Monday Morning Coffee With Mark Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello, and welcome to the West Side 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 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 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.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee Podcast for the week of November the 8th through the 14th. Today's Monday, November the 9th. I am holding an exceptional coffee. This is an incredible coffee from Panama, and it is making my day much, much better. Hope you're having a great day as we start the week together. Look back at yesterday's sermon. Think about daily Bible reading and the Gospel of John. It will be a great week. You know what to do. Grab your Bible, grab your coffee. Let's grow together.

Sermon Notes

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yesterday I preached on the love of Christ, and that's maybe a sermon that needs to be preached all about a zillion times a year because you just can't say enough about that. But there is a passage about the love of Jesus that we did not get to yesterday. Can I share that with you now as a bonus thought? This is John 13, John 13, 33. Little children, little children, you little while I am with you, you will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where am I going? You cannot come, and so now here's the money passage, verse thirty-four. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Notice what Jesus says. The standard isn't merely love one another. The standard is love one another as I have loved you. Think about the setting here. Jesus has just washed the disciples' feet in John thirteen, and he knows what's coming. He is going to the cross. And now he tells the apostles that his love for them is now the model for how they must treat each other. That is challenging. Jesus doesn't say love people when they're easy to love, when they agree with you, when they treat you well. He says, Love them the way I have loved you. And then he adds to that verse 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Our love for one another should be evidenced to the world that we are the followers of Jesus. So here's the question we're thinking about this week. Can people see how much Jesus loves me by the way I love them? Jesus loves me. Can anybody else tell? Let's read more in the Gospel of John. Let's do some daily Bible reading.

Monday John 11

SPEAKER_01 3:39

It's Monday and the reading for Monday is the eleventh chapter of John. John chapter eleven is what we're reading today. Please notice there's a shift here in John's Gospel. For so long, Jesus has been saying, My hour has not yet come, and I think pretty clearly Jesus now is saying, It is the hour, it is his hour, that hour has come. And John 11 gives us what really is the number one sign, the climatic sign in all of the Gospel of John. This sign will galvanize the opposition to Jesus and end up with Jesus being arrested, tried, and executed. So that begins with word coming to Jesus. He is somewhere, we're not entirely sure where, but far north of Galilee. And Lazarus of Bethany gets ill. He is sick. And notice that the story of chapter 12, which John hasn't told yet, must be famous enough that he can reference it in verse 2, which once again helps us see that John knows people have read Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And Jesus hears about this and says, this illness does not lead to death. It's for the glory of God. Glory is a major theme in this chapter. It is a major theme in the Gospel of John, chapter 1.14, chapter 2.11. I mean all through chapter 5, chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 17, the glory of God will be mentioned. And you should know, verse 5, that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And love here is agape, but for John, there is no difference in Phileo and Agape. This is the kind of extra note I can give you on the podcast. John uses those terms interchangeably. Agape has come to mean today a special kind of love. It's Christian love, the love that seeks the other person's well-being, that kind of thing. And it just doesn't mean that in the Gospel of John at all. I'll say more about this in John chapter 21, where people make a big deal out of the terms being used there, and it's just variation. John is just varying the terminology that's being expressed. And in fact, the synoptics do some of that as well. In one account, the rich young ruler, he agape. He agape, but in another account, it's just phileo. So we need to be careful about tapping on Greek words in our phone app on our laptop and saying, oh, looky here, there's this big distinction to be made because of the Greek. But notice that the love of God does not always mean God does what we think God should do or will do, verse six. Jesus hears about it, and then he stays two days longer in the place where he is. That must have been tough on the disciples, hard to figure what's going on here, what's happening here. And as you move forward in the story, you notice that Jesus is waiting for Lazarus to die and for him to be in the tomb, verse 17, four days. Now, I'm gonna give you some material here that's not 105% sure, but I think it's helpful. According to rabbinical tradition, the soul of a deceased person stayed around the body for three days in the hope of reunion and then finally departs the body when the body has entered the state of decomposition. Now, scripture nowhere teaches that. Nowhere do we read that in the Bible. I'm talking about what the rabbis and their tradition said during this time. And it is not entirely certain. Like I said, I'm not 105% on this because some of that tradition only dates into the early part of the third century A.D. However, if that tradition is working here, then you can see that maybe, maybe people would minimize the miracle if Jesus had done it five minutes after Lazarus had passed away. This becomes a certifiable big miracle if people are carrying that tradition around in their pocket. And that might say something as well about Jesus being in the tomb three days. Verse 18 then tells us that Jerusalem, Bethany is near Jerusalem, and that it's about uh verse 2, it verse 2, verse 18, it is about two miles away, which is how the ESV renders it. But if you don't have the ESV, what you see there is 15 stadia, which is, as the ESV gives it, about two miles. And so Jesus engages here with Martha, and Martha clearly has some faith. I'm impressed with her. I know that he will rise again, verse 24. And then Jesus, one of these great I am statements, I am the resurrection and the life. You don't understand this? I am the resurrection, not will be, I am. And resurrection and life in John are not necessarily the same because life in the Gospel of John is right now. 1010, I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly. So Jesus provides resurrection, that would be heaven and life. In verse 26, do you believe this? That's the question of the book, isn't it? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe what Jesus is saying? So then Jesus goes to the tomb, and there's an emphasis again in his praying in verse 42 that he always depends upon the Father. He's doing nothing on his own, and he raises Lazarus from the dead. This must have been one of the most magnificent and incredible sights of all time. And it's so disappointing then. 45 to 54, the Jews, instead of saying this man must be from God, he could be the Messiah. We need to look into this. Is he a prophet? Is he the Christ? Clearly, he is from God or he could not do something like this. Instead, what they decide is, let's just kill him. Let's just kill him. This man performs many signs, verse 47. They do not doubt the signs, they just don't like what the signs mean, and they decide they will put Jesus to death. And there's a double meaning there in verse 50. He doesn't understand. You don't understand it's better that one man should die for the people. Jesus will die for the people, won't he? And then in verse 55, we get the third Passover mentioned by John, chapter 2, verse 13, chapter 6, verse 4. And so if that first Passover would be AD 28, which you can get if you do the math, because they talk about the temple had been built 40 and 6 years in chapter 2 and verse 20, then where you get in verse 55 is to AD 30. Please don't ask me to do that math. You know I did not do that math, but that's why people say that Jesus was put to death in A.D. 30. The reading for Monday, John chapter 11.

Tuesday John 12

SPEAKER_01 10:15

It's Tuesday. It is Tuesday, and our reading today is in John chapter 12. The reading for Tuesday, John chapter 12, Good News Westsiders, we will have a Zoom Bible study this evening. See you on Zoom this evening. Maybe the key verse here for John chapter 12 is verse 23, where Jesus says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus has come to Jerusalem to die, and in fact, he stages a parade to draw attention to himself. He has never done anything like that before, and now he quite publicly announces he is the Messiah. It is time, and Jesus is ready to lay down his life. But he will do that on his own timetable. That begins, the chapter begins in verses 1 to 8 with Mary anointing Jesus at Bethany. Please make a note in your Bible this is not the event of Luke 7. They are often confused. It's just not. It's not the event of Luke 7. Matthew 26 has this, Mark 14 has this. This is in Bethany. It's the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. And Mary here brings this incredibly expensive ointment, verse 3, and anoints Jesus. And Mary, of course, has ignored society's taboos before. Luke 10 has her sitting at the feet of Jesus listening. That was no place for a woman. Women are not supposed to be taught in the law. And now here she's anointing Jesus' feet. This seems to be about 11 ounces worth, and this nard or this expensive ointment would be an oil extracted from the root of the nard plant grown in India. And what she has here would cost about one year's worth of wages. That has to say that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are wealthy, but even still, it is an extraordinarily extravagant gift. And verse 5 tells us that not everything that people think is a waste is a waste. And maybe Jesus says, verse 7, leave her alone so she may keep it for the day of my burial. Jesus now says that Mary has anointed his body for the burial, and maybe he is saying that she's done more than she thinks she has done. Or maybe she knows what she's doing. Maybe she believed this, all the things that Jesus says about dying, and knew that him coming to Jerusalem and the opposition to him, that this is going to happen to him. So maybe, maybe she had decided to keep this ointment for the day of the Lord's burial, and she decided now's the time because Jesus is facing so much opposition from the religious leadership in Jerusalem and all those who want him dead. Then we have the triumphal entry beginning in verse 12. This is one of the few events that's recorded in all four Gospels. And this is Sunday. This is Sunday. Trying to put together a timeline of the last week of Jesus' life, not very easy, but this is certainly Sunday. And there would be throngs of people coming into Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. Josephus says one year 2.7 million people came, which would just be an enormous crowd. And there would be a lot of Galileans here, people who know Jesus and who had heard him teach and seen him do many mighty signs. I nearly said miracles. John would not like that at all. And what they're saying in verse 13 is clearly a proclamation of him as the Messiah. However, Jesus is messing that up because he is not riding on a war horse. This comes out of Zechariah 9:9 and maybe out of Isaiah chapter 40 in verse 9, where the Messiah brings peace. He is a gentle king who is associated with the end of war and warfare. So Jesus is not the kind of Messiah that so many people want. I think that needs to figure largely in some of the things that we think about Jesus. It needs to figure into what the people there are thinking about Jesus without any question. And verse 18 reminds us that indeed Lazarus' sign, the raising of Lazarus, is the event that just puts together the opposition so that they are sure they must, they have to do something about this teacher from Nazareth. We get an interview with the Greeks in verses 20 to 22, which is an anticipation of the Gentile mission. I think all of the gospels go out of their way to say something about Gentiles are in, and they are not anathema, and they're not dogs, and Jesus paid attention to them. So that leads then to Jesus' teaching on his death. Verses 23 to 36. Let's get a little coffee here. Mm-hmm. That Panamanian coffee is incredible. And so here Jesus says, it's time, it's time for the Son of Man to be glorified. But note that's not going to be by military victory. Instead, it's going to be by death. A grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies. So it's about dying, not about, not about the enemies dying on the battlefield because we stomp them into the ground. As you move forward in this, notice that in the death of Christ, the Father will be glorified in verse 28. And that voice from heaven thing happens only three times the baptism, the transfiguration, and right here. So clearly Jesus has it right and knows exactly what he is doing. And there are some things that happen when Jesus dies. When Jesus dies, that brings judgment, verse 21, verse 31, on the ruler of this world. And it defeats the devil. He's cast out, and Jesus is exalted, lifted up, and he's drawing all men to himself. Look that up here is the cross, of course. And so so much is happening on the cross. And sometimes we just think about Jesus dying for the sins of the world, but notice the ruler of this world will be cast out. The devil is defeated here. The synoptics talk about entering into the strongman's house and binding him. And John gets a little bit of that going in the book of Revelation, but I can't stray over there into the book of Revelation. I need to be careful. Revelation 10 is coming on Sunday. I'm so I'm just full up to the brim on the book of Revelation, but I need, I'll try to stay here in the Gospel of John. And so the crowd say, We've heard from the law, verse 34, the Christ remains forever. How can you say that he must be lifted up? And I think you're you're getting a little bit here maybe of the stupid question. And Jesus doesn't give an exact answer to their question. He just says, You need to believe in him. If you don't believe in Jesus, life gets dark and confusing. That will have to hold them for now. I don't think they're able really to put together everything that's going on with Jesus. And then as he continues to talk about unbelief, they still do not believe in him. Verse 37, Jesus talks about two kinds of unbelievers. Look at verse 47. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I don't judge him. I didn't come to judge the world to save the world, but the one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge. The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day. There are two kinds of unbelievers. There are those who believe and don't do anything about it, hears my words and does not keep them. And then there are people, verse 48, who just outright don't believe at all and they're completely rejected. But judgment is a key theme in the Gospel of John. And Jesus makes very clear what will happen to those who just have superficial faith or who refuse, look at 42 and 43, who refuse to acknowledge Jesus for who he is. Those people will come under judgment. Zoom call tonight, Westsiders, everybody else. See you tomorrow on the podcast. The reading for Tuesday, John 12.

Wednesday John 13

SPEAKER_01 17:59

It's Wednesday. It is Wednesday, and today we're reading John 13, the reading for Wednesday, John the 13th chapter. I will say a brief word here about chronology, and I'm determined not to get lost in this. Now, before the feast of the Passover 13.1, that passage has caused a lot of difficulty for various groups, especially groups that are trying so hard to move the resurrection of Jesus to Saturday so that they can bind the Sabbath. Don't do that, you can't do that. How to work out all the things of the Passover and what night that is and so forth gets very complex beyond the scope of beyond the scope of a podcast for sure. But I think verse one here stands sort of as as maybe the topical heading for the things that happened here. And then verse two begins to talk about the things that actually happened at the Passover. And judging by the things that are said here, especially in John 13, 30, this is an evening meal. And watch carefully here. Everything that goes on, Judas is here. He is especially mentioned to show that Jesus washes even Judas Iscarius's feet. Verse 2 mentions Judas Iscariot and the temptation that he is being tempted with. And of course, there is always debate about Judas's culpability and responsibility and all the things that go with some of that. I I think we need to be very clear. Judas is held absolutely responsible for betraying Jesus. One writer said this is known as provocation, the initial idea. It is wise to reject the thought at this point, because the temptation is at its weakest, and one is not yet guilty of sin. If this salesman is at the door, it is best to ignore the knocking. I appreciate that very much. I think all this means, verse 2, just means that Judas was tempted, and he should have said no to that temptation. So as we move into the meal, verse 4, Jesus laid aside his outer garments, and that's the same expression as laying down your life for your friends that Jesus used in 1011, 1015, 1017, 18, also later even in this chapter. And what Jesus is doing here is something that the most menial slave would be tasked with doing washing dirty, muddy, gross feet. In fact, there's rabbinical traditions that you can't make a Jewish slave do this. So nobody at the table is thinking, of course, they're all reclining at table. No one here is thinking of doing this. Nobody would do this that's in this room. So Jesus stands up and says, I will do it. And it's so impressive that he in fact washes Judas' feet. Verse 18, I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. It's a quotation from Psalm 41, 9, where David is lamenting a painful experience of being mocked by his enemies while he is sick. And of course, David makes reference to Ahithophel, his close friend, who joins Absalom in the rebellion and betrays him. People sometimes will ask about foot washing and if that's binding today. I'll say more about that tonight in Wednesday night services and Bible talk. We'll say a little bit more, get a chance to talk a little bit more about whether we should be washing our feet this evening. Instead, let's think about the betrayer right here, verse 21. Truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. This is terrible. We really need to stop and get a sense of the gravity of the situation. How can anyone who's eating with Jesus, Jesus just washed their feet, betray him? You just can't do that, particularly because eating in the New Testament world indicates acceptance. It indicates being close and having fellowship one with another. All of this comes together here in the Passover. These are Jesus' closest friends. You can't imagine somebody in the inner circle like this will betray Jesus. Jesus says, this is gonna happen. And so the apostles are panicking, 22, 23, and we get the first time that the disciple whom Jesus loved is mentioned, and that is no question about it. That is absolutely John the John the Apostle. I can already say John the Baptist. That's not right. John the Apostle, more coffee here. More Panamanian coffee. And I think Jesus answers verse 26 quietly and would say to John, here, I'll I'll I'll give you a signal what's going on here and who this is. And so it is, of course, Judas Iscariot. And verse 30 is so poignant. It's night, the hour of darkness has come. Beginning in verse 31, then Jesus begins that last discourse where he starts talking about death. And so much of this is about assurance, about comforting his disciples who are panicked at the thought that Jesus, that Jesus will leave, but he will leave soon. He will glorify him at once, verse 32. And we get that wonderful new commandment in verse 33, 34, 35, where we are told to love one another. And so verse 38 concludes all of this. Will you lay down your life for me, Peter? Truly I say unto you, the rooster will not crow till you deny me three times. So that clearly identifies that we are at the Passover, as given to us in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And we're going to watch that rooster, because rooster crowing, that's usually between 12 and 3. Something terrible will happen in the darkness. It is it is the hour of darkness, and it was night. John 13, verse 30. Our reading, our reading for a Wednesday, John 13. It's

Thursday John 14

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Thursday. It is Thursday. And today we're reading John 14. The reading for Thursday, John the 14th chapter. That chapter begins with Jesus continuing the idea of comfort and assurance that he started in chapter 13. So he says, Let not your hearts be troubled. Maybe it is maybe it is fair to say that Jesus ought to be receiving encouragement and comfort as he faces the greatest and most terrible part of his life. And instead, Jesus, in a very Jesus way, what is he doing? He is helping others. And so he says, In my father's house are many rooms. Of course, some translations, the King James, some older translations have there are many mansions. And from this has come the idea that everybody gets their own mansion. And you've heard me talk about this before, and I'll just say here that's completely unbiblical and not right and not what you want anyway. You don't want to live down the street from God. You want to live with the Lord. So in my father's house are many rooms. That's the idea. Get to live with the Lord. And the key, verse 3, is that Jesus is coming back. Verse 6 then tells us that Jesus is the way. He knows the way. He's the truth. Remember, he comes to tell us about God, John 1 eighteenth, And he is the life. He has life. Chapter 5, verse 26. He's the resurrection in the life, chapter 11, verse 25. By the way, 14.6 is the text for Sunday morning sermon. So here Jesus is not the trailblazer. He's the trail. He is the way. And there is some misunderstanding about some of that. And we get some of the stupid question again. The disciples are struggling to put the pieces all together and get all of this figured out. But Jesus says, verse 12, you'll do greater works than even I did. That seems that seems impossible, but of course they'll reach greater people with more people with greater spiritual effect because the kingdom will be in play. And notice here, whatever you ask in my name, verse 13, this I will do. That's not a blank check or a magic formula. If you say in Jesus' name at the end of a prayer, that makes God have to give that to you. No, no, that's not it. And in fact, that kind of praying just makes prayer into superstition and magic and idolizes the self, the very opposite of what Jesus is talking about. Asking in Jesus' name would be would be to ask in the will of Christ, not my will, but your will be done. And so you can pray, and by the way, you can pray to Jesus. And so we are praying for the will of God to be done, the will of Christ to be done. We're praying in keeping with the character and concerns of Christ. And of course, God will answer that prayer in the affirmative. Then in verse 15, we get that wonderful, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Notice verse 21 says the same thing. In John's writing, there's always a connection between loving Jesus and obeying Jesus. And then the spirit of truth is introduced. Verse 16, the helper, verse 17, the spirit of truth. And this passage clearly says that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force or kind of the power of God. He is a person. I think so many of the problems we have with the Holy Spirit could be solved if we started thinking of the Holy Spirit as a person, as a person. In some translations, instead of helper, have counselor. It's a difficult word to translate into English. It means one who's called alongside of. Counselor is not bad, but it's not a camp counselor or a marriage counselor or a legal counselor. Advocate may be better. Comforter, that may be okay, but I don't know. I sleep under a comforter, and I don't think of the comforter as strengthening me. Helper is okay, but it's hard not to think of when your kids are little, oh, you're my little helper. That's not, of course, it at all. The Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. He is divine, he is deity, and he is absolutely powerful, and he will do some things for the disciples. And Jesus will continue to work with that on down through 14 and into 15. There's some questions then, verse 22. That's Judas, not Iscariot. That's probably Thaddeus who's asking that question. And then we get the Holy Spirit, verse 26. The helper, the Holy Spirit, will send in my name. He'll teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. And I want to add, that is not a promise to you and me. I think this text can teach us some things about the work of the Holy Spirit and helps us in many ways, but you can't appropriate, I can't appropriate verse 26 and say, when I'm reading my Bible, the Holy Spirit will bring to my memory something, and now I've been enlightened by divine enlightenment. That's a terrible misuse of verse 26. The Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Do you know how much Jesus has said to me or to you? Answer zero zilch, not a p nothing. Jesus has not said anything to you and to me. This is talking about the divine inspiration of the apostles. That's who he has talked to here. And this guarantees that the New Testament will be inspired and will be an infallible witness and document that we can rely upon. So Jesus gives them peace, but it's not a peace that will rely upon conflict or a sword to enforce it. And so then Jesus says, I'm going away, verse 28, I'm going to the Father, for the Father is, excuse me, greater than I. What does that mean? The Father's greater than I. Does that mean somehow Jesus isn't really deity? Of course not. Jesus is on level with God, and we've seen that from the first verse of the first chapter in the Gospel of John. It just means that at this time he's in a lesser role. And what Jesus is saying here is be glad. The Father has everything under his control. Reading for Thursday, John 14. Hello!

Friday John 15

SPEAKER_01 29:52

It is Friday. It is Friday. You made it to the end of the week, and today we're reading the 15th chapter of John. John 15 is the reading to end the week. It's the reading for Friday. I am John 15, 1, the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. I think it's important to keep John 15 together as a unit. It's about abiding. You'll notice the words abide used about a thousand times in this text, all the way down into verse 16. And then those who don't abide, who won't abide, beginning in verse 18, it's about abiding. And some things here are changing. Israel is not the true vine anymore. That's a common image in the Old Testament for Israel. See Isaiah 5. And I especially like what Jesus says in verse 15 that the apostles are no longer his servants, they are now his friends. And the main point here is this imagery of vine and branches. Every branch in me, verse 2, that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes it. It can bear more fruit. Verse 4, abide in me, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. Verse 5, I'm the vine. You're the branches. Whoever abides in me, he it is that bears much fruit. The imagery here is that the disciple's life depends on being in Christ. A branch that's off the vine will die. We must be in Christ, and we must bear fruit in Christ. Of course, this isn't talking about the Lord's Supper in any shape, form, or fashion. Don't read this at the table, guys, that won't work. And it absolutely teaches that you can be lost. Verse 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. Calvinists try to deny that and try to get out of what that passage says, but it plainly teaches that there are people who, because they don't bear fruit, who were once in Christ, are now lost. One commentator says, in no sense do passages like 15 2 and 15 6 suggest that there is a falling away from grace, as if those who were once actually saved finally perished. The allegory teaches that the branches which were taken away and burned were people who were never in Christ. Really, really, it certainly says that they were in Christ. They were branches attached to the vine. This is just the pitiful attempts of Calvinists to get out of the plain teaching of the Bible. This passage is an excellent verse for establishing that once saved, always saved, is not biblical. And we should use it for that purpose and use it well. But more importantly, we should be focusing on our own personal circumstance. Am I abiding in Christ? Am I remaining in his word? That's what this is about. To abide in me, especially think of verse 4 here, means, one scholar said, constant contact with Jesus, arranging life, arranging prayer, arranging silence in such a way there's never a day when we give ourselves a chance to forget him. And people do try to make this into an evangelistic passage. You need to bear fruit, verse five. There are huge issues with that. First and foremost, we cannot control people's response to the gospel. So a person could be doing everything they could to teach people and to bring people to Jesus. And if they don't come, are we ready to say, oh, they're not bearing fruit? Jesus is going to cut them off because you didn't baptize anyone, something that is out of your control. The reality here is if you want to talk about bearing fruit, then in some ways maybe that would be branches that are making more Christians. That's not fruit, that's making more branches, isn't it? Fruit here is the life of a Christian being in fellowship with Jesus. That's the fruit that is here. The word shapes our desires then, verse 7. What we would ask for, what we would even pray for. And our obedience, verse 11, brings joy. We are glad to do these things. But look at verse 16. Don't get puffed up here. Don't get puffed up. You did not choose me, I chose you. Now you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should abide. That may actually be evangelism right there, as Paul, as Jesus talks to the apostles. Not Paul. How did I get Paul in this text? How about coffee? Coffee is the answer to everything. So then verse 17 is a transitional verse, and Jesus continues to make this promise about love and that he loves them. And Jesus continues to further the idea that they must love one another. How many times have we read that already? 14, 15, now it just over and over again. This 13, 14, 15, this is the command. But the world hates Jesus, verse 18, because he tells the truth about what they're doing. And if you look at verse 20, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. What does he mean by that? Well, that may be a hypothetical that never really happens. One translation says, They will follow your teachings as little as they have followed mine. So maybe that's where Jesus is going with some of that. Or it may be if they persecuted me, and many did, they'll persecute you. And if they obey my teachings, and if you did, so few will obey yours as well. I think we need to supply a little bit there to get the sense of what Jesus is working on. Verse 22, then, the idea here isn't that everyone would have been sinless if Jesus hadn't come, but that they now have responsibility because Jesus has in fact come. And the main point of these verses, look at verse 26, is really not so much to teach about the Holy Spirit. It's a warning to the disciples that they should not expect the Holy Spirit to assume their designated task of being a witness for Jesus. And I think that's fair to say here. The Holy Spirit is a helper. He will come and help them, but he's not doing the job. They will do the job of bringing the gospel into all the world. The reading for Friday, John 15. And that will do it for the podcast for the week. I certainly do appreciate you listening, reading the Bible along with me, thinking about the Sermon from Sunday, the podcast. The podcast is a lot of work, and there are a lot of people who do a lot of things to make it all happen, but I think it's worth it. I think it's helping all of us to draw closer to the Lord and to abide in Jesus' words. Please share the podcast with other people and help them see daily Bible reading, reflecting on Sunday, all of that can be a great help to our walk with the Lord. I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven. I want you to come to see you on Monday with a cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

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.