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, December the 23rd. I'm Mark. I've got a cup of coffee. I've got my Bible open to the book of Revelation, and I'm gonna try to keep it short and sweet. There's an awful lot happening this week. All kinds of things going on. Of course, with the Christmas holiday. We want to keep up with our spiritual disciplines. We want to keep in our Bible reading. This is great Bible reading. I'm not sure that there's a lot here that you're not gonna understand or that I need to smooth out or try to work with here. This is wonderful material. It's straightforward material. So I'll try to keep these episodes every day's chapter very short. We'll get to the point and we'll just enjoy our Bible reading in the middle of a time when there's a whole lot of other things that are going on. Of course, I'm not gonna talk about the preaching yesterday at West Side because, because I was not at West Side yesterday, Dean and I were in Conway. We're celebrating Christmas with Sarah and Garrett and Jane and our granddaughter to come in January. So lots of good family time. We actually are home by the time you're listening to this that came home yesterday. So we are home. But no, no notes on the sermon yesterday. I'm sure everything at West Side was wonderful, but no notes on the sermon. We just need to get our coffee. We need to get ready. We need to get set. And yep , we just need to go. Let's go. Let's get ready to think about the book of Revelation. So it is Monday and today our reading is Revelation 21, 15 to 27. This is the amazing continued description of the city of God, the new Jerusalem, it's heaven, the place where we will go and live with God for all time. One of my favorite scholars who deals so well with the book of Revelation is helped me so much, a fellow named Kester . He notes here that John really has written a book that could be called A Tale of Two Cities. It's the Tale of Babylon and the Tale of the New Jerusalem. And the new Jerusalem is where we want to be. New Jerusalem is the winner because, because it's God's city. And what we note here then is that the city lies Foursquare, and it's just huge. He measures it out. Verse 16, 1200 stadia to be roughly 1500 miles. Clearly this is not a a literal city. It would be gigantic. It would take up most the half of the United States and stretch 1500 miles out into space. That is not a literal description. Nobody in heaven will be walking around with a tape measure and say, oh , I look at this 11,998 Stadia . I thought it was supposed to be 12. No, no, no. That's not how, this is. What's important is that the city is a square. It's a perfect cube, which reminds us, of course, of the holy of Holies, the place where only the high priest could go once a year to commune with God and to sprinkle the blood, to make atonement and propitiation for the sins of the people instead of the sanctuary being the place where only one person can go. All of us are there. We live there in the presence of God. And what is notable about that, verse 22, is that there is no temple that would have just shocked the hearers in the first century because every city had a temple or many temples. Temples are a huge part, a big landmark in ancient cities. But there is no temple. The whole city is the temple. We are with God. And of course, someone will ask you about the kings of the Earth, verse 24 and and , and the healing of the nations in our reading in chapter 22. But, but John isn't presenting a timeline of events here and, and we can sequence things out. He's just saying that God is doing everything that he can to bring salvation to everyone and, and I think the kings of the earth bringing their glory into it, its gates will never shut by day. Notice here the idea of God promising salvation to everyone , but nothing unclean. Verse 27 will ever enter into it. This is a perfect place and there will be no sin there of any kind as far as the precious gems that are described, Jasper Sapphire. All of that is to say it's just an incredible city. The last time we saw the people of the Lamb was in chapter 19, and they are in fine linen in chapter 19, verse eight, the righteous deeds of the saints. But when you actually see where the people of God are and and where they're going to live, it's far better than we could have imagined. It's maybe it's kinda like the Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City. Have you seen the movies and seen how it glistens and it's just breathtaking. It's greater than even that which leads us to tomorrow's reading in chapter 22, where this continues to be described. But Monday's reading for us, revelation 21, 15 to 27, it's Tuesday. It is Tuesday. And I hope that you're not running around crazily trying to do your last minute shopping and get everything in place. But it is . Yeah, it , it's the holiday season and Christmas is on, but we still wanna stay with our Bible reading. So Revelation chapter 22 is our reading for Tuesday, revelation 22, 1 to five. And here we see some of the best things about heaven, the river of the water of life. Think about Jesus and his discussion in John four with a woman about eternal life coming from. If you drink from this water that I give you, Jesus says, it'll flow from within you. He can bring eternal life. You'll never thirst again. And then of course we see the tree of life. Verse two, we're back to the garden of Eden , back to fellowship with God. And there's no sin here. The throne of God and the lamb is there. Servants are serving him, worshiping him. They see his face. They see his face. That's what we want. That's what we want. And we reign there forever and ever . Notice again. Verse five, the emphasis in revelation is not just that God wins the in the emphasis is you win, I win. We reign forever with Christ in heaven. What a joyous vision. That is our reading for Tuesday. Revelation 22, 1 to five. Welcome to Wednesday. Today's reading is Revelation chapter 22 verses six to 11. Again, not a long reading and not a difficult reading at all, but the main themes of Revelation being summarized again, blessed . It is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Verse seven, I am coming soon. These things must soon take place. This book is not about events in 1948 or in 2024. This book is about the things that would affect the lives of the people in the seven churches of Asia. And then of course the thousand years here in, in chapter 20, project further and forward into eternity. You would talked about all of that. But the main emphasis, verse 10, is don't seal up the words of this prophecy because the time is near. And in fact, Jesus goes on to say, I am coming soon in verse 12. That's a coming in judgment. That's a coming to save those and deliver those who are standing with the lamb. Notice the major emphasis, worship God. Verse nine, true prophecy. Verse seven talks about words of prophecy. Remember, prophecy is not just telling the future in the main prophecy is speaking for God. And true prophecy brings people to God so that they worship God, not the beast, worship God, not the beast. And then there's all this discussion about things that are outside that are evil. The sorcerers, the sexually immorals, that that's Babylon. That's all the ways of the beast. That's all the ways of the Red dragon. Don't be part of that. Wash your robes so that you can have a right to the Tree of life. Verse 14, stand with the Lamb. That's our reading for Wednesday. Revelation 22, 6, 2 11. It's Thursday. And our reading today is Revelation 22, 12 to 21. I think I drifted into some of this material yesterday. It's just very hard to stop the readings here in Revelation. You're just pulled forward by these wonderful images and the wonderful idea of being with the Lamb and being with God. All that goes with serving the Lord. Behold, I'm coming soon, verse 12, and I'm the Alpha and the Omega. You just feel this book coming full circle back to where we start. I am the root and descendant of David, verse 16, right outta two Samuel seven, the promise to David, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. In verse 17, the spirit of the bride say, come , let anyone who's thirsty come. I think I've not paid enough attention to how evangelistic the book of Revelation is, how much it's about repenting turning back to God. Come stand with the lamb. God does not want to destroy. Sometimes that imagery of Jesus and the devil gets in a fight, and Jesus whips the devil. Sometimes that sounds like Jesus just wants to beat up the devil and just smash him down. And all the people who stand with the devil, they're all just gonna get, no, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus wants everyone to come and be safe . That's why it says verse 18. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. And if anyone, if, if you take away, if you warp or twist the words of the prophecy of this book, verse 19, then you're in real trouble. Come stand with the land. Judgment is coming soon. Verse 20. And what we need is the grace of Jesus in some ways. In some ways, it's hard to to end the Book of Revelation, isn't it? It's such a beautiful and powerful book. I thank you so much for reading it with me this year. I , I don't think I've had nearly the appreciation for the book of Revelation that I needed and particularly preparing for this podcast and getting to talk to you about it every day has helped me so very, very much. I've written a couple of books , uh, where I've tried to take Romans and then the Sermon on the Mount and make that material accessible to everyone. And I'm really excited about the Book of Revelation 'cause the next book that I'm gonna write in that series, the Coffee and Bible series, will be the book of Revelation for everyone. And your feedback from this podcast and the Zoom calls on Tuesday night and the discussions that we've had in , in , in the foyer and and , and things that people have emailed me and talked with me about, you've helped me so much with the Book of Revelation. I appreciate you so much. Our reading for Thursday is the last chapter, the last verses in the New Testament, revelation 22, 12 to 21. I'll see you tomorrow. We're gonna finish the year by reading Psalm eight . Welcome to Friday. Today, our reading is the eighth Psalm, and that is a very appropriate way to end this year, thinking about the eyewitnesses Peter and John, and thinking about what they have taught us and shown us about Jesus, Lord of Lord, and king of Kings. And spoiler alert reading. And Psalm eight prepares us well for where we're headed in our daily Bible reading next year. Don't wanna give everything away, but I love reading the Psalms and Psalm eight is gonna help us be ready for next year. This is an easy Psalm to read. It is a Psalm of praise . We always ask what kind of Psalm this is. When we're reading the Psalms, it is a Psalm of praise. Sometimes people think this is about man. No, it's about God. And there are three great contrast in the Psalm, the expansive sky contrasted with tiny babies, the expansive heavens contrasted with the littleness of man and the quality of man and the rest of creation. From all of these contrasts, we learned who we are and who God is. This Psalm is about worshiping and exalting God. What an appropriate place for us to read as we conclude the Book of Revelation, as we conclude a year spent exalting and honoring Jesus Christ, king of kings, Lord of Lords who saves us and delivers us, oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? That's the podcast for the week. In fact, that wraps up the podcast for the year, doesn't it? Thank you so much for listening along. Hope that you're getting good value out of your time with the podcast, that you're telling others about it. You've lead a rating, you've left a rating or review so that more people will find the podcast. So until next Monday, yes, we'll continue the podcast, Lord willing, into 2025. So until next Monday when we'll open our Bibles together. Again, I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven. I want you to come to see you Monday with a cup of coffee.

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