March 24, 2025 • 27 mins
Click here for the Sermon
Clicking here will take you to our webpage
Click here to contact us
Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, March the 24th. I'm
Mark and I've got some notesfrom yesterday's very
challenging sermon holding acup of coffee in my favorite
Yellowstone mug's. Got a biggrizzly bear on it and it kind
of looks like that grizzly bearwent to town on my NCAA March
Madness bracket. There is redeverywhere, just like every
(01:15):
year. Oh, well there's alwaysnext year. Maybe I will someday
be able to beat Dina . In themeantime, we can think about
the sermon from Sunday and thenwe can talk about our daily
Bible reading as we get deeperinto the reign of King David in
Second Samuel, the thirdchapter. That's where our
reading starts on Monday. Butfirst, like I said, it's
(01:36):
sermon, no time. What'd youthink of the sermon yesterday?
Let's talk about the questionsJesus asked Yesterday was
preaching theme Sunday as Iworked on the series, the
questions Jesus asked, this wasquestion number 10. That's
where it placed in the votingthat there'll be 12 of these.
Of course, this was the 10thquestion from John chapter 11
verses 25 and 26 with Martha'spowerful response. In verse 27,
(02:01):
Jesus asked , do you believethis? And that question is
based on his statements aboutbeing the resurrection in the
life and that if you believe inhim, you will never die. This
was not an easy sermon by anystretch of the imagination. To
put together Jesus's statementsthere in verses 25 and 26 twist
and intertwine together andtrying to untangle them and
(02:22):
explain exactly what Jesusmeans by each of those lines
was not easy at all. I did notwant Jesus simply to be
repeating what Martha had justsaid about there'll be a future
resurrection. That's clearlynot what Jesus is doing there,
but what is he doing there? Ihope the sermon did untangle
some of that for you and I hopethat it was helpful to you.
(02:44):
Now, let me give you a noteabout the term resurrection
that's in the text here. Theterm for resurrection. There is
a term that literally means tostand up. By the way, sometimes
people say, you know , I want aliteral translation. How
foolish would it be totranslate John 11 with stand up
? That's not what Jesus meansthere, but that's the literal
(03:05):
meaning. We have words verysimilar to that. For example,
we say we lost someone andeveryone understands that's a
euphemism for death. It doesn'tliterally mean that they got
lost. Well, let's go lookingfor them. No, we know exactly
where they are. We lost them.
That means they're in thecemetery. So the word anastasis
is the word for resurrectionhere stands up and it does have
(03:27):
the sense of getting up afterone falls down. It's used a
couple of places in the NewTestament like that, but that's
an unusual term for John. Andwhat Jesus does here is go far
beyond the common Jewish beliefin future resurrection to
assert that the power ofresurrection exists in his very
person. It is through Jesus,his victory over death, that we
(03:51):
will stand up yet again. Thefuture resurrection will be
ours because of Jesus. We willall in fact rise again and it's
Jesus that makes it happen. Thecrucial issue and the question
that Jesus is really askingthere in John 1125 and 26 is
(04:12):
not just do you believe in afuture resurrection? Do you not
just believe one day we willall stand up? What Jesus asks
is, do you believe in me andthat I am the one who will make
that happen? Hope that'shelpful to you. Let's think
about our daily Bible reading.
(04:48):
The reading for Monday issecond Samuel chapter three
verses 26 to 39, 26 through theend of the chapter. And I'm so
glad to finally get to do thisreading because we're all up in
the air with Abner and thesenegotiations and is David gonna
be the king over the unitedcountry and how's it all gonna
work? And then Joab throws abig monkey wrench in the whole
(05:09):
thing. Joab in our readingtoday, deceive and murders
Abner. And a couple things tonotice here. I really think
this section is about Joab andsets up so much that goes on
with Joab throughout the restof David's life. Sometimes I
think Joab is a really goodguy. He's so intensely loyal to
David, but sometimes he iswearing the villain hat, and I
(05:31):
think today it's the villainhat all over everywhere. Notice
in verses 26 and 27 that he isable to send messengers without
David even knowing what's goingon. That is how powerful he is
in David's, what would you say?
Administration. His cabinet.
David isn't really got a wholelot of official kind of palace
(05:52):
royal thing going on yet, butDavid has some important people
around him and Joab is easilythe most important if you'll
look carefully, then it says inthe text that he struck him in
the stomach verse 27. And thatis exactly, that's exactly the
same term that's used whenAbner kills Jo's brother,
(06:15):
Assael ashe's running afterhim. This was last week's tweet
reading. And Abner apparentlyjust comes to a very abrupt
stop and maybe pushes his spearbackwards and Abner kills
Assael . Assael runs up ontothat spear, strikes him in the
stomach. And so Joe ab , thisis nothing but a revenge
killing. This is , there'snothing legitimate about this
(06:36):
Asa hell was killed in battle.
This is just plain murder. AndDavid knows, but David can't do
a lot about it. He doespronounce a very strong curse.
Verse 29 includes an expressionabout the one who holds the
spindle. And that may meansomeone who is acting like a
woman or it may imply some kindof disability that would re
(06:57):
require uh, some sort ofoccupation where you can sit
down not being able to beactive and be out farming for
example, or maybe being ablacksmith, something like
that. And then the whole pointfrom 31 to 39 is that David
didn't do it . David makes itclear that he did not do this,
but it is also clear that Davidis afraid of Joab and he cannot
(07:20):
control him. Verses 38 and 39,these men, these sons of Zaa
are more severe than I thinkabout the kind of man that
David is. What a warrior he is.
He is a warrior chief and nowhe's a warrior king. Think
about the kind of people thatsurround David and David looks
over at Joab and says, I justcan't handle this guy. This guy
(07:44):
is out of control. He doesstuff I do not sanction or
condone and I really cannot doa whole lot about it. That's a
tough reading, but it does setup where Joab will function in
David's life from here on inmaybe it says to watch out for
the Joab in this world, peoplewho stop at nothing to get
(08:07):
their way and especially peoplewho carry a grudge for year
after year after year. But whenwe get to the end of this,
we'll see that David hascleared his name and he can
move forward and we'll get someof that in Tomorrow's reading,
the reading for Monday. SecondSamuel chapter three verses 26
to 39 . Welcome to Tuesday. Itis Tuesday and our reading
(08:29):
today is Second Samuel chapterfour. Don't let that make you
nervous. It sounds like a lot.
Oh boy. We're reading a wholechapter. We're reading 12
verses. This chapter is aboutthe assassination of ish mocha
and it serves to help in anumber of key ways. First and
foremost, it helps usunderstand some things about
(08:49):
why the kingdom doesn't unitesooner than it does. And that's
because these knuckleheads showup and they murder ish boche
that's gonna cause all kinds oframifications and problems. So
let's talk about a couple ofkey notes about the passage and
about our text today. Verse onesays that ish Moche , excuse
(09:11):
me, verse one, let get somecoffee here. Verse one says, at
is Boche , his courage failed.
The literal wording in the textis both of his hands sink down.
That's a pretty colorfulphrase, isn't it ? Tells you
everything you need to knowabout what's going on. Abner
was the real power behind thethrone. No, Abner is, Boche
(09:31):
knows he has no chance at all.
And then we get a note aboutMephibosheth verse four. I
think that's important becauselater on we're gonna meet
Mephibosheth again. But righthere, what's it doing in this
context? It just shows he hasno chance to claim the throne.
He was five when his fatherdied. David ruled seven years,
(09:51):
so he's probably about 12. Heis too young to be a factor. He
cannot be in play here. And ontop of that, he is crippled. So
he has no interest in, no onehas any interest in making him
the king. So now the questionis, if we don't have someone
from the house of Saul, who canwe get? Maybe we should go with
the house of David. David hasno rivals at this point. Then
(10:16):
Buche gets murdered and versesix has a number of different
translational issues, a numberof problems. Read it in a
couple of different texts andyou'll see pretty quickly that
the translators are not sureexactly what to do with the
Hebrew. That'll be a lot of funto work with tonight in in Zoom
I'm sure. And then these guysshow up and they act like David
(10:38):
is gonna be really excited thatthey have killed ish Boha . Did
they not get the memo outtachapter one? These guys have
not done their daily Biblereading, have they? And what
this then reads like is exactlylike chapter one. If you're
getting a big whiff of deja vu,it's you should, because this
is what the Amite said, Hey, Ikilled Saul. I know I'm gonna
(10:58):
get a reward. And David says,Nope, that does not work for
me. And these guys show up andsay, we know we're gonna get a
reward because we killed ishBoche . And David says, Nope,
that is not working for me.
David has no use forlawlessness. God is his
deliverer. And so the two menare punished by death and by
mutilation and public exposureand that is a warning to
(11:21):
everybody else. You wanna talkabout getting the memo? We're
getting the memo. Now, don'tkill people and think David
will look upon that as if youdid him some kind of wonderful
service. More discussion ofthis tonight for West Siders in
our zoom call and we'll have achance to pray. We'll work
through this and we'll talk alittle bit, maybe more about
verse six and what's going onthere, but this will help us
(11:45):
see the folly of pragmatism.
Oh, it works. So we're justgonna do it because it helps us
get where we know . No , no ,you need to do what's right.
Alright , that's Bible readingfor Tuesday. Tuesday's. Bible
reading is two Samuel chapterfour. It is Wednesday. Welcome
to Wednesday and our readingfor today is two Samuel chapter
(12:07):
five. I'm so glad you'relistening to the podcast today
because this is very importantfor you to know. This chapter
is not in orderchronologically, that always
throws Western readers offbecause we write history in
linear fashion. What happenedfirst? Born, went to school,
went to college, got married,had kids. It's always, we do
(12:29):
everything in sequential order.
The Hebrew writing of historyis not like that many times
it's topical. We're going toput together several events
that illustrate a significantpoint or that make a point and
I think that's what's going onin chapter five. By the way, if
you're wondering, mark, how doyou know this is out of order
chronologically? We'll justdrop down in your reading and
(12:49):
take a look at the list ofchildren born verse 14. Those
children in verse 14, they areBathsheba's children,
Bathsheba, who does not show upfor six more chapters and the
Philistines, as we read in ourreading today, drive David out
of the stronghold. Well , hey,I thought he captured
Jerusalem. Why don't you juststay put there? This is not in
order chronologically, andthat's okay. It's going to make
(13:12):
the point that the writer ofSamuel wants us to understand.
That begins in verses one tofive with David being anointed
king and that probably is inorder. That's the next thing
that happens after the terribleassassination of Osh . The
elders come and they make anargument. Hey, you're family,
you are a leader. It's God'swill. We need to do this. And
maybe it's a good place to bereminded. It's been a long
(13:34):
time. It's been a long timesince Samuel showed up
unexpectedly and anointedDavid's David as king, but
God's word does come to pass.
Then David conquers Jerusalemverses six to 12. And like I
said, this is probably out oforder chronologically and
there's a number of textualdifficulties here. Lots of
uncertainty about exactly howDavid took this going up the
(13:56):
water shaft, what exactly thatis and how that works. The
Hebrew there is uncertain thenthis business with the lame and
the blind. That's veryuncertain. The ESB has smoothed
that out considerably. But itmay be that what happens is the
Jebusite are saying we're sostrong, even if we were blind
in lame, we could ward you off.
(14:18):
And then David is responding bycharacterizing his enemies as
being so weak. You are, yeah,you're the blind in the lame.
You can't stop me. But there'sa lot of question about all
that I wouldn't get lost in thedetails of that. Then David's
family is given to us in verses13 to 16. And if you are
thinking this is a violation ofDeuteronomy 17, you are
precisely in exactly right.
(14:39):
Some have tried to say thathaving a bunch of concubines is
okay because Deuteronomy 17,just forbids wise , this is
craziness. Do not try tojustify biblical heroes doing
the wrong thing that'll end youup in a bad place. David is
doing the wrong thing here.
He's a great man. He's seekingafter God's heart. I know that
you know that, but he's notperfect and we're not going to
(15:01):
cover up his mistakes. Finally,verses 17 to 25, deal with a
couple of battles with thePhilistines. And the key here
is that David keeps inquiringof the Lord. Verse 19, and then
he gives credit to God for thevictory. Verse 20, guess what?
Verse 23, David inquires of theLord. And then verse 25, David
(15:23):
does as the Lord had commandedhim. I think we need to
contrast this and I thinkthat's what's going on here in
Samuel. I think there's acontrast here to the way King
Saul reigned. I think the wholechapter's setting that up, king
Saul was for Saul. David isGod's man consulting God. God
answers him unlike King Saul.
(15:44):
And then David responds to thedirection of God unlike King
Saul. This is about how Davidis different than King Saul.
That's what two Samuel chapterfive is all about. That's what
we need to get out of thischapter. That's why the
chronology doesn't matter. Thetopic is David, A Man after
God's own heart. See tomorrowwe'll continue in . Second
(16:05):
Samuel, the reading forWednesday is Second Samuel
chapter five. Welcome toThursday, Thursday's. Reading
is Second Samuel chapter six.
And this is not going to beyour favorite chapter. It is
not my favorite chapter. Thereis a lot going on in this
chapter. Most of the action ispretty straightforward. What I
wanna deal with here in thepodcast is why Za was killed
(16:27):
for Touching the Arc. And whatis Michael talking about when
she says to David, you weredancing naked? Oh my, that's
naked. N-E-K-K-I-D it . DidDavid do that? Why did Za die?
Let's talk about it. First andforemost, the ark is being
brought into Jerusalem versetwo. And if you're not familiar
with this text, go ahead andread the text. But you will see
(16:50):
that as of reaches out andtouches the ark when the oxen
stumble verses six and sevenand when he touches the Ark of
the Covenant, he dies. Thatreally bothers people. What's
the deal with that? It's notthat hard to figure out. The
arc is extraordinarily special.
(17:10):
It is a unique piece offurniture. There is literally
nothing like it before andnothing like it afterwards. It
is verse two, God's throne tobring up from there. Verse two,
the Ark of God, which is calledby the name of the Lord of
hosts who sits enthroned on thecherub in one place, the Ark of
(17:31):
the Covenant, you have God'srulership and reign as king, as
well as the place where we arereconciled to a holy God. On
the day of atonement, the highpriest went into the most holy
place and sprinkled blood onthe arc of the covenant. On top
of that God's revelation toman, the 10 commandments are
contained inside the Ark of theCovenant. There is nothing that
(17:55):
any human being has ever madethat is as special as this box.
It is way more than a box. It'sGod's throne. And so the ark
was always to be carried. Andwe are dealing with some of
this in our numbers class onSunday morning. The Coates did,
the carrying numbers, chapterfour tells us, and no one was
ever to touch it. Ever, ever,ever, ever. More evers right
(18:18):
there. And in the middle of allof this, you just have to note
that after reading about Davidinquiring of God twice in a
battle situation in chapterfive yesterday, there's no
inquiring of God today. Andthere's the mistake. The arc is
being transported incorrectly.
It is not being treated asspecial in this day and age.
(18:40):
Regular stuff got put on acart. Important things are not
carried on carts. Think aboutthe pictures you've seen of
kings being carried in a sedanchair for servants, maybe big
husky guys who've got thosepoles and they're carrying the
king. What if somebody, whenthe king wanted to go somewhere
said, Hey King, just we justthrow you in the back of this
(19:03):
cart that that would be such aninsult. This is an insult to
God. People don't ride oncarts, stuff rides on carts.
David ought to know better. Heshould have consulted the Lord.
And so oza is struck dead .
What happened there? Onescholar said that the arc may
(19:24):
have functioned as a huge ladenjar , L-U-Y-D-E-N laden jar ,
that produced enough staticelectricity that while bumping
along the rocky road, itelectrocuted oza when he
touched it. And I love thatbecause it is so stupid. It
does not say that he waselectrocuted because it was a
static gatherer of gatheredelectro . That's foolishness.
(19:44):
God killed him as a sign toeveryone that they were doing
it wrong. They were treatingGod irreverently. And David
absolutely gets the message Heis afraid. And there is a, an
emphasis there on the fear thatgoes with reverence. They did
not reverence the Lord. And infact, this is a great thing to
mark in the margin. OneChronicles 1527 tells us that
(20:09):
they went on, I'm sorry, oneChronicles 15, 12 to verses 15
tells us that when they finallyfigured this thing out and got
it right, they did what Godtold them to do according to
the order. So this was out oforder, it was unauthorized, and
as a result, terrible thingshappened. Now what about
(20:30):
Michael? Michael disdains,David terribly. She sees him
dancing. Verse 14 before theark of the Lord. And she says,
verse 20, you have honoredyourself today uncovering
himself today before the eyesof his servants, female
servants as one of the vulgarfellows uncovers himself. So
what's going on with that? DidDavid dance naked before the
(20:52):
ark? Is that really oh my. Whathappens here wearing a linen
and eod ? Verse 14. Well, whatyou're getting is Michael has
gone back to acting like herdad, Saul. And notice verse 16,
she's not said to be the wifeof David. She's said to be the
daughter of Saul. Hmm . Iwonder what the point of this
is. She's acting like Saul,very sarcastic and she's very
(21:16):
unhappy that David would takeoff the royal robes and behave
like a peasant. That is thespirit of Saul King. Saul
always saw himself as aboveeverybody else. Nobody tells me
what to do. I am the king.
David takes off the royalrobes, says I'm just a
worshiper of God. And he'sdancing before the ark in a
(21:37):
linen ephi . That's a verysimple garment. The kind of
garment may a priest wouldwear. David divest himself of
all of the accoutrements ofroyalty. And she hates that
you're the king. You need toact like the king. We're better
than everybody else. How dareyou act this kind of way. And
as a result of that, Davidsays, I don't want anything
(21:58):
more to do with you . And thatmay mean verse 23, that God
struck her childless. Or it maymean that David and her did not
carry on as a husband and wifeanymore because he was angry
with her and the way she hadtreated him. But this chapter
is kind of fraught with somedifficulties, most of which I
think smooth out when you getsome context. I want to say
(22:20):
emphatically, there is nothingin the text that indicates
David was completely naked. Shecan say that, but that doesn't
mean it was true. I think she'sjust exaggerating this in her
anger. And there is no chancethat David would dance
completely naked in E-K-K-I-Dnaked, as they say in East
(22:40):
Texas and the Mark RobertInternational East Texas
version. David's not doingthat. David's not doing that.
Don't let Michael daughter ofSaul change your view of David.
This is a glorious moment forDavid after a terrible moment
when David failed to console .
God, this is a great moment forDavid. He says, I'm just a
worshiper of the Lord. Can youimagine if the King of England
(23:03):
came and wanted to visitservices at West Side or maybe
the President of the UnitedStates? And everywhere these
kinds of dignitaries go,there's a retinue of people in
front of them and you roll outthe red carpet and trumpet
sound and all uh uh, band playshail to the chief. What ? What
if this extraordinaryextraordinarily important
(23:24):
person, this VIP said, no, no,no, no , no. We'll have none of
that today. I just, I just wantto come in. Um , I'm gonna come
in a little bit after servicesstart , I'm gonna sit on the
back row. I don't want anybodyto notice me. I'm not gonna
bring all my security agentsand all my retinue of people.
I'm just gonna come in. I justneed to worship God. Can I
(23:44):
worship God with y'all today?
And the king doesn't wear royalrobes and all that goes with
all of that. That would be amark of humility. And that's
what David is showing us today.
He's a man after God's ownheart and he knows how to be
humble. Too bad Michael doesn'tseem to understand that. See ,
tomorrow will be in the Psalms.
Our reading for Thursday, twoSamuel six. Welcome to Friday.
(24:08):
Welcome to Friday. Today isPsalms day and we are in Psalm
15. I love Psalm 15. I'mreading the Psalm today on
Facebook and I'm gonna talkabout how this is the answer to
Proverbs 31. Sometimes we'relooking for something for men.
And Psalm 15 talks about theman that God accepts. Yes, by
man here men , it meanseverybody, but somehow just
(24:31):
reads a little bit better leads. For me, it reads a little bit
different when I think aboutthis being specifically
addressed towards men . And sothe psalm is a wisdom psalm.
It's a psalm that is teachingus something breaks down very
easily. There's the questionverse one, then there's the
answer verses two through thebeginning of verse five. And at
(24:51):
the very end of the psalm,there is a promise. So what's
the question? Verse one. Thequestion is, God, who will you
accept? Who can dwell on yourHoly hill? Who will you accept?
That's a great question to ask.
Have you ever asked that, doesGod accept me? Does God accept
me? And the answer is the man.
Verse two, whose character istrue? Verse three, who
(25:13):
restrains his words? Versefour, who has clear cut
allegiances? And then versefour and into verse five, has
dealings that are beyondhonorable. When you act that
way in verse five, you get thepromise of God. You live like
this, you can't be shaken. Whatdoes that mean? Several Psalms
talk about the righteous beingshaken about life hurting,
(25:36):
about there being persecutionand adversity. David says, when
you live like this, you'reconnected to the Lord. Verse
one, the person who livesverses two to five remains in
fellowship with God despitewhat's going on around him.
That's the blessing of Psalm15. Yes, it's certainly is
something for everyone. Don'tturn this off if you are a lady
(25:57):
, uh, everybody needs to readPsalm 15. Everybody needs to
make application of Psalm 15.
But again, gentlemen , it justhits home, doesn't it? It just
hits home. Am I this man wannabe a person seeking after God's
own heart? Psalm 15 is theblueprint. It's the pattern,
it's the map to get there.
Thank you for reading Psalm 15with me today. And with that,
(26:23):
we close the podcast for theweek. Hope you enjoyed the
podcast and hope it'sbenefiting you and you're
telling other people about it.
Don't forget, of course, toleave a rating or review. So
until next week when we'll openour Bibles together. Again, I'm
Mark Roberts and I wanna go toheaven and I want you to come
to I'll see you on Monday witha cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(27:10):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, March the 24th. I'm
Mark and I've got some notesfrom yesterday's very
challenging sermon holding acup of coffee in my favorite
Yellowstone mug's. Got a biggrizzly bear on it and it kind
of looks like that grizzly bearwent to town on my NCAA March
Madness bracket. There is redeverywhere, just like every
(01:15):
year. Oh, well there's alwaysnext year. Maybe I will someday
be able to beat Dina . In themeantime, we can think about
the sermon from Sunday and thenwe can talk about our daily
Bible reading as we get deeperinto the reign of King David in
Second Samuel, the thirdchapter. That's where our
reading starts on Monday. Butfirst, like I said, it's
(01:36):
sermon, no time. What'd youthink of the sermon yesterday?
Let's talk about the questionsJesus asked Yesterday was
preaching theme Sunday as Iworked on the series, the
questions Jesus asked, this wasquestion number 10. That's
where it placed in the votingthat there'll be 12 of these.
Of course, this was the 10thquestion from John chapter 11
verses 25 and 26 with Martha'spowerful response. In verse 27,
(02:01):
Jesus asked , do you believethis? And that question is
based on his statements aboutbeing the resurrection in the
life and that if you believe inhim, you will never die. This
was not an easy sermon by anystretch of the imagination. To
put together Jesus's statementsthere in verses 25 and 26 twist
and intertwine together andtrying to untangle them and
(02:22):
explain exactly what Jesusmeans by each of those lines
was not easy at all. I did notwant Jesus simply to be
repeating what Martha had justsaid about there'll be a future
resurrection. That's clearlynot what Jesus is doing there,
but what is he doing there? Ihope the sermon did untangle
some of that for you and I hopethat it was helpful to you.
(02:44):
Now, let me give you a noteabout the term resurrection
that's in the text here. Theterm for resurrection. There is
a term that literally means tostand up. By the way, sometimes
people say, you know , I want aliteral translation. How
foolish would it be totranslate John 11 with stand up
? That's not what Jesus meansthere, but that's the literal
(03:05):
meaning. We have words verysimilar to that. For example,
we say we lost someone andeveryone understands that's a
euphemism for death. It doesn'tliterally mean that they got
lost. Well, let's go lookingfor them. No, we know exactly
where they are. We lost them.
That means they're in thecemetery. So the word anastasis
is the word for resurrectionhere stands up and it does have
(03:27):
the sense of getting up afterone falls down. It's used a
couple of places in the NewTestament like that, but that's
an unusual term for John. Andwhat Jesus does here is go far
beyond the common Jewish beliefin future resurrection to
assert that the power ofresurrection exists in his very
person. It is through Jesus,his victory over death, that we
(03:51):
will stand up yet again. Thefuture resurrection will be
ours because of Jesus. We willall in fact rise again and it's
Jesus that makes it happen. Thecrucial issue and the question
that Jesus is really askingthere in John 1125 and 26 is
(04:12):
not just do you believe in afuture resurrection? Do you not
just believe one day we willall stand up? What Jesus asks
is, do you believe in me andthat I am the one who will make
that happen? Hope that'shelpful to you. Let's think
about our daily Bible reading.
(04:48):
The reading for Monday issecond Samuel chapter three
verses 26 to 39, 26 through theend of the chapter. And I'm so
glad to finally get to do thisreading because we're all up in
the air with Abner and thesenegotiations and is David gonna
be the king over the unitedcountry and how's it all gonna
work? And then Joab throws abig monkey wrench in the whole
(05:09):
thing. Joab in our readingtoday, deceive and murders
Abner. And a couple things tonotice here. I really think
this section is about Joab andsets up so much that goes on
with Joab throughout the restof David's life. Sometimes I
think Joab is a really goodguy. He's so intensely loyal to
David, but sometimes he iswearing the villain hat, and I
(05:31):
think today it's the villainhat all over everywhere. Notice
in verses 26 and 27 that he isable to send messengers without
David even knowing what's goingon. That is how powerful he is
in David's, what would you say?
Administration. His cabinet.
David isn't really got a wholelot of official kind of palace
(05:52):
royal thing going on yet, butDavid has some important people
around him and Joab is easilythe most important if you'll
look carefully, then it says inthe text that he struck him in
the stomach verse 27. And thatis exactly, that's exactly the
same term that's used whenAbner kills Jo's brother,
(06:15):
Assael ashe's running afterhim. This was last week's tweet
reading. And Abner apparentlyjust comes to a very abrupt
stop and maybe pushes his spearbackwards and Abner kills
Assael . Assael runs up ontothat spear, strikes him in the
stomach. And so Joe ab , thisis nothing but a revenge
killing. This is , there'snothing legitimate about this
(06:36):
Asa hell was killed in battle.
This is just plain murder. AndDavid knows, but David can't do
a lot about it. He doespronounce a very strong curse.
Verse 29 includes an expressionabout the one who holds the
spindle. And that may meansomeone who is acting like a
woman or it may imply some kindof disability that would re
(06:57):
require uh, some sort ofoccupation where you can sit
down not being able to beactive and be out farming for
example, or maybe being ablacksmith, something like
that. And then the whole pointfrom 31 to 39 is that David
didn't do it . David makes itclear that he did not do this,
but it is also clear that Davidis afraid of Joab and he cannot
(07:20):
control him. Verses 38 and 39,these men, these sons of Zaa
are more severe than I thinkabout the kind of man that
David is. What a warrior he is.
He is a warrior chief and nowhe's a warrior king. Think
about the kind of people thatsurround David and David looks
over at Joab and says, I justcan't handle this guy. This guy
(07:44):
is out of control. He doesstuff I do not sanction or
condone and I really cannot doa whole lot about it. That's a
tough reading, but it does setup where Joab will function in
David's life from here on inmaybe it says to watch out for
the Joab in this world, peoplewho stop at nothing to get
(08:07):
their way and especially peoplewho carry a grudge for year
after year after year. But whenwe get to the end of this,
we'll see that David hascleared his name and he can
move forward and we'll get someof that in Tomorrow's reading,
the reading for Monday. SecondSamuel chapter three verses 26
to 39 . Welcome to Tuesday. Itis Tuesday and our reading
(08:29):
today is Second Samuel chapterfour. Don't let that make you
nervous. It sounds like a lot.
Oh boy. We're reading a wholechapter. We're reading 12
verses. This chapter is aboutthe assassination of ish mocha
and it serves to help in anumber of key ways. First and
foremost, it helps usunderstand some things about
(08:49):
why the kingdom doesn't unitesooner than it does. And that's
because these knuckleheads showup and they murder ish boche
that's gonna cause all kinds oframifications and problems. So
let's talk about a couple ofkey notes about the passage and
about our text today. Verse onesays that ish Moche , excuse
(09:11):
me, verse one, let get somecoffee here. Verse one says, at
is Boche , his courage failed.
The literal wording in the textis both of his hands sink down.
That's a pretty colorfulphrase, isn't it ? Tells you
everything you need to knowabout what's going on. Abner
was the real power behind thethrone. No, Abner is, Boche
(09:31):
knows he has no chance at all.
And then we get a note aboutMephibosheth verse four. I
think that's important becauselater on we're gonna meet
Mephibosheth again. But righthere, what's it doing in this
context? It just shows he hasno chance to claim the throne.
He was five when his fatherdied. David ruled seven years,
(09:51):
so he's probably about 12. Heis too young to be a factor. He
cannot be in play here. And ontop of that, he is crippled. So
he has no interest in, no onehas any interest in making him
the king. So now the questionis, if we don't have someone
from the house of Saul, who canwe get? Maybe we should go with
the house of David. David hasno rivals at this point. Then
(10:16):
Buche gets murdered and versesix has a number of different
translational issues, a numberof problems. Read it in a
couple of different texts andyou'll see pretty quickly that
the translators are not sureexactly what to do with the
Hebrew. That'll be a lot of funto work with tonight in in Zoom
I'm sure. And then these guysshow up and they act like David
(10:38):
is gonna be really excited thatthey have killed ish Boha . Did
they not get the memo outtachapter one? These guys have
not done their daily Biblereading, have they? And what
this then reads like is exactlylike chapter one. If you're
getting a big whiff of deja vu,it's you should, because this
is what the Amite said, Hey, Ikilled Saul. I know I'm gonna
(10:58):
get a reward. And David says,Nope, that does not work for
me. And these guys show up andsay, we know we're gonna get a
reward because we killed ishBoche . And David says, Nope,
that is not working for me.
David has no use forlawlessness. God is his
deliverer. And so the two menare punished by death and by
mutilation and public exposureand that is a warning to
(11:21):
everybody else. You wanna talkabout getting the memo? We're
getting the memo. Now, don'tkill people and think David
will look upon that as if youdid him some kind of wonderful
service. More discussion ofthis tonight for West Siders in
our zoom call and we'll have achance to pray. We'll work
through this and we'll talk alittle bit, maybe more about
verse six and what's going onthere, but this will help us
(11:45):
see the folly of pragmatism.
Oh, it works. So we're justgonna do it because it helps us
get where we know . No , no ,you need to do what's right.
Alright , that's Bible readingfor Tuesday. Tuesday's. Bible
reading is two Samuel chapterfour. It is Wednesday. Welcome
to Wednesday and our readingfor today is two Samuel chapter
(12:07):
five. I'm so glad you'relistening to the podcast today
because this is very importantfor you to know. This chapter
is not in orderchronologically, that always
throws Western readers offbecause we write history in
linear fashion. What happenedfirst? Born, went to school,
went to college, got married,had kids. It's always, we do
(12:29):
everything in sequential order.
The Hebrew writing of historyis not like that many times
it's topical. We're going toput together several events
that illustrate a significantpoint or that make a point and
I think that's what's going onin chapter five. By the way, if
you're wondering, mark, how doyou know this is out of order
chronologically? We'll justdrop down in your reading and
(12:49):
take a look at the list ofchildren born verse 14. Those
children in verse 14, they areBathsheba's children,
Bathsheba, who does not show upfor six more chapters and the
Philistines, as we read in ourreading today, drive David out
of the stronghold. Well , hey,I thought he captured
Jerusalem. Why don't you juststay put there? This is not in
order chronologically, andthat's okay. It's going to make
(13:12):
the point that the writer ofSamuel wants us to understand.
That begins in verses one tofive with David being anointed
king and that probably is inorder. That's the next thing
that happens after the terribleassassination of Osh . The
elders come and they make anargument. Hey, you're family,
you are a leader. It's God'swill. We need to do this. And
maybe it's a good place to bereminded. It's been a long
(13:34):
time. It's been a long timesince Samuel showed up
unexpectedly and anointedDavid's David as king, but
God's word does come to pass.
Then David conquers Jerusalemverses six to 12. And like I
said, this is probably out oforder chronologically and
there's a number of textualdifficulties here. Lots of
uncertainty about exactly howDavid took this going up the
(13:56):
water shaft, what exactly thatis and how that works. The
Hebrew there is uncertain thenthis business with the lame and
the blind. That's veryuncertain. The ESB has smoothed
that out considerably. But itmay be that what happens is the
Jebusite are saying we're sostrong, even if we were blind
in lame, we could ward you off.
(14:18):
And then David is responding bycharacterizing his enemies as
being so weak. You are, yeah,you're the blind in the lame.
You can't stop me. But there'sa lot of question about all
that I wouldn't get lost in thedetails of that. Then David's
family is given to us in verses13 to 16. And if you are
thinking this is a violation ofDeuteronomy 17, you are
precisely in exactly right.
(14:39):
Some have tried to say thathaving a bunch of concubines is
okay because Deuteronomy 17,just forbids wise , this is
craziness. Do not try tojustify biblical heroes doing
the wrong thing that'll end youup in a bad place. David is
doing the wrong thing here.
He's a great man. He's seekingafter God's heart. I know that
you know that, but he's notperfect and we're not going to
(15:01):
cover up his mistakes. Finally,verses 17 to 25, deal with a
couple of battles with thePhilistines. And the key here
is that David keeps inquiringof the Lord. Verse 19, and then
he gives credit to God for thevictory. Verse 20, guess what?
Verse 23, David inquires of theLord. And then verse 25, David
(15:23):
does as the Lord had commandedhim. I think we need to
contrast this and I thinkthat's what's going on here in
Samuel. I think there's acontrast here to the way King
Saul reigned. I think the wholechapter's setting that up, king
Saul was for Saul. David isGod's man consulting God. God
answers him unlike King Saul.
(15:44):
And then David responds to thedirection of God unlike King
Saul. This is about how Davidis different than King Saul.
That's what two Samuel chapterfive is all about. That's what
we need to get out of thischapter. That's why the
chronology doesn't matter. Thetopic is David, A Man after
God's own heart. See tomorrowwe'll continue in . Second
(16:05):
Samuel, the reading forWednesday is Second Samuel
chapter five. Welcome toThursday, Thursday's. Reading
is Second Samuel chapter six.
And this is not going to beyour favorite chapter. It is
not my favorite chapter. Thereis a lot going on in this
chapter. Most of the action ispretty straightforward. What I
wanna deal with here in thepodcast is why Za was killed
(16:27):
for Touching the Arc. And whatis Michael talking about when
she says to David, you weredancing naked? Oh my, that's
naked. N-E-K-K-I-D it . DidDavid do that? Why did Za die?
Let's talk about it. First andforemost, the ark is being
brought into Jerusalem versetwo. And if you're not familiar
with this text, go ahead andread the text. But you will see
(16:50):
that as of reaches out andtouches the ark when the oxen
stumble verses six and sevenand when he touches the Ark of
the Covenant, he dies. Thatreally bothers people. What's
the deal with that? It's notthat hard to figure out. The
arc is extraordinarily special.
(17:10):
It is a unique piece offurniture. There is literally
nothing like it before andnothing like it afterwards. It
is verse two, God's throne tobring up from there. Verse two,
the Ark of God, which is calledby the name of the Lord of
hosts who sits enthroned on thecherub in one place, the Ark of
(17:31):
the Covenant, you have God'srulership and reign as king, as
well as the place where we arereconciled to a holy God. On
the day of atonement, the highpriest went into the most holy
place and sprinkled blood onthe arc of the covenant. On top
of that God's revelation toman, the 10 commandments are
contained inside the Ark of theCovenant. There is nothing that
(17:55):
any human being has ever madethat is as special as this box.
It is way more than a box. It'sGod's throne. And so the ark
was always to be carried. Andwe are dealing with some of
this in our numbers class onSunday morning. The Coates did,
the carrying numbers, chapterfour tells us, and no one was
ever to touch it. Ever, ever,ever, ever. More evers right
(18:18):
there. And in the middle of allof this, you just have to note
that after reading about Davidinquiring of God twice in a
battle situation in chapterfive yesterday, there's no
inquiring of God today. Andthere's the mistake. The arc is
being transported incorrectly.
It is not being treated asspecial in this day and age.
(18:40):
Regular stuff got put on acart. Important things are not
carried on carts. Think aboutthe pictures you've seen of
kings being carried in a sedanchair for servants, maybe big
husky guys who've got thosepoles and they're carrying the
king. What if somebody, whenthe king wanted to go somewhere
said, Hey King, just we justthrow you in the back of this
(19:03):
cart that that would be such aninsult. This is an insult to
God. People don't ride oncarts, stuff rides on carts.
David ought to know better. Heshould have consulted the Lord.
And so oza is struck dead .
What happened there? Onescholar said that the arc may
(19:24):
have functioned as a huge ladenjar , L-U-Y-D-E-N laden jar ,
that produced enough staticelectricity that while bumping
along the rocky road, itelectrocuted oza when he
touched it. And I love thatbecause it is so stupid. It
does not say that he waselectrocuted because it was a
static gatherer of gatheredelectro . That's foolishness.
(19:44):
God killed him as a sign toeveryone that they were doing
it wrong. They were treatingGod irreverently. And David
absolutely gets the message Heis afraid. And there is a, an
emphasis there on the fear thatgoes with reverence. They did
not reverence the Lord. And infact, this is a great thing to
mark in the margin. OneChronicles 1527 tells us that
(20:09):
they went on, I'm sorry, oneChronicles 15, 12 to verses 15
tells us that when they finallyfigured this thing out and got
it right, they did what Godtold them to do according to
the order. So this was out oforder, it was unauthorized, and
as a result, terrible thingshappened. Now what about
(20:30):
Michael? Michael disdains,David terribly. She sees him
dancing. Verse 14 before theark of the Lord. And she says,
verse 20, you have honoredyourself today uncovering
himself today before the eyesof his servants, female
servants as one of the vulgarfellows uncovers himself. So
what's going on with that? DidDavid dance naked before the
(20:52):
ark? Is that really oh my. Whathappens here wearing a linen
and eod ? Verse 14. Well, whatyou're getting is Michael has
gone back to acting like herdad, Saul. And notice verse 16,
she's not said to be the wifeof David. She's said to be the
daughter of Saul. Hmm . Iwonder what the point of this
is. She's acting like Saul,very sarcastic and she's very
(21:16):
unhappy that David would takeoff the royal robes and behave
like a peasant. That is thespirit of Saul King. Saul
always saw himself as aboveeverybody else. Nobody tells me
what to do. I am the king.
David takes off the royalrobes, says I'm just a
worshiper of God. And he'sdancing before the ark in a
(21:37):
linen ephi . That's a verysimple garment. The kind of
garment may a priest wouldwear. David divest himself of
all of the accoutrements ofroyalty. And she hates that
you're the king. You need toact like the king. We're better
than everybody else. How dareyou act this kind of way. And
as a result of that, Davidsays, I don't want anything
(21:58):
more to do with you . And thatmay mean verse 23, that God
struck her childless. Or it maymean that David and her did not
carry on as a husband and wifeanymore because he was angry
with her and the way she hadtreated him. But this chapter
is kind of fraught with somedifficulties, most of which I
think smooth out when you getsome context. I want to say
(22:20):
emphatically, there is nothingin the text that indicates
David was completely naked. Shecan say that, but that doesn't
mean it was true. I think she'sjust exaggerating this in her
anger. And there is no chancethat David would dance
completely naked in E-K-K-I-Dnaked, as they say in East
(22:40):
Texas and the Mark RobertInternational East Texas
version. David's not doingthat. David's not doing that.
Don't let Michael daughter ofSaul change your view of David.
This is a glorious moment forDavid after a terrible moment
when David failed to console .
God, this is a great moment forDavid. He says, I'm just a
worshiper of the Lord. Can youimagine if the King of England
(23:03):
came and wanted to visitservices at West Side or maybe
the President of the UnitedStates? And everywhere these
kinds of dignitaries go,there's a retinue of people in
front of them and you roll outthe red carpet and trumpet
sound and all uh uh, band playshail to the chief. What ? What
if this extraordinaryextraordinarily important
(23:24):
person, this VIP said, no, no,no, no , no. We'll have none of
that today. I just, I just wantto come in. Um , I'm gonna come
in a little bit after servicesstart , I'm gonna sit on the
back row. I don't want anybodyto notice me. I'm not gonna
bring all my security agentsand all my retinue of people.
I'm just gonna come in. I justneed to worship God. Can I
(23:44):
worship God with y'all today?
And the king doesn't wear royalrobes and all that goes with
all of that. That would be amark of humility. And that's
what David is showing us today.
He's a man after God's ownheart and he knows how to be
humble. Too bad Michael doesn'tseem to understand that. See ,
tomorrow will be in the Psalms.
Our reading for Thursday, twoSamuel six. Welcome to Friday.
(24:08):
Welcome to Friday. Today isPsalms day and we are in Psalm
15. I love Psalm 15. I'mreading the Psalm today on
Facebook and I'm gonna talkabout how this is the answer to
Proverbs 31. Sometimes we'relooking for something for men.
And Psalm 15 talks about theman that God accepts. Yes, by
man here men , it meanseverybody, but somehow just
(24:31):
reads a little bit better leads. For me, it reads a little bit
different when I think aboutthis being specifically
addressed towards men . And sothe psalm is a wisdom psalm.
It's a psalm that is teachingus something breaks down very
easily. There's the questionverse one, then there's the
answer verses two through thebeginning of verse five. And at
(24:51):
the very end of the psalm,there is a promise. So what's
the question? Verse one. Thequestion is, God, who will you
accept? Who can dwell on yourHoly hill? Who will you accept?
That's a great question to ask.
Have you ever asked that, doesGod accept me? Does God accept
me? And the answer is the man.
Verse two, whose character istrue? Verse three, who
(25:13):
restrains his words? Versefour, who has clear cut
allegiances? And then versefour and into verse five, has
dealings that are beyondhonorable. When you act that
way in verse five, you get thepromise of God. You live like
this, you can't be shaken. Whatdoes that mean? Several Psalms
talk about the righteous beingshaken about life hurting,
(25:36):
about there being persecutionand adversity. David says, when
you live like this, you'reconnected to the Lord. Verse
one, the person who livesverses two to five remains in
fellowship with God despitewhat's going on around him.
That's the blessing of Psalm15. Yes, it's certainly is
something for everyone. Don'tturn this off if you are a lady
(25:57):
, uh, everybody needs to readPsalm 15. Everybody needs to
make application of Psalm 15.
But again, gentlemen , it justhits home, doesn't it? It just
hits home. Am I this man wannabe a person seeking after God's
own heart? Psalm 15 is theblueprint. It's the pattern,
it's the map to get there.
Thank you for reading Psalm 15with me today. And with that,
(26:23):
we close the podcast for theweek. Hope you enjoyed the
podcast and hope it'sbenefiting you and you're
telling other people about it.
Don't forget, of course, toleave a rating or review. So
until next week when we'll openour Bibles together. Again, I'm
Mark Roberts and I wanna go toheaven and I want you to come
to I'll see you on Monday witha cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(27:10):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.