Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 34 – May 1976

 

Growing Up In Jesus Christ

 

Sermon by Rev. P. G. van Dam on Ephesians 4:15

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 4.15-5.20

Outline of sermon on Ephesians 4.15: "Rather, speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way into Him Who is the Head, into Christ....!”

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This text was chosen at one time in connection with 'Calvinette Sunday'.  I would like to make two remarks in connection with special names for Sundays.

The Sunday is the day of the LORD Of course, none of us would like to interfere with that thought, or to let other interests come before the place of His Word.  Still the Name of our Lord is holy, and the Lord's day is a holy day ('hallowed'; 4th command) Therefore we should refrain FROM ADDING OTHER NAMES to His day.

In the second place: the study of the Word may be determined by a text or passage of Scripture chosen with a particular activity or cause of our church(es) in mind.  And during the service we may give particular thought to such activity or cause (especially in our prayer and offerings).  But we must be aware that the Lord on His day has called ALL of His people together: THE FAMILIES, in order that He should speak to them all.  Therefore the proclamation of His Word must be a proclamation to us all; not to just one part of the congregation in particular.

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Our theme today is:

                                    GROWING UP IN JESUS CHRIST.

Young people and older people alike need to hear this.  It is relevant for all of us (as a matter of fact it is sometimes true that children have grown up in Jesus Christ more than some of the older ones among us.)

When we are young we want to grow up.  We want to become wiser, to get ahead.  We want to belong to the older ones, to think we are something, to have our own say and rights etc.  We show this in the way we talk or act or – sometimes – dress.

And much of this does not apply just to the younger ones.

Still, whether we are younger or older, we all will have to admit from time to time that it is not so easy or joyful at times to stand on our own two feet.  We all make mistakes, and discover that some of our ideas were stupid.  We may get laughed at, or told off.  There are many things in the lives of each one of us to remind us that we have not really “gotten there yet”.

And then there are those other signs which – although we would like to deny this – nevertheless are symptoms of the fact that we have not really quite grown up yet: jealousy, pride, feeling hurt easily, having a big mouth, showing off a critical attitude, talking behind someone's back, feeling sorry for oneself, etc.  All these symptoms have the same idea in common: being concerned with oneself, one's own name and prestige (usually as a cover-up of the fear of being less than the other one, or of not being able yet to live with oneself).

We all are troubled by these things in some way(s) and at some time(s).  Yet for as long as we are busy with OURSELVES, consciously or unconsciously, this is the mark of not having grown up yet!

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Let us now consider this growing process from a different starting-point (or basis).

We all like to say that we are Christians.  Well, that is fine!

But what does it mean; to be a Christian?

BASICALLY, two things.

1.  If I am a Christian I KNOW and CONFESS that IN MYSELF I am a bad sinner, evil in all of my being.  On top of that: utterly guilty before God.

That if it were not for Jesus Christ, His coming to me, His paying the punishment for my guilt, and His giving me a new life in which His Spirit rules, I would be nothing, worthless, condemned by God Himself.

There are many places in Scripture which make that very clear:

'None is righteous; no, not one; no one does good, no not one.' (Rom.3.10,12).

'For if anyone thinks he is something when (=while in fact) he is nothing (anyway) he deceives himself' (Gal.6.3).

‘...none of you (should be) puffed up for what have you that you did not receive (=you have nothing of your own or in your own self)' (1Cor.8.2).

'If anyone thinks he knows something he does not yet know as he ought ' (1Cor.8.2.).

Instead, says Paul, 'but (it is) BY THE GRACE OF GOD that I am what I am’ (1Cor.15.10).

These are just a few places which illustrate the practical aspects or consequences of my sinfulness, in which I have no merit of my own, in any sense!

In my own self I am absolutely nothing, and stand condemned if it were not for the work of Jesus Christ Who saved me from my guilt and from the results of my evil being.

2.  The second meaning of being a Christian is that I am aware that Christ lives in me.  He has taken over from me, as I would only have made an even bigger mess of my life.

But if He has taken over, if He has come into me (through His Spirit) to take over, THEN THIS SHOULD SHOW!

Then, if He lives in me, I should indeed be like Him!  How else could that be?  Paul says this too, in Rom.8.29: ‘We have been conformed to the image of His Son'.

But this means that now I am the opposite of what I was before, in my own sinful self, in my old desires to live just for myself, by my likes.

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To sum it up:
            to be a Christian basically means this:

1.  THAT I KNOW WHO JESUS CHRIST IS: why He came, what He did for me, and what I now have in Him.  And what my condition and future' would have been like if He had not come.

2.  THAT I SHOW WHO HE IS, because HE lives in me.

To be a Christian means therefore that in all my life
            I KNOW and...
            I SHOW
                        my Saviour and...
                        my Master and My Lord.

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But remembering our theme these two conditions are the same conditions which are THE MARKS OF GROWING UP for the Christian!

For this is what we read earlier, in Ephesians 4:13:

'...until we all attain to the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature (=grown-up!) manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children.......!"

Here, indeed, we read the very same conditions if we are to consider ourselves growing up:

1.  the knowledge of the Son of God (Jesus Christ), and

2.  we must be a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
               = we must be a statue – a picture – OF THE FULNESS OF CHRIST.
            In fact our text also speaks of very much the same conditions.

a)  we must speak THE TRUTH the truth concerning Jesus Christ (He only is the Truth!  John 14.6); but this means that if we must speak the truth of Him we must, to begin with, KNOW Him.  Know all about Him.   That makes sense, does it not?

b)  we must speak the truth IN LOVE.  In other words we must not only know Him but as in our knowledge – we speak of Him we must also show Him, SHOW HIM IN HIS LOVE.

(Much more could be said about this text, as there is much more in it but at the moment we are concerned with just these two elements' only.)

Of course, knowing and speaking the truth and showing Him in His love these two conditions go together.  It could not be otherwise.  In fact we have already said this, haven't we?

As a Christian I believe, with the words of Paul that 'It is no longer I who live but Christ Who lives in me' (Gal.2.20).

In other words, to put it rather plainly: I am not myself anymore!  I don't live.

Jesus Christ has taken over:         FROM me
                                                            FOR me,
                                                            IN me

So then to put the two conditions for growing up together we must conclude that it means this:
            TO LET HIM LIVE MY LIFE.

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But this has two consequences, though!

a)  If Jesus Christ is my life then no one else could really hurt me, could he?  Because I myself do not exist anymore, when I come to think of it.
Yes, He does hurt Jesus Christ, and I should have no peace with THAT;
 but I should not be worried about MYSELF AT ALL.
(Therefore, jealousy, anger revenge etc.  are out, if indeed I have grown up in Christ!)

In sense, TO BE MATURE IS TO BE LIKE A LITTLE CHILD.  When a little child is hurt it goes to its father or mother.  And they are His all, therefore the hurt soon is not important anymore.

Well, if I say that Jesus is MY all, then why don't I go to Him with my hurt and forget about it?

Many of us are not mature because we have not become like little children (the same little children Jesus speaks of as the only ones who will enter the kingdom, of heaven (Matt.18.3).

b)  The other consequence of letting Jesus live my life is as we said we show this And all of our reading in connection with our text (4.15-5.20) teaches us how this is, in what ways: see for instance chap. 4 the verses 23, 25, 29,31 and 32; chap.5 Verses 1,2,4,8-10,17,19 and 20.  (The reader could make a selection from these verses)

Well, if Jesus is my all I have no desire at all to be proud, to let my voice be heard, to claim my rights, to shout etc.

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For me, a Christian, one who is in Christ, to grow up, means this: that whether I am a young child or an older child I will have become....
            a CHILD of God
            a child, which looks like his Father

Living with Him,..
            in Him...
            for Him, who is my ALL.

AMEN