Arrested Development
Hebrews 5:11-6:3
Warning Signs of Arrested Development
Ears that Don’t Hear the Word (5:11)
Mouths that Don’t Speak the Word (5:12)
Stomachs that Don’t Digest the Word (5:12b-14)
Types of Spiritual Food
Spiritual Milk
The basics of Salvation
The basics of the Church
The basics of the Afterlife
Spiritual Meat
Teaching about Righteousness
Slide
Illustration – High School Reunion
I was on vacation this past week. We went down to Nashville with my family and had a great time.
Coming back home, we ended up stopping to get something to eat and some gas in Southern Illinois. So I am at this gas station and we have 2 cars I am filling up, and this lady comes up to me and says, are you Scott Kircher.
She looks a little familiar and I say yes, and she tells me her name and it is someone I went to high school with!
We haven’t seen each other since high school but we are friends on Facebook and she had seen some pictures I had posted from there. She was heading to Arkansas on vacation.
She probably wouldn’t have recognized me, nor I her if not for facebook.
It used to be the only way you ever connected with old high school classmates was at high school reunions.
That aren’t as necessary anymore since the invention of social media, so not too many, including me went to my 30 year reunion, but I did go to my 10 and 20 year reunion, before social media was everywhere.
At my 10 year reunion, when I was 28, I saw a friend that I hadn’t seen since college. In college, we were kind of on the same track. We were both unbelievers and lived the way unbelievers do. But even as an unbeliever, in my later years of college and after graduation, I recognized that the partying ways I lived in college needed to change as I got a job and got married and began to have a family. I grew up in those years.
Well, at the 10 year reunion, my friend, who I hadn’t seen since college, was still living like he was in high school or college. I have seen people do this, but eventually, they do mature and grow up.
Well, I did not see him again until our 20 year reunion. At our 20 year reunion, the only things that had changed in his life were the number of DUI’s he had, the jobs that he had and lost because of his partying, and the number of women that he had been with.
At 38 years old he was living as if he had not grown in maturity at all since high school.
It was pitiful to see someone who should have been maturing these past 20 years, not having matured at all!
And it was not just me who had come to Christ in those years that thought that. There were many people that were at that reunion who weren’t Christians who thought the same thing, that something was not right with this person, because he should have been growing up and maturing over those 20 years, but he didn’t.
Transition
When people don’t mature like they should, we recognize that there is something wrong with that.
Well, the author of Hebrews confirms that Christians need to be maturing spiritually, and that when we are in a state of Arrested development, there is something wrong.
Turn with me to Hebrews 5:11
Slide
Here the author begins another warning to them about the Arrested Development that many of them are experiencing spiritually and is hindering them from becoming Spiritually Mature.
Hebrews 5:11-6:3
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1 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.
Pray
In the first part of the text, the author begins by talking about their lack of Spiritual Growth being caused by their arrested spiritual development.
The author has some strong words for these people, because they were not as mature as they should be at this point, just like my friend from high school.
There was something wrong. And what was wrong was that they were suffering from Arrested Development.
And he tells them 3 things that indicate that their development has stalled.
For us, these are
Warning Signs of Arrested Development
Slide
If we see these things becoming apparent in our own lives, we can recognize the problem earlier and take steps to overcome this problem.
The first warning sign of Arrested Development are
Ears that don’t Hear the Word
Slide
Hebrews 5:11
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.
ESV says “it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”
These were people who could audibly hear words, but did not really listen.
As I was preparing for this week, I read one preacher who said this, which I thought was very good. “It is not that they were dumb but rather that they were numb.”
(John Hamby, “You Need to Grow Up,” accessed 6/20/07 at http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=86163
Apply
Have you become numb concerning the word of God?
Do you have ears that don’t hear the Word of God?
Do you read the Bible and find that 15 minutes later, you can’t remember what you read?
Do you come to church and find your mind on other things every week?
What am I going to do for lunch?
I need to balance my checkbook.
Now I am sure that there have been times that this has happened to all of us. There are times when I, as the preacher, have relied more on myself and less on the Lord and the message was either not very good or boring and you have found your mind drifting.
But if this is a regular, week in and week out occurrence, and
you find yourself not reading the Bible or
reading but not really hearing the word
then it could be that a warning sign of Arrested Spiritual Development is showing itself in your life.
Now as I said, we are all going to face times when our growth goes quicker than other times in our life.
I look back on my life and see times of rapid growth and times of slow growth. This is normal.
But if we recognize that we are no longer trying to understand the word, and this has been going on a long time, we may need to recognize this as a warning sign in our life.
If you do recognize this warning sign, take steps to hear and understand.
Read the Bible
Meditate on it.
Pick up a daily devotional
Open your ears to hear and understand the word.
Transition
But that is not the only warning sign of Arrested Development. We see a second warning sign is
Mouths that Don’t Speak the Word
Slide
Hebrews 5:12
2 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.
The author is saying that these readers should have been telling others and teaching them about Jesus, but they were not. Their ears were not hearing so their mouths were not speaking even though they should have been able to by this point.
Maybe you are thinking to yourself
“I don’t have the gift of teaching or of evangelism.”
It is not about having the gift of teaching. It is about being able to know the basic truths of God’s word and to be able to communicate them to those who need Christ.
Peter says in
1 Peter 3:15
Slide
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
How long have you been a Christian?
Have you told others about Christ?
If not, then why isn’t your mouth speaking to others about the Word of God, Jesus Christ and the hope that you have in you?
Do you feel you don’t know enough?
Or that you would mess it up?
We need to be learning the basics of the faith and learn how to concisely communicate those basics.
I had this wake up early in my Christian walk with Christ.
After praying for an opportunity to share my faith, God gave it to me and I did not speak. I felt ill equipped. I took at as a wake up though and began to get better equipped so I could speak with my mouth.
Ask questions that you are curious about and seek out the answers through God’s word and others.
Know the gospel
Who am I? A sinner in need of a Savior
Who is Jesus? God in the Flesh
What did Jesus do? Died for my sins and resurrected from the dead.
A third warning sign of Arrested Development are
Stomachs that don’t Digest the Word
Slide
Hebrews 5:12b-14
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.
The author begins to talk about two different types of Spiritual food here.
In a growing Christian, We are going to need each of the spiritual food the author talks about at different times in our life.
Ok, so what are these
Types of spiritual food
The first is
Spiritual Milk
Slide
So what is spiritual milk?
Well, He tells us the beginning of chapter 6.
Hebrews 6:1-3
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.
Ok, so here the author lists 6 things that are basic to an understanding of Christianity and that brand new Christians need to know and learn.
And these 6 things can be basically divided into 3 categories of things we need to know.
The first 2 things he lists can be categorized into what is
The Basics of Salvation
Slide
Repentance from acts that lead to death (sin)
Faith in God
Both of these things are imperative to salvation.
Sometimes I meet people that say – just believe in Jesus and you will be saved. While it is true that we need to have faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, Trusting in Jesus necessarily means repenting from a lifestyle of sin.
It is like 2 sides of a coin. You can’t have both heads and tails showing at the same time. Likewise, Paul tells us in Romans 6 that when we trust in Jesus, that we have died to sin.
Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Living a lifestyle of sin and growing in the maturity of our salvation in Christ are not compatible.
Repenting from sin and believing in Christ are necessary components of salvation.
Transition
The next area talked about as Spiritual milk is
The Basics of the Church
Slide
That would be the instruction about cleansing rites (or baptism and becoming associated with the church) and the laying on of hands (leadership within the church)
A new Christian should be baptized, which is symbolic of Spiritual cleansing, and they should be taught to follow after the Lord in obedience to His commands.
Being a Christian is not just about receiving Jesus as Savior, but about following the things that Jesus teaches and one of those first teachings for the new Christian should be to be baptized.
And when it talks about the laying on of hands, it is talking about anointing and ordaining leaders in the church and who you are to be following and learning from. Leadership in the church is a serious thing and Paul tells Timothy to be careful of who he installs into leadership within the church when he says “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands” - 1 Timothy 5:22
So, when we become a Christian, we need to be taught to be connected to the local church and to follow the Lord and be submitting ourselves to the local church and the leadership of the church.
Transition
And finally, some of the things new Christians need to learn are
The Basics of the Afterlife
Slide
That is that after this life ends, there is a resurrection for all who die and judgment for everyone.
It is imperative that we learn early on that this world is not where our hope is and that everyone is going to face an eternity and judgment.
Those who do not believe in Christ will be resurrected to face judgment for their sins and eternal damnation in hell. For some of those who are not saved, it will be worse than for others, but it will be hell for them all.
And for those who do believe in Jesus Christ will be resurrected to face judgment for the things they have done. All of those who are saved, who have believed in Jesus will enter into heaven and be with the Lord, but some will receive greater rewards than others based on how we have lived our life.
Summary
So the basics of salvation, being part of the church and what comes after death are things that all Christians need to know and can know because they are not difficult doctrines to comprehend.
Transition
But after learning those things, a person needs to move on to food that is going to help us mature and grow, just like an infant moves on to solid food or Meat.
So what is this Spiritual Meat?
Spiritual Meat
Slide
Well, the author of Hebrews tells us in
Hebrews 5:13
13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
Teaching about Righteousness
Slide
That is the Spiritual meat that we need to grow into digesting.
Well what is that? What is righteousness and teaching about it that we need to learn to become spiritually mature?
The definition of Righteousness in Nelson’s Bible Dictionary is
Slide
Holy and upright living, in accordance with God's standard.
(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
We need to be taught to live uprightly in accordance with God’s standard.
We need to be reading God’s word, which gives us His standard, and then by the power of the Holy Spirit, live it in His Strength.
Paul writes this to the Philippians Philippians 1:9-11
Slide
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.
The fruit of righteousness is living a righteous life through Christ. We learn to live this through the word of God.
Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Slide
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
We read God’s word, find out what He says is right, and then do right.
That is being taught and trained in righteousness.
Through the Holy Spirit
We don’t do this by our own strength, but when we receive Jesus, we are given the Holy Spirit and declared righteous and given the ability to live righteously.
We are told in Romans that we are no longer slaves to sin – Sin is no longer our master, but we still must deal with its presence, but now, we also have the presence of the Holy Spirit if you have received Jesus Christ.
And as we keep in step with the Spirit - listening to Him, trusting His leading, following the word of God which He enlightens us to - we bear the fruit of the Spirit which is a righteous life.
Spiritual Meat is not just having Correct Doctrine
So Spiritual Meat and the teaching about righteousness is not just having correct doctrine. Certainly we need correct doctrine, but the real meat is after having learned correct doctrine about salvation, and walking in obedience to be part of the church and understanding that our hope is in the Kingdom to come and that we will be judged regarding the things we do, that we continue to learn and to live righteously by the power of the Spirit.
Rejoice in Suffering
So, When we read about rejoicing in suffering, we seek to not only understand what that means, but that we truly rejoice in the powerful work the Lord is able to accomplish in our lives in the midst of our suffering.
Love your Enemies
When we read God’s word and He tells us to love your enemies – we wrestle through how we really love our enemies without enabling unrighteousness.
How do we love someone we disagree with in politics or in lifestyle choices or who sins against us or our family without agreeing with their choices or condoning their sin? Those answers for what to do and how to do it are not found in some simple proof text, but through wrestling through how we do that with the Spirit of God and against our fleshly desires so that we live righteously in the power of the Spirit.
We live a righteous life by
doing what we have learned, and
learning what to do next and then doing it.
James says
Slide
James 1:22 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
That is how we move on to maturity being trained by the word in righteousness and doing it.
And then doing it again
This letter to the Hebrews is not just about the fact that Jesus is greater and superior to all other messengers and his message is greater.
But it is because Jesus is greater and his message is greater, we need to persevere through the challenges to live in the power of the Holy Spirit becoming mature and attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, as Paul tells the Ephesians.
Stop suffering from Arrested Development and learn and live in the righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ and persevere through the challenges to reach maturity in Christ and attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Conclusion
So the question for each of us here today is
Where are we on the path of spiritual maturity?
Are there warning signs of Arrested Spiritual development that we need to heed?
Are we growing in learning and living righteously?
Are you continuing to hear the word, speak the word, digest the word and then living the word you have learned?
Actually you don’t have to be a Christian for a long time to be able to do this. It should be more prominent the longer a person has been a Christian, but even a brand new Christian can seek to understand and speak and digest what they have just learned so they can continue growing up to maturity in the faith.
What do you do if you find yourself suffering from Arrested Development?
He also tells them he is going to move along with them to some meat, kind of like, I am going to give you some meat, even in your immaturity, I am going to kind of force feed you in hopes of getting you off the milk and on the path of maturity.
Sometimes we need to just shock our own system with the solid food of righteousness doing what God’s word says. We need to understand that this does not come naturally. Sin comes naturally in our sin nature. We must overcome our natural tendencies to live righteously.
That means it will be hard.
It will be hard to rejoice in suffering.
It will be hard to extend mercy to someone who doesn’t deserve it, but that is what mercy is.
It will be hard to love your enemy.
But as we read God’s word, and ask how am I to live this, and then to do it, we will grow into maturity, feasting on the real nourishment of righteous living and be able to be mature, living in the fullness of Christ.
Close
Maturity
I am going to pray and my prayer is that this week, God shows you where you and might be suffering from arrested development, and that we might be strengthened to feast on righteousness and actually do what His word tells us to do, even as it is hard.
Salvation
And If you are stuck in even the pre milk phase, then don’t just know about Jesus and his salvation, but receive Him by turning from your sin, and confessing your belief.
Get connected to a good church and get baptized if you have not.
Know that the life you live in the body will be judged, so in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, live for Him!
That is when we will know righteousness, and be able to live righteously and overcome arrested development and continue on the path of Spiritual maturity attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
If you have never been born again by receiving Christ as your Savior, then do what God’s word tells us in
Romans 10:9 which says
Slide
if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Let’s pray
