Hardened Hearts
Though the door of salvation
is still open to all people,
we must understand that some
will ultimately reject the gospel message.
Here's Dr. Gene Getz:
This is indeed one of the most
challenging sections in this book--in Hebrews.
What does the author really mean
in these passages that we're going to look at?
Who's he talking to?
What does he have in mind?
Well I think the most basic question
that we need to ask ourself is this:
Is the author addressing believers or unbelievers?
Now my opinion--and I've changed it
a little bit as I've walked through this,
teaching it now the second time here
from the Life Essentials Study Bible--
is I believe it's both.
But I think he is addressing believers
pretty much through the whole passage.
But they're very immature believers.
And when he gets into the section
where he talks about unbelievers,
he is describing the unbelievers
to the believers.
Now keep that in mind and let's see
if that holds true as we walk through this passage.
I said it refers to immature believers,
first of all, because here's what we read:
We have a great deal to say about this,
and it is difficult to explain, since you have
become too lazy to understand. ...
Now when he says "about this"
he's, I believe, referring to the fact
that Jesus Christ died. He was buried.
He rose again. He ascended to the Father.
And he is, indeed, our great high priest
because that's what he's been talking about:
Jesus Christ, our great high priest.
So he says:
...We have a great deal to say about this...
And he's going to explain it
even more but he says:
It's kind of difficult to explain it to you
because you're not diligent.
You're too lazy.
You're apathetic in your understanding.
In essence he's saying: You're immature.
You're immature believers.
And he goes on to say:
...Although by this time you ought to be teachers,
you need someone to teach you
the basic principles of God's revelation again. ...
And as he continued in this passage,
he uses language that almost sounds like
what Paul wrote to the Corinthians.
Almost identical language.
And the Corinthians were definitely believers
but they were very immature believers.
In fact, Paul called them infants in Christ.
What does the author of Hebrew say here?
...You...
That is those who are hearing this read:
...You need milk, not solid food.
Now everyone who lives on milk
is inexperienced with the message
about righteousness, because he is an infant.
But solid food is for the mature--
for those whose senses have been trained
to distinguish between good and evil.
So I think it's pretty clear,
here at the latter part of chapter 5,
that he's talking to very immature believers.
But as he transitions into
Hebrews chapter 6. And remember,
the chapter titles are not in the original book,
or the numbers that give us the verses.
This moves right on and he simply says:
Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching[s]
about Christ and go on to maturity...
So he's continuing to talk to immature believers.
Now notice what he does.
He begins to describe unbelievers
to these immature believers.
At least that's what it seems to me.
Because he says, after saying:
...let us [go on and] leave the
elementary teachings about Christ...
What were these elementary teachings?
Well I've called it, Jewish Theology.
And you have to remember
that when Jesus Christ first came,
he came to his own people.
And who came preaching?
John the Baptist.
And John the Baptist was transitional
in preparing the way for the
coming of Jesus Christ.
And so he preached the baptism of repentance.
Which was very confusing,
though it was transitional.
And you remember that Priscilla and Aquila
had to take Apollos aside and teach him
because he understood
only the baptism of John.
And so they began to explain to him
the fullness of the coming of Jesus,
why he came.
And I think we have reference to this confusion,
this theology. Jewish theology, as it were.
Transitional theology--
that the unbelievers were hanging on to.
And so he goes on to say:
...not laying again a foundation
of repentance from dead works...
In essence, that's what John the Baptist
was teaching.
Let's not go back there.
We're far beyond that with the coming of Jesus.
He only prepared the way
for Jesus, the high priest:
...faith in God...
Well, they argued about faith in God.
But when it came to who Jesus is,
they rejected him as being God in the flesh:
...teaching about ritual washings...
That was a very common part of their theology.
...laying on of hands...
That's Jewish theology again.
...the resurrection of the dead,
and eternal judgment. ...
And basically, if you wanted to
create an argument, all you had to do
was bring up the resurrection
and you would have an argument
between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
And that's exactly what Paul did
on several occasions.
He created an argument when he
referred to the resurrection of the dead.
Why? Because the Sadducees
didn't believe in any resurrection.
They were the liberal wing of Jewish theology.
The Pharisees believed in the resurrection.
And so they were at each other's
throats on that.
So he said basically:
Let's not go back to these elementary things
as you're tempted to do.
Because of false teaching,
probably from Jewish leaders.
So he said:
And we will do this if God permits. ...
In other words, right at this moment
we're going to move on
and leave the elementary teachings
and go on to the teachings about maturity.
Now further he said, now look:
...For it is impossible
to renew to repentance...
And here is where I believe he describes
to these infant believers--
unbelievers who have totally rejected
the message of Jesus Christ.
And he describes it this way:
...those who were once enlightened,
who tasted the heavenly gift,
who shared in the Holy Spirit,
who tasted God's good word
and the powers of the coming age,
and who have fallen away.
This is because, to their own harm,
they are [recrucifying] the Son of God
and holding him up to contempt.
Now here's the question:
How could unbelievers taste and share
in the Holy Spirit?
Well, I believe if you go back to
the book of Acts, you can see.
Because those are metaphorical words:
tasted, shared in.
What happened on the day of Pentecost?
Well first, notice:
They heard "a sound like that
of a violent rushing wind"
that "came from heaven."
They experienced that. All of the people
in Jerusalem that were in that particular area.
The religious leaders were a part of it.
The people who were rejecting
Jesus Christ were a part of that.
The people who were angry at Christians.
Or at least Christ and the disciples
and the apostles--they were a part of this.
That's an amazing thing to be a part of that.
Now think of the metaphor: taste it.
Share it in the Holy Spirit because
what was the might rushing wind?
It was the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, they saw "tongues like flames of fire
that separated and rested
on each one of them."
What a phenomena that was.
They saw that.
They experienced that.
Thirdly, they heard these men of Galilee
as they "began to speak in different tongues"
that were spoken all over the Roman world.
They heard it.
They saw this manifestation.
And then they heard Peter's sermon
that also focused on the
"powers of the coming age."
Because it says here: they had
shared and tasted of the powers
of the coming age.
What they saw on the day of Pentecost
were the powers of the coming age.
And that's exactly what Peter's sermon
refers to. Notice:
"Fellow Israelites...
Who's he addressing?
His fellow Jews all over Jerusalem.
...listen to these words:
This Jesus of Nazareth was a man
attested to you by God with miracles,
wonders, and signs that God did among you
through him, just as you yourselves know. ...
Not only did they taste and hear
and be a part of what happened at Pentecost,
Jesus Christ walked through
the streets of Jerusalem.
Healed a blind man.
Healed an impotent man
that had been ill for 38 years.
And many other miracles and signs
he did right there in Jerusalem.
And it was in Jerusalem where
Jesus Christ predicted what was going to happen
to the temple. And talked about
what is going to happen when he comes again.
They heard those things:
...Though he was delivered up
according to God's determined plan
and foreknowledge, you used lawless people
to nail him to a cross and kill him.
God raised him up, ending the pains of death,
because it was not possible for him
to be held by death.
And I believe basically,
here as he's writing to these immature believers,
he is actually describing these individuals.
And if any of them are reading
what he's writing, he uses the pronoun "you"--
as well--to make sure that
they would get the message.
Now what happened?
Well many believed Peter's message
about Jesus Christ.
And we read in Acts 2:41:
So those who accepted his message
were baptized, and that day about
three thousand people were added to them.
But what happened to great numbers
of the religious leaders particularly?
Now many priests became followers of Jesus.
Many leaders became followers of Jesus.
But there was a group, such as the Sanhedrin,
which were the 70 leaders of all of Israel,
rejected Jesus Christ.
In fact, when Stephen stood before them--
a man who actually performed miracles himself.
And reviewed that. They stoned him.
Which is the ultimate rejection
of the message of Jesus Christ.
And this really kind of--well it does:
It reminds me of how the author of Hebrews
really began the letter in chapter 2. He said:
. . . how will we escape if we neglect
such a great salvation? ...
And that's what they had done,
in spite of the fact they had tasted,
they had experienced.
It was there.
In their experience, they saw all this happen:
...This salvation had its beginning
when it was spoken by the Lord,
and it was confirmed to us
by those who heard him. ...
The apostles. Peter and John actually worked
right there in the temple.
Healed a man, remember?
Got them into deep trouble
with the religious leaders because they
healed a man on the Sabbath.
...confirmed to us by those who heard him.
At the same time, God also testified
by signs and wonders, various miracles,
[and] distributions of gifts from the
Holy Spirit according to his will.
That all happened right there
on the day of Pentecost and following.
They tasted it.
They felt it. They sensed it.
But they hardened their hearts.
And so the Principle is:
Though the door of salvation
is still open to all people,
we must understand that some will
ultimately reject the gospel message.
But here's the good news:
There was a man who stood by Stephen
and approved his death.
His name was Saul--who became apostle Paul.
The apostle Paul, who became
the great apostle to the Gentiles.
And by the way, that's why we're
gathered here tonight, because he
carried the gospel to the Gentiles.
And most of us are Gentiles.
And Paul never got over that.
The fact that his heart was opened
and God revealed himself.
And I think one of the reasons--
and Paul says it himself:
Because he was so ignorant of what
he was doing that God had mercy on him.
Even though he was one
with one of the hardest hearts.
His heart was opened and softened.
So here's the Reflection and Response question:
Though this section of Hebrews
addressed primarily unbelieving Jews...
Primarily in the second section.
Though I would kind of change that
and say the second part describes
unbelieving Jews to the
immature believing Jews.
...how does their continued
negative response to the gospel apply to
both Jews and Gentiles today--
particularly religious leaders?
And as I was thinking about that,
I thought of a very sad story myself,
in the sense that I remember a woman
that worked in a church.
And her husband was just anti-Christian.
He would not let her listen to Christian radio.
He would not let her go to church.
He was totally negative.
And I remember meeting her years later
and I said to her:
Helen, what happened to your husband?
She said: He was dead set against--
dead set against Christianity
and Christ until the day he died.
He had hardened his heart.
But thank God the door is still open.
Jesus said: Come, I will not reject you.
If people reach out to the Savior,
he's there to bring eternal life.