1 Peter 2:1-3; Psalm 1. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 10, 2020, Mother’s Day.
Today is Mother’s Day and we pray that all you moms are encouraged today. We use the word “mom,” or “mother,” to refer to that special relationship that begins when a baby is conceived. The baby is then birthed into the world and needs a lot of help. A mom’s job is to help that baby grow up into an adult that no longer needs her to change their diapers, feed them, do their laundry, and tell them to clean their room. This growth is not just physical, but includes mental, emotional, relational, and especially spiritual. A mom sure has her work cut out for her!
We are continuing on to the second purpose for believers corporately and individually. We need to grow to be like Jesus. Just as moms raise babies until they are ready to leave the nest, so new believers need to be helped along by other mature believers. In short, new believers need to grow, or to mature, in their faith. This growing is not to be measured against one another. We all fall short. Rather, we are measured against Jesus. He is the full measure of what it means to be a mature Son of God, and compared to him, we will fall short until the day of our resurrection.
Now, let’s look at a couple of passages and talk about the purpose of Growing.
We need to grow up spiritually
To connect to Christ and his followers is not an end goal; it is only the beginning. 1 Peter 1 ends with the apostle reminding believers that they have been born again, or spiritually born from above by the incorruptible seed of God, which is ultimately God Himself, but also involves His Word to us. In chapter 2, he commands them to desire the “milk of the word,” but he qualifies this desiring with the added description of “laying aside” a number of bad things in our lives: malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking (aka slanderous and defamatory speech). Not everyone that he is writing to is a new Christian, but Peter is concerned that they understand what should properly occur. Newborn babes in Christ need to take in God’s Word and thereby grow spiritually.
Peter only uses the metaphor of milk because that is the only thing that newborns can handle. However, the apostle Paul adds the concept of solid food to this metaphor in 1 Corinthians 3:12-2. Thus, God’s Word is compared to food that has some parts that are easily digested by spiritual infants, and other parts that require some spiritual maturity in order to digest.
The digestive process in regard to infants and maturity is an amazing thing. Milk is a simple food that their body is able to break down for energy. In fact, you could say that this whole area of salvation and God’s purpose for believers is the milk of the Word. These are the simple concepts that speak to us of our sinful condition, and yet God’s loving mercy towards us. The concepts of salvation are the simple things. Yet, any child who properly takes in the milk they need will also grow and develop the ability to eat more complex meals.
This whole process of maturity brings the infant to the place where they are fully developed and able to digest solid food. This will enable them to do far more work then when they only drank milk. Of course, this is a metaphor regarding our spiritual life. Mature believers should be careful not to push new believers too quickly. Allow for natural development and absorption of the simple truths of God’s Word into their life. However, they do need to be challenged to choose to grow, as Peter is doing. Peter connects spiritual growth to two things. First, putting off the negative things that would stunt spiritual growth, and going after the thing that will positively cause you to grow, God’s Word.
Now, let’s go to Psalm 1 in order to see another analogy that Scripture uses for spiritual growth.
The analogy from the plant world: a fruit tree
There is a powerful contrast in this psalm between the righteous and the wicked, those who are spiritually alive and those who are not. However, we will only focus on the development of the person who is spiritually alive. Here the analogy is not of a child, but of a fruit tree.
Before the psalmist describes the fruiting tree, he describes what it means to be a righteous person who is spiritually alive and blessed by God. They avoid following those who are not spiritually alive, those who follow the desires of their flesh and their natural mind rather than God. This is described in three ways.
The counsel of those who are not following God is to be avoided. You can’t grow spiritually if you are listening to people who are living for their flesh. Like Adam and Eve with the serpent in the Garden, we can be led astray from the blessing that God has for us.
The path of sinners is a reference to their way of life, the direction in which they are headed. I’ll give you a hint; it is away from God. Believers should give themselves to the purposes of God and leave the purposes of this world and their own flesh behind.
Lastly, the seat of the mockers is a powerful image of those who observe the life of the righteous, ridicule them, and laugh them to scorn. Like the stubborn thief on the cross, they would rather ridicule the righteous than learn anything from them.
We should also notice that this is the same pattern that Peter used. Believers are to leave these bad things behind and press into that which will make you spiritually grow.
Verse 2 of Psalm 1 shows us the thing that the righteous go after. It says that they delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night. Both are important and are reciprocal. You won’t meditate on God’s Word unless you are delighting in it, and you won’t delight in God’s Word unless you are meditating on it. No one is saved in a vacuum. Someone delivered the Word of God to them that sparked faith in Jesus and a delight in this knowledge about salvation. That initial new birth is the response to believing God’s Word, and delighting in what it tells us. Mature believers are to help new believers get into the Word of God and learn to incorporate it into their daily life.
Verse 3 then gives the powerful spiritual image that God intends for us to experience. We become like a fruit tree that is well-situated next to an abundant water source, which is the Word of God. Because it is daily drawing nutrients into itself through the aid of the water, it is able to fruit in the proper seasons. Being a child of God is not just about my character and activity. It also involves having something in our life that can give life to others. This is not innate to ourselves, but is the result of a life lived upon the Word of God, and listening to the Holy Spirit. As we talked last week, being in the Word of God, prayerfully meditating upon it, hearing the Holy Spirit, and then acting in faith is the process that God uses to help us maintain our connection to Jesus and grow into a fruitful tree that blesses others.
This underlines an important principle. Those who are blessed by God become a blessing to others. God’s blessing is not about hoarding and taking care of ourselves. It is an abundant life that blesses all who come into contact with it.
There are many seekers out there who spiritually do not know their right hand from their left. They are lost. Are there any believers in the Church of God who are mature enough and blessed enough to become mothers in the house of God? Are there any who can birth new believers into the Kingdom and then help them to feed upon the milk of the Word? Are there any who can do this until they are mature enough to walk on their own? May God help us not to become stagnant, nor to feed upon stagnant waters, but instead, to be a tree of life that does not wither, and brings forth fruit in the proper season!