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 21st. I had my Bible open, I've got my Bible reading schedule here. A great cup of coffee going. I'm a very happy person because I'm home from the meeting in South Carolina. I was with the church in Taylor's. Yes, that's Taylor's with an S, Taylor's, South Carolina Friday, Saturday, Sunday gospel meeting, but I'm home now and I am ready to talk with you about about daily Bible reading. Can't talk with you about the sermon yesterday 'cause I didn't preach at West Side yesterday of course. So let's get straight to it. Get that coffee, get ready, get set. Let's go. For Monday's reading, we are going to read the first part of Third John, breaking third John into two pieces. Third John chapter one verses one to eight, and then tomorrow we'll complete third John, this is not a standard Christian letter. In its approach, it lacks some of the things that we expect in a Christian letter, some of the grace and peace to you and some of those kinds of things. It much more closely conforms to New Testament. Time letter writing feels more like a secular letter than it does a standard Christian kind of letter. There are six references to the truth here and that helps you see right away where John is going with this. This is probably written pretty late, 75, 80, somewhere around in there, maybe as late as 90 ad . We're coming to the close of the New Testament era and we're starting to see more and more controversy as congregations and as teachers are departing from the truth. This is very much about a number of individuals. Unfortunately I can't tell you a lot about those individuals. It begins with verse one, the beloved Gaas . We don't know who that gaas is. There's a gaas in Corinth that Paul baptized in one Corinthians chapter one. There's a gaas in Macedonia. He's mentioned in Acts chapter 19. We just don't know who this guy is except that he is a genuine Christian and he does seem to have some wealth. Notice he's carrying out Christian hospitality as he should. That's verse three. The brothers came to you. See he loves the brothers. That's one of the big emphasis emphases in uh , all of the writing that John is doing in these epistles, loving the brothers. He's taking care of them. Drop down to verse six, who testified to your love before the church? He supplied them. He made provision for them. He is helping those who are teaching the truth. Lemme step back into verse four. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. That's such a great passage. That is such a great passage and I want parents to underline that passage and I want you to know, as someone who has grown children, you just cannot imagine how much verse four will mean to you. When your kids are outta your house, they're really outta your control. Maybe they're living in another state and they're doing what's right. It means so much. There is no greater joy and that ought to slant how you raise those kiddos. Verse four does not say, I have no greater joy than here that my kids made the select team or that they got a scholarship or that they have been promoted to full partner in the none of that is in verse John , in third John verse four, what's in verse four is children who are serving God and those may be disciples and John May be referencing here children as in children of the faith. It may be that he's talking about his literal children. I don't think it matters either way. It works. We want our children to walk in the truth and particularly notice verse eight. Therefore, we ought to support people like these that we may be fellow workers for the truth. Preachers should be supported of course. I'm thankful for passages like that and so thankful for your support that gives me the opportunity to study and to prepare and to preach and to teach and to make podcasts, but I want you to notice as well, you can be a partaker in the truth. One writer said you can buy shares in God's company. You can be a partner with God and with preachers of the truth. Think about that. I'm buying stock in the kingdom of God. That stock only goes one way, it just goes up. It just goes up. Be a fellow partaker, be a worker, a fellow worker, and a partner in the cause of truth. That's such a beautiful and powerful idea. Tomorrow we read about some bad things happening where Gaas is and John will address that as we complete. Third John, see you on Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday. Looking forward already to tonight's zoom call as we continue to think about. Third John, let's read in third John. Our reading today for Tuesday is third . Third John. Wow . Need a little coffee here, don't you ? Here we go. A little coffee to make things better. Third John chapter one verses nine to 15. Of course, chapter one. There's only one chapter in third John, and so here we meet trouble that's going on where Gaas is verse nine, that trouble comes in the person of d atrophies, he loves to put himself first. He doesn't acknowledge apostolic authority. He talks wicked nonsense about the apostles in verse 10, and especially he doesn't welcome the brothers. Notice that Gaas has been in yesterday's reading, commended for welcoming the brothers, loving the brothers. That's such a big deal in first , second , and third. John Demetrius, I'm sorry, di Atrophies doesn't do that. Instead he pushes himself to the front. Maybe is he trying to be an apostle? Is he trying to be the lead elder? We're just gonna have one elder here and it's gonna be me. The pastoral system that is so firmly in place in American religion today is no part of the New Testament. Maybe he's trying to be the forerunner of that. I wonder, I wonder as the apostles pass away are martyred for their faith. If someone's trying to assert himself as being an apostle and continuing on what the apostles do. Apostolic succession, we might see some of that in our reading and revelation as we, as we look at some of the things that are said to the seven churches there, but there's a problem with D Atrophies, but instead Demetrius verse 12, he is the stark contrast to the terrible things that D atrophies is doing and that negative, wow , the letter just really takes a harsh turn when John is dealing with di atrophies now becomes quite warm as Demetrius is being commended. I'd like to write to you more, he says in verse 13, because I have more to write but, but writing's not the best way to handle this. I want to come and see you. We'll deal with this face to face . Maybe something to be said there about. Not everything is best suited to be handled by a text message or an email. Sometimes we need to go see somebody and look 'em in the eye, help 'em see that we really care about their soul. That concludes third John. Tomorrow we begin what may be the most challenging reading for the year. We turn to the book of Revelation. I'll see you on Wednesday actually, Westsiders, I'll see you tonight. We'll talk about third John and I'll have some news for you from North Carolina and South Carolina. Having been to Taylor, South Carolina this weekend can tell you a little bit more about how the brethren there are handling all the cleanup and the problems that Hurricane Helene brought to them. See you on Zoom tonight, other podcast listeners, I'll see you on Wednesday. It is Wednesday. It is Wednesday hump day and today we start the amazing book of Revelation. Let me say a couple of introductory things as we get underway with this incredible book. First and foremost, please notice it doesn't have an S on the end of it. It's not the revelations, it is revelation, and I teach kids that in Bible drill and they always gimme a grin when some adult is saying revelations with a plural s on the end of it because it's not, it's not plural. Maybe more importantly than that is how we handle this book and what we do with its amazing signs, symbols, and visions, and I will do some preaching on this when we get to chapter four. I don't want to do a bunch of introductory things about how to handle this kind of literature and then we dive in and it's really a couple of chapters of more like the epistle sort of stuff than maybe what we expected. In all the things you've heard about revelation, heaven , monsters and craziness going on, so I'll, I'll, I'll say some of that for the fourth chapter as we begin the major apocalyptic visionary, part of the book of Revelation. The thing to say here is chapter one verse one. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. This book is about Jesus from start to finish. It begins that way in chapter one and verse one, and it ends that way in chapter 22 and verse 21. We need to keep our eye on Jesus. In fact, there's 10 references to Jesus in chapter one along with an amazing description of Jesus in chapter one. I would urge you as we're going along, just start jotting down all the descriptions of Jesus like in verse five. He is the faithful witness. He's the firstborn of the dead. He's the ruler of the kings on earth. Just write down all the descriptions of Jesus. You'll be brought closer to Jesus as a result of knowing Jesus better through the Book of Revelation and so many of the problems that people have with the Book of Revelation would come to an abrupt stop if they just keep their eye on Jesus. Yes, this is a dramatic book and a lot of dramatic things will happen in this book, but before those things occur, before the curtain opens, a solitary figure walks out and stands at the center of the stage. The spotlight hits him and it is Jesus Lord of lords, king of kings, the mighty and powerful awesome, Jesus, the Christ. That's who these first century Christians needed to see. That's who we need to see as well. Having said that and said, I'm not gonna do a bunch of introductory stuff, I would say this, I think maybe these first couple of chapters are in some ways the most important chapters in the book because they tie the visions down to earth. They make the visions real, real and important to specific people in a specific place in time. That's these seven churches of Asia. Now, there are other churches in Asia, and I can't tell you why it's these seven that are addressed and not other churches that lived in were in that particular area during this particular period of time. There are other congregations we know about and they are not addressed here. Seven is a number that symbolizes perfection and completeness. Maybe in some ways this is for all of the churches. There's a lot about that that we just don't know, and I'm afraid if we get involved in lots of speculation, we're just gonna miss the point. The point here is that Jesus has something to say to these brethren at this time in these congregations, and it was made known to his servant John. He bears witness to the word of God, and this is gonna be a blessing to people who read aloud. The words of this prophecy. Prophecy here is going to be like in the Old Testament, speaking for God, telling God's verdict, saying what God wants to have heard by his people. Prophecy is not really in the Bible. It's not nearly so much about future telling. In fact, in chapter two in verse 20, there's a woman there and she's involved in all kinds of false prophecy. She's a PROEs , but her problem is not that she forecast the future and got it wrong. She said, oh, you know, I'll tell you who's gonna win the World Series this year, the San Diego Padres , and then of course the potter's got eliminated in the no, no, she's not forecasting the future incorrectly. She's leading God's people to do wrong and to be involved in sexual immorality. So prophecy here is inspired preaching for God and notice that if you keep this keep here means what it really has the idea of of doing what you're told and especially repenting when you're not doing what you're told, you need to keep this because the time is near. I'll say some more about this when we get to chapter four, but this pushing revelation 2000 years into the future so that it's all about us and it's about what's happening in Gaza and Hezbollah and it's about the Soviet Union and the fall of the wall of Berlin or Napoleon Bonaparte or whoever else you want to just pick out out of world history because that makes the book interesting to us and makes it about us. That's a complete fail. Don't do that. Don't want to do that because the time is near. This book has to have power and meaning to the brethren who first heard it read in their churches. So John is writing verse four to these seven churches and he is writing about Jesus the Christ, Jesus, the one who loves us, verse five, who freed us from our sins by his blood and made us to be a kingdom and priest. Now in so many ways, that's a reference to Exodus 19 and verse six. Exodus, by the way, is all over the book of Revelation. It's a similar image that's used in one Peter chapter two and verse five and one Peter two in verse nine. Kingdom of priests may be a better description than kings and priest, but the idea here is that we are in God's kingdom and we are part of the kingdom of God, and so this message needs to be heard. You need to know this because verse seven, he's coming, he is coming, and of course immediately people start thinking about the coming, the second coming of Christ, but I don't think that's in view here, particularly because of what we just saw in verse three. The time is near and well, it's been 2000 years since this was written, so that clearly is not talking about the second coming, the coming capital T , capital C , I think this is about a coming in judgment. There's similar language used in the Old Testament, old Testament language and metaphors and figures are just used so heavily in the Book of Revelation. One of the reasons people don't understand this book is 'cause they've not read Isaiah, they've not read Ezekiel, they've not read Daniel, but like Isaiah 19 verse one says, I'm coming in the clouds and that's not the second coming. That's a coming in judgment on Egypt. Jeremiah chapter four uses that language coming in judgment on Jerusalem and then of course in Matthew 24, Luke chapter 21, that language is heavily used to describe a coming in judgment on the city of Jerusalem for crucifying the Messiah that coming comes to pass in a D 70. So this isn't the second coming. This is coming in judgment and there's lots of judgment in the book of Revelation. I am then verse eight, the alpha and the Omega. Anybody wants to say Jesus is not divine, they just need to read the opening to the book of Revelation. Jesus is God, he will be worshiped as God. We'll see that in chapter four and chapter five and the book starts, keep your eye on Jesus. He is divine. More of chapter one on Thursday. See you then. It is Thursday and our reading today is Revelation one, nine to 20 that begins by telling us where John is. He's on the island of Patmos , which is close to Ephesus, but obviously is an island. He is there because of persecution and he was in the spirit, the idea of being caught up by God, being given a vision, seeing some things that you would not ordinarily see, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, right , so here is the voice of Jesus and John turns and he sees this amazing vision of Jesus standing among the lampstands . The lamp stands are the seven churches and standing there is one like a son of man. That's a straight up reference to Daniel chapter seven. In fact, you probably ought to go read Daniel chapter seven, particularly Daniel seven in verse 12. This figure looks so much like the Daniel seven figure identified there as the son of man, the ancient of days, and so John sees that fused into one figure, into Jesus the Christ, and of course this is such a powerful image of who Jesus is, but Jesus says, verse 17, fear not, don't be afraid I died. Verse 18, I'm alive forevermore have the keys of death and Hades are you keeping that list of the descriptions of Jesus. He's the one who holds the keys of death and Hades and he's dictating what's gonna be said in what's gonna be written in the book of Revelation. It's not the revelation of John is it? It's the revelation of Jesus the Christ. So write these things. The seven golden lamp stands, those are the churches, and the seven stars are the angels of those churches. What are those angels? I think it would be a little odd for John to be writing to heavenly beings and yes, angels is used as angel angels throughout the rest of the book of Revelation, but the word just means messenger and I think these are the messengers, maybe the ones that will be reading this aloud in the assembly in these seven churches and I think this is probably human messengers and tomorrow we'll start with that first message, the message to the church at Ephesus. I'll see you on Friday. Welcome to Friday, welcome to Friday, and today we read Revelation, the second chapter verses one to seven, the message to the church at Ephesus. These letters are, these messages to these churches all follow a very similar kind of pattern. Usually there's a salutation, there's a commendation, there's a condemnation, and then there's some kind of warning and exhortation followed finally by a promise. Usually that's about conquering and overcoming, which that military language says an awful lot about the battle that's going on. Book of Revelation, really about the battle between good and evil. That begins then with the church at Ephesus. Remember, Ephesus is an enormously important city in the New Testament world. It's the location of the temple of Diana , which we read about in Acts chapter 19. That was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. That temple was enormous, was the center of banking, center of tourism. People came to see that temple, very important city, and here's the church in that important city. You get some of the description of Jesus right out of what we just read in chapter one, and then there's some commendation. Your labor and your patience. You can't bear those who are evil. You're testing false apostles. That's important, isn't it? As, as the apostles pass away, talked about this earlier, seems like some people are trying to push forward and say, I'm still an apostle. Alright , apostolic succession, I can be an apostle. Nope , nope . First John four verse one, you need to try the spirits. Don't believe everybody, you haven't become weary at Ephesus and you hate the deeds of the nicolaitans. Well, who are thetans? Mark answer don't know, and that's gonna be the same answer when you have the same question in chapter two in verse 15, we don't know who the nicolaitans are. They seem to be a group encouraging some kind of accommodation to the culture. Maybe they're saying, Christians don't have to be so pure, don't have to be holy, don't have to to stand apart from, for example, idol worship, but we really do not know. Then there is this terrible note of condemnation. Verse four, you've left your first love. That's tough. That's just tough. Maybe it says that when we get into the fight with error and we're opposing false doctrine and false teachers sometimes, sometimes we lose that original zeal and fervor for Jesus the Christ. We can get so centered on the battle against evil. We can forget what we are for. We are for Jesus, and then there's that counsel in verse five to remember and to repent. Notice what happens to a church that that doesn't repent. You can end up losing your candlestick and then there's the final word there, the promising in verse seven. If you'll overcome, if you'll conquer, I'll grant to eat of the tree of life. Again, a reference there from the Old Testament to the Book of Genesis. What a great start. What a powerful start. All of us need to ask ourselves if , am I part of a church-like Ephesus? What am I doing to remember my first love? Am I standing against error, but have I lost what I need to put first in my life? It's a tough battle. That's a difficult balance to maintain the church that Ephesus needs to work on that or they'll lose their lampstand, lose their candlestick. Verse five, much to think about, much to pray about. Work on those questions on the back of your reading schedule and let's continue on Monday to think about these messages to the churches, the seven churches of Asia. That then concludes the podcast for the week. It's been a busy week traveling, going here and there and doing all kinds of things, but it is exciting, isn't it, to read in the book of Revelation. I'm gonna continue to work along with you and try to help you with the podcast to make sense of some of these difficult things so that we can get the main message of the book and that main message is going to be Jesus the Christ. Wanna keep our eye on Jesus, hope that you'll share the podcast with other folks. Tell them about it. Make sure that you're getting it automatically on your device. If you have troubles with that, come and see me and I'll get you connected with someone at West Side , whatever device, iPhone, Android, Commodore 64, whatever it is that you're using to listen to the podcast, we'll make sure it's all working just fine for you. I do appreciate you listening to the podcast very much. Lots of words of commendation. Lots of people say it's a help to them and I just appreciate you very much. Look forward next week when we open our Bibles together again over a cup of coffee. I look forward to reading and studying and thinking through our daily Bible reading with you . I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven and I want you to come too . I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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