Truth and Love
1 Peter 1:22-2:3
Transcript
Hello again. We never do this, but I just want to take a second to do this. Just take a second and introduce yourself to the people that you're sitting near. Just take a second and do that. Turn around, say hey. Now don't get crazy.
I know how you guys are. Hey guys. Hey guys. Thank you. All right.
All right. Yeah, I actually thought that would be kind of like opening up a can of worms if we did that for too long. But I just want to just remember that we're in a room full of other people and we're getting to experience this together. And there's great joy and life to be found in that. But my name is Matt.
Again, I'm one of the pastors with Mill City Church. And I'm really excited to be looking at the scripture that we're looking at today. We're in the fourth week of our series. Where we're studying the letter of 1 Peter. And the title of our series is Misfits. And we've gotten a lot of really good feedback over the last three weeks.
Because what we're looking at is very appropriate with kind of what's going on in our culture. Apparently it's made for some really good discussion in some of our groups. And I'm excited about that. And hopefully today will be a continued forward motion in us growing and understanding what 1 Peter is talking about. And specifically, the section of scripture that we're looking at today has meant a lot to me based off of what's been going on in my life personally in the last month. And just so that we're all kind of on the same page.
For those of you who don't know, my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world on June 8th. Come on. Come on. Guys. Guys. She's in here.
I want her to remember this. Come on. Come on. Come on. Give it up. Give it up.
Emerson baby. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that there wasn't more enthusiasm. But it's been great. It's been crazy. It's been difficult.
But it's been absolutely wonderful. And I'm glad they're here this morning. This is Emerson's first time hanging out with our church family. But Katie went into labor on a Sunday night. It was about midnight. And so we went to the hospital.
We got to the hospital. They wanted to make sure that she was actually in labor. And so it was about three and a half hours until Katie got an epidural. For those of you who have had children, epidurals seem like they're a really good thing. But when that lady finally showed up and said she had the epidural, I actually breathed a sigh of relief.
I think I was a little more anxious even than Katie was. Because watching her go through that pain, I thought I was going to have to throat chop a nurse. And I just didn't think that that was an appropriate thing for a pastor to do. So the son came up on Monday morning. And the nurse came into the room. And she informed us that the midwife that was supposed to deliver our baby had had a family emergency and was not going to be there.
And a doctor that we did not know was going to deliver this baby. And so it was like, okay, that makes this a little bit more uncomfortable. But it honestly was one of those small blessings that we can now look back on. Because as it came time for Emerson to be born, there were some complications that the doctor actually would have had to be in there anyways. The midwife wouldn't have been able to handle that. The doctor would have had to be in there.
So they rushed a team full of people in. As soon as Emerson was born, they rushed her to a table. They started cleaning her off. They started hooking her up to all kinds of machines. They put her in an incubator and started rolling her out of the room and said, Dad, you're coming with us. I'm freaking out at this point.
We're like racing through hallways. We end up in the special care nursery where there are more people with more machines to hook her up to. And they're just going as fast as they can. And they're talking hurriedly to each other. And I guess finally one of the nurses realizes that I'm standing there just like white as a ghost freaking out. And she turns around and says, we've got our stable.
It's going to be okay. You can come back in an hour. Second time I almost throat chopped to nerves. I was freaking out. And so, listen, I was just overcome with emotion. I walked out of the room.
And the first empty room I found, I just walked in and I lost it. I just started crying because I was so overwhelmed with emotion, not knowing what was going on. And so I went back to Katie. And they came and told us later that during labor, Emmy had breathed in amniotic fluid. Into her lungs, causing her lungs to be really weak, making it hard for her to breathe. And basically the whole process had kind of put her body in a state of shock.
So that for the duration of her stay, she was going to have to be in a special care nursery. So we knew we kind of had a long road ahead of us. She was hooked up to a CPAP machine to help her breathe. She was hooked up to IVs. And she had a feeding tube. And that's not the way you picture it going, right?
That's not what you're walking into this thinking. It's not the storybook ending. But we had the best nurses, had the best doctors. They took great care of her. She continued to get stronger. They took her off the CPAP.
They started feeding her. And when they started feeding her, rather than using the IV and the feeding tube, they said, for her to go home, she's got to feed eight times a day. Eight times in 24 hours. You do the math. That's every three hours this baby has to eat. Which means that, which meant that we had to be at the hospital every three hours.
If you've ever spent the night in a hospital, oh my goodness, you're a trooper. Like you should get a badge. There should be a sash and you should have badges. But we were never so relieved that when the nurses came in and said, your baby's healthy, you can go home. And we got to take our little girl home. And the last couple weeks have been incredible.
Because I just sit and think about the fact that two months ago, Emerson was inside Katie. A year ago, Emerson didn't even exist. I think about the miracle that that is. That God shaped her and molded her and has a plan for her life. I sit there and I stare at Emerson and I look at her little hands. And I look at her little feet.
And I watch her sleep and I watch the rise and fall of her chest. And I listen to the crazy noises she makes while she sleeps. You know, she sleeps with her mouth open. But she doesn't snore like me yet. It's coming. It's in her future, I'm sure.
But I just sit there and I look at her. And at the same time that Katie and I were going through all of this, I was studying this section of scripture and I realized that God's plan and his timing were perfect. Because what Peter's going to do to help us understand the gospel, he's going to talk about the gospel in terms of birth and infancy. So that in the same way that a mother gives birth to a baby and it's born into a family and then sustains its life by feeding it, Peter's going to say that the gospel gives birth to us into a new family. And then it's that same gospel that continues to sustain us during life.
The gospel, the good news of who Jesus is, is what brings us into the family and what sustains us for all of life. So as we look at this together, my prayer is for Christians that you're reawakened to these two beautiful truths that we're going to see today. That as we talk about them, as we dive into them, you're going, no, no, I want that. That actually gets to be true for me. And if you're in this room today and you're not a Christian, my prayer for you is that you'll actually see the beauty of the gospel for the first time. And not just what the gospel can save you from, but what the gospel actually saves us for.
So I'm going to pray and then we're going to dive into the scripture together. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that your word speaks into every aspect of our lives. God, there's nothing that we go through, no situation that we'll come across that your word doesn't instruct us in. And I thank you for this letter and I pray that through your Holy Spirit, you would allow us to see the gospel for the beautiful truth that it is and how it impacts our lives on a daily basis. In Jesus name, amen.
So if you've got a Bible, go ahead and grab it. We're going to be in first Peter. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of the blue and white ones that we have on the chairs. It's going to be on page 656. We're going to be looking at chapter 1, verse 22 through chapter 2, verse 3. And I know what some of you guys are thinking.
You're going, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's not stopping at the end of chapter 1? He's not stopping at verse 25? How scandalous. Just remember that it's a letter. The chapters and the verses were actually added later just for reference.
And so it's one big continual thought. Each little thing is going to build on the next thing. So we're going to look at this little chunk. And what we've been looking at in this series is that Peter is writing to a group of Christians about how to follow Jesus in a culture that doesn't line up with their faith. That first century Christians and first century Roman citizens were not besties. They didn't get along super well because they didn't have the same value system.
And what Peter is writing to them is how do you exist in life in a culture that doesn't agree with what you believe. And it's very timely for us to be reading this in light of what's going on in our culture. I want you to think back to your parents' generation or maybe your grandparents' generation. Christianity and our culture back then used to line up pretty well. The same type morals, same type values. But over the last couple generations that gap has continued to widen more and more and more.
So what our culture says about certain things and what we believe and what our culture says are beginning to move further and further apart. So what our culture says about sex, what our culture says about gender, what our culture says about marriage, about love, about power, about success is very different from what we believe. And what we're trying to do in this series is ask the question, okay, if that's true, what does it look like to follow Jesus in light of the culture that I live in? Okay? So that's what we're shooting to do today.
Let's pick it up in verse 22. We're going to go ahead and read the whole chunk just right up front to get the big picture. And then we'll walk back through it bit by bit. Okay? So verse 22.
Let's read it together. Here we go. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn infants. Long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Okay? So that's the whole chunk.
Now let's jump back up to the top. We're going to walk through it bit by bit. Okay? Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth.
Since this is a letter, this is basically a continuation of the same ideas that Peter has already written and that Chet's already talked about in the last three weeks. And in fact, this phrase pretty well bridges the gap between everything that he's already said and everything that we're going to look at today and in the rest of the letter. And if you change the order of those words around to make it a statement, it says this. Our souls have been purified by our obedience to the truth. Our souls have been purified by our obedience to the truth. And when Peter says truth, he's talking about the truth of the gospel.
So that our souls have been purified. Our souls have been made right by our obedience to the gospel. And here's the gospel. That the God of the universe, the creator of all things, created humanity to exist in a perfect relationship with him. But our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God's good and gracious commands.
They sinned against God and they forever fractured the relationship that we were supposed to have with him. And what we see in the Old Testament is God's active pursuit to restore that relationship. He calls out a people to be his people and he says, I'll be your God. And he gives them laws and he gives them commands and he gives them the sacrifice system to teach them about who he is and how to live in a relationship with him. But the people continue to fall.
They continue to sin. And they cannot obey. No amount of work, no amount of effort could ever bridge the gap that had been broken. But God spoke. He spoke through prophets and said, one day I'm going to send a savior that will fix that relationship. That will restore it forever.
And then Jesus, the son of God, shows up on the scene. And he lives the perfect life in worship to the father that we could never live. He dies the death for our sins that we could not die as the sacrifice for our sins. And then he raises to life. He comes back from the dead showing that he had conquered sin, death, hell, and Satan. That's the gospel.
That's the good news. And when Peter says your souls have been purified by your obedience to the truth, what he's saying is it's the gospel. Your souls have been purified by repenting of your sins and placing faith in Jesus. Jesus, the gospel is the story of all stories for Christians. And so as he's coming out of what he's already written and going into practical applications of what that looks like, he reminds them that the gospel is what matters to them. The gospel is what changes everything.
Their souls have been purified by their obedience to the truth. And when Peter says truth, he's talking about the gospel. That's what Peter declares through the whole letter. That's what we've already seen. And Peter's writing to a group of people that they've already raised their hands and said, I know I'm busted. I know I'm jacked up in desperate need of a savior.
We've placed faith in Jesus. Now, what does it look like to follow him in our culture? And Peter says, don't run from culture. Don't retreat into Christian getters. Don't run from it. Don't primarily fight culture.
Don't necessarily wage war against it. Don't conform to culture. Don't be like them. Be holy. Be set apart. Peter says, follow Jesus in obedience.
Obedience to the truth. Obedience to the gospel. Following Jesus. Being willing to sacrificially suffer for the good of those around us. Why? Because Christians have a hope of the resurrection.
We know that this is not ultimately our home. That one day we'll go to be with our savior. And so if it means that for now to put the gospel on display, that we would be willing to suffer. We're willing to do that. Okay. What about this?
What do I do when our faith, when Christianity says this and our culture says something else? And I like what culture says better. Peter says, obey. Follow Jesus. And the reason you can follow Jesus even when you don't agree, even when you don't understand, is because he's proved that he's good, he's for our good, and he's trustworthy. And he's done all of that through the cross.
The gospel is the story of all stories for Christians. And that's what Peter's reminding them of here. He said, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, by your obedience to the gospel. And from here, what we're going to see are two beautiful truths that Peter's going to pull out and bring to light for this group of Christians that are living in exile. Okay. So jump back to 22.
We'll go ahead and we'll keep reading this time. Verse 22. 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. And what Peter just said there is he reminds them that the gospel, it's not just about what the gospel saves them from. That's what we just talked about. The gospel saves us from sin, saves us from death, saves us from hell, saves us from the enemy.
Peter wants to point them towards what the gospel saves us for. And Peter says that it's for brotherly love. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. But since you have been born again, there's that picture of birth. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. What Peter is saying here is that those that have placed faith in Jesus have been born again.
They have been made into a new creation. They've been given a new identity. And not only that, since they've been born again, they've actually been born into a new family. See that picture of birth that he's painting there? In the same way that when a baby is born, it is born into a family. Peter is saying that the gospel actually gives birth to us into a family.
It's the gospel that makes us into a family. Like it says, since you've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. I just want to take a second real quick and help us understand what he's saying there by perishable versus imperishable. Because that can get, we can get a little tripped up there. Okay, perishable. My daughter Emmy was born through perishable seed.
She was born through perishable seed, which means that one day I'm going to pass away. My wife's going to pass away. Emmy's going to pass away. And the Freeman family line is going to end. And what Peter says is that you've been born again into this family through imperishable seed. That the gospel brings us into an eternal family.
Since Jesus is an eternal God, the family that he invites us into is an eternal family. Through the gospel, we're born again and brought into a family. When it came time for Emmy to be born, I was kind of on the fence about where I was going to be located in the delivery room. Several of you had given me some advice about where I should stand. I was very thankful for that. And I was just kind of, I was waffling back and forth about where I was going to be in the delivery room.
But there was this one kind of crazy intense nurse when it, when it really came time. And let's just say that my choice was stolen from me. The option to stand in the corner of the room and go, that was taken away. And let me say in clear and certain terms, my wife gave birth to Emmy. Emmy exists in this world because of my wife. And in the same way that Emmy exists in the world because of Katie, she was actually born into a family.
Emmy was born into a family where I'm her dad and Katie is her mom. And my parents were in the waiting room. Katie's parents were in the waiting room. My grandparents were in there, her brothers and sister. Emmy was born into a family. And what Peter's saying here is that the gospel in the same way makes us into a new creation by placing faith in Jesus.
And since that's true, we're born into a family. That's, that's the first beautiful truth. The gospel makes us into a family. So if you're a note taker, that's the first thing you want to write down. The gospel, the gospel makes us into a family. That point was actually going to be the gospel births us into a new family.
But I decided that probably wasn't the best thing to do. I think we get the point, right? The gospel makes us into a family? Yeah, okay, good. So he goes on from there.
It's not just, it's not just that the gospel makes us into a family. It's that part of the reason that we are saved is for the family. Read it again. Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. So not only are we saved into a family, but we're saved for the family.
We are saved for a sincere brotherly love that we should love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Brotherly love. Family love. And I love that because it's actually a beautiful picture of what the gospel accomplishes for us. That God is our father and Jesus as his son bridges the gap between us and him. And through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, he actually brings us back into a right relationship with the father.
He reconciles that relationship. And since that's true, Jesus then also restores our relationship with each other. That we're actually able to have brotherly love for each other because of what Jesus has done. And let me say this. I know that as soon as we start talking about family, not everybody in the room is really excited about it. Some of you might have had a family where you had a dad who was abusive, had a mom that peaced out when you were five.
Maybe you had aunts and uncles that treated you poorly. And when you think about family, it actually brings up a lot of negative, hurtful emotions. Maybe even the family that you exist in now is very, very difficult. And so there's a little bit of pushback when we start talking about that the gospel makes us into a family. But here's the truth.
All of us know what a good family is supposed to look like. All of us deep down inside know that a father is supposed to love and to protect and to serve. That there's supposed to be genuine love and genuine care and closeness and unity in a family. That's one of the reasons I love that God chooses to relate to us as father. Think about it. We just celebrated Father's Day a couple of weeks ago.
Think about how beautiful that is. That God chooses to relate to us as father and he invites us into a family that is held together by the perfect love of Jesus. And that by existing in those family relationships with other believers, that's actually how you grow. That's actually how you begin to grow in your understanding of the gospel is by being in those relationships. You haven't just been saved into a family. You've been saved for the family.
And part of what Peter's saying here as he's writing to the elect exiles, what he's saying to us, that this is part of the way we set ourselves apart in our culture. That when our culture begins to look at the way that we live in relationship with each other, the way we serve, the way we sacrifice, the way we give our time and efforts to each other, they're getting a picture of the gospel. This quote comes from a book called Total Church. It's written by some church planners in the UK. It says this, Brotherly love is not a byproduct of being born again. It is its purpose.
Christian community is not a happy byproduct of our salvation or a convenient help to individual Christians. We have been saved to be God's people, to be Christ's bride, to be a new family. We are saved for the family. Part of the reason, part of the way that we grow in relationship with Jesus is by being in relationship with other believers. Sometimes I get in conversations with people when I'm talking about who we are as Mill City Church and the way we organize and the way we do things. And they'll say things like this, I'm a Christian, I'm just not a part of a church.
Or I'm a Christian, I just don't want to be a part of a church. I don't really see the point. I can follow Jesus on my own just fine without a group of other people. And the problem with that is that the Bible is not going to back him up in that position. That the majority of the New Testament is actually talking about how you grow in relationship with other believers. And in those conversations, I really don't want to make someone feel guilty.
I don't. What I want to help them see is that they're actually missing. That there are aspects of the gospel that you cannot grow in outside of being in relationship with other believers. It puts the gospel on display in a way that you cannot by yourself. And that's hugely important in our culture. I want you to think about our culture for a second because it's really self-centered.
Our culture says that the goal of your life is for you as an individual to be happy, to be successful, to be free. That your goal as an individual is to be happy, to be successful, and to be free. The problem with that is that the underlying current in that message is that other people exist for you. Other people exist only so far as you can be happy, as far as you can be successful, as far as you can be free. And what the gospel does is it flips that on its head and says that since Jesus has saved you and brought you into a family, you now get to exist for other people. You get to exist as a family serving other people.
Because it's in those relationships that you can only put aspects of the gospel on display. I want you to think about this. Let me give you a couple examples. Reconciliation. Because Jesus has reconciled us back to God, you can't reconcile outside of being in a relationship with somebody else. There's got to be some kind of conflict, some kind of drama.
That's how you grow in your understanding of the gospel and how you put it on display is by being reconciled. Repentance. Repentance is confessing our sin to God and confessing our sins to each other to seek about restoration. There's got to be some type of close relationship for that to be realized. Love. Love isn't just a feeling.
Love is an action that is expressed with other people. Generosity. You can't be generous outside of being in relationship with other people. Hospitality. You can't be hospitable outside of opening up your home to people on a regular basis. And all those things are pictures of the gospel.
And what our culture says is, you do what's right for you. Take care of yourself. And whatever time you have left, whatever money you have left, whatever resources you have left, give that to other people. And the gospel flips it and says, since Jesus has lavished his love on you, pour yourselves out for other people. And there will be great joy in it. But you will grow in your understanding of the gospel.
You'll fight for those relationships. You'll sacrifice for those relationships. You'll begin to treat someone that you met one year ago like flesh and blood family because the gospel is actually beginning to influence that relationship. From the very beginning of our church family, from the very beginning of our church, we've had people who aren't Christians hanging out with our community groups. And that's beautiful. People who don't yet believe what we believe.
And that's beautiful. Because what they're seeing is a group of people who genuinely love each other and care about each other and hold fast to their faith. And they extend that same love and welcoming to them, that it's a safe environment for them to actually learn and grow closer to Jesus. And I love that. That's absolutely what it looks like to have brotherly love, that by being in relationships with other believers, you're actually putting the gospel on display. And in all honesty, I could sit up here and tell you story after story after story.
And I'd love to share some more with you afterwards. But let me give you just a few examples of what this brotherly love looks like. And I'm not going to use names. I'm just going to kind of pull some stories from some of the groups that I know about. But some of you know that we had our air conditioning went out last summer.
Hashtag HVacalypse if you followed, if you were keeping up with the times. There was somebody that was in my group that for a solid week took all of his spare time, came and fixed our AC unit, and didn't ask for a dime in return in the blazing heat of August. Just sacrificially gave time because he was extending brotherly love for me. I know a guy who works 50 to 60 hours a week. One of the hardest working guys I know that on one of his only days off drove a hundred miles round trip to go help somebody move. I've heard stories of families that weren't able to pay for cars, to pay for a vehicle, and an entire group pitched in to help them do that.
I've heard about mortgages being paid for. I've heard about people going into the hospital and people bringing food and going to visit. And let me tell you this. The gospel making us into a family never became more real to us than when we were in the hospital with Emmy. The way that our group and the way that this church family rallied around us during that time was unbelievable. Calls, texts, emails, people bringing us food, people coming to see us in the hospital, people coming to our house.
The outpouring of love was crazy. There were times when I sat and tried to think of all the people that had reached out to us and it just blew my mind. And I can't imagine what that looked like to the nurses and the doctors as they came in because they were seeing brotherly love. They were seeing the gospel on display. And it was beautiful. And that's what the gospel does.
As we actually take the time and actively pursue those relationships with other believers, we start to understand the gospel in a brand new way. And what can happen sometimes, this can happen sometimes in our groups, is our mode of thinking begins to shift towards the fact that my group exists for me. That can happen, that can show up in the, are people meeting my needs? Are people reaching out to me? Are they inviting me? Are they listening to the things that I'm saying?
And what's cool about the gospel is it just frees us back up to realize that our group doesn't primarily exist for us, but that we exist for our group. Which means that we get to be the person that goes and works on somebody's air conditioning. If you're one of the three people who knows how to do that. It means that I'm going to answer my phone at 10 o'clock. It means that I'm going to go help that family move. It means that when I know there's a need, I'm going to open up my wallet.
Because it's part of how I grow in my understanding of the gospel and how the gospel gets put on display in our world. And honestly guys, that's just the tip of the iceberg. It is. It's just the tip of the iceberg to what this existing in the family that the gospel makes us into. It's just the tip of the iceberg. But I want us to keep moving.
Let's pick it back up in verse 24. Because Peter's going to point towards the eternality of this family. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. See the progression?
The word endures forever. The word is the gospel. I'm sorry. The word is the good news. The good news is the gospel. See how it goes?
The word endures forever. The word is the good news. The good news is the gospel. And since the gospel will endure forever, the family that it makes us into will endure forever. So when you think about the sacrifice and the time and the effort that you're putting in to build relationships, when you think about how tired you are on a Thursday and you're trying to go hang out with your group, realize that every bit of time and effort you're putting into, you're putting into that here on this earth is only practice for the eternity that you've been invited into.
You're just getting warmed up. It's just a warm up for what's coming. Verse 1, chapter 2. Let's keep going. Peter says this, So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
So since the gospel makes us be for brotherly love, out of the family we've been invited into, it says we're for brotherly love, that means there's going to be certain actions that we're called to do and other actions and behaviors that we're called away from. That if we're called to brotherly love, there's going to be actions and behaviors that we're called away from. That's what all of these have in common is that they can be against other people. And the reason that Peter's bringing it up is because these people were living in relationship with each other. These were real things. These were real conflicts that were actually happening.
These are real things that can show up within your community group, but it's the gospel that leads you away from them. It's the gospel that then reshapes your understanding that these aren't good actions. Malice? Hate? Deceit? How could you hate someone when you realized that Jesus took the wrath that you deserved from God on your behalf?
How could you hate someone? Deceit? Why would you need to lie? Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and you've been invited into a community of openness and honesty. Hypocrisy? You don't need to fake it.
You don't need to fake it because your actions aren't wrapped up in the things that you do or don't do. You've got new value. You've got a new identity in Jesus. Envy? Why would you want something that someone else has? You've already been given everything you'll ever need in Jesus.
In fact, the gospel flips it for you and you get to be open-handed with the things that you do have. Slander? No, we get to encourage people with hope. We get to be people who bring the good news. See how the gospel impacts that? The gospel shapes the family and it shapes the way we relate.
And the gospel helps us when these show up. That actually we get to grow in our understanding of the gospel even when this stuff shows up in our community group. Let me show you how. Let's say you're talking about somebody and a Christian brother or sister calls it out and says, listen, you're talking about them, that's not an appropriate thing for you to be doing. You realize that you get to go to Jesus and ask him for forgiveness. And that part of that repentance is that you go and talk to that other person.
You get to ask for their forgiveness. You get to be open and honest because of the gospel. And then that person in turn gets to offer you forgiveness, gets to offer you grace. And in that relationship there gets to be reconciliation, restoration, and a great expression of love. You see that? The gospel even shapes when we screw up.
It even shapes when we screw up. So we've been called into this family for brotherly love, which means there are going to be things that we do for each other and actions that we're called away from. And in this next section of scripture we're going to see the second beautiful truth that Peter's pointing us to. So let's continue on. Verse number two. Like newborn infants.
Again, so birth and infancy. We're seeing it right here. Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Here's the second beautiful truth. The gospel sustains us for life. So the gospel makes us into a family, but the gospel also sustains us for life.
In the same way that newborn infants cannot survive without the life-sustaining milk from their mothers, we as believers should long for the pure spiritual milk so that we can grow, so that we can be sustained for life. And the question is, what's the milk? It's the same thing that Peter's been saying over and over and over again. It's the obedience to the truth. It's being born again. It's the gospel.
Not only does the gospel give birth to us into this new family, but it's actually the gospel that sustains us for growth in all of life. And let me try to help us understand what that looks like. See, I grew up with this false understanding of Christianity that was this. I understood the gospel that Jesus saves me from my sin, and I'm given new life in him. And then you kind of move that to the side, and the rest of life is me reading the Bible and trying to figure out what does it take to make God happy so that he'll bless me. So basically, the gospel was step one and then set it to the side.
And now it's like, what do I need to do? What are steps two through whatever? And what Peter's saying here, and what I've come to understand, is that my actions are not separate from the gospel. That it's actually the gospel that motivates all of my actions. It's what we've already said in the context of those family relationships. When there's strife, when there's drama, when there's conflict, when we're called to love, we get pictures of all of that in the gospel.
And now what I've realized is if the gospel is this big circle, all of my life is inside that circle. That there's not one thing, one thing that I go through in my life, not one word that I could utter, not one action behavior that I could do that the gospel doesn't motivate. And as I grow in my understanding of the gospel, who Jesus is and what he's done for me, it begins to answer the questions. It begins to help me understand how I should make decisions. What I should do with my life, what the purpose of life is, what my thoughts and feelings should be about gender, about sexuality, about marriage.
It's by growing in our understanding of the gospel. And Peter says, long for it. Long for the pure spiritual milk so that you can grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. And when it says tasted that the Lord is good, he's talking to Christians there. He's saying those that have tasted the truth of the gospel for the first time, they've tasted it. I can stand up here and I can tell you how good banana pudding is.
I can. I can tell you about it. I can tell you that it's one of God's greatest creations right up there with bacon and golf. Don't argue. You know it's true. All right, I can tell you that, but until you actually take a bite of banana pudding, you have no idea why I'm so crazy about it.
But after you take that first bite, oh, buddy, it's game on. And anytime you hear someone say the word banana pudding, they can get the B out. But you're like dropping whatever you got and you're taking off to figure out how you can be the first person in line to get banana pudding. You've tasted it. You've tasted it. And what Peter is saying is if you've tasted that the Lord is good, continue to go back to the gospel time and time again.
It's what sustains your life. Long for it. We should be in hot pursuit of the gospel because we've tasted that the Lord is good. We've tasted that the message is true and that it's beautiful. And I'm going to show my cards here because it's going to help us explain things going forward. The gospel is understanding who Jesus is and what he's done for us.
And primarily one of the ways that we do that is through reading the Bible. One of the primary ways that we grow in our understanding of the gospel to be sustained for all of life is by reading the Bible. Now, are there other ways to do that? Sure. You can listen to sermons like you're doing right now. You can discuss things with your group.
You can read books. You can read blogs. You can listen to music. But all of those things find their roots in the Bible. All of those things are based off of the Bible. So go to the source.
The Bible is primarily how we grow in our understanding of the gospel. And there's a couple of things I want to pull out here. Peter says that in the same way newborn infants long for pure spiritual milk, we should long for the gospel. So, Emmy. Emmy, my daughter, is the best baby in the world. You know, I'm not partial.
It's just true. And when it comes to babies, she's got a pretty even temperament. She's pretty chill. She doesn't get upset about a whole lot. But to be honest, there's not a whole lot she can do.
Sleep, eat, poop, pee. That's about it. Eating is her favorite. She's just like her daddy. Okay? So, Emerson can be doing anything.
She can be sleeping. She can be playing. But babies eat all the time, so they get hungry all the time. This is what happens when Emerson is hungry and she's waking up from her nap. You ready? Ready?
That's pretty good, right? That's pretty good. She loses her mind. She goes crazy because babies are wired in such a way that they will cry insatiably until they get some food. And what Peter is saying is that in the same way babies long for milk, we as Christians should long for the gospel. Should put in time, effort, work to grow in our understanding of the gospel.
The second thing is this. I want you to think back to Peter's time. There was no formula. There was no Gerber baby food. That if a baby was not able to nurse from a mother, it did not make it. That's why it was so important.
And when he's writing to the people, they understand that. That it was important for a baby to be able to nurse, to survive, to be sustained for life. When Emmy was in the special care nursery, at first they had her hooked up to IVs and she had a feeding tube. So she wasn't eating on herself. And it was not until she could feed on her own, without IVs, without a feeding tube, she didn't get to go home. And the same thing is true for us as Christians.
The gospel is what sustains us for life. And if we're not having a regular intake of the gospel, it's going to be difficult for us to understand how to follow Jesus. It's going to be hard for us to survive. And I hope you can see the connection between these two things. These two beautiful truths that Peter's pointing out in the gospel. That as you exist in these family relationships with each other, as you begin to pour out brotherly love for each other, you're growing in your understanding of the gospel, and you're pointing each other back towards Jesus.
Back towards the truth of the gospel. And as you read and study and grow in your understanding of the gospel, it's then going to point you back towards these family relationships that you exist in. It all works together and it's God's good and gracious gift to us to lay it before us like that. Think about how wonderful that is. Think about the 45 seconds of joy you had right at the beginning of the message as you got to say hey to someone that you haven't said hey to yet. Maybe you got to introduce yourself to someone new.
That those family relationships actually bring the gospel to light. The gospel makes us into a family and we're saved for that family. And that we get to grow in all of life sustained by the gospel. And as we come to a close this morning, I've got two ways that we can practically apply this as a church family. And a lot of times we don't land this practically. We usually don't land this practically, but this sermon lends itself to it.
Since the gospel has born us into a family and we're to be for that family, part of the way you can practically apply what we've talked about this morning is this. Number one, join a group. Get in a group. A huge portion of the New Testament talks about how we grow in our relationship with Jesus with other believers. Now, if it was up to us as a whole church family, if it was our whole church family was trying to get together on a regular basis and try to sync up our schedules, it would be nearly impossible. That's why it's so important for our community groups because it's smaller groups of people that set aside time to study the Bible, to pray together, to share meals together, to encourage one another, to help out when life gets tough.
It is beautiful. I want you to join a group. I want to invite you to do that. And some of you are going, ah, man, the practical application, I'm already a part of a group. I'm going to join another one? I'm supposed to be a part of two groups?
Here's how I want you to apply what we've talked about this morning. Fight for nothing less than what we've talked about. Don't let your community group be just a once-a-week meeting time where you get together, pray, and study the Bible. It gets to be so much more. Fight for time. Sacrifice for time because you understand that it's how you grow in your understanding of the gospel and it's what puts it on display in our culture.
Another thing is this. The gospel sustains us for life. So the second practical application is this. Read the Bible. Read the Bible. Get into God's Word.
To be gospel-centered means being word-centered. We believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. There is no error. And it was given from God to human authors written down to reveal who God is and how we're to live in a relationship with him. That by reading the Bible, we're going to grow in our understanding of the gospel. And here's the deal.
The more you read, the more you study, the more you'll begin to understand, the more you'll actually want to. And that both of those things will start to work together. The family relationships and reading the Bible will then push you towards the gospel. And I grew up. Listen, I grew up as a part of a church. And I heard sermons and lessons all the time about read your Bible.
The Bible's good. The Bible's God's Word. And they just went right over my head. I don't know how I missed them. And when I got in college, one of those sermons finally stuck. And the guy challenged us to read the gospel of John.
So I read the gospel of John. And then I read Acts. And then I read Romans. And then I read the New Testament. And then I read the Bible. And then I read the Bible again.
And then I read the Bible again. And the time that I'm spending in the Word is helping me grow in my understanding of the gospel. It's helping me grow in my love for Jesus and my need and desire to follow him. And so here's how we're going to conclude this morning. Usually the band comes back up and plays a song. We're not going to do that today.
Because I want to actually give you the opportunity. I want to give you the opportunity to do what we've actually talked about this morning. So here's what we're going to do. I want all of our group leaders, male and female group leaders and their apprentices, to just kind of spread out throughout the room. So y'all can go ahead and move.
You can go ahead and do that. Do that. They're so shy. Part of the way we exist as church families is in our community groups. And so I just want to take a second just so that you understand, like, who the leaders of our groups are, where they are. Like, clump together.
If y'all are in the same group, be together. There we go. I want to tell you a little bit about who they are, who the leaders are, where they meet. So this is Dave and Sherry Howeweiler. They have a group that meets on Thursdays in the Harbison area. This is Charlie and Stacey Earp.
They have a group that meets on Tuesdays at 630. They meet in – wow, I got a whoop. Well done. But they meet off of Fish Hatchery Road in the West Columbia area. Chet and Anna Phillips, Dan and Sean Stoyku. They have a group that meets at 630.
Is that right? Seven? Seven o'clock on Thursdays in kind of the Lexington area. You got Josh and Nadine Pabone and Raz and Christina Bradley are not here with us. They're on vacation. But they have a group that meets in downtown at the Canal Side Lofts.
It's a very trendy group to be a part of. But they meet on Wednesdays at 630. And then I'm going to stand right down here front. My wife and I have a group that meets on Tuesday nights at 630 in the West Columbia area. And here's what we're going to do as we finish up. When we're done, I'm going to pray.
The music's going to come back up. I want you to just go stand with your group. If you're a part of a group, I just want you to go stand with your group. Hang out. Just catch up. Talk.
We usually hang out for a while after we're done. And just enjoy those relationships. Just be reminded of what the gospel has made us into. Maybe you can talk about your favorite firework. What color it was and the sound that it made. It'd be really great to hear that going on all over the room.
It'd be like a firework show again. If you're not a part of a group, I want to invite you to join one. I want to invite you to be a part of one. And here's how you can do that. If you're not a part of a group and you came with a friend, just go to the group that that friend goes to. So when we get up, just go with them.
Go meet some of the people in that group. They're not all crazy. So just go meet some of them. If you're not here with a friend and you're just here on your own and you don't know which group to be a part of, just think about which group, which day, and which time is most convenient for you. Or maybe it's the location. Maybe it's the one that's closer to your house or closer to your job.
If none of those categories work for you, just choose one. And Charlie says choose him. But here's the deal. I know we have guests with us here today too. This is beautiful. Whatever church family you are a part of, you don't want to miss out on this.
And if you call this your church family, we want you to plug in and be bought in here. And part of the way you can do that is by being a group, being in a group. And for all of us, I want us to grow in our understanding of reading the Bible. So each week we've been sending out group discussion guides to our group leaders and personal studies. The personal study for this week is a reading plan for the letter of 1 Peter. It's a five-day reading plan with questions.
We want us all to get in a regular rhythm of reading the Bible and growing together. So I'm going to pray. The music is going to come on. And we're all going to move. Okay? Okay.
All right. So I'm going to pray. God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the truth of the gospel that it makes us into a family. God, and I pray that through our groups you would help us grow, help us realize that it's the gospel that should motivate our actions. And by being in these family relationships and through growing in our understanding of the gospel, we're actually putting it on display for our culture.
We're putting it on display for the world. And so, God, we thank you that through Jesus you've brought us into your family. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.