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The Challenges to Christiantiy - The 2024 Preaching Theme

The Challenges to Christiantiy - The 2024 Preaching Theme

Released Monday, 22nd January 2024
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The Challenges to Christiantiy - The 2024 Preaching Theme

The Challenges to Christiantiy - The 2024 Preaching Theme

The Challenges to Christiantiy - The 2024 Preaching Theme

The Challenges to Christiantiy - The 2024 Preaching Theme

Monday, 22nd January 2024
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0:05

Hello, and welcome to the Westside

0:07

churches special Monday Morning Coffee

0:10

podcast on this

0:13

podcast, our preacher Mark Roberts

0:15

will help you get your week started right. With

0:18

look back at yesterday's sermon so

0:20

that we can think through it further

0:22

and better work the applications into

0:24

our daily lives . Mark

0:27

will then look forward into this week's

0:29

Bible reading so that we can know what

0:31

to expect and watch for. And, he

0:34

may have some extra bonus thoughts from

0:36

time to time. So grab

0:38

a cup of coffee as we start the

0:41

week together on Monday Morning Coffee

0:43

with Mark.

0:52

Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee

0:54

podcast for Monday, January

0:57

22nd. Little chilly this morning,

0:59

little drizzly, maybe some ice

1:02

and sleet where you are this morning. I've

1:04

got a great cup of coffee still working on that

1:06

bag of Sedona Coffee and it went through the

1:08

espresso machine and it is

1:11

magnificent. That's not specifically espresso

1:13

beans, but it is still very,

1:17

very good. And I am just feeling

1:19

pretty good coming off of yesterday. So

1:23

many good things yesterday, especially the

1:25

start to the preaching theme for 2024, the

1:27

challenges to Christianity and yesterday

1:30

that gave me a good opportunity to talk about

1:32

doubt and where that fits in the life of a

1:35

disciple. We can't really meet the challenges that

1:37

others would bring to Christianity if

1:39

we ourselves are uncertain and

1:41

unsure of where doubt fits and

1:43

what to do about doubt. So

1:46

I just want to add one thing. Can't say

1:48

everything, can you ? That's, and that's why I had the

1:50

Monday Morning Coffee podcast. So I could just add some

1:53

bonus thoughts here. One of the things that drives

1:55

me crazy is people

1:57

who buy into the lie that

2:00

faith is opposite

2:02

and opposed to science that

2:04

has become the narrative in our media. And

2:06

in many ways, many people today

2:09

echo that kind of thinking, oh,

2:11

I , you know, I , I want to go with science, not

2:13

with faith, that kind of thing. And , and there's

2:15

kind of a hottiness and almost a superiority. You

2:18

people over there with the faith business, you, you

2:20

got your head in a bucket, but me, I'm over here

2:22

with science. I got a test tube. I,

2:24

and, and I , I worked with that a little bit yesterday reminding

2:27

everybody that no one was there at

2:29

the beginning. So we're all working on

2:32

faith here. We're all looking at the evidence

2:34

and making some conclusions,

2:36

drawing some conclusions about

2:38

how things started, what's going on, how

2:41

all these things came into being. Everybody

2:43

is working on faith. It's not faith versus

2:46

science. And even more, some

2:48

of the greatest scientists of all time have been

2:50

men of faith, women of faith. They

2:52

have been believers. And that's not just the past. There's

2:55

a zillion Nobel Prize winners who have

2:57

won distinguished awards in their fields and

2:59

physics and, and in biology

3:02

and chemistry. And they are serious believers

3:04

in God and in his word. But

3:07

I, I guess the thing that really drives me crazy is

3:09

just the way it dismisses out of

3:12

hand the entire discussion. I want

3:14

to sit down and examine the evidence and

3:16

let's see what's the most reasonable conclusion from

3:18

that evidence. But instead, because

3:21

somebody dawns a white lab coat, we're just done here. We're

3:23

just done here. We accept whatever the people in the

3:25

white lab coat say and throw our

3:27

bibles away. That , that, that's

3:30

not rational thinking that that's foolishness.

3:32

In fact, that's not the scientific method, is

3:34

it? That's not what science claims

3:36

to be all about. Science says we're

3:39

going to think we're going to investigate, bring

3:41

all comers and let's work through

3:43

it and see what is right, because science is interested

3:45

in finding out what is real and what is true.

3:48

So dismissing something out of hand by labeling

3:50

it faith while I stand over here

3:52

on a box labeled science, is

3:55

simply intellectual dishonesty.

3:57

Don't fall for that lie. You'll

4:00

see it and you'll hear it a lot. Don't

4:02

get sucked into faith versus science.

4:05

Good science always supports

4:08

faith. And of course, faith always

4:10

leads us to science because we

4:12

believe in the God who made an ordered universe

4:15

with laws in motion that science

4:18

is able to discover, map,

4:20

and understand hope that helps you. As we

4:22

continue to think about the challenges to Christianity in

4:24

2024, let's think about some of the

4:27

challenges to Jesus as

4:29

we continue in our Bible reading this week. In

4:31

Mark chapter five, we meet a

4:33

man who's out of his mind and

4:35

a whole bunch of pigs. Let's get our Bibles open

4:38

to ma to Matthew. No, no, not

4:40

Matthew. To mark. To Mark

4:42

chapter five. It

5:02

is Monday. And today we're reading in Mark's gospel. This

5:04

is Mark chapter five, verses one to 13. And

5:06

this is the account of the Garrison Demon Act.

5:09

Mark really wants to emphasize the power of

5:11

Jesus Christ, and there really isn't anything

5:14

quite like Mark's gospel. It just majors

5:16

in powerful actions of Jesus

5:19

that push us, of course to make a

5:21

decision about him as the son of God, as

5:23

the Messiah. And this needs to connect to

5:25

chapter four and verse 35 that we read on

5:27

Friday where Jesus calls the

5:29

storm. 'cause what we're getting here is four miracle

5:32

stories where the case

5:34

is very difficult. It's a situation

5:36

that humans can do nothing about, and

5:39

Jesus easily handles

5:41

it. I mean, he doesn't break a sweat. And

5:43

this garrison guy, this is

5:46

a big deal. He's not a,

5:48

doesn't have a demon, he

5:50

is possessed with a legion of demons.

5:53

And it doesn't bother Jesus for even

5:55

a moment. Notice here, as we read today

5:58

in verse two, Jesus stepped out of the boat. It doesn't

6:00

say the disciples got out of the boat. Maybe

6:03

with that wild man coming at him

6:05

from the beach, that would not surprise

6:07

us. They weren't thinking they were gonna

6:09

get out. But Mark includes several

6:12

details including verse four, that is

6:14

only in Mark's gospel so

6:16

that we see just how difficult

6:19

a situation this really is. This is

6:21

the work of demons. They possess people

6:23

and as a result, they just do

6:25

stuff that's just crazy and

6:28

they have strength beyond what

6:30

normal humans would have. And and they

6:32

just are a terror to everyone,

6:35

including themselves in verse

6:37

seven, that demons then start screaming at Jesus and

6:39

using his name. And there's always

6:41

been an association in witchcraft and

6:43

the occult and superstition that using someone's

6:46

name Ga gives you power over them.

6:48

And of course, biblically that is not true. But I

6:50

wonder if verse seven, if you're seeing some of that

6:53

working right there, and Jesus

6:55

just says, you're out, you're out. And then

6:57

Jesus asks him for his name.

7:00

And the result of that is that we learned

7:02

that there are many demons present . Now, a legion

7:04

in a Roman army is 6,000 men.

7:07

So this coupled with the number of pigs that

7:09

the legion of demons are sent to shows

7:11

us in, in , in a pretty big hurry. This

7:13

man is just possessed by thousands and thousands

7:16

of demons. And so Jesus sends

7:18

them into the pigs, verse 12,

7:20

and the pigs run down a steam bank verse

7:23

13, and they are drowned. And I have never,

7:26

never, never, never, never more nevers ever

7:29

taught. Mark preached on. Mark

7:32

mentioned this account that somebody hasn't talked to

7:34

me about the pigs. The pigs get

7:36

a lot of interest here. And in fact,

7:39

I'm always, maybe ironically,

7:41

the pigs get a lot of sympathy. People are really

7:43

concerned about these drowned pigs. People aren't that

7:45

concerned about the kerosene demani act , what

7:48

his life was like. But oh boy,

7:50

we got to talk about these pigs. What

7:52

about these pigs? Why did Jesus do that? Pigs, pigs,

7:54

pigs, pigs, pigs. And what I need to say to

7:56

you about that is the pigs

7:58

are not important. They are not

8:01

part of the story that

8:03

Mark is telling. The only reason

8:06

Mark tells us about that is so that

8:08

we have some appreciation for the magnitude of the man's

8:10

demon possession. That's why he gives us the

8:12

number here and what the,

8:15

what , uh, what the demons do is

8:17

they do to the pigs what they have been doing to this man.

8:20

They drive the pigs outta their mind and the pigs

8:22

act stupidly and irrationally and crazy

8:24

and hurt themselves just like this man

8:27

had been doing. So that's

8:29

all we need to know about the pigs.

8:31

Maybe I

8:34

think about this in terms of movies. Sometimes

8:37

a a movie tells a story and there's

8:39

some details on the side. And

8:41

if you have watched the movie enough times,

8:44

which we can do nowadays, you start

8:46

noticing things that the director never intended for

8:48

you to look at. One of Dina and I's favorite holiday

8:51

movies is the movie Holiday Inn, which was

8:53

the first Christmas movie that Bing Crosby sang

8:55

the mo , the famous song White Christmas Inn.

8:57

And at the end of the film , uh, spoiler

9:00

alert, Fred Star's girlfriend comes back to

9:02

him and, and everybody lives happily ever

9:04

after binging gets the girl and Fred gets his girl

9:06

back, but the girl has treated

9:08

Fred terribly. And what

9:10

is she doing in the closing scene anyway? How did

9:12

they get her there? And why does Fred immediately

9:15

say, oh, it's great to see you again, and

9:17

I forgive you for treating me like dirt and

9:19

walking all over. No, wait, wait, wait. No, no,

9:22

no, no, that's, it's just not

9:24

part of the story. That's not important. And

9:26

we're not even supposed to be asking those questions

9:28

or thinking about those things. And in fact, if you go to

9:31

the movies with somebody who constantly elbows

9:33

you and says, Hey, a Starship can't

9:35

really travel at the speed of light, if

9:37

you reach light speed, you would convert

9:40

to pure energy. We quit going to the movies

9:42

with people like that because they're ruining

9:44

the movie. And so I get it, it's

9:47

a curious event. It's an event unlike any

9:49

other event in the Bible. But

9:52

we're not supposed to be asking about pigs.

9:54

Don't ask about the pigs. Focus

9:56

on Jesus. Look what

9:59

Jesus did. And as we're

10:02

watching Jesus through the eyes of Peter and John, look

10:05

at their faces. When those pigs

10:07

go berserk and run down the hill

10:09

and are drown, what do their faces

10:11

look like? They're not worried about the

10:13

pigs. They're looking at Jesus. And

10:16

tomorrow we'll talk about some

10:18

people who also are looking at Jesus

10:21

and they have the exact wrong

10:24

reaction. See you tomorrow as we continue in

10:26

March chapter five. Welcome

10:29

to Tuesday. And today we're finishing the

10:31

story of the Garrison Demoniac by talking about

10:34

the garrisons themselves. Today we read

10:36

Mark chapter five, verses 14 to 20. And

10:38

this is a disappointing account. Here

10:41

are people who are focused on the pigs.

10:43

Verse 16, those who had

10:45

seen it, described to them what had happened to the demon possessed

10:48

man and to the pigs. The result of that is

10:50

they asked Jesus to leave. That's

10:53

a stunning thing to me. They asked

10:56

Jesus to leave. And it is

10:58

extremely important to notice that

11:00

Jesus leaves verse

11:03

18, as he was getting into

11:06

the boat, it doesn't even say he thought about

11:08

it. He said, Hey, listen, you

11:10

people don't understand who I am. Lemme talk to you. No, no,

11:12

no. When you ask Jesus to leave, he

11:15

just leaves. Jesus

11:17

knows that he cannot force himself into anyone's

11:19

life. And when you say, I'm

11:22

not interested, Jesus says, I'm

11:24

out. I'm gonna go find some people who are interested.

11:26

This is the parable of the sower in

11:29

action, isn't it? However, before Jesus

11:31

leaves the demon possessed man says,

11:33

I wanna go with you. And Jesus says, I want

11:35

you to stay and I want you to tell

11:37

people what happened. Now that's notably

11:40

different than the leper in March chapter one.

11:42

Jesus tells the leper , keep your mouth shut. The

11:44

leper unfortunately does not do what Jesus tells him

11:46

to do. And as a result, Jesus has

11:48

a hard time preaching and teaching because

11:51

crowd just thronged him. Well, how come

11:53

Jesus tells this guy, Hey, you can

11:55

tell all that you want. Go home to your friends

11:57

and tell them how much the Lord's done for you. And now he's

11:59

had mercy upon you. Verse 19. And

12:02

he went away and he began to proclaim in the de Capitalis

12:04

how much Jesus had done for him. The

12:06

difference here is Jesus is

12:08

leaving this area, and according

12:10

to the gospel records, he never comes back

12:12

to this area again. So

12:15

you go tell, 'cause I'm not gonna

12:17

be here for crowds to throng and and

12:19

get in the way of my ministry. You

12:22

go and tell about me. By

12:24

the way, the de capitalis is an area that in

12:27

Galilee that was very Greek in

12:29

its nature, they patterned theirselves

12:32

after the Greek way of life. And

12:34

Mark's Greek readers would note with

12:36

interest that Jesus, Jesus

12:39

cares about gentiles, doesn't he? How about that?

12:42

Tomorrow we'll journey into Mark chapter

12:45

five a little bit further and

12:47

will get the famous double miracle,

12:50

one of my favorite stories in

12:52

Jesus' life. See you tomorrow. Welcome

12:54

to Wednesday. It is hump day. And today

12:57

we're reading Mark chapter five, verses 21

12:59

to 34. This is the setting

13:01

for this double miracle that Jesus

13:03

does. And remember, we're looking at hard

13:06

cases here and watch how Mark makes certain

13:08

that we see. These are cases beyond

13:11

any human ability to do anything

13:13

about. These are desperate requests

13:16

here, two desperate requests, one by

13:18

a very rich person and the other by a

13:20

very poor person. One, somebody who is

13:22

firmly entrenched in society and is seen

13:24

as important in that world. And the

13:27

other, the woman is an outcast.

13:29

And the story is very well told, very

13:31

well told. And there is a ton of tension

13:33

in this story. Sometimes we have to just

13:35

step back and remember that

13:38

the first readers of this story must have been on

13:40

the edge of their seats. What's gonna happen?

13:43

Hey, Jesus stops here, but what

13:45

about Jerry's daughter? There's

13:47

a lot that's happening here. So Jesus crosses

13:50

back verse 21 to the western side

13:52

of the Sea of Galilee. And of course, as

13:55

soon as Jesus gets there, once again, there's

13:57

huge crowds and they're all over

13:59

him. And then the unexpected happens. Jarius

14:02

, the ruler of the synagogue. We do

14:04

not expect this guy to be on Jesus'

14:06

side, to be interested in Jesus, to appeal to

14:08

Jesus. Most of his friends

14:10

and his colleagues, the people that he hangs

14:12

around with, they would be the people who would be opposing.

14:15

Jesus Jarius comes, and

14:17

I love verse 23, he is not

14:19

just asking for Jesus to come check on

14:21

her. He believes there is a

14:23

lot of faith. You can

14:26

do this, and I know that you can

14:28

do this, but along the way, a

14:31

woman touches Jesus. This is a woman

14:33

with a discharge of blood. We don't know everything

14:35

about that, but it would make her ceremonially

14:37

unclean. She would be unclean

14:40

all the time. And anybody who touches her then

14:42

is unclean. So she would be shunned by society.

14:44

This is a wretched existence. This is a

14:47

tough life for her. And Mark

14:49

goes on to say she had suffered, suffered under many

14:51

physicians. How about that? Nobody can

14:54

help this woman, but she has tremendous

14:56

faith. And she touches Jesus's

14:59

garment. Verse 30 and two things

15:01

happen. She knows she's healed.

15:03

And Jesus knows power has gone out from him. You

15:05

could call this almost an accidental miracle. And

15:08

and that's not exactly the right kind of terminology.

15:10

I get it. And and I , I , I , you know what

15:12

I mean by that? It's that Jesus

15:15

is so powerful, he

15:18

can heal without even trying

15:20

to heal. And this is not the only time that this kind

15:22

of thing happens. In chapter three and verse 10, it

15:24

says that the people with diseases were pushing forward

15:26

to touch him. And then later on in chapter six in

15:28

verse 56, they begged to

15:31

to touch even the edge of his cloak and all

15:33

who touched were healed. So this is not

15:35

an isolated kind of thing. And Mark

15:38

makes clear where he's going with this.

15:40

Verse 30, Jesus perceiving in

15:42

himself that power had

15:44

gone out. That's what it's about. Power,

15:47

powerful Jesus. Jesus is awesome.

15:50

All you have to do is touch his

15:53

garment. And what no one

15:55

can heal, what cannot be changed. This

15:58

malady that cannot be healed by any

16:00

conventional medical standards, it's immediately,

16:03

immediately healed. It's

16:06

so incredible. And there is an

16:08

eyewitness touch verse 32. He looked around to

16:10

see who had done it. That looks like

16:13

Mark was standing there. And as he

16:15

writes this, he can see that scene in his mind.

16:17

And he remembers Jesus saying, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Somebody

16:20

touched me. And then of course the disciples say,

16:22

everybody's touching you Jesus. And we're gonna get

16:25

a lot of what I'm gonna call the

16:27

stupid remark or the dumb remark in , in

16:29

Mark's gospel. The apostles are

16:31

just not always real

16:34

quick on the draw. And they

16:36

have a tendency to rebuke Jesus. And that never

16:38

goes well, don't rebuke Jesus.

16:41

Never say to Jesus, you don't know what you're talking about.

16:43

Hey Jesus, you're you're kind of

16:45

fool. No , no , no , no , no . Don't go there.

16:47

Don't go there. Okay? You could

16:50

ask Jesus. A

16:52

lot of people did something special

16:54

happen. But don't be rebuking Jesus. Jesus

16:57

knows. Jesus knows. Now,

16:59

why did Jesus reveal the whole matter? Why

17:01

didn't Jesus let that woman just go home? I think there's

17:03

a couple of things going on there. One of which now she's

17:06

whole, so she can be accepted by society again. But

17:08

I think again, Jesus wants to call

17:10

out faith. Faith in Jesus. We

17:12

see the faith in verse 34, we see the faith

17:15

in verse 23, we faith. Faith

17:18

is how we come to contact the

17:20

power of Jesus Christ. Isn't

17:22

that right? Faith? Faith

17:25

is what makes the difference. It's

17:27

the point of contact. When we have faith

17:30

in Christ, all kinds of

17:32

things can happen. We have faith in Christ. We can

17:34

invite him to our home like Jerry did

17:37

we have faith in Christ to

17:39

touch the hem of his garment? That's what this woman

17:42

did. We have faith in Christ to

17:44

enter the baptistry and

17:46

have our sins washed away. Faith

17:49

starts the whole process. Jesus singles

17:51

it out as so important that matters.

17:53

Probably gonna say more about that tonight in Bible talk

17:56

on Wednesday night that just gotta talk about

17:59

Jerry's faith, the woman's faith, our faith.

18:01

There you go. We'll finish this story.

18:04

I'm we'll happened to Jerry's daughter. Jesus

18:07

stops. She's dying. Come on, Jesus,

18:09

we got to go. We'll see what

18:11

happens tomorrow. Mark chapter five

18:14

completed. We'll complete it tomorrow on

18:16

Thursday. See you then. It

18:19

is Thursday. And today we are completing

18:21

Mark chapter five. We read verses

18:23

35 to 43. Jarius

18:26

has waited a whole day for us to get back

18:28

to him. How's his daughter doing? And

18:30

the answer is she's not doing well.

18:33

Verse 35, she died.

18:36

She died while Jesus was coming. She died

18:38

while Jesus was interrupted. Jarius must have

18:40

just been beside himself. If only Jesus

18:42

hadn't stopped, if only I

18:45

had come to Jesus sooner. You

18:47

can just imagine this man's grief. It's

18:49

just the worst it can possibly

18:52

be. But Jesus says, do

18:55

not fear only believe. Verse 36,

18:57

what's this chapter about? I

18:59

think this chapter's about faith, isn't

19:01

it? Do not fear only believe.

19:04

And then verse 37, he takes

19:06

just Peter, James and John

19:08

with him. And of course there's a lot of speculation

19:11

about that. Why not all 12? What's

19:13

happening here? Maybe. Maybe

19:15

the room was just too small for everybody.

19:18

We live in much bigger homes today than

19:21

people did in first century times. And

19:24

then Jesus says to

19:26

the mourners, and if there

19:28

is a funeral, you had to hire professional mourners.

19:30

There were morning women who that's what they did

19:32

is they weep and wa and lament. And

19:34

Jesus says she's just sleeping and

19:37

they laugh at him. Once again. What you get,

19:39

you get the stupid remark. You

19:41

get people who don't know what they're talking about.

19:44

Rebuking Jesus, don't do that. Jesus

19:47

knows better than you know or I

19:50

know. And so verse 41, he

19:52

takes her by the hand and says, Talitha kuai. And

19:54

that's Aramaic. Aramaic

19:56

is the language of the common man in

19:59

Galilee. It was the speech that people would

20:01

speak at home and Mark preserves

20:03

it a number of times in his gospel.

20:07

Why does he do that? One scholar said

20:09

the best answer is probably that this scene and its

20:11

crucial words made such a deep impression upon Peter

20:14

and others that whenever they told the story afterwards,

20:17

even in Greek to a non-Jewish audience,

20:19

they kept the crucial words as they were. It's

20:21

not a magic formula, a kind of abracadabra.

20:24

They were ordinary words, the words you'd

20:26

use to wake up a sleeping child. But part

20:28

of the point of the gospel story and of this

20:30

whole section of Mark is precisely

20:32

the life giving power of

20:35

God is breaking into

20:37

and working through the ordinary

20:39

details of life. There's

20:42

just an amazing power

20:45

to Jesus. And when you get done with Mark

20:47

chapter five actually starting

20:49

really in Mark chapter four and verse 35, what

20:52

you've seen is Jesus's control over the

20:54

weather, Jesus's control over

20:56

allegion of demons. Jesus's

20:58

control over a woman who's afflicted

21:01

with a disease that nobody can help her with. And

21:03

then Jesus's power over death

21:05

. Jesus' power over

21:08

death. Mark is saying to us,

21:10

verse 30, power goes

21:13

out from Jesus. And we have

21:16

seen it in Mark chapter four and Mark chapter

21:18

five, this is the only resurrection

21:21

in Mark's gospel and it

21:23

just punctuates this

21:26

series of stories about the power

21:28

of Jesus. Tomorrow, some

21:31

new ideas in Mark's gospel as

21:33

we turn to Mark chapter six. I'll see you on

21:35

Friday. It

21:39

is Friday. And today we read Mark chapter six, verses

21:41

one to 13. There's

21:44

a little bit of a shift here because now we're

21:46

starting to see some rejection of Jesus

21:48

and he is rejected in his hometown.

21:51

This is in Nazareth. Mark chapter six

21:53

in verse one tells us about 20 miles southwest

21:55

of Capernaum. And even though Jesus

21:57

is still amazing and astonishing, verse

22:00

two, these people have already made their

22:02

minds up about Jesus. He's the son of a

22:04

carpenter. He can't be anything special.

22:07

And in fact, we even see that Jesus

22:09

has physical family and they use that to

22:11

say, you can't be what you claim

22:13

to be. The result of that is

22:16

that Jesus verse five could do

22:19

nom mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people

22:21

and healed them. And some folks have used that

22:23

to say, you know, Jesus had a power outage there.

22:25

Jesus couldn't do anything there. No,

22:27

that's not what the text says. The text says

22:29

Jesus healed people. The problem is

22:31

not Jesus ran short of power. We've

22:34

seen how much power Jesus had. Mark's already showed us that in

22:36

Mark chapter four and Mark chapter five, what's the problem?

22:39

People didn't come to Jesus 'cause

22:41

they didn't believe in Jesus. They'd already made up

22:43

their minds about Jesus. The problem isn't

22:46

Jesus. The problem is these folks in Nazareth

22:49

not believing in him. It's about faith,

22:51

isn't it? See how we're still extending that idea from

22:53

Mark chapter five. It's about faith or

22:55

in this case a lack of faith. And

22:57

now Jesus extends his ministry in

23:00

verses seven to 13 by sending

23:02

out the 12, two by two . And

23:04

he gives them power, authority over

23:06

unclean spirits. This is an important

23:08

moment here. We're seeing the extension of the ministry

23:10

of the 12. It's parallel to the

23:12

work of Jesus. They preach repentance, they

23:15

heal the sick, they cast out demons. Jesus is

23:17

so powerful. He can hand off power,

23:20

he can delegate power to others.

23:22

And of course, this is a precursor to what the

23:24

apostles are going to do in the Book

23:26

of Acts. Maybe someone's asking why

23:28

they didn't take provisions with them . And I think the answer

23:30

to that is people should know that

23:33

they should have some knowledge of Jesus and be ready

23:35

to receive these messengers

23:38

of Jesus. And of course, sending

23:40

them in this way, we teach them to trust

23:42

in God. So Mark chapter six

23:44

shows us some rejection ideas and

23:47

it takes a dark turn when

23:49

we pick up the reading on Monday.

23:54

Thanks for listening to the podcast for this week. I

23:56

hope that if you like what you're hearing and it's helping you

23:58

in your Bible reading and in your walk with God, you

24:00

have subscribed or followed so that it will download

24:03

automatically on your device. And I hope that you're telling other

24:05

folks about the podcast so that

24:07

they can be helped in seeing

24:09

Jesus through the eyes of Peter and

24:11

John the eyewitness testimony.

24:14

So helpful to see Jesus in that way.

24:17

Well, until Monday, may

24:19

your coffee be delightful. I hope your Friday is

24:21

wonderful and the Lord is with you today all

24:24

day. I'm Mark Roberts and I

24:26

wanna go to heaven and I want you to

24:29

come to I'll see you on

24:32

Monday.

24:38

Thanks for listening to the Westside church

24:40

of Christ podcast. Monday morning

24:42

coffee with mark . For

24:44

more information about west side

24:47

, you can connect with us through

24:49

our website, just

24:52

christians.com and our Facebook

24:54

page. Our music is from

24:57

upbeat.is that's upbeat with two

25:02

P'S UPP , B E A

25:04

T , where creators can get free

25:07

music. Please share our podcast with others. And

25:09

we look forward to seeing you again with

25:11

a company coffee, of course, on next Monday.

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