Pastor Scott
Jonas
9/2/18
Hebrews
5:11-14
Jesus>Faith
Hebrews
Chapter 5. Jesus is Greater than Our
Faith. Sounds potentially
heretical. But you may have heard a
pattern over the last 5 chapters. Jesus
is greater than Angels, Humanity, Moses and the high Priest. These are not bad things. These are not inconsequential things. The author of Hebrews is comparing the
greatest creations on earth to Jesus Christ.
It would be waste of time to hear a sermon on how Jesus is greater than
the devil. Of course he is. The devil’s not all-knowing, all powerful and
everywhere. Comparing Jesus to a fallen
angel is demeaning to the almighty.
Likewise, why would you listen to one on Jesus is greater than Missouri
Football? The Tigers are irrelevant to eternal
things. Instead, Hebrews takes the glory
filled and momentous things in life and shows that Jesus is greater. That includes our faith.
Imagine s
pastor saying these words to you from Hebrews 5:11-14 “ About this we have much to say, and it is
hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 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 solid food, 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.
The author
is saying that it is your obligation to grow in the faith. You are not going to grow drinking just
baby’s milk your whole life. It is time
to grow up and feed yourself solid food.
Stop regurgitating the most basic teachings and move on towards the hard
lessons of the faith. Grow up! I didn’t say it, the author of Hebrews
did. But it applies to you and to me.
There is an
aspect of faith which is your understanding of it. You learn something new and
you rightly say, “It helped my faith grow.”
Everytime you come into contact with the scriptures there is an
opportunity for your faith to grow more mature.
But there is also an opportunity for the word of God to bounce off of
you just like a baby refusing a spoon.
You should
be teachers by now, not just students.
In other words, you should be feeding yourself and others the words of
God. Not just sitting there being
fed. Yet, what do people say when asked,
“Why did you leave the church?” “I
wasn’t being fed.” “I wasn’t being fed.” That makes that person saying it an
infant. “I wasn’t being fed.”
I had lunch
with a man this week who goes to a non-denominational megachurch. He said that it’s different from his Lutheran
upbringing. The pastor has this well
crafted sermon that must take almost thirty hours to create. That pastor’s sole job is to write and
deliver sermons. This man had a conversation
with the pastor and the pastor said, “The first thing you have to realize in
our church is that you have to take care of yourself. We don’t have time to feed you. You have to feed yourself.” This man said that in the Lutheran church he
was only so-so in his bible knowledge compared to other members but at this
megachurch he is elite. Maybe it is time
for him to teach rather than be fed?
This is a
great test of your maturity in the faith.
Do you only receive the word of God?
Or do you also share it with others?
One is a baby. One is a grown
up. A baby knows Jesus loves me. But a grown up teaches those words and
more. You don’t have to be a formal
teacher to be a grown up. You don’t have
to be a Sunday school teacher like Tim, the DeBords and the Bohoemes. You don’t have to be a Bible Study leader
like Jeannie Clark or Kathy Albers. In order to show mature Christian Faith you
must share the word of God. First, at
home. And also, at church and the
community. A mature faith shares Jesus.
The Lutheran
church has been so conscious of not emphasizing works righteousness that we go
the opposite way. WE don’t want you to
think that a mature faith earns you heaven so we settle hearing the Gospel in
church on Sunday. We become Grace
potatoes, a play on the phrase “couch potatoes.” We sit and take in the Gospel but it just
sits there in us until next week. The
truth is if Sunday morning is the only time you are fed the Gospel, then your
faith is starving. That is why I write
down Daily Bible verses. So that you can
eat on your own every day. Not just milk
but substantial food. That is why we
have Bible Class after the service.
There the Bible is served in many courses. You can turn to your neighbor and say, “Try
the Hebrews. It’s fantastic.” Sunday morning Bible class is not the best
way for you to feed yourself. It is the
best way to feast on the word together as a congregation.
Maybe this
text and this sermon has bummed you out.
Perhaps your faith is not as mature as you would like. You wish that you could teach others. You wish that you could give a lesson to
little ones. You would like to be the
type of person who instructs others on scripture. But you aren’t. Or you haven’t. Where does that leave you?
It leaves you needing Jesus. And Jesus is greater than your faith. We need the Grace of Jesus more than we need
mature Faith. Grace comes before Faith. When people mix up my daughters names I give
tell them, “Grace comes before faith.”
It is true in my family and it is true in your life. Before you were given faith, Jesus died for
you. He graciously gave up his life for
the faithless. This act of Grace led to
all sorts of acts of grace. He gave us
the Spirit and the Word. Before you were
born again Jesus graciously loved you.
He loved you before you had faith.
He loves you despite your immaturity.
You faith might go up and down.
There are times you are in the word and know your stuff and pray with
your spouse and kids. And there are dry
spells where you don’t know what you believe.
Jesus is the one who greater than your faith know matter what state it’s
in.
Yesterday was the funeral of our
friend Klaus. Klaus was raised in the
Lutheran church in Germany. He was
baptized, confirmed and a life long church goer. He heard thousands of sermons. His son, Hans said that he read through the
whole Bible several times. The word
affected him. It softened him as he got
older, made him gentler and more open.
But in May he had brain cancer.
The decline was quick and severe.
When I would visit him he had that look like I know I’m supposed to know
you but I can’t quite get there. He
couldn’t carry on a conversation let alone teach the faith. What Klaus needed was not more faith. What Klaus needed was Jesus. The mighty one who prepared a place for him
with many rooms. Jesus is greater than
our faith.
Strive for maturity in the faith but
know that at the end of that road is Jesus.