Monday Morning Coffee Welcome

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Hello and welcome to the West Side Church's special Monday Morning Coffee Highcast. On this high channel, our preacher, Mark Roberts, will help you get your week started running with a little pack of yesterday's sermon so that we can think of it and better work the applications into our daily life. Mark, we'll look forward into this week's apple reading so that we can know what to expect and watch it. And he may have some extra bonus cards 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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Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for Monday, August the 10th. This is the podcast for the week of August 9th through the 15th. Great to be with you today. I'm home from the weekend in Rogers, Arkansas. I did a youth event with the Downtown Church of Christ in Rogers. That's the area where Walmart has its headquarters. It's all growing like a weed, and that is a wonderful church. I've been with them before, can't recommend them enough. Really, really good church. Really enjoyed being there. But it's time for us to get busy with the podcast. Can't talk about the preaching, of course. I'm sure it was excellent, but I did not preach at Westside yesterday, so we're going straight to daily Bible reading in 2 Corinthians. Grab your Bible, grab your coffee, let's grow together.

Monday 2 Corinthians 5

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The reading for Monday is 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5 is what we're reading today. And this is this is a wonderful set of passages that maybe sometimes just kind of gets pulled out of its context and plopped in various places. You've probably heard 2 Corinthians 5 at a funeral. I think it absolutely works there. I use 2 Corinthians 5 at graveside quite often, but I think it's important to link this to what Paul just said at the end of chapter 4. As he's thinking about the weight of glory here. Mmm, that's a really good cup of coffee. He has confidence even if even if he dies. And please remember in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul talked about terrible adversity and even thinking this is the end. We have the sentence of death, he says, there. So here Paul begins to develop this idea of the difficulties of his life and that he looks forward to being with the Lord. That's not just in Philippians, is it? And he uses that tent imagery, verse 2, clearly talking about the body. And that probably works off of Paul's own background as a tent maker. You can take a tent and put it up and take it down fairly quickly. And isn't that true of our bodies? You can be here and healthy one day, and the next your tent can be taken down. That just happens, doesn't it? But of course, Paul doesn't want a bodiless absorbed into the great oneness kind of thing. He wants a better body. That's what he's looking for. I think sometimes we struggle a little bit with the bodily resurrection. Maybe talk a little bit more about that in the heaven-bound preaching theme this year. Verse 3, that's kind of a tough verse. It's hard to translate some of that, but it seems to be the idea of being ready, being ready to go into eternity. And Paul says he has a guarantee, verse 5, the guarantee of the Spirit. That might be the gift of the Spirit in Acts 2 and verse 38. That's the gift of salvation, perhaps, or it may be the gift of the indwelling spirit that we're given the Spirit. But Paul is very confident in his eternal destiny. And then look at verse 9. This is so Pauline. Here's what you got to do right now. We know some stuff, verses 1 to 8. So this is what we will do. Right doctrine shapes right conduct. And then he begins to talk about the motivation he has for his service in verses 11 to 15. And Paul certainly knows that he has people who are attacking him. Verse 12, there's that idea of commending again. And he just all through this epistle is loading up to get ready and take on those who are trying to pull him down, say he's not a real apostle. He'll get serious with that in chapters 10 and 11. But oh, you get hints of it all along the way here. Now, verse 13 is a difficult verse. What does he mean if we're beside ourselves? One writer said, Maybe the idea here is Paul saying, I bet you think I'm just mad going on talking about myself like this. But if so, you just treat that as an aside. I something that I I'm trying to do in the work of the Lord. But if you can see the sense of it, then then it makes sense for you. Maybe that's where verse 13 lands. Beginning about verse 16, then he begins to talk about this message of reconciliation. And there was a time, verse 16, when Paul thought of Jesus according to fleshly standards, his obscure origins, his lack of substance, his lack of education, all those things cause Paul to conclude this guy is not it. But now he sees Christ in a new way. And if you're in Christ, verse 17, you can see in this new way there's a change, there's a transformation there. And that's the work of God, verse 18. This is done by God. We can't reconcile ourselves to the Lord. We can't just announce, okay, we're all going to be friends now, it's all fine. No, no, God has to do this. And Paul certainly isn't saying everything about everything about reconciliation. He'll develop this more in Romans chapter 5, for example. But basically, he means that God's anger against man's sinfulness is appeased in Christ Jesus. And so he even says that we're ambassadors with this message, verse 20. And that that's that's a tough verse in some ways. I remember as a kid, maybe a teenager, I guess, because I was in the adult Bible class, I managed to witness all-out war in a Bible class over whether just the apostles aren't ambassadors or whether we can be ambassadors, and it got heated in a real big hurry. And I do think the apostles are primarily in view, but but all of us are representing Christ at some level. So I'm not afraid to say I'm an ambassador of Christ, at least in some way, not as an apostle, but I represent Jesus. I'm bringing this word of reconciliation, this word, verse 21, that he made him to be sin who knew no sin. Now, I don't think that means our sins were transferred. I'm not a transfer person, as you know. I've preached about this and talked about this on several different occasions. This idea that we wear the robe of Christ's righteousness over our sins, that's that's entirely false. Or that our sins were transferred to Jesus. What happened at the cross is that Jesus was treated as a sinner. And you might make a note here with Exodus 29 and verse 14. The literal rendering there in Exodus 29 and verse 14 is talking about a sin offering in that place. And it says, the flesh of the bull, it's skin, it's done, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering, but it literally says it is sin. And I think that's where Paul is. Jesus is treated as a sinner on our behalf. This is the ministry of reconciliation. It is the reason we can be reconciled to God. We could never be reconciled on our own. The reading for Monday, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

Tuesday 2 Corinthians 6

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Welcome to Tuesday, welcome to Tuesday. And today our reading is 2 Corinthians 6. The reading for Tuesday, 2 Corinthians the 6th chapter. This is a little choppy in places here. Let's work on this, make sense out of this. I do think the thought in 6.1 continues out of what Paul was saying in chapter 5. We're ambassadors 521, so we appeal to you, and this is the time to receive the grace of God. Let's move forward. Let's work together here as Christians. I think he's really pushing that idea. And then Paul begins to talk a little bit about he's had a rough go as an apostle. This has not been the easiest thing. And clearly there are some accusations being made against Paul. Look at verse 3. Somebody's finding fault with his ministry. One writer said, a scholar said, there are people who'll be glad of any excuse not to listen to the gospel or take it seriously. And so they'll look for such an excuse in the conduct of its preachers. That's absolutely true. We see that all the time. News comes on with another story of a preacher who's been involved in sexual immorality or got pulled over for DWI or something like that. And that causes people who don't want to be Christians, don't want to hear the gospel to say they're all just hypocrites and don't have to pay attention to them at all. So Paul defends himself here, and he just itemizes all these hardships. You get kind of general trials, tribulations, needs, and distresses, and then trials from men, beating, prison, riots, and then kind of hardships that that come personally, labor, sleeplessness, fasting, some of those kinds of things. There's a reference to the Holy Spirit in verse 6. That's uncertain here. Some think that should be a spirit that is holy, or even gifts of the Holy Spirit. Finally, then Paul ties that together by making an appeal to the Corinthians, verses 11, 12, and 13. Making an appeal to them to receive him. And Paul very rarely addresses his readers by name. So there's a lot of emotion going on in verse 11. The year that we did the Bible reading with Paul, where we follow the life of Paul, I really came to realize, yes, Paul loves the Philippian brethren. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about that, no question about that. But he really loves the Corinthian brethren a lot and is just moved to anguish and tears that they are acting the way they are and rejecting him. It's really a mistake to think that Paul didn't care. He wasn't moved, he didn't get emotional about that. Sometimes preachers will talk about these things at the preacher conference that we have each year, and they're very tied up with the welfare of the brethren, what's going on. And the answer to that is you're supposed to be. That's how Paul felt about the people that he had brought to Christ and the churches that he worked with and cared for. You see that very clearly in 11, 12, and 13. There's a break here then in 14. Is this because Paul has heard of some kind of pagan association going on in Corinth? Or some people think this comes out of verse 1, working together. The idea that we don't want to work together with unbelievers. In this verse 14, what it means is that Christians cannot form any attachment with a non-Christian that would compromise our Christianity. That's what that means. And it's certainly not all attachments with unbelievers. We read 1 Corinthians 5 just a couple of weeks ago as we journeyed in Corinthians, and Paul does not tell Christians who are married to non-Christians, you've got to get out of that. That's an unequal yoke, and you need to get out of that marriage. So there's no way to make 6.14 mean that you can't have any dealings with non-Christians. But we can't have dealings with non-Christians that would cause us to give up our Christianity. Those will be business dealings, friendships. Maybe in some ways marriage would apply here. Don't get into a marriage if you're going to have to give up your faith. But that's the idea here. Don't make an alliance that would cause you to compromise your Christianity. Tuesday reading. Oh, hey, guess what? There's a Zoom call tonight, Westsiders. We get to be together in Zoom. We'll talk more about 2 Corinthians 6 and make good application of that this evening. But for everyone else, I'll see you on the podcast tomorrow. The reading for Tuesday, 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

Wednesday 2 Corinthians 7

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It's hump day. It is Wednesday. And today we're reading 2 Corinthians 7, the reading for Wednesday, 2 Corinthians, the 7th chapter. Maybe at some point you've heard a preacher and he was talking and talking and talking and going on for a long time. And then the preacher says, okay, after that brief aside, I want to get back to my main point. You're looking at your watch thinking, what? That was a brief aside. Well, maybe what that preacher is doing is following apostolic example because Paul has been on an aside since chapter two, where he is kind of breaking the thought about verse 14 all the way till chapter 7, our reading today in verse 4. And so much of that material that we've read is about Paul's heart and his concern for the Corinthians, and will they accept him? And what about these people who are undermining him there? And then in 2 Corinthians 7, in our reading today, he finds Titus, verse 6, God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only just by his coming, but he told us verse 7 of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me. So I rejoiced even more. So much of what Paul has been doing here has been sharing, he's been sharing his heart, his concern, his love for the Corinthians. And all of that kind of says that Paul's on pens and needles. Will they accept 1 Corinthians? Or are they going to decide to continue in error? Decide, hey, you know what? We don't like this Paul guy. We're not going to do what he says. We reject him. We reject his message. Titus has gone, and Titus now has come back, and Paul meets him, and Titus has really good news. They are accepting Paul. They are repenting. And so Paul says, I, wow, I made you grieve, verse 8, and I don't regret that. It's not wrong to make people sorry, verse 9, not because you're grieved, but because you're grieved into repenting. Repentance is what we're going for, and the church has made some enormous changes, big changes. They are doing what Paul says, they're accepting his apostolic authority. And so Paul is beside himself with joy, and you just the relief just pours off the page today. Look at verse 10. Godly sorrow produces changes. That's so important in repentance. More and more, I am convinced that repentance may be the key to the gospel message. A lot of people hear the gospel, and there are people who are baptized. We we have to make a big deal about that in our day and age. And that's that's a yeah, that's a big barrier for a lot of people. But we do get people who are baptized, and then we don't ever see them again. They don't continue to follow Jesus. And I think what's in the middle of hearing and believing, and then on the other end, baptism is repentance. And when people repent, that's when they really start following Jesus in a serious way, making those changes in their lives. Of course, they are baptized, their sins are washed away, and then they really follow the Lord because they're repenting. So there's my little rant about repentance. Notice then verse 12, Paul gets specific about the church discipline situation. The one who suffered wrong would be the man, would be the man's father, uh, that the fellow was involved. It was sexual immorality with this man's, uh with his father's, probably second wife, a stepmother kind of situation going on there. And it kind of seems like verse 13, Titus had never been there before, so Titus didn't know what to expect, and Paul wasn't sure how they would handle Titus, how they would treat him. We don't know a lot about Titus. I wish we knew more. He is clearly a super trusted lieutenant. Wow, can't say that, can you? How about some coffee? Super trusted lieutenant that Paul values greatly, and I wish I knew more about him. 2 Corinthians 7, then, is our reading for Wednesday.

Thursday 2 Corinthians 8

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It's Thursday, it's Thursday, and today we read about the collection for the saints in Jerusalem. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians 8 is the reading for Thursday. Please remember, we've talked about this in Romans extensively, that for Paul this is a major agenda item. He wants to get this done, and it's not just because the people in Jerusalem need groceries. This is about tying together Gentiles and Jewish Christians. This is much more than just famine relief. And in fact, in Acts chapter 20 and verse 4, he tells that the offering was headed for Jerusalem with various men. Chapter 21, verse 17 tells us it was received. There was famine situations all the time, it seems like in Judea. And the other issue, of course, would be the sharing of all things together in the Jerusalem church may have drained the resources of the Christians there. And now they're being ostracized by the Jewish community. Really a hard time. Now, this is not the first time that the Corinthians have heard about this collection, this need. And in fact, in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul talks about the collection that they should take up and then giving the offering on Sunday, the first day of the week. And I think that's what he has in mind in chapter 8 and verse 6, our reading of today. And he does want to commend these Macedonian churches that are just killing it. That would be Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. These churches are just giving, so generous, first five verses. And the word gift here and favor is the word grace. It's just being used repeatedly through here. And over and over, Paul emphasizes God is not concerned about how many dollar signs are at the end of the check, how much the bag of money weighs. He is concerned about the attitude of the givers' hearts. And so in verse 6, Paul turns his attention to the Corinthians, says, You're not being persecuted. You're not in the tough times like the Macedonians. You need to get on with this. Titus made a beginning, verse 6, when he brought the letter, 1 Corinthians, to you. And so you need to abound in this. And he makes all kinds of appeals to them. The example of the Macedonians, they made a good start, their desire for spiritual excellence. Verse 7, once again the Macedonians in verse 8, and even now consider Jesus Christ, who for your sake was rich and became poor, leaving heaven. So maybe someone in verse 13 is saying, hey, we got our own problems here. And Paul never intends to see that the rich give until they are poor, but if you have, you need to help out those who have not. And so then we get some very practical things beginning in verse 16. This is a letter of commendation for those who are going to carry that financial gift. Titus is part of that. In verse 18, there is this famous brother. And of course, we're not sure who the famous brother is, but it is probably, it's probably Luke. That's a really good guess right here. And their goals, verse 19, is to show the glory of God and to show a practical expression of love between Gentile brethren and Jewish brethren. I can't emphasize that enough. That makes a difference, Paul says. These Jewish brethren are going to know Gentile brethren really do care for them, and that the racism and the hatred that has so long marked Jew Gentile relationships, those are ended in Christ. And so everything needs to be done, verse 21, in the right kind of way. I'm always amazed when I hear of another congregation that just lets one fella count the money, and it turns out he gave into temptation and has stolen money from the church. Oh my. That's a pretty rare occurrence. I know of several occurrences through the years, and I always, of course, that the fact that one guy's doing the counting doesn't make it right, but that does not provide all things honorable. That doesn't make sure that everybody knows everything is being done in the right way. That's important with this collection, and it's important with our collection today. The reading for Thursday, 2 Corinthians 8, more on the collection tomorrow.

Friday 2 Corinthians 9

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It's Friday. It is Friday, and today we read 2 Corinthians chapter 9, which comes right out of chapter 8. The word now in verse 1 sometimes causes people to break this and think we have some new discussion. This is still about the collection, it's still about giving. Notice it's for the ministry, it's the ministry for the saints. The ministry for the saints. When the church acts, the New Testament authorizes the church to act in benevolence for other Christians. So many people want to make the church into a do-gooder society where we're helping impoverished people everywhere and in every place, and all kinds of welfare and benevolence programs come out of the church's treasury. It is certainly true that an individual Christian can do all kinds of things with their own funds and their own resources to help anybody and everybody. But in the New Testament, the church is primarily about evangelism. Benevolence is kind of an emergency sort of thing, and that is exercised towards Christians, especially because Christians are so ostracized and don't have any other means in this society. They won't be helped. Like, for example, Jews would be helped by other Jews. So benevolence in the New Testament is very much about ministry for the saints, and we need to be very careful about that and how we use the church's resources in line with New Testament authority. Verse 2 the Corinthians had started a year ago and they're still not ready. And Paul is ready for them to get this completed. They need to finish verse 3. They need to be done with this. And Paul then begins to talk a little bit about what happens when we give cheerfully, verse 6, 7. God wants us to give not under compulsion, but because we long to give and we want to give. And all of this, some of this gets used in the worst kind of way, particularly as we work down a little bit further here. Some of this gets used to say if you give a dollar, God will give you five dollars back. You got to sow in faith and all that nonsense. Notice here the liberality, verse 11, you'll be enriched so that you can give more, not so that you can get more, but so that you can be even more generous and help more people. Verse 13, by their approval of this service, then they will glorify God. That's it, that's it, that's it. This is all about Jew, Gentile, Christian relations, and that this gift that Paul is carrying along with the other designated representatives that he is taking to Jerusalem will result in binding Christians together. The reaction of the Jewish Christians, verse 14, would be to express in prayer a desire to be able to give back. So we have come together in Christ. We are thankful, verse 15, for the gift of Jesus Christ, and that causes us to want to give, want to help our brethren. We are one in Christ. Our reading then for Friday, 2 Corinthians chapter 9. And that concludes the podcast for the week. Thanks so much for listening. I appreciate people talking to me about the podcast and encouraging me in the podcast. It really is a labor of love. I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come too. Looking forward to seeing you on Monday. Yep, with a cup of coffee. See you then.

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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-P-E-A-T, where creators can get free music. Please share our podcast with others, and we look forward to seeing you again with a cup of coffee, of course, on next Monday.