Staying the Course

Taking government for granted

Here in Australia it can sometimes feel almost a bit like a sport to criticise the government. It almost doesn’t even matter if you’re preferred party is in power or not, we still love sinking the boot in whenever we can.

The government spends our hard earned taxes and when we want to access some of the services that they are so-called funding, we usually seem to have a hard time accessing it, and when we do, we still have to pay.

Now , sometimes the criticism has merit to it, and I’m not here to defend the government for any particular decision they may or may not have made, but yet , sometimes our criticisms blind us to the fact that here in Australia, we actually have it really good.

Regardless of which political party is in power, the truth is, there are social services available for those in need. Everyone has access to education and a health system, which, let’s be honest, is actually really good.

We pick holes in it, but we forget how good it is.

We actually do this with a lot of things. We have so many good things, that we fail to remember how good we have it.

Look at other countries. They would look with envy at the services that we have available here. And yet we just take them for granted.

It’s easy to take things for granted.

For those of you who have grown up in loving stable families… I’m going to assume that there have been times when you have taken for granted how good things are.

Or you look at people who need various assistance, maybe they get a house cleaner or gardener, and you look at them with envy, not realising what a blessing it is that you have the ability to do those things yourself.

Now, here’s the thing… the things I’ve just mentioned take work. Having a country that provides good social services means paying your taxes. Having a stable family requires working hard on your relationships with family members. Not needing assistance means you need to use the body God has blessed you with.

When we take these things for granted, we can resent the effort we need to make.

The very same thing happens with our Christian journey.

You see, it is so easy to forget the amazing blessing it is to be a believer.

We can take our Christianity for granted. We forget how much of a blessing it is to know that you are loved, that you have a purpose, that you know that no matter how hard life gets, you are secure and you are part of something so much bigger.

We take it for granted because it can seem such a drag. We look at people outside the church… they don’t have any pressure to give of their money or time… there’s no pressure to stay Christ like… no pressure to do any of the spiritual disciplines.

Hebrew context

Well, in many ways this is the context in which we find the recipients of the book of Hebrews.

As I’ve explored throughout this series, we don’t know much about who this letter was written to, but we can deduce quite a bit by what the author is saying to them.

We can tell for example that they are believers who have experienced heavenly blessings - we’ll see that as we go. But yet, it’s also clear that they are taking it for granted.

What we’re going to see is the danger if we take it for granted.

In fact, it’s going to be stated in very very strong language which is going to be something we’re going to have to struggle a bit with as we try to figure out what it means - and I’ll get to that difficult part in due course.

But let’s go through the passage, because while we’ll find a very difficult passage coming up, the actual overall flow of the passage is clear.

So let me state up front what the author of Hebrews is trying to say in this passage - you can’t afford to take your Christian faith for granted… it is too valuable and there’s too much at stake.

Moving towards Maturity

So let’s start with where the bible reading started, that is, Hebrews 5:11.

It starts with the words… “we have much to say about this...”.

A reminder of where things left off last week. As a quick recap, Dale gave the message of Jesus as our high priest, the one who is able to sympathize with us because he has gone through all trials before us.

Actually one part which Dale didn’t get to was an exploration of this mysterious priest of Melchizedek. The intention is that we’ll look at that in a little more detail next week when we get to chapter 7.

It looks like the author of Hebrews is doing something similar. It’s like the author is saying - okay, I’ve got a lot more to say, but I need to stop right here because I’m noticing something very important.

You see, this author has noticed something about the people he’s writing to, and things are about to get very honest.

He wants to explain something which is moving beyond the basic elementary teaching, but these hearers have given up. They’re not even trying to understand.

Just look at verse 11 - he explicitly states: “you no longer try to understand”

He’s about to give them quite a serve in fact.

Verse 12 - you should be teachers, but you’re stuck on the basic stuff because you couldn’t even be bothered.

You should be on solid food but you’re just on milk - what’s going on?

How are we doing?

Well, let’s imagine this letter was being written to you.

Would that criticism be true of you?

When the author says: “you no longer try to understand” - would this be true of you.

When the author describes their spiritual nourishment being like milk rather than solid food, would you say this is true of you?

Now, for those of you who might be new in the faith, this might be entirely appropriate.

But for those who have been believers for some time, what sort of growth has there been?

Now, I’m hoping for many of you, you can honestly say… actually, there has been growth.

And it’s not saying you all need to go off to Bible College and get yourself some sort of degree.

But yet, even if there has been growth, I do wonder to what extent we don’t really push ourselves. We just listen to a Sunday sermon each week, that’s assuming we pay attention, and then let watch some short clips on Facebook and that’s it. Is there some room for some more effort in growing ourselves as Christians?

What might that look like? Well, I don’t want to get too prescriptive… because I think it will look slightly different for each of you. For those of you who are good at studying, you should be perhaps be pushing yourself harder than others.

But yet, based on this passage today, there is a knowledge component to our growth in Christian maturity. And this means, we should all to some degree be trying to push ourselves to understanding the Christian faith better.

It could be in bible studies, in fact, there is a lot to say about doing it together in community.

But it could also be in personal study. When you read your bible - write down the questions you have. Allow yourself to meditate on those questions. We live in a time when we have a lot of resources at hand, and so use those resources. Ask questions of others as well.

You see, as the author of Hebrews goes on to say in the first verse of chapter 6, we want to move beyond the elementary teaching about Christ and be taken forward to maturity.

Elementary teaching

Now, as we move into the second half of verse 1 and into verse 2, we actually get a list of six different aspects of teaching that the author of Hebrews considers to be the elementary teaching. It’s possible that this list was some sort of curriculum of new believers at the time.

Well, it’s not my intention to go through each one in detail, but let me just list them for you to see.

The list includes: repentance, faith, instructions about cleansing rites, laying on of hands, resurrection and judgement.

Now the one about cleansing rites might seem a little unfamiliar to most of us - it’s not exactly something we talk about much, but leaving that one aside for now, you can see how this is a good list of some of the basics of the Christian faith.

Well, the author is saying - we need to move beyond this.

We want to be stretching ourselves.

Falling away

So, the big question is why? Why is it so important that we keep pushing ourselves?

Well, verses 4 to 8 give us the reason - but it’s these verses which are the difficult verses that I was talking about earlier.

So let’s have a look at them now...

It starts with a very emphatic statement - “it is impossible...” but it’s not until verse 6 that we find out what it’s impossible to do. You see, before we get to what is impossible, we have four statements that describe the Christian experience.

He describes,

Those who have once been enlightened

Those who have tasted the heavenly gift

those who have shared in the Holy Spirit

and those who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age

We could think about each one in detail - but it’s pretty clear, these are genuine believers that the author is talking about. We’re not just talking about people who kind of got caught up in the whole church experience. We’re talking about people who have had a real experience with the Holy Spirit.

So, what of these genuine believers - well, if they have fallen away, it is impossible for them to be brought back to repentance.

And just to make it a bit more clear, the author goes on to say: “To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace”.

Well, let’s just think about this a moment, because it can get a little troubling.

Can you fall away?

One question that’s worth considering is what it means when it talks about those “who have fallen away”.

Some of you might have heard the phrase, “once saved, always saved”. If we hold to this idea, then we’ve got to ask if it’s even possible to fall away.

The “once saved, always saved” idea comes from a number of different passages throughout the bible which talk about the assurance of the believer. The end of Romans 8 for example talks about how nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus. If Jesus has called us, and his call is effective, then he will not let us go.

But yet here in Hebrews 6:6 we’re describing people who have fallen away.

There’s a few ways to think about this.

Not genuine to begin with?

Some suggest that the people who have fallen away weren’t genuine in the first place. That certainly doesn’t seem to be the case here, given that the author of Hebrews seems to go to a great length to describe the very real experience of the one who has fallen away.

Hypothetical?

Another suggestion is to take this idea of falling away as a hypothetical scenario - hypothetically if someone could fall away, then they couldn’t come back.

Turning back on God?

Or alternatively we have the suggestion that in fact you can fall away.

The problem with this suggestion is that we now have what can sound like a very troubling scenario.

You see, the passage is suggesting that if you do fall away, you can’t come back.

Now, perhaps you’re picturing at this point either someone you know, or possibly even yourself, where there was a genuine Christian experience, followed by a period of rebelliousness. For some, it might be very much a turning back on the faith that they had once held.

Is this the falling away that we’re talking about here, and if so, is that person now excluded from the faith?

Well, this phrase “fallen away”, in the Greek is written in what is referred to as an aorist tense, and for those who don’t have a comprehensive knowledge of grammar, the implication is that we are talking about a complete falling away, not just a period of rebelliousness.

Now I don’t want to over simplify this passage - I think this is one of the passages we really just need to sit with for a while.

But I would suggest that what is being talked about is not just people that have drifted away… rather people that have firmly declared a rejection of the faith. This people will not be brought back to repentance, not because they can’t, but because they won’t.

Some people have suggested this passage is describing an unforgivable sin. Personally, I don’t think this is helpful, nor is it warranted.

You see, the purpose is not to try and scare you by saying you might say something that will prevent you from ever coming back… rather the purpose is to say that you don’t want to neglect this beautiful thing that you have been given and forget who you are. Because a rejecting it is a massive danger.

An optimistic outlook

Well, despite this really scary scenario that this author paints for us, one where the faith has been rejected, the author of Hebrew however, is actually quite optimistic for the future of the recipients of this letter.

Remember, it started with quite a stinging criticism of them in their lack of desire to move forward, however, here in verse 9 it says “even though we speak like this, dear friends, we re convinced of better things in your case - the things that have to do with salvation”.

It’s good to remember this.

We’ve got this really important warning passage here in the middle of the book of Hebrews, and while we need to take it very seriously, we also need to remember the flip side of it as well, that is, that God is here to help us.

There is a danger, but there is also great hope and assurance that we can have.

Actually, while we are not covering these verses in detail today, if we were to drop down to verse 19, we read: “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure”.

The trick for us is to keep all of this in perspective.

We need to work hard on moving towards maturity, but, that should not be seen as some nasty task which is dull and boring. To the contrary, it should be seen as something fresh and invigorating.

Remember how I said how in verses 4 and 5, the author went to great lengths to describe that genuine experience of the believer.

That extended decision is there for a reason. It’s there to remind us how beautiful this thing is that we have got.

Let me quickly go back to it.

A beautiful gift

It starts by talking about being enlightened. It’s that experience of knowing that once you were in darkness. Now the deeper truths of this world have been open to you.

It then went to tasting the heavenly gift. I just love the use of this word ‘taste’. We’re activating new senses. There is a real tangible experience of something beyond this world. Something beyond the natural world, but yet touches us in the natural world.

It then goes to sharing in the Holy Spirit. This growth in knowledge is not just a straight book learning. It’s not like studying for an exam. If you want to use an exam metaphor, it would be more like sitting an exam with your tutor sitting next to you - that tutor being the Holy Spirit.

And then we finally get another use of the word ‘tasted’ - this time we get to taste the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age. There is power in what we are learning. We’re not just learning some obscure facts - we’re learning about things that has power in your life to change you.

Conclusion

And this is the point of all of this… This should not bring flashbacks to you sitting in class where you teacher tells you you need to study or you’re going to fail. And realistically you sit there and you know you have to, because you don’t want to fail, but you know that you’re just going to jam enough knowledge in that head of yours to pass the exam, but it won’t be long before it’s out of your head.

We’re not learning to pass an exam. We’re not learning to impress anyone or to big note ourselves.

We’re learning because we have been so captured by the amazing blessing that we have received that we just can’t help ourselves. We want to move out of the darkness and taste the good things that God has for us.

It is so easy to take for granted the good things God has given us.

But I want to urge you to press into it.

Think about ways in which you can dig deeper. Yes there is a danger if you do take it for granted, but there is actually something even more amazing when you dig deeper.

Let me pray...