Valuing the Bible

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.

Mark.

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for a Monday, August the 22nd. I'm mark and I am holding a cup of exceptional coffee this morning. I have my Bible open to Romans the 15 chapter. I've got some sermon notes here, all kinds of notes about the book of Romans. I'm still excited about yesterday. And as I said, I am holding an incredible cup of coffee. My niece gave me a bag of coffee for my coffee beans. I should say for my birthday, they come from Yemen and there's an incredible story behind them. It's port of mocha coffee, a young man who grew up in San Francisco with Yemenis connections, Yemenis family relationships. He learned that Yemen is the first country to ever grow and commercially produce coffee, but, but Yemen, wasn't making much coffee. They're not much in the coffee world. And he thought that was terrible. And he decided to restart the Yemen coffee export business. And despite a gazillion hurdles and problems and hindrances, he did it. He did it. They are exporting coffee. That's where he gets his coffee from he's exporting Yemenese coffee, port of moca.com. If you need some of that incredible coffee, great birthday present. I appreciate my niece so very much. And I am excited to be drinking some of this coffee, especially cuz it has such a good story behind it. Just appreciate that young man's efforts and overcoming every kind of problem. But that is enough about coffee. Isn't it. Get your coffee, get your sweet tea, get your Coke zero from QT, miss Dina, whatever it is that you need to get going, let's grab it and let's get started. Let me give you some sermon notes from yesterday's sermon on valuing the word of God. Gonna try to be brief about some of this, but I was really excited to preach this sermon. I okay. Full disclosure. I'm always excited to preach. That's certainly true, but I just thought I had a little bit different way of looking at some things and maybe revisiting some things that we, we already know everybody on a Sunday morning knows the Bible's the word of God. We should value the word of God. We should be reading the word of God. But I just thought asking some questions about how we would handle some different things. If the Bible didn't exist or if the government took it away from us or if it cost too much to own a Bible might kind of scratch where we itch and make us think a little bit more deeply about daily Bible reading. Hope that sermon helped you. I, I just really, really like thinking through that. And I hope that that gave you plenty to think about, but I don't get to say everything in the pulpit or we would still be there and that would be awkward by now. We'd be really hungry. Uh, I, I, I wanted to say more about reading. The Bible is not an end unto itself. I have a great quote, um, on a preacher wrote this, uh, from way back when JC Ryle, he wrote the following. Happy is the man who possesses the Bible. Happier still is he who reads it happiest of all. Is he who not only reads it, but obeys it. That is so vital. I hope that coming out of yesterday's sermon, you are more encouraged to value the Bible and to make that value real in your life by reading the Bible. And we're about to talk about daily Bible reading so that we can do that. But I hope more than anything that your daily Bible reading is moving you closer to God. As you know him better love him more. Trust him more and obey him more. That is what daily Bible reading really is all about. That's why James says in James 1 22, be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. Let's read the Bible. Let's do what the Bible says. Bible reading has to become Bible living. And we're doing that this week out of the book of Romans, well only four days in Romans. This is an exciting week for us. Let's talk about it. Let's talk daily Bible reading. It is Monday. And we're reading today from Romans chapter 15, Romans 15, 14 to 21. We are coming to the end of the book of Romans. In fact, if you read Friday, Romans 15, 13 made the God of hope, fill you with all joy in peace in believing so that by the power of the holy spirit, you may abound in hope. That almost sounds like the end of the book. Doesn't it, there's a, a finality to that. And in some ways it is the end of the book, what follows and what we are reading this week is some personal details. Important. It's not like it's not inspired or not scripture, but it's just different than what Paul has written to the church to admonish them, to teach them to drive towards that unity theme that we have talked so much about. So here we go in Romans chapter 15, beginning in verse 14, and we're just reading seven verses. I think you're gonna find this week's reading. Enrollment's really easy. These personal details reads a little bit different than doctrinal kinds of stuff, where Paul now is talking about his travel plans and who he is and what he wants to do. Just notice a couple of things, make sure that you underline in your Bible from verse 16. Um, on my way to Jerusalem, he's gonna say to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles and the priestly service so that the offering the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the holy spirit. Paul is carrying that money. We're going to talk a lot about that money in act chapter 20, because for Paul, its symbolizes Jew and Gentile relationship and the full entrance of Gentiles into God's kingdom, he uses the language of a thank offering here to describe that. And that just shows how important this is to Paul. And we've talked about that, especially when we read in Corinthians and especially in second Corinthians, and now we're picking that up again. That money is not just grocery money. It is significant for what it means. If Gentiles will send money to drought and famine stricken Christians in Jerusalem, that just all that just says everything for Paul, about how we are one family in God. So maybe having just said some things about how Paul's done with that unity thing. Guess what? Yeah. He's still working that unity thing. Isn't he? He certainly is. And then I love this statement of purpose. Verse 20. I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has Al already been named. Unless I build on someone else's foundation. This is a marvelous statement of purpose for Paul and helps us understand him. It doesn't mean that he never preached anywhere where there was already a church. Obviously he plans to go to Rome. Paul didn't establish that church, but he will preach when he's there. I'm just sure. There's this isn't categorically. Absolutely never, never, but it tells us what Paul is about what Paul longs to do. And maybe in some reason in tomorrow's reading verse 22, for example, it explains why Paul hasn't come to Rome yet. There's a church there don't need to go to Rome. I like going places where there is not a church at all. That's what I like to do. Paul says, and we'll resume that thought tomorrow in Romans the 15th chapter beginning in verse 22, Good Tuesday morning. It is Tuesday and we are reading Romans 15, 22 to 33. We are finishing the 15th chapter of Romans here. Paul is still talking about this collection. This is why verse 22. He has not come to Rome yet. He's on the job. He's taking this collection to Jerusalem, verse 25. I'm going to Jerusalem ringing aid to the saints that helps us understand, for example, what new Testament collections and new Testament benevolence was all about. It wasn't a general fund for the whole wide world, but the new Testament church certainly took care of brethren, took care of its own in that kind of way. Macedonian ACAA verse 26 have made a contribution for those saints. We read about that in first Corinthians 16. And then of course, over in second Corinthians, Paul deals with that extensively, see how the new testaments starting to come together. We're starting to see all the pieces of this as we work through Paul's life. I really like that a lot. I just really like that a lot. And one of the things that I do like about reading material, that's very familiar. I, I would expect you probably read the new Testament before. I know that I have is that you notice some things that you just haven't noticed before. And this pass, I got look at verse 23, since I no longer have any room for work in these reasons. And I have long for many years to come to you and so forth. One of the things I don't think I've paid enough attention to is that Paul is transferring out of the area. Now known as Turkey and Greece. He is leaving that area and planning to preach further west of Italy. That is Paul's hope he wants to go on from where he is and go to Spain verse 28. I'm not sure I'd paid enough attention to that. I've always thought of Paul making that trip to Ephesus and bopping over to Philippi and Felan IICA and Athens, all of that stuff that we always see on the map, going to Corinth and, and taking care of those churches. But there's a couple of times as we read in the Corinthian correspondent, that it becomes clear. Paul is saying, I need you guys to get it together so that I can leave. I don't want to stay in this area. There are other places that need the gospel. And here again, we get that theme. Verse 23 I'm I'm moving on. I'm taking the gospel to places where it is not these churches here will be fine. I'm moving on. And all of this helps us get where Paul is right now, verse 25. I'm going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints that sets this in the early verses of acts, chapter 20, maybe the end of acts, chapter 19, spoiler alert, guess where we'll be reading. Yeah. As soon as we finish Roman 16, we are going to acts and we will pick up the thread of the story. It's so great to read what Paul was writing during this time. But we are going back to see the story of Paul's life. That Luke records for us in the book of acts see tomorrow, we'll be finishing up the book of Romans on Wednesday and Thursday, tomorrow, Roman 16. See you Wednesday. It is Wednesday. And our Bibles are open to Romans the 16th chapter. As we're getting settled in with Roman 16, you're probably already thinking about services tonight and who will be preaching. It's our last lesson in our summer series. And it is Seth Malden who is coming to preach this evening on bitterness. Here's a note, here's a word from Seth.

Hello there. And greetings to all of the brethren in the Dallas Fort worth area. This is Seth Mulden. Currently. I have the pleasure of working with God's people here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and I'm very much looking forward to having the opportunity to come spend some time with you. It's always a great grace and a privilege to be with God's people, wherever they are to open up his word together. Looking forward to us, continuing with the thought that you've been having in your summer series of looking at the ways in which Satan attacks the church, uh, attacks God's people as individuals. I firmly believe that out of his arsenal, bitterness, as one of the most dangerous tools that he has his disposal to cause division and to attack the unity of God's people look forward to covering this subject with you soon, God willing will be with you then

Great to hear from Seth. And I hope that he is able to climb out of that well that he fell into and come see us and preach for us tonight. Of course I'm kidding, but I am glad to hear Seth this evening and the idea of bitterness being one of the tools that Satan uses to undermine our faith. That that really intrigues me. I'm looking forward to his sermon tonight. Let's think then about Romans the 16 chapter. I think this material gets overlooked many times as just a bunch of names that we can't pronounce. We don't know a lot of these people, so we just kind of move on, but we get a real window into the new Testament church here, particularly its makeup, demographically. This is an important text. If we try to understand what a church look like in the new Testament world. And I really like this material, not going to be able to go over this tonight, Wednesday night in our Bible. Talk, not gonna hear this again. I have talked about this before. When I preached through the book of Romans, of course, uh, one chapter for each lesson, I worked with this pretty extensively, but let me give you some of this material here. We don't know everything about everything. We don't know how Paul knows so many people in Rome. He had not been to Rome and a bunch of these people. Yeah, we don't know anything about'em. They're not ever mentioned any anymore. There's just none of that ever again, but lots of this really matters. So we begin with, I come into you, our sister, Phoebe, a servant of the church that's in Korea, the term servant there, you may have the marginal note is Deaconess and that drives some people crazy. And I'm not entirely sure why a deacon is a special servant to the church and why a woman can't be a special servant to the church is beyond me. There's lots of discussion about that sometimes, but I don't have a problem with singing Phoebe, as someone here who is serving the church in a unique and special way, she may in fact, verse two, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints. She may be carrying this letter. That may be the special service that she is all about. We get very wrapped up in titles and hierarchical offices and all of that stuff. We just need to think about serving and that's what's going on here. Then we get into the greetings greet Priscilla aqui Evers three, and we begin to work down through there. Well, what's important about this is that exhaustive list of ancient names have been compiled. And those names found in inscriptions and legal documents and records have all been recorded in indexed by scholars and those who work with that kind of thing. And, and we, the scholars have come to realize that various names are associated with various statuses in society. Just like in our world. We have names. That mean something. If someone introduces himself as William Hampton crime field, the third that really says something about him, that's an entirely inter different introduction than if he says hi, my name is Billy. See how different that is? Well, in the same way in the new Testament, world names carried significance. And from this list of names, we know that there are people there who were free born free people. The names are bans Priscilla, Aquila, and rufuss have no affinity of any kind of people born into slavery. But we also know some of these people are slaves. A lot of these people are slaves, Naus, hummus, Perus hero Rodian Trius TRIA, Aus. Those are all fine slave names. And those people, those people are slaves. If they weren't slaves, they changed their name to a different name, a Freeman's name or a free woman's name to represent their new status. So as you read down through here, you've got people who are slaves, think about what their life is like. And they are Christians. It does seem like about two thirds of the Roman church was slave born, maybe 30% slave, 30% freed and 40% Freeborn would be a guess that some scholars would put together, but you come to church on Sunday morning in Rome, you've got people who are in slavery managed to get away from work, uh, got permission from their master to be away. Then you have people who used to be in slavery. They bought their freedom or earned their freedom. And then you would have people there who are free people, maybe even some Roman citizens with all the status that goes with that in the midst of that kind of diversity. Now we're not even talking about Jew and Gentile issues, but just in the midst of that kind of economic and, and disparity in your life situation, Paul expected them to get along. In fact, the main theme, as I've just said over and over the main theme in the book of Romans is unity and working together. Nowhere does Paul say, why don't you slaves go on the other side of town and start slave church. How about you former slaves? You get up on the north side of town and you start a former slaves congregation. You free people. You don't wanna associate with those slaves. There's dirty, they're smelly. You don't wanna be around people like that. Y'all need to start your own church. You can start the free church of CR no, no. And no, that does not happen. And as you look down through these first 16 verses of Roman chapter 16, maybe we don't know everything about these names. Maybe we don't know all of these people, but from this analysis of their names, we can get a glimpse of Roman Christianity and it ought to make us appreciate the themes of Romans even more. See you tomorrow. And we'll talk about the end of the book of Romans and get ready to shift, to shift back into the book of acts. See you on Thursday. Hi, who everybody it is Thursday. And we are finishing the book of Romans today. Wow. Just think about that. Look at your reading schedule and just see how much we have read this year already. Did you ever imagine that we'd be able to read through the book of Romans like this work through it, think through it, use those questions and have good understanding of what's going on in the book of Romans. That's just exciting, isn't it? And so today we read Romans 16, 17 to 27. That completes the book, not difficult here at all. Paul appeals to these brothers to watch for those who caused division verse 17, the king James, and maybe even the new king, James says, mark, those who caused division. And that has resulted in people taking that very, very literally I was actually president in the congregation and the elders got up and they said we are marking. So and so and so, and so was a false teacher. Now I don't think that meant they were dispatching someone to his house with a Sharpie and that they were going to physically put something on his forehead. You've been marked, but they were, yeah, they were calling him out. They were identifying him. We're gonna put a mark on him. No, no, no. That, isn't what that means. It doesn't mean that we're gonna stand up publicly and call somebody out. What it means is we're gonna pay attention. We're gonna watch and make sure that guy doesn't undermine that sister. That brother doesn't undermine our unity in Christ. If I remember correctly, the term for watch here is SCOs from which we get words like rifle, scope, get your eye on him, watch out for somebody who's gonna cause problems. This whole book's about unity. Don't let somebody destroy that. Unity. We do know a little bit about some of these last couple of names here. Verse 21. Lucious is a prophet in Antioch from act 13 in verse one, Jason comes from lanica acts chapter 17, and then Gais in verse 23. He was in Quran first Corinthians one in verse 14. And that may say something about where this is being written from probably being written from Clain. And then of course, RAAs was the city treasurer. We saw him Inus in acts chapter 19 in verse 22. So we got some names here that mean something, but really well, we just don't know a whole lot more than that, but we know these brethren are accompanying Paul, as he's determined to take this contribution for the poor saints in Jerusalem. And of course, Timothy is part of that. And then Paul finishes, the book finishes the book verse 26. Look again at the emphasis on unity. These prophetic writings have been made known to all nations, everybody Jew and Gentile. The book began with Paul saying I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes that you first and also to the Greek and the book ends in exactly the same way that it began. Thanks for reading the book of Romans find acts in your Bible. We are going back to the book of acts, see tomorrow, welcome to Friday. And welcome back to the book of acts. Turn your Bible to acts chapter 20, verse three. That's where we're starting our reading today. Actually I would have you step back to acts 1921. If you would please. We haven't been in acts since the first week in may. Can you believe that? Yes. It's been a little bit since we were reading what Dr. Luke had to say about Paul's life and journeys and voyages and adventures. And now we are headed back to acts. We will be there for a good little bit as we work along with Paul. And I know, uh, sometimes reading Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, those are not the easiest books of the Bible that, uh, reading that kind of doctrinal material. Certainly not as easy as reading story. So it's, it's a welcome change. Isn't it? Let's get back to some of the narrative. Let's get some of the story going on here, but let's make sure that we use that story to connect us to God. That's what we're looking for here in a good place to begin. That is acts 1921. After these events, Paul resolved in the spirit to pass through Macedonia and Akea and go to Jerusalem saying after I've been there, I must also see Roman. So that's what it's about. We reading about that in Romans 15, Romans 16, get this money go there, go to Jerusalem, take this money. That's what I'm gonna do. Paul ends up saying first Corinthians 16, eight, that he'll stay till after Pentecost. That's probably somewhere around ad 55. Then some things happen. We read in chapter 19, there's a riot Inus, and Paul ends up now we're in X, chapter 20 heading for not Jerusalem heading for core. Remember when we read in second Corinthians, Paul is so concerned about the Corinthians that he ends up going after Titus. He has sent Titus to bring word. He doesn't know what's happening. How was first Corinthians received? How was that going? He chases Titus and ends up finding Titus. Second Corinthians tells us about that. So much relief. Second Corinthians chapter seven, Paul ends up going on to Clain acts 22. When he'd gone through these regions and had given them much encouragement. He came to Greece and now our reading today there, he spent three months. Paul is in Corinth from Corinth. He wrote the Roman epistle that we just got done reading. And now he's ready to head for Jerusalem with that contribution for the Jewish saints there. So he gathers up determines verse three, as we're reading today to return through Macedonia and SOPA, the be is accompanying him. All we know about SOPA. We read about SOPA in Roman's chapter 16 and verse 21 in some of these other delegates from these churches, I Aris StarKist SCU. Gaius Timothy. Tish is Promus. All of these guys are with him. When Paul wrote Roman 16, 16, and said, I bring you the greetings from all of the churches of Christ. Hey, there were a bunch of people with him who represented a bunch of different congregations who had contributed to this fund that Paul is now carrying and off they go. Now this would be somewhere around 56, maybe later 57 ad that's fifty six, fifty seven years after the birth of Christ. And Paul has probably stayed in car entering the winter months when travel would be extremely difficult. And so here come all these representatives with Paul and were all going to Jerusalem. And along the way, we stop verse seven in tr as we arrive on Monday, gonna wait until Sunday so that we can worship with the brethren. And there is this famous passage we gather together to break Brad. That seems to be different than the meal that is discussed in verse 11. This seems to be a reference to the Lord supper. Luke uses it that way and acts two in verse 42. I'm thinking about first Corinthians 10, 16 as well. This is the Lord supper. And the phrase suggests that the meeting to observe the Lord supper like this is the habitual practice of the church. We need to be careful. Sometimes someone will say, we're commanded to take the Lord supper. Every Sunday. There is no such command that is not specifically delineate delineated. Wow. It's hard to say in scripture, not specifically commanded, but without any question, when you put the data together from first Corinthians 16, for example, from X chapter 20, from other passages, the clear pattern emerges that the church met every Sunday and they took the supper every Sunday, more than likely. This is Sunday evening, not Saturday evening. Sometimes folks talk about that because the Jews reckon time from sunset until sunset. We start the day at midnight, I guess that doesn't make any more sense necessarily than starting the day at 6:00 PM, but for the Jews at 6:00 PM Friday, now it is Saturday. It's the Sabba. So 6:00 PM. Saturday is actually 6 0 1 is Sunday morning for them. But Luke doesn't usually record things with Jewish time. He usually uses Roman time. This is probably Sunday night when slaves could get off work. And Paul, once again is set up to equal Peter and Jesus. Paul is shown to be like the Lord Jesus, Jesus raised the widow son, Luke chapter seven and the 12 year old girl, Luke chapter eight, Peter raised Tabitha in acts chapter nine. And here Paul raises someone from the dad and then Paul journeys on notice from verse five forward. He has Luke with him. Luke may be the congregation at Philippi's representative with the money that's who Luke may be in all of this. And now beginning verse 13, the ship just begins to port hop, moving along, down the coast from port to port to port. Paul decides to go over land verse 13, he intended to go over land. And then he gets on the boat. We took him on board and went verse 14 to Meline. And then Paul verse 16 says I can't stop in Ephesus. If I stop in Ephesus, I will never get out of here. There's about 42 days from Passover and plus the four or five days that he's been journeying now until the day of Pentecost. Paul wants to be in Jerusalem and Pentecost and he is hurrying now. So he stands for the elders that Ephesus to come to him. And he knows that that will be more timely. And Paul has important words for them, words that we will consider on Monday, as we keep reading in the book of acts, see you on Monday from acts chapter 2017 as always. Let me thank you for listening to the Monday morning coffee podcast. I hope that you are following or subscribing to it. I hope that you've rated it and given it a review and you're telling other folks about it. It's a huge help in your daily viable reading to have some notes every day kind of fit it all together and make it all work. Share this with somebody else. It will be a help to them. So like I said, until Monday, I hope your coffee is delightful. I hope your Friday is, is delightful. And I hope that the Lord will be with you today. All day. I will see you on Monday morning with a cup of coffee.

Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday Morning Coffee with Mark. For more information about west side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat dot IO that's upbeat with two P'S, U PP B E AT, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with us. And we look to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,