Series Title: Vital Signs: Belong, Grow, Serve Message Title: Grow Up: Community and the Word By: Neil Silverberg Scripture Text: 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 I wonder how many here this morning set any New Year s resolutions this year? Maybe you determined you want to lose weight, save more money or make new friends. How many have really set as a goal what Peter exhorts us to do in his second letter: to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? The truth is, if this is not our highest ideal so that all other desires and interests are subordinate to it, it s not bound to happen. That's what I want to talk about this morning. We are in a series called Vital Signs: Belong, Grow, Serve. This series is focusing on the components that make churches healthy. I spent the last two weeks dealing with what it means to "Belong": understanding and living in biblical community. First, we dealt with the church gathered: why biblical community includes being the church gathered (the Sunday gathering). Last week, we focused on what biblical fellowship is and why we need it. We saw that if your experience of the church is merely attendance at meetings and you are not really living a life of fellowship with others, you are cut off from a supply of grace that only comes through biblical fellowship. We looked at some of the hindrances to fellowship and how we must deal with them. By the way, I want to say one more word about community and fellowship: it must be "multigenerational". We must not imitate the world that segments society into groupings according to age and interests. Young people only want to hang out with young people and older people with older folk. Great prophecy that brings to a close the Old Testament: Elijah the prophet will come and "turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers." (Mal. 4:5-6). There is certainly a place for young people to be with young people and older people with their own at appropriate times. But the heart of God is multi-generational for the simple reason young people need older people in their lives and older people need younger people. So if you're a young person and you are thinking, "I don't want to hang out with anyone but other young people. You're not listening to the Spirit of God. If you are older and think, "I raised my kids; I don't want to hang out except with other older folks." You're not listening to the Spirit of God either. Younger people should be looking for older men and women to learn from and older men and women should be looking to pour into the next generation. For the next two weeks, we are going to look at our second value at Trinity, "Grow". Our mission statement is that "Trinity is a Gospel-driven community of fully devoted followers of Jesus on mission together." Notice those words: "a community of fully devoted followers of Jesus". Community forms not around the fact that we all share common interests or that we're all in the same economic bracket or same ethnicity. Community forms around the fact that we all share in common one passion and desire. To quote from Peter it is to: "grow up into salvation.
What Is Holiness? I want you to notice that this exhortation to grow up is not given merely to individuals but is given in the context of Peter's word for the community. The context of these words begins back in verse 13 of chapter one where Peter gives a long exhortation about holiness. Holiness, for Peter, is both devotion to God and devotion to others. Notice how Peter's exhortation about holiness is supported by a strong affirmation of redeeming grace. In other words, what we are to do in perfecting holiness is grounded in what God has already done (vs. 18-21). Nowhere is holiness viewed in Scripture as merely a human work or a response to human effort, but a response to God's perfect work in Jesus. According to Peter, the great mark of holiness is love for the community. This love, for Peter, is not mere acceptance or tolerance, but passionate, holy love. It must be more than simply "sincere" but deep and intense. "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God."(1 Peter 22-23) Earnestly Love One Another Peter uses a Greek word translated "earnestly" which is a word that means "stretched" or "strained". It is the exact word used by Luke in his account of Christ's earnestness in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. When you think you can't love any more, your love is stretched and strained. Peter demonstrates the means by which we are able to do this the "Word of God". It is the Word of God's grace which has caused such a mighty transformation of our hearts that we are able now to love one another. "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" (1 Peter 23). Peter goes on to say that it is the Word of God, the good news of the Gospel, that is the means of our new birth and the power to nurture ongoing holiness in our lives. Peter compares the life-giving power of God's Word to human procreation. It is the word of life, sown in our hearts to give new life. God s Word Is Creative and Carries Transforming Power We talked about this in our series on true and false conversion. Christian life doesn't begin with something we do but something God does in our hearts through the preaching of the Gospel. "God's word is a creative word and it is God's transforming power." "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth." The word of the Gospel is God's Gospel call; the preaching of the Gospel is the means by which God transforms hearts; it both communicates and converts. Remember when both Abraham and Sarah laughed at the impossible word they heard that they would have a son in old age? God said (literally), "Is any word too difficult for God?" Remember when the angel told Mary she would bear in her womb the Messiah without ever having known a man and said, "No word is
impossible with God" That is the word that comes to us: the word of faith, the word of the Gospel. That word created the Son of God in Mary's womb and that word creates the Son of God in our hearts. The Power of the Word Preached The Word of God which has given us life is eternal and not subject to change or decay (it abides forever). The physical life is like the grass of the fields which is here today and gone tomorrow. The Word of God remains forever and so do those who have been transformed by it. Notice how Peter describes it as the "preached word" the good news that was "preached to you." How are people saved? "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17) Paul, in that statement, is talking about why preaching is necessary. God has ordained that faith come through Gospel preaching and teaching. That doesn't stop when people are born again through the preached word growth in grace continues through growth in faith as the preached Word is received. How is your attitude towards the preached Word? Are you being transformed by it? Many people have downplayed receiving the preached Word and their life shows it. Peter would not discount the reading of Scripture, but he is really talking about the Word preached. You see, growth in God is always growth in faith, and "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ." It certainly includes the written Word because God's Word Written was first "God's Word Spoken." So not only does Peter say that our initial entrance into the kingdom occurs by the Word, but our continued growth in grace comes by the power of God's Word. Look at how Peter describes it beginning in verse one of chapter two. First of all, because we have been born again and purified our souls for a sincere love of the brethren, Peter exhorts us to lay aside those sins which are contrary to love: malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. These sins we have already put away when we were purified by the Word of truth. They are sins against community and must be put away if we are to live in community. These are the very opposite of the strenuous love of which Peter has exhorted them. Of course, these believers have already been converted so he is really describing what has already happened to them through conversion. They must therefore rid themselves of these things. And they can because they have been born again. Believers Grow from the Word Believers who have been given birth by the word must also grow by that same word. What will advance their growth? What will deepen their love? The same truth that gave them birth will also nourish them. This is so important in that it sets forth the truth that the Word that saved us initially is also the means of continual growth in grace. Peter is saying that now that the Word of the Gospel has converted us, we will have sustained life by desiring after this Word. Peter says we are to be like infants, not in our immaturity, but in the sense that as infants desire pure milk to grow, so believers are to hunger and thirst for the pure milk of the Word.
Now it is possible that the believers Peter is writing to were new babes in Christ. But Peter isn't saying they are new babes; rather, he is saying that they must be like newborn infants in that they crave pure spiritual milk from their mother. For an infant, milk is not a fringe benefit but an absolute necessity in order to grow. So believers are to be like infants in their strong desire for the Word of the Gospel. Peter may have borrowed from James who wrote his letter earlier. James 1:21: "Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." There are so many similarities to what Peter says: First, he exhorts them to "put away" which is the same words Peter uses for the sins they should put away. Secondly, "save" is used in James just as "salvation" is used in Peter. Thirdly, salvation is already a possession of the believer as a result of receiving the Word, not only initially at salvation but by continuing to receive it. Peter describes the Word and it is important that we understand it. First, it is "spiritual" milk making it clear that it is not literal milk he is talking about. The word Peter uses here for spiritual may also be translated by the word "reasonable" or rational. This implies that believers must exercise and engage their minds in the process of longing for this pure milk. So many people want a mindless Christianity; they want an experience that will change them automatically. How We Grow Up Into Salvation But God expects us to exercise our minds in applying the Gospel to our lives. Second, he refers to it as "pure" milk of the Word. Peter is using a word here that was used of merchants to describe pure, unadulterated products. Milk or wine in Peter's day could be watered down; Peter is referring to the purity and unadulterated quality of the milk of the Word. Peter goes on to say that the Lord who gave us new birth by the Word also gives us growth by the Word. "By it (the Word) you may grow up into salvation." "Grow up" is in the passive form meaning that we grow only as we are grown by the milk of God's Word. What gives us a desire for the life-giving Word of God? We develop a taste for it. Reading the Bible and hearing the preached word becomes addictive when we develop a taste for it. Example: Isn't that why advertisers spend millions of dollars to promote the taste of a drink? When we develop a taste for the Word it is not just a taste for the language of Scripture, but for the Lord Himself "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8) is the Scripture from which Peter is pulling this exhortation. The Word was given to show us that the Lord is good; his Words are sweeter than honey to our taste (Psalm 19:10) because in them the Lord gives himself to us. There are many here that have never developed a taste for finding the Lord in Scripture. You have a taste for wordily dainties; television, movies, Internet excursions but you have not formed a taste for Scripture. Let s go back to how Peter describes the word in the closing verse of I Peter 1:25: "And this is the Word that was preached to you." This is more than Bible reading but learning how to hear and apply the Gospel to our lives through the preached word. That is one major means of growing up is that we are hearing the Word of God and being transformed by it. It s possible that some of us have fallen into the condition of those the writer of Hebrews wrote to; we have become "dull of hearing".
We hear words when the Gospel is preached here but it s just the same old, same old. We are like the children of Israel in the wilderness whom the writer of Hebrews compares the believers he is writing to: "For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened." God has ordained that hearing the preached Word of the Gospel and believing it is a major means of spiritual growth. Along with that is hearing the preached word as you read Scripture and believing it. We don't grow ourselves, the word does the work as we hear it and receive it. Edmund Clowney says: "The appeals and exhortations of the gospel are grounded in the proclamation and instruction of the Gospel. Growth is always growth in faith." As we listen to the Word of the Lord it presents us with the Lord of the Word. ##### Ed Rosen has provided some suggested questions for you to use in your House Church to foster a beneficial group discussion. 1. The title of Neil s current series is Vital Signs: Belong, Grow, Serve; concerning Grow, he asked the question: How many have really set as a goal what Peter exhorts us to do in his second letter (2 Peter 3:17): to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? a. Have you set this as a goal in your life? b. How do you intend to accomplish this goal? Explain. c. What struggles do you have in maintaining your goal? d. How can we (your house church community) help you to attain your goal? 2. Neil s text was 1 Peter 1:22-2:3. He said that for context we should start reading at v.13. a. When you read the Word of God do you normally understand it as God speaking to you as an individual or do you understand it as God speaking to His redeemed community of believers, Christ s body, the church? b. With this in mind, how do you now understand holiness (vv. 15-16) in relation to what Peter says in vv. 22-23 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; c. Neil said that Peter uses a Greek word translated earnestly which is a word that means stretched or strained. It is the exact word used by Luke in his account of Christ s earnestness in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. With this understanding, in what ways has God been stretching and straining you in regard to loving your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? Give an example. 3. Neil said that God s Word is a creative word and it is God s transforming power; what caused our birth, causes our growth. a. How does the Word of God cause our growth?
b. Based on Romans 10:17, could it be that our lack of faith concerning spiritual growth is directly connected to our lack of discipline in reading, studying, and meditating in the Word of God? c. What place does the preached word have in the growth process? 4. After reading Neil s text, 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 (start at v. 13), does it come as a surprise to you that the familiar verse, 1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk (milk of the word NASB, NKJV), that by it you may grow up into salvation. is in the context of community? 5. How does your relationship with the Word of God relate to community life, for example, biblically loving your brothers and sisters in Christ? Explain using 1 Peter 1:22-23 as a basis.