Hannah Tough - 1 Samuel

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 the day after Mother's Day, may the 13th. I'm Mark and I'm ready to talk with you about yesterday's sermon. Did you think Hannah was tough? I think Hannah is very tough and I wanna do a little daily Bible reading with you. Lots to do in this after Mother's Day podcast. Let's get started. Yesterday was Mother's Day and I did talk about Hannah yesterday from First Samuel. I think she is an impressive and wonderful example to godly women and I just give a shout out to all of those. I've been blessed with a number in my life, my own mom and my wife, Dina , just incredible examples of godliness and what God wants women to be. They've been a great help to me. I thank God for them every day. I hope that sermon on Hannah helped you to be a little more Hannah tough . I think that's something that ladies could really use today with everything that's going on and all the difficulties. Let me just add this to yesterday's sermon. There are a lot of questions about why God said no to Hannah , why he closed her womb. I I get it. Eventually the Lord very much said yes to Hannah and blessed her. And I wonder maybe if it's possible that God was waiting for Hannah to grow to the point where she would vow and then keep that vow. Now, as I said yesterday, vowing is tricky business. We need to be careful about that. But Israel needed a Samuel and God was looking for someone who could give Israel that needed prophet and that final judge who will go on to be the king maker, who will be what Samuel is and maybe maybe the Lord is waiting on Hannah to get to the place where she will give up a Samuel to Israel, put aside her own needs for the good of what the country needs, particularly with all the crazy that Eli and his sons are running down at the tabernacle. So maybe that's something to think about. We just don't always understand the will of God and what God is doing. Last week we read in Acts chapter 12 and James, James gets killed and Peter does not and we don't understand that either. But maybe the next time you're frustrated because you're praying and just like with Hannah year by year things are not improving. Maybe this is a time of growth and maybe this is a time that we can show God how tough our faith really is. Hannah doesn't quit on God because she knows God won't quit on her. She is tough. Hashtag Hannah , tough. Let's think about some Bible reading now On Monday then today we read Acts chapter 12 verses 12 to 24, and this concludes the Peter in prison being rescued by an angel story with what is really in many ways a very humorous moment. Peter heads to the house of Mary. This could be the scene of the last supper. This could be where they are praying. In Acts chapter one, when the Spirit falls upon the apostles, Mary is the mother of John Mark. John Mark is a cousin to Barnabas. I wonder if they're in a house here because, because they can't worship in the temple anymore. And here's the first time that we see John Mark. Luke loves to show a character kind of in the background who later on will step two the fore . We actually get that another time in our reading today. Someone noted here that God's sovereignly opened a lock gate for Peter, but Peter can't get the church to open the gate for him. And that's exactly right. It's hard not to smile and chuckle a little bit when Rhoda comes running in and says it's Peter and the church says, no, there's no way. It's Peter and Peter standing out there still knocking, probably wondering as he looks over his shoulder, if some Roman soldiers are about to re apprehend him, they do make mention of a guardian angel and Jews did believe in guardian angels. But that doesn't mean that that's so just because somebody reports that belief doesn't mean the Bible sanctions that belief. And I do love in verse 17, Peter departed went to another place. We don't know where Peter went. He comes back in Acts chapter 15 and is part of the Jerusalem conference. There is speculation about that, but what I would point out to you is that Peter does not feel obligated to say God saved me and now I'm invincible and I'll just do anything that I want. There is something to be said for being wise and prudent and Peter shows us some of that here. Okay , if you divide acts into the Jerusalem and Judea phase , chapters one to two, and then you divide the rest of the book in not chapters, one to two, chapters one to 12, and then you divide the rest of the book into the gentile phase, chapters 13 to 28, then the book is half done. Maybe that's worth us thinking about here and and maybe, maybe we ought to consider more how the book is shifting and how the gospel is shifting. And that begins of course with all this Cornelius stuff that we have seen. But what about the guy who got in the way of the gospel? I just keep saying you can't stop the gospel. Herod Agrippa certainly tried to do that. Verses 12 to 23 says it does not end well for him. Josephus, by the way, has the account of this as well. Herod Agrippa dies being eaten of worms here references intestinal roundworms. They can grow as long as 10 to 16 inches. They feed on the nutrients in your intestines and a bunch of them will obstruct your intestines causing severe pain, copious vomiting, you vomit worms. How great is that? And then you die in agony. How wonderful. How wonderful the Lord struck him down, an angel of the Lord. Verse 23 struck him down. He dies, he opposed God. He tried to stop the gospel and the gospel rolls right over him. Look at the contrast. Verse 24. But the word of God increased and multiplied. You can't stop God. If you have questions about that, ask Herod Agrippa tomorrow. We'll take a look at the last time that Peter has a role in the book of Acts, and that's Acts chapter 15. See you on Tuesday. It is Tuesday and today we read Acts chapter 15 verses one to 11 , one of the most important chapters in this incredibly important book. I keep singling things out and saying, Hey, this is the most and this is the most, but chapter 15 is just a watershed moment in the history of the church. As we read in Acts 15, one, some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers. Unless you were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. We need to make certain that we're holding on to what's happening here clearly. And that is this is being taught as a matter of salvation. It's not a matter of convenience. We'd kinda like you to do this. No, you must become a Jew. You must be circumcised. You must keep the law if you're going to be saved. That's what's happening here. I think Acts 15 resolves that completely. It's just a com total non-issue for us today. Nobody confuses Judaism and Christianity, but right here you see there is that confusion going on. In fact, in verse four, there are those, I'm sorry, verse five, some believers who belong to the party, the Pharisees rose up. This is somewhere in 48, 49 50 where 15 years, 20 years, wherever. This is from the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. And we've got Pharisees who are Christians. They see no incompatibility with that at all. They are still full-fledged Jews and they are trying to make Christianity a subset of Judaism in that way. Remember, circumcision is a non-negotiable for Jews. Even a very hellenized Jew like Philo famous Jewish philosopher, very worldly, not very orthodox. He insisted upon circumcision for all and it was the sign that one was submitting to the law of Moses fully. So this is a direct attack on Cornelius's conversion. He was not taught the whole gospel. He's not really a Christian. And even though we did not read Acts 13 and 14, because that's about Paul and Barnabas, the first missionary journey, and this year we're focusing on Peter. That's why we skip to Acts 15 today. This is a direct attack on the missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. And so Paul and Barn is speak and say, Hey, we're talking about what God is doing. God has blessed this work and that's the language that's being used in verse four. And notice again, like I said in verse five, it's not a question of how can we get along here. It's a question of salvation. And in verse six, the apostles and elders gather together. And then Peter stands up in verse seven. It is Peter that we're paying attention to this year, and Peter has the decisive argument here. His argument is that God settled this via his example and the command of God to go to Cornelius. You can't argue with God who knows our hearts. Verse eight, you can't argue with the Holy Spirit. He got, he gave them the Holy Spirit. They got the Holy Spirit just as we receive the Holy Spirit speaking of the apostles in Acts chapter two, and the big questions here is how can we possibly be around those awful gentiles? They're so impure. God, cleanse them by faith verse nine. And then those gentiles will never fulfill the law. Oh my. We take a bunch of Gentiles in here. We'll just have lawlessness and wickedness of every kind all the time. Peter says, we can't keep the law either. And of course the problem here is not the law, but the material that the law's working with that is human hearts. And a lot of this sounds a lot like Paul because Paul and Peter are preaching the same gospel. Salvation is by grace. It is not by circumcision. So Peter justifies what happened with Cornelius and by so doing, he clearly, clearly opens the door for the gospel to go everywhere and to every place without the restrictions of Judaism. And his speech is the decisive moment. James will come along tomorrow and have some more to say about this, but this really seals the deal so impressed with Peter. He can be sometimes swayed by those who are around him, but he is not swayed here. He stands fast and teaches the truth more on this and how it all ends up as we complete Acts 15, 12 to 21 on Wednesday. No zoom tonight, Westsiders, see you tomorrow. As we keep reading in the word of God, it is Wednesday and today we read Acts chapter 15 , 12 to 21 . Here we pick up what Paul and Barnabas have to say. Notice verse 12, the assembly falls silent, which shows how powerful Peter's argument that we read yesterday really is. And Paul and Barnabas cite signs and wonders. Once again, miracles are validating the message and they are validating the messenger. And then James, the brother of the Lord, verse 13 steps forward. He closes the deal by citing the prophets. This is scriptural proof. He says verse 15, and he notes here the prophets. That's a plural. He's only citing one. He's citing out of Amos nine, but he may mean the book of the 12 prophets, which would be how his Bible would designate that or divide that. And this is a quote out of the SubT and what he points to here is that the raising up of the tabernacle or the tent of David, the restoring and rebuilding of it will be done by using all peoples The Gentiles. Verse 17 will be called by my name. The idea is that God is going to build his kingdom not with stone and brick and wood, but with people with gentiles and Jews. And notice nothing is said about the Gentiles losing their identity as Gentiles and becoming Jews. They are gentiles, they remain gentiles. And this, this really helps people understand what God wants and verse 19, we're not gonna trouble these Gentiles anymore who turn to God, and what that means is we're not going to demand circumcision of them. Finally, then verse 20, James recommends that we do some things so that we can all get along. How can we? How can we be one people? How can we be a united church with Jews and gentiles? So much prejudice and history and hatred and different customs and different ways of doing so? There are some things that we need to look out for. How can Jews and Gentile brothers get along? I love how this gets practical in verse 20 and 21. We need to have some practical guidelines. James says, so that fellowship will be possible. Tomorrow we turn our attention to Galatians and we see how difficult some of that fellowship really can be. It is Thursday and today we jump over to the book of Galatians. We're reading in Galatians chapter two verses one to 14 because Peter makes an important appearance here. Then Galatians two verse one. Then after 14 years I went up, Paul says to Jerusalem with Barnabas taking Titus along with me, I went up because of a revelation. Verse two tells us, and there's just a ton here that we're not certain of . When we spent the year with Paul, we talked a lot about timeframes and we talked a lot about Paul's timeline and when this occurred, I'm not gonna relow all of that ground. The Galatians two visit that Paul is mentioning here may actually fit in Acts chapter 11. It may fit in Acts chapter 15. This may reference the Jerusalem conference. Some people think it even goes after the Jerusalem conference. Lots of controversy about that. What's important here is just to see how difficult an issue this really was for the New Testament church. In chapter one of Galatians, Paul has shown that he received his gospel directly from Christ and not from men. So in chapter two, now, Paul shows some clear examples of how he stood for the truth and he is not swayed by men and what everyone else is doing. And that is going to include unfortunately the Apostle Peter and even one of my great heroes of the Bible Barnabas. So Paul makes a couple of points here in the early parts of our reading, this visit came a long time after his conversion. It was the result of Revelation as we just read, gala relations two verse two. And very significantly, the Jerusalem church did not require him to modify his message. He goes there, they don't force Titus to be circumcised. Verse three, there are some false brothers, verse four who are causing trouble. Some of these people are even representing themselves as coming from James, which does not mean that they represented James' views. They just told people, Hey, we are from Jerusalem. We're big dogs. And people bought into that. And part of that was Peter verse 11. When CFUs came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned for before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. When they came, he drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party. So here we get that old ways rearing their ugly head again, and maybe in some ways it's a little hard to see Peter here , the one who spoke so bravely in Acts chapter 15 where we just read having trouble with this. Maybe that puts this back in Acts chapter 11. Before all of that was clarified and that would make Acts chapter 15 be so much stronger because Peter actually fell into this error and then he stands up and teaches the truth. Whatever we're going to say about all of that, Peter shows us that knowing doctrine doesn't always mean we live the doctrine and that there is power in peer pressure and that even gets Barnabas. Barnabas is such an encourager and he's always giving people a second chance and he gets swept up into this. The rest of the Jews, verse 13, acted hypocritically. Even Barnabas led astray by their hypocrisy. Paul then forcefully points out in verse 14, this isn't right. We can't do this. You know better than this. This must stop now. That's all that we're going to read here in Galatians. This is really a very Pauline book and it develops Paul's theology. We now need to turn to one Peter and we need to read what Peter writes and get an appreciation for his thinking about discipleship, particularly as it pertains to persecution. That begins tomorrow, as on Friday we start one Peter chapter one. See you tomorrow. It is Friday. We've made it to the end of the week, and today we read one Peter chapter one verses one to 12 . Now, last Sunday in the 9:00 AM I preached on reading one Peter, and I'm gonna let that lesson stand as an introduction to this book. And if you need more help with Peter, just go back and listen to that lesson that will get you started with the who's the what's, the wheres the why's, and I wanna remind you the big ideas here are this just optimistic and joyful feel and tone to this book. The idea being like Christ when we're persecuted, and especially the idea of being holy. So watch for that. Watch for those patterns where Peter says, because you are this, do this or because Jesus did this. Now we are going to do this. And I just love living hope in verse three and inheritance. That's imperishable and undefiled and unfading. Verse four, we're guarded by God's power. Verse five. And then Peter says, I'm rejoicing that even though you're in these trials, this is just showing the genuineness of your faith. Verse seven, verse eight really centers the thought here, Christians don't rejoice because of suffering, but because of the glorious expectation of the future. And in many ways, verse eight just reaches up and grabs you , doesn't it? Hey, I'm in verse eight. I haven't seen Jesus have you. This passage speaks to people who were not eyewitnesses to Jesus but are still standing fast for him. And Peter then makes the point verses 10 and 11 and 12, that we should be amazed that we are the favored people who get to see the meaning of something that so many others wanted so badly to know, including angels. In verse 12, there's the discussion that angels long to look, look here is to have intense interest bend over to look is the idea. They wanted to see what we see, what we get to know. I love first Peter, and I think you will like it too. Just keep track of some of those ideas from the sermon last Sunday and the nine. Watch all of that develop and we will be helped in a time when we're feeling some of that hostility. Maybe not, certainly not at the level that these people in one peter were, but we are starting to see a little bit of that. This book is gonna be a great help to our faith and to our discipleship. Well, there you go. That's the podcast for the week. Thank you so much for listening. Hope that you have rated and reviewed the show and are telling other people about it. Until then, until next Monday when we'll open our Bibles together and we'll study in the word of God together. I'm Mark Roberts and I do, I want to go to heaven and I want you to come to I'll see you on Monday with, with a cup of coffee.

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