On May 18th, our epistle lesson was from 1 Peter
2:2-10. We didn’t hear much about this
text in our Sermon, but it still is one that I think is worthy of our
attention.
Peter begins with these words, “Like newborn infants, long
for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up into
salvation.” When reading these words, I
can’t help but think of the Dairy Council and their advertising campaigns from
the last 20 years or so. When I was a
kid, I remember the commercials during Saturday morning cartoons that taught us
“Milk. It does a body good.” After that campaign, they also had the long
running “Got Milk?” campaign.
One of the commercials for these campaigns remains one of my
all-time favorites. Two kids are sitting
down for lunch, which their mother has dutifully prepared. The mother tells them, “Drink your
milk.” The older brother replies, “I
don’t want milk, milk’s for babies.” And
the younger sister quickly agrees, “Yeah, for babies.”
The mom is undeterred.
“Well, I happen to know that milk builds strong bones. So drink up.”
The brother looks out the window at the neighbor doing yard work. “Well Mr. Miller told me he never drinks milk
and look at him.” At that moment, Mr.
Miller waves at the family, and proceeds to pick up a wheel barrow full of
dirt. And as he does, his arms falloff
at his shoulders in a puff of smoke as he says, “That’s not good.” The final scene of the commercial is the
family – mom included – chugging down milk as fast as possible.
Peter’s opening statement is similar to the “Got milk”
campaign, but instead he’s using a “God’s milk” idea. “Long for the pure spiritual milk,” he
says. Otherwise your spiritual life will
fall apart. Yet pure spiritual milk is
so hard to find today. So much of the “spiritual
milk” we find out there has been curdled and soured with false teaching.
You see it in T.V. evangelists. “You can do it” instead of “Christ has done
it.” “God wants you to find your purpose
in this 40 day process.” “God wants you
to live your best life now.” “God wants
you to all just get along”.
None of these things are in Scripture. None of these things are true. They are all green, chunky, sour spiritual
milk. They do not build up the
Christian’s soul. They do not do his
“body good” or his soul good.
You too have received and distributed sour milk at
times. When things go well for you, you
are quick to pat yourself on the back, and when things go wrong, you’re quick
to blame God. You seek compliments to
build up your self-esteem – as if that was the most important thing. You tell people what they want to hear when
they are in your presence, and tell lies about them behind their backs. You’re a sinner fed on the lies and deceit of
Satan.
Being fed with this sour milk, your sinful nature has been
self-serving, self-praising, and self-justifying. You’ve become self-focused and
self-righteous. So, dear friends,
repent! Your selfish sinful nature will
only lead to self-trust, self-indulgence, and self-destruction. The impure spiritual milk is the poison of
Hell that seeks to destroy you forever.
But God’s Word is pure spiritual milk. And God’s Word, as Peter records it for us,
says this: You are a chosen people,
redeemed by Christ, forgiven by His suffering and death. His blood, shed from that Old Rugged Cross,
has purchased and won you. It has drawn
you out of the darkness of this sinful world into His marvelous light. Now in Christ, you are God’s people. Now, you have received mercy for your
sin.
How? Not by your
works, or your self-focused pride. But
like newborn infants, Christ has fed you the pure spiritual milk of His
grace.
It reminds me of my own children as infants – and even of
Gabe right now. A baby gets hungry and
begins to cry. But no matter how much he
cries, not matter how much he wags his arms in the air, or how pathetic he
makes himself look, he cannot feed himself the milk he needs. He is incapable of walking to the
refrigerator and pouring himself a glass of milk. He cannot even roll over, and must remain
where he was placed.
But a loving parent picks up the child with love and care and
brings the milk to the child. The bottle
is placed in the babe’s mouth. The milk
is given, not earned. The child does
nothing to feed itself; the loving parent must do everything necessary.
You are the same. You
can’t find the pure spiritual milk on your own.
You can’t feed it to yourself.
You must receive it as it is given to you by others – like an infant
receives its food. God cradles you in His
own nail pierced hands, and washes you in water and Word, feeding you the pure
spiritual milk. He gives you body and
blood to eat and drink for forgiveness of sins.
He proclaims His Word to you through the mouth of a fellow sinner, your
pastor, so that by receiving pure spiritual milk, you might be fed and built up
as a child of God, ready to inherit eternity.
Christ does it all, apart from your work.
Dear friends, “like newborn infants, long for the pure
spiritual milk – God’s Word and grace – that by it you may grow up into
salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
In Christ, Pastor
