Doctrine & Duties- Milk Vs Solids

Doctrine & Duties- Milk V Solids Ryan Quicke Welcome Good morning EBC! At EBC we are one church with two congregations, Bobin St. and Open Door. We want to be a people who worship God, who follow Jesus, who serve one another and who tell others of the Good News about who Jesus is and what He has done for us with His perfect life and substitutionary death. We are continuing our series in Hebrews, but starting a new section- looking at Doctrines & Duties. Let’s do a quick recap of Hebrews thus far to put this all in to context. Review I thought the best way to recap it was to show it visually. *I’ve also printed some smaller copies of this and they are on the side over there if you would like to slip it in your Bible for the next time you read through Hebrews.* 1:1-4 – Jesus: God’s Son Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. • Jesus is God’s Son & Final Word. • Jesus is Heir & Creator. • Jesus is God in Function & Nature. • Jesus is Sacrifice & Saviour. • Jesus is Sovereign & Superior. 1:4-10:39 – Jesus is greater than … Ø Angels (1-2:4) Ø Angels message/The law (2:5-18) Ø Moses (3:1-6) Ø Rest (3:7-4:13) Ø Priests (4:14-5:10) Ø Melchizedek (7) Ø Animal sacrifice (8-10) Ø Old Covenant (8-10) Ø Temple (8-10) 5:11-6:20 – Exhortation • Milk Vs Solids (5:11-6:12) • God’s sure promise (6:13-20) 11 – By faith Jesus = founder & perfector of faith 1. Abel – (11:4) 2. Enoch – (11:5-6) 3. Noah – (11:7) 4. Abraham – (11:8-19) 5. Sarah – (11:8-19) 6. Isaac – (11:20) 7. Jacob – (11:21) 8. Joseph – (11:22) 9. Moses – (11:23-28) 10. Rahab – (11:29-31) 11. Conclusion – (11:32-39) 12-13 – Exhortation • Run the race (12:1-2) • Don’t grow weary (12:3-17) • Unshakable kingdom (12:18-29) • Sacrificial living (13:1-18) • Benediction (13:10-25) So for this series we are going to focus in on how the doctrines of who Jesus is, what Jesus has done, and how Jesus fits into the OT storyline- results in those who have faith into a number of duties. In other words we will focus on how faith cannot be theoretical, it has to be functional. Let’s read our passage. Passage Hebrews 5:11-6:12 [ESV] 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. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Let’s pray Word Immaturity It is fairly easy to see immaturity isn’t it? v It’s the 18yo with a too powerful car v It’s the 13yo girl still learning that less is more when it comes to make up v It’s the cricketer going for a six every ball v It’s the 20 something getting in to too much debt v It’s the 40 something mid-life crisis v It’s the 60 something not knowing physical limits playing with grandkids It’s also not too hard to spot maturity is it? v It’s the 18yo choosing a wise career path v It’s the 13yo who is content with the current stage of life v It’s the resolve of a sports star in big moments v It’s the 20 something choosing wise investments v It’s the 40 something making wise lifestyle choices v It’s the 60 something working out a good retirement plan The central theme of our text today is the maturity. Specifically the tension between maturity and immaturity. Let’s look again at our text, bit by bit and seek to understand it better. Diagnosis of immaturity 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. So what’s the problem? These people should by now be mature Christian’s, teaching others the basics- instead they are children, pupils and need feeding themselves. What is the cause of this immaturity? They have become ‘dull of hearing’. That is the same word that gets used later on but is translated there as ‘sluggish’. A modern picture of this might be a sports team that thinks they are all that and so don’t go through the process of regular training and preparation and then get blown off the park. The author goes on to give us a picture of maturity. Picture of maturity But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. What is maturity? Three key characteristics of mature Christians: 1. Still training 2. Still teachable 3. Still transforming The word train there is where we get our word ‘gym’. The picture our author employs is a people who use the primary doctrines of the faith and flesh them out through training. Still training is the action, remaining teachable- that’s the mindset! Teachable story Training our ability to see the world through the good as Jesus sees it and the bad as Jesus sees it keeps us teachable and if we keep training, we cannot stay the same- we must keep transforming. We will become more and more like the one we love, follow and train after. If this is the picture of maturity what does that teach us about immaturity? We’ll see that in our next section! Method of maturing Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. What does it sound like the author is saying here? That we leave the basic doctrines and move on to more advanced ones? Let’s take a closer look and consider our context. There are three key verbs here- ‘let us leave’, ‘go on to maturity’ and ‘not laying again’. The first and final are in the active, while the middle one is in the passive. Seem like Greek to you? The significance is this- we are to not keep trying to relay the foundation of our faith, Jesus has already done that, instead it is our job to be built up and upon the foundation of Christ. We see here the foundational doctrines he is referring to are in couplets with three sections: Ø Beginning of faith o Repentance from dead works o Faith toward God Ø Middle of faith o Instruction on washings/Baptism o Laying on of hands Ø End of faith o Resurrection of the dead o Eternal judgement Following this our author gives an example of his own maturity. Example of maturity And this we will do if God permits. In other words, the author is still humbled upon God for the acting. The ‘going on to maturity’ is in the passive because if we make the decision to stand upon the foundation of Christ it is God who will do the maturing in us. So a maturing faith is: Ø Still training Ø Still teachable Ø Still transforming A maturing faith is not: Ø Relaying foundations Ø Forgetting to train Ø Becoming unteachable/unfruitful An unfruitful faith is what we turn to next Scenario #1 (Hypothetical) For it is impossible, in the case of those who: have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. What does this sound like? We can lose our salvation. Let’s look a little closer to see what the author truly means here. Firstly what is impossible? ‘To restore those’ who have been ‘enlightened’ and then ‘fallen away’ through repentance. So can we say these people are not Christians? For they have been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers to come! Sometimes prose is harder to understand than parable, so our author here has said the same thing but with picture language- Picture For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. So here is the idea- we have an author who is writing to a group of Christians who have left Judaism, but are living in an environment where the law no longer protects them like it did in their old faith, their family no longer supports them like it did in their old faith and so the temptation is to return to their old faith. Due to the way these people have kept looking backwards, trying to rebuild the foundation of faith for themselves they have become dull of hearing, immature and need teaching again instead of being teachers. That is the problem in actuality. Hebrews is presenting then a hypothetical scenario- what would happen if you kept going the way you are? Using the grace of God, the person of Jesus Christ as a ticket to heaven, but not allowing him to impact your life at all? What happens to someone who has genuinely believed in Jesus theoretically but has not done so functionally at all? The rain has fallen upon their land but instead of growing a useful crop they are growing weeds? Well in that case the crop become worthless, near to being cursed and on the final day burnt up. Hebrews is saying- if you keep being immature and even wanting to return to old dead works, you are more liable than those who crucified Jesus for the first time- you’ll be crucifying him again with your actions! No one could restore these people to repentance, seeming as they are trusting in ‘repentance’ for salvation but never actually changing. In sum- the focus here is on our action, not God’s. We depend for our salvation not on our love for God but his love for us, not on our commitment to him but his pledge to us, not on our hold on him but his grasp of us. Raymond Brown. So while our salvation is not being called in to question, particularly not as this is a hypothetical case of the worst scenario, but instead the kind of judgement we would fall in to if we chose, and chose again to refuse the maturing work of God in our lives. Therefore, I charge you, upon this section of scripture to strive towards maturity in Christ. Don’t consider Christ as a ticket to heaven, or a ‘get out of jail free card’. He is not. He has saved you with his very life, death, burial and resurrection and is calling you on to maturity. Hebrews moves on then from the hypothetical to the actual. Scenario #2 (Actual) Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. In the midst of the harshest critique in this epistle, Hebrews uses it’s softest word- beloved. All this has not came from the hatred or harshness of a critic, but from a good friend who wants good for these people. Just as we saw a picture for the hypothetical case, we now see a picture for the actual case. Picture And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. In conclusion of our time together I want to just reinforce the encouragement that is here in this text for us today. 1. Desire maturity Your mind will rationalise whatever it is your heart desires. You desire the bliss that comes with ignorance? You’ll find a way for ignorance and immaturity in your faith to be ok. What do you desire more? Maturity in Christ, or pleasures of this world? Consider it- how do you spend your time? It is possible to spend too little time in the word of God by spending too much time in front of the TV. My encouragement from this text is to desire maturity by seeing that it is not doing something fancy, but rather just choosing to allow the work God did of laying a foundation to bring you to maturity. 2. Practice discernment Just as it is possible to spend too much time in front of the TV, it is possible to spend too little time in the world. How can you keep practising seeing the world as Jesus does, if you don’t see the world at all? For example, my mum and dad would choose what shows us as kids were allowed to watch, and it changed at different ages. But they didn’t leave it there. They would also regularly review a show after watching it. During something inappropriate they might fast forward, or encourage us to turn away or even be vocal with words like ‘yuck’. The point is that we are to be practicing discernment of good and evil. Not by our definition, but by Jesus’. We need to build and maintain a filter. 3. Be imitators, not sluggish Finally, we are encouraged to have mentors and icons. You enjoy the way someone does something in his or her faith? Imitate it. You like how they love God or love people, ask how they got to that maturity. Let’s pray