The Dynamics of Spiritual Growth | 1 Peter 2:1-6; 2 Peter 3:17-18
Brian Hedges | November 6, 2016
Turn in your Bibles this morning to the letter of 1 Peter. We’re going to be in both 1 Peter and 2 Peter. While you’re turning there, let me begin with this idea for you.
Pediatricians sometimes diagnose children with a condition called Failure to Thrive, or FTT. Failure to Thrive. The causes of FTT are many and varied, they can include genetics or sickness or poor nutrition. The diagnosis itself is given in cases of arrested development, when a child’s growth measurements fall below a certain percentile.
And I want to suggest to you this morning that a similar condition is true for many Christians. Some Christians have what we might call spiritual Failure to Thrive, spiritual FTT. Rather than abounding in love (1 Thessalonians 3:12) or knowing the peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7) or rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8), some believers are marked by inconsistency. By unhealthy patterns of growth and even decline, regression. What older writers used to call spiritual decay. The opposite of spiritual growth.
These are believers who languish in zeal, who falter in hope. Their love for others sputters along, but it never reaches into the high gears of sacrificial generosity or service. They have the capacity to feed on God’s word but they have to be spoon-fed. Their faith is weak, their hope burns dim, and the winds of adversity easily capsize their joy. These are cases of spiritual arrested development. And maybe this sounds like you. Maybe this is where you have placed yourself this morning.
As believers in Christ, we are commanded to grow, as we’ll see today. We are expected to grow. And in those soul-stirring words of that hymn writer Philip Bliss, the cry of our heart is to grow. We pray, or we should pray, things like this:
More holiness give me, More sweetness within,
More patience in suff’ring, More sorrow for sin,
More faith in my Savior, More sense of His care,
More joy in His service, More freedom in prayer.
We should be praying for more degrees of grace. For increase in virtue. For growth in conformity to Jesus Christ. And that’s what really what this entire series, this fall series, has been about. We’ve been talking about discipleship. A disciple, we have seen, is an apprentice to Jesus. Someone who is learning from Jesus, the Master, how to live a life that glorifies God. A life marked by love for others. A life marked by all the virtues of Christ, the graces of Christ. As we saw last week, ours is to be the imitation of Christ. We are to be like him, as he is in the world. We’re to be growing, becoming more and more like Jesus. This morning I want us to think about spiritual growth and I want us to think about some of the obstacles to growth, the hindrances to growth, because if we’re honest, often times we don’t see ourselves becoming more like Jesus. We grow in fits and starts. Our growth is punctuated by periods of backsliding, sometimes spiritual decay. Spiritual decline is more true of us than spiritual growth.
Well to root our thinking this morning I want us to look at two passages from Peter’s letters. And Peter is such a wonderful teacher because Peter of all the disciples is one that we know had periods of decline. Peter was the one that had to be rebuked by the Lord over and over again. Peter is the one that denied the Lord and had to be restored. Peter is the one who even had to be rebuked by the Apostle Paul. So Peter is someone who knew what it was to grow in these spurts and starts. And Peter out of the apostolic writers has much to say about spiritual growth. So we’ll look at 1 Peter 2:1-6 and 2 Peter 3:1-18:
1 Peter 2:1-6: "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
2 Peter 3:17-18: "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."
This is God’s word.
So here’s what we’re going to do. I want us to look at:
• The expectation of growth (or the expectation for growth)
• Secondly, the hindrances to growth
• And then thirdly, the prescription for growth.
And so I want us to see that growth is expected and normal for believers. But then I want to acknowledge that sometimes we don’t grow. I want us to think about the hindrances, what are the obstacles, what are the problems that sometimes keep us from growing as we should. And then we’ll end on a very practical note looking at the ingredients that make up the prescription for spiritual growth.
I. The Expectation of Growth
Growth is expected. Just as we expect healthy babies to grow up into children, and then into adults, so we should expect believers to grow out of infancy into spiritual maturity.
And we know this from the metaphors, the commands, and the promises of Scripture. Let’s look at each one of those briefly.
(1) The metaphors
We see two of those in the passage, two metaphors for growth. The first one is the physiological metaphor. It’s the metaphor that has to do with babies and children. And the growth of physical bodies. You see that in the first several verses of 1st Peter 2. I’ll just read verse 2: "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation."
Peter clearly expects these believers and commands these believers to long for the word as newborn infants or long for the milk, we’ll see what that milk is in a moment, to long for the milk, to long for this pure spiritual milk so that they might grow. And the metaphor is very clear here that believers are like children who when they are nourished by milk, and in other passages by meat, solid meat, solid food, when they are nourished by these two things they grow. This is a physiological metaphor. It’s pretty clear, pretty self-evident. And just as healthy children grow and develop so should healthy believers.
There’s another metaphor that we also see in the passage. This is the architectural metaphor. This is the picture of a building or a temple or a house. You have this over and over again in the epistles. You see it in verses 4 and 5: "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
This is also a kind of growth. It’s being built up. Now the interesting thing here is that his metaphor is very clearly corporate. So you have both an individual aspect of spiritual growth and corporate aspect of spiritual growth. You and I as believers should be growing as infants who are feeding and being nourished on the pure spiritual milk and then are developing into maturity and you and I as believers should be growing corporately as these living stones that are being built up into a house for God, a temple for God. Now both of those metaphors emphasize growth.
You could also go to Ephesians 4 where Paul also uses these metaphors, he kind of mixes the metaphors a bit in chapter 4 of Ephesians, describing the growth and the maturity of the body of Christ.
Here’s one more that’s not in the passage but I want you to see this in scripture as well. This is the agricultural metaphor. So think of the vine and the branches in John 15. Think of seed being planted and cultivated and farmed so as to bear fruit. The parable of the soils. Look of example in 1 Corinthians 3 where Paul again mixes his metaphors: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building."
Now there you’ve got it. Two metaphors right there: You are God’s field, you are God’s building. The field, that’s the agricultural. The building, that’s the architectural. These are the metaphors of growth where God is at work using the apostolic word and the ministry of the word to bring about this growth. And of course John 15, I’ve already mentioned, and we’ve talked about this a lot over the last several year, but I’ll just read a couple of verses again, so central I think to our understanding of the Christian life: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing... 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."
So discipleship clearly involves growth, the kind of growth that is marked by fruit. That’s the agricultural metaphor or picture. So these metaphors all show us that growth is expected. We can even say growth is normal in the Christian life. Then secondly look at the commands.
(2) The commands
There are two commands in our main passage this morning. So in 2 Peter 3:18 the command is: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Now that’s a command. That’s actually in the imperative mood. Peter is commanding us to grow and there are two dimensions to that growth: growth in grace and growth in knowledge. Then in 1 Peter 2 the command is to long for the pure spiritual milk so that we may grow up in salvation. This is kind of an indirect command to grow. He’s commanding us to have a certain kind of desire, a certain kind of hunger for this pure spiritual milk so that we will grow. And then there’s just dozens of other passages that either implicitly or explicitly demand growth. So let me just give you some quick examples. You may think of the “abounding” language in scripture. You know how Paul tells us to abound in things: In 1 Corinthians 15:58 we should be: abounding in the work of the Lord. In Colossians 2:6-7 we are told we should be abounding in thanksgiving. In 1 Thessalonians 3:11-12: "Abound in love for one another and for all."
Now passages like that show us that Paul and the other writers never command us to just get by. The never command us to just barely hang on. The command isn’t just do enough to stay alive. Now that’s not it at all. They command us to abound, to do those things that will make us thrive spiritually. To abound in love, to rejoice all the time, to pray without ceasing. Now those kind of commands show us that the aim, the intention of our Lord is optimal spiritual growth. He wants us to be growing and developing and thriving spiritually. And that’s expected of us.
Maybe that’s why Robert Murray M’Cheyne, that great Scottish pastor that I love to quote, one time said, “I am persuaded that nothing is thriving in my soul unless it is growing.” Nothing is thriving in my soul unless it is growing. We should be looking to see whether that’s taking place in our lives. Now what does that look like?
This is one of the best paragraphs describing spiritual growth that I’ve ever read. It comes from J. C. Ryle, a 19th century Anglican bishop in his book on holiness, and there’s a wonderful chapter, chapter 6 in that book, on growth. I encourage you to read it. Ryle said: "When I speak of ‘growth in grace’ I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigor, and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer’s heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress, and increase. I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage, and the like, may be little or great, strong or weak, vigorous or feeble, and may vary greatly in the same man at different periods of his life. When I speak of a man “growing in grace,” I mean simply this—that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual-mindedness more marked. He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart. He manifests more of it in his life. He is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith, and from grace to grace."
And we’re commanded to do that, to grow in just that kind of way.
(3) The promises
So the metaphors show us the expectation of growth, the commands show us the expectation of growth, and then thirdly, the promises. The promises - and they are such wonderful promises from God in scripture on growth. Let me just point out two that may be overlooked. In Psalm 92:12-15 there’s a wonderful promise that goes like this:
"The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the LORD;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
15 to declare that the LORD is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." (Psalm 92:12-15)
So the palm tree flourishing with its leaves, its foliage, with the cedar growing strong. I think that’s the idea there. They are planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God, and get this, verse 14, they still produce fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green to declare that the Lord is upright. They still bear fruit in old age. Now that’s the expectation for the believer, is to bear fruit in old age. Now some of you in this room have grey heads. Maybe you’re over 65. And here’s the question: Are you bearing fruit in old age? Are you more fruitful now than you were as a young believer? You should be and I think in many cases you are and I am so thankful for the grey heads in our congregation and for your steadfastness of faith and your example in godliness. Here’s a promise for believers, that in old age you’re still going to bear fruit. The other capacities begin to diminish with old age, don’t they? Maybe a little weaker physically, maybe a little slower in your thought processes, but still bearing fruit in old age. That’s what the psalmst promises.
Here’s another promise from Jeremiah 17:
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
Now here the picture’s somewhat different. It’s still a picture of fruit building but it’s a picture of fruit building when heat comes. A tree that’s being scorched by the desert sun but because it’s rooted by streams it continues to bear fruit.
Now I picked those two pictures because they show us two season of life when sometimes we don’t see people as fruitful or we’re not as fruitful ourselves. In old age and in deep trials, those are precisely the times when scripture say there should be fruit. They continue to bear fruit. So that’s the expectation of scripture: never ceasing to bear fruit. I wonder if that’s true of us this morning. If it’s not it’s because there are hindrances to the growth. And that leads us to the second point.
II. The Hindrances to Growth
What are the hindrances? What are the hindrances to growth? We get a clue in 1 Peter 2 in that first verse where Peter tells us to put away certain things: "So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander." And of course this is paralleled by many other passages in scripture that tell us to put away or to put off certain sins.
When we think about hindrances to growth we might think about it this way: there are both active hindrances and passive hindrances. There are things that actively in our lives that actively become obstacles to us growing. But then passively there are things that because they’re not in our lives, because of omission, because of neglect, they keep us from growing.
Now you can see this in the metaphors we’ve used this morning. So for example: In the physiological metaphor the active hindrances of growth would be sickness or disease or injury. So when these little children are diagnosed with Failure to Thrive it’s often because of disease or because of sickness or something wrong physiologically. But on the other hand it can also be because of malnutrition. Now that’s a problem of neglect. That’s what I’m calling a passive hindrance.
The same is true in the agricultural realm. So when you think of a garden, what does a garden need? Well you need to remove the weeds because the weeds are the active hindrance to growth. If you have a garden that’s overrun with weeds the weeds are going to choke out the good plants. Those weeds are the active hindrance. But on the other hand a passive hindrance would be a lack of water or fertilizer. There’s got to be both positive things that are going in and the negative things have got to be rooted out.
Or take the architectural metaphor. How does a building get run down and destroyed. Well it can happen through demolition, being where there’s active damage being done, you might think of vandalism or abuse of a building. But on the other hand just neglect a building long enough and there’s going to be dilapidation. As we see in many corners of our building and we’re trying to work on those.
So this pattern holds true and it is true in the Christian life as well. So there are active hindrances and these are what we call sins of commission. And there are passive hindrances and these are what we call sins of omission. Sins of commission are when we do those things that we ought not to do. And sins of omission are when we leave undone what should be done.
Now here’s the point I want us to get: the main hindrance of spiritual growth is sin. Sin. But the sin can be both active, pretty obvious sins, you’re doing things that you really know you shouldn’t be doing but you’re doing them anyways. That’s going to hinder your growth. But it can also be just neglect. That we’re not actually following orders. That we’re not actually obeying the Lord’s commands. We’re not applying the teaching, so the sins of omission.
John Owen was that great puritan that I love to quote from the 17th century. And in what I think is an under read classic from Owen called The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded, Owen gives a very detailed analysis of spiritual thriving and the things that hinder. And I want to read a paragraph to you where he describes these different kinds of things that obstruct the thriving of spiritual affections, that’s his phrase.
“In general, when men are careless as unto that continual watch which they ought to keep over their hearts; whilst they are negligent in holy duties, either as unto the seasons of them or the manner of their performance; when they are strangers unto holy meditation and self-examination; whilst they inordinately pursue the things of the world, or are so tender and delicate as that they will not undergo the hardship of a heavenly life, either as unto the inward or outward man; much more when they are vain in their conversation, corrupt in their communication, especially if under the predominant influence of any particular lust . . . it is vain to think of thriving in spiritual affections.”
Now that’s a paragraph that requires some meditation. Owen is listing here eight possible causes of spiritual decline. Eight hindrances or obstructions to spiritual growth. And these range from neglect, neglecting holy duties, neglecting the means of grace, all the way to inordinate love for the world or a lack of willingness to embrace suffering or habitual sin, predominate influence of a particular lust, habitual sin.
Now here’s the question for you this morning. We survey these things but here’s the question: What’s hindering you? What’s hindering you? Something probably comes to mind. If you’re not thriving, if you’re not abounding, something probably comes to mind. If it doesn’t yet, I would encourage you to pray, seek the Lord, ask him to search your heart, ask him to show you what is hindering your spiritual growth. Maybe it’s something on this list. Maybe it’s something in Peter’s list. Maybe it’s some attitude that needs to be put away. Maybe it’s some sin known only by you and God. But if you’re not growing this morning there’s only one reason and that reason is sin. Either an active sin or a passive sin, a sin of neglect. But if you’re not growing, that’s why.
So what then do we need to do? So what do we need to do?
So the last point...
III. The Prescription for Growth
This prescription has at least three ingredients and I want to walk through these ingredients with you.
(1) Remove the hindrances to growth
Okay we’ve just looked at them, they need to be removed. So that’s what Peter’s saying: “So PUT AWAY all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”
This is repentance; this is what we call repentance. It’s turning away from the sins. It’s the same idea that we have in Hebrews chapter 12. Now the focus there isn’t so much on growth as on running the race. Remember the author tells us that we are to lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely. What’s the weight? What’s the hindrance? Lay it aside or remove the hindrances to spiritual growth. That’s the first thing, it’s just repentance, and this is an ongoing everyday thing. We’re continually finding areas of life where we need to lay aside, we need to put away, we need to put to death our attitudes or actions.
(2) Embrace the means of growth
Embrace the means of grace. What are these means? These means include the word of the gospel. So right here in 1 Peter chapter 2 he tells us to long for the pure spiritual milk. Now what is that? What is the milk? Now some scholars say it’s the word, some say it’s the gospel itself, some say its grace. I don’t think it would be far from the mark to say it’s all three. It’s the grace of God that comes to us from the gospel which comes to us from the word. And we’re to long for this pure spiritual milk. When you look at the whole context Peter already says were born again from this word. The word is the means or the instrument God uses to bring us to spiritual life in the first place. And in chapter 1, verse 25 it says this word is the good news or the gospel that was preached to you. And then it stands to reason that if that is the word that brought us to life then it is that word that also nourishes our life.
In fact, in 1 Peter 1 the word is compared to the seed which generates life. But in 1 Peter 2 the metaphor changes from being more masculine to more feminine. It’s the milk that nourishes life. Now here’s the wonderful thing about this image. You think about a nursing infant. A nursing infant. It’s the most intimate, close relationship as this infant draws nourishment from the very life of the mother. And that’s the picture Peter chooses. That’s the picture. We draw from the very life of God. From the very life of Christ and how do we do that? We do that by feeding on the pure spiritual milk, the word of the gospel.
The gospel, friends, is not just what brings you to Christ, that gets you saved to start with. The gospel is what nourishes you day in and day out through the whole of your life. You never outgrow your need for the gospel, the good news of Christ. That’s the first means.
Here’s the second: the practice of prayer. Look at just one passage, Colossians 1:9-10: "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God..."
You see the link there: prayer for growth. And this is Paul praying for others. And so we need to be praying for the growth of others. We need to be praying for the growth of one another. Praying in our church for spiritual growth and we also need to be praying these things for ourselves. We pray for growth.
Again I just refer you to that great hymn by Philip Bliss that I started with, “more holiness give me.” That whole hymn is a prayer. There’s a line that goes like this:
More victory give me, More strength to o’ercome,
More freedom from earth-stains, More longing for home,
More fit for the kingdom, More useful I’d be,
More blessed and holy, More, Savior, like Thee.
He’s praying, he’s addressing Jesus and he’s asking Jesus to give him these things. That’s the way we need to pray. We’re praying for God to give more grace, to increase these things in us. So that’s a means a growth.
The body of Christ is also a means of growth. And again you see this in Ephesians 4: "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . . Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love" (Ephesians 4:15-16).
And you see there that one of the reason God has equipped the body with gifts is that so through the ministry of the word the saints are equipped. The saints are equipped to build up the body of Christ so that we’re growing into the likeliness of Christ. Mature manhood, the full measure of the stature of Christ.
And then here’s the fourth means of growth and I felt like I should not overlook this because it’s so crucial and it’s what we call the trial of faith.
Did you know that suffering is itself one of God’s means to help us grow? And you see this in Peter, I mean this whole letter of 1 Peter is a letter written to suffering believers. And you see it in chapter 1 where he says: "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Or you might take James 1 where James says: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds..." And he goes on to describe how that develops us and helps us to grow.
John Newton is the great hymn writer that gave us amazing grace but he also gave us a wonderful hymn about spiritual that originally was titled “Prayers Answered by Crosses.” And I’ve found this a very encouraging hymn and I want to share it with you. Notice Newton’s experience and maybe you can relate.
I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace,
Might more of his salvation know,
And seek more earnestly his face.
I hoped that in some favoured hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with His own hand
He seemed intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
“Lord why is this,” I trembling cried,
“Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”
“These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”
So when you find yourself facing cancer, or unemployment, or family breakdown and disintegration, or the loss of freedom in our culture - all kinds of trials that can beset us, they may be emotional and spiritual trials, they may be physical and material and very felt kinds of trials - when that happens to you, that’s exactly the season where God is at work to bring about deeper growth. Don’t wish away your trials, brothers and sisters. God is at work. Now that takes faith to believe that. I know because I’ve faced enough trials, nothing like what some of you have faced, but I’ve faced enough trials to know that there are moments when you feel a lot of doubt, you might feel anger, you may have questions. It takes faith to believe God is working when it feels like your world is falling apart. But if you will lay hold of the promises of scripture, if you will lay hold of God’s promises that he is using these trials to make us more like Christ, you’ll find that your seasons of trial are not your worst times. They are your best times.
Here’s the last thing, we’ll end with this:
(3) Connect to the source of growth
The last ingredient for the prescription for spiritual growth is the most important one of all: connect to the source of growth.
So I’ve given you these three metaphors for growth in scripture: there's the architectural metaphor, the building, there's the physiological metaphor, the body, and there’s the agricultural metaphor, the vine. And I want you to see that these metaphors, when you see them together, with Christ as the focus, they actually are teaching us not just about growth but they’re teaching us about union with Christ. And that really is the secret to all spiritual growth.
Our growth happens as we’re connected to the source of growth, which is Jesus. So look at that quickly in these three metaphors:
So we’re a temple, we’re being built as living stones into this spiritual house but notice how Peter says we are being built on this cornerstone in verse 6: "For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Christ is the cornerstone. Or in Paul’s language, Christ is the foundation on which the building is constructed. And so if we are to grow corporately into this holy temple for the Lord it’s only going to happen if we are aligned to Jesus, the cornerstone, and we’re cemented together with him. It’s in union with him and with one another that we grow in this corporate way.
Or look at another passage. So the biological, or the physiological, metaphor of the body that’s growing from infancy to maturity, how does he body grow? Well by deriving its strength, its nourishment, its direction from the head. You see that in Colossians 2:18-19. Paul is warning believers about these distractions to real growth. There are people saying you have to have all types of experience or you have to follow all types of laws in order to grow. And Paul is saying no, don’t be distracted by that: "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God."
So be connected to Christ the head, he’s the head of the body and it’s only as we are connected to him, united to him, that we grow.
Or one more, once again, John 15. Listen to the words of Jesus: "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:4-5).
So, believer, brothers and sisters in Christ, you cannot grow apart from Jesus. And that’s really what spiritual growth is, it’s maintaining the connection to Jesus. Now you’re united to him by faith and that union cannot be broken, it’s strong.
But the communion can be broken. And we grow not just by being united. but by being connected through ongoing communion, ongoing fellowship with Christ. By being close to Christ. Staying connected to him.
And that’s why the means of grace are so crucial. That’s why the word is so crucial and that’s why the table is so crucial. Because it’s a means of grace that facilitates this partaking of Christ, this communion with Christ.
That’s why we call it sometimes a Communion meal or a Communion supper, because when we come to the table we’re not just eating bread and we’re not just drinking juice. We’re not just physically ingesting these elements. And it’s not that the bread and the juice are in some mysterious way are transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ. It’s rather that as we take the bread and as we take the juice we are at the same time in a spiritual manner feeding on Christ, our life. That we are by faith drawing fresh nourishment and strength and life from him. That united to him by the Spirit we are growing, we are communing, we are fellowshipping, we are drawing something from Christ.
It’s the exercise of faith, empowered by the Spirit, with that faith feeding on Christ. That’s what happens when we come to the table. That’s why we come to the table every week. Because we don’t outgrow our need for Jesus. We don’t outgrow our need for communion with Jesus, for ongoing, regular participation with Jesus.
We need these means. We need the word, we need prayer, we need the table. We need it because we need Jesus and these things are means or channels that help us connect to Jesus.
So this morning as we conclude the message and transition to the table I just want to ask you: where are the hindrances to growth? Maybe you’ve identified one or two or more. Maybe you’ve got some soul surgery to do, some work to do. If so, make time it this week, make time for it before the day ends. Spend time with God personally asking, but right now, whatever’s come to mind, this is a time for repentance. It’s not a negative thing, but it is a serious thing. It’s a serious kind of joy as we come to the table and we repent. We turn from the hindrances. And we embrace afresh Christ our Lord and our Savior, and all the means that he has given us for communion with him.
Brian G. Hedges
