Growing Up and Going Out
Text: 2 Peter 3:18
PPHC – April 15, 2007 P.M.
“But grow in grace, and [in] the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him [be] glory both now and for ever. Amen.”
Objective: Children are given to parents as a gift from God. These “gifts” come to us in the form of infants. Yet, they do not stay at this stage very long. As a “natural” progression, they begin to grow. When they are of age, they are sent to school in order to prepare them for the days ahead when they will graduate and inevitably leave home to face the world on their own. In the spiritual realm, it is also “natural” for the Child of God to grow. Growing in the spirit is God’s will for our lives. Therefore, growing in the knowledge of God is ultimately part of growing in the Spirit as your level of faith will never exceed your knowledge of God.
Tonight, we will peer through that the window of knowledge. However, before we do, we must first address the importance of knowledge to all of us in order for us to better accept it.
I. Why Should We Apply Ourselves to Learning (Knowledge – Gnosis)
A. What’s In it For Me??? - The Benefits
1. Grace and Peace are multiplied …through the knowledge of God. – 2 Pet. 1:2 {Matthew Lesko}
2. The gifts of exceeding great and precious promises are opened through a knowledge of God
– 2 Pet. 1:3-4
a. There are 7,487 promises found in Scripture.
b. “Every promise found in Scripture is a sword wound in our enemy.”
3. Knowledge produces steadfastness; isn’t easily swayed by various doctrines. 2 Pet. 3:17
4. A personal knowledge ensures our fruitfulness for Him – 2 Pet. 1:8
There are at least three ways that God has given us so that we may learn…
I. Learn from the Word
A. The Elementary Stage - Starting Point
1. 1 Pet. 2:2 “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby”
a. Sincere = ad’olos = unadulterated; pure (not watered-down)
b. Milk = babes hunger for milk, not meat…can’t eat solids until they are much older.
1. They do not eat much, but they must eat OFTEN…Spiritually speaking, babes cannot go for
long periods of time without Spiritual input.
2. The proper attitude towards the Word
a. Acts 17:11 – “They received the Word with all readiness of mind…”
· Illustration: VOTE!
A parishioner had dozed off to sleep during the morning service.
“Will all who want to go to heaven, please stand?” the pastor asked.” – All stood, except the sleeping parishioner.
After they sat, the pastor continued, “Well, will all who want to go to the other place please stand? At that moment, somebody suddenly dropped a hymnal, and the sleeping man jumped to his feet and stood sheepishly facing the pastor.
The sleeper mumbled confused as to what was going on. “Well, pastor I don’t know what we’re voting for, but it looks like you and I are the only ones for it!”
This man wasn’t READY, but the Bereans were…. “rec’d w/all readiness of mind.”
1. Prothumi’a = > pro = “before” & thumos’ = “passion; fervor; zeal”
2. Nothing can satisfy the hungry babe like the bottle of milk.
B. Yet,Even the Baby Must Grow Up (in the Lord) – Heb. 5:13-14
· “For every one that useth milk [is] unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, [even] those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
1. Unskilful = unable to handle skillfully (like giving the 1st yr. medical student a scalpel and rushing him into the operating room).
2. However, now as natural progression occurs, he has graduated from the ABCs of the Word and is probing deeper into its meaning.
a. Knowledge – gnosis = not only to know the (1) basics (elementary things), but to discover
an (2) intimacy with God...the deeper meaning of gnosis. (i.e. marital intercourse)
1. To experience - Phil. 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and
the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”
a. OT - God desired that the commands to get off the tablets and into the hearts of His people.
b. To experience His “power” & experience (koinonia) His “afflictions”.
II. Learn from the Spirit
A. He is a Teacher – Jn. 14:26
1. “But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said
unto you.”
a. The Word that has been sown in the heart is brought up to the mind by the Spirit and is
livened by Him.
B. Learn from His Guidance – Jn. 16:13a
1. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…”
a. The tugboat guides the massive oilrig through the narrow channels and hull-ripping, underwater reefs…he must yield his power to the tugboat in order to safely maneuver through these places.
b. The Holy Spirit guides the Christian through the everyday experiences of life. As the
believer experiences (ginoskos) Him, he is better able to yield and obey.
• Learning from Yielding – Ernest Vereen (didn’t know how to read…yielded to God...slowly learned how to read by Divine touch)
III. Learn from Others
• Little Teddy brought his grand mother’s family Bible to Sunday School one morning. Opening it up, he found a large dry leaf in the bible that his grandmother placed there years earlier. Little Teddy said to his teacher, “I found this dry leaf in this old Bible – you think it could be Adam’s underwear?”2
• A ten-year old under the tutelage of a well-prepared S.S. teacher, was becoming quite knowledgeable about the Bible. Then one day she floored her teacher when she asked, “Which virgin was the mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary or the King James Virgin?”3
IV. Thank God for our teachers !!!
A. The Humility of Learning from Others – Acts 18:24-26
• “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, [and] mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto [them], and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”
1. To learn from others requires a humble and teachable spirit.
1 – Paul M. Miller World’s Greatest Collection of Church Jokes
2 – Paul M. Miller World’s Greatest Collection of Church Jokes
3 – Paul M. Miller World’s Greatest Collection of Church Jokes
Dan Thompkins. (2008). Sermons of Dan Thompkins.
