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Fellowship United Methodist Church, 7426 Highway 112, Elmer, LA (2026)

06/21/2026

A message from Pastor Chuck Christensen:

“Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ” Romans 6:1-11
June 21, 2026

I saw this little cartoon on Facebook and thought y’all might get a kick out of it. We kind of look down a little bit on Peter because he got out of the boat, walked a few yards on the water towards Jesus, saw he was out of the boat and standing on the water, and fell in, getting all kinds of wet. The thing is though, none of the others even attempted to get out of the boat. One man believed Jesus enough to step out while the others were too afraid to even try.
The book of Romans is Paul’s thought about Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers by way of the cross. For Paul, this book, written to the small but growing church in Rome, synthesizes everything he’s learned following his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road and colored by his witnessing, testifying, and evangelizing for a period of years.
Paul hasn’t been to Rome yet, so he’s writing to people he doesn’t know personally, this isn’t one of the churches he’s planted, yet this church seems to be on target as far as the Gospel goes. Paul simply lays out what he’s learned over years of hardship, hunger, hatefulness, ugliness, and ignorance. In this letter, he lays out a life lived in the Gospel.
Paul talks about sin. Not the most favorite subject to talk about in the church, but we have to talk about it. We all know the big ones. Murder, stealing, sexual immorality, the big ones, the 10 Commandments. Paul writes, “But now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God, you have the consequence of a holy life, and the outcome is eternal life.” (Romans 6:22)
For Paul, it all starts with Jesus: “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20) Go out into the entire world, engage people of all races, nations, ethnicities, economic statuses. Regardless of who folks are, we’re to baptize them, and teach them everything Jesus taught. This teaching doesn’t change color as cultures change and develop. The Gospel remains the Gospel regardless of 1st or 21st century sentimentalities; across cultural and racial boundaries, the Gospel doesn’t change. Jesus taught about sin, he taught about righteousness, he taught about compassion, he taught about holiness, and he taught about life itself. When he healed, he’d say things like, “Go, and sin no more…” (John 8:11) Even his healing was looked upon as an act of forgiving sin, one of many reasons why the Pharisees didn’t care for him. Healing, forgiving, bringing the dead back to life, this is action verbiage of the Gospel of Christ. There is some sin the church has gotten comfortable with. And yet, sin is sin, whether it’s the current big issues various denominations are struggling with, human sexuality, females in the pulpit, polyamory and polygamy. or just the day-to-day ugliness we all can get caught up into from time to time.
The first question everyone wanted to know when the Challenger Space Shuttle blew up on January 28, 1986 was, “What happened?” The Rogers Commission finally pinned the blame on an O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster. An O-ring, the size of a wedding band, a small thing. Not something huge, like a puncture in the rocket booster or a hole in the cabin. A small, insignificant, O-ring. [1] What if the big sins, the ones we try the hardest to avoid aren’t the greatest threat to our joy, peace, and the church’s mission? What if, while avoiding all the big ones, the little ‘acceptable’ ones take us down the rabbit hole like Alice in Wonderland?
Maybe it’s the sins lying underneath, the ones considered normal or at least acceptable, the ones going undetected, affecting the church the most. A Rural Church Blogger I follow, Frank Powell shared some sins the church seems to be okay with. [2]
The first is fear. Phrases such as “do not fear” and “do not be afraid” appear 365-some times in the Bible. What’s the opposite of fear? Courage? Bravery? Not really because one can be afraid and still prosecute the mission. The opposite of fear is love. God is love. So, according to the transitive property of mathematics, the opposite of fear must be God. So, the one sin that shouldn’t plague us is fear. Yet, we fear all kinds of things; people who’re different, those with different ideas or opinions, and fear divides us. Even our salvation is sometimes rooted in fear. You “got to get you an asbestos fire suit”. Why would anyone witness, testify, or evangelize by trying to scare people away from hell and into the arms of Jesus? Fear is pervasive and ultimately toxic to how God has made us. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18)
We make decisions out of fear. We’re hesitant to step into different situations out of fear. The catalyst for obedience is fear. Where’s the love? Maybe we covenant to remove the words “fear, scared, and terrified” from our vocabulary. It might change how we see the world, it might change how we see God.
Then we have apathy. Apathy’s best friends are passivity and entitlement. These are a vicious th*****me. There’s nothing passive or mediocre about God. His power is beyond comprehension. His beauty is beyond description. His love is beyond measure. The same God who created the universe and formed stars desires a relationship with us petty little humans. And yet, our attitude too often seems to be, “Okay, God loves me. That’s great. What’s for lunch?” “No. You don’t get it, bro. God loves you and me, God loves us. And you’re content with, ‘That’s great. Let’s get lunch?”
How many Christians have we met that left us thinking, “Wow, I want to be like them?” I know there are those who’ve impacted our lives for gospel but, shouldn’t this should be the norm? Shouldn’t we be so transformed by God people want to ask about our life, even if they hate God, or don’t know anything about him? In Scripture, when men and women truly experience God, everything changes. Everything. Apathy cannot coexist with God.
How about this one, gluttony. This isn’t just about food. It’s whenever we use a good gift from God in excess. It’s primarily about the heart. It’s a craving for excess. Gluttony says, “Those voids God is supposed to fill, don’t worry, I’ll fill them.” Gluttony happens when we lose our awe of God. This is where all sorts of addiction come alive. We gorge our stomachs with food and flood our houses with trinkets, and our lives with anything we hope might bring more and more pleasure, and our discontent increases. One cure for gluttony is finding places where Jesus followers can fix their eyes completely on him, throwing away anything that treads the line between want and need.
Here’s another one, worry. In the movie ‘Van Wilder’ the ‘forever student’ the movies namesake says to a struggling fellow student Taj, “Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.” The phrase was actually coined by Erma Bombeck in 2002. [3] Jesus said we’re not to worry about anything (Matt. 6:25-34). But Jesus wasn’t serious was he? I mean, really Jesus, don’t worry about anything?
I suspect Jesus meant everything he said. Worrying is symptomatic of a larger issue, a lack of faith. For followers of Jesus whose primary mission is to show the glory and nature of God to the world, worrying is a problem. Worry is the by-product of bearing a weight only God can bear. The more independence we desire, the more worry we experience, and God can’t reign over our lives, not because he can’t but because we just won’t let Him..
What about flattery? If our identity is tied to human praise, we’ll always be disappointed. We’ll be eternally discontented. People are fickle, here today and gone tomorrow. They’re for us one day, against us the next. They love us when we agree with them, dislike us when we don’t. Yet, we crave human praise. Social media perpetuates flattery. We post pictures about our lives hoping the world will “like” them. Who cares if it’s not the real me. All I need is approval, all I need is the “like”. Jesus, didn’t need praise of humans. He didn’t care what they thought. His only concern was doing the will of God. This attitude is what the world is desperate to see today. It’s hard to point people to Jesus if we need their approval first.
Here’s one, comfort. This might be the patriarch of “church approved” sin. When the church becomes comfortable, Christianity begins to die. When we aim our thoughts and actions in order to avoid discomfort we become resistant to change. We start making the secondary issues the primary ones. We begin to see the mission as catering to insiders rather than reaching outsiders. And here’s the thing about the sin of comfort. Once it shows up, it’s extremely difficult to remove. When we challenge comfort, people don’t just get angry. They get mad. Comfort will even crucify an innocent man as it did on Calvary. The church can’t be missional and comfortable at the same time. The church grows when it gets outside its box, it grows when it begins to touch the ugly, dirty, and unbelieving underbelly of culture and, that’s where Jesus worked.
Related to comfort is consumerism. My daughter loved watching Sesame Street, even in Japanese. Remember Cookie Monster? What an appropriate creature to represent our culture. “Gimme da cookies.” Sometimes the church looks like Cookie Monster. “Gimme more…well anything. Just give me more.” The essence of this sin is a misunderstanding of God as a taker, but God is a giver. As beings created in his image, we must also be givers. It’s not easy, it’s not popular, it might create uncomfortable situations but then again, my reading of Acts tells us stories of many uncomfortable situations. What are we creating? What are we giving back to the world? What are giving back to others?
If gluttony is the elephant in the room everyone sees, but no one talks about, lying is the snake under the couch. Lying is so socially acceptable, even in Christian circles, it often goes undetected. We’re desensitized to it. And here’s why this is dangerous for Christians. There’s a rarely discussed passage in Matthew 5:33-37 where Jesus confronts the Pharisees about oath taking. We’ve talked some about this during our study of James. Most only hear the word oath when someone’s in court. But Jesus isn’t talking about oaths in this passage. He’s talking about integrity. He’s saying we should live with such integrity our word doesn’t need attachments. So, phrases like, “I promise…”, “I swear…”, “Trust me…” should never come from our mouth. We lie to make ourself sound better. We lie to stay out of trouble. We lie to get ahead. Sometimes we lie just to lie. Sometimes these lies take the form of gossip. Gossip is just lying about someone else. Gossip may have destroyed more churches and broken more hearts than all the persecutions in history. Jesus says there’s no place for that if we’re a follower of his. How serious is this? Jesus says anything more than our word is from the evil one, anything more than our word is from Satan.
These ‘acceptable sins’ can be the most toxic because they’re the most prevalent. So, we listen to the words Paul writes to us this morning. It’s not okay to accept these little painless sins because we’ve “…been set free from sin and become slaves to God, we have the consequence of a holy life, and the outcome is eternal life. The wages that sin pays are death, but God’s gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:22-23) We’re free from the chains that bound us before we came to Jesus, let’s not be put ourselves back into chains. [AMEN]
Sources:
[1] Legal Clarity: Rogers Report. https://legalclarity.org/rogers-commission-report-pdf-findings-and-recommendations. Downloaded on 9 May, 2026.

[2] Powell, Frank. Faith It Blog. http://faithit.com/9-sins-the-church-is-okay-with/ Downloaded June 30, 2017

[3] No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/van-wilder-metaphor-joke-origin. Viewed on May 9, 2026.

06/07/2026

A message from Pastor Chuck today:

“In Christ Alone, Against All Hope"

Romans 4:13-25

June 7, 2026

“Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) Long before his name was changed to Abraham, Abram left his father’s house and headed north-northwest to Harran and then to Canaan. God said, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curses; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3) He left his people, his culture, his father and his extended family and headed into the unknown. He set out in faith.

David’s psalm we recited this morning is a sung prayer for forgiveness. Some scholars believe this may have been written following David’s dalliance with Bathsheba. [1] “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity, I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5) He prayed in faith.

Matthew’s sitting in his tax collector booth. From what we’ve learned in our Bible Studies about the culture, we know he’s a Jewish outcast. He makes his living by charging his own people above and beyond the quota required by the Romans. Here comes Jesus, “Follow me”. Matthew gets up and follows Jesus, becoming a central of Jesus’ group of disciples. “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” the Pharisees ask. Jesus response cuts to the bone, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13) Matthew follows in faith.

A leader in the synagogue comes to Jesus and says, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” (Matthew 9:18-19; 23-26) Jesus goes to his house, takes the dead girl by the hand and she rises from her couch. The man came to Jesus in faith. A woman with a bleeding problem for 12-years comes up behind Jesus and says to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” She touches the cloak, Jesus turns to her and says, “Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you.” She reached out in faith. (Matthew 9:20-22)

John had a problem. His theology had two heads, neither of which was compatible with the other. On the one hand he did all the right things, he believed all the right things and yet his heart was troubled. His father was a strict Anglican priest, and his mother was a dissenter. Suzanna Wesley might have been called a ‘charismatic’ in today’s language. At war in his heart was his need to keep the religious laws of his day over and against the deep spiritual conviction of salvation. This caused him problems. His church upbringing gave him a strict sense of how religious things are done and his mother’s teaching gave him a sense of the beauty of faith. For him, these two were incompatible and irreconcilable. With this battle going on in his soul, he

struggled with any assurance at all God had truly saved him. Jesus Christ has saved others surely, but perhaps not him. If Jesus had saved him, why then these warring thoughts deep within him.

John signs up to be chaplain for Oglethorpe's colony in Georgia. He wrote in his journal, “My chief motive is the hope of saving my own soul.” [2] On the way, a terrible storm rose and he witnessed embarked Moravians singing praises and hymns to God as the ship rose and fell, the wooden sides shuddering and the mast splintering. He sensed they had a deep and personal faith in God he lacked. Things didn’t go well in the colony; he got fired and went home in some disgrace. He did not find what he was looking for, faith still eluded him.

Returning to England he began to visit with Peter Boheler who advised him, "Preach faith till you have it, and then, because you have it you will preach faith." [3] (seedbed.com/feed/how-john-wesleys-means-of-grace-should-affect-our-christian-witness, 23 Feb, 2015).

On the evening of May 24th, 1738 he went “very unwillingly” to a study on Luther's Introduction to the Book of Roman's on Aldersgate Street in London. He wrote in his journal that night, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” [4] He surrendered in faith.
Saul was on his way to Damascus to continue in his mission to stamp out the fledgling Jesus movement he’d already battled in Jerusalem during which Stephen had been stoned for blasphemy (Acts 7:54-60) Suddenly, a bright light flashed around him and he heard a voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) And we know the rest of the story. Paul becomes the world’s first and greatest evangelist, writing 2/3’s of the New Testament and planting churches throughout the Roman empire. He obeyed in faith.

When we work through the book of Romans we see three major battles Paul’s fighting. Battles against incorrect, dangerous, and damaging theologies. Salvation by works, salvation through the covenant of circumcision, and salvation through the keeping of the law.
Paul’s like a surgeon, cleanly cutting his way through a disease that has plagued the Jews for centuries and is replacing this disease with the fresh living tissue which is Christ and His gospel.
We read in verses 13-15, "It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath."
Why does 'law' bring wrath? Our American culture is based on the rule of law. Paul’s saying, if our faith is in following a set of rules thinking if we just do this thing perfectly we will be perfect and gain salvation. But, if our faith is not placed in where or in whom it should be placed we find ourselves in same set of circumstances John Wesley and Paul of Tarsus found themselves. We find we’re incapable of fulfilling the law, and since the law is where our faith is placed, we will then be judged by the law. And since no one can keep any law perfectly, that same law then condemns us. Our faith must always be in God and in the work of Christ on the cross.
Notice Paul, the law means the Jewish Law, the Torah. For Wesley it was church law. Neither Torah nor church law has the power to save but only to condemn. Some may say, “I’m a good and moral person.” But good and moral are relative terms, neither has the divine ability to bring about our salvation.
If we think fulfilling some set of rules or regulations saves us then we tend to think we’re owed something and God doesn't owe us anything, it is we who owe Him.
Paul is showing us if we think we can achieve a saved status with God on our own fulfillment of some set rules on morality and not by faith in Him then we have some serious issues. This is the place Wesley found himself.
Paul shows us three consequences when we allow our set of beliefs in following some set of rules: First, faith has no value. We cut God right out of it saying, "I am the one who decides if I deserve to gain salvation and not God." Second, the promise is worthless; Living by law nullifies Gods promise to us to have righteousness imparted by our faith. We know we can’t live by the law perfectly so if this is what we’re putting our hope in we’re doomed. And, third, the law can only bring wrath; Trying to achieve a saved status by the law principle is that, instead of achieving salvation, all we actually achieve is wrath. If we live by the law then when we fail the perfection needed to accomplish it we die by the law. Faith establishes grace, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." (Eph 2:8) Faith makes salvation certain, God is in control, and if we have faith in that through Jesus Christ, we imperfect people can’t mess it up because God is perfect and He can’t mess anything up. Faith opens the door of salvation to all; No matter who we are or what we've done, none of it matters, all that matters is we have faith that Jesus Christ is our Lord and our Savior.
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." (Romans 4:18-22)
When life is at its worst and when we’re at our lowest, it’s our faith in the promise of Jesus the Christ which will bring our faith needs to its strongest. We will face trials and temptations. We will wander deep into those dark valleys. We will in our lives come against circumstances only faith in Christ can get us through.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4)
James tells us, when life is at its worst that's the time to be most joyful because our faith develops perseverance and our faith will then be even stronger. Knowing this brings joy in itself. This is why it's so critical to gather with the church worship. At our lowest we are surrounded by the people of God, by fellow Jesus-followers who hold us up when we can't hold our own selves up.
Nothing in this world can ever take away what God has given us through Jesus Christ. No matter what life throws at us it can’t take away the joy of knowing a loving and merciful God sent His own Son to die on the cross for us. This is a joy that overwhelms anything else life may dish out.
"This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’ The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness, for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."
Paul’s talking about being justified means the payment of our sins by Christ’s death on the cross cancels our past sins, present sins, and future sins. He’s also pointing out Christ’s resurrection. The resurrection is ultimate proof of Christ’s redeeming work on the cross. It's a testament to the truthfulness, faithfulness, love, mercy, grace and power of our God. None could ever say what He promised, was not accomplished.
God put a big exclamation point right at the end of it by the resurrection Christ so there could never be any doubt. Never a doubt that Christ, Christ alone is indeed our salvation, and he assures us he has taken away our sins, even ours and has saved us from the law of sin and death. [AMEN]

Sources:

[1] Psalm 32:1-2: The Joy of Forgiveness. Viewed on May 12, 2026 from: biblehub.com/psalms/32_htm.

[2] The Wesley Center Online: Chapter VI. Viewed on 10 May, 2026 from: Wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley_the_methodist/

[3] How John Wesley’s Means of Grace Should Inform our Christian Witness. Viewed on 23 February, 2015 from: https://seedbed.com/how-john-wesleys-means-of-grace-should-impact-our-christian-witness/

[4] Journal of John Wesley, Chapter 2. Viewed on 9 May, 2026 from: ccel.org/ccel/Wesley/journal/vi.ii.xvi.html

06/07/2026

Lots of Bible Studies going on at Fellowship! Three new ones beginning:
Today at 9:30- Romans
Monday at 5:30- Supper and an 8 week study, “One Nation Under God”
Thursday at 10:00- “Ecclesiastes; Chasing the Wind”

Open to everyone! Come join us!

05/31/2026

Our message today from Pastor Chuck:

May 31, 2006
On The Mountain
Matthew 28:16-20

The Christian life has been compared to a journey. Pilgrim’s Progress, written by John Bunyan in 1678 is a story of a man named ‘Christian’ who travels from ‘City of Destruction’ to ‘Celestial City’ and all the things that happen to him enroute. These things are things that happen to every human being whose ever lived. Christian is an everyman, just a common human on a journey. [1]
C.S. Lewis wrote ‘The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe’, an allegory of Christianity and one’s journey from no faith to faith as Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy find another world when crossing through an old wardrobe. Eventually they meet Aslan the Lion who is an image of Jesus. They go through all kinds of struggles and eventually are present when a deceased Alsan/Jesus comes back to life. [2]
And of course, J.R.R. Tolkien whose classic books ‘The Hobbit’ [3] and the ‘The Lord of The Rings’ [4] has his characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins swept up in a struggle against evil and at the penultimate moment when Gollum snatches the evil ring of power from Frodo’s finger, Eru Iluvatar steps in and (some say, as do I) causes Gollum’s plunge off the cliff and into the fires of Mt. Doom, destroying the evil contained the ring forever.
These are just books, stories that tell in an allegorical fashion how the journey of a Christian goes through ups and downs. Mountain tops to deep and dark valleys.
Melissa and I have done a lot of backpacking over the years. We’ve backpacked in the Rockies and several sections of the Appalachian Trail. There are essentially three surfaces one contends with on the trail. The first is a valley; bugs, many times wet or marshy ground, deep in woods, unable to see much more than just the trail you’re following, many times hard to find a good, level, dry place to pitch a tent.
The second is the mountain top; air is fresh and cool, fewer bugs, likely drier (unless it’s raining and then all bets are off!). One can see panoramas so beautiful it takes away ones breath. If it’s good weather, finding a good spot to pitch your tent can be easier.
The third type of terrain are relatively flat surfaces. These are between the valleys and the mountains. Not as marshy, humid, and wet as the valleys, and not as exposed as the tops of mountains. Easier hiking, but it’s just walking, nothing super-cool like the mountain top.
The Christian life is a whole lot of ups and downs, sometimes it’s uncomfortable, sometimes we just want to hang out on the flat ground where the going is easier, and sometimes our minds are blown by the beauty we see on the mountain top. We’ve gone through the seasons of the church over the past year beginning with the birth of Jesus, calling of the disciples, teachings about life in general and the life to come in particular, the mountain top experiences and the depths of the valleys misery. Just as with our backpacker, they couldn’t stay where they were, they had to go on through the ups and the downs of following Jesus.
Matthew records the final appearance of Jesus on a mountain. Maybe it was the Mt. of Transfiguration where Jesus met Moses and Elijah. Maybe it was the mountain where he taught the beatitudes. It’s not surprising Jesus told them to go to a mountain to meet him, God dealt with the great and important issues “on the mountain”.
Elevated settings symbolize closeness to God, authority, and divine presence. In Genesis 22:2 God spoke to Abraham on Mt. Moriah telling him to sacrifice his son Isaac, a theological foreshadowing Christ’s ultimate sacrifice.
In Exodus 19:20, God descends to the top of Mount Sinai and calls Moses to the summit. He receives the Ten Commandments, marking the establishment of the covenant between God and Israel.
Exodus 3:1-2 at Mt. Horeb, God spoke to Moses through the burning bush. This is the beginning of Moses’ calling to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. It becomes a place of divine revelation and instruction.
1 Kings 19:11-12, Elijah stood on Mount Horeb and heard God’s voice not in wind, earthquake, or fire, but in a ‘gentle whisper’. This emphasized God speaking in ways subtle yet profound.
1 Kings 18:38 on Mt. Carmel, God spoke through fire from heaven, consuming the sacrifice offered by Elijah and the false prophets of Baal. A dramatic demonstration of God’s power and authority.
Matthew 17:1-2, Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, revealing His divine glory; a revelation of God’s presence and approval of Jesus’ identity and mission.
In Matthew 5-7 The Sermon of the Mount. The setting elevated His words, his divine wisdom, and his divine authority.
Mountains in Scripture represent stability, permanence, and proximity to God. They’re places where God’s voice is heard clearly, whether in thunder, fire, rushing wind, or with quiet words, and where His will is revealed to humanity. God speaks from the tops of mountains like Sinai, Horeb, and Carmel, each carrying unique meanings, law, calling, revelation, judgment, and covenant. These encounters underscore the mountain’s role as a sacred space for a divine encounter with God.
Even today we speak about encounters with Jesus as being ‘mountain top’ experiences. Our own Christian journey is made up of many such moments. God’s presence is associated with mountains, so when Jesus has his last discourse with his followers, he goes to a mountain, and they have a mountain top experience.
The mountain-top experience is one in which we’ve had a moment of enlightenment, of exhortation, of explanation, a moment of divine inspiration. The thing is, we can’t stay there. Walking a flat surface with a backpack is pretty easy. Going down into a valley is tougher, the weight of the backpack drives us downhill putting pressure on our knees and our hips and our shoulders. Going up to the mountain is a little better but it’s still not like walking on flat ground. We have the driving force of knowing the mountain is going to offer some awesome views, some cool air, respite from bugs, and the sense of attaining something of import so that pushes us forward in anticipation.
Matthew tells us when they saw him they worshipped him. They worshipped him because now he is the risen Christ. Prior to this Jesus was regarded as Rabbi, as Teacher, as Master and Lord. Now he’s the risen Christ, now he’s Messiah. Now he’s worthy of their worship, worship that had been reserved for Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now he’s received all authority in heaven and earth. They’d never worshipped in this way before. Matthew says while worshipping some doubted. Even today, this is a truism; there are always some amongst the congregation who doubt for whatever reason. We all have moments of doubt, we wouldn’t be human without moments of doubt. Some of us might be down in the valley this morning, trying to find a dry spot to rest and fending off pesky bugs. Some of us might be on the mountain top and it’s all good, cool fresh air, no bugs, and awesome views. Some of are on our way down into the valley and the weight on our shoulders, knees, and hips is beginning to hurt. Some of us might be climbing a mountain, it’s tough, it’s steep, and it’s hard but, we know what’s ahead and it gives us strength.
We all have moments of doubt. No matter how strong our faith, there are still occasions for doubt. Some doubt the power of Christ over circumstances; some doubt his healing power; some doubt they’re worthy of being healed. Some may even doubt he’s risen from the tomb. Jesus said, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead,” (Luke 16:31).
Here’s the thing, and this is critical, even though some doubted, they were there. They showed up. Even in the midst of everything that’d gone on over the past three years, even after all the peaks and valleys and flat spots, they showed up. Even with the exhilaration, the fear and pain, and the humdrum of going on with life, they showed up. They showed up with a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ that carried them forward creating the most powerful and transforming movement in the history of humankind.
Allow me to take a moment reflect on some points of Christology. Christology is what we believe about Jesus Christ.
First, God the Father has given Jesus all authority in heaven and on earth. This supreme authority has been his from the very beginning. Jesus is God. He was with God from the beginning and it was through him everything was made. All of creation came into being through him. ( John 1:1-2)
Second, He chose to limit himself within a frail human body for a time and during that time he was in the Father, and the Father was in him. The life he lived as a human was lived by faith in God, his Father. Philippians 2:5–11 discusses his being of the same mind as God the Father.
The kind of life Jesus lived here on earth as a human being is the kind of life he wants us to live, to live every moment in the Father through faith in Jesus. Once he was raised from the dead and glorified he’s no longer limited by time and space, he can manifest his authority anywhere and anytime. He exhibits this authority by commissioning his followers to take the good news to all the world, promising them and us “…surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) The promise “I am with you” is the promise given by God to Joseph when the angel announced Jesus’ birth: (Matthew 1:23) Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him ‘Immanuel’, which means God with us.” “…surely I am with you…” affirms to all who follow and serve him: I will be with you; I will be your Immanuel.
Third, he reveals his plan. Because he’s been given all authority in heaven and on earth he can command, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the of the Holy Spirit…” Go into the world and make disciples. It’s of eternal consequence we understand what Jesus means when he commands us to make disciples. It’s not merely to make converts, or to make believers, or to make church members or to make Methodists, or Baptists or Anglicans, or whatever. We’re to make disciples by teaching them everything Jesus taught his disciples. A disciple is a pupil, a learner, a full time amateur student. One of the differences between Jesus’ disciples and the disciples of other Rabbi’s is Jesus’ disciples never graduate; they always remain learners of Jesus.
They were to baptize new believers, to cover them, to overwhelm them in God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It’s here we have specific mention of the Trinity. The Greek word ‘baptizo’ means to immerse or to submerge and can be likened to the sword maker who heats up the steel of the blade in the furnace and then plunges it into water in order that the steel may be tempered hard and strong for its task. Disciples are to be immersed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit so they may be fit for the task ahead just like the disciples and just like the sword. They need to be immersed into the believing, worshipping, and serving community of God’s people. A disciple must live in a believing community where they’re taught Christ, him crucified and risen from the dead.
Look, whether we’re on the flat trail just kinda hanging out, descending into a dark valley, or standing on top of the mountain know this: Christ being in the same mind as the Father lived among us teaching all we need to know in order to spread his message and offers us the Holy Spirit to enable us to traverse this difficult trail of Christianity with all of its ups and downs and struggles and victories. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” On this Trinity Sunday, know that you are loved by our great and glorious God the Father, saved by faith in God the Son, and powered into a life of evangelism by God the Holy Spirit regardless of where we are currently in our faith journey. [AMEN]
Sources:
[1] Bunyan, John. ‘The Pilgrim’s Progess’. Published by Desiring God, 2014. Minneapolis, MN
[2] Lewis, C.S. ‘The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe’. Published by Geoffery Bles, 1950. London, UK.

[3] Tolkien, J.R.R. ‘The Hobbit’. Published by George Allen and Unwin, 1937. London, UK

[4] Tolkien, J.R.R. ‘The Lord of The Rings’. Published by George Allen and Unwin, 1954-55. London, UK
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