Where's the Beef?
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 5:11 - 6:8
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are
slow to learn. 12 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! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is
not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for
the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good
from evil.
1 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, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands,
the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we
will do so.4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have
tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted
the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall
away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are
crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to
those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that
produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In
the end it will be burned.
Obviously, things haven’t changed very much since this book was written. The writer
of Hebrews is having some trouble trying to explain an important point but because
the readers are not maturing in Christ, it’s difficult to teach. He says that by now they
ought to be teaching but they’re still relearning the basics themselves. He tells them
that they still need milk, not solid food. Back when we were leading the youth
department I started printing out a ‘chicken leg’ for our Wednesday night Bible Study.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain. I felt that
the teenagers in my group had learned the basics of faith (the milk) and told them that
it was time for them to start feeding themselves. My daughter Kimberly was still a
toddler at the time and used like to run around the church with a chicken leg. It was a
Southern Baptist church so there were plenty of ‘pot luck’ dinners. Anyway, even
though she wasn’t at the point where she could pick up a knife and fork to completely
feed herself, she was mature enough to handle that chicken leg. I equated her
maturity level with that of the teenagers, spiritually. I would put together a one-page
printout with some suggested reading and some questions to consider while reading.
The point was that there would be no one to spoon feed them but they could take the
sheet home to feed themselves. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as well as I would
have liked, although a couple of them did get into a habit of reading on their own,
which I guess made it all worth the effort.
You see, milk you can just swallow; meat you have to chew on for a while before you
can swallow. It takes much more effort to chew a piece of steak than it would to suck
down some pudding. It takes much more effort to study the Bible than to just read it
and even less effort to just sit back and let someone else do the reading. Those who
are on solid food are there because, as verse 14 says, by constant self training, they
have taught themselves to distinguish good from evil. The writer here in Hebrews
even lays out for us what he considers to be the milk; the basics. The foundation of
repentance, faith in God, baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the
dead, and eternal judgment. Those are the basics guys. We should be way past
those things, even teaching others. I believe that’s what the end of this passage is
referring to. It says that land that drinks in the rainwater and produces a crop is a
blessing but land that produces thorns and thistles is in danger of being cursed. We
should be maturing and producing a crop. Paul says it like this in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4
& 10-15:
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal,
as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now
you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are
still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you
not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,”
and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master
builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one
take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s
work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by
fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work
which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is
burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
We have got to move beyond mere infancy in Christ and past the worldliness that
surrounds us. Once the foundation that is Jesus Christ is laid we have to continue to
progress. As we build upon that foundation we must be careful to set aside spiritual
gold and silver and costly stones, those things that will go through the fire and
remain. We are all going to have to be tested by fire. It’s a given. You want to make
sure that when you get through that fire you don’t just make it through like a refugee
with nothing to show. What will the reward be like in heaven? I don’t know. Would it
be better to be a pauper in heaven than a rich man in hell? I’m sure it would be but
Jesus doesn’t waste words. He wouldn’t have made a point of telling us to prepare for
heaven if it wasn’t important for us to do so.
Luke 12:32-34
32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. 33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags
which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no
thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.
And again in Matthew 6:19-24
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves
do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole
body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that
darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and mammon.
I know it may seem like I switched messages midstream but really I didn’t. The only
way we will be able to store up those treasures in heaven, is for us to mature in Christ.
No one gives the care of a house to a baby. Even if the child is the intended heir the
care of the property would be given to an adult to care for until the child grows up.
When I speak of maturing I’m not talking about being intelligent as the world would
consider intelligence, like going to get a PhD in theology, but something much
deeper. I want to read two verses to put things in perspective, one from the third
chapter of Genesis and the other from the fourth chapter.
Genesis 3:8, And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 4:16, Then Cain went
out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of
Eden.
Mankind has been running away from the presence of the LORD for far too long. So,
what is the meat? Where’s the beef?
Exodus 20:18-21
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the
sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it,
they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with
us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and
that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood
afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
The solid food is the desire to be in the presence of the LORD Almighty; a need to be
filled with the things of El-Shaddai; God All Sufficient; Everything you will ever need.
That is the meat and potatoes of it all. Moses had that desire; the people did not. Just
like Adam and Eve after their sin and Cain after his, they chose to hide from the
presence of YHWH. They chose to put something in between their relationship to the
Father, and that was Moses. Not because Moses somehow wanted to keep God for
himself alone; quite the contrary. Moses told them not to be afraid. He told them that
the fear was a good fear to make them holy not to make them quiver. And still today,
the Creator of the universe desires an audience with you. If that doesn’t light a fire
under your rear end, if it doesn’t ignite a passion within you, if that’s not more exciting
than your favorite television show, or the internet, or some video game; if that doesn’t
make you sit up and take notice, I just don’t know what else to say. Are you standing
afar off because you’re afraid of the refining fire? Or like Moses do you draw near to
the lightning and the thunderings and the fire of His presence even though it’s so
unbelievably awesome that it makes your face glow? Make no mistake; we will all be
tested by fire. How much you have that doesn't burn up is completely up to you?
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: September 3, 2006
Revised: June 15, 2008
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 5:11 - 6:8
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are
slow to learn. 12 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! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is
not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for
the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good
from evil.
1 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, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands,
the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we
will do so.4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have
tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted
the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall
away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are
crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to
those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that
produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In
the end it will be burned.
Obviously, things haven’t changed very much since this book was written. The writer
of Hebrews is having some trouble trying to explain an important point but because
the readers are not maturing in Christ, it’s difficult to teach. He says that by now they
ought to be teaching but they’re still relearning the basics themselves. He tells them
that they still need milk, not solid food. Back when we were leading the youth
department I started printing out a ‘chicken leg’ for our Wednesday night Bible Study.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain. I felt that
the teenagers in my group had learned the basics of faith (the milk) and told them that
it was time for them to start feeding themselves. My daughter Kimberly was still a
toddler at the time and used like to run around the church with a chicken leg. It was a
Southern Baptist church so there were plenty of ‘pot luck’ dinners. Anyway, even
though she wasn’t at the point where she could pick up a knife and fork to completely
feed herself, she was mature enough to handle that chicken leg. I equated her
maturity level with that of the teenagers, spiritually. I would put together a one-page
printout with some suggested reading and some questions to consider while reading.
The point was that there would be no one to spoon feed them but they could take the
sheet home to feed themselves. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as well as I would
have liked, although a couple of them did get into a habit of reading on their own,
which I guess made it all worth the effort.
You see, milk you can just swallow; meat you have to chew on for a while before you
can swallow. It takes much more effort to chew a piece of steak than it would to suck
down some pudding. It takes much more effort to study the Bible than to just read it
and even less effort to just sit back and let someone else do the reading. Those who
are on solid food are there because, as verse 14 says, by constant self training, they
have taught themselves to distinguish good from evil. The writer here in Hebrews
even lays out for us what he considers to be the milk; the basics. The foundation of
repentance, faith in God, baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the
dead, and eternal judgment. Those are the basics guys. We should be way past
those things, even teaching others. I believe that’s what the end of this passage is
referring to. It says that land that drinks in the rainwater and produces a crop is a
blessing but land that produces thorns and thistles is in danger of being cursed. We
should be maturing and producing a crop. Paul says it like this in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4
& 10-15:
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal,
as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now
you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are
still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you
not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,”
and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master
builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one
take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s
work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by
fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work
which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is
burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
We have got to move beyond mere infancy in Christ and past the worldliness that
surrounds us. Once the foundation that is Jesus Christ is laid we have to continue to
progress. As we build upon that foundation we must be careful to set aside spiritual
gold and silver and costly stones, those things that will go through the fire and
remain. We are all going to have to be tested by fire. It’s a given. You want to make
sure that when you get through that fire you don’t just make it through like a refugee
with nothing to show. What will the reward be like in heaven? I don’t know. Would it
be better to be a pauper in heaven than a rich man in hell? I’m sure it would be but
Jesus doesn’t waste words. He wouldn’t have made a point of telling us to prepare for
heaven if it wasn’t important for us to do so.
Luke 12:32-34
32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. 33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags
which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no
thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.
And again in Matthew 6:19-24
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves
do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole
body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that
darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve
God and mammon.
I know it may seem like I switched messages midstream but really I didn’t. The only
way we will be able to store up those treasures in heaven, is for us to mature in Christ.
No one gives the care of a house to a baby. Even if the child is the intended heir the
care of the property would be given to an adult to care for until the child grows up.
When I speak of maturing I’m not talking about being intelligent as the world would
consider intelligence, like going to get a PhD in theology, but something much
deeper. I want to read two verses to put things in perspective, one from the third
chapter of Genesis and the other from the fourth chapter.
Genesis 3:8, And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 4:16, Then Cain went
out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of
Eden.
Mankind has been running away from the presence of the LORD for far too long. So,
what is the meat? Where’s the beef?
Exodus 20:18-21
18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the
sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it,
they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with
us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and
that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood
afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
The solid food is the desire to be in the presence of the LORD Almighty; a need to be
filled with the things of El-Shaddai; God All Sufficient; Everything you will ever need.
That is the meat and potatoes of it all. Moses had that desire; the people did not. Just
like Adam and Eve after their sin and Cain after his, they chose to hide from the
presence of YHWH. They chose to put something in between their relationship to the
Father, and that was Moses. Not because Moses somehow wanted to keep God for
himself alone; quite the contrary. Moses told them not to be afraid. He told them that
the fear was a good fear to make them holy not to make them quiver. And still today,
the Creator of the universe desires an audience with you. If that doesn’t light a fire
under your rear end, if it doesn’t ignite a passion within you, if that’s not more exciting
than your favorite television show, or the internet, or some video game; if that doesn’t
make you sit up and take notice, I just don’t know what else to say. Are you standing
afar off because you’re afraid of the refining fire? Or like Moses do you draw near to
the lightning and the thunderings and the fire of His presence even though it’s so
unbelievably awesome that it makes your face glow? Make no mistake; we will all be
tested by fire. How much you have that doesn't burn up is completely up to you?
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: September 3, 2006
Revised: June 15, 2008