Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

Thessalonica

February 14, 2022 Mark Roberts Season 2 Episode 7
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Thessalonica
Show Notes Transcript

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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 2:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for Monday morning, February the 14th I'm mark. And I hope that you're ready to think about yesterday's sermon and how to integrate that into your life effectively, as well as prepare for the weekend daily Bible reading. And those two things are going to go together in an incredible way today, as we're thinking about what we're reading about, it's all coming together. We wanna start the week, right, with a sharp spiritual focus. So pour that cup of coffee and let's get started. Let's start with a look back to yesterday. Sermon. Remember you can always click on the show notes and listen to the sermon. If you were not able to be present at west side or watch it online yesterday, yesterday, sermon is part of the preaching theme for 2022, the new Testa church road tour in this preaching theme. We're just going to go to new Testament cities and visit the church there as described in the new Testament and learn from our brethren long ago. And it just seemed fitting for us to go to LAN IICA since we'll begin reading the Fest and Ikin epistles this week in our special daily Bible reading plan this year, a year with Paul. So I talked about lanica and the city there and what that was like and made a couple of observations there about the church. It was a big city church, maybe a hundred, 200,000 people living in lanica. That makes it feel a lot like the metroplex area that we live in and work in idol, tree amusement, entertainment, lots of opportunities for sexual sin. Those kind of things operate in a big city. It was a church that was being persecuted big time. I think we're starting to feel some of that maybe. And it was a church that needed some big instruction and grounding in the truth. This is a congregation that I think we can identify with and that we will benefit from as read these EPIs and think about how we are like them, how they are like us. And so let me share a couple of notes with you. I hope that will be helpful to you, and that will make this come alive first and foremost. Let me give you an archeological note. Wow. I just really love this podcast and the chance to share some things like this. Probably not stopping the sermon and digging up some archeology stuff yesterday, huh? Digging up. See what I did there, but it is. So that act 17, six mentions that Jason and some of the brothers were drug up before the city authorities and the term there for city is a term Pollar and Bible critics made a big deal about that. That that's the wrong term, that they didn't have poly tars in Macedonia in the first century that Luke is getting it wrong. All this just shows how wrong the Bible is and sure enough, archeologists dig up an entire arch on the west end of NAIA street. And the, and the inscription there begins with the phrase in the time of the poly talks since then, additional inscriptions have been found more than 32 of those using this title. And the Bible critics have had to stop attacking the Bible out of act 17 six, showing that in the first century, that term was certain being used and was quite commonplace. Let me add one other thing then that I want to say about the sermon. And then we'll start talking about our daily Bible reading. And as you can already tell those things go together. I just want to really emphasize the importance of connecting up Paul's emotional mood with how he rights to the church at lanica. The first two chapters that we read are just going to be lots of attaboy and we love it. And I'm so glad and just celebration and praise. And that is because Paul is so down when he has to leave lanica then get chased outta, be nothing good happens hardly in Athens, he's in Corinth, he's by himself. It's important for us to think of Paul as a real human being who did have ups and downs and who could get discouraged. And it is important for us to see how vital the festival and Ikin church was in that encouragement process. He needed need to hear from them and he is overjoyed to hear from them. So let's just be watching for that. Let's just hear the warm tone of this epi and let's pay attention to the mood of Paul as we're reading along, not just in Fe IANS, it's easy to say FES, but let's pay attention to that all year long. I think that'll give a us a better appreciation, not just for what Paul has to say, but it will help us better understand Paul. It would also particularly, I guess this is a second note, uh, said, I would give you just one note. If Paul can say finally twice to the Philippians and I can give you a final note and then give you another final note, watch Ineson how much emphasis there is on sexual purity. That's gonna be a big deal when we get to chapter four and that is going to be a big deal because there is so much sexual promiscuity in the pagan world during Paul's time. And guess what we are living with today, exactly the same kind of thing, just outrageous sexual imorality and perversion of every sort. So that just makes the fian a pistol even more vital for you and me today. Those will, those ideas will hold us then for thinking about the sermon let's be move forward. And let's think about our daily Bible reading. Let's just keep working with these ideas about the Fe EPIs. So in our Bible reading for this week, this is it. This is the first time we're going to jump out of acts and go read the EPIs that Paul is writing in that place. During that time in the history of the timeline that Luke gives us in the a book of acts, this is what this year's reading schedule is all about. It's really exciting to me to see this material meshed or correlated in this kind of fashion. And I hope that it's gonna be a blessing and be a benefit to you as well. Let me grab a sip of coffee here Before we journey on while that is really, really good stuff. I used my arrow press to day because the coffee beans I had were a little bit older and as coffee beans age, and are not as fresh, they're not going to make as good a cup of coffee, but the Apress has a wonderful way of making pretty good coffee outta coffee. That is not so good. So I'm enjoying that very much. Having said so much about FES, you may have your Bible open to FES, but actually our Monday reading is acts 18 one to 11, which finds Paul in Quran. And let me give you some important notes here there in verse two, acts 18, two, Paul meets aqui and Priscilla. They become hugely important. Their coworkers of Paul's, they help him so much and they are there. Luke tells us because Claudia had commanded all, all the Jews to leave Rome. This is a very important marker, both for us to understand the timing of the various EPIs and travels with Paul in acts, but also to understand some of the goings on some of the things that are happening in acts, because we know from secular history that this came about, this edict of law audience came about in 49 ad. It was relaxed in 55 ad by Nero. We know it's Satton who records this, that the edict came because there was rioting in Rome over one Cruses and most scholars believe that that is rioting is rioting among the Jews. SATs tells us that that is probably and turmoil being caused over the teaching and preaching of Jesus. The Christ Christ would be Christ. And the response of that by Claudias was all of the Jews are out. Just get'em all outta here. I don't understand what's going on. He does not see any distinction between Christianity and Judaism. It's all one unit and we're just kicking.'em all outta Rome. They're all a bunch of troublemaker, which would've been very, very hard on everybody, Jews and Christians alike. But you can imagine if you are a Jew being kicked out because of what those Christians are teaching and preaching in the trouble that they're stirring up, that would have been super annoying. Now, of course, the Christians weren't stirring up trouble. I don't wanna mislead you there, but you could see from a juice perspective, that's how they do that. Hey, these guys cause all this problem with their false teaching and their false doctrine. And now we're being thrown out of the city, leaving behind our businesses and our homes. What in this world that would create tremendous animosity on the part of the Jews to ward Christians. And that's gonna, that's gonna play out in amped up persecution as Jews really start coming down hard on Christians. One of the ways for them to separate themselves in the eyes of the authorities would be to attack Christianity. Those people aren't us. They're not part of us. They're not a subset of Judaism, hate them, and we're trying to suppress them and persecute them. So don't be mistaking them for us would be where the Jews would be on that. Probably none of that was good grammar too much of them for us. But I hope you would understand where that is. So this is a big marker. And you wanna mark in your Bible. I'm big on writing in my Bible. I want to be reading in my Bible. I want to immediately you see out in the margin, this is 49 ad. So you give Quillin Priscilla some time to get from Rome to Corinth. And then you get some time here for Paul to get there. This is probably 50 51. And then verse five says when Silas and Tim arrive from Macedonia, there it is. There it is. There it is. That's when they bring the news to Paul. This is Paul references in first IANS three six, write that out beside verse five. And this is when Paul writes first IANS. It's the first epi that Paul ever writes. And he writes it here in acts 18 five. And that's why we're jumping from acts over to IANS. Now that's why we're going to read in those two EPIs. The rest of our reading for Monday just covers Paul's work in Corinth and how well it goes. And that God gives Paul a vision of reassurance. There are a lot of people here. God tells Paul who will be interested in the gospel. You need to stay put. And Paul does stay put, we've talked before about him changing his tactics a little bit. Look at verse 11, he's there 18 months. This is not the first missionary journey where we show up. We start a church and we go down the road. This is, we show up and we preach. And if there's a good reception, and if we don't get run outta town, like we did in vessel Nyah, we'll just sit down and preach the God gospel and build this church up. And Paul does that for 18 months, enacts 18 verse 11. We're talking about a missionary journey. There's not so much a journey. Is it? Paul is there on a full time basis now for a year and a half. And that kind of time gives him time to write to the church at lanica that he is so concerned about. So I'll see you tomorrow when we're reading in first IANS, and maybe this is a good place to remind you. If you're listening to this on Monday, February the 14th, then you want to be doing your Bible reading and want to be listening to the podcast. And if you have a sweetheart or you're married, then you want to be remembering your sweetheart or your spouse on Valentine's day. That way you won't have all kinds of difficulties and problems. If you're looking for something to listen to in that regard, the sermon I preached yesterday in the 9:00 AM hour on song of Solom may just give you some help. So happy Valentine's day. I'll see you tomorrow. We'll be in first IANS. So our reading for Tuesday is the first chapter or first IANS, just 10 versus here. It's not very long at all. You'll notice it starts with Paul SVA and Timothy SVA is the Latin form of the Greek Silas. And there is praise here to the church of the IANS in God, the father and the Lord, Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ is important because in new Testament times people said Caesar is Lord. And what these Breth need to be mindful of and to be reminded of is that Jesus is king of Kings and Lord of Lord's not the Caesar. So as you read down through that, and I don't think this is a difficult section and I wanna be careful and not just go on and on and on, just read these 10 verses. And I think they'll come alive for you, particularly as you think about the backgrounding material that we've gone through both yesterday and what I just talked about as we started the podcast here, I think what we're looking for is the idea of power verse five. The gospel came in power and in the holy spirit, those, there were signs. There was wonders. The holy spirit animates the word of God. It's not just words, it's God's word. And as a result, these people, they received it and they received it. Well. They came to faith and they came to serve the Lord and they have become an example. Verse seven, people everywhere are hearing about this verse eight. They are located on a major trade route. The Ignatian highway and their hope is in the return of Jesus. Verse 10. That's gonna be a major emphasis for Paul as he rights to them about the coming of the Lord. It is of interest to me. Now there's not a lot here about wanting to go to heaven when you die, but there's a lot of IANS is about the coming of the Lord. And maybe that helps us think a little bit sometimes about how we don't pay enough attention to the second coming of Christ. And that we need to be a little bit more like the IANS who were keeping one eye on the guy. Well, that's the first chapter of first IANS for Tuesday's reading. I'll see you tomorrow. When we'll read half of chapter two it's Wednesday, and we're reading first IANS two versus one to nine today. And I am so glad that you are tuned into the podcast because I have some notes for you here that will really help as you try to digest this and make sense of all this really help you understand why Paul's writing the way that he is writing what you're going to read in the first nine verses here of chapter two. And even further than in that is Paul defending himself and saying, I was kind and I care about you and I'm genuine. And I have integrity. And you may be reading all of that and thinking, why does Paul have to say that what what's going on there? Well, a word of explanation is that there were traveling philosophers in new Testament times, be getting about 300 BC through new Testament times, there were traveling philosophers who would go from town to town and they would speak and talk about the best way to live. These are cynics. These are Epicuren. These are various, uh, kinds of philosophical, like plateau, Socrates, other famous philosophers. These people would come and articulate their ideas. They would gather people to them and get some followers. They were known for not being very nice. They were harsh and they were abusive. What do you people think you're wasting your life. That can kind of thing. And that would draw some people maybe who were a little lost or a little aimless, oh, this guy can kind of take over my life. He can give me some direction. He can tell me what I need to do. Oh, he's saying that I'm kind of a loser. Well, I am kind of a loser. I need this guy's help. Well, those philosophers traveled from town to town. They would come in, they would other people, they would get their money and then they would leave town. And so Paul is being charged with, oh, he's just another one of those traveling philosophers. He comes, he rips you out of your community. You Jews you've been pulled out of the synagogue. You pagans, you've been pulled out temple. You don't fit there anymore. And then he gets your money and he leaves, Hey, he's not coming back. He doesn't care about you. He's just another one of those traveling philosophers. And Paul says, I'm not like that watch as you read today, how often Paul says, you know, and remember in the tender terms that Paul uses here, has he expresses himself with just a longing in his heart to say, you know me better than that. And that's not how I am, and that's not what the gospel is about. And that is not what has happened here. Please notice in verse two, he makes reference to the terrible things that happened in Philippi. We just read that last week in acts chapter 16, someone asked me, so Paul hasn't written Philippians yet. No, he's not first Exonians is the first epi that Paul ever wrote. The Philippian pistol will come much, much later in Paul's life. When he is in Rome in prison. He'll write to that church cuz they care about him so much. They're concerned about him, but he's not writing to Philippi. He got, he got treated terribly in Philippi, got pushed out of town in Philippi and he makes reference to that and makes reference about that. As he's writing here to the Fons, please do as well. You're gonna see some references here, particularly as we drive through chapter three and into chapter four about sexual UNC cleanliness. And in fact there in verse three, our appeal does not spring from era or impurity. That's a term that has some sexual moral overtones to it because some of those philosophers that we're talking about, yeah, they exploited people. Isn't that how it always is. And Paul says we aren't like that. We're not about that. We're not covetist you're gonna see a lot of that. Greed verse five, we are different. This is just a textbook place for preachers to learn how they need to behave themselves and how they need to act and particularly how they ought to feel about their brethren. It is a wonderful place to learn. Paul's heart. Look at verse eight, being affectionately desirous of you. We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our ownselves because you, you had become beloved or very dear to us watch for this. As we're working today in first IANS two, one to nine, it is a fabulous passage to see the difference in gospel preaching and the philosophies of men, particularly as that was being practiced in the first century in due Testament times, see you tomorrow. We'll complete first Seon chapter two on Thursday, it's Thursday. And we're reading first Seon chapter two versus 10 to 20. Hopefully you are not still working on the same cup of coffee that you were back on Monday, but I need another sip and that's going cold on me because I'm busy looking at my Bible and my notes and talking and everything else, but it's still coffee and it's still amazing. So we've come to chapter 10 and once again, not chapter 10, verse 10 of chapter two. And once again, look at the emphasis. You know, you are witnesses verse 10 and you know, love this verse 11, like a father with his children, such a tender term, verse seven, yesterday's reading. We were like a nursing mother. Paul really cares about these brethren. And then beginning verse 13, there's a prayer of Thanksgiving. We just thank God for you and for what you are and how you receive us. It's a warm and wonderful prayer as they're in the midst of terrible persecution. Paul says, I know about this and I know what you're experiencing and it is awful. And I wish that I could come and be with you again. We were torn away from you verse 17 and we wish that we could be there with you once again. But since we can't be there with you, we are just delighted. He's going to say tomorrow's reading that I got such good news about you tomorrow. We read first three versus one to 13. We read all of chapter three in the first appeal to the IANS. See you tomorrow, bring coffee. It's Friday. And we're reading firstest chapter three, all 13 versus I'll be reading this on Facebook. The video will be posted there. You can watch it whenever you wish. So we can read that at together. I'll give you a couple of notes here. Notice verse two, we sent Timothy, Paul sends Timothy on tough assignments. Sometimes Timothy has been portrayed as been timid and cowardly. I think that's a misunderstanding about a passage and first Timothy, but Paul definitely counts on Timothy as one of his chief lieutenants. If not his chief Lieutenant to go and take care of difficult situations. And then what we get is that Timothy has come and he brings such an encouraging report, verse six and seven. And that makes verse seven, all our distress and affliction worth it. And this is the place where we are connecting up where Paul was in at and particularly his emotional mood, one scholar in his commentary here, even noted, maybe Paul and the others began to wonder if they had properly interpreted the call of God, given an act 16 because everywhere they went in Macedonia that Macedon mass had come over here and help us. But at everywhere they went in Macedonia, they just got chased outta town. They got beat up, they got abused. But now Timothy's report on the state of the fian church, dissipated their fears. The gospel had taken firm root in the capital city of Macedonia. The seed had been sewn in fertile ground and the fruit was already beginning to appear. If the Fon had not allowed their tribulations to destroy their Christian faith and love Paul and Silas found in this good news, a sovereign remedy for their own distress and affliction. I think that's very well said, but please notice as Paul is giving, thanks for them. He says, verse 10, we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to and supply. What is lacking in your faith supply? What is lacking in your faith? Maybe the IANS would be thinking, what, what, what, what do we lack? Verse 13, that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness. Paul now will move into chapters four and five, which will be reading next week. And he'll begin to supply what is lacking. He'll begin to establish their hearts by doing that instructing and teaching and grounding thing. That is so very important for these believers. That is our reading. Then first IANS chapter three, that's our reading for Friday. And I am delighted that we are in IANS. It's just exciting. Isn't it to be reading this material right where it fits in the life of Paul and seeing it through his eyes, the emotions, the disappointments, the joy and the exultation, all of that, that floods into Paul's life as he's working and preaching and teaching. And now hearing such good things about what he did, what he in Silas and Timothy have accomplished for the Lord and in the kingdom of God, in the Nyah. Thank you for listening. That's the Monday morning coffee podcast for this week. If you like the podcast, we'd love for you to subscribe, follow rate and give a review on iTunes or whatever app you're listening on. Or if you would simply tell a friend about the show that would really help us out as people are doing this year with Paul re reading schedule, it seems to me, the extra material that I'm able to put together and package for you here in the podcast just becomes tremendously valuable to, to maximizing the daily viable reading that we're doing. I appreciate you listening to the podcast this week. So until next time, may your coffee be delightful and may the Lord be with you today all day? I'll see you on Monday.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the west side church of Christ podcast. Monday morning, copy with mark far more information about west side. You can connect with us through our website, just christian.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat dot I that's upbeat with two P's, U P P B E a T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others. And we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, all on next Monday.