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, September the ninth, and I am holding some wonderful Costa Rican coffee. Oh , that, that will work for sure. I hope that you are ready to start a good week together in the word of God. Yesterday was just wonderful At one side , a very political day. I spent time in the 9:00 AM hour campaigning for a candidate that is not campaigning and does not need your vote in the 9:00 AM hour. Yesterday I talked about King Jesus and how we need to understand and see him as our sovereign and exactly what that means. Then in the 10 40, talked about the election in infection and how we can serve the Lord in a time, in an age of outrage. And I want to add a thought or two about that here in just a moment. So grab your coffee or tea. Let's uh , get our Bibles open to John and let's think about yesterday. Let's look forward into our Bible reading. Let's get ready, let's get set. Let's go. Let's start here with some bonus thoughts about the sermon yesterday. We need to be mindful that it is okay to have differing opinions on many of the political issues of the day because Jesus never said what the highest marginal tax rate should be or how the government should care for the homeless or whether the government should offer vouchers for kids schooling or what it should do about the war in Ukraine. Since Jesus did not address those issues specifically, I don't have to, and if you come out in a different place on that than I do, that will be okay. Of course there are issues. Jesus did. Address matters like the sanctity of life, gender and sexuality, treating the downtrodden and oppressed. These are issues that are front and center in many of the things that we're considering and they, those are troubling issues today what we have to do is learn to stand fast on what the Bible says without letting that become a political statement. What we believe about those matters isn't settled by a party or by its platform. We need to be rooted in scripture and of course we can't compromise those convictions. But in all things, Romans 1218 guides us. Paul says, do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Yesterday's sermon was about how I can live in peace with everyone in a time of so much conflict, division, and hostility. I hope these thoughts and yesterday's sermon will help all of us to avoid the election infection . Now, let's go see what Jesus is saying in John chapter 15. Today is Monday and our reading today is John 15 verses 18 to 27. Maybe I'll borrow a little bit from Friday's reading notice verse 17, these things I command you so that you will love one another. Now, I reading today verse 18, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. So there's a transition here. Jesus ends in verse 17 by saying you have to take care of each other because we're transitioning now from what's going on inside the community of faith to outside in the world and the world won't love you. In fact, the world won't have anything but hate for you disciples one writer said, former rebels who have by the grace of the king been won back to loving allegiance to their rightful monarch are not likely to prove popular with those who persist in rebellion. That goes pretty well with yesterday's sermon in the 9:00 AM hour, and I think that's exactly what verse 19 is getting at. If you are of the world, the world would love you as its own 'cause you're not of the world. I chose you outta the world. The world hates you. And look at the humility in verse 20, A servant is not greater than his master. Jesus keeps going back to serving. Remember, this is all said in the last supper, and what did Jesus do at the beginning of this chapter? He served, he washed everybody's feet. Then verse 20 says at the end, if they keep my , if they kept my word, they will also keep yours. That's a difficult expression there. It probably means something to the effect of this is a hypothetical that will actually never happen. The new English Bible has, they will follow your teachings like they have followed mine. And of course they haven't followed Jesus' at all. So Jesus then follows that up, if I can use that term with the idea that ignorance is inexcusable. And he goes on through the rest of this chapter saying they have no excuse for not accepting me. And we wanna be careful here. As we think about persecution, I like to make this note as we're working along. Sometimes we get a persecution complex and we kind of draw ourselves up real rightly and look at me. I'm get being kicked around and so forth. We wanna make sure that we're not being persecuted for being obnoxious jerks, that we're really being persecuted for serving Jesus Christ. That's what's going on here. And so we get another note then about the Holy Spirit. Verse 26, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. Notice the flexibility in who sends the Spirit. In chapter 14 of verse 16, the father sins 1426, the father sins, but here in 1526 whom I will send, but he proceeds from the Father. So we see the Godhead working together here and the chapter ends with another limitation because you have been with me verse 27, you're going to receive this. It's, there's so much misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit today. And sometimes I fear that I'm always given the fine print and put an asterisk and saying, don't believe this and don't think this. And I'm not saying enough about what the Holy Spirit is doing. I hope to rectify some of that in future preaching. But because this text is so misused, I just feel like I need to say, don't try to appropriate this promise. The Holy Spirit's gonna come to you, Mark Roberts, and he's got no, no, he's coming to the apostles. We have to keep this in its setting. And that setting continues into chapter 16 where we resume reading on Tuesday. See you then. It is Tuesday and today we begin , John chapter 16. Our reading today is John 16 verses one to 15 . And this is one of the fullest discussions of the Holy Spirit's work in all of the New Testament. So you know, this is seriously important material that we wanna sit down in and really get a hold of. And we'll get a chance to do that tonight in Zoom. So glad to be back on the Zoom Bible study tonight with folks from West Side . As all of that begins in John 16, the theme of persecution coming outta chapter 15 continues. And Jesus says, I'm telling you these things so that you don't fall away. Don't let persecution surprise you and cause you to lose your faith and and be upset and all the things that go with all of that. In fact, the very persecution should cause more faith in Christ because Jesus predicted that persecution in verse five. Then he says, Hey, you're not asking the right question. And there have been some questions earlier and you may be wondering, Hey, I , I thought they were asking, I think the emphasis is on the now. You're not asking now and and maybe more than anything their questions were more complaints that you are leaving rather than genuine interest in what is the work of God? What is the father doing? What's the spirit doing? What's the son doing? They're not even asking the right questions, but it is good. Well , let me get a little coffee here. It is good for Jesus to go away because then the Holy Spirit will come. And there are so many passages in the Old Testament that promised the Spirit as part of the time of God's kingdom. That's Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah 32, beginning in verse 14, Isaiah 42, Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 36, Joel chapter two, I think the apostles should have been anticipating this and connecting up some of the dots. The Holy Spirit is going to come and he will, verse eight, convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. That is his primary work. Unfortunately the word convict is difficult here. We don't have a good English word, particularly because convicting that has a negative connotation to it. If you are convicted of a crime, you're a convicted felon, people gonna look down on you, that's gonna not play well on a job application. So it's not really negative like that. It's a term that's used in other places like Matthew 1815 to mean show someone their sin and summon him to repentance. That could be a very positive kind of thing. So some translations will have convinced here, but that may not be strong enough either one scholar said The trouble is no one word can translate it adequately. It's used for cross-examination of a witness or a man on trial or an opponent in an argument. It has always this idea of cross-examining a man until he sees and admits his errors or acknowledges the force of some argument which he has not yet seen. So it's a very positive kind of idea. The Holy Spirit is going to help people see that they need God, help people see who Jesus is, help people see where they are. That's what's going on here. And so there are three items on that list sin. Verse nine. The ultimate sin of course, is not believing in Jesus righteousness. Verse 10 is the right way to live as illustrated by Jesus. And then judgment verse 11, the impending doom for the sinner . And I want us to talk more about all of this. Like I said tonight in Zoom, the Holy Spirit's going to do that by the truth that he guides. Verse 13 in he guides the apostles into they will have all the truth. By the way, maybe it's fair to ask why would we need any latter day revelation? If you get all the truth with the apostles, what else do you need? That's a wonderful question to ask people who knock on your door and have that blue book of Mormon. Why do I need that? If I have all the truth, the Holy Spirit guided the apostles into all the truth. That's where John 16 is leaving that and that's where we need to be for certain. Notice the focus on the Father, again in verse 15, in John's gospel, it's always about the Father Jesus and the Father absolutely in sync working together to gather perfectly. Jesus is absolutely obedient to the Father. Like I said, we'll talk more about the Holy Spirit and how he does this work and we'll do that in the Zoom call. But I just want to emphasize this tight tie in verses 8, 9, 10 and 11. And then verse 13, he will guide you into all the truth. The Holy Spirit is gonna do his work through what the Apostles teach and preach, and of course what is ultimately written down in the New Testament. See tonight, west Saters on zoom. The rest of you see you tomorrow as we continue reading in John 16, welcome to Wednesday. And today we read John 16, verses 16 to 24, we are completing the 16 chapter of John. And it is clear that the disciples aren't tracking with Jesus very well. Verse 17, there's just confusion and uncertainty. They don't understand what Jesus means. He keeps saying, I'm going away. But then he keeps saying, you're gonna see me in a little while. What's happening here? Jesus. And maybe a good thing to note here is this is hardly a group of men who are planning to steal Jesus' body. They have no idea what's going on. They are not making plans to steal Jesus' body because they do not understand that Jesus is going to die and Jesus continues to push them in verses 18 and 19. He uses the expression a little while, four times in short succession. And that means something is about to go down. Something is imminent. What will this be? Well, Jesus uses the imagery then of birth pains. And when a woman gives birth in verse 21, by the way, that's used in the Old Testament like in Isaiah chapter 21 verses two and three or in Micah chapter four verses nine and tens a very Jewish kind of way of thinking about sort those sorts of things. And so he says there's gonna be sorrow like a woman in labor and that's hard and that's difficult. And then all that goes away when the baby is born and there is just joy. So you're going to have sorrow and then you're going to rejoice first 22 in a marvelous kind of fashion that just sums up the gospel, doesn't it? There's sorrow that Jesus was crucified. There's joy that he has risen from the dead and he is crowned king of kings and Lord of lords. He has defeated the devil, he has defeated death. He is our sovereign. He is Jesus Christ the king. And so then Jesus may be making a play in verses 23 and 24 about asking all these questions says there's gonna be some changes here and you're gonna be able to, you're gonna be able to ask and you're gonna be able to ask in my name and you're gonna be able to ask the Father. And here, of course, I just turned the page of my Bible and there's a whole nother paragraph to John 16. So I said, we're completing John 16 and we are not completing John 16. We need to do that tomorrow. See you on Thursday for the rest of John chapter 16. It is Thursday and today we are finishing the 16th chapter of John's amazing and wonderful gospel. Maybe there's no place in the gospel that gets a bigger amen than where we start our reading today. In verse 25, Jesus says, I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The disciples must have said amen to that they have heard so many figures of speech, living water, bread of life, eat my flesh, drink my blood. There have been many, many figures of speech and sometimes they have not been sure what to make of all of that. But Jesus says, things are changing now. The events that are about to occur will change relationships. And in fact, there will change your relationship to God. You will be able to go directly to God because verse 27, God loves you. One writer said Jesus first one to the disciples to know that their future prayer power is more than God just doing them a favor because of Jesus. They will have a more direct relationship. God hears and answers them because he loves them himself. And I want to say here, sometimes the image in that, the image that some people carry around from the Bible is angry God, gentle Jesus. And clearly that is completely wrong. The Father loves you. God is not this angry raffle. I just want to smash everybody and send everybody to hell. There's no question. We're talking about this a lot in our Exodus class and Exodus chapter 34 , there isn't any question that God will judge sin. There's no doubt about that. But God doesn't want to judge sin. That's what Jesus is doing here right now in John 16. He is here so that the Father doesn't have to judge sin. And he says, I'm doing this. Verse 28, I came, I want to do this. The Father didn't make me do this. And Satan in the world won't prevent me from doing this. So we get the real question of John's gospel one more time. Verse 31, do you now believe? Do you now believe? Is there exasperation there? Jesus says, I have already won the victory. Verse 33. I'm certain that the disciples didn't know exactly what that meant, but we know what that means because we know where this is headed and what Jesus has done for you and me as our king who came to save us tomorrow, Jesus is amazing and wonderful prayer in John chapter 17, one of my favorite places in the Bible, because Jesus prays for you and me. See you on Friday. Welcome to Friday. And today we begin, John chapter 17. Our reading today for Friday is John 17, one to 12 . Since the early 15 hundreds, this section of scripture, John 17, has been known as the high priestly prayer. And it is important to understand that this prayer connects to everything that's gone on in front of it in many ways. The fourth Gospel seems to look forward to and almost be summarized by what happens in John chapter 17. Jesus will talk about obedience to the Father, the revelation of God by Jesus, Jesus's ultimate sacrifice leading to glory, the unity of the Father and the Son choosing disciples and more. It is a monster prayer and it easily outlines. In the first five verses, Jesus prays for himself. And then verses six to 19, Jesus prays for disciples. And then in verses 20 to 26, he prays for the church. Uh , right away as we start, John 17, you'll notice the hour has come. So much in John has been about, well , the hour's not here. It is here now. It is the time of glorifying the Son . And that means more than praise and honor. It means the ultimate obedience of Jesus, the Christ that leads to and shows him as who he is so that we will honor him. Now, it is clear that Jesus understands the hour has arrived, but there is still some work to do. And that's why Jesus is praying in verse three. I really love this, the idea that eternal life is knowing God. What does he mean by that? He means having a relationship with God. That's what eternal life is all about. Relationship with the Lord. Eternal life in scripture is never about going to the big retirement home in the sky. It's about being with God because that's what we were made for. And we will ultimately realize in Christ, in heaven. And of course, don't get lost here. Verse three, the only true God that's just in opposition to the pagan ideas of polytheism. And some have tried to make way too much of that. We're not denying Jesus's deity that's front and center in everything that's going on here. And that will go on as he moves forward. So then in verse six, Jesus begins to pray for the disciples. And there's so much here about protection. That's going to be a huge emphasis all the way down to about verse 18, that they need protection so that they will remain loyal. They don't know everything, verse seven, but they know that Jesus is the Messiah and they have made progress in their faith. Verse 10. And they are starting to treat Jesus with the proper deference and reverence that realizes he is the son of God. He's deity, he is the Messiah. He's not just a teacher from Galilee. So in verse 11, that's where things really begin to move towards protection. And that idea, like I said, dominates this section of the prayer. Keep them in Your name. Name here stands for character. So one writer says, in short, Jesus prays that God will keep his followers in firm fidelity to the revelation that Jesus himself has mediated unto them. And then of course, there's the terrible note. Verse 12, the son of perdition. Some translations have son of destruction in the ESV . That is Judas a sct. That's a tough place to draw a line, but you have to stop the reading somewhere, read in a couple of different translations, continue to appreciate what Jesus is saying about himself, his relationship to the Father being glorified. We don't think of the cross as being glorifying. It's ugly and dirty and bloody and horrible. Jesus says, it's time. I'm ready to be glorified. And then he just , Jesus always does thinks of everybody but himself. He's praying for the disciples and what's going to happen in the next several hours and what will happen even further during the time of the church when there's so much persecution. Let's pull up right there. I'll see you on Monday. We'll continue in John chapter 17. But that will be, That'll be the podcast for the week. And I certainly do appreciate you listening to it. I appreciate the good feedback. People are so kind about the podcast. I'm glad that it's helping you and I hope that you will share it with someone else so that it will be a value to them as well. So until Monday, when we'll open our Bibles together. Again, I'm Mark Roberts and I wanna 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.