Pastor Jonah Sage preached Hebrews 5:11-14. Christians grow as we move from information about God to intimacy with God. Lector: Meagan Baker
Pastor Jonah Sage preached Hebrews 5:11-14. Christians grow as we move from information about God to intimacy with God.
Lector: Meagan Baker
This sermon is not going to make sense to everyone here this morning.
Not because some of you are dumb or lazy or in spiritual.
Some of you will be confused because the sermon today does not apply to you.
It doesn’t apply to you today, but one day it will.
Today’s sermon is for Christians who feel stuck, like their faith isn’t working.
Some call it the dark night of the soul. Today is for the people who are worried they’ve lost their faith, scared/confused.
If you don’t feel that way this morning, receive this sermon as a heads-up.
Doubting your faith, crisis of faith, feeling like it doesn’t work…these are all NORMAL and NECESSARY steps in our growth.
You’ll feel this way one day, so maybe this sermon can just be a reminder to you that, when you do get to this place, it’s normal.
If today does apply to you, two tools to help you on your way.
Rob Schettler, was a pastor here for years, has just begun offering Spiritual Direction services. Meets here at our building.
Rob Picture
If you’re interested in setting up a meeting with Rob, e-mail him here:
OK. So…what are we talking about, then?
Let me tell you a bit about my own feelings of being stuck.
I was in seminary. I was working full-time at a church but was getting paid part-time.
I was helping to right books. Watching thousands worship Jesus every week.
Learning to preach. Learning to baptize. Neighborhood ministry. Community Groups.
Local news interviews. Talking with publishers. What could be better?
Everything worked, ya know? And…everyone on staff was in counseling.
Everyone was afraid of being fired. Everyone was so tired.
I remember one time hearing about Jesus’ burden being light and I felt my eyes twitch
If Jesus’ burden is so light, why do I feel so heavy?
If Jesus is in control, why do I feel so scared?
If Jesus loves me so much, why do I feel so much shame?
For each of us, there will come a time when the promises of God seem to not line up with what we are actually living.
At some point, Christianity will feel like it is not meeting our expectations.
These verses in Hebrews changed my life
They helped me understand why my expectations seem to be off so often
They’re antagonistic and a bit mysterious, meant to draw us in, perk us up.
The Preacher just finished saying why Jesus is qualified to be our high priest.
Said he was like Melchizedek… “Melchize-who?” Listen:
There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain
-Hebrews 5:11
Don’t you love it when the Bible acknowledges this stuff is hard, sometimes?
Sometimes, it’s difficult to explain, and here’s the part that really got me:
Especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.
-Hebrews 5:11
This is telling your kids “i bet you can’t clean this room in 5 minutes”
Antagonistic, reverse psychology. “Oh I’M dull? I DON’T listen. Listening now! C’mon!”
Here’s what got me:
You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.
-Hebrews 5:12
Do you hear the missed expectation? I thought you’d be grown by now.
We learn there is spiritual milk and spiritual meat
We learn that we start with milk, and eventually grow up to meat.
The problem isn’t milk or meat. The problem is progression. Development. Growth.
This verse taught me that Christianity is a developmental faith.
There are particular stages of development, where you have to learn certain things.
There’s a beginning point, a progression, and it changes over time.
The beginning is God’s words, the basics of faith and righteousness.
Like infants, the early stages of faith are fed exclusively on this milk.
It’s good, it’s pure, it’s nourishing. It’s absolutely essential.
Like milk, the basics are straightforward, clear, predictable.
But too many of us stay simple, clear, and predictable. Verse 13:
Someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.
-Hebrews 5:13
You see it says “lives on milk”? Listen to me now:
You will never grow past your need for milk, but you MUST grow past living on MILK ALONE.
This verse is teaching us that you can know what is right but not live what is right.
You cannot live forever on milk alone. You can learn what is right on milk, but you won’t learn how to do what is right on milk alone.
Milk does a body good, but if milk is all you eat as an adult, you will be malformed. Listen to verse 14:
Solid food is for those who are mature
-Hebrews 5:14
Powerful imagery connecting our spiritual growth to biological growth
Solid food is for grown ups. Milk is for babies.
If you give a baby solid food, the baby will choke and die.
Can’t chew, swallow, or digest it.
If you give an adult a milk-only diet, it will go bad for them eventually.
Fatigue, stomach issues, depression….
The life of faith requires age-appropriate nourishment
One BIG LESSON for us here is this:
Christianity is a developmental journey from infancy to maturity
You will do some things in the beginning that you won’t do in the middle or end
The way you grow as a BABY is not the same as how you grow as an ADULT
Some things are the same…you’ll eat and you’ll sleep. You’ll drink milk your whole life.
But what you eat, when you sleep, how long you sleep…that changes!
You’ll drink milk as a kid, but as an adult you’ll start using milk to make delicious cream sauces, you’ll use milk to eat cheese and drink cappuccinos.
The task for us now is to try and understand the different stages.
Covering that in depth next week, but let’s understand what milk and meat are first
Look at verse 1 again. What is milk:
You need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word.
-Hebrews 5:12
Spiritual milk is spiritual truth. The basic things about God’s word
Chapter 6 begins with examples of milk:
Repenting from evil deeds and placing…faith in God…instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
-Hebrews 6:2
Do we ever not repent from evil deeds, stop placing faith in God, etc? Of course not.
Milk is theology, doctrine, information. That’s where the journey starts.
We all need a steady diet of TRUTH. This is why we say the Nicene creed/Lord’s Prayer every week now.
Many of us don’t know how to pray. Jesus said this is the model for how we pray.
It’s the milk of prayer. We repeat it, learn it, model it. Kids can pray it!
The Nicene Creed is summary doctrinal statements.
The purest, most potent milk Christian’s have ever articulated.
If you attend our church for a few years, you’ll be fed pure milk to nourish the body
You’ll have a solid foundation of doctrine.
Too many of us have thought that theology was the meat, though.
For many, Bible knowledge=maturity.
All of our problems are reduced to lack of bible knowledge.
What’s the verse for anxiety? The verse for anger? The verse for patience?
What happens when you know the verses but still anxious, angry, and impatient?
More verses! More books! Try harder!
We do this for 10, 15, 20 years…and the soul is malnourished, because theology is milk.
Remember how powerful it was to learn what the Bible said about a struggle you have? Amazing. Nourishing. Life giving. But then…the answers don’t seem as helpful
Perhaps that feeling that “my faith isn’t working” is not a sign that Jesus lied to you, but a sign that you’re ready for MEAT.
We never grow past the need for milk, but we must grow past a diet of milk alone.
What, then, does maturity look like? Let me borrow words from the apostle Paul:
the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.
-Galatians 5:22-23
The FOTS exist on a spectrum. How do you measure love?
You either know a verse or you don’t. Milk is easy. Can measure it, read it. Simple.
But MEAT involves more gray, more nuance, because the signs of maturity are seen and experienced but difficult to measure.
Notice all of these fruit only exist in relationships.
These are relational words, how we relate to ourselves, each other, and God.
Christian maturity is chiefly about relational vitality, about the way we love.
This will be very clear in chapter 6, but here’s a simple summary for us
the journey from infancy to maturity is the journey from information to intimacy
Milk is knowledge about God, meat is experiencing relationship with God
All we learn and know is in service of the way we live and love.
This is the consistent theme of the Bible, Old and new.
What’s the greatest commandment? (ASK CONGREGATION)
And what’s the second?
How will they know we are his disciples? Do you see?
We are not about getting stuff done for Jesus, or getting busy for Jesus…we are about knowing Jesus and experiencing the great power that raised him from the dead.
Our serving/reading/studying is all so that we might love him and each other
Baby Christians feed on information, mature Christians feast on intimacy with God and with each other.
And here’s the result:
Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.
-Hebrews 5:14
Training…years and years of practice to get us ready for solid food.
And the solid food sustains us through the gray…that’s why we have to recognize the difference between right and wrong, that’s how we navigate the gray, through deep relationship with God and each other.
If you’re here and feeling stuck this morning, or like it’s not working, or if you’re lacking in hope, open yourself up to the possibility that God is inviting you into a grander feast.
Perhaps he’s telling you it’s time to add some solid food to your diet.
Don’t abandon the milk, but realize there is more for you here at his table, too.
You may not be crazy, and you may not be a failure. You may just be hungry.
Christians grow as we move from drinking the milk of God to feasting on the presence of God, and I am convinced that many of us this morning are ready for meat.
Let’s Pray.
Lord, you have invited us to a great wedding feast, yet so many of us find our bellies empty still. We remember the joy of our salvation, but now long days have turned into long years. We long to experience the warmth of your embrace, the freedom of your delight. We long to hear your promised voice rejoicing over us with singing.
To we who are filled with doubt, to those wondering if it is time to move on, grant us hope that all is not lost. Reassure us that good days are ahead of us. That even here in the darkness of doubt you are with us. Where can we flee from your presence? Open our ears to hear your invitation to us. Grant us faith to press on into the unknown. Grant us courage to try something new, to unclench our fists, to breath deep the fresh air of your grace and mercy, that we might be sustained, strengthened, and renewed. We long to join you at the wedding feast of the lamb, so may the Lord Jesus return soon. While we wait, we will continue praying the way he taught us…