Part 7 “Never Stop Growing”
Hebrews 5:11-6:3
Intro – most of you know I love playing guitar…I started as a young teenager, inspired mainly by my older brother who I wanted to be like…he taught me a few things, but mostly instilled in me a love for guitar and somehow I caught the bug to practice and work hard at improving…
I started on the ukelele…(G) (no disrespect…)
Then progressed to the baritone ukelele…(C)
Then six string acoustic…
Then twelve string…
Did you notice how the sound changes as the instruments progress?
Here is my next challenge: to play this (display sitar…)
The reason I have demonstrated growth and progression in guitar playing is to give you a picture of what today’s passage in Hebrews ch. 5 is all about…the writer of Hebrews is calling these first century believers from a Jewish background to keep growing spiritually…to grow up into mature men and women in the faith…
And just like it takes hours and hours of diligent practice and effort to become proficient on the guitar, it takes diligence and self-discipline and training, empowered by the HS, to progress from a spiritual infant to a mature spiritual adult…
Let’s take a look at how the writer of Hebrews expresses this in ch. 5:11 to 6:3…turn there…
Prayer…read…
As you can see, the point of the passage is, don’t stay in the ukelele stage…move on to the 6 string and the 12 string…even the sitar…never stop growing…
* (just don’t play the accordion…)
I Marks of Spiritual Immaturity
A. dullness toward the things of God 5:11
“you no longer try to understand” literally means “you have become sluggish in the ears.”
-these Christians were becoming spiritually lazy, 6:12
-it’s not an uncommon occurrence…many believers start their Christian life with great intensity, energy and hunger for God and His word…everything is new and exciting and a profound discovery…
* I remember those days…maybe you do too…maybe you’re still in those days…
-but over time we can become dull, insensitive, and less receptive to the things of God…we can become bored and over-familiarized and inoculated against the wonder of God and His word…
-we get lazy and stay at the ukelele stage…not realizing there’s a much bigger world waiting for us if we choose to keep growing and pressing forward…
B. content with the ABC’s of the faith 5:12
“…the elementary truths of God’s word…milk, not solid food…” imagery of an infant who can only drink milk or eat pablum and has not yet progressed to what Audrey and I used to call “people food”…solid food…
-people who are sp. immature like hearing the same old basic teaching over and over again…and resist moving forward into matters of greater challenge and depth…
-now there is nothing wrong with the basics of our faith…I’ve said many times that we can never outgrow the basics…but while we can’t outgrow them, we can certainly build on them…and need to if we’re going to grow into a six string or 12 string instrument…
Major Ian Thomas (British founder of Torchbearers Bible Schools…Capernwray) quote: “I have discovered an interesting thing about American Christians. They do not usually come to church to learn anything. Whatever they do not yet know themselves they think is heresy. What they want to hear is the same old stuff so they can say, Amen, brother, Amen. That is laying the same foundation over and over again.”
I think what he’s saying is often true. We’re reluctant to learn new things because it inevitably means changing something about how we live…which many are unwilling to do…
The Elementary Truths of God’s Word
6:1 says “let’s move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ…”
So acc to this passage, what are the elementary truths of God’s word that we are supposed to build upon and grow beyond? They are found in the first two verses of ch. 6 and can be arranged into three categories:
Some scholars do believe that this was the catechism (teaching) of the early church…Christianity 101…new believers class…
-these are just examples, not the whole course outline…
1. Soteriology (doctrine of salvation) 6:1-2
a. turning away from legalism, self-salvation 6:1
“repentance from acts that lead to death…” to the Jewish believer meaning turning away from the dead works of the OT law as a means to righteousness…
-for us today, it also means turning away from any effort at self-salvation…the “self-atonement plan”…those good things we try to do to earn our acceptance and approval from God…
b. turning to faith in God 6:2
-turning away from dead works means nothing unless you join this with faith…a genuine dependency on God to save you and give you life and make you righteous…thru Jesus Christ…
2. Ecclessiology (doctrine of the church) 6:2
“cleansing rites, washing” in v. 2 is a reference to baptism…the public act of declaring your faith through the full immersion in water, symbolizing your identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ…
((by the way, a baptism is being planned for Oct. 11…)
3. Pneumatology (doctrine of the Holy Spirit) 6:2
“the laying on of hands” which in the 1st century church was often equated with being filled by the Holy Spirit, equipped with spiritual gifts and being commissioned and empowered for Christian service and ministry…
4. Eschatology (doctrine of the end times) 6:2
-the doctrines of resurrection and eternal judgment…
-that those who are dead in Christ will be resurrected to eternal life through Jesus Christ…and those that do not belong to Christ will be resurrected on the last day to eternal damnation…
…we will all face judgment, both Christian and non-Christian alike, but the nature of those judgments will be entirely different: the Christian will be judged on the basis of how he served Christ while on the earth (2 Cor.5:10)…and the non-Christian will be judged for the fact that he didn’t surrender himself to Christ while he was on the earth…and didn’t receive God’s pardon for sin (Heb. 10:26-27)…
…it’s all very interesting stuff…that’s elementary?!…sounds advanced…all things that we can grow in…learn more about…should never downplay it’s importance…but staying here is like staying with the ukelele…
God is saying, let’s move forward, ahead, deeper…
And the passage shows us what that looks like…
II Marks of Spiritual Maturity
-now I know what a lot of you are thinking right now…you’re thinking sp. maturity is equal to knowing more about the Bible, studying more, taking your Masters at Taylor Seminary…mastering the deep doctrines of God, understanding the mysteries of Christ…
…now there is nothing wrong with that…it’s important that we do go further and deeper in our knowledge of God and the Bible…but if you think that’s the only thing it is, then you’ve missed the point of this passage and what spiritual maturity actually is…
-by the way, it’s that kind of thinking about spiritual maturity that is the reason you see Christians who have known God for years, but they are still lacking maturity…a mile wide but one inch deep…a perpetual spiritual infant…
…if it’s all about knowledge, then we’re missing the point of spiritual growth and maturity…
Here’s what our passage teaches that sp. maturity looks like:
A. a disciplined practice of a righteous life 5:13-14
-look again at these verses…
“the teaching about righteousness” – does this mean:
• the truth about our righteousness through faith in Christ
or…
• the practical teaching about righteous living
It absolutely means both. We have to understand righteousness before we can live it. But, if we intellectually grasp the doctrine of Christ’s righteousness yet are not growing in living a righteous life in our everyday life, then we are staying immature…we’re still ukelele players…
There is an important spiritual principle being taught here and also reinforced by Jesus in the Gospels, and it is this: truth heard but not internalized and applied will be lost to the hearer.
In other words, use it or lose it…
Mt. 13:12 (referring to the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven…contrasting the disciples of Jesus with the religious Jews) Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.
Jesus is talking about the disciples, who were like good soil which could take in the seed of the word and allow it to flourish…because they had receptive and obedient hearts…they will be given more knowledge, insight and wisdom…
…and contrasting that with the Jewish religious leaders who also were given the seed of God’s word but wouldn’t allow it to flourish because of their hard hearts and closed minds and their disobedience…even what they have will be taken away from them…
Bottom line is, it is so important to put into practice what we have learned… to practice a disciplined life of righteousness…
B. the increased capacity for solid food developed by the practice of a righteous life 5:14…read again…
In other words, our capacity to understand more of God and His word… comes to those who practice a righteous life, thus developing a greater capacity for solid food…
Ps 36:9 “In your light we see light.”
It’s not so much about the content of solid food; it’s more about the capacity for solid food…
Spiritual maturity is not only knowing the difference between right and wrong in our daily lives…it is choosing the right and rejecting the wrong…thus showing that our faith is real and genuine and makes a difference in the way we live and honors the Lord whom we love and serve…
eg. Spiritual Maturity is Like: (demonstrate 6 string)
• learning the difference between the right chord and a wrong one (demonstrate…)
• learning how to play a clean chord as opposed to touching the frets…distortion…
• and mastering the F chord…requires difficult hand contortions…
• and learning how to match the strumming hand with the chording hand so song is played smoothly…
• and the challenge of keeping the whole thing in tune…because the strings stretch…needs constant tuning…
God rewards the person who is diligent in practicing righteousness by giving them greater insight into His word…understanding of His ways…greater capacity to know God and His truth…
6 String Challenge
So here’s the 6 string spiritual challenge. Will you choose to move beyond the ukelele and pick up a 6 string guitar and begin to train yourself to play?
(at least please resist becoming an accordion player…)
…resist being lazy in your spiritual growth and become a devoted practicer of the faith, of righteous living…
…submit to God’s training program for righteous living so you can grow into sp. maturity…
…ask the HS to give you a keen sense of discernment in your everyday walk with God to distinguish between good and evil and make those choices that honor God…vital in these evil days where what is wrong is made to appear right and what is right is made to appear wrong…
-there’s lots of mentors around to help you grow in this way…don’t try to go it alone…get into a small group that will help you grow…sign up this fall…
12 String Challenge
-here’s a 12 string challenge…become a teacher…become a leader in some ministry…
-just like v.12 says…”by this time some of you ought to be teachers” of spiritual things…
-lots of opportunities to teach in our church…
-doesn’t have to be in a classroom…certainly doesn’t have to be public, in front of a large crowd…can be in a small group or one-on-one…
-lots of leadership opportunities…just ask us…
** being a teacher is a great way to grow spiritually…you’re spending time in God’s word…feasting on the riches of Christ, the bread of life…then you get to share that with others…there’s nothing like it…
Bottom line is, let’s get growing…let’s become mature followers of Jesus Christ…never stop growing…(perhaps there are even some future sitar players here this morning…)
PJ join me on accordion as we sing Jesus Loves Me…
Prayer…Worship…