©1998 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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12/13/98
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How To Become Mature In Christ
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Philippians 3:15
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12/13/98 How to Become Mature In Christ
Phil. 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are
perfect, have this attitude; and if in
anything you have a different attitude, God
will reveal that also to you;
Two weeks ago we pulled together
into three summery statements
a passage in the 3rd chapter
of the book of Philippians,
a passage that we have been studying
for the past several months.
The passage begins with Phili. 3:7
and runs through verse 16.
And two weeks ago I told you that
I saw Paul offering us three major life attitudes
in that passage,
three mental fundamentals
that will be a part of the thinking
of all growing Christians.
I want us to return to those three principles once
again this morning
because of a comment Paul made
in Philippians 3:15,
a verse we skipped over two weeks ago.
It will take me most of the morning
to lay the background
for what I see happening in that verse,
but we will return to it before we close.
I won't take the time
to read the passage in Phili. 3
that we have been studying,
but I do want to begin by restating
the three principles we developed out of that
passage
the last time we were together.
Using his own life experience
as an illustration of these principles,
Paul offered us 3 major statements:
#1. Don't be afraid to bet it all on growing
in our knowledge of Christ.
I'm not going to launch into reteaching
this concept again this morning,
but I do want to emphasis
that Paul is not referring to knowledge
about Christ,
he's referring to knowledge of Christ.
He is talking about that daily,
sometimes deeply agonizing process
of discovering one step,
one issue,
one churning-point at a time
what kind of God we have.
This is dangerous for me to get going on this again,
but just this past week I came across
some verses in Psalm 88
that are great.
The Psalmist is in that churning point,
that agonizing point,
that "God, help me or I die!" point as he
writes.
And, as he makes his case to God,
he calls out,
Ps. 88:10 ¶ Will You perform wonders for
the dead? Will the departed spirits rise and
praise You?...
Ps. 88:11 Will Your lovingkindness be
declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in
the place of destruction?
Ps. 88:12 Will Your wonders be made
known in the darkness? And Your
righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
That's great! He's saying, "Look, Lord,
The dead can never praise you.
They can never glorify your name in the
land of the living.
I'm all you've got to work with.
God, deliver me!
Show yourself strong on my behalf
and I will tell the world what you've
done.
That's all part of the process
of discovering who this God of ours is.
And that is altogether different
from learning Biblical facts about Him.
#2.Trust in Christ is not a point, it's a
daily process.
#3. Treasure the progress you have made
thus far as a precious gift from God.
Those 3 statements are great stuff
just on their own.
But, in verse 15 Paul does something fascinating
with them,
something that will make more sense
after we have talked a little bit
about the whole process of
what we commonly call "spiritual
growth".
I don't know if you've noticed it or not,
but the New Testament writers
frequently draw parallels between
physical growth in a person's life
and spiritual growth in our walk with Christ.
Christ Himself began the parallel
in John 3 when He said to Nicodemus,
John 3:3 ..."Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born again he cannot see
the kingdom of God."
He was telling us that
just as there is a point in time
when we are born into this physical world,
so, for every true Christian
there is a point in time at which
we are born into the kingdom of God.
This parallel between physical and spiritual growth
is developed throughout the rest of the New
Testament.
Both Paul and the author of the book of Hebrews
reprimand their readers
for still being "babies" in Christ.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
1 Cor. 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak
to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of
flesh, as to infants in Christ.
1 Cor. 3:2 I gave you milk to drink, not
solid food; for you were not yet able to
receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet
able,...
And the author of Hebrews
told his readers:
Heb. 5:12 For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you have need again
for someone to teach you the elementary
principles of the oracles of God, and you
have come to need milk and not solid food.
Heb. 5:13 For everyone who partakes only
of milk is not accustomed to the word of
righteousness, for he is an infant.
Heb. 5:14 But solid food is for the mature,
who because of practice have their senses
trained to discern good and evil.
Heb. 6:1 Therefore leaving the elementary
teaching about the Christ, let us press on
to maturity...
In I John 3 John directs special comments
to three specific groups of Christians:
he talks to the "little children",
the "young men",
and the "fathers".
In context it is clear that he is using these terms
not to describe three levels of physical
maturity,
but rather three levels of spiritual maturity
in our walk with Christ.
And in the Book of Ephesians chapter 4
Paul talks about one of the crucial ingredients in
this whole grow process.
He talks about the way in which
Christ established certain teaching/leadership
gifts within the Body of Christ,
naming them specifically:
Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and
Teachers,
for the equipping of God's people.
Then he goes on to say that...
(Eph. 4:14) As a result, we are no longer
to be children, tossed here and there by
waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by the trickery of men, by
craftiness in deceitful scheming;
but speaking the truth in love, we are to
grow up in all aspects into Him who is the
head, even Christ,
The pattern being presented
throughout the New Testament is clear -
we all start out our Christian lives
as spiritual infants.
It doesn't matter whether we come to Christ
at age 3, or 13, or 30, or 50,
or 70, or 90.
When we enter the family of God
we are a spiritual infants.
It's not wrong to be an infant.
It's not bad.
When an excited mother lifts the little blanky
covering the bundle in her arms
and allows us to see her newborn baby
do we respond by saying,
"OH! How disgusting!
How pathetic!
A baby!
What good is it?
It just lays there all day sucking up milk
and making messes.
Get it out of my sight!"?
Of course not!
We look at the little thing
and share the excitement at this new miracle
and then, perhaps, remember when our child
was that age,
and silently thank God
that our children are finally past
the diapers,
and bottles,
and cribs,
and car seats,
and endless sleepless nights that always accompany
the first few years of life.
Nor is it wrong to be a spiritual infant.
It's a beautiful thing
to be near someone
who has suddenly stepped inside the
kingdom of God
and discovered the most amazing new world,
a world they never even knew existed,
a world all filled with the Person
and presence of God Himself,
discovering a multitude of changes
taking place inside themselves
because of the new birth of the Spirit within
them.
Many of you know I was a sophomore in college
when I came to Christ.
There is one place in the first chapter of Colossians
where Paul says that God rescued us from
the domain of darkness, and transferred us
to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col.
1:13).
I recall that contrast of the two worlds so well
when I look back over the contrast
between my freshman
and sophomore years.
I began my freshman year
a faithful member of the religious community.
I went to church,
I called myself a Christian,
I did all the things that Christians were
suppose to do.
I had a roommate at the time
who made no claim to being a Christian.
I remember feeling like it would be
a wonderful "witness" to him
if he would see me reading the Bible each
night.
So every night before I went to sleep
I would try to remember to drag out my Bible
and read a chapter.
Talk about BORING!!
If I wasn't tired before I started reading
I sure was when I finished.
I kept up the "witness" for a few weeks,
and then just gave up.
Then, almost a year later, after several weeks of my
own personal wrestling with my God,
I entered His kingdom
and discovered for the first time what Peter
was talking about in I Peter 2:2
when he talked about the "pure milk of the
Word".
What once put me to sleep
now had life, and power,
and the ability to feed my spirit.
It was just one of the exciting new discoveries
as baby Larry was born into the Kingdom of
God.
There is, however,
one striking difference
brought out in Scripture
between physical growth
and spiritual growth.
1. Whereas physical growth is a certainty
in the life of every living human being,
spiritual growth is not.
It is possible,
and in fact quite common,
for baby Christians
to remain baby Christians for years,
or even for their entire life.
This is the exact problem both Paul
and the author of Hebrews were addressing
in the comments I quoted a few minutes ago.
Paul said,
1 Cor. 3:2 I gave you milk to drink, not
solid food; for you were not yet able to
receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet
able...
And the author of Hebrews wrote:
Heb. 5:13 For everyone who partakes only
of milk is not accustomed to the word of
righteousness, for he is an infant.
Spiritual growth,
unlike physical growth,
is under the jurisdiction of the human will.
But not in the way
we are sometimes lead to believe.
A few of you here will remember
the "Leave It To Beaver" television show that
was on during my childhood.
I remember a scene from that show
in which the Beaver wanted to try out for some
sport in school -
I think it was wrestling,
but the coach had told him
he was about 3 pounds too light
for the weight class he wanted to
wrestle.
So the Beaver went home,
got out the kitchen scales,
and started stacking bananas
and apples
and cookies on the scale
until he had three pounds worth.
Right in the middle of this
his older brother came in
and asked the Beaver what he was doing.
Beaver told him he had to gain 3 pounds.
His brother said, "Hey Beave, it doesn't work
that way."
There is a similar misconception
in the church world,
a misconception that tells us that
BIBLICAL CONTENT=SPIRITUAL GROWTH.
"Read your Bible, pray every day and you'll
grow...grow...grow."
Much of our Christian system
thrives on the belief
that we can take a man,
run him through four years of Bible
School or seminary training,
fill him full of masses of Biblical
content,
and produce a spiritually mature man who is
qualified
to give leadership
and oversight to a body of Believers.
The truth is
knowledge without growth
produces arrogance.
Paul says simply,
1 Cor. 8:1... Knowledge makes arrogant,
but love edifies.
Knowledge is an important ingredient
in the growth process,
just like food is an important ingredient in
physical growth.
But, just as our bodies must process
and integrate food into our lives
before physical growth can take place,
so Biblical knowledge
must be processed and integrated into our walk
with God
before we can grow in the Spirit.
So how do we do that?
Actually, it was that question,
along with Paul's comment in Phil. 3:15
that got me into this whole area in the first
place.
Scripture approaches this call to growth
from two different directions.
First of all,
it offers us of the warning signs to watch for that
will alert us to
when we are not growing as we should.
One of those warning signs
is revealed to us in I Cor. 3.
And they are not what we might expect.
We might think the warning signs
would involve things like
not attending church very often,
or not getting involved in the life of the church,
or not reading our Bibles as often as we think we
should.
And yet the babies at Corinth
were deeply involved in the life of the church,
they lived for it.
They were actively involved
in all sorts of "spiritual" activity -
spiritual gifts were everywhere.
They were engulfing huge quantities of knowledge,
and their whole identity
was bound up in the church.
And yet Paul called them infants:
1 Cor. 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak
to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of
flesh, as to infants in Christ.
And then he tells them why-
1 Cor. 3:3 ...For since there is jealousy
and strife among you, are you not fleshly,
and are you not walking like mere men?
1 Cor. 3:4 For when one says, "I am of
Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are
you not mere men?
Do you know what that says?
It says Christians who fight with other
Christians over doctrine
are acting like baby Christians.
"My idea is right!"
"No, MY idea is right!"
"No, you got it all wrong. Its obvious to
anyone who's open to the truth!"
"Well, if you want truth, here's a verse for you..."
"Oh yea, well here's one for you..."
Paul's response is simple: "GROW UP!
You're acting like babies fighting over your
favorite toy.
Grow up!"
But scripture doesn't just offer us
warning signs of infancy,
it also offers us several powerful
descriptions of maturity,
and how we can make maturity
a growing reality in our lives.
And this is where we return to that verse
we started with this morning.
In Phili. 3:15 Paul says:
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect,
have this attitude; and if in anything you
have a different attitude, God will reveal
that also to you;
Now, for this to make sense I need to let you know
that the word we have translated as "perfect" in
this verse
actually means "mature".
In fact, it is translated as "mature"
in a number of other passages in the New
Testament.
In 1 Cor. 2:6 Paul says,
Yet we do speak wisdom among those
who are mature; ...
that is exactly the same word.
In 1 Cor. 14:20 Paul says,
" Brethren, do not be children in your
thinking; yet in evil be babes, but in your
thinking be mature."
Again, its the same word.
And when Paul says,
Phil. 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are
perfect, have this attitude...
he is saying, "Would you like to know
the attitudes that are guaranteed
to bring about growing maturity
in your life?
Do you want to not have to just hope,
or guess,
or discover through trial and error
what brings increasing richness
and depth in your walk with the
King?
Do you want a path
that is certain to lead you clear
of the deceptive entanglements
and worthless facade
of man-made religious games?
Do you want an approach to your life
that will guarantee that 20 years from now
you will be exactly where your God wants
you to be,
doing what He wants you to do?
Well, then, here you are:"
1. Don't be afraid to bet it all on growing in
your knowledge of Christ.
What are you looking for?
Self-worth?
A sense of meaningful identity?
Freedom from guilt?
True security in life?
A life without fear,
without regrets?
Well, what you're looking for
will be found in the process of knowing Him.
#2.Trust in Christ is not a point, it's a daily
process.
One of Satan's favorite games
is convincing the believer that there is a quick
path,
a secret door to instant maturity.
He'll tell you it's this really incredible experience
you can have with God,
or with His Spirit,
an experience that will set you above the
masses,
and catapult you into the depths of God.
Or he'll tell you its a special bit of Knowledge,
a secret principle,
or special insight that only a few have
gained.
Or he'll tell you that maturity can be yours
through conquering a block of learning,
getting a degree,
or a certificate that declares you ready.
Paul, the most mature Christian on the face of the
earth
at the time he wrote,
said, " I've never had that experience,
I've never gained that knowledge,
I've never found anything or anyone on this
earth that can certify me."
Phil. 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself
as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing
I do: forgetting what lies behind and
reaching forward to what lies ahead,
Phil. 3:14 I press on toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in
Christ Jesus.
#3. Treasure the progress you have made
thus far as a precious gift from God.
And then, finally - true maturity comes
from clinging tightly
to the progress you have made
not kicking yourself because you are not farther
along,
but overflowing with gratitude
because you are not where you once were.
Phil. 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are
mature, have this attitude; and if in
anything you have a different attitude, God
will reveal that also to you...
The attitudes that lead to maturity
don't just happen,
they become ours only when we choose to
make them ours.
We cannot choose maturity,
but we can choose the attitudes
that will lead us into it.