WORSHIP
HEAR
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
DEUTERONOMY 6:4-9
APRIL 13, 2008
The Shema is the most important creed or confession in Judaism. The Shema was the most important creed in the time of Jesus and the most important creed even today. Of course, in the time of Jesus, the Hillel and Shammai Schools, the great schools of theology, debated the Shema and how to properly say it and when to properly recite it. Jesus Himself in the Gospels quotes the Shema, and He tells us that the Shema is foundational to all of the law, and that in a sense the Shema sums up all of the law. When Jews were martyred, and throughout history tragically many Jews have been martyred, but they always say before they die the Shema. This is their tradition. In the Torah and in the Mishnah, the Jews are instructed to begin every day, each morning, by reciting the Shema and to do the same thing each evening. Of course, the Jews wrote the Shema on scrolls and placed them in phylacteries and the phylacteries were worn on the forehead and the phylacteries were worn on the left arm so they could be close to the heart. And the Shema was also written and placed on the doorposts of homes and at the gates.
Perhaps you’re sitting there this morning and you’re wondering, “What exactly is the Shema?” The Shema really is three different passages from the Law of Moses, from the books of Moses—two passages from Deuteronomy 6 and one from the Book of Exodus. But the Shema centers on Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. “Shema, Israel, Yahweh, Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad.” That’s the Shema and it means, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.” Shema means “hear,” and for the Jew, worship begins with hearing. This whole passage is called Shema because the Jews understood that worship begins with hearing God, listening to God, hearing the Word of God by saying to God, “Speak, Lord. Your servant hears you,” by saying, “Word of God, speak.” And so, when Jews entered the synagogue for worship they would say, “Word of God, speak,” and they would expect the Word of God to be presented in song and in prayer and in proclamation and in readings, but listening was at the heart of worship. We think of worship so often as the things we say, the praise we render to God, but so often worship is just listening, listening to the voice of God.
This morning as we look at listening as worship, I’d like to have us take a look at two mistakes that people make. The first is deaf ears. The Bible warns us that we must not have deaf ears if we’re going to worship. You can’t come to church with deaf ears. Of course, in Matthew 13 and in Mark 4 and in Luke 14, Jesus said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” Jesus often said this to crowds. “He who has ears, let him hear.” In the Book of Revelation, chapter 2 and chapter 3, in the message of Christ to the seven churches, Jesus ended every message with those words. “He who has an ear, let him hear.” Of course, the implication is some people have ears and, spiritually speaking, they do not hear. In Mark, chapter 8, verse 18, Jesus said to the crowds, “Having ears to hear, you do not hear.”
I think most of us understand what it is to not listen. I think sometimes we’re all kind of guilty of this. We just kind of tune out. I know some weeks ago we were having an elder emeritus lunch. And at this church we have an elder board and our elder board gets together every month as an elder board and then throughout the years we sometimes get together for lunch but we also get together with the elders who have left the active board. The elders who have left the elder board we call “emeritus elders” and every few months we get together with them and it’s like friends just coming together and it’s a great time of fellowship. Usually, we get together in a private room in a restaurant and I usually begin by sharing some thoughts and then I ask Dutch, who’s our Executive Pastor, to kind of summarize some things that are going on at the church. So that’s what happened a few weeks ago. We’re having lunch with the elders emeritus and I said a few words and asked Dutch to speak. Then Dutch spoke and then suddenly Dutch turns to me and he says, “And I think this story is probably best told by Jim. So Jim, why don’t you go ahead and tell that story?” I had to say to Dutch, “Dutch, I have no clue what you’re talking about. I wasn’t listening to a word you said.” Everybody just laughed, but the truth of the matter is it’s happened to all of us. I was kind of in a busy, stressful time.
I usually listen to people, but it’s embarrassing and I’ve shared with you really one of the most embarrassing moments of my life when I graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary and I was interviewing with some pastors of churches looking for a job in the ministry. I went to meet with a pastor from Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian Church near San Diego, California. The senior pastor was going to interview me. I went to meet with him. I knocked on the door to the room where he was doing his interviews. He introduced himself to me. I introduced myself to him. I wasn’t really paying attention. We sat down and he conducted the interview and in the course of the interview he wanted me to know what it would be like to work at Rancho Bernardo Presbyterian Church. He said, “Now, I want you to understand, Jim, that if you come on our staff, you can be your own man. You don’t need to be a Billy Graham. You don’t need to be an Oral Roberts. You don’t need to be a Bert Smith.” Suddenly I just burst out laughing. I just started laughing and I said, “Bert Smith! Who in the world is Bert Smith?” Of course, HE was Bert Smith. Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.
We know what that’s like. We all know what that’s like and it’s one thing to not listen to somebody when you’re doing an introduction, one thing to not listen to somebody in the interview, but, you see, it’s something else entirely to not listen to God. We’ve got to listen to God. So, when you come into God’s house you can’t have deaf ears. When you open His Book and you read His Word, you cannot have deaf ears. When you listen to Christian music, you cannot have deaf ears.
Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers the Christian world has ever known. He lived in London, England, and he preached there at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He once said to his audience, “I’ll tell you the difference between fact and faith.” He said, “The fact is I’m standing up here and you’re sitting out there. That’s a fact, but it’s only by faith that I believe any of you are listening to me.” That’s true of every pastor. It’s only by faith that I can believe that any of you are listening to the Word of God. Of course, I sometimes marvel as the years have gone by. Sometimes I’ll sit down with somebody from our congregation and they’ve been attending here for 10 or 15 years and I can tell by just having lunch with them that they haven’t listened to much. That just happens. I’ve even sat down with folks who have attended the church regularly for more than 10 years and they don’t even know how to be saved. They’ll say they don’t know whether they’re going to heaven, and they just hope that they’re good enough. I think, “My goodness. What have you been listening to?”
None of us are good enough. You’re not good enough. I’m not good enough. Only Jesus is good enough to go to heaven and we’re only saved through Him and by His mercy and His grace and His shed blood on the cross. When we come to Him and we receive Him as Lord and Savior and we put our faith in Him, He saves us. But I never cease to marvel. Sometimes I almost just fall back into theological Calvinism and I just think, “Hey, maybe some of these people just aren’t elect and they have ears to hear and they can’t hear.” But of course, it’s not as simple as that. When you come into the House of God or when you open His Book, you have a choice to make, and you can choose to listen. You can choose to pay attention. And that’s why we’re culpable, because we have volition and we have free will. God holds us morally responsible.
I hope most of you spend time reading parts of the Old Testament as well as the New. One of my favorite books in the Bible is the Book of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament. I would love it if this week you would go home and read the first and second and third chapters of 1 Samuel. Those three chapters will introduce you to the person of Samuel, who was the last leader of Israel in the pre-monarchial period. Samuel was both a prophet and a priest. As you read those first three chapters of 1 Samuel you’ll be introduced to his mother, Hannah, and you’ll be introduced to Samuel’s father, Elkanah, and you’ll see how Hannah was barren and desperate to have a child and to be a mom. Hannah prayed to God, “Lord, please give me a child. If you’ll give me a child and if I can conceive in my womb, I will dedicate this child to you forever.” And so, God blessed her and God gave her Samuel. When Samuel was born, Hannah dedicated him to the Lord with a Nazarite vow and Samuel went to the sanctuary, the Temple at Shiloh, to be educated and trained under Eli, the priest.
Now you come to 1 Samuel, chapter 3, beginning with verse 2, and you see Samuel in the temple, a young boy, and he sleeps in the temple. He sleeps near the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant resides and where the Shekinah, the presence of God, hovers. At the Temple at Shiloh, Samuel sleeps, but in the middle of one night he hears his name, “Samuel, Samuel.” He thinks it must be Eli so he goes throughout the temple until he finds Eli and he said, “You called me.” Eli said, “I did not call you in the middle of the night, Samuel. Go back to sleep.” It happens a second time. Samuel hears his name, and he goes to Eli again. Eli said, “Samuel, I didn’t call you.” Then it happens a third time and Samuel goes to Eli. Eli says, “You know, Samuel, maybe God is calling you and you need to say, ‘Speak, Lord, Your servant heareth.’”
Of course, in the passage, the Book of 1 Samuel begins with a comment that the Word of God was rarely heard in that time but, you see, for Samuel, prophet and priest, this was the turning point in his life as he began to hear God. He began to hear God and God called him again. Samuel said, “Speak, Lord, Your servant heareth.” From that point on, Samuel heard the Word of God. I would suggest to you this morning that’s how we need to begin every day. “Speak, Lord. Your servant heareth.” That’s how you need to get up every morning. That’s how I need to get up every morning. Say, “Speak, Lord, Your servant heareth.” Every time you open the Bible, say those words, “Speak, Lord, Your servant heareth.” Every time you come in this worship center, say those words as you come in the door, “Speak, Lord, Your servant heareth.”
God speaks through music and God speaks in prayer and God speaks through readings and scripture and God speaks through the Proclaimed Word. Speak. Speak, Lord. At this church we seek to do everything we can to make certain that we have a good worship environment. We seek to do everything we can to make sure that you can hear God’s Word.
I want to take a little aside and just tell you that we’re beginning today a new Capital Stewardship Campaign. Some of you might be thinking, “Oh, no, not another Capital Stewardship Campaign.” You’re probably thinking, “Over the 26 years of Cherry Hills Community Church, how many Capital Stewardship Campaigns have we done and when are they going to come to an end?” The answer is, “When Christ comes back.” This Capital Stewardship Campaign is different. This is a campaign where we’re just seeking to repair the worship center. This building, this worship center, was built in 1995 and a lot of our sound, lighting, video, the audio tech stuff is shutting down. It’s growing old and we’ve got to get new stuff. You understand that in your own life. I mean, to own is to maintain. If you have a car and you keep it long enough, you’re going to have to do some things to keep it going. Your house, from time-to-time, needs household repairs. This is life. It’s true of this building, too, so we have work to do.
I was just amazed when we saw the price tag on this, what it’s going to cost to do the audio, the video, the tech stuff, the lighting, to repair some of the worship center seats and where the carpeting is not good. What the cost is of all that is $3 million! I thought, “WOW!” So we went to a few people in the congregation seeing if we could get some significant lead gifts and these few people gave $1 million. And so, we have that million dollar start. We need $2 million more and we’re asking you, the congregation, to double what these few individuals did and collectively for us together to give $2 million to complete this necessary work. I’m confident that if we all chip in we can do this, and it shouldn’t even take that much time. It’s all about worshipping. It’s all about being able to come into a place where you can hear and you can see and there’s an environment that facilitates the worship of God.
We don’t want to have deaf ears. We also don’t want to have itching ears. And so, I have this second teaching this morning and that is this. God warns us about having itching ears. You look at 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 3, and the Apostle Paul says that, “In the last days there will come a time when people will no longer endure sound teaching or sound doctrine but having itching ears. They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking and they’ll turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myth.”
The last days. The Bible says that as we approach the consummation of world history, as we approach the consummation of this age, there’s going to be this problem of itching ears. In the human race, even throughout the Church Universal, many people will no longer endure sound teaching but people will have itching ears and find teachers to suit their own liking. They will turn away from listening to the truth. Wow! And that’s happening in the Christian world today. Of course, you can go to a lot of churches where people have itching ears. They just want their ears tickled.
There are a lot of churches like that. Of course, there are a lot of churches where the gospel that is preached is not the biblical gospel. A lot of churches preach prosperity gospel, the gospel of health and wealth. If you just do this or if you just do that, God is going to make you wealthy. If you just do this, if you just do that, God’s going to make you healthy. People have itching ears for that. It’s not just here in the western church, but also in the two-thirds world. All over the globe there are churches where the prosperity gospel is being preached and people get their ears tickled and they like that. They like that message—health and wealth. Of course, the problem is it’s not biblical—a small problem. It’s just not true. Now, it’s true biblically that God can grant wealth, God can grant health, but you see, God doesn’t promise all of His people health and wealth, no matter how faithful you are. That’s simply not a biblical message, but people today have itching ears.
You can go to churches today where you will hear a new gospel and it might be called “emergent.” It might be called “postmodern,” but it’s a gospel that’s rooted in syncretism and pluralism. Syncretism is an effort to combine the world’s religious systems. So you take the varying religious systems around the world and you syncretism them and you create a new gospel. Of course, pluralism is the teaching that there are so many paths that lead to God and maybe all the gods of the world are really just one God. That’s pluralism, and it’s not biblical .But people have itching ears and they want their ears tickled. They kind of like that thought, but Jesus said, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”
Who died for you? Who died for the world? Who died for the planet? Who died for more than 6 billion people who live on earth today? Jesus and only Jesus. Substitutionary atonement. He’s the One who took the sin of the world upon Himself. He is Savior. “There’s no other name under heaven,” the Bible says, “whereby we may be saved.” If anyone is going to heaven, and I’m sure many are, it’s going to be because Jesus said so. We know that when we confess Christ and we believe in Him, He saves us. He can save whoever He wants to the world over, but He promises if we believe in Him as Lord and Savior, He saves us. He’s a Savior. There’s no other truth.
Of course, people have itching ears today. If you’re really interested in this subject of the culture changes taking place in the world of Christianity and if you’re interested in the erosion of Judeo-Christian values in this culture and if you’re concerned about deaf ears and itching ears, there’s a conference coming up right at our church. I want to recommend it to you. It’s a conference where you can learn all about emerging and postmodernity models and where you can learn about pluralism and syncretism and the erosion of values and what’s going on in the Christian world today and how to have a strong faith and how to live in this world and how to be light in an enveloping darkness. This conference will be a week from Saturday right here at the church. That’s Saturday, April 19th. It will be an all-day conference, Saturday morning starting at 8:00AM to Saturday late afternoon at 5:00 so. IT will be 8:00 to 5:00, right here at the church. We’re going to have five different speakers from different parts of the country. The conference is sponsored by Colorado Impact which is headed up by Dix Winston, who teaches one of our Sunday morning classes. It’s $40 for adults, $25 for teenagers, and this would be great for your teenager. If you’re a parent or a grandparent, this would be a great day for them. You can register online at CoImpact.org, and I would really highly recommend it.
Of course, we live in this world of itching ears and yet most people have Bibles. Just looking at this week’s issue of The Week Magazine. They had an article in The Week Magazine on the Bible and how popular it is and how people are buying more Bibles today than ever before in the United States of America. Conservatively speaking, over 25 million Bibles are purchased in the USA every year, more than any other book. You’ve heard of the popularity of The Da Vinci Code, the popularity of the Harry Potter books. There’s never been a year when the Bible didn’t outsell all other books at least 2 to 1. That’s how popular the Bible is. Every home in the United States of America, at least the average home in the United States of America, has four Bibles. That’s amazing to me. You might want to go home and count your Bibles, count them one-by-one. Maybe you have 40 Bibles. There are a lot of Bibles out there, and amazingly, according to The Week Magazine, surveys show that 47%, almost 50% of the people of America, read their Bible every week. But I wonder about the ears. I wonder about the hearing. I wonder about the deaf ears. I wonder about itching ears and the grid that people run things through.
In the New Testament there are two terms, two Greek words, for the Word of God. One is “logos.” The logos is the Word of God. The Bible tells us Jesus is the “logos.” He is the Word of God living. The Bible tells us that scripture is the Word of God written and the Bible tells us the gospel is the Word of God preached—the Word of God, the “logos.” The Word of God, “logos,” represents the mind and thought of God. So you look at Jesus and you see the mind and thought of God, the “logos.” You come to the Bible and you see the mind and thought of God, the “logos.” You hear the gospel and you encounter the “logos,” the mind and the thought of God.
There’s another Greek term which means the Word of God, and that’s the word, “rhema.” This word also means the Word of God. Sometimes these two words, “logos” and “rhema” are used interchangeably in the Bible, but sometimes there are subtle differences. Normally rhema refers to the thought and the mind of God applied to a specific circumstance in an individual’s life. As I worship and as you worship, and I say, “Word of God, speak,” as I say, “Speak, Lord. Your servant hears,” I want to see the mind and thought of God, the logos, but I also want His mind and thought applied to my individual circumstances in life, don’t I? Logos and rhema. I want it all. When I worship and I say, “Word of God, speak,” I desperately need to hear Him because through His Word I experience His power. You see, I’m weak. I’m so weak and I need His power every day.
When you worship God, you enter His throne room, and you experience His power and His power transforms you. His power guides you. His power can heal you. His power blesses you. I don’t know about you, but I want His power every day. I want to enter that throne room every day. I want to say every day, “Word of God, speak.” I want to say, “Speak, Lord. Your servant hears.” I want logos and I want rhema. I want to know His mind and I want to apply it. I want His mind applied to my daily life and my situations I face.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is coming to your local theaters soon. I don’t know what it’s about. The producers of this Indiana Jones movie are trying to keep things under wraps. There are websites which I understand are very creative and there is lots of speculation. I can promise you this though. This Indiana Jones movie that’s forthcoming will be about talismans of power, I promise you. It will be about talismans of power because, you see, all of the Indiana Jones movies are about talismans of power. The first movie was about Jewish talisman of power, the second movie a Hindu talisman of power, the third movie a Christian talisman of power. Jewish, Hindu, and Christian talismans of power.
In the first movie you had the Ark of the Covenant, which the movie treated as a Jewish talisman of power. In the second movie you had this Hindu talisman of power. In the third movie you had the cup of Christ, the Holy Grail, which the movie presented as another talisman of power. I promise you this next installment will also be about a talisman of power. It’s about these crystal skulls. I don’t know how much of archeology you’ve studied, but there are 13 of these crystal skulls that have been found and they are displayed in museums around the world. They’re mysterious. They look kind of cool. You cannot date them because they’re made of crystal and it’s not an organic substance so it’s not subject to carbon dating. Some historians and some archeologists believe that these crystal skulls were crafted long ago by ancient people, maybe the Mayans, maybe the Aztecs. They aren’t sure. Then there are some people who have suggested that these crystal skulls may be 100,000 years old. Some, of course, have suggested they may have extra-terrestrial origin and they’re talismans of power, mysterious power. I promise you that’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will go.
Just this last week Archeology Magazine, which I subscribe to and is published by the Archeological Institute of America, had a cover story about these crystal skulls and how they’re all bogus, they’re all phonies. It says that in fact, even though they’re displayed in museums just because they’re crowd-pleasers, they’ve just done an exhaustive study and they show they’re not even ancient. Most of them were probably crafted in Mexico, others in South America, but they’re all 19th century and they represent, under fine microscopic examination, 19th century tool working.
WOW! What a crazy world we live in. Has that thought ever occurred to you? What a crazy world we live in. There are people out there who are looking for power. There are people out there who are looking for occultic power. There are people out there looking for New Age power. People are into crystals of every form and pyramids. Of course, people are not looking for the Word of God. Most people are not looking for the Word of God, but they want God’s power. They want divine power. They want supernatural power but, you see, you’ve got to enter the throne room. You’ve got to worship God. You come into His throne room and you say, “Word of God, speak.” You come into His throne room and you say, “Lord, Your servant hears,” and you will experience His power. This is at the heart of worship.
So we don’t want deaf ears. We don’t want itching ears. We don’t want to have our ears tickled. We just want God, and we want His Word. We want the logos and we want the rhema and we want His power in our lives. So join me as we worship God in these days and weeks and months ahead and let this series on worship be a new beginning. Let’s have a word of prayer before we come to the Communion Table and take the bread and the cup.