Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado Emmaus Road Church | Fort Collins, Colorado

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.

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.

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?”

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!

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 changes the world quietly-persistently-unstoppably.

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.