Where's the Beef?

A funny commercial years ago had an elderly lady asking when she opened up the bun to her hamburger and discovered a small dime sized patty, "Where's the beef?" In the last two decades I have been asking myself that question but in response to teaching and preaching coming out of the modern church. Hebrews 5:11-14 tells us that we should be at some point able to consume meat and move on from the basics about God. Hebrews 6:1-3 tells us what those basics are, repentance from dead works faith in God, ceremonial washings, what teaching doctrine is, lying on of hands, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. These the author of Hebrews tells us are milk and not meat. Meat Hebrews tells us allows the believer to exercise their faculties both spiritual and physical to know the difference between God's best and subtle evil. The author of Hebrews had to stop a discourse on Melchizedek and how he was a type of Christ because it was simply over his audience's head. Peter says of Paul in 3:15-17 that Paul had written according to the wisdom given him but that some of his concepts were hard to understand but Peter did not give them an out or say he'd admonish Paul for being too deep, but rather he warns his audience to be on guard against those who'd pervert Paul's writings. In our modern church there is a movement to make scripture easier to understand but what has happened is the spoon feeding of milk to churches instead. Like petulant children those who do Precept, Beth Moore studies etc. complain like the Israelites coming out of Egypt that they don't have time for the homework or the homework is too long or my favorite, the homework is too hard. Many come to church on Sundays and Wednesdays and receive an hour's worth of feeding and believe it will last them the rest of the week. What happens? Pastors must lay a foundation again and again and again because believers cannot move on to full growth. So what does meat look like? Philippians 3 tells us that deep teaching will create a deeper more intimate knowledge of Christ and keep solidifying that bond. If we are simply memorizing the work someone else has done we are adopting someone else's faith and not studying to learn for ourselves who Christ really is. Do I say don't ever do Bible study books? No! But it cannot be the main course at every single meal or else the result will be dependency on a teacher instead of on Christ. Secondly meat is characterized by what stretches or challenges us. Psalm 119:18 says, "uncover my eyes so that I may comprehend wonderful things out of Your law". Paul says of the Ephesians in 1:17-18 that he hoped God would enlighten the eyes of their mind to know a list of very important scriptural concepts. They were a logical progression of ideas building upon one another. But Paul makes it very clear it has to mentally and spiritual challenge the individual believer. Thirdly meat must not just stay hamburger but must become steak, fillet mignon and Kobe beef. The author of Hebrews wanted to explain the concept of the temple being a type of what existed in heaven, but going into depth about what that entailed was difficult for his audience. Being Jewish they understood the function of the temple and the instruments within it but didn't get the link between the spiritual existence of the original in heaven versus the copy here on earth and how that information could be applied to their faith. Expository then, although the most popular form of preaching and teaching is not meat. Exegesis that surfacely skips over verses taking out a few concepts here and there is not meat. Exegesis that goes line by line word for word, pulls out the interpretation which can stand up to scrutiny and provides application which fits the interpretation is however meat. We as the modern church have become vegetarians and call tofu patties hamburger when in fact they are not meat in anyway. Once we as the body accept we have to have meat to grow we will discover a deeper richer faith.