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. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, October the seventh. How did it get to be? October already? I'm holding a great cup of coffee here in one of my favorite mugs. This is my Grand Canyon mug that I love. So very, very much. Just have a ton of stuff to talk with you about today. Joseph of Athea was the subject of the 10 40 sermon. Did you know he has a connection to snakes? Yeah, let's explore some of that. Let's get into John's epistles. I spent a lot of time in the 9:00 AM sermon talking about those lots and lots of good stuff for this entire week. You got your coffee? Let's get ready, let's get set, let's go. So yesterday in the 10 40, I devoted that lesson to Joseph of Arimathea . That lesson came out of our Tuesday night Zoom call, our Bible study on Tuesday evening when we did the reading about Joseph of Arimathea in Mark. Some really good discussion, I made some notes there. I said I need to come back and preach about this character. Wow, I need a sip of coffee here. Hold on. Okay. So managed to put that together, particularly as we were coming out of John's gospel. Just challenge to think about that some more and I'm really glad that I got the opportunity to do that. Now let me just tell you the connection to snakes. What I didn't say yesterday, you can't say everything in the pulpit and probably didn't even wanna say this in the pulpit, is that all kinds of legends have arisen about Joseph of Arimathea . The biblical account apparently is just not enough for a lot of people. So the legends say that Joseph of Arimathea became a missionary after Jesus died and it was eventually sent to England to preach the gospel and he carried with him, of course the holy grail. What else would you take when you're going to England to preach the gospel and his pilgrim staff? So he landed in England and made his way to a town in southwest England called Glastonbury , probably not saying that with the official English accent. And when he stuck his pilgrim staff in the ground, it overnight turned into a flowering thorn tree and in time he converted thousands to Christianity, including 18,000 in a single day he converted Ethel bur the local king. I've always wanted to meet Ethel Bur and he just did all kinds of incredible things, including after converting apparently nearly everybody in England, he went to Ireland and rid the island of snakes. Wow, this guy just did a lot of very cool stuff, didn't he? And what I wanna say about that is what a bunch of nonsense, and the reason I didn't bring any of that into the pulpit is because that just detracts from what the Bible tells us about Joseph of Arimathea and we need to be content with that. Not all kinds of foolish legends about carrying holy grails and planting walking sticks. We need to be content with what the Bible says that keeps him in the right place. He's not eclipsing Jesus in importance or any of the apostles. And as I think as we saw yesterday what the Bible tells us about Joseph of affair , methe is plenty. There's plenty there for us to work with so that we can be used by God and we can serve God's purposes. I've never been to Glastonbury. Maybe I'll stop by sometime and see the thorn tree. I'm all for ridding the world of snakes that sign me up for that. But as far as crazy legends that have no basis in fact, and that detract from the biblical account, I'm just against that as I can possibly be. Let's be content with what God tells us. Let's study that and let's install that in our lives. Bible reading has to become Bible living legend reading can't become Bible living. And speaking of reading the Bible, let's do that. Let's make our way over to one John, It is Monday in today. Our reading is First John chapter two verses one to 11. I would refresh your memory from the 9:00 AM sermon yesterday. If you were not in the nine, please go listen to that sermon. It will really help you to understand the epistles of John. That's all I talked about yesterday in the 9:00 AM is how to read these letters. You've got mail and there's a way to read 'em so that we can maximize and get all that we can out of 'em . Particularly as I said, lemme refresh your memory. We're looking for three things here. First, we're watching for cycles. That's a fancy way of saying John repeats himself a lot and that's not a place where we roll our eyes and say, Hey, you already said this. That means we see the emphasis that's there and those main themes that get cycled a lot are first Jesus is deity, but he came in the flesh. Fully divine and fully human. Fully human is John's emphasis God in the flesh. Secondly, love your brothers. Thirdly, keep your, keep the commands. Keep the commands that have been given to you. Then finally, the other big thing we're looking for here is how concrete John is and we want to make this concrete in our lives as well. So what do we see in First John chapter two verses one to 11 that help us with these big ideas? First and foremost, verse one tells us the purpose for this epistle, one of the chief objects here of John's writing is that we would take sin seriously and stop sinning. I'm just gonna stop here for a moment and preach a little bit. I get more and more concerned about this thinking that Christians are constantly sinning. Sometimes in prayer, we know we fail the often we forgive us of our many, many sins. Some of that is born out of a spirit of humility. But some of that goes counter to the New Testament's teaching that we are no longer mastered by sin. Whoops, slipped in a little Romans there, that's a little Paul. And here don't sin. Stop sinning . Now if somebody sins, there's some things that can be done about that and John then covers that in the rest of verse one. But if we're just sending all the time, then somehow our view of Christianity, our understanding of grace, our understanding of the Christian life seems to be amiss because John says, I'm writing to you 'cause I don't want you to sin . Now Jesus is the propitiation. Verse two, he's the sin offering for our sins. And then watch how it just gets very specific about commandments here need you to keep the commandments. Verse five, your knowledge and love for God are shown by whether you are in obedience, whether you are keeping the commandments. If you say that you are in Christ, verse six, you need to be like Christ, which means keep the commandments and then we get shifted in verse seven into that other major theme. Love the brothers. You have to love the brothers. It's not a new commandment. This is what we've had before John 13. We need to love each other and pay attention to verse 10, whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. Remember in chapter one we read this on Friday, last Friday, if we walk in the light as he's in the light, verse seven, John's giving us some understanding of that. Shedding some yes, shedding some light on that. I went there and he's telling us that walking in the light for John here means loving your brother. That's where John is going with that in a very specific kind of way, if you don't love your brother, you are what verse 11. Walking in darkness. See how those ideas pair together? Very specific, very straightforward. What I need to ask you is how are you making this concrete in your life today? Are you obeying the commands of Christ? How are you gonna show love for your brothers today? Let's do that. Bible reading becomes Bible living. See you tomorrow. It is Tuesday. It is Tuesday. And today our reading not very long, but in many ways very challenging. We're reading first John chapter two verses 12 to 17. And there's a lot of questions that will come to mind as you do your reading today. It's pretty straightforward stuff. But you'll wonder about the form and maybe some of the choices of terminology that John uses here. For example, why does he use children and fathers and then young men and come back to children again? What's, what's up with that? And is there a reason for this repetition? Is there some significance to the change from I am writing to, I write some translations even have I wrote What's going on here, John? Well, no one has completely ever solved everything about these three verses 12, 13 and 14. Some think there are three distinct groups here of literal age. Some would say that these refer, these groups refer to spiritual maturity, maybe children refers to everyone. So there's actually only two groups. Children is everybody. John thinks of everyone, it's his child. And then there's only two groups, fathers and then young men. The repetition is easier to deal with. That seems to come because of emphasis. There needs to be an emphasis here. And when we repeat things in scripture, remember the idea of cycles in John, that means John is bearing down on that, wants us to pay more attention to that. And the difference in writing and write may be because John is saying, I have written to written to you before and what I'm saying now is in concert is in harmony with what I had said before. Notice verse 13, there is some changes here in spiritual maturity. There is a deeper understanding and particularly that's caused some to overcome. Overcome is the word Nike . Yes. It doesn't mean tennis shoe , it means victory or overcome. And of the 28 occurrences of that word in the Bible, 24 of them are found in books that John wrote. He really likes the idea of overcoming. And we will see that of course a lot in the book of Revelation. Then we move to these strong contrast, 15, 16 and 17. This is the godless world. Do not love the world. World's used a lot of different ways in scripture. God loves the world. John three 16, but that's not here in one John two 15, this is the godless world. New English Bible translates it that way. The idea here is that this is everything that is the opposite of being a disciple and follower of Christ. Look at the contrast. Verse 15, love of the world contrast, love of the Father. Verse 16, what's in the world is not in the Father. What's of the world is not from the Father? Verse 16 and then verse 17, the world's passing away, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. Don't forget there's a battle going on. That's why John writes this letter. And I think in some of these verses today, we're seeing some of that battle. People are minimizing sin. People are not treating Christians right? People particularly are going into the world and getting caught up in the world and that can't be part of discipleship. John says, one writer said worlds is excluding God from our lives and therefore consciously or unconsciously accepting the values of a man centered society. We see a lot of worldliness today, don't we ? John's dealing with that. He's fighting against that. Get verse 17, whoever does the will of God. What is that? That's that main theme. Keep the commandments. See you tomorrow. There's no zoom call tonight. I'm in Alabama. I'm speaking at a preacher's conference and so there'll be no zoom call. I'm making my way home tonight. I'll be home tomorrow so that I can teach Bible class and do Bible talk on Wednesday evening. So no zoom tonight. See you tomorrow as we continue in one John chapter two. It is Wednesday. It is Wednesday and today we read one John chapter two verses 18 to 27. I want to urge you to be careful here and not run over. The chapter division is terrible and we'll have 28 and 29 with tomorrow's reading. So make sure you pull up at verse 27. We really get the battle lines being drawn here in verse 18 and onward. Notice verse 19. They went out from among us there has been a division here. There is a fight that's going on and for Christians in many ways, verse 18, it's always the last hour because Jesus could come at any time and there are, there are false teachers, there are problems here, there is verse 18, the antichrist is coming. And of course in our world the antichrist is this messianic figure that draws the forces of evil together and attacks all that is righteous and you can make movies about him and cash in at the box office. John is the only one who uses the term antichrist. It's used here. It's also used in one John four in verse three and in ch . And then in uh , second John verse seven, lemme see if I can get some coffee going here so that I can talk Great to be home from Alabama, but lots going on with all of that of course. So he's the only one to use that particular term and it actually doesn't occur in the book of Revelation at all. Does that surprise anybody? That'd be a great question on jeopardy. This term does not occur in the book of Revelation. Nobody would get antichrist. Everybody thinks that is the book all about the antichrist. But for John, he doesn't use it to be this singular figure who will rally the forces of evil sometimes. In fact, he doesn't even have the word the in front of it, the antichrist there. I put the definitive article in front. Antichrist is not a personal leader to come, but he's already present and doing damage. This is one who is teaching error. And please notice that in John's view, the presence of antichrist is not an end of the world sign. Who's the antichrist? He defines the antichrist 1 22 . It's the one who denies the father and the son and the one who does not believe Jesus Christ came in the flesh. That's where this is going. Verse 22, he who denies Jesus is the Christ. These teachers who wanted to take away the humanity of Jesus, they are opposing, they are the anti, anti-Christ. They are opposing the truth. And maybe some of that, I'm backing up to verse 20. Now, maybe some of that has to do with this kind of higher knowledge. I know something that you don't know so much smarter than you. I'm better studied. Oh , you just kind of down there at the regular level. I'm an elite Christian. No, verse 20. You all have been anointed by the holy one. There's a lot about anointing in our text here and that seems probably to reference spiritual gifts. You all have been anointed. Nobody has a superiority complex. If they're a real disciple, we're all working together in the kingdom. So those who are claiming this greater knowledge and who are looking down their noses, they know some things that you don't know. Oh, we really understand about Jesus. He didn't really come in the flesh. And you know the the uninformed and naive belief , that sort of thing. But we know so much better than that. No , John says that is the spirit of antichrist. No one who denies the son. Verse 23 has the father. So the standard here then is what you have heard from the beginning. That's the gospel message. Verse 24 And notice several keys in this battle. Resisting error begins with knowing the apostolic message, knowing what was preached from the beginning. And accepting the gospel means accepting and understanding the truth about Jesus's identity, all of his identity, that he is fully God and fully man. And then verse 27 ends our reading for today. The anointing that you have received. That's probably some kind of spiritual gift. There are prophets and men, women who can speak in tongues. And with those spiritual gifts, God gives them the ability to discern truth from error and they need to use those gifts. Of course, today we don't have that kind of miraculous gifting. We have the word of God that we might discern truth from error. Tomorrow we finish up chapter two, what an odd chapter division this is and move forward into chapter three. I'll see you on Thursday. It is Thursday and the weekend is inside . Today we're reading First John chapter two, verse 28 and 29, and then rolling into chapter three where we will read the first 10 verses. So it's one John 2 28 through one . John three verse 10. There's a break here from 27 to 28. And now do you see the break? Abide in him. That's the linkage. Verse 27 down to verse 28. Sometimes John, John seems to almost strike a spark. Something triggers something else. The word abide then triggers. Hey, we need to continue to abide I I think we'll see more of those kind of linkages where one thought seems to trigger another thought. So you need to abide in him so you'll not be afraid at his coming. Lots about standing fast, being assured, being comforted. Notice this tone is very reassuring to these people. If you know, don't let verse 29. If you know, don't let people put you down. You know he is righteous. You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. John really begins to work that theme of keeping the commandments the big themes in one John Jesus has come in the flesh. Love your brother. Keep the commandments. And that just runs all through our reading beginning in chapter three. And chapter three begins with one of the most beautiful expressions in all of scripture. See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are hear that reassurance again. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. This church that John writes to has gone through a division. People have been put down, people have been made fun of. You're ignorant. You don't know everything that you need to know. You don't know everything that that we know. We know so much more about Jesus and oh, you believe that? Oh , he came in the flesh thing. How? How naive of you, you simpleton John is really working hard to say you're standing right with God. You know that you're standing right with God and we know, look how many times he says no. Verse 29, you know, verse 2, 3, 2. We know verse five, you know that you've got this. Don't let false teachers move you off of what you know as we read down through this particularly verse six, no one who abides in him keeps on sinning. Some translations have something to the effect of no one who abides in Christ sins or will sin. And so there's been much conversation and discussion about what John means. Does John mean that it's impossible for a Christian to sin ? And the answer to that is of course not. John's already talked about in First John chapter one, what we do when we sin, verse nine, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. And chapter two verse one, I'm writing these things to you so that you don't sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the fathers Jesus Christ, the righteous. So John clearly knows that Christians can sin. He's just saying that sin is incompatible with the life of a Christian. And I love the ESV here. No one keeps on sinning, makes a practice of sinning . Verse eight verse nine, practice of sinning . He cannot keep on sinning. It's inconsistent with the life of the Christian. And I'm gonna revisit what I said the other day. Earlier in this week's podcast, I talked about how sometimes Christians have this attitude that sins just inevitable. It's just eaten us up. We're just, we're just terrible, terrible sinners all the time. Everybody's sin in and it's just sin , sin, sin nonstop. That won't work in first John, that won't work in the New Testament. We are not slaves to sin anymore and we need to take that more seriously. I'm afraid sometimes that, oh, we all fail many times, is opening the door to a lax attitude towards sin. If you wanna see the message of one John summed up, just get verse 10. It's evident, who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil? Talk about concrete, talk about black and white. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God or the one who doesn't love his brother. If you don't keep the commandments, you don't love your brother, you are not a real disciple. John is making the battle line sharp and clear, isn't he? Tomorrow we'll read first John chapter three, verses 11 to 24, finishing the third chapter. See you tomorrow. Welcome to Friday. Welcome to Friday. We read the rest of First John the third chapter today. First John 3 11 24 is our reading for Friday. And this just really turns up the heat. John is exercised about these false teachers who have divided the church and who have hurt people's faith and and their assurance in Jesus Christ. And they have not acted in a way that is loving. So the text begins today. We should love one another. We don't want to be like Cain . I think we get some of those sparks where one thing seems to spark another because Cain is a murderer. And so you get verse 15, whoever hates his brother is like Cain , he's a murderer. And by this we know love that he laid down his life for us. So Jesus is the opposite of Cain . He didn't take life, he gave his life. Then verse 17, you wanna get practical, you wanna get concrete. Anyone has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, closes his heart against him. God's love doesn't abide in that person. Thinking about true sermon from two Sundays ago that talked about the dangers of greed, I think that plays very well right here. We don't want to just love and word or talk verse 18. We want to have a concrete manifestation that we are the disciples of Christ, which means we live differently. Don't let somebody tell you that you can't know if you're a disciple. You can't know if you're safe . We know that we're of the truth. Verse 19. And even if our heart condemns us, even if sometimes we don't feel like we're doing all that we should or we don't feel like we're a Christian, we don't have that holy glow about us today. We're drinking our coffee and reading the Bible and it's not making us just feel like we're the most amazing disciple ever, having this amazing spiritual experience. No, even when our heart condemns us, no, God is greater than our heart. Verse 20, he knows everything. There's great confidence in God when we don't even have confidence in ourselves. I love verse 20, it's a wonderful passage about assurance. Christians ought to feel that assurance that comes because we know that we are of the truth. Verse 19. So we don't want our hearts to condemn us. Instead, we want to do what? Keep the commandments, verse 22 and continue to believe. Verse 23 in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, whoever keeps his commandments. Verse 24, abides in God. It's about commandment keeping. It's about loving your brothers. It's about affirming the truth and knowing the truth. Jesus is God in the flesh and the incarnation here, he was fully human and fully divine. That's where John is putting the battle. That's what we need to be focused on. And I say, again, seeing some cycles here where John is repeating himself for emphasis, but the key is what am I doing about this? Am I keeping the commandments? Do I have assurance? Do I know that I'm following Jesus? Am I loving my brothers? That's a great way for us to make use of today's Bible reading. Let's make sure that Bible reading is becoming Bible living. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast this week. I hope the podcast is a help to you. If it is, tell somebody about it and do leave us a reading or review. So until Monday when we'll open our Bibles together. Again, I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven and I want you to come to, I will be with you again on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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