You know how in life you go through different phases? I think it starts with 21st’s… and suddenly you’re attending 5 twenty first parties in a year… then suddenly it becomes engagement parties and then weddings… in fact the year we got married Tim and I attended I think it was 11 weddings… and then it’s the baby phase. And this is where Tim and I find ourselves… all around us our friends are starting to have babies. We’ve suddenly have a nephew, and a god son and are honouree aunty and uncle to any number of gorgeous children.
This passage speaks specifically of babies…
Hebrews 5:11-6:20
New International Version (NIV)
Warning Against Falling Away
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 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. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
6 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, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.
9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. 10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
The Certainty of God’s Promise
13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
This is an interesting tangent for the author of Hebrews to have. He’s busy speaking about some of the mysteries of the faith, the Sabbath rest, the High Priesthood of Christ and then he stops – almost in frustration – and goes off on a tangent saying I’d like to tell you more but you are still babies! You’re not getting it.
As cute as babies are – you can’t reason with them. Our little nephew Caleb is a very generous soul… and his favourite thing to do at the dinner table is to share his food… with the dogs specifically. So the meal goes something like this piece goes in my mouth, this piece I throw on the floor. Now while my doggies love him to bits for this – it really isn’t appropriate behaviour… especially when he gets confused and starts throwing the food at Grampa instead!
But you can’t reason with him! He’s only 18months and to sit him down and explain would be a waste of time. Taking the plate away is a much simpler course of action. A while this happens at family functions, it’s understandable and acceptable because after all he is a baby – but if our 20 year old brother-in-law suddenly started behaving like that it would be a massive concern!
And this is what the writer is saying – Spiritually you’re beyond this stuff. You should be fully grown, you should be eating meat, behaving right, knowing right from wrong and teaching others rather than being taught.
And I don’t think the church today is much different. There’s been a dramatic shift in society where people have gone from a sense of duty and responsibility to a demand for services and entertainment. The emphasis is now on “How do you feel?” as being more important than “what should we do?” We’ve turned inward rather than outward… which is a sign of self-absorption and immaturity – just as a baby cannot see beyond themselves and their needs.
It is tragic, but the Church can at times reflect society all too much. Probably one of the weaknesses of the Church today is that we fail to challenge those Christians in the congregation to move on to maturity. If we are not careful we will strive to make people HAPPY rather than make them HOLY, that we will make them FEEL GOOD rather than make them FAITHFUL and GODLY. We can become consumers of the Gospel, rather than being consumed by Christ.
John Ortberg speaks of an elderly well known man in his church named Denny who’d been attending services for well over 40 years. And Denny was cranky and miserable and intolerant and had been for as long as anyone knew him. He complained about almost everything that went on at the church to the point where the complaints were so common and at times so reidculous that you could do nothing but laugh.
But actually, Denny’s attitude is no laughing matter. Listen to John Ortberg’s observation as he looked back on this situation:
“Denny is not changing. He is a cranky guy. He has been cranky his whole life. Not just about church - he does not effectively know how to love his wife; his children cannot tolerate him; and he has no joy. He’s been going to church his whole life, sixty years. And nobody in the church is surprised that he stays cranky year after year. It is as if we expect a bad attitude - that’s just Denny. Nobody is expecting him to be more like Jesus year after year." (John Ortbert, The Life You’ve always Wanted.)
“Denny is not changing. He is a cranky guy. He has been cranky his whole life. Not just about church - he does not effectively know how to love his wife; his children cannot tolerate him; and he has no joy. He’s been going to church his whole life, sixty years. And nobody in the church is surprised that he stays cranky year after year. It is as if we expect a bad attitude - that’s just Denny. Nobody is expecting him to be more like Jesus year after year." (John Ortbert, The Life You’ve always Wanted.)
Is this not maybe the trap we’ve fallen into – we actually stop expecting people to change? The Bible clearly tells us that we should be becoming more and more like Jesus – being transformed into his likeness… That’s true discipleship… that’s growth… that’s healthy and should be the norm!
Hebrews 6:1 tells us to “move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity”
The passage goes on to tell us what those teachings are: Conversion (Repentance), conviction (faith), Confession (baptism) confirmation (laying on of hands) and consummation (Resurrection of the dead). These are basic teachings of the faith – it is these things that that are required to become a Christian in the first place – if you know these things it’s time to move on – you’ve left the baby stage behind and should be on a path of growth. A path where you are responsible for your own faith, where you are teaching others through your words and actions what it means to be a follower of Christ… a path where everyday is one step closer to knowing God more intimately and sharing his love and truth passionately.
But how? How do we grow?
We don’t. God grows us. He is doing the work inside us to transform us into the people he has created us to be. The promise is that he who began a good work in us – at salvation… he will bring it to completion.
But where then does our responsibility lie? Well it’s the same with babies – we can’t make a child grow. You can’t put them on a stretching device and hope it makes them mature!!!
But in order that they do mature we need to provide them with the environment that they would thrive in.
Firstly they need
1. Daily Food. Jesus says while be tempted in the desert – man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from God’s mouth. He also says later, “I am the bread of life – he who comes to me will never be hungry…” Our daily food needs to be the Word of God. We cannot get fed once a week at church, or even just twice a week is we attend a Bible study and expect to grow – we need food every day.
I work with Deaf kids, introducing them to the gospel for the first time… and when we started we bought ten Bibles and put them in the library – they were Bibles in a simpler English so that the kids could understand. These Bibles never touched the shelves – as soon as one child brought it back the next would take it out… We even had kids fighting over these Bibles – they were that hungry for the word of God. Do you have a healthy appetite?
Secondly they need
2. Fresh Air. Pray often or you will faint. Prayer is the oxygen of the soul. In honour of the Olympic games I had to bring London in somewhere in my sermon and there is a Mother Goose nursery rhyme which goes:
2. Fresh Air. Pray often or you will faint. Prayer is the oxygen of the soul. In honour of the Olympic games I had to bring London in somewhere in my sermon and there is a Mother Goose nursery rhyme which goes:
PUSSY CAT, PUSSY CAT, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
I'VE BEEN TO LONDON TO VISIT THE QUEEN.
PUSSY CAT, PUSSY CAT, WHAT DID YOU THERE?
I FRIGHTENED A LITTLE MOUSE UNDER THE CHAIR.
Like that cat, Christians sometimes settle for petty involvements, trivial pursuits--chasing mice--when we have the opportunity to spend time with royalty, with the King! Instead of remaining content with minimum daily requirements, we should be deepening our relationship with God through prayer.
Thirdly we need:
3. Regular Exercise.
3. Regular Exercise.
This is putting God’s word into practise… exercising our faith. What is the point of faith if you never use it. Or reading the word and not doing what it says. The Bible tells us time and time again that being a Christian is not about us – it’s loving Him and loving others. How are you loving others? Where are you practising this faith? Or more simply – where are you serving. The writer of the Hebrews is saying – you should be teachers!!! But instead you choose the lazy route of being taught. We expect our young people to be involved in some form of service so that they can be confirmed – this is simply so that service becomes a part of their lifestyle. So most of our youngsters are involved in children’s ministry, sound duties, leadership duties at U-Night, etc… If we expect that of our teens – how can we not expect it of ourselves?
Next and very importantly – we need
4. Adequate Rest.
4. Adequate Rest.
This is the training to follow the pattern that we see God set up from the beginning of creation. Daily he walks with his people in the garden, daily we should be having a quiet time with him. We also see him setting aside one day a week where we remember that we are not simply a result of our work of our actions – we are free not slaves. We take a Sabbath day weekly to remind ourselves of our priorities, to worship God, to refresh our souls to do our work well. This rest includes being able to trust God with our burdens – to learn the art of taking up Jesus yoke, and giving them over to God in simple faith. A child is not worried about the home finances – he trusts that the parents will provide.
Fifth – we need
5. Clean Surroundings. It is so unhealthy for a child to grow up surrounded by garbage and toxins and danger. It’s the same for us – we need to avoid whatever those things are that weaken us spiritually. Paul says to Timothy, “But you, man of God, must flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”
5. Clean Surroundings. It is so unhealthy for a child to grow up surrounded by garbage and toxins and danger. It’s the same for us – we need to avoid whatever those things are that weaken us spiritually. Paul says to Timothy, “But you, man of God, must flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”
The writer to the Hebrews says earlier that we should “Thrown off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”
This is the garbage we need to clean out of our lives – the things we watch on TV or on the internet, the things we read, the greedy decisions we make, the gossip we pass on, the un-forgiveness we carry. Get rid of it so that you can grow.
Sixth -
6. Loving Care. Being part of a church where you will benefit from a teaching and Christian fellowship. This is the purpose of our services, our courses and our Bible Studies.
In preparing for this course I was looking back since I’ve been St Mungo's at the different courses and series we have done there. Alphas, Walk across the room, 40 days of purpose, 40 days of community, The Faith, most recently the Easter Experience…
We should all be spiritual giants!!!
We have been given everything we need…
Understand me when I say this… Most of you don’t need more teaching… don’t need to have better leadership… don’t need to read more books…
None of these things are going to help you to grow in the Lord…you know what to do!
-We need to start doing what we know we should be doing!!!
While the courses are fantastic – if we don’t put into practise what we have learnt in these courses they aren’t worth very much.
Our passage read in verse twelve “In fact, by this time you ought to be teachers,”
None of these things are going to help you to grow in the Lord…you know what to do!
-We need to start doing what we know we should be doing!!!
While the courses are fantastic – if we don’t put into practise what we have learnt in these courses they aren’t worth very much.
Our passage read in verse twelve “In fact, by this time you ought to be teachers,”
We shouldn’t need someone to teach us the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.”
The last thing that any health care professional will tell you about raising a child is that you’ll need
7. Periodic Checkups. It is important to regularly examine your spiritual health. In a leadership training course we run with our youth, we give them a spiritual check list with the following questions:
1. What was the last thing God said to you and what have you done about it?
2. What did you learn in God’s Word this week?
3. Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God?
4. Has your love for God & people increased or decreased in the last year?
5. Do others comment that they can clearly see evidence of God’s work in your life?
May I challenge you to take those questions home and honestly ask them of yourself.
We are all growing. We all need daily food, air, exercise, rest, cleanliness, loving care and check-ups.
Some of you may be new to the faith – that such an exciting time – may I recommend you do the Alpha course as it is such a fantastic introduction to the Gospel and what it means to follow Christ. Some of you might have been following God for years – when is the last time you grew?
When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reported threw him a question: "Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?" And Mr. Casals answered,
"Because I think I'm making progress."
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