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, November the 18th. I'm Mark. I'm working on some good coffee here. I have my sermon notes from yesterday, a ton of stuff spread out all around me from the book of Revelation, trying to help me make sense of our daily Bible reading, trying to help you make sense out of our daily Bible, reading, all kinds of stuff to really load this week up in the very best way. So grab your coffee or Coke Zero or tea or if you're a Mountain Dew drinker that cup of antifreeze. Grab it, get ready, get set. Let's go. Yesterday I continued the preaching theme for the year Challenges to Christianity and I talked about is Christianity, anti-women. This is a surprising development for me in many ways. Really shocked to see the amount and the ferocity of the material being dished out primarily, I guess over the internet, but through various media outlets and books that is just determined to say that God is a misogynist and Christianity is holding women down. And I think when you look at that, when you look at the totality of scripture, when you look at scriptures in context, that's just, there's just nothing that could be further from the truth. So let me add to what I said yesterday. A word, a word to us Christians. I don't guess a lot of feminists are gonna be listening to this who are determined to overthrow Christianity. This is, this is the people of God. We're reading our Bible, we went to church yesterday. We're trying to serve God and do what's right. What helps us with this challenge? I think it's important that we see women in roles other than just wife and mother. We don't just see men as husbands and dads and I need to do a better job of thinking of women as more than just wives and moms. That can be a primary role. I understand that just like for men, a primary role can be husband and dad, but women have roles in the kingdom. And yes, that includes teaching. I referenced Priscilla and Apollo in Acts 18 yesterday. That matters. My mom teaches me. Dina teaches me women who write, for example in pressing on my digital magazine, they teach me. Uh , last weekend I was at Klein Wood and they're a wonderful, wonderful dear sister in Christ, Glenda Shales , who's written so many amazing and wonderful hymns she has taught me in the hymns that she has written. So there's just many, many ways for women to do important work in the kingdom without ever getting into a pulpit or even without ever teaching a little kid's Bible class. And we need to understand that and we need to acknowledge that and we need to honor women in all the places they can be. There's just lots of things that women can do and we need to be glad for that. We need to thank God for that. And the body of Christ is made better by that. I hope that will help you as you think about that challenge even more. Turn your Bible now to the Book of Revelation. It's time to think about the Apocalypse. Monday's reading is the book of Revelation chapter nine, verses 13 to 21. We complete chapter nine and we're nearly done with these amazing trumpets. This is the sixth trumpet today. And once again, someone's going to say, when did all these things happen? When did this terrible battle and this humongous army show up? And once again, I'm going to say I don't think we're designed or intended to look for a specific event in history that would correlate with exactly the circumstances. This is just a terrible time when all kinds of horrible things are happening. And so you get giant figures of speech like an army of 200 million. I don't know of any place in human history where an army of 200 million has been marshaled, especially an army that has this kind of cavalry and all that goes on with this terrifying army. And certainly there's not been any battle or even world war where a third of mankind is killed. In fact, it may be fair to note that these are just the things that go on in the world all the time, particularly a sinful world that is not interested in coming to the prince of peace and living as he would instruct and teach us. This is what happens in that kind of world. It just gets worse. It gets more fallen all of the time. The point of this is not, hey look, this is Napoleon or this is Caesar or even this is the destruction of Jerusalem. I think the point of this is verse 20 and 21, God brought a lot of things upon the earth that ought to cause people to say, this is terrible and we can't control this and we need divine aid and assistance. But verse 20 and 21, they did not repent. They did not repent. Please notice verse 18 and 20, use the word plagues. What happened to the plagues with the plagues in Egypt? Did Pharaoh repent? No, he did not. Plagues don't bring repentance to Egypt. Plagues don't bring repentance to the world. And as one writer said, in one sense, this might be, might be viewed as astonishing. And I think that's exactly right. We would expect that people would turn to God but they don't turn to God, which sets up what happens in chapter 10 in our reading tomorrow. Monday's reading is Revelation nine 13 to 21. Welcome to Tuesday. In Tuesday's reading we will read Revelation chapter 10 verses one to 11, the entirety of Revelation 10. And once again we get another interlude. We got the sixth trumpet and now we're ready for that seventh trumpet. I mean this is it. This is gonna happen. Oh the big deal. Here it comes. Wait, wait. It kinda reminds me of any of these reality shows right before they reveal who's getting voted off or who won the whole shooting match, the host looks right at the camera and says The votes are totaled or all the ballots have been cast and we know who's gonna be the big winner. And here it comes right after these messages and the message in chapter 10 and in chapter 11 is another one of these interludes, which sometimes gets overlooked, as I said when we came to chapter seven. 'cause we're so anxious to see what's going on. But I think these interludes probably are the point. Judgment. Judgment. Lots of terrible things are happening. Interlude. The interlude is really the heart of the story. And what we're getting here is a mighty angel. This is not Jesus. And he has global power. He's dominating his message encompasses all of the earth, one foot on land, one foot on the sea, and he calls out like a lion roaring verse three. And then he says something very surprising. We're sealing up verse four, we're sealing up the thunders. This is a very common image in apocalyptic literature. There's lots of this kind of stuff floating around in New Testament times. I think the people of John's day would've been as familiar with a apocalyptic messages and literature and writing as you are familiar with the publisher's clearinghouse sweepstakes envelope that you get in the mail. You know when you open that, that you didn't really win $100 million and that it's a come on to buy magazines. You know that they would know in the same way what this is about and how this is gonna work. And a big piece of that lots of times is I'm unsealing and revealing some things to you. This is what God told me. I was taking on a vision, a journey to heaven, and I saw this cool stuff and I'm telling you about it. But a part of that oftentimes would be I, I wasn't allowed to tell you everything I saw. I'm not allowed to say everything. Some of it is sealed up and that kind of pushes those ideas way into the future. But here's what you need to know right now. This is what's happening right now. Pay attention to this right now. This is being unsealed. So there's sealing and unsealing in the book of Daniel. There's sealing and unsealing here in Revelation the 10th chapter. So the trumpet's gonna be sound. Verse seven. There's no more delay. The mystery of God is gonna be fulfilled. That could be the gospel, that could be especially I think about Paul , he talks about the mystery of of how God is reconciling Jew and Gentile in Jesus Christ at Ephesians chapter three. This could be the rest of the book of Revelation, the continued plans of God, what's going on? I think what's important here is to see that God doesn't want to destroy. I think in the book of Revelation we have a strong image of God as as really laying down the judgment, really hitting the SM button, just banging , bang , bang, bang , bang , bang , bang . But again, look at the end of chapter nine, God wants people to repent. And so here the image is, the scroll is given here and the scroll is given to John to be eaten just like Ezekiel was given a scroll to be eaten. Ezekiel chapter two, Ezekiel chapter three. And it is sweet and it is bitter. It is sweet because the plan of God is to protect his people. But it is bitter because it brings judgment. And as someone who preaches the gospel, I have some appreciation for that. It's amazing to preach the gospel and to look out in the audience and see in your eyes the assurance and hope that the gospel gives to those of us who have pledged ourselves to Christ, who are standing with the lamb and who know heaven awaits us. But it is bitter to look in the eyes of those who have not given themselves to Christ, have not become followers, disciples of Jesus, have not been baptized into Jesus. And and to see hard eyes, to see people turning away from the gospel. I I'm not doing that, I don't wanna do that. I don't believe that. That's a bitter feeling. That's a bitter feeling. So John here is equipped to preach prophesy. Verse 11 about many peoples remember prophesying not necessarily about the future, prophesying is speaking God's authoritative word in the place that it's needed to the people that's needed. And he's gonna bring that message and part of that message is gonna be unpacked or explained a little further in chapter 11 as this interlude goes on. That is our reading then for Tuesday, revelation chapter 10 verses one to 11 West siders . See you tonight in Zoom. We can talk a lot more about the little scroll, the angel eat in a book, all the things that go on. I'll see you in the zoom Bible study tonight. For the rest of you tomorrow we're in chapter 11, see you then. It is Wednesday and today we read Revelation 11, one to 14 and you may need an extra cup of coffee today. Lemme get some, get a little coffee there. This is a big chapter and it's just full of questions. I think this is a good place to test our patience and our perseverance in the book of Revelation. I think there's just a number of details here that we wish we could nail down better. And maybe the thing to say about that is we ought to stop wishing. If the text wants us to know precisely what something is, then it just tells us. And we've seen that a number of times. Who are these people? John says in Revelation, the seventh chapter , and he is told these are the people who have washed their robes and made them whiten the blood of lamb that come out of this great time of tribulation. Who's the seven spirits? What is that? What is that all about? That's the seven spirits of God. If we need to know, we get told somehow there's just a a compulsion to make more out of these details rather than just let this giant scene settle on us and see what's happening. Having said that, maybe even this giant scene is a little bit difficult to know exactly where we're going with all of that. It begins with the measuring of the temple and the altar and those who worship there. And of course we wanna know what are we measuring? Are we measuring the literal temple in Jerusalem? We measuring some kind of figurative temple. Is this representative of the church? The church is the temple of God today. This is a figure that comes out of Zechariah . The second chapter, what are we looking at here? It seems like there is some protection here. There is the trampoline for 42 months by the Gentiles for the people who are outside. But God is protecting those who are inside in 42 months or time, time and a half a time. That's an extremely common symbol in the Old Testament. Daniel uses that a lot to just represent a limited period of affliction. It doesn't go on forever. And maybe there's a play to be made there off seven. Seven is completion the perfect number? It's not gonna be complete adversity, not gonna be a complete time of persecution where everything comes to an endo. It's half of that . It's not complete. It falls short of that. And I used to see this as being very much about the destruction of Jerusalem in 67 to 70 AD when the Romans came and burned the city and burned down the temple. I'm not as convinced of that. There's just always gonna be places where the details just don't match and you can't really line things up no matter what Josephus says with everything that happened in that war. But what is going on, verse three is that the two witnesses are testifying during this time of adversity. They are preaching the gospel. Probably the, the witnesses represent the preaching of the gospel, the Christian community. Some see this as the Old Testament, the law and the prophets . And that may be in some ways valid. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands . That's again out of Zacharia that comes outta Zacharia , the fourth chapter. But I don't think that's really the Old Testament as much as it is the preaching of the gospel. Where are we going with this? We're trying to get to repentance. That's what's happening. That's what God wants. That's what God is working for. So this is God's people I would expect here. And I don't think there's any really fire breathing preachers or prophets among the people of God , uh, that would, Hey, I'd pay 50 cents to go to that rodeo, wouldn't you? But I remember Jeremiah said, your word is like a fire in my mouth in Jeremiah the fifth chapter. So they preach the word of God and does that bring repentance answer? No, it does not. Instead this beast, verse seven, it's an anonymous beast that don't have any other details about this. All we know is that this is the bottomless pi beast. He shows up and he just kills them. And the world rejoices. Think again about being in the seven churches of Asia. We're trying to preach the gospel. We're trying to help people know God, what's happening? We're being persecuted. And when we're being persecuted, people clap. People applaud that people are thrilled that this weird Christian cult thing, this group that follows this Nazarene, we're we're thrilled that they're being put down, that they're being oppressed and that's what's happening here. But then God resurrects them, they are resurrected and they are affiliated here. Or those who attack them are affiliated with some of the worst places in history. Sodom verse eight in Egypt and the place where our Lord is crucified. I've seen elaborate arguments for that being Rome. As people try to make this lineup with the destruction of the Roman Empire, you are never gonna get there. The city where our Lord is crucified is Jerusalem. Full stop. These are just terrible places that have opposed God. God's people are speaking and trying to bring people to God. They are killed and God raises them. They are victorious. Spiritual victory. Stand with the lamb and you'll be okay. And now, in a surprising sort of way, look what happens in verse 13, there's this earthquake and 7,000 people are killed. Remember in Elijah's day, 7,000 people stand for the Lord, but the rest are terrified and give glory to the God of heaven. Oh some people as a result of the preaching of the gospel, the spiritual victory of God's people. Some people do repent. We had not seen that before. And so now we're ready for the seventh trumpet. That will be tomorrow's reading. Today's reading Wednesday is Revelation 11, one to 14. It is Thursday. For Thursday. Our reading is Revelation 11, 15 to 19. And this may be, this may be one of my favorite readings in the entire book of Revelation. I think in so many ways this is the message of the book of Revelation in miniature. This is the summary. And once again, we get a little interlude, we get a little pause. Seventh angel blows his trumpet, okay, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. And what does happen is the statement is made. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord in his Christ. He shall reign forever and ever. That's the message of the book of Revelation, isn't it? Caesar doesn't reign. Your local governor doesn't reign the local uh, puppet king like Herod. He's , he's just a junior king in the Roman system. He's not in charge. You know who's in charge? God is in charge. And then 17 and 18 help us see the power of God and who God is and what he has done. You have taken your great power and begun to reign the nation's rage. Your wrath has come to says Psalm two, God rules, God reigns and then the temple is opened. The temple is the place where you would go to have fellowship with God to sprinkle the blood on the Ark of the Covenant. Remember, this can't be the literal temple that maybe has been destroyed by the time the Book of Revelation has been written or is soon to be destroyed depending upon the timing of this book. And the arc of the covenant is seen verse 19 in that temple and depe , it doesn't matter whether you want this to be in 65 and the temple's gonna be destroyed in the next five years, or you want this to be in 95 and the temple was destroyed back in 80 70, there was no arc of the covenant in the Jerusalem temple in Jesus' day. That arc was lost way back when, a long time ago in the Old Testament, no arc, but this is God's temple in heaven and the arc is there. People can have fellowship with God. People can go in and know God and be blessed by God and be forgiven by God. It's an amazing statement of who God is and that if you stand with the lamb, how many times have I said this? Stand with the lamb. You're gonna win. This is so encouraging, especially because of what we hear at the end of verse 19. There's flashes of lightning rumblings and peels of thunder and there's an earthquake and there's heavy hail. There's judgment still brewing for those who don't stand with the lamb. And Revelation 12 begins to help us see some of that. Our reading for Thursday is Revelation 11 verses 15 to 19. It is Friday. It is Friday made to the end of the week, didn't you? Today's reading is Revelation 12, one to six and I've got good news and bad news and then really bad news. How about this? The good news is I think if you've been wanting something to be a little clearer in the book of Revelation, this is your reading. I don't think this is that hard to identify all of the major characters. And in fact, we get a wonderful, this is that kind of thing coming here so we know exactly who the characters are that we're dealing with, or at least one of the main characters. So that's good news. This is not going to be hard to decipher. The bad news is the question comes, how does this fit with what we just read? How does chapter 12 fit into the structure of the book of Revelation? And that's hard to say. It does seem to be a new series of visions and what we read yesterday in chapter 11, doesn't that feel like that kind of brought things to a close? God wins, God's people can come and have fellowship and now we're starting a new series, a new cycle of visions that will happen in apocalyptic literature out the stuff that's written outside of the Bible. It'll circle back around and give you the same vision or the same ideas through a different vision, a different perspective. And so this may begin a new series of ideas, a new series of visions to show and reinforce what we've already seen. I do think one of the hardest things to do, the book of Revelation is to get all that structure. When are we seeing the same thing now for the second time? And when is the storyline being advanced? At this moment, as I'm reading in the book of Revelation with you, it just seems like chapter 11 brought things to a conclusion to, to a culmination. And now revelation chapter 12 is starting over. We're gonna see the same thing battle between the lamb and this time it's the great red dragon. We're gonna see that same idea of standing with the lamb repeated once more. So that's where I am right now. But the really bad news is I had to microwave my coffee so that it would be at least lukewarm. Thank you, Leia . And microwave coffee is the worst and I can't believe I did that and it doesn't taste good. So I'm not really in the best mood when I'm looking at this. Anyway, how about that grumpiness on Friday morning, that's probably completely inappropriate. So here we go. We've got this great sign, a woman, and she is about to give birth, and that woman is probably representing the faithful remnant of Israel, the people of God through whom God work the promises of Abraham and you all nation shall be blessed and she gives birth, and who does she give birth to? She gives birth to Jesus. Verse five, A male child to rule the nations with the wrt of iron. That's straight outta Psalm two. I don't think there's any question. That is Jesus. And what happens here? Verse four, bad news, a dragon shows up in the delivery room. That is never a good idea. I have some material from William Stewart who we support in Canada, and he says it's never a good thing when a dragon shows up in the delivery room. I think that he is exactly right. So the dragon, who we will find out in verse nine is absolutely the devil in Satan. Remember when I've said, I've said this several times, when Revelation wants you to know precise identifications, it'll stop off and say, Hey, this is that. This is who that is. Look at his name tag. You see the name tag on the red dragon? It says Satan. That's who the red dragon is. You can't miss it. So Satan comes and tries to devour the child. I think that's a pretty clear reference to Herod killing the babies in Bethlehem. And so the child is preserved and the woman flees to the wilderness. Verse six, the people of God are taken out for a period of time. 1,260. What's 1,260? Well, we saw that that yesterday, 1,260 in chapter 11. That's in chapter 11, verse two, chapter 11, verse three, chapter 11, verse nine to 11. We've seen this before. It's an indefinite period of time of adversity and trial. And so the people of God are placed in safety. The wilderness is a place of safety that's been used a lot in the Old Testament. Moses goes to the wilderness when he's being pursued by Pharaoh. David goes to the wilderness when he's being pursued by King Saul. So Mary and Joseph, the people of God. Maybe there's a a little wilderness there, a little Egypt thing there that they are taken and placed in safety so the devil can't get to them. Think about how awful it would've been if the Messiah had been murdered in the manger and it's just unthinkable. The power of God will not allow that to happen yet. Verse six leaves us on the edge of our seats. What is this great red dragon gonna do? What's gonna happen next? What's gonna happen with this child? We have all these questions and so we're just pushing forward. We wanna know what's going on. The battle between God and Satan has really heated up here and the characters are being identified very specifically. What will happen next, what will happen next is we'll be reading about that on Monday, and I will see you on Monday as we continue to journey in the Book of Revelation. I do thank you very much for listening to the podcast. I hope it is a help to you and I hope that you're sharing it with others. So until Monday, when we will open our Bibles together again to the Book of Revelation. Talk a little bit about the preaching Sunday at West Side and all the good things that God is doing through His people at West Side . Until Monday. I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven and I want you to come to I'll see you on Monday with with a cup of coffee.

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