February 9, 2026 • 33 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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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
Monday morning coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
February the 9th.
I'm Mark.
I am drinking great coffee.
You knew that already.
I have my Bible open to the bookof Acts, and I have some notes
from yesterday's sermon.
It's all happening.
It's all going on.
Grab your Bible, grab yourcoffee, let's grow together.
(01:13):
Yesterday, then was the secondin this series on sermons and
their role in our lives and inworship.
This series is called PreachingMatters, and I have really been
pushing the importance ofbiblical preaching.
And Sunday we talked about howto judge it.
But great preaching can't doeverything.
And sometimes people getfrustrated with sermons because
they're asking the pulpit to dosomething God never designed for
(01:34):
it to do.
For example, preaching cannotreplace personal responsibility.
Acts two, powerful preaching,but Peter preaches and then the
crowd asks a question, brothers,what shall we do?
And Peter tells them they needto act.
Great preaching does not do theresponding for you.
You do the responding.
(01:54):
And of course, sometimes peopleleave disappointed, not because
the sermon lacked truth, butbecause it didn't carry them
across the finish lineemotionally or spiritually.
Well, preaching brings you tothe edge of the decision, but
crossing that line is always onthe listener.
Again, you have to respond.
And preaching cannot competewith the distracted heart.
That is uncomfortable, but thatis absolutely true.
(02:17):
Jesus talks about that in theparable of the soils.
The same word falls on differenthearts and produces wildly
different results.
If my heart is already crowdedwith resentment or cynicism or
the desire for entertainment, orI'm just thinking about anything
and everything else during thesermon, it isn't the preaching
that is powerless.
It is the resistance to thepreaching that is defeating it.
(02:39):
And so sometimes the issueisn't, was the sermon great?
It was was my heart open?
And that's that audience stuff Italked about yesterday.
Are you a great sermon consumer?
Or are we doing a million otherthings during the preaching and
then judging the sermon offwhether it was dynamic enough to
make me stop and listen anyway?
I do think preaching is a sacredresponsibility, but it is not
(02:59):
magic.
God chose preaching to proclaimtruth, to confront hearts, and
to call for repentance.
He did not choose it to overridefree will, replace discipleship,
or remove the need for dailyobedience.
You have to respond.
When we understand that, welisten better, we judge more
fairly, and we take respondingto the sermon much more
(03:24):
seriously.
Let's think about some sermons.
What a great lead in to ourdaily Bible reading this week,
because we're in the book ofActs and we're going to talk
about the first gospel sermonever preached.
Grab your Bible.
(04:00):
Lots of discussion yesterdayabout a football game, Super
Sunday.
I'll tell you what, this isSuper Sunday right here.
Verse 1 tells us that this isabout Pentecost.
Pentecost is one of the threeannual festivals, the Biggies,
and this would probably besomewhere around in June.
It's always seven weeks and oneday from Passover, so that makes
(04:20):
it a Sunday.
By first century times, many haddecided it was the anniversary
of the giving of the law onMount Sinai, and that comes from
timing out the Exodus.
And actually, might actually bekind of close.
So the day that Israel receivedthe law is the day the church
receives the gospel.
I have to think about that, butmaybe there's something to that.
And of course, it's veryimportant to know that the they,
(04:42):
when the day of Pentecostarrived, they were all together
in one place.
That's the eleven apostles, 126.
And there's conversation anddiscussion about that, but later
on we'll see in Acts that theapostles have something from the
Holy Spirit that no otherbelievers can possibly have or
get.
And I need a swing of coffeehere because my notes have a
typo.
(05:02):
The apostles have somethingspecial from the spirit that no
other beavers have or can get.
Probably didn't know thatBucky's was in the Bible.
Watch out, beavers, you can'thave what the apostles have.
The fire here, I do need coffee.
The fire here does represent thepresence of God, and the tongues
are given to prove that thespirit has come.
(05:24):
They show that the gift ofprophecy speaking for God has in
fact been restored.
So let's look at Peter's sermon.
I really worked on thisyesterday.
So we're thinking about Actschapter 2 and what it says about
the audience.
Peter really has a platefulhere.
He needs to deal with severalproblems: the accusation that
they're drunk.
He needs to explain thisremarkable phenomenon that's
(05:45):
going on.
And then he needs to pointpeople to Jesus, but Jesus got
killed in a really bad way.
So he has to cover that and makesure everybody understands what
that's all about.
And then he needs to get aresponse from the listeners.
And this sermon is an absolutemasterpiece.
It covers all of those bases andmore.
And as a bonus, verse 17, iteven says some things about the
(06:07):
last days.
The last days is the lastperiod, epoch, whatever you want
to say, of human history.
It's the time when there won'tbe anything after this.
It's the Christian dispensation.
And I think here particularlyit's the time of transition
where the Jewish dispensation,the law of Moses, is going to
come to an end.
(06:28):
And so there's this heavyapocalyptic language out of Joel
chapter 2 and verses 19 and 20.
All of that is to say that thisis a time of judgment.
That's what Joel is about.
The people aren't right, that'sgoing to be a day of judgment.
But there's also a day ofsalvation.
It depends on whose side you'reon.
If you're with the Lord, this isgoing to be a great day.
So the signs correspond to whatJoel prophesied, marking a new
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age of salvation, the time ofthe Messiah.
And what you need to do to getin on that is to make sure that
you're not on the judge side,but on the saved side, is you
need to call on the Lord.
But the question is, who is theLord?
Verse 21, it'll come to passthat everyone who calls upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.
From verse 22 on, here Peterdeals with Jesus is the Lord.
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But of course, he was crucified.
How could he possibly be theMessiah?
Peter works through that heavyreliance on the Psalms here.
And then notice verse 32.
Where is Jesus now?
Hey, okay, if Jesus is theMessiah, let's see him.
We want to see him, if he'sraised from the dead.
No, he is raised up, verse 32,and he's been exalted at the
(07:36):
right hand of God.
So Psalm 110 comes into playhere.
Jesus is the Messiah.
He is Lord, King, and Christ,Savior, Messiah.
He is both of those things.
And this gets a fabulous,fabulous response.
People are cut to the heart.
Cut to the heart here is stronglanguage.
(07:57):
Cut to the heart here meansheartbroken, filled with
remorse.
Is there any hope for us at all?
And we get some new ideas.
I would have said, if I hadn'tread Acts 238 before,
repentance.
You got to repent.
We saw that all through theGospel of Luke.
Luke is heavy on repentance.
Okay, get you some repentance.
But we get some new things here.
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Repentance is the change ofheart about sin, that desire to
turn to God.
But now we get everyone, verse38, repent and be baptized,
everyone, not just you,everybody's welcome here.
Universal nature of the gospelis being pushed.
And then it's not justrepentance, but it's repentance
and baptism in the name ofJesus.
And I think this is more thanjust by his authority.
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It means the recognition that heis Lord.
It's a turning to and submittingto him as King and Messiah.
And then there's the receivingof the Holy Spirit.
That's the invitation to join inthe pouring out that Joel had
talked about.
And what exactly, verse 38, I'lltie up today's episode.
Woo, going a little long today.
I'll tie up, tie this episode upa little bit here by thinking
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about the gift of the HolySpirit.
Some have thought this ismiraculous gifts, but it's
pretty clear from the rest ofthe New Testament, not everybody
gets miraculous gifts.
I would have a very hard timedefending that position.
It could be the baptism of theHoly Spirit, but again, that
that's a really unique deal.
And when we get to Acts chapter10, Acts chapter 11, we'll see
how unique that is.
Once again, very difficult tomake that play.
(09:25):
So what are the options here?
It could be the Holy Spirithimself.
He is the gift, that thebeliever is indwelt by the Holy
Spirit.
And that does not necessarilymean that it's a charismatic
Pentecostal experience and thatyou feel the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit tells you whereto park and you get these warm
fuzzies.
(09:45):
That is not necessary to thisposition.
But the Bible does affirm inmany places in the New Testament
that believers are indwelt bythe Spirit.
And I have to say, there isstrong proof for that position.
Others have said it is the giftfrom the Spirit, it is
salvation.
And this sermon is about how tobe saved.
(10:07):
So there's something to be saidfor that.
I think there's strong proof foreither of those positions.
More and more I lean towards theindwelling of the Holy Spirit.
This is what separates, or oneof the things that separates the
New Testament from the OldTestament.
In the Old Testament, very fewpeople have the Spirit.
Joel says everybody can have theSpirit in the Messianic age, in
the messianic time.
(10:27):
And so a whole bunch of peoplerespond, verse 41, and they come
together, 42 to 47, and form thechurch.
These people aren't justmomentarily moved by Peter's
preaching.
They're changed.
They are different because theyhave, verse 47, been saved.
The reading for Monday, Actschapter 2.
Welcome to Tuesday.
(10:47):
Welcome to Tuesday.
And we will have Zoom tonight,Westsiders.
Pretty excited about that.
It's been a bit since we've beenable to have a Zoom call.
It will be really nice to studyand read in Acts chapter 3.
Pray together on the Zoom thisevening.
This chapter breaks into twopieces.
Verses 1 to 10 is the healing ofa lame man.
And then verses 11 to 26, Peterpreaches.
(11:09):
If you look at verse 1, the hourof prayer here is the ninth
hour.
That would probably be 3 p.m.
And if you see verse 2, thislame guy, and you think, hey,
buddy, you must be a really goodperson on and on, you're missing
the point.
He would be a very unlikelyprospect for the favor of God.
Many Jews coming to the templeprobably thought he was cursed
(11:30):
of God.
The reason you are lame isbecause you've done something
terrible.
He is at the beautiful gate,which is probably within the
court of the Gentiles.
This gate on the east side whereIsraelite men and women were
allowed to access the nextcourt, the court of the women.
And it says very clearly herethat he had been lame from
birth.
Luke likes to include littledetails like that that makes it
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clear this is a major healing.
This is not he fell down andsprained his ankle last week,
and now he's gonna be prettymuch all better, whether Peter
and John do anything or not.
And pay particularly attentionWow, coffee, need coffee.
Pay particular attention, verse6.
In the name of Jesus Christ ofNazareth, the use of the name of
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Jesus shows the healing power ofJesus is still available because
Jesus is still alive.
So the man is healed, everybodysees it, people are really
excited.
There's so much joy and optimismin Luke's writing, of course.
And we're asking, okay, why'dyou tell us about that?
There's been a lot of healings.
Why do we need to know aboutthis healing?
What's the point?
(12:36):
Why, why is this important?
And the reason it's important isbecause it gives Peter the
opportunity to preach.
And this sermon looks a lot likethe Acts 2 sermon.
Maybe a couple of things are alittle bit different here than
what we saw before.
There's the discussion here ofsigns and wonders, and
particularly an emphasis on allof this is in harmony with the
(12:56):
scripture and that we areeyewitnesses.
Immediately, verse 12, Petersays, Don't look at us like
we're the ones that did this.
Notice how different this isthan modern-day fake healers.
They're always trying to drawattention to themselves and pass
the hat.
Peter does not do that.
And then verse 13, we get a bigshift.
What we expect is the God of ourfathers did this.
(13:19):
But instead, what we get isJesus healed him.
Jesus healed him.
Jesus is the servant, verse 13.
That's Isaiah 52 being beingquoted there.
Isaiah 52, 13.
Jesus is the suffering servant.
He is resurrected.
Verse 15, the resurrectionstands in the center of
everything.
There's nothing to say withoutthe resurrection.
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And because of this, Jesusbrings times of refreshing.
That's an unusual expression andsubject to a lot of conversation
and debate.
Probably just means therefreshing blessings of being in
Jesus.
Christianity is wonderful andbeing in Christ is a joy.
Catch the reference in verse 24to 2 Samuel 7.
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And all that Peter is sayinghere is it's time to repent
because the time of theseprophecies, 23, 24, 25, that's
happening right here, right now.
So you need to get right withGod.
It's the time of the Messiah,it's the time to repent.
And please note verse 26.
God, having raised up hisservant, sent him to you first.
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If somebody's first, thensomeone else is second.
And I think there's animplication here already in the
preaching that's going on inActs that the kingdom will be
opened to Gentiles at somepoint.
Maybe the audience isn't readyfor that, but I'm certainly
thinking about that as I look atverse 26.
See you tonight on Zoom,Westsiders.
Everyone else, see you on thepodcast tomorrow, the reading
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for Tuesday, Acts chapter 3.
It's Wednesday.
Welcome to Wednesday.
And today we're reading thefourth chapter of the book of
Acts.
This chapter, the reading forWednesday is Acts 4.
This chapter begins, verse 1,with powerful people.
The priests, the captains of thetemple, and the Sadducees come
upon them.
The Sadducees control thetemple.
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And because they try tocooperate with the Romans, kind
of a liaison between the Romangovernment and the Sanhedrin and
the Jewish people, there was alot of people who didn't much
care for them, but their job isto keep disturbances from
happening, especially there inthe temple.
We have a disturbance.
We have preaching.
The Sadducees don't believe inthe resurrection of the dead,
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verse 2.
So this would be annoying tothem.
We get more reference to what apowerful group of people this is
in verse 6.
These are the people who gotJesus put to death.
These are big dogs.
You don't want to mess withthem.
Peter is utterly, utterlyuncowed by them.
Verse 8, Peter is filled withthe Holy Spirit.
Like Jesus was filled with theHoly Spirit, Luke 4, chapter 1.
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This is the fulfillment of Luke12, 11 and 12.
This is all about Peter is achanged person because he is
filled with the Spirit.
This is not scaredy cat Peter,who could not stand up to a maid
on the night that Jesus wastried and executed.
This Peter stands up, looks atthese guys, and says, it's all
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about Jesus, verse 10.
He is the cornerstone.
That's the favorite Christiantext, Psalm 118, verse 22.
And basically Peter hacks offeverybody in the room.
Look at verse 10.
He's been raised from the dead.
You crucified him.
Pharisees, Sadducees, everybodyin the room is now mad, and
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there's not anything they can doabout it.
Because verse 13 tells us theyrealize it's not illegal to heal
people in the temple, and thatthese are changed people.
Being with Jesus changes you.
And that probably referencesPeter being spirit-filled,
probably represents his holyboldness, probably says some
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things here about how this isnot what you would expect, the
way for a fisherman to handlethe Bible and to be able to
quote scripture.
Notice as well here thatalthough everybody says this is
a miracle, nobody is believing.
Miracles don't compel belief.
We cannot, but speak of what wehave seen and heard.
(17:12):
Peter says in verse 20, youcan't shut us down.
We won't be stopped.
And then the chapter ends withtwo very important pieces, 23 to
31.
Once again, the Holy Spiritappears in 25 and also in verse
31.
And this is a prayer.
Prayer is the response topersecution.
It's the fourth time Christiansare praying together in the book
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of Acts.
This prayer shares somesimilarities with Hezekiah's
prayer in Isaiah 37, and itquotes out of Psalm 2, which
David wrote.
And this is very much about whenyou threaten Jesus, you threaten
the church because the church isthe body of Christ.
And the church is doing whatJesus did, preaching the gospel.
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And so you're trying to shutdown the preaching of the
gospel.
That's trying to shut down us.
You're trying to shut downJesus.
That will never work.
And of course, it's important tosee that the church prays for
God's word to go forth boldly,not relief from persecution.
Then we get this generositysection, 32 to 37.
And sometimes people get alittle confused here and think
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that this is a commune.
It is not a commune.
The church did not withdraw.
You can go down to the Dead Seaand see a commune.
That's the Qumran communitywhere the Dead Sea scrolls were
written, but this is not that.
They are living in their ownhomes, 246, and they had their
own wealth and possessions,chapter 5, and they were in
control of them.
They could do with them as theyplease.
(18:37):
But the church is generous andthe church is caring for one
another, helping saints.
There'd be a lot of people whoare still here.
They came for Passover, theystayed for Pentecost.
Now they become Christians.
They want to be around theapostles.
They want to continue to learnabout Jesus the Messiah before
they go home.
You've got a lot of folks herethat are out of pocket and out
of sorts.
And so the church is helping allof those people, all of those
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brethren.
And I like verse 36.
Hey, Joseph, who's also calledby the apostles Barnabas, he
sold a field and brought themoney and laid it at the
apostles' feet.
Luke loves to do that.
You get a glimpse of a figurewho later on turns out to be a
major player in the story.
A reading for Wednesday, Actschapter 4.
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It's Thursday, and we're readingone of the most dramatic texts
in the book of Acts.
We're reading Acts chapter 5.
The reading for Thursday is Acts5.
And if my voice pitch haschanged a little bit here, it's
because I've changedmicrophones.
I'm always tweaking and fiddlingwith this, trying to make it
sound better, so I hope it doessound better.
Let's get into Acts chapter 5.
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What's famous about this is thestory of Ananias and Sapphira.
And the amount of room that'sbeen given to this by Luke tells
us very clearly that the churchis to be warned about hypocrisy
and deceit.
Lying among the church willdestroy the church.
And Peter's strong reaction tothis shows that he understands
what is at stake.
(20:04):
You should see in verse 2, theexpression he kept back for
himself, kept back as identicalto the term for committed a
trespass in the Septuagint, theGreek translation of the Old
Testament, in Joshua chapter 7and verse 1, for what Achan did
at the fall of Jericho.
And this opening sets up a verystrong contrast.
Notice verse 1, but a man namedAnanias.
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There's a very strong contrasthere to what Barnabas has done
at the end of chapter 4.
In verse 3, please payparticular attention to the
parallel of the Holy Spirit andGod in verse 4.
This passage definitively provesthe Holy Spirit's deity.
And breathed his last, verse 5,is used only in the New
Testament when someone is struckby God directly.
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Acts 5 5, Acts 5 10, Acts 12.23.
And this does emphasize thatthis is a divine judgment.
He did not just suddenly go intocardiac arrest.
No, God judged him here.
In verse 11, great fear cameupon the whole church.
Luke has a wonderful mastery ofunderstatement.
I should expect so.
And the expression church here,it is the first time the word
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ecclesia is used of the churchhere in the New Testament, with
a possible exception of Acts247.
In the Western text, that's awhole long conversation.
Let's just go with it.
The Ecclesia is used as churchhere for the very first time in
the New Testament.
It used to be kingdom.
Now Ecclesia is the church.
And there is always someone whowill say that ecclesia means
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called out.
That's not exactly correct.
But probably what Luke is goingfor here is that the ecclesia,
ecclesia is the term used in theSeptuagint of Israel, of the
Israelite nation.
And so in Deuteronomy andseveral of the following Old
Testament books, ecclesia is theregular rendering for the Hebrew
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word for assembly, and it oftenspeaks of the Israelite nation.
So here the church is beingidentified.
As yes, as the Ecclesia, as thenew Israel of God.
And that brings us then into theresults of this wonder and sign,
verse 12.
Many signs and wonders areregularly done among the people,
among the people by the hands ofthe apostles.
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Oh, you got a little coffee hereto help us out, wouldn't it?
Okay.
And that links back, this signsand wonders, verse 12, links
back to chapter 4 and verse 30,where they had prayed that signs
and wonders would be done.
And then verse 13 says, none ofthe rest dared to join them.
And then verse 14, you've gotmore than ever believers are
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being added unto them.
So how does all of that work?
And I think the best answer hereis that there are three groups
going on.
The Christians who are meetingin the temple, and then
unbelieving Jews who didn't wantto get too close.
They're afraid.
And then there are responsiveJews who believed.
And I think the rest here speaksthen more than ever believers
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were added unto the Lord.
Those are responsive Jews,whereas the rest, verse 13, are
unbelieving Jews who want tostay away.
Beginning then in verse 17, wehave another arrest, and this
will lead to the first of threeprison releases.
Chapter 12 and chapter 16 alsohave a get out of jail free
card.
And there is no attempt here bythe church to fight back.
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There's no civil disobedience.
There's no let's get a militiamovement, let's be armed.
None of that happens at all.
And the offer of salvation, I'mpushing ahead here as quickly as
I can.
Verse 31, God exalted him asright hand as leader and savior.
This is the first place outsideof the gospels that Jesus is
called Savior.
And the offer of salvation isbeing made to the Sanhedrin
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Council.
That ought to stop us for morethan just a moment.
These are the people whoorchestrated the death of Jesus,
and yet, if they will turn tothe Lord, they can be saved.
The chapter concludes then withGamaliel's incredible advice.
And Gamaliel is super famous.
He is the VIP of VIPs, probablythe most important Pharisee in
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the Sanhedrin Council.
He is the grandson and discipleof Hillel, one of the most
famous rabbis of all.
He is one of only seven rabbiswho was given the title Rabban.
Rabbon means our teacher.
Rabbi means my teacher.
And one rabbi said that whenRabbon Gameliel died, the glory
of the Torah ceased, and purityand separateness died.
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And his advice here is inaccordance with Pharisaical
belief.
God is sovereign, God isoverall.
He does not need help from mento do what he wills.
Men need to obey God and leaveit up to the Lord.
And what I think is particularlysignificant here is verse 39.
If it is of God, you will not beable to overthrow them.
You might even be found opposingGod.
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That is an excellent summary ofthe rest of the book of Acts.
Over and over again, peoplefight against God and they can't
overthrow the gospel movement.
They can't stop what Jesusstarted.
They are, in fact, fightingagainst God.
Our reading for Thursday, Actschapter 5.
It is Friday.
(25:07):
It is Friday.
Always glad to end the week withyou in the Word of God.
Today's reading for Friday isActs 6.
The reading for Friday is Acts6.
And for the first time, wow,look at that.
It's only 15 verses.
And we're used to reading 9,000verses in Luke's long chapters.
15 verses.
That didn't seem very much atall.
I should say this.
These are 15 packed passages,verses that just mean so much.
(25:32):
And I should start right away bynoticing how Luke uses this
expression, the Word of God,verse 2.
It is not right that we shouldgive up preaching the Word of
God.
He will use that expression, theWord of God, at a number of
places in the book of Acts todesignate the growth of the
church and especially a new, anew packet, a new part, a new
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piece in his outline.
So get ready to watch for theexpression word of God.
That will mean, yeah, somethingnew is starting for Luke.
Now, you're probably familiarwith the seven and the original
deacons.
These probably are the originaldeacons, and here they are
serving.
Who are they serving?
They are serving the Hellenists,verse 1.
Those are probablyGreek-speaking Jews who this is
(26:17):
important.
They speak Greek and they thinkin Greek.
This might be people who havecome and have stayed now a long
time from the original Passoverand Pentecost.
Probably better, these are Jewswho live in Jerusalem or live in
that area.
Maybe they have moved to thisarea.
But the key here is they areGreek in their culture.
(26:39):
They are Greek in theirthinking.
That's what matters about this.
Just imagine for a moment howdifferent it would be to have,
say, people from California andpeople from Texas in the same
congregation.
There's some things that peoplein California think are very,
very important, and people inTexas maybe not so much.
And there are some things thatTexans think are matters of
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almost life and death, andCalifornians are like, we've
passed a law, you can't even dothat.
So there's a very differentculture going on here.
And when you remember howimportant food and eating are in
New Testament times, this may beabout a whole lot more than just
we're going hungry.
We're being treated assecond-class citizens.
We don't count.
So what we get, verse 3, is somemen who are full of the Spirit.
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That means under control of theSpirit.
And that, of course, is exactlythe kind of person that we still
need to serve as deacons today.
In verse 7, please observe thateverybody likes the church.
In fact, a great many of thepriests become obedient to the
faith.
We need to underline verses likethat, because in chapter 8 and
verse 4, everybody hates thechurch, and we need to figure
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out what happened between Acts6.7 and Acts 8.4 to make such a
giant change.
And the answer is Stephenhappened.
Verses 8 to 15 introduce us toStephen.
Now we're somewhere, anywherefrom 33 to 37, right in here.
Not sure how long the church hasbeen in existence, maybe for
quite some time.
And there are significantparallels between Stephen and
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Jesus.
Remember, the book of Acts isabout the church does what Jesus
did.
The church carries on the workof Jesus in preaching the
gospel.
And just watch for all theparallels here.
You can't stop Stephen.
You couldn't stop Jesus.
There are witnesses that werepaid off to speak ill and bring
false charges and lies againstJesus, and they do that with
Stephen.
(28:25):
There's the charge of blasphemymade against both of them.
The people are stirred up.
Jesus is said to be guilty ofteaching that the temple would
be destroyed.
Watch the charge againstStephen.
So he really functions in manyways here as a Christ-like
figure.
He's doing what Jesus did, andhe gets the reaction Jesus got.
(28:47):
Now in verse 9, he is doing somepreaching, full of grace and
power.
Verse 8, this is the firstmiracle being done by somebody
who's not an apostle.
And then there is opposition.
This is verse 9.
For the first time, there isopposition from someone besides
the Sanhedrin and the Sadducees.
And the question is, whatexactly is he teaching and
(29:08):
preaching here?
That's not part of the jobdescription in verses 1 to 7 for
these first deacons.
So what is he doing here?
What's going on?
But if the Hellenistic Jews meetseparately, it's only fair to
assume that they would have aGreek preacher who spoke their
language and knew their cultureand would naturally gravitate to
them.
I think folks in Texas likeTexas preachers who know how to
(29:30):
say howdy and y'all, andprobably people in England like
English preachers who drink teaor whatever English people do.
I well, I painted myself into acorner with that.
I don't know where I'm goingwith that.
Now, what is Stephen preaching?
What is he preaching that getshim into so much trouble?
Clearly, he is pushing theprimacy of Jesus Christ, and
especially that the gospel isfor everyone.
(29:53):
Please remember, in Acts, you'rein chapter 6, not in chapter 10.
There are no Gentiles in thechurch at this time.
But somebody is saying thegospel is for all.
We have heard him speakblasphemous words against Moses
and God, verse 11.
That's a lie.
Nobody has more respect forMoses than Stephen does.
(30:14):
And then verse 12, they stirredup the people and the scribes.
I mean, this sounds exactly likewhat happened to Jesus.
They set up false witnesses,verse 13.
This man never ceases to speakwords against this holy place in
the law.
We heard him say Jesus willdestroy this place.
That would send everybody overthe edge.
Because Jerusalem, Jerusalemlives off the temple.
(30:36):
That's a religious attack.
That's an economic attack.
Jerusalem's chief livelihood wasthe temple and the trade and the
tourism that it generated.
So you're going to destroy thetemple?
That's an ungodly, blasphemousthing to do, and it's going to
bankrupt everybody.
And so chapter 6 ends, verse 15,gazing at them all and gazing at
(30:56):
him, I'm sorry, all who sat inthe council saw that his face
was like the face of an angel.
Once again, Luke presents uswith an uncertain miracle.
Does that just mean, as onecommentator says, that his eyes
burned with an inner light?
And all of us have seen somebodywho just has a look upon their
face, that fierce look, the eyeof the tiger.
They're ready to go.
They're ready to defendthemselves.
(31:16):
Or does it mean in some ways hehas an unearthly glow, a
supernatural glow, that there issomething about him that says,
this man is possessed of theHoly Spirit.
He's about to speak from theHoly Spirit and say some things
that these people desperatelyneed to hear.
Reading then for Friday.
Acts chapter 6.
(31:37):
Once again, the podcast ends ona cliffhanger.
How can you stop reading in Acts6.15?
It's just it's nearlyimpossible.
I'll see you Monday and we'lltake up Stephen's speech and see
what he's saying and why he issaying it.
We'll see if we can see wherethis ends up.
But since you already know thathe is a Christ-like figure and
he's being treated like Christ,yes, he will be treated fully
(31:59):
like Christ.
Well, thank you so much forlistening.
This is the podcast for theweek, then it concludes here.
If the podcast is a blessing toyou, please tell someone about
it.
Help them in their daily Biblereading and in capturing some of
the spiritual momentum of Sundayand bringing it right into their
week.
I love doing this, especially Ilove doing it with a oh, I'm at
the bottom of this cup ofcoffee.
(32:20):
I love doing it with a cup ofcoffee in my hands.
I'll see you on Monday.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come to see youMonday with a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (32:38):
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.
(33:02):
Where creators can get freemusic.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
Monday morning coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
February the 9th.
I'm Mark.
I am drinking great coffee.
You knew that already.
I have my Bible open to the bookof Acts, and I have some notes
from yesterday's sermon.
It's all happening.
It's all going on.
Grab your Bible, grab yourcoffee, let's grow together.
(01:13):
Yesterday, then was the secondin this series on sermons and
their role in our lives and inworship.
This series is called PreachingMatters, and I have really been
pushing the importance ofbiblical preaching.
And Sunday we talked about howto judge it.
But great preaching can't doeverything.
And sometimes people getfrustrated with sermons because
they're asking the pulpit to dosomething God never designed for
(01:34):
it to do.
For example, preaching cannotreplace personal responsibility.
Acts two, powerful preaching,but Peter preaches and then the
crowd asks a question, brothers,what shall we do?
And Peter tells them they needto act.
Great preaching does not do theresponding for you.
You do the responding.
(01:54):
And of course, sometimes peopleleave disappointed, not because
the sermon lacked truth, butbecause it didn't carry them
across the finish lineemotionally or spiritually.
Well, preaching brings you tothe edge of the decision, but
crossing that line is always onthe listener.
Again, you have to respond.
And preaching cannot competewith the distracted heart.
That is uncomfortable, but thatis absolutely true.
(02:17):
Jesus talks about that in theparable of the soils.
The same word falls on differenthearts and produces wildly
different results.
If my heart is already crowdedwith resentment or cynicism or
the desire for entertainment, orI'm just thinking about anything
and everything else during thesermon, it isn't the preaching
that is powerless.
It is the resistance to thepreaching that is defeating it.
(02:39):
And so sometimes the issueisn't, was the sermon great?
It was was my heart open?
And that's that audience stuff Italked about yesterday.
Are you a great sermon consumer?
Or are we doing a million otherthings during the preaching and
then judging the sermon offwhether it was dynamic enough to
make me stop and listen anyway?
I do think preaching is a sacredresponsibility, but it is not
(02:59):
magic.
God chose preaching to proclaimtruth, to confront hearts, and
to call for repentance.
He did not choose it to overridefree will, replace discipleship,
or remove the need for dailyobedience.
You have to respond.
When we understand that, welisten better, we judge more
fairly, and we take respondingto the sermon much more
(03:24):
seriously.
Let's think about some sermons.
What a great lead in to ourdaily Bible reading this week,
because we're in the book ofActs and we're going to talk
about the first gospel sermonever preached.
Grab your Bible.
(04:00):
Lots of discussion yesterdayabout a football game, Super
Sunday.
I'll tell you what, this isSuper Sunday right here.
Verse 1 tells us that this isabout Pentecost.
Pentecost is one of the threeannual festivals, the Biggies,
and this would probably besomewhere around in June.
It's always seven weeks and oneday from Passover, so that makes
(04:20):
it a Sunday.
By first century times, many haddecided it was the anniversary
of the giving of the law onMount Sinai, and that comes from
timing out the Exodus.
And actually, might actually bekind of close.
So the day that Israel receivedthe law is the day the church
receives the gospel.
I have to think about that, butmaybe there's something to that.
And of course, it's veryimportant to know that the they,
(04:42):
when the day of Pentecostarrived, they were all together
in one place.
That's the eleven apostles, 126.
And there's conversation anddiscussion about that, but later
on we'll see in Acts that theapostles have something from the
Holy Spirit that no otherbelievers can possibly have or
get.
And I need a swing of coffeehere because my notes have a
typo.
(05:02):
The apostles have somethingspecial from the spirit that no
other beavers have or can get.
Probably didn't know thatBucky's was in the Bible.
Watch out, beavers, you can'thave what the apostles have.
The fire here, I do need coffee.
The fire here does represent thepresence of God, and the tongues
are given to prove that thespirit has come.
(05:24):
They show that the gift ofprophecy speaking for God has in
fact been restored.
So let's look at Peter's sermon.
I really worked on thisyesterday.
So we're thinking about Actschapter 2 and what it says about
the audience.
Peter really has a platefulhere.
He needs to deal with severalproblems: the accusation that
they're drunk.
He needs to explain thisremarkable phenomenon that's
(05:45):
going on.
And then he needs to pointpeople to Jesus, but Jesus got
killed in a really bad way.
So he has to cover that and makesure everybody understands what
that's all about.
And then he needs to get aresponse from the listeners.
And this sermon is an absolutemasterpiece.
It covers all of those bases andmore.
And as a bonus, verse 17, iteven says some things about the
(06:07):
last days.
The last days is the lastperiod, epoch, whatever you want
to say, of human history.
It's the time when there won'tbe anything after this.
It's the Christian dispensation.
And I think here particularlyit's the time of transition
where the Jewish dispensation,the law of Moses, is going to
come to an end.
(06:28):
And so there's this heavyapocalyptic language out of Joel
chapter 2 and verses 19 and 20.
All of that is to say that thisis a time of judgment.
That's what Joel is about.
The people aren't right, that'sgoing to be a day of judgment.
But there's also a day ofsalvation.
It depends on whose side you'reon.
If you're with the Lord, this isgoing to be a great day.
So the signs correspond to whatJoel prophesied, marking a new
(06:51):
age of salvation, the time ofthe Messiah.
And what you need to do to getin on that is to make sure that
you're not on the judge side,but on the saved side, is you
need to call on the Lord.
But the question is, who is theLord?
Verse 21, it'll come to passthat everyone who calls upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.
From verse 22 on, here Peterdeals with Jesus is the Lord.
(07:15):
But of course, he was crucified.
How could he possibly be theMessiah?
Peter works through that heavyreliance on the Psalms here.
And then notice verse 32.
Where is Jesus now?
Hey, okay, if Jesus is theMessiah, let's see him.
We want to see him, if he'sraised from the dead.
No, he is raised up, verse 32,and he's been exalted at the
(07:36):
right hand of God.
So Psalm 110 comes into playhere.
Jesus is the Messiah.
He is Lord, King, and Christ,Savior, Messiah.
He is both of those things.
And this gets a fabulous,fabulous response.
People are cut to the heart.
Cut to the heart here is stronglanguage.
(07:57):
Cut to the heart here meansheartbroken, filled with
remorse.
Is there any hope for us at all?
And we get some new ideas.
I would have said, if I hadn'tread Acts 238 before,
repentance.
You got to repent.
We saw that all through theGospel of Luke.
Luke is heavy on repentance.
Okay, get you some repentance.
But we get some new things here.
(08:17):
Repentance is the change ofheart about sin, that desire to
turn to God.
But now we get everyone, verse38, repent and be baptized,
everyone, not just you,everybody's welcome here.
Universal nature of the gospelis being pushed.
And then it's not justrepentance, but it's repentance
and baptism in the name ofJesus.
And I think this is more thanjust by his authority.
(08:39):
It means the recognition that heis Lord.
It's a turning to and submittingto him as King and Messiah.
And then there's the receivingof the Holy Spirit.
That's the invitation to join inthe pouring out that Joel had
talked about.
And what exactly, verse 38, I'lltie up today's episode.
Woo, going a little long today.
I'll tie up, tie this episode upa little bit here by thinking
(09:01):
about the gift of the HolySpirit.
Some have thought this ismiraculous gifts, but it's
pretty clear from the rest ofthe New Testament, not everybody
gets miraculous gifts.
I would have a very hard timedefending that position.
It could be the baptism of theHoly Spirit, but again, that
that's a really unique deal.
And when we get to Acts chapter10, Acts chapter 11, we'll see
how unique that is.
Once again, very difficult tomake that play.
(09:25):
So what are the options here?
It could be the Holy Spirithimself.
He is the gift, that thebeliever is indwelt by the Holy
Spirit.
And that does not necessarilymean that it's a charismatic
Pentecostal experience and thatyou feel the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit tells you whereto park and you get these warm
fuzzies.
(09:45):
That is not necessary to thisposition.
But the Bible does affirm inmany places in the New Testament
that believers are indwelt bythe Spirit.
And I have to say, there isstrong proof for that position.
Others have said it is the giftfrom the Spirit, it is
salvation.
And this sermon is about how tobe saved.
(10:07):
So there's something to be saidfor that.
I think there's strong proof foreither of those positions.
More and more I lean towards theindwelling of the Holy Spirit.
This is what separates, or oneof the things that separates the
New Testament from the OldTestament.
In the Old Testament, very fewpeople have the Spirit.
Joel says everybody can have theSpirit in the Messianic age, in
the messianic time.
(10:27):
And so a whole bunch of peoplerespond, verse 41, and they come
together, 42 to 47, and form thechurch.
These people aren't justmomentarily moved by Peter's
preaching.
They're changed.
They are different because theyhave, verse 47, been saved.
The reading for Monday, Actschapter 2.
Welcome to Tuesday.
(10:47):
Welcome to Tuesday.
And we will have Zoom tonight,Westsiders.
Pretty excited about that.
It's been a bit since we've beenable to have a Zoom call.
It will be really nice to studyand read in Acts chapter 3.
Pray together on the Zoom thisevening.
This chapter breaks into twopieces.
Verses 1 to 10 is the healing ofa lame man.
And then verses 11 to 26, Peterpreaches.
(11:09):
If you look at verse 1, the hourof prayer here is the ninth
hour.
That would probably be 3 p.m.
And if you see verse 2, thislame guy, and you think, hey,
buddy, you must be a really goodperson on and on, you're missing
the point.
He would be a very unlikelyprospect for the favor of God.
Many Jews coming to the templeprobably thought he was cursed
(11:30):
of God.
The reason you are lame isbecause you've done something
terrible.
He is at the beautiful gate,which is probably within the
court of the Gentiles.
This gate on the east side whereIsraelite men and women were
allowed to access the nextcourt, the court of the women.
And it says very clearly herethat he had been lame from
birth.
Luke likes to include littledetails like that that makes it
(11:52):
clear this is a major healing.
This is not he fell down andsprained his ankle last week,
and now he's gonna be prettymuch all better, whether Peter
and John do anything or not.
And pay particularly attentionWow, coffee, need coffee.
Pay particular attention, verse6.
In the name of Jesus Christ ofNazareth, the use of the name of
(12:16):
Jesus shows the healing power ofJesus is still available because
Jesus is still alive.
So the man is healed, everybodysees it, people are really
excited.
There's so much joy and optimismin Luke's writing, of course.
And we're asking, okay, why'dyou tell us about that?
There's been a lot of healings.
Why do we need to know aboutthis healing?
What's the point?
(12:36):
Why, why is this important?
And the reason it's important isbecause it gives Peter the
opportunity to preach.
And this sermon looks a lot likethe Acts 2 sermon.
Maybe a couple of things are alittle bit different here than
what we saw before.
There's the discussion here ofsigns and wonders, and
particularly an emphasis on allof this is in harmony with the
(12:56):
scripture and that we areeyewitnesses.
Immediately, verse 12, Petersays, Don't look at us like
we're the ones that did this.
Notice how different this isthan modern-day fake healers.
They're always trying to drawattention to themselves and pass
the hat.
Peter does not do that.
And then verse 13, we get a bigshift.
What we expect is the God of ourfathers did this.
(13:19):
But instead, what we get isJesus healed him.
Jesus healed him.
Jesus is the servant, verse 13.
That's Isaiah 52 being beingquoted there.
Isaiah 52, 13.
Jesus is the suffering servant.
He is resurrected.
Verse 15, the resurrectionstands in the center of
everything.
There's nothing to say withoutthe resurrection.
(13:42):
And because of this, Jesusbrings times of refreshing.
That's an unusual expression andsubject to a lot of conversation
and debate.
Probably just means therefreshing blessings of being in
Jesus.
Christianity is wonderful andbeing in Christ is a joy.
Catch the reference in verse 24to 2 Samuel 7.
(14:02):
And all that Peter is sayinghere is it's time to repent
because the time of theseprophecies, 23, 24, 25, that's
happening right here, right now.
So you need to get right withGod.
It's the time of the Messiah,it's the time to repent.
And please note verse 26.
God, having raised up hisservant, sent him to you first.
(14:25):
If somebody's first, thensomeone else is second.
And I think there's animplication here already in the
preaching that's going on inActs that the kingdom will be
opened to Gentiles at somepoint.
Maybe the audience isn't readyfor that, but I'm certainly
thinking about that as I look atverse 26.
See you tonight on Zoom,Westsiders.
Everyone else, see you on thepodcast tomorrow, the reading
(14:46):
for Tuesday, Acts chapter 3.
It's Wednesday.
Welcome to Wednesday.
And today we're reading thefourth chapter of the book of
Acts.
This chapter, the reading forWednesday is Acts 4.
This chapter begins, verse 1,with powerful people.
The priests, the captains of thetemple, and the Sadducees come
upon them.
The Sadducees control thetemple.
(15:06):
And because they try tocooperate with the Romans, kind
of a liaison between the Romangovernment and the Sanhedrin and
the Jewish people, there was alot of people who didn't much
care for them, but their job isto keep disturbances from
happening, especially there inthe temple.
We have a disturbance.
We have preaching.
The Sadducees don't believe inthe resurrection of the dead,
(15:27):
verse 2.
So this would be annoying tothem.
We get more reference to what apowerful group of people this is
in verse 6.
These are the people who gotJesus put to death.
These are big dogs.
You don't want to mess withthem.
Peter is utterly, utterlyuncowed by them.
Verse 8, Peter is filled withthe Holy Spirit.
Like Jesus was filled with theHoly Spirit, Luke 4, chapter 1.
(15:48):
This is the fulfillment of Luke12, 11 and 12.
This is all about Peter is achanged person because he is
filled with the Spirit.
This is not scaredy cat Peter,who could not stand up to a maid
on the night that Jesus wastried and executed.
This Peter stands up, looks atthese guys, and says, it's all
(16:08):
about Jesus, verse 10.
He is the cornerstone.
That's the favorite Christiantext, Psalm 118, verse 22.
And basically Peter hacks offeverybody in the room.
Look at verse 10.
He's been raised from the dead.
You crucified him.
Pharisees, Sadducees, everybodyin the room is now mad, and
(16:29):
there's not anything they can doabout it.
Because verse 13 tells us theyrealize it's not illegal to heal
people in the temple, and thatthese are changed people.
Being with Jesus changes you.
And that probably referencesPeter being spirit-filled,
probably represents his holyboldness, probably says some
(16:50):
things here about how this isnot what you would expect, the
way for a fisherman to handlethe Bible and to be able to
quote scripture.
Notice as well here thatalthough everybody says this is
a miracle, nobody is believing.
Miracles don't compel belief.
We cannot, but speak of what wehave seen and heard.
(17:12):
Peter says in verse 20, youcan't shut us down.
We won't be stopped.
And then the chapter ends withtwo very important pieces, 23 to
31.
Once again, the Holy Spiritappears in 25 and also in verse
31.
And this is a prayer.
Prayer is the response topersecution.
It's the fourth time Christiansare praying together in the book
(17:34):
of Acts.
This prayer shares somesimilarities with Hezekiah's
prayer in Isaiah 37, and itquotes out of Psalm 2, which
David wrote.
And this is very much about whenyou threaten Jesus, you threaten
the church because the church isthe body of Christ.
And the church is doing whatJesus did, preaching the gospel.
(17:54):
And so you're trying to shutdown the preaching of the
gospel.
That's trying to shut down us.
You're trying to shut downJesus.
That will never work.
And of course, it's important tosee that the church prays for
God's word to go forth boldly,not relief from persecution.
Then we get this generositysection, 32 to 37.
And sometimes people get alittle confused here and think
(18:15):
that this is a commune.
It is not a commune.
The church did not withdraw.
You can go down to the Dead Seaand see a commune.
That's the Qumran communitywhere the Dead Sea scrolls were
written, but this is not that.
They are living in their ownhomes, 246, and they had their
own wealth and possessions,chapter 5, and they were in
control of them.
They could do with them as theyplease.
(18:37):
But the church is generous andthe church is caring for one
another, helping saints.
There'd be a lot of people whoare still here.
They came for Passover, theystayed for Pentecost.
Now they become Christians.
They want to be around theapostles.
They want to continue to learnabout Jesus the Messiah before
they go home.
You've got a lot of folks herethat are out of pocket and out
of sorts.
And so the church is helping allof those people, all of those
(19:01):
brethren.
And I like verse 36.
Hey, Joseph, who's also calledby the apostles Barnabas, he
sold a field and brought themoney and laid it at the
apostles' feet.
Luke loves to do that.
You get a glimpse of a figurewho later on turns out to be a
major player in the story.
A reading for Wednesday, Actschapter 4.
(19:23):
It's Thursday, and we're readingone of the most dramatic texts
in the book of Acts.
We're reading Acts chapter 5.
The reading for Thursday is Acts5.
And if my voice pitch haschanged a little bit here, it's
because I've changedmicrophones.
I'm always tweaking and fiddlingwith this, trying to make it
sound better, so I hope it doessound better.
Let's get into Acts chapter 5.
(19:43):
What's famous about this is thestory of Ananias and Sapphira.
And the amount of room that'sbeen given to this by Luke tells
us very clearly that the churchis to be warned about hypocrisy
and deceit.
Lying among the church willdestroy the church.
And Peter's strong reaction tothis shows that he understands
what is at stake.
(20:04):
You should see in verse 2, theexpression he kept back for
himself, kept back as identicalto the term for committed a
trespass in the Septuagint, theGreek translation of the Old
Testament, in Joshua chapter 7and verse 1, for what Achan did
at the fall of Jericho.
And this opening sets up a verystrong contrast.
Notice verse 1, but a man namedAnanias.
(20:26):
There's a very strong contrasthere to what Barnabas has done
at the end of chapter 4.
In verse 3, please payparticular attention to the
parallel of the Holy Spirit andGod in verse 4.
This passage definitively provesthe Holy Spirit's deity.
And breathed his last, verse 5,is used only in the New
Testament when someone is struckby God directly.
(20:47):
Acts 5 5, Acts 5 10, Acts 12.23.
And this does emphasize thatthis is a divine judgment.
He did not just suddenly go intocardiac arrest.
No, God judged him here.
In verse 11, great fear cameupon the whole church.
Luke has a wonderful mastery ofunderstatement.
I should expect so.
And the expression church here,it is the first time the word
(21:09):
ecclesia is used of the churchhere in the New Testament, with
a possible exception of Acts247.
In the Western text, that's awhole long conversation.
Let's just go with it.
The Ecclesia is used as churchhere for the very first time in
the New Testament.
It used to be kingdom.
Now Ecclesia is the church.
And there is always someone whowill say that ecclesia means
(21:32):
called out.
That's not exactly correct.
But probably what Luke is goingfor here is that the ecclesia,
ecclesia is the term used in theSeptuagint of Israel, of the
Israelite nation.
And so in Deuteronomy andseveral of the following Old
Testament books, ecclesia is theregular rendering for the Hebrew
(21:53):
word for assembly, and it oftenspeaks of the Israelite nation.
So here the church is beingidentified.
As yes, as the Ecclesia, as thenew Israel of God.
And that brings us then into theresults of this wonder and sign,
verse 12.
Many signs and wonders areregularly done among the people,
among the people by the hands ofthe apostles.
(22:14):
Oh, you got a little coffee hereto help us out, wouldn't it?
Okay.
And that links back, this signsand wonders, verse 12, links
back to chapter 4 and verse 30,where they had prayed that signs
and wonders would be done.
And then verse 13 says, none ofthe rest dared to join them.
And then verse 14, you've gotmore than ever believers are
(22:37):
being added unto them.
So how does all of that work?
And I think the best answer hereis that there are three groups
going on.
The Christians who are meetingin the temple, and then
unbelieving Jews who didn't wantto get too close.
They're afraid.
And then there are responsiveJews who believed.
And I think the rest here speaksthen more than ever believers
(22:59):
were added unto the Lord.
Those are responsive Jews,whereas the rest, verse 13, are
unbelieving Jews who want tostay away.
Beginning then in verse 17, wehave another arrest, and this
will lead to the first of threeprison releases.
Chapter 12 and chapter 16 alsohave a get out of jail free
card.
And there is no attempt here bythe church to fight back.
(23:21):
There's no civil disobedience.
There's no let's get a militiamovement, let's be armed.
None of that happens at all.
And the offer of salvation, I'mpushing ahead here as quickly as
I can.
Verse 31, God exalted him asright hand as leader and savior.
This is the first place outsideof the gospels that Jesus is
called Savior.
And the offer of salvation isbeing made to the Sanhedrin
(23:42):
Council.
That ought to stop us for morethan just a moment.
These are the people whoorchestrated the death of Jesus,
and yet, if they will turn tothe Lord, they can be saved.
The chapter concludes then withGamaliel's incredible advice.
And Gamaliel is super famous.
He is the VIP of VIPs, probablythe most important Pharisee in
(24:03):
the Sanhedrin Council.
He is the grandson and discipleof Hillel, one of the most
famous rabbis of all.
He is one of only seven rabbiswho was given the title Rabban.
Rabbon means our teacher.
Rabbi means my teacher.
And one rabbi said that whenRabbon Gameliel died, the glory
of the Torah ceased, and purityand separateness died.
(24:26):
And his advice here is inaccordance with Pharisaical
belief.
God is sovereign, God isoverall.
He does not need help from mento do what he wills.
Men need to obey God and leaveit up to the Lord.
And what I think is particularlysignificant here is verse 39.
If it is of God, you will not beable to overthrow them.
You might even be found opposingGod.
(24:47):
That is an excellent summary ofthe rest of the book of Acts.
Over and over again, peoplefight against God and they can't
overthrow the gospel movement.
They can't stop what Jesusstarted.
They are, in fact, fightingagainst God.
Our reading for Thursday, Actschapter 5.
It is Friday.
(25:07):
It is Friday.
Always glad to end the week withyou in the Word of God.
Today's reading for Friday isActs 6.
The reading for Friday is Acts6.
And for the first time, wow,look at that.
It's only 15 verses.
And we're used to reading 9,000verses in Luke's long chapters.
15 verses.
That didn't seem very much atall.
I should say this.
These are 15 packed passages,verses that just mean so much.
(25:32):
And I should start right away bynoticing how Luke uses this
expression, the Word of God,verse 2.
It is not right that we shouldgive up preaching the Word of
God.
He will use that expression, theWord of God, at a number of
places in the book of Acts todesignate the growth of the
church and especially a new, anew packet, a new part, a new
(25:54):
piece in his outline.
So get ready to watch for theexpression word of God.
That will mean, yeah, somethingnew is starting for Luke.
Now, you're probably familiarwith the seven and the original
deacons.
These probably are the originaldeacons, and here they are
serving.
Who are they serving?
They are serving the Hellenists,verse 1.
Those are probablyGreek-speaking Jews who this is
(26:17):
important.
They speak Greek and they thinkin Greek.
This might be people who havecome and have stayed now a long
time from the original Passoverand Pentecost.
Probably better, these are Jewswho live in Jerusalem or live in
that area.
Maybe they have moved to thisarea.
But the key here is they areGreek in their culture.
(26:39):
They are Greek in theirthinking.
That's what matters about this.
Just imagine for a moment howdifferent it would be to have,
say, people from California andpeople from Texas in the same
congregation.
There's some things that peoplein California think are very,
very important, and people inTexas maybe not so much.
And there are some things thatTexans think are matters of
(27:01):
almost life and death, andCalifornians are like, we've
passed a law, you can't even dothat.
So there's a very differentculture going on here.
And when you remember howimportant food and eating are in
New Testament times, this may beabout a whole lot more than just
we're going hungry.
We're being treated assecond-class citizens.
We don't count.
So what we get, verse 3, is somemen who are full of the Spirit.
(27:22):
That means under control of theSpirit.
And that, of course, is exactlythe kind of person that we still
need to serve as deacons today.
In verse 7, please observe thateverybody likes the church.
In fact, a great many of thepriests become obedient to the
faith.
We need to underline verses likethat, because in chapter 8 and
verse 4, everybody hates thechurch, and we need to figure
(27:43):
out what happened between Acts6.7 and Acts 8.4 to make such a
giant change.
And the answer is Stephenhappened.
Verses 8 to 15 introduce us toStephen.
Now we're somewhere, anywherefrom 33 to 37, right in here.
Not sure how long the church hasbeen in existence, maybe for
quite some time.
And there are significantparallels between Stephen and
(28:05):
Jesus.
Remember, the book of Acts isabout the church does what Jesus
did.
The church carries on the workof Jesus in preaching the
gospel.
And just watch for all theparallels here.
You can't stop Stephen.
You couldn't stop Jesus.
There are witnesses that werepaid off to speak ill and bring
false charges and lies againstJesus, and they do that with
Stephen.
(28:25):
There's the charge of blasphemymade against both of them.
The people are stirred up.
Jesus is said to be guilty ofteaching that the temple would
be destroyed.
Watch the charge againstStephen.
So he really functions in manyways here as a Christ-like
figure.
He's doing what Jesus did, andhe gets the reaction Jesus got.
(28:47):
Now in verse 9, he is doing somepreaching, full of grace and
power.
Verse 8, this is the firstmiracle being done by somebody
who's not an apostle.
And then there is opposition.
This is verse 9.
For the first time, there isopposition from someone besides
the Sanhedrin and the Sadducees.
And the question is, whatexactly is he teaching and
(29:08):
preaching here?
That's not part of the jobdescription in verses 1 to 7 for
these first deacons.
So what is he doing here?
What's going on?
But if the Hellenistic Jews meetseparately, it's only fair to
assume that they would have aGreek preacher who spoke their
language and knew their cultureand would naturally gravitate to
them.
I think folks in Texas likeTexas preachers who know how to
(29:30):
say howdy and y'all, andprobably people in England like
English preachers who drink teaor whatever English people do.
I well, I painted myself into acorner with that.
I don't know where I'm goingwith that.
Now, what is Stephen preaching?
What is he preaching that getshim into so much trouble?
Clearly, he is pushing theprimacy of Jesus Christ, and
especially that the gospel isfor everyone.
(29:53):
Please remember, in Acts, you'rein chapter 6, not in chapter 10.
There are no Gentiles in thechurch at this time.
But somebody is saying thegospel is for all.
We have heard him speakblasphemous words against Moses
and God, verse 11.
That's a lie.
Nobody has more respect forMoses than Stephen does.
(30:14):
And then verse 12, they stirredup the people and the scribes.
I mean, this sounds exactly likewhat happened to Jesus.
They set up false witnesses,verse 13.
This man never ceases to speakwords against this holy place in
the law.
We heard him say Jesus willdestroy this place.
That would send everybody overthe edge.
Because Jerusalem, Jerusalemlives off the temple.
(30:36):
That's a religious attack.
That's an economic attack.
Jerusalem's chief livelihood wasthe temple and the trade and the
tourism that it generated.
So you're going to destroy thetemple?
That's an ungodly, blasphemousthing to do, and it's going to
bankrupt everybody.
And so chapter 6 ends, verse 15,gazing at them all and gazing at
(30:56):
him, I'm sorry, all who sat inthe council saw that his face
was like the face of an angel.
Once again, Luke presents uswith an uncertain miracle.
Does that just mean, as onecommentator says, that his eyes
burned with an inner light?
And all of us have seen somebodywho just has a look upon their
face, that fierce look, the eyeof the tiger.
They're ready to go.
They're ready to defendthemselves.
(31:16):
Or does it mean in some ways hehas an unearthly glow, a
supernatural glow, that there issomething about him that says,
this man is possessed of theHoly Spirit.
He's about to speak from theHoly Spirit and say some things
that these people desperatelyneed to hear.
Reading then for Friday.
Acts chapter 6.
(31:37):
Once again, the podcast ends ona cliffhanger.
How can you stop reading in Acts6.15?
It's just it's nearlyimpossible.
I'll see you Monday and we'lltake up Stephen's speech and see
what he's saying and why he issaying it.
We'll see if we can see wherethis ends up.
But since you already know thathe is a Christ-like figure and
he's being treated like Christ,yes, he will be treated fully
(31:59):
like Christ.
Well, thank you so much forlistening.
This is the podcast for theweek, then it concludes here.
If the podcast is a blessing toyou, please tell someone about
it.
Help them in their daily Biblereading and in capturing some of
the spiritual momentum of Sundayand bringing it right into their
week.
I love doing this, especially Ilove doing it with a oh, I'm at
the bottom of this cup ofcoffee.
(32:20):
I love doing it with a cup ofcoffee in my hands.
I'll see you on Monday.
I'm Mark Roberts.
I want to go to heaven.
I want you to come to see youMonday with a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (32:38):
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.
(33:02):
Where creators can get freemusic.
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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