Joy in Growth
Series: On The Way to Joy: A Study in Philippians
What's the favorate age of your kids? For our daughter, Tahlia its "3."
The real tragedy would be if she stayed at that age.
- Never able to read or write
- Never able to take a walk by herself
- Never able to cut her own meat
- Never able to get a job, get married, go to school, meet new friends, have her own children
Three was great, watching her grow is better.
1. The Christian Life is a Life of Growth
I bring this up because what Paul is talking about here is that our life as Christ followers should naturally lead us to growth.
Words like:
- Strain toward what is ahead
- Press to the goal
- Mature
They talk about progress.
Change
Growth
A. In two places, the Bible sets the standard that we should be growing.
1 Corinthians 3:1-2 - Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
Hebrews 5:11-14 - 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, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
B. Christian Growth Isn't About Age
Both in 1 Corinthians & Hebrews he talks to people who "should" be mature but were still infants.
Article: Youth fades; Immaturity lingers
Example of Emotional Age
- One's emotional age is the age of an individual, expressed in terms of the chronological age of an average normal individual showing the same degree of emotional maturity. It is similar to the concept of emotional intelligence as a metric. Emotional age is commonly used to describe the social abilities of an autistic person. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_age)
- Sometimes children revert to a younger developmental stage (bed-wetting, thumb-sucking, clinging). Teenagers might respond by taking on the role of a parent, acting as an adult and taking charge of the situation. Or, the teen might try to escape in sex, drugs and alcohol.
- Children who are traumatized can develop depression, anxiety, mood disorders and/or behavior disorders. (Source: Traumatic Stress in Children, NRCFCPPP, January 8, 2008)
Instead of age Paul is looking for some other metric.
2. What Is A Mature Christian?
v.15 - Those of us who are "mature"
Greek = Telos
- morally perfect
- Matthew 5:48 - Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
- genuine, being true (1Jn 4:18)
- mature in one's behavior
I spent some time looking at other places where Paul uses this and it talks about an integrated faith that works with other people, interacts with the Holy Spirit and is focused on service.
1 Cor 14:20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature (Context = prophecy & tongues)
Ephesians 4:11-16 -
(Context - he just laid out how the Spirit gives gifts to people)
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ntil we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
We could spend sermons unpacking all these thoughts....but for today lets look at what Paul was saying to the Philippians.
3. The Goal=The Upward Call
ESV: Philippians 3:14 - I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
NIV has "called heavenward"
But I like the idea of "the upward call"
A. The Goal isn't to Escape this World but to Transform This World
Many of the world's religions have its goal as escape from this world.
Buddhism:
"Bhikkhus, when ignorance is abandoned and true knowledge has arisen in a bhikkhu, then with the fading away of ignorance and the arising of true knowledge he no longer clings to sensual pleasures, no longer clings to views, no longer clings to rules and observances, no longer clings to a doctrine of self. When he does not cling, he is not agitated. When he is not agitated, he personally attains Nibbana. He understands: Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what has to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being." (Shorter Discourse on the Lion's Roar (M.N. Bodhi p163)
Nibbana or Nirvana = escape
There is good to be done now, but good deeds are seeds that grow up within you to help you reach detachment and escape.
In CHRISTIANITY:
Our goal isn't to leave.
When we die, we do leave and get to be with Jesus.
But that's only temporary.
One day there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
So the work we do today has eternal consequences.
B. How Did Jesus Follow the Upward Call?
Philippians 2:6-11 - who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
-
Decent / Humility
- Service
- Matthew/Levi Through a party
- Complaints: "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners'?"
- Matt 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
- Service was reaching out
- Ascent
- Renewal
C. We Are Expected to Follow This Example of Maturity
Philippians 2:14-16 - Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Like Jesus at Matthew's tax collector Party
Like Jesus with the woman at the well
4. How To Grow in Maturity
#1 - Admit You're Not There Yet
v.12a - Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect
#2 - FOCUS
v.12b - ...press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Press = Persecute in v.6
Matthew 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Kierkegaard - Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing
??? How to do this in a REAL WORLD / REAL LIFE???
#3 - Don't Pick and Choose The Ways You'll Follow Jesus
v.15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
Study the Bible
Prayer
Push Yourself out of your comfort zone