Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special Monday Morning Coffee Podcast. On this podcast, our preacher, Mark Roberts, will help you get your week started right with a look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think of each other and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's album reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And he may have some extra bonus cloud from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday morning coffee with Mark.

I'm Mark, and I am glad to welcome you to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast. This is the podcast that's all about starting the week with a look back at yesterday's sermon, plus a look forward into our Bible reading for the week so that we do. We do get all that energy from Sunday and the spiritual excitement and fervor. We just can roll that forward and make good application of that as we begin the work week. And of course, I am doing all of this with a great cup of coffee. So grab your Bible, grab your coffee, let's let's grow together. Yesterday I talked about John Mark and what it takes to be useful again to make a comeback. And I want to spend a moment or two here talking about something that's often forgotten when people are trying to make a comeback, and that is that is time. In an instant world, we would like to instantly come back, to be instantly restored, to be instantly useful again. But we recognize, for example, that when an athlete is injured, it will take time. That terrible accident that Lindsey Vaughn suffered in the Olympics, she is not going skiing this week. Patrick Mahomes blew out his knee. It will take a long time for Kansas City's quarterback to rehab that. He may not even be able to start the season next fall. We get it with a physical injury, but sometimes in the spiritual realm, that just goes out the window. When we've wounded someone in the church, it may take a while for that to heal, for us to get a chance to come back. And if we are impatient with that and try to rush that and get our feelings hurt, it can really set back the comeback. I didn't get to track the timeline yesterday, but between Acts 15 and 2 Timothy 4 is 10 to 12 years, maybe even longer. And what's the point? Just like in sports with an injury, comebacks take time in God's kingdom. Trust rebuilds slowly, reputation repairs gradually, opportunities don't arrive overnight. And part of that is the consequence of sin. We have to accept that and not dictate to others what restoration looks like and when it will happen. Mark doesn't demand instant restoration. In a couple of those places, Colossians and Phlemen, we find him working carefully in the kingdom, perhaps maybe even in a lesser role. It takes time, so give it some time. And that's what Mark is doing. Make it right, seek forgiveness, and then live in repentance, be faithful, give it time. Mark didn't wake up useful the next morning after the disaster in Acts 15. He walked to usefulness, and at times it probably seemed like a long, difficult walk. But he understood that and he got that. If you're making that comeback, you want God to bless you, and he will bless you as you make that comeback at the right time. Grab your Bible. Let's think about daily Bible reading. Acts the 17th chapter. What's happening to Paul now? You got run out of Philippi. What will occur next? Where is he going? How is all of that going to work? So notice as we begin, verse 1, when they, there's no we here. Luke seems to have been left in Philippi. And when we get to Thessalonica, there's going to be all kinds of trouble. I mentioned this last Wednesday night in Bible talk. There's lots of opposition to the gospel, and there's lots of courage here. Now, Paul walks from Philippi through Amphiphilis and Apollyonia and comes to Thessalonica. That's walking on the Ignatian way. Amphipolis is about 30 miles down the Ignatian way, Apollonia another 30, and Thessalonica is another 35 or so. Just think about all the walking that Paul does. Wow. I'm sure he wore out a lot of sandals. And he does some great preaching here. In fact, Paul will say in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 5, that this was powerful preaching. And 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, by the way, gives us an idea of some of Paul's preaching. If you have time, go and read some of that. That's a great place to add to our daily Bible reading. But when Paul preaches, he uses the scripture, he exalts Jesus, and he makes good application to the listener. And there is, I'm looking at verse 5, a Jason mentioned in Romans 6.21. He's a fellow Jew and a co-worker with Paul. And I wonder if the church is meeting here in his house. But there are problems, as I said. Verse 6, Jason gets dragged out and people are screaming and shouting. One writer said, verse 6, it is ironic that the Jewish leaders formed a mob and started a riot in the city and then accused the missionaries of being the troublemakers. How about that? And so the people in the city authorities, verse 8, here, were disturbed when they heard these things, and so they had, but they had to let them go. I give you a note here, this is just something that's on the podcast. These events occur right about the time that Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome due to rioting, possibly and probably rioting about Jesus Christ. Paul will mention, I'm sorry, Luke will mention that in the next chapter. We'll talk about that tomorrow. But I just wonder if the Thessalonian Jews are worried that something like that is going to happen too. Now Paul leaves behind a very good church. He'll write two letters here. And according to what he says in 1 Thessalonians, Paul was evidently here in Thessalonica for a while before he had to leave. Then he's in Berea, verses 10 to 15, and of course this is such a famous passage. These Bereans are more noble. What does that mean? It means their character is noble, and especially and specifically at this time, the way that term is being used in the New Testament world refers to being open-minded, to having, one scholar said, high-minded behavior. They're not allowing prejudices to prevent them from giving Paul a fair hearing. And so Paul is here and then he has to depart. And he leaves a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him. So the missionary team is splitting up, and it seems like maybe Timothy is left here in Berea. Timothy's movements here are very difficult to chart. And then Paul comes to Athens. Athens is a city full of altars and temples of every kind, and many of those, for example, the Parthenon, you can still see that today. There's a fair number of folks from West Side who'll be traveling in October with Dean and I, and we will start that trip in Athens and we'll get to see a bunch of this. It always, I always kind of pause a little bit when I get to thinking about when Paul saw the Parthenon, it was already 400 years old. So there's a lot going on in this city, and it's been going on this way for a very long time. And Paul ends up going, verse 22, to the Areopagus. Now, that may not be a place. There's some scholarship that indicates now that may be a group, kind of an informal hearing, but more likely it is the hill, the pogos of Ares, the Aripogos, the Areopagus, known since Ares is the Greek equivalent of Mars, known as Mars Hill. It's situated a little northwest of the Acropolis, and it was the place where a lot of people met, and it seems to be the place where Paul preached this famous sermon in Acts chapter 17. He is very provoked by these Epicurean, verse 18, and Stoic philosophers. Epicureus lived from 340 to 270 B.C., said the highest good was pleasure, pain was the only evil, and the greatest pleasure was the pleasures of the mind. He really was looking for more of the tranquil life than the party life, but he said the gods took no interest in human affairs. Now, Zeno lived from 340 to 265, and he founded the Stoics. Stoic comes from the word porch, the Stoa, because Zeno taught on a porch. He was pantheistic, and yes, the Stoics suppressed emotion, had kind of a live and let live, just accept it kind of belief. And interestingly, Stoicism has been kind of getting a little bit of a revival. There's a Ryan Holliday book that's become very famous. He does a lot of writing. A lot of people follow him on social media. Stoicism is supposed to be this kind of practical way to live. But of course, while Christianity does share some ideas with Stoicism, be calm, control what you can, serve others. Christianity is far superior to Stoicism in so many ways. For example, we can ask God for help, while the Stoics just have to endure and seek help from within. Stoics make no mention of the afterlife, not going to help you when you die to be a Stoic. So Paul wants to sc wants to help these philosophers to see a better way, and he preaches here this famous sermon. This sermon is to a purely Gentile audience. There is no quotation of the Old Testament. There's no discussion of Old Testament fulfillment in Jesus the Christ. The theology here is very much about creation and nature. And Jesus is not mentioned by name, and there's no even discussion of resurrection until verse 31. The outline of the text of the sermon, gotta have three points, don't you? God is the creator of everything, verses 24 to 26. God is near enough to touch, verses 27 to 29, and then God judges and demands repentance, verses 30 and 31. I do think there is controversy about this, but I don't think Jesus, Jesus gracious, let's have coffee. I don't think Paul is insulting the people when he says, I perceive that you are very religious. I think that's a compliment, and I think there's something to be said there for building bridges to people. And when I've preached from time to time about evangelism and used Acts 17 as a template, that's a good starting point. Why do we think the best way to convert people to Christ is to make them angry, to insult them? Hey, you're so dumb. That's not how Paul starts here, and he gets a pretty good hearing. He does work with some misunderstandings about God. I focus your attention on verses 25 to 29. The idea that we could put God in a temple, the idea that God needs us, and the idea that you can represent God by some sort of image. And Paul, instead of quoting verse 28, instead of quoting the Old Testament, quotes some of their poets. How great is that as he builds, uh builds bridges and works with people where they are with their understanding. Unfortunately, when Paul gets to resurrection, things really run off the rails. And there does seem to be a few that are interested and become Christians, but just not much. And maybe sometimes we need to remember that when we try to preach the gospel, try to teach somebody the gospel, and it doesn't go the way we wanted it to go. Well, that happened to Jesus, and that happened to Paul. And it will, it will happen to us as well. The reading for Monday, Acts 17. It's Tuesday. It is Tuesday, and our reading today is Acts the 18th chapter. I need to try to tighten some of this up. Yesterday's episode was just so long, but these chapters are just packed, and there's so much material here that just plays across the rest of the New Testament. We'll see a little bit of that even today. Paul does leave Athens, verse 1, and we know from 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 3 that he was really down. That was very discouraging. He is alone. He walks about 37 miles down to Corinth. There'll be some people on the trip this fall who'll be able to go down to Corinth and see some of this as well. And what we'll see when we're there is the remains of a really important city. It was a trade city. There's an isthmuth here. Boy, try saying that without coffee. Oh, it's too early in the morning to say isthmuth. It's about three and a half miles wide, and there was a population here of about 200,000 people. This is a port, it's a sailing town. It was extremely immoral. All the things that sailors do when they're in port are in play here. And there was a temple to Aphrodite where temple prostitution goes on. It's often said there were a thousand temple prostitutes there, but that is much later. But that does not mean there was not a lot of temple prostitutes there. And there is every kind of evil and every kind of sin happening in Corinth. In fact, in dramas of the day, if there was a drunk character, he was usually portrayed as being from Corinth. And Paul here meets Aquila and Priscilla. They come because there's been trouble in Rome and everybody's been kicked out, everybody who's Jewish. And there is some writing outside of the Bible that talks about rioting on account of one crestus, and that seems to say that Jews were trying to separate themselves from Christianity and push Judaism. Judaism's trying to push Christianity out from underneath their protective umbrella. Hey, they're not us, and we're not them, and there was a fuss, and there was a problem about Christ. And so Aquila and Priscilla are evicted, forced to leave Rome. That has a huge effect on the church at Rome, and a huge effect on why Paul writes that church and what he says in the book of Rome. Book of Romans, I should say. In verses five and six, that's about where Paul writes 1 and 2 Thessalonians. 1 and 2 Thessalonians fit here, some of the earliest books of the New Testament. And in verse 8, Crispus is found again in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 14, and he probably lost his job because he became a Christian. And finally, Paul ends up in front of Galileo the proconsul, verses 12 to 17, and there has been a promise that there will be no harm, but that doesn't mean you won't be attacked. And we know that Galio was proconsul from AB 51 to 52, and that helps us get a good fix on about where we are. And there is an inscription at Delphi that names him the proconsul and helps us set that date. So that's maybe something important to write in the side margins of your Bible. Where Paul is standing here before the tribunal, that place has been excavated. You can stand there before the Bima. You can stand where Paul stood. There's just not very many places where you have that kind of certainty down to that small an area, I hope very much in October, to stand where Paul stands. In verses 18 to 22, then Paul goes home. This is the spring of 52. Paul has taken a vow. Remember, that's not wrong. It's not wrong to be Jewish any more than it's wrong to be French or wrong to be American. Paul continued in many Jewish practices, he just doesn't bind them on others. They're not necessary to be saved. And if you're not careful, verse 23 will start the third missionary journey and you won't even notice it. But there you go. And he travels through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening the disciples. That's about 1,500 miles covered in two verses by the time you get to 19.1. Paul, wow, Paul can walk, and he walks a long ways in the name of the gospel. Now, chapter 18 ends with two episodes about John the Baptist. Well, one's in chapter 19 for tomorrow's reading, but Apollos is covered here in verses 24 to 28. He is an educated man. Luke likes educated men, and I think it's very important, verse 26, that a woman participates in teaching this man the gospel. Sometimes I hear someone say a woman can't teach a man, and that makes me want to pull out my hair. Women teach a man in every service every Sunday at West Side because we are teaching in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. There is a way for a woman to teach, but the Bible does not forbid all teaching mechanisms, methods, ways to women, and Acts 18, 26 certainly shows us a godly woman who is teaching in the right way. Well, that's Acts 18. That's our reading for Tuesday. West Siders, see you on the Zoom tonight. This will be a great chapter to work through and talk about. Our Zoom attendance is just crazy great. It really has been good as we've been doing this New Testament reading this year. I hope to see you tonight on the Zoom call. Everybody else, see you tomorrow on the podcast. The reading for Tuesday, Acts 18. It's Wednesday. It is Wednesday, and today we're reading Acts the 19th chapter. This chapter begins with the second John the Baptist episode that Luke wants to report on. And one of Luke's concerns is that people not confuse John the Baptist for Jesus the Christ. And when you think about it, you've probably never ever done that. It's not a problem at all. But very clearly, both from Apollos and that we read yesterday, and from these disciples of John in the first seven verses of Acts 19, it's very clear that there was confusion about that. And Luke goes out of his way to make sure that we don't have any more confusion about that. So Paul arrives in Ephesus and he meets these disciples. They are John's disciples, they are not Christians. I think the presumption here is that Apollos had baptized them. And it is interesting to me, and I hope to you, that when Paul asks them, have you received the Holy Spirit? and they say, verse 2, we didn't even know there's a Holy Spirit, Paul immediately jumps to baptism. Something is not right when you don't know about the Spirit, and Paul understands there's a problem with their Christianity. Indeed, they're not Christians at all. This could be understood that they had not heard of the promise of the Spirit's coming being fulfilled in the Messiah, Joel 2, as Peter preached in Acts 2. Or maybe it's a reference to Acts 2.38, the Spirit's gift, the gift of the Spirit is the giving of forgiveness. And so that would speak to baptism's purpose. Whatever's going on there, Paul is quite sure that he needs to teach them correctly. And he does teach them, and this is a rebaptism. And whenever I say rebaptism, somebody gets very upset because there is one baptism. Well, there's only one baptism that saves, but there are a number of baptisms in the New Testament. I think there's seven in all if you count all the different uses of the term. And this is a rebaptism or a first baptism into Jesus Christ. As you read through this section today, just notice how belief and baptism are completely interchangeable here. I've said many times, and I'm going to say again, I think Paul would be utterly stunned that there's any confusion about belief and baptism and that they must work together. Sometimes belief is a package word or it's the box, it's the bucket that Luke lumps all of the steps of conversion into. Just like sometimes at the end of a sermon, I will say, if you need to become a Christian and be baptized, wait, wait, wait, wait, I didn't say anything about believing, didn't say anything about repenting or confessing. Oh, I just dumped the whole thing in the bucket mark baptism. It's the culmination of those things. If people believe, they're baptized, and people who are baptized are people who believe. That's how that works. We learned what it takes to be a Christian in Acts chapter 2, and Luke works off of that understanding from here on. This does, beginning in verse 6, look a little bit like Pentecost. And I wonder, is this kind of Paul's Pentecost? Peter had one, and now Paul has one. And I do want to say that there's been a ton of baptisms in Acts without the speaking in tongues business. There's lots of attention to this, and particularly those who want to speak in tongues today, but folks don't seem to want to pay much attention to the Ethiopian eunuch or the Philippian jailer or Lydia. These people don't speak in tongues after their baptism. This is something special and unique. Paul then is going to teach in Tyrannus in the school of Tyrannus, verses 8 to 10. Tyrannus is probably the teacher, and it's probably a nickname because Tyrannus means tyrant. Wow, did you ever have a school teacher? Yeah, yeah. Iron pants. You had that teacher? Me too. Maybe that's where this is for Paul. He's teaching in Ty in the tyrant school, and Paul is here two years, maybe depending upon how you count it all up, as much as three years. And there are a ton of churches that are founded during this time as the gospel radiates out of Ephesus. Paul's using Ephesus as a base. So that would be Colossae, Laodicea, Hyopolis. The seven churches in Asia, Revelation 2 and 3, they seem to come from this time. Colossae is very close to Ephesus. Epaphras is the one that founded that church. And during this time, Paul does write Corinthians. It's difficult to be certain the timing there and where Paul is because he he wants to visit, and then he doesn't visit, and then he does visit. It's hard to get all that ironed out, but he does send two letters to Corinth and maybe visited as many as three times. He does talk a lot about Ephesus, for example, in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 8 and 9. The rest of our reading then includes one of the funniest, oh, this is just a hilarious, one of the funniest episodes in the Bible. This is the Seven Sons of Skeva, verses 11 to 19. They're all about casting out. out demons, which they shouldn't be doing if they're really righteous Jews. And I don't understand who this guy is, this high priest named Skeva. There's no high priest named Skeva. This seems to be kind of a whole fakery deal, but I love the evil spirit saying verse 15, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? Very, very funny story. But again, in a time when people believe magic is real and still have a lot of faith in the occult, the power of the gospel over the occult is something that Luke wants to emphasize on a very regular basis. The chapter then ends with a riot, 21 all the way to 41. We have this huge riot in Ephesus because the trade, the tourism trade, is being affected by the gospel. One of the problems that Ephesus had is that their port was always silting in and filling up. So they really relied on tourism. And what drew people to Ephesus was the Temple of Artemis. It was viewed as one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. One ancient writer Antipater of Sidon said this I have set eyes on the wall of the walls of the lofty Babylon, upon which there is road enough for chariots. I have seen the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus and the hanging gardens and the colossus of the sun and the huge labor of the high pyramids and the tombus. But when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy. And I said lo, apart from Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, lo apart from Olympus, the sun never looked on anything so grand. It was a huge tourist attraction. And it was a huge temple. The temple of Artemis was 165 feet by 345 feet, sitting on a platform that was 240 feet by 420 feet. You diagram that out and you'll see that the Temple of Artemis was four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. This thing is an incredible temple. People came everywhere to see it. And just like when you go to Paris and you see the Eiffel Tower, you have to buy a little metal Eiffel Tower trinket. You have to. Well these silversmiths make little idols and people buy them to show hey I've been to Ephesus and their trade is falling off. And the result of that is a riot in the amphitheater. That amphitheater seats about 25,000 people it is still there today. By the way the Temple of Artemis not still there today the gospel is still here today. Idolatry in Artemis's name is not says something doesn't it? But that amphitheater is still there big riot. Some common sense finally takes hold the Romans hate rioting and the result of that is yeah he dismissed the assembly what is that that's verse 41 and everybody goes home. The gospel triumphs again the reading for Wednesday Acts 19 It's Thursday. It's Thursday and our reading today is the 20th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 20 is our reading today. Now each of Paul's missionary journey ends with a travel narrative getting him home and that's where we are in our reading today in Acts chapter 20 and the correspondence here between this trip and Jesus's trip to Jerusalem is very apparent. You'll remember in Luke's gospel that Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, Luke chapter 9, and the rest of the Gospel of Luke is about that journey and you get very much the journey of destiny here. I must go to Jerusalem. I must be there even though terrible things await me when I arrive in Jerusalem. It's the journey of destiny. So we're somewhere now verse 3 about 56 to 57 and somewhere in here Paul's leaving Ephesus because he's very concerned about what's going on in Corinth and somewhere along in here is where he writes Rome. And I'll I'll give you some bonus information here podcast listeners. Look at verse three there he spent three months and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria he decided to return through Macedonia. So Paul's going to get on a ship and go all the way home Syria would be north of Judea but we know now some scholars have written about this that that probably would be very dangerous. So one scholar noted Paul's intention may have been to take a pilgrim ship carrying Greek and Asian Jews home to the Passover with a shipload of hostile Jews on board however it would be very easy to find opportunity to murder Paul and dump his body overboard. So Paul changes his plans at the last moment decides to go by land back through Macedonia. Paul just lives all the time looking over his shoulder. And so as Paul is making this land tour he goes through Troraz and we get this famous episode in chapter 20 verse 7 where the disciples take the Lord's Supper. And this is the Lord's Supper verse 7 the breaking of bread is a term that's used especially in Acts for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. For example Acts 242 Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 1016. And I think the breaking of bread in verse 7 is the supper which is set in contrast to the breaking of bread and eating a common meal in verse 11. This is probably Roman time and so that means that they are at the end of the workday on a Sunday it's not Saturday night it's Sunday night. Luke is not using the Jewish reckoning here of sunset to sunset but instead Roman time midnight to midnight. And we talk a lot here about the supper and and I understand why there's not a lot of time references to the New Testament church's assemblies but really the point here I think is Eudicus and Paul equals Peter and Jesus again just like Jesus raised the widow's son and the 12 year old girl Peter raised Tabitha Paul's in the same line he can do that and he raises someone from the dead he raises Eudychus. I mentioned him a couple of weeks ago when I was talking about how to listen to a sermon. I've seen Eudicus and you have too maybe not falling out of a window but sometimes going to sleep at the end of a long day is is hard. It's hard to pay attention to the sermon. Eudychus ends up falling asleep and once again we get that kind of is that a miracle I think this is a miracle I think Paul raises him from the dead. The chapter then concludes with Paul calling the Ephesian elders to him so that he might talk to them about the challenges he sees coming. This is the only time that we have a speech of Paul to Christians. All of Paul's other speeches are sermons to non-Christians and Paul really wants to talk to them. He waits for them verses 17 and 18 it's about 30 miles so you're talking about a day to send a messenger up there to get them and a day for them to come back. And I wonder if Paul has been criticized notice verse 20 he's saying I'm above board in all that I'm doing everything that I am doing is honest. And then in verse 25 notice there how the preaching of the kingdom is preaching Jesus, which is proclaiming, which is testifying. It's all held in parallel Jesus preached the kingdom and Paul does not have a different gospel. The chief concern that Paul has is that apostasy will come. There will be apostasy and the elders must look out for that and be aware of that. And he puts huge emphasis on the word of God and what it can do. Paul doesn't know anything about the church standing in judgment of the Bible of scripture no the scripture is what we need and what makes and shapes us. Furthermore it is not fun and games or social activities that make us more like Christ it's the word of God. Our reading then for Thursday Acts chapter 20 It's Friday it is Friday and today we read Acts chapter 21 the reading for Friday Acts chapter 21. In verse 1 when we had parted from them and set sail there it is again we Luke is now part of this and you may be wondering by the time we get to verse 4 if Paul is disobeying God. There's everybody all the time saying don't go to Jerusalem and we'll have a whole lot more of that as Paul continues to try to go to Jerusalem. But the Spirit had told him to go. Acts chapter 20 and verse 22 tells us that and Paul must accompany the contribution that he is bringing to the saints in Jerusalem. That's his personal guarantee that he's given to the churches he needs to yeah he's got to keep his word. So I think the idea here is that the Spirit revealed that Paul would face danger there and they concluded that means he shouldn't go at all. No, he has to go. So in verses 7 to 14 Paul's made his way all the way to Caesarea that's about 30 miles south verse 8 from Ptolemas where he has made land when we finished the voyage from Tyre and arrived at Ptolemas verse 7. So he's at Caesarea and he stays with Philip. It's been about 20 years since Philip was run out of town by Paul's persecution, Acts chapter 8. And it is something to see these two together now and I expect in verse 11 that Luke wants us to hear something similar to all of those statements of Jesus I must go and at Jerusalem the Son of man will be bound and killed and rise on the third day. I think this is a passion saying very much like what Jesus has, especially that stuff where Jesus will say I'll be delivered to the Gentiles. Paul's destiny is the same as Jesus. The work of Jesus goes on in the New Testament church. What Jesus did the New Testament church does and I think Luke is playing that out for us. Beginning then in verse 15 we get a whole new section this is this is the final section of the book of Acts it's a huge section it's all about the trials of Paul and him being arrested. And this is what the rest of the book of Acts will be all about I wonder in verse 16 this early disciple Nathan is is he a source? Is he a source for Luke? Luke talked to him and get lots of the stories that make up the gospel of Luke. We're right here in about AD 58. And finally Paul arrives in Jerusalem. Now there's nothing here about the collection for the saints and we would certainly like to know more about that. Maybe someday we'll have opportunity to sit down with Luke and say hey what about that collection? Paul makes such a big deal about that in Corinthians. We want to know hey was that received? Was it received well? But Luke doesn't talk about that probably because he wants to focus on the arrest and trials. Everybody knows someone who when they tell a story clutters it with all sorts of unnecessary details. Luke doesn't do that. And the we sections have discontinued here until chapter 27. So Paul is going some places where Luke cannot go. And it does seem verse 1920 and so forth that the Jerusalem church is being put in an increasingly uncomfortable place as Christianity becomes more and more Gentile. Now here they are accepting money from Gentiles which would indicate solidarity with them. I wonder if people in Jerusalem are saying you're not much Jew, are you? This is a very hard time for these Christians. They're really caught in a rock and a hard place here. And so Paul comes and he has all kinds of false charges against him. So they say verse 21 that you've been that people say you tell them not to circumcise. That's absolutely not true. Paul never told anybody you can't circumcise. That's a Jewish thing Jews do that have been doing it for centuries. Paul is circumcised. Paul never tells anybody don't circumcise but he will not stand for circumcision to be made a salvation issue and Gentiles be forced to be circumcised. But if you want to wave the red white and blue on July the 4th and shoot off fireworks because you're an American Paul won't complain about that. But if you tell somebody if you don't wave the red white and blue and shoot off fireworks you're not a Christian, Paul will be talking to you in just a moment. And so that's where this is Paul is going to show I'm still Jewish that's my nation that's my heritage I can do Jewish things but unfortunately the Jews from Asia verse 27 spread false charges and that's going to get Paul arrested. There is a stone wall about four and a half feet high between the different courts in the temple plaza. The biggest court, the outer court is the court of the Gentiles. Then there's a step up and there's the court of the women and this stone wall and a half feet had a sign on it which said No foreigner is to enter within this battalade an embankment around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which will surely follow. That wall told Gentiles you stay on your side you're not Jewish. You can't go to the court of the women or to the next court up the court of the men or to the court of the priest where the temple building itself was you are on the outside looking in. And so the idea that somebody has brought Gentiles into the temple proper oh my that is just getting all kinds of attention here and that results in what? That results in Paul being arrested. But when Paul's arrested what Paul says is I can explain. I can explain and in fact I think this is a great chance to tell people about Jesus. And that is exactly what happens in chapter 22. Our reading for Friday Acts chapter 21 That's the podcast for the week I certainly do appreciate you listening. It is oh it's just a joy for me to get the opportunity to work through our daily Bible reading to talk about the sermon from Sunday and to know that that's helping people stay in the Word of God, understand the Word of God make application of the Word of God. It's a joy to be with you each day and drink some coffee while we're doing it. I'm Mark Roberts I want to go to heaven and I want you to come too I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ podcast Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

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