Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

Q&A Morning - November 2022

November 28, 2022 Mark Roberts Season 2 Episode 40
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Q&A Morning - November 2022
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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 3:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, November the 28th. I'm Mark. I'm holding some coffee. I've got sermon notes. I've got my bible open so we can talk daily Bible reading and yes, I am trying to get the podcast started. This is a tough Monday, isn't it? We come off a holiday weekend and maybe we're still in a food coma. The trip to fan is still working on us and we thinking about football games and so many things that happen and now bam, it's back to work. And we're also very aware that Christmas is coming and maybe we are feeling a little bit behind. There's just a lot crushing down on us, but you know what? It's all gonna be fine. It's all gonna be fine. Talked about contentment last week. Let's just be content counter blessings. Let's think about yesterday's sermon. Get ready to read in Timothy. Pour yourself another cup of coffee. Let's get started. Yesterday in the 10 40 hour, I did something I had not done before and that is I did the question and answer sermon for the month in the 10 40 time slot. That's a little bit different. I would like for you to tell me if you like that. Was that helpful to you? Kinda like doing that in the nine o'clock slot, hoping maybe some people would decide, get up a little bit earlier and come on into the nine so that they can get that Q and a. But let me know what you thought about q and a at 10 40. Is that appropriate? We always have a lot more visitors in that particular service and let me know what you thought about the questions that I dealt with. I am gonna just say a little bit more about one of those, that last question about saying Amen. What about that? Someone said maybe we just oughta have a whole different way of ending prayer, and I get it, especially because there's no formulated absolute mandated. This is how you have to begin. This is what you have to say next. Then you say this and then you end it with this. None of that of course exists in scripture, so okay, let's just do something completely different. Um, okay, maybe. But anything that we do different just to be doing it differently is ultimately going to become old hat. Eventually we'll find that we're in a routine with that as well. Just like we're in a routine maybe with in Jesus name, amen. Better than just shaking things out to be shaking things up. What if we invested what we're doing with meaning? What if we thought about why we say in Jesus name? What if we thought about what amen means and filled our prayer with meaning the way to worship better? And prayer is certainly an act of worship whether you're in the assembly or whether you're doing it on your own at home. The way to worship better is always to know what the Bible teaches and then fill worship up with the truth of scripture. That's what we ought to do in our praying. And so I'm gonna keep saying in Jesus' name or in Christ's name, amen. I just want to think more about what I'm saying and make sure that I mean it when I say amen. Let's think about daily Bible, Rudy. Now It is Monday and today we read all of first Timothy chapter two, so it's just 15 verses, but of course these are 15 verses full of important ideas and controversial ideas. And in fact, maybe I should say because of that I have 10 pages of notes in front of me, so this may be more than just pour yourself another cup of coffee. This may make you a link to work. Oh, seriously, I hope not. Let me just give you some brief ideas that will help as we're working along in for Timothy chapter two. I promise not to go too long here. First, hold onto the main idea, stop error and teach the truth. And notice that when Paul starts talking about things that need to be done correctly, fixing up, cleaning up, doing what's right, prayer is at the top of that list. But I want you to see first of all, verse one that I urge supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people. There may be a hint of some of the problems going on in Ephesus. Here is somebody being excluded from the church's prayers and maybe even from the offer of salvation. Notice that Paul says all people in verse one and then all in verse two, all in verse four, all in verse six, and makes note that he is a teacher of Gentiles in verse seven. So wonder if there's some Judaism going on here and if there's some difficulty with that, just important to kind of think about the issues that Timothy is dealing with and prayer maybe or excluding people from prayer, maybe a symptom of the overall problem. I don't think I'd make a huge play about trying to separate out different flavors of praying here. Maybe supplication is petitions for certain definite needs. One writer said prayer, then supplication prayer would be general talking to God, intercession session. That's a very difficult word to translate, but it would be pleading the case for someone else. And then of course Thanksgiving is being grateful for the blessings that God has given to us. I would have you note that today, reformed theology, which is just the more modern buzzword for good old fashioned Calvinism fails exactly right here. God desires all people to be saved. For Timothy two, four, Calvinism says that's not true. God does not want everybody to be saved. God arbitrarily chooses some people who will be saved and some people who will be lost. It makes no difference what they do. It is totally independent of any action on their part. It is decided before they are born. God decides they are lost. That is incompatible with one Timothy two, four. And if people in Ephesus are excluding some folks from the church and excluding them from the author of salvation, then guess what? Yeah, Calvinism is just a repeat of a same old false teaching and error that Timothy was trying to deal with and that Paul was helping him with by writing this letter to him. Paul then turns his attention to that assembly, verse eight, I desire then in every place that men should pray lifting holy hands. Now here's the controversial part of first Timothy. In fact, some people say these are the most controversial passages in all of first Timothy, second Timothy and Titus. It's easy then because some of what's said here doesn't seem to fit very well with our culture. For us to decide, we're going to try to write it out of the Bible. Some have said this is just male chauvinism on the part of Paul. Others have announced that this is uh, bound up in the culture of the time and so is not applicable to today. I would say to both of those things, they utterly fail to take the Bible seriously. We can't dismiss what we don't like an apostle, an inspired apostle saying because we announced that he is chauvinistic and saying that it is cultural. Well of course it's cultural. Everything that happened in the Bible is happening in the Bible culture of that particular time. It didn't occur in a vacuum. Everything occurred in that society, in that environment and those circumstances. The question comes how do we make application of what Paul is saying to those people living in that place, that time, that culture to our time, place and culture. And the question is, is that simply something for that specific culture or is this an all time principle that is rooted in something larger than culture? When you look down in the text and you see the appeal beginning in verse 13 and then 14 and 15 to creation and the order of creation, it becomes very difficult to say this is simply cultural. It's much more than that. This is about men and women respecting their roles and their place in society. I'll tell you what is cultural here. A good study of the New Testament era, particularly uh Roman cities. Greek cities has revealed archeologists and sociologists, anthropologists and they dig all that stuff up. There was a very real women's lib movement going on during the New Testament time, during the time that these epistles are written and women are throwing off restraint, they're throwing off fidelity to their marriage vows. They're addressing provocatively. Older women were pursuing younger women. That's not a new phenomena by any means. There was a lot going on that was scandalous even in the eyes of just Roman citizens. Oh my, I can't believe women are behaving this way. And when you know about that, the culture, then you can see that what Paul is saying is we're not gonna be part of that. Christians are not gonna be part of this scandalous new women's rights movement. Women can do what they want. And so the modesty, and he's talking about I modesty in verse nine, that is actually not underdress, that's overdressing overdressing in this scandalous way, provocatively calling attention to your body with uh, fancy clothes, expensive clothes, jewelry, those kinds of things. Of course it would apply to a woman who calls attention to her body and announces her sexual availability by underdress. That's the way people could do that today. But that's the emphasis here particularly is not to overdress. And again, I think this is relating to the assembly. That doesn't mean that you can dress him modestly outside the assembly, but I think we have to keep this in its context. Then a woman should have instead godliness and good works. That's a huge theme in Timothy and in Titus and then a woman is to learn quietly. I wonder here if part of the false teaching going on at Ephesus has to do with casting off restraint and allowing women to take roles in the assembly that the Bible, uh, the New Testament order does not allow for them. Is that going on here? Instead, women are to learn quietly. That's an unusual term. It only occurs about four times in the New Testament. There's an adjective that occurs twice as well in each time. That word group means a quiet demeanor, a quiet demeanor, not this loud rebellious woman who's shouting and and throwing off everything that society says a proper woman should do is announcing that she won't live by society's rules anymore behaving in an outrageous fashion. No, no. Let a woman be a godly woman, a quiet woman, a woman who is uh, conducting herself in her dress with a quiet demeanor. And then part of that then is she's not gonna try to take the lead in the assembly. I think the conclusion here in first Timothy two 11 and 12 and certainly in a short podcast like this, I, you can't develop everything about everything or answer every question about everything. But I think the conclusion here is that a woman is not to authoritatively teach to men in the public assembly of the church. And and one writer said it means a woman should not enter a sphere of activity for which by the way of her very creation, she is not suited. Let not a bird try to dwell under the water. Let not a fish try to live upon the land. Let not a woman yearn exercise authority over a man by lecturing him in public worship. And I think that is the emphasis in first empathy chapter two. And I think we're really helped when we understand this verse in its context and we stand on what this verse says, the more we better understand what women can and cannot do in the assembly, the better we'll be prepared to defend the truth and not just something that's our custom or what our culture says. Churches everywhere, and I mean churches of Christ are caving in and allowing women to teach and preach in the assembly. We need to know what first Timothy two is saying and we need to stand on that. And we need to make sure that we're not arbitrarily barring women from things that they can in fact scripturally do. If we repress women, we're playing right into the hands of those who say, oh look, the church is just chauvinistic. That's more than enough. Wow, that was not as short as I hoped it would be as you get your week started in first Timothy, but I hope that'll get you a running start in first 52. See, tomorrow we'll read first 53. It is Tuesday and today we're reading first empathy chapter three verses one to 13. We are thinking about elders and deacons today and the qualifications for those offices. It seems to me that we are really helped here in thinking about the specific situation in EUS as we look at these qualifications because as it's been noted by a number of scholars, almost every quality that Paul specifies here has a negative counterpoint that's brought up somewhere in these epistles about the Ephesian opponents. They are bringing the church into disrepute. They are teaching only for financial gain. They seem to be perhaps sexually loose in their understanding of what Jesus requires from us in sexual faithfulness and in marriage. There's just some problems going on there with those opponents. And so these leaders are to be the exact opposite of that, they must be the opposite of that. And the huge emphasis both at the beginning and the end of the qualifications is above reproach. Above reproach. I don't think that's the only qualification for an elder, but it drives everything that's going on here. Elders, the term here is overseer, a term that would reference being responsible for general oversight. And then I think deacons are responsible for maybe the physical things that go on so that are, that are necessary for our assembly, for our work. You see that out of Acts chapter six, where the apostles are going to be involved in prayer and the ministry of the word, the deacons that are chosen there then can do some physical things. They can serve tables. That seems to be to be an excellent biblical model for how this plays out now in first Timothy three and also of course in Titus. Then as we work into these qualifications, what you get is somebody who is serious about his discipleship, serious about following the Lord and has the kind of character that people will want to follow. Just look at the things that are not on the list, being a good businessman, being handsome, being an amazing speaker. There's lots of things that people look to because it draws them or it's charismatic or it's appealing. It causes people to say, I'll follow that guy because he has lots of money. None of those things are on this list. This is about somebody who is above approach because they care about God and they have developed the kind of character that is marked by these standards. And there is of course a lot of discussion about various pieces. Um, does he have to be married? There's a number of different options there, different takes that people have taken on that. I do think the best choice out of that is that Paul is requiring the man to be married. And then of course there's discussion about managing his own household, verse four and what those things mean. I, I don't think that requires an elder's children to be Christians or to remain Christians for some period of life once they're out of his house and so forth. I think there are huge issues with that. Can't develop all of that on the podcast. I went long yesterday, I'm gonna try to do better today, but clearly verse five is talking about those children in his house as he is showing his leadership in the home. Then we get some things about deacons beginning verse eight. There's lots of misunderstanding today about deacons. They're not in training to be elders, they're not junior elders. It is a work unto itself. And these characteristics in many ways are similar to the characteristics of an overseer. Six are directly parallel here because again, this is about character. It is about character. What about the ladies? Then in verse 11, there's a discussion of women, and the ESV even says their wives likewise must be dignified, and that probably is what Paul means, but you should know that is not exactly what the text says. The esv, which I love dearly, has taken a little liberties here. The term is not lives, the term is women. This is discussing a certain kind of women and there is a case to be made that Paul is talking about deaconesses. Now, I'm not compelled by that and I think there are some significant questions about that, but I can't deny that it is a possibility that he is talking about women who would fulfill certain functions maybe for ladies who would serve the church as men serve the church. Maybe Paul is talking about that. There are some other passages that could come into play. I'm not sure why we're so panicked that somebody would say she's a deaconess. Deacon just means to be a servant. There's special servants who help the church, and it's not about the title nearly so much as it is about the serving. And I would be made uncomfortable by any man who wants that title. I wanna put that on my name badge. I want the deacon parking space. That's crazy. And in the same way I would be nervous about any woman who is trying to get that title. Maybe the things we talked about on Monday from First Timothy chapter two would fit such a woman. But you need to be aware that there is conversation now to 1 2 11 about that. I am just not compelled by that. I think he is talking about the deacons wives here and that is closed in that idea by verse 12. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife. And if you're an elder, if you're a deacon, you're serving the Lord and that's worth a good, that's worth having then and and allows you to have great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Verse 13. Now, there's a lot more that I could say, obviously in first chapter three, one to 13, but that'll get you started for today and help you navigate through that section. Again, keep thinking about the opponents, the false teachers and eus and what this would say about them and how the leadership and emphasis needs to be the antithesis of the trouble makers. See, tomorrow will complete the reading in first chapter three and even get into chapter four. It is Wednesday and today we're reading chapter three versus 14, 15, 16, and then into chapter 4, 4, 1 to five. Don't like to cross chapter boundaries like that, but sometimes you have to do it to make the readings all come out. That's what we'll read today and it all actually goes together. I'm kind of pleased to talk about this with you today. I think it's the first time in this week's podcast that I haven't dealt with some passage that's wildly controversial, and as I look at my Bible, maybe that's wrong. Verse 15 seems to be controversial because it says the church is the pillar and support or buttress of the truth. And it seems like a lot of people have completely forgotten the church's role, but in eus where they had the temple of Diana. Remember when I preached on the city of Ephesus and we visited our Ephesian brethren and our New Testament church road tour? Remember we talked about that massive temple in its hundred or so columns, each nearly 60 feet high holding that huge marble roof up. The church is the temple of God. The church holds up the truth. That's what the church needs to be doing. We see the church involved in everything today, but teaching and preaching the truth, but the focus here needs to be on the truth because the truth calls brethren back to thinking about Jesus. And that's where Paul goes beginning in verse 16. This may, it's probably set off in different typeface or in different style in your Bible. This may be a hymn. And Paul is reminding the brethren in Ephesus racked with controversy and some false teaching. Let's get back to thinking about Jesus. Let's get back to being the church. The church proclaims the truth about Jesus. And so that takes us into chapter four because now that Paul has discussed what the church proclaims, there is time for him to focus. There is a place for him to focus on a discussion of the false teachers who would ruin the church's work and efforts. And I should say this, as you're reading along here and seeing these false teachers, these liars, their consciences are seared. Notice they forbid marriage and require abstinence from food. There's always people who are saying that sex and hunger are just appetites, and we just gratify those and it doesn't make any difference. You just eat and do whatever you wanna do. Or the opposite of that, that the body is a nasty encumbrance. Maybe the body itself is evil, so we have to abstain from all of these kinds of things. We just get both extremes. But the Bible is very pro-sex. Yes, it is. God invented the sexual relationship and God sanctified it and placed it in marriage. And the Bible is for it, for it for it. And we ought to be saying that somehow the devil has succeeded in teaching everybody that Christians are against sex. That's just not true. We're for the very best kind of sex. Sex in its rightful place in marriage. And I would say this, the Bible is very for food. The Bible is very pro food. One of the pictures of heaven is a banquet, is a feast. There's lots of eating in the Bible. These false teachers are warping and twisting things, and that's causing people to lose their way. Instead, Timothy needs to stop the error and teach the truth More on that from chapter four. Tomorrow, welcome to Thursday. Today we finish first Timothy chapter four, reading verses six to 16, and this is really the stop error. Teach the truth section, isn't it? Watch the expression these things. Verse six, verse 11, verse 15. Paul singles that out again and again to say to Timothy, you keep teaching the gospel, you keep teaching the truth. Don't get caught up in error. Verse seven, instead, be a man of God. That saying, the business of bodily training being of some value, but godliness being in value in every way is the trustworthy saying of verse nine. I have an arrow drawn from verse nine back to verse eight because it's easy for me to think. The saying is the thing that's coming next. Verse 10, nope. Verse nine is pointing back to verse eight. As Paul continues to urge Timothy to be certain that he's teaching the truth, this is the way of salvation. Verse 10, we have our hope set on the living God who's the savior of all people, especially of those who believe. That creates some confusion sometimes. What does that mean, savior of all men? Is that a universalist passage? What do we make of that? I think verse 10 just means that God wants everyone to be saved and he's paid the price for everybody to be saved in Jesus. Thus, in a sense, God can be said to be the savior of all men. He certainly will be the savior of any who want to be saved. And then the word especially introduces the idea of those who will be saved and those who have the assurance of salvation, and that is who those who believe. Timothy is a young man. We notice verse 12, probably in his late twenties to mid thirties here, he has some kind of gift, verse 14 that may be a reference to the gift that Paul gave him. Paul makes mention of that in second Timothy chapter one and verse six, elders can't convey a gift. So maybe the elders were there when Paul gave the gift. Not entirely certain about that, but Timothy needs to continue to teach and practice these things. Verse 15 is important. I, I'd try to point this out particularly at the annual conference that we have at side for preachers, our training, uh, our training days there. One of the things that's so significant in Timothy and Titus and in second Timothy, first Timothy, second Timothy, and Titus in all these epistles is to teach the truth. But the other end of that is you have to live the truth so that you can teach the truth. Timothy is being talked to here about his influence. He needs to live as a godly man so that his teaching will have impact. That's why he needs to keep a close watch upon himself in that he then can have maximum impact. Verse 16, upon himself and upon his listeners. This is good stuff for us to think through today. Read it a couple of times and I'll see you tomorrow. On Friday. We'll start first five. Hey, hey, it's Friday. I know you're excited to come to the end of the work week. Let's read in first chapter five as we complete our reading for this week. We're gonna read the first 16 verses, and this is a section here where Paul gives Timothy instructions for dealing with specific groups within the church in Ephesus. Some groups by age, then widows, then elders, and finally slaves. There's a certain way the church cares for and reacts to and responds to various people, various groups, and that's being set forth very clearly here. As you read this, it feels a lot like the church is a family, and that goes back to three 15. The church is the household of God, and in chapter four, verse 12, Paul has ordered Timothy not to let people look down upon him because he is young, and now we're reading how Timothy is to act to various groups so that that will not happen. What we get in today's reading is mostly about widows. A widow here is not just a woman whose husband is dead, but one who deserves to be supported by the church, and Paul talks about what makes her worthy of that kind of support. In particular, he notes younger women, verse 11, who seem to be abusing the system. They're giving into their central desires, their sensual desires. They're turning against Christ, they're abandoning the faith. They're not doing what's right. Maybe part of that women's lib movement is that working here again, some of these young women are acting in a scandalous kind of fashion. Instead, they need to do what's right. They need to live godly kind of lives, and any woman, any widow woman, needs to be taken care of by her family rather than the church being charged with her support. The church's treasury, it is clear, needs to be devoted to teaching and preaching, not benevolence. And so if someone else can pick up the tab for the benevolence, let them do that so the church can do other things or even take care of benevolent needs as those arise. That takes us through our reading in Timothy for this week. We certainly do appreciate you listening to the podcast. If you like what you're hearing, if it's helping you in your daily Bible reading, we would love for you to follow, subscribe, rate, and give a review on iTunes or whatever app you listen on. Most of all, we'd like for you to tell a friend about the show. That is what really gets people to come listen to the podcast. So until next week, may your coffee be delightful, your Friday, be wonderful, and may the Lord be with you today all day. I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

Speaker 1:

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.is that's upbeat with two P'S UPP, 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 company coffee, of course, on next Monday,

Sermon Notes
Monday 1st Tim 2:1-15
Tuesday 1st Tim 3:1-13
Wednesday 1st Tim 3:14-4:5
Thursday 1st Tim 4:6-16
Friday 1st Tim 5:1-16