Peter Message 5
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Spiritual Growth
Spiritual Growth
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
24 because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Intro: When a woman is pregnant, it is natural for her body to change because of the new life growing within her. The baby inside is attached to the mother, pigging backing off on her life.
The baby borrows nutrition from the mother. The mother’s body takes care of the growth of the baby naturally. the baby doesn’t have to work to grow. It just grows and transforms because on the connection.
The change happening to the body of the pregnant woman on the inside results in the changes taking place on the outside. The woman is transformed.
Milk is preparing to flow, taste buds change. All these changes happen naturally. Nothing is coerced.
When the spirit of within us begins to transform us, the process of spiritual transformation is natural. Changes on the inside eventually show up on the outside. Part of that change results in our love for one another.
The Christians Peters was writing to needed encouragement, and they needed spiritual growth, part of that growth is love, true love for one another, (fellow Christians)
Peter has given some great encouragement to these Christians that had scattered (Elab why) He reminded them that God had chosen them, that their salvation was great, and to be celebrated.
Peter turns it turns to a to do list, for the rest of his letter. Last week to live a holy life. Here he commands them to love one another.
We should to Love one another VS 22-23
We should to Love one another VS 22-23
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
Peter is telling the Christians that he is writing too, the ones that have been scattered, he is commanding them to love one another. (notice what Peter does) He goes from holiness to love. The two are connected, they go together.
a. To live in holiness to to love. To love is to live in holiness.
b. We are commanded to love everyone, even our enemies.
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Here he is telling them to love one another. Here it is about loving fellow Christians. We will see why.
In VS 22 “Peter says to love one another fervently with a pure heart” (pure heart, right motives, real love) this comes through salvation. To love one another with a pure heart means to go above and beyond to love them. We are able to because of a pure heart. There is no selfishness in this kind of love. PURE HEART
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God has given you the the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives the ability to love others. (He poured out in our hearts) God would not give you a commandment without giving you the ability to do so.
Look back at VS 22.” love one another fervently with a pure heart”
c. In Acts chapter 12, this same GW is used concerning the prayers offered up for Peter while he was imprisoned by Herod. There it is translated as “constant” or “earnestly.” (KJV Prayer without ceasing) So Peter is commanding believers to constantly and earnestly love one another with a pure heart. because of what God has done in their lives. It should bring you joy to love one another.
d. Why does God desire, why does Peter command, love of the brethren? Why is it important that we be seen as having a fervent love for one another? There are several reasons for command to love one another and I want to look at them this morning…
I. The first reason that we are commanded to love one another fervently is because it shows that we are His disciples.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
A new commanded, its a renewed commandment.
18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
a. It’s new in the since of the way we love, it’s in quality.
b. Now notice what Jesus didn’t say in giving this commandment...he didn’t say that once you’ve handed out the tracts or had the opportunity to witness to somebody, you should then show love to one another, because this is a good feature of Christianity that it would be a good thing to demonstrate.
c. No, Jesus says (John 13) if you love one another, if you really love one another, the world will know you. Not by what you say, not by how you dress, not by where you live...by how you love one another.
d. This tells us a couple of things...the first is that the world has no idea what godly love is...Jesus says if they see it in us,(godly love) they will see that it as something totally outside their earthly experience. If we are demonstrating this command, our unsaved neighbors will be forced to recognize that there’s something different about us.
e. notice that this particular command isn’t to love the unsaved...the command is to love one another so that everyone can see what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. (Rememeber what they were up against)
f. We can spend our thoughts, our resources, our prayers, our time, our money loving the unsaved, but if they don’t see love in the body of Christ, what is all that worth to them? It’s just a gimmick, it’s just a come-on, the gospel is just another commercial...love in the body of Christ is crucial if people are going to believe that there’s something different about being a follower of Jesus Christ.
II. Another reason for fervent love of our brothers and sisters in Christ is important is because it shows forth the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives...in verse 22 of First Peter 1, Peter says “since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart…
a. What Peter is saying is, when we become Christians, which is what he means when he says you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit—the truth he is talking about is the gospel—when we become Christians, love of our brothers and sisters in Christ should flow naturally from that change in us. We are purified souls.
Peter tells us in verse 23.
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
b. This is all caused by our new birth from the Word of God...having this new birth in common should make our love for one another simply an outflow of the work of the Spirit in us. In fact, I John 3:14 tells us that if we don’t have a love of the brethren, we have not been truly saved.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
c. So our love for one another proves that the Spirit really has done something in us. If there is no love, there is no salvation.
III. Another for reason fervent love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is important is because it is our appropriate response to what God has done in and for us.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
a. I think that what John wants us to realize is that God became flesh and sacrificed Himself, in Jesus Christ, for us…The Infinite became finite so that we might have eternal life.
b. God loves His children so much that He made the ultimate sacrifice to wash away our sin...now if God loves that person sitting near you enough to do that, what do you think YOUR approach to them ought to be? Do you think Jesus Christ looks kindly on someone who gossips about a person He gave His life for? Do you think Jesus appreciates it when someone He gave his life for is made to feel unimportant or small in church?
c. We need to consider—are we putting on a face for the world, trying to fulfill the Great Commission, without really loving one another? Today, this week, this month, this year, I would challenge you that when you are thinking about a brother or sister in Christ and an uncharitable thought comes into your head, reject it and ask the Holy Spirit to help you love that person the way God loves you.
II. We should love one another because, life is short.
II. We should love one another because, life is short.
24 because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
1. Life is ever so short. Life lasts no longer than the grass that appears so quickly and then withers away or the flower that appears just as quickly and falls away.
a. I want you to take note of the phrase in this passage “all their glory”. People work and work to be glorious, to be attractive, acceptable, honorable, understanding, recognized, charming, appealing, dignified, beautiful. But no matter how much glory we achieve, we age, wrinkle, our bodies deteriorate, and then passes off the scene of life. Our flesh is no more than the grass that withers, and the glory of our flesh is no more than the flower that falls away.
b. The Word of the Lord stands forever. The word of the Lord lives in the heart and life of every believer. Therefore, we as believers will live forever.
c. What is this word that stands forever? It is the Word of the gospel that is preached to you. If we really receive the word of the gospel—really bring it into our lives—it will live within us forever and keep us living forever.
d. This is the point: we as believers have received the Word of the Lord into our lives. Therefore, we are going to be living together forever. WE ARE THE FAMILY of GOD. So we should LIVE LIKE IT!!! We should live like the family of God; we are to love each other from the heart.
e. True brotherly love should exists in the family of God
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
You can feed the homeless, you can give great amounts of money to the church, you can hand out boxes of food, you can do all kinds of great things, but of you don’t have love, yo have nothing.
f. The invitation is this, if you have never born into the family of God first I want to invite you to come and receive the Holy Spirit of God, that comes by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then second if you are a believer and you haven’t been doing a good job of loving you fellow brothers or sisters, we can not handle backbiting, and gossiping about each other if we are going to stand, maybe you need to come and repent and ask God to help you love that person and pray for that person.