Just A Taste

Text:

1Peter 2:1-3:

1: Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

2: As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

3: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

 

Theme:

Just a Taste

 

Introduction:

• This First Epistle or letter of St. Peter is powerful. Much like the letters of Paul, First Peter gives the consolation and instruction necessary for Christians on their journey to heaven.  However, Peter does it in a short, concise manner.
• JUST A TASTE – What is a Taste?
  •  A taste is defined as “A partaken portion indicative of the whole”
    • Do you want to taste this casserole? YES, GIVE ME A SMALL PORTION TO EAT
    • Do you want some cake? JUST A TASTE
  •  (Typical understanding, use 1 sense)
    • Exodus 16:31 says, “And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”
  • (More thorough understanding, use 5 senses)
    • Taste = Experience
      • Sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell take part with this perspective on TASTE.

• There are two types of taste:
  1. Physical Taste
  2. Divine Taste

 

Body:

Physical Taste

• The physical taste is a morsel that satisfies our natural needs or desires
• Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory –
  • People are a bundle of desires. The desire is called LUST (loost).
  • The desires are for JUST A TASTE
    • The problem is that these desires are never fully satisfied
  • The primary physical desires are:
    • Thirst – desire for Drink
    • Hunger — desire for Food
    • Sex – desire for Physical satisfaction

• We take natural desires like these and pervert them (or lose control).  These are the desires of the flesh or SIN:
  • Ephesians 2:3, “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

Three stages of sin – how it contaminates a person’s everyday life

• First – get a Taste of sin – I didn’t mean to!
  • Romans 7:17, “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
  • The problem is that these desires are never fully satisfied
• Second – develop an Appetite for sin – I kinda want to!
  • Romans 7:21, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.”
• Third – become a Partaker of sin – I meant to do it!
  • Psalms 51:4, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”

All because we wanted JUST A TASTE!

Divine Taste

• The divine taste is a morsel that satisfies our spiritual needs or desires
• Our text refers to the Divine Taste also in v.3, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
  • As Webster would say, “If you have experienced the graciousness of the Lord”
  • As the young folk would say, “If you have ‘gotten with the Lord’s program’”
  • As the old folk would say, “If you have tried my Jesus”
• The Bible instructs us to partake, or taste, of God:
  • As it says in Psalms 34:8, “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” – Taste of God’s goodness!
  • Matthew 26:26 says, “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.” – Taste of the body of Jesus!
  • Matthew 26:27, “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” — Taste of the blood of Jesus!

 

Conclusion:

However, for the Divine Taste, not the problem, but the blessing is that these desires are never fully satisfied

• As Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
  • I am so glad that we can never get a big enough taste of God.
  • The more we get…the more we want!
  • Along the journey, I am happy!!!
    • Walking along in CostCo, you can get a taste of different foods prepared. I can’t get a full meal while I am in the store, but I am happy as I get a foretaste of the ultimate satisfaction by sampling foods along the way.  Then, when I get home, I can feast on the meal that I gathered while getting the tastes at the store.  Then, I will be filled.
    • The same holds true for a Divine Taste. While I am in this world, God gives me samples or tastes to hold me over until I get to Heaven.  Then, I will sit at the Welcome Table and feast until I am filled! – “for they shall be filled”

• Then Jesus went a step further when he told the Woman at the Well in John 4:13-14 that, “…Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
  • With Just a Taste of God in us, what comes out shall spring up into everlasting life!
  • What is in this Well of Water springing up?

1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Longsuffering
5. Gentleness
6. Goodness
7. Faith
8. Meekness
9. Temperance

All from JUST A TASTE!

• If you can just get a taste:
  • 1 tells us that we will be able to “lay aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings”
  • 2 tells us that we will be as “newborn babes”. We will “desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”
    • After having latched to its mother, a newborn baby only desires the milk of that mother.
    • After JUST A TASTE of God, Christians can’t be satisfied by any other.

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