WELL-GROUNDED TO GROW
It’s finally here. You’ve spent three years of training in the Word of God and now the day is finally here. Confirmation Day. The moment you’ve been working toward since you were young, immature, naive 6th graders. You’ve spent countless hours with me and with your parents learning the ins and outs of the Triune God as confessed in the Apostles’ Creed. You’ve been taught what the Bible says about the 10 Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, confession and repentance and forgiveness and a whole variety of other topics that have grabbed some of our attention. And in just a few minutes you’ll be able to demonstrate your knowledge of Scripture in front of this congregation and confess your faith in the truths of the Bible that you have studied for so long. And although sitting up in front of a group of family and friends answering questions from the pastor might be a little nerve wracking, there’s really no need to worry. Because you are well-grounded in the Word. You have a solid foundation for your faith. You know what the Bible says and, more importantly, you believe it. And so forget about the questions for a second, forget about how you look in your dress or what the wine is going to taste like, and just listen. Because the Holy Spirit has something to say to you through the apostle Peter: “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.”
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk…” Someday both of you will probably know from experience how much babies like to eat. Their bodies are growing so rapidly at that young age and their minds and their senses are developing at such an incredible rate that they need a lot of sustenance to grow bigger and stronger and healthier. They crave milk. They can’t get enough of it. And they scream and they cry and they throw a fit until they get more. “Like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk…” Peter says to you. This pure spiritual milk is nothing other than the Word of God that you have been learning about you entire childhood, the gospel about Christ’s cross and his empty tomb, all of the teachings that are contained throughout the Bible. Crave it. Cry out for it. Never be satisfied with what you’ve already eaten; never think that you have had enough. Especially now. Especially now on the day of your confirmation as you stand at the precipice of a new phase in life. Continue to crave God’s Word because you have really only “tasted” that the Lord is good; you have yet to eat an entire meal.
Do any of you look forward to sample day at the grocery store as much as I do? When grocery stores give out samples they do that not because they’re nice but they do it, of course, in order to hook you. They not only want to get you into the store, but they also want to give you just a bite of something, just a taste of something good so that you will want to buy a whole package worth of whatever food you might have tasted. The sample you eat might very well be delicious and even mouthwatering, but it’s only half a bite. It’s not satisfying. It’s not filling. It’s not even a snack. And that’s the point. The intention is that now you have tasted something good, you crave more of the same thing.
I pray that you crave more of the same thing that you’ve been tasting these past three years. I pray that now you’ve tasted that the Lord is good, you crave the entire meal. You’ve gone through the basics, you have a good foundation, you are well-grounded in the Word, and now it’s time to grow. There’s a lot more room for all of us here to grow, myself included! It seems that the more classes I attempt to teach and the more sermons I prepare to preach and the more nights I spend with my Bible open in front of me, the more things I find that I hadn’t learned before. There are so many things I never noticed, so many connections I never saw. I have so many things to learn in Scripture that it’s almost overwhelming. And I can’t imagine it’s any different for any one of you here. Peter knew that. Peter knew that every Christian needs to continue to grow in God’s Word. And so he encourages all of us, “Like newborn babies, crave spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
But the sad fact of the matter is: we don’t always want to grow. It’s hard work, after all! It takes a lot of mental effort and precious time to grow up in our salvation! And we have so many other things to do that occupy our time! And those of you who are about to entire high school next year, it will be the craziest year of your life to date. There will be more homework than you’ve ever had before - a lot more, more after school activities, more friends, more stress, more highs, more lows, more boys… Your plate will be full. It will be overflowing with things to do and to see and to experience. And this, the Bible, the pure spiritual milk in which you are well-grounded right now, the will be in danger of slipping down the priority list a few notches. Your schedule and your mental capacity to handle it all will be stretched to such an extent that some things are just going to have to be cut back. And it will be tempting to cut this first. It’ll be easy for you to neglect the study of the Word of God because you are already well-grounded, aren’t you? You already know the basics! You already have faith in Jesus! And so why do you need to grow more? Why do you need to try so hard? Especially when there are so many new and exciting things to do right in front of your face!
Many of us here can attest to how easy it is to fall into that kind of attitude, can’t we? Life gets busy. Life gets fast. And craving that pure spiritual milk, growing up in your salvation, can fall to the wayside without us even noticing. Because it takes time that we don’t have and energy that we’ve already spent and effort that we’ve put into our jobs or our families or our enjoyment of life or our survival or our relationships or all of the above. And so reading from the Bible every night or going through a daily family devotion - that’s a lot to ask. And attending a worship service as often as we have the chance - that’s over doing it a little, isn’t it? And getting involved with a solid Bible study - not just a social “this is what I think it means” group - but a real in depth Bible study is hardly worth the time; I’ve just got other things to do.
Other things to do? We’ve got other things to get done before we put our minds to craving pure spiritual milk? We’ve got more pressing issues to take care of before we bother with growing up in our salvation? I find that hard to imagine. And it doesn’t matter if you are an eight grader going into high school or a tried and true veteran of Christianity who has decades of experience under your belt, every Christian struggles with prioritizing God’s Word at times. And it’s not just a warning for these two young Christians sitting up front this morning; it’s a serious issue that each one of us has to deal with every day. And many days we fail at it. We don’t grow because we don’t have any contact with the Word at all. And we don’t crave it. Because sometimes life gets so busy and our spiritual meals get so lean that we even start to forget what our salvation tastes like in the first place.
And so, if you would, allow me to refresh our memories about that sweet flavor of salvation - that message about Christ and his cross that we have all tasted before. And that wonderful gospel is this: When we reeked with sin, at that time when we were wallowing in the spiritual infection handed down to us by our parents and spewing out selfishness from the moment we were born, Christ said about us, “They aren’t worth the effort; they aren’t worth my time; they aren’t even worth a second thought. They have done nothing to earn my help; they have done nothing to earn my mercy. But I love them. And I don’t want to see them suffer an eternity in hell. And so I’m going to go down there - to my once perfect world that they corrupted - and I’m going to become one of them, for them.” And so he did it. Without hesitation, without second guessing his decision, he did what he had always planned to do. And he purposely placed himself into a situation where his human life was immediately in danger from the moment of his birth. He was born in a dirty barn on the outskirts of a little town in the Middle East without doctor or midwife, surrounded by domestic animals, their feeding troughs, and probably a little bit of manure. God himself was not born in the most sanitary of conditions. And things just got worse from there. King Herod tried to kill him when he was a baby. His own countrymen tried to murder him when he began to preach the gospel. The devil tried to destroy him in the desert. The chief priests planned for his execution. One of his own disciples plotted against him. And the people of that time, both Jews and Gentiles, finally did take his life in the end. Saving us wasn’t easy for Jesus. Saving us was not just a snap of the fingers. Jesus physically hurt. He suffered. He cried out in agony and pain. And you can be sure: he had better things to do!
Jesus had better things to do than to spend 33 long years as a human being on this earth just to save sinners from their sins! He had a universe to maintain; he had angelic songs of praise to accept, he had a heavenly kingdom in which to live and to rule. He didn’t need something else to occupy his time. And he didn’t look forward to living in a sinful world and being tortured and executed by sinful people. As a real human being Jesus was not happy to experience death. But he loved you that much. He cared for you so deeply that he was willing to give up his life so that you would have one. He was concerned about your eternity to such a degree that he was going to do everything it took to make sure you ended up in heaven. He took you and me, enemy sinners, and he placed us at the top of his priority list. And we’re still there. Everything he does he does for us. Everything he wants he wants for us. And we will never leave that number one spot.
That’s the gospel. That’s is the grace that you have tasted before. That is the forgiveness that you have nibbled at from the pages of Scripture, through the water of baptism, and through the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. That is the salvation you are to grow up in, to be strong in, and to remain in all the days you live on this earth. And that will happen not by your own strength, of course, but by the strength of him in whom you believe. He will solidify your trust in him whenever you come into contact with his Word. He will be your comfort. He will be your rock and your shield and your strength when no one else can be. He will still be good to you when nothing else in your life is.
Remember this in the days to come. Because you know that the days to come will present their own set of unique challenges. Whether you are going into high school in a couple months or simply waking up to the next day of your life tomorrow morning, nothing is predictable. And in this ever-changing sin-filled world there will only be one thing that will always remain the same: and that’s your Savior and the salvation he has won for you. No matter what you do in this life, no matter where you go, no matter what may happen, the forgiveness Christ earned for you on the cross will never be taken away. There is nothing that will ever be more important than that. Period. And so crave it. Eat it up. Never lose your taste for it. “Like newborn babies crave this pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
Amen.
“May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he never leave us or forsake us.” - 1 Kings 8:57
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