Hebrews Part Three Dive

THE KANGAROO, THE ANT AND THE CROWD | KATIE HALDANE

Among all the warnings to stay soft and open to what God is doing (as we went through in our last Dive), there is a warning that I wanted to address specifically in this Dive: the warning against falling away and the need to go forward to maturity in your Christianity.

The author of Hebrews has done an incredible job at showing us the superiority of Christ, that Christ is above all things, Creator of all things, Firstborn, superior, pre-eminent, with all power and authority being His etc. I hope you have found these traits and scribbled them in your margins! Now securely girded with this knowledge, the author weaves a beautiful sound of responsibility throughout the whole book. We don’t just take what he is saying and do nothing with it! No, we take what he is saying about Christ and we take up responsibility in three ways; to mature in our Christian walk, to be diligent and to respond in faith! The kangaroo, the ant and the crowd. Let me explain.

1. Maturing in our christian walk

Open up your Bible’s to Hebrews 5:11, let’s have a chat about maturing in our Christian walk.

H 5:11-6:83 ‘We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so’.
[bold and underlining added]

Can you feel the sense of movement in these verses? A sense of progression that we should have in our Christian walk.  And I love the language that the author uses, ‘constant use’, ‘move beyond’, ‘be taken forward to maturity’. The author is passionate about his audience moving forward in their Christianity, and the reason? People walking forward don’t go back. Standing still is just one step away from backwards. But if you are moving forward, you have momentum to keep moving forward! I am an Australian (if you weren’t aware already), and the two animals on our Australian Coat of Arms are the kangaroo and the emu. When asked by our tour guide at Jenolan Caves why that was the case, my gorgeous little niece piped up with, “Because they are two animals that can’t go backwards, they always move forward!”

I love this! Let’s be Australian about our Christianity, always going forward, we simply can’t go backwards. A kangaroo can’t hop backwards – it is not designed that way. It is designed to move forwards, as are emus. This is how the author of Hebrews wants you to be, by training, going beyond elementary teachings, maturing in your faith, being taken forward. So, if the past is pulling you back, then move forward so much in your maturity in Christ that you are no longer within its grasp. Be a kangaroo, you simply can’t go backwards!

In our Christianity we have to keep moving, we have to become mature in our faith. We can’t be responding to things the same way we did when we first got saved. I remember having immature outbursts at God for not giving me what I wanted, but as we mature in our Christian walk, we realise that God is not a credit card to give you everything you want, He gives you what is good for you and in His will. You learn that God is in control and sovereign over your life and that means going to church when you don’t feel like it, stopping behaviour that leads to sin, aligning your life to the teachings of the Bible – stepping forward in your maturity in Christ, growing in Christ!

2. Be Diligent

So, now that we are all Australian kangaroos in our Christian walk, let me tell you about the ant! The author says in Hebrews 6:12, ‘don’t become lazy’ but ‘imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised’. The Bible talks a lot about laziness, particularly in Proverbs.

P 10:4 Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.

P 13:4 A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

And my favourite…

P 6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!

Spiritual maturity is the passion of the author’s heart. Go to the ant, get working! Christianity is hard work, you have to keep reading your Bible (so well done for joining us on TYB – this is building your spiritual muscles and rebuking laziness from your life!). Christianity is swimming up-stream, you have to keep praying and stay diligent. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to empower us to do it!

3. Respond in faith

The last step in our maturity ladder. The author of Hebrews calls us to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherited the promises of God. He then gives us a whole chapter on what that looks like in Hebrews 11. It takes work, it’s not about sitting around and going with the flow, it’s about responding to God in faith!

H 11:1 Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Faith is the response that God wants, whether you can see what you are doing or not, whether you can feel the promise or not – the response to God is always faith, it’s confidence, trust and belief in God, in His Word above our emotions, our circumstances or the reports people like to tell us.

Trashing tip: As you read Hebrews 11, write down the things that they did: by faith Abel brought an offering, Enoch did not experience death, Noah built an ark, Abraham obeyed and went, Sarah was enabled to bear children, Abraham again offered Isaac as a sacrifice – can you feel the action encompassed in this verse? List after list of actions by faith. Our Christianity takes actions, it’s not just about being in Him it’s about doing in Him! Simultaneously – forward movement! Kangaroo and ant in faith!

Sometimes the actions of faith aren’t just small walks of faith steps, they are big leaps of faith. In Chapter 11:35 women received back their dead, raised to life, others were tortured, facing jeers and flogging, put to death by stoning, sawed in two. These are some serious leaps of faith!

And then we finish on the pinnacle verse – Hebrews 12:1 ‘therefore…’ – meaning ‘because of everything I have just shown you that these amazing men and women of God have done’. Therefore, since we are surrounded by these great men and women of faith, the great cloud of witnesses, let us throw of everything that hinders and the sin that entangles and let us run!

And we don’t run on our own, we run with a crowd cheering us on. We run the race set before us, with the crowd of faith people cheering as loud as they can. They had their turn and they did it, now it’s our turn. Remember the kangaroo (don’t go backwards) and the ant (be diligent) and run!! Don’t grow weary, don’t lose heart, just run – with your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Perfector of our faith. Be spurred on by the cheers of the crowd and run!

Have a great time finishing the Book of Hebrews. Don’t forget to write your name at the end of the list in Hebrews 11 – mine says ‘Katie, by faith, started a website to help people read their Bibles’. What is your action of faith that you will be known by? Start today!

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Hebrews part three

Hebrews part two