Reading the Bible at Home - Cultivating Faith in our Children

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

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, February the fifth, and we are rolling into this week with a ton of momentum. The groundhog says spring is coming and that is great, although now the weatherman is saying spring is not coming and maybe there's gonna be another one of these arctic blasts. More importantly, we had a great day yesterday at West Side and I love talking about daily Bible reading as a family that is such a practical and powerful idea and where we are in Mark is just tremendously helpful in that connection. So let's just put all of this together. Let's think more about Bible reading, particularly as a family. And let's get into our Bible reading. Let's get started. Yesterday I did talk about building faith, cultivating faith in our children by the practice of regular daily Bible reading as a family. And that really wasn't about how to do that. There's lots of ideas on the internet. You can Google all that up and read various blogs and post and articles and ideas about how to do that. I just think maybe the thing that matters the most is constancy. If you're going to church on Sunday and Wednesday, every Sunday, every Wednesday, that gives kids a landing spot. It is absolute. It is rock solid. This is what we do. I know where this fits. I know where I fit. Got a ball game . We won't be at the ball game . We go to church. Gotta practice mom and dad picking me up early because we go to church. This is who we are, this is what we do. Now you add to that regular daily Bible reading and now they have something else solid to stand on. This is who we are, this is what defines us. This doesn't change. That provides a tremendous sense of stability, which is exactly what we want our kids to have and exactly what we want them to have from the word of God. And it does. It marks kids for life . And I know that is true because that's how I grew up. We read the Bible regularly, relentlessly, constantly. Every day we had time to read the Bible. Dad called us in from playing. We had turned the television off and we read the Bible as a family. It made a huge difference in who I am to this day. Can't thank my parents enough for that tremendous gift. Give the gift of daily Bible reading to your children. And now let's think about daily Bible reading out of the gospel of Mark. Monday's reading is Mark chapter seven, verses 14 to 23. Lemme grab some coffee here. Oh, that is good coffee right there . So Friday we read Mark seven , one to 13 and now this is an explanatory note by Jesus. This is Jesus's commentary on what he just said and it's very important He calls the people to him. Verse 14. So notice Jesus is making a point here. I want to push this, I want you to understand this. The Pharisees are so concerned about all these washings and they are missing the point of God's law. You may notice that verse 16 is missing in your Bible and it is omitted because it is not in the best manuscript and was probably added later by a scribe who saw it in the other gospel accounts. And so he jotted it in or maybe it was noted in the margin and somehow it made its way into a manuscript. Verse 16, not on the best manuscripts. Don't panic about that. Don't panic about that. Sometimes people will post a list of verses, oh look, these verses aren't in your Bible but they're in the King James. And what that does is assume that the King James is the absolute standard that it was a perfect translation. And so anything that's left out of the King James somehow is defective. Of course, the King James is not a perfect translation. There are no perfect translations. And so the King James May be the one making the mistake, not the ESV or the New American standard or the NIV depending upon what you're reading this morning. So don't get lost in the translation questions and particularly just this idea of verse 16. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. I don't think anybody's gonna lose their salvation because Mark seven 16 is not in the text. The Jesus then notes in verse 17. Actually mark notes for us here that the disciples asked a question further. Mark really takes pains to point out that the disciples struggle and don't always understand. But I love here, just like in chapter four with the parable, the sower, they ask Jesus and Jesus explains what's going on. Catch the note in verse 19 where Mark is helping the gentile audience see that kosher dietary laws will be done away with that of course doesn't happen until the Book of Acts, but we see that once it gets there, and this is preparatory to that, this is such a significant text, it tells us that Jesus is primarily concerned about the inside. That doesn't mean of course the outside doesn't matter. As long as you have love in your heart, you can murder people that that's crazy. We don't go there, but it all starts from the heart. We have to start from the inside and let the inside work outwardly and change us on the outside. That's what Jesus is doing here. That's what we need to see here. And especially we need to notice this is a big break with the religious leaders of the day. I'm reading this and I'm seeing , wow, Jesus is cutting apart their regulations and rules that they identified themselves with and that were so important to them. This is gonna create problems between Jesus and the religious leadership problems that could, problems that could get Jesus killed. Don't be surprised when Jesus gets to Jerusalem and they're not rolling the red carpet out for him tomorrow. We continue in Mark chapter seven on Tuesday we continue in Mark chapter seven, we are reading Mark chapter seven verses 24 to 30. This is a story that doesn't get a lot of airplay because maybe in some ways it doesn't seem very flattering to Jesus. It's a story that maybe leaves us scratching our head a little bit. I'll try to work with some of that. Probably the big idea for us is to get what's said in verse 24 that he went away to the region of tire in Seiden . Where is that? Did you stop? Go to the back of your Bible and look at that map. We need to do that. I talk Sunday morning in the 9:00 AM hour about the land of Israel and what goes on there and the physical features of that land. We need to go look at these maps and think about where Jesus is. If you do that, you'll see that Jesus is very far north, very, very far north. Jesus has left the region of Galilee. And I think there are a couple of reasons for that. One might be that there's just a lot of interruptions here. People just keep coming to Jesus and he wants to do some training with his disciples. People are constantly seeking him out. And then I wonder if there is some concern here about the Pharisees, those particularly coming from Jerusalem, continually hounding him and maybe Jesus could be arrested before his time. Jesus is certainly very, very aware of when his hour is and this is not the time for that. So as Jesus has fought with the Pharisees verbally in verses one to 13 of this chapter, maybe it's time to pull out of that area so that he can have some time with his disciples, work with his disciples and do some training, do some praying and not, not end up being, being arrested and being killed before it is time for those things to happen. But if Jesus is trying to get away from interruptions, it doesn't work. He entered a house he didn't want anyone to know yet He could not be hidden. Jesus' celebrity is so large that people track him down, people find him. And I wonder if this woman, this woman, the cyro, Phoenician woman here, I wonder if she is not just tremendously relieved. People do not travel far distances easily in biblical times because as I said on Sunday, you're walking and maybe this woman, particularly with this troubled daughter, she's never going to be able to walk to Galilee, especially to Jerusalem and find Jesus and all that goes with that. And now Jesus has come to her. And so she is absolutely determined to have this healing. And I think this is all about tough faith. All of us have to make some decisions about this difficult text. Why isn't Jesus more willing to do this healing? And what about what he says in verse 27, which seems to be extremely offensive. I think this is where I'm gonna come at this, that we can't hear Jesus' tone of voice that we can't see Jesus' facial expression is he smiling as he says these kinds of things. But the point here is the tough faith this woman shows once again, we see somebody who is determined to get from Jesus the healing that they absolutely need. And I'm thinking of course about the woman who had suffered so much in chapter five and she says, I'm just gonna touch the heme of his garment. That is tough faith. And Jesus calls her out and she says, I , you got me. You got me. You know what I did? And Jesus says, you have faith and Jarius has faith and his daughter is raised from the dead. And now this woman, she refuses to be deterred even when Jesus tries to put her off. I think he's just testing her. She will not be turned down and she persists to receive from Jesus what she wants so desperately. There's a lesson here about tough faith. Think about how that could work in your life determination to stay with Jesus. Tomorrow we finish chapter seven, another healing. It is Wednesday and today we read Mark seven verses 31 to 37. We're finishing Mark chapter seven today. Wednesday is such a great day. It's midway through the week and maybe we're starting to fatigue a little bit and get a little bit uh , tiredness going on and we're all gonna be together tonight for Bible class. Really looking forward to Bible class, get to talk about the book of Acts. So many good things I I can't wait to see you tonight, but this morning we are reading here in March chapter seven verses 31 to 37 . I say this morning, I don't know when you're reading, but I think a great way to start the day is to read in the morning. We get a special miracle here and I think you have to pay attention to some of the language to get where Mark is going with this miracle. It is the only miracle that is only found in Mark's gospel. So it is clear that this is special. This is important to the point that Mark wants to make. That point is found when Mark uses a rare word to describe the man's impediment. He says that the man, they take him aside, I'm sorry, verse 32, the man was deaf and had a speech impediment that term, those terms, there are found in the Greek version, the tugen of Isaiah 35 verses five and six , the ears of the dish shall be unstopped and the tongue of the dumb shall sing quoting for the King James there. So Jesus shows the man what he's going to do shows the man what's about to happen and then this great miracle occurs. I love verse 34, Jesus' side. There's just something about the brokenness of this world that this creation is not what it ought to be and what it was intended to be when God started all things. And now Jesus is setting things right and he heals the man. And then verse 37, the last part of verse 37 is the quote from Isaiah 35, 5 to six, then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped and then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy. So there's where Mark is going. He's tying Jesus to the messianic prophecies of Isaiah and especially showing Jesus as the one who can make all things new, the one who comes to restore what God has originally intended. And I'm quite certain if you're listening to this podcast, you probably heard me work with the idea of the big passages in the Old Testament, the five key verses there, and I think more people need to understand about that, that what the Bible is about is about getting back to the way things were before Genesis three, back to when man had fellowship with God directly and untainted by sin and all things were good. That's what Genesis one and two just goes overboard to say Jesus is the one who can restore that because Jesus is here to deal with the sin problem. Tomorrow Jesus will feed people again. I'll see you on Thursday in Mark chapter eight. It is Thursday and today we are reading Mark chapter eight verses one to 10, the feeding of the 4,000. Now Bible critics are going to say that this is just a retelling of the feeding of the 5,000 as if biblical authors are so inept that they are unable to tell that somehow they are repeating the same story with only a numerical difference. It is not that at all. There are all sorts of differences here in number and of course there's no mention here of the green grass like Mark mentioned specifically when the 5,000 were fed. It's a different amount of food to start with and maybe the most important thing is you look at your geography here. This may be a gentile crowd, not a Jewish crowd at all. The point though of all of this is made in tomorrow's reading when Jesus will specifically say in verses 19 and 20, I've done this twice. Hey fellas, are you getting it? Somebody kind of picking up on what I am and who I am and what I can do. So it's not a false account, it is here very specifically, especially because we're headed to Peter's confession. That's in verse 27. And of course we won't get there until next week. We'll be reading that on Monday. But earlier, Jesus feeds the 5,000 and Mark then tells us that the disciples didn't figure it all out. They did not understand. Mark chapter six in verse TH 52, they didn't understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. This time the feeding of the 4,000 will lead to faith . Peter's great statement of faith in Mark chapter eight beginning in verse 27. So let's treat this for what it is. It is another illustration of Jesus being the great provider, the incredible provider, the one who can just provide whatever is needed for physical necessities, healing food, and especially spiritual necessities. Maybe what stands out to me is it says that the great crowd had gathered they had nothing to eat and Jesus says they had been with me verse two, three days. Can you imagine staying with a teacher out in the remote parts of somewhere? Not entirely sure. We don't know where Al Mana is out here and people just stay with Jesus and listen to him teach and listen to him teach and they're not concerned about groceries or if we're gonna run out of food. Maybe people had brought some food with them to sustain them, but now all provisions are gone. So Jesus feeds the 4,000 and in fact in verse eight, seven baskets are picked up. That's not even the same word as used for baskets in chapter six and verse 43. This is a different miracle. The questions going to be, are the disciples picking up on what this means about this great teacher, this miracle worker who they are following and who called them to him? Are they getting it? We'll see more of that tomorrow. See you on Friday. It's Friday. It is Friday, and we start in Mark chapter eight, beginning in verse 11. We'll read through verse 21. We start with the Pharisees asking for a sign. And of course this is just crazy. Jesus has done a ton of signs. I think nine or 10 signs by this point that are recorded in Mark's gospel. Come on, why do you need to see another sign? And that's exactly where Jesus is. We get emotion . Verse 12, he sigh deeply in his spirit. Mark loves to show the emotions of Jesus and Jesus refuses to do a sign. One of the big keys here for us to see in the life of Jesus is he will not force faith. Jesus could do something so undeniably miraculous like levitate the temple that people would have to believe in him. But he's not here to make you believe. He's here to teach and to instruct and to do signs that verify who he is so that you will draw a conclusion about who he is . One writer said the blind cannot see signs. And that's exactly right. These guys are blind, they can't see it. They are willfully blind. Now what about the disciples? We get in the boat? Then verse 14, this is very much like the feeding of the 5,000. There's the feeding of the 5,000. Then there's getting in a boat feeding of the 4,000, getting in a boat. How's that gonna go? Jesus starts to talk about the 11 of the Pharisees and the 11 of Herod that results in the disciples having conversation about supplies. Who bought the lunch? Who's bringing lunch today? And Jesus says, fellas, fellas, that's not it. Verse 17, I need you to think deeper. This is very important. When we encounter Jesus, we don't want to take him at a surface level. We want to think deeply and carefully through the implications of what Jesus is saying. Is he alluding to something in the Old Testament? Is he prophesying something that's gonna happen in his future? What is Jesus saying fully and completely? These fellows aren't getting all of that. These fellows aren't, they aren't paying attention. They're just stuck in a very shallow level. And if you want a example of thinking carefully with Jesus, notice verse 18, having eyes, do you do ? Do you not see having years ? Do you not hear and do you not remember? That's a quotation from Jeremiah 5 21. Jesus quotes the prophet Jeremiah to say, Hey, you guys are acting like the people in Jeremiah's Day. And if you know the people in Jeremiah's Day, you know that is not a compliment. People were not spiritually sensitive in Jeremiah's day. There's a lot of idle worship been going on, a lot of hardheartedness going on. Those people weren't paying attention to God. And so Jesus says, you know, the Pharisees, the Herodians, they're not paying attention to God. And in some ways you're acting like them. You need to pay attention and think more deeply. Verse 21, do you not understand? Great thing for us to be asking? Do we understand? And I I want to press here. We want to do more than understand the geography of Israel. Shout out to the sermon last Sunday. We want to do more than understand the culture and the customs of the time. We want to do more than understand where Jesus is on the map or even what Jesus said. We don't wanna be able to just reel off a ton of quotations from the Bible. We're quoting Jesus this and quoting Jesus that we want to take it into our hearts and understand its meaning. Its meaning wants Jesus going for feeding the 5,000, feeding the 4,000 was about a lot more than hungry people. It said something about Jesus. Jesus wants the disciples to make those connections. You and I need to make those connections as well. That draws the podcast through the close for the week. Thanks so much for listening. If you love the Monday Morning Coffee podcast, we would certainly love for you to subscribe or rate or give a review on iTunes or whatever app you're listening on. Best thing to do, of course, is to tell somebody else about the podcast. That is absolutely the best way to spread the word and it gives you an opportunity to set up a conversation about the Bible. It says you're reading the Bible, you are taking it seriously. You are trying to hear and bring into your life all that Jesus is saying. Hope to see you Sunday at the West Side Church of Christ Sunday in the 10 40. I'm looking forward to talking about covenant and how seeing marriage as a covenant changes our view of who and what we are in marriage. Lord willing, I'll see you Sunday morning at the West Side Church of Christ. So until then, until Sunday, or maybe if you're a podcast listener outside of the DFW area, you can't be with us at West Side on Sunday. So I'll just say until Monday, I hope your coffee's delightful. You having a wonderful Friday, and I hope that the Lord will be with you today all day. I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven and I will want you to come to I'll see you Monday on the podcast with a cup of coffee.

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