“Birth and Life Forever!”

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:22 - 2:3

Lent is the time of year when we reflect on our lives – we consider the things we have done and the things we have not done, the decisions that have glorified God and those that have not. If we are completely honest with ourselves, the “nots” will far outweigh the “haves”, and that is what we must confront in this time of preparation before Easter.
But before we try to make any commitment to bring about a significant change in our lives, we must first consider the “why’s” of our condition. Why are we leaving things undone? Why are we not glorifying God in all that our life stands for? Why are we falling short in our faith walk?

And if we continue to be honest in our self examination, we will quickly discover that our “faith walk” is falling short because our faith has fallen short!

Buell Kazee wrote:
God is not trying so much to produce works in us as He is to produce faith in us. The Lord does not want to show the world so much how we can work; He wants to show how we can believe ... it is a glorifying faith that God wants in us. Certainly glorifying works will be the fruit of the glorifying faith, but the tree must come first ...
--Balladeer and storyteller Buell Kazee, Faith Is the Victory, (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1983).

“.. glorifying works will be the fruit of the glorifying faith, but the “tree” must come first..”. Think about that image for just a minute - faith as a tree – solid and strong at its root, tall and majestic in its trunk, and spreading its limbs wide to encompass and shelter all who seek refuge within it. That is the kind of faith that we all need to have – strong, tall, and sheltering!

Read 1 Peter 1:22-25

And if we are to get to that strong, majestic, sheltering kind of faith, we need to be nourished in the truth of Christ. Have you even seen a tree that was growing on the top of a mountain, or even in a split in a rock shelf? They are stunted, no strength, no spreading limbs, very little root. Every time the wind attacks, the tree is on the verge of being torn away. Yes, it’s true that the tree will adapt to its environment and it just may survive for many years, but it will never provide much lumber, or shade, or protection, and it will never grow to be as purposeful as the one that is firmly planted in good soil.
The tree that has good roots will produce countless seeds every year, and will bring about new growth, and in time, will grow to become an entire forest. The fruit of “glorifying faith” grows and spreads just like that.

Paul also talks about the seed of faith being imperishable. Those new sprouts can never grow if the seed dies before it can take root. They can’t be diseased, they can’t be damaged, they can’t be sown on a stone. New trees, new babies, and new faith must be nourished until it becomes strong for itself.
A woman at our other church is going to give birth to a baby this week. She can’t wait, for a number of reasons (!), to meet that new life. He has been growing and maturing inside of her for many months now, in safety, receiving nutrients and other life sustaining help from his Mom, and the time is nearly here for him to immerge into the world. But this isn’t the end of Mom’s job! It will continue, in various forms, for many years to come.
As you know, our youngest son lives in the Seattle area. This week, with the news of the tsunami that had raced across the Pacific to strike the west coast, my wife called our son on Friday morning to see how they were doing. His comment to her was “You’re doing your motherly thing, aren’t you!” Nate’s 31 years old, and Mom is still nurturing him. And that is good.

Throughout scripture, we are given this image of being born anew – of allowing the old self to die so that the “new” can come into being – but the emphasis is almost always on “birth” and seldom on the “nurturing”. But in this regard, spiritual rebirth is no different than human birth. We look for the birth, but the nurturing must be a slow, continuous, intention, and not always glamorous, effort. But I want to tell you that when we encourage a person to come to Christ, to allow the Lord to create a new being in them, that we also have the obligation to continue to encourage them, to help them to grow stronger in the faith, to come to know the fullness of the truth of the gospel message, to walk with them until they become strong enough to live in faith for themselves.
“..the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” Wonderful words, but they will remain just words if we ignore our obligation. If we aren’t intentional in our efforts to see that others become planted firmly in the word of the Lord, they, too, just may wither and fall away.

Read 1 Peter 2:1-3

And these are the things that will cause us to wither and fall in our walk – malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. No one would ever lean toward these things intentionally, or almost no one, but it still happens. We are studying, and learning, and growing, but one day, we suddenly discover that the things that we thought we wanted in life were no longer important, and without even realizing it, faith has been transplanted by something of the world. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote “If you could prove God to me, I would believe in him all the less.” – All The Less! That’s what comes from impure seed and distorted growth.

From an anonymous writer:
There are some churches that attempt to shine a faint and fractured penlight of brightness out into the darkness by proclaiming “We Want to Be Your Friend” or “We Make Friends” or “This Is a Warm, Friendly Fellowship”. These congregations are often surprised when this faded message fails to draw others in out of the dark.

But it's that very message that is the problem! Friendship is not what people are looking for in a church; they're not looking for friendliness; they're not looking for friends. This culture would have the church adopt as its mission “We Make You Happy”. But the mission of the church is not to make people happy, or even to help people feel good about themselves. It is to glorify God and to be an earnest of eternity.
-- Unknown Author --

Paul talks about the new born craving spiritual milk – the teaching that advocates the “feel good gospel” is comparable to feeding the “newly born” polluted water! No nourishment, no sustenance, no real hope.
So who is responsible to see to it that the church is being fed good, spiritual milk, and not polluted water? My friends, you and I are the only ones who can do that! If the church is to move forward in faith, if new Christians are to be brought to Christ, if the teaching is to be true, if the nourishment is to be good, we cannot sit back and proclaim “Oh well, God will take care of it, He’ll sort it all out in the end.” It’s true that He will, but we can’t be complacent in our approach to the Judgment Day – not if we want to hear the words “good and faithful servant”.

Our new birth, the promise that we have received for eternal life, is not for us alone! It has been given to us so that we can carry that message of great hope to others who have yet to claim the promise for themselves. Nietzsche may have drank deeply from the world’s tainted water supply, and as a result, came to proclaim the fallacy of God, but there are others out there who are still craving good spiritual milk. And without it, they, too, will wither on the vine.
That baby is going to immerge hungry, and his loving Mom will want to give him the very best that she can. When we experience the spiritual rebirth of a friend, can we want any less for them?

As with any new birth, it is never without struggle to some degree. But when the process is complete, the joy will overwhelm the soul. The new being is incredibly beautiful, the future is full of promise, the fruit of new birth is rich and plentiful, and the message continues to spread.

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
New birth is a change for the better, new life in Christ is a change forever. Praise the Lord!