August 15, 2015

Grow Up!

12th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/16/15
Hebrews 5:11-6:3


Grow Up!
I. Listen to your loving Lord’s rebuke.
II. Take action on your loving Lord’s encouragement.


“Grow up!” is the disgusted command of the weary mother whose 10-year-old son is whining like a 3-year-old.

“Grow up!” is the response of the agitated sophomore math teacher because his students are…well…sophomoric.

“Grow up!” is the thought that crosses the mind of the wife whose patience is running razor thin with her “teenage” husband living in an adult body.

But wishing for maturity doesn’t always sprout from the seedbed of disappointment and disgust. It can also be a pleasant foray into the future. What mother hasn’t held her sleeping infant in her arms and wondered what her bundle of warm joy will become? What coach or teacher hasn’t noticed the budding talent right before their eyes and wondered what heights this young person will attain?

Now bring those concepts into the spiritual world. That’s where the writer to the Hebrews transports us this morning. His focus in these verses before us is on spiritual maturity. He wrote these words, not as some grouchy parent or coach, but as a loving spiritual leader. He only wanted what was best for them spiritually.

So does your loving Lord Jesus who speaks to you and me in these words this morning. Simply, tersely, directly, Jesus tells us, “Grow up!” Those words present us with both a rebuke and an encouragement. Let’s see what Jesus means and pray for the Holy Spirit to use these words to bless us.

Part I.

Quite a number of area school districts began their academic year this past week. Quite a few more will do so this week and in the one that follows. It might take a day or two for teachers to brush away the mental cobwebs clinging in students’ minds, but once they do, they’ll quickly begin building on what their students have already learned and mastered. And that’s what parents want. They want their children to progress in their education. Long gone are the days when a parent declared, “You know how to read and write. You’re done with school. It’s time to go to work.” In fact, in many professions today, learning never stops. Continuing education is a way of life.

Keep that worldly concept in mind as we now move into the spiritual world.

These words of our text from Hebrews were written to Jewish people who had become Christian. They knew and believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah. As joyful as they were over their faith in Jesus, it brought hardship and suffering into their lives. Things became so bad, that they were tempted to go back to their old Jewish ways of living and believing in an effort to bring the persecutions to a halt. In chapter after chapter the writer presents one reason after another not to do so.

In the words right before where our text begins, he makes the point that Jesus is vastly superior to every priest in the Old Testament, even superior to a mysterious Old Testament high priest named Melchizedek. By doing so, he’s encouraging them not to go back to their old Jewish religion with its system of priests and sacrifices. He wants to lead them further down that spiritual path and into deeper insights, but he has to stop. And why? Listen to what he says, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 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!” At first these words may sound rather harsh, but realize he’s speaking the truth in love. He’s calling them out, and he has several reasons for doing so.

First, he charges them with being slow to learn. Literally, the Greek states they had dull or lazy ears. In other words, it wasn’t that they couldn’t learn more; it’s that they wouldn’t learn more. They wouldn’t make the time or the effort to progress in their spiritual learning. They were content with their spiritual ABCs. Please don’t misunderstand. Knowing and believing that Jesus is your Savior from sin—the most basic spiritual ABC—is still saving faith. But your Savior intends for that knowledge to be a floor, not a ceiling.

Here’s the next charge he levels against them. “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.” One of our loving Lord’s plans for you and me is for us to learn his truths so that we can pass them on. The students become the teachers. These Hebrew Christians were stuck in the student-phase.

Worse yet, they have forgotten what they had learned and needed to be taught all over again. They were frustrating the Lord’s plans for them. What frustrated parent hasn’t shouted in desperation at their child, “I’ve told you this a million times! When are you going to learn?” Jesus is concerned when he sees the same thing happening among us with his saving truths for our lives and our eternal life. So what if we can recite Andy Dalton’s QB rating from last weeks’ Bengals game. Can you find the book of Galatians in your Bible without using the table of contents?

Realize that just as any loving parent would be dismayed over the lack of educational progress in their child’s life, so your loving Savior is concerned for you if the same is true in your spiritual life.

So grow up! Listen to your loving Lord’s rebuke.

Are you listening? And I’m talking to everyone within earshot. Are you stuck on the spiritual ABCs? Does the Lord have plans to use you as a teacher—perhaps even to your own children—but you still need to re-take Christianity 101? The writer is trying to explain how Jesus was a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Do you know what that means? Do you even know who Melchizedek is? I’m not trying to embarrass anyone. I’m including myself and this is my vocation. I should know far more than I do. I’m sure Jesus has plans for me to reach and teach others, but my ears are dull. I’d rather watch an amazing YouTube video than dig more deeply into God’s amazing truths for today, for tomorrow, for eternity.

The result, as the writer states, is that you and I have a hard time distinguishing good from evil. I’m going to assume that you aren’t battling the temptation to be a drug dealer or to embezzle a $100k from your employer. You know those are evil. But you and I allow sinful pride, prejudice, the lack of compassion for the less fortunate, impatience, self-righteousness, lust, greed and discontent to fester in our hearts. That’s evil. Jesus wants us to know what’s good.

And here’s our connection with today’s gospel reading. Jesus asserted that he had come from heaven as true God in order to share eternal truths with the world. He wanted to feed the people before him on himself as the Bread of Life—the one who forgives sins and guarantees eternal life with him in heaven. He does the same for us today. What greater blessings are there? Your loving Lord simply wants you to grow up.

Part II.

The Bible says that the word of God is useful for “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). We’ve listened to the rebuke—grow up! Now the correcting.

“Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.” Grow up! Go on to maturity!” The good news in those words is that we don’t cause our own maturity. That’s the work of none other than God the Holy Spirit. Counting on the Spirit to do his work in us, the writer calls for us to build on the ABCs of our Christianity.

It starts with repentance. No matter how mature we become in our faith, we never get past the need to repent of our sins. It’s fundamental that we recognize our own sinfulness. If we ever think we’re past that, then we have no need for Christ. So, now that you know Christ as your Savior from sin, daily repent of your sins which find their forgiveness in him.

That spiritual growth continues with faith in God. By mentioning faith in God, the writer isn’t limiting it to a childlike faith in God. Instead, he’s calling to mind everything that God has spoken to us about our salvation. He’s encouraging us to mine the depths of God’s truths for our life and our eternal life.

Finally, he calls for us to pay attention to instruction in such deep truths as to what happened to us at our baptisms—the daily power and confidence that baptism gives us. You are a baptized child of God. Nothing can change that! He calls for us to ponder what we confess in the Apostles’ Creed—the raising of our bodies on the Last Day and the judgment which follows. In the judgment we have nothing to fear! Jesus has already told us what he will say to us on that great day! “You’re mine. Come and take your place in the heaven I have prepared for you.” Those are the kinds of truths that fill us with confidence and joy even as we slug our way through another distressing day in this sinful world.

Grow up! Take action on your loving Lord’s encouragement.

So, what action will you take to grow up spiritually? I’ve got a few suggestions for you. Read a devotion each day. Go to the WELS web site and subscribe to have one sent you to. You can even have it read out loud to you on your way to work or school. Read two chapters of your Bible each day. It will only take you five minutes. We have Sunday Bible classes starting soon. In every one of them, we’ll build on the ABCs of Christianity. Your faith in Jesus and your knowledge of God’s word will grow, and you’ll find it really helps you live each day. What’s more, it will enable you to help others understand God’s truths for their lives. If you need some more suggestions on growing up, let me know. That’s what I’m here for—to help you grow, to feed your soul on Jesus the Bread of Life. Fill yourself up with him! Grow up! Amen.