New Testament Renewal Fellowship (NTRF.org)

Steve Ack

The newest sermons from NTRF.org on SermonAudio.

  1. Jul 22

    Fun Song About Early Church Practice, by Michael Gatti w/PDF poster

    Welcome to today's exciting guide to apostolic church patterns. Please keep your arms and theological objections inside the vehicle at all times. Plural elders, somebody asked why you've got 17 assistant pastors and a CEO. The book of Titus just quietly stares at you from across the room. Weekly communion! Try serving it in tiny plastic cups while the worship team launches into their 18th consecutive key change. The apostles are slightly confused. Consensus! Everybody gets to speak. Everybody gets heard. Nobody gets voted off the island. What a bizarre first century concept. Participatory meetings, everybody brings a hymn, a teaching, a testimony, except Larry. Larry brought another fog machine. That's your church pattern today. That's your church pattern today. That's your church pattern today. That's your church pattern today. That's your church pattern today. That's your church pattern today. Church size. If you need binoculars to identify your pastor, Paul might have needed GPS to find Timothy. The Lord's Supper. Somebody says it's symbolic. Somebody else says it's spiritual. Meanwhile, Paul's wondering why supper stopped looking like, well, supper. Plural elders. One pastor is easier to idolize. Five pastors keep each other humble. Imagine that. Traditions. Everybody says, we don't follow traditions. Then everybody sits in rows, faces one stage, starts at 10, ends at noon, and argues about carpet color. Congratulations, you have successfully invented new traditions. That's your church pattern today. That's your church pattern today. Somebody quotes Corinthians. Somebody quotes Calvin. Somebody quotes YouTube. Guess which one gets shared the most.

  2. Jul 7

    1 Timothy 6:1-2 How to Be A Christian Slave + PDF Discussion Guide NTRF.org

    How was Roman slavery different from American slavery in the 1800s? Both were "chattel" slavery. In real estate lingo, chattels are moveable items a seller takes with him—such as livestock. The word "chattel" comes from the French word for cows (you can hear it in the related word, "cattle"). All enslaved people in the Roman Empire were considered "chattel," meaning they were legally categorized as absolute property with few legal rights, could not refuse labor, and were treated as commodities that could be bought, sold, traded, or inherited (just like cattle). The differences are that: 1) American slavery was race-based, whereas Roman slavery usually came as the result of conquest, debt, or being born into it. 2) Roman slavery had a much more accessible legal pathway to freedom (Roman slaves were generally permitted to do outside work for pay, and were often able to save enough to buy their freedom). 3) Roman slaves were often much better educated than their masters, and were commonly entrusted with huge responsibilities. In contrast, it was illegal to educate American slaves. Thomas Sowel: "Although slavery was a worldwide institution for thousands of years, nowhere in the world was slavery a controversial issue prior to the 18th century. People of every race and color were enslaved—and enslaved others. White people were still being bought and sold as slaves in the Ottoman Empire, decades after American blacks were freed." Modern Application: For all practical purposes, slavery has been illegal in the United States since 1865. Unless a Christian is in prison, the closest application we can make today for this text is to the employee/employer relationship (or per

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The newest sermons from NTRF.org on SermonAudio.