What I've learned Spending a Year with Jesus

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? We 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, December the 13th. I'm mark holding a good cup of coffee in one of my favorite mugs. This is got pictures, are my grandkids all over it. Love this mug, and I am glad to welcome you to the Monday morning coffee podcast. This podcast is all about starting the week with a look back at yesterday's sermon west side. Remember that will be linked in the notes for the podcast. So you can click on that and go listen to that easily. So it's about a look back at yesterday and then a look forward to our Bible reading for this week. And I am gonna talk a lot about Bible reading because that is what I talked about yesterday in the sermon, what it meant to spend a year with Jesus. So lots going on with Bible reading in our podcast today, pour that cup of coffee. Let's get cranking. Let me grab a quick SW of coffee and let's talk about yesterday. Sermon. That's a difficult sermon to preach. I don't like being very personal in my preaching, cuz preaching is not about me. And the point of that sermon really didn't arrive till the very end. I know people are thinking, well, there were three points, but really the point of that sermon was we need to be constantly to the life of Christ. That's not a Bible reading plan. That's something we just need to be doing on a regular basis because Jesus has such transformative power in our lives. That said there were three ideas that I shared on the way to that point. And those were that. First of all, when I spent a year with Jesus, by the re reading plan through the reading plan that we've been doing this year, I learned that Jesus likes some people that I don't like. Jesus likes people who are sinners, who are messy, who are having a lot of problems in their lives because they come to him and they're humble and Jesus is able to work with people like that. And that leads secondly, then to say that just doesn't like the kind of people that I like, which is people who are very religious and very God fearing and go to church all the time. And they're all into purity and holiness and Jesus didn't like those kinds of people. Those people were the Pharisees and the sades. Those people had added a lot to the law of God in the interest of, and in the name of being all squeaky clean and making sure they got everything right and crossed every T and dotted every eye. And that was not the way to learn and to know God better. That was not the way to true righteousness. It just led to a loophole mentality. It led to a lot of self righteous. This, it led to a lot of I'm better than everybody else and pushing away people that needed to know God and Jesus could not stand that approach. And so Jesus I've learned this year does not have much room for that kind of thinking when it comes to our service before the Lord, which brings me then to the third point, which is that Jesus just says a lot of stuff. That's hard to hear because it changes us. Jesus says things that I don't like, like I need to forgive other people. Those are hard things for us to hear because they challenge how we live and what we naturally want to do. So those are the ideas from yesterday. And I hope that you'll continue to think about that. Even as we're getting ex about the 2022 reading plan and there will be a 2022 reading plan, the elders will be announcing that later in December. And we have some really good stuff to put in front of you and it's necessary and important for us to have a reading plan and to work together in the word of God. We still want to find time for the gospels. We still want to always be around Jesus the Christ. So let me just say a couple of things. If I'm gonna add something to that sermon, I guess I could talk a long time about other things that I learned in this year with Jesus. I asked Dina what she learned and she said that she's just taking away this giant idea of Jesus being the king. We ask that question in our reading, particularly in Matthew and that's really impacted her. And I've noticed some other things about Jesus, particularly have thought a lot about how Jesus is so dependent upon prayer. So much praying going on in the life of Christ, really, really like that. So I could, could add a lot of those kind of things, but instead I'm just gonna give you two ideas here to help you in your daily Bible reading, no matter what you're reading, you decide you're gonna read the gospels again, or you're gonna go with a 20, 22 plan, which is gonna be a reading. Uh, you thought I was gonna tell you didn't I<laugh>, can't be telling you that. Yeah, the elders will be making that announcement, but whatever we're gonna do in 2022, how can I stay with daily Bible reading? How can I be more meaningful to me? And how can suggest two things to you here first and foremost, number one is consistency. Consistency doing your reading every day, five days a week. If you are hit and miss you're reading Monday, you don't read again until Thursday. Maybe try to double up and read a whole bunch of it. Then on Saturday, you're just not getting the regular steady effect of the word of God in your life. I really think of the word of God, much more it's affecting our life is much more like, uh, like a cave, like those stag tights on the ceiling, drip, drip, drip, drip, over time that stag tight goes from a little bitty ICLE on the ceiling to this huge, huge rock formation that stretches from the ceiling all the way down to the floor. And that's happened because over hundreds or thousands of years, minerals have been steadily deposited. That's the word of God in our life? I think sometimes we imagine the word of God to be more like a lightning bolt and it hits us and there's a transformative change right away. And there's certainly no doubt that the word of God can do that kind of thing. But generally speaking, it's the steady drip, drip, drip, just being in the word of God day after day after day begins to change. Your heart begins to change how you think, how you see the world. What's important to you just a little bit every day. And that's why we read just a little bit every day. That's why our reading plans are never more than a chapter. We're not gonna challenge you to read 800 chapters in a single day. People get behind people get discouraged. Our reading plan this year, wasn't even a whole chapter every day, our reading plan for next year, here's a little hint not gonna be a chapter every day. It's gonna be much like what we did this year. You can do this, you can do this and you wanna make sure that you're doing it consistently. The second thing then that I would say is that the questions that we put together to help you integrate the reading into your life are just so significant. Reading the Bible by itself is not enough, which that almost sounds bla as to say, but it's just true. The Psalm says, bless it is the man who meditates on the law of God. You gotta think about it. You gotta the word in the Bible there in Psalms. One means to turn it over in your mind, you've got to think about the word of God in is its impact and what's going on and how it relates to the big picture and to what went before you have to work on this. Some and again, that's why I like little bitty readings, because that gives us time then to sit down and say, what about this? What about that? What about this? And what about that? And I have found in my life that a notebook and a pen make a huge difference. If I sit down with my list of questions and I'm just mentally answering those questions, I get lazy. I don't really rough out the answer and, and get it all the way fully worked through. I kind of say, yeah, yeah, Jesus, the king cuz cuz he's the king. Okay, next question. And that's not yet, but when you have a notebook, you're writing it down. Then the pen's flying across the page and you're getting fuller answers and you're thinking more deeply and you're connecting better do those questions. We will have questions to go with our Bible reading in 2022, we've seen the power of that to help it be integrated into the reader's life. And I would just encourage you to make sure, sure that you are taking advantage of that. Taking full advantage of that. I like these little notebook Bibles, uh, that Crossway puts out on one page. There is the text of scripture and then on the facing page, there's a whole blank page, plenty of room to write everything, get something, get a notebook, get a pen. I don't care if you're writing on the back of an envelope, find something to write with so that you can answer those questions in a very full way. And, and you know, honestly, probably an envelope, it's not the best idea cause it's kind of cool to hold onto that stuff. And then we come back and we're doing a Bible class in that book of the Bible. We're working through that again. You're teaching that you have a neighbor ask you about something. You have something to reference where you can go back and look, Hey, what did I think about that? How was that working? What conclusions had I drawn? So consistency and question C and Q. Those are the two things that are gonna make a big difference in your daily Bible reading. Uh, we're not done daily Bible reading for 2021 can still get on board and finish up the year Strongs we reading in Matthews gospel. Um, and it's gonna make a big difference for you in 2022 consistency and questions. Those two things are what we're looking for as we read our Bible every day. Well, those are some good ideas from the sermon and to help us make apple of the sermon let's well, let's do it. Let's think a little bit more about daily bowel reading Our Bible reading this week begins in Matthew chapter 25, reading verses 31 to 46, the famous sheep and the goats parable. This isn't really strictly speaking a parable. This is a text about final judgment. And I do think it is about final judgment. Verse 31 says when the son man in his glory and all the angels with him, and then there's discussion of the devil being judged as well, verse 41 and verse 46, eternal punishment and eternal life. So this is not a local judgment like we saw in Matthew chapter 24, where Jerusalem is being judged and the wrath of God falls upon that city. This is much an end of the world. Second coming capital T capital S capital C kind of text. And I think what you see here is Jesus is talking about judgment Matthew chapter 24, and that leads Jesus. Then to expand on that now here in Matthew chapter 25. And again, to think about, as Jesus has been talking about readiness, Jesus now turns to the final judgment in how that will work and what that's going to look like and what that's going to look like. Verse 31 is when the son man comes in his glory, that's a passage that sounds an awful lot like Zechariah 14 and five or Daniel chapter seven. If you're looking for your old Testament connections here and what it looks like is not so much, uh, trial. I think people mistakenly have read this to think they may get to our argue their way into heaven. This really is the rendering of sentences that have already been determined. And sometimes people will ask, well, how come Jesus is going through all of this? But of course, when you have this kind of format, what that does is vindicate the sun and glorify him because he is doing what is right. And these people need to see that what they have done is wrong and they have failed the king. And so his judgment is just, and right, and this is very much about Jesus, the king verse 34, then the king will say, so Jesus is king in this. And of course what we really maybe notice here is the surprise of the sheep in verse 37, because they're a little, flumed about how this whole scene is. Uh, and what's working here. And what is important here is that they have served the king in a humble way without seeking to draw attention to themselves or earn their salvation or any of those kinds of things. They're a little surprised about all of this, but those on the left verse 41 are cursed they're to depart into eternal fire. This is terrible. In fact, this is worse than what Jesus pronounces in the sermon amount. In chapter seven, beginning of verse 23, there is separation. It's just awful. You'll be with the worst kinds of people. The devil is angels. The punishment is terrible. Darkness and fire. This is a terrible, terrible judgment that is being rendered here and not the kind of thing that anyone of us wants to ever be a part of of one scholar said while Israel expected the nations to be judged according to how they treated Israel, Jesus holds people accountable for the way they treat Jesus' humble followers who are sent forth to represent him. That's an important note for all of us. Judgment is on, on an individual basis, not a national basis. And it is about how we have treated our fellow man, particularly Jesus' followers. And one wise individual said that mingling with sheep doesn't turn goats into sheep. That is exactly right, standing around a fly of sheep who are doing all the wonderful things that Jesus commends here doesn't make you a sheep. This is a powerful text. We begin the week in Matthew chapter 25, verse 31 to 46. Tuesday's reading then is the first 16 verses of Matthew chapter 26. And we are moving now out of teaching into narrative, into the story of Jesus' crucifixion. Matthew begins that verse one by saying when Jesus had finished all these things, which is a very typical way of Matthew ending, a discourse or teaching section here. And there is a lot of irony in the chief preach in the elder saying, we're not doing this right now. There's too many people in Jerusalem. Passions are running high with this Passover Fe. This is not the time for us to do this. And of course the next thing we find out is they are going to do it cuz Jesus is in control. Not the chief priest not describes in the Pharisees. Jesus. Uh, he will say, this is the appointed hour and he is the one who is in control. And then of course what's front and center here is the anointing that Jesus experiences beginning verse six, when he is in Bethany at the house of Simon, the leper, a couple of notes here. This is not the in anointing of Luke seven versus 36 to 50. That does occur at the house of a man named Simon. It's not this Simon. There are some things of course that are in common. When you get an anointing, it's gonna kinda look the same, but it is not the same occurrence. This is not that anointing at all. This is in Bethany. Luke tells us that one in Luke seven was in Galilee. Remember John who covers this as well? Doesn't say it was at Lazarus's home. Only that Lazarus was there. So it could be that they are visiting with some friends of Lazarus or maybe some have thought that Simon is the father of Lazarus in his sisters. Now who's doing the anointing. John tells us in John chapter to 12 and in verse 13 that this is Mary here. It's just a woman. And this is not Mary Magdalene. It's not Mary Jesus's mother. It is Mary, the sister of Lazarus. That's who? This is. There's so many, Mary's in the new Testament. We get Mary, the mother of James and Joseph of there's a woman. Who's the wife of CLOs. Who's also a Mary there's, the Mary, the mother of John mark acts chapter 12 and verse 12. There's just, Mary's all over the new Testament. It's easy to get confused. Which Mary is it? This is Mary and Martha, Mary, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. This is that Mary and she an annoys Jesus. And this is a, a super expensive kind of cologne or perfume that she is pouring upon him. It's worth about a year's wages. John tells us in John chapter 12. So think about your salary for a year in buying a big jaw of perfume or cologne, and then using that out me. And that's the kind of thing you keep as an investment or for a really special occurrence. And here she just brings that and she breaks it. Of course, there's no way to put it back in the jar now. Um, it's, it's uh, going to escape. It's going to evaporate and she uses that. And, and without just getting really gross in all the details of hygiene in the new Testament world, please remember people aren't taking a bath every day. Nobody's wearing D odorant there would've. Yeah, there would've been a pretty earthy smell to most people in that world. And so for someone to be anointed with this perfume, with this cologne, it, it would be like, like being a king, like being royalty and you would really stand out and that would really be different. Hey, that guy doesn't smell like the rest of us. It's a tremendous honor. And while they all call it a waste, Jesus says it's an incredible act of devotion. It's a beautiful thing he says in verse 10. And maybe the thing to notice here is that Jesus says wherever the gospel is proclaimed verse 13 in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her and guess what? Jesus is precisely, right? We are still doing exactly what Jesus just said. Let's then talk about Wednesdays reading Matthew chapter 26, verse 17 to 29, which is the Passover with Jesus' to disciples. There is so much showing unpack in this amazing text because of course the Passover becomes for Christians, for you and me today, the Lord's supper. There's a couple things here that I would give you as some additional notes that will help you remember. There was a specific order to the Passover you by the time of the new Testament, and that involves several cups of wine and the eating in certain places. And a big highlight of that was the telling of the Passover story. So we're not entirely certain scholars are not entirely certain of the specific order that was being used in the time of Christ, but it would be something like a cup of wine. Then the eating of the bitter that reminded them of Egyptian slavery, then the telling of the Passover story. Why is this night different? Then there would be the singing of a Psalm Psalm 113, the first part of the halal Psalms, and then the second cup of wine, the eating of the main course, then a third cup, the cup of blessing. And that appears to be the cup that is referenced to here in verse 27 and then a prayer of Thanksgiving and then singing of the rest of the hello, Psalm Psalm one 14 to one 18, and then a final cup of wine. A again, that's not set in concrete. I don't want to give that to you. And you write that in your Bible and, and for all time, that's how it has to be. But I give that to you just to let you know that this was structured celebration was an enormously important celebration because the Passover looked back to the deliverance of God, the God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. It was the night they became a nation. It is a feast that commemorates the covenant between Israel in God. It is super important to Jews even to this very day. And Jesus takes that feast and lifts it up and gives it new meaning and new power as he reappropriate that feast for his covenant, the new covenant in his blood. Please notice of course, before he does that, Jesus identifies at least in some ways it Judas is betraying him. I don't think that goes exactly the way a lot of people see it in their mind's eye. I think a lot of the, uh, the men are eating. Remember they're not sitting, they are laying, you're reclining, uh, on your left elbow and you're dipping with your left with your right hand. And so I think there's a lot of, uh, fellas have got a hand in this herb dish that you'd be dipping some bread in and so forth. Kind of like we get, uh, salsa and chips. When you go to a Mexican restaurant and Jesus says, then somebody at this table is gonna betray me. And that doesn't mean that everybody turned and pointed at Juda and said, it's you it's you it's you? Um, I think Jesus is more emphasizing how horrible it is than somebody who is sharing this super important meal actually is a traitor and is going to betray him. And that must have shocked. The other disciples, you get the other accounts of the Lord supper. You put all that together and you see, they are indeed shock. And after a while, Judi bails gets up and says, I, I'm not gonna be part of this anymore. We could speculate for a long time why Judas does what he does. The Bible doesn't tell us. And I don't think we get any good place trying to decide and decipher Judas motives for this unbelievable act. What is going on? That would cause him to give Jesus up like this. But Judas then is the one who's going to betray him. And now Jesus, then beginning in verse 26, takes this and takes the Passover and says, I'm making this into a new ceremony and the expression verse 26, take E. This is my body. That is not part of any of the Passover ritual so that would've got their attention. And so this uneven bread, Jesus uses that to symbolize his body, which will be crushed, destroyed, broken. Sometimes people get very upset about the broken body idea. Jesus body is broken in the sense that he is smashed under the weight of God's wrath. He is killed. And Jesus talks about that here. This is my body. And then he talks about his blood. This of course is highly reminiscent of Exodus 24, where the blood of the covenant is sprinkled upon the usual I people. And upon the book of the covenant by Moses, the expression poured out, this is my blood that's poured out for you poured out as an expression. That means dying in a violent sort of way. Jeremiah 31 34 seems to be on G says, mine hears. He talks about a new covenant. This is just saturated in the old Testament. It is the old Testament and it is repurposed into the new Testament. It's an amazing statement. It's an amazing scene. And it ought to inform our partaking of the Lord's supper. That is our deliverance feast. It is when we look, act to when we were set free from the of sin and the slavery of Satan, we have been freed and we have become the new Israel of God. And we are in, we are in covenant relationship with God, Josh, like the Israelites were, we have that covenant through the blood of Jesus. The Christ stage's reading then is Matthew chapter 26 versus 30 to 46 here. Jesus tells Peter that he is going to deny him three times and then goes to GSEM to pray. And there are some chronological issues here. If you compare the gospel, sometimes people get very tripped up by all of that. Probably most of that is answered by realizing that Matthew and mark are putting together material topically and not always chronologically. So sometimes when you read the accounts and try to parallel them, maybe it doesn't come out all perfectly clean. And, and again, as I said, that probably comes about because Matthew and mark are not telling everything in time sequence order. They are grouping some material that pertains to this last night. So Jesus says in verse 31, you will fall away because of me, it is written down, strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. That's a quotation out of its like R and the wording here probably comes from a two agen version of the old Testament. And it is a quotation that speaks to the people of God scattering. When the shepherd, the good shepherd is struck down and a lot of the sheep per, but a remnant is left and it is about a purified remnant. So Jesus may be alluding here to how this evening is going to purify the disciples. Some are going to run away and may in fact, not ever come back. So then we get to the garden beginning, verse 36, and it is an incredible scene here. In many ways, Jesus seems to suffer here far more than he does on the cross. And I don't mean to play down the physical suffering of the cross, but here Jesus is really in agony. And we have questions of course, about Jesus saying, let this cut pass from me. And people have speculated and gone in a lot of false directions as a result of that, we just need to realize how difficult it is to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. We need to think about the wrath of God falling upon Jesus. We need to think about all the implications of that for Jesus and how awful that truly is and how he had never experienced anything like that ever, ever, ever. And then we began began. I emphasis be emphasized, began to get a glimpse of how horrific the cross truly must have been mentally and spiritually for Jesus, not to mention physically. And so as she, Jesus peers into the Abys knows what's coming, it is of no surprise that the human side of Jesus is saying, I don't want any part of this. Can we do something else? Particularly when we remember verse 42, that the cup here that Jesus is talking about, this cannot pass until I drink it. This cup that is an old Testament metaphor for terrible suffering and judgment. You can note Jeremiah chapter 25, verse 15 revelation, the 14 chapter verse 10. It emphasizes the wrath of God. That's what Jesus is doing. He's staring down the barrel of the wrath of God and taking that upon himself for you and for me. And that is absolutely awful. And Jesus looks at that and says, that is something I don't want to do if there is any other possibility, but of course there is not. And so Jesus will willingly do this. And verse 47 to 58, reading for Friday begins to detail how Jesus is is arrested and the fake trials he goes through. Let's talk about Friday's reading the key verse in Friday's reading Matthew 26, 47 to 58 is going to be verse 53. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father? He will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels. Jesus is completely in charge. 12,012. Legions would be more than 72,000 men because Allegion is 6,000 soldiers. Jesus is completely in charge and could completely escape or defeat these enemies. If he was not willingly giving himself up, then verse 57 says those who sees him, led him to C the high priest were the scribes and the elders were gathered. What we're going to see here is two different trials, one Jewish, and one Roman generally speaking, the Jews would have some sort of preliminary kind of meeting and informal exam. And then the decision would be made by the, the entire Sanhedrin council. Then the Jews need to Trump up a political charge because the Romans don't care that Jesus has claimed to be a Messiah or is violated their traditions in their laws. All the things that they are going to talk about in these Jewish trials, that's of no interest to a Roman government. So they come up with the, he fake charges about Jesus being a king and leading a rebellion and causing a revolution and all the things that go with that. That's going to lead to Jesus, being seen by pilot in chapter 27. And then Luke tells us he ends up being rolled over to har as pilot tries to get out of this and then brought back to pilot for final. That's what we are looking at. And that's what we're getting ready for. As we turn next week to the last day of Jesus' life. And we see these horrible fake trials, it's just a complete sham and a total joke, which leads of course, to Jesus standing chapter 27, being on the cross and the things that happen at, at the cross as Jesus is dying for you. And for me, the very worst day in human history, we'll be reading that next week in Matthew chapter 27, and then we'll close the year with the very best day in human history. Matthew chapter 28, Jesus risen from the dad. That's our daily Bible reading review for this week. Thank you for listening. One more sip of coffee. I'm at the bottom of that mug for sure, but I do appreciate you being a listener to the Monday morning coffee podcast. And if you're liking what you're hearing here, please follow or subscribe rate and give a review on whatever app you're listening on that does help other people find the show and helps it be a benefit it to them. Maybe you could tell others about it or post something on social media that would help us out as well. Really glad that you are listening and trying to connect up some of the things that we talk about on a Sunday and especially work with the things that we're doing in daily Bible reading. So until next time, may your coffee be delightful. May your Monday be show and may the Lord be with you today all day. See you next week.

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 upbeat with two P's UPPBEAT where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others and we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday.