Sermon Scripture: John 15:9-17, 1 John 5:1-3 Christian faith involves trusting that at the center of the universe is a God overflowing with love for his world, which means that the purpose of human existence is to receive this love that has come to us in Jesus and then to give it back out to others, creating an ecosystem of self-giving love in all aspects of our lives. When Jesus says, “Love each other, “ this is what he means, but how do we do that ..read more

Sermon Scripture: John 15:1-8 As Jesus describes himself as The Vine, and his friends as the branches, he is giving his followers key principles for finding peace and purpose in life — especially when things seem dark, bleak, or shallow.  When you and I today consider how to live and love as best we can in the midst of challenging circumstances, Jesus is reminding us that true satisfaction, true success, comes from intimacy in relationship with Jesus. And a beautiful byproduct of this kind of living is that we then are enabled to fulfill our purpose, to bear fruit ..read more

Sermon Scripture: Luke 24:35-48 When Jesus designates his followers as witnesses, a term that becomes very important in Acts, he is saying that they have seen in him the fulfillment of God’s plan for the world’s salvation and that, by the very nature of that plan, they are called to share the story — to be his witnesses ..read more

Sermon Scripture: John 20:19-31, 1 John 1:1-2:2 Like the disciples gathered in the upper room when Thomas asks to see Jesus for himself, we wrestle with the aftermath of the cross and resurrection.  The season of Eastertide is one in which we wrestle with the hope of big promises and the reality of broken and tough situations. It is a time when we must choose whether we will live in the consolation of Easter or the desolation of the tomb. 1 John 1:1-2:2 helps us address this question; “Is there life after Easter ..read more

Sermon Scripture: John 19:41—20:18 To be able to honestly proclaim, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed,” we, like the characters in our scripture passage this morning, must affirm that four important things are happening in our lives. You might say we are being invited to experience four things developing in our lives. Jesus makes and keeps his promises Our lives develop and bear fruit in cycles Jesus shows up in surprising ways (and) Christ has no body on earth but ours ..read more

Sermon Scripture: Mark 1:1-11 As we consider the crowds who met Jesus in praise and later condemned him to death for not suiting their needs, I hope we can humbly ask ourselves, “In what ways (big or small), do we push Jesus aside when his Kingdom does not align with ours?” May we say NO to our preferential kingdoms, no to the kingdoms of the culture around us. Kingdoms of evil and domination, but even kingdoms masked as good or just when they do not align with the values of Christ. May we say YES to the Kingdom of peace, mercy, forgiveness, healing, and freedom that Jesus taught and which cha ..read more

Sermon Scripture: John 12:20-33 Here on this 5th week of Lent it is not jumping the gun, nor stealing the thunder from our upcoming Easter celebrations to talk about the cross. In some ways we talk about the cross all the time, but in others ways we don’t talk about the cross enough. It would be tragic to not call attention to the subversive nature of Jesus’s obedience to journey toward, and ultimately to endure the cross ..read more

Sermon Scripture: John 3:16-21, Ephesians 2:1-10 The Spirit’s work in our hearts is an open invitation of naming our imperfects and leaving them with Christ on our altars. As the Lord renovates the space of our lives, we often see the dust begin to settle right back where it has been cleared away. Today we hope to consider how to make the cleansing and purification of our hearts in Christ stick. How can we  live lightly and freely? How do we move from the dark into the light ..read more

Sermon Scripture: John 2:13-22 Today as we return to our lenten passages we make a jump from the Gospel of Mark’s accounts over to the book of John. Today’s text focuses on the question “What does it mean to be the faithful church of Jesus ..read more

We are excited to have Dr. Floyd Cunningham join us to tell of the many wonderful things God is doing all around the world through Nazarene missions. The Pape family and Floyd were together in the Philippines for many years.  FAITH PROMISE is used by many local churches to raise financial support for world missions. The Church of the Nazarene, of which Emmaus Road is a member, has one of the longest running, globally supported missions programs in the World ..read more