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OUR ROOTS
An Enduring Beacon
The Antioch Church of Christ in Milton is one of the oldest congregations in Rutherford County, with its history deeply intertwined with the restoration movement in Middle Tennessee. As a prominent Christian church, it serves as a vital faith community and place of worship for many.
Historical Foundations
Organized in 1833 by Barton W. Stone, the Antioch Church of Christ stands as a historic cornerstone of Rutherford County's faith community. This Christian church continues to worship in its original 1854 building, which was constructed on land generously donated by Jacob Wright. After modernizations in 1954 and 1966, this cherished Place of Worship remains beautifully preserved today.
Antebellum Survival
Antebellum Survival
By 1860, Antioch was one of just four Church of Christ congregations in Rutherford County. While the Civil War devastated many local sanctuaries, Antioch’s 1854 meetinghouse survived completely intact. Today, this active congregation still worships inside this rare, pre-war landmark.
The Romans Road Guide
The Context Behind the Letter: Why Paul Wrote Romans
Understanding why the Apostle Paul wrote this letter makes its theological roadmap even clearer. Written around 57 AD, the Epistle to the Romans was addressed to a church experiencing intense cultural and religious friction.
- A Divided Church: Roman Emperor Claudius had previously expelled all Jewish residents from Rome. When they returned years later, they found a church run entirely by Gentile (non-Jewish) believers. This created deep divisions over traditions, customs, and laws.
- A Level Playing Field: Paul wrote Romans to prove that everyone stands on equal ground before God. In the opening chapters, he systematically argues that neither religious heritage nor worldly philosophy makes anyone superior. All have sinned, and all require the exact same Savior.
- Legal Clarity for a Roman Audience: Because Rome was the center of the world's most sophisticated legal system, Paul purposely used courtroom and financial terminology—such as justification (acquittal), wages (payment), and redemption (buying back freedom)—to explain spiritual truths in a language Roman citizens perfectly understood.
Because this letter so logically and beautifully dismantles human pride while offering a clear remedy for our brokenness, its core chapters provide the ultimate step-by-step guide to reaching salvation.
The Romans Road to Salvation: A Comprehensive Study Guide
This guide traces the theological journey of the Gospel through Paul’s letter to the Romans. Follow these scripture passages to discover the biblical path to peace with God.
🛑 Part 1: The Human Problem (The Reality of Sin)Before we can appreciate good news, we must understand our spiritual condition. Paul establishes that no human is inherently innocent.
- Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
- Romans 3:10: "As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one.'"
- Romans 5:12: "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned."
- Romans 1:20: Explains that God’s creation leaves humanity "without excuse" for ignoring Him.
Summary: This first step establishes that sin is a universal human condition, leaving everyone spiritually broken and separated from a holy God, regardless of their background.
🛑 Part 2: The Divine Penalty (The Consequence of Sin)Sin is not a minor mistake; it carries a legal weight under God’s holy justice.
- Romans 6:23a: "For the wages of sin is death..."
- Romans 2:5: Warns against a hardened heart that is "storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath."
- Romans 7:24: Captures human helplessness: "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"
Summary: Because God is perfectly just, He cannot overlook wrongdoing. The ultimate earning or penalty for human sin is spiritual death and eternal separation from Him.
🛑 Part 3: God’s Loving Provision (The Solution)We cannot earn our way out of our spiritual debt. God proactively intervened while we were completely helpless.
- Romans 5:8: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
- Romans 6:23b: "...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
- Romans 5:6: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
- Romans 4:25: "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."
Summary: Rather than leaving humanity to pay its own debt, God demonstrated His love by sending Jesus Christ to die in our place and rise again, offering eternal life as a completely free gift.
🛑 Part 4: The Personal Response (Faith and Surrender)Belief requires a personal choice to trust in Jesus’ sacrifice and publicly declare His authority over your life.
- Romans 10:9: "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
- Romans 10:10: "For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."
- Romans 10:13: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
- Romans 4:5: "However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness."
- Romans 10:17: "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ."
Summary: Salvation is received not by human effort or good works, but by personally trusting in Christ's resurrection, surrendering your heart to Him, and openly confessing Him as Lord.
🛑 Part 5: The Immediate & Eternal Results (Our New Reality)Once we respond in faith, our legal standing before God changes completely, offering permanent safety and a transformed life.
- Romans 5:1: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
- Romans 8:1: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
- Romans 8:38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life... nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
- Romans 12:1-2: Directs us to live a changed life: "...offer your bodies as a living sacrifice... be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
Summary: True faith brings immediate peace with God, permanent freedom from condemnation, absolute security in His love, and a daily, lifelong transformation of mind and character.
The Antioch Weekly
July 26, 2026 | Volume 12, Issue 29
►WELCOME VISITORS
• If you are visiting with us today, you are our honored guest! We do not have a complex philosophy or human traditions to sell you. We are simply a group of Christians who open up the Bible and study God's Word exactly as it is written. Please stick around for a few minutes after the final amen so we can shake your hand, answer any questions you might have, and properly welcome you to the family here at Antioch.
• Sunday Worship: 10:00 AM
• Children's Bible Class: 11:00 AM
📦 The Great Foyer Stampede: Zero Excuses Left!
Attention Antioch! The local community has been officially divided into strategic neighborhood zones. Stacks of localized street routes and shiny new visitor welcome letters are currently sitting on the foyer table, practically begging you to pick them up. The best part? The church treasury already took the financial hit for the postage. That means your wallet is totally safe, and you legally cannot use "the soaring price of stamps" as a spiritual excuse to avoid your neighbors this week. We have completely cleared out your financial roadblocks. Do not sneak past the foyer table today without selecting a route and taking a packet to mail. Let's work together to make sure every single mailbox in our community gets a clear, unyielding invitation to come and study the Bible with us!
◆ WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL
• The Fact of Truth & The Spirit: Human traditions and subjective emotions often drive people to seek modern, evolving revelations or personalized "words from the Lord" to dictate their faith. But according to written Scripture, the Holy Spirit has already delivered the complete, objective body of divine truth. True prophecy never originated from human imagination, nor does it bend to fit changing cultural moods. To guard yourself against religious fiction, you must look past your internal feelings and anchor your mind strictly in the unyielding, unchangeable text that God has already signed in ink.
◆ WEEKLY SCRIPTURE MEMORY
• Adult Verse - 2 Peter 1:20-21: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
• Bible Class Verse - John 16:13: "...he will guide you into all truth..." [1]
◆ WEEKLY BIBLE READING PLAN
• Monday: John 16:1–15 (The Spirit guides into ALL truth)
• Tuesday: 2 Peter 1:12–21 (Prophecy never came by the will of man)
• Wednesday: Revelation 22:10–21 (The strict warning against adding to the text)
• Thursday: Galatians 1:6–12 (The danger of seeking a modified or modern gospel)
• Friday: Jude 1–4 (Contending for the faith once for all delivered)
• Saturday: 2 Timothy 3:14–17 (Written Scripture completely equips the believer)
◆ CURRENT SERMON SERIES: BY THE BOOK, NOT THE BREATH
Join us as we bypass human traditions and look strictly at what the text says about the Holy Spirit.
• Series Overview: Week 1: The Blueprint vs. The Breeze | Week 2: The Ink vs. The Vibe | Week 3: The Anchor vs. The Wave.
Next Sunday: Week 2
• Sermon Title: The Ink vs. The Vibe
• Main Text: John 16:13 / 2 Peter 1:20-21
• Big Idea: The Holy Spirit speaks through the objective, completed written text of the Bible, not through evolving human feelings or modern prophecies.
• Devotional Cliff Note: Stop chasing modern "vibes" or changing emotional waves; anchor your faith completely in the unchanging truth God already signed in ink.
■ PRAYER & PRAISE
• Intercessions: Please keep our congregation, our shut-ins, and all those currently facing health struggles, trials, or spiritual difficulties in your daily prayers this week. Pray for comfort, strength, and patience for our members and their families as they recover, heal, and navigate life's challenges.
• Celebrations & Thanks: We want to express our profound gratitude for the incredible kindness, love, and support shown within our church family. We are especially thankful to share that several of our members are currently healing and doing well after recent health trials. Whether through encouraging words, cards, or acts of service, the generosity of this congregation continues to be a wonderful blessing to those navigating difficult seasons or celebrating answered prayers. Thank you for working together to show Christ's love in action!
■ PREACHER'S NOTE
• The Grass is Always Longer
While taking a turn behind our electric push mower this past week, I found myself watching the machine trace out the property line in our yard. It didn’t take long before my thoughts wandered from standard yard care over to the world of modern tech gadgets. As I watched the mower quietly cruise along the grass, I had an unexpected epiphany: why guess where to push when a fully automated, robotic lawn mower can follow a pre-programmed perimeter entirely on its own? The sudden realization that we can let an unchangeable electronic boundary do all the calculating while we watch safely from the comfort of the air conditioning was incredibly eye-opening.
It is easy to get worn out when we rely entirely on our own limited, internal tracking to navigate life. Spiritually, many people approach the Holy Spirit the same way—manually trying to figure things out based on changing human traditions, subjective feelings, and emotional guesswork. Next Sunday, we continue our series, By the Book, Not the Breath, with our second sermon: The Ink vs. The Vibe. We are going to see that the Holy Spirit has already set a permanent, objective boundary for our faith in the completed pages of Scripture. Let’s stop trying to manually map our own path and lean completely on the clear, written perimeter God has already provided. See you next week!
💻Scan & Connect: Our Digital Space
• Go Digital: View our digital bulletin and sermons online at antiochchurchofchrist.com—and share the link with others!
• Privacy Note: To protect our members, personal names are omitted from our news sections as this bulletin is published online.
✉CONTACT & INFORMATION
Joe Rice: 615-904-5446
Website: antiochchurchofchrist.com
