SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello, and welcome to the World Sunday Church's special money morning helping American. We will help you get your wicked one. So we have a cup of coffee and we start to week together on Monday morning coffee.

Sermon Notes

Monday Philippians 3

Tuesday Philippians 4

Wednesday Mark 1

Thursday Mark 2

Friday Mark 3

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for Monday, April the 13th. I'm Mark, and I do have my Bible open and some notes of yesterday's sermon. I'm thinking about daily Bible reading for this week. We're starting a new book of the New Testament. That's exciting. And yes, I do have a cup of coffee in my hand, drinking out of one of my favorite mugs. It just makes it even better. And I want you to grab your Bible, grab your coffee. Let's grow together. Yesterday I talked some about following Jesus and the questions that we would ask if we were challenged to follow Jesus, maybe the way Peter, Andrew, James, and John were. But here's something else to think about as we work with that. And that sermon, I'm really looking to try to reach out to some non-Christians and get them to get in the ball game here and start thinking about following Jesus. But there's application. I made application all day yesterday, all through that sermon. All of us are thinking about what it means to continue to follow Jesus or start following Jesus. But I expect most people listening to the podcast, yeah, you're a disciple. Well, let's work on that a little bit. Because when Jesus stood on that beach and said, Follow me, those fishermen had something in their hands. They had their nets. And fishing was not just their job, it was their security and their identity and their future. And so let me just ask you very directly, what net is the hardest for you to drop right now? What's keeping you from fully following Jesus, disciple? Maybe it's control. Some of us really struggle with giving God the steering wheel. We want Jesus in the passenger seat, but we'll do the driving. Thank you very much. Maybe it's our reputation. We care too much about what other people think of us. And so we are afraid to follow Jesus fully and openly because it might cost us something socially at work with our family and our circle of friends. Maybe it's comfort. Sometimes Jesus moves us out of the predictable, out of the safe, and we don't like, we don't like being moved out of our comfortable little box. Maybe it's maybe it's just some sin. Maybe there's something in your life that you know does not belong there if you will be a full follower of Jesus. But Jesus did not ask Peter and Andrew to become perfect before they followed him. He just asked them to follow him so he could help them move forward to become what he wanted them to be. And I want to say to you this morning, you don't have to solve every problem in your life before you walk with Jesus, but you do have to be willing to leave the nets behind when he calls. Leave the net, go with Jesus and start growing. So I'm asking you again, be honest. What net is the hardest for you to drop right now? Because following Jesus always means going with Jesus forward, but that always means leaving something behind us. But of course, what you gain will always be greater than what you leave. Open your Bible now, let's do some daily Bible reading. Here, where Paul begins to issue some warnings and to be concerned about some problems that have attacked the church. Previously, Paul's really talking about problems inside of the congregation at Philippi. Now this is attack, this attack is from without. And that attack is coming from dogs. Verse 2. That's hard for me to read, you know, where I am on dogs, but of course, dogs in the New Testament world not often seen as pets, often wild packed animals. People were very afraid of them. I jumped past verse one. Let me just remind you, verse one says, finally, and Paul will say finally again in chapter four, verse eight. Sometimes when the preacher says finally, it doesn't mean he's done. That's the scriptural lesson from Philippians 3, verse 1. Just because the preacher says I'm summoned up doesn't mean you should grab your song book quite yet. There is a problem here in Philippi with these Jewish teachers. Now, whether these are straight-up Jews or Jewish Christians who are still trying to bind the law, we have seen so much of that, for example, in the book of Romans, so much trouble with Judaism, and then in Galatians, we see so much trouble with people trying to add the Jewish law on top of Christianity, or maybe the other's true Christianity is being grafted on top of Judaism. But Paul says, if you want to talk about human accomplishments being all about what I've done in the flesh, I can cover that conversation for you. I I got all of that. I got all of that going on. And I do think his emphasis here is not to exalt himself, but to just show that he emptied himself of status and the perks and privileges of power just like Jesus did. 3, 1 to 11 is Paul saying, I did what Jesus did in 2, 5 to 9. Now, obviously not at the same level. Paul didn't leave heaven, didn't die for our sins. Of course not. But he is saying, I'm living that way, as he's calling the Philippians to live that way. In verses 8 to 11, by the way, is one long sentence in Greek. When Paul gets rolling, he can just go. And verse 8, I count these things as rubbish. That is a really strong term. It actually can refer to human waste or to garbage, to unwanted food that's rotting and spoiled. But it is a very strong term. And Paul is using that kind of term to get everyone's attention and to make them think, where am I? Am I all about me and exalting myself? And I've done all these things. Look at me. I've checked off all the things on the religious chores list. God's so impressed with my doing, or am I going to trust in Christ? And Paul then at the end of the chapter in verses 12 through the end of the chapter, he talks about this is about trusting in Christ. That's where he is, that's what he wants to do. He's pressing on in Christ Jesus, verse 14. In Christ Jesus. In verse 15, the numerical standard has perfect, but it really the idea is mature, as in the ESV. And so Paul, maybe in a little bit of irony there, says, the way to be mature is to realize you're not mature yet. Grow up some and you'll recognize you need to grow some more. You'll need to grow some more. And then he does mention those enemies again in verse 18. We're not entirely sure who those enemies are. Paul doesn't say, but the Philippians clearly know. And one more note, verse 20, our citizenship, that word citizenship occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. And it is a term that probably references the rights of Roman citizenship. Remember, Philippi was a Roman colony, a very Roman city, and they were very proud of their ties to Rome. Paul says, let's be citizens of heaven, not citizens of Rome. Our reading for Monday, Philippians the third chapter. Welcome to Tuesday. It is Tuesday, and our reading today is Philippians the fourth chapter. Philippians 4 is the reading for Tuesday. Looking forward to Zoom tonight, Westsiders. It'd be exciting to get to talk about these verses together on the Zoom call. This breaks down into a couple of pieces. There's an exhortation here to steadfastness and unity, verses one to nine. And then Paul is very thankful for the Philippians' generosity in verses 10 to 20. And then the book closes 21, 22, and 23. A couple of notes here as you're working with this encouragement at the beginning to be unified. It is interesting to me that Paul seems to think that more rejoicing, verse 4, will cure some of the bickering and division that's going on. Isn't that an unusual take on that? We need to work on that a little bit more, think about that a little bit more. I do wonder what it was like when this was read in the assembly in Eodiah and Sentaiche, verse 2, get called out by an apostle in front of everybody. I guess everybody knew about their problems, and so Paul does not have any qualms about saying you two need to get it together because that's a problem for everyone. And no, we don't know. You don't need to submit this question for QA morning. We don't know who the true companion and fellow worker is. Epaphroditus has been put forward, Timothy, of course, Luke. Some have even said it's Paul's wife, and it's all just speculation. We don't know and we can't know, or the Holy Spirit would have told us. Don't get lost when Paul says the Lord is at hand in verse 5. There's lots of passages like that, and that just references references. Wow, what's the answer to that? Yeah, more coffee. That just references the certainty that Jesus can return at any time. David McClister did a wonderful job with that on our Super Saturday. And you can listen to that and hear his presentation about those verses. Sometimes people get a little confused about those matters. That's on our website, it's uh on our Facebook page. Take a look at that if you are concerned about the Lord being at hand. But once again, Paul concludes by saying, Imitate me. Paul says that all the time. That's an important principle for us to think about. And he says, You do these things and you'll have peace, which is what they desperately need. One scholar said one might see in verses two to eight that the steps to cure division within the church. That would be rejoicing, gentleness, prayer, thanksgiving, proper thought, and proper action. And then Paul adds some personal notes here about the Philippi's generosity. This is a wonderful place that helps us understand some things about sending directly to the preacher and not getting some missionary board or some overseen church all involved in all of that business. The Philippians sent directly to Paul. We want to do exactly that today, follow that New Testament model and pattern. And it does seem that what Paul wants to say here is that he appreciates the gift very, very much, but he does not want at the same time to express some kind of crazy dependence. I'm going to go under if you don't send me more money. No, Paul wants to say that he is dependent upon the Lord. And this idea of contentment that flows through verses 11 and 12 and 13 really build off the idea of Stoicism. And that was a very popular philosophy during this time. And in Stoic philosophy, the content man was the man who was independent, sufficient in and of himself. He does not need anybody or anything else. Notice how Paul stands that on its head by saying in verse 13, I'm content because I depend on Christ. And of course, I can't pass verse 13 without noting that that verse is massively taken out of context today. Paul did not write that so that various sports people and athletes and so forth would write that on their sweatbands or on their IBLAC. And it certainly does not mean that you can just do anything. I can hit a home run, I can throw a touchdown pass. Please, that is not what Paul is talking about. Paul is certainly not deceived into thinking that because, because he's dependent upon Christ, he can fly. When Paul's in danger of being shipwrecked in Acts 27, Paul doesn't say, No worries for me, I can do all things in Christ. I'm going to grow some gills and just swim in the water here and breathe water. That's ridiculous and clearly not where Paul is going with this. Let's not misuse this passage. What Paul is saying is he can manage, he can get by, he can have contentment in Jesus Christ. Whether he's in abundance or whether he's in poverty, he can remain content serving the Lord. That's the all things that he has in mind here. So I hope that'll be helpful to you as you work through that. There's a coffee mug that I've seen online that says I can do all things through taking a verse out of context. And that works pretty well with how people treat Philippians 4 13. We'll talk more about this tonight in the Zoom call with Ciders, everybody else. I'll see you in the Gospel of Mark tomorrow as we begin a new part of the New Testament, but the reading for Tuesday. Philippians chapter 4. It's Wednesday. It is Wednesday, and today we begin the Gospel of Mark. I am very excited about working in this gospel, thinking through this gospel, and starting with Matthew now, my Wednesday night Bible class. It will be interesting to read along in Matthew and also be reading in Mark at the same time. Mark's Gospel is different than all the other Gospels. It is very dramatic. It is full of action. It's always now, it's always immediate, and it just is unrivaled as portraying Jesus as a powerful, awesome figure. You can read the whole gospel of Mark in under an hour. And in many ways, I would just recommend you do that. Not as your daily Bible reading. You still want to read the chapters each day, soaking in the Word of God on a daily basis. But if you get a chance, just power all the way through it. And if you do that, when you set it down, you will say, wow, Jesus is incredible. Because he is. Now, this gospel is written by John Mark, and he probably is traveling with the Apostle Peter. This may represent the sermons that Peter preached about Jesus, probably written in the mid-60s when Nero's persecution is underway. So this is a difficult time to be a Christian. And the purpose of this gospel is just front and center. Mark 1:1, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It majors in Jesus' power. There's conflict with demons, conflict with religious authorities, and Jesus wins every one of those. Hands down, Jesus has all the power. And the style is crisp, fast moving, full of action. I can remember, remember reading the Bible at home when I was a little boy, and we're doing family Bible study, and my dad's teaching the gospel of Mark, and he said, this is like a comic book. It shows snapshots of Jesus, big pictures, just right along. And that is exactly right. See, Dad, I really was listening, even if you thought that little boy was not. So while the other gospels, for example, Matthew and Luke start with babies. Uh, Mark doesn't start with babies, babies aren't powerful. That doesn't fit, that doesn't fit where Mark's going with that. We don't need a little baby, that's not gonna work. What is powerful is someone who's so important he has a forerunner. And so here comes John the Baptist. He is dressed like Elijah, verses five and six. He looks like an Old Testament prophet. That is an intentional choice on his part. He is trying to start something and he gets that started. Verses seven and eight, people are coming out then to be baptized. Think of the news. God is at work, God is moving, and people are flooding themselves out there to become part of the move of God. And Jesus does that too. And we spend so much time falling over ourselves to talk about how Jesus is not baptized for the remission of sins, but baptism is still important, and we have to separate all that out and so forth. We forget what's going on here. What's going on here is God was at work and Jesus came. If you look at the timeline of Jesus' life, about 80 miles, Jesus walks about 80 miles to be baptized because he wants to be identified with the work of God. And in fact, he wants to be in the center of the work of God. The heavens are torn open, verse 10. That's an unusual expression. And then verse 11, Psalm 2, 7, and Isaiah 42, 1 are combined. The king of Psalm 2 is the suffering servant of Isaiah, fused into one, into one person, the person of Jesus. But Jesus wants to be part of that. Jesus wants to be identified with that. God's doing something. Jesus will show up for that and say, I want to be in on that too. Of course he wants to be in on that. He's the one that's that it's all really all about. Then in verse 14, there's probably a gap of a year and a half here that Mark is not covering. And we get the call of the fishermen. Talk so much about that on Sunday. I guess I'll just let some of that set. But in verse 22, by the way, notice how often you get immediately 18, 20, 21, and they were astonished now, verse 22. That's the word for strike a blow. One scholar said they were thunderstruck. And that's because Jesus doesn't teach like the scribes. Now, the scribes, they're not hand copyists of the law. That's not what they do. They are the interpreters of the law, the teachers of the law. And the way they did that is they always cited other rabbis. So Rabbi Ben Eleazar said thus and so and thus and so about the situation or the Sabbath-day circumstance or how to keep the law of God. But Rabbi Ben Ahikim, he says this and this and this. And so they're always citing other rabbis. Jesus never does that. Jesus cites Jesus. Jesus is the authority. See the power of Jesus here. And so at once, verse 28, his fame spreads, and he is all about healing, and all kinds of people show up for that because he has so much power. And then we see the source of this power. Jesus rising very early in the morning, verse 35, is praying. He's praying. And then we get the most unexpected miracle possible. In verse 41, Jesus touches a leper. You can't do that. You just can't. Nobody touches lepers. Lepers weren't even supposed to come around. They were ceremonially defiled at all times. Everything about that. Oh my. Nobody's touching lepers. And you see the heart of Jesus and the compassion of Jesus, and he cleanses him. And the leper is made clean. And notice that in verse 44, Jesus says, You need to obey the law. You need to obey the law. How is this idea spread that Jesus plays fast and loose? And just if you have warm fuzzies and you feel like you're a spiritual person, then you just are. You don't really need to worry about crossing your T's and dotting your eyes because God doesn't really care about that. Yeah, read 40 to 45 again. Jesus cared about that. Do what God's word says to do. Jesus did it all the time. He tells other people to do that as well. We need to be doing that. That's part of becoming like the teacher. A reading then for Wednesday, Mark chapter 1. It is Thursday. It is Thursday. And today our reading is Mark chapter 2. Mark 2 is the reading for Thursday. I guess I would have to say, as we begin a long section here in Mark's Gospel, where Jesus is just constantly crossing swords with the Pharisees, that Jesus and the religious people of his time got along about like cats and dogs do, maybe not even that well. Jesus has all authority and they want that authority, and they want to be popular, and Jesus is super popular. And all of that is a recipe for lots of conflict. And so in chapter 2, all the way through chapter 3, verse 6, Mark provides five stories of controversy between Jesus and the religious authorities. Maybe we ought to give some thought to that. We would have thought they would welcome Jesus. They're supposed to be all about the Messiah and all the things that go with that. And they most certainly are not. And that begins in Capernaum. That's kind of a home base for Jesus here. And it is essential to understand this healing of the paralytic that you understand something about roofs in Jesus' day. The typical roof would be constructed of timbers that were laid parallel to each other, about two or three feet apart. And then crosswise to that, you'd have sticks laid close to each other, thus forming that basic roof kind of thatched. And then on top of that, you would lay reeds or branches, thistles, all kinds of thatched material. And then the whole thing would be overlaid with about a foot of earth, which was then packed down to resist water. All told a roof would be about two feet thick. And authorities say, scholars say that during the spring, grass would grow on those roofs. So these guys are digging, literally digging through the roof. And I love verse five. Jesus saw their faith because faith and works go together. Don't let anyone deceive you about that. And Jesus certainly could duck out of the problems here. Verse 7, why does this man speak like that? He's blasphemy. Jesus could say, wait, wait, wait, wait, you misunderstood me. I just mean God is going to forgive him. Jesus does not do that. He has the authority to forgive sins. And he shows that by using his miraculous powers to cause the man to walk. Nobody can see the forgiveness of sins. No question, you can see the man walk. And I am, podcast listeners, you get this note. I'm going to give you a quick note here on the use of son of man. Jesus loves to say son of man. That's his favorite title for himself, verse 10, but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. And most of the time that's coming straight. Out of Jesus' mouth. There's a couple of exceptions to that. And later, Jesus will explicitly tie that to Daniel chapter 7 and verse 13, which is a very messianic verse. I think one scholar is probably hitting the bullseye here when he says an attractive but uncertain suggestion is that Jesus chooses to emphasize this title partly because it was not a common messianic title. And therefore he could use it like the parables, not only to reveal the truth to some, but to conceal it to others. So son of man can just be exactly what it sounds like. I'm a human being. I'm a human being. But when connected to Daniel 7, the Son of Man is much more than just a human being. So Jesus can play that. And those that are interested can come to him and find out more and come to see that he is a whole lot more than just a human being. And those who are his enemies who would twist his words and who want to misunderstand him aren't ever going to get it anyway. Then in verse 13, pay attention to Jesus' rising popularity. And then Jesus adds a tax collector to the group, which is crazy. That's just crazy. Everybody hates tax collectors. There's a Jewish document outside of the Bible that lists customs officials with murderers and robbers. So these guys are just really popular people. And notice here the importance of who you eat with. In the New Testament world, who you sit down at table with, actually recline at table with, is very important. It signals all kinds of things, and that, of course, drives the scribes and the Pharisees absolutely crazy. They can't imagine that. Jesus says, You guys are too self-righteous. I can't help people who are self-righteous. Then there's a controversy, verses 18 to 22 about fasting. And this is really about inappropriate behavior. Sometimes this gets used to say that the Old Testament had to go away and the New Testament is a whole new system and so forth. And I think that's a wrong conception of the Old Testament. It needed to be entirely replaced. The Old Testament grows into the New Testament. Jesus is talking about when you're at a wedding and everybody's eating and being joyous, that's not the time to be weeping and crying. Oh, I'm fasting, wearing your black veil. No, Jesus says this is not the time for fasting and being down. There'll be a time for that. The cross is coming. But right now, this is the time to rejoice because I'm here and I'm teaching. And that gets us to that last section, Jesus being the Lord of the Sabbath. And this is so misily understood. In fact, one scholar wrote, Jesus shows that the scripture itself supplies a precedent in which human need took precedence over divine law. Really? Really? How far could you go with that? How far could you go with that? Oh, I'm going to steal this car because my family needs it. I'm going to go rob the bank because my family is in need. And I know robbing is wrong, stealing is wrong, but you know, human need takes precedence over divine law. That's insane. That's just insane and completely wrong. What Jesus says here is that David did break the law. Jesus, in fact, says that he entered the house of God, verse 26, and was given that which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat. If Jesus said David did wrong, guess what the rest of us should say? David did wrong. What he's appealing for here is consistency and appealing for people to recognize his authority. That's what this episode is about. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus has authority here. That's where Mark is going with this. So our reading then for Thursday is Mark chapter 2. Here we go, here we go. It is Friday. It is Friday, last day of the work week. Hope you've had a great week. Let's read Mark chapter 3. The reading for Friday is Mark chapter 3. And this is more controversy between Jesus and the religious authorities of the day. That opens with the story of the man with the withered hand. In verse 2, it says they were trying to accuse him. I think that has to really factor into how we read this and what's going on here. As we continue to see that controversy between Jesus and the religious authorities, their attitude makes all the difference. Now, generally speaking, the Pharisees taught that healing and medical work could only be done if the situation was life-threatening, and this is clearly not a life-threatening situation. What will Jesus do about that? And what Jesus does is he takes it on straight up. Jesus does not say, hey, I'll meet you tomorrow because I don't want to create a fuss, I don't want there to be a freckus here. He takes them on right there. And Jesus is angry about that, verse 5. He is angry at the way they have twisted the law of God. And I would say this. Verse 4, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? But they were silent. The law of God said you were not to work on the Sabbath. But it is not God who came up with 39 different categories of work and all the ridiculous rules and regulations that the Pharisees burdened everybody with as they tried to derive all kinds of definitions of what is and is not work. God was content to tell people, don't work on the Sabbath, and then let them work that out. God expected people could figure that out for themselves. Now here's the application of that. Lots of times disunity and division occurs among the people of God because somebody takes what the Lord said, somebody takes a verse out of the Bible and then binds their application of that. The Bible says this, and now they're binding an application of that. I was in a meeting one time and there was a lady there who was just death on anybody coming to church who wasn't dressed appropriately. And she would run people off if they didn't come dressed to her standard. That's wrong. And somebody needed to show the courage of Jesus and confront her about that and make her stop doing that. Because while there are some principles in the Bible about reverence, and I get it, I I've I know all those arguments. You know, we have to do our best for the Lord on and on. I know all this stuff that people say. There isn't any passage in the Bible that says a woman has to wear a dress to Wednesday night service. And when somebody binds that, if you're not wearing a dress, you shouldn't come. Don't come. People are being run off because somebody's binding what they deem is an application of the law of God, then that needs to be confronted just like Jesus did here in Mark chapter 3. So his fame is just spreading. Verse 7, great crowds are following him. And then Jesus does something that really demonstrates something really big is happening. And that is the announcement of the 12 apostles. And it's all in the 12. This is a very bold announcement of Jesus' program because when you think about the number 12 and what that meant to people and the association with Israel, and now is this the new Israel of God? What's happening here? Super, super important moment. The 12, the 12 apostles. By the way, verses 19 and 20 are only in the Gospel of Mark. It's always helpful to look at the verses just in that are unique to a gospel. And Mark loves to say some things here and then come back and say some more things about that. So we get some family things in 2021, and then we get family things in 31 to 35. That leads then to this discussion of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And once again, it's Jesus crossing swords with the religious authorities. Notice verse 22, these guys come from Jerusalem. This is getting serious. This is an official investigation. These people are coming to check this new rabbi out. What's going on with all of that? And while we work very hard to say in verse 28 that you, if you are concerned about committing the sin against the Holy Spirit and never being forgiven, that alone, your concern shows that you have not committed that sin. We need to make certain that we get Jesus isn't kidding here. Jesus isn't kidding here. There are people who can sin in such a way as to be outside of the possibility of forgiveness. Now, how is that possible? And don't neglect this because Jesus is truly, verse 28, and that is Jesus' way of emphasizing this is important. Pay attention to this, this is a big deal. And how is it then that somebody can sin and not be forgiven? What's the deal with that? One writer said this denotes the conscious and wicked rejection of the saving power and grace of God toward man. Only the man who sets himself against forgiveness is excluded from it. That is exactly right. Look at verse 22. They admit Jesus is doing this, but they still won't believe. If you are determined not to believe in Jesus, you cannot believe in Jesus. Jesus will let you do that. He won't make you believe in him. But when you decide you will not believe in Jesus, you have cut yourself off from the possibility of being forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. Chapter ends with a note about his family. What a wonderful note that is. And that is the reading for Friday. Mark chapter three. That then is the podcast for the week. Thank you so much for listening. Let me get a little bit more coffee here. Hmm. Just wonderful to get to work through the Word of God with you, talking about the sermon. Hope this podcast is a daily encouragement to you. 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 31:45

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. Where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others, and we look forward to seeing you again with the cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday.