What is Chrsitan Maturity
Notes
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Intro
Intro
Most Christians think that being a christian should be a cake walk, just to find out that the cake is a lie.
the christian walk can sometimes feel like the game Portals
just as soon as you get through one trial there is another one waiting
Faithful Christian living becomes increasingly more difficult and more demanding.
Christ does solve all of our important problems.
He does bring
peace
joy
meaning
purpose
and many other blessings of which the unbeliever knows nothing.
But the Christian life is not easy. In many ways living is far more demanding than before we were saved
Why is it that when we have God’s own Spirit within us, the mind of Christ, and the power of God, could it become more difficult to do what is right, to do what our Lord wants us to do?
Two reasons
The World
The Flesh
The first is outside us, the second is inside us.
They are Satan’s supreme instruments in tempting believers and keeping them from faithfulness and victory.
When a person becomes a Christian he also becomes a new creation, with a new nature, a new inner being, and a favorable disposition toward God—none of which a person can have apart from Christ
From that point, until the Lord takes him to be with Himself, he is swimming upstream. Like a salmon returning to spawn, he discovers that gravity and the current are continually against him. His new heart drives him in an entirely different direction from that of the world around him
(1)Worldliness is more than bad habits its an paridime, (how you look at the world)
a way of thinking and believing.
it is buying
the world’s philosophies
human wisdom
It is looking to the world—to
human leaders,
to those who are influential
popular people
neighbors
associates
fellow students and coworkers
for our
standards
attitudes
meaning.
Worldliness is accepting the world’s definitions, the world’s measuring sticks, the world’s goals.
(2)The Flesh
it is the flesh that produces the bridge the world uses to reach us
When we are given Christ’s divine nature, our flesh is not removed. That will not occur until we are glorified according to()
because the flesh continually resists and opposes the new heart. Paul tells about the struggle in his own life
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
The world and the flesh are closely related.
They are both used by Satan,
they serve the same purpose, evil.
They complement each other and are often hard to distinguish.
But it is not necessary to precisely distinguish between them
both of them are spiritual enemies
both must be fought with the same weapons God’s Word and God’s Spirit
—God’s Word and God’s Spirit
The Corinthian believers had an especially hard struggle against those twin enemies, a struggle which they seldom won.
They would not
break with the world
break with the flesh
They were continually succumbing to both
Consequently they fell into one serious sin after another
Almost all of 1 Corinthians has to do with identifying and correcting those sins.
The sin of division was closely related to numerous other sins.
Sins are always interrelated.
There is no such thing as an isolated sin.
One sin leads to another,
and the second reinforces the first.
Every sin is combined and intermingled with other sins,
a sinning believer cannot confine the evil to one dimension.
there truly is no secret sin
the sins that is hidden will ultimately cause the most damage when they come out
Review
From 1:18 through 2:16 Paul points out that the Corinthians were divided because
of worldliness,
because of their continued love for human wisdom.
human wisdom was to follow the messenger or teacher instead of God who sent him
In 3:1–9 the apostle shows them that they also were divided
because of the flesh,
because of their continued yielding to the evil within them.
He shows the
cause,
the symptoms,
and most important the cure
Scripture
Scripture
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
1cor.3.1-9
Message
Message
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
The cause of division in the church was more than just external, worldly influence.
It was also internal, fleshly.
The Corinthians had succumbed to the pressures of the world, but they were also succumbing to the pressures and enticements of their own flesh.
Before Paul gives correction to them for their immature sinfulness,
he reminds them again that he is speaking to them as
brethren,
fellow believers.
That is a term of recognition and of love.
It reminded his brothers in Christ that they were still saved,
that their sinning, terrible and inexcusable as it was, did not forfeit their salvation.
He did not try to take away from the seriousness of their sins
he did however try to diminish or prevent any discouragement that his rebuke might otherwise have caused.
He stood with them as a brother,
not over them as a judge.
But Paul could not speak to the Corinthian believers as spiritual men.
They had come through the door of faith but had gone no farther. Most of them had received Jesus Christ years earlier but were acting as if they had just been born again. They were still babes in Christ.
Spiritual when applied to men it is used of their relationship to God in one of two ways: positionally or practically.
Unbelievers are totally unspiritual in both senses.
They possess neither a new spirit nor the Holy Spirit.
Their position is natural and their practice is natural.
Believers, on the other hand, are totally spiritual in the positional sense, because they have been given a new inner being that loves God and is indwelt by His Holy Spirit.
But practically, believers can also be unspiritual.
A positionally spiritual person is one with a new heart, indwelt by and controlled by the Holy Spirit
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
When we trust in Jesus Christ, His Spirit takes charge of our lives and remains in charge until we die. He will control us to His own ultimate ends, whether we submit or not
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Our resistance and disobedience can cause many unnecessary detours, delays, and heartaches, but He will accomplish His work in us
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Practically, however, believers may be anything but spiritual.
such were the Corinthian Christians.
Paul addressed them as brethren
but he made it clear that he had to speak to them on the lowest possible spiritual level.
He had to speak to them as if they were men of flesh.
the Flesh
can no longer dominate or destroy us,
but it if we allow it to the flesh will greatly influence us. That is why we yearn for the redemption of the body according to
Glorification, in one sense, will be less of a change than justification.
Justification
was transformation of the inner being;
Glorification
is the elimination of the outer being, which bears the curse
So a Christian is not characterized by sin;
it no longer represents his basic nature.
But he is still able to sin,
his sin is just as sinful as the sin of an unbeliever
Sin is sin.
When a Christian sins,
he is being practically unspiritual,
living on the same practical level as an unbeliever
. Consequently Paul is compelled to speak to the Corinthian believers much as if they were unbelievers
Nothing causes us to ignore God’s truth more than not living it.
A sinning Christian will be uncomfortable in the light of God’s truth.
He either
turns from his fleshly behavior
begins to block out God’s light
it is only when do we as Peter said in 1 peter 2:1-2
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
Like many Christians today, the Corinthians seemed quite content to stay on milk.
Some congregations do not want the pastor to get “too deep.”
Their fleshly habits are not much threatened if, for instance, the preacher sticks primarily to evangelistic messages
Evangelism is the cutting edge of the church’s mission, but it is for unbelievers, not believers.
Or the congregation wants Scripture to be preached so superficially that their sin is not exposed,
much less
rebuked
corrected.
There is no difference at all between the truths of
a spiritual milk diet
spiritual solid food diet,
except in detail and depth.
All doctrine may have both milk and meat elements.
It is not that we are to be continually learning new doctrines in order to grow,
instead that we are learning more about the doctrines we have known for years
A new Christian might explain the atonement
“Christ died for my sins.”
A long-time student of the Word,
would go into
regeneration,
justification,
substitution,
propitiation.
One explanation would not be truer than the other;
the first would be milk
the second, solid food.
Nothing is more precious or wonderful than a little baby.
But a twenty-year-old with the mind of an infant is heartbreaking.
A baby who acts like a baby is a joy
An adult who acts like a baby is a tragedy
If we do not grow spiritually, the reason is always that we are still giving in to the flesh
1
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
Immature, fleshly Christians are never the result of deficient spiritual genes or of a spiritual birth defect
They are the way they are by their own choices.
One of the worst and most disappointing problems the church can have is a congregation full of babes,
Christians who are not growing because they seek to fulfill fleshly appetites.
Because self-centeredness is at the heart of fleshly behavior,
jealousy and strife are always found in an immature congregation
Jealousy is the attitude, and strife is the action that results from it
One is the inner emotional condition, the other the outward expression of selfishness.
Those two problems, however, are merely representative of the many symptoms of the flesh.
Sinful desire is like cancer;
it has many forms
affects many parts of the church in many ways
all of them destructive.
Jealousy and strife are not the least of the symptoms of fleshly living.
Those sins are more destructive than many Christians seem to think.
They are far from being petty sins,
among other things,
they cause division in the church,
Christ’s body, for whom He gave His life
Jealousy is a severe form of selfishness,
envying someone else
because we wish we had what is not ours.
And selfishness is one of the most obvious characteristics of a baby
Division can only occur where there is selfishness.
Fleshly,
immature people
only cooperate
with those leaders
fellow believers
that they happen to agree or who personally appeal to them or will flatter them.
Factions cannot help resulting where there is jealousy and strife, or any other form of carnality.
When a congregation develops loyalties around individuals,
it is a sure symptom of spiritual immaturity and trouble.
It was sinful for factions to develop around Paul and Apollos,
it is sinful for divisive factions to develop around any leader in the church today.
Are you not walking like mere men?
“You are thinking and behaving in a fleshly way.”
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
1
(the Cure)
The cure for division is turning away from self and setting our eyes on the one God whom we all glorify
When our attention is focused on our Lord, as it always should be,
there will be no time and no occasion for division.
When our attention is on Him it cannot be on
ourselves
human leaders
human factions
The same was true, of course, for Apollos and Peter, as it is true for all other ministers of the Lord of all time
. All Christians, including even such men as those, whom the Lord used so mightily, are but His servants,
the Greek word here has the idea of a waiter.
Paul was saying in effect, “No one builds a movement around a waiter or busboy, or erects monuments to them. Apollos and I are just waiters who the Lord used as servants to bring you food. You do not please us by trying to honor us. Your honor, your glory, is misplaced. You are acting like the world, like mere men. Build your monuments, give your praise to the One who prepared the spiritual food we delivered.”
The world honors and tries to immortalize great men because men are the highest thing it knows
Christians know God—
the Creator, the Sustainer, the Savior, the Lord of the universe, and the Source of all things.
He alone is worthy of honor.
We are but His servants, His instruments.
If an artist is to be honored, you do not make a statue of his brush or his palette.
It makes no more sense for Christians to glorify men, even a Paul or an Apollos, who are only brushes or palettes in the Master’s hands.
Such are to be esteemed and loved for their work, but not revered or set against each other.
scripture
12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
1thess.5
No man, not even the best farmer, can give physical life or growth to a plant.
How much less can anyone, even an apostle, give spiritual life or growth to a person.
The most that men can do in either case is to prepare and water the soil and to plant the seeds.
The rest is up to God
In our eyes, some Christian work is
more glamorous
more important
more significant than other work.
But if God has called a person to a work,
that is the most important ministry he can have.
All of God’s work is important.
To glorify one kind of Christian work above another is just as sinfull as it is to glorify one leader above another.
no matter if we water or plant we are all working for Christ
Recognition of our oneness in the Lord is the sure and only remedy for divisiveness, It leaves no place for the flesh and its jealousy, strife, and division
God rewards on the basis of labor, not success or results.
A missionary may work faithfully for 40 years and see only a handful of converts.
Another may work far fewer years and see far more converts
it is important that as a church we remember that we don’t control the numbers God does
our job is to be faithful and grow
It is appropriate that God’s faithful servants be appreciated and encouraged while they are on earth.
But they are not to be glorified, set apart, or made the center of special groups or movements.
It is important to know that the pastorate is Christ the pastor is just his assistant.
The believers there were
God’s field,
God’s building,
His alone.
And the glory for any good work done there, or anywhere, is also His alone.
any problems and strife are caused by us
Closing
Closing
How does this apply to me?
where do you place your maturity level as a Christian?
how often do you purposely give into the flesh?
are you holding and harboring the sin of strife by blaming others?
are you being unforgiving?
are you growing as a christian?
are you serving?
what are you letting keep you from fellowship?
How does this apply to the church?
If the Christians within the church are not acting like Christians then the church is damaged and will not function as it should