Usually, when I get ready to preach, I go to the Common Revised Lexicon to find a scripture passage. Then I look at what others have had to say about that passage of scripture both online and the good old fashioned way of looking things up in books and commentaries. Sometimes a word in the passage will strike me and I will look it up in a Bible Dictionary and investigate its Greek or Hebrew roots. This can take minutes or days… But the sermon for this Sunday is different. I have done a few of the same tried and true methods of exegizing the Scripture but have found the Word of the Lord simply whispering in my ear… “just preach it… just preach my Word.” As a result, the message for this morning comes out of two weeks of agonizing prayer, research, soul-searching and yes, even a few tears.
As many of you know week before this last I was in Nashville, TN. Home of Country Music and Christian Music. Not too far from Graceland and directions to Opryland on every corner! But I did not visit any of these places… nope – I was there for school – Trevecca Nazarene University to be exact. There I spent thirty hours over the course of five days in a class dedicated to unfolding the doctrine of Wesleyan Holiness. I have spent the greater part of my now nearly seven years as a soldier and now Captain in The Salvation Army trying to understand what we mean by the words that appear on our holiness tables (which growing up I knew as the altar), “Holiness Unto the Lord.” What does that mean? This was the mystery I sought to unravel. And it is this mystery which we will explore this morning by looking at Hebrews 6:1-12.
In order to understand all scripture we can not take it out of its context. So we need to have a clear understanding of those events which influenced the writing of Hebrews. There is only one problem with that… it is a mystery. Most recently it has been proposed that a house church of Roman Messianic Jews wrote it. This church would have been greatly influenced by the sermon and life of Stephen the martyr. Though the exact historic moment and indeed the writer (though we believe all Scripture to be God-breathed) is uncertain the purpose of Hebrews is clear. The aim of this book is to show that the Jewish people and in fact the Christian, Jew or Gentile, is no longer bound to the rules and regulations of the Levitical code as the way that leads men to God. Clearly the goal of Hebrews is to establish once and for all that Christ is the way to God and to a lifetime of abundant fellowship with Him. Christ spells freedom to all who will hear for His life and work fulfill, complete and exceed the requirements of the Torah. With this in mind, Hebrews is a kind of challenge. It is a challenge take everything you have thought about the historic Jesus or Messiah a step further… as one Bible commentator puts it the purpose of Hebrews is to move “From Salvation to Sanctification.” And here begins the language of holiness…Go forward. Don’t fall back.
GO FORWARD
When chapter six begins the author is dealing with the maturity of the Hebrew Christians. Chapter five closes by stating that although the Hebrews ought to have a very rich, deep Christian life they insist on staying fixed on the initial work of Christ unto salvation… they are still drinking milk and not moving onto solid food. The writer opens by saying, “There fore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity…” the passage goes on to explain what some of those elementary teachings are …. We must understand that the author is not saying to leave behind these teachings about the crucifixion and life of Christ. In fact he stresses that these teaching (repentance, regeneration, faith towards God, an inward change reflected in outward actions…) are foundational to building our faith. Just like when building a house a foundation must be laid… around here that is crucial! Without a firm foundation the house will quickly begin to shift and settle creating structural damages to the building above… To go back to the food analogy the author began with I am reminded of my children as they have grown. For example, Zoe went from being nursed to having formula and baby food. From there she progressed to solid food… but to this day my baby girl drinks at least 4 cups of milk each day. But notice – that is not all she lives on… we don’t call my babies chunky monkeys without reason!
Similarly, we must go forward in our faith! We must recognize the importance of all Christ has done for us but must move beyond just seeing it and accepting it to doing something with that knowledge. We must never forget that out of His love for us Christ died that we might have life and have it more abundantly as He says in John 10:10. But the love of Christ bids us to go further… We must recognize that Christ calls us not only unto salvation but to sanctification… to a life of holiness… a life that is without the tendency to sin. You heard me right – I did say that the life of holiness is a life that is free from the human proneness to sin. Not that we ever stop being a sinner… for that is in and of our own selves… the emphasis is on us…. But we know and trust that Christ would not call us to something without enabling us to see it as a reality. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 reminds of this by saying, “May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.” Seek Him in pursuit of holiness, seek Him in pursuit of a sinless life… and grow deeper in your faith. Seek a fuller, richer, more personal relationship with Jesus through prayer, through reading His Word, through loving those around you (even when you are angry with them, or frustrated, even when they smell funny and look even funnier), through compassionate care of a neighbor who just needs to talk… Move forward with Him… DO SOMETHING with the love and joy and change He has given you…Let Him keep making the difference in your life day after day… In the musical Godspell there is a song that puts it rather succinctly, “Day by day Lord these three things I pray – to love Thee more dearly, see Thee more clearly, and follow Thee more nearly… day by day by day by day.” Move forward and never back…
DON’T FALL BACK
This idea of not moving backward is addressed in verses 4-6. The Hebrew writer states that it is “impossible for those who have been enlightened and tasted the holy gift… if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance.” The sin being discussed here is apostasy. Big word – a twenty-five cent word as my sixth grade English teacher would say… so I looked it up! I am becoming more and more familiar with my American Heritage Dictionary where I found the word apostasy to be defined, “to abandon one’s beliefs or convictions, particularly we regard to religion.” The point of following the passage which urges growth with this section on apostasy was not to scare the Hebrews into a rigid holiness full of fear but to encourage them to mature for “spiritual growth is the surest way to prevent that dreadful sin of apostasy from the faith,” as Matthew Henry says. The writer shows that a person may seem very religious and go far with that appearance and yet in the end fall away and perish forever. It is possible to have a head knowledge of Christ – to understand academically who Christ was and what He did – and yet not have a saving relationship with Christ. This is what is indicated by the word “enlightened.” We move on and read that a person may “have shared in the Holy Spirit” yet fall into apostasy. A person may get a warm fuzzy feeling at church produced by the Holy Spirit and yet unless the person makes a response to that may not have a real relationship with Jesus. Ladies – when reading some commentary on this one only one thing came to mind – shopping. I walk through the store and see aisles of clothes that I think would be perfect for this or that occasion. But when I look at the price tag I say simply – “This is not worth that price!” And I put it back. Sometimes we get all warm and fuzzy sitting in church and we know that the Holy Spirit is urging us to take a step into the aisle and walk to the mercy seat to make a commitment to the Lord… but then we realize that the change might be too much. We aren’t willing to give up the hour He wants for prayer, the bottle that only leads to more confusion, the money we’d rather spend on stuff than give to him… the excuses are endless… at times we simply look at the price tag of holiness and say – whoops – that’s too high! But my friends, our salvation was not cheap… “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Says 1 Corinthians 6:20. Our purchase price was the very blood of Jesus Christ… and the price of holiness is to live a life as we have already said – constantly seeking Him and becoming like Him more and more so that we may know fully that we have followed His command with His help and have become holy even as He is holy.
As for “those who have tasted the heavenly gift,” with regards to apostasy I would say that God’s grace is for all and as such I believe that He produces works of prevenient grace in those who are not saved. If you have ever been shown kindness by a non-believer, if you have ever had encouragement from someone who does not know the Lord you know that this is true. For everything that is good comes from the Lord, and from nowhere else. If you have ever done kind deeds in loving response to someone who by no acts of his/her own deserves it you have been part of God’s amazing grace and mercy… Sadly, though, some may never recognize fully the hand of the Lord in such ways and fall away.
Moving on to verse five we see that because someone may remember a great deal of Scripture and be able to spout it off chapter and verse does not necessarily mean that they have been “cast in the mold of it, nor have it dwelling richly in them.” This immediately conjures up images from a movie I am ashamed to say I have seen in part… Carrie. There are scenes in this film where a Bible-verse-spouting mother locks her daughter in a tiny closet for days, without food or drink sometimes. In no way would we say that such an abusive parent has the Spirit of Scripture alive within her. Though she may know the words she does not necessarily know their Author! We should certainly memorize Scripture – we are in fact instructed to do so, to hide the Word of God in our hearts, but we must be careful that we are not just memorizing words but are falling in love with the Lord who write them down to instruct us in love!
In verse six we see the painful end of apostasy – of turning not just from truth but from the ways of Christ as well. It is death without end. The language of this whole section I find to be a little tricky so I have depended heavily upon the commentaries of John Wesley, Matthew Henry and William Greathouse to unpack their true intent as I am not a Greek scholar by any stretch of the imagination. What I found through reading their commentaries and through asking for illumination of the Spirit is that ultimately apostasy leads to a declaration that a person agrees that Jesus should have been crucified and that they would be glad to do it to Him all over again if it were in their power to do so. They have shame over having ever been “fooled” into Christianity. And out of this apostates (those who have fallen to apostasy) give themselves of to misery – very few who have gotten so “far and fallen away have ever been brought back to true repentance – repentance as is indeed a renovation of the soul.” Because of the very strong language used here some have considered this to be the definition of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit, but it is not so. There is opportunity for repentance here, God can renew them to repentance, but as always with mankind, salvation and sanctification do not come by our own merits but by faith in Jesus Christ, repentance of sin and the regeneration of the Spirit.
Clearly no one who starts out as a Christian never thinks he or she will fall so far away. It happens over time mostly. The Hebrew writer is so wise – well, we know that it is not merely a man writing here but a man given the words by Spirit – he opens by saying “Getty up and go” and follows it with what happens if we do not… We must have a firm foundation in Jesus Christ, yes this much is true… but what good will a foundation do with no home built upon it… contractors don’t build a foundation without having plans for the structure to go atop it… Neither has Christ lain down His life as our firm foundation without the intention of sanctifying us, making us holy – no longer a slave to sin. Salvation through Christ is the foundation upon which Holiness in Christ is built. It is essential that we allow Christ to fulfill His intentions for our life… this is the road to true fulfillment and joy. We have seen today where the road to apostasy leads… and as I said just a second ago clearly no one starts down this road with the expectation of falling away. Imagine if you will you are walking down the road of life… you experience the amazing miracle of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ through grace. You begin to walk down the road of life with Christ but you keep looking back to that point where you came to salvation and never look ahead to where Christ is now leading. At some point you stop walking and keep looking at that past moment in time – yes the grace of God was amazing in that moment… but Christ urged you to walk on with Him. Have you continued to walk with Him or have you been focused on that past moment that you have stopped walking all together? Have you turned to find Jesus and realize that you are no longer standing beside Him but that He is farther up ahead on the path? Is He even in view, or have you fallen off the path entirely? Now is the time to get into check. Now is the time to examine your heart, now before it is too late and death is but a second away. Seize this very moment to realize that He wants to take you further down that road, He wants to walk on with you, to move forward. You must hold out your hand and take His. For His hand has never stopped being extended to you. He loves you! He fiercely loves you! Won’t you take hold of His hand right here! Right now! Decide to seek Him in His Holiness! Lay it up on this altar and move forward from this moment… don’t fall back any longer… Holiness unto the Lord… (queue “Draw Me Close”)
Oh Holy Spirit that is our hearts cry this morning! Even now, there are those in their seat who need to act on that warm fuzzy they are feeling in their hearts right now. We are weak in our flesh Lord, but we are strong in Spirit for it is not our own but Your Holy Spirit that enables is to seek You in holiness. God we seek you. We want to be holy. To know and understand that more fully. We want to be free from sin – we want to be sanctified through and through and we believe You when You say in Your Word that You will do it! God give our feelings motion, the little butterflies in our stomach , give them flight… God You have done Your part, now may we respond in love and do ours… may we respond in love to Your love and seek You… together walking and working out the plan you have for us… hope and a future
