Lord's Supper Service

Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday morning coffee podcast on this podcast. Our preacher Mark Robert we'll 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 October the fourth. I'm Mark, I have my Bible open to the gospel of Matthew. I've gotten my Bible reading schedule for the week. I have a great latte that I just pulled out of my espresso machine, made some good steam milk and poured that in there. Just a marvelous, marvelous way to start the day. What I don't have of course is some notes from the sermon I preached yesterday because, because I did not preach at Westside yesterday, yesterday, we had a Lord's supper service because I'm in a gospel meeting this week from Sunday to Wednesday with the Campbell road church preaching there. So I can't in the podcast review anything from my lesson yesterday. Maybe we'll just continue to think about the Lord's supper service and the things that framed up a marvelous observance of the Lord's supper for the folks at Westside yesterday. But I'm just going to move the podcast directly into our daily Bible reading. And this week we are reading in Matthew chapter eight, beginning verse 14 through Matthew chapter nine. And as I said, when I did some Bible reading live on Facebook on Friday, it is a delight to read Jesus as he teaches the sermon on the Mount greatest sermon ever no if ands or buts about it, it's amazing. And I love it. That's the preaching theme for the year. However, I miss Jesus acting and doing things. So in some ways it is a delight to get back to Jesus healing, helping, moving, doing acting. I like all of that very much. And that happens in chapter eight. The chapter began with the healing of a leper and then the faith of a Centurion. Now we're in Matthew eight 14 for Monday mornings, Bible reading. Let's talk about Matthew eight, 14 to 22. There's two things that happen in our reading for Monday Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law of a fever. He actually touches her verse 15, which was not to be done. You'd be defiled by doing that. Remember, Jesus touched the leper in Friday's reading in Matthew eight, verse three. The other thing that happens is Jesus dialogues with some of the crowd who say, I want to follow you. Probably the most important part of our reading today is verse 17, where Matthew explicitly connects Jesus' healing ministry. With the words of the prophet, Isaiah from Isaiah 53 in verse four, that talks about Jesus carrying our distress or taking upon us our troubles. There's some conversation about exactly how that works here, but probably what we need to remember is that while Isaiah 53 talks about Jesus being the atoning sacrifice for our sins and bearing our sins, and we don't see a connection to sickness there and what Jesus just did with Peter's mother-in-law the Jewish people saw all sickness as being somehow connected to sand. Remember job's friends, they show up and their point to job is, Hey buddy. The reason these horrible things are happening to use because, because you must be terribly wicked. And even in John nine, there's a man that's born blind. And the disciples asked Jesus who sinned that guy or his parents that he was born blind. Sin is tied in Jesus's day to send fullness and sickness is tied to sand that's what's going on. And I think that's why Matthew ties together. The healing Jesus has done. He's done three here, the leper, the Centurion servant. And now Peter's, mother-in-law, they're all being tied because Jesus is suffering for the sins of the world, which would to Jewish people. And remember Matthew's gospel is very, very Jewish, say something to them, then about sickness as well. And Jesus removing sickness, removing defilement, removing that, which is unclean would speak to his ministry, would speak to who he is as the atoning sacrifice for all the sins of the world. Our reading then concludes with some discussion with people saying, I want to follow you. And I think maybe Jesus seems a little bit short with some folks here, but really this is a mountain, the kind of disciple that Jesus is seeking. And I want to give you a note here from verse 20, where Jesus says the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. This is the kind of thing that I can do in the podcast. Not really room for this in the pulpit, not a lot of other places for me to drop this kind of information, but son of man occurs 81 times in the gospels and 69 of those are in Matthew, mark or Luke. It is one of Jesus's favorite ways of referring to himself, if not his favorite way of referring to himself. And basically when you begin to look through the gospels, really, it comes out in about three different sorts of ways. Sometimes it's a use that references to the son of man coming at the end of the age, coming in judgment, all of those sorts of things like Matthew 24, 27, then there is lots of use of the son of man suffering and dying. About 10 of those uses refer to the son of man is dying the sacrifice for the sins of the world. Whole that really is a great law Thai. And then sometimes Jesus uses it almost as a synonym for, I will almost use it as a synonym for himself, but all of these arise from Daniel seven, 13 and 14, where there is a messianic figure in Daniel's vision. And that messianic figure is now Jesus saying present in me. And in some ways, while we scratch our head a little bit, when Jesus says, I'm the son of man, is he just using that to me? And I'm human? What where's he going with? Some of that, I think in some ways Jesus is being deliberately ambiguous. There it is a title that could conceal as well as reveal and Jesus will quote it when he's being tried. We'll see that in chapter 26 and no one will make any mistake about the claim to divinity that Jesus is making there, but Jesus can also use it just to be very human and to say, I'm just an ordinary, well, not just an ordinary, but I, but I'm like you and I need shelter. And I think that's the use here in Matthew eight 20, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Um, I don't have a house, uh, and I need shelter. And if you're looking for some kind of fancy room, you're looking for some kind of fancy palace. That's not what I have. So as we read these, we just need to pay attention. Look a little bit at the context. And as always with Jesus, think a little deeper, try to see is Jesus pressing our understanding of this expression, son of man, is he just using it to refer to himself? Is he just using it to say, I ain't have, uh, been made human I'm the son of God in human flesh, or is he saying something here about being that messianic figure of Daniel chapter seven in verse 12? Let's talk about Tuesdays reading Matthew eight verses 23 to 34, Jesus stills, the storm and Jesus heals or cast out the demons in two men in the country of the Gadarenes. Both of these stories really press the authority of Jesus and begin to say something about the need for faith. Notice Jesus's response in verse 26 for the disciples is why are you so afraid of you have little faith? And then in verse 27, the men Marvel, what sort of man is this? I think that's answered in the very next episode in verse 29, the two demon possessed men cry out. What have you to do with us? Oh, son of God. That's what kind of man. This is the Messiah has all power and all authority. And they failed the disciples, fail in the boat when they don't trust and his power and authority. I love here in verse 28, the demon possessed man come out of the tombs. And one writer said in ancient times, grays were associated with the world of demons and unclean spirits. Well, Hey, not just in ancient times, we're coming up on the Halloween season and guess what? Everyone's decorating with cemeteries and gravestones and all the things that go with all of that. We're just a little spooked by that kind of thing. And these guys are spooky. They are frightful. They are fearful. This discussion of course is a lot shorter here than it is in mark. And mark focuses on one. Man. Matthew tells us there were two men there. That's not contradictory. Of course, there can be two when mark just singles out one of those guys, but what happens is Jesus demonstrates enormous power over a power that people in new Testament times just had no clue what to do with could do absolutely nothing with these demons. We certainly, we certainly don't know everything about demon possession and how that worked and why this was allowed really seems to be an unusual kind of phenomenon just during the new Testament times. Not certain we see anything like this today, but Jesus is utterly undeterred even by all of these demons, these demons verse 31, it's Pearl. We know from Mark's account, there's a Legion of these. And unfortunately of course, everyone gets very, very concerned about the pigs and the pigs end up drowning. People get very bent out of shape about all of that and want to know what that's all about. And the focus here is not the pigs. The focus here is on the authority of Jesus. One writer said sympathy for the pigs and their owners overlooks the priority that Jesus puts on the individual made in God's image. So this is a great taxed on Jesus, compassion for people. And again, it's a great taxed that says something about the authority of king Jesus. So on Wednesday we start chapter nine and the stories just keep coming where Jesus is healing and Jesus is helping chapter nine verses one to 13 is our reading for Wednesday. Let's look at the healing of the paralytic in chapter nine, verses one to eight. Notice again, the tight connection between sickness and sand. This is what we were talking about for our reading on Monday with Jesus healing. Peter's mother-in-law and Isaiah being quoted there and applied to Jesus. Once again, people are concerned that if you're sick, that must mean that somehow you're a center. Jesus says your sins are forgiven verse five, and then even heals him. Verse six is the key. You may know that the son of man has authority. Look at verse eight. They glorified God. Who'd given authority. Matthew now really developing the authority of king Jesus. That authority is so great that he can call Matthew. Matthew drops everything and immediately follows after Jesus. So what about Thursdays reading Matthew nine, 14 to 26, which begins with Jesus. Doing some teaching here about fasting in Jesus is being attacked for who he eats with. And, and, and then that attack ends up being a, uh, an attack about eating it all. What's the problem with you eating? Why aren't you fasting like everyone else? And so Jesus says it's just inappropriate. There's an appeal to common sense. Your verse 15 do wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them. This isn't the time for that. This is the time to be with the Messiah. This is the time to rejoice in his presence. There'll be time for this later, but not now. And I would want to say here that there is some discussion from time to time in various quarters about how Jesus is saying the old Testament couldn't contain his new covenant. And that's why you get the business here about old. Wineskins being broken when you put new wine in them. I think we ought to be really careful about some of that, particularly because God gave the old Testament. It's not like the old Testament is worn out old, terrible wine skin. That's all dried up and can't do anything anymore. God gave us the old Testament through Moses and Paul says the old Testament had a great function. It brought us to Jesus. I'm just not comfortable here with this idea that Jesus has to shatter the old Testament in some kind of fashion. He just can't contain him, I suppose, in some ways that's certainly true that the old Testament couldn't contain the new covenant, but to somehow act as if the old Testament is defective, I think misses the point. This is, uh, this is really a statement here about just what's appropriate. It's just not the thing to do. You don't fast when the bride is in bride groom or getting married, it's not a season of sorrow. That'd be as foolish as patching an old garment with a new cloth or pouring a bunch of unfermented grape juice into a new wine skin. And of course, as it ferments, it gives off carbon dioxide and it's going to stretch that wine skin and then just break it. Well, why don't they just be a foolish thing to do? It's just not the time for fasting from that. Matthew takes us then to the restoration or the healing, the resurrection of Jerry's daughter. And this narrative is only about a third of what we get in mark. So Matthew was cutting things down as he's increasing the pace more material here faster as he drives home. These points about Jesus's power and Jesus's authority. And again, the idea of faith, I think that does prepare us for the question that John, the Baptist is going to be asking or sending to be asked in Matthew chapter 11, what kind of Messiah are you? Are you really the Messiah? Matthew's preparing us for that question by showing us Jesus doing the things the Messiah is supposed to do. So here's a ruler of the synagogue. He must've been super desperate to come to Jesus. Of course, if your child was sick, what would you not do? And so here he goes to see Jesus who is pretty much on the, not most wanted list, uh, by the authorities, by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They don't want him. They don't like him. Jarius says, I don't care. I need help. It is Mark. Of course, that identifies him as Jarius. And he does have some faith, but he does not have as much as that Centurion had back in chapter eight, but Jesus is working with that and Jesus is helping him. And of course, there's the miracle on the way to the miracle. And Jesus then finally arrives at Jerry's house. And he does. He raises her from the dad. It reminds us of a lie Jah. And then of course later on in the book of acts, it reminds us of Peter and reminds us of Paul. Both of whom are involved in resurrection from the dead. These are incredible miracles that are strong testimonies rooted in the old Testament. Elijah and Alicia both did this kind of thing, very old Testament sort of thing that certified and speak to the power of the Messiah. So now Friday's reading completes chapter nine, chapter 9, 27 to 38. We get more miracles here. And then we get kind of a summary statement of Jesus's ministry in verse 27, please focus on what they holler at Jesus it's these two blind men. That's a final these Texas word they're hollering have mercy on us. Son of David, son of David is a messianic title. Remember chapter one, verse one, Jesus is the Christ. His genealogy is given to us. His family records are given to us in those very terms. This is the family history. This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The son of David, the son of Abraham. So here they're shouting son of David. People are trying to shut them up. Jesus will not have it. Instead. He touches them verse 29. Wow. So much touching so much compassion. They're healed according to their faith verse 29. See that faith emphasis Matthew's driving faith in Jesus authority of Jesus. Do we believe in what we are seeing? And are we allowing that to work in our lives so that we will trust in him as the Christ? Then he heals a man who can't speak verse 32 to 34. And as I said, then there is this ministry summary. This kind of reminds us a little bit of chapter four, verse 23 to 25. And there it prepares us for further teaching it there in check before it prepares us for the sermon on the Mount. And here, I think it prepares us for some teaching in chapter 10, beginning in verse five. And this just summarizes this section here, chapter nine, verse 35. I just threw a bunch of verses at you at once. I hope all that's kind of clear in verse 35 to 38, this is what Jesus was doing. And the kingdom is coming proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, verse 35. That's what Jesus is saying. God's movement God's work in him. The messianic age is calming. It's daunting because Jesus is the Messiah. And again, verse 36, he just has compassion upon the people CMS so much in all of this reading. I think question two that we ask each day, what does it say about people skills? I think maybe for all of us, it's just going to be the same thing again and again and again, Jesus just cares. Jesus cares about people. He reaches to them, he touches them. He heals them. He helps them. He teaches them. Jesus cares about people that needs to mark the Jesus followers. Doesn't it. So there's at least one application from our Bible reading this week. Well thank you for listening. That will be our podcast for this week. I hope you'll continue to pray for me as I'm preaching at the Campbell road church this week, Sunday to Wednesday. And of course, I'm looking forward to being back at Westside next Sunday. If you love the Monday morning coffee podcast, we certainly would love for you to subscribe or follow and to rate and give a review on iTunes or whatever app you're listening on. If you'd simply tell a friend about the show that would probably help us more than anything. We'd love this material to go to more folks, to help more people be connected to God through his word. And while every part of the Bible is the word of God and useful and practical and helpful. There is something extra special about spending the year with Jesus spending time with Jesus in the gospels. So until next time, may your coffee be delightful. Your Monday be short and the Lord be with you today all day. See you next week.

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