Growing Up or Just Growing Old?

Hebrews 5:11-14

Introduction:

My daughter Mariellie has an irrational fear. Whenever I turn on the sweeper to vacuum the floors of our house, she runs away. Whatever she was planning to do before I flip the switch, her plans immediately change when the sweeper is turned on. I try to encourage her that it won’t hurt her and that she can move around me. With a look of panic on her face, her eyes tell me, “Nothing doing! I’m running back to my mommy! That machine will hurt me!”

I probably should tell you, my daughter Mariellie is only two. Two year old children are immature and because of their immaturity, it is difficult to help them understand that just because something is noisy doesn’t necessarily mean it will hurt you. Try as I might to help her understand this, she is still too immature to get it.

The original audience of the book of Hebrews had immaturity issues as well. While two year olds, like my daughter, are expected to show some immaturity, the readers of Hebrews have been Christians long enough that they should have moved on to maturity by now.

The problem of immaturity comes up as the writer approaches the middle of his argument, proving that Jesus is the best high priest. Let’s take a moment to review some of what has been communicated thus far about Jesus’ high priesthood.

As our high priest, Jesus understands our weakness far better than any high priest under the Old Testament system ever could. Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Satan threw all that He could at Jesus to try to tempt Him to sin, but to no avail. Jesus endured all we do and more–He can sympathize with us. He understands our situation and the difficulties we have to endure.

Jesus understands the costs involved in doing the right thing as we submit to God’s will (Hebrews 5:7-9). The cross was an extremely difficult experience for Jesus to ponder, and yet it was God’s plan for our Lord to be crucified to pay the penalty for our sin. If there was any possible way to accomplish God’s will that didn’t involve the cross, Jesus was open to it. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He expressed in prayer, “If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Just the same, He finished His prayer with these words– “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Even though the thought of all He would have to endure brought overwhelming sorrow and trouble that in itself brought Jesus to the point of death, He remained fully committed to and perfectly obeyed the Father’s will. Jesus endured the hostility and suffering of the cross and became the source of salvation for you and me. He learned by experience what it costs to live a life of obedience. When we pay a high price for our commitment to do God’s will for our lives, Jesus sympathizes with what we are going through.

The original audience of the book of Hebrews needed this message as they were undergoing severe persecution for their faith. The temptation under such circumstances was to throw in the towel. Instead, they needed to trust Jesus, their understanding High Priest. They needed to approach the throne of grace with confidence in order that they might receive mercy and find grace to help in their time of need.

There is more the writer needs to communicate about Jesus’ high priesthood. The next concept he needs to address with his audience is how He is part of a superior order of priests–the order of Melchizedek. Why doesn’t he develop this thought until Hebrews chapter 7? There is an issue getting in the way that needs to be addressed before further instruction can be given about Christ’s better priesthood. The issue is the writer’s struggle to explain the truths in a way that the readers will be able to understand.

Any truth can be difficult to convey for several reasons. One possible explanation is that the truth or the subject matter being taught is too complicated. While this can be a factor, the truth was not to blame for this problem.

Another factor that can cause a teacher difficulty in conveying the truth is that he doesn’t have a good enough grasp of the subject himself to be able to explain it clearly. While this too can be a complicating issue, the teacher wasn’t to blame for this problem.

The responsibility for the problem in this case rests squarely on the students’ shoulders. The writer of Hebrews is having difficulty explaining the truth, not because the truth is complicated, not because he doesn’t adequately understand it himself, but because of a problem his readers have.

The struggle to explain the truth indicates a spiritual problem (5:11)

          The problem: the readers have become resistant to the truth

The NIV translation of verse 11— “slow to learn”—can leave us with the impression that the writer’s difficulty communicating is an issue of inability amongst his audience–they are slow to get what he has to say because they just can’t seem to get it.

A better translation is “dull or sluggish of hearing.” The writer’s difficulty isn’t because his readers can’t get what he is teaching, but it is because they have decided not to get it. They have chosen to become sluggish in the ears. They don’t like the implications of the truth and therefore resist it.

The truth the writer is communicating in the midst of their suffering is that they need to trust God and remain faithful to Jesus, even though it means enduring persecution. They want to go back to Judaism to get out from under the difficulty, but they are exhorted to go on, trusting God to help them through their difficulty.

They are unreceptive and closed to the learning process, having no push, drive, or interest in learning new instruction. They avoid people and places where they might hear the truth.

They might try to blame the preacher or teacher, telling him it is his problem that he doesn’t know how to get the truth across to them or they might argue the subject matter is too complicated, but the real problem is their choice to become resistant.

Illustration: Have you ever observed how resistant children can be towards learning new things. What they have already learned is easy to them. They like things that are easy. When they encounter new things that are difficult, they will say things like, “This is hard, I don’t like it, can’t I go back to what I was doing before.” The teacher, understanding that difficult learning processes are good for students and will help them grow, gives new assignments to them anyway. Students say, “Let’s go back to doing what we were doing before.” The teacher says, “Trust me, this is good for you, let’s go on.”

In the Christian life, we too can be resistant to learning new things. We like things that are easy for us and tend to resist those things that are difficult. God, understanding that difficult trials are good for us and will help us to grow, gives us new learning assignments. He allows difficult circumstances to come our way and intends that we will pick up the instruction manual of life, His Word, and put it to use to help us grow up or mature. We might want to say, “God, let me go back. Get me out of this.” God’s response is, “Trust me, I will help you in your time of need. This is good for you and will help you to grow up.”

For the original audience of Hebrews, hard things were inevitable for both the faithful and for those who were unfaithful. The sad reality is that by the time the unfaithful realized this, it was too late. The faithful would undergo persecution and suffering for identifying with Christ, but the unfaithful, who ran to Jerusalem to escape persecution, would encounter destruction when Titus leveled Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Clearly the best course would have been for the readers to faithfully follow God and allow Him to use suffering to develop and mature them rather than resisting the truth of His Word.

Still today, suffering is an inevitable reality of life. God’s desire for us is that we, in the midst of our trials, will grow and mature in our faith. Since suffering is going to happen no matter what, certainly the best course for us is to respond to it in a way that allows God to use it for our good.

Our maturity will not be an automatic thing that develops just because we go through hard times. A lot of people go through dark days and it doesn’t seem to help them grow up any. Such was the case with the original audience of Hebrews. They were suffering, but weren’t maturing. They weren’t growing up because they were resisting God’s Word instead of putting it to use. Because they resisted the truth, they were still immature.

Don’t be too hard on the original audience of Hebrews. Aren’t we sometimes guilty of resisting the truth because we don’t like the kinds of things God brings to our life to help us grow up? Consider the many passages which speak of the importance of our being patient. Yet, when someone prays, “Lord, help me to be patient,” what do we often say?—“No, don’t pray for that, God just might give you what you ask for.” We don’t like the hard things God uses to develop patience within us. Because of the hardships associated with learning patience, our tendency is to resist the passages that instruct us on the subject.

When in the midst of a hard time, which God has allowed to teach us patience and develop our maturity, our response is, “Get me out of this as soon as possible. I want to go back to the way things were before.” Yet God’s desire is that we would continue on, trusting Him, and allowing Him to help us grow.

Other portions of Scripture that we have a tendency to resist are those dealing with the subject of discipleship. Our Lord told us that to be a faithful follower of Him, we would have to deny self and take up our cross daily. And yet, when we, in keeping with what Jesus said we would experience, find ourselves having to say no to self and yes to rejection, suffering, and even the threat of death, we want to say, “Get me out of here. Haven’t I learned enough? Let me go back to the way things were before!” Our temptation is to resist the truth because we don’t like where it has taken us. Yet, if we resist it, we won’t grow and mature to be all God wants us to be.

The resistant hearers of God’s Word are marked by immaturity (5:12-13)

Growth is so important in life that when it is arrested, it is universally regarded as a tragedy. When children don’t grow as they should physically, mentally, or socially, alarm bells go off in parents, who do whatever they can to help their children mature as they should. There is a massive tragedy few seem to be aware of and fewer still choose to concern themselves with—namely arrested spiritual growth. When children of God remain adult babies, when they just grow old, but don’t grow up, it is an even greater tragedy than arrested physical, mental, and social growth in a child.

          The immature have been saved long enough that they should be teachers by now

The readers have been believers for an extended period of time. They have been well taught. By their exposure to truth and considering the time that has elapsed, they should be able to instruct others in the faith. The fact that they aren’t teaching others indicates a problem.

Please notice that the writer is not limiting his audience to preachers or even people who have been gifted for teaching ministry within the church. Hebrews is written to Christians in general. The expectation of Christians, not just preachers and teachers of groups of people, is that they will mature in their faith to the point that they are able to instruct others. It is the expectation of all believers that they pass on the truth they have learned. All believers should be ready and able to give a reasonable explanation of their faith to the questionings of unbelievers (1 Peter 3:15). All believers should be ready and able to fulfill the Great Commission to “Make disciples…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Some of you will never stand in front of a group to teach and we don’t expect you to, but that doesn’t let you off the hook in regards to teaching someone. You might not teach a flock or Sunday School class, but there are still co-workers, friends, neighbors, children, and relatives God has put in your sphere of influence for you to instruct. Each believer should be a part of the process of passing on what they have learned to someone else. When a Christian, who has been a believer for years, is not mature enough to teach someone else, something is wrong and needs correction.

Instead of teaching others, the immature need someone to teach them the basics all over again

When the truth is not put to use in every day life and isn’t faithfully passed on to others, it is not retained and thereby needs to be repeated again. The old adage, “Use it or lose it” applies. Kent Hughes writes, “Truth heard but not internalized and maintained will be lost to the hearer.”

The immature need baby food when they should be able to handle adult food by now

The readers are adult babies who still need milk. They still need the simplest, most basic, elementary truth of the Word taught to them. They should be ready to take in the meat of the Word, the more complex truth, but because of their resistance to the truth, they aren’t able to handle it. They have grown older without having also grown up.

Illustration: Imagine if a group of 7th grade students were only able to handle the ABC’s. We would all be alarmed to find a group of people at this age to be still at such a basic level. ABC’s should be learned well and it is good to know them, but they are intended to be used to form words, which form sentences, which give us the ability to read, write, and learn far more complex things. There is nothing wrong about what is taught in elementary school. Learning our ABC’s is a basic first step to learning how to read and write. However, we should all mature past the ABC’s.

Spiritually, the ABC’s are important. We need to learn well the basic, foundational principles of the Christian faith, but we also need to move on to more complex truth. We should mature past needing the milk of the Word to the point where we are ready to handle the meat of the Word.

For a baby to be a milk user is natural and expected. In the same way, if a person is a brand new believer, we would expect that person to be on a milk diet for a time—that is, we would expect that person to focus on learning simple, basic truths of the Christian faith. However, when a person has been a Christian for years, that person is expected to be able to handle adult food by now. If not, something is wrong and needs to change.

The immature aren’t well enough acquainted with God’s Word to apply it for themselves–they still have to be told what to do and how to do it

The decision to resist the truth and remain milk users has left the readers in an infantile state. As spiritual infants, they aren’t acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. The word translated “not acquainted with” literally means “no test.” They have no experience in applying God’s Word to life and they remain unskilled in using it as a guide for decision making. They aren’t mature enough to determine for themselves what is right and what is wrong.

The mature repeatedly practice God’s Word enabling them to discern between good and evil (5:14)

That which sets the spiritually mature person, who can handle adult food, apart from the spiritual infant, who can only handle baby food, is that the mature Christian not only has the Word, but also repeatedly uses the Word. He or she is not only a hearer of the Word, but also a doer. It is the repeated use of the Word that causes a person to grow from infancy to maturity. Through repeated use of the Word in daily decisions, the mature believer’s capacity for understanding is trained, enabling him or her to discern between good and evil. Mature believers don’t have to be told the good to embrace and the evil to avoid. They can make these determinations by themselves.

The problem with the original audience of Hebrews is that they were resisting what the writer was trying to teach them. Rather than resisting, they needed to begin a spiritual exercise program, putting to use the truth they are learning so as to train themselves to distinguish that which is good from that which is evil.

Implications For Us Today:

We need to listen to God’s Word with open ears, not sluggish ears, even when its lessons are difficult to take

Do we have inclined, open ears ready to listen to God’s Word? Or Do we have plugged ears that are resistant to hearing what God has to say when we don’t like it? May we be characterized as people who listen to the truth with all we’ve got, even when God’s Word steps on our toes; even when it is difficult to swallow.

Our growth in maturity isn’t what it should be if we aren’t teaching the truth to others

Are we growing, learning, mature Christians who are well enough acquainted with the Word of God that we are able to teach others? Or Are we not at a point where we can teach others because of our choice to become resistant to the truth? Resistant students of the Word don’t ever become teachers of the Word. How does a person who is sluggish in hearing the truth develop into a person who is ready and able to teach the truth?

God would have us all to be teachers in some capacity—as a parent, as a friend, as a witness, or as a formal teacher of a group at church. Teaching takes on various forms, but we should all be involved in at least one of them. If we aren’t, something is wrong that needs corrected.

We need to use God’s Word repeatedly in the decisions of life if we are to mature and develop the ability to discern between good and evil

It is not enough simply to know the Word. We also have to put to use what we have learned. Only by putting what we have learned to practice do we train our spiritual senses to distinguish between good and evil. We need spiritual exercise. We have to keep putting the Word to use if we are to continue moving on to maturity.

Growing older is automatic, growing mature requires repeated use of the truth we’ve learned

Are we growing up or are we just growing old?

Those who have been Christians for years, but are still immature need to be introduced to adult food

Please notice with me that in chapter 7 of Hebrews, the writer tells them the truth of how Jesus is of the superior priestly order of Melchizedek. He gives them the meat of the Word. He leads them to leave the elementary teachings of the Word and move on to maturity. Many say about people who have been Christians for years, but still can only handle milk that the solution is to keep giving them milk until they are ready for meat. That is not what the writer of Hebrews did. He told his readers it was time for them to move on. Away from the milk and on to the solid food of God’s Word!