Monday Morning Coffee with Mark

How can a good God allow suffering in this world?

• Mark Roberts • Season 4 • Episode 43

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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.

Speaker 1:

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, September the 16th. I'm Mark. I'm holding some amazing coffee. I've got my Bible open to the gospel of John. I'm ready to think a little bit more about yesterday's challenge to Christianity. Have something specific to say that will help Christians in that regard. We just had a great day yesterday and we're starting a new work week , and what we want to do is get some of that spiritual energy from yesterday and just keep it going, especially as we continue to read Jesus's great prayer in the gospel of John this week. Pour that cup of coffee, get ready, get set. Let's go. Yesterday I continued the preaching theme for the year challenges to Christianity, and as I said yesterday, this is probably one of the oldest challenges to the existence of God. The idea that suffering somehow means God. God is not what we claim him to be. All powerful and also all loving . And usually where atheists are gonna go with that is that there can of course then not be any such thing as God. And there's a lot of different ways to answer that. I've preached on this before, I think James, the first five verses really help us think in the right direction. And I wanna just share now a thought that I think would help Christians when we suffer or when we see those that we love suffering. I'm , I'm not sure this is where I'd begin with an atheist. This is not probably the best spot for that, but as we believe in God already, I think this little quote I'm about to read for you helps us think about God in a better way. This comes from some material that Lee Strobel put together. Strobel is an evangelical, don't agree with him about everything, but he's written some excellent apologetic material and he talked with a Catholic philosopher, Peter Kreeft , I hope I'm saying his name right, Kreeft , K-R-E-E-F-T. Don't agree with him about everything either, do I? But Kreeft , as they were talking about the problem of pain , answered very poignantly by saying, how can a mere finite human be sure that infinite wisdom would not tolerate certain short range evils for more long range goods that we could not foresee? I really like that. I really like that when we talk about God being all powerful and all loving , we also need to be mindful that God is all wise and God knows what he's doing. We cannot expect as finite beings that we're going to understand everything that's going on in the councils of heaven, but we trust in God's goodness, God's power, and yes, God's wisdom. I think you see that in the gospel of John as Jesus does some praying. Let's get our Bibles open to the gospel of John. John. Chapter 17 is where we begin daily Bible reading. This week It is Monday and today we complete the 17th chapter of John. Our reading is John chapter 17 verses 13 to 26. And this is a very, very cool section I'll tell you about that when we get to verse 20. There's some things here that may not be, may not be in any other part of the Bible anywhere. So in verse 13, Jesus talks more about joy being fulfilled. And I wonder sometimes if we've noticed how much joy is a theme in some of these last things that Jesus is saying. The apostles are really down and Jesus keeps talking about joy and I, I preached about joy and happiness a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes I think we make maybe too much of that distinction, but, but I get it. There's something about joy way down inside of us when we're right with God, when we're approved of God and that kind of joy can, yeah, that can go on even in this kind of situation, sanctify them. Verse 17, Jesus says, then in your word, your word sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. And please remember that sanctified is that word that we get our word holy from. It's in that family of words , saint and sanctify and holy all come from the same idea, from the same root words and holy means to be set apart for God's use. Too often we just say the set apart business and not for God's use. But notice verse 18, as you have sent me into the world, so I've sent them into the world. They are set apart to be used to be sent into the world. Then in verse 20, Jesus begins this unique section where he prays for you and me, I'm always saying we're gonna come to the book of Revelation. I'm gonna make a big play about this. This is not written to us. Don't make it about us. Last Sunday I talked about King Jesus. Don't make the gospel about you. The gospel's about, about Jesus, about the king, need to be careful about that. And yet here is a place where it's about us. Jesus prays for all believers verse 20. And how do people believe they will believe through the apostolic preaching, through the apostolic word? And notice in verse 21, that being one here means being one in purpose, in love, in action, in joint submission to the word. And that will lead to a unity. Verse 21 says that the world can see and that has great power. Verse 23, we need to think a lot more about unity. We need to value unity more. We need to be ready to sacrifice for unity. Mostly. I'm afraid what we talk about with unity is wrong ways to have unity. And that unity is certainly not about finding the lowest common denominator and minimizing everything that's important in the gospels until we finally have hardly anything left and then we can join up with others who have hardly anything left. That is certainly not the case at all. But unity matters to Jesus and it ought to matter to us. In fact, one writer summarized the entire mission of Jesus just coming out of this 17th chapter right here, problem. The world doesn't know God, solution Jesus knows God and can reveal therefore God to the world implementation. Jesus has gathered his disciples who will go forward and reveal God through the preaching of his word. That's a pretty good summary from John chapter 17. And that is an amazing prayer and it's still, it still really catches me that in verse 20, Jesus is praying for me and he's praying for you. See you tomorrow as we leave the upper room where they've celebrated the Passover and they move to the garden of Gethsemane. And the events that we will ultimately see Jesus on the cross begin to happen in rapid fire fashion. See you on Tuesday. Welcome to Tuesday. Today we read John 18, 1 2 11 and there is so much going on here. We need to try to sort some things out and get a chance to talk a little bit more about this in Zoom tonight. Lemme just say a couple of things about the differences in John's account of the crucifixion and the accounts that are in Matthew, mark, and Luke. Of course, there's no contradictions here, wanna be clear about that. But John wants to highlight some things that Matthew, mark and Luke have not highlighted. So for example, the Romans will play a much greater role here than in the Synoptics. There's a lot of talk of soldiers in Pilate . There is no agony in Gethsemane, no praying, and there is no kiss by Judas. There is a very significant emphasis on the control that Jesus exercises over everything. And there's some new material that we have not seen before, like the trial at Ann's house , um, answering the high priest, Jesus and Pilate talking, Jesus carrying the cross, the discussion of the inscriptions on the cross. John and Jesus' mother at the foot of the cross and one of the cries from the cross. So we are glad to have John's gospel. John's gospel is helping us here and we wanna make sure that we, we get all of this. I'm not gonna make a super big effort to try to collate all of this and and get Matthew here and Mark here and Luke here kind of put together a harmony of the gospel that's been done. There's plenty of those that are available. Just wanna see what John is saying here and what's going on in John . So they go across the brook Kidron verse 18, it's a very sharp valley over to to Gethsemane. You can go to Gethsemane even today we don't know everything exactly about Gethsemane and obviously some changes in the landscape there in the last 2000 years. But where Gethsemane is is very well established. There's some olive trees still growing there. It's a very powerful place to visit. And so Jesus goes there. I wonder if the disciples thought that they might might end up just spending the night there if they were just gonna sleep there, sleep outdoors, not necessarily um, out of the question during this time of the year. But Judas shows up with a band of Roman soldiers and this seems to be a really large band, verse three, maybe as many as 600 men. And sometimes people react negatively to that kind of idea. But remember the Romans didn't fight evenly match battles, they crushed people with superior force. They love to do that. Remember in Acts, Paul's life is threatened and they send him from Jerusalem to Esea Philippi with just zillions of soldiers and guys that are mounted on horseback. It's a huge force because the Romans don't like to lose. And so wouldn't be surprised if you're looking at a big group of people here, I should say this, from the Garden of Gethsemane, you can look across the Kidron Valley to the walls in the temple complex of Jerusalem and you would be able to see very clearly at night that big group of people with torches and lanterns coming. So when Jesus is praying, that's in the synoptics, that's not here in John's gospel, he stops praying, he looks up, he knows what's coming, he knows what's coming and Jesus meets them and makes every effort to make sure that he is arrested. I am he. Verse six. And they kind of fall back verse six, they are astounded. Notice this is an eyewitness account. John was there, John saw this. He'll never forget any of this. And we do get a fulfillment here, verse nine. That's very unusual in John's gospel. That's kind of a Matthew thing. John gives us some of that johanan explanation here. Jesus is the Savior. And then of course Peter pulls out a sword. Now this would be a short sword. This is an Excalibur, one of these monster swords that we see in the King Arthur legends and so forth. But it is not a pocket knife. It's a good sized weapon that he is using here. And Jesus says, you gotta stop that. I need to drink the cop . And of course that is just full of Old Testament imagery in the Old Testament. Cop is used of suffering. Psalm 75 verse eight for example. And especially for the wrath of God, the cup of God's wrath. Jeremiah chapter 25 verse 15, I think that's what Jesus is talking about here. He is about to drink the wrath, the cup of God's wrath poured out against the sins of the world. Then Jesus will have to face his first trial. We'll do that tomorrow. See you on Wednesday. Westsiders, I'll see you tonight on the Zoom call and I'm gonna try to post some pictures of Gethsemane both on my personal Facebook page and we'll talk about some of that in Zoom tonight. There's some things that are very, very helpful right here in the gap in John, where we are in John's gospel that I wanna highlight for you a little bit. We were , Dean and I, were very privileged to get to go to Palestine and I wanna share some of those, some of those pictures and some of that topography and some of that discussion with you tonight on Zoom and on my Facebook page. See you on Zoom tonight, Westside or see everybody else on my Facebook page or see you tomorrow on the podcast. It is Wednesday. Let's get on that camel because it's hump day today we are reading John 18 verses 12 to 18, just six verses here. This is not a giant reading but it's an important reading. This is Jesus's first trial before Anus . Enis held office from 86 to 80 15. And then he was pulled out of office by pilot's predecessor, a man named Valerius gratis . Lots and lots of Jews resented that and still recognized him as the power behind the priesthood. And in fact, no fewer than five of his sons and his son-in-law. Keis all served at one time or another as high priest that accounts for some of this anis calf stuff that's going on. The Romans didn't have any compunction about saying, you're not the high priest anymore , we don't like how you're doing things, so we're gonna put this other guy in here. And that of course gave the Jews just all kinds of queasiness. But that's how life is under the Roman Empire. So here Jesus is at Anis house and there is some pretty good evidence as to where this is. If they don't know the exact house, we certainly know the quarter that Jesus is in because the high priest and the Sadducees had money and we know where the money, the archeologists know where the money houses, where the rich people lived in Jerusalem. And it is a long way from Gethsemane over to this quarter. And that's something that I did not have good appreciation for until actually getting to go to Israel. And there we were standing at the high priest house and you can look way across over a couple of ridges and there you can still see in the far distance , uh, probably over a mile away the Russian Orthodox church that is built in Gethsemane, in in the garden of Gethsemane. And so you think about Jesus in the middle of the night. He's had a long day, he's tired, he's chained, he's being dragged and and like I said, there's several ridge across the Kidron Valley, a couple of other valleys here, and it , it's a long walk. By the time Jesus gets here, he's got to be tired. And this is just beginning his evening. So we really need to think a little bit more. When you look at that on your map of Jerusalem in the back of your Bible, it just doesn't look that far. It's a long, long walk. And what we get here is that Jesus is standing fast while Simon Peter is struggling to stand fast. Verse 16 says, there's another disciple there too that's probably John. And here, Peter says, I am not. And I think that is very, very much an echo of verse six when Jesus says, I am He. Peter cannot say what Jesus did say. And so this is now getting to be early in the morning. And so there's a fire there. You know how it gets gets a little cool sometimes in the morning and there's a lot happening here where Peter is with them standing there and warming himself. And already we know Peter, you're in trouble because of what Jesus has said already. But maybe what we don't, maybe we don't give Peter enough credit, at least he's there. At least he's there trying to stand with Jesus, trying to see what's gonna happen to Jesus. Let's not forget here that Peter is the one who pulled out a sword and cut off an ear so people would remember him. People might recognize him. I think Peter is very vulnerable here and that plays into the things that are going on. But Peter falls under the questions of a girl. And in tomorrow's reading, we'll see Jesus stand strong under the questions of the high priest. See you on Thursday. It is Thursday. It is Thursday. And today we read John 18 verses 19 to 27, what's going on inside the trial of Jesus while Peter's standing outside probably with John warming himself at the fire. What's going on inside is that the high priest is questioning Jesus. Verse 19 about who he is, what he's doing about his disciples in Jesus' Answer in verses 20 and 21 I think is really an appeal for a fair trial. Can we get some witnesses in here? Can instead of me being interrogated, let's get the people in here who know me, they'll tell the truth about me. Is, is this a real deal? Is, is this just a kangaroo court? And of course we all know the answer to that. The outcome of this has been clearly decided and it doesn't make any difference what Jesus is going to say. They are going to put Jesus to death. And in fact, Jesus ends up being struck in verse 22, which reminds us of the apostle Paul who will end up duplicating this scene in his own life . Meanwhile, back at the ranch, what's Peter doing? Peter's falling apart verses 25, 26 and 27. And of course there are people who have tried to put together the denials that are recorded in the synoptics. Some people try to make this into some kind of, some sort of Bible contradiction situation. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Notice verse 25. So they said to him, there were probably lots of people pushing on Peter here, lots of people who, as I said, would've recognized him as the guy in the garden who was swinging a sword. There's a lot in the word they and the synoptics pick out some specific individuals about that. John helps us see that there's a crowd here and that's not going well for Peter. In fact, in verse 26, that's a detail that's not given in the synoptics and then the rooster crows. Dawn is approaching, tomorrow's reading begins in verse 28. It was early morning. Jesus has now been up all night. He's got to be physically exhausted and yet he'll now face the Roman authority Pilate who will decide if he lives or dies. See you on Friday . It is Friday and today we complete John the 18th chapter. We're reading John 18 verses 28 to 40 , the first Roman trial of Jesus. What a close to the chapter this is , and John does give us some detail here that the synoptics don't, particularly the conversations with Jesus and Pilate, it's very early in the morning, verse 28. That watch is probably 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM Pilate would open for business at dawn and probably finished by 10 or 11 in the morning. Remember in this world, there's no electric lights. When the sun comes up, everybody goes to work. You gotta work when there is day. I think Jesus said something about that when you have the light to work by, so it's early in the morning, incredibly, the Jewish leaders won't go into the governor's headquarters because they're concerned there might be Levin in there and then they'd be defiled. They're not concerned about orchestrating an unjust murder. What they are concerned about is the tiny minuscule parts of the law, leaven and yeast and all that goes with that. It's just, it's just a shaking your head moment. We don't know precisely where Jesus is here. Verse 28 says, he's in the governor's headquarters and traditionally people have said that's in the fortress, Antonio, which is that big column court in the, in the big tower, in the corner of the temple. Probably not. He may be in Herod's palace here. That's an area you can't get to easily without special permission as a tourist and so forth. But we're not entirely sure where Jesus is. But Pilate comes out to them here we meet Pilate. Pilate is not a good person. He was appointed by Tiberius in a 26. He held that post until AD 37. He was known for being mean and cruel and unfair, and everybody pretty much hated him. He is not liked at all, but all Roman rulers are subject to manipulation. If somebody starts saying some things about, I sure would hate to have to tell Caesar that you allowed a rebellion to go on that you're a friend of a rebel that is gonna push this guy's button and they need to push his buttons because in verse 31, their pilot says, why don't you all just handle this? I had to come outside. Don't what ? What's the deal with this? You all take care of this. And they say, we can't take care of it because the Romans had taken in a six capital punishment away from the Jews. You can't do this. And then we get a johanan reflection in verse 32. It says, of course that's what happened. This fulfills what Jesus has spoken. This is why Jesus isn't stoned to death. Stephen Acts seven is stoned. Jesus will be crucified. He will be lifted up exactly as he told us he would be. Then we get this great conversation between Jesus and Pilate and notice that Jesus begins verse 34, that conversation by testing the waters. Are you really interested? Pilate ? How much interest do you have? Are you just are ? Are you just a puppet in these guys' hands? What's going on here? That's a great, great point. Sometimes we get drawn into religious conversations that are going nowhere because, because this isn't a real religious conversation. Somebody just wants to quibble somebody just wants to argue. They've already made up their minds. Jesus says, where are you? Here are ? Are you really interested? So Pilate and he go back and forth with some of this leading Jesus to say, I'm not the kind of king verse 36 that you're talking about. My kingdom is not of this world. That means my kingdom, my kingship is not a threat to you because Jesus's kingdom doesn't have a territory or a throne or armor or battles or earthly glory of any kind. It's not about any of that. It's a spiritual kingdom and it's going to be about the king. It's going to be about the King Pilate tries to evade with this. What is truth business? And Jesus says, listen, you are not listening to me. I'm not talking to you. That's where this goes. In verse 38, and this is where, this is where Jesus gets sent to Herod in Luke chapter 23 verses six to 12 verses 39 and 40 . Then cover Jesus coming back before Pilate. It seems like Pilate is trying to antagonize and jab the Jews some, Hey, who are we gonna release here? Who are we gonna release? What about Barbi Bar's ? Name means son of the Father Bar , Abba , Abba , father Bar son of Simon Bar Jonah , son of Jonah. He is the son of the Father. They want a son of the father, but they do not want the father's only son and he is a robber and that more than likely references that he's some kind of terrorist, some sort of murderer, not a thief who breaks into people's homes and steals things. That term is used a couple of different ways, but probably he's some kind of rebel, some kind of bad man in that direction. That takes us to the end of John chapter 18, and that takes us to the end of the podcast. I certainly do appreciate you listening and fairly regularly someone talks to me about the podcast and says nice things about it and how much it helps 'em with their Bible reading and connecting things up from Sunday. I appreciate your encouragement. Preachers need encouragement too. So until Monday when we'll open our Bibles together. Again, I'm Mark Roberts and I want to go to heaven and I want you to come to I'll see you on 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.