The Measure of Maturity: Becoming like Jesus (Eph. 4:11-14)

Intro

What is mature Christian? 

What does that look like? 

Who comes to your mind? 

Let’s make this more personal, 

Are you a mature Christian?

Are there people who are more mature than you in this room? 

If that’s the case, what are the characteristics that objectively mark you as mature?

What is needed for you to mature from where you are at right now?  

The reason I'm asking these questions is because so many of us don't have a clear idea of what a mature Christian looks like and thus, if your target is unclear, your path will be unclear and your progress will be hindered. 

In the attempt to shield people from being hurt or creating a judgmental kind of culture where we compare ourselves to others, we have shied away from ever speaking in categories of mature or immature, and that has been frankly unbiblical and actually, more hurtful to people. 

I mean who wants to be part of a community where we are pronouncing over others that they are immature? 

The Bible speaks about different categories regularly and that has done a disservice to the church by not being honest about it.

How we go about doing that though makes all the difference.

This morning, I want our church to know how to measure maturity and for us to have a clear target and passion we are all aiming for. 

The Measure of the Stature of Christ

In Ephesians 4, we see that God has given the church a number of different gifts and offices that exist to build up the body and equip each member to fulfill their own ministry. We will focus on four characteristics that are the result of being built up and equipped. 

Ephesians 4:13 ESV

13 until 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,

1. Unity of the faith 

• Paul also calls them to maintain the unity of the Spirit earlier in the chapter four with all humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love. 

• Remember, the immature Corinthian Christians. Paul calls them babies, infants in Christ! 

• A key Sign of their immaturity was that they were quarreling and dividing. Throughout scripture is that a clear sign of immaturity is an inability to walk in true unity with others. 

2. Knowledge of the Son (This is not just knowing facts or in an academic way, its actually intimately knowing of someone). So this is someone who knows Jesus intimately. 

3. Mature manhood is a tricky phrase. 

• I wish they just translated it literally. 

The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition (with Morphology) Chapter 4

ἄνδρα τέλειον

• “The perfect man.” 

Who’s that?

JESUS!

Remember, Jesus is the perfect image of God.

So as you intimately know him, you become like the perfect man. 

And the final one, which is connected to the previous, 

4. into the stature of Christ’s fullness

What does that mean?

› Cue the image,

Imagine a giant statue of a bodybuilder and you buy it to put in your room. Its your model. Its your standard. Its what you want to look like one day so you go to the gym constantly measuring yourself in the mirror in if you are looking more like it. 

That’s a crude illustration but the point is that Jesus is the perfect image of God. He is the statue we are trying to grow into. He is the measure for us.

Now, for us to grow into the measure or stature of Christ, means that we can be formed into something else. 

Please note this, everyone is already formed in an image. 

But what shape or form are we already formed in? 

1 Corinthians 15:49 ESV

49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

We can be formed into the sinful form of Adam or we can be formed into the image of Christ, the man of heaven. 

But let me go back to the questions I asked earlier,

How do you measures someone’s maturity?

The measure of someone's maturity is how much have they been formed into the image of Christ out of the image of Adam. 

Simply put, how much you are like Christ. 

“ Jesus came from heaven in order that the image of God might be restored in you. And because of Jesus, we now know what that image looks like.” - Ranken Wilbourne 

1 John 2:6 ESV

6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

We need to know how he walked. 

We need to know what he was like. 

The clearer your understanding , the more you can walk like Jesus. 

What you believe about Jesus will shape what you will become. 

We want to:

• Believe like Jesus (Jesus has perfect doctrine about God, man, everything)

• Feel like Jesus (Jesus has his emotions properly calibrated to every situation)

• Do like Jesus (Jesus always does the right thing and thinks the right things)

It would be a foolish endeavor to try to embody the fullness of Christ character in one sermon let alone one section. 

We won't have time to get into all that Jesus did down to how he made disciples to how he got alone with the father in solitary places, even when he was incredibly busy. 

But I want to focus on the character of Christ, namely his love. 

Why his love? 

Let me show you. 

What is Jesus like: Love & the Whole of Christ

Ephesians 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Just like children imitate their parents, that is the motivation Paul is calling us too. 

As dearly loved children, imitate your heavenly father. 

But then Paul, does something interesting, he switches to talking about Christ. 

Ephesians 5:2 ESV

2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Why does Paul switch to talking about Christ?

If you want to see what the father is like, look at the Son. Jesus is the perfect image of the Father. They reflect each other. Whatever you see in one, you can see in the other.

And so Paul is drawing our attention to imitate Christ in his life. 

And how does he most demonstrate his love?

He gave himself up for us.

So the idea is, as Christ has loved us, we follow his example and love others in a self-sacrificial manner. Love that costs something. 

When we think of Jesus, most will immediately think of his love. 

But, Jesus has many other attributes. 

But its right to think of his love first because, I argue that all Christ does, he does it flowing from his love. 

The problem is we have too small of a view of love. 

Our love is too worldly. Too small. 

Think about Christ humility. 

What compelled him to lay down his divine rights and suffer like us humans?

Love! 

When we think about Christ love, we can just think that he is the nicest guy you've ever ever met. But this love demands more than just being nice.

What drives Jesus to publicly rebuke the Pharisees and drive out in anger the crooks in the temple?  

Love! Sometimes love can drive you towards courageous act that seem extremely inappropriate to cultural sentiments. 

Love, demands him to be outraged when he sees hypocrisy from religious leaders, for they are abusing his people and causing them to stumble. 

When you truly love, you hate that which hurts the object of your love.

What causes Jesus to weep, likely angry tears at the death of his friend Lazarus? 

Love! Love that  hates death. Hates all that the curse takes away from his beloved people.

Do you see Jesus, weeping as he overlooks the city of Jerusalem, how he wants to be like a mother hen and hold his people to his chest?

What causes Jesus to be angry at his disciples when they shoe away the children? 

It's his love for kids. 

Jesus is deeply emotional, but his emotions are always properly calibrated. 

All of us know that we can overreact to something that upsets us. I did it just yesterday. 

But did you know that you can also under-react? 

There can be a great evil, there could be great sin, there could be some injustice, and you can under-react to it. 

Jesus perfectly responds to situations with the right emotions. 

He weeps when he should weep. 

He is angry when he should be angry. 

He knows how to have a good time at a party, so much so that people accuse him of being a drunkard. 

He asked for his disciples to be near him when he is lonely in the garden. 

He knows how to express his needs. 

Jesus is emotional, but he's not controlled by his emotions and he knows how to feel rightly and express it rightly in every situation. 

Are you a timid person?

Yes, you need more courage. 

But do you know what we will give you more courage?

Christ’s love!

When I was in my preaching class in Bible college, I was so afraid of looking proud. I was so afraid of what my classmates would think of me that I was completely debilitated from actually serving them with the word. Francis Chan was the professor, and he told me, “Sam, be consumed with your love of the people in front of you, that you forget to even think about yourself.” 

That left a huge impression on me.

Some of you fear, speaking, but perhaps it has less to do with your skills as a public speaker, but that you need more love. My love was too little. I thought about myself a lot when I was speaking. 

The love of Jesus will compel you to do things you would never dream of doing. Acts That sound like the stuff of legend and you only realize how crazy it is after the fact. When you were in the midst of it, you were blinded by love. Love drove you to be blind to all danger.

Do you see his love?

It can be ferocious.

Courageous. 

Absurd.

See how he hangs on that cross, and cries out to His father to forgive those who are killing him. 

 Who loves enemies like him?

If you wanna know the measure of your maturity, how well do you love your enemies?

How consistently do you love those who hurt you? 

How much do you love people who can give you nothing in return?

Who loves like Jesus?

He does not fit in any perfect gender stereotype. 

He can be tender and tough.

Ferocious yet weep with others. 

Qualification

There is going to be a spectrum in this room where certain attributes of Christ more resonate with you. They fit your personality type more. 

Some of you are more loud like me and so when you see Jesus rebuking the Pharisees you're like, "yeah, that's what I'm talking about.” And praise God that he is wired you in that way. 

But the same time you can totally ignore his painful tears at death and you shame other people to suck it up and trust God. 

Others of you are drawn towards the tenderness of Christ. You are wired towards mercy. And so you are quick to weep with those who weep and show mercy. 

However, you would never stand up publically to injustice and risk public shame. 

Some of you love fighting for truth, but you would never be caught dead eating and drinking with modern-day tax collectors and with prostitutes because you care too deeply of what people would think of you. 

Jesus is OK with being misunderstood for the sake of love. 

Are you? 

People often grow fast in some areas but then hit a wall  

Lean into the attributes of Christ that seem harder for you, less familiar and this will round you out. 

A New Passion for your Life 

I want to challenge you to take upon a passion to become like Jesus. 

The image of God was marred at the fall. 

And every single day we have a chance to participate with what the spirit of God is doing and restore the image of God in us.

Or we can resist the spirit and be malformed into the image of the world. 

I want to challenge you to make this your second goal in life. 

To become like Christ.

Next week, we will talk a lot more about how to do that, but I want you to make a commitment to the pursuit first. 

Does anyone remember these? 

W.W.J.D. Bracelets? 

W.W.J.D.  is a fine saying. It helped me when I was a new Christian.

 But it often can be also a challenge to think what Jesus would do when we know that Jesus was not an asian teenager in Georgia trying to play for the NBA.

Or if you are female, trying to think what Jesus would do as a new frustrated nursing mother. 

I’ve been helped by re-framing this question from John Mark Comer, 

“Remember: the question we should be constantly asking as followers of Jesus isn’t actually, What would Jesus do? A more helpful question is, What would Jesus do if he were me? If he had my gender, my career, my income, my relationship status? If he was born the same year as me? Lived in the same city as me? What would that look like? To follow Jesus is to ask that question until our last breath.”

You can also reword that question into a prayer you can ask for every situation and relationship in your life. 

Jesus, how would you work under this difficult boss?

Jesus, how would you parent the infinite complexities of each of my children's needs?

Jesus, how would you be a good neighbor?

Jesus, how would you love my spouse when they are so deeply unthoughtful and ignorant of my needs?

PAUSE

But how do you imitate Jesus in an area that the Bible doesn’t explicitly address?

The Bible says nothing about if you should have Bitcoin!

Visit Jesus regularly in the Gospels. And as you walk with him, let his heart become your heart. 

See the NT author’s who walked with Jesus, how they lived, and what they taught. These all give us more understanding of what Jesus would do in every situation. 

And the more you know Jesus, the more you know how he would act in all the messiness of life. 

You then have the instincts to know how to handle all kinds of complex situations as you know what Jesus would likely do in that situation. 

Imagine if every one of us lived like this?

Just like last sermon, we talked about God‘s image being more fully displayed in billions of humans. In a similar manner, we need Jesus’s image in all spheres. We need him in schools. We need him in businesses and different neighborhoods. In different relationships. 

That’s how we will see the original mandate of seeing his glory and dominion cover the world. 

As redeemed image bearers of Jesus spreading throughout all of the world. 

Is that a passion for your life? 

Your second most important goal? 

Is that what you want for your kids? 

If its not, realign your heart. 

You must hear from the Lord Jesus himself, looking into your eyes, calling you to follow him and become like him.

There is this strange thing in the church where many will complain that their pastor is not discipling them or the church did not disciple them but we don't see that as the primary call in the New Testament. Jesus calls you to follow him. You are responsible to follow Jesus. It is my responsibility to help you and equip you, but you must take ownership of your own pursuit of Christ-likeness. I cannot want it more than you. 

Though for many of you, I do. That is why Paul says in Galatians that he feels the pain of childbirth until Christ is fully formed in his people. I do feel that, though rarely the pain of childbirth. But I do feel that for you. I feel a great pain in a longing and a passion for Christ to be fully formed in you. 

And I want you to take ownership over that for yourself.

You were made for this. To restore the image of God in you!

If you are not living out your design as the image of God, then your life will be full of futility. Full of pain. Maybe not at first but you will eventually hit your wall, because you are working against your design.

What would it look like if every single one of us made one of the greatest passions of our life to follow Jesus and every day life and increasingly became more like Him?

Gospel: Be with God

I keep saying second goal, maybe you caught that. 

What's the first goal?

To be with the father. 

To be with God is what the gospel is all about!

Your goal in life is not to be like Jesus as if that is all that God wants from you.

He wants you!

The reality is, all of us in this room, woefully fall short of being like Christ. 

You look at every single area of our life, and there's more room to grow. 

If Jesus’ purpose was for us to just be like Him, then he would be deeply heartbroken and defeated. Cause we are all failing. 

But that was not why he came.

He came to bring us back home. 

I wanna remind you of the atonement. 

Theologians have broken apart this word atonement as

AT ONE MENT

Another words, Christ work on the cross, self sacrificing himself because of our rebellion, makes away so we can become one with God again. 

That's the goal! Don't forget that. Don't let becoming more like Jesus become some twisted way to justify ourselves. 

God wanted you when you were nothing like Christ. 

God wanted you when you were still a sinner and an enemy of Him. 

God wants you all despite all the ways we don’t want Him. 

And when you really believe this, that God loves you, as you are, not the future you, the better you, the more Christlike, you, 

then you will actually begin to grow. 

Because true change can only come from a foundation of being deeply secure in the father's love. 

So next week we're gonna talk more about how do we practically grow as a community and make disciples who make disciples. 

But I want to challenge you to pray with me a prayer that I picked up about 20 years ago. 

It's terrifying prayer. 

Like this,

“Jesus, make me more like you, no matter what it takes.”

God will use the prayer to do tremendous renovations in your heart. 

This is the measure of maturity. 

If you realize you’re spiritually immature, you are invited to follow Jesus and take on his likeness. 

You are invited to be like Christ. 

This is why our mission statement is, 

Our mission is to follow Jesus in everyday life and help all kinds of people do the same. 

Conversation questions with Jesus: 

Jesus, what are you saying to me through this word? 

____, I am saying…

Jesus, what do you want me to do? 

____, I want you to…