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, October the 28th. I'm Mark and I am holding a wonderful cup of coffee in an ember coffee mug that's keeping it nice and warm. Hope you are having a great start to the week, and I hope that you're listening to the podcast as we start the week together, thinking a little bit more about yesterday and getting ready for Bible reading as we continue in the wonderful book of Revelation. Grab that coffee, get ready, get set. Let's go. Yesterday I continued the preaching theme for the year. The challenges to Christianity by taking a look at this business at Jesus is just a myth. It's all made up. Maybe it's duplicating some prior myths that had circulated before Christians just copied that the gospels aren't reliable and Jesus is a hoax. Jesus is made up. One of the things that I said yesterday, and I think this is helpful in conversation with people, is that there is testimony to Jesus outside of the gospels. I think a lot of people don't know that. And I read a little bit from TAUs and I'm gonna talk now for a moment or two about Josephus. Josephus was a Jewish historian. He was a general in the 80 67 war against Rome. He was defeated terribly at Galilee and defected over to the other side, which is a pretty impressive trick when you think about it. And he became the historian for the Roman army and for their, how they put down the rebellion in Judea, did a lot of writing about Judaism and we depend upon him in many ways to know about first century life in Palestine. And in his book The Antiquities, he says this, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it'd be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works. A teacher of such men is received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate at the suggestion of the principle, men among us had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the the first did not forsake him for he appeared to them alive again the third day as the divine prophet said , foretold these. And then thousands of other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct to this day. Now, let me just say that quotation is hotly contested. There are plenty of people who believe that was added into Josephus writings by Christians later on to give more authenticity to the stories of Jesus. However, please note Jesus here is is called a wise man that seems very, very genuine. And then the business about if it'd be lawful to call him a man and he was the Christ. Josephus doesn't often say that sort of thing, and that may be a later Christian edition on the third day he arose. That's probably more faith than Josephus seems to have. But in the end, even if that material is removed from the quotation, we have a first century Jewish historian authenticating that someone named Jesus lived in the first century, taught people, was executed by Pilate and many people believed in him. That is not inconsequential evidence and it certainly says Jesus. No , not a myth, not something that someone just made up. I hope that helps you, particularly in conversation with unbelievers and those that get very militant and hostile about this, want to challenge the gospel, say Jesus didn't exist. Just remember, there's plenty of testimony outside of scripture that would say Jesus was a real historical figure. Of course it is the scriptures that help us see Jesus is more than just a historical figure. He is the divine son of God. He is deity and he gave a revelation to John. Let's go read that In our Bible reading this week, we continue to read the letters to the seven churches of Asia. That begins in Revelation chapter two verses eight to 11 as we read the letter to the church in Smyrna. And before we do that, just a very short reading today, let me urge you to watch carefully for a couple of key ideas here. I think there's four Cs that we wanna look at as we're reading these letters. First of all, watch for conflict with outsiders. Conflict with outsiders. Gonna see that today at Smyrna. Watch for the cultural pressure to assimilate. We'll see some of that with and Jezebel, the Nicole , then watch for complacency in the faith becoming complacent. And finally most importantly, keep your eye on Christ. Keep your eye on Jesus. We need to watch the Christ and see what he says, what he is about. Let's keep our focus on Jesus. Having said that, then what do we need to know about this? Letter to Smyrna. This is a church that is poor but rich. And it may be that there's some affliction and persecution going on, harassment that has caused these people to become impoverished. That is certainly a possibility here because of the tribulation that's mentioned in verse nine. And it is interesting, there's lots of synagogues in the New Testament world and the Bible usually has nothing negative to say about the synagogue, but here it's a synagogue of Satan. There's conflict with outsiders right there. There's Jews probably in all probability who are giving the Christians a lot of grief because, because they're teaching Jesus as the Messiah. And a lot of Jews had decided by this point when Revelation is being written, they had decided Jesus is not the Messiah and they don't want that circulating. And in fact, as I've talked about before, especially in my Romans class on Wednesday night, there's a lot of tension between Jews and Christians and a lot of that resulted in misunderstandings about the Roman government, which may result in Jews being persecuted. So by this time, Jews are very actively pushing Christians away and saying, they're not part of us. They don't, they're not a subset of of Judaism, they're like the Pharisees or the Sadducees or anything like that. So you see that very, very clearly throughout the New Testament, but especially I think we're seeing that, like I said, watch for the sea of conflict here. And then there's the discussion about don't be afraid of suffering. There's gonna be 10 days of tribulation. That's probably not literal. Please be mindful here that this idea of being thrown into prison, don't, don't think about what we think of with prison and county jails and the penitentiary, places where there's an exercise yard and prisoners have rights, all the things that go with that. No prisoners , uh, particularly in city jails would live just in very cramped conditions, very squalid conditions, dark suffocating enclosure, really a tough, tough situation. Dean and I were in Israel here a while back and we got to see, I guess that's in the summer of 2023, and we got to see at Caesarea Maritima , the place where Paul was in prison and it was basically a hole in the ground with a big iron grading over it. It's just hard to imagine being placed in something like that. Particularly Christians who would be ordinary citizens. They, they weren't horrible people. They weren't used to the prison life or running from the law. And now because of this newfound faith, they're being shoved in a hole with a bunch of other terrible kind of people that that would really be a tough, tough situation. And that's why Jesus is reassuring them. Be faithful unto death. And I will give you the crown of life. Smyrna was a city that used the crown as its symbol. And so verse 10 really has power more than that crown the city used. Jesus has a crown of life for faithfulness unto death. See you tomorrow. We'll talk about Pergamum. Welcome to Tuesday and we will have a zoom call tonight. So those of you who are listening here , part of the West Side Church, get ready for zoom tonight. We'll get a chance to talk a little bit more about the church in Pergamum, which is discussed in Revelation chapter two verses 12 to 17. Our reading today, revelation two 12 to 17, the city pergamum or sometimes perga must depending upon your translation here is about 30 miles north of Smyrna. It was an extremely important city, had huge temples, a giant library had a temple to Augustus, Zeus, Athena, lots of idolatry going on here. And this is once again a place where we see conflict going on. In fact, verse 13 tells us that antipas has been martyred for the faith. What a terrible, terrible situation these brethren are in. And even despite that, maybe at a time where we would expect Jesus to be all consolation and trying to comfort this church because they have lost this faithful witness. Verse 13, still Jesus. Verse 14 brings a word of condemnation. And the problem here is Balam Balam who taught verse 14, BIC to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. This is a good place to go back and read the story of Balam . Go back to numbers chapter 25, go back and read his story. Balam is a prophet of God. He's not an Israelites, kind of an unusual situation. And the enemies of God's people, the Moabites, they come and they want him to put a curse on the Israelites . As that story develops, I believe, I believe it starts in numbers 22, Bayam is told by God not to do that, decides he's going to do that. His donkey ends up talking to him, and finally Balam decides he'd better do what God tells him to do. However, this is a great passage to make a note of in numbers 31 16. Behold, under blum's advice, he caused the people of Israel to act, treacherous league against the Lord and the incident of pr . And so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. The incident at PR is that terrible situation detailed in Numbers 25, where the people of God begin to worship the gods of the Moabites and are involved in sexual immorality with the Moabite people. Fina has makes his great appearance there. Incredible story in numbers chapter 25. It's a short reading today in Revelation. Go back and read Blum's story so that you have a background for all of that. So now we come back to Revelation, the third chapter in verse 14. What's going on there? What's going on there is cultural assimilation. Just as Baam encouraged the Israelites actually, he encouraged the Moabites to entice the Israelites with the sexual immorality that was so rampant in so much part of idle worship. So Christians are being pressured into acting like the Pagans they used to be in Pergamum and somebody in their church is saying that's gonna be okay. They have a modern day version, or maybe I should say a first century version of Balam . And you may be wondering what's the big deal with eating food sacrifice to idols? I've mentioned a couple of times in scriptures, one Corinthians eight, nine and 10, Romans the 14 chapter and into chapter 15 talks about that there is a tremendous amount of pressure to be involved in eating meat sacrificed to idols. Some of that would be when there was a festival in the city and all the city turns out and there's gonna be sacrifices to the pagan gods. And then that food was doled out or the meat that was sold in the marketplace. Often Kroger was located right next door to an idle temple because there were more sacrifices at the idle temple than the people sacrificing could, could take care of and eat all that food or, or the priests themselves could consume all of that. So, so they set up a market and they sold that meat. Sometimes in trade guild meetings, those meetings were held in banquet rooms that were in the temple itself, and there would be some discussion of the deity of the day or which deity presided over the goldsmiths or the leather crafters or whatever trade guild was meeting. So it's just a lot, there's just a lot of idolatry and eating meat that had been on an idol altar going on in the first century. So Christian struggled with that. Can I do that? We know that idols are nothing, Paul says in one Corinthians, but I I used to eat that meat. Can I eat that meat? That's an issue. Somebody's telling the church in Pergamum, we can eat that meat and participate in idolatrous practices, namely sexual immorality. And then there's a mention there of the doctrine of thetans, which we do not know about, but all of this just fits under the, under the umbrella of cultural assimilation. What a message to Christians today. We wanna overcome and receive the hidden manner . Not sure exactly what that's a reference to or the name written on a stone that no one knows. I'm not sure what that is, and we don't have to know what that is. We just know we want it because we want to be faithful instead of conforming to the world all around us. See you tonight on Zoom West Siders , everyone else. See you tomorrow. We'll talk about the church in Thara . It is Wednesday and today we read about the church that compromises the church at Thara . This is a very wealthy city and there was a lot of important manufacturing going on here. Purple dye, for example, is made in th Tyra and Jesus begins with wonderful commendation. Verse 19, there's all kinds of discussion of your work and your love and your faith and your service and your endurance. You're doing better than when you started. This seems like this is that this will be a really great church and then everything falls apart in verses 20 and 21. Once again, the problem of assimilation and conforming to the world around us pops up again. There's Jezebel. That's not a literal name is it? This is a woman who is like Jezebel from the Old Testament, two kings, chapter nine, verse 22 tells us that she was about harlotry and once again, the connection between sexual immorality and idolatry, eating meat sacrifice to idols, all of that comes up once more . Just like yesterday, what we read about the church in Pergamum, she refuses to repent. Judgment is going to come, judgment is going to come. Please notice here, faith and service and work all that in verse 19. That doesn't negate or erase the problem of impurity and sin in the church. We can't justify ourselves, oh, we're not doing what the Lord really wants us to. We're not teaching what the Lord wants us to teach. We're not behaving in a pure way. We're not keeping ourselves unfeigned by from the world, but oh, look how many missionaries we support. That'll never work. It doesn't work at thi Tyra , it can't work today. I especially love verse 24 calling out that there's part of this church that's not part of the problem. There's a part of this church that hasn't learned the deep things of Satan. That expression tells you a lot about the false teaching of the day. There are people who are saying, oh, you , you just know that shallow regular Christianity stuff, you're, you just don't, you're not as deep as I am. We saw some of that in first John , that idea of we just know so much more and we just have a deeper understanding than you. Oh , you regular Christians kind of down there with the peasants down there with the rabble, the deep things of Sat don't want to have any part of that. You wanna hold fast to the true gospel, and I love these ideas of conquering in verse 26, power over the nations of quotation from Psalm chapter two, the Believer Rules with Christ, and I think that's a, a powerful image for these people who have been kind of beat down by persecution and by Jezebel, and if you overcome, you'll get the morning star. That's Jesus Revelation, chapter 22 and verse 16. That's a full reading and lots to think about. Tomorrow we journey into Revelation, the third chapter. Welcome to Thursday, and today we read Revelation, the third chapter verses one to six. We're reading today the letter to the church in Sardis. This is the zombie church, isn't it? This is the church that has the reputation of being alive, but they're dead. This is the Church of the Living Dead and Sardis was an important commercial city. It sat at the juncture of five roads, so it was very, very wealthy. They thought a lot of themselves, there was a large temple to Artemis and a large temple to zoo , and as we read this today, there's no hint of persecution or affliction. This church seems comfortable and complacent. One writer said it's the perfect model of inoffensive Christianity. But notice verse four, Jesus knows Jesus knows what's going on in the church and he knows who's faithful and who is not faithful. There's the call again to conquer, to overcome, to make sure that you're not a complacent Christian tomorrow, the church in Philadelphia. See you on Friday. Welcome to Friday. It is Friday, and today we read Revelation chapter three verses seven to 13, the letter to the church in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is an important city full of Greek culture, very proud of itself. It was a rich agricultural area known for making wine. Lots and lots of temples there, and Jesus begins verse seven, with the holy one, the true one who has the key of David, the one who opens and no one can shut what he opens. That plays into verse eight. I've set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. Sometimes we talk about that in terms of evangelistic opportunity. There's opportunity here to bring people to Christ and the enemies of the cross aren't going to be able to shut that down, but that may mean that these people are not able to keep you out of heaven. Jesus opens the door to be eternal life. Once again, we get that synagogue of Satan thing going on here, verse nine. Once again, there's problems with Judaism and with Jews, and so Jesus is going to show the world who are truly His people, and I'm, I'm uncomfortable always and in every time trying to find some historical point, some specific event in the history of this period of time and saying, look, this is that. Here's what Jesus is talking about. Here's the fulfillment of verse 92 or verse 38. This is it. Write that's in the margin of your Bible, the battle of this or this earthquake. I I , I think we make a mistake when we do that. There's lots of things in Revelation. We're not going to be able to identify anything specifically in the history of the times. We can easily get lost in the date of the Book of Revelation as we start chasing down those events. There is something to be said here though, for the judgment that comes upon the Jewish nation as a result of the revolt in a 67, and that revolt led to Judaism across the Roman Empire, coming under suspicion. There was problems in many cities. Synagogues were burned and there was a persecution against the Jews. I wonder if maybe some of that isn't coming to play here, but again, I'm, I'm gonna try not to in every place say, oh, look right here. This is that specific time. This is that specific person. What we need to see more than that is that Jesus is going to take care of his church. Jesus will take care of his church. We just need to hold on in the coming soon verse 11. Something's going to happen for the church in Philadelphia in the short term that will help them Once again, that kind of language defeats making the book of Revelation about America's civil war, about Napoleon Bonaparte, about Adolf Hitler, or yes, about the election. We're about to have. The Book of Revelation isn't addressing that kind of thing. It's helping churches in the first century and we need to make sure that we keep its message where its message belongs. On Monday, we'll read one more message to the church, the church in Laia . That'll be the last of the seven churches of Asia that will read those messages that come to them, and we'll start what many people think of as the Book of Revelation proper. Maybe the thing to do is to go back and look again at Jesus. We've talked so much about the churches. What do we find in those salutations? The opening lines? What do we find in what Jesus says he will do? What do we find in what Jesus says he will give to his people if they overcome? Keep your eye upon Jesus. That's worth reviewing. As we then move in to Revelation, the fourth chapter next week. That concludes the podcast for the week. Then. Thanks so much for listening. I hope that you're telling other people about the podcast and that it is downloading automatically onto your device. If you talk to somebody and they're not listening to the podcast, help them get it set up so they can listen to it, and if you are not the one with the tech savvy business so that you can do that, point them to me, and I'm certainly not the tech savvy guy, but I will help them find someone who can get them set up so they can listen to the podcast each and every week. 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 see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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