Title: The Low and Slow Brisket
How many of you are thinking right now: “I’m not sure what Ben’s preaching on, but I’m all in!”
A pre-introduction introduction if you will indulge me: there is no way for me to articulate how thick today’s message is. Therefore, I’m going to reserve the right depending on the pace of the discussion to extend today’s sermon into our time next week if necessary. (If I’m being honest, I think this will bleed into next week, I wrote seven pages today and have 18 slides, my normal sermons average 3-5 pages and 10 slides)
I have prepared a relatively normal length sermon, but there are questions for discussion embedded in this message that could keep us talking for a millennia. I’m not really sure which way it’s going to go so I want to make sure that we are thorough and slow.
Let me put it into Baptist lingo: We are slow smoking the brisket, we are not flash frying the turkey.
Last week I teased the idea that the original audience of the book of Hebrews was not so different from us. That will really be on full display this week as we look at a few different concepts embedded particularly in verse 12.
Specifically, I’d like to focus in on four key phrases used by the author in just verse 12 today. I think it is very possible that these four phrases could create enough discussion for us to talk for several weeks, but I will try to restrain myself and you.
But to that point, I would encourage you guys to discuss this amongst your families and in your community groups, if we don’t cover everything or if after some degree of time, you find yourself coming up with more questions I would love to hear them your spouse would love to hear them. Your kids might love to hear them.
One of the greatest words of encouragement I’ve ever gotten was from a family hereabout a year ago when I preached a particularly difficult sermon, and the father of this family texted me a couple hours after I finished on Sunday afternoon and shared with me that on the drive home their kids were so engaged with the material that the family went on to talk about these things for about an hour.
That is the greatest compliment I could ever receive as your pastor: That something that I brought to the forefront, that God laid on my heart, caused our parents to engage with their children on the deep meaty substance of scripture.
Let’s begin, shall we?
(read/pray)
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.
“by this time”
-What is appropriate timeframe for a new believer to be a teaching/discipling teacher?
(take answers)
PB’s Answers
- No “time” designation, but the new, young believer needs to be under supervision of an older believer for some time. (Paul and Timothy, Paul and Silas)
- For me, this is as much about trajectory as it is about speed. If the young believer is moving toward being able to teach, (being discipled, having good teaching modeled, praying regularly for opportunities, etc.) then the “time issue will work itself out.
- Important note: We are not necessarily saying that everyone is called to the ordained ministry, those qualifications are outlined in greater detail in the book of first Timothy. But what we are saying is that every believer has a responsibility to share the gospel and to do that you need to have the basic ability to understand scripture and teach it to others.
Why don’t some people ever get there?
(take answers)
- They don’t belong to any church, therefore they have no accountability; no one spurring them on to growth.
- The churches they belong to allow them to shirk their responsibility to grow and teach others. They allow them to slip in the back, sit and receive, and leave, without ever being encouraged to serve, train, and grow.
- The church they belong to is not particularly interested in their growth. (Especially true historically speaking.) They’d rather keep the congregation ignorant and dependent upon the Church/Clergy so they retain power. Examples of this from history? Examples of this today?
- Others?
“the actual words of God”
-What is it the audience has forgotten, or neglected, or altered to need such a rebuke?
We don’t really know for certain, but, because they are human and humans don’t change, I bet we can take some educated guesses and asking this next question:
-What are some parallels of Christians or Christian groups who also fall into this category?
Forgotten: Those who have simply left Orthodoxy. (The core beliefs of the New Testament Church; Jesus is fully human and fully divine, the literally death and resurrection of Christ, the authority of Scripture.)
Neglected: Over time, groups claiming to be Christian have ignored certain Key, texts and teachings. They have attempted to re-contextualize these teachings to say something they did not say or worse yet, they attempt to say that these teachings were later added to scripture.
Examples: Teachings on the roles of men and women in the family and in the Church, teachings on the definitions of marriage, teachings on human sexuality. Others?
Altered: I fear this group is maybe the most dangerous to western Christianity. What these people attempt to do is to say that the teachings of the New Testament church must be re-understood in light of what we now know about the human condition. Our advancements in science, social sciences, and a general understanding of how the world works, means that we are still able to apply the general principle of scripture without necessarily adhering to the strictness of the rules of scripture.
(Continued next week)
Pray/QA