Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

1 Samuel 21 - 22 Desperate Times, Call for Deeply Developed Character

September 13, 2021 Mark Roberts Season 1 Episode 16
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
1 Samuel 21 - 22 Desperate Times, Call for Deeply Developed Character
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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 a 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 2:

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday morning coffee podcast for September the 13th. I'm Mark. And I am glad to welcome you to this addition to the Monday morning coffee podcast. This is the podcast all about starting the week with a look back at yesterday's sermon and a look forward to our Bible reading this week. So we can carry all that momentum of Sunday right into Monday. I am of course, doing all of this with a great cup of coffee in my hand, actually, it's a latte that I'm working here and I'm enjoying that. And I hope that you're ready to think a little bit about yesterday and to think a little bit about reading Matthew's gospel this week. So yesterday I continued my series in Samuel. I'm preaching through Samuel one Sunday a month, and I did something I don't ever do. I preached two chapters first, Samuel 21 and 22 because they just go together and it just seemed impossible to separate those. It is a story it's narrative, and I just didn't feel good about leaving David in the middle of a situation and not closing the loop. Doeg the Edomite is mentioned there, and then he becomes a huge part of the end of the story in chapter 22. The main point that I wanted to make, or actually that I think Samuel wants to make here is the tremendous contrast in the character of David and Saul. What we're seeing in this section of Samuel is why Saul can't be king and why David must be king. And this is a very, very important section of Samuel because as I mentioned yesterday, sometimes we act like David just arrived on the scene, fully loaded, 105% optimized with amazing spiritual character. And that, of course that is not the case. It is so that he walks onto the stage of first Samuel and knocks out Goliath with his Slingshot and kills him. And that's pretty amazing. And that's pretty incredible. So from the get-go, he does seem like he's running at a pretty high level, but pretty quickly we come to see that David does have some warts and David does have some failings. We get some of that in first name of chapter 21. But what we see is that David is learning and that God is using those difficulties to develop in him, deep character, desperate times, call for deep character. David develops that kind of character. And I'm glad to have opportunity to think a little bit more with you about that sermon because just getting all that text read yesterday and trying to even have a few comments about it was really, really pressing me. Just not a lot of time to get everything said that I might want to have said. What I did say is that David's character is distinguished by the fact that he obeys God, he does what God says. He does take care of his family. And he seeks God's leading in counsel. He wants to do the will of God. In contrast to that Saul over dramatizes his problems and imagines the worst. He cuts himself off from everyone, especially his family, especially Jonathan, his son. And that leads him then to a place where he can commit just a ghastly and unthinkably, awful sin, which leads him to be completely cut off from God. Saul can no longer consult God. And we're going to see that that leads him even into worse sins. It's just horrible. Saul really has made some tremendous mistakes here because he lacks the kind of character that David is showing. Even as he is making mistakes, he's getting better for them. So what I didn't get to yesterday is the opportunity to look at what Jesus does with this showbread episode from 1st Samuel chapter 21, where David takes the showbread at the tabernacle and what Jesus has to say about that, that sometimes causes some confusion. Let me have a little coffee here. Let's think a little bit about that from Luke's account in Luke chapter six on the Sabbath, Luke 6:1, while Jesus was going through the grainfields his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. And some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing that? Which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. And Jesus answered them. Have you not read what David did when he was hungry? He and those who are with him, how he entered the house of God and took an ate of the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any, but the priest to eat and also gave it to those with him. He said to them, then the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. Sometimes that particular use of 1st Samuel 21 by Jesus will cause people to fall into the era of situation, ethics, where they decide somehow, because David was a need that, that justifies his violation of the law. If you go that route, of course, you've just opened yourself up to every kind of difficulty. What can't you do if the situation doesn't call for it or what couldn't you justify? Hey, I'm like David, David broke the law, but Jesus said it was okay. So I'm going to break God's law to that, of course is not what Jesus says. Jesus explicitly says that he entered the house of God, Luke six, four, and took the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any, but the priests to eat. Jesus says it was wrong. I'm going to agree with Jesus. So why then is Jesus citing that example? Well, I think first and foremost, what we have to remember about the Luke 6 account is that nobody's doing wrong here. This is a violation of their religious traditions and customs. It's not a violation of the law of God. If Jesus disciples had been violating Moses's law, working on the Sabbath, Jesus would have told them to stop. This is not a violation of law, which is why Jesus moves forward in his defense to say, this is ridiculous for you to attack my disciples about this, because this is selective prosecution. You would never attack David for a real violation of the law. And here you are attacking my disciples over nothing. And then of course, what's very important in Luke six five, Jesus says, the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. And what you get here is Jesus has authority, a huge theme in the reading of Luke, where Jesus says, I know what's going on. I know what's right. I know what's wrong. You boys don't need to be worried about that. I'd tell my disciples. If they needed to stop doing something, Jesus becomes the ultimate interpreter of the law. He can show its real scope. He can show what is important. What's not important. And by shining some light on their selective prosecution, I think Jesus shines light then on how he understands the old Testament and is the ultimate and final say, has the ultimate and final say over what this is all about. And I think that pushes Theophilus then to make a decision. Does Jesus really have that kind of authority? Or should I go with the Pharisees and all their religious customs and traditions? Who's right here and who's wrong. Jesus says, I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. What David did was wrong. My guys aren't doing anything that's wrong. I think that's what the Luke six account is all about. And I would say again, don't get involved in. Oh, it was okay because David was so hungry. Actually. It's not like David was starving to death. That's not really the case. He doesn't come on his hands and knees crawling up their water food in all. Come on. That's not the case at all. He certainly needs some food, but this is not extreme need. And just all of that opens the door to every kind of subjective kind of thinking that you can imagine. That's not where Jesus is. And that's not what this text is about. The other little piece of bonus content then that I want to give you from the sermon comes out of Psalm 34. If you grab a Bible and you look at Psalm 34, you're going to see the heading there that says something about David. When he changed his behavior before a hemlock or a before a Achish at Gath so that he drove him out. And this is what David wrote about that terrifying episode. When he went to Gath of the Philistines, apparently thought he could hang out there and that he would be okay. Maybe he wouldn't be recognized. Maybe the king of the Philistines would say, Hey, this is very cool that we have one of Saul;s, chief lieutenants here, David is a mighty man in Saul's army. And so maybe he's just going to overlook what David did to Goliath because David's now big dog and Saul's army. And we're just glad to have a defector. Of course it doesn't work that way at all. Everybody says, Hey, that's the guy who kills Philistines by the bushel load. And Achish is ready to kill him. And David ends up having to feign madness. So out of that really difficult situation is a marker of how desperate David is that he would even try that he writes the 34th Psalm. And if you will look at the 34 Psalm, you will notice it is all about God, verse one. I will bless the Lord at all times. Verse two, my soulmates, its boast in the Lord, magnify the Lord because verse four, I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears, this poor man, verse six, cried and the Lord heard him in safety amount of all of his troubles. And then David even writes, what is my personal favorite verse in the entire Bible? Oh, taste and see Psalm 34, 8 oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Bless it is the man who takes refuge in him. Just go ahead and work. The rest of that Psalm read through that Psalm, you'll see that David praises, the righteous man, but more than anything, he praises that God delivered him. Many are the afflictions verse 19 of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all David doesn't say, I sure was clever fooling that old Philistine king with my madness act. David does not say that. Sure was lucky. I got out of there alive. David says, God saved me. That is a powerful mark to the depth of spiritual character that David is beginning to develop in first shame of 21 and 22, where he is ready to acknowledge who God is and what God is doing instead of leaning upon himself and relying upon himself. And we're just going to see that get more and more and more in David's character and in David's life. As we read and study further in first, Samuel, you and I need to be thinking about who am I am I Saul?Overdramatizing my problems. Cutting myself off from family, getting involved in horrific sins or am I David building greater and deeper character, more trust in God, more obedience in God doing what God says as I seek God's way. This sermon yesterday was all about be like David desperate times call for deep spiritual character. Be like David. Now let's think a little bit about daily bible reading. In Bible reading this week, we're beginning in Matthew chapter three. We're going to read Matthew three on Monday and Tuesday, Matthew four in Wednesday and Thursday selections. And then start Matthew five on Friday. Remember we're going to watch in Matthew, the connections to the old Testament, the fulfillment of the old Testament. And we want to pay attention to the king and kingdom of heaven ideas. That's where Matthew is. We want to pay attention to what Matthew is paying attention to. So on Monday we'll read the first 10 verses of chapter three, Matthew chapter three. This is about John the Baptist. And it's just so old Testamentte, which is not a word, but it should be. There is this is he who was spoken verse three by the prophet, Isaiah, the voice one crying in the wilderness. John looks like a prophet verse four. John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around him like Elijah did second Kings 18. His food was locust and wild honey. Wow. That's a really unusual diet. Uh, my dog Carson loves scadias, which are kind of like those big locusts. Uh, we walk at night in Carson, just Wolfs if down. He finds them. It's kinda like, Hey dad, potato chips with wings, but I'm not into that. John. The Baptist was into that. And what verse four is saying is he is outside of society. He's not the regular religious leader, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes. He's not like that at all. He's like Elijah. He's like Elicia. He is a spokesman for God. And that's what prophets really are they? Yes, yes. Profits can do. Forthtelling where they are predicting the future. But more than anything, they are inspired. Preachers who speak the word of God. And that is where John, the Baptist really fits. He's preaching verse seven. You're just a bunch of snakes. You need to repent. That's really his major theme. Repent more than just changing your mind. Repent means to radically change your whole person to make a turnaround. And you need to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That is his major idea that the kingdom of heaven is here and it's time to get ready for this huge move of God. Now, at this point, we don't know everything about the kingdom of heaven, John's followers, and those who went out to hear him preach. They didn't know everything about the kingdom of heaven and there are going to be some wrong ideas about that. Jesus is going to have to work with some of that. We're going to need to work with some of that, but it is clear. God is doing something dramatic. The kingdom of heaven, verse two is at hand. And the way that you get ready for that is you clean your life up. You turn away from sinful things and start doing what's right. If you don't do that, then you're going to know the fires of judgment and that's verse 10. That's verse 11, that's verse 12. Then on Tuesday, we'll complete some of that. As I said, verse 11 and 12. That's really Monday's reading and the baptism of Jesus verses 13 to 17 or all part of what we read on Tuesday. Remember baptism with the holy spirit is a huge idea in the old Testament, like in Joel chapter 2 in and verse 28. And it has to do not with some weird Twilight zone. What do we do? Do kind of thing that comes over you, but it has to do with a personal relationship with God knowing God, coming to be in relationship with him, connecting with God. And so for John to promise that to his followers is for him to connect to the old Testament, promise that the Messiah will come and open the way to real fellowship with God, something better than what was currently the status quo, where connecting with God meant going to a building. And really only one person could connect with God at the deepest level, the high priest. He's the only one who got to go into the most holy place. He only got to do that once a year. I want to know God, I want to have a relationship with God. I need to be forgiven of my sins. I need all of those things. Jesus is going to open the way that that's part of the time of the Messiah. Joel, chapter two tells us, and John is saying, it's coming to be time for that. This is all about to play out. And then Jesus comes and says, I want to be baptized by you. And John says not a chance because he recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and Jesus doesn't have any sins to repent of Jesus is ready for the kingdom. He's bringing the kingdom, but Jesus says, I want you to do that verse 15, to fulfill all righteousness. And I think that references Jesus's desire to obey every command. If people are doing this with John, to identify themselves with God's work and to be part of what God is doing, Jesus says, I want to be part of that. I need to do that. And then I think Jesus is always doing the will of God. Jesus never holds himself apart. You know, I'm Jesus. I get a pass the rest of you guys. Yeah, y'all have to do all that stuff. I don't have to do that because I'm the son of God. No, Jesus is the ultimate in obedience. He always does what God says to do. So God is commanding through John, the Baptist people to be baptized what'd you think Jesus was going to do? Of course, Jesus is going to be baptized. He does that. And God signs off on that verse 17 verse 16, decends. That's the first time the holy spirit and a dove are ever connected together. There's no pre-Christian link of that. And then God, the father says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And that is a combination of Isaiah 42, 1 and Psalm two, which makes Jesus king Psalm to rule the nations with a rod of iron. It's a coronation Psalm and Isaiah 42, the servant song, Jesus is the king, who is a servant. So as we're looking at these questions for Matthew's reading, how does this connect to the old Testament? What does it say about the king? Jesus baptism says everything about everything. When it comes to Jesus and the kingdom of heaven and what kind of king he is and will bel On Wednesday, then we'll start Matthew chapter four, reading the first 11 verses the temptation of Jesus by the devil. Notice that this comes right out of the triumph of the baptism by John Jesus has been affirmed by the father and by the holy spirit. And then verse one, notice the connecting word. Then he's led up by the spirit, into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. I think it's important here to see the parallels in Jesus's life and the life of Israel. Israel was baptized in the red sea and that's not an unfair use of the word baptism. Paul makes use of that first Corinthians 10. And then they went hungry in the wilderness and Jesus has been baptized. And now he goes to the wilderness and he is hungry there. Jesus is the son of God. And especially the servant of God that Israel was not and refuse to be. And we're going to see again and again, in Matthew's gospel, Matthew ties the idea of Jesus being the ultimate servant of God and how faithful he is in contrast that as we're looking back at our old Testament, we're thinking, wow, Israel didn't do that. That is not who they were. That is who Jesus he has. And he succeeds here in the wilderness with these three temptations. The tempter comes and says, if you're the son of God, verse three, command these stones to become loaves of bread. There's much conversation about all of this and lots of discussion about exactly what the temptation is. But I think the temptation here is for instant gratification that Jesus can use his powers to make bread. That would be a wrong and selfish use of power, but even more the quotation from Deuteronomy that Jesus uses talks about how God used manna in the wilderness to teach Israel dependence upon him. And Jesus says, I'm here to depend upon God, not use a miraculous power to somehow short circuit, that kind of process. Then the second temptation. How about you just chunk yourself off the edge of the temple here. Verse 6, Jesus, the devil quote, some scripture there. And then Jesus says not doing that. You'll not put the Lord, your God do a test. You, you can't jump every day and see if God's going to catch you. That is the temptation here in Jesus refuses to test God. That is so important for you and me. We are walking by faith and not by sight. Sometimes we are tempted to try to get a little sight. God, I'm going to jump. I need you to catch me. And that'll just prove once. And for all, no, it's never once. And for all, guess what? The next day the devil will be there and saying, do you think you'll catch you today? Think you'll catch you today. Jesus says, we're not going there. I'm not doing that. Third temptation. Then verse nine, all of these I'll give you chose them. All the kingdoms of the world. I'll give all of these to you. If you'll fall down and worship me, what does Jesus come to do? He's come to be the king. Satan says you can be a king and you can be a king without the cross, the crown, without the cross. This is a temptation to cheat, to be a king without fulfilling the will of God and being the kind of king that God wants him to be and send him to be. And that he must be. And I don't think Satan's bluffing. I think he probably can deliver everything that he promises there. Jesus, doesn't say all naw satan you can't do that. What Jesus says he is. I'm not doing that because that is absolutely wrong. It is wrong to worship anyone, but God, and I love how Jesus just cuts him off and says, can't do that. Won't do that. Won't even think about doing that. Now we know what kind of king Jesus is going to be. And it won't be a king over earthly kingdoms could of got that right here in Matthew four. Couldn't he? No Jesus has come to do something better. And he's going to do that by doing the will of God. Let me give you a quick note here. Sometimes people get a little queasy about the whole idea of Jesus being tempted at all. Because passages like James, one 13, say that God cannot be tempted to do evil. Let me just remind you James. 1:13 is speaking generally of God in the standard or usual state of affairs. It's not talking about the unusual situation where deity takes on flesh and comes to this earth. That's pretty unusual. It's only happened once and only for 30 years in that certain scenario in that situation, the standard rules don't they don't apply. It's like saying you have to stop for a red light. And then while you're stopped at a red light, here comes an ambulance with lights and sirens and it just blows through the red light. Well, what happened there? Well, in that situation, the usual rules don't apply. There's a lots of things about deity that didn't apply when Jesus came to this earth, for example, no man could look upon God and live. Lots of people looked on Jesus and lived. It was a very different and very unique set of circumstances. And Hebrews tells us Hebrews 4, 14, 15, and 16, that one of the reasons Jesus came here was to be tempted because normally God can't be tempted, but Jesus came here to be tempted in all points as we are yet without sin. So much about that in Matthew chapter 4. And I want to say more about that and Wednesday night Bible talk, but that's uh, that'll get, you started in a good way to read these temptations. Matthew four, one to 11, and to understand them as Matthew is showing us again, this is the kind of king Jesus is all those quotations from Jesus. Come out of Deuteronomy where they talk about Israel. Jesus is the faithful servant that Israel was not. Let's. Look then at Thursday's reading, which is Matthew chapter 4:12 to 25, the rest of the fourth chapter. This is an important section because it's going to serve to introduce the sermon on the Mount. And it does that by starting Jesus's public ministry in Galilee in notice, Matthew is going to save verse 14. This was done to fulfill the prophet. Isaiah, once again, what Jesus is doing is rooted in prophecy. It's rooted in the old Testament. Jesus now is preaching verse 17. The kingdom of heaven is at hand the kingdom of heaven, the reign and rule of God and men and women's hearts is now rolling out and Jesus is the one that's doing that. And he gets some help doing that verses 18 to 22. He calls the first disciples. So here's Peter, Andrew, James and John they're fishing. Jesus calls them come follow me. Sometimes people imagine that Jesus just walked down the beach. He saw four random guys who said, Hey, y'all come with me. And they just dropped everything and took off after Jesus, even though they didn't know, Jesus just hate. They just wouldn't follow him. It's so cool. Actually, that's not how it worked at all in John's gospel. John chapter one shows us that Simon and Andrew and Philip and Nathaniel had been called earlier. There had been some exposure to Jesus and his teachings earlier. And now this seems to be Jesus making that call much more permanent. So sometimes I think this text is used to show almost kind of a blind, naive faith that just wandered off to Jesus. And that really isn't the case at all. These men had some knowledge of Jesus and now they're drawn to him and called to him to be full-time followers with him as he establishes them as his apostles. Then there's a summary 23, 24, 25. Really, this is a summary of all of Jesus's ministry in the Galilean area, which sets us up then for chapter five, where Matthew gives us the greatest sermon ever preached. This is the gospel of the kingdom. This is the sermon on the map. And we're going to read that on Friday, Matthew 5:1 to 12. I'm not entirely sure how much I really want to say here on the podcast, because I'm preaching through the sermon on the mountain. You can go back and listen to those sermons if you want to work through some of that material. But this is the first of five major discourses in Matthew. Matthew has so much teaching in it. And this material really is the constitution of the kingdom because it describes the kind of people who are going to be in the kingdom of heaven. This is not by the way, the same as what Luke records. We often call that the sermon on the plain and Luke chapter 6, some people try to reconcile these together and mesh that don't do that. Don't no, no, no, no. I think Jesus preached these themes and these ideas more than one time. This is Matthew's account of a time that Jesus was in Galilee. He went up on the mountain. He said, let me tell you about the kingdom of God. And let me tell you about the kind of person who will be in the kingdom. And that opens with the beatitudes, which just talk about qualities of character and spirit and heart that are so far removed, removed from any kind of earthly definitions of what people should be or how you should live. And that especially means that the word bless it here does not mean happy. That just, oh, that just drives me. That drives me crazier than decaf coffee. When someone tries to turn this into some kind of modern day happiness formula, because there's nothing in any part of this sermon that has anything to do with modern day American conceptions of happiness, happiness in our country today, certainly does not mean that I'm humble. Verse three. It does not mean that I mourn my sins. We cover up our sins. We make excuses for our sins, or we announced that it's not even a sin. We certainly don't want to praise meakness strength and power under control because we're waiting for the work of God. We don't hunger and thirst for righteousness to be hunt, to be happy in America. We hunger and thirst for the weekend and partying and rivalry and alcohol and sexual immorality. We're not merciful. We're sure not pure in heart. And we're certainly not peacemakers. I want my way. And I don't care if I run you over tough luck for it. This is the opposite of 21st century America. And this is the opposite of everything that 21st century Americans say will make them happy. This isn't a happiness formula. This is a formula for being in the kingdom of heaven for being a person that God approves of. That's what blessing means. This is the person who knows. They have the approval of God. That's why Jesus can say, blessed Or those who are weeping, but blessed are those who mourn. Nobody says happy are those who are crying. That's ridiculous. No blessed are those who mourn as I weep for my sins and I repent of my sins. I know God approves of that. God approves of that God approves of me. And if I want to be connected to God, have relationship with God, have fellowship with God, be in the kingdom of heaven. This is the kind of person that I need to be. If I want to submit myself to the reign and rule of king, Jesus verses 5 chapter 5 verses 1 to 12, really in some ways, tell us everything we need to know about what it is to be in the kingdom. And maybe it's fair to say that the rest of the sermon on the Mount is just kind of an expansion on what that's gonna look like in a bunch of different scenarios and a bunch of different situations. I hope that helps you as you think about Matthew chapter five. And as we read those famous beatitudes, once again, I'm trying to decide when I do lie, Bible reading on Facebook on Friday, if I'm going to rant about, bless it, doesn't equal happiness again. And you know what? Yes, I probably will. So that's our podcast for today. Thank you so much for listening. If you love the Monday morning coffee podcast, we'd sure would like for you to subscribe or follow rate and review on whatever app iTunes or whatever it is that you're listening on and really the best thing that you could do. If you're not going to leave us a review, or if you have left us a review is tell a friend about the podcast, tell somebody, Hey, you wanna do some Bible reading and, and this will help you get set in Bible reading. You can listen to it each day before you do that. Day's Bible reading or listen to it all at one big jump. And then you're ready to go make some notes in the margin of your Bible. It'll help you get into Bible reading. That's that's really what, what would help us tell somebody about the Monday morning coffee podcast? So until next time I hope your coffee is delightful and that your Monday is short and that the Lord will be with you today, all day. See you next week.

Speaker 3:

[inaudible]

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday Morning coffee with Mark for, more information about Westside. You can connect with us through our website, justchristians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from uppbeat.io, That's Uppbeat with two PP's UPBEAT where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with us. And we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday,