Pursue Spiritual Maturity (Hebrews 5:11–6:12)

Introduction

We’re continuing our series in the book of Hebrews, and today, we’re discussing pursuing spiritual maturity. As we’ll see, spiritual maturity is not just claiming to have been a Christian for a long time. It’s a process in which you become more like Jesus and less like yourself. Christian, pursue spiritual maturity.

Back in my slimmer days, I got into running and started training for my first and only half-marathon, a 13.1-mile run. Somehow, yes, I completed one of those. I trained for months for this half-marathon.

When the day of the half-marathon came, I was ready. I had been disciplined for many months, had shed a lot of weight, and was prepared for the run.

I got past the first part and then hit a stretch where I was on automatic. I was good until about mile 12. I felt something give in my knee and could barely walk. I got that far and wasn’t going to stop. I hobbled my way for the last mile across the finish line.

I share that story because our spiritual life in Christ is like training for a marathon. We need discipline in pursuing spiritual maturity because there will come that moment when the world gives out beneath us, and we need the willpower that comes through spiritual maturity to keep persevering in Christ.

How can we be Christians who grow in spiritual maturity? We’ll see that today as we look at Hebrews 5:11-6:12.

Scripture Reading

Hebrews 5:11–6:12 CSB

11 We have a great deal to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. 12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. 13 Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. 1 Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, 2 teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And we will do this if God permits. 4 For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, 6 and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. 7 For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned. 9 Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them. 11 Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, 12 so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

Pray

We have described the book of Hebrews as sounding like a sermon and the writing as a sermonic letter. As we have been approaching this text in Hebrews 5:11-6:12, we hear from a pastor who deeply cares and loves his flock. When you care for someone, you’re not afraid to give them warnings.

This text is full of love from a pastor to his church, warning them about their immaturity and calling for them to grow spiritually for the church's good.

The strongest warning the pastor gives that we will go over is found in Hebrews 6:4-8. It will get us into a conversation about true believers and false believers. When we say false believers, we mean individuals who may have made some profession of faith in their lives, but their actions show a life that is still the same as before. They say one thing with their lips, but their life shows something completely different.

Separating true believers from false believers may not feel comfortable. But making you feel good is not the end goal. The goal is to have a church full of people whose hearts are genuinely regenerated by Christ and transformed by his love and grace.

But when we get to Hebrews 6:9-12, there is encouragement for us because true believers will press on to be mature believers in Christ. That will be our call to action and our goal, to make every effort to grow as Christians in Jesus Christ because he is our Savior and our Lord.

Before we discuss the warning, we will examine the pastor's diagnosis of his church. The writer of Hebrews warns of a serious problem: Many church members are spiritual infants.

Spiritual immaturity is not just a problem. It is a danger. That brings us to the first key point in this text:

I. Spiritual Immaturity Is a Danger to Faith

The pastor describes the believers in Hebrews 5:11-14 as Christians who were not making progress in their faith. For instance, he says in Hebrews 5:12,

Hebrews 5:12 CSB

12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food.

He describes these believers in Hebrews 5:13 as people stuck in a spiritual infancy. Instead of growing into mature followers of Christ,

A. The believers had become dull of hearing and spiritually sluggish.

They should have been a church of mature Christians growing in their understanding of Jesus. This implies that if you follow Jesus Christ, you’ll want to know more about him.

Instead, this group of believers was becoming indifferent to the Word of God. They needed someone to teach them the basics of the faith repeatedly.

Being spiritually sluggish means this church lacked the motivation to grow in its faith. It waited for others to tell it what to do.

B. The believers were still on spiritual milk when they should be eating solid food.

Rather than leading others in faith, they still depended on the basic teachings about Jesus. They were unable or unwilling to digest anything more profound.

What is spiritual milk? He describes it for us in Hebrews 5:13, where he says,

Hebrews 5:13 CSB

13 Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant.

The message of “living on milk” describes the basic message of the gospel. It’s the most incredible message ever, but it’s an entry-level one. The message of the cross and salvation, repentance, faith, and forgiveness are all essential, but they are elementary things to the faith.

Christians are expected to move from the gospel’s elementary stage to its meatier message of righteousness in Christ.

C. Mature believers train their senses to discern good and evil.

As Christians develop from the gospel's spiritual milk, righteousness becomes a practical outworking that moves them toward holiness, discernment, and obedience to Jesus Christ. In other words, the gospel will drive you toward holy living.

Christian spiritual growth is like athletic development, where spiritual muscles grow in discernment and faith, developing in righteousness and shunning evil.

D. If we do not grow, we become vulnerable to deception and are like weak children.

Spiritual maturity, which is moving from the spiritual infancy phase of the gospel to being mature in faith and concerned with holiness and spiritual discernment, is for the church's good. This is the message we hear clearly in Ephesians 4:14-15, where he says,

Ephesians 4:14–15 CSB

14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.

Spiritual maturity in the Christian life is essential to building a church that does not fall into worldly deceit but is transformed by Christ and moves toward holiness and righteousness in him. As Colossians 2:7 says, a spiritually mature church is “rooted and built up in (Jesus Christ) and established in the faith.” Being rooted and built up in Christ means we have a foundation in the gospel and are being built up in righteousness.

Failing to mature is something that even the world recognizes is a problem. There are five frequently cited milestones for maturing into an adult: having a full-time job, being financially independent, living on your own, getting married, and having a child. In 1980, 64% of 21-year-olds were working full-time. In 2021, only 39% of 21-year-olds were working full-time. In 1980, 42% of 21-year-olds were financially independent of their parents. Forty years later, in 2021, only 25% of 21-year-olds were financially independent of their parents.[1]

Today, one in three adults ages 18 to 34 still live in their parent's home. They call this phenomenon the Failure to Launch syndrome, where young men and women have difficulty launching into adulthood's milestones.[2]

Similarly, Christians can experience a “Failure to Launch” into spiritual maturity. We all are spiritual infants at one time, feeding on the milk of the gospel, and if you are new in the faith, that’s where you should be. But there is a time for us to launch into spiritual maturity, and that is for our good. The church must grow deep in Christ before it can grow wide and reach others.

We are called to be a people who pursue spiritual maturity. That brings us to our next point, which is both an encouragement to true believers and a warning to others:

II. True Believers Press On to Maturity, But Those Who Fall Away Were Never Truly Saved

The people the pastor of Hebrews is talking to are not people he assumes are falling away. He will encourage those who are genuinely in the faith.

As we go over this, It’s important to remember that he will compare true and false believers, which he has already done in this sermon / sermonic letter. He’s going to start with,

A. The encouragement to true believers: True believers will press on to maturity.

We’re moving from “True believers should grow in Christ " to “True believers will grow in Christ.” The focus is not on your efforts but on God’s work within you.

He will start in Hebrews 6:1, saying, “Let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity,” showing the natural trajectory of a heart that the Holy Spirit has regenerated through faith in Christ. Maturity is the natural trajectory for true believers.

Hebrews 6:1-2 spells out foundational beliefs that every Christian should know, saying your maturity in Christ will be built on these things: “repentance from dead works, faith in God, teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” To sum up, as you fix your eyes on Jesus, repentance, faith, baptism, ministry, resurrection, and final judgment are foundational lessons to build your faith upon. That’s your new believers class right there.

But Hebrews 6:3 gives us encouragement with these simple words,

Hebrews 6:3 CSB

3 And we will do this if God permits.

Everything good in our Christian life happens according to God's willingness and grace. Scripture shows that God desires to build you up in the faith. If you genuinely believe in Jesus Christ, God will build you up in him. True believers will press on to maturity in Christ.

But then he gives,

B. The warning to false believers: Those who fall away were never truly saved.

Hebrews 6:4-6 says this,

Hebrews 6:4–6 CSB

4 For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, 6 and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt.

I want to begin explaining these verses with a story:

In 2007, the Lord was doing incredible things in my life. I often start my testimony in the fall of 2006. During that time, faith in Jesus Christ took hold of my life as an adult.

But if you ask me when God saved me, I believe it happened as a child in church. I grew up in church and vividly remember looking at a cross and crying, understanding that God had done something incredible for me on that cross. I don’t remember how old I was, but I know I was young. I understand why Jesus says we should have a childlike faith. My faith in Jesus was in its purest form as a child.

I identify strongly with the parable of the prodigal son. If you take the parable literally, the prodigal son was in God’s household first and stepped into the world before returning. Like the prodigal son, as I approached adulthood, I went into the world to see what else was there for me. It wasn’t good. During that time, I wouldn’t say that I rejected Jesus as God, but I certainly wasn’t thinking about him. I focused on worldly things and tried to live like the rest of the world.

When I returned to faith in Christ, I read through the New Testament and came to this verse in Hebrews 6. I read the verses I’m preaching today, and they rocked my world. I got nervous because when you hold this verse in isolation, it sounds like one can lose salvation and never return to it.

I went to my pastor and said, “This verse sounds like my story, and it sounds like I lost my salvation.” I was legitimately scared. Like the verse says, wasn’t I someone who was attempting to be renewed to repentance?

Like a good pastor, he reassured me, saying that he felt someone could not lose their salvation and that God would put someone to death before they would ever reach that threshold.

I don’t know if that reassured me. I certainly felt saved. I grew up Pentecostal, although, at that point, I was Baptist. Some Pentecostals believe a person can lose their salvation, and they would point to a verse like this in Hebrews 6:4 as proof, saying, “See! It says it right here.”

However, this is a misunderstanding of Hebrews 6:4. The key thing to remember is that Scripture verses do not live in isolation. They are not floating in mid-air, detached from everything that came before and after them. Scripture verses are not fortune cookies. Scripture lives within a context, and every verse must be understood within its context.

The writer in Hebrews has already made the argument in Hebrews 4 that it is not enough to be surrounded by the work of God. The work of God must happen within you. He used the example of the Israelites in the wilderness, who were surrounded by the works of God but still did not have genuine faith. Because genuine faith did not exist in their hearts, they did not receive God’s promises in the Promised Land.

In Hebrews 5, he diverts a bit to speak about Jesus Christ as our perfect high priest. That brings us to Hebrews 6, where he is still within the flow of thought that he was in Hebrews 4. In Hebrews 4, he gives encouragement and warnings, which we see again in Hebrews 6.

Hebrews 6:4 depicts a picture of a false believer. The person he describes makes some profession of faith, but not every profession of faith is genuine. A genuine profession of faith will result in a life of faith over time.

Hebrews 6:4-5 describes a man like Judas, one of the twelve disciples. He certainly made some profession to follow Jesus. God’s work surrounded him. The enlightenment of Jesus surrounded him, and the taste of God’s work and the work of the Holy Spirit was around him. You could go through the list of Hebrews 6:4-5 and put Judas’ name there.

Judas fits into the mold of a false believer. There was no repentance in his life, not even in his end. I say this gently, but suicide is not repentance. Suicide can be done out of anger or fear, but repentance doesn’t result in killing yourself.

Judas never expressed a belief that Jesus was God in the flesh. He never showed a heart regenerated by the Holy Spirit. All his suicide did was quicken his path to be face-to-face with the God he just betrayed.

A false believer may have words that say one thing, but their life shows a continual rejection of Jesus Christ. That brings us to this,

C. There is a point where the rejection of Christ is final.

Every one of us will come to a point where we either accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord or reject him, and by rejecting him, reject the salvation that he brings.

That is the warning that the writer of Hebrews brings in Hebrews 6:6-8, where a person has shown continual contempt for salvation, turned their back on God’s grace, and treated God’s grace like a good-luck charm.

They’ve told themselves a lie, that they are good with God because they had a moment where they repeated some words from a preacher. Maybe they gave money to a church and believed they were good with God. However, false professions and works can eventually become a hardness of the heart. When one is convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit, it is essential to turn to Jesus Christ. A heart that continually rejects Christ is not a good place to be.

Hebrews 6:7-8 gives us a short parable to understand a true believer versus a false believer. It says,

Hebrews 6:7–8 CSB

7 For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned.

The ground in this parable is the person receiving the seed of the gospel. Over time, there is a working of the ground, and the production from the ground is a product of the effectiveness of the seed of the gospel.

On the one hand, there is the true believer, who produces a life of Christian righteousness that is in keeping with the gospel.

On the other hand, there is the false believer, who produces evidence in his life that the gospel had no effect. The same thorns and thistles of his life are still there.

Faith in Jesus Christ is powerful and has a real effect on people. The Holy Spirit using the gospel's message in your life is powerful. Faith will never leave you the same when there is a genuine heart regeneration.

But if you are a true believer this morning, there is good news for you, as we see in this final point,

III. True Believers Show Perseverance

After strongly warning about false believers, the pastor again encourages true believers. He is confident that the people he is writing to are not these false believers. He reassures them that,

A. There are better things accompanying salvation for true believers, and God remembers our faithfulness.

He says this in Hebrews 6:9-10,

Hebrews 6:9–10 CSB

9 Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them.

True believers have a better life because salvation is better than anything else. As we move from false to true believers, there is one path for the genuine believer in Jesus Christ: pursue spiritual maturity!

Pursuing spiritual maturity impacts the church. We started in Hebrews 5:12, saying that you should be spiritually mature to teach others in the church. In Hebrews 6:10, he refers to God’s faithfulness in not forgetting your work, but the work he talks about is a work designed for the church. He says that God will not forget "the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them.” The saints are a reference to the church.

Your spiritual maturity has a direct impact on the church. Your brothers and sisters in Catalyst Church benefit when you grow in the Lord and live your life for him. Don’t think that you have no impact here. Your walk with Christ tremendously impacts the people around you, especially in the church. We are all better when we are living for Jesus.

To pursue spiritual maturity, he’s going to encourage us to,

B. Look to examples of faithful and true believers and follow their perseverance in Christ.

He says this through Hebrews 6:12 by telling them to “be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.” Discipleship is a process of imitation. The world will tell you to be individuals. The Bible says to copy those who love Jesus and walk in the faith. This is why Paul says in Philippians 3:17,

Philippians 3:17 CSB

17 Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.

We look to the spiritually mature people around us as people to learn from and imitate. But this is not a blind imitation. He says to pay careful attention. We learn from the good we see, the imitation of Christ, not the bad. People are fallen beings, even the best of us.

We look to those who imitate Jesus Christ to learn how to live in Christ. This is why Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 11:1

1 Corinthians 11:1 CSB

1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

Ultimately, Jesus is the one we look to imitate.

Maybe God is calling you to find someone wise in Christ, someone faithfully following Jesus, and learn from them. Or maybe God is calling you to spiritual maturity so you can help someone else learn how to imitate Christ in their own life.

Ultimately, as true believers, God is calling us to follow Jesus no matter what. There are examples around us and in Christian history of people who kept following Jesus no matter what.

Here’s the thing: Let’s add our names to that list. Let us add our names to the list of people who persevere in Jesus, a heavenly list of individuals who follow Jesus no matter what because he is worthy to imitate, follow, and worship for the rest of our lives to eternity.

Conclusion

Spiritual immaturity is dangerous. We must grow in Jesus Christ. True believers pursue spiritual maturity. They don’t remain stagnant. A life genuinely transformed by Jesus will persevere. That’s good news because despite what you are facing, God will get you through it.

If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ:

Examine your spiritual growth. Are you pursuing spiritual maturity, or are you staying stagnant?

Commit to pursuing spiritual maturity through discipleship, learning from God’s word, and connecting with strong, faithful believers.

If you’re not sure if you are a genuine believer in Jesus Christ:

Don’t assume that you are saved because you had a moment in the past.

Come to Christ today! Trust him fully and bear fruit in your life in keeping with repentance.

If you’re struggling, be encouraged. Know that God will finish the good work he began in you. Let’s ask God for strength to persevere, a renewed hunger for spiritual growth, and an assurance of salvation in Christ alone.

Prayer

Last Song

Doxology

Numbers 6:24–26 CSB

24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you; 25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’

Jude 24–25 CSB

24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

You are dismissed. Have a great week in the Lord!

[1] Pew Research Center, “Young adults in the U.S. are reaching key life milestones later than in the past”: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/23/young-adults-in-the-u-s-are-reaching-key-life-milestones-later-than-in-the-past/

[2] Kiplinger, “Failure to Launch: When Young Adults Live With Parents”: https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/failure-to-launch-when-young-adults-live-with-parents

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Sermon Reflection Questions

What does spiritual maturity mean, according to the sermon?

According to Hebrews 5:12-14, what characterizes those who are spiritually immature?

What differentiates true believers from false believers?

Why is spiritual maturity necessary for individual believers and the church?

What practical steps does the sermon suggest for pursuing spiritual maturity?