Untitled Sermon (4)

Goodmorning. Many of you know that I recently became the proud father of this little ball of joy named Arden. There are a lot of things that I love about being a dad, and one of those things is getting to watch my mom be a grandma. I remember recently I asked my mom what she loves about being a grandma, and she said something like this—she said “It’s so much fun being a grandma because, having already raised my own kids, I know what it will be like to watch her grow up.”

Isn’t that awesome? But wait—do you think my mom is excited to watch Arden grow up because she’s frustrated with how cute and adorable she is? No! Guys— good parents (and grandparents) want their children to grow up not because they’re frustrated by their lack of maturity (though sometimes they may be—I haven’t had a teenager yet), but because when they see the son or daughter that they love, they see all the potential in them. They see even at a young age that God has made them for so much more than diapers and cheerios. As loving parents, we want our kids to become everything that God has designed them to be.

I LOVE my daughter. And because I love her, I don’t want her to stay little and cute forever! I want her to grow into the mature woman that God has created her to be. And as we’ll find out today, Jesus wants the same thing for the Church.

Over the past several weeks we’ve been working through Ephesians 4, learning as the Apostle Paul is expressing Jesus' vision for the Church, especially that He desires for the church to live in unity. We’ve been learning that Christ gave leaders to the Church in order to equip the Church to do works of ministry. And today, as we wrap up this passage and this series, we’re going to see Paul cast vision once again concerning the purpose for which Christ gave these leaders, and the end goal of the works of ministry. Sound good? Let’s dive in.

*read*

*pray*

So what is Christ’s goal for the Church? We find it right in the first verse of our passage. Leaders are given to equip, and each member serves and builds up the body “until, or with the goal that we all reach unity… and become mature.” Like a loving dad, Paul is encouraging us to grow. All this language that Paul is using about reaching unity, becoming mature, attaining to the measure of the fullness of Christ, growing up into the mature body, growing and being built up—in all this Paul is trying to say this one thing: We have got to grow. You can write down at the top of your outline: Christ’s goal is our growth.

But wait, I thought this series was about restoring unity? It is! But for Christ, and therefore for Paul, and therefore for those of us who are disciples of Jesus, the goal is not just unity. Paul is expressing what is essentially the same goal, but in different ways in order to give it greater meaning and nuance. Chist’s goal is unity, yes, but it’s unity AND maturity. And these are two sides of the same coin. You can write this down: Christ’s vision is for the church to be unified and mature.

Unity and maturity. Okay, that’s great, but what does that mean? Fortunately, Paul also goes on to describe the kind of unity and maturity that Christ desires.

Christ is not just going for unity, but “unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.” What does that mean? Well it means that unity is much more than just everyone getting along. This two sided coin of unity and maturity happens not when we all like each other and have fun together—maturity happens in the church when we hold fast to the truth that unifies us—especially as it pertains to Jesus, the Son of God. Part of this maturing process, and part of this unity comes from understanding and believing in who Jesus is. If you were here last week, you heard pastor Jim talk about the three most important things you need to know—who God is, who I am, what my purpose is. Part of the reason that God gave teachers to the church is so that there would be a sense of unity when it comes to answering these questions. Why? So that we can all agree all of the time? No! It’s because communities form around what they love. And as we get to know who God is, we come to love Him. And when we all know who God is, the God who came to this earth to pay the penalty for sin on our behalf, then we are drawn together as a community to adore and worship Him. Do you see what I mean? It’s not as simple as just knowing all the same stuff. It’s more about loving the same Lord. That’s what our teachers are here to do—show us with more clarity Jesus Christ, the object of our affection and devotion, so that we love Him more and more. We’re united by what we love, not what we know.

So we find unity in our knowledge of Jesus, because we are bound together by the thing that we love. But what about maturity itself? What kind of maturity are we talking about? Let’s keep reading: “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” What does maturity look like? It looks like attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Paul’s idea of maturity is looking like Jesus. This is the fourth point in the four step plan we’ve been talking about! Our unity is restored as we all become more like Christ. So, you can write down: maturity happens when we become more like Christ. The language that Paul uses here is translated a little differently in the ESV, which reads “until we all attain… to mature manhood, to the full measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” I like how the ESV uses the words “the full measure of the stature of Christ.” The idea here reminds me of those people standing out in front of the lines at Cedar Point with the candy cane measuring sticks. You know what I’m talking about? You walk up as a ten year old trying to get onto the raptor and they make you stand by the stick to see if you’re tall enough to go on the ride. In that case, each summer you’re trying to grow up into the measure of the stature of someone who is able to safely endure 6 inversions at 57 miles per hour over the course of 2 minutes and 16 seconds. The idea in our passage is that Christ is the standard for what maturity looks like. We are as a church trying to grow up to be just like Him (as verse 15 says) in every way. As a church, maturity happens only when we all become more like Him.

If you’ve been hanging out with us for any amount of time, you have likely heard us talking about this idea of becoming like Christ. That’s because our mission as a church is to lead people in the adventure of becoming like Christ! We get this language in part from Ephesians 4. And you may have also seen this CHRIST acronym. At Church of the Open Door, we don’t want there to be any confusion about what Jesus is like, and so our leaders have spent time searching the Scriptures for the key characteristics of Jesus. What does maturity look like? It looks like CHRISTlikeness—being connected to God through the Word and prayer, having a heart of worship, relating with others-centered love, engaging in intentional evangelism, being a Spirit-led servant, and being a trustworthy steward of all of God’s resources. This is Christ’s vision for the church: Unity around Him, the centerpiece of our devotion, and looking just like Him, our savior and our example.

Now… we’ve been talking about unity for six weeks now. And we’ve been talking about becoming like Christ for much longer than that. How are we doing? Do you ever stop to ask that question? How are we doing with unity and maturity? That’s what Jesus wants for the Church. Is that what you want for your life? Have we settled for a vision for the Church that is far less than what Jesus desires? Before we get too far from this point, we must point out, as we have been, that the Church appears at times anything but unified and mature. We need to be honest and admit that we all have quite a long way to go.

As I studied Paul’s words here, one thing he said really stuck out to me on this point. At the beginning of verse 14, Paul says that as we grow in maturity, “then we will no longer be infants.” At first glance I thought that was a little harsh for Paul to say—but then I realized what Paul didn’t say. Paul didn’t say “then you will no longer be infants.” He didn’t say “once you guys get your act together and become like me, the apostle Paul—then maybe we can get something done around here.” Instead he identified himself with those who needed growth. Why is that? Was Paul calling himself an infant in the faith? No, I don’t think that’s quite it. What Paul is doing is recognizing that maturity is not a destination we will arrive at in this life, but rather is a process we commit to in this life. No matter where we’re at in our walk with the Lord, there is always a next step to take. Even for the Apostle Paul. There’s always another step to a deeper walk with God, to more complete surrender, to a greater reflection of His Son.

But the road can be long. And the church can be messy. You may be sitting there thinking to yourself that this is a nice idea for an outline. But you said it yourself: we’ll never get there. What’s the point? And to some extent, you’re right. But the fact that we won’t ever become complete and perfect in this life is no excuse for the believer or for the Church. Here we need to remember Paul’s powerful words in Philippians 3:

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

And who knows what he says next?

15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.

The mature thing for us to do is to recognize we aren’t there, and then to pursue maturity relentlessly. We don’t need to beat ourselves up and sulk about how far we have to go. It doesn’t please or honor God when we throw in the towel and complain about the Church. What we need is to commit to taking steps toward maturity. If you’re discouraged with your own growth, or with the state of the church, take heart in the fact that God sees you, and that He is pleased with your pursuit of Him. He knows our frame, and He remembers that we are dust. He knows we won’t be perfect. That’s not what He’s asking for; it’s what we’re aiming for. All he’s asking for is one step at a time.

So we know this is a high calling, and we know we have a long way to go. But the next question we need to ask, and where Paul goes next is our passage, is: Why is Christ’s vision difficult for us to realize? I mean, in 2,000 years of church history, sometimes it feels like we’re farther now from unity and maturity than we were when we started. Let’s keep reading. “Then, (once we are growing into unity and maturity), then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” What is Paul saying here? In this verse, Paul is giving us a metaphor within a metaphor. He’s taking his main metaphor—the one he’s been using throughout this passage, the image of the body of Christ—and he’s saying that, when that body matures, the members will no longer be infants (which, you know, is pretty standard), but then he gives another metaphor—when the church is infantile, she is like a ship that is at the mercy of the wind and the waves, in constant danger of being thrown off course, capsized, and torn apart.

And what is the danger? What is the storm? It’s the storm of false teaching. Paul is concerned for the wellbeing of the church like a battle hardened drill sergeant is concerned for his recruits. Paul knows all too well the kinds of lies and deceptions that can work their way into a newborn church. How does Paul know? Because he has seen it over, and over, and over again. That’s one of the main reasons Paul wrote the letters that are now in our New Testament! He would go around planting Churches across the Roman world, and then people would come in after him and distort the message of the gospel.

What Paul is saying, and what he knows to be true, is that we are always under subterfuge from the enemy. I almost put “attack” here, but the reason I kept subterfuge is because it means “deceit in order to achieve one’s goal.” We’ve been talking about Christ’s vision for the church, but He is not the only one with a plan. Look at verse 14 again: “the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” These people who are spreading false teachings about the good news of Jesus have a scheme, a plan for the Church.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul calls these false teachers servants of Satan. This stuff is extremely serious to Paul. The false teaching that distorts the gospel and leads the church astray is satanic in nature. Christ’s plan is for the Church to grow and mature. Satan’s plan is to seek, kill, and destroy the church. The Bible says that He is the father of lies, and the accuser of the brethren. He accomplishes his plan by planting false teachings that distort the gospel. They take the truth and they twist it into an enticing lie. And these lies then come and work their way into our hearts and minds, becoming false narratives that we repeat to ourselves.

And if you think this was something that only happened in the First Century, you’re dead wrong. The worst part about this is that we are just as susceptible to these lies. Why is it difficult for us to become unified and mature? Because we as Christians believe some of these lies and narratives. And when we believe lies about the gospel it limits our growth. And this happens in at least two ways.

First, these lies work to limit our growth as they distract us from Christ. Along these lines, in 2 Corinthians 11:3 Paul writes to the struggling church in Corinth, saying: “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” The enemy is working to lead us away from sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Instead of giving our life and devotion to Christ, the enemy wants us to give our life and devotion to anything else under the sun. The narrative here is that you can find what you are really looking for apart from Christ. A sense of accomplishment. A sense of purpose. A sense of value. Yea, keep Jesus around, but what Jesus really wants for you is to succeed in your job, or to find a significant other who will fill the hole in your heart, or to be happy. Friends, these are the lies of the enemy. They take good things and raise them to the level of the most important things. Things like family, emotional wellbeing, self care, politics, sports, education, a boyfriend or girlfriend, your career, recreation. These are all good things. But when these good things become the center of our lives, we’ve been blown off course. Rather than enjoying a good thing, we are worshipping a created thing. Whenever we are seeking our sense of purpose or self worth apart from Christ, it is because we have made that thing an idol. Christ is not an accessory to our lives. If He is not the gravitational center, then something else is. The enemy is always seeking to shove something else onto the throne of our hearts. Have we let him? Ask yourself, am I sincerely and purely devoted to Christ, His Church, and His vision? Or is there something else that has my affection and attention? Is my level of engagement with my family, my self care, my political party, my sports and hobbies, my career and education, or my significant other keeping me from a commitment to the unity of the Church and growth in Christ?

In Romans 16:17, Paul talks again about the destructive power of false teaching. He writes: “I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” Lies distract us from Christ, and lies divide us from one another. Obviously this is true when false teaching causes serious disagreements. But I think this is most true for us today when lies make us apathetic toward one another. The narrative is this: I can find what I really need apart from the community of the Church. The sense of belonging. The support of significant relationships. I can find that elsewhere. I don’t need the Church, really. The church is alright for teaching, or for a place to be on Sundays, but in my real day-to-day life, I don’t need the community of believers. I’ve already got friends—or, I don’t really need friends at all! I have everything I need all on my own. Why would I need other people when I can just read my Bible and pray by myself?

Do you hear individualism coming out here? We believe that each man is an island. That we don’t truly need one another. When it comes to unity and maturity, we think to ourselves: “If everyone would just get alone and work on making themselves as mature as possible, then we might become mature as a community. I’ll worry about myself, you worry about yourself.” Really? That’s the community that Christ died to create? That’s the new humanity? A bunch of people cloistered away trying to better themselves? Is that what we’ve been learning in Ephesians? Absolutely not. But isn’t that kinda how we act? Have you ever noticed that almost all of our solutions for spiritual growth involve us getting alone? Is that the way it ought to be? How is it possible for us to become like Jesus apart from living in community with others? Guys, it’s not. We cannot love others if we are never around others. Does that mean we should never have alone time with God? Absolutely not! Jesus made a habit of getting alone to spend time with the Father. Most of us could probably use more! But what it does mean is that if our definition of spiritual maturity and growth doesn’t involve deeply engaging with the community of the Church, then we have a definition that is not in line with biblical Christianity.

And as long as we are in the grip of lies such as these, our ability to grow as individuals will be diminished, and our ability to grow as a community will be destroyed. We will never live Christ’s vision for His Church if we are chasing after things apart from Him, and if we are constantly at odds with or in avoidance of one another. If we want to grow, we need to recognize and resist the lies at work within us.

So, we should be growing in unity and maturity, but we are plagued by the disease of false teaching. The trouble is that on our own, without Christ, and apart from the community of the Church, we really might as well be on the open seas in a canoe, trying to paddle against the waves. And there’s not much hope for us, alone, in a canoe, trying to swim against an ocean of opposition. Pastor Jim often says it like this: The Christian life is impossible to live—on your own. You cannot do it. I cannot do it. And it’s the exact same with Christ’s vision for the Church. We cannot achieve Christ’s vision for the Church as an isolated hermit or a lone ranger. Christ’s vision is maturity, and we only become mature when we are living connected to the whole body of Christ.

What do I mean by that? Let’s remember what Paul wrote in these last few verses: “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ. [Okay, we grow as we speak the truth in love—keep that in the back of your mind] *flip slide* From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” What’s going on here?

Paul is using the image of a body to talk about the intimate connectedness that exists between Christ, His growing Church, and its individual members. Let’s look at this again.

On our own, we don’t have what it takes for the body to become mature. What do we see Christ doing here? Paul says that it is “from Him [that] the whole body… grows.” So we don’t have what is required, but when we are connected to Christ, the head of the body, when we are joined to Him, He acts as the source of the growth. In other words, Christ, who is the head, supplies all that we need to grow. If this sounds familiar, that’s because Paul is expressing in the image of the body the same truth that Jesus was expressing in John 15 in the image of the vine and the branches. Jesus said “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” In John 15, Jesus is the vine which supplies nutrients to the branches. In Ephesians 4, Jesus is the head which supplies all that is needed to the members. Apart from Him we have nothing. But when we are connected to Him, we have everything that we need.

Guys this is so important. On our own, we have nothing to offer one another. This needs to be a humbling truth that is always before us. It’s true that we need each and every person in the Church to serve in order for us to achieve unity. But that service does not come from how naturally helpful we are. And we need to build one another up in love—but the love that we have to offer in ourselves is tainted by self-centeredness and sin. But when we become a part of the body of Christ, Jesus gives each one of us a gift and a role to play in the body, so that we can contribute to its growth. And as we spend time connected to God through the Word and prayer, Christ pours into us the love that becomes the atmosphere in which growth can happen. But none of this happens apart from Him; and it only happens as we are connected to Him. Let me say it another way: When we are not connected to Christ, we have nothing to contribute to the growth of the Church. Because Christ is the source of everything that we need. We must be connected to Him through the Word and prayer.

So Christ provides the love and the gifts that we need. But if we keep that love and that gift to ourselves, what benefit is that to the body? We live in a world in which the gift that Jesus gives us is like a Christmas present we take into our room and stash away, and in which the love that Jesus has for us is to be treasured and locked up inside of us. But that is not how the body grows. Rather, Paul says, the body has a role to play.

In the love that Christ has poured into us, we speak truth. Rather than lying in order to destroy the church, we grow as we lovingly speak truth into the lies at work in our community, pointing one another back to the faith that we share, and to a true understanding of Jesus, the object of our affection. And out of the gift that Christ has given, we grow as we each part does its work. As we serve one another. The image is not of each of us building ourselves up as individuals. The image is of each of us building up one another as we serve with the gift we have been given.

Isn’t that dynamic? Isn’t it humbling? Isn’t it beautiful? That Christ invites us into this divine process, by which He orchestrates the growth of the Church that He loves, that He died to save, until it is a vibrant, unified, Christlike community of disciples that change the world. That as we serve in our gifting, and as we speak the truth in love, we are representing Christ to one another, who is the source of it all.

This is Christ’s vision for the Church. And it is beautiful. And it is available to us today! But we will only achieve Christ’s vision for the Church when we grow in maturity. The question before us today at the end of this series is: Will we commit to Christ’s vision for the Church, or will we settle for less? Friends, let’s commit to taking steps toward maturity, growing more deeply connected to Christ, the head, and to one another as the body.

And isn’t that what happens as we come to the table of the Lord’s supper together? When we celebrate communion, all who are a part of Christ’s body come together as the body to remember and celebrate the body that was broken for us. It’s an expression of our connection with one another, as well as our connection with Jesus. So on the first Sunday of every month we come together to remember Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, to celebrate the forgiveness of sins in His blood, and to proclaim Him until He returns. And you don’t have to be a member to participate, we invite anyone who confesses Jesus as Lord to celebrate with us. So as the elements come around, go ahead and grab the bread and the cup and then I will come back and lead us as we celebrate this communion we have.