Title: Arrested (Spiritual) Development
11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become poor listeners.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.
Recap:
Part One: You are not ready, and you should be.
Part Two: Some believers never get there for a variety of reasons. (They have forgotten the Word, they have neglected the Word, they have altered the Word.)
Part Three: This passage does NOT contradict James 3:1 which warns many to “not become teachers”. Our Hebrews passage emphasizes the need for spiritual maturity to teach effectively. The James passage is a warning against teaching without self control, especially in regards to one’s tongue.
This moves us into the final section of the passage, dealing mainly with verses 13-14. Chuck Smith, in his commentary of Hebrews calls this status
“Arrested Spiritual Development” (Chuck Smith)
A person comes to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and then they hit a plateau and they just hang there. They never go on. If you talk to them, they’re still talking about the same things they were talking about twenty-five years ago; arrested spiritual development.
You see them and they’re still drinking bottles. “Entertain us, do a dance, do a jig, sing a song, play a harp, do something to entertain me.” They can’t take the strong meat.
Once you’ve developed a taste for strong meat, you’ll never be satisfied with bottle again. And some of the people that go back out to get some of the excitement of the bottle experiences that they used to have as a babe they find out that it doesn’t satisfy anymore.
Once you get a taste of the strong meat of the Word, I’ll tell you, it spoils you for anything else, so you’re spoiled. You just can’t go back to that old routine anymore. You’ve been spoiled. You try and go back and you say, “Wow! Did I use to engage in that?”
(Show of hands) How many of you have experienced “Arrested Spiritual Development” in one of the following ways:
- You return to visit a church you used to attend, perhaps a church you left because your learning had stagnated, and you think, “Man, NOTHING has changed, it’s like I’m in a frozen time capsule…same music, same message, same people talking about the same basic things…I can’t be nourished by just this, I NEED more than this!”
- You run into an old believing friend and have a conversation. And the things they are talking about, the things they are concerned with seem…trivial to you. They are focused on such simple concerns, with such a limited understanding of Scripture and Sovereignty, that you wonder how they have not grown.
- Other ways in which you’ve experienced this phenomenon?
If you had to speculate, what do you think is the number one reason people stagnate like this? (take answers)
PB’s answer:
The Churches these believers attend (if they are attending at all)
are NOT CHALLENGING THEM.
They are “kept alive” (barely) by an endless stream of fluff and IV fluids, usually in the form of comfort, familiarity and entertainment. Every Sunday is a warm muffin with whipped cream.
Growing in the Word, it gives you discernment. And you can immediately begin to discern some of these milky little scintillating kind of doctrinal trivias.
And you say, “Hey, it’s fraud, whip cream, not nourishing.”
And the guy next to you is getting blessed out of his socks, saying, “Oh, isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that marvelous?”
There is nothing there. It is cotton candy. It tastes sweet, but it dissolves. There is no substance. (Smith)
What do we do here, what is different?
14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.
Here? Here we are NOT just serving steak. We are training you with spears, sending you into the WORD and saying “Hunt, trap, be in harsh environments, learn to survive, kill your food, don’t play with it, and bring that kill back and we, as a group, will evaluate, grow, and learn. So that we become better hunters, able to feed each other, able to feed our young, able to grow strong on meat.
(Slide of Josh Hahn “Best Sermon Ever”)
And finally, what does our passage say is tell-tale sign of Truth-Hunter?
“They are able to distinguish between good and evil.”
Friends, I will admit that I am guilty of this, but it’s not always an inappropriate or ineffective method.
How many of you when talking with someone who claims to be a believer and you don’t know them well will steer the conversation towards some particular topic, maybe homosexuality, maybe sex before marriage, maybe abortion…
…and the way they answer those questions gives you a pretty firm indicator as to whether or not they are actually mature Christians. Actual truth-hunters.
In other words, you determine whether or not they are mature by whether or not they are able to distinguish good and evil.
So, after four sermons, we draw to a close of chapter 5. And I’d like to leave you with some practically applicable expectations that you should have:
- You should EXPECT meaty-maturity from your Pastor. (In the teaching, in the discernment between good and evil, in the controlling of his tongue and emotions.)
- You should EXPECT training, not just teaching. (This is the difference between a church that says, “Trust Pastor, he knows best” and the church where the Pastor challenges you and says “Don’t trust me. Look at the word for yourself. Do you buy what I’m selling? Does it add up? Is there a clear and necessary connection between the passage we are studying and the theological application (orthopraxy) that I’m recommending?
- You should EXPECT that the people to your left and right will hold you accountable to the precepts of Scripture. This is especially true if you are a member of the Church.