Hebrews Provides A Model For How To Encourage Stuck Believers To Get Growing -- By: David Janssen

Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 23:44 (Spring 2010)
Article: Hebrews Provides A Model For How To Encourage Stuck Believers To Get Growing
Author: David Janssen


Hebrews Provides A Model For How To Encourage Stuck Believers To Get Growing

David Janssen

Equipping Pastor: Grace Community Bible Church, Sandy, UT

I. Introduction

Every church has them: believers who have the confidence of spending eternity with Jesus but who are not making progress in their spiritual life. Their stories vary. Some began to grow just after they were saved, then stalled. Others once had boldness for Christ until negative experiences from sharing the gospel of Jesus caused them to draw back and rarely mention the Lord in the presence of non-Christians.1

First century Jewish believers to whom Hebrews was written had to deal with similar struggles as they sought to grow in their relationship with Jesus. They had a difficult time as they abandoned their cultural practices in Judaism for their newfound faith. What God had once commanded them to do under Mosaic Law was now left behind. When faced with opposition from unbelieving Jewish leaders, some of these believers pulled back and became concerned about the cost of following Christ. They began to consider compromises that would relieve some of the persecution. They began to wonder if following Jesus

was really worth it. Secure in their eternal life, they contemplated “coasting” in their spiritual life. They thought they could “act” like they practiced Judaism on the outside while holding to their faith in Christ on the inside. They were not growing in their understanding of all that Jesus had accomplished for them. In fact, they were spiritually stuck and in danger of drifting (cf. Heb 2:1). But God, using an unknown writer, provided the book of Hebrews to encourage Jewish believers to continue on in their spiritual growth.

The word stuck is used from a pastoral perspective. From a human point of view, these believers don’t seem to be growing. Spiritually, people are either stagnant or moving either forward or backward. But from the perspective of other believers, believers who are not moving forward look stuck when they are not growing.

Today’s believers face similar struggles, even if they do not come from a Jewish background. Rosemarie Matlak comments:

As modern day Christians, we are beguiled and pressured to distance ourselves from Christ through false teachers, worldly philosophies, discouraging circumstances, and even persecution. As believers we all experience times of spiritual defeat and resulting feelings of rejection and weariness in our walks with God. It can be tempting to return to our old way of life where...

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