Sermon Tone Analysis

Hebrews 5:11 - 6:3: Eat More Meat!

If you have your bibles, please find Hebrews, chapter five.

We will be in verses eleven through chapter six, verse 3.

As you find your way there, let me ask you a question.

How many of you remember your first job?

I remember mine; it was a seasonal job at a department store called Mervyn's.

I can remember getting up super early and walk the mile or two to go to work or working into the late hours of the night.

I remember Black Friday in the shoe department.

Terrifying.

As a teenager, I felt a bit more grown up when I got that first job.

But I also remember the paycheck.

Not that it was great, but I can recall that it was actually a great disappointment.

When you see those deductions and taxes being taken out, you realize that you're not taking much home after all.

Then when you get your first car, more costs.

You start dating, even more costs.

After a while, you realize that growing up is hard.

Growing up requires a lot of sacrifice.

Sometimes being a kid is just easier.

However, I would venture to guess that most of you here wouldn't want to be a kid forever, or even go back to your childhood.

What we'll see this morning at this church of Jewish converts is that some of them were perfectly content being Spiritual children, babies even.

Let's read what the writer of Hebrews says to these Christians, and let's work through this passage to see how it applies to us today.

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.

1 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,

2 AND OF INSTRUCTION ABOUT WASHINGS, THE LAYING ON OF HANDS, THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, AND ETERNAL JUDGMENT.

3 AND THIS WE WILL DO IF GOD PERMITS.

First, it is important to understand the immediate context.

Recall, that the original text doesn't have chapters or verses, so we too need to read the full text that was as well.

In verse 11, the word "this" connects this to verse 10 and the preceding verses.

This is to say that the writer is referring to the idea of Jesus being a High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek.

So, the writer pivots here because he will pick this back up in chapter seven.

So, why this pivot?

What is the purpose of this pivot?

He answers this - in part - in the beginning of verse 12, where he says that they OUGHT TO BE TEACHERS by now.

This is to say that they had been Christians long enough, under the right teaching long enough, that they could be - and arguably should be - teaching others.

But therein lies the problem, they were not.

They were still spiritual babies, drinking milk instead of solid foods.

With that brief background in mind:

Here is the main idea I want to develop today:

To become a mature disciple,

I must develop a hunger for God's Word.

You see, the problem identified here is that the church was immature.

This is evidenced in the analogy of the food they were consuming.

The picture here is that the church was still on the bottle, and not at the stage of solid foods yet.

What the writer is saying here is that:

What we eat is indicative of our level of maturity.

Parents, think about your own children.

As most of you know, I have two children.

Elizabeth, my oldest is what most would say, fully functioning.

So far in her life, she has hit every milestone from infancy to now.

After breastfeeding and formula, she graduated to pureed food, from there to solid foods, etc.

In school, she went from preschool, to kindergarten, to first grade and so forth.

She has grown physically, and her mind has sharpened in school and in life experiences.

This development is considered "normal" and as I learned in my Psychology class part of lifespan development where a child develops from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood.

Now, contrast my youngest daughter, Gabrielle, who has a rare brain malformation that delays this natural development and, at the risk of sounding insensitive, has remained in the infancy stage of development at eight years of age.

The writer of Hebrews is saying that this church, these Christians have remained in the infancy stage of their Spiritual development.

But why did this happen?

Is it because of poor teaching?

Perhaps.

But the author identifies this right away in this section.

Verse 11 reveals that the people were "DULL OF HEARING."

The word "dull" here means "sluggish" or "slothful."

It means that they were being spiritually dull and are no longer listening (NLT) or they have become too lazy to understand (CSB).

You see, they were not growing or maturing, not because they were unable - like my youngest daughter, but because they became spiritually lazy.

So, HOW DOES A CHRISTIAN BECOME SPIRITUALLY LAZY?

1. Become bored of the Word of God.

a. Going back to verse 11, we see that they had become hard of hearing, lazy, slothful and sluggish in their approach to the Word.

b.

Now, recall again, that in verse 10, the writer just finished this section on Jesus as High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek.

This appointment was of God and unlike the appointment of the priestly lineage of Aaron.

c.

If you have ever spoken in public, you may be able to relate.

Sometimes if the audience is not interested or the content is something not of interest or too high level for them, they become uninterested.

Their eyes are glazed over.

They become distracted by other things because they are simply not connecting with the message.

That's what is happening here.

This entire section is almost like a rabbit trail, or a digression - or, like I said earlier, a pivot.

It's almost like he realizes that this topic of Melchizedek and Jesus is just too dense for them.

There is too much there.

And in a moment of disappointment, he rebukes them.

d.

A good, Bible teaching church is an important aspect of Christian living, but we cannot stress enough the importance of personal study and group study regularly.

We'll talk more about this later.

2. Stay focused only on elementary doctrine.

a.

Now, the text calls this fundamental, and is in no way discounting the importance of the basic doctrines and message of the Gospel.

b.

What the author is saying here is that we cannot stay there, we must move forward, we must mature, we must grow.

c.

Let's go back to the picture we were given by the author, food.

i.

A few of us guys try (key word, try) to get together every other week for fellowship and food.

Imagine one of us sitting down at a steak house or burger joint and while everyone orders a meaty burger or steak, one of us just simply orders milk, or applesauce, or even orders off of the kids menu.

In general, that just doesn't look right, but more than that, adults need adult food for basic nourishment if nothing else.

ii.

Or, imagine at our Monthly Men's breakfast, instead of bacon and eggs, we have a bucket of those yogurt tubes and some juice boxes.

It just ain't right.