jesus who was tested in every real way and didn't move. And because he didn't move, we have somewhere to stand.
YPH 416
April 12, 2026 • Jason Schofield , Matthew Allen
Join Matt & Jason for live bible talk beginning at 8 AM ET!
CT054 - Interview with George Wacks on New Class Starting April 20
April 13, 2026 • George Wacks, Matthew Allen
Matthew sits down with George for an interview inviting people to attend our new class on the church, starting April 20
More Than Members—Growing Into Christ
April 12, 2026 • Ephesians 4:12–13
This Sunday, we're kicking off our April series, Growth in the Body, and we're starting with the most basic question: What is all this for?
Paul gives us a staggering answer. The goal isn't attendance numbers. It isn't a full parking lot or a busy calendar. It's maturity — "growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness." That's the target. Not compared to each other. Not compared to where we started. Measured against Jesus himself. Which is either the most inspiring standard you've ever heard, or the most humbling. Probably at the same time.
CT053 - He Always Lives
April 10, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Hebrews 7:23–25
The Levitical priests had one unavoidable problem.
They kept dying. One would serve, then he'd be gone. Another would take his place — and then he'd be gone too. Generation after generation, the priesthood turned over because the priests kept running out of time.
But Hebrews 7 points to something different. Because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently.
Not for a long time. Permanently.
And the implication is staggering: he is able to save completely — to the uttermost — because he always lives to make intercession. Right now. Present tense. Ongoing. You still need a priest. You're still on the road. And the one who holds that priesthood permanently — holds you permanently.
CT052 - The One Who Comes After
April 9, 2026 • Matthew Allen • Matthew 3:7–17
Two scenes. One chapter. And the contrast between them is everything.
In the first, John looks at the Pharisees and Sadducees — the most religiously credentialed people in Israel — and says: not enough. Produce fruit. The ax is already at the root.
In the second, Jesus walks into the Jordan River and asks to be baptized alongside sinners. John hesitates. Heaven opens. And the Father speaks.
The one who came after John didn't arrive with credentials on display. He arrived in the water — standing exactly where the broken people had stood.
