Growing Up
Sept 20, 2009
It begins with the new birth, but it doesn’t end there. Last week we looked at Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in which Jesus declared, “You must be born again.” We noted how Jesus took the miracle of physical birth to teach this noted religious leader about the spiritual new birth.
When you look at the scope of an entire life, the birthing process is a very small amount of time and the actual birth itself is but a brief moment in time. It is obvious to the most casual observer that without birth there is no life. The same is true in the spiritual realm. Without the new birth, there is no spiritual life.
The question for us this morning is this: after birth, then what? In the grand scheme of things, birth takes very little time, energy, resources, and attention. The bulk of life is not about birth but about growing up and living life. It’s fascinating how quickly babies grow and change; how children mature into young adults, and how quickly we reach adulthood. In fact it is in adulthood where we spend the bulk of our living.
And so we have this brand new born baby. Now what? Do we go home, play with the baby then put her in the closet like a Barbie doll? Unfortunately that is how many of our teenage single moms view having a baby—as a kind of trophy, or doll, or even a status symbol. Having a baby is for keeps and it is for a lifetime. As we know a newborn is totally helpless and dependent upon others for everything…that baby can’t eat, walk, or talk. All it does is cry and mess it’s diapers! The baby is dependent on family to meet its most basic needs. While birth is an act, physical growth is a process. The new birth is an act whereas spiritual growth is a process.
As we look at a newborn’s basic physical development, there is again a correlation with spiritual growth and development. A newborn Christian is pretty much as helpless as a newborn baby. Maybe even in worse shape because new Christians often have to unlearn things, and overcome ‘stuff’ and baggage already there. This spiritual baby is totally dependent upon others for nurture, support and meeting his/her needs. We don’t generally birth a baby, and then walk away. Unfortunately that is what often happens when we birth spiritual babies. What would happen if we birth a baby, and then ignore it? If we gave it no food, didn’t touch it, provided no shelter? If we didn’t talk to this baby and gave it no instruction whatsoever? What would happen? It would die.
When spiritual babies are ignored, they die! Now this is when the family is very important, both the parents and the extended family. As a body of Christ (that’s what church is) we are the family of that born again person. God has given us the responsibility of their welfare. The mature take care of the immature. How are we doing collectively as a church? Are we getting it done? Are we doing an excellent job or are we basically ignoring the spiritually new born? Now let me ask you this? For those of you who are mature Christians, how are you personally doing in nurturing baby Christians? It is easy to cast that responsibility off on the nondescript entity of the ‘church.” But the church is simply a collective of Christians. The Bible is clear that it is the responsibility of mature Christians to parent, to teach, to support, to train up, and to nurture the spiritual newborns, bringing them to a place of spiritual maturity. In fact Paul tells us that this is the primary purpose of the body of Christ—the Church, i.e. to make mature Christians.
What is it that spiritual newborns need? They need food and water. As Christians, our food and water is God’s Word. Food and water are basic to life and they are basic to the Christian life. We older Christians are to teach younger Christians God’s Word. This is not the sole job nor even the primary responsibility of the pastor and staff. It is the job of each and every mature, older Christian to be involved in some way in this kind of passing on God’s truth to the new babes in Christ who are a part of our family. The baby needs to eat and drink and the ‘family’ needs to be making sure we give our babies food and water. It also means that we who are mature need to be ‘drinking and eating’ i.e., to be learning in order for us to do the teaching. There will always be those older from whom we can learn and there will always be those younger than us to whom we can impart God’s wisdom and truth. Mature Christians are done teaching only when the die. There is no retirement in the Christian life.
Besides food and water, what else do ‘babies in Christ’ need? They need to be touched. Touching is a sign of love. Babies need touch or they will not mature. The correlation to this for the church is relationships. New Christians need relationships with other Christians. They need to know that somebody knows their names, that somebody cares about them, that somebody misses them, that somebody is there for them in tough times. They need the spiritual touch of the body of Christ, the family. And by the way not only from dad and mom, they need it from the larger family.
Spiritual newborns also need shelter. You don’t leave a newborn out in the weather to fend for themselves. Likewise a spiritual newborn needs the protection of the canopy of the church. The Psalmist declared, “For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle and set me high on a rock.”(52) In other places the Bible God is the shelter beneath His wings, His wisdom and shade are our shelter, and that God Himself is a shelter in the time of storm. It is the church, we Christians, who are the embodiment of God’s presence to provide shelter and protection for our newborns.
Babies also need to be talked to. So do spiritual babies. If babies aren’t talked to, they themselves don’t learn to talk. I see this interaction as encouragement. Young Christians no matter what their age need to have other Christians gather round them to encourage them in their walk with Christ. They need to know that if they slip and fall, they can get up and continue on. They need to have us as the body of Christ cheering them on as they begin their race for the ultimate crown of eternal life.
We’ve all read stories of babies and children locked away, barely cared for, receiving little food and water, in filthy and squalid living conditions, very little human contact with no touch, few spoken words, and basically neglected. What happens to these kinds of kids?
Finally, we also know that our babies need to be taught, to be instructed. They need to learn. How do they learn? Both by example and precept. In writing to the young Timothy, Paul encourages him, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have learned it, and how from infancy you have learned the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Look at this verse. Timothy learned from people he knew. When you know people, you trust what they say and how they live. That trust takes time to build. That is why hypocrisy is so devastating to baby Christians. I am not talking about weakness or failure here but about hypocrisy—when someone pretends to be a Christian on Sunday but the rest of the week is anything but a Christian—and they know it. What they say and what they do don’t match up. Abusive parents are devastating to young children and it takes a lifetime to overcome the damage. Hypocrisy in Christians is just as devastating and even fatal to baby Christians. As Christians we are called to be examples, role models to younger Christians. Charles Barkley chaffed at his being a role model and rejected that role. Whether he wanted it or liked it, as a professional basketball player he was and he could not escape it. If you claim the name of Jesus, you are a role model and an example, whether you like it or even want it. If we claim the name of Jesus, then every one of us is a role model.
Paul also wrote, “…from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures…” It is the Bible that teaches us about salvation, ie the new birth and how to live the Christian life. We don’t know this stuff instinctively or by osmosis. God’s truth doesn’t enter us when we are born again. We have to grow into God’s truth. We have to learn God’s truth. That is true for spiritual babies, toddlers, teenagers, middle aged, and even senior Christians.
So don’t think that all you have to do is to be born again. That will not get you to heaven. What that does is to get you started in the Christian life. It is not how you start that matters; it is how you finish. If you are not growing, then you are dying.
Growing up to a place of maturity takes time and it takes being taught and learning. That goes for sports, for science, for engineering, for surgeons, for pipefitting, for woodworking, for auto mechanics…for everything. You get it by just snapping your fingers. And let me let you in on a little secret—you don’t get it by only coming to church on Sunday morning. That’s like having one meal a week. You can’t live on one meal a week and you can’t grow and mature in Christ on Sunday morning worship only.
Like birth, the new birth is a moment in time. It’s the rest of our lives that matter most to Jesus.