Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Monday Morning Coffee with Mark
Three Timeless Truths for Students and Parents - Back to School 2024
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches special Monday Morning Coffee podcast on this podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts will help you get your week started right. With look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives . 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.
Speaker 2:Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, August the 12th. I'm Mark . I've got some great coffee here. I know this is back to school Monday for a lot of kids or maybe back to school tomorrow or on Wednesday, Thursday. This is the week a lot of schools are starting up. Some started last week, but that may put a kink in some of our, some of our daily Bible reading. Maybe we've been sleeping in a little bit, being able to do that over the breakfast table. Now we're running around crazy, whatever it's gonna take. We're gonna need to do Bible reading. We're gonna stay with our Bible reading, stay with our disciplines, maybe listen to this on the way to school as we think about our sermon yesterday. And as we get ready to read in the book of John, let's dive in. Let's spend a moment revisiting yesterday's sermon, navigating the new school year, some timeless truths for students and parents. And probably by the end of that sermon I had all the parents boo-hoo. And since I talked to kids about how you're changing and your friends are more valuable in your life than your parents are. But remember, God isn't changing. And I came right back to the parents and said, your child is changing, growing up like Samuel. And I'm trying to say that that's a good thing. That's God's plan. But I know I'm a parent. Didn't I have two girls? And that can be a little bit difficult sometimes. Maybe you miss holding the baby missiles, cute toddler years, those kinds of things. And then I said, secondly, you're losing your status as a parent. And of course parents don't want to hear that either. Need to be careful with kids and friends 'cause we are losing our status and we want our kids to be around good kids and not just good kids on the sports team, good kids in the band. We want our kids to be around other Christian kids. That may not be the best term because your 8-year-old is being around some eight year olds at West Side . That kid's not necessarily a Christian, probably isn't a Christian, but you know what I mean by that. And so here I'm telling parents, your kid's growing up and you're losing your influence. Probably all the parents hated me by the end of that sermon. Lemme see if I can say an encouraging word to you. And that is this. You can do this, you can do this. God has entrusted these precious souls to you because you can do this. We live in a time where parents seem to have less confidence and be more afraid than ever. And yes, there's an awful lot going on in this world that is scary and we're worried about, I get it. But you know what? A lot of parents have lived in scary times. I'm thinking about Noah, I'm thinking about Daniel's parents. The Babylonian threat was there in Daniel's lifetime and Daniel gets carted off into Babylonian captivity. Uh , there's so many things going on all through history and parents have been able to raise strong, resilient children who know the Lord, love the Lord, trust the Lord and serve the Lord. You can too. Don't let the mommy bloggers out there, don't let the afternoon talk shows and the news and social media with all of its fear mongering tell you, you can't do this. You can do this. That's why God gave you those kids. God will bless you. You need to pray. Seek good counsel from those who have gone on before. Look for somebody with some gray in their hair. Read your Bible. Love your kids. You can do this. Mom and dad, I know it's a tough week sending 'em off to school, but you can do it. I'm praying for you. The church is praying for you. You're gonna get this done. I know God is going to use you to raise your children to be his children. And a big part of that is regular daily Bible reading. Let's think about our reading in the Gospel of John
Speaker 3:I .
Speaker 2:It is Monday and today's reading is in John chapter 10, beginning in verse 22. John chapter 10 22 to 30 , lemme get a little coffee here. Oh , nothing makes Bible reading better than a good cup of coffee. Please pay attention to the beginning of verse 22. At that time, we're flowing this, remember the flow, chapter eight, light of the World, chapter nine, Jesus gives light to the man Born blind. Chapter 10 connects right to this as there's controversy in dialogue and that leads into the idea of the Good Shepherd. And in fact, chapter 11 will flow out of that. The Good Shepherd takes risks for the sheep. Jesus comes and raises Lazarus from the dead. So here we are at that time, the Feast of Dedication. What's the Feast of Dedication? The last mention of time was the Feast of Tabernacles in chapter seven in verse two, and that's in the fall. Feast of Dedication is Hanukkah that says Hanukkah. And this is in December. It commemorates the cleansing of the temple. In December 1 63, BC Temple had been defiled by the Syrians. Awful, terrible situation. Daniel actually predicts some of that. And the Feast of Dedication was also called the Feast of Lights because of the lighting of lamps and candles in Jewish homes celebrating this feast. It was a joyous occasion. The Maccabees retook Jerusalem and they cleansed the temple. There's some legends and some things that go with all of that. It's the Feast of Dedication. It was winter. Jesus is in the temple. This would be a cold weather kind of event. He's walking along here and he wants to say some things about who he is, but this is the wrong group. Notice verse 24. They attack Jesus in some ways. Well , right back to chapter five. Jesus says, I can't talk with you. I can't speak plainly about this. There's all that political baggage that goes around being the Messiah. You're not gonna understand. In fact, you don't want to understand. If you wanted to understand the works that I do would bring you to understanding you're not part of my flock. Verse 26, you don't listen to me. And this explains why they are not in his flock. They won't listen. Are you in Jesus' flock? Are you listening to Jesus? Then we get this wonderful statement in verse 28. I gave them, I give them eternal life. They'll never perish. No one will snatch them outta my hand. The focus here is on the power of the shepherd. This passage doesn't say anything, of course about a sheep that willingly wanders away from the shepherd. That doesn't want to be in the flock anymore, that runs from the shepherd. It just means no wolf or bear can come and get a sheep. This shepherd is too strong, too powerful, too vigilant. You can't do that. But of course we may choose to leave the shepherd, but the evil one cannot overcome the shepherd who verse 29 could steal from God. So Jesus says, I am the Father are one. This is one in function here. The function of protecting the sheep. What a powerful statement this is. Even to those who are trying to get anything they can on Jesus so that they can make false charges and attack Jesus. Jesus still, even as he says, you're not listening to me, still says some incredible things that are wonderfully encouraging. I love verse 28. I think sometimes there's almost a feeling that we can't get to heaven. The devil's just got so many temptations, so many tricks, so many new things are happening. I, I'm , I'm gonna succumb to all of that. The devil is not taking you forcibly from Jesus. Isn't that wonderful to know? We should be thankful for that and we'll continue to read in John chapter 10 on Tuesday. It is Tuesday and our reading today is John chapter 10 verses 31 to 42 . And I guess the first thing that I should say is Zoom is on tonight. Did not have zoom last week as I met with the elders, elder preacher meeting last Tuesday night. But zoom is on tonight and as I say that I kind of have, yeah, you hear a little sigh there. It seems like every time we have super controversial and very difficult passages in our reading schedule. Somehow they show up on Tuesday. I don't know if that's a plan, but somehow they show up on Tuesday so that I have to thresh through it and work through it on Zoom. What's going on here? What's happening? Well , the Jews pick up stones to stone Jesus. Verse 31. They understand what it means for him to claim to be one with the Father. And Jesus's answer is just not what we would expect. Jesus says in verse 34, is it not written in your law? I said, you are God's. If he called them God's tom , the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken. Do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, you're blaspheming Because I said I am the son of God. That is not the answer that I thought Jesus would give to that. It is a sharp turn away from the kind of conversations Jesus has been having and it is a very controversial and very difficult kind of text. What Jesus is doing here is quoting the 82nd Psalm. That's what Jesus is doing. And I think this is about the charge that Jesus is making himself God. That's what they say. You make yourself God. Verse 33, we've seen that before and we've seen that Jesus doesn't make himself anything. So he cites a time when God made Israel holy consecrated cent . When God made Israel like God . The rabbis taught that at Sinai by receiving the law, Israel was given. Life was given power over death and they were sent into the world to bring all the news of the one true God. So if they obeyed the precepts of the law, they would live, they were deathless, they had become beyond the power of death. And in that way they are. Yeah, that is a way that you are like God. So Israel has made the people of God because they were consecrated and sent. Remember, holiness means to be set aside, consecrated set apart for God's use and to be used by God. That's what holiness is about. And Israel was made the people of God, they were consecrated and sent into the world. Jesus was made the Messiah and sent in the same way. So Jesus is arguing if God consecrated Israel and made them holy and deathless beyond the power of death so that they might be called God, I probably would use that with a little G there. Then the one, the Messiah whom God has consecrated and sent to earth can certainly be called God with a big G. And the emphasis here is on the action of God. He made Israel like God by giving them the law. Israel did not do that. And he made Jesus God, he did not. Jesus doesn't make himself out uh , to be anything. He is sent and consecrated by the Father here. So that's a little more complicated understanding of Psalm 82. We work with this a little bit more tonight in the Zoom call to see if we can understand that. But Jesus continues to push them to see verse 38. The works themselves. The works themselves should testify to who he is, but this is not enough. They attempt to arrest Jesus. He escapes and goes across the, Jordan gets away from there because his time has not come. As we close chapter 10, once again, that whole controversy has bubbled up again. That started in chapter five, Jesus's persona non grata . He ends up leaving Judea in Jerusalem. And we're kind of left wondering, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat. What's going to happen next? What would possibly bring Jesus back to Jerusalem, to the to Judea, to the area around Jerusalem when it's such a dangerous place for him to be tomorrow? John chapter 11 answers that question, why will Jesus return to the Jerusalem area? Because his friend Lazarus needs him. See you tomorrow, John chapter 11 . On Wednesday. It is Wednesday and today we start the 11th chapter of John in many ways, the climatic and decisive chapter in the Gospel of John. But before we think about our daily Bible reading, let's think a little bit about the parable sermon that we will hear tonight. Tonight. Daniel Lee from Granberry will be with us. That's kind of ironic in some ways because, because I'm in Granbury tonight doing the summer series for them there while he's here doing the summer series for us, he will be speaking on parables. He's speaking on the parable of the tenets from Matthew chapter 21. Daniel, tell us a little bit more about your sermon tonight.
Speaker 4:Hi everyone, this is Daniel Lee. I'm really looking forward to being with you this week to study the parable of the tenants. Uh, this is a cautionary tale from Jesus that's intended to provoke some self-evaluation and make us ask the question, what kind of fruit am I producing for the master in his kingdom? I hope you can join us this Wednesday as we study the words of Jesus and think about how we can walk with him more faithfully. I'll see you then.
Speaker 2:Thank you Daniel. Let's go to work in John chapter 11. In many ways, as I've said already a couple of times, this is the climatic sign in the beginning of the end for Jesus. This is what he's been pointing to all along when he would say, my hour has not yet come. Guess what? His hour is now coming. And that is all precipitated by Jesus leaving the safety of Northeast Palestine. He's on the other side of the Jordan River and coming back to Jerusalem where the opposition is and where all of his enemies are. That comes because we're told verse one that Lazarus was ill. And we get some notes here about Mary anointing the Lord. Verse two, clearly the episode of chapter 12, which we have not read yet, had become very, very famous. John will report on that in a little bit, but everybody seems to know about that. And I love verse three, that they just say, Hey , Lazarus is ill. Nobody tries to dictate to Jesus. Nobody tells Jesus what to do. Jesus says, this is gonna turn out verse four for the glory of God. And glory is a major theme in this chapter. It's a major theme in the book of John. If you have some kind of computer, Bible, something on your phone, then just tap and and get glory out of the gospel of John. It's all through this gospel. God's glory is super, super important and Jesus we're told. Then verse five, love Martha and her sister and Lazarus, I'll give you a note here. This is the kind of thing that you can do on a podcast. The word love here is the word agape. And sometimes we hear that that's a special Christian kind of love and , and it's the highest form of love. But actually in John, there is no difference in phileo and the agape. The terms are used interchangeably. And that is true in other places in the New Testament as well. It develops much, much, much after the New Testament to become a term that the Christians have used and, and the Christians used to mean some specialized things, but in the New Testament, don't make a big deal out of agape. For example, there is an account where in the Sep two agent Agape is used of sexual love, and in the synoptics there's one account that has the rich young ruler agape instead of phileo . So there's, there's no nothing to be said about agape. This is extra special love those terms, those terms just used in, in different, in in different contexts. But to mean oftentimes very much the same thing. And , and when you think about it, we have terms like that as well. L we might say if some young people that are involved in , uh, the early stages of romance , uh, he has a crush on her, someone else might say he's head over heels with her or someone might say he's infatuated with her. And if you took those three terms and tried to separate them and say, you know, this really means no, no, no, just, just all pretty much the same idea and love here means exactly what it says, that Jesus has a great relationship with Martha's Si and her sister Mary and Lazarus. So Jesus does what makes no sense at all. Verse six and his disciples make stupid remarks about that. Verse eight. You knew that John would report that. And then Jesus says, it's just not the right time. Verse nine, this is another way of saying my hours not yet come. And so verse 11, notice he says, our friend Lazarus, but I go to awaken him, not we go to awaken him. I go to awaken him. Jesus is the one who will do this. And Thomas who gets a lot of criticism is the one that shows great faith. And it's noted here, verse 16, that he's the twin and someone's gonna say, who's the other one? And yeah, we do not know. We do not know. Hard to stop reading right here. Jesus is walking into the mouth of the lion. What's gonna happen when Jesus gets to Bethany and Lazarus is there, he's dead. What will happen next? We see that in our reading on Thursday. See you then. It is Thursday. And today we're reading John chapter 11 verses 17 to 27, as Jesus encounters Martha here, as he makes his way toward Bethany and Lazarus's tomb. I'm gonna give you a note out of verse 17 that, that I'm not sure I believe or that I buy completely into, but, but just think about this a little bit. John is giving very careful date markers here, four days. And some scholars think that those markers are given because there was rabbinical traditions that the soul of a deceased person hovers around the body for three days and the hope of coming back into that body and bringing that person back to life. Now that, ah , that seems really farfetched to me that I , I just don't know about that. And I want to say particularly scripture never teaches that. In fact, the Bible teaches the very opposite that the soul goes immediately into eternity. I'm thinking about Luke 16, I'm thinking about James chapter two. There's none of this, your soul standing around waiting to see if anything's gonna happen. I don't know, like the paramedics are going to do CPR and I'm gonna jump back in there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But maybe that tradition was going around in Jesus's day. And so some people would think, well, of course Jesus was able to raise Lazars from the dead. His soul was standing right there just ready to go. And, and and John is saying, Nope, nope. Whatever you believe about that, his soul is gone. He's in the fourth day. So you weigh that, maybe do some research and think a little bit further about that. Bethany is near verse 18, about a mile and a half mile, 1.72 miles away from Jerusalem. And John May be telling us that to account for how many people from Jerusalem are able to come over and see this gargantuan miracle. Martha's not happy with Jesus in verse 21, and she's given the business to him here. And then she says, verse 22, you can do whatever you ask from God. And I wish I knew everything about that because that sounds like a really big statement of faith. Like, Hey, you could raise my brother from the dead . But then in verse 39, when Jesus gets to the tomb, Martha, Jesus says, Hey, let's roll stone back . Martha says, Hey, that's not a good plan. That's gonna be smelly. That's not gonna work out. So it doesn't really seem like she is anticipating her brother rising from the dead. Jesus says that's gonna happen. Verse 23, she says, okay, we're talking about the end . Jesus says, no, we're talking about right now. I am, I am. Verse 25, the resurrection and the life, not later on, sometime down the line, I am and in John resurrection and life are not necessarily the same. Life is something that Jesus is giving right now. John 10 10, I came that they might have life more abundantly. What we ought to get out of verse 25 is that with Jesus, you get life and heaven. Yeah, all this in heaven too. Jesus brings the abundant life now and heaven as well. And that's what the la raising of Lazarus is all about. Jesus is the life giver. And is there a better way for him to demonstrate that so that we would believe that than for him to call a dead man out of the tomb. He is the giver of life. And so verse 26, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this note, the question is not, do you believe in miracles? But do you believe me? Do you believe what I'm telling you? Do you believe is the key question of the gospel of John? Tomorrow we journey further in this chapter. What's gonna happen when Jesus encounters Mary? We'll see that on Friday. It is Friday and today we read John chapter 11 verses 28 to 37 . These are powerful, powerful passages that help us so much because they show Jesus's emotions at this scene. They meet Jesus. Martha comes and meets Jesus before he's even in the village. Verse 30, she's not happy. There's a bunch of people there. Verse 31, professional mourners, people from Jerusalem. She's not happy. She gives Jesus the business. You have failed us. Verse 32. And when Jesus saw her weeping, verse 33 and the Jews who'd come with her , he was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled groaned in his spirit and was troubled is another translation of that. And those verbs, there are hard to translate. Those terms are not easy for the language scholars to get ahold of. It can mean anger. And there are some places where it's translated that way. In Matthew nine, Matthew nine 30, mark 1 43, there's um, anger there or strictly or sternly or sharply. And so that leads people to talk about anger at sin and sins of facts that Jesus looks at. What has happened as a result of sin in this world. People die. That makes people hurt and cry. And Jesus just angry at the work of the devil. There's a lot to be said for that. It may be Jesus is unhappy at their lack of faith, and that is the other case that sometimes is made that Jesus is unhappy, that nobody has more faith in him. And so he says, where is he? They say, come in verse 35, Jesus wept. It can literally be Jesus burst into tears. It's the famous part about this is of course, it's the shortest verse in the Bible, and that's not why it ought to be famous. It ought to be famous because the Messiah came here and even in a time when he knew what was about to happen with Lazarus, instead of telling everybody, stop your crying. Quit your crying. What Jesus does is enter into their crying. He enters into their sadness. He sympathizes with us, he hurts with us. And so the Jews said, see how he loved him? Could not, he who opened the eyes of the blind had kept this man from dying. They are right and they are wrong. The tears show love. And yes, Jesus could have healed Lazarus, but that was not what was best. That was not verse four for the glory of God. They clearly think that what's happened to Lazarus now places him beyond the powers of Jesus, but it does not. And in Monday's reading, we see the most powerful miracle that Jesus does in the gospel of John. And that is the podcast for the week. I certainly appreciate you listening. I get good comments from people all the time. Last week someone was talking to me about the podcast and how full it was to them, and I just appreciate that so much. Preachers need encouragement too, and it's always good to know that people are listening to this. It goes out there into the interwebs and there's actually people downloading it. I appreciate you so very much. I hope that you'll tell others about the podcast that you've got it set so it'll download automatically onto your devices and maybe you'd leave us a rating or review so that more people would find the podcast until Monday. Then when we'll open our Bibles together. Again, I'm Mark Roberts and I wanna go to heaven, and I want you to come to I'll see you Monday with a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Westside church of Christ podcast. Monday morning coffee with mark . For more information about west side , you can connect with us through our website, just christians.com and our Facebook page. Our music is from upbeat.is that's upbeat with two P'S UPP , 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 company coffee, of course, on next Monday.