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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 through the clear and better work the applications into our daily life. Mark will then look forward into this week's 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.

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Hey everybody.

Intro

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Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for the week of May 24th through the 30th. Today is Memorial Day. It is May 25th. Happy Memorial Day. And I am ready to talk with you about daily Bible reading, but certainly not talking to you about yesterday's sermon. Can't be doing that because I did not preach yesterday at Westside. So thankful for Todd Hounschel and for the elders' desire to help him develop as a gospel preacher. And he needed some pulpit time and he got that yesterday. Would encourage you to listen to his lessons and to encourage him in every way that you possibly can. But that means we just need to head straight to Bible reading, which means we're talking about the book of Galatians and then the book of Ephesians. I'm really excited about that. You know what to do. Grab your Bible, grab your coffee. Let's grow together. The

Monday Galatians 6

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reading for Monday is Galatians chapter six. We are finishing the book of Galatians. Always difficult after the weekend to climb back into Bible reading. Remember, in Galatians, Paul has announced two different approaches to spiritual life. You can do that by working the works of the flesh, which ultimately lead to every kind of problem, or the fruit of the spirit, and he defines the life that's led by the spirit. And that, of course, is not mystical or something that causes you to glow in the dark or act in a bizarre fashion. It's extremely practical. And he's breaking that out now in chapter 6. Notice in 6.1 that Paul calls them brothers, and that is the eighth time he has used that designation. Paul is certainly trying to build some bridges here. And there's a lot sometimes said here about trespass in verse 1, any transgression or trespass, depending upon your translation. I think we need to be careful sometimes with really over-defining some Greek terms. Sin means miss the mark, it's based on archery. Not all of that is packed into every time the word for sin is being used. And while transgression here is the idea of slipping off the marked path, I'm not sure that I would read all of that into every time Paul uses the expression transgression. Clearly, we are talking about people who aren't showing the fruit of the Spirit. What must be done? We need to restore them. Who needs to do it? The spiritual need to do that. That's the people with maturity and knowledge, someone who can help. And how should they do that? They should do that gently. There's a whole sermon right there in 6.1. And you need to be careful as you do that because you can be tempted, tempted to partake of the sin, or maybe even more to the point, tempted to become proud. Paul's very concerned about that. Look at verse 3. Restoration can be dangerous business, verse 3 and 4. I think he's coming out of 526. Don't be conceited. All of that can happen when I see that you're wrong and I go to correct you. Oh, I'm so much better than you. That can create all kinds of difficulty. Paul then turns to the idea of money in verses six to ten. And this just shows that very early in the church's history there were paid teachers who were supported by the local church. And I'll give you a quote here out of verse six to support the Lord's servants is not a grim duty, though some congregations treat it as such. Instead, Paul speaks of it as a sharing, it's a fellowship or a partnership. The word here is koininea, as the teacher shares the good things of the word, so the congregation is to share all the good things with the teacher. I think that's an important way of thinking about the work of a preacher or even the work of an elder. If we were supporting an elder, we are sharing together in this spiritual enterprise. We are sharing together in spiritual activity. Koinanea, the word that's translated fellowship, is used that way to mean sharing in spiritual things. It's often used today to mean many other things. Be careful with that. Let's call Bible things by Bible names. So Paul then talks about sowing to the flesh, and he's probably here talking about using our money to please ourselves, to sow to the flesh, one scholar said is to pander to it, to cuddle it, to stroke it instead of crucifying it. The seeds we sow are largely thoughts and deeds. So every time we allow our mind to harbor a grudge or nurse a grievance or entertain an impure fantasy or wallow in self-pity, we sow to the flesh. Every time we linger in bad company, whose influence we know we cannot resist. Every time we read pornography or look at pornographic literature, every time we take a risk which strains our self-control, we are sowing, sowing, sowing to the flesh. And again, I do think I would relate this to verse six and say, every time we ignore the opportunity to do good, verse nine, particularly financially, we have sown to the flesh. In verse 11, then Paul begins to close this great letter. Apparently he has taken the pen in his own hand, and the difference in penmanship would be all very obvious. Well, yeah, how about some coffee? Mm-hmm. Maybe that will help some things. And I wonder if big letters are a sign of emphasis, like printing in bold, or is that just characteristic of Paul's penmanship? I think a lot of people who've seen me write on the board at Westside could identify my uh penmanship rather easily. Of course, given the things that Paul has said about his eyes, back when he was talking about when he came to see the Galatians for the first time and how they accepted him and how much they were concerned for him. When Paul talks about his eyes, Galatians 4.15, for example, that has caused people to wonder if big letters say he set down his reading glasses and can't find them. I certainly would sympathize with that. So now he's having to write large letters. Verse 12, though, Paul, this is so characteristic of Paul, he gets ready to finish, and then he has to say one more time something about these false teachers. And this is this is really the first time that Paul has said some things about insincere motives. They just don't want to be persecuted and they want to build their own platform. Verse 13, they are trophy hunters. That's what they are all about. And I shouldn't have jumped past verse 12 so quickly. Force you is so important here. Paul has used that in chapter 2 and verse 3 and chapter 2 and verse 14. Forcing is an issue. The problem is not someone who says, you know, everybody in my family is circumcised. We've been circumcised now for hundreds and hundreds of years. I'm gonna have my baby circumcised. It's just something that we do in our family. The problem is when someone says, you have to do that if you want to be saved, if you want to be a Christian. Forcing is the issue in the book of Galatians. And so Paul says, We can't have that. These people just want to trophy hunt. They want to nail your height on the wall, so to speak. Oh, look, I got those people to follow after me. And that's not being controlled by Jesus Christ. And I do think there's an application to those who just want to build a big following on social media, on Facebook, on TikTok, with their YouTube channel, with their podcast, Everybody Look at Me. They're always talking about themselves and they're always putting themselves first and trying to make disciples of themselves. That's not how Paul operates. By the way, in verse 15, he talks about new creation, and guess what? That's a very, that's a very apocalyptic idea. We read the most about the new creation in the book of Revelation. And so Paul does have, and he'll show some of that in Thessalonians as well, an apocalyptic viewpoint that there's more to this life than what we can see on this earth. There is there is a battle going on in spiritual places. Welcome to the book of Ephesians, right there. And so we need to look beyond what we are seeing just here. And so then Paul has been beaten and stoned and whipped, and every kind of terrible thing has been inflicted on his body, verse 17, and so he bears the scars of persecution for Christ. Galatians is such a great epistle, and I think our time together in it has been of help to all of us. Galatians 6 is the reading for Monday. Welcome

Tuesday Ephesians 1

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to Tuesday. Tuesday's reading is Ephesians chapter 1. The reading for Tuesday is Ephesians 1. I might as well tell you now, you need an extra large cup of coffee to get through today's podcast because I want to say some introductory things about the book of Ephesians, and then I still need to work through chapter one. So yeah, get comfortable. And there will be a Zoom call tonight. So Westsiders will get to talk even more about this great book and this great opening chapter. Let's get a handle on the book of Ephesians. It's not like any other epistle that Paul writes, it majors in a certain kind of form. We don't necessarily recognize that. We don't write letters like they wrote letters in the first century. Notice Ephesians 1:1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. In the first century, you identify the sender at the top of the letter. In our letter writing conventions, where does that go? That goes at the end of the letter. Sincerely yours, Mark Roberts. Well, some differences here, but this is a very careful structure that Paul is using here. And you'll notice as we read in Ephesians that it's not a problem-solving document nearly as much as other books like Corinthians or Colossians or Philemon. It is primarily designed to encourage and to express some appreciation about where we've been and now where we are. Without any question, Paul is in prison as he writes this. There is much discussion about which imprisonment. Is this the imprisonment in Caesarea that's mentioned by Luke and Acts, or is this the imprisonment in Rome? I think, I think it fits the imprisonment in Rome better, but I'm not willing to argue with you at any great length. And there are, I said this isn't a big problem-solving letter, but there are some people teaching something there that doesn't seem right. And oftentimes that leads us into a big conversation about Gnosticism. And I don't want us to do that. Don't, let's not go there. Gnosticism wasn't clearly defined as a movement or with these ten tenets, or these are the six things you have to believe to be a Gnostic, at least not in the first century. I think of it kind of like the New Age movement in our society today. There's lots of manifestations of that. Crystals and believing in spiritual forces and all kinds of jewelry and kind of things like that. And so maybe you know somebody who's into the New Age, but then you can meet somebody else and they're very into the New Age, but they don't necessarily share the same characteristics. It is, it is dealing with some troubles, but again, not like Corinthians by any means. And it is a letter that's not attacking specific people or specific issues going on at one or more of the churches that Paul is interested in. It lacks not only the opening personal prayer, but a rel or any kind of discussion of relevant events. It doesn't mention anybody else by name except Tishicus, and that doesn't seem like there's any mention of specific travel plans, and there's none of that greeting business at the end of the letter that is so Pauline. Paul was in Ephesus for years. How can this letter to Ephesus not mention anybody there specifically? And the answer to that is it may not be to Ephesus alone. It may not be just to the church at Ephesus. This may be a circular letter designed to help all of the churches in that area in Asia. That would be, if I can borrow from John and the book of Revelation, the seven churches of Asia, along with several other congregations as well. And immediately someone will say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. It says to the saints who are in Ephesus. And I, yes, I knew that too, but there are some manuscripts that don't have the expression in Ephesus there. Those words are disputed. This may be a general letter to the churches of the area. And that would mean that we would see a very Gentile influence in the letter, and you will absolutely see that. Paul uses we and you as he argues here. You followed the ways of this world, chapter 2, verse 2, you're Gentiles by birth, chapter 2, verse 11, that kind of thing appears all the time. Because in that corner of the Roman Empire, that part of Asia, there will be mostly Gentiles. And please remember, living in that world, the influence of idolatry and the influence of the imperial cult, the worship of Rome, the worship of Caesar, are just enormous. That is an accepted part of everyday life. Sometimes I've tried to find some kind of illustration that would that would properly characterize how that would feel. And maybe a good illustration would be the dominance of sports in our society. It doesn't matter if you are a Dallas Cowboy fan or not. Everywhere you look in Dallas, you will see that blue star. You see it on people's cars, you see it on business windows, you see blue star laundry, blue star, plumbing. There's lots and lots of call outs to the Dallas Cowboys. It's just, it's just woven into the fabric of our world here in Dallas. Jerry, please do something so they will start winning again. It's just part of our world. And idolatry is part of the world of the Ephesians and the churches in that area. I think I've talked about this in the book of Revelation as I'm preaching through Revelation. I think there is persecution in the book of Revelation. I think there is persecution going on in that part of the world. But the really big issue, especially in the book of Revelation, is conforming to the world, synchronizing, syncretizing is the word I'm looking for, a synthesis of Christianity to idolatry, just treating Jesus as if he's another one of the many gods. Watch in the book of Ephesians and see if you don't see some hints at that kind of issue. Well, that's lots and lots of introductory material. I don't know how I managed to go on six minutes just introducing Ephesians. Actually, I'm kind of proud of myself that I only went over six minutes to talk about the book of Ephesians. Let's look at chapter one. Let's get to it. And you should know here that there's nothing about being a saint, verse one, that means you're some kind of special super Christian or anything like that. And then there is this famous long sentence in verses three to fourteen. It is over 200 words in the original Greek without a stop. One long sentence. And Paul is using that to engage his audience and get them on his side. He is building emotions, emotions of gratitude and humility and joy. And all of that will cause the readers, the hearers of this book to identify with Paul and to identify with one another. We're all in this together. Look at what God has done for all of us. We are chosen, verse 4. We're predestined to be adopted, verse 5. We're given grace, verse 6. We're redeemed, verse 7. We're told the secret of his will, verse 9. We're made a heritage, verse 11. We're sealed with his spirit. And if you, verse 13 and 14, if you track out in him and in Christ through verse 14, I have all of those underlined in my Bible, you will see that the dominant emphasis here is that Jesus is the, he is the hero of this story. He is the one that is making this possible. And there is stuff here about predestination. Verse 5, don't panic. God chose a class of people, the people who accept Jesus Christ, all of those people that class, corporate predestination, corporate election, not individual election, is what Paul has in mind here. And I love verse 8. He lavishes these things. It points to God's goodness. It's not just, oh, well, I guess maybe I'll forgive kind of reluctantly. Don't really want to do it. I don't want these people in heaven. No, God lavishes his blessings, particularly forgiveness, upon us. How thankful we need to be for exactly that. And then there's discussion of being part of the inheritance. And the inheritance here, it's hard to know. Could be what we inherit, salvation, but it could be that we are God's inheritance, that the church is God's special possession. And again, don't get thrown with any kind of predestination, verse 11. That's not Calvinistic predestination, which makes God responsible for everything, people being lost, people being saved, God just decided who's who. No, that's so far outside of the Bible, it doesn't even bear comment here. We are sealed then, he says in verses 13 and 14, by the Holy Spirit. And again, anytime you have passages about the Holy Spirit, there will be much conversation about how that works out. But I think Paul is dealing here with the indwelling spirit. And I think that the fact that we have the Spirit within us identifies that we are owned by the Spirit, that we belong to the Spirit. Verse 14, guarantee that's the word for earnest money. It's the word that's used in modern Greek for an engagement ring, the promise, the down payment. I'm giving you this to show that I will fulfill my word. And so we have been given the Spirit, and that shows that God will fulfill his word, that we will be saved. And so then Paul concludes this first chapter with a long Thanksgiving in prayer. Notice verse 16. He's been gone six years. He was in Ephesus in AD 57. This is six years later, he's still praying for them. Let me get some coffee here. And yes, I really am going to wind this up in just a moment. Verse 19, how are we, how will we know the immeasurable greatness of his power? We will know that because he's given us a public demonstration of that, verse 20, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand. There's an echo of Psalm 110 right there. And then the chapter concludes with Jesus having all authority. We need to emphasize that a lot more. When we talk with people about the church, when we talk with people about what churches are doing. And of course, there's many, many things that West Side does not do. That's just considered standard operating equipment in this world. Everybody expects the church to have places to play and places to eat and a coffee bar and a hundred other things. What we need to be asking, and as we talk with people about that, what we need to be saying is we need to respect the authority of Christ. What does Christ want the church to do? Not what do we want the church to do? Hey, I would love for the church to have a coffee bar. You know I'd sign off on that. That'd be great. I'd be staffing that thing. I'd play barista. That'd be amazing. But it's not what Mark Roberts wants the church to do because Mark Roberts is not in charge of the church. Jesus is in charge of the church. What does Jesus want the church to do? That centers the conversation where it needs to be. A reading for Tuesday, Ephesians chapter 1. Welcome

Wednesday Ephesians 2

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to Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday. And the reading for Wednesday is Ephesians chapter 2. I'm not often critical of other translations. I think there's a lot of good probably in most translations, but you'd want to be careful if you're reading from the New International Version of the NIV here. It's very interpretive in this text and leans very heavily towards a Calvinistic understanding of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 10, feeding on the idea that our flesh is somehow sinful, that there's something flawed within us. We are unable to do what's right. One scholar said it's a gross overstatement that mankind not only displeases God, but is in fact incapable of pleasing God. More accurately, Paul should not be taken to mean that sinfulness is of the essence of human nature, but that sin is an abnormality which we have all experienced. And another writer said what Paul does mean is that men have all participated in the rebellion against God. It's not an accident of birth into the family of Adam that condemns men. It's what men themselves have done. And that's exactly right. So verse 3, we are by nature children of wrath. Of course, Calvinists will have a field day right there. I think the better idea there by nature is by habit. This is what we do by habit. We follow our own fleshly impulses and do what we want to do. And then beginning in verse 5, watch the use of with here. Paul will set up a chain of key words with Christ, with him, verse 6, with him. Again, verse 6, leading to verse 7. We are in Christ Jesus. And how are we in Christ Jesus? By grace. Grace is God's gift to us that establishes relationship and comes with expectations. So don't read verse 8, especially verse 9, to mean that we do nothing. That's a terrible mistake. What verses 8 and 9 are telling us is we don't have to earn the gift. We don't have to do something to show that we're worthy of this gift that builds this incredible relationship. Instead, we receive this gift, building that relationship, and that means then there's expectations that we should walk in good works, verse 10. So we were alienated from God, verses 1 to 10. And now in verses 11 to 22, Paul talks about how we're alienated from each other. And there was a ton of hatred between Jews and Gentiles. One writer noted that if a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, the Jewish parents would hold a funeral. But don't feel too bad about that because Gentiles hated the Jews just as much going the other direction. There's plenty of hatred in the New Testament world. And some of that is based on the exclusive nature of Israel, which Jesus has come now to extend the blessings of Israel to all people. But as you would be aware, in Jesus' day, there were plenty of Jews who weren't very happy about that when Jesus was trying to include all men. Maybe you're reading and remembering when we read in Acts chapter 10, Paul goes, wow. Paul goes and baptizes Cornelius. That's news to me. Maybe we could get some coffee here. Peter goes and baptizes Cornelius, and there are some people who are pressing the panic button back in Jerusalem. What have you done? You've eaten with Gentiles? This is craziness. You can't act that way, Peter. And so there's just a lot of enmity between Jews and Gentiles. In fact, at the temple, there was a four-foot-high wall between the court of the Gentiles and the court of the women, which would warn Gentiles that they could not come any closer, that they could not, in fact, enter the court of the women. Two of those plaques have been found. The exact wording is no foreigner may enter within the barrier and enclosure around the temple. Anyone who's caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. Wow, that's not exactly handing visitors a visitors card, is it? Two of those placards have been found. One of them is in pieces, and the other, the intact one, is in a museum in Estanbull. And I am going to Estanbull, Lord willing, this fall with a group, leading a group there, and that part of the museum is closed. And that is driving me crazy because I need to see that placard. Open your museum, Eastern Bull. So Paul then says that Jews and Gentiles are alienated, that there's hostility between them, the dividing wall, that's that wall, that's that placard, and that in Jesus now, all of that has been abolished. All of that has been abolished. Jesus's unique role, verse 18, is set forth. He is the one who has torn that wall down. And so now something new is being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That probably illustrates the importance of the teaching function in the New Testament church. And I don't think prophets there are the Old Testament prophets. I think that's the spiritual gift of prophecy, which is just speaking for God. It's not telling the future, not exclusively, at least. It's mostly preaching an inspired message. That inspired message is preached. Paul will talk more about that in chapter three tomorrow. And that will lead us to be joined together into one structure, the holy temple of the Lord. And then the Spirit of God can dwell in us. Verse 22, in him, you also, that's those Gentiles, they have access to God's Spirit as well. Praise God for that. The reading for Wednesday is Ephesians chapter 2.

Thursday Ephesians 3

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Welcome to Thursday. Welcome to Thursday. And our reading today is Ephesians the third chapter. I need to say a little something here about how Paul writes, and you'll certainly see this in our reading today. Sometimes, as one writer noted, Paul writes like a man who's thinking faster than he's able to talk. And that probably is because he is dictating here. And Paul does have a lot that he wants to say. And sometimes Paul he chases a rabbit. He runs down the rabbit hole. He chases a tangent. So you'll see for this reason I, Paul. And then he says, I assume you've heard about the stewardship of God's grace, verse two. And he starts talking about how he became a preacher of the gospel and what the gospel means. And he just chases that for about, oh, 13 verses. And then in verse 14, he says, for this reason, and connects that back up to verse 1. But actually, he he pretty much just has a prayer and a doxology there. And it's really 4-1 before he gets to what he wants to say. So 3-1 for this reason doesn't really get the reason until chapter 4 and verse 1. Uh, some people would call that a digression, other people call that a tangent. You can call it what you want, it's just part of how Paul thinks, writes, and talks, I'm sure, having never heard Paul talk, but it certainly seems like that's part of his style. Fortunately, we get to learn a lot about Paul and about the gospel, even when he's on a little detour here. So he starts talking about the mystery, verse 3. Mystery is something you can't know without divine revelation. And that mystery is, verse 6, that Gentiles are fellow heirs. They are fellow heirs with the Jews. They are in. Gentiles are in. That's my insight, verse 4, into the mystery of Christ. And you can use Ephesians 3, 4 to prove that we can read the Bible and understand it. And I've used it that way, and you can, but in this context specifically, he means when you read the stuff I've written, chapters 1 and 2, for example, he says I've written briefly on that. And I think he's speaking of those kinds of things. But you don't need somebody special to interpret the book of Ephesians for you or the Bible. You don't need a podcast, and you don't need the illumination of the Holy Spirit. You can read and understand the Bible. And Paul gives a snippet of that idea here in the book of Ephesians. I love this idea of manifold wisdom, verse 10. That is a word that means many colors. It was used to describe flowers and crowns and embroidered cloth and woven carpets. It's used in the Septuagint of the code of many colors that Jacob gave Joseph. God's wisdom just manifold, many colors. And then there is this long sentence, verses 14 to 19, another long sentence in Greek. And Paul is just thankful. And so this is a doxology. A doxology gives glory to God, and we've been strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner being. I love this idea of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament only coming on isolated individuals and then only in brief periods of time, Samson is empowered by the Spirit, which is kind of odd because Samson is a genuine rat. Others are empowered by the spirit to do specific tasks. But Bezalel and Aholiab are my favorite illustrations of that, the two craftsmen who direct the construction of the tabernacle. But here the idea is instead of just an isolated brief period of time and just a few people out of Joel chapter 2 pour out his spirit on all flesh, the idea that the spirit will make a permanent residence within us. What a joy that is. And what the spirit is doing is helping us trust in Christ more. The indwelling spirit is leading to the indwelling Christ. That's where that goes. People want the Holy Spirit. I had the Holy Spirit, and what they want that to mean is he showed me where to park my car, or he helped me understand that I need to pick out this tie to go with this suit. That's not the work of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is much more important than that. And Paul is driving to that conclusion in verses 17 and 18 so that we would then know the love of Christ, verse 19, who is able to do more abundantly than we can even begin to imagine, so that we would give him the glory. God has power to work, he will work, and his work is beyond anything that we could even dream of. That's what God is doing, and the church needs to glorify God. Point to the work of God. That's the church's obligation. That's the church's task. The reading for Thursday, Ephesians chapter 3. It's Friday.

Friday Ephesians 4

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It is Friday. I know you're glad to bring the work week to a close, and I know that Westsiders are excited about Vacation Bible School, which begins on Sunday. Let's work through Ephesians chapter 4. The reading for Friday is Ephesians chapter 4. And I do think Paul finally is getting to his main point. I therefore, prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk. Walk is a huge issue in the book of Ephesians. He uses that all the time, and he is calling them to unity. He is calling them to be what they are. With all humility, verse 2, be reminded, humility is not considered a virtue in Paul's day. The Greeks never, one scholar notes, use that word in a context of approval, still less of admiration. It was not something that people were interested in. Paul says it's the center of Christianity. Humility and gentleness or meekness. Meekness, gentleness, that's strength under control as we wait for God to act. One writer said the weak person yields because he's helpless to do anything else. The meek person yields his superior strength because he seeks the well-being of others. So then we are to bear with one another in love. Paul doesn't think that Christians are going to like each other all the time. He knows sometimes, to use my favorite illustration of that, we're like a bunch of porcupines in a room, and as we crowd together, sometimes we poke one another. So we need to have humility and gentleness and patience, and we need to bear with one another, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. And Paul then with the famous ones talks about what that unity is all about. Beginning then in verse 8, Paul uses Psalm 68, verse 18, and this is really a commentary on that text. Psalm 68 is a lament, it's calling for God to come and rescue his people. And there's discussion here of Jesus descending. I'll give you some options. You can make your own, you can make your own decision about verse 9 descending into the lower regions. The ESV pretty much defines it as the earth. Some think that Jesus went to the underworld, to the land of the dead. Some have thought to the depths of humiliation, which would fit Philippians chapter 2, but probably I'll probably join up with the ESV. This is the incarnation. And Jesus gave gifts. And those gifts are offices here. Those are offices, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, which equip the church to be unified, to work together. And since you get bonus notes on a podcast, I'll say something about the word evangelist. People have tried every kind of definition for evangelist, often to make that into a traveling office or one that only teaches those who are not Christians. But you need to be pretty careful about that because the term's only used three times in the Bible. You're looking at one of them today. The other is in Acts 21.8, where Philip is said to be an evangelist. And then the final one is in Timothy, 2 Timothy 4.5. Timothy's told to do the work of an evangelist, but Paul does not define what that work is. So people have all kinds of ideas about what an evangelist ought to be doing. Trust me, as someone who is seen as an evangelist, I am an evangelist. There are plenty of people who know my job description, but that is never entirely spelled out in Scripture. Maybe the pastoral epistles, Timothy and Titus help us a little bit more with that, but don't read your own definition into Ephesians 4, verse 11. All of that is done to build up or edify. That's an unusual term in Scripture, a very rare term, making the goal of ministry, verses 15 and 16, more maturity in the image of Christ, so that we would be united together. And then 17 to the end of the chapter just works the idea of moral purity that needs to be added to our unity and maturity as we grow up together. There are things to put off and put on, verses 25 to 32. And even still, there's some emphasis in on unity. We are members of one another, verse 25, verse 29. Don't talk ugly to each other. We need to build up, put away bitterness and wrath and anger. And verse 32 concludes with Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. I should suggest that if everyone followed verse 32, there probably would never be a church division. Our reading for Friday, Ephesians chapter 4. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. I hope that it is a blessing to you. It's certainly a blessing for me to have the opportunity to work through daily Bible reading and think about what's happening there. Make sure that we're maximizing our daily Bible reading and to think, at least when I do preach on Sundays, to think about the things from the sermon so we can roll that into the week. 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.

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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 P's, U-P-P-B-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.