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Growing Up
With Truth and Love on our lips, GROW up! Ephesians 4:15.
GO into all the world and tell the Good News, Mark 16:15.
Three studies in Christian maturity
1. Living with the Bible.
2. The kind of maturity God is looking for.
3. Apprentices become Master-Craftsmen.
1. LIVING WITH THE BIBLE.
God wants His children to grow up - to learn to handle difficult questions, make decisions, know the difference between true and false, know what is important and what is less important. Then He wants us to help others to learn.
He wants people who can be apprenticed to life and become, over the years, master-craftsmen in it.
So He has given us His Truth in a form which forces us to mature as we work with it.
He has not:
Given us an indexed list of rules for life.
Given us a set of Truths to believe, all neatly listed.
Put us in churches where everyone agrees.
Sheltered us from hearing false ideas.
Protected us from mistakes or their consequences.
And even when we are living closely with Him, having the Holy Spirit in us, he does not always give detailed instructions step by step. Our duty is to obey today’s instructions, learn today’s lessons and so go on growing.
We have; THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE BIBLE
TIME TO LEARN
PROBLEMS OF LIFE TO HANDLE.
and God wants us to use them all to learn and grow.
ELECTRICITY AND PETROL - THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE BIBLE.
Cars run on two kinds of energy, petrol and electricity. If there is no petrol, it is just possible to move the car by pressing the starter when in gear. If there is no electricity, even that is not possible. But if all is going well, electricity is sparking petrol into action hundreds of times every second.
The Holy Spirit sparks the Bible into action in the Christian’s life. One who knows nothing of the Bible may occasionally hear the Holy Spirit but we need the Bible if we are to keep going. Bible knowledge without the Holy Spirit is like petrol in the tank but no spark to make it drive the engine.
Living with the Bible is part of living with Christ - the truth we learn and the living relationship grow side by side.
ALL HUMAN LIFE IS THERE.
The Bible is made up of:
Narrative - stories of the lives of people, (about half the Bible).
Letters
Visions
Poetry
and there are lists, family-trees, specifications and designs, job descriptions, even planning regulations.
Most people who know the Bible well have started by reading the narrative stories in it. There are love stories, scenes from ordinary life, from war, atrocities, suffering, rape, violence, injustice, politics, assassinations, escapes, stories for children and stories which are definitely not for children.
Some parts are easy to read, some difficult. Some parts are easy to read but hard to understand (eg the visions - Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and Revelation are not difficult to read, but explaining them is another matter).
SO HOW DO I START?
There are no rules for reading the Bible except - just do it.
Bible knowledge and Christian maturity are built up slowly side by side . The Holy Spirit will use the Bible in us to build us up - but only if we read it.
The Christian life is lived with Christ; so read about Him in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John over and over again. Christ Himself is the centre of Life and His teaching is the centre of Truth.
Then get to know other characters. Abraham and David and Job and Daniel were people who lived and worked and ate and loved and felt. Feel with them. Think what it was like to know God in their time. Their lives are the food on which we grow strong.
NOT FOR COMFORT.
The Bible is not a tame book, a comfortable book. Parts are hard to understand and other parts seem wrong to us. It does not fit our ideas. It is alive. We cannot make it say what we want it to say.
Avoiding difficulty is not what we are here for. As we encounter problems, we take them back to God and ask Him to explain them. That way, we grow up, not only in knowledge of truth but also in knowing God.
Just as physical muscles grow strong by grappling with hard tasks; so spiritual muscles grow strong by grappling with difficult problems.
THREE DANGERS.
SHALLOWNESS comes from not reading the Bible.
LEGALISM comes from trying to apply it without understanding what The Holy Spirit is really saying through it.
STAGNATION comes from reading it without putting its truth into action in our lives.
2. THE KIND OF MATURITY GOD IS LOOKING FOR.
St Paul, writing from prison in Rome to the Christians in Ephesus, told them of a kind of maturity which unites, not divides, and yet protects against shallow or false teaching.
Ephesians 4:12-16
- - - to make God’s people ready for their task, build up the body of Christ, unite us in faith and knowledge of The Son of God, as full-grown adults matching the fullness of Christ. Then we shall no longer be infants, blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by cunning systematic falsehood. No, with Truth and Love on our lips, grow up! Let each part of Christ’s body fulfil its purpose and every fibre link the whole together.
If the worldwide church is to fulfil its task it needs men and women whom God has taught in His own school. People who can set a pattern for others. People who keep going, cope with crisis, cope with drudgery, work together, settle arguments, face issues, hold families together, hold churches together, make decisions, care for weaker Christians and demonstrate a purity of life that has been tried and tested.
As the Gospel spreads, more and more new Christians are coming into the church. This is wonderful, but it has happened before and the newcomers have floundered because of lack of mature brothers and sisters. Let that not happen again
TRUTH AT ALL HAZARDS, LOVE AT ALL COSTS
God wants people who know His Truth well enough not to be shaken by false ideas, but who know His Heart well enough to act with love to those who disagree with them.
When Christians disagree, Christ’s command to “Love One Another” still remains. He never said that we would always agree. He wants mature people who can discuss their disagreements while still remaining friends. This proves their love comes from the Holy Spirit, more than it would if all agreed.
There will be plenty of time in Heaven to find out every detail of God’s truth, but only on Earth can we tell the Good News and to do that we need to work together.
DISUNITY MEANS THAT BABIES HAVE NOT GROWN UP.
St Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth.
1 Corinthians 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to those whose human nature was nothing more than physical. In Christ you were babies. I had to feed you with milk because you could not take solid food.
The trouble is, you still can’t. You have not grown. Your human nature is still merely physical.
How do I know? Why, because of the squabbling and competition and divisions among you.
One of you says, “I am Paul’s follower,” another, “No, Apollos is my guru.” Doesn’t it just prove that you have made no progress at all. Your lives show only human nature without any spiritual dimension.
The fact that the Christians at Corinth could not disagree without becoming disunited proved that they had not grown to maturity. God wants followers who can face all the difficulties, questions and disagreements of life and remain united in love and unity together, working together in His service and continuing to learn from Him.
Christian maturity is demonstrated in relationships as well as in knowledge. The true Christian teacher or leader can both teach the truth and also hold groups together in spite of disagreements.
This maturity demonstrated by unity is the evidence which will show the world that we really do have The Holy Spirit.
When Christ’s people have grown, they are ready to go - into all the world to tell the Good News.
3. APPRENTICES BECOME MASTER CRAFTSMEN.
Jesus learned carpentry by being apprenticed to Joseph. He then taught His own brothers who were apprenticed to Him. (That is not recorded in the Bible, all it actually tells us is that Jesus was the carpenter’s son, that He was a carpenter Himself and had brothers - Matthew 13:53-56 and Mark 6:1-3. But we know enough about life in those times to draw these conclusions.)
Jesus then used the same method to teach those who would be Apostles; a combination of living, working, teaching, example and delegation. He trained them and sent them out and then reviewed what they had done. This is His method of training and it is how we should learn.
It can also be the way we teach each other, except that no fellow-apprentice may claim the kind of loyalty which is due to Christ. (Many sects and cult-leaders go wrong by demanding too much loyalty.)
Apprenticeship lasts into old age, but its final result is astonishing.
“A disciple is not greater than his master,” Jesus said. “It is enough for a disciple to be as his master!” (Matt. 10:24-25). That “enough” must rank as the greatest understatement of eternity.
FOLLOWING A REJECTED OUTCAST.
Ittai had come from one of David’s colonies to be an officer in his army. Hardly had he taken up his commission, however, when Absalom’s rebel force toppled David’s throne and instead of following a great emperor, Ittai found himself following a rejected outcast (2 Samuel 15:19-22).
David told him he could go home, but Ittai remained loyal, stayed with David in exile and eventually shared the leadership of the forces that defeated Absalom and restored David’s kingdom.
Every follower of Christ comes to a similar experience sooner or later.
First we find Him as Saviour who died for our sins. Soon we go on to know Him as Supreme Lord who fills all things including our hearts and our dreams. He made us, loves us, died for us, forgave us and made us clean right through. He introduced us to God the Father as Father and to God the Holy Spirit’s life within us. He made us citizens of Heaven and its ambassadors on Earth.
All this feels wonderful until we discover that we are living in the world that refused Him. Before we can share His triumph we must share His rejection. The rejected outcast we are following will rule the universe for ever.
MAKING DISCIPLES.
The great commission was not only to tell the Good News but to make disciples - apprentices - learners from Christ. What makes disciples?
It is friendship (mainly) that brings people to know Christ. Then Christ Himself captures their hearts.
To make Him known, His people must know Him and demonstrate what it is to be His disciples. New Christians need to see the value their new friends put on knowing Him.
It was to those who knew Him well that Christ explained the cost of discipleship. They had been with Him over a year, travelled the country with Him on foot, shared hardships, heard His teaching, seen His miracles, but most important of all they had come know Him as a person.
Because they knew Him well, it made sense.
Anyone who follows me sets out on a last journey that can only end in death, like a condemned criminal picking up his cross. Follow me and your life is finished. But then it is those who love their lives who will lose them. The way to find life is to give it up for my sake and the Gospel’s. What profit is it to gain the whole world and lose your own soul. (Matthew 16:24-26)
THE CALL IS TO DEATH.
When, in the Roman empire, a condemned man picked up a cross, he set out on a last journey which could only end in death. Comfort was a thing of the past. Money had no more value. His sex life was finished. He was a loser with no rights. Never again would he have his own way in anything.
One freedom and privilege was left. He could speak. If he shouted defiance against Caesar and his empire, that empire was powerless to touch him. Its ultimate sentence had been passed and its authority over him fully expended.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Take up your cross and follow me,” (Matt: 16:24 Mark 8:34 Luke 9:23)
They knew Him well by then. Their understanding of Him had come a long way since He first called them to leave everything and follow Him. Even on a short acquaintance He could inspire them to that. Now He was asking more.
Peter had just acknowledged Him as the Messiah and Son of the Living God. Accepted as Supreme Lord, He now claimed supreme loyalty and called them to follow Him to the death.
In this His call was not so very much greater than that of many an earthly leader. Countries at war expect their citizens to die for them and even a leading firemen can call a colleague to risk his life when human life is in danger.
Christ has a life-and-death rescue operation to deal with. His love for the world cost Him infinite suffering which none of us is big enough to bear. But we may be called to take our own share of suffering, spending ourselves in life and maybe in death.
We are willing to die for Him because He is Lord of all; because He died for us and because He needs expendable people to reach the world. More than human life is at stake.
From the Books of Job and Revelation we know that suffering on Earth is linked with the defeat of the kingdom of Satan in the Heavenly Realms. Every martyrdom is an “own goal” by the devils’ side.
When the Gospel succeeds, it provokes opposition. In today’s world it is succeeding as never before. More people are coming to Christ and going out to tell others than in any previous century - that is why there is so much persecution.
THE CROSS INCLUDES ALL LESSER COSTS.
Since we are called to die, we have nothing to complain about if all we have to put up with is hardship, or persecution, or frustration, or unrewarded hard work, or not getting our own way, or going without what we thought we had to have.
This call to costly discipleship is not the call on which our salvation depends - that is a free gift - it is the call on which God’s programme for reaching the world depends. It is also the call to take up the only opportunity we shall ever have for serving the Lord in the world that rejected Him. There will never be another opportunity to share His suffering or His triumph. There will only be one victory parade in Heaven and those who have to stand on the sidelines because they opted for comfort on Earth will never get another chance.
THE EXCELLENCY OF KNOWING CHRIST
Paul had discovered what life is for. From prison in Rome, he wrote to his friends in Philippi.
Philippians 3:4-14
If anyone can claim to have status, accomplishment or natural advantages to rely on, I can claim more. A thoroughbred Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, a true elite Hebrew, and as for keeping the legal observances - I was a Pharisee, that says it all. My total dedication and zeal was demonstrated by the way I persecuted the church. So far as strict legalistic observance was concerned, I was blameless.
Oh yes, I had it all, but I threw it all away. Everything I used to value so much, I now consider worthless compared with the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have actually lost all I had, for Him. But I treat it all as rubbish so that I may gain Christ.
I want to be found in Him without any of my own rightness which came from keeping the rules. No, I want the rightness which is given by God to those who trust Christ.
And I want to know Him - to go on knowing Him better - to discover the power of His resurrection - to share with Him in His suffering. Let me die with Him if only I can reach His resurrection from the dead. I have not arrived yet, I am far from complete, but I am going for it.
Only let me take hold of that same purpose for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. My brothers and sisters, I know I have not taken hold of it yet. Just one thing - forgetting the past and stretching forward to what is ahead, I am running flat out to reach the finishing tape - the prize - the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That high calling is to be His disciple, for whom it is “enough” to become like his Master.