What am I talking about when I say, Let’s move on? I’m talking about the things the Bible says we should move on from, in order to move past the elementary doctrines and move on to the things that mature Christians need to be educated about.
The problem with the modern church is that we’ve turned worship services into an event to bring unsaved people, where they will be comfortable and we want the event to entertain them into the kingdom. They only serve the milk of a salvation message, or in the worst cases it's more like a milkshake because they add some things to sweeten the deal, like a prosperity message.
That is a completely unbiblical view of what we are supposed to do when we gather as disciples of Jesus, the body and bride of Christ...God’s people.
The modern American church has done a good job at making people comfortable with praying and apology prayer to God and then continuing their life as normal. But they have done a terrible job of making disciples, who are educated, committed, and equipped to go out and live a life that will draw people to Jesus.
As the church, we are called to come together to worship the Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, the Savior of the world. We are to encourage each other and care for each other. As your pastor, my job on Sunday morning is to equip you to leave here and go out into the world and reach your unsaved family, friends, coworkers and neighbors.
In order to do that, we must move past an elementary level salvation message and dig deeper into the Word of God.
This is what the Apostle Paul urged us to do in Hebrews.
Hebrews 6:1-3 “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 andof instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.”
He starts this chapter with the word “therefore.” And what do we have to do when a passage starts with that? We have to go back and see what was written before it. So let’s back up and look at the earlier verses.
Hebrews 5:12-14 “12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solidfood, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Ouch. That stings. So, how about you? Are you ready for maturity, to stop drinking milk and chew on some meat?If you say yes, Let me ask you this question: Are you qualified to teach the milky parts of Christianity? That’s how the passage starts. It says that by this time you ought to be teachers, but you are still children that need milk. In other words, you don’t even understand the basic elements of Christianity enough to teach it to someone else. This is the requirement before you can move on to the meaty bits.
Let’s look again at what Paul says is only the milky level.
Hebrews 6:1-3 “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.”
If you’re not ready to teach those topics yet, then you are not ready for meat. Today we will review the milky doctrines, before we move on.
The doctrines listed in this passage are divided into three categories. Salvation, ceremony and eschatology. Each of categories has two parts that we will cover.
The first pair are repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. These are about salvation.
The second pair are instruction about washings and the laying on of hands. These are about ceremony.
The last pair are the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. These are about eschatology.
What is the common theme for all these things that are listed? They are things focused around Jewish traditions. And why is that important? Context. We need to have some context for this passage If we are going to understand it. Who is the book of Hebrews written to? Hint: The answer is in the question. It was written to Hebrew people who had become Christians. Generally speaking, Jews, Israelites and Hebrews are all the same people group.
The book of Hebrews is all about Jesus and how He fulfilled all of the expectations the Jews had for the Messiah and even superseded them.
Some of the Christian Jews were having challenges with these “new” teachings about the Messiah and the letter to the Hebrews uses their own traditions to help them understand who Jesus was and that He was all they needed.
That’s why the doctrines listed as milk are things they would have already been very familiar with. There was no reason for them to go back and again lay the foundation of these things. But for us, in order to move on to more mature teaching, Let me lay the initial foundations. We will look at them in pairs according to their category.
Repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. These are all about salvation. The dead works being all the laws the Jews were instructed to keep...all 613 of them. Now that Jesus, the Messiah, had come, there was no need to keep doing those things. Their faith had been in their works, which this verse calls dead works. They needed to repent of putting their faith in those works and put their faith in Jesus.
Repent means to change your mind, to turn around and walk the opposite direction. That is what they needed to do in regard to the works they had trusted in. Those works are now dead. For us it’s the same idea. We cannot trust in our works to gain salvation.
Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”
I actually like the way the King James version says it better. It says our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. That’s how our effort to gain salvation by trying to be good and doing good things looks according to God’s standard. We can try our very best and still not just come up a little short, but end up completely on the opposite side of God’s standard.
And what is God’s standard that He requires for salvation? Perfection. If God requires perfection for salvation, do any of us measure up to that standard? No, of course not. So how are we suppose to ever be seen as perfect in the eyes of God? Jesus. Jesus is perfect, so when we put our faith in His work, we are identified with Him. As a disciple of Jesus, when God looks at you, He sees Jesus. In other words, He does not see your filthy rags, He sees the perfection of Jesus. This is what makes us able to be with God when we leave this life.
As a Christian, what do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see a person who looks like what God sees? Are you conforming your life to the image of Christ?
Repentance is not just about repenting of the things you were doing that were obviously violating God’s word. The lying, the stealing, the adultery. It’s also repenting of the “good” things you were doing in order to try and earn salvation.
Remember, in the equation for salvation, your good works come later, as a result of your salvation, not before as a requirement for it.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
This is a basic milky doctrine, that you should be able to teach others. Can you do that? Most Christians can’t and that’s why churches keep preaching the same milkshake salvation message every week to unsaved people and Christians who haven’t matured in their faith.
Let’s move on.
The next pair that are listed are instructions about washings and the laying on of hands. These are about ritual ceremonies.
“Washings” are about both cleaning things and baptisms.
Matthew 15:1-2 “Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”
The ritual ceremonies that the Jews practiced were very important to them. Many times they viewed their ritual traditions as equal with scripture. And some times they viewed it as more important than scripture. Jesus answered their accusation with one of His own.
Matthew 15:3-9 “3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of yourtradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely
die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Jesus wasn’t afraid to challenge the religious leadership and call them out on their hypocrisy. They were acting in a manner that was the opposite of the intent of God’s word and yet they believed they were doing a yet another righteous act. Jesus redirects their thinking concerning this ritual.
Matthew 15:10-11 “10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
Jesus goes on to explain that it’s all about what is in their heart that matters. What is in their heart will come out of their mouth and what’s in their heart is what defiles them. They had rotten hearts, but they were certainly good at keeping religious rituals.
For us today, it’s important that we don’t let our traditions become more important than the heart of why we do them. Our tradition of baptism is very important in the life of a believer, because it identifies us as a person who follows Jesus.
We believe in full emersion, and by that I mean being sprinkled as a child is not baptism. We follow the example that is shown in scripture.
John 3:23 “23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized.”
Matthew 3:13 “13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.”
An area with plentiful water or a river would not be required if all you were doing was sprinkling people. But if you want to believe differently, I’m not going to argue with you over the format of baptism, because it’s about the heart motive behind why you are doing it.
Baptism is spiritual warfare, because your act of following Jesus in baptism is a reenactment of the journey Jesus took when He was crucified.
He descended to the realm of the dead and proclaimed His victory over the forces of evil who were held there. Then He was raised back to life, because death had no authority over Him.
Romans 6:4 :4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
In Baptism, your journey takes you under the water, imitating Jesus’s death and burial. Then you are raised up, imitating Jesus’ resurrection. Every time a new believer is baptized, the enemy has to relive the day Jesus defeated him.
Wanting to be a part of the victory that Jesus won is the heart motivation behind being baptized. But we can take the ritual too far and lose the heart behind it.
I was talking to a friend last week who shared a story about a baptism he witnessed while on a missions trip. The denomination he was with had a very high view of baptism. To the point they believe that if you are not baptized you are not really saved.
Anyway, he was watching a guy get baptized and when they brought him up out of the water, someone yelled that they must put him under again because part of his elbow had not gone completely under the water. That’s exactly what the Pharisees were doing. Letting the ritual become more important than the heart motivation behind it, will earn you a rebuke from Jesus.
1 Timothy 5:22 “22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.”
This laying on of hands is not talking about praying for the sick. It’s about the leaders laying their hands on those who have been set apart for leadership roles in ministry. This ritual should be done only after careful consideration.
Let’s move on.
The last pair are the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. These are about eschatology. Eschatology is just the fancy theological word for the study of end times.
If you’ve been here the last couple of weeks, you probably don’t need another lesson on end times and what happens to the dead in the afterlife. If you were not here, I’ll discuss it briefly and recommend that you go to our website and listen to those messages for a more complete teaching.
Remember the book of Hebrews is written to Christian Jews and some of them would have been Sadducces. The Sadducees were a sect of Jews who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They were probably having a difficult time reconciling their previously held beliefs with this new Jesus stuff. This is what happened at the crucifixion.
Matthew 27:51-53 “51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”
Since Jesus clearly had risen from the dead, along with many others that he brought along from the realm of the dead. That was a place called Sheol and Jesus rescued those who had died in faith from the power of death.
The cross of Jesus became a bridge for those who were released to get to heaven. Some of the believers who had died around the time that Jesus was crucified were raised back to life as a testimony to the Sadducces, that resurrection of the dead is the correct doctrine.
The next time that we will see the resurrection of the dead will at the rapture of the church when Jesus returns.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 “13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the
Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
Faith in Jesus is the only way to assure that you take part in the resurrection from the dead. Eternal judgment in the lake of fire is the only other option for humans in the afterlife. This is the fate of all those who reject Jesus in this life.
All those who end up in the lake of fire for eternity, will be there because that is what they chose. They chose to reject the only way to avoid hell and that is through faith in Jesus.
So that’s it. The basic elementary doctrines of Christianity are the repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. These are about salvation.
Instructions about washings and the laying on of hands. These are about ceremony.
And the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. These are about eschatology...or end times.
Are you ready to move on past these things, or are you enjoying your milkshake too much to let it go?
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