"Growing To Maturity"

Growing To Maturity

(Eph. 4:11-16)

Introduction:

A.  At the retreat Kerri and I attended in TN a person asked, “How can sit for so many years in the pew and not look more like Jesus?”  The question was negative.  It assumed that we did not look more like Jesus as a church than we did years ago.  At first I thought it was judgmental, and it is.  But the question challenged me.  Do I look more like Jesus now than I did 13 years ago when I came to Whitehall?  Have my sermons and classes spurred me on to be more of the image of Christ among men than I was?

B.  It is hard to give definitive examples of my own personal spiritual growth.  There are areas in my life in which I am not where God wants me to be, but I also believe I have grown in other areas of my life because of my time with you all.  But I know I can grow more.  I know I can be more mature.  I know that I desire to be wholly devoted to God.  Now there is a phrase that has been talked about many times in this congregation.

C.  Wholly devoted to God was the mantra sung by the Business Meetings long before we had elders.  Men gathered and realized that if this congregation were going to become a growing dynamic congregation we first had to become a church wholly devoted to God.  All the programs, methods, activities, friends’ days and outreach ideas were good, but unless they were from God they were simply men’s wisdom at best.  As we focused on growing closer to God and closer to each other we found that we grew in number.  People would come in to our worship and like what they felt.  Some of you were those people – unacquainted with churches of Christ, but somehow came through those doors and have found a home within these walls.

D.  Over the years, as churches do, we have points in time when we are strong and points when our faith is weak.  Our elders want to be spiritual guides, shepherds of this flock.  In their desire to lead us and feed us they have tried to do so by encouraging me in a more textual preaching style, by trying to have Bible classes that teach as well as discuss, and to encourage each of us to be devoted to this body as servants.  I applaud that desire and will work with them.

I.  God’s Church Design

A.  When you read Eph. 4:11 it shares with us some spiritual roles within the local congregation.  God gave the church special leaders.  He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some shepherding teachers.  But the point is found in verse 12 – to prepare God’s people.  STOP right there.

1.  Whose people?  God’s people.  You don’t belong to the apostles, prophets, evangelists or shepherds.  You belong to God.  God placed leaders within the church to be His servants, not to be mini-gods or lords.  He placed Elders here, teachers of classes, my role an evangelist all for your benefit.

2.  The role of the church leader or teacher is to prepare God’s people.  That preparation is not always easy.  If you have ever been in a position where you are to supervise or lead a group of people, then you understand that not every adult likes to listen.  You think teens are difficult, sometimes we adults can be really difficult.  But the role of the church leader is a God designed role to help each of us grow.  So our elders want to help us to become united in the faith, having knowledge of the Son of God, mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  That idea of “fullness of Christ” is the idea of acting your age in Jesus Christ.  No leader expects a new Christian to think, act and behave the same way as they expect someone who has been a Christian for many years.  I ask myself the question:  Do I act my spiritual age?

B.  Now that you can feel the challenge of where these lessons are going, I want you to see God’s desired effect on a congregation where the shepherds are helping the sheep to grow.  We see this starting in verse 14 with the word “then.”  At the point where the church body is growing at the right pace for all the people, where knowledge is being shared at the levels that each person can grow, then what you will see is a church that won’t be shaken by twisted teachings.  Instead, each of us will have matured so much that we will speak truth in love to one another.  We as a body will be so devoted to God that we will understand authority where Jesus is the head and each person is so valuable that we need one another in order to function well as a church.  We will build up one another in love, and praise God for all the good being done.

II.  Practical Application

A.  Now that we understand that Jesus is the head, church leaders have a duty to help all members grow that their own spiritual level and the need to see one another as valuable; how does that get done?  Is there a plan by our leaders to help us reach the desired effect that God had Paul share with the church in Ephesus?  Yes.

B.  The ultimate goal is that we, both individually and congregationally, be wholeheartedly devoted to God.  To achieve that spiritual goal we will need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.  You can see the Spirit at work in this congregation through: the proclamation of Jesus to the world, transformation of us as members to be more like Jesus, the way we serve others and in our worship.

C.  It is similar to what you read of the early church in Acts 2.  Look at how that very first congregation behaved.  Acts 2:42-47.  These new Christians DEVOTED themselves.  Here is that word we believe we as church need to focus on.  These brand new Christians understood that in Jesus Christ they were new people.  So they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings.  That teaching we have been blessed to have written down for us in the New Testament.  They saw a great need for personal spiritual growth and knew that unless they devoted themselves to this teaching they would be no different than before.  But knowledge is only one part of devotion.  They also devoted themselves to fellowship.  That is the part that takes us from a religion to a family.  You saw that fellowship in action as they took care of one another’s needs and spent time in each other’s homes praising God.  They also devoted themselves to breaking of bread and prayer.  These last two are seen in our collective worship and become a call for collective worship.  Prayer sows up all the edges of the devotion to God and each other.

Conclusion:

A.  One of my favorite stories in the OT is that of Caleb as an old man.  The story takes place in Joshua 14.  Caleb is 85 and says, “Give me the hill country.”  That was the place of the fortified cities.  Caleb said that Moses promised him that land because he followed the Lord God wholeheartedly.  Caleb did not stop his devotion to God simply because of his age.  He was still ready to be God’s warrior, because that is what one is who is wholly devoted to God.