So far as we have been going through the book of I John we have seen different tests and indications that you can know that you truly belong to Christ. Once again these tests were to reveal the false teachings that were going on and bring comfort and reassurance to those in the true church fellowship. John has told us that if you are really in fellowship with God and his Son Jesus Christ that you will not walk in darkness, other words you will not live a life of sin. He has also told us that if we really know Christ that we
will obey his commands. Then last week in our scriptures he said that if you claim to be in the light but hate your brother then you are still in darkness. We looked at the effects of what hatred for our brother creates in our lives.
As we continue in the scripture, John goes from these different tests into addressing his Christian children and reminding them of their position as a believer. It seems that John is addressing them from the standpoint of their chronological age and their spiritual age.
I John 2:12-14
There seems to be three different groups that he is talking to. He addresses children, young men and Fathers, although not necessarily in that order. Now at times when he says dear children he is referring to the whole group and that it certainly a possibility here. But either way when I look at what he says here to the different age groups I see a spiritual journey here that each Christian should travel. So today I want to look at three places that every Christian should reach on their spiritual journey in this life.
John writes, “I write to you dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” That was true of everyone in the true fellowship of the church then and that’s true of everyone in the true fellowship of the church now. But it’s only the beginning in the journey of a Christian. The first stop on the journey of being a Christian is reaching the road of redemption. To become a Christian and enter the fellowship a person must experience the forgiveness of their sins through the redemptive work of Christ. So there is no way to avoid this first destination of the journey. Without the work and acceptance of redemption there is no Christian journey. It’s the very beginning of the Christian experience. It reminds me of Nicodemus when he came to Jesus in the middle of the night and Jesus told him that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Of course we all remember the story, Nicodemus was perplexed because he was thinking that Jesus was talking of physically being born again and he just didn’t see how a man could go back inside his mother’s womb and be born again. But what Jesus was talking about was a spiritual rebirth, becoming a new creation. But when someone is born again spiritually it’s a lot like being born physically because there is a newness of life. The baby comes from the womb of his mother and he comes into an existence and life that he knows nothing about really. He has to learn and grow through his mommy and daddy and learn what he needs so that he will be able to grow up. He has to go through those beginning stages of being fed either breast milk or formula so he can begin the process of maturing. Later on he can graduate to what we call real food, the food that doesn’t come in jars that you have to heat up. I was always so thankful when my kids were able to eat real food. That formula and other stuff is expensive. But when a person is first born they can’t come out of the womb and be fed steak and potatoes. They would choke and it could possibly be fatal. The same can be said when someone has experienced new birth spiritually through their faith in Christ. They aren’t ready for the steak and potatoes of God’s words and his teachings. If you give them the meat and potatoes too early they will begin to be choked on all of the things that are too much for them to grasp yet. And it can be fatal in our spiritual life as well. They might begin to feel overwhelmed when they can’t understand everything and might become so discouraged that they walk away. They can only handle the basics in the beginning. When Paul was writing to the church at Corinth he said, “I gave you milk not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.” These were still baby Christians who couldn’t handle solid food and Paul was sensitive to that. But through the spiritual family around us we are fed the basics so that our faith can gain a healthy foundation and from there we can be fed the steak and potatoes of the faith. This week I removed the training wheels from Chase’s bike. It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing all the time but he was ready for it. The training wheels had served their purpose. They enabled him to ride without falling over. If we had given him his bike without training wheels when he was two or three years older, after falling skinning his knees and arms a couple of times he would have given up and would’ve never had anything to do with it again. But the training wheels kept him steady and provided the safety he needed. In the same way, if we had never taken those training wheels away he would never grow up in the way that he should like other boys and girls. How many teenagers or adults do you see riding bikes with training wheels on them? Yet as Christians there are too many people who have kept the training wheels on their spiritual life. They’ve never left the infant stage of their faith. They never have left the milk and gone to solid food. And even though the road of redemption is necessary your journey as a Christian shouldn’t stop there. When it does you are so limited in what you are experiencing. You must grow up in your faith. In Hebrews the author who many believe was Paul wrote to some Christians who were not reaching maturity as Christians like they should. He writes at the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6, “In fact, by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, in not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity…” There are some of you out here this morning that have never left the infant stage of your faith. You are still on milk because your not ready for the solid food of the Word yet. Those of you who are still in that infancy stage are the ones who come to church and usually that’s the only spiritual food you get. You aren’t feeding yourself daily at home and growing in the knowledge of the Lord. I have a message for you this morning. You’ve been in that stage way too long now. It’s time for you to leave those elementary teachings about Christ and go on to the deeper truths of God’s Word. You need to grow up in your faith. You need to move on in your journey as a Christian.
The next destination on the journey that a Christian should reach is the street of sanctification. John writes these things to the young men, he says, “I write to you because you have overcome the evil one.” And he says, “I write you because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” You see as you grow up in your Christian experience and you’ve studied the Word of God and what it has for your life you begin to walk a deeper walk and the things you have studied become embedded in your life. The Word of God actually lives within you. It takes root in your heart. And when you face the attacks of the evil one and his temptations you can overcome him because you have fed yourself a steady diet of God’s word in your life. And when you have fed yourself with a steady diet of God’s word and you have trained yourself in his ways you will have a special anointing of God’s Holy Spirit in your life that will set you apart from the world. You see that’s what sanctification means, set apart. When you have been sanctified by God his Spirit dwells within you and sets you apart from the world so you can be used for God’s purposes. That’s the thing with Christians who never grow out of that infancy stage, they never really seem separate from the world. Often times when they tell people that they are a Christian they often times get a look of surprise because they didn’t seem that different from the world. They never have had the strength to be different then their surroundings because they have never fed themselves the diet they needed to develop that strength. You see when you think of an infant trying to learn to walk. How many times do they keep falling down? They fall down a lot, they run into things a lot. It’s amazing some parents aren’t questioned by social services with the amount of bruises their kids get from falling. It is often the same with Christians who never have left the infancy stage. They keep falling victim to the devil’s schemes and many times the same one time after time. They get bruised and battered and defeated from their brushes with the evil one. Christians who stay in the infant stage lose too many battles with the devil. But to be an overcomer that defeats the devil and overcomes the devil’s schemes against him we have to be people who are set apart from the world, that can only be possible with God living in us, with his Word residing within us. It was the desire of Jesus for his disciples to be sanctified. If it was Jesus’ desire for his disciples don’t you think it’s his desire for us. Listen to what Jesus said as he prayed to his father. “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is the truth.” Did you hear that, sanctify them by the truth, your word is the truth. God’s Word is the truth for our lives and when we live by that and study it and apply it to our lives God’s spirit does a work in us and we are set apart. If we are not set apart from the world we become stained by the filth of the world and then we can’t be used for God’s purposes. If you want God to use you for His glory if you want to know what it’s like to bring defeat to the devil, you must move out of the infancy stage of your Christian life and move on to the meat and potatoes. I close this destination with the words of Paul to the church at Thessalonica, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.”
The last stage that I see represented in this passage is the Fathers. From children to young men to fathers. Both times when John mentions the fathers he writes, “I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning.” You see many of these Fathers had probably known Christ, who has always been, for many years now and were probably helping to shape the faith of others. Spiritual Fathers are the ones who have gone from the infant stage of their faith and went on to grow in their faith as they studied God’s word and applied it to their lives and were sanctified by it. They have experienced many spiritual victories in their life times, they may have had a few set backs as well, but for the most part they know victory and have experienced it time and time again over the devil through their strength in Christ. Of course no matter what age you become in your spiritual walk those battles never stop. But when you become a spiritual father you have reached that stage where you take younger Christians under your wing. Your experiences in the spiritual battlefields are invaluable for those young Christians who have never experienced some of the tougher spiritual battles. Your experience is invaluable to the young men who even though they have been sanctified through your Word are going through the battles right now. You can be a inspiration to them. You can give them wisdom even as they are in the middle of the battles. You see the last road on the journey is the destination of mentor and developer. Paul was a person who grew into that role of a spiritual father. He was a mentor and developer of other young Christians. Paul experienced spiritual battle after spiritual battle in his walk with Christ. Paul experienced a lot of great victories through the strength that he received from Christ. Paul had a great knowledge of God’s Word. He taught that knowledge to many other people. One of Paul’s most known mentor and developer relationships were with Timothy. Timothy was a young man who in his spiritual infancy was taught the scriptures as he grew into a young man from his Christian mother and grandmother. But Paul took him under his wings as Paul taught him and developed him into a minister of the gospel. We have the books of I and II Timothy where Paul was giving Timothy wisdom and advice. Timothy was a great help to Paul and his ministry but most of all Timothy went on to become a faithful minister of the gospel who I’m sure won many spiritual battles in own life because he had a godly mother and grandmother and a godly man like Paul who developed and mentored Timothy. I can only imagine how as Timothy grew up in the Lord he went on to mentor and develop many other young Christians and that’s what’s its all about. How many of us owe our spiritual lives to a spiritual father or mother who took us under their wings and nurtured us into maturity as a Christian.
The question for you this morning is this: Where are you on this spiritual journey? Some of you have been a baby Christian for way too long. Your still not ready for the solid food teachings of the Word yet and you should have moved off of milk long ago. Some of you have moved off of that infant stage and you’ve grown through the knowledge of God’s Word and the devil is fighting you hard. Don’t worry you will be an overcomer because when you apply God’s Word to your life and you have that special anointing of His Spirit he will give you the strength to overcome the temptations of the devil and this world. You will win many victories for God in your life. Some of you are out there this morning and you haven’t ever started the journey as a Christian. You might be thinking that you can’t be a baby Christian at this stage in your life. The answer is sure you can. It’s never to late to walk the road of redemption and experience His forgiveness! You can’t have salvation without redemption. This morning whatever your needs are our altars are always open.
