January 5, 2026 • 27 mins
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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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Coffee Podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think through itfurther and better work the
applications into our dailylives.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
January the 5th, 2026.
Can you believe it?
Wow, brand new year.
I'm Mark.
I got my Bible open.
Have some ideas about dailyBible reading to share with you
that are very, very important.
And of course, I do have coffee.
Can't do anything without a goodcup of coffee.
(01:13):
Open your Bible to the Gospel ofLuke.
Let's think about yesterday'ssermon, maybe briefly, and let's
get right into daily Biblereading.
Grab your coffee, grab yourBible, let's grow together.
Yesterday in the 1040, Russieand I talked about and rolled
out the 2026 daily Bible readingcalendar schedule for the
(01:37):
Westside congregation and foreverybody.
I'm hoping lots of people willjoin in and read along with us.
And I do know from emails andwhen I'm in gospel meetings and
Facebook messages and so forth,a lot of people outside the West
Side family are reading theBible along with us.
And our plan this year is calledLike the Teacher, and it's based
out of Luke chapter 6 and verse40, where Jesus says, Luke 6,
(02:02):
40, a disciple is not above histeacher, but everyone, when he
is fully trained, will be likehis teacher.
Our goal is to improve our walkwith Jesus so that we can become
more like the Master Teacher.
More like Jesus.
And if you need more informationabout that, I don't really have
(02:22):
a lot of sermon notes herebecause there wasn't really a
sermon, that was a conversation.
Just listen to that conversationbetween Rusty and I.
That'll tell you what you needto know about this year's
reading plan and how that'sgoing to break out and what
we're looking for and why Rustychose the order and the
sequencing as he did and all thethings that go with all of that.
If you're not part of theWestside family, you can see
(02:43):
that on our Facebook page or yougo to JustChristians.com, listen
to that sermon, watch thatsermon.
You'll be ready to go.
You'll know what we're doing forthis special reading plan.
Really excited about this.
Yes, it's longer readings.
We talked about that yesterday,but don't panic about that.
I think there's a real value insome of these shorter readings
(03:04):
that we've done the last coupleof years, but I think there's
great value in taking off a bigbite.
And Luke's got some great, greatstuff for us in those big bites.
So our reading plan for 2026,like the teacher, from Luke
chapter 6 and verse 40, let'sstart that reading plan.
Grab your Bible.
It's time to talk about dailyBible reading.
(03:49):
And you know how much I love theGospel of Luke.
And if I say everything about 80verses, then this podcast will
last into Tuesday.
So I'll try to cut some of thisdown.
But as the year goes along, Iwill try to give you, for each
book of the Bible, as we start abook of the Bible, some of that
basic stuff, author, date, someof that kind of business.
And of course, the author of theGospel of Luke is Luke.
There's wonderful, wonderfulevidence that the Luke that we
(04:11):
read about in Acts, who'sjourneying with Paul, is the
writer of this gospel.
And Acts goes all the waythrough 62 A.D.
Paul's in prison there at theend of the book of Acts.
And so this book is probablywritten a little bit earlier
than that, 60, 62, somewherearound in there, written to
Theophilus, verse 3.
We don't know who that is, butthe expression in verse 3 most
(04:32):
excellent is used of Luke ofgoverning officials.
So lots have thought that he issome kind of Roman official.
And probably the most importantthing for us to understand as we
begin the Gospel of Luke is thisis not a biography of Jesus.
It's not.
Luke is a preacher first andforemost.
He has excellent style.
This is the best written stylein the New Testament.
(04:54):
Luke and Acts both contain justmarvelous style, just easy to
read, powerful, hooks you rightin.
And it's not a breakdown ofJesus' life.
Think about how much of Jesus'life is not covered in any of
the Gospels.
It is specific episodes,stories, teaching, miracles that
(05:15):
are being chosen, recounted byLuke, by the pen of inspiration,
by the work of the Holy Spiritin his life to make us
understand who Jesus is.
And you'll see that even intoday's reading.
For example, a lot of storiesthat are recorded in Luke are
written in such a unique style,a special way to make it sound
(05:35):
like the Old Testament, toconnect this new stuff with the
old stuff, to make sure thatwe're seeing how the Bible is
one story all the way through.
And I would urge you to watchfor some major themes in the
Gospel of Luke.
Joy and gladness.
Luke is such an optimisticgospel, one of the reasons I
love it so much.
Repentance, the Holy Spirit, andespecially God's love for all
(05:59):
men.
Those are front and center inthe Gospel of Luke just all the
time.
And so we begin with thiswonderful prologue.
It's actually one long sentence.
It's very, very Greek.
This opening prologue soundslike a lot of other material
that's written outside of theBible.
Excellent Greek style, one longsentence.
Then the book gets very, veryJewish, very abrupt break from
(06:22):
that Jewishness there, and weget the birth of John, the
Baptist foretold.
He will be, he will be theforerunner to Jesus.
It's important to get him on thestage.
This Herod, verse 5, that'sHerod the Great, that's the baby
killer.
And I should say a word or twohere about the priest business.
The priest had been divided into24 divisions, and there are so
(06:43):
many priests, one scholarestimates there are about 8,000
priests in Judea.
So each course only gets toserve for two weeks.
And the business in verse 8, theoffering of the incense, that
was a very rare privilege.
You could only do that once inyour lifetime.
So for Zechariah, this is thebiggest moment ever, ever, ever,
more ever for him.
And he has got to be superexcited about this.
(07:05):
Look at the joy and gladness inverse 14, the rejoicing in verse
14, the Holy Spirit in verse 15.
See, there it is.
There it is.
This is that wonderful,wonderful major theme kind of
thing that Luke does just allthe time.
And then we get the birth ofJesus being foretold, beginning
in verse 26.
Jesus of the house of David.
(07:26):
Wow, does that connect to lastyear?
Look at 32 and 33, right out of2 Samuel 7.
There it is once again.
And notice it's glad tidings inverse 19.
It's very much good news.
Here Mary is getting thisexciting news.
She's going to be a servant ofthe Lord now.
And then she goes and she visitsElizabeth, and Elizabeth's
(07:49):
filled with the Holy Spirit,verse 41, joy in verse 44, and
then Mary sings this amazingsong.
It's known as the Magnificot,beginning in verse 46.
The Magnificot is the Latin termfor its beginning words.
And this very much parallelsHannah's song in 1 Samuel
chapter 2.
Hannah, however, it's reallykind of a shout of triumph in
(08:12):
the face of her enemies, as onescholar says.
This is much more a humblecontemplation of God's mercies.
And there's the connection tothe Old Testament, 54-55.
There's the promises to Abrahamone more time.
As if we have not had a fullplate.
Luke gives us a little bit more.
We get the birth of John theBaptist.
There's rejoicing, verse 58.
(08:33):
And Zechariah then, verse 67, isfilled with the Holy Spirit, and
he connects to David, verse 69,connects to Abraham, 72 to 73.
So I'm okay with calling it theNew Testament.
I'm going to call it the NewTestament.
Everybody calls it the NewTestament.
But Luke, Luke isn't calling itthe New Testament.
Luke is saying it's the OldTestament finally coming to
(08:56):
complete fulfillment.
It's not something brand new,it's what the Old Testament's
been talking about all the time,and it's what we read about last
year as we read about thosepromises to David.
Our reading for Monday, Lukechapter 1.
Welcome to Tuesday.
Today we're reading Luke chapter2, and there's a ton going on in
Luke chapter 2.
We begin verse 4 with theconnection to David again, the
(09:19):
city of David, the house andlineage of David.
Jesus is born in David'shometown, Bethlehem.
And he is, verse 7, wrapped inswaddling cloths.
That's just a first-centurydiaper.
That's not unusual.
What is unusual is the mangerand the fact that Mary is
wrapping him.
She is alone.
This is a lonely birth, nomidwives in attendance.
(09:41):
Notice that this paragraphbegins with the Caesar and ends
with Jesus.
Luke's saying something there.
So the angels then make thisannouncement in verses 8 to 14
to the shepherds.
And that has just become socommonplace today.
Everybody thinks about that.
Everybody knows about thatbecause of everything that goes
on around Christmas time.
But shepherds are reallybig-time nobodies.
(10:04):
Can you be a big-time nobody?
They are nobodies.
They were ceremonially uncleanat all times.
They were considered unreliable.
They could not give testimony ina law court because they were
known for stealing.
So Luke is really sayingsomething here about how the
gospel comes to everyone.
Let me have a little coffeehere.
And there's some argument to bemade that they would not be in
(10:27):
the fields in December.
Others have argued that you canpasture flocks in the winter.
And I'm not sure why there's abunch of us that are just
absolutely dead set on attackingeverything that anybody has ever
thought about Jesus' birth.
And we do that during Decemberwhen people are trying to
celebrate Jesus' birth, andwe're just very rah-rah about
(10:48):
that.
I'm not sure why we're so angrythat people are glad Jesus was
born.
And maybe there's a lot thatthey don't understand about
that, and there's obviously alot with the Christmas
celebration that's way outsideof Scripture, but sometimes we
just come off as just mean, andwe just come off as just being
hateful.
And I think we should be gladJesus was born, and I think we
(11:08):
should be glad that people areglad that Jesus was born,
instead of just trying to throwrocks at everybody who maybe
have anything out of place, outof position on that.
It is possible that there areshepherds in the fields in
December.
I always wonder if we take atrip to the Holy Lands and we
saw flocks in the field inDecember, would we like be
screaming at them, get out ofthe field, you're ruining
(11:29):
everything that we Okay, enoughabout that.
Rant off.
Rant off more coffee.
I just think that Luke isputting together ordinariness
and glory in a wonderful wayhere.
We've got a Messiah, the gloryof the Messiah, in a manger.
We have shepherds, we haveangels.
It's very much something thatLuke does an awful lot of the
time contrast this very earthlymanifestation of the glory of
(11:55):
God with how earthly things arehere on this earth.
And so the shepherds come,verses 15 to 20, and they visit.
Luke likes to show peopleresponding to what God is doing,
wondering, pondering, praising,like the shepherds do.
And then we get a couple ofstories about Jesus.
He's presented in the temple,and there's Simeon there.
(12:16):
Watch the overkill on theSpirit's role, verse 25, 26, 27,
all about the Holy Spiritworking in Simeon's life.
And then there's Anna in verses36 and 38, because everything is
confirmed by two witnesses, sowe need a second witness, and
her role here is to amen Simeonand what he's going to say and
(12:38):
what he's going to do and whathe's all about.
And then Jesus goes back toNazareth, followed by that very
important trip to Jerusalem inverses 41 to 50 of our reading
today.
And there are a ton of questionsabout all of this that Luke does
not mean for us to ask.
Leading off with, how in thisworld did Mary and Joseph forget
(13:00):
Jesus?
How does that happen?
And where was he staying whilehe was away from them?
What was he eating?
None of that matters.
None of that matters.
Remember, Luke is not presentinga biography of Jesus' life.
He is preaching.
He is preaching.
And the key here is 48.
Hey, your father and I have beensearching for you.
(13:23):
Jesus says, I have been, verse49, in my father's house.
Do you get it?
Do you see it?
You see it?
Jesus right away.
Luke right away, letting usknow, Jesus, something really
special.
This is, yeah, this is theMessiah.
Our reading for Tuesday, Lukechapter 2.
(13:48):
It's Wednesday.
It is hump day.
Grab some coffee, climb on thatcamel.
Let's read Luke chapter 3.
Our reading for Wednesday isLuke chapter 3.
We get this extensive workup ofthe historical background to
begin the chapter.
We get the ruler, Tiberius, sothat would make this somewhere
around 2829, because Augustusdied in A.D.
(14:12):
14, so we're 2829, dependingupon the calendar and how all
that works.
And then we get some localrulers.
Pilate, he ruled from A.D.
26 to 36.
Herod Antipas is mentioned.
He's the son of Herod the Great.
He received Galilee when his daddied.
He ruled from 4 BC to A.D.
39.
We get Philip.
(14:33):
He ruled the lands northeast ofGalilee from 4 BC to A.D.
33.
And then we get Lysanius, andwe're kind of uncertain about
him.
We don't know everything abouthim.
But Abilene is west of Damascus.
That's not Abilene in WestTexas.
Then we get the high priesthood.
There were co-high priestsduring this time because in A.D.
15 the Roman governor had beenhad deposed Annas, and so some
(14:57):
people thought that that wasunlawful.
He's really the actual highpriest, but Caiaphas was
appointed in A.D.
18 to serve, and the Romansrecognized his rulership.
Lots of politics going on rightthere.
How about that?
In place of all of that, thencomes the Word of God, verse 2,
the Word of God to John.
John the Baptist and hispreaching takes center stage now
(15:20):
as he prepares the way forJesus.
Luke doesn't say anything aboutJohn the Baptist personally.
We get straight to hispreaching, and his preaching is
the preaching of repentancebecause that identifies him with
the Old Testament prophets.
He is cut straight out of theOld Testament prophet's cloth.
That's what he's all about.
He preaches repentance, 789.
(15:41):
We get some examples ofrepentance, 10 to 14.
That's only in the Gospel ofLuke.
Verse 15, then really tunes itup.
As the people were inexpectation, all were
questioning in their heartsconcerning John whether he might
be the Christ.
Verse 15 is unique to Luke, andone of the things that Luke
wants to do is straighten peopleout on that.
(16:02):
He will go out of his way tomake sure we know John the
Baptist is not Jesus.
There are people in Luke's daywho are confused about that.
We'll talk more about that inthe Gospel as we work through
it, and we'll talk about thatespecially in the book of Acts.
In Acts chapter 19, we meet someJohn the Baptist disciples, and
that's way after Luke's Gospelhas been written.
(16:22):
So we need to work through andthink about some of that.
But what we really need to do isget Jesus on the stage.
And so John talks about the HolySpirit, but John is pointing to
Jesus.
Pointing to Jesus, and Jesus isbaptized, 21 and 22, and the
Holy Spirit descends on him.
The Holy Spirit descends uponJesus.
(16:43):
This is the one you need to payattention to.
The chapter concludes then withthis genealogy.
What's going on with thisgenealogy?
What's happening here?
And I know there's a lot ofquestions about that because it
does not match up exactly withMatthew's genealogy.
There's some good answers tothat.
This may be Mary's genealogy,not Joseph's genealogy.
That's really beyond the scopeof a podcast here.
(17:06):
What do you need to be lookingat when you read all of these
names?
The purpose of this is to showthat Jesus has a legitimate
claim on the throne, verse 31,verse 33, to show that he was
not the son of Joseph, verse 23,and to show that he is for all
men.
Luke's genealogy goes all theway back to Adam, and it does
(17:30):
help us see.
Jesus is a real man.
He is God in the flesh.
He is fully human and fullydivine.
That's what Luke is pushing ashe puts Jesus center stage now
in Luke chapter 3.
And Jesus will dominate, ofcourse, the rest of this gospel.
The reading for Wednesday, Luke,the third chapter.
(17:54):
It's Thursday.
It is Thursday, and today weread Luke chapter 4.
The reading for Thursday is Lukechapter 4.
There is an immediate connectionto the baptism of Jesus with the
Holy Spirit, for one full of theHoly Spirit, led by the Spirit
into the wilderness that goesright back to 322.
And there's a lot of stuff aboutthe temptation of Jesus that's
(18:16):
hard to nail down.
What exactly is going on here?
What's happening?
I'm not sure I've ever fullybeen completely comfortable with
everything that I want to say orknow about the temptation.
One of the things that happenshere is that people get very all
cranked up about deity beingtempted.
And people read James chapter 1,verse 13, God can't be tempted
(18:36):
of evil, and they try to arraythat passage against Luke
chapter 4.
What we need to remember is thatthe James passage is talking
about the ordinary situation asthings normally are.
There is nothing normal aboutGod being here in the flesh.
This is the most abnormal thingthat could possibly happen.
So someone says all cars have tostop at a red light.
(18:57):
I get it, but then here comes anambulance, lights in siren, and
he blows through.
Hey, what happened there?
Well, it's not a normalsituation.
Ambulances are exempt.
So Jesus as God in the flesh, alittle exempt there, is that the
right word to use for some ofthe standard things that we
think of when we think aboutdeity.
Deity is omnipresent.
Jesus was not omnipresent, hewas right there in the flesh.
(19:17):
So don't let that throw you,don't get lost in any of that.
I do think there is an emphasishere on the authority of Jesus.
I do think that this is anattack at the beginning of
Jesus' ministry by the devil, anattempt to snuff out the
ministry of Jesus from theget-go.
That's something the devil likesto do, and we'll see more of
that when we get over in thebook of Acts.
(19:39):
But I again I don't think I'veever really plumbed the depths
of everything that's happeninghere.
Jesus then goes to Nazareth andpreaches.
I reference this in the 9 a.m.
sermon on December 21st, talkingabout closed-mindedness, because
we have a ton ofclosed-mindedness here in
Nazareth.
They can't get past.
Oh, we've known Jesus since hewas a little boy.
(20:00):
They can't think about all thatthey've heard that he's doing,
all the miracles and signs thathave been going on around Jesus,
and let that break them open tosome new thoughts about who this
Jesus, who they think is the sonof Joseph, really could be.
And Jesus pushes the idea of theSpirit, verse 18.
(20:21):
Reading out of Isaiah, theSpirit does several things:
preaches to the poor, proclaimgood news to the poor.
That's the first mention of thepoor.
Remember, poor people in the NewTestament world are people who
are oppressed.
They're denied justice.
They have no standing insociety.
He heals the brokenhearted,proclaims liberty to the
(20:41):
captives, release to them,recovering of sight to the
blind.
I think maybe thinking aboutspiritual sight there, set at
liberty those who are oppressed.
That's a term for forgivenessthat's being used there.
Jesus really is the one that'sbringing the kingdom of God
right here.
It's happening today, verse 21.
They're not good with that atall.
(21:05):
Then we get some wonderfulhealing stories.
Jesus heals a man with anunclean demon.
Verse 31, he went down toCapernaum.
He was teaching them on theSabbath.
There is the foundations of anancient synagogue in Capernaum
that have been unearthed.
It goes, the foundations go tothe first century.
I'll tell you this (21:21):
it's a lot.
It is a lot to stand and look atthe foundation stones of a
building that Jesus taught in.
It's a lot.
You get a chance to go to theHoly Lands, you want to do that.
It's pretty impressive.
It's just, it's just prettyimpressive.
Verse 32, they were impressedwith Jesus because his words
(21:41):
possess authority.
Jesus has a certain way ofteaching, a credibility in how
he says things and what he saidthings, and what he said.
I think there is a dominantimage in many people's minds
that's pushed by some of theseTV shows and some of these
movies about Jesus.
He's this very meek and mildperson.
I don't think you can get therefrom the Gospels.
(22:04):
Especially in Mark, Jesus is amega celebrity.
But even in Luke, Jesus commandsthe room.
Wherever Jesus is, he is thecenter of attention.
Everyone looks to him.
Everybody asks him, What do youthink?
What are you doing?
Everybody's paying attention toJesus.
He just dominates everything.
Verse 36, they were amazed andsaid to one another, What is
(22:24):
this word with authority andpower?
He commands the unclean spirits.
Get in your mind Jesus as thecentral figure, a powerful,
powerful figure.
And then there's a close here,some summary statements.
The sun sets, and so then verse40, people can come out and
carry things at the end of theSabbath.
(22:45):
And Jesus is just healing leftand right.
And then he says, you know what?
I'm not about healing.
Verse 43, I'm about preaching.
Preaching is what Jesus has cometo do.
The reading for Thursday, Lukechapter 4.
It's Friday.
It's Friday, made it to the endof the week, didn't we?
And today our reading is Lukechapter 5.
(23:06):
The reading for Friday is Lukechapter 5.
Here's the calling of the firstdisciples, 5, 1 to 11.
Major great story here.
Here Simon says, We've toiledall night, verse 5, but at your
word I will let down the nets.
In the first century, at thistime, the Sea of Galilee.
Sea of Galilee is really kind ofmore of a lake.
(23:27):
It's about 13 miles long byseven miles wide.
And it is.
It's about 700 feet below sealevel.
It's in a bowl.
So the wind comes over thosehills of Galilee and can just
whip up a storm.
We're going to see some of thatkind of thing.
But in the Sea of Galilee, Lakeof Galilee, whatever you want to
call it, the best time to fishis at night.
And if you don't catch at night,you're not going to catch.
(23:48):
So Simon says to Jesus, Thisain't the time to fish.
This is not it.
But of course, it is the time tofish when Jesus says it's the
time to fish.
And so they catch all these fishand they're ready to go.
Jesus calls them, they leaveeverything and follow him.
We're going to see that again inverse 28.
Verse 11, verse 28.
Same idea repeated there foryou.
(24:10):
Jesus cleanses a leper then.
Notice he touches the leper.
There was Jewish expectationthat leprosy would be removed in
the time of the Messiah.
So I think that's probably whyLuke is giving us that story.
He heals the paralyzed man,which again pushes the authority
theme.
Verse 24, the Son of Man hasauthority to forgive sins.
(24:31):
That's what this is about.
And then Luke loves the ideathat Jesus is for everybody.
And you can't get that anybetter than in verses 27 to 32,
where Jesus calls a taxcollector.
Tax collectors were utterlydespised.
The Talmud says all taxcollectors are robbers.
(24:51):
They are cooperating with theRoman government.
They are dishonest.
They are just cleaning peopleout.
You could set up a tax booth ona bridge.
It wasn't there yesterday.
It's there today.
I'm trying to go to market withmy stuff.
Here the tax collector looks upand down my wagon and decides
he'll take a quarter of it.
What in the world?
unknown (25:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:10):
These guys are hated, hated, hated.
Jesus calls Levi, also known asMatthew.
Notice he makes a great feast inhis house, so there's rejoicing
here.
Pharisees hacked off about thewhole thing.
Jesus says, you're missing thepoint.
I've come to call not therighteous, but sinners, and
what's he calling them to?
(25:30):
Repentance.
Repentance.
That's only, verse 32,repentance.
That's only in Luke.
Luke stresses repentance.
Then there is this question hereabout fasting.
And I think this is just aboutit's inappropriate to fast to be
mourning right now.
This is the time when Jesus ishere.
So we need to pay attention toJesus and listen to Jesus.
(25:51):
Maybe there's something here tobe said about Jesus isn't
patching up Judaism.
He's replacing it with somethingentirely new.
But as I've said already, Lukedoesn't really see it that way.
The old is being consummated inthe ministry of Jesus.
The old always pointed to Jesus,wanted Jesus to come.
So sometimes people have made abig deal about the gospels
replacing the Old Testament.
(26:12):
I'm not sure I would get all ofthat out of this section here in
33 to 39.
The reading for Friday, Lukechapter 5.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast then this week.
Hope that's helped you as wehave begun this wonderful
journey to be like the teacher,wanting to be more like Christ.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast.
(26:34):
It is a joy for me to open theBible and to talk with you about
daily Bible reading every daywith, yeah, with a great cup of
coffee.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come too.
I'll see you on Monday with acup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (26:56):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, you can connect with
us through our website,justChristians.com, and our
Facebook page.
Our music is from Upbeat.io.
That's Upbeat with two Ps, U P PE A T, where creators can get
(27:22):
free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Coffee Podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think through itfurther and better work the
applications into our dailylives.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's Bible reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_00 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
January the 5th, 2026.
Can you believe it?
Wow, brand new year.
I'm Mark.
I got my Bible open.
Have some ideas about dailyBible reading to share with you
that are very, very important.
And of course, I do have coffee.
Can't do anything without a goodcup of coffee.
(01:13):
Open your Bible to the Gospel ofLuke.
Let's think about yesterday'ssermon, maybe briefly, and let's
get right into daily Biblereading.
Grab your coffee, grab yourBible, let's grow together.
Yesterday in the 1040, Russieand I talked about and rolled
out the 2026 daily Bible readingcalendar schedule for the
(01:37):
Westside congregation and foreverybody.
I'm hoping lots of people willjoin in and read along with us.
And I do know from emails andwhen I'm in gospel meetings and
Facebook messages and so forth,a lot of people outside the West
Side family are reading theBible along with us.
And our plan this year is calledLike the Teacher, and it's based
out of Luke chapter 6 and verse40, where Jesus says, Luke 6,
(02:02):
40, a disciple is not above histeacher, but everyone, when he
is fully trained, will be likehis teacher.
Our goal is to improve our walkwith Jesus so that we can become
more like the Master Teacher.
More like Jesus.
And if you need more informationabout that, I don't really have
(02:22):
a lot of sermon notes herebecause there wasn't really a
sermon, that was a conversation.
Just listen to that conversationbetween Rusty and I.
That'll tell you what you needto know about this year's
reading plan and how that'sgoing to break out and what
we're looking for and why Rustychose the order and the
sequencing as he did and all thethings that go with all of that.
If you're not part of theWestside family, you can see
(02:43):
that on our Facebook page or yougo to JustChristians.com, listen
to that sermon, watch thatsermon.
You'll be ready to go.
You'll know what we're doing forthis special reading plan.
Really excited about this.
Yes, it's longer readings.
We talked about that yesterday,but don't panic about that.
I think there's a real value insome of these shorter readings
(03:04):
that we've done the last coupleof years, but I think there's
great value in taking off a bigbite.
And Luke's got some great, greatstuff for us in those big bites.
So our reading plan for 2026,like the teacher, from Luke
chapter 6 and verse 40, let'sstart that reading plan.
Grab your Bible.
It's time to talk about dailyBible reading.
(03:49):
And you know how much I love theGospel of Luke.
And if I say everything about 80verses, then this podcast will
last into Tuesday.
So I'll try to cut some of thisdown.
But as the year goes along, Iwill try to give you, for each
book of the Bible, as we start abook of the Bible, some of that
basic stuff, author, date, someof that kind of business.
And of course, the author of theGospel of Luke is Luke.
There's wonderful, wonderfulevidence that the Luke that we
(04:11):
read about in Acts, who'sjourneying with Paul, is the
writer of this gospel.
And Acts goes all the waythrough 62 A.D.
Paul's in prison there at theend of the book of Acts.
And so this book is probablywritten a little bit earlier
than that, 60, 62, somewherearound in there, written to
Theophilus, verse 3.
We don't know who that is, butthe expression in verse 3 most
(04:32):
excellent is used of Luke ofgoverning officials.
So lots have thought that he issome kind of Roman official.
And probably the most importantthing for us to understand as we
begin the Gospel of Luke is thisis not a biography of Jesus.
It's not.
Luke is a preacher first andforemost.
He has excellent style.
This is the best written stylein the New Testament.
(04:54):
Luke and Acts both contain justmarvelous style, just easy to
read, powerful, hooks you rightin.
And it's not a breakdown ofJesus' life.
Think about how much of Jesus'life is not covered in any of
the Gospels.
It is specific episodes,stories, teaching, miracles that
(05:15):
are being chosen, recounted byLuke, by the pen of inspiration,
by the work of the Holy Spiritin his life to make us
understand who Jesus is.
And you'll see that even intoday's reading.
For example, a lot of storiesthat are recorded in Luke are
written in such a unique style,a special way to make it sound
(05:35):
like the Old Testament, toconnect this new stuff with the
old stuff, to make sure thatwe're seeing how the Bible is
one story all the way through.
And I would urge you to watchfor some major themes in the
Gospel of Luke.
Joy and gladness.
Luke is such an optimisticgospel, one of the reasons I
love it so much.
Repentance, the Holy Spirit, andespecially God's love for all
(05:59):
men.
Those are front and center inthe Gospel of Luke just all the
time.
And so we begin with thiswonderful prologue.
It's actually one long sentence.
It's very, very Greek.
This opening prologue soundslike a lot of other material
that's written outside of theBible.
Excellent Greek style, one longsentence.
Then the book gets very, veryJewish, very abrupt break from
(06:22):
that Jewishness there, and weget the birth of John, the
Baptist foretold.
He will be, he will be theforerunner to Jesus.
It's important to get him on thestage.
This Herod, verse 5, that'sHerod the Great, that's the baby
killer.
And I should say a word or twohere about the priest business.
The priest had been divided into24 divisions, and there are so
(06:43):
many priests, one scholarestimates there are about 8,000
priests in Judea.
So each course only gets toserve for two weeks.
And the business in verse 8, theoffering of the incense, that
was a very rare privilege.
You could only do that once inyour lifetime.
So for Zechariah, this is thebiggest moment ever, ever, ever,
more ever for him.
And he has got to be superexcited about this.
(07:05):
Look at the joy and gladness inverse 14, the rejoicing in verse
14, the Holy Spirit in verse 15.
See, there it is.
There it is.
This is that wonderful,wonderful major theme kind of
thing that Luke does just allthe time.
And then we get the birth ofJesus being foretold, beginning
in verse 26.
Jesus of the house of David.
(07:26):
Wow, does that connect to lastyear?
Look at 32 and 33, right out of2 Samuel 7.
There it is once again.
And notice it's glad tidings inverse 19.
It's very much good news.
Here Mary is getting thisexciting news.
She's going to be a servant ofthe Lord now.
And then she goes and she visitsElizabeth, and Elizabeth's
(07:49):
filled with the Holy Spirit,verse 41, joy in verse 44, and
then Mary sings this amazingsong.
It's known as the Magnificot,beginning in verse 46.
The Magnificot is the Latin termfor its beginning words.
And this very much parallelsHannah's song in 1 Samuel
chapter 2.
Hannah, however, it's reallykind of a shout of triumph in
(08:12):
the face of her enemies, as onescholar says.
This is much more a humblecontemplation of God's mercies.
And there's the connection tothe Old Testament, 54-55.
There's the promises to Abrahamone more time.
As if we have not had a fullplate.
Luke gives us a little bit more.
We get the birth of John theBaptist.
There's rejoicing, verse 58.
(08:33):
And Zechariah then, verse 67, isfilled with the Holy Spirit, and
he connects to David, verse 69,connects to Abraham, 72 to 73.
So I'm okay with calling it theNew Testament.
I'm going to call it the NewTestament.
Everybody calls it the NewTestament.
But Luke, Luke isn't calling itthe New Testament.
Luke is saying it's the OldTestament finally coming to
(08:56):
complete fulfillment.
It's not something brand new,it's what the Old Testament's
been talking about all the time,and it's what we read about last
year as we read about thosepromises to David.
Our reading for Monday, Lukechapter 1.
Welcome to Tuesday.
Today we're reading Luke chapter2, and there's a ton going on in
Luke chapter 2.
We begin verse 4 with theconnection to David again, the
(09:19):
city of David, the house andlineage of David.
Jesus is born in David'shometown, Bethlehem.
And he is, verse 7, wrapped inswaddling cloths.
That's just a first-centurydiaper.
That's not unusual.
What is unusual is the mangerand the fact that Mary is
wrapping him.
She is alone.
This is a lonely birth, nomidwives in attendance.
(09:41):
Notice that this paragraphbegins with the Caesar and ends
with Jesus.
Luke's saying something there.
So the angels then make thisannouncement in verses 8 to 14
to the shepherds.
And that has just become socommonplace today.
Everybody thinks about that.
Everybody knows about thatbecause of everything that goes
on around Christmas time.
But shepherds are reallybig-time nobodies.
(10:04):
Can you be a big-time nobody?
They are nobodies.
They were ceremonially uncleanat all times.
They were considered unreliable.
They could not give testimony ina law court because they were
known for stealing.
So Luke is really sayingsomething here about how the
gospel comes to everyone.
Let me have a little coffeehere.
And there's some argument to bemade that they would not be in
(10:27):
the fields in December.
Others have argued that you canpasture flocks in the winter.
And I'm not sure why there's abunch of us that are just
absolutely dead set on attackingeverything that anybody has ever
thought about Jesus' birth.
And we do that during Decemberwhen people are trying to
celebrate Jesus' birth, andwe're just very rah-rah about
(10:48):
that.
I'm not sure why we're so angrythat people are glad Jesus was
born.
And maybe there's a lot thatthey don't understand about
that, and there's obviously alot with the Christmas
celebration that's way outsideof Scripture, but sometimes we
just come off as just mean, andwe just come off as just being
hateful.
And I think we should be gladJesus was born, and I think we
(11:08):
should be glad that people areglad that Jesus was born,
instead of just trying to throwrocks at everybody who maybe
have anything out of place, outof position on that.
It is possible that there areshepherds in the fields in
December.
I always wonder if we take atrip to the Holy Lands and we
saw flocks in the field inDecember, would we like be
screaming at them, get out ofthe field, you're ruining
(11:29):
everything that we Okay, enoughabout that.
Rant off.
Rant off more coffee.
I just think that Luke isputting together ordinariness
and glory in a wonderful wayhere.
We've got a Messiah, the gloryof the Messiah, in a manger.
We have shepherds, we haveangels.
It's very much something thatLuke does an awful lot of the
time contrast this very earthlymanifestation of the glory of
(11:55):
God with how earthly things arehere on this earth.
And so the shepherds come,verses 15 to 20, and they visit.
Luke likes to show peopleresponding to what God is doing,
wondering, pondering, praising,like the shepherds do.
And then we get a couple ofstories about Jesus.
He's presented in the temple,and there's Simeon there.
(12:16):
Watch the overkill on theSpirit's role, verse 25, 26, 27,
all about the Holy Spiritworking in Simeon's life.
And then there's Anna in verses36 and 38, because everything is
confirmed by two witnesses, sowe need a second witness, and
her role here is to amen Simeonand what he's going to say and
(12:38):
what he's going to do and whathe's all about.
And then Jesus goes back toNazareth, followed by that very
important trip to Jerusalem inverses 41 to 50 of our reading
today.
And there are a ton of questionsabout all of this that Luke does
not mean for us to ask.
Leading off with, how in thisworld did Mary and Joseph forget
(13:00):
Jesus?
How does that happen?
And where was he staying whilehe was away from them?
What was he eating?
None of that matters.
None of that matters.
Remember, Luke is not presentinga biography of Jesus' life.
He is preaching.
He is preaching.
And the key here is 48.
Hey, your father and I have beensearching for you.
(13:23):
Jesus says, I have been, verse49, in my father's house.
Do you get it?
Do you see it?
You see it?
Jesus right away.
Luke right away, letting usknow, Jesus, something really
special.
This is, yeah, this is theMessiah.
Our reading for Tuesday, Lukechapter 2.
(13:48):
It's Wednesday.
It is hump day.
Grab some coffee, climb on thatcamel.
Let's read Luke chapter 3.
Our reading for Wednesday isLuke chapter 3.
We get this extensive workup ofthe historical background to
begin the chapter.
We get the ruler, Tiberius, sothat would make this somewhere
around 2829, because Augustusdied in A.D.
(14:12):
14, so we're 2829, dependingupon the calendar and how all
that works.
And then we get some localrulers.
Pilate, he ruled from A.D.
26 to 36.
Herod Antipas is mentioned.
He's the son of Herod the Great.
He received Galilee when his daddied.
He ruled from 4 BC to A.D.
39.
We get Philip.
(14:33):
He ruled the lands northeast ofGalilee from 4 BC to A.D.
33.
And then we get Lysanius, andwe're kind of uncertain about
him.
We don't know everything abouthim.
But Abilene is west of Damascus.
That's not Abilene in WestTexas.
Then we get the high priesthood.
There were co-high priestsduring this time because in A.D.
15 the Roman governor had beenhad deposed Annas, and so some
(14:57):
people thought that that wasunlawful.
He's really the actual highpriest, but Caiaphas was
appointed in A.D.
18 to serve, and the Romansrecognized his rulership.
Lots of politics going on rightthere.
How about that?
In place of all of that, thencomes the Word of God, verse 2,
the Word of God to John.
John the Baptist and hispreaching takes center stage now
(15:20):
as he prepares the way forJesus.
Luke doesn't say anything aboutJohn the Baptist personally.
We get straight to hispreaching, and his preaching is
the preaching of repentancebecause that identifies him with
the Old Testament prophets.
He is cut straight out of theOld Testament prophet's cloth.
That's what he's all about.
He preaches repentance, 789.
(15:41):
We get some examples ofrepentance, 10 to 14.
That's only in the Gospel ofLuke.
Verse 15, then really tunes itup.
As the people were inexpectation, all were
questioning in their heartsconcerning John whether he might
be the Christ.
Verse 15 is unique to Luke, andone of the things that Luke
wants to do is straighten peopleout on that.
(16:02):
He will go out of his way tomake sure we know John the
Baptist is not Jesus.
There are people in Luke's daywho are confused about that.
We'll talk more about that inthe Gospel as we work through
it, and we'll talk about thatespecially in the book of Acts.
In Acts chapter 19, we meet someJohn the Baptist disciples, and
that's way after Luke's Gospelhas been written.
(16:22):
So we need to work through andthink about some of that.
But what we really need to do isget Jesus on the stage.
And so John talks about the HolySpirit, but John is pointing to
Jesus.
Pointing to Jesus, and Jesus isbaptized, 21 and 22, and the
Holy Spirit descends on him.
The Holy Spirit descends uponJesus.
(16:43):
This is the one you need to payattention to.
The chapter concludes then withthis genealogy.
What's going on with thisgenealogy?
What's happening here?
And I know there's a lot ofquestions about that because it
does not match up exactly withMatthew's genealogy.
There's some good answers tothat.
This may be Mary's genealogy,not Joseph's genealogy.
That's really beyond the scopeof a podcast here.
(17:06):
What do you need to be lookingat when you read all of these
names?
The purpose of this is to showthat Jesus has a legitimate
claim on the throne, verse 31,verse 33, to show that he was
not the son of Joseph, verse 23,and to show that he is for all
men.
Luke's genealogy goes all theway back to Adam, and it does
(17:30):
help us see.
Jesus is a real man.
He is God in the flesh.
He is fully human and fullydivine.
That's what Luke is pushing ashe puts Jesus center stage now
in Luke chapter 3.
And Jesus will dominate, ofcourse, the rest of this gospel.
The reading for Wednesday, Luke,the third chapter.
(17:54):
It's Thursday.
It is Thursday, and today weread Luke chapter 4.
The reading for Thursday is Lukechapter 4.
There is an immediate connectionto the baptism of Jesus with the
Holy Spirit, for one full of theHoly Spirit, led by the Spirit
into the wilderness that goesright back to 322.
And there's a lot of stuff aboutthe temptation of Jesus that's
(18:16):
hard to nail down.
What exactly is going on here?
What's happening?
I'm not sure I've ever fullybeen completely comfortable with
everything that I want to say orknow about the temptation.
One of the things that happenshere is that people get very all
cranked up about deity beingtempted.
And people read James chapter 1,verse 13, God can't be tempted
(18:36):
of evil, and they try to arraythat passage against Luke
chapter 4.
What we need to remember is thatthe James passage is talking
about the ordinary situation asthings normally are.
There is nothing normal aboutGod being here in the flesh.
This is the most abnormal thingthat could possibly happen.
So someone says all cars have tostop at a red light.
(18:57):
I get it, but then here comes anambulance, lights in siren, and
he blows through.
Hey, what happened there?
Well, it's not a normalsituation.
Ambulances are exempt.
So Jesus as God in the flesh, alittle exempt there, is that the
right word to use for some ofthe standard things that we
think of when we think aboutdeity.
Deity is omnipresent.
Jesus was not omnipresent, hewas right there in the flesh.
(19:17):
So don't let that throw you,don't get lost in any of that.
I do think there is an emphasishere on the authority of Jesus.
I do think that this is anattack at the beginning of
Jesus' ministry by the devil, anattempt to snuff out the
ministry of Jesus from theget-go.
That's something the devil likesto do, and we'll see more of
that when we get over in thebook of Acts.
(19:39):
But I again I don't think I'veever really plumbed the depths
of everything that's happeninghere.
Jesus then goes to Nazareth andpreaches.
I reference this in the 9 a.m.
sermon on December 21st, talkingabout closed-mindedness, because
we have a ton ofclosed-mindedness here in
Nazareth.
They can't get past.
Oh, we've known Jesus since hewas a little boy.
(20:00):
They can't think about all thatthey've heard that he's doing,
all the miracles and signs thathave been going on around Jesus,
and let that break them open tosome new thoughts about who this
Jesus, who they think is the sonof Joseph, really could be.
And Jesus pushes the idea of theSpirit, verse 18.
(20:21):
Reading out of Isaiah, theSpirit does several things:
preaches to the poor, proclaimgood news to the poor.
That's the first mention of thepoor.
Remember, poor people in the NewTestament world are people who
are oppressed.
They're denied justice.
They have no standing insociety.
He heals the brokenhearted,proclaims liberty to the
(20:41):
captives, release to them,recovering of sight to the
blind.
I think maybe thinking aboutspiritual sight there, set at
liberty those who are oppressed.
That's a term for forgivenessthat's being used there.
Jesus really is the one that'sbringing the kingdom of God
right here.
It's happening today, verse 21.
They're not good with that atall.
(21:05):
Then we get some wonderfulhealing stories.
Jesus heals a man with anunclean demon.
Verse 31, he went down toCapernaum.
He was teaching them on theSabbath.
There is the foundations of anancient synagogue in Capernaum
that have been unearthed.
It goes, the foundations go tothe first century.
I'll tell you this (21:21):
it's a lot.
It is a lot to stand and look atthe foundation stones of a
building that Jesus taught in.
It's a lot.
You get a chance to go to theHoly Lands, you want to do that.
It's pretty impressive.
It's just, it's just prettyimpressive.
Verse 32, they were impressedwith Jesus because his words
(21:41):
possess authority.
Jesus has a certain way ofteaching, a credibility in how
he says things and what he saidthings, and what he said.
I think there is a dominantimage in many people's minds
that's pushed by some of theseTV shows and some of these
movies about Jesus.
He's this very meek and mildperson.
I don't think you can get therefrom the Gospels.
(22:04):
Especially in Mark, Jesus is amega celebrity.
But even in Luke, Jesus commandsthe room.
Wherever Jesus is, he is thecenter of attention.
Everyone looks to him.
Everybody asks him, What do youthink?
What are you doing?
Everybody's paying attention toJesus.
He just dominates everything.
Verse 36, they were amazed andsaid to one another, What is
(22:24):
this word with authority andpower?
He commands the unclean spirits.
Get in your mind Jesus as thecentral figure, a powerful,
powerful figure.
And then there's a close here,some summary statements.
The sun sets, and so then verse40, people can come out and
carry things at the end of theSabbath.
(22:45):
And Jesus is just healing leftand right.
And then he says, you know what?
I'm not about healing.
Verse 43, I'm about preaching.
Preaching is what Jesus has cometo do.
The reading for Thursday, Lukechapter 4.
It's Friday.
It's Friday, made it to the endof the week, didn't we?
And today our reading is Lukechapter 5.
(23:06):
The reading for Friday is Lukechapter 5.
Here's the calling of the firstdisciples, 5, 1 to 11.
Major great story here.
Here Simon says, We've toiledall night, verse 5, but at your
word I will let down the nets.
In the first century, at thistime, the Sea of Galilee.
Sea of Galilee is really kind ofmore of a lake.
(23:27):
It's about 13 miles long byseven miles wide.
And it is.
It's about 700 feet below sealevel.
It's in a bowl.
So the wind comes over thosehills of Galilee and can just
whip up a storm.
We're going to see some of thatkind of thing.
But in the Sea of Galilee, Lakeof Galilee, whatever you want to
call it, the best time to fishis at night.
And if you don't catch at night,you're not going to catch.
(23:48):
So Simon says to Jesus, Thisain't the time to fish.
This is not it.
But of course, it is the time tofish when Jesus says it's the
time to fish.
And so they catch all these fishand they're ready to go.
Jesus calls them, they leaveeverything and follow him.
We're going to see that again inverse 28.
Verse 11, verse 28.
Same idea repeated there foryou.
(24:10):
Jesus cleanses a leper then.
Notice he touches the leper.
There was Jewish expectationthat leprosy would be removed in
the time of the Messiah.
So I think that's probably whyLuke is giving us that story.
He heals the paralyzed man,which again pushes the authority
theme.
Verse 24, the Son of Man hasauthority to forgive sins.
(24:31):
That's what this is about.
And then Luke loves the ideathat Jesus is for everybody.
And you can't get that anybetter than in verses 27 to 32,
where Jesus calls a taxcollector.
Tax collectors were utterlydespised.
The Talmud says all taxcollectors are robbers.
(24:51):
They are cooperating with theRoman government.
They are dishonest.
They are just cleaning peopleout.
You could set up a tax booth ona bridge.
It wasn't there yesterday.
It's there today.
I'm trying to go to market withmy stuff.
Here the tax collector looks upand down my wagon and decides
he'll take a quarter of it.
What in the world?
unknown (25:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:10):
These guys are hated, hated, hated.
Jesus calls Levi, also known asMatthew.
Notice he makes a great feast inhis house, so there's rejoicing
here.
Pharisees hacked off about thewhole thing.
Jesus says, you're missing thepoint.
I've come to call not therighteous, but sinners, and
what's he calling them to?
(25:30):
Repentance.
Repentance.
That's only, verse 32,repentance.
That's only in Luke.
Luke stresses repentance.
Then there is this question hereabout fasting.
And I think this is just aboutit's inappropriate to fast to be
mourning right now.
This is the time when Jesus ishere.
So we need to pay attention toJesus and listen to Jesus.
(25:51):
Maybe there's something here tobe said about Jesus isn't
patching up Judaism.
He's replacing it with somethingentirely new.
But as I've said already, Lukedoesn't really see it that way.
The old is being consummated inthe ministry of Jesus.
The old always pointed to Jesus,wanted Jesus to come.
So sometimes people have made abig deal about the gospels
replacing the Old Testament.
(26:12):
I'm not sure I would get all ofthat out of this section here in
33 to 39.
The reading for Friday, Lukechapter 5.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast then this week.
Hope that's helped you as wehave begun this wonderful
journey to be like the teacher,wanting to be more like Christ.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast.
(26:34):
It is a joy for me to open theBible and to talk with you about
daily Bible reading every daywith, yeah, with a great cup of
coffee.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come too.
I'll see you on Monday with acup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (26:56):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of Christ
podcast, Monday Morning Coffeewith Mark.
For more information aboutWestside, you can connect with
us through our website,justChristians.com, and our
Facebook page.
Our music is from Upbeat.io.
That's Upbeat with two Ps, U P PE A T, where creators can get
(27:22):
free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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