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Hello, and welcome to the West Side 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 through each other and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday morning coffee with Mark.

Sermon Notes

Monday Colossians 3

Tuesday Colossians 4

Wednesday Titus 1

Thursday Titus 2

Friday Titus 3

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Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for the week of May the 10th through the 16th. I'm Mark, and I've got my Bible. I've got some coffee, and I hope everybody had a great day yesterday as we're coming off of Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I have a wonderful, wonderful mom. What a blessing from above. I hope that everybody had a great day yesterday. Want to think a little bit more about that sermon. That was kind of a special gift for our ladies yesterday. And then I want us to dive into Colossians, and we're going to one of my favorite and very underlooked books of the Bible. We're headed to Titus. It's going to be a great, great week. You know what to do. Grab your Bible, grab your coffee. Let's grow together. Let's think a little bit more about that sermon yesterday. That was that was something to preach on. I've never preached on that before, as I mentioned. And I hope that that was well received. It's just something we don't talk about a whole lot, but of course, women are thinking about it a whole lot. And as the father of two daughters, I have been distraught for a long time about the world's messaging concerning body image. In fact, of late, has anyone else noticed the avalanche of skin disease commercials? Here are people who have some kind of skin issue. Maybe it's genetic, uh, maybe not, maybe they've been in the sun. I don't know all about all of those different kinds of issues. But here in these commercials, they're portrayed as being down in the dumps, they're depressed, they're just worthless. And then, of course, they get this medication that's being pushed in the commercial or this cream. And now, oh, they can go outside and have friends and live life. And it seems to me that's the world's message. If you don't look right, if you're not pretty by the world's standards, you should hide yourself because we don't want to see you. That is a horrible message. And I get it. I know why these products sell, because that is the message the world sends and it hits home. And I am sure the people who are dealing with skin disorders like that, they they know a billion times more than I can ever know how hard the world is on people who don't meet the world's standards of beauty. And people don't want to be looked down on and judged because of their appearance. But what I'd like to know is why should someone who has some kind of skin issue feel like feel like if they don't get that fixed, they're just worthless. That is, that's just one example of the destructive messaging our world sends about body image. And that's why I wanted to take some time and get into God's word to talk about true beauty and what it means to serve the Lord in our bodies. And for about the hundredth time, it's not wrong to be pretty, it's not wrong to be beautiful, it's not wrong to dress so as to make the most of what the good Lord has given to you. And it's certainly not wrong to be good stewards of the body that God has given you, exercise, a healthy diet, drink 40 gallons of water. You know all about all of that. But as God's people, it's time for us to pursue character and heart and spirituality, true inner beauty, and let God define us inside and out. And I hope. I hope that helped our sisters in Christ, and I hope that is what you took from the sermon yesterday. Let's open our Bible now to the book of Colossians. This is a place where, as one writer says, the false teaching has been left behind, at least in terms of specific reference. And Paul moves into the ethical section of the letter. He will speak of the true heart of devotion to God rather than the empty system that he has just criticized. So sometimes we say the book divides doctrinally and practically. I'm not super comfortable with that. Although, having just said that, I probably will end up saying that in the pulpit sometime, and everybody who listens to the podcast will jump up and down and yell. But uh, doctrine is practical, and we need to be careful not to separate those ideas out. But this is the ethical section of the book. And right away you'll notice this is sounding a lot like Romans, and especially Romans chapter six. I think some of these ideas come to full blossom there in the book of Romans, and he says, seek verse one, seek the things that are above, and set, set your minds. Those are two different words. Some translations don't uh use different words there uh for that, and they obscure that, but seek is to desire and to want, and to set is to regard and to honor, to really go after. And Paul has a list here of things to put to death in verses five to 11. This is called a vice list, and Paul loves those. In fact, spoiler alert, next Sunday on the 17th in the 9 a.m., Lord willing, I will talk about the fruit of the spirit out of Galatians 5. And yeah, that's that's a virtue list, which follows what's on top of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5, the works of the flesh. What's the works of the flesh? That's a vice list. That's exactly what that is. One of the things here, verse 8, that Paul says we need to take out of our lives is obscene talk. And that is a very unusual word. It's found only here in the New Testament, and it may be better abusive language. It's really some uncertainty here about exactly what constitutes obscene talk. Maybe abusive language fits better. So you have what you need to get out of your life, and now things to put on, verses 12 to 17. Paul has two lists of five to take out, and now he gives five things to put in. Remember as he calls out humility here in verse 12, that in the Greek world humility was viewed as a weakness. Look at verse 15. Peace is listed there. That's so important for Christians, and that that really is about the peace in a congregation, doing the things that makes makes for church unity. Let's get a little coffee here to keep this going. Makes for church unity. It's not so much an individual thing, but how I relate to you and how you relate to me. Notice again that Paul has an interest in the word changing and transforming us. Again, doctrine is practical when we let it rule in our lives. Speaking of ruling, then in 318 to 4.1, what you have here is the rules for the Christian household. And this is called a household code. This is a very familiar kind of thing outside of the New Testament. And it would be very common for this sort of material to circulate. This is how a household ought to run and be run. Verse 18 has submit. The verse there with submission, verse 18, that verb is in what's called the middle voice, which we don't have any equivalent to in English at all, which makes it very difficult to get a handle on some of this. But the idea is you put yourself in submission. Submission is not something that I can make you do. I can't make you submit. You have to do that yourself. It's voluntary, and it should never be seen as inferiority. Remember, we submit to the elders. That doesn't mean that we are inferior to them. We submit to government. That does not mean that we are inferior to government. I certainly do not feel inferior to our current crop of politicians. No, submission is a voluntary choice, and it is the woman's decision here to follow the leading of her husband. And then verse 19: husbands, love your wives and don't be harsh with them. That is not found in any household code outside of the New Testament. That is a break from how people thought husbands could do and should do. Husbands had all the rights, wives had all the duties, not in a Christian household. And then there's some discussion here about slaves. Verse 24. Slaves here, knowing you'll receive the inheritance. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Slaves cannot inherit in the Roman world. So that would really stand out to slaves. Great material here in our reading today. I know there's plenty here for me to work on and try to install in my life. And I know that that'll be the case for all of us as we read today in Colossians 3. The reading today, Colossians, the third chapter. It's Tuesday. It is Tuesday, and the reading today is Colossians chapter 4. The fourth chapter of Colossians is our reading today. This is an easy reading, lots of personal notes. I'll give you some things to help with that as we work along here. Please pay attention. Notice verse 3 that Paul does not ask to be set free. He is asking instead to preach more. Then we get verses 7 to 18, some instructions and greetings here. And except for Tishekus and Nympha and maybe justice, all the names in these verses are also mentioned over in Philemon. There is a tight tie between Colossians and Philemon. And Tishekus is seeming, it seems like he is carrying this letter. That is chancy and risky business, but we know that Tishekus was from Asia, Acts chapter 20 and verse 4. And he is one of Paul's trusted lieutenants. He is sent to Crete, Titus 3, verse 12. He also sent to Ephesus, 2 Timothy 4 and verse 12. It is thought that he is carrying or he carried the Ephesian letter. And that probably means that's a circular letter, that it is not just for Ephesus, but for the churches in that area. Colossae seems to be a church established out of Paul's time in Ephesus. So lots of churches are probably getting that material and reading that material. We'll talk more about that in a moment, and especially when we read the book of Ephesians. Three times Tishekus says in verse 8 that Paul says, wow, more coffee, that Tishicus will give him the news about what's happening. And then Aristarchus is mentioned in verse 10. He is from Thessalonica, Acts 20 and verse 4. He was in the middle of the riot in Ephesus, Acts 19, 29, and he is on the ship that carries Paul to Rome and ends up being shipwrecked with Paul. Verse 10, there's John Mark here mentioned as the cousin of Barnabas. He is the John Mark, of course, of Acts 13 and also of Acts 15, the John Mark that results in the Paul and Barnabas missionary team breaking up. What about Epaphras? He's mentioned in verse 12. He seems to be the one that founded the church from Paul's time in Ephesus. Verse 14 mentions Luke. This is the only place that he is called a doctor. Verse 16 reminds us that these letters are being read aloud in the assembly. That seems to me to be very, very important. I've talked about that a lot when I'm preaching in the book of Revelation. I just think we need to have a better mindset to get the material as they got it. We do a deep dive, and certainly the Holy Spirit knew that this material was being preserved, and we could do exactly that. But there's something to be said for looking at it, hearing it, thinking about it the way they initially received it. And of course, since we're talking about the Holy Spirit preserving something, see also verse 16 that you read the letter from Laodicea. So many people are comfortable saying that is a lost epistle of Paul. I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm not comfortable with that at all. The concept that a Pauline document, something that this venerable apostle writes, could somehow just disappear, especially in light of the material we have from Paul's pen in Philemon. Has anybody ever read Philemon and thought this is the most significant part of the New Testament? Oh my, we couldn't even be Christians without Philemon. No, no one's ever said that, but Philemon is preserved because it's from Paul. So Paul wrote a letter to the church at Laodicea and somehow it got lost. I think that is a completely wrong assumption. I think the letter coming from Laodicea is the book of Ephesians. It is a circular letter and it is circulating. It's not a lost letter. There you go. Rant off for Tuesday. The reading is Colossians chapter 4. Welcome to Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. And today we begin with the letter of Paul to Titus. Our reading for Wednesday is Titus chapter 1. This is a marvelous, marvelous epistle, one of my favorites. There are a number of important themes that make this book very, very relevant to us today. There's the discussion of elders in contrast to false teachers in chapter one, all kinds of good information about the Christian home in chapter two, and especially how Christians behave in public life in chapter three. All of that is bound together with the idea of being self-controlled. You'll note the word self-controlled appears many times in the book of Titus. Well, maybe we don't need the book of Titus because everybody in our world is so self-controlled. Yeah, probably not. When, where, how, all those kinds of questions are difficult to answer about the book of Titus. We are beyond the events of Acts here, so maybe 62 to 64 AD is when this is being written. We don't know where Paul is, and we don't know a lot about Titus. Titus is very underestimated. He seems to be one of Paul's most trusted lieutenants, but we don't know a lot about him because his name is only mentioned 13 times in the New Testament, and those mentions come only sporadically in some of Paul's epistles. He never is mentioned specifically in Acts, although there are places where there's a group of Christians and he might be in there. He also may be older. In the book of Timothy, we get some admonitions about don't let people despise your youth, Timothy. And you don't get any of that here in Titus. So the speculation is that maybe he is an older man. He is, I say again, highly trusted by Paul. He carries the letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12, and 2 Corinthians 8, verse 23 mentions him. Verse 4 of our reading today calls him my true child in the common faith. So maybe, maybe Paul is the one who taught him the gospel. The goal here seems to be to solidify the church in Crete, to help it get stable and solid and withstand false teaching. That begins with the customary greetings, verses 1 to 4, and then Paul gets right down to business with the qualification of elders, beginning in verse 5. He discusses elders and what they need to be and who they are. I would emphasize verse 6 if anyone is above reproach. That seems to be the overarching characteristic of elders, that they are to be a great example, that they are to be seen in the community and in the church as the kind of person who is following Jesus the Christ. Then that is filled out with some additional ideas that help us understand what that looks like. And yes, the lists are different in Timothy and Titus, and I don't feel obligated to try to mesh them and make this qualification match that qualification. I don't think you can do that. I think that will never work. They are slightly different here, different in emphasis, especially. Then in verse 10, notice the word for. For is the connecting word there. You may have because. We need these guys because we need good shepherds because there are many, verse 10, who are insubordinate, which is the same word as being used in verse 6, debauchery and insubordination. We have people who are not insubordinate, their families, probably verse 6. Their children are not insubordinate, but there are folks who are insubordinate, these false teachers who are roaming around. And Paul says these Cretan false teachers are just terrible. Verse 12, they are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. And that makes some people uncomfortable. Paul seems to be kind of painting with a very broad brush. Some think Paul writes that with a twinkle in his eye, and that everybody is familiar with this saying, and that they would understand that Paul is just kind of poking at them a little bit. Maybe, maybe if I wrote to people in California and I said, I know that you're in the in the granola state, a bunch of fruit flakes and nuts. I'm certainly not saying everybody in the church is a fruit flake or a nut, but that's kind of the characteristic the stereotype for California. Maybe they would write back and say, hello to you, bunch of gun-toting rednecks. And I don't think we would take that personally or be offended by any of that. One writer has said that Paul is applying this idea to the false teachers and not to all the Cretans. So maybe that's where that lands. You think about that and work on that. But the key issue here, look at verse 16, is that the opponents are teaching that what a person believes and how a person behaves, they're not related, and that godly living is not necessary in order to be saved and to do what's right. Good works is a big part of the book of Titus, and we see that in verse 16 as well. Notice then how Paul has immediately set up the idea teaching will help the church get strong and stable, teaching about the role of shepherds and who those people are. Now we're going to get in tomorrow's reading, some teaching about the home. But our reading for Wednesday is Titus chapter 1. Welcome to Thursday. Let's read the Bible together on Thursday. It's Titus chapter 2 that we are reading. This is a short chapter, and it is absolutely packed with all sorts of great teaching that is so needed today. Self-control is a major theme here. Good works is also a major idea here. Here, Paul is really saying it's not just teach something different, Titus, we need to live differently. Begins in verse 1, teach what accords with sound doctrine. In contrast to the false teachers who are teaching Jewish myths and human commandments, Titus needs to teach sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is a term that means healthy, it means fit. And he begins then to talk about various groups in the church, older men and older women. How old is old here? Well, let's just skate out onto some really thin ice. Nobody likes to be called old. I'll give you a quote from a scholar. Philo cites Hippocrates' discussion of the seven stages of life. And the sixth is old, which he identifies as being 50 to 56 years of age. I'm probably not very comfortable with that. That would make me old. I think that's probably false doctrine. I say that, of course, very tongue-in-cheek, but there's some difference between old and young. Old folks need to act like old folks and have some specific obligations. Young people need to act like young people and they need to respect old people and have they have some specific obligations. A word or two here, verse five, about women working at home. Working at home is a much better translation than the King James, which has keepers at home, which somehow pretty much got morphed into keeper at home. That's not what Paul says. The reading here is not the stay-at-home stereotype that all women have to be tied to the stove and stay home and never have a job. It's not a prohibition of wives being a professional woman at all. What's being affirmed here is that if a woman is married and has a husband and children, she will love and not neglect them. And I think it's fair to point out that ironically, what Paul disapproves of is idle women who go from house to house and gossip and cause trouble and do nothing more than surf Instagram. Whoops, I added that myself. So it's not keeper at home. And that can result in all kinds of troubles. Notice the word of God could be reviled. This is the first of three times that Paul shows concern for the reputation of the church with non-Christians. Then Titus in verse 7 and 8 is said, hey, Titus, you need to be an example. And some people think Titus here must be young, since this comes after the teaching to young men, but watch what happens to that in just a moment. Slaves then are addressed in verses 9 and 10. Adorning the doctrine would mean to make it attractive and appealing. And Paul actually sees slavery here as an example or as an opportunity for evangelism. Try that on for size. There's a wonderful final admonition here, verses 11 to 15, that talks about grace. And sometimes there's so much discussion about grace, and people many times will say, we need to hear more preaching on grace, which of course makes the preacher pull his hair out because usually you hear that right after you've completed a 34 part. Series on grace. And sometimes what that means is I want to hear what the denominational people say about grace. Namely, that how you live and what you do doesn't matter because grace is kind of duct tape. And at the final judgment, God just kind of duct tapes over all of your sins and messes and iniquity and wickedness with grace. And then you're just saved. And of course, that is absolutely outside of the New Testament. And this is a wonderful place to see that grace means doing something. Grace does not exclude you from doing something, me from doing something, because grace teaches us, trains us, verse 12, to renounce on godliness and worldly passions, to live self-control. There it is again, upright and godly lives. Grace works. How about that? And the expression then appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Great God is a comparatively comparatively more coffee. Comparatively rare expression in the New Testament. And there is discussion here about is this one person or two? Is this God the Father and Jesus Christ? And those that know the structure and syntax of Greek say it is one. This is certainly, certainly a passage that is stressing the deity of Jesus the Christ. And verse 14 is just all full up of Old Testament language. And then in verse 15, we get this declare these things, exhort and rebuke. And that sounds an awful lot like 1 Timothy 4, 12, which is the place where Paul says, hey, don't let anybody despise your youth. And since Paul doesn't say that in verse 15, some people have said Titus must be older. So you just you just put that where you need to put that. Some people decide Titus is younger because of his example being cited in verse 7, right after admonitions to young people. And then some people decide he must be older because there's no admonition about despising your youth in verse 15. Maybe what we should say is, we wish we knew more about Titus, and we don't. Our reading for Thursday, Titus chapter 2. It is Friday. It is Friday. Made it to the end of the week once again. Today our reading is Titus the third chapter, the reading for Friday, Titus chapter 3. This is a bad chapter division. This material needs to be right up tight with chapter 2. And there is heavy emphasis here on God taking the initiative and how God transforms us. That should not mean by any stretch that we don't do anything. We just saw that in Titus 2, 11, 12, and 13. But God is the one who is doing the saving. And so there's not new material, verse one, remind them. This is what they need to be continually taught and told. And so then we get some ideas here about how Christians behave in public life in relation to the authorities. We are to be good citizens, submissive, obedient, cooperative, and in relation to everybody else. We should be kind and courteous and humble and gentle. It is certainly worth noting here as we move forward into four, five, and six, that we don't save ourselves. We are saved by the grace of God. We are not saved by the things that we do to merit that wonderful gift. Remember, grace. Grace is that wonderful gift of God that builds relationship and then carries with it expectations. And washing and renewal in verse 5, in the structure of the Greek grammar, those that know that kind of thing will tell you that is one single phrase. And I think that absolutely is a reference to baptism and probably picks up Acts 2.38 in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we get uncomfortable with the Holy Spirit doing anything. But what you see here is that when we are converted, we are cleansed in the negative, cleansed of our sins, and in the positive, we are recreated, a new creature in Christ. That's Romans 6, and moving on even into Romans chapter 8. So we get a trustworthy saying in verse 8. That's the only one of those in Titus. Paul has a bunch of those in Timothy. This that probably means the things that are in verse 5 is probably the trustworthy saying that he's looking at there, the idea that we've been saved not by ourselves. And Paul is saying that he believes the grace of God and understanding it will cause us to live in a different way. The epistle closes with some personal notes. There's Tishekus again. We talked about him in our reading in Colossi, Colossae, or Colossians, goodness, coffee. Coffee is the answer. And Paul is in Nicopolis. Since there are seven cities in the ancient world with the name Nicopolis, it's a little difficult to pin down exactly where he is, but most agree that Paul is on the western coast of Achaia, northwest of Athens, about 200 miles. It would be safe and sane to winter on land. Sea travel in the winter is dangerous. Verse 14 gives us another note about good works. And verse 13, I shouldn't have jumped past Zenus the lawyer. Lawyers in Judaism are those that are experts in the Jewish law, but Zenus is a Greek name. He may be an attorney, he may be a lawyer lawyer, like we think of as lawyers. Grace to you all then. In verse 15, once again, grace appears in conjunction with verse 14, good works. Those are not mutually exclusive. The reading for Friday, Titus chapter 3. That closes the podcast for the week. I appreciate you being a good listener. If you're being blessed by the podcast, please tell others about it, share it with them, and leave a rating or review that helps more people find the podcast. I do really enjoy pouring a cup of coffee, opening the Bible, thinking about the sermon from Sunday, thinking about our daily Bible reading, working together with you in the Word of God. I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come too. See you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

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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 E A T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others, and we'll look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday.