Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

Smart Phones and Smart Disciples

September 26, 2022 Mark Roberts Season 2 Episode 45
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Smart Phones and Smart Disciples
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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. Church's special Monday morning coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right with a look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it other and better work the applications into our daily life. 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 to move together on Monday morning coffee with

Speaker 2:

Mark.

Speaker 3:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for Monday, September the 26th. I'm mark. I'm holding a really great cup of coffee. In fact, I'm holding it in a really great cup. This is a Canadian mug that was given to Dina and I by some dear friends. And we just appreciate that very much. Just lots of good things in Dina and I's life, especially yesterday. It was a really special day for us at west side. We're so thankful for the west side church and for everything, just a, just an amazing and wonderful day. I'm still glowing from all of that. Even as I think about yesterday's sermon, are you listening to this on your smartphone yesterday? I talked about smart disciples and smartphone want to have some sermon notes, want to have some daily Bible reading notes want to get this week started in the best kind of way. And we do that by looking back at yesterday's lesson, let's get started Yesterday. I did talk about that phone, that everybody is carrying around that smart phone, how it's changed our lives, how important that's become to us. And I gave you four passages yesterday that would help you with that as we think about what a gift from God that is and how we can use it to glorify God, I think we really need to be evaluating and reevaluating our relationship with our phones and what we use them for. And I hope that that lesson yesterday, instead of piling more guilt, making us feel kind of bad that we even have. One of those is helping that be a positive in your life. Let me give you one extra thought out of that sermon then in Matthew 10 and verse 16, Jesus says there behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I really like that passage. And I think often about how, if you just stop people on the street and said, Hey, did Jesus say, be wise as serpents? I'm I think maybe like 99% of people would say, oh, Jesus never said anything like that. Well, he totally said that said that Matthew 10 verse 16, be wise as serpents. And while that has some application to Matthew, chapter 10, as Jesus sends his disciples out there, I think it has great application. As you get on your phone and you go out into the world of the internet and the world of apps and all the things that we can access on our phones, we need to be wise as serpents, a couple things to be mindful of. We just need to be wise. We need to be wise in the ads that we see as we're scrolling in various social media accounts. We're seeing things being pushed at us. We're seeing stories is that real? Is that fake? There's so much inclination to share stuff we need again, to be wise, check on things before you forward it, check on things before you share it. I see people saying it can't hurt to just try it. No, it can hurt. When we spread lies and rumors and gossip and false news, we need to be wise. And I want to particularly say that about scams. If somebody is asking you for money, somebody's emailing you for money. Somebody is sending you an email that you're gonna be arrested or audited by the IRS. If you don't respond immediately with a credit card number, you need to be wise about that. Don't let your phone become something that trips you up financially, because you sent a bunch of money to Nigeria. And guess what? It was not a Nigerian prince that you were helping. Don't let your phone be something that trips you up because you spread lies and untruths and things that all sorts of conspiracy theories, for example, that are just completely fallacious. Don't let your phone, which should be a good thing. We talked about that yesterday. Don't let that become a bad thing. Be aware when you use your phone, that just cuz it's on the internet, doesn't make it true. That's a pretty good slogan as we move forward into the week. And as we use our phones to glorify God, we talked about that yesterday. That was my very first point. We can do that with our phones. If we are wise as serpents Matthew chapter 10 and verse 16, maybe pull up that Bible app. Now let's think a little bit about our daily Bible reading for the week we are finishing up in acts. Has anybody else noticed that we're getting to the end of this amazing story of Paul and this week we'll be reading some more in acts chapter 26 and acts chapter 27. Let's think about our notes for daily Bible reading It's Monday and today we read acts chapter 26 versus 22 to 32. And you wanna get your Bible reading done because yeah, the Cowboys play tonight. It's Monday night football, the Dallas Cowboys play the New York giant. So let's get our Bible reading done. And that just kind of gives you something to look forward to all day. Doesn't it. Monday night football makes Monday better for us football fans. So grab your coffee, get a sweet of coffee. And let's look at Bible reading acts chapter 26 verses 22 to 32. This is the climax of the sermon. Paul is really pressing here. He gets the must going in verse 23, the divine imperative. And he is really saying some things here about how the prophets verse 22 predict all of this said, all of this is going to happen. Paul's going somewhere with that profit idea. Then of course, verse 24, fetus just jumps in, uh, kind of rude here breaks in you're outta your mind. The idea there, the term there is the word for mania and Festus has completely missed it. Paul's enthusiasm and excitement is not craziness. He's not insane. It is authentic and real joy. It is the passion that comes because Paul really believes this and is living it. I wonder, it's fair to ask how much a Roman ruler like feta is gonna get here's a Jewish rabbi or former Jewish rabbi discourse on the profits that may have gone entirely over his head, but it doesn't go over a grip's head doesn't verse 26. The king knows you can see Paul looking straight at a GRPA here. A GRPA knows these things. A GRPA knows the prophets, a GRPA is very Jewish in his beliefs and in the way he rules and who he is. And so Paul puts it on him. Do you believe the prophets? I know you believe verse 27, which then leads to one of the most famous verses in the book of acts, particularly at the closing chapters of acts where a GRPA says in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian? There's not any agreement on exactly what that means. And there's a bunch of variance just in how it is translated. The new king James says, you almost persuade me to become a Christian. The new American standard says in a short time, you will persuade me to become a Christian. The new international says, do you think that in such a short time, you can persuade me to be a Christian and then the ESV, as I just read in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian? It's hard to know exactly what a group of means by that because we can't hear his tone of voice. We can't hear his inflection. And one scholar noted. There's a number of questions here. First does the Greek text refer to time in a short time or the means with a few words? How do you translate that? And then secondly, is it persuade or you think, do we adopt the reading to become a Christian or make me a Christian is the third issue. There there's some technical issues there way beyond my pay grade way, way beyond my understanding of Greek, but it leads us to approximately three views of what is being said in verse 28. One is that he is sincere that a GRPA is very nearly converted. He knows the prophets and this is moving a GRPA almost to the edge of Christianity. Secondly, there is the view that he is speaking this in derision. Oh, I can't believe you think you can convert me. And then thirdly, there is the view that he is touched by this, but he is put off by it. And so he has to sort of push Paul back and I'm, I, I hear what you're saying and, and I'm almost afraid of the implications of what you are saying. You'll have to think about that. I, one of the great mistakes I am convinced often you'll see this in Bible class. Is that in a place like this, where we do not have absolute certainty, somebody advances their view, maybe the preacher, because he's the loudest guy and he's running the class and then he beats everybody into subjection. It beats everybody into adopting his view. This is the only view you have to take this view. That's a terrible mistake. That's so unhealthy. It's not good for good Bible study and good thought don't want to be doing that. You decide about verse 28. I would say this, for my opinion, you're free to disagree with this. And maybe I will end up disagreeing with myself as I continue to examine it and rethink some things. But it seems to me that a GRPA would have to make some radical changes in his life to be a Christian. And it thus seems doubtful to me that he is out of this one sermon at the precipice of Christianity and the baptistry. I, I, I think that he is not seriously considering conversion here he is. Maybe, maybe this should be taken as kind of shock. Paul, you are really overreaching. If you think you can make me a Christian, but Paul immediately says, I want people to be Christians. I want that all men would be Christians. Everybody would be like me, except for these chains. I love that reference at the end of verse 29, Hey, a GRPA look at me. I'm being held unjustly. So once again, Paul calls attention to the fact that he needs to be freed. And that is where that ends up winds up, where everybody then agrees in private conversation, verse 31 and verse 32. Paul is innocent. That's a big part of why Luke is recording all of this and why he gives so much ink to all of this. Paul is innocent, but he has appealed to Rome. And tomorrow we're gonna start for Rome. I will see you in acts chapter 27 on Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday today. We read acts chapter 27 versus one to 12. And while there are several places in Paul's life where we wish we had a lot more detail, like what was he doing during the two years of imprisonment in Caesarea? What was happening? Did people come and see him, et cetera, et C cetera. We actually get a lot of detail here. This is one of the most vivid pieces of descriptive writing contained in all of scripture. It is pretty exciting. Almost start to finish. And it does begin the longest we section in the book of acts and contains very clear evidence that this is an eyewitness account. We don't know everything about where Luke was during Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea, but clearly he is on board. The ship today's reading begins when it was decided X 27, 1 that we should sail for Italy. This would be an ad 60. That's a good marker to put out beside your writing there. So out beside your Bible reading there. So when you're doing daily Bible reading, you have those dates easily accessible and right there for you, there is lots of nautical data here, lots of sailing stuff. Get your map out of the back of your Bible there. Make sure you're documenting along with Luke where Paul is and what's going along. Maybe a key question here is why are we getting all of this detail? What is this all about? And I do think Luke is emphasizing heavily God's care and protection over Paul. That is the overriding theme in chapter 27 in chapter 28. And that goes well with the overriding theme in the book of acts, you can stop God and God has said, Jesus has promised Paul, you are going to Rome and guess what? He is going to Rome. Even if there is a storm, Paul will get to Rome. So today we read, as I said, acts chapter 27 versus one to 12. This contains the beginning of the journey and begins to tell us some of the things about how Paul will travel. He is traveling at Roman expense. You get various ships here working along the way in verse two, we meet up with Aristos again. He will reappear in FileMan verse 24 and Colossians four, 10. He is a companion and fellow prisoner of Paul. It may be that if Paul is writing FileMan and Colossians from Roman prison, which certainly seems to be the case and the evidence certainly suggests that, that he is a fellow prisoner here on this ship with Paul being shipped to Rome, the rest of our reading then has us coast hopping along, making various ports along the way, sailing out into the middle of the big oceans. Not a great idea. That's not safe. So you stay as close to the land as you possibly could. Of course, finally, they have to sail across the open sea verse five. They find a ship in verse six of Alexandria. That's a wheat ship, a grain ship coming out of Egypt. Rome imported about 150,000 tons of grain a year from Egypt. It was the bread basket for Rome and many officials took these grain ships. Even the emperor of ation used. This means rather than a galley ship and AB 70, because it was faster. The winds then verse seven are solidly against them. And sailing begins to get difficult. We are so used to going where we want when we want that we are not used to stopping because of the weather. But verse nine begins to tell us that the weather is turning against them from about the middle of September to the middle, middle of November. It is very dangerous to sail on the Mediterranean. You might sail if the weather is good, but you would wanna watch for changes in the weather from about the middle of November until early March navigation just stopped. It just wasn't safe. Well then in the spring from early March to the beginning of April, there would be once again, some sailing, if the weather would cooperate. So things are dicey here and I'm starting to wonder if, whether or not we should just put in and winter. And that of course is exactly what Paul advises in verse 10, but nobody listens to Paul. We need to move on. And as a result of that, we sail out verse 12 into the wide open ocean. Is this gonna work? What's going to happen there. You'd better Batten down the hatches tomorrow. A storm begins to blow. I'll see you on Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. We're halfway through the week and it is raining. It is raining something fierce. As we find ourselves in a storm in our Bible, reading acts chapter 27 versus 13 to 20 is where we are reading today. A tempestuous wind verse 14 called a no Easter strikes down from the land and the ship is caught and can't face the wind. And so we notice all the we and our Luke is on board. This ship, maybe seasick like everyone else. And so we gave way to it and we were driven along this in many ways is a desperate tax. They try all sorts of things, including verse 17, undergirding the ship that may mean they pass cables, lengthwise from stern to bow to try to draw the ship tighter together and to strengthen the outside of the hole. That is a process known as flapping, or it may mean that there were ropes tied vertically around the sides of the ship to hold the ship tighter together. What would you say? Uh, from the, from side to side, but it's a desperate situation. Verse 17 mentions the C the Certus is a sandbar that extends from the north shore of Africa, about a hundred miles. If you get stuck on that sandbar, you'd be immobilized. And then the ways would beat your ship and pound it into smithereens. That's why they don't just head down to north Africa because they can't steer very well in the storm. And they're afraid of the sandbar as a result of that, they end up lowering the gear. We're not entirely certain what that means, but they are trying, it seems to make the ship ride higher in the water. We were violently storm tossed, verse 18. We began to jettison the cargo later on. They'll throw in verse 38. They'll throw more cargo over overboard. So we're not entirely sure of what they're doing here, but this does in many ways, remind us of the book of Jonah and how the storm batters that ship notice. Then in verse 20, they can't navigate. If you can't see the sun and you can't see the stars in Paul's day, you don't know where you are. And the point then is the ship is going where God wants it to go. They cannot control themselves. They have no ability to affect their fate in any way. There are over 200 people on this ship and everything that's going to happen is being determined by God. And it's all being determined because God has interest in one man on ship. And that is where our reading goes tomorrow. Let's see what that one man has to say to everybody on this violently storm tossed, terrible situation. I'm thinking most of these folks think they're all gonna die. Are they Paul's on that ship? Are they gonna die? Paul will talk about that. I'll see you tomorrow. Welcome to Thursday today. We read acts chapter 27 versus 21 to 32. And I have to wonder how many of you just kept reading yesterday? It is very difficult to stop the reading. We want to know what's going to happen. Next. This ship is in such utter peril. And in fact, verse 21 of our reading today seems to suggest that everybody's pretty much given up. They're not even eating. Maybe they don't feel like eating, or maybe they're out of food. By now, we've been throwing stuff overboard to try to lighten the ship. But Paul says, we're gonna get out of this. We are going to get out of this. And he starts with you should have listened to me. And that's not a giant. I told you. So I think that's more, more an attempt to get some credibility. By this time, Paul has spent a lot of time on the water. Some scholars estimate that by this point in his life, he has sailed over 3000 miles. So Paul has a lot of experience and Paul could be saying, I I'm an experienced traveler. And I knew this wasn't gonna work out well because I have traveled so much. So listen to me. And once again, verse 23, Paul gets a vision when he needs one to reassure him. And then he just says, everybody here is gonna be saved because God is taking me to Rome. And the wording implies here. As one scholar noted that Paul had prayed for his fellow travelers and that God had heard his prayer. It seems to me that as Paul says, in verse 25, I have faith in God. That'll be exactly, as I have been told that verse 25 should be a great motto passage for everyone today. We need to find out what God has said, and then we need to believe it because things go exactly as we have been told. So the ship is still storm tossed and it's just drifting. Paul says, we're gonna run a ground on an island. And that island is Malta. There are some navigational people, seafaring folks who work, some things out, drift rates and so forth. And they say that all of this would just work out perfectly for the ship to be right where it is right at Malta. And they are aware then verse 27, that they are nearing land. And so they decide to throw out some anchors to try to keep the front of the boat anchored in such a way as though in the morning when it's light, you sure don't wanna be trying this in the dark. They can make that last push and run it into land, run it a ground, or maybe is there a port there? Could we navigate our way in and, and, and be safe? Of course, another apparel shows up verse 30, the sailors decide they're gonna get off. They're gonna use a lifeboat and abandon the ship. We need those sailors. Paul says through the Centurion, don't let those men do that. And so the soldiers, verse 32, cut away the rope of the ship's lifeboat and they let it go. I'm not sure that's what Paul meant. Just cut the boat loose. Then nobody can leave. We might need that boat. And off it goes, I should expect the sailers. Weren't real happy about all of that. And once again, we end our reading and we're still not sure is everybody gonna be safe? We think everybody's gonna be safe because Paul says, God has reassured him. It will be, of course, exactly. As God has said. And tomorrow we'll see how God works that out. See you tomorrow. It is Friday. And we complete acts chapter 27 versus 33 to 44. Let's go swimming because that's, what's going to happen beginning in our reading today, Paul though, urges everyone to take some food. And this does look a little bit like the Lord supper. I get it. I understand why people think this is the Lord supper. It's not the Lord supper. This language can be applied to the Lord supper, but can also be applied to a common meal. This is not the Lord supper, but it's a great place to emphasize how faith in action come together. One writer said, Paul believed that God would keep his promises. And he had the courage to say grace and the presence of a crowd of pagans, but his trust and godliness did not stop him. Seeing either that the ship should not take risks with the onset of winter or that the sailors should not abandon the ship or that the hungry crew and passenger shouldn't have something to eat so that they could survive. What a man, he was a man of God and a man of action, a man of the spirit and a man of common sense. I love that. I love that. Sometimes we imagine that people of piety in faith have no connection to the real world. Paul shows that he is rooted in both here has a good understanding. We need some calories. We need some carbs. If we're gonna get to swimming. And certainly we are about to be swimming. The boat tries to make the run in. When they see the land, they throw the weed out verse 38, that tells you how desperate things are, because now the voyage is a complete and total loss. And so they decide we're going for the beach verse 39, but they hit a reef verse 41. And that stops them from being able to go all the way in and the boat begins to break up. The soldiers decide they'll kill everybody. That would include Paul. The Centurion says, we're not doing that. This guy, we need this guy. And so everybody jumps overboard and we all get to land. That's very unexpected, very unexpected people. Can't swim. People are gonna drown. There's a storm. Nope. Everybody makes it just like God said. Welcome to Malta. Paul. We'll read about that more next week. Thank you for listening. I'm to the bottom of my cup of coffee. Now, I certainly do appreciate you joining me for the Monday morning coffee podcast. And I would love for you to subscribe or rate or review on iTunes or whatever app you're listening to this podcast that helps folks find the podcast. Of course, the best thing to do. I always say this is to tell somebody about the podcast. Nothing works like word of mouth advertising. So until Monday, I hope your coffee is delightful. I hope your Friday is wonderful and that the Lord will be with you today. All day. I will see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the west side church of Christ podcast. Monday morning, copy with mark. For more information about side, you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.is that's upbeat with two PS. You peep B a where creators can get music. Please share our podcast with others. And we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,

Sermon Notes
Monday Acts 26:22-32
Tuesday Acts 27:1-12
Wednesday Acts 27:13-20
Thursday Acts 27:21-32
Friday Acts 27:33-44