Welcome Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

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Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special Monday Morning Company 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 it other and better work the applications into our daily life. 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.

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And I'm Mark. I am I'm drinking coffee out of an amazing tigger mug. I have I have a lot of tigger mugs, and they all just make me feel a little more bouncy, and that's a great way to start the week, isn't it? I hope you have your Bible ready. We're into some serious Bible reading this week. Talked about that yesterday in the sermon. There's all kinds of things going on as we say goodbye to August and hello to September. I hope that you are ready for all of that and much more. Grab your Bible, grab your coffee. Let's grow together. Now, this is the part

Sermon Notes

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of the podcast where I look back at yesterday's sermon, and maybe I add some things that I didn't get to cover in the sermon, or make some good applications as we continue to think about that lesson. But what I want to do here is two things. First and foremost, I want to say if you did not listen to the nine, if you weren't in the nine, you need to go get that sermon because we'll start Hebrews this week, and Hebrews is a difficult book in some ways, and I really talked a lot about how to get more comfortable with the book of Hebrews. So that's that's the pointer for today. Go back and get the nine. That will help you in your Bible reading this week. The other thing that I would like to do is instead of giving you some additional goodies, applications, information, how about you help me? Give me some feedback about how you feel about fifth Sunday QA. On the fifth Sunday, I move QA to the 1040 out of the 9 a.m. slot. Do you like that? I'm kind of hoping that that would encourage some people to come to the 9 a.m. on the last Sunday of the month so that they could hear QA. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. Message me, talk to me at services, give me your opinion. What do you think about fifth Sunday QA in the 1040? With all of that said, then let's get our Bibles. Let's get to Thessalonians. It's 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 that we're starting with this week.

Monday 2nd Thessalonians 2

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It is Monday, and today we read 2 Thessalonians 2. The reading for Monday is the second Thessalonic is 2 Thessalonians the second chapter. Wow, I'm going for the coffee early here, and this is this is a chapter, isn't it? This is a chapter. What do you do if you're a Thessalonic and Christian and someone shows up claiming Paul is saying that the resurrection has already passed? You missed it! You missed it. Well what do you do about all of that? That's not an academic issue for the Thessalonians. That is a real issue that is happening. And Paul has some teaching to try to help them with that, and it's tough for us. Let's just get busy and work on some of this. Second Thessalonians 2, verse 1, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask you, brothers, verse 2, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarm, either by spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us. Counterfeit material is circulating in Paul's day. And so Paul then says, Let no one deceive you, verse 3, in any way, for that day will not come unless. And then there's a long section here that's very much like Daniel or Ezekiel or Revelation, or maybe you recognize some of this out of Matthew chapter 24. That kind of material is called apocalyptic material. And that does not mean apocalypse the way we use that. We talk about an apocalyptic disaster, meaning everything is horrible and so forth. That's not how the Bible uses that term. It's how it's being used today. But in the Bible, an apocalypse is a revealing, a revelation. And the idea is that there are events happening on earth that we are living in and living through, and they are the result of events happening in heavenly places. Spiritual forces of wickedness are fighting against spiritual forces of righteousness. And we're caught up in that cosmic struggle between good and evil. So it apocalyptic material interprets the events that we are seeing in terms of what we cannot see. And I could say a whole lot more about all that. I wrote a book about apocalyptic literature, and I am very, very deep in preaching through the book of Revelation, as you know, and writing, I am writing a book about the book of Revelation and how we understand that kind of material. I need to be careful here, I'll just vector off into Revelation endlessly, and this podcast episode will last nine days. But in apocalyptic material, there's always the emphasis on false teaching and don't be led astray. Here's what's really happening, what's really going on. And oftentimes a big piece of that is there's a rebellion, there's an apostasy, terrible things are happening. Verse 4, the abomination of desolation. That's straight out of Daniel chapter 7, for example, which means something terrible, somebody exalting himself in the place of God. And maybe part of our problem here in 2 Thessalonians is what Paul says in verse 5. Don't you remember what I when that when I was still with you, I told you these things? Well, I'm sure they remembered Paul, but but I I missed I missed the assembly that day. I wasn't there. So I don't know all the things that Paul said. It's difficult for us then to piece together everything that is happening here. But there it is very clear, verse 3, that there is a man of lawlessness. Now, for a long time people have argued that that is the Pope. I'm not buying that. I don't think that helps the Thessalonians to know that hundreds of years later there'll be this major apostasy, and there'll be the appointing of one bishop over everybody, and he'll end up taking the name Pope. A long time ago, uh a professor said that he just didn't think the Pope was that important to God. I've never, I've never gotten over that, and I think that's a pretty good take on that. Probably this is a reference to Rome, maybe to Nero Caesar, who seems to have persecuted the church during some of this period of time, or maybe it's just the imperial cult, the worship of Rome, the spirit of Rome, and of course, whoever was on the throne at Rome at that time, there were temples to Rome. And so for Christians, that's a non-starter. I can't burn incense, I can't worship the spirit of Rome. There are coins during this time that show the Caesar dressed in divine clothing and being proclaimed as God. All of that goes together. And so probably the man of lawlessness is just this Rome spirit, this Rome cult, the worship of Rome and all things Roman that ends up with a lot of trouble landing in the lap of Christians. And something is restraining that, verse 6, and the Greek there is literally you know the restraining thing, so it is an it. But then it has a masculine noun, so you have a neuter, it, and then you have a he, and that is pretty complicated. And maybe this is the Lord, maybe this is the gospel that's acting as a restraint, not totally sure what's happening there. And then verse 7, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he, there's your masculine noun, who now restrains it, will do so until he is out of the way. And the Greek literally in verse 7 is only the one who restrains now from the mist has happened. So putting that together is difficult to say the very least. Many scholars will say that this is the most difficult section in all of Paul's writings, period. But the mystery of lawlessness is at work, and then this lawless one, verse eight, is going to be revealed. Um, a lot of parallels to the book of Revelation, for example, here, where Jesus destroys all who fight against him and his people, Revelation chapter 19. Whoops, I yep, there it is. I vectored off into Revelation there. And then the Lord Jesus will kill this one and bring him to nothing. This coming is by the activity of Satan. So where are we with all of that? And the answer is we're not sure about most of this. About everything that happens from about three to verse nine, has every kind of translation questions. I've referenced a little bit of that already, and then every kind of identification questions. What exactly is going on? Who is Paul talking about? What's restraining, etc., etc. And what this does is this tests what we will do when we don't get attacked. We read, do our daily Bible reading, we read, and we just don't have a clue what's going on here. What do we do then? Well, the answer could be that we sit down for the next six hours and we start doing research and we pull commentaries down off the shelf and we begin to try to puzzle out some of these translation issues and see what various scholars have said and make some choices between maybe some of those alternatives. But if you're doing daily Bible reading, not Bible study, that's that's not that's not on the table, is it? You may be listening to this as you go to work and you don't have six more hours to be working with all of this. What we do when we aren't sure of the specifics in the text is we make sure we get the main thing. And I don't have to know everything about the man of lawlessness, or what or who is restraining him, or the coming of the lawless one. I don't need to know all of that, or when Jesus will kill him with the breath of his mouth. I don't have to know all of that. What's Paul's main point? Paul's main point is you didn't miss the resurrection. That's what Paul is saying. A whole lot of very visible and really awful things will happen before the resurrection occurs. Hey Thessalonians, did you see any of that? No, you did not. So the resurrection has not occurred. Maybe a part of that message, and this is always a big part of apocalyptic material, is you need to get your faith together because bad things are gonna happen if you're gonna serve God, and you better make some choices now and get your courage in place because they're coming and they're coming for you, and it's gonna be hard and it's gonna be tough, and don't give up the faith. Whoops. Yep, straight off into Revelation again, didn't I? Yeah, that's exactly the message of the book of Revelation. And that's what apocalyptic material does, and we don't have to know all the details. If we need to know the details to understand that, guess what? The Holy Spirit would have told us. The Holy Spirit would have told us we know the main thing. What's the main thing? Verse 2. Don't be deceived to the effect that the day of the Lord has already come. The day of the Lord has not come. These other things have to happen first, so the day of the Lord has not occurred. Then Paul says that the key here to standing in all of this, verse 2, verse 10, is that you better love the truth. If you love the truth, you'll be okay. If you don't love the truth, you'll be deceived. And then the chapter concludes with more encouragement to stand fast. And there's no Calvinistic choosing in verse 13. Don't get lost there at all. But we've been called through the gospel, and so what we need to do is we need to stand fast, hold firm, verse 15, to the traditions you were taught. Sometimes people get all crazy. Hey, oh, there's no such thing as binding apostolic example. What? Read 2 Thessalonians 2.15. That's a binding apostolic example. So stand fast in what you've been taught, hold firm to that, and Thessalonians, it'll be alright, you'll be alright, and guess what? You and I will be alright as well. Second Thessalonians 2, that's the reading for Monday.

Tuesday 2nd Thessalonians 3

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Welcome to Tuesday, and welcome to September. It's September the first. How about that? And that means that as you're listening to this, I'm in a field in West Texas watching doves fly. Dove season begins today. All kinds of great things begin once we get to September, like college football. Yep, it is fall, even if it doesn't feel like it here in Texas. I should add, West Siders, there's no Zoom call tonight. The elders meet on the first Tuesday of the month, so there's no Zoom call this evening. But we will have a chance to do some daily Bible reading, and that's in 2 Thessalonians, the third chapter. 2 Thessalonians 3 is our reading for Tuesday, and this concludes the book of 2 Thessalonians. Once again, Paul is praying for them, verses 1 and 2, and asking them to pray for him. He does seem to have in mind certain wicked men. The construction in verse 2 is the wicked men and those evil men. And so Paul may seem, Paul seems to be, wow, coffee here? Yep. Paul seems to be talking about a specific situation. And there is a contrast then in verse 3 between God's faithfulness and the enemies who lack faith in verse 2. Remember, the Thessalonian church is a young, struggling congregation. This is one of the earliest writings in the New Testament. They haven't been Christians very long. Paul didn't get to stay there as long as he wanted to. He's trying to solidify their faith, and there's a lot happening there that Paul's trying to deal with. Notably, they need perseverance. Verse 5, steadfastness is how the ESV uses that term. I'll give you some bonus content here. You listen to the podcast, you get the extra goodies. One scholar said in nearly every case in which the apostle employs this term, he uses a word which indicates the hostility directed against Christ and his followers, trials and hardships which have to be endured. And that's true in Romans 5, 3, and 4, Romans 15, 4 and 5, 2 Corinthians 1, 6, 2 Corinthians 6, 4, several other places. So the Thessalonians are having a hard time. They are having a hard time. And what's not helping with that in verse 6 is they've got some brethren who aren't working. Remember, working is considered standard operating procedure if you are an honorable good person in the first century world. Could use a little bit of that in our world today, couldn't we? And so Paul wants discipline, the church, to discipline those who are just lazy, who are walking disorderly. I'm not real happy with how the ESV translates a little bit of this because he has walking in idle, the ESV has walking in idleness in verse 6, while other translations have walking disorderly or behaving in an unruly manner. And I think that's probably the better idea here in verse 6 and 7. Walking disorderly. Some have read idle there and decided the church can only discipline people who are lazy. That's a mistake. The idea is being disorderly, not walking according to the traditions that the apostles have delivered. Remember verse 15 in chapter 2. So Paul can be very tenderhearted to the truly needy. Remember how much he worked to gather funds for Jerusalem Christians in 1 Corinthians 16. Christians care about those who are truly in need, but we will not empower and enable the lazy. And verse 11, we hear that has the idea of amazement. How can this be? We taught you better. So this brother or these brothers, verses 14 and 15, they need, they need to feel the force of discipline. They need to lose their community, which would be super important because they don't fit into any other community either. And the point here, verse 15, is we're trying to help him. We're not being mean. We're trying to rescue this brother or brothers who are out of step, who are walking disorderly. The reading for Tuesday, 2 Thessalonians, the third chapter.

Wednesday Hebrews 1

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It is Wednesday. Welcome to Wednesday, and today we begin the book of Hebrews. Are you intimidated by Hebrews? A lot of people are, and I want to do everything I can to say don't be intimidated. The end of the book in Hebrews 13 and verse 22 says, I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, my word of encouragement. This is a wonderful book to encourage Christians to remain Christians, to continue to serve Jesus Christ. If you're ever discouraged, if you've ever thought about quitting, and who hasn't, then the book of Hebrews is for you. What's happened is the book has some technical material and some specific ways of arguing points that have engendered a lot of discussion among scholars and Bible class teachers and preachers. And sometimes we just let the book get really bogged down in all of that without ever saying to anybody, you know why you should read the book of Hebrews? It will help you stay a Christian. So I'm not going to give you a ton of introductory material. I'm not going to talk about the date. We're not sure about that. I'm not going to get into a huge discussion about who wrote Hebrews and all of that kind of stuff. Guess what? We don't know who wrote Hebrews. And if you needed to know, the Holy Spirit would have told us. What we ought to do is we ought to read Hebrews and benefit from it because it points us to Jesus. It points us to Jesus in a wonderful, wonderful way. And I gave some questions at the end of the sermon in the 9 a.m. on Sunday, and they're kind of supplementary to the questions that we have on the back of our Bible reading schedule, kind of a variation a little bit on each of these. And what you do is you read the chapter and you get those questions working and you pay attention to Jesus. And the next thing you know, this book is encouraging you to stay with Jesus. Let's give that a try out of Hebrews 1, the reading for Wednesday. Hebrews, the first chapter. As you look at this first chapter, you should know that verses 1 to 4 are one long sentence. And apparently, those that understand New Testament Greek and so forth will tell you that it's put together in a way that's very beautiful and very, very powerful. Notice that there are seven characteristics given here of Jesus the Son. He is the heir of everything, and that's first because Son and Heir go together. And he is the creator. Think about John 1.1. He is the radiance of his glory. He is the exact image. He is the sustainer. The whole universe is in his hands. He is the Redeemer, the one that purges us of our sins. And he is king. He is king, royally seated at the right hand of God. Those seven images of Jesus, that's very, very powerful. And all you need to do is just sit down and start thinking more about those, and those will help you be more impressed with Jesus and make you want to serve Jesus. So that first question from the sermon last with uh last Sunday what does the passage show me about Jesus? Well, you got your bucket full right there, didn't you? And then, beginning in verse 5, the Hebrew writer begins to talk about how Jesus is better than angels. Better is used 13 times in the book of Hebrews. And angels were really important in first century times. There's lots about uh the angels at uh in the Dead Sea Scrolls in at uh Qumran. Well, need a little coffee here to lubricate all that. And then we even know Colossians chapter two tells us that some in the New Testament church were worshiping angels. So angels are a big deal. Maybe some are placing Jesus on the same level as angels, but the idea in chapter one is Christ is better than angels, higher than angels. Actually, uh, spoiler alert, in chapter two, the Hebrew writer then says Christ is lower than angels. Get ready for that. And so Angel verse five, angel verse 13, those are bookends there. That's an inclusio that's holding that together. Verse 5 is quoting out of 2 Samuel 7, and this is very much like a royal psalm, and reminds us also of Psalm chapter 2, and then the Hebrew writer just starts banging psalms out. Psalm 100 is in verse 7, Psalm 45 is in verse 8, Psalm 102 in verses 10 and 11, verse 13, there's Psalm 110. Psalm after psalm after psalm to say that Jesus is better than angels. Look at verse 13. Would God ever say that to an angel? Well, of course not. Of course not. Jesus is better than angels. Jesus is the Son. And there's a little note there in verse 14. I'll just give you this for free. That angels serve for us. They are ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. No passage says you have a personal guardian angel. But sometimes we're so busy debunking that that we forget to say what the passage says, which is what angels are serving us. Angels are serving us. They are the messengers of God. They are used by the Lord to help us be saved, to help us see that Jesus is who we must stay with. That's Hebrews chapter one, the reading for what is today? Today is Wednesday, the reading for Wednesday, Hebrews chapter one. Welcome

Thursday Hebrews 2

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to Thursday. Welcome to Thursday. And the reading today is Hebrews chapter two. The reading for Thursday is Hebrews the second chapter. Couple of things to make sure you're tracking here. Verses one to four is a little bit of a tangent. He's going to the Hebrew writer is going to continue to talk about angels. Angels, angels, angels, 13, 14, chapter 1. And then if you look at verse 5, it was not to angels. So it's angels that are really the subject. But as the Hebrew writer often does, I mentioned this Sunday in the 9 a.m. sermon, he will stop for a moment and maybe, maybe some people call it a tangent or chase a rabbit, or I would rather say he makes application. So there's application being made in verses 1 to 4 about the importance of not drifting away from God's word. If you drifted away from the message declared by angels, verse 2, that's the law of Moses, then punishment certainly followed. How much more will we escape? And that's a rhetorical question. We can't escape, we'll not escape, we will be punished if we drift away from the word declared by the Lord. And it's been attested to us that God bore witnesses, verse 4, by signs and wonders and miracles. By the way, verse 4, Hebrews 2, 4 is a great verse to establish the purpose of miracles. So many people today believe Jesus and the apostles did miracles because they were nice. Well, they were nice, and I'm certain that if you were blind or had palsy or were dead, it was a pretty great day when Jesus healed you. But that's not the main function. Miracles authenticate the messenger. So then beginning verse 5, the Hebrew writer picks up the thread of Jesus better than angels. And what's the big objection to that? What's the big objection to that? Now, verse 6, it's been testified somewhere. That's a it's been testified somewhere, is a wonderful way of saying you know the verse, and the quote there is from Psalm 8. And here the Hebrew writer says, Jesus has been made a little lower than angels, verse 7, but he's crowned with glory and honor. Well, you know what? He didn't look very crowned with glory and honor. The biggest objection to Jesus in the first century is he was executed on a Roman cross. How can he possibly be the Messiah? How can that possibly be the Son of God that is dying there? And so, verse 9, we see him who for a little while was made lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. Notice the Hebrew writer doesn't just say he died, the suffering of death. Hebrews develops the necessity of the Son of God suffering because the people who received this epistle, they are suffering. If God required his son to suffer, if the pathway to glory is through suffering for Jesus, if Jesus is honored and glorified through suffering, how can you imagine that you will not suffer? We want, let's be honest, we would want the glory and the honor without the suffering if we could get it. But that's not the pathway to glory. So Jesus came to bring many sons, verse 10, to glory. That's his purpose. That's what he's all about. We lost our glory in our place due to sin. But he has become, verse 10, the author of our salvation or founder of our salvation. There's many different ways to translate that word: pioneer, forerunner, captain, pathbreaker. Lots and lots of ways to translate that. Probably the idea there is the idea of being the leader who opens up a new way. Jesus did that for us. And now he's been made perfect through suffering. And the idea, of course, is not that Jesus was imperfect. The use of perfect here is to mean consecrated, anointed, or installed as a priest here. And then the Hebrew writer talks about Jesus as our high priest. He identifies verse 14 so much with us that he took on flesh and blood. He even shared in our death. He has defeated the devil now in principle, even though the devil is still raging, but he has delivered us, verse 15, from that fear of death. And he is verse 17, the merciful and faithful high priest who is helping us. The high priesthood of Jesus is so important in Hebrews, it's used ten times, and it's not used anywhere else in the New Testament. This is it. This is the place where that is established. So, what's the questions that we're asking? What danger or discouragement is being addressed? Drifting from the word. What does the writer want me to do? Pay more attention to the word, but the most important question: what's the passage show me about Jesus? Jesus is the founder of my salvation. He is the sanctifier, verse 11. He's my brother, verse 11. He destroyed. He destroyed the one who has the power of death, verse 14. He is the liberator. He sets us free, verse 15. He is my high priest, verse 17. Wow. I want to stay with Jesus. Hebrews chapter 2 helps us do that. Hebrews chapter 2 is the reading for today.

Friday Hebrews 3

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Hey, oh! It is Friday. It is Friday. College football starts tomorrow. Wow. Everything good happens in the fall. And Hebrews 3 is what's happening on our Friday today. The reading for Friday is Hebrews the third chapter. One of the questions I think we need to be asking is, could I miss heaven? That's an important question, the possibility of apostasy. Now, our denominational friends who are believers in Reformed theology and Calvinism will say, once saved, always saved. You can't fall from grace, you can't miss heaven. If you want to believe that, you better stay out of Hebrews the third chapter, because the whole point of Hebrews the third chapter is you absolutely can forfeit your salvation. And the way the Hebrew writer approaches that is by talking about Moses. Moses is, of course, to Jewish people, the big dog. He is the most important guy. Moses, Elijah, Abraham, they're right up there, maybe neck and neck, but wow, he is huge. He wrote the first five books of the Bible. He received the law on Mount Sinai. Moses is as good as it gets. And the first thing you know, the Hebrew writer is saying, Jesus is superior to Moses. He is our high priest, verse one, and he is called an apostle here. This is the only place Jesus is called an apostle. An apostle is one sent on a mission with the authority to carry it out, and in that sense, Jesus is an apostle. And so now we need to think about how faithful he is, verse two. Moses was faithful, but Jesus is even more faithful, more worthy of glory, verse three, because he is the son. Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, not just a servant, verses five and six. Then there is, then there is that little application tangent kind of thing, where the Hebrew writer stops for a moment, all the teaching, the doctrinal explanations, and does a little preaching and says, Hey, you better be careful you don't harden your heart. And so much of this comes out of, for example, Numbers the 14th chapter, where Israel stood at the edge of the land of Canaan and refused to go in because they did not trust in God. So much of this comes from Psalm 95, that is the quotation that begins in verse 7. Go read Psalm 95. And so much of this says, You can choose to walk away from God. The Israelite fathers put me to the test, verse 9. They did not believe in God. They go astray in their heart, so they couldn't enter, verse 11, into the rest. The rest there is the land of promise, the land of Canaan. Look at verse 12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. What's the point of verse 12? Don't be like them. They didn't trust God. They had an evil heart of unbelief. Don't be like that. And so the Hebrew writer who likes to say beware, he'll say that again, or take care. The other occurrence of that is in chapter 12 and verse 25. Be careful, you don't have that kind of heart. Don't let your heart get hardened, verse 13, by the deceitfulness of sin. Why not? Because you won't get to enter the rest. You won't get to go to heaven. That's exactly what the Hebrew writer is saying. That's exactly what the Hebrew text is teaching. And this passage is warning us what danger of discouragement is being addressed: the danger of falling away from God. What does the writer want me to do? Make sure I don't have an evil heart of unbelief. The passage is showing me what about Jesus? He's greater than Moses. He is my high priest. The reading for Friday, Hebrews chapter 3. And that does bring the podcast to the close for the week. Thanks so much for reading the Bible with me, thinking about the sermons from Sunday. I get good feedback about the podcast all the time, and it's super encouraging to me. I really do appreciate that. If you think, oh, oh, I, you know, Mark doesn't need to hear that. It's always good to know that God's word is making a difference in your life. So I just appreciate that feedback very, very much. 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 Ps, U-P-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.