OPEN: This morning I’m going to give you a quiz, and I don’t want you to think real hard about your answers. I just want you to answer as you feel you should.
Question #1: How many of you believe you are perfect?
Question #2: How many of you believe it is possible for someone WHO IS STILL LIVING to become perfect?
(only one or two raised their hands on the 1st question, and about 8 raised their hands on the 2nd)
Did you notice how few raised their hands? I suspect that the reason so many of you didn’t raise your hands was because - for many of us - “perfection” means “sinlessness.” And we all know that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
However, consider these scriptures:
Gen. 6:9 “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
Philippians 3:15 “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded…”
Hmmm. Now one of two things is wrong here. Either these people of Scripture defied Romans 3:23 by being sinless... or there is something about the Biblical concept of “perfection” that we don’t understand. I believe that Matthew 5 indicates that maybe there is something about “perfection we don’t understand. In fact, the REAL Biblical concept of “perfection” can be best summed up in what I call the “Theology of the Donut.”
ILLUS: Donuts Story (throughout the illustration, I would take periodic bites from the donut until it was all gone – speaking as I chewed and swallowed each bite)
BITE “Did you realize that the most popular donut in the world is the glazed donut?”
BITE “Doughnuts originated in 16th century Holland. They were cooked in oil, and were so greasy that the Dutch called them olykoeks, or ‘oily cakes.’”
BITE “The Pilgrims, who’d lived in Holland, brought the cakes with them when they came to America. Their version was a round doughy ball about the size of a nut – thus the term ‘donut.’”
BITE “Now, the origin of the donut hole is intriguing. It seems there was a captain Hanson Gregory, a 19th century Main sea captain who was eating a doughnut while sailing through a storm. Suddenly, the ship was rocked violently and he was thrown against the ship’s wheel…”
BITE “… impaling his cake on one of its spokes. Seeing how well the spoke held his cake, Gregory began ordering all his cakes with holes in them.”
BITE “Doughnuts were popularized in the U.S. after the Salvation Army fed doughtnuts – cooked in garbage pails and served on bayonets – to troops during WWI.”
BITE “Soldiers got so hooked on them that they were called ‘doughboys.’”
(at this point all of the donut has been eaten. If you do this illustration, be sure to practice ahead of time).
Question: Now, what’s left of the donut??? Answer: The Donut Hole.
APPLY – To say that “Perfection” is the same as sinlessness is like saying that a donut is the hole. Just as there is so much more to the donut than the donut hole, there is more to perfection than the idea of sinlessness.
I. What is perfection?
In Greek, the word translated "perfect" in Matthew 5 is “teleios.” “Teleios” shows up many times in the New Testament, and it almost always is translated “perfect.” But there is one passage where “teleios” is translated in a way that is easier for us to understand. In Hebrews 5:12-14 we read these words:
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature (“teleios”), who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
In other words, to be “teleios” means to be mature. What does it mean to be “mature?” It means to GROW UP. Become responsible, reliable, dependable. In short, it means to learn how to behave like an adult.
And that’s what Jesus is saying here in Matthew 5 (reread vss 43-48). There’s a certain kind of behavior you need to exhibit… THEN you’ll be (vs 45) “sons of your Father in heaven.” So, when Jesus tells us to “be perfect like your Father in Heaven is perfect” he’s saying: “Grow up to be like your Father in heaven”
II. What does it mean to grow up to be like God?
In this passage, Jesus doesn’t say a thing about being sinless. What Jesus does say in Matthew 5:44 is that “perfection” (or growing up to be like God) means you must “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Why should we do that? Because that’s how God behaves. God’s the grown up – this is the behavior he wants us to model.
If you only love those who are nice to you… why, even little kids know how to do that! It takes an adult to rise above petty disagreements & resentments.
And God modeled this type of love for us (loving our enemies). Colossians 1:21-22 tells us: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…”
The Father loved us when we were His enemies. And now, He’s telling us that we need to learn how to love those who are our enemies. It’s part of being a grown up son/ daughter of God. The Apostle John expands on this when he writes:
1 John 4:16 “… we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
III. And that’s just one of the ways that we can GROW UP to be like our Father in Heaven.
In Luke 6:35, we’re told that God is merciful. Jesus said “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
We’re told in I John 1:5 that “God is light.” Jesus taught “… let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
We know that God is holy. In Leviticus 11:44 God declares: “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy…”
AND we could go on and on and on about the ways in which we should try to become like our Heavenly Father.
ILLUS: It is built into us to want to become like our fathers. You can especially see this in little children - the toddlers, ages 2 or 3 - as they’re learning to walk and explore their world. If you have such a little one of that age in your house and they come across a pair of their father’s shoes in the house... what do they do? They put those shoes on and they walk around the house. And if Dad’s home these little ones shuffle right up to him and giggle as they shoe him that they are wearing his shoes. They’re saying “look at me! I’m wearing your shoes and I’m walking around just like you.”
What God is saying in Scripture is “put on My shoes and walk in My steps. Strive to grow up to be like Me in how you love, in how you show mercy, in how you give light to the world around you and how you attempt to become holy.”
IV. Now, I’ve said all this to introduce the idea of another way in which we can grow up like our Father.
This next mark of maturity we’re going to talk about, I believe sums up all the others. If you have this one trait, you’ll develop the attitude of love, of mercy, holiness and a desire to spread the light God has given you. And this one trait is the one that we’ll be focusing on over the next few weeks.
This trait is the trait of SERVANTHOOD. A person who is truly “grown up” will have this attitude in their lives. I don’t care how a old a person may be, if they don’t learn to be “servants” they will not be mature (repeat that statement). All true adults have this quality about them.
AND it is this quality that we strive to teach to our children. We have other words for it: Responsibilities, Chores, “Your job son is to… (rake, wash, sweep, etc).” BUT IN REALITY, whatever we may call it – jobs, chores, or responsibilities - it’s all about teaching our kids to be good servants, because being a good servant is what being an adult in the family is all about.
ILLUS: A teacher gave her class of 2nd graders a lesson on magnets and what they did. The next day, in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has 6 letters. The 1st one is M. I pick up things. What am I?”
When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50% of the class answered the question with the word: “Mother.”
Now why did all these kids give that answer? Because they understood that this was THE characteristic of THE ADULT in their lives. Mom was known to be a good servant because Mom picked up after them.
Kids don’t understand servanthood – that’s why we have to give them chores. LIKEWISE, Christians don’t always understand servanthood and that’s why Jesus modeled this for us. For example He said: “… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45
Or as Paul wrote in Philippians2:5-8
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
But as important as those words were, Jesus knew that example was an even better teacher. That’s why, on the night that He was betrayed, Jesus met with His disciples in an upper room. And before He introduced them to what we of as the “Lord’s Supper,” Jesus left the room and returned carrying a bowl of water and having a towel wrapped around His waist.
V. Over next few weeks, we’re going to talk about specific ways you can serve God in this church. We’re going to talk about how to shift from the childhood idea of “chores” to the grown up ideal of taking responsibilities as servants of God.
When we spend enough of our time trying to grow up to be like our Father… after a while, we begin to look like Him to others.
CLOSE: The story’s told of a mountain in the Northeast part of the United States that has a peculiar feature to it. It looks like the face of an old man. They called it the “Old Man Of The Mountain.”
It’s said that a man who lived in those parts spent a great deal of time looking at the face on the mountain. In fact, he spent so much time gazing at the mountain that eventually his face began to resemble that of the old man of the mountain.
Now, I don’t know if that story’s true, but I do know, that the more time we spend looking upon the face of our Father in Heaven. AND the more time we spend trying to be like Him the more we’ll begin to look like Him to others.
OTHER SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Almost Perfect = Matthew 5:43-5:48
The Mature Minister of God = 1 Peter 2:4-2:10
Speaking Like An Adult = Hebrews 5:7-5:14
A Good Imitation = 1 Corinthians 4:12-4:12
