February 2, 2026 • 39 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.
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SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
What comes to the West Special Monday morning of
the I think I think we will helpyou wheat into the week we can
(00:33):
watch the next one.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
February the 2nd.
I'm Mark.
I've got some great coffee here.
Oh, this is some DominicanRepublic coffee.
It's very, very good.
I'm ready to talk aboutyesterday's sermon.
I'm ready to think about dailyBible reading.
And yes, it is Groundhog Day.
Only in America, where we havesophisticated weather
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satellites, Doppler, radar, andall kinds of technology, do we
allow a rodent to forecast theweather for us?
And I am here for it.
Go Punkstahani Phil, loving mesome groundhog day.
That's probably not as importantas what happened yesterday when
I began a new series, amini-series on preaching.
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Let's talk about that and let'stalk about daily Bible reading.
Grab your coffee, grab yourBible, let's grow together.
So yesterday I began a specialseries, Preaching Matters, a
three-lesson series, kind of amini-series on preaching and the
sermon and its role in worshipand how that works and what we
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ought to be doing about that andhow we ought to think about
that.
I'm very excited about thatseries.
I hope that you are too, wouldlike to get more feedback on
that.
It's a little weird talkingabout the pulpit when you're the
guy in the pulpit, but it is soimportant and so vital.
Preaching plays such a big rolein scripture.
I thought it would do us somegood to think through some of
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that.
Now, here's something I don'tthink that I got to say as
clearly as I would like toyesterday.
Preaching is like a workout foryour soul.
It is kind of like going to thegym.
And you don't always seeimmediate results when you start
going to the gym.
I talked about some of thatyesterday, but like lifting
weights or getting into someserious cardio, in the present
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moment, that may not be verycomfortable and feel real great,
but it strengthens you.
Most people have had theexperience of joining a gym and
you go and you work out, and thenext day you wish you would die.
You're so sore and beat up.
It's just terrible.
But if you stay with it, if youdon't give up, it will
strengthen you.
And I want to say the same thingabout preaching.
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Well, maybe not that I peopleare home today wishing they
would die because of yesterday'ssermon.
I hope that's not it.
But when the word is proclaimed,it stretches your thinking, it
challenges your assumptions, itexposes sin, it causes to
obedience.
So just like exercising andlifting weights, it can feel
hard in the moment.
And sometimes maybe you feel alittle sore spiritually because
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you are challenged and convictedand stretched, but that is a
good thing, and that is growthhappening, even if it is
invisible.
So the next time you'relistening to some preaching,
remember you're not listeningfor inspiration necessarily, and
you're certainly not listeningto be entertained.
You are training, you'restrengthening your faith, your
discernment, your ability tolive God's way in the world
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that's constantly pulling you inthe other direction.
And over time, that hiddenstrength will show up in your
choices, your character, and inyour courage.
Preaching matters because itshapes a resilient and faithful
life.
Hope that helps you.
Would like to get more feedback,what you thought of this sermon
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about sermons.
How about that?
And today I am headed for a lotof preaching.
I'm on my way this afternoon tothe Florida College lectures.
Sermons all day.
A lot of that is live streamed.
You might check into some ofthat and get a chance to listen
to some really great preachingthis week.
Now, let's think about our dailyBible reading for the week.
Let's go to the book of Luke.
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It is Monday, and our readingfor Monday is Luke chapter 21.
Can I admit that I'm just alittle bit buffaloed here?
Luke has these monster chapters,and now we're in a section of
Luke where he is covering,reporting, detailing the most
significant events in humanhistory, namely the death,
burial, and resurrection ofJesus.
And the chapters just go onforever, which I guess means the
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podcast will go on forever.
So just call in to work and say,I'm sorry I can't be there.
I'm going to listen to a 39-hourpodcast and do my daily Bible
reading.
I guess that's what we're goingto do.
Well, let's try a little bit ofLuke 21 and see how we can work
with all of that.
It begins here with the widow'soffering.
And this story, the widow'smight story, verses 1 to 4, is
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only in Mark and Luke.
There are more details in Mark'saccount.
I should tell you that in thetemple there are these courts.
The temple is a huge plaza.
That's a big area where thechurch will meet over in the
book of Acts.
We'll talk more about that.
And then there was the women'scourt, and Jewish women could go
there, and then the court of themen, and there was a step up and
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another platform, another plaza,and the men could be there, then
the court of the priests, andthen the actual temple building.
And so in the court of thewomen, there were 13
trumpet-shaped collection boxes.
And instead of taking an animaldirectly to the altar and having
it sacrificed, what you would dois you would pay the money for
the sheep or the goat or thedoves, whatever.
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You'd put it in the appropriatecollection box.
The money was counted out, andthen the priest offered the
appropriate sacrifices, thenumber of lambs or sheep that,
or doves that had been paid forfor that day.
So it was very common for peopleto walk by these trumpet-shaped
boxes.
Josephus tells us it made asound when the money went down
inside.
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And you could sit there andwatch people give, take care of
their religious obligations.
And that's what this woman isdoing.
She is giving, and she puts intwo small copper coins, verse
two.
This is a lepta, a mite, and thewidow's mite is that's that's a
reference to the coin she'sgiving.
And one scholar says it's worthabout one one-hundredth of a
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denarius.
A denarius is a day's pay for aworker, for a day laborer.
So this is, what is this, fiveminutes worth of work?
It's not very much money, butJesus commends her.
Huge contrast here to the richyoung ruler.
She's willing to give, othersare not.
Then that takes us to the OlivetDiscourse.
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Chapter 21, verses 5 to 38, haveJesus talking from the Mount of
Olives, looking at Jerusalem,looking from the Mount of
Olives, you can look down intothe temple itself.
And this has created no end ofconfusion.
Let me give you a couple ofquick keys here that will help
you make sense of what Jesuswill say.
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First and foremost, we needalways to set in the context.
Key number one, what's beengoing on?
In Luke, this comes after around upon round of debating to
no good effect with religiousleaders.
And this is the close of Jesus'personal ministry.
He has found hypocrisy in thenation, corruptness.
People are not receiving him,people are not turning to God as
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they should.
Then it's very important, keynumber two, that we pay
attention to the question that'sbeing asked.
Verses five and six, this isabout the temple.
Jesus is not impressed with thetemple.
Jesus says it's going to bedemolished.
The question was not about thesecond coming.
The question is about thedestruction of the temple.
The disciples don't understandthat Jesus is going.
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Why would they ask about thesecond coming?
Then look at verse 32.
Jesus gives a time limitation.
Heaven and earth, verse 32, willpass away, but my words will not
pass away.
This isn't a second comingpassage, or Jesus lied or was
mistaken or got it wrong.
I don't like any of that.
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I didn't even like saying that.
This is about the destruction ofJerusalem.
And I know some people try tomake about half of it about
Jerusalem and some of it, therest of it into the don't do
that.
Don't do that.
Verse 32 is the time limitation.
And when you read chapter 21with that in mind, that this is
about the destruction of thetemple.
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It occurred in AD 70.
The Roman army came, burned thetemple, terrible, terrible
siege, all kinds of horriblethings happened.
When you read it in context,looking at the question that was
asked, verse 7, when will thesethings be?
What will be the sign when thesethings are about to take place?
When you remember, here's keynumber four, that elsewhere the
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Bible tells us there are nosigns for the second coming.
Just read it as a discussion, aprophecy.
Jesus is a prophet.
We've seen that in the book ofLuke.
A prophecy of the terribledestruction of the city of
Jerusalem.
When you read it like that, it'snot that hard to make sense of
it.
It uses a lot of apocalypticlanguage, a very common type
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thing used in Isaiah, used inEzekiel, be used heavily in the
book of Revelation, signs andsymbols to depict the great
battle between good and evil.
And this was a terrible,terrible war.
The war began in AD 66 when somezealots took Masada and
massacred the garrison there.
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There never really was a unitedJewish front.
There was a lot of infighting.
Even when the city of Jerusalemwas surrounded and besieged,
they were attacking each otherin different quarters of the
city instead of paying attentionto the Romans on the outside.
It was really awful.
Josephus tells us that childrenwould snatch food from their
parents' mouth, and motherswould do the same to their
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infants.
The famine was so bad.
It was a terrible, terribletime.
And Jesus is warning hisdisciples so they'll get out of
Dodge before all of thathappens.
So here's a great question.
What's the awfulness going toget out of this?
What's the awfulness going toget?
First, Jesus is a prophet.
And we've seen lots of that inLuke already.
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And then the fate of Jerusalemis tied to its rejection of
Jesus.
We'll get much of that as wecontinue to read along here.
The city's filled withhypocrisy.
The religious leaders are notleading the people closer to God
and accepting Jesus.
Jerusalem's out of business.
Jerusalem and Judaism are goingout of business, and God cares
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about the disciple and is takingcare of them.
Read through Luke chapter 21.
Read it, looking at it as awarning, a prophecy of the
destruction of Jerusalem.
And I don't think it's thatdifficult a passage.
The reading for Monday, Lukechapter 21.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday.
And the reading for Tuesday isLuke chapter 22, 71 verses, as I
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said yesterday, covering some ofthe most significant and
important events that have everoccurred on the entire planet.
I'm not sure how to summarizeand cover all of this.
Let's just get started.
It begins with a conspiracy,first six verses, and this is
all about the time of the Feastof Unleavened Bread and the
Passover.
And those two events get mergedtogether a lot, and the same
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terminology is referred one toanother.
And there is considerablecontroversy about exactly where
this is in the timeline ofJesus' last week.
And there are various attemptsto locate this on Wednesday and
Thursday or back it up more orpush it ahead further.
That's way beyond the scope ofthis podcast for certain.
And I would just tell you thatusually when people are trying
to move around the Passover sothat it is not Thursday night,
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Jesus is not on the cross onFriday.
Usually there's some kind ofagenda there.
For example, sometimes peoplewho are Sabbatarian will try to
move things around, try to havethe resurrection occur on the
Sabbath.
Just be careful with all ofthat.
I think that's a rabbit holethat people can go down, and
there's just no end to itbecause we're not sure exactly
of the timing of these events.
Verse 7, then came the day ofunleavened bread.
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That's an unusual expression inthe Gospels.
Maybe the key thing for us topay attention to, we're not
going to pay attention to allkinds of calendars, what day of
the week it is, sort of things.
We are going to pay attention tohow much Jesus is in control.
That is significant.
And that's why Jesus makes thesecareful preparations with the
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disciples.
The emphasis here is that Jesusknows where the Passover will be
eaten, but Judas cannot know,which means Jesus cannot be
betrayed before the Passover.
Jesus is determined to eat thiswith his apostles.
And I think it's important tosee here that the Passover,
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you'd need a lot ofpreparations.
This isn't you just stop bysomebody's house and say, Oh, by
the way, we're going to have thePassover.
There would have to be all thefood and the unleavened bread.
Everything has to be preparedexactly correctly.
Beginning in verse 14, then wehave the longest account of the
Passover in the Gospels.
And a bunch of this getsrepeated by Paul in 1
Corinthians chapter 11.
And it is an enormouslyimportant moment in the life of
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Jesus.
There are various propositionsabout exactly what a Passover
service looked like in Jesus'day.
Again, not 100% sure about that,but there is a QA portion of the
Passover.
There is the point where the Sonasks the Father, why do we do
these things?
And there's a case to be madethat Jesus uses that question
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time to present himself as thesacrificial lamb, slain for
their deliverance.
Remember, the Passover lamb hadto be eaten.
And so Jesus talks about eatinghis body.
How about that?
Eating his flesh.
So that may give a littleinsight into exactly what is
going on here.
But the Son of Man, verse 22, isa prophet.
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He knows everything that isgoing to happen here.
There is not anything that willsurprise Jesus.
For the rest of the evening,Jesus runs the show entirely.
And that includes a discussionwith Peter, verse 31 to 34,
about how he will he will denyJesus.
And I think the most importantthing to see here is verse 32, I
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have prayed for you.
And then in verse 41, when Jesusgoes to the Garden of
Gethsemane, verse 41, Jesus ispraying.
Verse 46, I pray that you maynot enter into temptation.
If you ask Jesus how to defeatsin, how to defeat temptation, I
think his answer would be, youneed to pray about it.
You need to be in prayer, youneed to pray for divine
strength, you need to pray toset your mind.
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Uh one writer said that animalsacrifices do not go willingly
to the sacrifice.
Here, Jesus agrees to be thesacrifice in the Garden of
Gethsemane.
And I guess wow.
What's the answer to that?
More coffee.
The Garden of Gethsemane.
And I should tell you this Ihave been to the Garden of
Gethsemane.
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The site is very well attested.
There are a lot of olive treesthere.
It's a beautiful, beautiful siteon the side of the hill, Mount
of Olives, right across theKidron Valley from Jerusalem and
the temple complex.
There is an olive tree therethat is uh well over 2,000 years
old.
And although it is not knownexactly where Jesus was in the
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garden when he was praying, thisis the garden that he was
praying in, and that olive treeknows where Jesus was.
It is it is really something tobe in the Garden of Gethsemane
and think about these enormousevents.
Look at verse 48.
Jesus says to Judas, Would youbetray the Son of Man with a
kiss?
Judas is trying to act like it'sall innocent and so forth and so
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on.
Once again, Jesus is theprophet.
Jesus knows everything that'shappening, Jesus is controlling
all that goes on here.
So here then Jesus is arrested,and uh suddenly the spotlight
shifts to Peter, verse 54, sothat we see that Jesus is
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correct in saying that Peterwould deny him.
Then Jesus is taken to the highpriest's house, and we're not
entirely sure where the highpriest house is, but the high
priest would live in the richquarter of Jerusalem.
And there is a house that fitsthis description very, very
well.
It has its own private jail,really something to be down in
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the dungeon there.
Think about Jesus being heldthere as this fake trial is put
together.
There's two trials of Jesus.
One is the Jewish trial, verydifferent charges, and then
there's the Roman trial, wherethey'll try to make a case to
get Jesus on the cross, and theyhave to bring different charges
to get the Romans interested inthat.
They're not going to getanywhere saying, oh, Jesus is a
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blasphemer.
No, that's never going to workwith the Romans, but that is
what the Jews are concernedabout.
One of the interesting thingsabout the high priest house,
even if that's not the exacthouse, knowing that the high
priest would live in the richaristocratic quarter of
Jerusalem allows you to see howfar it is from the Garden of
Gethsemane to the High Priesthouse.
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And this is a good case of youdon't know what you don't know.
I'd never really thought aboutthat.
You can look at those maps inthe back of your Bible and you
can see Jerusalem and, you know,what is it, a half inch from the
Garden of Gethsemane to the HighPriest house, and you don't
think much of it.
When you are actually therestanding in the courtyard of the
High Priest house, and you lookacross, there's two valleys
then, all the way to the Gardenof Gethsemane, which you can see
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on the Mount of Olives.
There's a Russian Orthodoxchurch there.
It has giant golden, what arethose, onions domes, and you can
see those very, very clearly.
It's a long ways.
It's a long ways.
And Jerusalem is extremelyhilly, up, down Kidron Valley.
I believe the other valley isthe Tyropian Valley.
And as you look across there,you just realize how tired Jesus
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must have been.
He'd been up all night praying,very emotional, very passionate
praying.
Probably didn't say enough aboutthis praying.
Luke covers it so well here.
Jesus is just exhausted.
And then they walk him, chainedand manicled, all the way to the
high priest house.
By the time he gets here, he hasgot to be just worn out.
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I'm not sure that fatigue is thelead dog in the pack when we're
talking about the suffering ofJesus, but it is part of the
equation here.
Jesus is just being hustled,hustled, and jostled all around
Jerusalem all night long, andthat's not easy walking by any
means at all.
So Jesus then is taken in frontof the council.
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Verse 66.
This is against the law, by theway, against Jewish law.
And verse 69 is probably themost important verse here.
The son of man shall be seatedat the right hand of the power
of God.
Jesus identifies himself as theSon of Man from Daniel chapter 7
and verse 12.
He claims Psalm 110, which wedid so much work with last year
in December.
And he says, The one that youare judging will judge you.
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And that seals the deal, verse71.
Please be mindful.
Jesus could have said, Oh, no,no, no, no, not me.
You misunderstood everything.
Um, no, I'm certainly not tryingto be the Messiah.
I don't know where you got that,and tried to get out of this
scrape.
Jesus embraces the cross.
Jesus makes sure that they can'tmiss him in the garden, and he
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makes sure that they're notgonna miss him in the trials as
well.
So our reading for Tuesday isLuke chapter 22.
There's no Zoom tonight,Westsiders, because I'm in
Florida for the FC Lectures.
If uh you're listening to thepodcast and you went to the
lectures, look for me in theauthor's expo area in the
afternoon, and I'd love to getto meet you and we'll talk about
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the podcast and books andeverything else.
But I'm not here, so there'll beno Zoom tonight.
I'll see everybody on thepodcast tomorrow.
Luke 22, the reading forTuesday.
Welcome to Wednesday.
Welcome to Wednesday, and ourreading today is the 23rd
chapter of Luke.
Luke chapter 23.
Once again, long chapter, somuch material here, 56 verses.
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The charges change.
We notice right away.
The charges change in verse 2.
We're not talking aboutblasphemy.
Now we're talking aboutperverting the nation.
Hey, he's just a bad guy.
He won't pay taxes.
That's a lie, but tax protesterswill always get Rome's full
attention.
And he says he's a king, andyou're never going to get
anywhere claiming to be a kingwhen there can be one king, and
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that is Caesar.
Now, if you pay attention, youwill see an innocence theme
driving so much of what happensin Luke chapter 23.
Over and over again, Luke makessure that we notice, in fact,
six times in this chapter,someone says, Jesus is innocent.
And the first one of thosehappens in verse 4.
Pilate says, I find no guilt inthis man.
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He is innocent.
And that's important forTheophilus.
In the first century, therewould be people uncertain about
all this business with Jesusbeing the Messiah, but he was
also executed by the Romanstate.
What's the deal with that?
Well, Luke is helping people seethat it was it was wrong.
It was a miscarriage of justice.
He did not deserve it.
No.
Instead, Jesus is innocent.
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Then Luke, and Luke is the onlyone who tells us this, tells us
about Jesus being taken beforeHerod Antipas in verses 8 to 12.
This is Herod Antipas.
Son of Herod the Great.
Herod is, like so many peopletoday, just interested in seeing
something exciting in the guiseof religion.
Now then we go back to Pilate,verse 13.
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More Pilate, more discussionwith this.
And Pilate once again says he'sinnocent, verse 14.
He's innocent, verse 15, he'sinnocent, verse 22.
So lots of innocence going onhere.
And it is very clear, verses 24to 25, who Luke holds
responsible for the crucifixionof Jesus.
And that doesn't make Lukeanti-Semitic.
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And there's no way that weshould be accusing all Jewish
people.
Oh, you're the Christ killers.
That's outrageous.
That's outrageous.
The truth of the matter is, weare all responsible for the
death of Jesus because we areall sinners.
That's what's happening.
And I think the release ofBarabbas maybe gives us the
gospel and miniature in apowerful way.
The innocent man dies, so aguilty man can go free.
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Isn't that what the gospel's allabout for all of us?
Then Jesus is crucified.
Beginning in verse 26, Lukegives extensive coverage to the
crucifixion.
And it is only Luke that tellsus of the people who are
following and mourning him.
Only Luke records theconversation between the thieves
on the cross.
Only Luke has Jesus' words offorgiveness on the cross.
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And if you're paying attention,there's a lot of threes in the
crucifixion narrative.
Jesus is thrice mocked, themalefactors are thrice called
criminals, three groups ofpeople mock on and on and on.
There's lots of threes happeninghere.
And maybe I should give someattention to this whole business
of crucifixion.
There are there it's really hardto talk about the crucifixion.
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It's very, very difficult to putinto words everything that's
happening here and that thisoccurred to our Lord and Savior.
But we are not certain of theexact crucifixion practice that
was used with Jesus becausethose were not standardized in
Jesus' day.
He may have died on aconventional cross, the plus
that we always see could havebeen a T, could have been an
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axe, could even be an I.
Lots of different means, modeswere used here.
There is a Jewish victim ofcrucifixion that has been
unearthed north of Jerusalem.
His legs were turned to the leftand bent at the knee so that
one's spike could be driventhrough the ankle.
Sometimes people will say thatJesus was crucified naked, and
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that certainly did happen inRoman times, but Jewish scruples
usually demanded a loincloth.
So a lot of uncertainty aboutthat.
But what we are sure of is thatit was utterly horrible.
Cicero says on the shame ofcrucifixion that the very word
cross should be far removed notonly from the person of a Roman
citizen, but from his verythoughts.
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It is the worst way to die.
And in verse 34, Jesus says,Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.
The condemned person wassupposed to say, May my death
atone for all my sins.
Jesus confesses other people'ssins, not his own.
And that doesn't mean that theywere all forgiven on the spot.
That passage gets used that wayall the time.
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Be mindful in Acts chapter 2,when Peter says, Hey, you people
crucified Jesus, no one jumps upand down and says, Oh, don't be
bringing that up.
We were all forgiven.
No.
What Jesus is praying for hereis that the Father will not send
12 legions of angels and destroyeverything and everybody right
now because of this horriblething happening to the Son.
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Give them a chance to repentthat they may be forgiven.
That's what's going on in verse34.
And then we get a greatillustration of that with the
thief on the cross.
And people ask all the time,hey, can I be saved like the
thief on the cross?
And the thief on the cross hasbecome a favorite prop to prop
up the idea that I don't have tobe baptized.
And the answer to, can you besaved like the thief on the
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cross is sure you can.
If you're dying next to Jesus,go for it.
Jesus wants to save you, he'sgoing to save you.
Who's arguing with that?
I'm not arguing with that.
But if you aren't dying besideJesus, what you really ought to
do is you ought to make use ofthe provisions that he made for
the rest of us.
And we'll read about those inActs chapter 2.
Verse 44 tells us it's the sixthhour, that'd be about noon.
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The ninth hour would be about 3p.m.
And the veil of the temple,verse 45 tears.
And the Hebrew writer tells usthat's to make way for a new way
to have fellowship with God.
By the end of the chapter, Jesusis buried, and he's in the tomb.
A pious Jew, like we met in thefirst two chapters, buries
Jesus.
And where are we right now?
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Let's just put ourselves inTheophilus' sandals.
Where's Theophilus at the end ofchapter 23?
Jesus has died, but we don'treally know why or understand
why.
We'll need the rest of the NewTestament, particularly the
preaching in the book of Acts,to flesh that out and tell us
what we just saw, what it means.
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That's what will happen in therest of the New Testament.
The reading for Wednesday, Luke23.
It's Thursday.
Welcome to Thursday.
And today we read Luke chapter24.
In many ways, this is a relief.
After a couple of chapters thatare dark and very difficult and
super long, we get Luke chapter24, which is as good as it
possibly can get.
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And it's only 53 verses.
How about that?
It seems to me that Luke ismaking a couple of things work
here, a couple of things thatare emphasized.
First and foremost, theappearance to convince
disciples.
The disciples don't believethis, and they will need a lot
of pushing to get to the placewhere they believe this.
And then once again, we get aton of the fulfillment of
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scripture.
So Luke 24, 6, he's not here.
Remember how he told you.
Verse 21, verse 25, 26, 27, theOld Testament is interpreted.
Verses 44 to 49.
This is what Moses and theprophets and the Psalms said.
So the Bible is coming to passright here before our very eyes.
(28:00):
And I do want to give you this,I think this is an important
note here.
What's the resurrection do?
What's the resurrection do?
First and foremost, it divinelyoverturns the false verdict on
Jesus.
Humans say Jesus is a fake and afraud.
God says no, he's not andvindicates his son.
And so, secondly, it shows thatJesus is both Lord and Christ.
This is the point that Petermakes in Acts 236.
(28:22):
It was necessary as well to showthat death could not hold him.
Fourthly, it gives us a livingLord that we can pray to.
He's not in the tomb somewhere.
He is alive and active andworking on our behalf.
And then it does assure us thatGod can raise us from the dead
someday for the day of judgment,the point that Paul makes in
Acts 17 and verse 30.
(28:43):
So let's dive into Luke chapter24.
We get the role of women inPeter at the empty tomb.
Then we get disciples on theroad to Emmaus, meeting of the
whole group, and then theascension.
It's important maybe to noticenone of the none of the gospels
describe the actualresurrection.
And over and over again, what wesee here in Luke is that
(29:04):
everybody expects a body.
No one says, Oh yeah, it's thethird day.
Let's go out to the empty tombbecause Jesus is probably
hanging out there.
You know, we know he's going torise from the dead.
They bring spices.
The women are bringing spices,verse 1.
Why?
Because they expect a body.
No one believes what the womentell them in verse 11.
(29:25):
And I should add here that thisis the wrong place for the
gospel to begin because womenwere not believed in this day.
Josephus tells us that womenwere not acceptable as legal
witnesses.
So the first people to see Jesusrisen from the dead wouldn't
even be allowed to testify incourt.
Once again, the Bible doeseverything backwards, not the
way that we would expect.
(29:45):
We would expect Jesus to go tothe Sanhedrin Council and say,
nya nya nya, here I am, and makeeverybody back.
No, that's not how it's going towork at all.
And the story on the road toEmmaus may encapsulate that
better than anything else.
The story is unique to Luke.
Some have speculated that Lukewas one of the participants
(30:06):
here.
But as these two disciples walkon the road to Emmaus, look at
the rich irony here in verse 18.
Oh, you don't know what'shappened.
Jesus is the only one who knowswhat's happened.
They don't know what's happened.
Verse 19, Jesus is the prophet.
So much of that prophet theme inthe Gospel of Luke.
(30:27):
And then there is, I've saidthis several times, the most
amazing Bible class ever,beginning verse 27, with Moses
and the prophets.
Jesus interpreted to them allthe things in the scripture
concerning himself.
What a class that would be in.
As Jesus walks through the OldTestament and shows how all
those things point to him.
That'd be Genesis 3, Genesis 12,2 Samuel 7, Micah 5, 2,
(30:49):
Bethlehem, Zechariah 9, thetriumphal entry.
What about the Psalms?
Psalm 2, Psalm 110.
Wow, I would love to have beenin that Bible class.
And once again, we get peoplewho are not ready to believe,
who are not expecting theresurrection.
That goes on in the appearanceto the 11, verse 37.
(31:10):
They thought they saw spirit.
We've heard about Jesus beingresurrected, but is he still in
the realm of the dead?
We don't really know what'sgoing on with any of that.
And then Luke's gospel concludeswith the divine mandate.
Verse 44, this must happen.
This is what was written aboutme in the law, in the prophets,
and the Psalms.
Thus it was written that Christshould suffer, verse 46, and on
(31:32):
the third day rise from thedead.
Now here's the keynote, 47.
Repentance for the forgivenessof sins should be proclaimed in
his name to all nations.
Luke is the gospel of allnations, Gentiles, Samaritans,
always doing well in thisgospel.
And you go back to Jerusalem andyou sit down and you just wait
until power from on high arise.
(31:54):
Verse 49, that's the HolySpirit.
And so Luke's gospel ends.
Jesus' earthly work iscompleted.
He's entered into his glory.
He's exalted and seated at theright hand of God.
And, and, and, and what?
What happens next?
Do these guys go back toJerusalem?
Do they get power from on high?
(32:14):
Do they tell anybody aboutJesus?
What will happen next?
If we had not read this agazillion times, we would be on
the edge of our seats and wewould be saying, Where's the
sequel?
And I'm glad you're saying,Where's the sequel?
Because tomorrow we'll start thesequel, but the reading for
Thursday is Luke 24.
It is Friday.
It is Friday.
Reading today is Acts chapter 1.
(32:36):
You made it through the week.
I made it home from Tampa.
And now we're beginning thesequel that I talked about so
much yesterday to the book ofLuke.
We're beginning Luke 2.
I wish that's what the book ofActs was called.
It ought to be called Luke 2because it just it completes
everything that Luke has startedin the first book.
And it is, without any question,the most important book in the
(32:58):
Bible.
You can take almost any otherbook out of the Bible, and we
would be much the poorer for it.
But if you take Acts out of theBible, we're just lost.
We would never understand thepurpose of Christ's life.
What was he doing?
How did all that work?
We wouldn't know how to become aChristian.
We wouldn't understand what thechurch is.
We wouldn't understand who theApostle Paul is.
(33:18):
So now you're reading all thestuff he wrote.
Who is this guy?
He's not in any of the gospels.
Acts ties up all of that.
Luke and Acts complement eachother perfectly.
Luke is about Christ.
Acts is about Christianity.
In Luke, it's the kingdom athand.
In Acts, it's the kingdomestablished.
In Luke, it's the Savior.
Now it's salvation.
The gospel happens in Luke.
(33:39):
The Gospel's told in the book ofActs.
The apostles are trained.
Now the Apostles work.
The Great Commission is in theGospels.
Now it's being carried out.
This is Acts is just thecomplement to everything that
happens in the Gospels.
And that makes it the mostimportant book in the New
Testament, the most importantbook in the Bible.
Now, one of the questions I loveto ask people when I'm talking
(34:00):
about Acts, all of us are intoActs.
Acts is so important.
We all know Acts is, oh, it's agreat book.
It's so important.
Well, okay, what's the purposeof the book of Acts?
Yeah, that's what I usually getwhen I ask that question.
A lot of, hmm.
Sometimes people will say Actsgives us the history of the
church.
And yeah, okay, maybe a littlebit, but not really.
There's all kinds of history ofthe church that's not being
(34:22):
told.
It's a very specific kind ofthing, Jerusalem, some of the
areas outside of it.
Then all of a sudden it'smissionary journeys and
everything goes west.
How about the history of thechurch in Egypt?
There was church in Egypt.
How about the history of thechurch going east?
There was.
Acts doesn't say anything aboutthat.
Sometimes someone will say Actsis to show the growth of the
church.
And there is some of that in thebook of Acts without any
(34:43):
question.
But again, it's got to be morethan that.
We don't even get growthstatements about these churches
that Paul and Barnabas found onthe first missionary journey.
How many people are there?
You don't get any numbers therelike we got early in the book of
Acts.
And sometimes people will sayActs is to give a pattern for
the New Testament church.
And that is partially true.
It is our pattern, but it iscertainly not a pattern like you
(35:06):
read in the book of Exodus aboutthe tabernacle.
If Luke is trying to show how toorganize the New Testament
church, it lacks that first dothis, second do this, third do
this.
Oh yeah, and here's elders andtheir qualifications.
It's not like that at all.
So what is happening here inActs?
I'm going to fall back to what Isaid at the outset of today's
episode, which is Acts completesLuke.
(35:28):
And I believe Acts is designedis to show that what God began
in Jesus Christ is continuedthrough the disciples.
Acts says that God's work goeson in Christians who make
themselves available to thepower and purposes of God.
In other words, those who walkwith Christ, those who are
(35:50):
disciples, they continue hismighty work of bringing
salvation and forgiveness,preaching about grace and mercy.
That's what the book of Acts isabout.
Jesus started this.
The book of Acts shows disciplescontinue this.
So look at Acts chapter 1 withme and notice how much emphasis
(36:11):
there is here right away on theHoly Spirit, verse 2, verse 5,
verse 8.
This is not the Acts of theApostles, verse 16 as well.
I should have mentioned that.
In fact, most of the Apostlesmake very make no appearance at
all, at least not after they'renamed here in verse 13.
We don't read anything everagain about Bartholomew or any
(36:31):
of these other guys.
It's really the Acts of the HolySpirit through Peter, some John,
and mostly Paul.
That's what we will see.
And so we get a repeat here ofthe ascension narrative.
Luke is tying the book of Actsinto Luke.
Some have tried to use chapter1, verse 8 as a kind of outline
(36:54):
for the book of Acts, but thatreally doesn't work.
That's not the structural markerthat Luke will use.
We'll note that as we come alongin the book of Acts.
And the truth of the matter is,it's really not the gospel in
Jerusalem and Judea and thenSamaria and to the ends of the
earth.
It's the gospel in Jerusalem andJudea and Samaria and then
Antioch and then west to thecapital of the world, Rome.
(37:14):
That's really where we're headedin the book of Acts.
We get the replacement of Judas,and this just really sets the
stage.
Something big is happening,something will happen.
The Holy Spirit is going tocome, verse 8, you'll receive
power when the Holy Spirit'scome upon you.
But the apostles need to be 12again.
They need to be 12 again.
And I mentioned verse 13, wedon't know about Bartholomew.
(37:36):
We don't know about Matthiaseither.
And in fact, this is the lasttime, verse 14, that Mary,
Jesus' mother, is mentioned.
Peter's back in a leadershiprole.
He quotes the Psalms, verse 20,lots of Psalm 69 here.
And they ask God, who knows thehearts of all.
We've seen Jesus as the heartknower.
And so they want Jesus toappoint this apostle as he had
(37:58):
appointed them.
And they cast some lots, lots oflot casting in the Old
Testament.
They cast lots.
It's Matthias.
And now we're ready for what'snext.
Really hard to stop readingright there, isn't it?
Really hard to stop.
What is next?
Is the Holy Spirit coming withpower?
What will that look like?
(38:20):
All of that for next week.
Our reading for Friday, Actschapter 1.
That concludes the podcast thenfor this week.
I think this is probably thelongest podcast I've done in
quite a while.
So much material to cover, suchimportant material to cover.
I appreciate you reading theBible with me and giving me an
opportunity to talk with youabout it.
Love doing these podcasts.
(38:40):
Just love doing it an awful lot.
Looking forward to seeing you onSunday.
We'll continue the PreachingMatters sermons and that
mini-series.
Continue to talk about some ofthat, have something important
to say out of Isaiah 6 and the 9a.m.
It's going to be a great Sundayat Westside.
But until then, I want to thankyou for listening to the
podcast.
Urge you to share it withsomeone else and remind you, I'm
(39:01):
Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven, and Iwant you to come to.
Podcast listeners, I'll see youon Monday with a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (39:16):
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-P-P-E-A-T, where creators
(39:41):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we'll look forward
to seeing you again with a cupof coffee, of course, on next
Monday.
What comes to the West Special Monday morning of
the I think I think we will helpyou wheat into the week we can
(00:33):
watch the next one.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
February the 2nd.
I'm Mark.
I've got some great coffee here.
Oh, this is some DominicanRepublic coffee.
It's very, very good.
I'm ready to talk aboutyesterday's sermon.
I'm ready to think about dailyBible reading.
And yes, it is Groundhog Day.
Only in America, where we havesophisticated weather
(01:12):
satellites, Doppler, radar, andall kinds of technology, do we
allow a rodent to forecast theweather for us?
And I am here for it.
Go Punkstahani Phil, loving mesome groundhog day.
That's probably not as importantas what happened yesterday when
I began a new series, amini-series on preaching.
(01:34):
Let's talk about that and let'stalk about daily Bible reading.
Grab your coffee, grab yourBible, let's grow together.
So yesterday I began a specialseries, Preaching Matters, a
three-lesson series, kind of amini-series on preaching and the
sermon and its role in worshipand how that works and what we
(01:54):
ought to be doing about that andhow we ought to think about
that.
I'm very excited about thatseries.
I hope that you are too, wouldlike to get more feedback on
that.
It's a little weird talkingabout the pulpit when you're the
guy in the pulpit, but it is soimportant and so vital.
Preaching plays such a big rolein scripture.
I thought it would do us somegood to think through some of
(02:17):
that.
Now, here's something I don'tthink that I got to say as
clearly as I would like toyesterday.
Preaching is like a workout foryour soul.
It is kind of like going to thegym.
And you don't always seeimmediate results when you start
going to the gym.
I talked about some of thatyesterday, but like lifting
weights or getting into someserious cardio, in the present
(02:37):
moment, that may not be verycomfortable and feel real great,
but it strengthens you.
Most people have had theexperience of joining a gym and
you go and you work out, and thenext day you wish you would die.
You're so sore and beat up.
It's just terrible.
But if you stay with it, if youdon't give up, it will
strengthen you.
And I want to say the same thingabout preaching.
(02:59):
Well, maybe not that I peopleare home today wishing they
would die because of yesterday'ssermon.
I hope that's not it.
But when the word is proclaimed,it stretches your thinking, it
challenges your assumptions, itexposes sin, it causes to
obedience.
So just like exercising andlifting weights, it can feel
hard in the moment.
And sometimes maybe you feel alittle sore spiritually because
(03:21):
you are challenged and convictedand stretched, but that is a
good thing, and that is growthhappening, even if it is
invisible.
So the next time you'relistening to some preaching,
remember you're not listeningfor inspiration necessarily, and
you're certainly not listeningto be entertained.
You are training, you'restrengthening your faith, your
discernment, your ability tolive God's way in the world
(03:42):
that's constantly pulling you inthe other direction.
And over time, that hiddenstrength will show up in your
choices, your character, and inyour courage.
Preaching matters because itshapes a resilient and faithful
life.
Hope that helps you.
Would like to get more feedback,what you thought of this sermon
(04:05):
about sermons.
How about that?
And today I am headed for a lotof preaching.
I'm on my way this afternoon tothe Florida College lectures.
Sermons all day.
A lot of that is live streamed.
You might check into some ofthat and get a chance to listen
to some really great preachingthis week.
Now, let's think about our dailyBible reading for the week.
Let's go to the book of Luke.
(04:44):
It is Monday, and our readingfor Monday is Luke chapter 21.
Can I admit that I'm just alittle bit buffaloed here?
Luke has these monster chapters,and now we're in a section of
Luke where he is covering,reporting, detailing the most
significant events in humanhistory, namely the death,
burial, and resurrection ofJesus.
And the chapters just go onforever, which I guess means the
(05:05):
podcast will go on forever.
So just call in to work and say,I'm sorry I can't be there.
I'm going to listen to a 39-hourpodcast and do my daily Bible
reading.
I guess that's what we're goingto do.
Well, let's try a little bit ofLuke 21 and see how we can work
with all of that.
It begins here with the widow'soffering.
And this story, the widow'smight story, verses 1 to 4, is
(05:28):
only in Mark and Luke.
There are more details in Mark'saccount.
I should tell you that in thetemple there are these courts.
The temple is a huge plaza.
That's a big area where thechurch will meet over in the
book of Acts.
We'll talk more about that.
And then there was the women'scourt, and Jewish women could go
there, and then the court of themen, and there was a step up and
(05:50):
another platform, another plaza,and the men could be there, then
the court of the priests, andthen the actual temple building.
And so in the court of thewomen, there were 13
trumpet-shaped collection boxes.
And instead of taking an animaldirectly to the altar and having
it sacrificed, what you would dois you would pay the money for
the sheep or the goat or thedoves, whatever.
(06:11):
You'd put it in the appropriatecollection box.
The money was counted out, andthen the priest offered the
appropriate sacrifices, thenumber of lambs or sheep that,
or doves that had been paid forfor that day.
So it was very common for peopleto walk by these trumpet-shaped
boxes.
Josephus tells us it made asound when the money went down
inside.
(06:32):
And you could sit there andwatch people give, take care of
their religious obligations.
And that's what this woman isdoing.
She is giving, and she puts intwo small copper coins, verse
two.
This is a lepta, a mite, and thewidow's mite is that's that's a
reference to the coin she'sgiving.
And one scholar says it's worthabout one one-hundredth of a
(06:53):
denarius.
A denarius is a day's pay for aworker, for a day laborer.
So this is, what is this, fiveminutes worth of work?
It's not very much money, butJesus commends her.
Huge contrast here to the richyoung ruler.
She's willing to give, othersare not.
Then that takes us to the OlivetDiscourse.
(07:13):
Chapter 21, verses 5 to 38, haveJesus talking from the Mount of
Olives, looking at Jerusalem,looking from the Mount of
Olives, you can look down intothe temple itself.
And this has created no end ofconfusion.
Let me give you a couple ofquick keys here that will help
you make sense of what Jesuswill say.
(07:36):
First and foremost, we needalways to set in the context.
Key number one, what's beengoing on?
In Luke, this comes after around upon round of debating to
no good effect with religiousleaders.
And this is the close of Jesus'personal ministry.
He has found hypocrisy in thenation, corruptness.
People are not receiving him,people are not turning to God as
(07:57):
they should.
Then it's very important, keynumber two, that we pay
attention to the question that'sbeing asked.
Verses five and six, this isabout the temple.
Jesus is not impressed with thetemple.
Jesus says it's going to bedemolished.
The question was not about thesecond coming.
The question is about thedestruction of the temple.
The disciples don't understandthat Jesus is going.
(08:19):
Why would they ask about thesecond coming?
Then look at verse 32.
Jesus gives a time limitation.
Heaven and earth, verse 32, willpass away, but my words will not
pass away.
This isn't a second comingpassage, or Jesus lied or was
mistaken or got it wrong.
I don't like any of that.
(08:39):
I didn't even like saying that.
This is about the destruction ofJerusalem.
And I know some people try tomake about half of it about
Jerusalem and some of it, therest of it into the don't do
that.
Don't do that.
Verse 32 is the time limitation.
And when you read chapter 21with that in mind, that this is
about the destruction of thetemple.
(09:00):
It occurred in AD 70.
The Roman army came, burned thetemple, terrible, terrible
siege, all kinds of horriblethings happened.
When you read it in context,looking at the question that was
asked, verse 7, when will thesethings be?
What will be the sign when thesethings are about to take place?
When you remember, here's keynumber four, that elsewhere the
(09:20):
Bible tells us there are nosigns for the second coming.
Just read it as a discussion, aprophecy.
Jesus is a prophet.
We've seen that in the book ofLuke.
A prophecy of the terribledestruction of the city of
Jerusalem.
When you read it like that, it'snot that hard to make sense of
it.
It uses a lot of apocalypticlanguage, a very common type
(09:41):
thing used in Isaiah, used inEzekiel, be used heavily in the
book of Revelation, signs andsymbols to depict the great
battle between good and evil.
And this was a terrible,terrible war.
The war began in AD 66 when somezealots took Masada and
massacred the garrison there.
(10:01):
There never really was a unitedJewish front.
There was a lot of infighting.
Even when the city of Jerusalemwas surrounded and besieged,
they were attacking each otherin different quarters of the
city instead of paying attentionto the Romans on the outside.
It was really awful.
Josephus tells us that childrenwould snatch food from their
parents' mouth, and motherswould do the same to their
(10:22):
infants.
The famine was so bad.
It was a terrible, terribletime.
And Jesus is warning hisdisciples so they'll get out of
Dodge before all of thathappens.
So here's a great question.
What's the awfulness going toget out of this?
What's the awfulness going toget?
First, Jesus is a prophet.
And we've seen lots of that inLuke already.
(10:42):
And then the fate of Jerusalemis tied to its rejection of
Jesus.
We'll get much of that as wecontinue to read along here.
The city's filled withhypocrisy.
The religious leaders are notleading the people closer to God
and accepting Jesus.
Jerusalem's out of business.
Jerusalem and Judaism are goingout of business, and God cares
(11:06):
about the disciple and is takingcare of them.
Read through Luke chapter 21.
Read it, looking at it as awarning, a prophecy of the
destruction of Jerusalem.
And I don't think it's thatdifficult a passage.
The reading for Monday, Lukechapter 21.
It's Tuesday.
It is Tuesday.
And the reading for Tuesday isLuke chapter 22, 71 verses, as I
(11:28):
said yesterday, covering some ofthe most significant and
important events that have everoccurred on the entire planet.
I'm not sure how to summarizeand cover all of this.
Let's just get started.
It begins with a conspiracy,first six verses, and this is
all about the time of the Feastof Unleavened Bread and the
Passover.
And those two events get mergedtogether a lot, and the same
(11:51):
terminology is referred one toanother.
And there is considerablecontroversy about exactly where
this is in the timeline ofJesus' last week.
And there are various attemptsto locate this on Wednesday and
Thursday or back it up more orpush it ahead further.
That's way beyond the scope ofthis podcast for certain.
And I would just tell you thatusually when people are trying
to move around the Passover sothat it is not Thursday night,
(12:15):
Jesus is not on the cross onFriday.
Usually there's some kind ofagenda there.
For example, sometimes peoplewho are Sabbatarian will try to
move things around, try to havethe resurrection occur on the
Sabbath.
Just be careful with all ofthat.
I think that's a rabbit holethat people can go down, and
there's just no end to itbecause we're not sure exactly
of the timing of these events.
Verse 7, then came the day ofunleavened bread.
(12:36):
That's an unusual expression inthe Gospels.
Maybe the key thing for us topay attention to, we're not
going to pay attention to allkinds of calendars, what day of
the week it is, sort of things.
We are going to pay attention tohow much Jesus is in control.
That is significant.
And that's why Jesus makes thesecareful preparations with the
(12:56):
disciples.
The emphasis here is that Jesusknows where the Passover will be
eaten, but Judas cannot know,which means Jesus cannot be
betrayed before the Passover.
Jesus is determined to eat thiswith his apostles.
And I think it's important tosee here that the Passover,
(13:17):
you'd need a lot ofpreparations.
This isn't you just stop bysomebody's house and say, Oh, by
the way, we're going to have thePassover.
There would have to be all thefood and the unleavened bread.
Everything has to be preparedexactly correctly.
Beginning in verse 14, then wehave the longest account of the
Passover in the Gospels.
And a bunch of this getsrepeated by Paul in 1
Corinthians chapter 11.
And it is an enormouslyimportant moment in the life of
(13:42):
Jesus.
There are various propositionsabout exactly what a Passover
service looked like in Jesus'day.
Again, not 100% sure about that,but there is a QA portion of the
Passover.
There is the point where the Sonasks the Father, why do we do
these things?
And there's a case to be madethat Jesus uses that question
(14:06):
time to present himself as thesacrificial lamb, slain for
their deliverance.
Remember, the Passover lamb hadto be eaten.
And so Jesus talks about eatinghis body.
How about that?
Eating his flesh.
So that may give a littleinsight into exactly what is
going on here.
But the Son of Man, verse 22, isa prophet.
(14:28):
He knows everything that isgoing to happen here.
There is not anything that willsurprise Jesus.
For the rest of the evening,Jesus runs the show entirely.
And that includes a discussionwith Peter, verse 31 to 34,
about how he will he will denyJesus.
And I think the most importantthing to see here is verse 32, I
(14:50):
have prayed for you.
And then in verse 41, when Jesusgoes to the Garden of
Gethsemane, verse 41, Jesus ispraying.
Verse 46, I pray that you maynot enter into temptation.
If you ask Jesus how to defeatsin, how to defeat temptation, I
think his answer would be, youneed to pray about it.
You need to be in prayer, youneed to pray for divine
strength, you need to pray toset your mind.
(15:13):
Uh one writer said that animalsacrifices do not go willingly
to the sacrifice.
Here, Jesus agrees to be thesacrifice in the Garden of
Gethsemane.
And I guess wow.
What's the answer to that?
More coffee.
The Garden of Gethsemane.
And I should tell you this Ihave been to the Garden of
Gethsemane.
(15:34):
The site is very well attested.
There are a lot of olive treesthere.
It's a beautiful, beautiful siteon the side of the hill, Mount
of Olives, right across theKidron Valley from Jerusalem and
the temple complex.
There is an olive tree therethat is uh well over 2,000 years
old.
And although it is not knownexactly where Jesus was in the
(15:55):
garden when he was praying, thisis the garden that he was
praying in, and that olive treeknows where Jesus was.
It is it is really something tobe in the Garden of Gethsemane
and think about these enormousevents.
Look at verse 48.
Jesus says to Judas, Would youbetray the Son of Man with a
kiss?
Judas is trying to act like it'sall innocent and so forth and so
(16:17):
on.
Once again, Jesus is theprophet.
Jesus knows everything that'shappening, Jesus is controlling
all that goes on here.
So here then Jesus is arrested,and uh suddenly the spotlight
shifts to Peter, verse 54, sothat we see that Jesus is
(16:37):
correct in saying that Peterwould deny him.
Then Jesus is taken to the highpriest's house, and we're not
entirely sure where the highpriest house is, but the high
priest would live in the richquarter of Jerusalem.
And there is a house that fitsthis description very, very
well.
It has its own private jail,really something to be down in
(17:00):
the dungeon there.
Think about Jesus being heldthere as this fake trial is put
together.
There's two trials of Jesus.
One is the Jewish trial, verydifferent charges, and then
there's the Roman trial, wherethey'll try to make a case to
get Jesus on the cross, and theyhave to bring different charges
to get the Romans interested inthat.
They're not going to getanywhere saying, oh, Jesus is a
(17:22):
blasphemer.
No, that's never going to workwith the Romans, but that is
what the Jews are concernedabout.
One of the interesting thingsabout the high priest house,
even if that's not the exacthouse, knowing that the high
priest would live in the richaristocratic quarter of
Jerusalem allows you to see howfar it is from the Garden of
Gethsemane to the High Priesthouse.
(17:43):
And this is a good case of youdon't know what you don't know.
I'd never really thought aboutthat.
You can look at those maps inthe back of your Bible and you
can see Jerusalem and, you know,what is it, a half inch from the
Garden of Gethsemane to the HighPriest house, and you don't
think much of it.
When you are actually therestanding in the courtyard of the
High Priest house, and you lookacross, there's two valleys
then, all the way to the Gardenof Gethsemane, which you can see
(18:06):
on the Mount of Olives.
There's a Russian Orthodoxchurch there.
It has giant golden, what arethose, onions domes, and you can
see those very, very clearly.
It's a long ways.
It's a long ways.
And Jerusalem is extremelyhilly, up, down Kidron Valley.
I believe the other valley isthe Tyropian Valley.
And as you look across there,you just realize how tired Jesus
(18:28):
must have been.
He'd been up all night praying,very emotional, very passionate
praying.
Probably didn't say enough aboutthis praying.
Luke covers it so well here.
Jesus is just exhausted.
And then they walk him, chainedand manicled, all the way to the
high priest house.
By the time he gets here, he hasgot to be just worn out.
(18:51):
I'm not sure that fatigue is thelead dog in the pack when we're
talking about the suffering ofJesus, but it is part of the
equation here.
Jesus is just being hustled,hustled, and jostled all around
Jerusalem all night long, andthat's not easy walking by any
means at all.
So Jesus then is taken in frontof the council.
(19:13):
Verse 66.
This is against the law, by theway, against Jewish law.
And verse 69 is probably themost important verse here.
The son of man shall be seatedat the right hand of the power
of God.
Jesus identifies himself as theSon of Man from Daniel chapter 7
and verse 12.
He claims Psalm 110, which wedid so much work with last year
in December.
And he says, The one that youare judging will judge you.
(19:38):
And that seals the deal, verse71.
Please be mindful.
Jesus could have said, Oh, no,no, no, no, not me.
You misunderstood everything.
Um, no, I'm certainly not tryingto be the Messiah.
I don't know where you got that,and tried to get out of this
scrape.
Jesus embraces the cross.
Jesus makes sure that they can'tmiss him in the garden, and he
(20:01):
makes sure that they're notgonna miss him in the trials as
well.
So our reading for Tuesday isLuke chapter 22.
There's no Zoom tonight,Westsiders, because I'm in
Florida for the FC Lectures.
If uh you're listening to thepodcast and you went to the
lectures, look for me in theauthor's expo area in the
afternoon, and I'd love to getto meet you and we'll talk about
(20:23):
the podcast and books andeverything else.
But I'm not here, so there'll beno Zoom tonight.
I'll see everybody on thepodcast tomorrow.
Luke 22, the reading forTuesday.
Welcome to Wednesday.
Welcome to Wednesday, and ourreading today is the 23rd
chapter of Luke.
Luke chapter 23.
Once again, long chapter, somuch material here, 56 verses.
(20:47):
The charges change.
We notice right away.
The charges change in verse 2.
We're not talking aboutblasphemy.
Now we're talking aboutperverting the nation.
Hey, he's just a bad guy.
He won't pay taxes.
That's a lie, but tax protesterswill always get Rome's full
attention.
And he says he's a king, andyou're never going to get
anywhere claiming to be a kingwhen there can be one king, and
(21:08):
that is Caesar.
Now, if you pay attention, youwill see an innocence theme
driving so much of what happensin Luke chapter 23.
Over and over again, Luke makessure that we notice, in fact,
six times in this chapter,someone says, Jesus is innocent.
And the first one of thosehappens in verse 4.
Pilate says, I find no guilt inthis man.
(21:29):
He is innocent.
And that's important forTheophilus.
In the first century, therewould be people uncertain about
all this business with Jesusbeing the Messiah, but he was
also executed by the Romanstate.
What's the deal with that?
Well, Luke is helping people seethat it was it was wrong.
It was a miscarriage of justice.
He did not deserve it.
No.
Instead, Jesus is innocent.
(21:51):
Then Luke, and Luke is the onlyone who tells us this, tells us
about Jesus being taken beforeHerod Antipas in verses 8 to 12.
This is Herod Antipas.
Son of Herod the Great.
Herod is, like so many peopletoday, just interested in seeing
something exciting in the guiseof religion.
Now then we go back to Pilate,verse 13.
(22:12):
More Pilate, more discussionwith this.
And Pilate once again says he'sinnocent, verse 14.
He's innocent, verse 15, he'sinnocent, verse 22.
So lots of innocence going onhere.
And it is very clear, verses 24to 25, who Luke holds
responsible for the crucifixionof Jesus.
And that doesn't make Lukeanti-Semitic.
(22:34):
And there's no way that weshould be accusing all Jewish
people.
Oh, you're the Christ killers.
That's outrageous.
That's outrageous.
The truth of the matter is, weare all responsible for the
death of Jesus because we areall sinners.
That's what's happening.
And I think the release ofBarabbas maybe gives us the
gospel and miniature in apowerful way.
The innocent man dies, so aguilty man can go free.
(22:58):
Isn't that what the gospel's allabout for all of us?
Then Jesus is crucified.
Beginning in verse 26, Lukegives extensive coverage to the
crucifixion.
And it is only Luke that tellsus of the people who are
following and mourning him.
Only Luke records theconversation between the thieves
on the cross.
Only Luke has Jesus' words offorgiveness on the cross.
(23:21):
And if you're paying attention,there's a lot of threes in the
crucifixion narrative.
Jesus is thrice mocked, themalefactors are thrice called
criminals, three groups ofpeople mock on and on and on.
There's lots of threes happeninghere.
And maybe I should give someattention to this whole business
of crucifixion.
There are there it's really hardto talk about the crucifixion.
(23:45):
It's very, very difficult to putinto words everything that's
happening here and that thisoccurred to our Lord and Savior.
But we are not certain of theexact crucifixion practice that
was used with Jesus becausethose were not standardized in
Jesus' day.
He may have died on aconventional cross, the plus
that we always see could havebeen a T, could have been an
(24:07):
axe, could even be an I.
Lots of different means, modeswere used here.
There is a Jewish victim ofcrucifixion that has been
unearthed north of Jerusalem.
His legs were turned to the leftand bent at the knee so that
one's spike could be driventhrough the ankle.
Sometimes people will say thatJesus was crucified naked, and
(24:28):
that certainly did happen inRoman times, but Jewish scruples
usually demanded a loincloth.
So a lot of uncertainty aboutthat.
But what we are sure of is thatit was utterly horrible.
Cicero says on the shame ofcrucifixion that the very word
cross should be far removed notonly from the person of a Roman
citizen, but from his verythoughts.
(24:50):
It is the worst way to die.
And in verse 34, Jesus says,Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.
The condemned person wassupposed to say, May my death
atone for all my sins.
Jesus confesses other people'ssins, not his own.
And that doesn't mean that theywere all forgiven on the spot.
That passage gets used that wayall the time.
(25:12):
Be mindful in Acts chapter 2,when Peter says, Hey, you people
crucified Jesus, no one jumps upand down and says, Oh, don't be
bringing that up.
We were all forgiven.
No.
What Jesus is praying for hereis that the Father will not send
12 legions of angels and destroyeverything and everybody right
now because of this horriblething happening to the Son.
(25:34):
Give them a chance to repentthat they may be forgiven.
That's what's going on in verse34.
And then we get a greatillustration of that with the
thief on the cross.
And people ask all the time,hey, can I be saved like the
thief on the cross?
And the thief on the cross hasbecome a favorite prop to prop
up the idea that I don't have tobe baptized.
And the answer to, can you besaved like the thief on the
(25:55):
cross is sure you can.
If you're dying next to Jesus,go for it.
Jesus wants to save you, he'sgoing to save you.
Who's arguing with that?
I'm not arguing with that.
But if you aren't dying besideJesus, what you really ought to
do is you ought to make use ofthe provisions that he made for
the rest of us.
And we'll read about those inActs chapter 2.
Verse 44 tells us it's the sixthhour, that'd be about noon.
(26:15):
The ninth hour would be about 3p.m.
And the veil of the temple,verse 45 tears.
And the Hebrew writer tells usthat's to make way for a new way
to have fellowship with God.
By the end of the chapter, Jesusis buried, and he's in the tomb.
A pious Jew, like we met in thefirst two chapters, buries
Jesus.
And where are we right now?
(26:36):
Let's just put ourselves inTheophilus' sandals.
Where's Theophilus at the end ofchapter 23?
Jesus has died, but we don'treally know why or understand
why.
We'll need the rest of the NewTestament, particularly the
preaching in the book of Acts,to flesh that out and tell us
what we just saw, what it means.
(26:59):
That's what will happen in therest of the New Testament.
The reading for Wednesday, Luke23.
It's Thursday.
Welcome to Thursday.
And today we read Luke chapter24.
In many ways, this is a relief.
After a couple of chapters thatare dark and very difficult and
super long, we get Luke chapter24, which is as good as it
possibly can get.
(27:19):
And it's only 53 verses.
How about that?
It seems to me that Luke ismaking a couple of things work
here, a couple of things thatare emphasized.
First and foremost, theappearance to convince
disciples.
The disciples don't believethis, and they will need a lot
of pushing to get to the placewhere they believe this.
And then once again, we get aton of the fulfillment of
(27:40):
scripture.
So Luke 24, 6, he's not here.
Remember how he told you.
Verse 21, verse 25, 26, 27, theOld Testament is interpreted.
Verses 44 to 49.
This is what Moses and theprophets and the Psalms said.
So the Bible is coming to passright here before our very eyes.
(28:00):
And I do want to give you this,I think this is an important
note here.
What's the resurrection do?
What's the resurrection do?
First and foremost, it divinelyoverturns the false verdict on
Jesus.
Humans say Jesus is a fake and afraud.
God says no, he's not andvindicates his son.
And so, secondly, it shows thatJesus is both Lord and Christ.
This is the point that Petermakes in Acts 236.
(28:22):
It was necessary as well to showthat death could not hold him.
Fourthly, it gives us a livingLord that we can pray to.
He's not in the tomb somewhere.
He is alive and active andworking on our behalf.
And then it does assure us thatGod can raise us from the dead
someday for the day of judgment,the point that Paul makes in
Acts 17 and verse 30.
(28:43):
So let's dive into Luke chapter24.
We get the role of women inPeter at the empty tomb.
Then we get disciples on theroad to Emmaus, meeting of the
whole group, and then theascension.
It's important maybe to noticenone of the none of the gospels
describe the actualresurrection.
And over and over again, what wesee here in Luke is that
(29:04):
everybody expects a body.
No one says, Oh yeah, it's thethird day.
Let's go out to the empty tombbecause Jesus is probably
hanging out there.
You know, we know he's going torise from the dead.
They bring spices.
The women are bringing spices,verse 1.
Why?
Because they expect a body.
No one believes what the womentell them in verse 11.
(29:25):
And I should add here that thisis the wrong place for the
gospel to begin because womenwere not believed in this day.
Josephus tells us that womenwere not acceptable as legal
witnesses.
So the first people to see Jesusrisen from the dead wouldn't
even be allowed to testify incourt.
Once again, the Bible doeseverything backwards, not the
way that we would expect.
(29:45):
We would expect Jesus to go tothe Sanhedrin Council and say,
nya nya nya, here I am, and makeeverybody back.
No, that's not how it's going towork at all.
And the story on the road toEmmaus may encapsulate that
better than anything else.
The story is unique to Luke.
Some have speculated that Lukewas one of the participants
(30:06):
here.
But as these two disciples walkon the road to Emmaus, look at
the rich irony here in verse 18.
Oh, you don't know what'shappened.
Jesus is the only one who knowswhat's happened.
They don't know what's happened.
Verse 19, Jesus is the prophet.
So much of that prophet theme inthe Gospel of Luke.
(30:27):
And then there is, I've saidthis several times, the most
amazing Bible class ever,beginning verse 27, with Moses
and the prophets.
Jesus interpreted to them allthe things in the scripture
concerning himself.
What a class that would be in.
As Jesus walks through the OldTestament and shows how all
those things point to him.
That'd be Genesis 3, Genesis 12,2 Samuel 7, Micah 5, 2,
(30:49):
Bethlehem, Zechariah 9, thetriumphal entry.
What about the Psalms?
Psalm 2, Psalm 110.
Wow, I would love to have beenin that Bible class.
And once again, we get peoplewho are not ready to believe,
who are not expecting theresurrection.
That goes on in the appearanceto the 11, verse 37.
(31:10):
They thought they saw spirit.
We've heard about Jesus beingresurrected, but is he still in
the realm of the dead?
We don't really know what'sgoing on with any of that.
And then Luke's gospel concludeswith the divine mandate.
Verse 44, this must happen.
This is what was written aboutme in the law, in the prophets,
and the Psalms.
Thus it was written that Christshould suffer, verse 46, and on
(31:32):
the third day rise from thedead.
Now here's the keynote, 47.
Repentance for the forgivenessof sins should be proclaimed in
his name to all nations.
Luke is the gospel of allnations, Gentiles, Samaritans,
always doing well in thisgospel.
And you go back to Jerusalem andyou sit down and you just wait
until power from on high arise.
(31:54):
Verse 49, that's the HolySpirit.
And so Luke's gospel ends.
Jesus' earthly work iscompleted.
He's entered into his glory.
He's exalted and seated at theright hand of God.
And, and, and, and what?
What happens next?
Do these guys go back toJerusalem?
Do they get power from on high?
(32:14):
Do they tell anybody aboutJesus?
What will happen next?
If we had not read this agazillion times, we would be on
the edge of our seats and wewould be saying, Where's the
sequel?
And I'm glad you're saying,Where's the sequel?
Because tomorrow we'll start thesequel, but the reading for
Thursday is Luke 24.
It is Friday.
It is Friday.
Reading today is Acts chapter 1.
(32:36):
You made it through the week.
I made it home from Tampa.
And now we're beginning thesequel that I talked about so
much yesterday to the book ofLuke.
We're beginning Luke 2.
I wish that's what the book ofActs was called.
It ought to be called Luke 2because it just it completes
everything that Luke has startedin the first book.
And it is, without any question,the most important book in the
(32:58):
Bible.
You can take almost any otherbook out of the Bible, and we
would be much the poorer for it.
But if you take Acts out of theBible, we're just lost.
We would never understand thepurpose of Christ's life.
What was he doing?
How did all that work?
We wouldn't know how to become aChristian.
We wouldn't understand what thechurch is.
We wouldn't understand who theApostle Paul is.
(33:18):
So now you're reading all thestuff he wrote.
Who is this guy?
He's not in any of the gospels.
Acts ties up all of that.
Luke and Acts complement eachother perfectly.
Luke is about Christ.
Acts is about Christianity.
In Luke, it's the kingdom athand.
In Acts, it's the kingdomestablished.
In Luke, it's the Savior.
Now it's salvation.
The gospel happens in Luke.
(33:39):
The Gospel's told in the book ofActs.
The apostles are trained.
Now the Apostles work.
The Great Commission is in theGospels.
Now it's being carried out.
This is Acts is just thecomplement to everything that
happens in the Gospels.
And that makes it the mostimportant book in the New
Testament, the most importantbook in the Bible.
Now, one of the questions I loveto ask people when I'm talking
(34:00):
about Acts, all of us are intoActs.
Acts is so important.
We all know Acts is, oh, it's agreat book.
It's so important.
Well, okay, what's the purposeof the book of Acts?
Yeah, that's what I usually getwhen I ask that question.
A lot of, hmm.
Sometimes people will say Actsgives us the history of the
church.
And yeah, okay, maybe a littlebit, but not really.
There's all kinds of history ofthe church that's not being
(34:22):
told.
It's a very specific kind ofthing, Jerusalem, some of the
areas outside of it.
Then all of a sudden it'smissionary journeys and
everything goes west.
How about the history of thechurch in Egypt?
There was church in Egypt.
How about the history of thechurch going east?
There was.
Acts doesn't say anything aboutthat.
Sometimes someone will say Actsis to show the growth of the
church.
And there is some of that in thebook of Acts without any
(34:43):
question.
But again, it's got to be morethan that.
We don't even get growthstatements about these churches
that Paul and Barnabas found onthe first missionary journey.
How many people are there?
You don't get any numbers therelike we got early in the book of
Acts.
And sometimes people will sayActs is to give a pattern for
the New Testament church.
And that is partially true.
It is our pattern, but it iscertainly not a pattern like you
(35:06):
read in the book of Exodus aboutthe tabernacle.
If Luke is trying to show how toorganize the New Testament
church, it lacks that first dothis, second do this, third do
this.
Oh yeah, and here's elders andtheir qualifications.
It's not like that at all.
So what is happening here inActs?
I'm going to fall back to what Isaid at the outset of today's
episode, which is Acts completesLuke.
(35:28):
And I believe Acts is designedis to show that what God began
in Jesus Christ is continuedthrough the disciples.
Acts says that God's work goeson in Christians who make
themselves available to thepower and purposes of God.
In other words, those who walkwith Christ, those who are
(35:50):
disciples, they continue hismighty work of bringing
salvation and forgiveness,preaching about grace and mercy.
That's what the book of Acts isabout.
Jesus started this.
The book of Acts shows disciplescontinue this.
So look at Acts chapter 1 withme and notice how much emphasis
(36:11):
there is here right away on theHoly Spirit, verse 2, verse 5,
verse 8.
This is not the Acts of theApostles, verse 16 as well.
I should have mentioned that.
In fact, most of the Apostlesmake very make no appearance at
all, at least not after they'renamed here in verse 13.
We don't read anything everagain about Bartholomew or any
(36:31):
of these other guys.
It's really the Acts of the HolySpirit through Peter, some John,
and mostly Paul.
That's what we will see.
And so we get a repeat here ofthe ascension narrative.
Luke is tying the book of Actsinto Luke.
Some have tried to use chapter1, verse 8 as a kind of outline
(36:54):
for the book of Acts, but thatreally doesn't work.
That's not the structural markerthat Luke will use.
We'll note that as we come alongin the book of Acts.
And the truth of the matter is,it's really not the gospel in
Jerusalem and Judea and thenSamaria and to the ends of the
earth.
It's the gospel in Jerusalem andJudea and Samaria and then
Antioch and then west to thecapital of the world, Rome.
(37:14):
That's really where we're headedin the book of Acts.
We get the replacement of Judas,and this just really sets the
stage.
Something big is happening,something will happen.
The Holy Spirit is going tocome, verse 8, you'll receive
power when the Holy Spirit'scome upon you.
But the apostles need to be 12again.
They need to be 12 again.
And I mentioned verse 13, wedon't know about Bartholomew.
(37:36):
We don't know about Matthiaseither.
And in fact, this is the lasttime, verse 14, that Mary,
Jesus' mother, is mentioned.
Peter's back in a leadershiprole.
He quotes the Psalms, verse 20,lots of Psalm 69 here.
And they ask God, who knows thehearts of all.
We've seen Jesus as the heartknower.
And so they want Jesus toappoint this apostle as he had
(37:58):
appointed them.
And they cast some lots, lots oflot casting in the Old
Testament.
They cast lots.
It's Matthias.
And now we're ready for what'snext.
Really hard to stop readingright there, isn't it?
Really hard to stop.
What is next?
Is the Holy Spirit coming withpower?
What will that look like?
(38:20):
All of that for next week.
Our reading for Friday, Actschapter 1.
That concludes the podcast thenfor this week.
I think this is probably thelongest podcast I've done in
quite a while.
So much material to cover, suchimportant material to cover.
I appreciate you reading theBible with me and giving me an
opportunity to talk with youabout it.
Love doing these podcasts.
(38:40):
Just love doing it an awful lot.
Looking forward to seeing you onSunday.
We'll continue the PreachingMatters sermons and that
mini-series.
Continue to talk about some ofthat, have something important
to say out of Isaiah 6 and the 9a.m.
It's going to be a great Sundayat Westside.
But until then, I want to thankyou for listening to the
podcast.
Urge you to share it withsomeone else and remind you, I'm
(39:01):
Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven, and Iwant you to come to.
Podcast listeners, I'll see youon Monday with a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (39:16):
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-P-P-E-A-T, where creators
(39:41):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we'll look forward
to seeing you again with a cupof coffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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