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, June the 17th. It's the day after Father's Day. I'm hoping all the dads out there had a great Father's Day like I did. I'm holding a really good cup of coffee. This is a pour over I did with some Papua New Guinea. I really like that coffee that comes out of Papua New Guinea and it's just very, very solid. Has great coffee, feel maybe a little fruitiness in there. It kind of jumps up and says, hi, this is not Folgers. And I just love a really good cup of coffee and I'm actually drinking it today out of a mug that I bought at Oxford at Lin College, which is where CS Lewis taught . And so great memories with this mug. Great coffee in this mug and great stuff for the podcast today. So let's get started. So yesterday was Father's Day, and one of the things I love about the podcast is lots of times and all that goes on, especially if it's some kind of special holiday, the sermons and all that we worked on kind of gets washed away by Monday. We're back in the real world and maybe we're not thinking about everything that we learned yesterday and holding onto that. And this is just a good opportunity to revisit that and to think about that again. And I just think it's very important to notice that our faith commitment or our lack thereof is always going to affect the people that we are closest to first. That was true as we saw yesterday of Noah . And it was also true of the other example I cited a lot. Faith lived down on a day-to-Day basis is an incredibly powerful tool and that teaches in a way that is nearly impossible to ignore. So what are you building today, dad, that's gonna put you in better position to lead your family to God tomorrow. Keep thinking about Noah and what he did and what he was so that we can build our family strong for the Lord as well. And I'll end all of that with a great quote from CS Lewis since I mentioned CS Lewis and Oxford and all the things that are happening there Fathers, CS Lewis said, fathers, our lives are filled with challenges providing for our families, nurturing our children's growth and maintaining our marriages requires a toughness that goes beyond physical endurance. It calls for perseverance, dedication, and an unwavering commitment to our God giving responsibilities. May all of us measure up to that as we have that unwavering commitment to our God-given responsibilities. Let's carry that forward and think about that in the gospel of John as we do some daily Bible reading. Today's Bible reading is John 1 43 to 51 as we complete chapter one. And before we dive into that, I just wanna say a word or two here about the time markers in John's gospel because John loves to do that. We got in our reading last week, the next day, verse 29, the next day, verse 35. There's lots and lots of time markers, especially sometimes there's even clock markers. Verse 39, it was about the 10th hour. And what I wanna say about that is it's just very difficult to know exactly where John is with those time markers because of a number of factors. First, in the Roman world, there are at least two time systems that are at play. The Roman time system , which had four watches of the day, evening, midnight, crow and early, and then the Jews had three watches at night. So there's lots going on there from what the Romans are doing at night. There are four watches for the night from 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM and the Jews with their three watches at night. And on top of that, Ephesus used an entirely different system of time than the Jews did, and John probably wrote from Ephesus . So whose clock is he on? Is he using daylight savings time? Is he using Greenwich meantime , even today we have a lot of different time markers. And so you're going to see in your Bible different marginal notes. And sometimes I'm gonna say it's this and you may see a different marginal note or a different note in a commentary. If you're reading along doing some studying on your own, it's just gonna be complicated. I don't think the message of John depends upon or is in any way going to be destroyed if we don't get the clock exactly right. But I just want you to know that's going to be a challenge all through the gospel of John. And so having said that, let's start with Bible reading, which begins verse 43 with a time marker. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He finds Philip and Philip is from Beth Se . It seems like maybe they're moving in the direction, maybe going west. If Batia there is is across from Galilee , then they're heading west here and Philip finds Nathaniel. Nathaniel is in all likelihood the apostle known as Bartholomew Barr is son of, and Foai would be his father then. So Nathaniel here is probably Bartholomew, and if you get verse 45, you get this huge key to the book of John, which is Jesus's fulfilling the Old Testament as we move along here. Jesus says, I know Nathaniel, you have no guile in you. That's a deceit of words. Uh , you're not the kind of person who tries to trick people there. You're a genuine Israelite. And I think that's super important as you look at this rooted in the Old Testament idea. And so Nathaniel says, wait, how do you know me? Verse 48, Jesus says, I saw you under the fig tree. And we don't know what that means. We don't know. No point in speculating. Maybe he was praying, maybe he was fasting. We we , we don't know, but whatever that was, Nathaniel knows. Jesus knows. And so then Jesus says, do you believe because I saw you under the victory? Do you believe is the key question of the gospel of John? And then he says, truly, truly I say to you, truly, truly is only in John, verily, verily is Matthew, mark, and Luke truly, truly is in John. And rabbis didn't talk that way, but Jesus talks that way because he can teach with authority. And then he says, you're gonna see the heavens opened and the angels of God descending in and ascending on the son of man. And that's a reference I think, to Jacob's ladder . And of course the idea of heaven being opened is exactly what the Book of Revelation is all about. So in this one reading today, we get all this Old Testament stuff, we get to look forward into the Book of Revelation and we get the question of the book of John, do you believe, see you tomorrow as we'll. Continue to think about this great gospel. It is Tuesday and today we read John chapter two verses one to 11. This is the first of Jesus' miracles. It is controversial in some ways. It is important in every way. Notice the time marker again to one on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. There's a lot of chances here to chase rabbits and go down the rabbit hole and miss what's really going on here. You need to pay attention to verse 11. This is the first of his signs that Jesus did at Ken and Glee and manifested his glory. This is about Jesus manifesting his glory and we need to keep on track there. A couple of things I'll just try to clean up quickly. No, Jesus is not making alcoholic wine wherever people are on social drinking. Everybody agrees that the Bible teaches drunkenness is wrong. If Jesus makes gallons and gallons and gallons of alcoholic wine and people drink that, then he is an accessory to sin and that is way outside of anything Jesus would ever do. It is acknowledged by many, many scholars that a party of this kind would be considered super high class if they were serving fresh grape juice. And if you think about the difficulties of having fresh grape juice on hand in the New Testament world, that is exactly the kind of thing that would really be remarkable and would really stand out. We can also talk a lot about Mary and why she expects Jesus to do something about this that's just not a profitable rabbit trail to run down because we just can't tell. We just need to stay in verse 11. It's a sign that's what Jesus does. And in John's gospel, it's not a miracle, it's a sign. It's something that points to something else. And so Jesus is here. I I , I do think it's important to notice that Jesus is a sociable person. Sometimes you'll see posts on social media or maybe someone will ask, you know , would Jesus go to a ball game ? Would Jesus do this? Would Jesus do that? And I think John chapter two helps us see all of Jesus. Jesus associated with people. He was out and about. He was friendly. People liked him, people invited him to come to their parties. And Jesus went, and there isn't any way that you can make a wedding into some kind of somber occasion where everybody sat around with their hands folded and their heads bowed. That's not what goes on at a Jewish wedding. It's not what goes on at any wedding. Jesus went to a party. This is a party. It is a joyous occasion. And Jesus, in many ways rescues that party. By the way, in verse four, when he says woman, that is probably not nearly as abrupt or even rude as it would sound if I said that to my mom. Um, it may signal a change in relationship for Mary that she needs to think differently about Jesus. That's between Jesus and his mom. Notice he says, it's not my hour. And the theme of Jesus's hour runs through this whole gospel over and over again. It's about the hour. We're gonna see that in chapter seven, chapter eight, chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 17, the hours . It's all about the hour, which for Jesus signifies the passion, the time of his death. And I , I think maybe here just the time for him to be unveiled to begin to reveal his glory again. Verse 11, please notice in verse six, somehow I got you all the way to verse 11 and now back chapter to verse four. And in verse six, there's this, there's an explanation here. This is a Johan explanation. Johan in explanation, which you're gonna see over and over again. Some people call them parentheses. There's little places where John just stops and says to the reader, Hey, I want you to know this thing. I want you to know what's going on. In verse six, you get one of those johanan explanations. Watch for those. They may be a clue to who John's audience is, but Jesus does an incredible miracle here. And the disciples know it and that manifest his glory. Remember John one 14, the word became flash and we have seen his glory. How do we see it? We saw it in the miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. We'll continue in John chapter two tomorrow. Remember Westsiders, tonight is zoom. We get a chance to talk a lot more about this miracle and about what's going on at Cana of Galilee on Zoom tonight. See you then. It is Wednesday. And before we jump into daily Bible reading, our summer series continues tonight. And let's hear from tonight's speaker, Brendan Ashby.

Hi, my name's Brendan Ashby and I'm really looking forward to being with the West Side Church of Christ for their summer series. This year I'll be preaching on the parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable has had such a deep impact in our world. In fact, many times people reference the Good Samaritan without even knowing it's a biblical parable. So I'm looking forward to being able to dig into this parable with you all and for us to find out why it has had such a long lasting impact in our world. So Lord willing, I will see you all June 19th for our study.

Thank you Brendan. And I think hearing some things about the good Samaritan is gonna be good for all of us tonight. Until then, we need to do our daily Bible reading. So that's John chapter two, verses 12 to 17. This is the cleansing of the temple, and it is the first time that Jesus cleanses the temple. Some have tried to say this is a mistake, and John is conflating this account with the things that are in the synoptic gospels. When is John ever doing that? John knows what he's doing. He's inspired of the Holy Spirit. This is not some mistake, of course, it is the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. And what John shows is that Jesus begins with a bang. Is anybody surprised that they would be doing this kind of bad thing in the temple? And that later in Jesus's ministry he would show up and guess what, they're doing it again. Why would that surprise anybody? So the Passover of the Jews, verse 13 is at hand. John notes Passovers, that's very important to him, takes great pains to track those 2 13, 6, 4, 11, 55, maybe even another one in chapter five in verse one. This feast is in the spring, March or April. John says, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. And of course that is literally true, the geography of the land, the topography of the land, you go up to Jerusalem and when he gets there, there's money changers there in the temple. Verse 14. And there's people selling sacrificial animals. The money changing is happening because you can't give to the temple. And Roman coinage, you had to change your money into temple coins. And there's a lot of speculation about this, but probably there's some graft going on here. Maybe a really unfavorable exchange rate, maybe selling sacrificial animals at outrageous prices. But we need to notice Jesus doesn't say you people are charging inflationary prices. You're gouging folks. What's going on? Jesus doesn't say, you need to do this more honestly. Jesus says, you need to do this somewhere else. There are good things that go on in life and that we can be a part of and that we even need to be a part of. But that doesn't mean it belongs in the house of God. And what Jesus does here is a very messianic act. He is acting as the Messiah. Verse 17 seals that because they think of the quote from Psalm 69. And please notice they don't just remember Jesus' actions. They remember his zeal. They remember the way Jesus did it, the fire in his eyes and the determination to make this right and to fix this and to remove all barriers to worship. Because in the temple, and I've covered this several times, but always a little concerned that I think I've covered it maybe of new listeners to the podcast and and , and they don't know. The temple has various precincts. And the big wide open pavilion is the court of the Gentiles. And that's where this is going on. And that's the only part of the temple that a Gentile could worship in. So the place where Gentiles, the only place they can be, the only place they can contemplate and meditate and worship God, there's a zoo going on. We're having a garage sale out there and banking is happening and craziness is going on. And Jesus says, this has got to go. John is showing that Jesus cares about Gentiles next court, be the court of the women and then the court of the man . And then finally the court of the priest in the actual temple building itself. Jesus is clearing out the court of the Gentiles. By the way, that Psalm, Psalm 69 is one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament. It's just quoted all over everywhere. And here it talks about the zeal of Jesus to make sure the house of God is fit for worship. Makes you wonder what Jesus would say if he entered into a church building today and saw some of the zany stuff that's going on in churches today. All kinds of things. Everything except the worship of God. Think about that. We'll press further in chapter two tomorrow because some people aren't very happy about what Jesus just did. See you tomorrow. Well, west Siders , I'll see you tonight. We'll get a big dose of the Good Samaritan. Welcome to Thursday. And today we read in John's gospel, John chapter two, verses 18 to 25. We'll finish this chapter. And what we start with here is people attacking Jesus for cleansing the temple. What signed do you show us for doing these things? Verse 18. And I think that request for a sign shows, shows some respect for Jesus, that he's a prophet, something like that there, there has to be some reason behind what he's doing. He has gravitas and people respect that. But there is certainly a note of hostility in some of these things and and Jesus does the provocative statement. Verse 19, destroy this temple. Jesus likes to do that. People will go one direction with a question or with a statement, and Jesus will just go a totally different direction. And what he's hoping is that you will track with that, that you will think about that, that it will provoke you to consider more deeply the claims that he's making. You're gonna see that with Nicodemus in chapter three. So immediately people go very, very material. It's taken 46 years to build this temple. Herod the Great actually began the temple about 20 or 19 bc. So that puts us somewhere around 26, 27. You do the math, you know that I can't do that. But they get very literal, very wooden with their interpretation of what Jesus says. And then you get John's parentheses, this johanan reflection or explanation. One scholar has found about 50 of these in the gospel of John. He was speaking about the temple of his body. And then John goes on to explain that he's disciples, remember this statement when he rose from the dead and they believe verse 22, what's the point of the gospel of John? People believe in Jesus. And then we get kind of unusual a little bit, 23, 24, 25. We've got some people who are believing verse 23. But Jesus doesn't entrust himself to them. And I think this sets up the conversation with Nicodemus because these people believe, but it seems to be a weak faith. We're gonna see some of that in John's gospel. There are some people maybe because of signs that causes them to have some faith in Jesus, but it's not the kind of faith that Jesus is looking for. It's not deep, it's not strong. Maybe some faith is better than none, but Jesus knows they don't have enough faith or the right kind of faith or maybe even the right kind of faith in him as the Messiah and not a military leader. So knowing people's minds really sets us up for the Nicodemus conversation, which we begin tomorrow on Friday. See you tomorrow. We'll be in John three. It is Friday. And today we read John chapter three verses one to eight. This is Jesus' famous conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Sanhedrin ruler, verse one. And he comes to Jesus in the night. And there is a lot of discussion about that and why John includes that and why John feels obligated to let us know that. And most importantly, why Nicodemus is there at night. And we can talk about that a lot. I think the key here is the way John uses dark and night , and he uses that to illustrate moral and spiritual darkness. We'll see that in chapter nine, verse four, chapter 11, verse 10, chapter 13, verse 30. In fact, we'll see some of that right here in John chapter three, where John will tell us that men do bad things in the dark verses 19 and 20. I think what John is trying to tell us is, first of all, what time of day it is. Yes, Nicodemus is literally in the dark, but even more he is spiritually in the dark 'cause he doesn't get it. He doesn't understand who Jesus is. He has verse two, seen some signs. And this is a good place to notice. John hasn't told us about any of those signs. Those are Judean signs. None of those signs are included in this gospel. So John clearly expects his readers to know about other works of Jesus. To know, yeah, to know about Matthew, mark, Luke, and what they have written about Jesus. Nicodemus has seen some signs that's caused him to have curiosity and maybe put him on the road to faith. But Jesus immediately, here's that provocative statement again, instead of working with where Nicodemus is, is in thinking about what Nicodemus is . Well, let me tell you more about that. Or, Hey, what did you mean by that immediately? Jesus says, if you're not born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. That's a very provocative statement because to see the kingdom means to participate in the kingdom. And where would Nicodemus be on that ? He is a good and faithful Jew. So when the kingdom of God comes, whatever that means, I'm in. I'm part of that. There's no if, ands or buts about that. No, Jesus says, you need to rethink that. You're gonna need to be born again, which completely befuddles Nicodemus. And once again, we see somebody going hyper, literal , just really making Jesus' words very rigid. I I can't do that. Can't go back, be born again. Jesus says, listen, I'm not backing off of that. You have to be born of water in the spirit, verse five, or you're not gonna be in the kingdom of God. Some people have tried to divide verse five, there's a water birth, which by that would be your physical birth, and then there's a spiritual birth, the spirit birth. But the construction and and I, I certainly am not fluent in translation issues and understanding the Greek language, certainly not trying to say that at all, but those who know that the experts in the field will tell you that that is a construction, that is a water spirit birth. They cannot be separated. And when you think about it, why would Jesus say you need to be born physically before you can enter the kingdom? Well , of course you need to be born physically. If you don't ever get here, you're, you're not gonna be in the kingdom because you , you aren't here. Wow. The podcast goes profound here on a Friday. So it's a water spirit birth, and that idea is used all over the New Testament. John will use it in his epistles. One John 2 29, chapter three verse nine, chapter four, verse seven, chapter five. Peter talks about it one Peter chapter one, verse 22 . We read some of that. James talks about God bringing us forth by the word of truth. James chapter one, verse 18, Paul will use it, the washing of regeneration. Titus three verse five. Paul will talk about babes in Christ being created as a new creature. Two Corinthians five, lots and lots of this, having the faith of a child. Hebrews chapter five. So the idea of being born anew is just all across the New Testament and it means you're being baptized into Christ. You're a babe in Christ. You're a new convert. You've been born of water and the spirit, the water of baptism and the compulsion that comes from the word of God given and inspired by the Spirit. It's a water spirit birth, and that is what New Testament baptism is all about. Finally, then, Nicodemus is struggling with all of this, and Jesus says, you just can't always know everything about how the Spirit works. Chapter three verse eight, the wind blows. You can hear it sound but you can't see it. You can see the effects of the wind. I'm a big weather wonk and love to talk about weather. Don't even get me started. And I follow a bunch of weather accounts and I love to see tornado footage. I love to see hurricane footage, those palm palm trees bending over. You can see what the wind is doing, but you can't see the wind well in the same way Jesus says, you just can't know everything that the Spirit is doing. And maybe this passage just calls us to tap the brakes when we feel obligated to construct a complex theology of everything about everything, about the how the Holy Spirit does this or how the Holy Spirit's involved in that, how the Holy Spirit dwells within us. How about this? There are some things about the Spirit we can't understand and that shouldn't phase us. There's some things about Jesus I don't understand. There's some things about God the Father. I don't understand. Why would we, why ? Why would we be surprised if there are some things about the Holy Spirit that's beyond our understanding? Remember, the words for wind and spirit are exactly the same. So Jesus making a play on words there to try to help Nicodemus better understand. We'll pick that conversation up on Monday. I'll see you then. Thanks so much for listening. That'll do the podcast for the week. If the podcast is helping you, you know what to do. Tell people about the podcast. What a great opportunity to set up a good evangelistic conversation. Hey, listen to this podcast. It'll help you in your daily Bible reading. People can download the schedule from just christians.com and read and understand the word of God. So until Monday, when we'll open our rivals together again, I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come to I'll see you Monday with a cup of coffee.

Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday morning coffee with mark . For more information about west side , you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.is that's upbeat with two P'S UPP , B E A T , where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others. And we look forward to seeing you again with a company coffee, of course, on next Monday.