Hebrews and Spiritual Maturity
Written by John Fontanella
Sunday, 15 May 2011 10:00
Note: due to technical difficulties, we do not have an audio version of this sermon.
As he is known in the basketball world Phil “Zen Master” Jackson has a history of approaching the game in a less than orthodox way. Likely this grew out of his upbringing by his parents who were ministers in the Assemblies of God Church. In his early years Phil grew up assuming that he would one day become a minister, in stead he became a professional basketball coach.
Phil Jackson is the current head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, but he has announced as of May 8th that he hopes he has coached his last game. The Lakers were swept out of the playoffs by a really hot dallas mavericks team. This was the first time in Phil’s head coaching career that he had ever lost 4 games in a row in the playoffs. If you don’t know who Phil Jackson is, the history of the game of basketball has forever been changed by him. As a player he won 2 NBA Championships as a member of the Knicks. Add that to his 11 NBA Championship Titles as a coach and he has won the ultimate prize 13 times giving him more than Bill Russell and Coach Red Auerbach. In his twenty years as a coach, a Phil Jackson led team has never missed the playoffs. In fact, 13 of his twenty years he won a conference title and 11 of those 13 times his team won the whole thing. Now savvy sports guys will make the objection that Phil Jackson also happens to have coached 2 of the 10 greatest players in NBA history, Jordan, Kobe, and probably a third with big daddy Shaq. So is he the luckiest coach in NBA history or the most successful. Well the answer is both. His regular season win percentage is the highest of all time. Averaged out over the course of his career he won more than 7 out of 10 times over 20 years. If you are saying to yourself, John this guy sounds amazing how come he hasn’t been recognized as such. Well he has. 4 years ago, while still active, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. I guess when you’re that great they just kind of pick a year and say ok your in. The thing that Phil might be best known for, besides winning duh, is his zen like approach to the game of Basketball, you won’t find him jumping up and down or shouting in a ref’s face. Phil has a philosophy that he sticks to and its his way or the highway. In a recent post game interview, Phil was asked “what does it take to be on a Phil Jackson team.” He said, “there’s three things you can be doing in the NBA, getting better, staying the same or plateauing, or declining, 2 of those 3 will get you cut from my squad.”
What caught my attention about this quote was the way that Phil has recognized a Biblical principle to be true in Basketball. As Christians we often say things like if you’re not moving forward in your faith you’re moving backwards because there is no standing still. What struck me even more was the thought that if a player is staying the same, even if he is a good player, why would you cut him. What is it about a player that when he reaches a stagnant point in his career that Phil says, we can’t use you. What’s with the premium put on players progressing and the weight of consequence with players that aren’t.
While doing some devotional reading through the book of Hebrews, I was reading the fine print at the bottom of an NIV study Bible, and it told me two things that I was not familiar with. first, the book of Hebrews is written in the style of a sermon. Some books in the New Testament are Narratives, Stories, some are Letters, but this one is a Sermon. Second, the book of Hebrews can be broken into 5 different warnings to a young church, likely in Rome, but more importantly focused on Hebrew converts.
As I read the first warning, the warning to pay attention, I got excited. It motivated me to read on. So I read the second warning against unbelief, and normally sequels are not as good as the original, but this was terrific and I felt the tension building in the author’s words. So I continued on and read the third warning the warning against falling away and thought to myself. Wow that is incredible. And I guarantee by the end of today you will feel the same way, Wow that is an incredible passage.
So I did what any of us would do, I skipped to the end of the book to see if Frodo gets the ring to mount doom. Spoiler alert, he did, but I never got over the climax, the third warning. So that’s where we are going to join our author.
About halfway through this 5 point sermon. Let’s join him in hearing an eerily similar message to Phil Jackson’s. In the first 5 chapters the writer has been explaining the supremacy of Christ. He has laid out that Christ is the supreme King, Priest, Sacrifice and prophet, Christ is greater than Moses, Aaron, Levitical priests, but before he can finish by showing that Christ is superior even to Melchizedek, who’s name means “king of “Righteousness,” he suddenly breaks the discourse of his sermon, and directly confronts his audience with a blistering “wake up people” statement. The author breaks it down into 3 parts:
first he confronts, then he addresses the issue, and finally comforts the listener. 3 distinct parts...
Let me give you where he’s going and then we’ll go there.
His ultimate concern is that spiritual immaturity is the first step on the road to falling away from Christ (Apostasy).
Just like a pastor might get up here and proclaim that anger is the first step on the road to murder. The author is proclaiming to us that
Spiritual immaturity is the first step on the road to falling away from Christ (Apostasy)
Apostasy, what does that mean?
Definition for Apostasy - a defection or revolt from/ the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person.
So if you find yourself walking down a road marked spiritual immaturity you will see a sign that says, defection, disaffiliation, abandoning your faith 100 miles dead ahead.
Let’s now hear these words, from The Word.
Hebrews 5:11 - 14
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 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.
I’m in verse 14 now...
*The result of becoming mature Christians is that you will make better decisions in your life.
Conversely, if remain in immaturity, you will continue to make poor decisions with regards to good and evil.
What is the author trying to get at here?
95% of the decisions you make on a daily basis are not directly addressed in the Bible. If, you were thinking about stealing something there’s a commandment for that, if you were thinking about lying, there’s a commandment for that. But deciding what to watch on tv or what movies are appropriate, no commandment. should I eat that? how to spend my money, what friends to have, how to blow off some steam have no direct instruction. So in order to make wise decisions about daily life you must move on from milk to meat. What’s that about?
The illustration here is one that I have only recently become more familiar with. I think that until you have a child, you can’t fully understand the depth of the infant/milk illustration. Even before my daughter Charlotte was born God had given her a piece of the puzzle. She was able to suck from the very beginning, in fact we have a picture of her in the womb sucking on her hand. This was a profound learning experience for me because God did not fully equip her to feed herself. God gives babies the ability to do many things, they can tell you when they are hungry, they can tell you when it’s time to change them, God even gave them the ability to participate in feeding through sucking, he pre-programs it, but He doesn’t give them everything. While Charlotte came out of the womb with the ability to suck, she needed someone to teach her and show her the way to. This strikes me as remarkably similar to the way that God equipped all of us. We all have this yearning to know God more, but we need people and churches to help us along the way. In the same way that for Charlotte there will be a natural progression where she moves from milk to rice cereal to mushy foods to six layer burritos at taco bell. There is a natural progression or path that leads us from the elementary teachings, the milk, to maturity, six layer burritos from Taco Bell.
The mature are those who, because of a developed mature spiritual condition and full stomach, possess trained faculties that enable the discernment of good and evil. In other words, they know how to make right choices when confronted with critical decisions.
What’s really great about this section is that if you are new to the faith, you are about to get the most complete checklist of “Foundational Spiritual Experiences” found in the New Testament. I love checklists, not as much as my wife does when we are packing for vacation, but a checklist comforts me because I know that there is a better chance of me not leaving something behind. If you have ever done the last minute scramble to put together a suitcase, you can appreciate the value that a checklist brings. So if you’re new here or to the faith take comfort in the knowledge that God is telling you what to pack. And if you have been around a while take a second look at depth and the riches of our spiritual life and remember them.
NIV Hebrews 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of...
5 foundational experiences of the Christian faith.
verse1
repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God
Repentance - The experience of being 1 convicted, 2 confessing, 3 asking forgiveness, and not continuing in but being 4 free from sin.
starting verse 2 now
Instruction about baptisms,
*Baptism for believers can be one of the most influential days on the rest of their life.
*Within emerging Christianity the rite of baptism acquired fundamental importance. Baptism replaces circumcision as the central symbolic act that put the world on notice that you have committed your life to Christ. An outward sign of an inward commitment. The funniest thing occurred to me in preparation for this message, you know John “the Baptist,” well “the Baptist” was not his last name. He got this because of the central importance God placed in his life and ministry.
Laying on of Hands
*Laying on of hands was a method used in the Old Testament period to confer blessing, to transfer guilt from sinner to sacrifice, and to commission a person for a new responsibility. In the New Testament period laying on of hands was observed in healing, blessing, ordaining or commissioning and imparting spiritual gifts.
Resurrection of the dead
You understand the Cross and the significance of Jesus defeating death and believe that because He did it, one day we too will be resurrected.
Eternal judgment You understand that there will be and end, and God will judge you on the reckoning day and that without Jesus Christ testifying for you, you have no chance at being declared Righteous.
Verse 3
3 And God permitting, we will do so.
If you don’t slow down you might have missed it. That just when you are starting to think, yes I have done those things, I have shared those experiences, the author reminds us to be humble because you only truly experienced those things because God permitted it. He ordained it. He had these good things laid out for you. Reminds us that verse 4
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,
Foundational Christian Experiences of the Heart
enlightened,
I really like this one because it is so subtle. You recognize that where there once was darkness, a light of truth now shines and that there no longer is darkness in you. An un repeatable event in which those dark places are revealed as never before, which like baptism its repetition would contradict the very experience.
who have tasted the heavenly gift,
Receiving the Eucharist, taking communion, but take into account the sum of the whole process of taking the Eucharist, likely in a group with other believers and someone administering it.
who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5
This is a tough one, at the very least it is a reference to receiving gifts and or operations of the Holy Spirit, but also feels like there is a personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Which is made stronger because we know that this person has repented (been convicted), experienced the laying on of hands, been baptized.
who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age,
And the Cherry on top is that he has experience signs, miracles, at least a display of spiritual power, likely prophecy, casting out of demons.
6 if they fall away (So even if you have had all of these experiences), to be brought back to repentance, because 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.
This is the point in my devotional reading where my mind literally exploded. And I thought to myself what?!? seriously? So I checked a couple of the key words. Fall away, maybe that was a poor translation, it was good. impossible. it is the very same “impossible that is used when proclaiming, it is impossible for God to lie v 18, impossible to please God apart from faith. ch 10 The term clearly means it cannot happen. Next I looked up the word burned just to be sure that the conclusion of the parable was in fact the completely burned, not just singed. Sure enough it was.
combining verse 4 and 6 we hear that it is impossible to be brought back to repentance if this person falls away.
In his book, Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell tells many stories about training and combat. As a Navy SEAL Marcus went through the most grueling military training the world has to offer. He recounts going through several weeks in seal school and finally making it to the last week in Coronado. Hell Week. Marcus recounts that out of a class of 190 that started the program only 60 or so were left. He recalls thinking it strange that he had not seen any of them quit, but only heard the bell ring as they left and saw the helmets lined up outside off the Commanding Officer’s door. But then on about the second or third day of Hell Week when they were in the middle of carrying some telephone poles around the beach and into the waves and back out again. Marcus says, “two men quit right next to me. And I distinctly heard the instructor give them another chance, asking them if they wanted to reconsider. If so, they were welcome to press on and get back in the water. One of them wavered. Said he might, if the other guy would join him. But the other guy wasn’t having it. “I’m done with this beep,” he said, “and I’m outta here.” They both quit together. And the instructor looked like he could not give a flying beep. I later learned that when a man quits and is given another chance and takes it, he never makes it through. All instructors know that. If the thought of quitting enters a man’s head, he is not a Navy SEAL.”
I think that is exactly same thing is going on here. When we have had our darkness revealed in light, and tasted the heavenly kingdom, and joined in worship with a community of believers and then throw it all away, something in us breaks. Just like when a navy seal candidate quits, even though he is given a second chance, he will not make it through the rest of training because something in him has broken.
What is it specifically that is the source of that broken?
Continuing in verse 6 “they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” What does this mean? Read this in light of the first five chapters being about the supremacy of Christ and you come to the conclusion that...
when the cross has become precious to you,
when it means something,
when it has made a difference
And you go back over it and you say no, i’m out, I quit.
The ends of your decision are that you say no, I quit,
but the means by which you have to do it is to say that what Christ did on the cross is not important, Christ is not supreme, and you, say no, I choose the world.
He suffered so that he might be sanctified by his blood. Jesus died to make you and me Holy. Therefore, if you have have been embraced by the Holy Spirit and you embrace unholy the world.
What you are saying in effect is I vote for what put him in the cross.
It is impossible for this person to renew this person to repentance.
I’m going to borrow from one of John Piper’s ideas and share with you this.
Be careful to notice what it is not saying. It is not saying that it is impossible for God to forgive, a repentant person, if you can repent this morning, you are so fortunate, because you are not hear yet, this text is describing a moving away from God, remember they have grown dull in hearing, this is a process, there comes a point after which you will not be able to repent. Listen to Hebrews 12
Hebrews 12:16-17
[Let] there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.
The guarantee this morning is that if you can repent today, do it today, because you may not be able to do it tomorrow. And if you can v3 it is because God is at work in this room.
You can literally feel the tension building, this is a harsh warning with great big crocodile teeth.
We started out with a casual stroll down come on guys let’s be better Christians lane and ended up in a burning field. Why in the world is there so much weight so much impact on the topic of spiritual immaturity? Its what it leads to.
F.F. Bruce tells us that this warning has been both unduly minimized and unduly exaggerated. I’ll paraphrase here to tell you that he says that to completely assure us that this is a hypothetical “straw man case” is a minimization of “a real warning against a real danger, which is still present so long as “an evil heart of unbelief” can result in “deserting the living God.” On the other hand, the author’s meaning can be exaggerated to the point of distortion when he is understood to say that for sins committed after baptism there can be no repentance.
What Then Do These Verses Mean for Us?
I'll be very personal, to give it it's sharpest point. If in the coming years I commit apostasy and fall away from Christ, it will not be because I have not tasted of the word of God and the Spirit of God and the miracles of God. I have drunk of his word. The Spirit has touched me. I have seen his miracles and I have been his instrument for a few.
But if, over the next ten or twenty years, John Piper begins to cool off spiritually and lose interest in spiritual things and become more fascinated with making money and writing Christless books; and I buy the lie that a new wife would be exhilarating and that the children can fend for themselves and that the church of Christ is a drag and that the incarnation is a myth and that there is one life to live so let us eat drink and be merry—if that happens, then know that the truth is this: John Piper was mightily deceived in the first fifty years of his life. His faith was an alien vestige of his father's joy. His fidelity to his wife was a temporary passion and compliance with social pressure; his fatherhood the outworking of natural instincts. His preaching was driven by the love of words and crowds. His writing was a love affair with fame. And his praying was the deepest delusion of all—an attempt to get God to supply the resources of his vanity.
If this possibility does not make me serious and vigilant in the pursuit of everlasting joy, what will?
Hebrews 6:9-12
9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends (beloved), we are confident of better things in your case-- things that accompany 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, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
salvation by grace through faith
All our work and all our love, comes from his hand. We cannot earn gifts from God. And you can not put someone in your debt by giving them what is already theirs.
The sum of the matter is that this writer, inspired by God and speaking for God, wants you to have the full assurance of hope, as verse 11 says. He wants you to feel strong and confident and secure and bold and ready to lay down your life for the sake of ministry and for the glory of God's name. He does not want you to cower in fear and uncertainty about your future. He is calling us this morning to bank our assurance of hope on the mercy of God and the justice of God. The mercy of God to reach out to the utterly unworthy and give us faith and forgiveness; and the justice of God to uphold the honor of his name, magnified in the faith of his people.
So whether you come to the theological conclusion that the person above was saved and lost it, or never was saved, was close and fell away. The warning doesn’t change. It is not acceptable to remain in immaturity.
George Guthrie says that We must emphasize that those who fall away from God, cutting off their association with the Christian community and rejecting Christ, are in deep trouble and under the judgment of God. The nature of this judgment will differ according to one’s interpretation; however, the warning here looms dark against the bright backdrop of Christian teaching on perseverance and fruitfulness. Those who fall away from God have reason to fear. Therefore, it is incumbent on all those who minister in the context of the church to be responsible in issuing warnings in this regard. Those who fall away from the faith must not be allowed to slip calmly into the night. They should be confronted with the spiritual peril associated with their actions. It is mandatory, therefore, that every professed believer take these words of harsh caution to heart, examining their lives “to make their hope sure.”
God wants you to feel strong and confident and secure and bold and ready to lay down your life for the sake of ministry and for the glory of God's name. He does not want you to cower in fear and uncertainty about your future. He is calling us this morning to bank our assurance of hope on the mercy of God and the justice of God.