The Challenges to Christianity: Indifference

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives . Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And, he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, April the 29th. I'm Mark and I'm working on some coffee. I've got some sermon notes and I certainly am ready to talk about daily vibrating with you. Before I do all of that, lemme just give a shout out to the folks in Odessa, Texas to people in Fort Smith , Arkansas to people in Kentucky. Just have met a lot of people over the last couple of weeks as I've been in gospel meetings, people in Roswell, Georgia who listen to the podcast and while the podcast is starting with and is designed for the folks at the West Side Church here where I preach and work, it's listened to by a lot of people outside of the West Side Church of Christ who want some help with their daily Bible reading and they want to keep up with daily Bible reading, get some news and notes about that to help them along the way. And it's just great to meet you and and to be with brethren in other places and someone come up and say, Hey, I listened to the podcast. It's helping me. That really means a lot and I'm just encouraged by that in so many ways. So the spring meeting season is over and not, not going to get out much more this spring for meeting people and going places, but I just wanted to say hello and just say to all the people in the last couple of weeks who've encouraged me so much about this podcast, I really do appreciate it. It means an awful lot. Let's all grab a cup of coffee. And let's think a little bit about that sermon from yesterday, the sermon in the series, challenges to Christianity. Yesterday I continued the preaching theme for 2024 challenges to Christianity. And as I said at the outset, we often think of that in very many ways to, in many ways to be associated with persecution, people making a direct frontal assault, denying the truths of Christianity, assaulting what we believe, saying we shouldn't even be believing that this was a very different kind of lesson. Then to talk about the challenge of the indifferent, that's a rising segment in our population. It's a new kind of thing. We really haven't dealt with a lot of people who just don't think religion is part of their lives or should be part of their lives. They don't need it. They don't feel the need for that. That is not something historically in the United States that's been an issue actually historically in the world. That has not been something that's been an issue. So it's important for us to track that and to think about that. And while a lot of these lessons are designed very much to invite someone come in here , come and here the other side, I know that you don't believe in Christianity. You don't think Jesus rose from the dead. You don't think the Bible's the word of God. Here's the evidence for that. Come and think about that. This was really more for Christians to think about how they live and conduct themselves, what kind of things that we can do to reach the indifferent. And so here's an additional note if that resonated with you, if that's important to you. A bunch of that came from a book called the Nuns, N-O-N-E-S . Not Catholic nuns, but the nuns by a man named Ryan Burge , B-U-R-G-E. He teaches political science at Eastern Illinois University. He's also the pastor of an American Baptist church that's a little bit different flavor than Southern Baptist. It's a very small church and he does a lot of statistical work. And a couple years ago he noticed the rise of the nuns. These people who say I , I don't have any religious preference, I don't have any religion deed , none of the above. He's the one that coined that term. And he tweeted out that there were now as many nuns as there are Catholics in America. And somebody else retweeted that and someone else retweeted that. And then more people retweeted it. And by the next day it went super viral. And various news services were calling saying, wait , are , are you serious? There's as many nuns. What , what ? What are you talking about? And so next thing you know, he's on Good Morning America. He's on CNN, he's on Fox News. He ends up putting that into a book and and really he's kind of become the expert in this area. And that book is what got me started thinking about folks who aren't anti-religious, they just are not religious themselves and the book has tons and tons of data far more than I could possibly cover in a sermon. For example, one in six of the nuns, the not interested in religion people, they will move toward Christianity in the next four year period. Those people are in flux and they are gonna move. We want to help them move. So I would urge you to read his book. It's called The Nuns by Ryan Burge . It's in the second edition. Now he's a good follow on social media. He writes a paid article on Substack on Mondays and Fridays as well. But more than anything, like I said, if you have interest in that, if that resonated with you, go read his book, follow Him, get more information about that. It is a growing trend, particularly among young people, something that we just need to be even more aware of. You may not have been aware of that at all until yesterday's sermon, but more than anything I'd urge that we pay attention to what's happening around us all the time. What are the trends in society? Where is everybody going? What's everybody thinking so that we can respond to that in the best way with the gospel? Hope that sermon helped you yesterday. Let's go read in the book of Acts because some things were changing in their society and the trends were running in a different direction. Let's read in Acts chapter eight. Welcome to Monday. Today we read Acts chapter eight verses one to 13. If you skip the introduction 'cause you weren't interested in sermon notes, we are in Acts chapter eight verses one to 13, and this is a news segment in the book of Acts. Previously everything has been based in Jerusalem. We are moving out of the city. And it is interesting to me that how that, how the persecution here is used by God for good. That doesn't make the persecution good, that doesn't make it good. No, it just shows that God can use anything and everything to accomplish his purposes and there isn't anything that's gonna stop the gospel. That's a huge theme in the book of Acts of course, and it begins with Saul verse one, Saul approved of his execution. So Saul becomes a giant figure in the book of Acts and of course in the New Testament, and I think one of the things that we see here already is that he's a farsighted person who can put some things together. He sees the incompatibility of Christianity and Judaism right away. Now if you're wondering what happened to Steven and why did we jump like that, remember this is a reading about Peter and this is a reading about John. And so we move forward in the text to continue Peter and John's story and maybe part of that then is since there's this great persecution, everybody bails outta Jerusalem except verse one, the apostles and why didn't they leave and how did they get to stay? And there's a lot about that we just don't understand. In fact, in the very next verse, devout men, verse two, buried Stephen , who are those guys? If the Christians all are out who's burying Stephen , that may have been some people who didn't agree with his execution, although Judaism, Judaism substantially frowns on burial rights and doing good things for bad people who are then dead. So these men would be risking public censure , maybe even risking their lives being part of it. Not sure I understand or that we can understand where the apostles are during this time and why they were not specifically targeted. But Saul is just tearing the church apart. Verse three, ravaging is a word that's used of wild animals attacking somebody. And most importantly, verse three, the term church there is Ecclesia and that is Luke's term to represent the church as the Israel of God. It's the term used in the Greek Old Testament, the SEP agent to refer to the congregation of the Israelites. And so here Luke is implying that Saul is opposing the true Israel of God. And I think a big bit of big piece of this is when somebody says, Hey, that guy got converted to Christianity, your initial reaction should be, no, no, there's no way somebody like this could be converted. And I think Luke is emphasizing how harrah while Saul is so that his conversion story will stand out even more and that takes us then to verse five, Philip went down to the city of Samaria . Luke has talked before about one of the seven. That's Steven . And now we get another one of that group Philip , and this can't be Philip the apostle. He ends up sending for apostle so he is not an apostle and he goes to Samaria and that ought to really catch our attention because I would not think that's where he would go. At all Samaritans and Jews had deep seated and longstanding hatred for each other. This is a thousand year old breach and there's all kinds of problems between them. They did not accept, Samaritans did not accept the entire Old Testament. The Samaritans were not allowed to help rebuild the Jerusalem temple in the fifth century that some of that's in Nehemiah chapter two. As a result, they built their own temple on Mount Garrison. There's a reference to that in John chapter four. They joined with the Sids in the Maccabean wars of 1 67 BC that were trying to destroy Judaism. Uh, there was a famous Jewish leader, John Kinni , he raised their temple but burned it down In 1 27 BC John Kinni was ruling in Judea from 1 34 to 1 0 4. This is all timed between the testament, but that it's all the background between Samaritans and Jews and their relationship. The feelings were so strong that the Samaritans turned down Herod's offer to rebuild their temple when they learned that he was also renovating the Jerusalem temple. So the Jews hate the Samaritans and the Samaritans are glad to return that favor and here comes the gospel which just shows us a , this is a big step in that idea of the gospel being for all. And when the gospel gets to Samaria , it meets magic. There was a man, verse nine, Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city. This is the first time the gospel encounters magic. And we will see that several times in the Book of Acts. We want to remember that magic is a real thing in the New Testament world. This isn't sleight of hand stuff, this isn't song a lady in half the kind of tricks that we see in a magic show. This man is a warlock. He's a wizard. He is attempting to manipulate and influence spiritual powers to call up the dead, to to work dark forces, to do his bidding. And that is very real. In the New Testament world, we're kind of sophisticated and say, oh , that doesn't really work. You can't really do that. But this is viewed as a significant power in New Testament times and the gospel's going to take on that power and we need to see who's going to win. This is a fight between the devil and Jesus between light and darkness. Who's going to win here? And so it seems like verse 13, even Simon himself believe the gospel is triumphing. Please notice here that the preaching of Jesus, verse 12 involves a couple of things. The kingdom Israel is being reconstituted under Jesus. Jesus is the king. We give our allegiance to king Jesus. It then also includes the name verse 12, the name of Jesus Christ. That's his, his authority as king and it absolutely includes baptism. Baptism is part of preaching the kingdom because it is the entrance into the kingdom. It is the way that we give our allegiance, our faith and trust result in in include our works, our doing, our obedience to Jesus Christ the king. Tomorrow we pick up in verse 14, what's going to happen when there's a straight up conflict between this magician, an important and influential man and the gospel. I'll see you on Tuesday. It is Tuesday and today we read Acts eight verse 14 to 25. Here is where the battle between magic and the gospel comes to a full head in verse 14, the apostles sin to Samaria , Peter and John. There's our guys . There's the ones that we are reading about and it shows unity from the church in Jerusalem even though there is longstanding tension and even hatred and sometimes violence between these two groups, Samaritans and Jews. Here comes Christians to say we are one in Christ. In verse 14 is the last mention of John in the book of Acts and someone along here is going to remember that John with his brother James, wanted to destroy Samaritan villages in Luke chapter nine verses 52 to 55. And now here comes John bringing spiritual gifts to these Samaritans. And that of course is exactly what's going on. Verse 17, they laid their hands on them and then received the Holy Spirit. This is in this context clearly the receiving of spiritual gifts. Philip has spiritual gifts but he cannot impart them. And so you need an apostle to receive spiritual gifts. And I think one of the things that we ought to note as we look at the whole council of God try to put together all of scripture is that when Paul talks about various spiritual gifts in one Corinthians 12, he never mentions the ability to give gifts as one of the gifts. No, you can only get gifts from an apostle, you can have that gift yourself, but you could not transmit that to anyone else. That is powerful evidence that spiritual gifts were not meant to be a forever thing, that they were going to be replaced with something. Paul says the word of God, he talks about that and for Corinthians and that the spiritual gifts were designed to diminish. And so here's a just a good illustration, a good look at how that worked in the New Testament world, you need an apostle. So people who wanna claim spiritual gifts for today, they need an apostle to lay their hands on them to give that spiritual gift to them in verse 19. Then you get this idea that Philip thinks of this kind of as an inside trade secret, that these men know something that others don't know and he treats this very much like, like one wizard or one warlock would would treat that coming from another. Hey, tell me, tell me how you did that incantation, how you made all that smoke appear. What ? What did you use to do that? How does all of that work? And of course there's no inside secret here and there's nothing here that can be purchased with money. What would Simon have done if he could have handed off spiritual gifts? Hey, for so much money, I'll give you the ability to do healing. Hey, if you , how many shekels have you got? Would you like to speak in tongues? Wow, what a disaster that would be for the kingdom because signs are designed to confirm the gospel and if any random person can buy a sign, then it blunts the force of the signs. One commentator noted that magic is about control and manipulation. It's controlling and manipulating an audience or it's controlling and manipulating occult forces. And so there is no room for grace, no room for a free gift in magic. That's worth thinking about, isn't it? And I do think we get a little bit of Luke's polemic against money. He's always attacking money as being a problem If we let it, at least it can get in the way of our discipleship. Finally then verse 23, I see you're in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity gall here is a bitter fluid secreted by your, by your liver I think it is or bile. And maybe sometime you've been really sick and you end up spitting that up and it tastes terrible and so forth. The idea here is bitter poison and it's out of Deuteronomy 29 and 18 and that the imagery there is about going after idols and leading others to do the same. And so Simon, you're you're ruining others and you're ruining yourself. And there is no way to get around the fact that Simon is a Christian and he has sinned in such a way as to be lost if he's not a Christian, Peter would've said, you need to be converted. You need to be baptized for the mission of your sins. There is no way around it. Simon is a Christian, Simon has sinned grievously, and Peter says to him, you're in the bond of iniquity and that this is wickedness and you need to pray and ask the Lord to forgive you. So we'll talk more about that tonight. West siders in Zoom, this is a full section, can talk more about the transmission of gifts of the Holy Spirit, Simon, and what he's doing and why he did this. What's so wrong about this? Peter just turns on him with just venom. It is clear something is really out of place here. We'll talk more about that tonight in our zoom call. Those of you who are not part of website, I'll see you tomorrow as we continue in the reading in the book of Acts west side . See you tonight on Zoom at seven. It is Wednesday, it's hump day. And please notice carefully that we are moving in the text. Our reading today is in Acts chapter nine verses 32 to 43. And if you're wondering why we jumped, it's because this year we're following Peter and John. We are not following the Apostle Paul. So we jumped his conversion. Don't worry, don't worry about that. We gave Paul plenty of attention in 2022. We spent the year with the apostle Paul, so it's all good, it's all fine. We're just tracking with Peter and John this year giving our attention to them because they're eyewitnesses to the story of Jesus the Christ. And if you were reading the text straight through, you would note that it is an abrupt transition because prior the material that we just jumped is all about so Tarsus in his conversion. Mostly what this is about is that Luke is moving towards the conversion of Cornelius and this story, the two stories here, the healing of Anas and the healing of Dorcas are the raising of Dorcas. They serve to transition and get Peter down to Caesarea and in the direction of Cornelius so that he could be called and come over there and preach the gospel. However, having done that, what happens here is we just get a great look at how the Book of Acts furthers the work of Jesus. That's what the book of Acts is about . The work of Jesus goes on in the New Testament church and both of these stories, the healing of Anas and the raising of Dorcas, they both sound exactly like healing stories that Luke reported Jesus doing in the gospel of Luke. And that's what we want to notice in our podcast today. If you don't pay attention to that, it's like two random healing stories and we're left wondering why do we even care? There must have been many of these kinds of healing stories. You know , lots of miracles were being done. What? What's the point of that? Well, geographically it gets Peter in the right direction, but again, it emphasizes the New Testament Church is about the work of Jesus. So in verse 32, we pick up with Peter, we haven't actually seen him since chapter eight and verse 25 when he was coming home from Samaria . And notice what he says to anus . Verse 34, Jesus Christ heals you. Jesus is not dead. Jesus is the healing one. Jesus is the one that is doing this. The work of Jesus is continuing. And this sounds exactly like a healing that Jesus did in Luke chapter five verses 17 to 26. So here Peter is down in the coastal plain Litta and Sharon, that's the area there. There's a lot of cities there, kind of a semi gentile area. So the gospel is getting out to more and more people. But again, Peter does what Jesus did. And so in Joppa there's a disciple named Tabitha and she passes away verse 38, they ask Peter to come some question about do they, do they really want Peter to erase her from the dead or like they want him to come and say a few words at her funeral, what exactly is going on? But verse 40, Peter put them all outside just like Jesus did when he raised Tabitha from the dead and he knelt and prayed and turning the body. He said, Tabitha arise . Jesus said, Talitha Co . And she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter, she sat up. So there's great similarity in the means and the mechanism and there's great similarities in how it looks and even the wording that's being used here, this is straight out of Luke chapter seven beginning in verse 11. And both of these stories echo and sound like Elijah and Elijah the prophets, both of these stories. When we were in the Book of Luke, we spent the year with Jesus. We talked a lot about how Luke furthers the theme that Jesus is a prophet of God. That's something that has not paid attention to a lot, but this sounds like what the prophets did in the Old Testament. Jesus does it now. Peter does it and he ends up at the end of the chapter, what is that verse 43, staying with Simon a Tanner. And that may be important because Tanner's were ceremonially unclean all the time because they were always in contact with dead bodies. And I wonder if that's saying that, that Peter's starting to loosen up a little bit on some of those Jewish restrictions. He's not. I mean he is a Jew, he's very much about that. We're gonna see that in chapter 10, but maybe, maybe starting to see some things a little bit differently so he can stay here. He can stay with Simon the Tanner tomorrow. One of the most important conversion stories in the history of the world. A story that impacts you and me will read in Acts chapter 10 on Thursday. Good morning and welcome to Acts chapter 10 verses one to 16. Our reading for Thursday. I guess not everybody starts today with daily Bible reading in a cup of coffee, but that certainly seems the scriptural way to do things, doesn't it? <laugh> I say that tongue in cheek , but I hope you're having a great cup of coffee. Hope you have your Bible open and you're ready to start the day with the word of the Lord. I said that this is the most important conversion story or one of the most important conversion stories in the Book of Acts , and it most certainly is I guess if you had to rank conversions and acts, all of Tarsus probably would stand alone at the top. But this is the first Gentile convert and that affects most of us. I'm going to guess most of my listeners here are Gentiles like I have, like I am. And this answers the question about how we got into the church and do we belong in the church and do we have to keep the old law to please God? All of that is in one place right here in Acts chapter 10. More than anything, this chapter realizes the dream that God has always had for all people to come to him. And it is a landmark change because at the end of the story, Jews and Gentiles will eat together. That doesn't really stand out to you and to me perhaps, but in this world it most certainly would. Jews and Gentiles did not mix, did not mix. In fact, in verse 28, Peter says, you yourselves know how unlawful it is for you to associate with or visit anyone of another nation. This isn't a case of just preference. They view this as the law of God. We can't do this. And in chapter 11, I'll point this out again in verse three, the charge to Peter is not you baptized the Gentile, you went to uncircumcised men and you ate with them. We don't do that. We don't mix with gentiles. So what Luke does here is established that this happens as a move of God. It didn't just happen because Peter had a soft heart towards some Gentile people that he kind of sort of knew and they were nice folks. So he went over there and told 'em about the gospel and kind of got carried away with himself . No, God directed this. God caused it to happen. God bridge this impassable golf between Jews and Gentiles to make them one in Christ that ought to stand out to us and we ought to think about that in terms of race relations today, this is going to happen in Caesarea . There's lots of CEAs in the Bible times. This is Caesarea Maritima . It's about 65 miles northwest of Jerusalem and it is a port city On the Mediterranean itself, there was not a good port here. So Herod the Great , that's Herod the baby killer. He just built a port here, had it constructed along with a magnificent , uh, magnificent theater, which still stands. There's a huge aqueduct that ran eight miles. So a bunch of that aqueduct is still there. It's an amazing and incredible place to go and visit and see because of all the things that Herod the great constructed there, it is predominantly a gentile city. This is where Gentiles live and do gentile things. And the gospel is coming. Here it is coming to Cornelius. Verse one, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort. A Roman legion had 6,000 men divided into 10 regiments and a centurion commanded part a sixth of that regiment. He is an important man and this reminds us a lot of what Jesus did in Luke chapter seven verses one to 10. And we will always wonder if Cornelius is that centurion. Go back and read that and see what you think of that. He is verse two, A devout man who feared God. He is a God fearer. That's almost a technical term to use of Gentiles who were near Proselytes to Judaism who had done everything but be circumcised to become a Jew. So he believes in God, he believes in the Old Testament. He is respected at some level by Jews, but he's still technically an unclean Gentile who is uncircumcised. And one scholar said , no serious Jew would not enter his house. He is praying at about three o'clock and he is told to sin for Peter, but he is not given a reason to sin for Peter. So this is a test of obedience. Will he do what God tells him to do? What's going on then with Peter? Peter then still staying in Joppa with Simon the Tanner? He has this incredible vision. Notice the vision is about food. The vision isn't about baptizing a gentile. The vision is about eating because that will be the trouble the New Testament church has. Can we associate with these people? Yes, they're Christians. That's great. You know what they need to do? They need to start the Gentile Church of Christ on the south side of town. We'll be over here, the Jewish Church of Christ on the north side of town. And we are not gonna mix with those people. That's not acceptable to God in the very vision itself. Stresses that God is moving to make a giant change. That's what's happening to Peter. And tomorrow we pick up the story to see if Peter's going to be obedient to this heavenly vision. See you on Friday. It is Friday and today's reading is Acts chapter 10, verses 17 to 33. And this may seem a little repetitious, but I wanna share with you why we're getting that repetition. It's very important that we see the repetition emphasizes. God did this notice. Every time the vision gets retold, the emphasis is God wants this to happen. And so notice verse 19, while Peter was pondering the vision, the spirit said to him, the Spirit can speak. People get these nudges and claim the Holy Spirit is nudging them. Hey, if the Spirit wants you to do something, the Spirit tells Peter what to do, tells him the Spirit can speak. And then we get the repetition of the vision, verse 22, which says it really matters and that God is the one who is the actor who is initiating this. God is causing this to happen. And so verse 22, they invite verse 23, they invite them in. And that probably does mean that Peter's eating with Gentiles. It would be a little awkward to say, okay, you guys need to go outside to eat. No, he probably is eating with Gentiles. But there is a distinction between having Gentiles into a Jewish home and having some hospitality there. And you going to a Gentiles house. That is something Jews could not do. In fact, there is some uninspired , uh, writings outside of the Bible. Jubilees 2216, that's not in your Bible. Do not turn to Jubilees 2216. It expresses the sentiment of many Jews. Keep yourself separate from the nations and do not eat with them and do not imitate their rituals or associate with them. That's where Peter is, that's where the church is at this time. That's where people are in their thinking. Eating indicates endorsement in condoning someone. We're not doing that. We don't condone the Gentiles. So Peter arrives then in verse 24 in Caesarea and Cornelius is there. He's called together his relatives and friends. Cornelius falls down in worships him. Verse 25. Now Jesus will accept vowing, and that happens a lot in the life of Jesus. Peter says, absolutely not. This is incredible humility for a Roman commander to do this. Peter says, get up, don't do that. And that says a lot about our celebrity culture today. We don't wanna be part of that. That's that's not something New Testament Christians have any interest in at all. And so Peter says, what am I doing here? I don't think I should be in this place . Oh wait, yep , I have to be here. Verse 28, because God has shown me, God is the actor. God is initiating this. God is causing this to happen. And so then we get the repetition of the vision. Cornelia says, that's right. I'm doing what God told me to do, just like you are doing what God told you to do. So we are here in the presence of God, verse 33, to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. What a great opportunity. We want to obey God. Tell us what God wants us to do. We are here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. Just love cornelius's attitude and the attitude of the people in his household. And Luke's a great storyteller because now I'm sitting on the edge of my seat. Is a Jew going to tell a gentile how to be a Christian? Is a Jew going to accept a gentile Christian? What about the rest of the Jewish Christians? How will that go down if Peter even tells them and baptizes and teaches them the gospel? What will happen next? What will be the fallout of that? All of that as we continue our reading on Monday. I'll see you then and that does conclude the podcast for the week. Thank you for listening. Awfully hard to stop right there, isn't it? If the podcast is helping you, please tell others about it. Leave us a rating and a review. Make sure that you have followed or subscribed so it will download automatically to your device. So until Monday when we'll pick up this dramatic story and open our Bibles together. Again, I'm Mark Roberts and I do, I want to go to heaven and I want you to come too . I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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