Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church and it's my joy to bring God's word to you this morning.
Special welcome if you are new or visiting with us. We are glad you're here.
And as I say every week, we're glad you're here not because you are filling a seat but because we are following after Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow after Jesus, we're convinced that there's no one so good that they don't need God's grace and no one so bad that they can't have it.
And so everyone needs to hear what God has to say and God has something to say to everyone in his word.
If you've been with us, you know that we're going through the book of Nehemiah.
And the book of Nehemiah is about a man named Nehemiah who lived during the Old Testament.
He was a man who lived during the 5th century and this was the time in the history of the people of Israel when they had been in exile because of their unfaithfulness to God.
And now they're returning from exile.
The return from exile has started in the 6th century, so almost 100 years since we meet Nehemiah in this chapter.
And it's a book I have been telling you about a man who's turned away from sin and back to God's ways to build the wall around Jerusalem.
And building this wall around God's city, it was the city that he had given to his people to be a model, a light to the nations around them so that everyone in the world would know what happens, what it looks like when God's people follow after God's ways.
And I was telling you the truth when I told you that, that it's a book about a wall.
And the wall is now complete and we have many more chapters to go.
And so it is not simply a book about a wall.
As we talked about in chapter 5, this physical problem of the wall that had been broken down was a sign of a spiritual problem that Israel had.
They had not just turned away, as we talked about in chapter 5, from God's wall, but also from God's ways.
And we're going to see here that they had not just turned away from God's wall and God's ways, but God's people had also turned away from his word.
They had not just turned away from his wall and his ways, but also his word.
The last time we met, we went through chapter 7, which was a long genealogy.
And I reminded all of us that even when we come to places that are difficult, that maybe seem unnecessary in our culture to our ears,
we are reminded that God's word is good.
That he speaks to us.
That he tells us that his word is sweeter than honey.
Even honey that comes from the honeycomb.
That it's more precious than gold, even the finest gold.
That it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
And yet as we hear these things, it's one thing to say that.
It's one thing to talk about the goodness of God's word.
It's another thing to actually believe it.
And when I say things like that, before we begin the reading, I would not be surprised.
In fact, I would guess that some of you wonder,
is it really more precious than gold?
Is it really sweeter than honey?
Because there are times when I struggle to even pick up the Bible.
And there are times when the Bible is very challenging to understand.
And so there's also times that I've said things like,
God speaks to us in ways that we can understand.
He uses things that are helpful for us.
And yet there's times when we open up the Bible and it doesn't feel like that at all.
Instead, it feels incredibly confusing.
We're not always sure what's being talked about.
And so if God really is trying to speak to us in his word,
if he longs to know us and for us to understand him,
why is God's word sometimes so hard?
If God really cares about us,
if he truly wants to speak to us,
why can it be so challenging sometimes to listen and to know what God is saying?
That's the question we're going to ask as we come to chapter 8,
because we're going to see God's people returning to his word,
coming back to something that they have found hard at times.
It was because they ignored God's word that they ended up in exile.
And it's now as they turn away from sin and back to God and his mission
that we return to his word as well.
And so with that, we are in Nehemiah chapter 8.
We're going to read the first eight verses.
And as you've noticed,
I've started giving homework assignments when we read.
And part of that is because God's word is hard sometimes.
It's hard to pay attention to.
It's also because we are people who live in 2019,
and so our attention spans are terrible, myself included.
And so it's helpful for us to have something to focus on.
So my assignment for you in chapter 8,
as we read these first eight verses,
is to see if you can figure out,
count how many times the word people appears.
This is not random.
There's a reason I'm giving you this.
How many times the word people appears in this section?
We're in Nehemiah chapter 8.
And remember that this is God's word.
And God does tell us that his word is a lamp to our feet
and a light to our path.
And so we turn to it now starting at verse 1.
And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate.
And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses
that the Lord had commanded Israel.
So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,
both men and women,
and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month.
And he read from it facing the square before the water gate
from early morning until midday
in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.
And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.
Verse 4.
And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.
And beside him stood Mattathiah, Shemah, Aniah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maseah on his right hand.
And Pad�iah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashem, Hashbadanah, Zechariah, and Meshulam on his left hand.
Verse 5.
And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people,
for he was above all the people,
and as he opened it all the people stood.
Verse 6.
Please pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Dear Father in heaven, we thank you that your word is good and that you give it to us.
We also confess that sometimes it's hard.
It's hard to want to read it.
Sometimes it's hard to understand it.
And so we ask for your help as we always do, that you would help us in the hardness,
that you would send your Holy Spirit to open our eyes and unstop our ears,
that you'd soften our hearts and that you'd clear our minds,
that we would be able to see and know and believe everything that is written about you and your word.
We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, we had eight verses and the word people showed up how many times?
Nine times.
So eight verses, nine times in the entire chapter, chapter eight,
the word people is going to show up almost 20 times.
And it's only going to show up in the book of Nehemiah about 60 times.
So in this one single chapter, we have about a third of the occurrences of the word people.
And it's fitting because we find out in verse one that it is all the people who are coming together and gathering.
It's not the priests.
It's not the Levites who request that God's word be read.
It is the people in verse one that tell Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law out.
Most likely, this is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament,
that they are coming as one to ask that they would be taught, that they could know.
These are people at this moment who are not finding God's word hard.
In fact, on the other hand, they're actually begging for it.
They're coming and saying, we need and want you to tell us what is in God's word.
Now, the word people shows up nine times, but that's not the only thing that we see here.
It's not the only way that we're told that everyone is listening.
In verse two, we find out that it's both men and women, and not just men and women,
but all who could understand what they heard.
So this is not just adults, but children that are hearing and coming to hear God's word.
We see the same thing repeated in verse three, immediately after it's men and women and those who can understand.
And then we find out that they are reading and standing up for hours.
Ezra, this man that they call for to read the law to them,
is someone we meet in another book of the Bible named after him, the book of Ezra.
And we find out there that Ezra was someone who had special skill and ability in interpreting God's word.
He was someone who loved the scriptures, and he spent his time studying them.
And not only did he know them well, but he also had a special gift and ability to be able to tell people what it was that God was trying to say.
He had a special ability to interpret and apply so that the people of Israel could hear God's word,
and they would know exactly what it was that they were supposed to do.
Not just that we do, we have the people coming as one whole entity demanding to hear God's word,
but we see how serious they are about it.
In verse three, we see that they are reading for hours.
In verse seven, we find out that they are standing during this time, remaining in their places.
They are giving up everything that's going on.
They're devoting all of their time.
They're putting everything else aside, just like they did with the wall,
so that they could hear God's word.
If you are familiar with Chick-fil-A,
you know that if there's a new Chick-fil-A store that opens up,
there's often the first 100 event.
And the first 100 event is when the first 100 people to come and show up at that Chick-fil-A
receive free Chick-fil-A for an entire year.
And so that means that they get one Chick-fil-A, they get 52 Chick-fil-A meals.
They get a card with those meals on it, and once a week, they can go and have their Chick-fil-A.
And so this is an event.
If you look it up on Google, you'll see pictures of people camping out overnight.
You'll set up your tent in the parking lot of the new Chick-fil-A.
You have to be very careful about how you leave or whether you leave.
People come by to check to make sure you have the right number,
that you're supposed to be there, that you're not sneaking in.
And so people who do this, I had friends who did this in seminary when a new Chick-fil-A opened up.
You have to set aside everything else that's going on.
Part of the reason I didn't do it when I was in seminary and there was a new Chick-fil-A that opened up was I had a job.
And I couldn't just quit that.
I had classes I was supposed to attend.
But I had friends who figured out everything they needed to do to rearrange their lives so that they could pause for a day
because they were so hungry for Chick-fil-A.
And what we're seeing here in chapter 8 is the first 100 Chick-fil-A of the Old Testament.
God's people set aside everything that could get in the way.
They stopped doing what they would normally do.
And instead they stand for hours to hear what it is that God has for them.
They're hungry in this situation not for Chick-fil-A.
But they are hungry for God's word.
And while they're not camping out in tents, they are willing to stand for seven and eight hours
so that they can hear everything that God has for them.
And so the point is this.
When God's people turn back to him,
when God's people turn away from sin in repentance back to him and his mission,
they also return to his word.
When God's people return to God, they also return to his word.
If we love God, then we will love his word.
We will be hungry for his word.
We will be willing to make sacrifices and put things aside
so that we can hear exactly what God has to say to us.
By the way, that's what you've done this morning.
It's daylight savings time.
I don't remember if it's starting or ending.
I don't keep track of those sorts of things.
I just know if I'm losing an hour of sleep or gaining an hour of sleep.
I know this morning that I lost an hour of sleep.
And I know that you all did as well.
And yet you are here this morning.
And part of the reason you're here this morning is to hear what God has to say.
And so this is part of what God's people do.
We gather every Sunday so that we would know what it is that God has for us in his word.
The question for us then is this.
Are we hungry for God's word?
Are we hungry to hear what God has to say to us?
It does not mean that we have to be theology nerds.
This does not mean that we have to go to seminary.
This does not mean that we have to be the smartest person in the room
and have a comprehensive knowledge of the Bible.
What it does mean is that we recognize that God in his word has given us the way of life.
That these words that God gives to us are the very words of life.
That is the question.
Do we know that?
Do we hunger after it?
Now there's many reasons that the people of Israel here in this chapter could be returning to God's word.
But one would be this.
They know what they've suffered.
They know that they've been in exile.
And the reason they were in exile is they wouldn't listen.
God had come and told them the right way to live.
He had sent prophets to them over and over telling them to walk in the way of righteousness
and not in the way of sin.
And they had ignored him.
And so these people in Israel knew how painful it had been to turn away from God's word.
They knew from real life experience.
They knew from the reality of exile in Babylon
what happens when they forgot and ignored the way of life.
Now God's word gives us life.
It gives us life in at least two different ways.
There's all sorts of things we could say about God's word.
And so as I say sometimes, I'm not going to say everything, but I'll say something.
And so we need to keep in mind two categories.
That when we think about the work of God and we think about the work of Jesus,
there are two things.
There's God as creator.
And there's God as redeemer.
There's God as creator.
God as redeemer.
We often tend to focus very heavily on God as redeemer.
God as our redeemer is the one who tells us in his word
that his wrath is being poured out on the world for our sins.
That full and final justice is coming.
And so our only hope, the only way we can avoid God's punishment and his wrath for our sins
is through Jesus and his work on the cross.
And so God's word is the way to life because it shows us that Christ is our redeemer.
It shows us our sin.
It reminds us that if we do not turn away from it in repentance,
we will face God's judgment as well.
But God's word also reminds us that he is our creator.
So the Bible does not just tell us about the reality of sin and God's redemption from it.
God's word also tells us about the right way to live in the world that God made.
We may acknowledge that we're sinners.
We may be repenting constantly every day of the ways that we offend God.
And yet we lack wisdom.
God has made the world in a specific way.
And so he tells us in the Bible how it is that we can live lives that are in the grain of the world.
He tells us the ways that we honor people rather than using them.
He tells us the way that we manage our resources.
He tells us the right way for families to be organized and run.
He tells us how we speak well about other people and to other people.
And so God's word is not just the way to life in terms of redemption,
but it's also the way to life because it shows us the way that the world works.
So that we can live in a way that's wise.
And so our question was, are we hungry for God's word?
Our application is that we need to get into God's word.
We need to know God's word.
Again, that doesn't mean that we're theology nerds.
It doesn't mean that you have to go to seminary.
It doesn't mean that you have to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible.
But it does mean that we take time in our lives to hear what God is saying to us.
Now there's lots of different techniques I could give you, different strategies.
And I will give you some examples.
But techniques and strategies and examples are worthless to us if we don't have some conviction.
So I'll tell you a story.
I had a friend in seminary.
One of my best friends.
Actually, some of you met him.
He was here for my installation service.
And he took a Greek class in seminary.
And he got very excited about Greek.
And he decided, I really want to become very good at understanding Greek.
And I know that I know it well now because I just took this class.
And I don't want to lose that knowledge.
I want to continue to grow and become good at Greek.
So he set up office hours with a professor.
And he sat down with this professor.
And he said, I want to be really good at Greek.
Tell me what techniques I need.
What practices.
What habits I need to become really good at Greek.
And this professor looked at him and he said, I don't want to give you techniques and practices and habits primarily.
He said, I want you to have a conviction.
And I want you to have the conviction that you, when you become a pastor, will never get up and stand before God's people and tell them what God has to say without first looking at the original languages.
And that's what you're going to need if you want to continue to be good at Greek.
You need a conviction much more than you need any practices or habits or techniques.
And then he proceeded to tell him some practices and habits and techniques.
But the point is this.
We can have the greatest intentions.
We can have the greatest strategies.
We can have the greatest Bible reading plan.
But all of that is worthless.
Unless we love God and his word.
Unless we have the conviction that God's word is the way to life.
Now if we have that conviction, there are many things that we can do.
We don't have to become experts.
But you can come here on a Sunday morning and make it a habit that you are here every Sunday to hear what God has to say.
We have a magazine out in our narthex called Table Talk that is meant for people who have not gone to seminary.
The intention is that normal, regular, everyday people who want to hear from God can understand his word better.
We have Bible studies that we can come to here at the church where we can discuss and work together to figure out what God's word is.
There's not a right way, but there's many different ways.
And what we need is a conviction that pushes us towards those things.
The conviction that God's word is good and his word is the only way to life.
That's the conviction that these people have here.
That's why the word people is repeated nine times.
Because it's the people who are hungry to hear from God.
Now it's not just our desire that makes the Bible hard.
The Bible itself also can be hard.
Even if we have the greatest conviction.
Even if we are to our greatest core convinced and know that we need to have God's word.
There's still times we read it and we really don't know what's going on, if we're honest.
And so that's why I mentioned at the beginning, sometimes we wonder if God is really trying to speak so clearly,
why is it so confusing sometimes?
Why is the Bible difficult to understand?
Well, that's a problem that these people encountered as well.
If you look at verses 7 and 8, actually first at verse 4.
So Ezra's reading in verse 4 and he's surrounded by a group of other men.
We're not told exactly why in verse 4 these other men are there,
but my guess is that it's similar to the reason we see in verses 7 and 8.
Ezra is surrounded by Levites
because he needs a lot of people to help him explain the Bible.
Ezra's talking, but most likely these men are circulating in small groups.
They're maybe having some breakout sessions and in smaller sections helping people understand what God is saying.
In fact, it literally says here in verse 7,
they helped the people to understand.
And then in verse 8,
they read from the book, from the law of God clearly,
and they gave the sense.
So again, the people understood the reading.
In other words,
people in the Old Testament had trouble understanding the Old Testament.
I'll say that again.
People in the Old Testament had trouble understanding the Old Testament.
And God put it in His Word.
So God knows that sometimes it's difficult to understand the Bible.
And He knows it so well that He put it in the Bible
that sometimes it's difficult to understand.
In fact, Peter, in 2 Peter at one point,
talks about how he thinks that Paul is difficult to understand.
And so if you find the Bible at times difficult to understand and follow,
you are not alone.
Other people find it difficult to understand.
And even more important than that,
God knows that sometimes it can be difficult to understand the Bible.
He doesn't shame us for that.
He doesn't condemn us for that.
Instead, we have people here in this chapter of the Bible
who are helping other people understand the Bible.
Now that still doesn't answer our question.
We know that the Bible is difficult to understand.
God knows that the Bible is difficult to understand.
He acknowledges that in the Bible that it's difficult to understand.
Why is it difficult to understand?
These are people who are living in the 5th century.
And they are reading books that were written by Moses.
These are people living in the 5th century.
They're reading books written by Moses hundreds of years previously.
The Bible is difficult to understand, partially.
It's partially difficult to understand because of our sin, right?
But it's also difficult to understand
because God is passionate about speaking to a specific people
at a specific time, at a specific place.
And so imagine for a second that there was a new book of the Bible.
By the way, there will not be.
But let's imagine there was one written to us at Cheyenne Mountain.
And there was an apostle writing to us.
Just to be clear, the apostolic office has ceased.
So this is a mind experiment, a thought experiment.
There are no more apostles.
But let's imagine an apostle wrote us a letter.
And they talked about something that was going on in our community.
And they mentioned that so-and-so had tweeted several times
about this issue in our community.
And we had all seen the tweets.
And then we had gotten onto our iPhones to read about it.
And this was discussed.
And this had become a problem.
And so we need to understand how the gospel
applied to this issue in our community
that people were tweeting about
and we were all reading on our iPhones about.
And this became part of the canon.
And then 300 years later,
there's a group of people reading this book.
Are they going to be able to understand it clearly?
No, they're going to need a Bible commentary.
And this commentary is going to have a footnote
explaining what it is that people in 2019
were doing this thing called tweeting.
And this is what the apostle was trying to say.
And they had these things called iPhones.
And there was this company named Apple.
And it was very prominent.
There were many people, mostly wealthy people.
But the wealthy people who lived in 2019
would own these iPhones.
And so this was causing trouble in the church
in Colorado Springs at Cheyenne Mountain.
And it was stirring up division.
And we don't have iPhones anymore in 2300.
And we don't tweet.
But the point is this,
that God is making this point
that we can apply to us today.
God's word is hard to understand
because God's passionate about communicating
to a specific people
at a specific place in a specific time.
And so if he has written to a people
and we are not in that specific place
in that specific time,
it's going to be challenging for us
to translate it.
It's in a different language.
And so we're going to need people
who have studied those places
and those times to explain
and help us to understand.
And so that's true today,
but it was also true in the Old Testament.
Now I've given you a bunch of bad news
that the Bible is difficult to understand.
Here's the good news.
The Bible is difficult to understand
because it is different
from other religious traditions
and religious books.
Other religious traditions
and religious books
are written primarily at one time
in one place
in one language.
Instead,
the Bible has been written
at many times
and many places
in multiple languages.
Hebrew in the Old Testament,
Greek in the New Testament,
some Aramaic in the Old Testament.
And so the point is this.
The fact that the Bible
is difficult to understand
is a result of the fact
that God can speak clearly
one message
in different cultures
and different places
at different times.
And so as we look at these things
that are difficult to understand,
that is actually something
that gives us reason
to believe
and have faith
and take confidence
in God's Word.
Because God's Word
is not the product
of one culture.
It is not the product
of one way of thinking.
Instead,
it is the product
of one God
who is speaking
clearly to His people
over and over again.
One single message.
It's a message
that's not tied
to a specific group.
And so this is part
of the reason
the Bible's difficulty
is part of the reason
that we trust it.
It's part of the reason
that we have confidence in it.
It's part of the reason
that we believe it.
Because we know
that it's not simply
something for people
of our socioeconomic class
and our race
in this specific place
in Colorado Springs.
To double down
on it even more,
so other religious traditions,
their books primarily
are written at one time
in one place
in one language,
other religious traditions
are also still centered
geographically
in the place
where they started.
But because God's Word
is for multiple people
at multiple places
and multiple times,
the center of Christianity
throughout history
continues to shift.
We're reading a book
from the ancient Near East.
The ancient Near East
is no longer
the center of Christianity.
If you read the New Testament,
you're reading a book
that was written
in the area of the Mediterranean
in Asia Minor.
That is no longer
the center of Christianity.
The center of Christianity
right now
is actually moving
to the global south,
which is South America,
Africa.
And so as we
in North America
read it,
we are not reading
a North American book.
And as people
in South America
read the Bible,
they are not reading
a South American book.
Instead,
they are reading
God's Word
that He has given
over time
in different places,
in different ways,
in different languages.
And so that is the reason
we believe
and have faith
and confidence
in what God
has said to us.
Because He is the only God
who is powerful enough
to speak
in different languages,
in different places,
in different times.
So when we come up
against the difficulty
and challenge
of God's Word,
it is a reminder
to us
of God's power.
He is the powerful,
multicultural God
who can speak
into those things.
And the Bible
is still hard
to understand.
One of my mom's
favorite movies
that we watched
over and over
growing up
was called
A League of Their Own.
And if you are familiar
with A League of Their Own,
you know it is a movie
about what happened
in World War II
when all the men
went away
and the women
were left.
What were they going
to do to fill
some of these jobs?
And one of the things
they did was start
their own baseball league.
And so replacing
the men who had left
who were no longer
playing baseball,
they replaced it
with women's leagues.
And there comes
a point at the movie
when one of the main
characters, Dottie,
decides she wants
to quit the team.
She is tired
of playing baseball.
And so her coach,
Tom Hanks,
comes up to her
and confronts her
about this
as she's heading out
and he says,
sneaking out like this,
quitting,
you'll regret it
for the rest
of your life.
Baseball is what
gets inside you.
It's what lights you up.
You can't deny that.
And Dottie says,
it just got too hard.
And without skipping a beat,
Tom Hanks says,
it is supposed to be hard.
If it wasn't hard,
everyone would do it.
The hard is what
makes it great.
If we are Christians
and we love God
and we love his word,
then we can say
that his word
is what gets inside us.
It is what lights us up.
And it is supposed
to be hard.
But it's the hard
that makes it great.
It's the hard
that reminds us
that this is a powerful God
who speaks
in different languages.
That our God
does not just
speak English.
And he's not just
in North America.
but he's more powerful
than any of those things.
Not only is he passionate
about speaking to people
in different places
at different times,
speaking directly
to people
in a specific culture,
but showing up
in a particular time
and culture
and place
was God's
always his intention.
We've talked a lot
about the word
as what's been written.
But if you were paying
attention in our service today,
you know our New Testament
reading talked about
a different word.
Not about a word
that was written down,
but about a word
that came
and became flesh.
God's not just
passionate about
speaking
in a specific time
and place.
But he actually
sent his son
to be a real human
in a specific time
and a specific place
so that he could
speak to us
and we could understand.
The incarnation,
Jesus becoming man,
is the greatest example
of God
taking his word
and giving it
in a specific way
to specific people.
It's God's pattern
to always pursue
his people
and speak to them.
And so that's why
we find out in Colossians
that Jesus
was God's greatest
communication to us.
It was the way
that he made himself
visible to us
that we could see him.
Paul says this
in Colossians 1.15,
he is the image
of the invisible God,
the firstborn
of all creation.
In other words,
as one person
has put it,
God does not hide
from us
in the ways
that we hide from him.
God has shown himself
to us,
he's revealed himself
to us,
that Jesus
is the way
that we know
who God is.
And so God
doesn't just put
his words
into our language
and our time.
God also puts himself
into our place
and our language
and our time.
Jesus spoke
a specific language.
He lived
in a specific place
at a specific time.
And that is
our hope.
That is what gives us
reason to believe
and have faith
and confidence
in God's word.
Not just because
the words itself
were in different places
and different times,
but because God
gave us his word
at a specific place
and a specific time.
And that word
was Jesus.
Jesus is the one,
while we've talked
about creation
and redemption,
he's the one
who provides redemption,
that God speaks
to us
because we are not
alienated from him
anymore.
He speaks to us
because Jesus
has taken the full
penalty for our sins
as God pours out
the wrath
and justice
on this earth.
He does not
pour it out on us
if we're following
after his word,
if we're following
after Jesus
who became
flesh for us.
God continues
to do that
even today.
Jesus is still
interceding for us,
but God knows
we need specific
things at specific
times,
things that are
physical that we
can understand.
That's what we're
going to transition
to now.
The Lord's Supper
is one of the ways
that God speaks
to us clearly.
It's one of the ways
that he communicates
to us.
It's one of the ways
that he reminds us
of who Jesus is
and the fact that
he is the one
who brings our
redemption.
And so we're
going to go to
our closing hymn
for a couple
verses and then
we're going to
come to the
Lord's table.
And I'm going to
pray for us now
first, so please
pray with me.
Dear Father in
heaven, we thank
you for your word
that you have
spoken clearly to
us.
We ask that you
would stir up a
desire within us
that we would
long to return to
you and your
word.
That you remind
us of your power,
that it's your
word that gives
us confidence and
faith and
belief in you.
We ask all these
things in the name
of your son.
Amen.