OPEN: My grandson Benjamin (the apple of my eye) is 2 years old, and I know that one day someone is going to ask him this question: “What are you going to be when you …. (grow up)?” As I was doing research for the sermon this morning I found there was huge number of children’s books with this title: “WHEN I GROW UP” or something like it.” (we showed a picture from the “Little Critters” series of books by that name). In other words, they’re asking: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
And kids love that. They want to grow up to be something – a doctor, a lawyer, a ballerina, a cowboy or an Astronaut - but they want to grow up. And Jesus understood that need. That’s one of the reason He told us “Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48
Now, when you hear that word “Perfect” you’d might think that Jesus was saying that we need to be SINLESS like God is. But that’s not true. The Greek word there is “telios” which literally means “complete” or “mature.” In fact, that how the word is translated in Hebrews where we read: “… solid food is for the MATURE (the grownups) ...” Hebrews 5:14
So when Jesus said “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, He was actually saying “Grow up to be like your Heavenly Father.” So Jesus wants us to grow up as Christians.
But apparently, He also wants His Church to grow up. Look again at Ephesians 4:13-15. We’re told that Jesus wants us to “attain …to MATURE manhood, (and) to the measure of the STATURE of the fullness of Christ so that we may NO LONGER BE CHILDREN… (and) speaking the truth in love, we are to GROW UP in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
As a church, if we want to please Jesus, we must make it our objective to “GROW UP.” (Pause) But … what does that mean? How could WE possibly know what a grown-up church looks like?
Well… God’s helps us out here. 1st – He gave us the tools to guide us in growing up. Ephesians 4:11 says “He gave (us) the APOSTLES, the PROPHETS, the EVANGELISTS, the SHEPHERDS AND TEACHERS.
Back in the days of Paul… the Apostles were still alive. And we’re told in Acts 2:42 that early church “…devoted themselves to (among other things) the APOSTLES’ teaching…”
Nowadays those Apostles are dead and gone, but their teaching lives on. They live on in the Bible. Every time you read from the New Testament, you’re reading from the teachings of the Apostles, and those they endorsed. SO… those are the Apostles.
The PROPHETS were men who proclaimed God’s Will to the church. The EVANGELISTS were like the REVIVAL speakers. And the SHEPHERDS were Elders who guided the congregation. AND TEACHERS… well, they were teachers. These were the men who laid the foundation for Christ’s church, and every church that wants to grow up to please Jesus will cultivate these leaders… and use them.
But there are a lot of churches who do have all of that (all of those resources), but they’re still not grown up. They’re kinda like… baby churches. These are churches that have to be pampered, and fed, and have their diapers changed all the time. Unless or until the teachings of the Apostles, and the work of Prophets and Evangelists and Shepherds and Teachers accomplish their goals, the local church will still be childlike… not an adult.
So, what are the markings of a mature congregation? How would you know if a church is “grown up?”
Well, 1st – a mature church DOES STUFF. Ephesians 4:11-12 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints FOR THE WORK of ministry, FOR BUILDING UP THE BODY of Christ.”
QUIZ TIME: Why did Jesus give us the Apostles/Prophets/Evangelists/Shepherds and Teachers??? ANSWER: to equip us to do stuff, and to do the work of the ministry. Work of the ministry is Work that builds up the body of Christ (the church).
ILLUS: Years ago I was talking to the preacher at another church - and he had a problem. They had a nursery in the church building… but nobody would work it. They’d have new couples come in with children, but there were no workers for a children’s church, and no workers for the nursery. And do you know WHY there were no workers for those ministries? The members told him “We’ve worked in the nursery in the past. It’s time for us to be able to just set in church.”
That church was immature. They wanted to be pampered and fed their bottle from the pulpit… and have their diapers changed. But they didn’t want to do anything for the body of Christ.
ILLUS: Our Bible Study teacher on Wednesday Night had a great statement. He said “Jesus came to build a MIGHTY ARMY, not a MASSIVE AUDIENCE.”
And that’s true. If all you do for Christ is come on Sunday and set and listen to me, you either need to be burped or changed. You need to grow up. So, the 1st thing a mature church does is do stuff.
The 2nd thing I noticed about a mature church is - it knows the truth. Ephesians 4:14 tells us our objective as a church is to equip the saints “… so that we may no longer be children, TOSSED TO AND FRO by the waves and CARRIED ABOUT BY EVERY WIND of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
Hmmm. We should longer be children. We shouldn’t be tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. How can we avoid that? Well – by knowing our book! The Bible. This (holding up the Bible) is God’s Word, and all you know about Jesus and God’s Will and what we should do as Christians… it’s right here in this book.
ILLUS: I once was a guest speaker a congregation that had fallen on hard times. And as I got up to preach, I asked the congregation to turn with me to a certain passage of Scripture. Now, when I ask YOU to turn with me to a certain passage in the Bible, what do you think I expect you to do? That’s right - open your bibles!!!
In Acts 17:11 God complimented the people from a city called Berea - “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Now… why would that impress God? It would impress Him because they understood that the Bible was their source of truth.
So, I asked the folks at this church I was preaching at to turn in their Bibles to that passage (pause) and nothing happened! There were no sounds of rustling pages, no one looking down at the book in their laps. Because… there were no books in their laps. Nobody seems to have brought a bible! None of the Elders, Deacons or Sunday School teachers - NOBODY! Nobody pulled out a Bible to follow along with me.
And do you know whose fault that was? Well, yeah … you could say it was their own fault! But, even more than that, it was the fault of their Preachers/ Evangelists/ Shepherds/ Teachers. Apparently none of them had thought it was important to stress to their people that they ought to be reading and knowing their Bible. And that’s why nobody had one.
You see - your Preachers/Evangelists/Shepherds and Teachers - they are our first line of defense. It’s their job to point us back to the Bible. As one person famously said “Scripture only, makes Christians only!”
So first a mature church does stuff; and 2nd, they know the truth (their Bible).
But there’s still one last and vital thing that a church must do to be mature. A church that is mature will be a church that speaks the truth… in love. Ephesians 4:15 says “Speaking the truth IN LOVE, we are to GROW UP in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
You know there are a lot of churches out there who do a lot of stuff, and they know the bible backwards and forwards, but they don’t love anybody. They may speak the truth, but they don’t care about people. They don’t speak the truth… IN LOVE.
Now sometimes this is about doctrine. The Pharisees, for example, had their doctrine down pat. Jesus even said “… unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) Doctrinally, they had all their ducks in a row. But if your ducks weren’t in the same row with theirs, you were out of luck. They loved the Bible… but they didn’t love people.
ILLUS: Years ago, college student came to church complaining about the church bells. The church rang them on Sunday mornings to announce that Sunday School was about to begin, but that student had been up drinking all night and didn’t like being woke up early on Sundays. The leading members of the church informed this man that they had every right to ring their bells, they’d rung those bells for years, and they intended to keep ringing them. They were the church, and they were obeying and proclaiming Christ. They essentially showed him the door and implied he shouldn’t come back. They spoke the truth… but they had no love for the student. All they saw in him was an irresponsible and lazy young man – not someone who would come to church, or that they’d even want in church.
I was there (and no, I wasn’t that student) and I remember thinking “why don’t they invite him to come to church and offer to take him out for a meal at any restaurant he wanted afterward?” Or, better yet, why not offer – that if he’d come to church for 4 Sundays, they’d promise never to ring the bells again? After all, whole purpose of the bells was to tell people that Sunday School was about to begin. And everybody KNEW that anyway. They didn’t need to be reminded. AND, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a Scripture that says a church needs to ring its bells (or even have bells). Wouldn’t that man’s soul have been worth the risk of not ever ringing those bells again?
So sometimes speaking the truth in love is all about HOW we teach doctrine. In love!
But sometimes it has less to do with doctrine than it has to do with judging others who don’t measure up to our standards. Sometimes it’s about comparing what I DO with what others DON’T DO in church.
(PAUSE)
Now, in any church there’s going to be “doers” and “don’t doers” but the Bible warns us about comparing our righteous deeds with the righteous deeds of others. Comparing what we do with what they don’t.
2 Corinthians 10:12 “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who COMMEND THEMSELVES. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”
Don’t do that! Don’t compare your hard work for Jesus with what others are doing - or NOT doing. If you do that, it shows you’re not very smart! It shows that, while compare your righteous deeds with those of others in church, you’re not glorifying Jesus. If you do that, who are you glorifying? That’s right, you’re glorifying yourself! Your pride and self-righteous are on full display. Jesus said: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify…” who? YOU? I don’t think so. Your good deeds should be all about glorifying your Father who is in heaven.
CLOSE: Someone once saw a sign in front of a church building that said: “Church under construction… excuse our mess.” But that’s also a sign that could be put up at a church like ours. We’re under construction, We’re attempting to grow up and be mature for Christ, and we will be mature when each of us determines to 1) Do all we can do to serve Christ; 2) Do all we can do to stand on God’s Word; and 3) Do all we can do to speak the truth in Love.
The strength of the church… depends upon YOU (and me). Ephesians 4:15-16 says “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, WHEN EACH PART is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
The church grows up when EACH PART works.
A poet once wrote these words “I am only one, but still I am ONE. I cannot do everything, but I can do SOMETHING. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do THE SOMETHING I can do.” (Edward E. Hale)
I brag about this church all the time, but I realize you’re still not a perfect congregation. You still aren’t everything you ought to be. You still need to mature beyond what you are now. And frankly, that how it’s going to be with any congregation. When we stop growing up, we begin to die. So, you’ll never reach a point of complete maturity. But when we all do that something that we can do for Christ then we will have contributed to making this truly grownup congregation. And that gives pleasure to Christ!
