The Gathering Surf City

We are still talking about
the object of our faith,

which is Jesus.

Jesus is the object of our faith.

And so the book of Hebrews is all about
Jesus because it goes back and

draws in all the Old Testament about
the prophecies and God's provision

throughout the Old Testament.

And then we have all the New Testament
that Hebrews just sort of is the

binding that draws it all together.

And so we've been spending these
months in the book of Hebrews,

and we're up to chapter five
after three months.

Aren't we proud?

Chapter five,

verses 7 to 14.

I'm doubling back a little bit on some
verses that we looked at last

week, but it's because
today's Easter,

and I purposely titled today's
message offensively.

It's my intention to offend,

and I'm an equal opportunity
offender.

So here we go.

Title of today's message
is Don't Be a Baby.

Happy Easter.

Okay, Hebrews 5:7-14.

Here we go.

He in the days of his flesh.

Okay, so I'm using a different
translation.

So it's okay.

Just you read along what's
on the screen,

and I'll show,

and I'm going to read
what I got here.

So he in the days of his flesh,

offered up both prayers and supplications
with loud crying and tears to

the one able to save him from death.

And he was heard because
of his reverence.

Although he was a son,

he learned obedience from the
things which he suffered.

Having been made perfect,

he became to all those who obey him
the source of eternal salvation,

being designated by God as a high
priest according to the order of

Melchizedek. And that's where
we stopped last week.

Then it goes on to say,

concerning him,

we have much to say,

talking about Melchizedek,

and it is hard to explain since
you've become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you
ought to be teachers,

you have need again for someone to teach
you the elementary 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 not accustomed to the word of

righteousness, for he is an infant.

But solid food is for the mature who
because of practice have their

senses trained to discern
both good and evil.

There's a whole lot of warning
in that passage.

Let's pray.

Father, we bow before you again,

thanking you and praising you for
the opportunity and privilege,

really, that we get to gather
to worship God.

We celebrate the resurrection today.

It's on the calendar that way.

And yet God as believers;

as Followers of Christ,

as those who have received this incredible
salvation that you provided

for us.

We celebrate the resurrection
every day because it is,

it's our victory.

God, we know that it's in the resurrection
that we have victory over sin

and death.

And so,

God, today we celebrate
that very excitedly.

I'm excited about the resurrection,

I'm excited to sing songs
about our death,

being arrested,

and I'm excited just to
sing about this life,

this identity that you've
given us in Jesus.

So, God,

I thank you for every person that's
gathered in this room.

I know there's some who are here
for the very first time.

And so,

God, I'm so thankful for that,

because God,

as we gather,

we gather with a same purpose.

God, if we know Jesus,

we're family.

You've adopted us,

you've made us yours.

And yet,

God, this very text warns
us to grow up.

So, God,

help us to hear you today,

not me.

Help us to hear your word.

And God,

help us to respond to it.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.

So this passage starts
with this phrase,

in the days of his flesh,

because a lot of translations just reference
that as his earthly life.

And yet a more,

I guess a more direct translation is
just when he was in the flesh,

God, the Son,

being eternal,

came to earth in the form of a baby
and grew up and lived here.

And so what he's referring to here
is that the humanity of Christ,

because we've studied
in Hebrews so far,

these things that are,

he was son and he is heir,

he is son,

he is heir,

he is the creator,

he is the saint sustainer,

he is the radiance of God's glory.

When God's glory shows up,

this is the son,

this is the radiance,

the shining light of God's glory.

He is the exact impression,

expression of the very
essence of God.

And Jesus himself said,

if you've seen me,

you've seen the father.

And so what we're learning
about Jesus is,

is that Hebrews is pointing
out everything,

prophetically speaking,

in the Old Testament
refers to Jesus.

And then as we see Jesus
in his life,

in the days of his flesh,

live out his perfect,

sinless reverence,

his human life,

it gives us this source
of our salvation.

So I made the point of today's
message simply,

Christ the son,

the savior,

the source of knowledge
and salvation.

And so when we look at that,

we understand that we're supposed
to pay attention to Jesus,

y'all, there's so much in the
world to pay attention to.

And so many Christians,

quite honestly,

and I,

you know,

I shared this out front out
there at the beach that,

you know,

this makes year 42 as far as,

since God called me to ministry.

And I look at it and I'm like,

you know,

I've seen christians all up
and down the east coast.

I've pastored from down in New
Orleans area up to Maryland.

And it's a big difference.

But I noticed in all the congregations
of worship and the community,

the worship communities that there are
some believers and some followers

of Christ who are steeped
and just sort of skewed.

Okay, can I put that,

I remember as a kid there were certain
things that when you were cooking

them, you wanted them to cook a while
and bubble and so that all of the,

the ingredients would just
kind of come out of it.

And so I've seen lots of christians
that are deep in the word of God,

and I've seen a lot of christians who
are shallow in the word of God.

And the book of Hebrews has about forewarning
passages that get harsher

and harsher,

about not taking seriously,

about not paying attention to what it
is that God has revealed and indeed

what Jesus has done.

So today this kind of follows
on one of those passages.

So I'm going to ask you
to pray with me.

All right,

Father, we hear your word again.

And God,

it's just really important.

Sometimes I think we think
it's an add on,

and yet it's not.

So again,

God, let us hear you today.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen. In the flesh.

It's important that Jesus
was in the flesh.

Cause it's the book of Hebrews that
points out his deity and his

humanity. It emphasizes his
deity and his humanity,

because not only is he all those
things I named a minute ago,

son, heir,

creator, sustainer,

radiance of God's glory,

exact expression of his,

of his,

of God's essence.

Of the essence.

He is human,

therefore, as the christ,

he is the king of kings,

but as the human,

he is our high priest.

And so we've just spent some passages
dealing with the fact that as our

high priest,

he is the one who stands and represents
us before the throne of God and

brings the gifts and the sacrifices
before the throne of God on our

behalf. And we're going
to get into this,

that the fact is that Jesus,

as a high priest,

as the highest priest,

is the one who brings the offering
of sacrifice for our sin.

And yet in the practice of the sacrificial
system of the Old Testament,

it was blood of goats
and cows and all.

And Hebrews actually says,

but we know that the blood
of horses and not horses,

the blood of cows and lambs and pigeons
and whatever cannot forgive sin,

it had to be the sinless blood of the
lamb of God that could take away

sin. And so this passage begins
with this phrase.

He, in the days of his flesh,

offered up both prayers and supplications
with loud crying and tears to

the one able to save him from death.

Now, see,

this is the picture of the garden of
Gethsemane that just before the

crucifixion, Jesus went into
the garden and he prayed.

Guess what?

He knew what was coming.

He knew how bad it was going to be.

And I'm not talking
about the beating,

not talking about the actual
physical cross.

That's bad.

Nobody wants to experience that.

But he knew that by
becoming our sin,

that in that moment he would be separated
for the first time in all of

eternity from his heavenly daddy.

And on the cross he said,

my God,

my God,

why have you abandoned me?

Now that's a quote from psalm 22,

but it goes back to the messianic picture
of what God was accomplishing

throughout the Old Testament
into the New Testament.

And now we're reading Hebrews,

which sort of paints the
fulfillment of it all.

And in that garden he said,

Father, if this cup,

what cup?

What cups are you referring to?

Is it just the crucifixion?

Is it the beating?

No, it's the cup of God's wrath,

because God hates sin.

And so God's wrath is poured
out against sin.

So the cup that Jesus is referring to
is this wrath of God against sin.

And Jesus knew that
he had to bear it.

And yet in the garden he says,

God, Father,

if there's any way,

take this cup from me.

And yet not what I want,

not my will,

but yours.

Folks, we've grown up in what we refer
to as a christian culture,

right? It's a christian nation.

Excuse me.

You know,

if it was,

we wouldn't be seeing some of the
things in the news we see today,

right? But what we've done is we've
so compromised ourselves with sin

that in a lot of ways,

the body of Christ doesn't even
react anymore when we see sin.

Well, that's part of what
this warning's about.

Cause as we get into chapter six,

cause 14, 14 is the
last verse of five.

As we get into chapter six,

we see a really strong warning.

It says,

those that,

and I can't preach it.

Now, I've already studied it,

so I better stop.

But the whole point is that for those
who have tasted the goodness of God

and walk away,

be careful.

Be careful.

Jesus prayed with loud crying and tears
to the one able to save him from

death. And he was heard because
of his reverence.

Jesus is not like the other high priests
of the history of the Hebrew

people, the Israelites.

He didn't have to bring a sacrifice for
his sins before he presented the

sacrifice for everybody else's sins.

Jesus had no sin.

He had a reverence that
we don't bear.

He had a sinlessness,

a righteousness,

that he approached the throne of God
and was heard at the throne of God,

at the throne of his
heavenly Father,

for his own reverence.

And listen to what it says.

He was heard.

You know,

God hears every prayer.

But there is the psalmist who says that
if we regard sin in our heart,

he won't listen.

He hears.

Jesus's prayer was heard.

God answered him.

Because if God had not answered Jesus's
prayer at that point and had

poured out his cup of wrath on him,

God raised him up from the wrath.

See? So God heard the prayer.

And then it says,

although he was a son,

he learned obedience from the
things which he suffered.

Why? Because as God the son,

he had never experienced temptation
as God the son,

before he became incarnate,

before he was in his flesh,

he'd never experienced weakness.

He never experienced the challenges
that we would face as humanity.

But by becoming human,

he learned through his obedience.

He learned obedience through the
suffering that he endured.

And then having been made perfect,

having completed what was
set before him to do,

having been perfected,

having done the work set before him,

he became to all those who obey him,

the source of eternal salvation.

He is the source of our salvation.

Now, I've shared the story
before my mom,

and she's probably watching this morning
because I helped them relocate

YouTube this week on
their television.

Hi, mom.

I remember when I was
eight years old,

I remember mom flipping through the Bible
and showing me Bible verses and

telling me that Jesus,

that God loved me so much that Jesus
died on the cross for my sin.

And that if I but believe and confess
that Jesus is lord and believe in

my heart that God raised
him from the dead,

I'd be saved.

And I remember as an eight year old thinking
of the horrendous life I'd

lived so far.

But at eight,

I prayed and trusted Jesus.

And I'm one of those kids that believes
that God saved me that day,

because I know that in all the
years between eight and,

you know,

my teens and twenties is that
God never let me go.

He always showed up in the
darkest moments going,

that's not you.

What do you think you're doing?

You know,

God was always convicting my heart and
showing me that I belong to him.

And then as I grew up,

I wanted to learn more.

I remember at 19 when God
called me to ministry,

I remember thinking,

I don't know what this means.

I mean,

I know that there's something that
God wants me to simply say.

This was the simple words that
I was instructed to say.

God, I don't know,

but whatever you want,

I don't understand,

but whatever you want.

That began a journey.

I tried to deal with God after that.

God, I'll major in this
subject over here,

and I'll be a good Christian,

whatever that is.

And God was like,

mm mm.

My way or the highway?

My way to the highway,

boy. So then I went off to Bible College
and began to study the word of

God, began to listen to teachers teach
the nuance and subtlety of God's

work, and going back to something
that Nick always,

you know,

Nick says frequently,

you know,

being a Christian,

simple but not easy.

So it was important for me in Bible college
to read and to study and to

hear men of God that had been doing it
for years and years with maturity

and depth,

and to listen to them just open
up the word of God to me.

And I was like,

wow. And it made an impression on me.

And I began to grow in
the word of God.

And I was like,

wow, this is amazing.

And then in ministry,

I began to notice that there were a lot
of people that the only feeding

on the word of God that they did was
now an hour on Sunday morning or

maybe a Sunday school class,

because I grew up in a,

one of them good Baptist churches,

you know,

and I wondered,

how can we encourage others to grow?

So anyway,

as we unfold this thing,

and as I got older,

I began to dig and dig and dig
and try to learn more.

And I'm still nowhere near where.

I still listen to teachers
that I just go,

man, I wish I could do that.

I wish I could teach that.

I wish I could,

wish I could,

wish I could get into the understanding
of that the way some people do.

I want more.

I want deeper.

And so as we make our way
through this passage,

I began to realize,

look, this is the Hebrews is the
book that knits this together.

Having perfected,

having completed the work
that was set before him,

he became the source
of our salvation,

being designated by God.

As a high priest,

I referred to it as the high priest
according to the order of

Melchizedek. And we'll talk about
that in chapter seven.

We're going to find out who,

who Melly was.

Concerning him,

we have much to say,

but it is hard to explain since you've
become dull in your hearing.

Dull of hearing.

See, what the writer of Hebrews
is telling us is,

I'd love to tell you
the deep things,

but you're not really interested.

You don't really want to know.

See, I think what we've done is we've
made our faith a membership card.

We carry it around in
our wallet like,

oh yeah,

I belong.

Oh yeah,

I said the words,

oh yeah,

I walked the aisle.

Oh yeah,

I got in the water.

And beyond that there's no growth.

Beyond that there's no
pursuit of knowledge,

there's no maturing.

Right. I had a professor in seminary once
said that and he was teaching a

bunch of pastors,

or preachers to be,

I guess.

And he said,

you know,

he said the hardest thing for a pastor
is to deal with a deacon who got

saved and never grew up.

Little baby deacons stomping
around wanting their way.

You can't put that color
carpet in the church.

You can't buy those light fixtures.

See, there's a bigger thing goes
on in the body of Christ,

folks, and we're supposed
to be pursuing it.

We're supposed to be digging into it.

It's not just,

you know,

a snack on Sundays,

it's a full meal every single day,

all day long,

and we should want it.

So the actual outline today is
just simply in the flesh,

salvation source and finally
just grow up and eat.

Now is that offensive to you?

Oh, well,

grow up and eat because that's
what he's saying right here.

You become dull of hearing.

For though by this time,

and he's writing to believers,

probably the majority of them are hebrew
people who have acknowledged and

received and recognized
Jesus as the Messiah.

But there are probably some gentiles
also in these congregations and in

these worship communities
that he's speaking to.

And he says you ought to all
be teachers at this time,

but instead you've got need again for
someone to teach you the elementary

principles of the oracles of God and
you've come to need milk and not

solid food.

Can I just go ahead?

And I know there's a few
kids in the room,

so I'm going to try to dance around
this as easy as I can.

This is not a reference to formula.

He's picturing something here that
we know as parents exists.

You see,

he's creating a visual image
for his writers here going,

guess what you went back to for
your spiritual feeding.

See that?

That's a rough note right there.

For everyone who partakes only of milk
is not accustomed to the word of

righteousness, for he is a baby.

Says infant.

A baby.

So let's talk about some insults.

Ever been called a baby?

Oh, you big baby.

Fell down,

hurt your knee and started crying.

Big baby,

get up.

Right? I remember as a kid,

and this is one of those things,

you know?

Remember there was a song way
back during the seventies,

big boys don't cry.

Remember that one?

You big baby?

Right? Well,

let me tell you something.

I'm probably a big baby
in certain areas,

right? But can I just tell you
from this word right here in,

in Hebrews,

chapter five?

This is an incredible insult.

I mean,

it's an acknowledgement and recognition
by the writer of Hebrews that as

believers, the congregation,

the bodies of Christ that
he is writing to,

he is calling them big babies because
they don't want the deeper things

of God.

They just want the frilly
upper layer.

They don't want to learn the depth
of what God is saying.

They don't want to grow
in their faith.

They want to dance somewhere.

And I always use this
edge of the carpet.

They want to use,

they want to use their infancy to dance
back and forth between sin and

righteousness. Oh,

the world's pretty,

but I'm a Christian.

Oh, that,

that's enticing.

But I follow Jesus,

you see,

we're supposed to have moved beyond
those kind of things,

you see?

And I'm not saying that
we're sinless,

because none of us are.

But I am saying we're
supposed to grow up,

or this passage wouldn't
even be in here,

okay? And I know how people
do the Bible today.

They cut out the parts
they don't like.

So if there's a part of the Bible
that calls you a spiritual baby,

might want to cut that one out,

huh?

No, no,

no. Right?

But solid food is for
the mature who,

because of practice,

have their,

listen to this.

This is,

this goes back to my line over here,

dancing back and forth.

Who.

But solid food is for
the mature who,

because of practice,

have their senses trained to
discern both good and evil.

See, see that there is a practice
that follows spiritual maturity.

Now, if you're my age,

I'm 61,

or somewhere near my age.

It was one of those movies at
Christmastime that my mom,

well, I won't say she
made us watch it.

But we watched it and I hated it.

It was the Walton's
Christmas special.

How many of you feel me in that?

See, those of you my age ish,

in my same decade,

right, the Walton Christmas special.

There's a,

one of the daughters,

one of the Walton daughters was
a little girl named Elizabeth.

I gotta wrap up.

Gotta let y'all go.

She said,

she told John Boy,

she said,

I don't wanna grow up.

He said,

well, you got to.

She said,

no, I don't wanna grow up.

She said,

when I feel it,

I'm gonna squeeze it back in.

Folks, that's where a lot of the
body of Christ find themselves.

They don't wanna grow up.

They don't wanna be held responsible
for knowing the deep things of God.

If you don't know Jesus
this morning,

that's where it starts.

But if you know Jesus,

then this message is
about growing up.

We're going to sing one more song,

give you the opportunity
to respond to God,

to respond to the word of God.

Not me,

not the gathering.

I'm glad you're here.

Love it that you're here.

Maybe you're here just
because it's Easter.

Welcome. We love you.

If you give us a chance,

we'll hug your neck.

But know this,

God loved you first and he gave his son
Jesus for you and you need him.

So let's pray.

God, we thank you for today,

and we thank you for your word.

And thank you,

God, that you did love us first.

And yet,

God, it doesn't end there.

It doesn't just stop with
trusting Jesus,

receiving salvation.

God, you want to grow us up.

God, you want to make us whole
and strong and complete.

And God,

we're supposed to,

we're supposed to enjoy and dig into the
deep things of the solid food of

your word.

And so,

God, help us to want
it more and more.

God, as we sing this last song,

if there's even one person in this
room that's never trusted Jesus,

maybe they got a lot
of churchianity,

but they don't have
any Christianity.

Father, my prayer would be is that
they'd surrender to you,

they'd bow before you and trust you.

Thank you for loving us.

Thank you for Easter.

Thank you that we celebrate the resurrection
and we pray it in Jesus

name. Amen.