Maturity: Chapter One

Maturity Book Study (Ferguson) • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago

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A book study of Sinclair B. Ferguson, “Maturity: Growing Up and Going On in the Christian Life” (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 2019)

Notes

Transcript

Handout

The Importance of Maturity

What are some goals you have in our study of this topic of maturity?

What are the most important lessons the New has to teach us about being a Christian?

Live for the glory of God

Live and speak forth the truths of the Gospel

Colossians 1:28–29 ESV

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

“But it is easy to neglect our calling to grow up to be mature Christians. Paul’s words may be all too painfully appropriate (1 Cor. 3:1-2)

1 Corinthians 3:1–2 ESV

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

What we missing out on if we remain immature?

How does our immaturity affect:

Our own lives?

The lives of our families?

And the lives of the church?

Ferguson mentions the story a young person who went to Bible school for a year and came back “mature.” In our fast food, instant oriented society, we do not want to “wait,” or “take our time” in developing spiritual maturity.

Two Potential “Polar” Problems

One extreme we face is the slowness that comes with maturity. Just as we did not become thinking adults overnight, we do not become spiritually mature by attending church for a month straight or reading our Bibles through for one year. We can easily become frustrated with our lack of Christlikeness because it does not come naturally nor quickly.

The other polar extreme is that we make excuses for our lack of growth and attempt to blame it on the process of maturing.

Ferguson, “It requires time and patient progress.” (3)

He goes on to say, “It [i.e., spiritual maturity] is developed only in the school of discipleship, in which extensive courses have been designed to produce the maturity that expresses itself in Christlike character.” (4)

But the road to maturity has some hinderances.

Hinderances to Maturity

1. Contemporary society discourages spiritual maturity

The world in general teaches us to shortcut the ways of God (marriage, children, accumulation of wealth, etc.).

2. Our personal background can hinder growth to maturity

“We may never have been exposed to influences that help to shape and develop mature spiritual character.” (4–5)

Areas that I have observed in my pastoral ministry:

Lack of solid, biblical teaching and preaching

Absence of serious study of Scripture

Lack of serious discipleship and godly examples

3. “Christian” influences may not encourage ministry

Ferguson describes two symptoms of how “Christians” can negatively influence the development of maturity.

“One is a lack of seriousness.”

Here are two pictures of church services on Sunday mornings. One at Saddleback Church, notable for Rick Warren. The other is the Church at the Glades.

I tried to get a link, but a megachurch in Ohio had a Superbowl themed service, which was basically a church-a-fied Superbowl complete with projections and interviews, and a kick off of the Bible where one lady who claims the title of a pastor, literally kicked a Bible for a field goal.

That is an extreme case, but it still influences how many people think about God and church.

Another aspect of a lack of seriousness, and one in which our churches here may be more prone to, is treating church haphazardly or apathetically.

“Another is a lack of teaching.”

There are multiple ways in which this can affect the church.

First, it can be a lack of solid teaching. False teaching and/or poor teaching will never bring a believer to maturity.

Second, there is a lack of consistent teaching. It takes a whole Bible to make a whole Christian. We need to work through the Scriptures, paying close attention to the development of redemption and God’s rules for our lives.

Third, there is a lack of depth. People preach or teach on hot topics, political issues, or hobby horses.

With these hinderances (and many more could be said), we may be discouraged. But, as Ferguson reminds us, “in one form or another, the hinderances we experience were well known to the writers of the New Testament.” (6)

What is maturity?

The word conveys wholeness

Fullness

Completion

“Thus, naturally, in ordinary use teleios came to denote adult behaviour, maturity, the opposite of childishness…” (7)

Why maturity?

The necessity to follow the Lord Jesus in His growth into maturity- Heb. 2:10

The need to follow the example of the Lord Jesus- Luke 2:42, 51

Maturity in Paul’s Letters

To the Corinthians

1 Corinthians 14:20 “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.”

The Corinthians faced similar problems to those we face today. One problem they faced was factions (liking one preacher better than another).

1 Corinthians 1:12 “What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.””

Another problem they had was the exercise of their spiritual gifts. Paul lists out the spiritual gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 1:7 “not lacking in any gift”, cf. 1 Cor. 14:26). They were selfish and boastful in their gifts. They also failed to purge out wickedness. In addition, in their observance of the Lord’s Supper they were getting drunk or stuffing themselves without concern for the other believers.

I like the way Ferguson describes the situation,

“What had gone wrong? Instead of seeing their leaders and their spiritual gifts as the wrapping paper in which the parcels of God’s grace were given to them, they were behaving like infants—fascinated with the wrapping paper and ignoring both the Giver and the reasons for his gifts.” (12)

How could the Corinthians be like this? They were not mature: 1 Cor. 3:1–2

1 Corinthians 3:1–2 ESV

Ferguson includes passages from Paul that demonstrate the need for maturity in the Philippian Church, the Ephesian Church, and the Colossae Church.

Ferguson ends the chapter with these words, “If maturity was the great goal of the apostles’ ministry, then it ought to be a goal in our own lives too, and the deep desire of our hearts. But is it?” (18)

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