Elementary, my dear Watson
Hebrews chapter 6:1-6:12
Introduction-
Greeting
Prayer
One of the most famous lines of Sherlock Holmes is “Elementary, my dear Watson” and yet it was never said by Sherlock Holmes.
The author of the fictional character Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote it.
The producer of the movie “The crooked man” took two separate conversations and put them together.
I have the advantage of knowing your habits my dear Watson.
In an exchange of conversation, Sherlock agreed and said Elementary.
This morning, I want to put together two passages that combined are a continuous sermon from last week.
Combining the passages from last week that show us what believers are offered by God so they can live the lives that God desires for us, and the elementary teachings we take right out of the Scripture of our text this morning.
Hebrews chapter 6:1-6:12
Remember last week, we looked at living Pentecost-
Christ at the cross providing a way of salvation and leaving this earth physically so that the Comforter, The Holy Spirit can come to empower, equip, encourage, and fulfill all of God’s promises in our life.
We saw that the unbeliever can experience the drawing of God to come to a faith in Christ but the promise of the power of the Holy Spirit working in a person’s life is promised to believers.
Believers can live the promised life and have more than just knowing God; they can experience the power of God in their life.
The purpose of Pentecost was for believers to be empowered, to evangelize the world, and for believers to come to maturity.
From the text, we see that there are certain elementary teachings that are essential for all believers to understand.
Importance of faith
Foolishness of being saved by works, but understanding that God desires us to be active for the Kingdom.
Meaning of spiritual gifts, baptism and what eternity holds for both believers and non-believers.
To go to maturity- is to understand that we move beyond but not away from the elementary teachings of God.
Let me explain.
Believers need to understand the basics of Christianity, but go deeper “meat” of the Word.
The author of Hebrews desires Christians to go deeper and get into the meat of the Word.
Mature Christians should be teaching new believers the basics while they are going deeper in the Word themselves.
“Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go onto maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lend to death, and of the faith.”
We all need a foundation- it has to be a foundation built on Christ, but where most lack and live below where God desires for them is they never build on the foundation.
It stays at the beginning stage. Milk but never any meat of the Word.
Do you understand that when you say I believe, when you told God that you wanted to be a follower of Christ, those were significant words promised to God.
By saying that you believe
You declare that you are not an Atheist. You are one that believes in God.
You declare that you are not an Agnostic- You know that God exists because you have and desire a personal relationship with God.
You are not a nature worshipper like a Hindu.
You are not a worshipper of dead people like Buddha and Confucius.
When you profess in a living God, you’re saying there are not many gods, but only one true God. “You are Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
When you say I believe- you are professing a personal faith, not inherited, and not forced, personal confession of faith.
When you say that I believe in Jesus- that you are putting your faith and trust is in Jesus alone.
My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness.
No Buddha
No Confucius
No Mohammad
No Satanic worship
No individual preachers ……………..Jesus Christ!
That is fundamental Christian teachings!
That is elementary teachings!
That is the milk of His Word.
That is the foundation that Jesus Christ desires to build on rather than redo, rethink, rehearse, re-examining your faith everyday.
That is the foundation that He wants each one of us to be Rock Solid about. (Amen.)
You want to go deeper with God, that is the starting point not an ending point.
There is so much more that God wants for you.
That is what the apostle and the disciples took into the Upper Room with them, but when the Holy Spirit came upon them, it was so much more that evangelism exploded and believers began living out their faith and willing to die for their faith rather than just be satisfied with a dead faith.
Illustration
Tim Hansel from his book “Holy Sweat” tells a story about a close friend going back to his 40th class reunion. For months he saved so that he and his wife could go back to his high school he left. The closer the time came for the reunion, the more excited he became, thinking of all the wonderful stories he would hear about the changes his friends had made. He wondered if any encountered Christ like he has done, and what kind of jobs that they had. His friend had taken him to the airport and he could hardly contain himself with excitement. The same friend that dropped him off had picked him up and the look was so much different. He almost did not want to ask his friend how was the reunion? It was one of the saddest experiences of my life! It wasn’t what happen but what did not happen. It has been 40 years and they did not change! They simply gained weight, changed clothes, but nobody changed. There was a long silence, I never, never want that to be said of me, life is too precious, too sacred. If I ever get stagnant like that, give me a swift kick where I need it. Love me enough to keep growing!
Clearly this passage tells us to go from the basic foundation to moving to maturity. It gives us a kick where we need it!
So how do we do that?
How do we move beyond elementary teaching, but not abandon it?
How do we go from babies on milk of the word to believers getting the meat of the word?
God’s word has some things we can do.
I. Know the source of your faith
What I mean by that is our faith is in a person, and His name is Jesus Christ. It is not based upon circumstances we are going through in our lives. His promises don’t change
Your faith was sown as a mustard seed and allowed to grow as we put as lives into God’s hands instead of directing it all by ourselves.
You must understand that faith is a gift and it must be nurtured or it will die. Faith without works is dead.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen. Meaning we have to reverse the order of natural law- seeing is believing to believing is seeing (repeat)
Why faith is important is that without faith, it is impossible to please God. God understands our weaknesses and he understands that we will fail at times. What God does not reward is doubting Thomas. What God does not bless is those that never settle the issue of basic teachings so they can go deeper in the Word.
If you get nothing else today, understand that you must settle who you belong too so that who you belong too can help you in your times of need. (That is original and that is good stiff!)
Those early Christians needed to move from beyond the basics of faith to an understanding of Christ as the perfect priest and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. Rather than argue about things that don’t matter, they needed to depend on Christ and effectively live for Him. So do we today!
II. Exercise your faith.
Faith is activated by action (repeat)
A rubber band never reaches its potential until it is stretched. It remains in its comfort zone until it attempts to do something that is bigger. It never gets stretched, it is never used because until it is stretched, it has no value.
James 2:14
“What good is it my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has not deeds? Can such faith saved him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Faith and action go together and exercising your faith will help each one of us grow to be who God created us to be.
Closing,
Hebrews 6:4-
“It is impossible for those enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the coming age, if they fall away, 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.”
That is a harsh statement- the early church when pagans investigated Christianity and rejected it; they made a clean break from the church. They wanted nothing to do with it. But then some believers dipped back into Judaism but hung around the church, there was not a clean break. God is warning us that those who persevere are true saints; we must allow God to change us and want to be used by God. We must adhere to the teaching of Christ. We must move past elementary teachings to get into the meat of the word.
The good news is if the Lord is speaking to you about it and your hearing Him it is not too late. The dangerous spot is to hear him and not respond because after a while we hear Him less and less.
What is He saying to you this morning?
Amen.
