Leave Your Bibles open to Hebrews six, we'll be reading from that passage as we go through our lesson today.
In this particular chapter of Hebrews, the author sounds a
rallying cry to Christians who are at the crossroads of their faith.
And he exhorts them by saying, let us press on to maturity.
You see, the letter that was written to these people, they were Christian Jews
who had begun to follow Jesus in a burst of enthusiasm, but they were growing weary of their faith.
They longed for the majesty of the rituals connected with Judaism and the tradition and the acceptability of
this religion with their countrymen. They were Jews, but they had become Christians. They weren't going to the temple anymore.
They weren't participating in those parades and those ceremonies.
They missed the festivals and the parades during the Jewish feasts, and the grandeur of the temple.
These were in stark contrast to the meager observance of the Lord's supper or the humbling confession and submission
demonstrated in baptism.
They were outsiders twice removed. They were alienated.
Alienated as Jews from a Gentile society and
they were rejected as Christians by their Jewish countrymen.
So they were very isolated, these first century Jewish Christians.
This burden, coupled with the normal worldly temptations that they faced each day
had stopped their progress in the faith,
and saw them either looking back longingly at their former religion and its familiar practice or
looking around at the enticements of the pagan world, beckoning to them in their confusion.
These Jewish Christians were stalled in their faith. They were floundering in uncertainty.
And so in response to their dilemma the Hebrew writer sends them an epistle that does two things:
one, he demonstrates to them the superiority and the excellence of Jesus Christ.
From beginning to end, Jesus is shown to be
better than anything they had known in the Jewish faith; and
chapter by chapter the writer shows that Jesus is greater than Moses,
greater than the law, higher than the angels, more effective than the priests, and
for this reason, worthy to be believed in. And his message is, so therefore, don't go back.
Don't give up.
And secondly, he exhorts them to press on to maturity. If Christ is the better way,
then keep going. Don't quit.
Continue the struggle to reach maturity, which was their goal.
You ever wonder, what's my goal? I go to church every week, I do this, what's the goal? What are we shooting for? Well the
Hebrew writer says, you're shooting for maturity, spiritual maturity.
And believe it or not, this goal remains the same for every Christian, in every generation.
So in my lesson this morning, I'd like to use Hebrews Chapter 6, verses 1 to 12, in order to explain what
pressing on to maturity, what exactly does that mean for us as
individuals, in our day in our age?
We're not in a similar situation as the Jewish Christians, but as Christians today our
goal is exactly the same, only our obstacles are different.
So in Hebrews 6:1 to 12 the writer talks about Christian development in terms of maturity.
Development is on a continuum, on a line that has immaturity at one end,
with its identifying signs, and maturity at the other end with its own characteristics.
Now, maturity, in some of the Bible's, the word used is perfection. Perhaps in your Bible the word they use is perfection.
Maturity is that state where something is complete or finished. For example,
a house that you build begins as a design and a blueprint and then moves through various stages of construction,
until it is finished, complete, perfect, mature,
in biblical language. In the same way, the Bible teaches that the end of what each Christian is to be like is
already there in the mind of God.
Our lives are the building process that ultimately will finish with completion, with perfection, with maturity,
according to God's image of us. God has an Image of you and me in His mind,
and we're in the process of working our way to reach that image, to reach that maturity.
In another epistle Paul writes, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Revealed how?
Revealed to be mature.
The image that God has in His mind of you will finally be revealed, when Christ comes.
It is to this maturity that the writer refers to when he encourages his readers to
move with him towards this goal, away from immaturity, where they seemed to be stalled.
And so, in verses 1 to 3, that Chuck read,
the writer talks about immaturity.
Immaturity is described in terms of what one is learning about. So one is immature
when he or she is learning, only learning, the
basic teachings about who Christ is, and what is His role in salvation, verse one.
A person is still in the immature state
when they're learning about the need to repent from sin, not a complete victory over sin,
but the understanding that one's attitude toward sin is that when we recognize it in our lives, we begin the process of
repenting from it. Not, we don't justify it. We don't play with it. We don't hide it. We don't ignore it.
We hate it. We want to eliminate it.
So we're at the state of immaturity when we're still playing around with the idea
that - should we, should we repent or shouldn't we repent? Should I hang on to this or do I just keep playing with it?
We're still at the immaturity stage when we're doing that,
according to the writer. And then, the third thing, the necessity of faith and trust in God
as a basic attitude of our lives, as we face each day.
And then fourth, Christian doctrines relating to baptism.
He mentions here washings, because Jews related to baptism as a washing.
Various reasons to lay on hands and the teachings concerning the end of the world and Jesus's return,
people who are just learning that, figuring that out,
making sure they understand that, they're at the beginning of their faith.
All these things that they needed to know in order to become
Christians and understand what they were going towards. That's all at the beginning of faith.
That's not a bad thing. We're not saying that's a
bad thing. It just is what it is. It's at the beginning part of our journey of faith to maturity.
And these are teachings that need to be repeated over and over in order to build a good base.
And the writer says that, well, he's willing to review these things if
necessary and if time permits, but these are all of the
things at the point of immaturity of the spectrum. He says, I want to move away from that and start teaching you things
that are near the maturity end of the spectrum.
Immaturity is not a sin.
It's not a bad thing or something to be ashamed of.
It's the beginning point of Christianity and it's a necessary stage in all of our development.
The danger is being stuck there for too long.
Hearing but not fully believing.
Knowing about sin but not dealing with it.
So in the next verses he explains that the danger of being stalled too long is that one grows cold,
unbelieving, and ultimately falls away.
Christianity is a fluid thing.
You have to be moving. Actually, you are moving. You're either moving backwards or forwards. There's no such thing as standing still in
Christianity. And that's his point here.
So then in verse four and five he talks about the dangers of being
too long at the stage of immaturity. So read with me in verse four, it says, "For in the case of those who have once
been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the holy spirit and have tasted
the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away,
it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves
the Son of God and put him to open shame."
And so in verse four and five he describes the experience of Christianity using various terms.
The person he uses as an example here is one who has truly become a Christian, in
that he has understood and accepted the divinity of Christ and
insight into the mystery of the Gospel, as Paul refers to it in Romans 16:25. This is to be enlightened.
In our world, in our world we tend to think,
you're enlightened if you've figured out another way to deny the existence of God. These are supposed to be the smart people.
These are the enlightened ones, the ones that can come up with more mumbo-jumbo to explain why God doesn't exist.
The Bible says true enlightenment is when you realize, Oh,
Jesus, Oh, He's the Son of God. That's enlightenment. That's what the Bible refers to as
enlightenment. So here in chapter 6 the Hebrew writer says, those who have been enlightened, they got it, they
understood Jesus is the Son of God. And then he says, this person has experienced the power of the gospel in his life, as
the word and the spirit began to transform him into a new man in Christ,
producing spiritual fruit,
moving him towards maturity.
This is the taste of the Heavenly gift that he's talking about here, the sharing of the spirit, the effect of the word
on a new believer.
So the writer here is describing a person born again,
beginning to take the first exciting steps as a Christian.
Then in verse 6 to 8, the author goes on to describe the state of one who stops growing, who falls away -
the danger faced by his readers in their stalled condition. That's why I called the sermon
Stalled on the Highway to Heaven. These people were stalled on the highway to heaven. So let's read verse six, he says,
"And then," he says, "have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves
the Son of God and put Him to open shame." So, to have experienced Christ and the new life and then reject it,
makes one hard in heart and unable to repent again.
The words here, fallen away, refers to a complete falling by the wayside.
Not just stalled, But completely broken down. Not a slip, not a weak moment, not a doubt, not just the fear,
not the ongoing struggle with sin that all of us have to do.
The idea is that someone who is a disciple and then openly rejects Christ and becomes an antagonist.
Like a disgruntled former friend or partner who puts down the
their ex or their business or whatever.
Let's face it, when a marriage breaks up, nobody can hurt you as much as your ex. Why? Well, they know you.
So he's talking about that here. The ex-Christian.
The ex-Christian who now puts all their energy into criticizing the church, criticizing the faith.
Former Christians who put down the church and it's work. These folks do more damage to themselves, because their remarks
harden their own hearts and they make it impossible to come back.
This is the idea of putting Christ to open shame.
Re-crucify Him, if you wish.
Very stark language. Then verse seven he says, "For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation,
useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled,
receives a blessing from God.
But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned."
So the final result for those who once were faithful but
who have fallen away is the same as those who are lost.
Because the law of reward and punishment will be executed by God on everyone.
So those who are faithful, when Jesus comes, will be saved. And those who are unfaithful when He comes, will be lost,
regardless of the fact that they may have been faithful for a time in between. That's the hard part.
I just got a, on the website, on Bible Talk, just got a letter this week from a
man who said, are you saying that it's possible that a
believer be lost? He just couldn't believe it. I said, you haven't read Hebrews?
How about Matthew 10:22, where Jesus says, "The one who endures to the end will
be saved." What about that scripture?
Now, He doesn't say it, but the converse is true. The one who does not
last to the end won't be saved.
This is not a church of Christ point of view or my point of view, it's simply what the scriptures teach.
So the writer warns them concerning the dangers that threaten those who refuse to move ahead towards the goal
to which they have been called.
And finishes the passage by telling them how they can jumpstart their faith once again, and get back on the road to
maturity. He begins his exhortation in verse 9, he says,
"But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation,
though we are speaking in this way.
For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name in
having ministered and still ministering to the saints."
So the writer tells them that God
remembers their work in the past and how they ministered to the saints. And here there's a little in-between the lines thing that we
need to understand.
Apparently, in 64 AD, Nero, the emperor of Rome, accused
Christians who are living in Rome, of setting the fires that destroyed the city. And he used this
excuse to persecute them in terrible ways.
These Jewish Christians that he's writing to were spared much of the persecution and
none of them were
martyred, because they were still considered as Jews by the Romans. The Romans, they didn't make it at the beginning, the
Roman empire, in the Roman government,
they didn't see the difference between Jews and Christians. For them it was all the same thing -
Jews, Christians, the same group. It was only
after a time that they began separating these two. And so, these Jewish Christians were not
persecuted. They did, however, help and minister to those Christians who were suffering.
And the writer refers to this good work they had done
in the past and were presently doing.
His exhortation is brief and to the point, verse 11, he says, "And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence,
so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end."
Until the end. In other words, keep working. You're doing a good job. Keep ministering. The way to
repair a stalled faith is to keep pumping the ministry pedal. That's how you do it.
The Hebrews were growing weary. They were in unfamiliar territory, far from their comfort zones, and their faith was starting to choke.
The writer tells them to keep pumping service and ministry and work, in order to revive the engine of faith, which would carry them
to maturity, to completion, to the goal of Heaven. And then in verse 12 he writes,
"So that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises."
They weren't the first ones to feel this way, he says in verse 12.
He reminds them that all those who had made it in the past, had done so by keeping their faith alive
through service offered to others, despite the obstacles that they faced.
Two thousand years ago, Hebrew Christians began the walk of faith with enthusiasm, good works, great hope.
And then when suffering and doubt appeared, they paused.
They began to question their faith.
And God sent them a message that said three things:
one, the Lord Jesus is worthy to be believed.
He is far superior than anyone or anything. Do not be ashamed of Him. Don't be afraid to trust Him with your life.
After all, He gave His life for you.
Number two, be careful of falling away. It can happen.
It can happen. That's not just a theoretical idea. If you don't believe me -
I won't do this, Bobby does this the
first of the month or first quarter, Bob Chilton, one of our elders, he gets everybody to stand up,
stand up everybody, shake hands, hug, then we can't get order back for five minutes, because everybody's talking and enjoying themselves.
So i'm not going to do this, I'm not going to have you stand, but
if I had you stand up, I'd ask you to look around, don't hug anybody,
just look around and notice who's not here.
Notice the people who, perhaps, two years ago were here in these pews, singing, taking communion,
getting up and hugging you. And they're not here anymore. Not because they passed away,
not because they moved and they're going to another church.
No, no. They're not here because they've quit.
They've quit their faith.
They've quit the church. They've quit being Christians. They've quit making any effort at believing.
I'd ask you to look around, try to remember which faces there are.
The hard thing to say is that in two years it could be some of us, here. If I preach this in two years and I said to people,
look around. Maybe somebody would say, well, sister so-and-so, she used to sit right there.
And she's not there anymore.
Be careful.
Your faith is a strong thing, but it's also a fragile thing.
Don't be careless with it. Be very careful with it. It's so easy to lose it.
And then, the third thing he says, the way to demonstrate faith and keep it alive until the end is through service.
Developing and increasing our service is the way that we press on to maturity. Some people think, oh,
I've got to understand all the mysteries, I've got to memorize the Bible, I have to be smart, I have to answer
all the arguments. No. I mean, that helps.
Maturity in Christ is when someone calls someone else and says, I need your help with something and that person says, I'd love to help.
Or, how can I help? Or, how can I be of service to you?
That's the mature Christian right there. That person has learned something.
So, 2,000 years later, the goal of this congregation, that each of us press on to maturity.
This will mean something different for each of us.
For some it'll mean that we will have to take the very first steps of faith, by confessing Christ and being baptized,
and learning those elementary things of Christianity.
For many it will mean that certain sins and habits and attitudes will finally have to be faced and dealt with,
because they're blocking our path to maturity. Don't kid yourself,
your little habit or attitude is what's keeping you back. And may keep you out. You have to deal with that.
All of us have to deal with our stuff.
But for everyone, young and old, women and men, mature and immature,
it will mean that we will have to begin to serve the Lord in some way.
If you're not serving, you won't grow. And if you're not growing, you'll probably
fall away. I've seen people fall away while they're sitting in the pew.
They've managed the art of listening without hearing,
of seeing without understanding,
of having their body in the pew, but their mind and spirit is somewhere else,
where the message from the pulpit or the classroom is never for them, never. I've seen that.
So ask yourself, are you the one stalled somewhere on the highway to heaven?
You can start up the engine of faith by coming forward now and
expressing whatever your need is. Some people need to do things publicly. I've done this, I've done that, I want to
be right. I've been absent for a long time and now I'm here, so I want to tell everybody I'm here, and I'm here for real.
Other people just need encouragement and prayer, because they want to do what's right and good.
They just need the spirit to strengthen them.
And I don't mean the spirit up there somewhere, I mean, the spirit inside of all of us
needs to come to the aid of someone who reaches out for help.
Anyways, in whatever way you may need God's help, the church's help, we encourage you to
make that need known now, as we stand and as we sing our song of encouragement.