December 22, 2025 • 21 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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Company Podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think througheach other and better work the
applications into our dailylife.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's final reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
December the 22nd.
I am Mark, and I am ready totalk about some daily Bible
reading, work on the sermon alittle bit from yesterday, and
just get everything going inwhat is a very busy holiday
week.
I know it's a crazy week.
I'm going to try to keep theepisode short because I know
everyone has an awful lot goingon, but we want to stay in our
(01:15):
daily Bible reading, and we wantto think a little bit about what
we were doing yesterday, what wewere thinking about with some
wise men and what that means,and why I'm preaching a sermon
about the birth of Jesus righthere in December.
What's up with that?
All of that and a whole lotmore.
So grab your Bible, grab yourcoffee, let's grow together.
(01:36):
So yesterday I preached fromMatthew the second chapter and
talked about the wise men,nearly said the three wise men,
how that just comes out, doesn'tit?
We don't know how many wise menthere were.
And there's a lot of talk and alot of people throwing a lot of
dust in the air and concernabout, oh, Christmas this and
Christmas that, and we get thiswrong, and it's not really
(01:56):
Jesus' birthday, and so forthand so on.
So let me just address theelephant in the room.
What about a Christmas sermon atChristmas time?
What's up with that?
Well, I think a couple of thingsare helpful here.
First, we need to know it isalways good to talk about Jesus
and to talk about all of Jesus'life: death, burial,
(02:17):
resurrection, teaching,miracles, and yes, even his
birth.
Sometimes people will saythere's no Christmas celebration
in the Bible.
And that, of course, is correct.
There is no celebration ofJesus' birth in the scriptures,
but that is a request forspecific authority.
I want a specific illustrationof the New Testament church
(02:37):
talking, celebrating Jesus'birth.
We don't have to have a specificverse when we have the general
authority to go into all theworld and teach the gospel.
Jesus' birth is part of thegospel, and so we don't need
specifics, hey, do this.
When we have a general, we cando this.
So we don't have a specificverse where a church in the New
(02:58):
Testament is having a youthlectureship or having a gospel
meeting focused on, say, theparables of Jesus, or having a
class for ladies.
And we don't need a specificpassage because we have general
authority to teach the gospel,to edify, to evangelize in every
way possible.
We don't have to have, oh, look,the New Testament church did
(03:22):
this specific thing when we havegeneral authority.
And I think in the same way, wehave general authority to teach
about all of Jesus' life,including his birth.
Now, some folks worry that if wedo anything that denominational
churches do, somehow that makesus part of false religion.
If we mirror any religiouspractice being done by any
(03:45):
religious group, somehow we'vemessed up.
But first and foremost, thatrule, that idea, is very
arbitrarily applied.
For example, we have a churchbuilding, denominational
churches have a church building.
Can we not have a churchbuilding?
I mean, where are we going withthat?
It it seems like there's nospecifics about when that rule
(04:06):
works and when it doesn't.
And more importantly, the NewTestament certainly doesn't
endorse that idea.
Early Christians met in thetemple, Acts 242, they didn't
seem to be worried, oh, peoplewill think that we're part of
Jewish religion.
Early Christians sang, just likepagans did in the idol temples.
They didn't seem to worry thatthat somehow made them
identified with idol worship.
(04:28):
They read the Old Testament.
No one worried that that somehowmade them part of Judaism.
So the point is this (04:33):
talking about Jesus, living for Jesus,
pointing people to Jesus, thosethings, that's never wrong.
And yes, there's always going tobe misunderstanding, and there's
always going to be falsereligion, and we don't want to
ever do anything that makes itappear we endorse or condone
that.
But we can't let false religionset the tempo for us.
(04:55):
We can't let false religion,basically the devil, dictate
what we can and cannot do.
During this season, people arethinking about Jesus' birth.
They are looking for somethingabout Jesus' birth.
It's an appropriate time to talkabout those ideas and to help
people think about followingJesus, seeking, following,
(05:16):
obeying Jesus.
That's what those wise men did.
And that's why I preach thatlesson.
I think it's scriptural, I thinkit's timely, I think it's
needed, and I feel really goodabout it.
And I hope that you do too.
Let's get our Bibles open toPsalm 110.
(05:56):
What else is there to say aboutthis Psalm?
Maybe this is the time to justbe very practical about Psalm
110.
It's about the authority ofChrist reigning over all.
And that means we are called tosubmit to him in every area of
our life, our work, ourfamilies, our decisions, our
agenda, our priorities.
This is active obedience.
(06:18):
We serve the King.
It means doing what he commands,following his directions, even
when it's hard, even when it'sinconvenient.
To submit to Christ is to lethim lead, not just admire him
from a distance, or I might add,kneel at the manger where baby
Jesus is not making any demandson us.
Jesus tells us how we shouldlive, and we need to do what he
(06:41):
says.
When he calls us to act, we act.
Psalm 110 reminds us that Jesusis not just our high priest
making intercession for us.
We feel really good about that.
We're going to talk about thatin the book of Hebrews this
week.
But he is also our King.
He is Lord, and we must submitto Him.
Obedience is not optional.
Psalm 110 tells us it is therequired response to His reign.
(07:05):
Psalm 110 is our reading forMonday.
Welcome to Tuesday.
Welcome to Tuesday.
Our reading is in Hebrews today,Hebrews chapter 7.
We'll be in Hebrews 7 today andtomorrow.
Our reading for Tuesday isHebrews 7, 1 to 10.
Please pay attention in chapter7 about the forever nature of
the priesthood of Jesus.
We'll see that stressed a lot.
(07:26):
Verse 3, verse 16, verse 17,verse 22, 24, 25, 28.
Hold on to that.
Jesus says, is our high priest,and that will not change.
It will not be passed on tosomeone else.
It is continual because he everlives.
Verse 25.
We need to think about what itwas like to be Jewish and to get
word that the high priest haddied, how terrible that would
(07:47):
be, particularly in the times ofthe New Testament, when the high
priesthood got passed around tothe high bidder.
We wouldn't much care for that.
We don't want a high priest whojust bought it and wasn't
qualified.
Jesus, the Hebrew writer willtell us, is eminently qualified.
He's a priest after the order ofMelchizedek.
That's 620, chapter 6 and verse20.
And of course, any reader in theNew Testament world would say,
(08:10):
wait a minute, Jesus can't bethe high priest.
He's not from Levi.
That's what Melchizedek is doingin our reading today.
The reading for Tuesday, Ishould have said this, is
Hebrews 7, 1 to 10.
And he is not a priest after theorder of Aaron.
He's a priest after the order ofMelchizedek.
And so we get this descriptionof Melchizedek.
This is from Genesis 14 chapter,and of course from Psalm 110.
(08:31):
And of course, Melchizedek is areal person.
That's important.
He is an actual historicalcharacter.
Melech is Hebrew for king, andSadek is righteous, so we have
the righteous king.
Salem came to be Jerusalem.
Salem means peace.
Shalom is the word that you maybe more familiar there.
He is the king of righteousnessfrom the city of peace.
(08:52):
And when it says he's withoutfather or mother or genealogy,
verse 3, that doesn't mean thathe was an angel or that he was
Jesus in preexistent form.
No, he is human.
Verse 6, this man who does nothave his descent.
The point of it is that unlikean Aaronic priest, priest after
the order of Aaron, who had tohave the right family tree to be
a priest, Melchizedek wasappointed by God.
(09:14):
He is special, he is unique.
It's not about his descent.
He is greater even than thosewho depend upon descent, like
Abraham, greater than Abraham.
And so Jesus is a priest afterthe order of Melchizedek, a
change in the priesthood to agreater priesthood.
That's what Jesus is about, 7, 1to 10.
(09:35):
And for those that the Hebrewepistle came to first, who may
thought of abandoningChristianity, maybe their Jewish
friends were saying, you alldon't even have a priest.
I mean, come on, what kind ofreligion is this?
Idols have priests, and it'spriest in the temple in
Jerusalem.
Where's your priest?
The Christians could say, wehave a better priest.
We have the best priest, we havethe best high priest, we have a
(09:55):
priest after the order ofMelchizedek.
Jesus Christ is that priest.
So the reading for Tuesday,Hebrews 7, 1 to 10.
Welcome to Wednesday.
Our reading today continues inHebrews the seventh chapter.
The reading for Wednesday isHebrews 7, 11 to 28.
And this is about therelationship between God and
(10:17):
man.
How can you have a relationshipbetween a holy God and sinful
people?
Well, the priests were the wayto do that.
They could stand kind of inbetween and could offer
sacrifices and do things thatwould make it possible for man
to have fellowship with God.
And the Hebrew writer saysthere's been a change in how
(10:38):
that's going to operate becausethe old way, under the law of
Moses, it wasn't perfect.
It wasn't everything that wewould want it to be or that we
need it to be.
We need something better, bettersacrifices, a better priest.
The priest, verse 17 from Psalm110, the priest after the order
of Melchazedek.
I do want to say something outof verse 14.
(10:59):
I say this a lot, and I'm justnever going to miss a chance to
say it.
It is evident in verse 14 thatour Lord was descended from
Judah, and in connection withthat tribe, Moses said nothing
about priests.
The point of Hebrews 7.14 is notthat silence in the Bible
doesn't authorize, but the pointis being made there.
So often people say if you askany question, you question any
religious practice, someone'sgoing to say, Well, it doesn't
(11:20):
say you can't.
You show me in the Bible whereit says we can't have a piano.
Show me in the Bible where itsays we can't have a praise
band.
And that's looking for negativeauthority.
Since the Bible doesn'tspecifically, expressly prohibit
it, we're going to go ahead.
But there is no specific expressprohibition.
Wow, more coffee is the answerfor that.
(11:42):
Oh, that's some Papa New Guinea.
Finally got the roaster firedback up.
We roasted some, got some PapuaNew Guinea going.
Love that coffee.
It's so smooth, it's justwonderful.
There is no express prohibitionof priest from the tribe of
Judah.
It does not exist in the OldTestament.
Nowhere does God say priests arenot to be from Reuben, not to be
from Manasseh, not to be fromJudah.
Priests are expressly said to befrom Levi, and that seals the
(12:05):
deal.
That's it.
The Bible doesn't have to haveall the don'ts and the thou
shalt nots when it says this iswhat we are to do.
And verse 14 is establishingthat principle.
Again, I don't think that's theHebrew writer's point.
I don't think the Hebrew writerwas envisioning praise man
sometime trying to be introducedinto the worship of Almighty
God, but it makes the pointvery, very well.
If we're going to stay on trackwith the point, then the point
(12:28):
is Jesus is this mediator of thenew covenant.
He has the priesthood with anoath, verse 21, as there it is
again, Psalm 110 specify.
It's specifying that Jesus isgoing to be this priest.
And that makes him, verse 22,the guarantor of a better
covenant.
Now, this is a special word forcovenant.
It's not a covenant betweenequals, it's a unilateral
(12:49):
covenant from the greater to thelesser.
God lays down the provisions.
It's not a contract here betweenequals, between peers.
No.
We must accept the terms of thiscovenant.
And Christ's part in this isthat he is the guarantor.
He's not just a go-between.
He's on our side as the highpriest, but he's also the
(13:09):
executor of the covenant, orexecutor, probably is how I
should say that.
And he is deity, he's divine.
So he's on our side as our highpriest, but he's on God's side
as the one fulfilling the willof God and doing what God needs
done, once done, to make itpossible for man to have
fellowship with God.
God says, I'll forgive theforgive their sins, I will
(13:30):
remember them no more.
Jesus says, I'll guarantee it.
And he does so by his blood.
And the great news, verse 24, ishe holds his priesthood
permanently.
He never dies, he never losesthe priesthood, and he does not
need to continually offersacrifices, verse 27.
His sacrifice is enough once forall.
(13:52):
Once for all is the keyexpression for the rest of the
book of Hebrews, especially inchapter 9.
Our reading today for Wednesdayis Hebrews chapter 7, verses 11
to 28.
It is Thursday.
It is Thursday.
Our reading today is Romanschapter 2, verses 1 to 11.
I hope wherever you are, you'rehaving a great day, that someone
(14:13):
remembered to buy batteries andthat all the parts and pieces
are there when everything getsunwrapped.
I hope you're having awonderful, wonderful day.
Today, our reading Romanschapter 2, verses 1 to 11,
contains, I think, an allusionor two to some of the parts of
Psalm 10 that we don't think alot about.
This is very much about no onebeing excluded from judgment.
And I think very much as youlook at Romans, as you read down
(14:35):
through Romans chapter 1,there's a lot there that would
really target Gentiles andpagans.
And I think you can see, as thisis read in the audience at the
Roman church in the firstcentury, those Jewish Christians
nodding their heads and saying,that's preaching, Paul.
You oh, get after them.
That's what they're doing overthere.
They're terrible.
But but Paul goes on to say thenthe judgment of God rightly
(14:56):
falls, Romans 2, 2, on thepeople who do these things.
But then verse 3, do you thinkyou're somehow exempt?
And I think the reality is a lotof people think they're exempt
because they grew up Jewish,because they have the law of
God, because we're the covenantpeople of God, or because my
parents go to the Church ofChrist and I grew up in the
church of Christ.
Whoops.
(15:17):
Did I just say that?
Yeah, I just said that.
There's lots of people who thinkbecause they fill a pew on
Sunday that somehow that meansthey're good to go, and
everybody else, oh, all thoseheathens out there, they're all
going to hell in a handbasket,but I'm fine.
Paul says that's not the case atall.
If we do things that are notright, then if we do not obey
(15:38):
the truth, verse 8, if we areinvolved in unrighteousness,
there'll be wrath and fury andtribulation and distress.
And if you go back and look atPsalm 110, verses 5 and 6, we
don't pay attention to a lot ofthat.
We're very focused on the reignand rule and the high priesthood
passages.
Part of that passage is thescepter of the Lord, the power
(15:58):
of the Lord goes forth to judgeand destroy his enemies, those
who will not submit to the king.
That's where that is, and we'llsee more of that in our reading
tomorrow.
Our reading for Thursday, Romanschapter 2, verses 1 to 11.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
(16:19):
It's Friday.
It's Friday.
We've come to the last readingof the year.
It's Friday, and we're readingRevelation 19, 11 to 21, the
reading for Friday, Revelation19, 11 to 21.
This is this is absolutely thebest place to end our reading
because this is Jesus as thewarrior king.
And that is Psalm 110, isn't it?
That's Psalm 110 all the way.
(16:41):
Now maybe this is a littleunexpected here in the book of
Revelation.
We just saw the Married Supperof the Lamb, verses 6 to 10 in
chapter 19.
So maybe we're thinking about amarriage supper, and instead
what we get is Jesus on a whitehorse, going forth to conquer
his name, verse 11, faithful andtrue, and he makes war.
He makes war.
(17:01):
He is clothed, verse 13, in arobe dipped in blood.
That's probably his blood,Romans 7, 14.
And he is called the Word ofGod.
That is Jesus the Christ.
He leads the armies of heaven,verse 14.
His eyes, I jump, verse 12, likea flame of fire.
On his head are many diadems.
This is King Jesus, Lord ofLords, King of Kings.
(17:25):
He is leading into battle, andhe will triumph.
From his mouth, verse 15, comesa sharp sword with which to
strike down the nations.
He will rule them with a rod ofiron.
Psalm 2, right there.
Psalm 110, verses 5 and 6, as wetalked about yesterday.
And on his robe and on his thighhe has a name written King of
Kings and Lord of Lords.
(17:45):
This is the Jesus that manypeople overlook.
People are all about baby Jesus,especially this time of the
year.
How many are about Jesus, thewarrior king, who will smash,
crush, and destroy his enemies?
Because Jesus is activelywarring against sin, and Jesus
will be the victor.
(18:06):
There's lots of talk about theBattle of Armageddon.
You get to verse 19, and thebeast and the kings, they're
gathered to make war againstJesus.
Oh no, what's going to happen?
And then this unexpected thinghappens.
They're utterly vanquished,utterly destroyed.
The beast is captured.
False prophet who deceivedpeople, just thrown alive into
the lake of fire.
(18:27):
The rest are slain by the swordof his mouth.
There is no battle.
There is no fight.
There is no battle ofArmageddon.
Jesus just utterly andcompletely triumphs, destroys
all of his enemies.
He is the victor.
(19:04):
Thank you so much for listening.
That concludes the podcast forthe week.
And actually, yeah, it concludesthe podcast for the year.
How about that?
This is week 51 of our reading.
There will not be anotherreading for next week, so there
will not be a podcast episode.
Next week we resume January 4thwith a new reading schedule.
That reading schedule will beabout something that Rusty and I
(19:26):
talk about on Sunday, Januarythe 4th in the 1040.
We'll reveal the Bible readingschedule for 2026 then.
So that gives you a week thisweek ahead here to read what you
would like to read.
Go back and go over some thingsthat you'd like to go over
again.
Spend some time in your favoriteparts of the Word of God.
Don't let the habit of dailyBible reading get away from you.
Read something, read somewhere,and I'll see you again on
(19:48):
January the 4th.
I hope that the podcast thisyear has been a blessing to you,
and I hope that you're tellingothers about it.
This is the time of year whenpeople really get to thinking
about New Year's resolutions.
Make use of That.
Hey, do you want to read theBible more?
Want to know more of God's Word?
Listen to this podcast.
Read the Bible with me.
You can download readingschedules if you're outside the
(20:08):
West Side Church family.
That'll be on our website.
Download those, print those,hand those out.
Let's work in the word together.
It is truly, it is truly myprivilege to have the
opportunity to talk with youabout the Word of God every day.
I'm Mark Roberts, and I want togo to heaven, and I want you to
come too.
I will see you on Monday,January the 5th, with a cup of
(20:30):
coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (20:37):
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-B-E-A-T, where creators
(21:01):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special
Monday Morning Company Podcast.
On this podcast, our preacher,Mark Roberts, will help you get
your week started right with alook back at yesterday's sermon
so that we can think througheach other and better work the
applications into our dailylife.
(00:27):
Mark will then look forward intothis week's final reading so
that we can know what to expectand watch for.
And he may have some extra bonusthoughts from time to time.
So grab a cup of coffee as westart the week together on
Monday morning coffee with Mark.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome to the Monday MorningCoffee Podcast for Monday,
December the 22nd.
I am Mark, and I am ready totalk about some daily Bible
reading, work on the sermon alittle bit from yesterday, and
just get everything going inwhat is a very busy holiday
week.
I know it's a crazy week.
I'm going to try to keep theepisode short because I know
everyone has an awful lot goingon, but we want to stay in our
(01:15):
daily Bible reading, and we wantto think a little bit about what
we were doing yesterday, what wewere thinking about with some
wise men and what that means,and why I'm preaching a sermon
about the birth of Jesus righthere in December.
What's up with that?
All of that and a whole lotmore.
So grab your Bible, grab yourcoffee, let's grow together.
(01:36):
So yesterday I preached fromMatthew the second chapter and
talked about the wise men,nearly said the three wise men,
how that just comes out, doesn'tit?
We don't know how many wise menthere were.
And there's a lot of talk and alot of people throwing a lot of
dust in the air and concernabout, oh, Christmas this and
Christmas that, and we get thiswrong, and it's not really
(01:56):
Jesus' birthday, and so forthand so on.
So let me just address theelephant in the room.
What about a Christmas sermon atChristmas time?
What's up with that?
Well, I think a couple of thingsare helpful here.
First, we need to know it isalways good to talk about Jesus
and to talk about all of Jesus'life: death, burial,
(02:17):
resurrection, teaching,miracles, and yes, even his
birth.
Sometimes people will saythere's no Christmas celebration
in the Bible.
And that, of course, is correct.
There is no celebration ofJesus' birth in the scriptures,
but that is a request forspecific authority.
I want a specific illustrationof the New Testament church
(02:37):
talking, celebrating Jesus'birth.
We don't have to have a specificverse when we have the general
authority to go into all theworld and teach the gospel.
Jesus' birth is part of thegospel, and so we don't need
specifics, hey, do this.
When we have a general, we cando this.
So we don't have a specificverse where a church in the New
(02:58):
Testament is having a youthlectureship or having a gospel
meeting focused on, say, theparables of Jesus, or having a
class for ladies.
And we don't need a specificpassage because we have general
authority to teach the gospel,to edify, to evangelize in every
way possible.
We don't have to have, oh, look,the New Testament church did
(03:22):
this specific thing when we havegeneral authority.
And I think in the same way, wehave general authority to teach
about all of Jesus' life,including his birth.
Now, some folks worry that if wedo anything that denominational
churches do, somehow that makesus part of false religion.
If we mirror any religiouspractice being done by any
(03:45):
religious group, somehow we'vemessed up.
But first and foremost, thatrule, that idea, is very
arbitrarily applied.
For example, we have a churchbuilding, denominational
churches have a church building.
Can we not have a churchbuilding?
I mean, where are we going withthat?
It it seems like there's nospecifics about when that rule
(04:06):
works and when it doesn't.
And more importantly, the NewTestament certainly doesn't
endorse that idea.
Early Christians met in thetemple, Acts 242, they didn't
seem to be worried, oh, peoplewill think that we're part of
Jewish religion.
Early Christians sang, just likepagans did in the idol temples.
They didn't seem to worry thatthat somehow made them
identified with idol worship.
(04:28):
They read the Old Testament.
No one worried that that somehowmade them part of Judaism.
So the point is this (04:33):
talking about Jesus, living for Jesus,
pointing people to Jesus, thosethings, that's never wrong.
And yes, there's always going tobe misunderstanding, and there's
always going to be falsereligion, and we don't want to
ever do anything that makes itappear we endorse or condone
that.
But we can't let false religionset the tempo for us.
(04:55):
We can't let false religion,basically the devil, dictate
what we can and cannot do.
During this season, people arethinking about Jesus' birth.
They are looking for somethingabout Jesus' birth.
It's an appropriate time to talkabout those ideas and to help
people think about followingJesus, seeking, following,
(05:16):
obeying Jesus.
That's what those wise men did.
And that's why I preach thatlesson.
I think it's scriptural, I thinkit's timely, I think it's
needed, and I feel really goodabout it.
And I hope that you do too.
Let's get our Bibles open toPsalm 110.
(05:56):
What else is there to say aboutthis Psalm?
Maybe this is the time to justbe very practical about Psalm
110.
It's about the authority ofChrist reigning over all.
And that means we are called tosubmit to him in every area of
our life, our work, ourfamilies, our decisions, our
agenda, our priorities.
This is active obedience.
(06:18):
We serve the King.
It means doing what he commands,following his directions, even
when it's hard, even when it'sinconvenient.
To submit to Christ is to lethim lead, not just admire him
from a distance, or I might add,kneel at the manger where baby
Jesus is not making any demandson us.
Jesus tells us how we shouldlive, and we need to do what he
(06:41):
says.
When he calls us to act, we act.
Psalm 110 reminds us that Jesusis not just our high priest
making intercession for us.
We feel really good about that.
We're going to talk about thatin the book of Hebrews this
week.
But he is also our King.
He is Lord, and we must submitto Him.
Obedience is not optional.
Psalm 110 tells us it is therequired response to His reign.
(07:05):
Psalm 110 is our reading forMonday.
Welcome to Tuesday.
Welcome to Tuesday.
Our reading is in Hebrews today,Hebrews chapter 7.
We'll be in Hebrews 7 today andtomorrow.
Our reading for Tuesday isHebrews 7, 1 to 10.
Please pay attention in chapter7 about the forever nature of
the priesthood of Jesus.
We'll see that stressed a lot.
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Verse 3, verse 16, verse 17,verse 22, 24, 25, 28.
Hold on to that.
Jesus says, is our high priest,and that will not change.
It will not be passed on tosomeone else.
It is continual because he everlives.
Verse 25.
We need to think about what itwas like to be Jewish and to get
word that the high priest haddied, how terrible that would
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be, particularly in the times ofthe New Testament, when the high
priesthood got passed around tothe high bidder.
We wouldn't much care for that.
We don't want a high priest whojust bought it and wasn't
qualified.
Jesus, the Hebrew writer willtell us, is eminently qualified.
He's a priest after the order ofMelchizedek.
That's 620, chapter 6 and verse20.
And of course, any reader in theNew Testament world would say,
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wait a minute, Jesus can't bethe high priest.
He's not from Levi.
That's what Melchizedek is doingin our reading today.
The reading for Tuesday, Ishould have said this, is
Hebrews 7, 1 to 10.
And he is not a priest after theorder of Aaron.
He's a priest after the order ofMelchizedek.
And so we get this descriptionof Melchizedek.
This is from Genesis 14 chapter,and of course from Psalm 110.
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And of course, Melchizedek is areal person.
That's important.
He is an actual historicalcharacter.
Melech is Hebrew for king, andSadek is righteous, so we have
the righteous king.
Salem came to be Jerusalem.
Salem means peace.
Shalom is the word that you maybe more familiar there.
He is the king of righteousnessfrom the city of peace.
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And when it says he's withoutfather or mother or genealogy,
verse 3, that doesn't mean thathe was an angel or that he was
Jesus in preexistent form.
No, he is human.
Verse 6, this man who does nothave his descent.
The point of it is that unlikean Aaronic priest, priest after
the order of Aaron, who had tohave the right family tree to be
a priest, Melchizedek wasappointed by God.
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He is special, he is unique.
It's not about his descent.
He is greater even than thosewho depend upon descent, like
Abraham, greater than Abraham.
And so Jesus is a priest afterthe order of Melchizedek, a
change in the priesthood to agreater priesthood.
That's what Jesus is about, 7, 1to 10.
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And for those that the Hebrewepistle came to first, who may
thought of abandoningChristianity, maybe their Jewish
friends were saying, you alldon't even have a priest.
I mean, come on, what kind ofreligion is this?
Idols have priests, and it'spriest in the temple in
Jerusalem.
Where's your priest?
The Christians could say, wehave a better priest.
We have the best priest, we havethe best high priest, we have a
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priest after the order ofMelchizedek.
Jesus Christ is that priest.
So the reading for Tuesday,Hebrews 7, 1 to 10.
Welcome to Wednesday.
Our reading today continues inHebrews the seventh chapter.
The reading for Wednesday isHebrews 7, 11 to 28.
And this is about therelationship between God and
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man.
How can you have a relationshipbetween a holy God and sinful
people?
Well, the priests were the wayto do that.
They could stand kind of inbetween and could offer
sacrifices and do things thatwould make it possible for man
to have fellowship with God.
And the Hebrew writer saysthere's been a change in how
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that's going to operate becausethe old way, under the law of
Moses, it wasn't perfect.
It wasn't everything that wewould want it to be or that we
need it to be.
We need something better, bettersacrifices, a better priest.
The priest, verse 17 from Psalm110, the priest after the order
of Melchazedek.
I do want to say something outof verse 14.
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I say this a lot, and I'm justnever going to miss a chance to
say it.
It is evident in verse 14 thatour Lord was descended from
Judah, and in connection withthat tribe, Moses said nothing
about priests.
The point of Hebrews 7.14 is notthat silence in the Bible
doesn't authorize, but the pointis being made there.
So often people say if you askany question, you question any
religious practice, someone'sgoing to say, Well, it doesn't
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say you can't.
You show me in the Bible whereit says we can't have a piano.
Show me in the Bible where itsays we can't have a praise
band.
And that's looking for negativeauthority.
Since the Bible doesn'tspecifically, expressly prohibit
it, we're going to go ahead.
But there is no specific expressprohibition.
Wow, more coffee is the answerfor that.
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Oh, that's some Papa New Guinea.
Finally got the roaster firedback up.
We roasted some, got some PapuaNew Guinea going.
Love that coffee.
It's so smooth, it's justwonderful.
There is no express prohibitionof priest from the tribe of
Judah.
It does not exist in the OldTestament.
Nowhere does God say priests arenot to be from Reuben, not to be
from Manasseh, not to be fromJudah.
Priests are expressly said to befrom Levi, and that seals the
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deal.
That's it.
The Bible doesn't have to haveall the don'ts and the thou
shalt nots when it says this iswhat we are to do.
And verse 14 is establishingthat principle.
Again, I don't think that's theHebrew writer's point.
I don't think the Hebrew writerwas envisioning praise man
sometime trying to be introducedinto the worship of Almighty
God, but it makes the pointvery, very well.
If we're going to stay on trackwith the point, then the point
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is Jesus is this mediator of thenew covenant.
He has the priesthood with anoath, verse 21, as there it is
again, Psalm 110 specify.
It's specifying that Jesus isgoing to be this priest.
And that makes him, verse 22,the guarantor of a better
covenant.
Now, this is a special word forcovenant.
It's not a covenant betweenequals, it's a unilateral
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covenant from the greater to thelesser.
God lays down the provisions.
It's not a contract here betweenequals, between peers.
No.
We must accept the terms of thiscovenant.
And Christ's part in this isthat he is the guarantor.
He's not just a go-between.
He's on our side as the highpriest, but he's also the
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executor of the covenant, orexecutor, probably is how I
should say that.
And he is deity, he's divine.
So he's on our side as our highpriest, but he's on God's side
as the one fulfilling the willof God and doing what God needs
done, once done, to make itpossible for man to have
fellowship with God.
God says, I'll forgive theforgive their sins, I will
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remember them no more.
Jesus says, I'll guarantee it.
And he does so by his blood.
And the great news, verse 24, ishe holds his priesthood
permanently.
He never dies, he never losesthe priesthood, and he does not
need to continually offersacrifices, verse 27.
His sacrifice is enough once forall.
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Once for all is the keyexpression for the rest of the
book of Hebrews, especially inchapter 9.
Our reading today for Wednesdayis Hebrews chapter 7, verses 11
to 28.
It is Thursday.
It is Thursday.
Our reading today is Romanschapter 2, verses 1 to 11.
I hope wherever you are, you'rehaving a great day, that someone
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remembered to buy batteries andthat all the parts and pieces
are there when everything getsunwrapped.
I hope you're having awonderful, wonderful day.
Today, our reading Romanschapter 2, verses 1 to 11,
contains, I think, an allusionor two to some of the parts of
Psalm 10 that we don't think alot about.
This is very much about no onebeing excluded from judgment.
And I think very much as youlook at Romans, as you read down
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through Romans chapter 1,there's a lot there that would
really target Gentiles andpagans.
And I think you can see, as thisis read in the audience at the
Roman church in the firstcentury, those Jewish Christians
nodding their heads and saying,that's preaching, Paul.
You oh, get after them.
That's what they're doing overthere.
They're terrible.
But but Paul goes on to say thenthe judgment of God rightly
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falls, Romans 2, 2, on thepeople who do these things.
But then verse 3, do you thinkyou're somehow exempt?
And I think the reality is a lotof people think they're exempt
because they grew up Jewish,because they have the law of
God, because we're the covenantpeople of God, or because my
parents go to the Church ofChrist and I grew up in the
church of Christ.
Whoops.
(15:17):
Did I just say that?
Yeah, I just said that.
There's lots of people who thinkbecause they fill a pew on
Sunday that somehow that meansthey're good to go, and
everybody else, oh, all thoseheathens out there, they're all
going to hell in a handbasket,but I'm fine.
Paul says that's not the case atall.
If we do things that are notright, then if we do not obey
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the truth, verse 8, if we areinvolved in unrighteousness,
there'll be wrath and fury andtribulation and distress.
And if you go back and look atPsalm 110, verses 5 and 6, we
don't pay attention to a lot ofthat.
We're very focused on the reignand rule and the high priesthood
passages.
Part of that passage is thescepter of the Lord, the power
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of the Lord goes forth to judgeand destroy his enemies, those
who will not submit to the king.
That's where that is, and we'llsee more of that in our reading
tomorrow.
Our reading for Thursday, Romanschapter 2, verses 1 to 11.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
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It's Friday.
It's Friday.
We've come to the last readingof the year.
It's Friday, and we're readingRevelation 19, 11 to 21, the
reading for Friday, Revelation19, 11 to 21.
This is this is absolutely thebest place to end our reading
because this is Jesus as thewarrior king.
And that is Psalm 110, isn't it?
That's Psalm 110 all the way.
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Now maybe this is a littleunexpected here in the book of
Revelation.
We just saw the Married Supperof the Lamb, verses 6 to 10 in
chapter 19.
So maybe we're thinking about amarriage supper, and instead
what we get is Jesus on a whitehorse, going forth to conquer
his name, verse 11, faithful andtrue, and he makes war.
He makes war.
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He is clothed, verse 13, in arobe dipped in blood.
That's probably his blood,Romans 7, 14.
And he is called the Word ofGod.
That is Jesus the Christ.
He leads the armies of heaven,verse 14.
His eyes, I jump, verse 12, likea flame of fire.
On his head are many diadems.
This is King Jesus, Lord ofLords, King of Kings.
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He is leading into battle, andhe will triumph.
From his mouth, verse 15, comesa sharp sword with which to
strike down the nations.
He will rule them with a rod ofiron.
Psalm 2, right there.
Psalm 110, verses 5 and 6, as wetalked about yesterday.
And on his robe and on his thighhe has a name written King of
Kings and Lord of Lords.
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This is the Jesus that manypeople overlook.
People are all about baby Jesus,especially this time of the
year.
How many are about Jesus, thewarrior king, who will smash,
crush, and destroy his enemies?
Because Jesus is activelywarring against sin, and Jesus
will be the victor.
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There's lots of talk about theBattle of Armageddon.
You get to verse 19, and thebeast and the kings, they're
gathered to make war againstJesus.
Oh no, what's going to happen?
And then this unexpected thinghappens.
They're utterly vanquished,utterly destroyed.
The beast is captured.
False prophet who deceivedpeople, just thrown alive into
the lake of fire.
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The rest are slain by the swordof his mouth.
There is no battle.
There is no fight.
There is no battle ofArmageddon.
Jesus just utterly andcompletely triumphs, destroys
all of his enemies.
He is the victor.
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Thank you so much for listening.
That concludes the podcast forthe week.
And actually, yeah, it concludesthe podcast for the year.
How about that?
This is week 51 of our reading.
There will not be anotherreading for next week, so there
will not be a podcast episode.
Next week we resume January 4thwith a new reading schedule.
That reading schedule will beabout something that Rusty and I
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talk about on Sunday, Januarythe 4th in the 1040.
We'll reveal the Bible readingschedule for 2026 then.
So that gives you a week thisweek ahead here to read what you
would like to read.
Go back and go over some thingsthat you'd like to go over
again.
Spend some time in your favoriteparts of the Word of God.
Don't let the habit of dailyBible reading get away from you.
Read something, read somewhere,and I'll see you again on
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January the 4th.
I hope that the podcast thisyear has been a blessing to you,
and I hope that you're tellingothers about it.
This is the time of year whenpeople really get to thinking
about New Year's resolutions.
Make use of That.
Hey, do you want to read theBible more?
Want to know more of God's Word?
Listen to this podcast.
Read the Bible with me.
You can download readingschedules if you're outside the
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West Side Church family.
That'll be on our website.
Download those, print those,hand those out.
Let's work in the word together.
It is truly, it is truly myprivilege to have the
opportunity to talk with youabout the Word of God every day.
I'm Mark Roberts, and I want togo to heaven, and I want you to
come too.
I will see you on Monday,January the 5th, with a cup of
(20:30):
coffee.
SPEAKER_00 (20:37):
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-B-E-A-T, where creators
(21:01):
can get free music.
Please share our podcast withothers, and we look forward to
seeing you again with a cup ofcoffee, of course, on next
Monday.
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