Have you ever seen that Christian bumper sticker, “Not Perfect, Just Forgiven,” and wondered, “Is that the only difference between Christians and non-Christians…that we are forgiven, and they aren’t?” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 indicates that Jesus doesn’t just forgive us, he makes us new creations, and he can do that to anyone, no matter how sinful we might be.

It is a common human experience to have doubts, and a common Christian experience to struggle with doubt when it comes to God. That’s one reason why Jesus rose from the dead, to eradicate our doubts that he is indeed the Son of God. Matthew 27:57-28:20 contains four answers to dismantle the alternate theories to the empty tomb. Jesus is risen! Have no doubt about it!

Near the end of his life, Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force! Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love: and at this hour millions of men would die for him.” Jesus is a different kind of King. Matthew 21:1-11 describes three ways how this King of Love rules differently than everyone else.

When Jesus calls us to follow him with our life, the most basic faithfulness to that call is what we do with our money, because our money represents our time, and our time represents our life. God, the Son, gave his entire earthly life to save us, and he wants us to reflect his generosity in our lives. He wants us to be like him, to be godly in our giving. John 3:16 provides four lessons on how we can do that.