Grow Up in Faith

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every weekday you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this morning we're at Hebrews chapter 5, verses 12 through 14, and we are going to talk about growing up. Growing up. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. Lord, we pray that indeed your Holy Spirit work in our hearts. Lord, we need you. Father, we confess to you that we are often complacent and content to stay where we are, but we pray that your Holy Spirit would spur us on to grow, to love more, to learn more, and to live more. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, Hebrews chapter 5. We're going to finish up the chapter together this morning. So, Hebrews chapter 5, verses 12 through 14.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
Well, we got to ask ourselves these three questions. A, what is this passage about? B, what's the best verse to summarize? And C, what are we called to do about it? So, what's this about? Well, we remember in verse 11, of whom being Melchizedek, we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing, right? It's like they've stuck their fingers in their ears and we don't want to hear this anymore. Right. What's this all getting at?
Well, for now, we're going to launch into a new section of Hebrews where the author is kind of pushing. Remember, it's written. the book of hebrews because it's written to hebrews has written to jewish people and they're kind of becoming dull they don't want to hear they don't want to listen to all this old testament how it's filled in jesus i'm convinced that what we get here in the book of hebrews is very very similar to what jesus would have taught the disciples on the ms road as they as they jesus opened up the scriptures for them and they heard it and their hearts burned within them Because they knew this was Jesus, and they were amazed how all these things in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus. And here he's saying, I'm worried that you're growing dull.
I'm having to go back to first principles of Christianity 101 here, and explain to you things that may be a little bit difficult to comprehend, but you should be able to do this. You're not baby Christians, you're new Christians. You're not even new Christians. You should be mature Christians. That's what he's trying to encourage them with. By now you ought to be teachers. And yet I'm having to teach you the first principles of things. Don't go back to the temple. Don't go back to Judaism. Don't go back to the sacrifices and the bells and the smells and the temple and the other priesthoods and stuff like this. Don't go back to that.
You have something far better is what the author of Hebrews is getting at here. You should be eating meat, is what he's saying, but you're having milk. You're unskilled in righteousness. You should be able to discern between good and evil. You should be able to exercise reason by this point. So he's encouraging them to grow up in Christ, to grow up in their understanding, to grow up in their strength.
This is not saying to absolutely forget all those first principles, right? But it's not that they move past 1 Peter, the desiring of the gala, the milk, right? It's not saying that that has no place in their life, but it's saying that I shouldn't have to be explaining to you Gospel 101 all the time. You should be able to get into the deeper things as well. You shouldn't forget these amazing truths. that Jesus is our high priest. It's as if he's explained this to them before and he's delving into it again. And I gotta tell you, every time I get into this passage, I get so excited.
And that's why we went through Genesis, Exosophicus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, because as we went through those books, they all pointed to Jesus. They pointed to Jesus. They pointed to Jesus. They pointed to Jesus. It's amazing. how it all points to Christ.
So don't go back to the milk. Don't go back to the types and shadows. Go to Jesus. So that's what this is about and that's the calling. Even today there's a whole ton of people who are going to various Christian traditions and all sorts of odd places because they've forgotten that the heart of the gospel of who Jesus is, is our high priest. You don't need a priest today. You have a priest in heaven. You don't need to go back to the smells and the bells and the fancy hats and the weird garbs right now. No, Jesus serves in the tabernacle, not made by human hands in heaven.
And so we don't go back to those things. So don't get dull in your understanding. Don't go back to the milk. Be reasonable. Grow up in your Christian faith and cling on to Christ. See what all those things pointed to and hold to it. You don't need them. Because you have Jesus. That's the point of the book of Hebrews here.
Let's go ahead and pray. God, we pray that, Lord, it's a challenge for us. Lord, this morning you've given us a fun challenge, a hard challenge. You've essentially laid down the gauntlet to be manly in our reasoning, to be grown up in our understanding, to search out the deep things of your scriptures and see how they tie to Jesus. And then I go back to the first principles.
Lord, we pray that you would please help us. Help us, Lord, to cling to what is true and right and beautiful and good. Help us hold to your Son most of all. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes from Jesus Christ. I'll see you next time. Bye.