Don't be a baby

You may be seated. Our text tonight is Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13. And as we continue to look at this wonderful passage about the church and who we are and what we do, we come to this section of God's Word. I'll be reading verses 11 through verse 16, but this sermon will specifically be focusing in on verse 13.

Let's read God's Word together now. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, even teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you so much that you have made the body of Jesus Christ. You have given us each other. You have shown us that we need one another. Lord, we pray that as we think about your word tonight, Father, we pray that your spirit would impress the truth of your word into our souls, that we might believe it and live it. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, I'm going to tell you a shocker. You ready for it? Some people don't like coming to church. I know. Some people don't like coming to church.

Sermon

Just this afternoon I was talking with somebody who had been sick for a couple weeks, and this is a faithful person who comes to worship every single week, and they were telling me that over the past couple weeks as they've been sick, you know, it was a temptation for them. As they were able to sit in their nice chair and grab their coffee and participate from church on their couch, they thought, man, this is really comfortable.

What's the danger in that? What's the danger in digital church versus analog church? Well, the danger is you don't have to deal with people. In digital church, it's fine, you can turn it on, and when the service is done, what do you get to do? You get to turn it off. You don't have to deal with people, but the church is people. The word for church is the word ecclesia, or assembly. Where the people of God do not assemble together, there is no church. But not everybody likes coming to church. And we might not even like the different people who are in church. And so we have a problem. Why come to the assembly? Why come and gather together? Well, first, we need to realize that we need to be reaching for a goal, reaching for the goal.

Look with me again at the passage before us, verse 11 through 13. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, even teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The body is this imagery that the scripture is using here, that God is giving us here, of how He views the assembled body of Christ, the assembly of the saints, that every part needs to work together. He goes on in 1 Corinthians and He describes this more when He says, can the hand say to the foot, I don't need you? Or the ear to the mouth, nah, I'll pass. No, every part of your body is intricate and it's important.

Sometimes I wondered as a kid, why in the world did the Lord give me pinky toes? Have you ever wondered that before? It just seems like, why? Why do I need 10 toes? Why didn't he just make me with three? I mean, it seems like that's what cats and dogs have in their paws. Why can't I just have three toes?

It's not like somebody's laughing at me, but it's an honest question I had as a child. And then I remember reading a book where it was talking about when you lose one of the smallest of your toes, often you'll end up with balance problems and you'll fall. My grandfather had polio when he was a child and they took out all the bones in his toes and put in metal rods for bones. And my grandfather never walked correctly. He always had to have medicated shoes for how he walked. Because even the smallest of the bones in your toes will affect every part of your life. Every single one of you is an intricate part of the body of Christ. There is no part of the body of Christ that can just be, well, we don't need that. No, God, just like God marvelously made the body.

What did we say in Psalm 139? What did He declare? You knit me together in my mother's womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully knit made. I know that full well. God has knit together the church as a body. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Each one of us given different gifts to serve.

Some of you are really good at visiting shut-ins. Some of you are really good at crafts and giving people ideas of things to do. Some of you have been given talents with music that others of us don't. Some of you have been given talents with caring for children. Some of you have been given talents for teaching. And some of you have been given talents to just encourage others. And every single one of us is necessary to the body of Christ. Every single person has a part to play. There are no minor roles.

I was amazed the other week, Bill and Judy Baird up at Sharon, they're just there and they do all sorts of things that nobody says thank you on a normal basis, because they're just small things that they do all the time. But one day I got up there to preach and Bill wasn't there and my water cup was empty. And I'll tell you really, I really appreciated Bill Baird's weekly just getting me a cup of water. I don't ask for it, he just does it. And he doesn't expect thanks for it, he just does it. How many people call shut-ins and just do these things that people don't see? Maybe it's cleaning, maybe it's helping a church here and bringing things in and out of the van. providing psalters or providing Bibles, praying for one another.

God's given us teachers to teach Christ. He's given each other to build one another up because, you see, the goal isn't that you just come to church, you hear a good message that might stir up your heart, but the goal is that you might come to the assembly and you might grow. You might mature in the likeness of Christ. And we need one another to do that. And sometimes that happens by friction. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes we become more like Christ by learning how to bear with one another.

In the book of Colossians, I think it's in chapter three, this is one of the things that the Lord says, bear with one another. Can you believe that the Lord would have to tell Christians to put up with each other? but Christ puts up with me, and all my silliness, and all my stupidity, and all my impatience, the Lord is patient with me. Maybe the Lord has put you with that person at church that you just have a hard time talking with. I wonder how hard it was for the Lord to love you.

We're reaching together for the goal of being more and more like Christ, and we need to secondly reach for unity in Christ. Secondly, we need to reach for unity in Christ. Look with me at chapter 4, verses 3 through 6. That's what he said above. endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. We must not be a fractured church.

A church that has factions over here, you know, there's these people, and they like their stuff, and there's that group over there, and they have their hobbies, so they just talk with one another. And there's this group, and they've just been friends forever, and they just hang out over here in their own club, and the church is just put into these different factions. You know, the rich people stay with the rich people, and the poor people stay with the poor people. The educated people stay with the educated people, and the non-educated people stay with the non-educated people.

The book of James says, may it never be. No, hold on. Just as there is no partiality with God, there shouldn't be partiality in the church. We shall not have a fractured church But we must have unity. But see, there's a danger. There's a danger to the Church of Christ. There's a danger to the unity we have as we seek to become more and more like Christ. And it is deep-seated and rooted in our Western philosophy. Individualism.

So many people don't like coming to church because it's not fulfilling what is their desire. I just don't feel like this is fulfilling me. I just don't feel like the people are loving me the way I want to. I just don't feel like this is where I fit in. I just don't, I just don't, I just don't.

It's a danger. Because what happens when we start looking inwardly? What happens when we start looking at me, me, me, my, my, my? What are we not seeing? We don't see other people. We don't see the pain that's going on in their lives. We don't see the ways in which they need cared for. We don't see the prayers that need to be offered up for them. We don't see the ways in which we can build them up with our words and impart grace to those who need it. When we start looking into ourselves, when we start thinking about our needs at the expense of what other people need, In reality, we become anti-Christian.

If the goal is to be mature in Christ, what did Jesus say to his disciples? I did not come to be served, but to serve. Why do you come to church? Do you come to get something out of it? Or do you come to serve the triune living God and to love others? Now I hope that you're fed, I hope that you're cared for, I hope that you're built up in your faith, I hope that your heart is encouraged and stirred up to love God more.

But we think of worship too often as what we consume. But that's not what worship is. Worship is what we bring to God, not what God brings to us. Worship is how we sing to one another, encouraging one another, challenging one another. This is exactly why the book of Hebrews chapter 10 tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but we need to encourage one another, spur one another on towards love and good deeds, exhort one another.

And so much the more as you see the day approaching. We need to come to church, we need to be a church body, because we need to be reminded of who we are and what God has done. We're a forgetful people. And it takes a miracle for God to do this. It takes an absolute miracle.

Make no doubt about a well-functioning church, a church that's united, a church that loves one another deeply, a church that sacrificially cares for each other, is a unique blessing. It's a gift from God, because it means that people are growing up more and more to be like Christ, because Christ is the object of our faith. See, when we fix our eyes on Christ, we take our eyes off ourselves.

This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, Paul was willing to be shipwrecked if that meant he was able to go love people in Macedonia. Paul was willing to be beaten and thrown in prison if that meant he was able to go care for the people in Thessalonica. Paul was willing to be thrown in prison and to be shackled if it meant that he was going to be able to share the good news in Rome. Paul was willing to know absolutely nothing. He was willing to go and work with his hands as a tent maker, laboring diligently day and night. And then after he was doggedly tired, then going and caring for other people, because he had determined to know nothing else other than Christ and Him crucified.

So why do you, in your heart, be honest with yourself? Why do you struggle coming to church sometimes? Maybe you come every single week. Maybe it is your pattern that you come to worship. Maybe you pick yourself up by the bootstrap somehow, you get enough gumption, you go to the assembly even though you don't feel like it. That's the question I have. Why don't you feel like it? I propose to you often we don't feel like it because we're focusing on ourselves and our comfort rather than on Christ and on what our brothers and sisters need. We become inward rather than outward and upward.

If we're to grow and reach for Christ, we must know Jesus experientially and objectively. We must know the truths of God's word and the truth that Jesus Christ came to save sinners must seep down into our souls and become the fabric of what we are. So as we look to be a biblical church, as we look to be a Christ-honoring church, thirdly, we must be a church that is reaching to become a mature man.

Third Point

Third, a church reaching to become a mature man. I made these comments before, two weeks ago when we met. God's not interested in having people become Christians, be reborn. That's the imagery that Jesus Christ gives in John chapter 3, is it not? Unless a man be what? Born again? He cannot enter the kingdom of heaven? Okay, great, you've been born again. You're a baby spiritually.

Does God want to be changing infant, spiritual infant poopy diapers all the time? No. No, just like a father who has a child and might love that child and as they hold that child, smiles at that child, you don't want that child to stay in diapers. No, you want that child to mature, to grow, to become strong, to move from milk and end up eating meat, to move from needing to be nourished by formula to being able to eat a full, mature, healthy diet. So what is the diet? How do we know Christ more? How do we mature in our faith?

Well, 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17 tell us, For all scripture is breathed out by God and given for doctrine, which is just a fancy word for saying teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

See, God's Word gives us teaching. It gives us a standard to live by. It gives us truth. It just tells us, here's what the reality of the universe is. And then when we go off to the side, it corrects us. It reproves us. Have you ever been in church before where you felt this way? I get this all the time when I stand at the back of the church and I greet people afterwards. People will say, how did you know that? Or I was talking to someone a couple weeks ago and she said that her husband, I said something in the sermon and her husband just looked over at her and just smiled and gave her an elbow in the side. And I had no clue what was going on in their house, but this is what the Holy Spirit does.

By his spirit, through his word, he convicts us, he reproves us, he turns us off from that path that we were veering and back towards his way. We become a mature person, a mature man, by being equipped by God for every good work. And we do it by caring for one another. We do it by pushing one another.

There's a temptation in church, in any Christian church, What is verse 13? Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Churches will often try to find unity by minimizing objectionable things about the faith. Many congregations, many elders, many churches fall victim to this idea. If we just water it down, if we just make it easier, if we just strip it down to bare bones basics and not worry about these other things, we'll have unity. But the problem is they're like Thomas Jefferson with his Bible and they're just cutting out the things that they might see as objective or objectionable to people. things that might cause an offense. But there's a reality in the Christian life, as we grow up in Christ, there can be artificial growth or there can be real growth.

I was just talking to someone today and they were talking about a hard conversation. And they were saying, I don't know how to enter into this conversation. I don't know what to do. And I was trying to tell the person, just tell them. This is really hard, and I don't know how to say it, but I need to tell you this.

Sometimes we just don't have the courage to say the things we need to say because we're worried about hurting someone's feeling. And in the Western psychology right now, the milieu, the culture in which we live, hurting someone's feelings is almost a capital offense. Where they'll break off relationships from you and break off communication with you and just say, okay, I hurt your feelings, I just don't want to talk to you anymore. May it never be in the Christian church. We need to be reproved. We need to be corrected.

This last year I went to Denison, Kansas for my friend Caleb's installation. He was going to be the new pastor in Denison, Kansas. And I took a couple kids with me to his installation service. And we drove through the day and we got there and we did the installation service and we took pictures and we We had all these treats and everything and games downstairs and I told the kids, I said, okay, get back in the car and we need to get back to Iowa.

And so we drove through the night, we stopped for maybe an hour as I took a nap at a rest stop and the next morning there was men's breakfast. And as we were at men's breakfast, I had only gotten about three hours of sleep and one of my elders sat there and prayed at men's breakfast and he just said, Lord, Please give our pastor wisdom to not do stupid things.

He might not have said the word stupid, but that's what I heard. Give him some wisdom to know when not to do things like that again. I needed the reproof. I needed the correction. I needed to know that what I had just done was not wise. But sometimes we're afraid to tell people the truth.

But this is how we mature in Christ, as we have hard conversations, loving conversations. I'm not saying be a jerk to people, right? Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for necessary edification, that you might impart grace to those who hear you. Make sure that you're imparting grace and you're not just, have you ever met this type of person before? Have you met the type of person who's really good at, they're so about the truth, they're just gonna tell you everything that you're doing wrong?

I'm not saying be that person. But if something needs to be said, if you've checked your own life to make sure that you've repented of sin in your own life and this isn't just a sin you're dealing with as well, go in love and confront your brother and sister in Christ. This is the ways in which we become a mature person in Christ.

Lastly, church, we must reach for Christ. We must reach for Christ. It is Christ who is our measure. As we come to God's Word and as we read about Christ, as we learn about Christ, as we fix our eyes on Christ, He's the measure by which we want to mature. We look to Him and we see Him with compassion. We look at the mature man himself, Jesus Christ, and we see Him having compassion on the leper and on the crowds.

If we want to be like a mature man like Jesus Christ, we must learn to love, love enough To forsake, Jesus forsook all the riches of heaven and humbled himself into the likeness of a man, into a poor family, living his whole life under the law and died in our place. If we're going to love like Christ, if we're going to learn to be mature like Christ, we must learn to forgive like Christ. as he hung on that cross and as he stood there gasping for his dying breath. What did he say? Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. Well, we take Christ's word seriously when he says, if you will not forgive men on earth, neither will your Father forgive you who is in heaven.

Well, we learn to forgive like Christ. Will we be humble like Jesus Christ? Will we have prayer and devotion like Christ? Will we have self-control like Christ when he was tempted by Satan? Will we have devotion like Jesus who cares for his church, the bride? Will we learn to be submissive like Jesus who always does the will of his Father in heaven? Will we learn to be gentle?

We think of maturity and sometimes we think, you know, oh, you know, thoroughly equipped for every good work, you know, complete. And we might think of a macho image of Jesus, but Jesus was gentle when he looked at that woman caught in adultery. He says, where's your accusers? Go and sin no more.

If we're going to be mature like Jesus, we must learn to be patient. like he was with Peter. If we're going to be mature like Jesus, we need to learn also to be bold like he was when he called sin, sin, as he spoke to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. We need to learn to be like Jesus if we're going to be mature and we need to learn to be courageous and zealous like he was when he went into the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers. We need to learn to be mature like Jesus when he was peaceful, even as the temple guards came and arrested him at night. If we're going to be mature like Jesus, we must learn to be a servant of all, just like he showed us as he washed his disciples' feet. If we're going to reach the goal of being mature, we must learn to be self-sacrificial and respectful.

I love the picture that we get of Jesus as he keeps the fifth commandment, as he's dying on the cross, and as he respects his mother. And as John is standing there, the disciple whom he loved, and he says to the disciple, behold your mother. Woman, behold, man, behold your son. With his dying breath, Jesus is thoughtful of his mother's earthly needs.

Jesus is mature knowing that there are times in which he doesn't need to offend. The temple was built for him, and yet he doesn't want to offend people, so he pays the temple tax. If we're going to be mature like Jesus, we must learn to balance grace and truth. Jesus came full of grace and truth.

You see, if we want to be mature Christians, If we wanna grow up to the full maturity that there is in Christ, we must study Christ. We must look to Christ. We must be like Christ. We must hear Christ in his word. We must pray to Christ and we must pray that God would conform us more and more to the image of Christ. As we do that, the church will have more unity. As we do that, the church will look more and more like the body of Jesus Christ. a body who cares for one another, a body who encourages one another, a body who challenges one another, a body who values each and every member. May we be such a church who is mature in Christ.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank you so much that your spirit is working in us. God, I pray for myself. I pray for these people. Lord, I pray for your people, that you might let them see areas in which they can serve others around them. Lord, I pray that they would be looking for opportunities to build one another up in grace and truth. Father, I pray that you would let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and that you would conform us, mold us, make us more and more like Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would. do this work for it's only by your spirit that it can be done. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, let's go ahead and stand and we'll turn in our Psalters now to Psalm 84B. Psalm 84B. Advancing still from