Living Things Grow
Notes
Transcript
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.
Context
Context
The writer of Hebrews is a good teacher
He uses what is familiar to people to convey deeper related truths
In this case he is linking things back to what these Jewish people would be very familiar with; namely the Old Testament and Moses
Hebrews 1 - God revealed Himself most clearly through Jesus
Hebrews 2 - The message declared by angels and proclaimed by Jesus is the Gospel
Hebrews 3 - The writer compares Jesus to Moses and implores people to listen to the Spirit’s voice while it remains today
Hebrews 4 - We can find rest today through our High Priest Jesus Christ
Today, the writer of Hebrews is going to stress the importance of spiritual growth
English Standard Version Chapter 5
11 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.
About this - about it being the time for salvation, Jesus being the better Moses and the perfect High Priest after the mysterious Melchizedek
Remember Melchizedek is a Priest and King that shows up and ministers to Abraham
We don’t know a lot about him except that his days seem unnumbered
There is and has been a lot of talk of who he is
But it is hard to explain to them in their current state of mind
They cannot have this kind of deep discussion
They have become dull of hearing
They are not growing in their faith
The writer says you should know this by now but you are still on the basics?
You are a baby Christian still
You still need a bottle
Baby Food to Steak & Potatoes
Parents do you remember the transition your child made from the bottle to solid food? I remember all three of my daughters’ transitions to solid food. You can tell when they are ready because a bottle just doesn’t satisfy them any longer or doesn’t sustain them for very long. The oldest was the longest transition. Not her fault. Mine and my wife’s. See we spent so much money on special formula that we needed for the transition. Then we bought different cereals that you mixed in with the formula for the transition. Then we bought different stages of baby food. I think there was like 3 or 4 stages; from no chunks to chunky baby food. Of course it was all organic, natural, and pure. Of the highest quality. What a difference a couple children can make, to help you realize the difference of what you actually need verses what marketers aim to sell you. My youngest daughter’s transition was much quicker. I think by then we realized we were raising humans and realized that we were also humans that ate food too. My oldest daughters transition was prolonged and went over several months, my youngest went from a bottle to quesadillas in like a week.
The point is that in both cases the transition needed to happen. Milk or formula is not enough to facilitate healthy growth in a growing body. But the process was dramatically different in each case.
The writer of Hebrews is telling this audience that they need to grow spiritually
For some reason the stalled out
By this time they should be teaching the truths of God, yet they have not developed past infancy
They are malnourished
So bad that the writer has to go back to the basics before they can learn harder truths
He wants to further expound on how Jesus fulfills the priestly role but cannot
They need to understand some foundational things first
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.
therefore - because of all this, let us mature
As we mature let us not build a superficial foundation
The things that Christ did were super important
The healings
The teaching
The preaching
The miracles
All of it, important
But, listen to me, it wasn’t the reason Jesus came
It wasn’t the reason God stepped into His creation
Those things are important only because they added credibility to the message Jesus proclaimed
We can do likewise, the miraculous, only if God permits
He can work through those channels
Without Caution We Can Fall Into An Extreme
We see two extremes in churches today. On one extreme we have churches that emphasize the miraculous events in Jesus’ Earthly ministry. In fact some churches might say, or make you feel like, you need to be experiencing those miraculous things in your life or perhaps you don’t really know Jesus. The writer of Hebrews is saying that this is a pretty immature handling of Jesus, His works, and God’s Word. He says don’t build on this.
The other extreme would say that never happens and all the churches that perform miracles are just a bunch of crazy people pretending to do miracles or perhaps out rightly conning people. The writer of Hebrews is not saying that. He leaves room for God to do what ever God wants to do and wants to do through you. He says And this we will do IF GOD PERMITS.
The point is that Jesus did those things in order that you and I may believe. He did those things so witnesses would write it down. People don’t write about the mundane things they witness everyday, but they would share the peculiar or extraordinary things that happened around them. What we need to focus on, what we need to build a foundation on is deeper than the works Jesus performed in His Earthly ministry.
The writer goes on to say...
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.
The writer is saying you cannot be born again then unborn, then born again
Your encounter with the risen Christ changes your heart one time
You encounter Christ, you repent, you are changed
Jesus has paid for your sin; past, present and future
You hold the sacrifice of Jesus in contempt when you re-repent of the same sin over and over again
There is no need to confess your same sin over and over and over
Especially to a human priest when the writer has made it clear that Jesus is our High Priest
There are primarily two camps that come from this passage of scripture and passages like it
One group says that once you have been saved, it is possible to fall away into damnation
The other group would argue that all that means is you were never saved to begin with
How that happens is not as important as having a real heart changing encounter with Jesus
To help his readers / hearers understand this the writer gives us a farming example
English Standard Version Chapter 6
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.
Picture two fields in your mind; nice and flat with lots of black dirt
The rain falls and waters both fields
One field produces fruit the other thorns
The rain caused both to grow but had little to do with what kind of plant grew
The rain would be like those miracles and works performed by Jesus; it caused some to believe and God to be glorified while others saw it as an opportunity for personal gain or mis the point all together
Jesus did physically heal a lot of sick people, but he didn’t come to make sick people well
He came to make dead people live
You and I were dead in our sin until we had a heart changing encounter with Jesus
Its great that sick people are healed in the process but you miss the point by an eternity if that is all you take from the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
But that is not to say that good works aren’t recognized or are not important
He says
English Standard Version Chapter 6
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.
All this said, he wants to make sure that the hearer or reader understands that good works are not ignored
They just don’t count toward salvation
The cross is sufficient or its not
Jesus died and paid the penalty for all of my sin or he didn’t
It cannot be Jesus died for some of my sins but I need to work off the rest
In some kind of proverbial scale where your good deeds are weighed against your bad deeds
There cannot be justice in a system like that
We should do good deeds
But they should be motivated from our response to the Good News of the Gospel
They should be done to the Glory of God
We should be imitators of Jesus reflecting God’s Glory
How?
This is when you cover that shift for the dirtball worker that would never do the same for you; You are not doing it because you like him, You are doing it because while you were still an enemy of His, Jesus died for you
This is when you make that phone call and forgive that parent for the abuse; not because they have finally realized what they did, but because while you still don’t grasp the magnitude of your offense to God, Jesus died for you
This is when you answer the call God has on your life; not because you are sure of how everything is going to pan out, but you are sure you can put all your faith, hope, and trust in a God who really does care about you and your life
Growth can be uncomfortable
But remember living things grow
Amen! Amen!