To connect with a culture, we have to speak the language of that culture.
The 1st Century Church was filled with the spirit and also connected to the culture around them. This is something that is missing in the 21st century.
There are 1st century churches that are filled with the Spirit, but fail to communicate with the culture of the 21st century. There are 21st century churches that communicate expertly to their culture, but lack the book of Acts Spirit Power.  We are called to do both, to be 1st century connecting with the 21st century.
The Apostle Paul went into different cultures and was able to communicate the Gospel to the new audience. There were times when Paul did not quote Old Testament prophets, but instead quoted the poetry and writings of the culture. It is necessary to have the Gospel message, but it is also necessary to deliver that TRUE message to the culture around us.

1st Century Church 5 Culture Connection from Redemption Church on Vimeo.
 
1st Century Church 21st Century World 5 – Culture Connection
Sermon notes by Chris Fluitt
Redemption Church Plano Tx
Welcome
Mission
To declare the good news of Jesus and see others become followers of Christ.
Vision
1st century church connecting with a 21st century world
We are investigating 6 values we find in book of Acts Church.
Week 1 – They were all about Jesus
Week 2 – They experienced & expected Spiritual Transformation
Week 3 – They lived in Community
Week 4 – They were Mission focused.
 
Today in week 5 we want you to see that the 1st Century Church was CONNECTED TO CULTURE.
Connected to Culture
 
We live in a 21st century world. This world is fast paced. This world is complex.
I am 37 years old and I often feel like I am desperately trying to catch up to a 21st century world.
Text messaging, emails, social media Facebook, Twitter, snap chat, Instagram, VIDEO CHAT, CLOUD FILE SHARING, LIVE STREAMING HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO, BLUETOOTH, WIFI, 4G SIGNALS.
These are all things that barely existed when even I was growing up, but now they are the language of the age.
To connect with a culture, we have to speak the language of that culture.
We need to speak the language of young people and the next generation. We need to speak the language of the foreigner. We need to speak the language of the person who is not sure there is a God. We need to speak the language of the inner city & the suburbs.
We have a message to bring, but can we communicate it?
Schauer Fam
We are blessed to have Stan & Junia Schauer in this Church. They spent many years as missionaries in South America. I love to hear their stories of infiltrating new areas and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you have never heard their stories then you are missing out.
In order to come into that South American culture and successfully transmit the message of Jesus, THEY HAD TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE.
This couple helped translate the Bible for new cultures. Some biblical themes are not all that easy to translate. FAITH is one such word that was hard to describe to a foreign culture. And that is the case when they tried to witness to the Yukuna Indian Tribe in Columbia.
YUKUNA
Instead of crudely forcing a new word on tribal people, Junia & Stan listened to the people. I find this so fascinating. I also think it is a picture of the good news of God’s love.
They listened to the stories of people. They learned about their traditions. They learned about their failures and victories, fears and dreams. (This is counter intuitive, because we often think we need to only get the information about Jesus out and not take in the information of the individual.)
Stan told a story about a man that had fallen into a pit that he could not escape from and how a m...