Maturity Check up

INTRO

You can turn in your Bible to 1 John where we are going to look at an interesting passage of scripture in an already interesting letter. As you may remember, this letter from John is a different kind of letter that does not have your typical intro, body, conclusion to it like Paul or Peter have. This is a amplification letter when John amplify a letter and shows us his understanding of the simplicity and depth of the words like light and love and how they connect to Jesus. Well we had two awesome teachings done by TJ and Billy about what it means to walk in light and how that happens practically.

In our text today, I’m giving you the 30,000 foot view before we dig deep into it, its a poetic summary of what he has been saying to different maturity levels of Christians. Remember, he is writing to churches that he loved and cared about. And theses churches were being fed a false doctrine of gnosticism that was distorting Christianity and ultimately, Christ. So John helps us here in two ways, he reminds us of things he has already said. I’m thankful for that because I am a forgetful person, I don’t know about you. But he also helps us with a spiritual barometer check. Meaning, we are all on different maturity levels of our fellowship with Jesus. And this will be helpful for us so we can see where we are at, or come to realize where we really are at.

So let’s pray and see what God has for us today.

BODY

Let’s have the people of God read the word of God this morning.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

12  I am writing to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

13  I am writing to you, fathers,

because you know him who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young men,

because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children,

because you know the Father.

14  I write to you, fathers,

because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

because you are strong,

and the word of God abides in you,

and you have overcome the evil one.

So let’s slowly digest this and talk about it starting at the beginning and then work our way up. John starts with little children and he has already called us this in the beginning of the chapter. Bu here he tells us this reality for all believers, for those who are brand new to the faith this is our reality.

Little children (New believers): Your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

Forgiveness. Cleansed. Pure. Holy. This is what you have when you enter into the kingdom of God. You are a new baby, born again. An infant that is learning a new way of life. A transformation. This is not a passport to heaven one day, you have tasted and seen the forgiveness of the Lord. I discussed this a couple weeks back that we are sinners encountering a holy God who is perfect and just. He should rightfully kill, smite, take us out for our sins. Yet, he is radical and he send his son as the propitiation, the one who absorbed all sin and took the wrath of God. He is your advocate before the father for you so, if you do sin, as John says, you run to the father. You are not walking in condemnation, shame, guilt and thinking that you need to work yourself into God’s forgiveness. This is basic and yet you will never get over it. Like a baby who takes it’s first breath, you don’t say, oh good job you lived because you took a breath. You need the breath for all of life. You and I need this truth, we never get past it. This is the Gospel. That your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake because of what Jesus did. His life, death, resurrection and ascension.

So let me say something harsh. If this is not a reality for you, you are not saved. That is not a condemning thing. It is just the reality that if we don’t start here in our relationship with Jesus and we think being a good moral person, or just a faithful church goer get’s our sins forgiven we are deceived. Now, don’t think I’m calling you out to imprison you, no this is an invitation to freedom! If you realize, oh my goodness, I don’t believe this and I have just believed that my good works will take away my bad, the invitation here today is to be born again. Let the Spirit wash you as you put your trust in Him as the forgiveness of all your sins. That he cleanses you from all unrighteousness. Oh my, this is way better than just having Christian language and a deceived mindset that you know Jesus when all you have is a fake and distorted understanding of Jesus. This is the start for every believer, and we never graduate from this, but we grow/mature from this place to children.

Children: Because you know the father.

If you are familiar with the Gospel of John, you know that in John 14 Jesus makes the bold and beautiful statement that he is the way, truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. Somehow we have turned that into no one goes to heaven except through Jesus. Jesus said, if you know Jesus, you will know the father. Everything that Jesus did was to reveal the father. When you have the understanding that all your sins have been forgiven by Jesus, you now have a veil removed the Bible tells us. You are now able to boldly approach the throne of grace where the father sits. And you come humbly, and grateful, but with boldness to know, fellowship, with the father. Listen, lets be bold again. If you have no prayer life, no fellowship with the father, it’s most likeley because you are still thinking that he has something against you. That he is condemning you for the sin that you keep thinking about but he has forgotten because he has thrown it into the ocean depths.

Do you know the father? Knowing is not a head knowledge, it is an intimacy. Do you sit at the feet of Jesus? Do you worship him freely? Or is he just there to make your life better?Do you fellowship with him? Do you know that you have a father who did not leave you as an orphan but has given you the Spirit and wants you to cry out to him abba! Father! I belong to you! I am in your kingdom now and I’m walking in your commandments now, not the worlds and definitely not mine! Our lack of prayer stems from this. Our lack of peace stems from this because we don’t think we actually have peace with God, we just have an amicable relationship. We call him God because he is ethereal to us and far off instead of father because we are not in fellowship with him and know who he is.

For those of you who know the father, you know what I am talking about. You know the difference from doing the 5 minute devotional to spending time with Him. I’m not knocking devotionals, because they are like baby toys to get our teeth growing. But it would be weird to see a four year old still chewing on a baby teething toy, right? You can have fellowship with the father because your sins are forgiven and he has filled you with the Spirit. And when that happens, you grow up to a young man.

Young men: Overcome the evil one, you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you.

Another growth happens when you realize you are no longer under the hold of the evil one. That you are in a spiritual war, but God has given you the full armor of God to withstand all his schemes. Some Christian don’t believe this and it shows because they are getting whooped. Don’t hear me wrong, your not possessed by a demon, but every temptation and lie the devil gives you, you fall for. You don’t realize that the fight you are in is not flesh and blood but against principalities, and spiritual forces that Jesus already conquered. But of course we don’t feel strong like it says here because we haven’t overcome the evil one and we still don’t have the Word of God abiding in us. That’s how you defeat the enemy, with the word. This might sound weird but this is the maturity path that Jesus took. Hebrews tells us that he learned obeidence through suffering and we see His suffering when he was temped in Luke 4, he just used scripture to fight off every temptation of the enemy.

-When I was in high school memorizing scripture on runs with brothers. How can a young man keep his way pure, by living according to your word. Finally brothers, whatever is true, noble, right, just, think on these things!

If the Word of God is not directing your life something else is.

-The maturity that happens when we not only read the word, but let the Word in us. Not just memorizing, but living in it, it transforms us. It matures us into a place the stepping into the strength that only God can give to resist the evil one and to walk into becoming fathers.

Fathers: You know Him who is from the beginning.

This ties us back to the beginning of John’s letter where he says he wrote this letter so you can have fellowship with him and with the father and his son. You know Him who is from the beginning, that which was in the beginning. The word that was in the beginning, who was with God and was God. And everything was made through Him. The one who took on flesh and bone, born of a woman, under the law so that he could release us from the law. Who became sin so that we could be the righteousness of God. The one from the beginning who was unjustly accused, brutally beaten, nailed to a cross to suffer and die. Placed in a tomb where the creator of all things was dead and breathless. But on the third day, you know Him from the beginning was raised to life, taught the disciples for 40 days and then ascended to the right hand of the father. And he sits there continually interceeding for you as your great high priest. And he will come back one day with fire in his eyes and a sword on his hip to bring justice to this earth and you and I will rule and reign with him forever in the new heavens and the new earth. Do you know this Jesus? Do you fellowship with this Jesus? This fellowship is what brought John through a lot of life. Through his brother’s death. Through his move to Ephesus. And this is what he was doing on the Lord’s day when he encountered Jesus that we read about in Revelation 1. And it is the same fellowship that you and I can have. But we for some reason think this is not important. We would rather be productive and put God into a little box of church, praying before meals, and then a couple other occasions. Rather than waking up in Christ, fellowshipping with him in our everyday life.

See when we fellowship with God he gives us love, joy, peace, patience and all the fruit of the Spirit. He also points out things in our life like sin, or people to go talk to about the Gospel. A father, or mature believer is not bored with the eternal God that is in fellowship with them. John is 80 years old here and still has a fire in him to be in fellowship with the father, the son and the Spirit. If you think you are mature in Christ but are bored with the Bible, unable to be free in worship, willing to go to war for other believers spiritually in the secret place, and the only thing to actually prove that you are a christian is your church attendance, then you are in trouble. But if your fellowship with God continues to grow, your desire for the word is passionate, you are putting on the whole armor of God and training other brothers and sisters to do so, then you are a father, a leader and walking in Spiritual maturity. But we won’t have those moments when we are not in fellowship with God. True maturity in Christianity is doing what Christ did, which was live in fellowship with the father. It’s what the apostles did, it’s what the early church did and it is what we are called to.

So to wrap this all up we have one simple question to ask ourselves.

Where are you at?

If you can have an honest diagnostic, where would you say you are at? Not where you were at 5 years ago. Not where you wish you were at. But where are you really at today in your walk with the Lord?

What stunts are maturing in Christ is not being honest with where we are at.

Are you a mature father or mother in the faith? Walking in fellowship with God? Praise God! Here is my challenge to you though. Who are you mentoring. Are there younger saints in your life, or even non believers in your life that you are asking the Father about so you can care for them, walk with them, pray for them, and pour into them like John is doing here? It’s good to be mature, but true maturity like we see here in John will declare from one generation to the next the steadfast love of the Lord. Are you sharing miracles with others. Are you cheering others on. Let’s get in the game guys and disciple!

Are you a young man or young woman in the faith? Keep putting on your armor. Some of you may have just stepped into this and are encountering spiritual warfare for the first time and you are thinking yo I did not sign up for this! Don’t draw back, don’t let the enemy overcome you. You are in a war, but you have the Word, or you need to start getting into the Word and let it dwell in you so that you know how to respond to the attacks to the enemy. You need to turn off the phone, shut off the football game, I don’t care whatever it is. Stop pacifying yourself with those idols and distractions when the enemy is trying to take you out. Get into the word and find strength. Find others to gather with you in prayer. Find others to fight with you. You are not alone because you are in a family. This is why we have prayer up here, not because that is what a church does, but because you are in a war and we need to fight together.

Are you a child? You realize your sins are forgiven and God has cleansed you and now you are entering into fellowship with the father. This is an exciting thing because you find yourself talking to him all the time now. You have an awareness of His presence and are found just abiding. Just sitting with the father. Just singing to the father.

Are you a little child? Have you just come into the faith? Don’t let this maturiy process scare you or defeat you like you have a long ways to grow. I think most of us know that maturity is not always found in age, it is found in action. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are youth, keep reminding your heart of the Gospel and let the refreshing rain of Jesus grow you like a little tree.

Are you dead in sin? Maybe you are here and the Spirit of God is being gracious to you and showing you the true state that you are in. And this is the difference between me just talking and the Spirit of God talking. If it was just me trying to show you this, it wouldn’t work and it would sound like nonsense. But if the Spirit of God is hovering over your dark heart right now showing you that the self righteousness that you are living in self righteousness and not actually believing, trusting, and confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life? Then you would know that this is not a shame game or condemnation but invitation of into a place of freedom, life, maturity and hope.

The only way for us to keep growing in Christ is by worshipping Him. And we get to do that in a special way where we come and take of the Lord’s supper. Where we confess our sins of apathy, or passivity and lack of maturing and we as for forgiveness. Knowing that he is faithful and just to purify us.

COMMUNION