Infants: New or Immature Christians

Introduction: Babies Need Attention

You know what is crazy about having your first child? Baby is born, you spend a couple of days in the hospital unless you have complications. And when everything is all said and done, they let you walk out the doors with a child.

They make you sit in that mandatory class which does not make you feel any more prepared than you were before you got there. The only thing they watch you do is put the baby in the car seat and get everything buckled right. You can buckle a seat belt. You should be able to raise a child. NEGATIVE GHOST RIDER!

But you get home and somehow you survive. And by survive, I mean mama is Wonder Woman.

Babies need alot of attention and care. They can’t feed themselves. They can’t do anything in order to take care of themselves. If you left a baby by itself, they would die.

The same is true of spiritual infants. They need attention. They need protection. They have to be taught what the Word of God says and what it means. They need to be taught good habits of following Christ.

Recognizing Spiritual Infants

Characteristics of Spiritual Infants:

Ignorance about what they need spiritually and what the Bible says about life and the purpose of a Christian.

Belief that Christians make no mistakes; unrealistic expectations of themselves and others.

A worldly perspective about life with some spiritual truth mixed in.

Mixing some Christianity with some other religions but not knowing it.

What Spiritual Infants say:

“I believe in Jesus, but my church is when I’m in the woods, or fishing.”

“I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.”

“I gave my life to Jesus and I go to church, but I don’t need to be close to other people.”

“I didn’t know the Bible said that.”

New believers need to be discipled by a mature believer.

2 Timothy 2:2 “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”

I don’t think I need to spend too much time urging you to make sure you are teaching those who are infants in their walk with Christ, what it means to follow Christ.

The church has been responsible for creating alot of spiritual orphans. We bring them into the Kingdom of God, but then we want to toss them out into the world and hope they figure out how to feed themselves, clothe themselves, and walk.

Hopefully, someone will come by and adopt them and raise them in following Christ.

Why is the church so bad at this? Why do many fail to raise spiritual infants into adults?

The church is filled with spiritual infants with no spiritual parents to raise them.

Turn to Hebrews 5:11-14. This morning we’re going to see the impairment of the immature, the methods of the mature, and the compulsion to change.

Hebrews 5:11–14 “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

The Impairment of the Immature

The writer has just finished telling them how Jesus is the greater High Priest and every high priest in the Old Testament was pointing to. In the midst of this, he refers to the first priest mentioned in the history of God’s people Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is this figure who shows up in the life of Abraham. Abraham gives a tithe of his victories in battle to God through this priest. And now the writer of Hebrews brings him up as the order or the lineage of Jesus Christ’s priesthood.

And he stops and says, “I have so much I can tell you about this, but you’re not mature enough to hear it.”

“dull of hearing” — slow, sluggish,…they were passive in listening to God. They were lazy.

Idleness is the impairment of the immature.

They always wanted milk, not solid food.

Instead of growing up to teach others, they were content with just being taught over and over again. They never learned or retained enough to be able to teach others. They showed up. They listened just enough to get fed for themselves, and then they went home until the next feeding time.

Babies are really good and imitating others. Babies will watch what we do and copy it. They will also listen to what we say and repeat it. The problem is that they don’t know what those words mean until the grow up and little more.

Infants in church can learn the lingo just enough to hold conversation, but they are not living out the true meaning of those words. They know what justification is. They know what sanctification is. They know how Jesus’s death on the cross saves them from their sins. They base their salvation solely on faith in the finished work of Christ.

THEY’RE JUST NOT DOING ANYTHING WITH ALL THAT THEY KNOW. They’re looking around and taking everything in. They’re in church looking all cute. But if that baby got older and older and still wanted to sin in a crib and cry for mama and dada all day long, we would say that something is wrong with that person. They got older, but they never grew up.

Christians can stay in church their whole lives and never grow past this infant stage. Part of that is the church’s fault for not actively making sure that infants are discipled into adults. But part of the fault is on the immature, because they can read God’s Word, and they will see what God is calling them to do, how He is teaching them to live, and they are still the ones choosing to be idle and lazy in their walk with Christ.

They may hear God’s Word, but they are not listening. This limits their understanding of Scripture and makes it very dangerous.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:14 Paul says that we are to mature “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

The writer of Hebrews calls this being unskilled in the word of righteousness. Immaturity leads to an inability to understand the Bible. It causes us to get easily enticed with new or different doctrines. Facebook has alot of Theology on it, and most of it is not correct, but it sounds good. It may even sound like the truth, but there is a little bit that is not quite right.

If you’re not growing up, you will be impaired in your walk with Christ. You will be deceived and confused. You will be lazy and apathetic in your walk with Christ.

You will miss out on all that God intends to do in and through you.

The Methods of the Mature

“powers of discernment” - ability to understand “trained” - gymnazo...working hard “by constant practice” — habit.

The mature are disciplining themselves to live the life that God has set before them.

They continue to read the Bible making sure they are always submitting to God’s will for them… “distinguishing between good and evil”

The point is that this is not a status, it is a stance—a posture—they are always developing in their walk with Christ. They realize that they need to keep growing in their walk. They are never done.

They are walking down the road of a disciple, and when they fully mature, they find an infant and walk them down the road of discipleship. As they walk someone else down the road, they learn things that they missed as they went down it with the one who taught them.

The Compulsion to Change

What makes someone go from being satisfied in immaturity to striving for maturity?

John 15:8–11 “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Bearing fruit is a sign of maturity in plants and trees.

This is what should be present in your life.

Look at the promise — there is joy in fulfilling God’s plan for your life as you grow in Him. Even if it isn’t easy, there is joy in seeing what God does in your life. There is joy in seeing how He uses you in the lives of others.

There is a purpose that God has for you.

These are some of Jesus’ last words to His disciples. He is getting ready to die for their sins so they can be saved from their sins.

Here is my question…do you think that Jesus came, lived a sinless life on this earth for 33 years, allowed Himself to be mocked, beaten, and crucified, took on all of your sin and suffered the wrath of God — He suffered Hell for you, died and rose again,…did He do all of that just so you could get saved and come to church every Sunday for the rest of your life? Or did He do all of that for something more?

Jesus died to save…better yet free you from sin. But more than that, He has called you to follow Him. He has called you to a life full of meaning and purpose. And if you will follow Him, you will mature. You will not stay an infant, but you will grow into a child and then and adult and then a parent leading other infants to grow into parents and leading more infants to grow into parents.

As you bear this fruit, you will see fruit bear fruit, and you will get a front row seat to see God grow His Kingdom. That is His joy and when it is in you it will be full and overflowing.

Jesus is your compulsion to change, the Holy Spirit gives you the capacity to change.

Galatians 6:8 “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

Which part of your life are you feeding? You have the ability to change if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ. He has sent Holy Spirit to come into your life and change you from the inside out. The question is are you submitting to His leading?

Are you an infant? Are you going to stay and infant or will you mature into the spiritual parent that God wants you to be?

The church has plenty of infants, it needs adults and parents.

Don’t remain impaired by idleness. Discipline yourself and grow as you practice the methods that lead to maturity.

Worship regularly with a covenant community of saints.

Serve others through speaking and working in the Name of Christ.

Hear, read, and study Scripture

Confess sin and talk with God through prayer.

Live on mission to lead others to follow Christ.