1Therefore 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, 2instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And God permitting, we will do so. 4It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness o7f the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if 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. 7Land 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. 8But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.
- Remember learning your ABCs?
- Many of us, in kindergarten or preschool learned this ABC’s and recited them in some sort of a sing-song with the rest of the class.
- Many of us are beyond preschool and kindergarten at this point.
- If I was in my Master’s level class on biblical interpretation and suddenly stopped everything for the teacher to have us read the ABC’s, this would be silly.
- The teacher would probably have an issue with this
- This is what the author is saying. Go beyond the elementary basics.
- “Maturity” here literally means completeness.
- The author is somewhat hard on people who have started the Christian faith, trampled on it, and tried to return to the beginning.
- The author says that you can’t start over again. You must progress. You must move forward.
- This is not saying that we are not reminded however. When I look through a Theological dictionary, I still kinda have that little song in the back of my head.
- Also, sometimes we need to correct faulty foundations.
- If a 2nd grader thinks that “ellemenopee” is one letter, they need a correction.
- It is a problem, however, if we do not progress beyond this.
- Then, the author describes the Christian ABC’s, things that should have been already worked out in the Christian life.
- It’s amazing how some of these also have parallels in Judaism, which may have shown that some of them were trying so hard not to alienate their Jewish family and friends that their Christianity was minimalist. They emphasized things about the faith that were somewhat in common with Judaism. The problem was if they never progressed.
o First, repentance from dead works. This means both the practice of idol worship and ridding oneself of the symbols of a pagan society.
§ It’s fascinating here. In the original language, this phrase also hints at the Hebrew temple worship
§ It’s not just separating oneself from the “world”. It is also a criticism that the people of YHWH also hold too tightly to their practices
o Second is faith and trust in YHWH.
§ One must leave dead works behind in order to fully trust YHWH
o Third is the laying on of hands and baptism. These are not just the acts themselves, but at that time, this signified that one was part of the Christian community. The author assumed that being part of Christian community is elementary.
§ Many authors believe that this is representative of all Jewish ceremonial washings, not just Christian baptism
o Fourth the hope for resurrection and judgment. This is not some detached hope for a “sweet by and by”, but a real hope of a physical resurrection for the world.
§ Notice that judgment is a good thing.
- These are the basics? There are so many Christians that haven’t learned these. Why do we baptism? What are dead works? Etc.
- There are many Christians who are still in pre-school. This is not that they’ve learned them and forgotten, they’ve just never learned them.
- They are saying mama and dada and communicating with a few hand signals.
- The author of Hebrews is saying that you must move forward. It’s like a child who learned to read, but refuses to do it!
- But verses 3 is crucial here: “3And God permitting, we will do so.” This takes a humble posture. This is not simply our work, but God’s in us.
- Then, The author gives us a beautiful picture of what happens when one comes to faith (The author of Hebrews is painting a picture here. It’s not a system formula)
o First, a Christian becomes enlightened. Their mind is opened to this truth about God and the world around them.
o Second, the Christians tastes the heavenly gift They taste heaven. They begin feeling the embrace that is new life.
o Third, they experience the HS. The HS empowers, convicts, shows us love, and reveals to us truth.
o Fourth, they hear the story of God. This is like a great cheeseburger when you are starving. You were hungry even if you didn’t know it.
o Fifth, you feel the power of the coming age. You sense what Jesus is doing and will do in the world and you groan for the world as it should be.
Gen. 3:17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
”Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
- The author of Hebrews invokes Genesis’ view of thorns and thistles as a literary device. Thorns and thistles are representative of the sin that is in the world.
- This was also a reference for the Jewish people to God’s vineyard in Isaiah.
- When sin is perpetuated, it is like a pile of thorns and thistles that are good for nothing more than a bonfire.
- This is rough. What possibly could an individual or a community do that would lead to being burnt up?
- When the author talks about those who crucify Christ all over again and “fall away” it looks like he/she means those who have left the Christian community and speak badly about it. They share in the contempt for the community. They leave and curse Christ and His work.
- Remember, that the church has been under immense persecution at this time.
- Now, this raises the question, is it possible to be a genuine Christians and then because of a choice, lose everything?
- Paul seems to think in Romans 5-8, no.
- Now the author of Hebrews says that he/she doesn’t think that his readers are in this category, but he/she doesn’t unpack the whole question.
- The author Hebrews does not answer the “once saved, always saved question.”
- Some people argue that the author Hebrews actually has a different outlook than Paul does because it is from a different stream.
- We have to be ok with the fact that the author and the apostle of Paul may have different points of view here. The author of Hebrews is pretty strong about people who do this not even being able to repent! However, remember that Hebrews does not state an official opinion on this.
- Armeninians and Calvinists have both used this verse to debate over whether or not a Christians person can lose their salvation, but that’s not the authors intention
- Remember: Hebrews (and other NT books) are not trying to deal with abstract theological and doctrinal concepts. This a letter to real people in real situations
- The author wants them to see that going back to their Leviticus sacrifices is a bad thing to do…useless in fact. Hold to Christ.
- So, I think that we need to allow this uncomfortable question hit us.
- Are we or some people in danger of sneering at the church and the gospel?
- This is where I believe that we need to be careful when we speak badly about the church.
- Are we speaking against the inclination of those who are in the church to move away from Christ? (as Jesus did with the Pharisees)
- Or, do we genuinely hate the church and hate the gospel?
- If you have an issue with this, we can talk about it later, but I just want to let this uncomfortable question sit with us for now.
Observation #1: Hold onto maturity.
9Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. 10God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
- Anyone know what it means to start something and not quite finish it?
- New Year’s Day example
- The Christian life is like this
- The author assures the reader, that they are seeking after better things than this.
- These people had been believers for some time now, and had an impressive track record.
- The picture in verse 10 is a community fully devoted to love for people.
- He has just been really hard about people falling away, but here he’s like, don’t worry, God won’t let you fall away. You started REALLY well.
- So, for them, he says, don’t become lazy
- It is so easy to slip into the patterns of society around us. It is easy to live for the newest clothes, the nicest homes, the best jobs. It’s easy for that to become our life source.
- Don’t become lazy. Continue to make righteous and justice your aim, and Christ your life source.
- Then, the author says to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”
- This feels weird for me, because I don’t believe that mimicking other people is helpful. It has to be real for you.
- But, I believe that many times is the first step.
- When we were youth pastors, we had some kids who would only come to youth group because of their friends, or because they were musicians and wanted to play the drums, etc.
- I felt guilty about this sometimes.
- They needed to see life walked out. Not faking.
- At SNCC, we do not have a bullet point set of beliefs that people can categorize us by. We list the apostles creed on our website (which is really the story of the Christian faith), and then we invite people to join us.
- If you want to know what we’re about, don’t just read our website, join us. See what’s happening.
- We don’t invite people to accept a set of principles and then choose to do life with us. We invite them to participate.
- Are you imitating people around you in healthy ways?
- When children learn to speak, they do so because they hear other people speaking.
- We teach here at SNCC that there is nothing that we can do to earn God’s love. God does not love us because we have done something to earn it (as if we ever could). This is what we’re about.
- At the same time, the book of Hebrews reminds us that what we do matters a great deal.
- God calls us to live a life fully-alive and fully active, participating with His vision for the world.
- At the same time, we must remember where this energy comes from: it is from God through the HS. It’s not on our own, it is God giving us the power.
- Both Paul and Hebrews hint to us that when we live our lives devoted to God, we want to do good works.
- The challenge here is that we not wait for our feelings to be in line before we live for God.
- Our feelings are flighty. They are valuable, don’t get me wrong. They are important, but they not everything.
Observation #2: Don’t be lazy. Continue being diligent. Pursue justice.
The Certainty of God’s Promise
13When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. 16Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
- This idea of an anchor is interesting. This is the only time in the NT that the idea of an anchor is used in reference to Christianity
- But it’s kinda weird when the author says that the anchor “enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.”
- An anchor belongs in the sea. What is all this curtain business?
- The author is going back to this idea of Jesus as high priest. A high priest, in the Jewish culture, would once a year, go through a curtain to enter the innermost sanctuary, the ‘holy of holies.’
- This was the place where it was said that a person could be the closest to God Himself.
- We are going to unpack in the next chapter, that Jesus not only entered some earthly Temple, he entered heaven, and the very dwelling place of God.
- He has gone into the very presence of God. He is our anchor who has gone into God’s presence
- As long as we hang onto Him, we hang onto to God’s presence (metal cable)
- Even though storms come, we have hope in the fact that we he is secure and solid.
- We are not promised that there will not be storms. We are promised that we will be kept safe.
- We can cling onto the hope that we have in Christ.
- The author uses the example of Abraham who hung onto God’s promises in the midst of everything.
- God promises that he will keep us, not by anyone else but by Himself.
- Some authors believe that when this is translated, “I will surely bless you.” It should say “If I do not bless you.” It’s indicative of a longer sentence. In the sense that, “If I do not bless you, let me reputation be smashed.” If I break my promise, I’m not trustworthy.
- This is a big deal. We have a secure hope. Christian faith is not just faith in faith. Christian hope is not optimism, not a general sense that things are going to be ok. Christian faith is trusting and trusting again, and continuing to trust no matter what.
- It is really en vogue right now to leave the faith. I’m not talking about leaving the church, but leaving Christianity all together and rejecting it. Sometimes, we seemingly admire these people. Their rebels, etc.
- But, this is truly sad. The real fact is that they gave up. The wind and the waves got too strong, and they gave up
o Maybe this is because of how Christians treated them
o Maybe it’s because they went through a tragedy and couldn’t reconcile it intellectually
o Maybe they reached a place in their lives where it just didn’t make sense.
- Our hope is not fatalistic either. We have hope, not just optimism, but we cling to the fact that Jesus is making things new again
- Jesus is what this thing is all about. That’s why we talk about Him so much. That’s why we go on week after week, year after year, celebrating Him
Observation #3: Hold firmly to Christ, don’t give up