Sharpening The Spiritual Senses

Sharpening the Spiritual Senses

What it means to Become Spiritually Mature

Rev. Sean D. Lester

June 8, 2003

Hebrews 5:11-14

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.

Introduction

A. “We have much more to say about this…” The writer stops in the middle of talking about how Jesus is our high priest in the order of Melchizedek. He says that he wants to stay on this topic, but it is hard. He says, “I want to say more, but you won’t be able to understand it.

1. Literally, the writer says, “you have become dull of hearing.” He implies that his recipients had heard at one time (otherwise they wouldn’t be believers), but that they had stopped listening.

2. It would be a shame if you and I regard this passage merely as one writer reprimanding a church that existed two thousand years ago. This isn’t the time to detach ourselves from what the Spirit is saying. His voice can be heard screaming to you and I even today, “Why did you stop listening? You are in danger of falling away!”

3. Jesus warned the twelve disciples in Luke chapter 8, by saying, “Be careful how you listen, if you do, you will be given more truth to live by, but when you stop really hearing the Word of God because you think you know enough, you will lose what truth you think you know.”

4. You and I tend to get lazy when it comes to the Word of God. We are attracted to certain preachers cause we love what they preach, which agrees with what we want to feel, or aspire to become. We read books and watch videos that resonate in our hearts. But the things we aren’t excited about, that seem dull or irrelevant we avoid. But, the truth is, those are things we most need to hear.

5. Illustration: A guitar string will resonate when the pitch to which it is tuned is sounded near it. So do you, a sermon that resonates with you can’t change you, because it is at your level. It’s the message that forces you to change how you are tuned that causes you to change.

B. But, we must change how we are tuned in order to understand what the Holy Spirit wants to say to the church, to our own congregation, to you and I. The Spirit will tech us about how to worship the Father and the Son. If we hear what the Spirit says in the coming weeks, our relationship with God will become increasingly more intimate. If we assume we know all about worship, if we say that our experience is our teacher, we will miss the voice of the Spirit and we will lose even what we think we have.

1. Illustration: A young man (or even my two sons), will claim to be strong already and smart already. You and I know how little they really know, and you and I know that they will make many mistakes because of their arrogance.

2. For instance, if you became a Christian in the last twenty years, a move of God would take place in the midst of music and or loud and exuberant praying in the spirit. But if you have been in the church longer, you will remember when a move of God was associated with silence and awe as people waited on God to change them in some way.

Conclusion:

So, the Holy Spirit says to us, today, “I want you to mature into the character of your Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Interrogative: You and I must come to God with a heart for repentance. We must ask, “What must I do to become mature?”

Transition: You must hear the Spirit of our Lord as He tells you what you are supposed to be, as he convicts you of what you have become, and leads into change.

I. “You ought to be teachers…”

A. “You” actually means you. It is Jesus’ commission to you. “Make disciples, preach repentance.”

1. You ought to be telling people how to be reconciled with God. In every relationship where someone is separated from God, you need to call them back to obedience to God’s commands. Call them to obedience to Jesus Christ, to salvation, to become one in the body of believers.