(AUDIO) Steve Atkerson: Rethinking the Lord's Supper

Finally ... here is the audio from Sunday's session on the Lord's Supper by Steve Atkerson. With the mike on the podium, the quality is a bit better than our last try.

Click on the earphones icon below to listen. Or if you prefer, right click on the icon and select "Save Target As" to download the file to your computer. Either way, give it a little time ... it's a large file.





This link will take you to Steve's web site:

New Testament Restoration Foundation

Steve Atkerson with us this Sunday!

We are delighted to have Steve Atkerson (and family?) with us this Sunday, March 18. Steve will be teaching the Word during our ministry time.




Steve lives in north Georgia with his wife, Sandra, and their three home-schooled children.

Steve graduated from Georgia Tech and worked in industrial electronics before heading off to seminary. After receiving a Master of Divinity degree from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, served on the pastoral staff of a Southern Baptist Church. After seven years in the traditional pastorate, he resigned to begin working with churches that desire to follow apostolic traditions in their church practice. He travels and teaches as the Lord opens doors of opportunity.

Steve is an elder at the home church he helped start in 1990, is president of the New Testament Restoration Fellowship, edited Toward A House Church Theology, is author of both The Practice of the Early Church: A Theological Workbook and The Equipping Manual, and is editor of and a contributing author to Ekklesia: To The Roots of Biblical House Church Life.

Steve has spent many years studying and teaching the New Testament pattern for the church. So bring all those questions you've been saving up about church life, worship, ministry, and leadership!

We may not agree with Steve on every detail, but we do emphatically agree that the New Testament pattern for churches is not merely descriptive, but prescriptive. That is, it is meant not to be studied as a curiosity but to be followed by churches in every time and locale. We also agree that the normal way of "doing church" in America has strayed a long ways from the simplicity and beauty of the scriptural pattern.

As of now (though this could change), Steve is planning to teach on the subject of the Lord's Supper. Prepare to have your views about this vital ordinance challenged and sharpened.

Sunday Ministry Recap (Mar. 11)

Scripture Focus:

Genesis 19 - The Destruction of Sodom

Key Thoughts Shared by Various Brothers:

"And Lot sat in the gate of Sodom" (19:1) ... the gate being the place of influence and governance. Note Lot's progression ... first he looked at Sodom, then pitched his tent toward Sodom, then moved into the city, then apparently became a person of note in the city, and finally had to be pulled out of it. We need to remain "tent" dwellers, like Abraham, and not become too much at home in the world.

Homosexuality is repeatedly referred to in Scripture as an abomination to God. It is not only wicked, but is a measuring stick of a society's decadence. This sin so completely extinguishes every glimmer of moral light God has given even the natural, unsaved man (see Romans 1), that it plunges a society that embraces it into moral confusion.

We need not fret when the wicked seem to prevail and prosper ... God is still the sovereign Judge and will take care of things. Sadly, the raining of fire and brimstone in this passage is merely a foreshadowing of the more fearsome enternal judgment to come on the wicked.

"Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape there (is it not a little one?)" (19:20). We must be careful of "negotiating down" with sin and with the Lord ... using the extreme evil of one thing as an excuse for settling on a lesser evil ... for instance, justifying watching a questionable movie because it is "not nearly as bad" as another one.

"Abraham got up early ... and he looked toward Sodom." (19:27,28). As Abraham saw the smoke rising from the ruins of Sodom, it appeared as though his fervent intercession from the previous day was all for nothing. But this never is the case. God often will: (1) Answer our intercession in ways we won't know about till we get to heaven (Abraham found out later that Lot had indeed been spared); or (2) answer in a way different than what we asked (Abraham asked for the sparing of the cities; God brought Lot out instead). Even when our prayers appear to be in vain, God may have used them in a powerful way.

"God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow" (19:29). In this Abraham is a type of Christ. God remembers Christ and saves us.

Next week: Steve Atkerson.

Sunday Ministry Recap (Mar. 4)

Scripture Focus:

Genesis 18 - Angelic Visitors; Abraham's Intercession

Key Thoughts Shared by Various Brothers:

Qualities of Abraham's character: (1) He was conscious of God ... when God came Abraham recognized Him for who He was. (2) He faithfully taught his children and his household. (3) He was humble ... humility and meekness are not incompatible with being a strong father. (4) He was a worshipper ... bowed before the Lord. (5) He was an intercessor ... as priests we can have the same boldness that Abraham did to look God in the eye and plead for others ... "come boldly to the throne of grace."

"Therefore are ye come to your servant" (18:5). We ought to view those whom God brings into our lives (either "chance" meetings out in the world or our relationships in the home and church) as having been put there for the purpose that we might be a blessing and refreshment to them.

"Shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" (18:12). When the Holy Spirit cites this incident in 1 Peter 3:6, he mercifully reaches into this sordid scene of unbelief and dissimulation on Sarah's part and makes note of the one thing praiseworthy ... that in the midst of her unbelieving words she refers to her husband with respect and honor. This ought to give us hope and comfort about standing before the judgment seat of Christ. We need to similarly look for things to praise about our children, our spouse, our brothers and sisters in the assembly ... and focus on those things.

"Then Sarah denied ... for she was afraid" (18:15). Fear makes it difficult to be honest about ourselves. We all need people in our lives that we can be accountable to and honest with concerning our failures.

Lord supper meditation: The "new covenant in my blood" ... a comparison between the new covenant and a legally valid will (Heb. 9:15-22).

Next week: Genesis 19.

A Merciful God and the Destruction of Sodom

I should have the ministry recap from last Sunday up soon. Meanwhile, here are some intriguing thoughts on this week's Scripture passage by English pastor and author, F. B. Meyer (1847-1929).

Meyer notes four reasons why a loving, merciful God was justified in destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.

(Illustration by Gustave Dore)

(1) It was a merciful warning to the rest of mankind.

The lesson of the Flood had well-nigh faded from the memory of man, and heedless of restraint, the human family had made terrible advances in the course of open shameless vice--so much so that there seemed an imminent danger of men repeating the abominable crimes that had opened the sluices of the Deluge. It was surely, therefore, wise and merciful to set up a warning, which told its own terrible story, and reminded transgressors that there were limits beyond which the Judge of all the earth would not permit them to go. God's warnings have a merciful intention, even where they are unheeded.

(2) In this terrible act, the Almighty simply hastened the result of their own actions.

Nations are not destroyed until they are rotten at the core, as the northeast wind which snaps the forest trees only hastens the result for which the borer-worm had already prepared. It would have been clear to any thoughtful observer who ventured out after dark in Sodom that it must inevitably fall. Unnatural crime had already eaten out the national heart, and in the ordinary course of events, utter collapse could not be long delayed.

(3) This overthrow only happened after careful investigation.

"I will go down now and see." God does not act hastily, nor upon hearsay evidence. He must see for Himself if there may not be some mitigating or extenuating circumstances. This deliberation is characteristic of God. He is unwilling that any should perish. He is slow to anger. He tells us that some day, when we come to look into His doings, we shall be comforted concerning many of the evils which He has brought on the world, because we shall know that He has not done "without cause" all that He has done. (Ezekiel 14:23)

(4) During the delay, many a warning was sent.

First, there was the conquest by Chedorlaomer, some twenty years before. Then there was the presence of Lot, which was enfeebled by his inconsistencies, but was still a protest on behalf of righteousness. Finally, there was the deliverance and restoration by the energetic interposition of Abraham. Again and again had God warned the men of these cities of their inevitable doom, if they did not repent.

[From Abraham, or the Obedience of Faith, by F. B. Meyer. Christian Literature Crusade.]