Welcome Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

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Hello, and welcome to the West Side Church's special Monday Morning Puffy 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 life. Mark will then look forward into this week's reading so that we can know what to expect and watch it. And he may have some extra bonus comments 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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Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for the week of September the 13th through the 19th. Today is Monday the 14th. I'm Mark, and I have a great cup of El Salvador coffee that just went through the Arrowpress. So everything is just going great to start this week. We are in the book of Hebrews, and that's where I need you to turn your Bible to, Hebrews chapter 9, because we're going directly to daily Bible reading, and I'll tell you why in just a moment. But you know what to do. Grab your Bible, grab your coffee. Let's grow together. The

Monday Hebrews 9

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reason we're going straight to Bible reading is because I did not preach yesterday at West Side. This is the last gospel meeting of the year for me. I am at the Douglas Hills Church in Louisville, Kentucky. This is a wonderful, wonderful congregation. I have been here several times before. Look forward to coming back. It's a Sunday to Wednesday meeting, and I'm always glad to be with the folks at Douglas Hills. But that meant I did not preach yesterday at West Side, so it's Bible reading time. Let's think about Hebrews chapter 9. It's Monday, and the reading today is Hebrews chapter 9. The ninth chapter of Hebrews is the reading for Monday. And I hope you are working a big cup of coffee because this is an enormously important chapter. It's a big chapter, and there's lots to work with. The first ten verses deal with how things worked under the old covenant. And we get a tour here of the tabernacle andor of the temple. Verse 2, for a tent was prepared, the holy place. Someone's going to ask here about verse 4, the altar of incense. Verse 4 says the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant. And it places those in the most holy place. And of course, in all the diagrams that we see and that we put together in the way Numbers talks about that, we know that the altar of incense was to be in the holy place, not the most holy place. But it was very much involved in the Day of Atonement. The Holy of Holies had to be completely filled with incense when the high priest went in there once a year. And so it just may well be that the the author of Hebrews here is talking about the altar being in there to fill to fill the most holy place with the cloud of incense before the priest went in to sprinkle blood. The other option there is it could be just generic language. No one would think anything of somebody saying, My office has a secretary's office, but that does not mean that the office is actually in my office. Usually the secretary's office is outside. It's it's kind of the foyer to that. So you work with that. I don't think the author of Hebrews here, of course, is making a mistake. And all of this is very beautiful, very costly, but of course, it cannot in any way compared to the beauty of the sacrifice of Jesus. And once again, we're getting that message. Jesus is better. In fact, Jesus, not only is Jesus better, he's in a better sanctuary. And I would point you to verse 9. The ESV has talking of the tabernacle and the holy place, the most holy place. This is or which is symbolic for the present age. The word symbolic there is the word parable. It is. It's the word parable. And so the tabernacle was a parable in cloth. As long as there was separation between the holy place and the holy of holies, then there was no way into God. And I want to point you to the end of verse 9 that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. I think we don't say this enough. Maybe I don't say this enough. The old covenant just wasn't satisfying. There was a sense in all of that that this is what God has said and this is what the law tells us, but a goat is being offered for my sins. I don't get the goat didn't do it. I should be the one paying for my sins. And I want to go and be in the presence of God. I'm not this high priest who goes just once a year. I want to have continual fellowship with God. So there's a lot of things about the old covenant that are not satisfying. Hold on to that idea. Then in verses 11 through the end of the chapter, we get Jesus Christ in the better sanctuary. And this is the key section. It's in the middle of the middle section. And the very first word in verse 11 in the Greek is Christ. And that term has not been used in quite some time because the author is waiting for the exact right moment. And as one scholar said, Christ comes on the scene, and after that, everything is different. And that's exactly right. Jesus changes everything. And verse 11 is not talking about his incarnation when Christ appeared. No, this is talking about his appearance in heaven to be our high priest. Here's a little three-point sermon for you. There's three appearances of Jesus. Did you know that? Three incarnations, if you will, of Jesus. His first appearance is his incarnation here on this earth, Jesus born in a manger. His second appearance was in heaven, chapter 9, verse 11. And then, of course, his third appearance will be at his return as our Savior, chapter 9, verses 27 to 28. No additional charge for that sermon. The emphasis all through here will be that it is a one-time deal. It does not ever need to be repeated. Once is used 11 times here in this section. And so verse 14, Christ enters into the sanctuary in heaven and he secures eternal redemption for us. And this is that how much more argument. If animal sacrifices can do something, how much more can Jesus' blood do what needs to be done? And I would say here, Jesus, his sacrifice, all of this is utterly satisfying. No one has ever looked at Jesus offering himself for our sins and thought, well, I don't know if that's really going to get the job done. I don't think that's enough. No, and yes, uh, somebody may have just said no and yes together, didn't I? How about some coffee? Then somebody may be saying, Well, I should be dying still, not Jesus. That's true, but Jesus' blood points to the grace and mercy of God. It's just utterly satisfying. So we have this a wonder, wonderful, wonderful new covenant, and this is the better covenant, and Jesus is the guarantor of this better covenant. Some translations have will, like when you die, you the will is read, but covenant is really the better translation here. And verse 22 points to what Jesus can do. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and with without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. So the law taught us that blood needs to be shed, but that was not satisfying. That was not enough. And so now we have the perfect blood of Jesus the Christ. Now, before I move on, I'll say something about verse 15. Since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transl transgressions committed under the first covenant, sometimes people will say there was no forgiveness under the old covenant system, and that's a mistake. There is absolutely forgiveness of sins under the old covenant through the types and shadows of animal sacrifices. Now, that forgiveness would not have been possible without the blood of Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate reason anybody is forgiven. But if you read your Old Testament, the word forgiven is used all the time. David is forgiven of his sin with Bathsheba, for example. You can be forgiven under the old covenant in view of Jesus coming. I can remember growing up, sometimes, sometimes people would talk about sins being rolled forward. And the idea seemed to be that because there was no forgiveness, Jesus hadn't come yet, those sins are just pushed down the road, just kicked down the road over and over and over again. And then when Jesus died on the cross, finally and fully they were dealt with. I don't know any passage that teaches that. The forgiveness is done. When it's done, Nathan pronounces David forgiven. He is forgiven just as someone is forgiven today. We are forgiven as we look back to the cross. Those people were forgiven looking forward to the cross. It's all done by God. So you don't have to worry about forward or backward. The Lord can handle the bookkeeping. How about that? So in verse 16, you'll notice the ESV changes to will, but it's still the word covenant, and I'm not entirely convinced that that was well done when they shifted out of that. This seems to be more about covenant, really, than will. And this covenant is ratified by blood. And that is what, as I was saying, the Old Testament is teaching us all the way, verse 22 and verse 23. So now, verse 24, historically and literally, of course, Jesus' blood is offered on the cross, but metaphorically in the figures of Hebrews, it's offered in heaven. And his atonement, verse 25, is a one-time act because Jesus, having been offered once, there it is, to bear the sins of many, verse 28. That's Isaiah 53 once again. Jesus is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, and he's the one who secures our forgiveness. So let's think about it here. What passage shows, what's a passage showing me about Jesus? Jesus is the better sacrifice, Jesus is the best sacrifice. And maybe it's time to entertain that third question. What does the writer want me to do? Depend on Jesus. Depend on Jesus. He's the one through whom we have our forgiveness. The reading for Monday, Hebrews chapter 9. It's

Tuesday Hebrews 10

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Tuesday. It is Tuesday. And today the reading is Hebrews the 10th chapter. Would remind Westsiders, no Zoom call tonight, of course, because I'm in Louisville, Kentucky. Hebrews the 10th chapter begins to make some really good applications. What do we do with all this knowledge we've gained, especially about Jesus being our high priest? What good is that doing me? How do I apply that? What should I do with that? And the book then breaks at verse 19. If you look at verse 19, there is a therefore there. And so there's been a lot of teaching and a lot of doctrine, and therefore we will now do this. And so we get more at the beginning here of the insufficiency of the Old Testament law, verses 1 to 18. The Day of Atonement didn't really deal with sin. Verse 2, it didn't deal with the consciousness of sin. In fact, verse 3 tells us that the Day of Atonement functioned as a reminder of sin, not as the removal of sin. They fasted and confessed and mourned that day. They were reminded of sin, not so much relieved of sin. And there's a quotation here out of Psalm 40 in verse 5, and the writer of Hebrews just works that quote here, really pushes that through the idea here about doing your will. The burnt offerings are not really the will of God. The will of God that would be, that would be a perfect sacrifice. And so Jesus is that perfect sacrifice. He does the will of God. And I think it's fair to say I said something yesterday about not satisfying, and the old covenant was not satisfying. And I think a person who was really thoughtful about their relationship with God would say something about I am forgiven and I know that I'm forgiven. The law says that I'm forgiven when I offer bulls and I offer these goats and so forth, but God wants something more. God wants my heart, God wants my obedience. God wants a relationship with me. I want a relationship with God. I need to change my life. There has to be something more. So I'm just, I'm kind of hanging on this idea of satisfying. And that is not to say that the old covenant is in some ways flawed or no, I don't think the Old Testament is flawed, now stepped over in the book of Romans. That's where Paul deals with that question. The material it worked with, human beings, is flawed. But again, I just don't think that a really thoughtful individual would look at all of that and say, this gets it done. I'm all good. I'm all good. We would look for something better, and that better comes in Jesus. Verse 7, he's come to do the will of God. And here's an unusual note out of verse 11. Everybody stands all the time. How great would it be to sit in the presence of God? Well, verse 12, when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sits, sits down at the right hand of God. So, with the central theological argument of the book concluded then, and the idea here being that if we can just see how great Jesus is and all the work that he's done and how he is better, better in every way, in a better sanctuary, then that will give us strength to endure. Beginning in verse 19, the Hebrew writer begins to make some pointed applications to life. So verse 22, let us draw near. And the idea here is drawing near to God. I think the thought may be a little compressed here, but this is the language of worship. And I do think baptism is meant here, though, since we're talking about pre-sprinkling would be what's used. That doesn't make New Testament baptism into sprinkling, but I think he is talking about being purified by water in this place. And then verse 25, of course, is very famous. The assembly is in view here, and this is why you don't want to miss it. The assembly is supposed to do something for us and to us. People should need to be in the assembly. Encouragement happens in the assembly. Sometimes folks will say, you know, why do I have to come? You ought to want to come. And I should add here that while live streaming has done some amazing things for us, particularly people who are shut in, people who are sick, people who cannot attend, you can't do verse 25 at home on your couch. You can be encouraged, but you can't be an encouragement to others sitting at home. We don't see you. When you come into that auditorium and you sit down, you are an encouragement. Even if you're not having a great day and your mind is somewhere else, and then at the end of the day, you come out and say, Well, I wasn't a very good worshiper today. You still were an encouragement just by your presence. And the live stream is no substitute for being physically present in the auditorium. I I don't know anybody who says, you know what, um, here's this great football game. I I don't I don't I don't want to have 50-yard line seats, sit on the second row, be part of the atmosphere, and so forth. Well, maybe that's a poor example because now with giant screen TVs and all the hassle of parking and so forth, maybe a lot of people are saying that. Maybe that's why some games don't sell out. But but you understand the point that I'm making. If I had the opportunity, without the difficulties of travel and all the other craziness and so forth, somebody says, hey, do you want to watch Ohio State on your television, or do you want to go to the game and be in the horseshoe stadium and hear the band and see the band and all the sound and all the cheering and just being caught up in this wave of scarlet and gray and fandom? Well, that's probably way too much about the Buckeyes, but you you get the point. We want to be there. We want to be there. At a concert, people want to be at the concert and be part of the atmosphere and everything that's happening. You ought to want to be part of what's happening in the assembly. Way too much about football today. So, how about some coffee? Then the Hebrew writer talks about apostasy beginning in verse 26, and he is making that lesser to greater argument in verse 28. I think that's very, very important to see that. There is a textual variant in verse 34. Some translations have um people in prison, and um the New King James there has my chains. So that would make it the author who was in prison. But I think the best text here, the best translation here certainly is to those who are in prison. And that gives us, he says verse 35, confidence that we don't want to throw away. And that confidence is based on forgiveness because of what Jesus has done. And I love the quote out of verse 37 Habakkuk is the one who's asking, Habakkuk's my favorite minor prophet, how long, O Lord? And the answer is to live faithfully until. Live faithfully until. And living by faith means that we live faithfully as long as it takes, as long as we need to to serve the Lord. That's Hebrews chapter 10, that's our reading for Tuesday. Remember, no Zoom call tonight, Westsiders. I'll be home though by Sunday. The reading for Tuesday, Hebrews the tenth chapter. It

Wednesday Hebrews 11

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is Wednesday. It is Wednesday, and the reading today is one of the greatest chapters of the Bible. Hebrews chapter 11 is our reading for today. Sometimes this is called the Hall of Fame of Faith, and you know I've really pushed back against that. The point of Hebrews chapter 11 is not that these are tremendous heroes of the Bible and they're so incredible, and they should be put up on a pedestal or put in a museum somewhere with a brass plaque beside them, extolling their great deeds. The point of Hebrews chapter 11 is these people had faith and they were able to see their obedience, they were able to see their walk with God through and do some amazing, incredible things because they trusted in God. And then in chapter 12, the Hebrew writer will say, They did it and you can do it too. The point of Hebrews 11 is not that these people are so different than us. The point is in Hebrews 11 that if you have faith, you can be like Abraham, you can be like Moses. I was preaching in a meeting and I said some things about this is not the Hall of Fame of Faith, and that when we do that, we tear out the whole purpose, just tear the heart out of Hebrews chapter 11. And afterwards, a fella came up to me and he said, I had never thought about that before, but I'm never going to call it the Hall of Fame of Faith again. And I thought, wonderful, wonderful, because it's not. It's not. I've been to Cooperstown, that's where the baseball hall of fame is, and you walk through those exhibits. I'm never hitting a home run ball like those guys. I'm never fielding like those guys. I'm not like those guys. Hebrews chapter 11 is designed to say we can be like these men and women if we live by faith. And yes, Hebrews 11:1, Hebrews 11.6 does help us with our definitions of faith, but I don't think the Hebrew writer is really trying to develop a textbook definition of faith here as much as he is trying to show us how we live by faith. And the hook here, 11.1, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It comes out of chapter 10, 38, the righteous shall live by faith. And now he begins to talk about people who live by faith. And there's a tremendous faith-obedience cycle here. Faith moves us to obey, and then that obedience strengthens our faith so that we can obey even more. And he begins in verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 with three portraits of Genesis, out of Genesis. And then Abraham and Sarah come to the front, verses 8 to 12. Of course, in the Old Testament, Abraham is the consummate example of faith, so he's going to get more space than anybody else. And in verse 13, then the Hebrew writer does a little bit of that preaching thing. Just got to stop and talk a little bit here, make an application of where we are with this. And I preached from 13 to 16, the pilgrimage idea that we're not home here. I preached from that recently in the Heaven Bound series. You can go and listen to that sermon. So then more people are called. Abraham in verse 17 picks up the thought, Isaac, Jacob, and of course Moses gets lots of ink. Verse 23. Moses, amazing character out of the Old Testament. So he's going to get lots of time here. His parents, they trust in God. They don't allow Moses to be killed. Just working down through here, he considered verse 26: the reproach of Christ, greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. Reproach is wealth. Treasures are not. Think about that. Think about the treasures of Egypt. What would that look like? And then finally, verse 32, we'll just pick it up here at verse 32. The Hebrew writer says, I'm running out of time. I don't have time to walk through the entire Old Testament and examine every character there, but there are just so many. And of course, in some ways, it is troublesome to read of, for example, Samson and Jephthah there has been no end to the discussion about what they're doing here in Hebrews chapter 11. I've never really thought of Samson as being super faithful. And Jephtha, of course, oh wow, unbelievable story, sacrifices his own daughter. So what are they doing here? And I think the answer to that is there's just examples of people who acted in faith. Samson trusted in God. That's where his strength comes from. Jepta trusted in God in order to win the battle. That doesn't mean that they were perfect, that they were flawless. The next guy mentioned, David, he's not flawless either, but he's in the list, isn't he? He's in the list. So make sure you realize, verse 35, that faith will have apparent defeats. Not everybody who has faith looks like they're a winner. Some people are dying, some people are tortured. Really awful, really, really terrible. Tradition says, verse 37, Jeremiah was stoned and that Isaiah was sawn in two. So that may be the prophets that are being spoken of there. Some people die terribly, but they die in faith. They trust in God. The point of that comes tomorrow in Hebrews chapter 12. But the reading for Wednesday is Hebrews 11.

Thursday Hebrews 12

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It's Thursday. It is Thursday. And as you're listening to this podcast, I'm climbing on an airplane and making my way back home. Chapter 12 is the reading for today. Hebrews chapter 12 is our reading for Thursday. And that begins with discussion of the endurance of Jesus Christ. There's a very strong verse 1, therefore, to lead this chapter off in verse 1. And the idea is that those people in chapter 11 are cheering for us. How can we quit when those who are cheering for us didn't quit? Endure, persevere, keep going. And then verse 2, looking to Jesus, the word look there is very strong, very intentional. And so the secret to endurance is to keep looking to Jesus. Look at what he suffered. He shamed, literally, he shamed the shame. And so if we want to keep going, see how Jesus endured and then he was glorified. And part of that, of course, is we will need the discipline necessary to run the race. That's verses 5 to 11. Don't forget God's word that calls us to exhortation, the Hebrew writer says, verse 5. God's love, verse 6, and then God's purposes in discipline. And discipline is the subject here. And there are problems sometimes with discipline. You can have wrong attitudes towards discipline. Verse 5, you can regard it lightly. You don't take it seriously. Or sometimes you can get discouraged under discipline and give up. Neither are acceptable here. Discipline needs to be seen. And by the way, the discipline, verse 7, is the word training, and it's not punishment for sin. It's training so that we'll endure. God doesn't want us to fail, he wants us to persevere. And so instead of proving or seeing that these difficult things, discipline proves that God doesn't love them, they need to remember it is proof that He does love them. He's using this to purify them and make them stronger. So then verses 12 to 17 just really lay on the encouragement. The Hebrew writer wants them to get on with the business of being a Christian and not even think about quitting. Go forward, go forward. Don't fall short, verses 15 and 16, of God's grace. Don't let a root of bitterness spring up. Don't let anyone become immoral. And don't be like Esau. Esau is the quintessential example of somebody who trades the unseen for immediate gratification. So then the climax of the book comes in verses 18 to 29, where great contrasts are made here between Sinai and Zion, between the old and between the new covenants. And again and again, the Hebrew writer says, Which is it going to be? Where will you stand? And this is an extended warning to those who are thinking of quitting, to those who want to apostatize. Don't do that. You want so much to come to Mount Zion. And there very much is the idea, verse 22, of how we have eternal life, we have it, and yet we'll still get it in the future. It will be fully and finally consummated, of course, in heaven. Verse 24, there's a reference there to the blood of Abel. Remember, Abel's blood cries on the ground. Jesus' blood blood, that is hard to say today. Coffee makes everything better. Jesus' blood is better. This is the last occurrence of the word better in the book of Hebrews. Then there is a final warning in verses 25 to 29. We get the idea here of the lesser to the greater one more time. And focus on verse 27. There are some things that can't be shaken. Christ's sacrifice, Christ's forgiveness, Christ's kingdom. Those things will never go away. Hebrews chapter 12 is the reading for Thursday. It's Friday.

Friday Hebrews 13

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It is Friday, and the reading today is Hebrews the 13th chapter. This is a series of just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang exhortations. Do this, do that, do this, do that. As the Hebrew writer draws everything to a close, he wants to just add some very practical ideas, some things that he's thinking about. They really need to make sure they are on. Notice verse 4, extremely important to hold marriage in honor. And once again, there's nothing wrong with the sexual relationship. Somehow this idea that the sexual relationship is dirty or you know, something to be ashamed of. There's nothing to be ashamed of when the sexual relationship is in the right place. The marriage bed is undefiled. Jesus Christ, verse 8, is the same yesterday and today and forever. Jesus hasn't changed, neither has the faith. So don't leave it, the Hebrew writer is saying, don't quit. Don't leave it for some new teaching. Don't leave it to go back to the old ways of Judaism. If some are tempted to do that, don't quit. Jesus remains the same. He still cares for us. He's still our high priest. That's probably where the emphasis really is. I love verse 14. Once again, we get the idea of being a pilgrim. And verse 17 helps us think about our leaders and submitting to them. How important is it that we submit to our shepherds? Verse 7, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Now, verse 17, submit to them. They are keeping watch over your souls. Want them to do that joyously, not with groaning. We want them to be glad that the flock is joyfully following them. Then I really I really love verse 20. May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us, that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. We don't know everything about the working of Jesus and how the Holy Spirit works, and all of and we're always tempted to try to get all that boxed up and set it on the shelf all nice and neat. And there are certainly wrong ideas about the working of Jesus, the working of the Holy Spirit, the working of God. We don't want to fall off into any of that. But we also don't want to fall off into the other extreme. I'm down here on my own. I got a Bible in my back pocket. Good luck. I better get it all figured out. God is at work. Jesus is at work in us, verse 21. And we need to be thankful for that. We need to appreciate that. And we need to know we are not here on our own. We are not by ourselves. We have our high priest, Jesus the Christ. And that is a word of exhortation, verse 22, a word of encouragement. And I mentioned this when I preached on Hebrews, for I have written to you briefly. Wow, 13 chapters. That is brief. What would it be like if we didn't get the condensed version of Hebrews? Man, that would be that would be the biggest book in the Bible, I think, if he'd had the papyrus and the time to write everything that he wanted to say. But he's encouraged us greatly in this word of exhortation, Hebrews 13, 22. The reading for Friday, Hebrews 13, 22. That does draw the podcast for the week to a close. In fact, that draws the book of Hebrews to a close. Thank you so much for listening. I really do enjoy making the podcast, thinking about the Bible, working through the sermon, if I've preached at West Side at least, and talking with you about our daily Bible reading. Hope you'll share the podcast with others and encourage them as well. As you're listening to this, I'm home and looking forward to being at Westside Sunday. So next week's podcast will most certainly have sermon notes as well. How good is that? Well, I'm so glad you listened to the podcast this week. I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven, and I want you to come to 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-B-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.