SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello, and welcome to the Western Church's special Monday morning money. We will help you get your wheel money. So we have a cup of coffee and we start the week together on Monday morning coffee.

Sermon Notes

Monday Romans 14

Tuesday Romans 15

Wednesday Romans 16

Thursday Philippians 1

Friday Philippians 2

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Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for Monday, April the 6th. I'm Mark, and yes, look at me, I actually have some voice. How about that? What a week. Lots of vocal rest, lots of throat lozenges, lots of prayers. Last Sunday was pretty rough, but yesterday, good day, solid day, had my voice back, and it was a great day as we thought about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we're pushing forward now in the book of Romans. So I've got that great cup of coffee, and I'm ready to start the week in the very best way with you. Let's get it all together. Pour that cup of coffee, grab your Bible, let's let's grow together. So yesterday I preached straight up out of 1 Corinthians the 15th chapter, which is a marvelous place to preach on a day when a lot of people are thinking about the resurrection of Jesus. However, if you were tracking the text yesterday, you may have noticed that I jumped a big part of 1 Corinthians 15. I did not have much to say from verses 35 all the way to verses 49, where Paul deals with the second objection to the idea of the resurrection. This is the zombie objection, or maybe the oh, it's icky objection, because what people are saying here is, come on, Paul, how can someone who is dead rise? Do you know what that would look like? Have you ever seen a body after it's been in the grave for a while? That's gross. That's icky. We don't want to see zombies. Well, focus with me on verse 38, 1 Corinthians 15, 38. But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body. Paul works the idea, beginning about right there, that our earthly bodies aren't anything like our heavenly bodies, but that you can count on a real, genuine bodily resurrection with a body that God has made for the world that is to come. And so the key, the key to the zombie objection is stop worrying about that. God will take care of it. God's got this. And I love that. I love that answer because about 99.9% of our questions after about the afterlife need that answer. No, we don't understand everything about that. We are not going to understand everything about that until we arrive on that great grand day. But it's okay because God's got this. Whatever you're wondering about that glad morning when we'll meet the Lord, God will take care of it. God will take care of everything. We just need to live for that morning. So there's kind of a bringing together of our heaven-bound series and the sermon yesterday, putting all that together in the same place to say we can't wait to go to heaven. It's going to be great. And yes, we will rise again. Now let's think about daily Bible reading. Let's get started on Monday's Bible reading. Monday's Bible reading is Romans the 14th chapter. Lots of people see Romans 14 as kind of an appendix. Paul says, Oh, I need to cover some ground here. This isn't really what this epistle is about, so let me say some things about this stuff. And I think that's a terrible, terrible mistake. As you know, if you've been following the podcast all through Romans, I believe the book of Romans is about church unity and about bringing together a church that's dividing. And that means Romans 14 is the pinnacle of the letter, not an afterthought. And I do think that's the way to look at the book of Romans. And one of the strengths of looking at the book of Romans is that it makes Romans 14 important instead of just some stuff that Paul jotted down at the end of the letter because he was really writing this kind of theological discourse on salvation. No, he's not. He's writing a letter to deal with the occasion, the troubles that are going on in the church at Rome. And now Paul gets down to brass tacks. And what he says is we need to get along and stop judging one another over some issues that are separating this church, causing problems. And these issues are matters of indifference. That's very important. God is not legislated on the things that Paul's talking about here. God does not care what people do about the things that God that Paul is talking about here. These are not matters of faith. And I know that because the tone and tenor, for example, is so different. Go read the book of Galatians. There, people are adding a step of salvation. They are changing the plan of salvation. And Paul goes double ballistic. Here, Paul is content to let everyone remain wherever they are. Whatever you're doing, you just do that, keep it to yourself, don't violate your own conscience, just be happy. It is impossible to imagine that Paul is dealing with situations like sexual immorality, marriage, divorce, and remarriage, all kinds of matters of faith, and he's just telling everybody, oh yeah, y'all just do what you want to do. That is not the case at all. He's dealing with things that God is indifferent about. And it's important as well that you make sure you know that the weak here is not some brand new Christian who's struggling in the faith. The weak here is someone with an incomplete understanding. There are some folks in this church who understand that eating meat sacrificed to idols is no big deal because idols are nothing. They don't have any power. They're not a deity. But there are some people who are still struggling with that. They have incomplete understanding. So Paul says, let's read in Romans 14, as for the one who's weak in the faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. And so there's the start. The New King James and the NIV are not as good here. The New American Standard and the ESV have the welcome or not welcome him, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. That's very good. That's very helpful because in this situation, everybody's looking down on everybody. The person who's eating the meat is looking down on the person who won't. Well, what's wrong with you, pal? Come on, have a steak. It's delicious. And then the person on the other side is like, dude, what are you doing? You're eating meat that's sacrificed to an idol. What kind of Christian are you? Everybody's judging everybody. And the result of that is the church is fracturing. But Paul says, look at verse 4. God will make him stand. God will accept him. And notice verses 6 and 7, as Paul now moves to the issue of days. Some people are still celebrating some days, setting aside a special day for the Lord. Hey, do what you do. It's going to be okay because either position is fine, verses six and seven, as long as it's done to honor God. And again, if you look carefully, there's no way that you can get matters of faith into Romans 14. Now Paul shifts gears slightly in verse 13 to the end of the chapter where he begins to talk to the strong. These are the people with good understanding. They can eat this meat, it's not a problem for them. But because of that, they have room to maneuver here. They could eat it or they could not eat it. So it's up to them. The strong have the opportunity and the ability to restrict this liberty, this freedom for the sake of the weak. Now, nobody can bind their conscience and make them, but they can choose because they don't want to be a problem, they don't want to cause difficulties in the church, they can choose to give something up. So Paul says in verse 13, let us not pass judgment one another any longer. Rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance of the way of a brother. Notice here that stumbling means cause to sin. God doesn't want, verse 14, a brother to act in violation of his conscience. So here's a brother that doesn't feel good about eating meat sacrificed to idol, maybe because he's Jewish, that's not kosher prepared, he's never had bacon before. Maybe this is a former pagan brother, and he used to eat that meat down at the idol temple as part of all the craziness that goes on with all of that. The sizzle of the steak brings all that back to mind. He's struggling with that. Either way, whatever we're dealing with, that brother comes over to my house. Do I put that meat in front of him? Do I shame him? Oh, what is wrong with you? Come on, we're set free in Christ. No, don't cause a brother to violate his conscience, to act in doubt. Instead, verse 17, we want the kingdom to be known for love and joy and peace and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. It's not about trivial matters like eating and drinking here. We want to pursue verse 19 what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Just think, if everyone was willing to give on matters of liberty, matters that are not significant before the Lord, would would any church ever divide? I don't know. Maybe maybe some groups would end up finding something to fuss about, but this would go a long way to curing a lot of church division, which is exactly what Paul wants. And our reading for today, Romans 14, is the reading for Monday. Welcome to Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday. And I would remind everyone at West Side there's no Zoom call tonight, no Zoom study tonight, because the elders are meeting, so we will not have a Zoom class this evening. Let's turn our Bibles to Romans 15 now as we get a good look at maybe the worst chapter division in the Bible. I don't know if this is the worst chapter division in the Bible. Probably not making the preaching theme anytime soon. Terrible chapter divisions in your Bible, but but this is being the competition if we were thinking about that, because Romans 15, 1 to 13 absolutely goes with yesterday's material in Romans 14. How did this get cut off? All of this belongs with what Paul's been saying in Romans 14 and is really the highlight of that and brings it to full expression. So he begins in the first six verses by saying, everybody needs to follow the example of Christ. Verses 1 and 2, that we who are strong have an obligation to bear the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. That's the principle here. Build up. That's the literal meaning of edification. Don't do to suit yourself. What we need to do is help others. And in fact, if we just go read our Bibles, we'll see Christ, verse 3, he didn't act that way. He didn't please himself. And then verse 4, go read your Bible. And you'll see in the Old Testament that people who served God and did what was right, they didn't please themselves. And that's why we, one of the reasons we read our Bibles is we get endurance and instruction and encouragement from the scriptures. And so the climax of that is harmony and unity. The point of unity is not for us all to sit around and pat ourselves on the back and say, wow, isn't this just nice? We're all nice to each other. No, the point of our unity is to glorify God. We're doing this together. Unity glorifies God. One writer said the Bible, in other words, is the earlier part of the story we ourselves are living in, explaining the roots from which we have grown. Or if you like, it gives us the foundation on which, despite appearances, we can build securely for our future. That's what it's about. We're unified with the people in the Bible who have served God, given themselves up, made sacrifices to do what is right. So then there's this huge section of quotations, 8 to 13, from the Old Testament, and it's just over and over again all about unity. Verse 5, live in harmony with one another so that with one voice, verse 6, and then look at verse 9. Here comes this big Old Testament section. Gentiles might glorify God, verse 10, O Gentiles, verse 11, all you Gentiles, all peoples. Verse 12, in him will the Gentiles hope. You hear that strong note of everybody needs to come together, Jew and Gentile, and glorify God. And verse 13 really does in many ways form the conclusion to the epistle to the Romans. Paul's good. He said what he needed to say. He took care of the situation that needed to be taken care of. Took care of? Can you take an oh, what's the answer to that? Yeah, more coffee. Taken care of. He's taken care of the situation that needs to be taken care of. Now Paul gets into some personal details, which really help us in a number of ways as he talks about how he plans to make a preaching trip. And even still, Paul manages to work the threads of this unity theme in. Look at verse 16, Christ Jesus, I'm a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, offering of the Gentiles, verse 18, bring it to the Gentiles. Verse 27, for the Gentiles. So he's still talking about everyone being unified. And what he says is, I want to preach the Gentiles. That's what I do, that's who I am, that's where I want to go. And along the way, though, he says, I must go to Jerusalem first. And we see verse 25, Paul's clear plan to bring the collection for the saints in Jerusalem. He plans to personally escort those monies to Jerusalem. This is the treasury collection that's spoken of in 1 Corinthians 16, 1 and 2, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. He speaks of it in Acts chapter 24 and verse 17 when he's in front of Felix. This is the money that Gentile Christians contributed to help Christians in the famine that's going on in Judea. And this project is tremendously important to Paul. He's willing to go 800 miles from Corinth to Jerusalem, then 1,500 miles from Jerusalem to Rome, and then go on further to Spain from there. Well, he's in Corinth. He could go straight to Rome. He's going hundreds of miles, thousands of miles out of his way to get that money to Jerusalem. And that's because that money will unify Jew and Gentile Christians. Paul regarded that offering as a symbol of unity and how Gentile brothers and Jewish brothers are united in Christ, who's about a lot more than just the money. And it took a long time to collect all that money up, good period of time, maybe two years. So if it's just about the groceries, the people in Judea probably are getting really, really hungry. And maybe, maybe I would note this. Verse 26, this contribution is made for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. The saints at Jerusalem. Churches today have become massive financial aid resource centers for every kind of person who's got any kind of trouble, whether they're a Christian or not. But that's not the New Testament pattern. In the New Testament, the church helps Christians. Aid for, verse 26, the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. And that's very important for us to maintain that pattern because the church is not a do-good society. The church is a preaching society. When there's an emergency, the church will certainly take care of its own. We must do that. But we're not in the general business of improving man's welfare here upon this planet. We're in the business of preaching the gospel. That really improves man's welfare upon this planet and in the world to come. So there's our reading for Tuesday. It's Romans the 15th chapter. And again, no Zoom call tonight. I'll see you on the podcast in the morning. The reading for Tuesday, Romans 15. Welcome to Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. Today our reading is Romans 16. The reading for Wednesday is Romans chapter 16. This breaks kind of into three pieces. There's some personal greetings here in the first 16 verses. Then there's some final instructions, verses 17 to 23. And then Paul closes with what we would call a doxology, a statement of glory to God. Let me say a word or two here about all these names. Maybe this will be helpful to you. If you're in my Romans class last year, we went through some of this and worked on some of this. And I think it's very enlightening to see some of this. These people that are listed here, some are quite well known, like Priscilla and Aquila in verse 3. Some are extremely important. Our sister Phoebe, verse 1, she's probably carrying the letter. She probably actually has it in her possession and is taking it to Rome. She may be a deaconess, verse 1, the word for servant there is just the word that sometimes it's translated deacon. Sometimes it's translated servant. I'm not compelled. I'm not compelled. There's enough in the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 for us to be certain that there is an office of deaconess. Some have made that case, and I hear that case. I understand about all of that. Sometimes I think that's just an attempt to try to make women important in the kingdom. And I appreciate that because sometimes women are doing a ton of stuff in the kingdom and they're not getting much attention for that. But again, I'm not compelled that she is officially a deaconess. And what I'm most impressed with with our women today is that there are women at Westside who are doing all kinds of stuff, teaching classes and taking care of the sick and bringing food and cleaning people's houses and doing VBS cutouts and supporting all kinds of things. And they don't want a title. They don't need a title, they just want to serve. And that's probably where Phoebe is here. But as we move forward here, then we get a bunch of names, Mary and Andronicus and Junia and Ampliolitis and Urbanus, all these names. And it's easy to roll our eyes and say we don't know these people, and I don't know why this is in the Bible. But I'll give you a hint about some of that. Maybe it'll be helpful to you. The archaeologists and sociologists have done a ton of work when they've dug up all kinds of papyri and all kinds of bills and bills of lading and receipts and so forth from the New Testament era. And all that stuff has names in it. And so various scholars have done various work with those names, the cemeteries, the catacombs, all of this kind of stuff. And they have constructed a pretty solid database of people's names and what those names meant in the New Testament world. And I don't mean, you know, Ampylitus has a certain no, I just mean what kind of name that is. Ampolitus is a slave name. It is a slave name, and it is used consistently in the literature outside of the Bible of people who are slaves. Meanwhile, Rufus, verse 13, that is a free person's name. That's a free person's name. A slave would never have a name like that because he can't have a name like that. He's a slave. And when you think about it, we use names that way as well. When you meet someone and you say, What is your name? And he says, I'm William Andrew McKinley Thurston the Third, well, yeah, that kind of means something, doesn't it? The third, yeah, that that says something about his background and who he is and probably the kind of financial resources his family has. So we understand that about names, and interesting about that kind of thing, those naming conventions in the New Testament world as well. So when you're reading down here, Prisca and Aquila, those are free people. Rufus, that's a free name, but Ampylitus, Urbanus, verse 9, Trifena, Tropho, Trophosa, verse 12, Hermes, verse 14, Nereus, verse 15, those are slave names. Those are slave names. Which means in the church at Rome, you have people who are free people, and you have people who are slaves, all going to church together. You talk about a testimony to unity. Romans 16 contains a bunch of names, and we think, yeah, yeah, whatever. No, not whatever. It says a lot about this church, about the differences in people's personal backgrounds and their personal welfare and what they're doing and how they're doing, and yet they can all come together to glorify Christ. All can come together to glorify Christ. And you may be thinking, well, how do we know Ampoliatus isn't a former slave? Because when you were set free, if you are a slave and you were set free, you got a new name. You got a new name. You don't want to walk around with a slave name when you're a free person. So there's a lot going on in this church. Maybe that emphasizes the unity theme even more. Paul concludes the epistle then with some important instruction about false teaching, false doctrine. We want to be careful and watch for that, not allow that to undermine our unity. We don't want troublemakers to lead us astray. And then there is this wonderful section here beginning about verse 20, somewhere 21, maybe 25, where the doxology really gets going about verse 25, where Paul says everybody needs to give glory to God. That's what this is about, and that's why we want to be unified. That closes the book of Romans, and that's our reading for Wednesday. Romans 16. Welcome to Thursday. Today our reading is Philippians the first chapter. We're beginning the book of Philippians. Our reading for Thursday is Philippians chapter one. And this is exciting. This is exciting. You're gonna love reading Philippians. It's a great book. It's just very optimistic, it's full of joy and sunlight. This may be the church that Paul feels the closest to and loves the very most. And there's some personal notes here that are just warm and so encouraging. And Paul is in a miserable situation when he writes this, and you'd never know it. You'd never know it because he's so encouraging. So let's get ready to read Philippians. A couple things here. The city has a long and very colorful history, lots of Roman influence here. It's a very Roman city. You can do some reading online about Philippi, fill in some of those playings. This is a church that was founded on the second missionary journey in Acts 16 chapter. Lydia is Its first convert, shortly thereafter, joined by the Philippian jailer and his family. And this is this is the first church in Europe. This is the first church in Europe. And there's a couple things going on in the letter to the Philippians. First and foremost, the Philippians know about Paul being in prison, and they've sent a gift by way of Epaphroditus. And so Paul is responding to that gift. He's trying to tell of his situation, to tell of Epaphroditus' health, and to encourage them to unity and steadfastness because he's heard some things about some internal problems, a problem of disunity. Wow, there's that all again. So what's going on? There's some suffering and opposition to the gospel in Philippi. Paul will deal with that. And then, as I said, there is some division and disunity that he wants to give attention to as well. Now, where is Paul when he writes this? There are a number of options. This could be the imprisonment that we read about in the book of Acts, where he was waiting on trial in Caesarea, but it does seem like this is the Roman imprisonment of Acts chapter 28, beginning about verse 30. Hard to put together Paul's timeline. Paul certainly here seems to think that he's going to get out of jail, and that's not consistent with some of the things that go on later in Paul's life when he writes about being in jail. I'm thinking of 2 Timothy here. So there's a lot to work with of all of that. But yeah, it does seem best to think of this as Paul in prison in Rome. He is in prison. There's no question about that. He's in prison probably in Rome. So let me just give you a couple of notes here. I want you to particularly pay attention to Paul's situation and his attitude, beginning at about verse 12. He actually is rejoicing in everything that's going wrong because it's giving him opportunity to preach the gospel. And there are people who don't like Paul and they're preaching the gospel for all the wrong reasons. And Paul says, whatever, as long as the gospel is being preached, that's what this is all about. That's what's important, verse 18. Only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. So Paul is all about the gospel. And then he begins to talk about his situation. I know that you're praying for my deliverance, verse 19. That's the word for salvation. And I'm not convinced that that's totally about the Philippians praying that he's going to get out of jail more than he will do what's right and serve God in a difficult situation, because that's exactly where Paul is. He then spins this idea. He says, turns out for my deliverance, verse 19, because my eager expectation and hope, verse 20, is not that I will get out of jail, but that I will honor Christ. That's what Paul's about. Going to be with Christ would be preferable, he says, verse 23, but staying on in the flesh remains more necessary, verse 24, for the Philippians. But I want to honor Christ. That's what I need to do. That's what I want to do. Pray that I will do that. And here's the point I want to make from that. Paul will press the Philippians to be willing to live that kind of way, to give up, to serve, to sacrifice in humility. And in chapter two, tomorrow's reading, he will cite Jesus as the prime example of that. But then he will cite the examples of Timothy and Epaphroditus. But notice first he says, that's how I'm living. This is what I do, what I'm calling you to do. I'm doing that right now. That's the power of what Paul is saying when he talks about his own circumstances here, and that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. The chapter ends in, notice verse 27. Only let your manner of life, manner of life here is an important word. This is a reference to being a citizen, the conduct of a citizen. Philippi was a colony of Rome, so being a citizen meant something to these people. Act like a citizen of heaven, he will say. Stand firm in one spirit, strive for the faith of the gospel. Paul will have more to say about that as he develops those ideas in the book of Philippians, but our reading for Thursday is Philippians chapter 1. Friday, Friday, Friday. It is Friday. Welcome to Friday, and our reading today is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible, Philippians chapter 2. This chapter has some very famous passages in it, notably, of course, the material that begins in verse 5 about Jesus. Unfortunately, sometimes that's disconnected from the whole, and the call to unity in verses 1 to 4 lots of times is disconnected from the whole. But pick up the thought from chapter 1. Want to stand fast in one spirit, 127. One spirit, standing fast together. How do we do that? How do we do that? First four verses help us see what it takes to be unified. We have the same mind, the same love. We don't do anything, verse three, from selfish ambition or conceit. In humility, we count others as more significant than ourselves. That's what we need. That's what we need to be doing. And then Paul cites the example of Jesus. This is what Jesus did. Look to Jesus, act like Christ, be like the teacher. And you should know this is the kind of bonus thought that you get for listening to the podcast. There is widespread agreement among scholars that this is a quotation from an early Christian hymn. The cadence, the rhythm, the vocabulary, very different here. Paul is, Paul is quoting from a song that these brethren are singing in their assembly in all likelihood. And I should add here, this passage gets scrutinized and has been the subject of much debate down through the centuries, but it is a hymn, and we don't look at hymns with a magnifying glass. That's important to remember. So let's just kind of push down through here. Jesus, have your verse 5, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grassed, but emptied himself. That's caused lots of discussion, verse 7. What did Jesus give up? And the answer to that is we don't have any idea. We don't have any idea. We're not told that. We don't need to know that. Probably wouldn't understand it if we were told that. Jesus gave up whatever prevented him from coming here and living as a human and experiencing life as we do. Period. Full stop. That's all we need to know. What's important here is that he chose, verse seven, to be a slave, to be a servant. That's incredible. God came here not in glorious splendor where everybody said, look, it's the king and put a purple robe on him and carried him in one of those fancy sedan chairs and fanned him and fed him dates and grapes. He came and served. He washed dirty feet. So Paul then says, he took that so far, he humbled himself by becoming verse eight obedient even to the point of death. And this is the reason, then Paul says, that Jesus is to be exalted. So now he makes the application, verse 12, therefore we need to act like Jesus. And the immediate application is, as you have always obeyed, that needs to be tied to verse 8. Jesus obeyed, we need to obey. You need to obey, Philippians. Do what's right. Stop grumbling and disputing. Don't be involved in division and disunity. You need to hold forth as lights in the world, verses 14 and 15, standing fast again, verse 16, to the word of life. And finally, Paul closes this chapter by giving two great illustrations of those who have done that. I mentioned this in yesterday's episode. And take a look, you get a chance to see Timothy, verse 19. Timothy has visited Philippi. He's involved in that work. He knows about that work. They know him. Paul says, most people they don't care about anybody but themselves, verse 21. But Timothy gets outside of himself. He humbles himself. He serves. He's like Christ. And then Paul talks about Apaphroditus. Apaphroditus nearly died like Jesus. Jesus died. So Epaphroditus is modeling exactly what Paul is calling for. You know Apaphroditus, you care about Aphroditus. Aphroditus is like Christ. He's a humble servant. I'm a humble servant, Paul says. Timothy's a humble servant. Be like the teacher. What a powerful chapter this is. And it is beautiful. And it's very, very famous, but it's even more powerful when we connect it together and see what Paul is doing with this grand and great material. The reading for Friday, Philippians 2. That closes the podcast then for the week. I do appreciate you listening so very, very much. I really do enjoy pouring a cup of coffee, opening the Bible, talking about the Word of God, what we're reading this week, giving you some extra notes, some bonus thoughts from time to time, and even talking about the sermon so we can continue to integrate that into our day-to-day life. I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven. I want you to come too. I'll see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ podcast, Monday Morning Coffee with Mark. For more information about Westside, you can connect with us through our website, just Christians.com, and our Facebook page. Our music is from Upbeat.io. That's Upbeat with two Ps, U P P B E A T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others, and we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday.