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, July the 22nd. It is post Youth Lectures Monday and we're all coming off the amazing and wonderful weekend of youth lectures every year. It's just the best weekend that we have this year's theme. Absolutely amazing. Everybody just, just so good. Just so good. I've got some notes from my sermon yesterday. Really, really loved getting to preach outta the book of Revelation to a bunch of young people. That was cool. Wanna talk about that? Wanna talk about our daily Bible reading? Wanna talk about coffee? It's time. Let's dive in. So yesterday I got to preach about Jesus as the Warrior King from Revelation, the 19th chapter. And I knew a lot of folks have probably not ever thought of Jesus in that way. So I was excited because I like to challenge people's presuppositions and get in the word of God, maybe into a corner of the Bible that we haven't spent a lot of time with, that we're not comfortable with and say, Hey, check this out. Look here. Look what the Bible is telling us. How is this helping us to better serve our king? And I do think it's kind of shocking to see Jesus Christ on a white horse with his robe dipped in blood and he has a sword and he is annihilating his enemies, just crushing them. That is not the common image that we see of Jesus, but sometimes the Bible needs to shock us awake. One writer said the point talking about the symbolism in the Book of Revelation. The point is that we are a people who need something radical to get our attention to change a bad habit or to respond to a situation that is bad. And that's why Revelation is what Revelation is because those kinds of giant word pictures and those huge vivid images, they grab us in a way that a dry doctrinal discourse is not going to get us. It's something to see Jesus by the eye of faith riding to victory as our commander at the head of a giant army that is going to stop and put down evil. And that's the picture from Revelation, the 19 chapter. And if you've bought into Mr. Nice guy Jesus, then Revelation the 19th chapter is putting that down is annihilating that myth, isn't it? Jesus is not Mr. Rogers and and I hate that comparison. I don't think it's fair to Mr. Rogers who is a genuinely wonderful person and it's absolutely not fair to Jesus because Jesus is not wearing a sweater and singing, won't you be my neighbor? Yeah . Yes, yes. Jesus can be very kind and very gentle, but he also shows no quarter to evil and sin. And it is important that we reflect that in our lives. And I hope that sermon yesterday will help you get to that place in your thinking about Jesus. Jesus Christ, Lord of lords, king of kings, he is the warrior Christ. Welcome to Monday in today's reading, in the gospel of John is John seven versus 25 to 36. And I, I should have said something about coffee. I'm working an amazing Costa Rican coffee that at first was not really very great and it just needed to sit a little bit longer. Me and my roasting buddy, we put that in the roaster and I think I rushed a little bit, kind of wanting to try that. I was like, yeah , I don't know about that. But now that it's had a little bit more time, it is really coming off nice. It's working great outta my arrow press . So let's think about John seven, then John seven in verse 25, some of the people of Jerusalem. So here, these people are aware of the controversy. And remember we're just working out of chapter five and everything that happened with the healing at the Pool of Bethesda. And some of these people are saying, this can't be the guy. And other people are saying, well, kind of seems like he is the guy. I think there's some irony here. They don't know where Jesus came from. They thought they did, but they do not. You know, if they really knew where Jesus came from, they would be his disciples. So verse 28, Jesus cries out and it is clear that he's trying to say, if you don't know the Father who sent me, then you're not gonna be able to know me. But I, verse 29, have come from God. God sent me. I know God. And and he's talking here about relationships. So some people don't believe, but some people do believe. And what this reading does, what John is doing is he's putting a smack in the middle of the crowd who are debating and discussing Jesus, look how honest and straightforward this is, instead of trying to cover it up. Oh, everybody believed in Jesus. I mean zillions of people, everybody followed him. And there's no contrary word. No, no, no. John is being straight with you. Some people bought it, some people said, I don't think so. Put a , he's putting you the reader in the middle of the discussion. You look at Jesus, you stand there. What are you seeing? Do you believe in Jesus? And then our reading concludes with some of that contrary evidence. The Pharisees here and they send officers to arrest Jesus. And Jesus says, you're not gonna be able to arrest me. I'm gonna go where you cannot find me. And you get that wooden literal interpretation, verse 36. You can't go someplace that they just don't want to understand Jesus. And even when Jesus says something that would cause them to think a little bit deeper, they refuse to do so. Really need, really need to give that some consideration. I think there are people who pick up the Bible, try to find some passage where they can make and force a contradiction. They read the Bible in all the wrong ways. And guess what? They come to all the wrong conclusions. Are you listening to Jesus? Are you considering what Jesus says? And are you thinking about who Jesus is ? That's what John is doing. That's what our reading is doing today. We'll continue that tomorrow and I get to talk with you some about the Feast of Tabernacles. Really excited about that . See you on Tuesday. It is Tuesday and today our reading is John chapter seven, verses 37 to 44. So important that you get the beginning of the reading. Verse 37 on the last day of the feast, this is the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus has come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. And that is an important feast. It signified the care of God for Israel in the wilderness. And it was also a harvest festival. We would last seven or eight days, we're probably here on the last day, the seventh or eighth day, depending upon how it was being done that particular year. And on that last day, there is a very joyous celebration, a water pouring, right , and also a ceremony with lights. Both of those are important for what Jesus says here in John's gospel. John will make a big deal out of that. And that starts with this water pouring. Right on the last day of the feast, a large golden pitcher was taken to the pool of SLO and then carried in procession led by the high priest back to the temple. This water carried where all conceived and trumpets were sounded as the procession approached the temple. The temple choir is singing from the Halel Psalms at Psalm one 13 to one 18. And everybody at Psalm one 18 is waving a myrtle and willow twig and holding up some fruit in their other hand . So there's lots of harvest imagery here going and people are thanking God. Everyone then says, give thanks to the Lord three times. And as they do that, the water is poured out against that backdrop. Jesus says, standing up, remember Jewish teachers sit down to teach. So he stands up and cries out. If anyone believes, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So in the water ceremony, Jesus uses that to say something about water. And water in the Old Testament is often an emblem of the spirit's coming. I'm thinking about Ezekiel the 47 chapter. And so verse 39 explains, he said this about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. And there's lots of discussion here, of course, in verse 38, as the scripture said, Jesus may be referencing Nehemiah nine 15, he could be ref referencing Ezekiel 47. And although maybe we are not gonna pinpoint the exact passage that Jesus has in mind here, it is not difficult, not difficult at all to get the basic idea that water's going to flow forth from Zion and be a blessing for others. This is the time of the Messiah, the time of life. Water gives life, the Messiah gives life, water brings blessing. This is a celebration of God's blessings. We've been celebrating that all week long in the Tabernacle feast and now water's poured out and Jesus says, I'm the one who's gonna bring full and real blessing. That's what's going on here. And that blessing is going to be a relationship with God through the Spirit. And it is hard not to think of Acts 2 38 right there. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you're cut to the heart. Acts 2 37, you're gonna repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So I think those ideas are tied together. I I had a wonderful class and the , and the teacher , uh, Dr. Neil Lightfoot, he pointed out, there are conditions here to having the spirit. You have to be thirsty. Verse 37, you have to come to Christ. Verse 37, you have to drink verse 37, which is synonymous with believing verse 38. And all of that is in the present tense. You continue to thirst, you continue to come, you continue to drink, you continue to believe the Spirit is not for the unbeliever, the spirit is not for those who are uninterested in spiritual things, but the Holy Spirit is given to the those who trust and obey. That's what this passage is all about. So I think this is a marvelous statement here, Jesus bringing this blessing, and I love when you seed it in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles. It really must have taken on greater meaning for him to stand up and say, you see that water being poured out? I am the living water. I bring the blessings of the messianic time. And of course there is some irony here at the end of verse 42, the scriptures, Hey, you know it's all about Bethlehem, but we know Jesus comes from Bethlehem. So there's some people who are missing him because they don't have all of the information that they need. And again, John is putting us in the middle of the debate tomorrow. We'll pick up the reading here in John 7 45. There's no zoom tonight, Westsiders. I've managed to make an absolute mess of which exact Tuesday I'm taking off. But I am taking off this Tuesday night, a whole lot going on and I'm gonna take off this Tuesday night so there's no zoom tonight. I'll see you tomorrow. We're continuing our parable series and we're continuing in. John chapter seven, see you on Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. Climb up on that camel. It's hump day and we are continuing the parables series tonight. Here's Miles Hester, he's gonna tell us a little bit about what he's preaching on from the parables this evening. Miles .

Hello everyone. My name's Miles Hester from Lewisville, Texas. And on Wednesday, July 24th, I'll be preaching at the West Side summer series about the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus' primarily Jewish audience would've viewed Pharisees as the highly educated religious elite and tax collectors as greedy traders that worked for the Roman Empire. In this parable though, the tax collector is the positive example, and the Pharisees serves as a warning come out to West side and Irving Wednesday, July 24th to study this incredible parable and what it means for us. I look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you, miles . I'm sure we're all looking forward to hearing more about that parable this evening. Let's work in our Bible reading, very short reading today verses 45 to 52 in chapter seven. These are Jewish officers in temple guards that we're seeing here in verse 45. And they can't arrest Jesus, they can't arrest Jesus. It's, there's just something about him, his authority, how he teaches, how he conducts himself. Jesus is unique and special. I think about how many world religion founders have been arrested. I'm thinking of you, Joseph Smith. They, they don't conduct themselves like Jesus does, but there's so much disdain here. The Pharisees say, have you been fooled? That's the good news Bible rendering of verse 47. And and then verse 49, they just insult the people by saying the crowd does not know the law, the crowd, the rabble. Are you , are you dumb? Like the people of the land is the literal translation, Jesus's attitude towards common people. And the Pharisees attitude towards common people could not have been more different, but they don't know the law. The Pharisees say, well, what that really means is they don't know all of the rules and regulations that they have built up around the law and all of their manmade traditions that they have enshrined and that they follow so devoutly while they ignore God's law. And then there's a personal attack in verse 52 on Nicodemus. That's, that's just outrageous. It's just outrageous. An ad hominem attack is the word for that. And when you can't answer somebody, because of course Nicodemus is exactly right in verse 51, what you do is you say, you know what? Your mom addresses you funny. Um, you come from a bad family. Um , we don't like the kind of car you drive. You just attack a person personally. And, and that's all they got because they can't deal with Jesus, but they are rejecting Jesus. And again, all of that is to say that John wants the reader, he wants you to hear both sides and make a decision about Jesus the Christ. It is Thursday and today our Bible reading is John eight verses one to 11, actually John 7 53 to John eight verse 11. And already as you're looking at your Bible, you're seeing italics or some kind of note. My ESV says, the earliest manuscripts do not include 7 53 to eight 11 in big letters. And then it has a little footnote down at the bottom and something is clearly amiss here with the text . And this is the longest disputed section in the New Testament. And there are plenty of people, and I include brethren there who do not believe this is an authentic part of John's gospel. Most translations set it off in brackets or in some metallics to signal to the reader that there is some question about this text. And sometimes that gets people really exercised about things. How dare you question the Bible? But that's not the right way to take that at all. We want to know. We want to know if there's a question about the text. We want the translators to give us as much information as possible so that we can study that further and make our own decision about that. Don't hide it, put it up front . Tell us, hey, there's some variance here. There are some manuscripts that don't contain this. There is some discussion about this section of scripture and that's why we want to talk about that because we need to say something to Bible critics who might try to attack the Bible. Oh, look, you've got a story in there that's not really part of the Bible and we need to say something to ourselves. Do we have faith in the Bible? Has the Bible got all supposed to be in there? And does the Bible have stuff in there that's not supposed to be in there? Those questions come to play. So what should be said here about this text? Well, first and foremost, why do some scholars, why do these translations all have this bracketed off? Why do people say it's not real, it's not really part of the Bible? Well, it is missing from a large number of high quality early manuscripts. And these are the big manuscripts that when somebody jumps on the Bible and says, oh, you can't have a book that old and have it integrity and it's whole and complete and pieces haven't fallen out, we just start jumping up and down saying, well, have you looked at s Atticus? Have you looked at Vaticanus ? Have you seen P 66? Have you seen P 75? These are very good manuscripts and we love those manuscripts and we say great things about those manuscripts, but those manuscripts don't have this story in them. And going along with that, the language here is just not, not very John like it is. It doesn't sound like John. There's a couple of phrases that John doesn't ever use anywhere else. And if you will notice, you can read right from 7 52 to eight 12 and the text just flows smoothly there . It's like you don't even need this little insertion here, this little interruption. And it is so that there are some manuscripts. Now this gets overplayed a lot, I think, but there are some manuscripts that pick the story up and plop it elsewhere in John's gospel. And there is even a manuscript that has it in Luke's gospel. So all of that causes a lot of very good textual scholars to back away from that and say, I don't think that's authentic. I don't think that's an authentic part of the Bible. And, and you have to take that seriously. We can't cite those guys when they're talking about what we want to hear them say, the Bible is authentic. And then when they say, but you know what? I have some doubts about this. It's hard then to jump up and down and say, well, you know, I know better than those guys. That said, I think there are good reasons to consider it, to be part of the text. It does appear in a manuscript about 500 ad, but that manuscript is kinda wonky. And so that's probably not the best card to play, but it is cited by some folks. For example, Jerome cites it in 3 82 and says that it is in other manuscripts that he knows about. It does appear in some old Latin manuscripts. Some meet the optic version, some Syrian manuscripts, and it is referred to by UBS . And he says that he's in the fourth century. He says that he was told that by papayas and Papa's site . Now the second century, and a great question to ask is, how did this story float around intact for three or 400 years? And then finally somebody wrote it in the Bible. How , how does that happen? Particularly because there were lots of things written about Jesus outside of scripture and they're not inspired, and those things never made their way into the Bible. They're not part of the gospels. There're stories about Jesus' childhood and legends and so forth and so on. That's not in the Bible. How'd this story get in the Bible if it's just so out there and not part of the Bible? Well, there are some reports that the story was removed from the Bible because some folks thought it would encourage sin. Oh , see, I, I think that helps us right there. And it does fit John's pattern of presenting the testimony from witnesses both for and against Jesus. I've talked about that a lot here on the podcast. I would say this, I think it's an authentic part of the text. I just don't see how it got in the text. And I, I wonder if they're not gonna find a manuscript and it's very old manuscript. It's a great manuscript, and sure enough, John eight and the woman cotton adultery is gonna be in that manuscript. So that can change. But I think there is enough evidence to say, I, I get it. I, I know what you're saying, but you know, those other manuscripts that I talked about, they're not perfect either. Okay? It's not like, you know, all 27 books of the Bible are, are all in one manuscript, and they're all there perfect, except for John chapter eight. That's not how the manuscripts are, and that's not how that works. I think there's enough evidence to say this should be taken seriously and to be taken as scripture. And so I'm gonna deal with it as scripture. Let's talk a little bit about what goes on here. I think a huge question. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placed her in his midst. Verse three, A huge question here is, where is the man? Where is the man that she is involved in sexual immorality ? Wish she's taken an adultery here. And there have been some scholars who've said that during the feast of booze, there was kind of a vacation atmosphere going on in Jerusalem. Everybody was having a good time and, and that sometimes some things went on that did not need to go on, and that there was an atmosphere that may have led to some immorality. So that would accord with the timeframe that we are here in . And of course, they're , they're trying to hoist Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. He can condone sin and disagree with Moses, or he can urge stoning and get in trouble with the Romans because they don't have the right to do capital punishment at this time. But what Jesus does is, and and notice here verse six, doesn't that sound like a johanan reflection? Doesn't that sound like a parentheses like John's been putting in his gospel along the way? Jesus says, I wanna know who here is without sin. And, and I I'm not saying anything about Jesus writing. We don't know what Jesus wrote the end of verse six. So there's no point in speculating. If we need to know, the Bible will tell us. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about verse seven. And many people have somehow used that to say that we can't ever judge sin. And that is absolutely not what Jesus is saying. If that's what Jesus is saying, church can't exercise discipline, preacher stand, preach against sin. That's crazy. That's never where Jesus is on sin. What Jesus is saying is, there's more going on in this situation than what you're showing me. There's more to this than just a woman. Y'all put her up to this, you framed her. Where's the man she's participating with? You all are in sin, is what Jesus is saying here. And in verse nine, they get it. They get it. That's why one by one, they walk away, they are indicted that they are part of this by what Jesus says. So then Jesus says, you need to stop sinning. Verse 11. Jesus does not tolerate a morality and sin by any stretch of the imagination. Jesus says, lady, you gotta quit doing that. That's not right. Don't do that. I'm not here to condemn people. I'm here to save and I wanna save you. And if I'm gonna save you, you need to turn away from this kind of lifestyle. So this text does not teach it's okay to sin and it does not teach that we can't judge anybody unless I myself am perfect and zen endless . And of course, nobody can judge anybody ever. It just shows how eager Jesus is to forgive and release people to new life while condemning those who are fara and unfairly and hypocritically judging others. That's our reading today in John chapter eight. See you tomorrow. It is Friday. It is Friday. And today our reading is John eight verses 12 to 20. This is where Jesus says John eight, verse 12, I am the light of the world. And I want to note verse 12 says again, Jesus spoke to them. So that ties it to this feast of Tabernacles. Jesus is still in Jerusalem. He's still at the feast. And part of the feast of Tabernacles was that water drawing right , that we talked about in John seven, verse 37. But part of the Feast of Tabernacles was also the lighting of huge can abra in the court of the women, which was the big court, that huge plaza. I think that's what we would call that in the temple. And there was this huge candelabra that were lit there and people would sing and dance all night during the feast of booze. Now, I , I need to be very clear here. Men and women were separated. So there's nothing immoral or licentious or lascivious about any of this dancing. Sometimes as soon as we, we hear the word dancing, we start loading that with all of our Western ideas. So the men and women would be separated , uh, but the temple court would be brightly lit with these flaming candelabra and everyone would be singing and dancing and rejoicing to God. That's that's what this is all about. And in fact, it was thought that the more pious you were, the longer you could sing and dance, and that if you could stay up all night, that would really show something about how pious, how thankful you were to the Lord. So this is a very joyous celebration. The tabernacle, I'm sorry, the temple is lit up during the feast of the Tabernacles. And in that celebration, Jesus says, maybe you can see these golden canela , giant candelabra and and the ladders are placed up against them. And these young men, these , uh, of the priestly families, will be climbing up with these huge pictures of oil to fill them up and to light them. And everyone's excited. And Jesus says, I'm the light of the world. I am the light of the world. So in the Feast of Tabernacles, which is all about the wilderness, and and the Israelite people followed the cloud, the glory of God, Jesus says, follow me. Don't walk in darkness. Follow me. I am the true light. So once again, the Pharisees completely misunderstand Jesus. They attack Jesus. Oh, you don't have enough witnesses. So Jesus responds with, I, I have witnesses, I have witnesses. My own witness ought to be enough, but I have the witness of the Father as well. You're just assessing verse 15 things by human standards. You need to think deeper. You need to consider what's really going on here. I have a second witness, verse 16, the witness of the Father. So it's not according to the flesh, it's true judgment. It arises from my relationship to the Father. And notice verse 18, if Jesus really stands in the relationship to God at which he says he does, then, then no mere human is gonna be in position to bear witness like that. Nobody can authenticate a divine relationship. That's outside of our understanding. But verse 19, once again, the stupid remark, where is your father? But Jesus says, if you know me, you know the Father. If you know me, you know the Father. And we'll see more of that in chapter 14. Philip will talk to Jesus and he'll get the same kind of answer here. So these words are in the treasury, spoken in the treasury, that the treasury was part of the court of the women, the big plaza area where all these candelabra and the singing and the dancing are going on there so people could give. And there were a bunch of boxes there where you could place your money and so forth and so on. And, and Jesus is there. No one, no one arrest him. They would like to arrest him. They're not arresting him. Why not? 'cause it's not time. Look who's really in control. Look who really is in charge. That then is the podcast for the week. Thanks so much for listening. If the podcast is helping you, please tell others about it. Share it on social, that'll help people see this podcast and get into daily Bible reading. So until Monday when we'll open the Bible again together, I'm Mark Roberts and I wanna go to heaven, and I want you to come too . I'll see you on 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.