Sermon Tone Analysis

Sometimes we need a little kick in the pants.

Sometimes we need to have someone come alongside of us and tell us what we may not want to hear.

This is the case with the audience of the letter of Hebrews.

We call it a book, but in fact, it was a letter written to Jewish Christians who are struggling some.

5:11-6:12 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

12 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, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

6 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, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And this we will do if God permits.

4 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, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 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.

7 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. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.

10 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.

11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

[1]

There is a theme that runs throughout Scripture that we need to pay attention to.

And it has to deal with this idea of Steadfastness.

Remaining.

It means don’t stop, it means to continue the work that has been started in you.

The group of Jewish Christians are hanging on by a thread, it would seem that some of them are going back to their old ways.

And our writer is here to encourage and equip them for their lives with Christ and the writer is also warning them to continue on, to persevere in their faith because if they don’t then they are basically telling the world that they don’t want anything to do with Jesus and His Salvation.

We will get to that portion soon.

And so when we read those words to the Hebrews we get this great picture of what is going on and what the writer is trying to communicate.

In one sense the writer is saying

The writer is saying that this is serious business here.

You need to pay attention.

verse 11 says that you have become dull in your hearing, listen up people!

you’re not hearing me.

He is saying, “hello!

Is this thing on?”

The writer is basically saying that they have become dull, ignorant (Now I hope you understand that the word ignorant does not mean that you are being mean or disrespectful, that is the way we use the word ignorant, the word ignorant means without knowledge)

and they are ignorant because they have been lazy.

They hear the truth but they don’t really care.

They don’t care about the truths of Scripture, they don’t really care about the words of Christ.

They aren’t doing anything with the knowledge that they have of Christ.

You have to put something into it.

And when you don’t care you don’t put forth the effort in your relationship with God.

When you are indifferent you don’t do anything one way or the other.

You could look at your relationship with God like you look at your marriage.

Or maybe not.

Are you pursuing your husband?

Are you pursuing your wife?

For many men the wife is pursued really heavily during the dating relationship.

You call, you write little love notes, you plan out dates and you buy little gifts.

All of those little things you did when you were dating showed that girl that you really cared about her and that you wanted to get to know her and that you would do anything in your power to spend time with her.

And when you did all those things you were showing her your desire for her and so when you finally popped the question she said yes because she knew how much you loved her because you showed her.

And you reaped the benefits of loving (action word), not a feeling but a verb of loving someone.

What about your relationship with God? Men and women.

A healthy relationship with God means that you are pursuing God with your life.

You spend time in regular scripture reading, regular prayer and regular practice at doing what Jesus says.

That is what it looks like to pursue a relationship with God.

What the writer of Hebrews is saying here is that their Christianity isn’t part of their every day life.

And remember, that is what this faith is.

It is every day.

It is surrender to Jesus, surrendering what?

Your soul?

No, not just your soul, but your whole life.

Your life shows what you believe in.

Your life shows what is important to you.

So, is church a priority to you?

Or is it that you come when it is convenient?

Or when you just feel like it?

Gathering together is a priority.

It can’t be a convenience thing.

There are these trends today where people will call themselves regular church attenders when they are only showing up 2 times even 1 times a month!

So you may ask yourself, “why is my relationship with God not what I want it to be?”

And there can be many answers to that question.

The first question I would ask would be.

Are you in church?

Later we will talk about the verse that says “do not forsake the gathering together”.

So people need to mature in their faith.

So #1 Grow UP!

12-13 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.

You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness[2].

You are still being bottle fed?

This idea isn’t new to the scriptures, this idea that someone is only getting their nutrition from milk.

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

1 cor 3:2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.

Indeed, you are still not ready[3]

So here is a question.

Who drinks only milk and no solid food?

Babies!

So there is this idea of being infant Christians who seem to feed only on milk and not on solid food.

What does that mean for the Christian?

The author says essentially:

#1 Grow Up.

You don’t need to learn the same things over and over again.

He is talking about them being childish in their faith.

It means 1. Stop Being Childish!

It means what he says in verse 12 in chapter 5; In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.

I love the boldness of the writer.

We don’t want to offend anyone.

We say, “it’s okay, you are doing okay, you are doing better than you used to, yeah, you haven’t moved at all in the last 10 years of your relationship with Christ but it is true.

If you aren’t progressing in your faith you are still drinking milk, baby formula!

He says, with the amount of time that you have had in your relationship with Christ you should be a teacher by now.

A teacher!

And so the author says, chapter 6:1-2 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

I just have to say “wow”!

That is hitting pretty hard isn’t it?

The author here is saying “Grow Up!” Get on with it.