Growing in the School of Christ

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca. You can also find us on Instagram, Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word, or on Facebook.

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Growing in the School of Christ and Christian Maturity

If you would, consider the experience of life for just a moment. Your childhood, a time when you had no real cares in the world. You didn't know many things, if anything at all, and things were much simpler and easier then.

And as sweet and as joyous, as simple as that time is, it does not last. It eventually comes to an end. It is not our perpetual state of existence. We get older, eventually enter school and begin a formal education.

And throughout your teenage years, slowly but surely, responsibilities appear and make themselves known to us. Little by little, things gradually begin to change. Perhaps you start a part-time job and get a driver's license and so on.

And then the glorious day finally arrives when you get to leave this horrendous institution called high school. And you only find out that life becomes even a bit more serious than it used to be. Some sort of career choice has to be made.

Necessary steps to that end have to be taken. Your parents' home is left behind and a new home and family is established. That is generally the normative path that all of us walk on from childhood to adulthood.

It is a path of growing older, of maturing, of progressing through various stages of life. We advance as we get older. Now for the Christian, however, that is not all there is, is it? It is not the only area in which we progress, so to speak.

Beside these common stages that are known and experienced by all men, we make progress in our Christian walk as well. And this process begins as soon as one is saved, as soon as one is grafted in to the family of God, a process of spiritual growth and maturing.

You could say one enters, as the Puritans used to call it, the school of Christ. We become lifelong students in what one Puritan long ago called the Christian university, which we learn and which we're being refined, being taught and grow.

We enter as children, but over time we must mature into men and women of God. We get older, not only and mainly in age, but in Christian maturity. You see, the Christian life is to be one of progress, not of progressively earning, of course, our salvation or becoming more likable or loved by God, but of growth.

Remember Peter urging his readers to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. Paul rebuking the Corinthians for not having grown and still being infants in Christ that need milk because they're not ready for the solid food.

And our problem is that far too often we do not think of the Christian life that way. We think salvation is all there is. It is the end of the Christian life. We're safe, done, done deal, right? We're good.

What else could there be? Sure, our desires have changed somewhat in comparison to what they used to be, but besides that, this is it. Or perhaps we have an averseness to growing because it smells too much of works to us.

And we rightly have a great distaste for any sort of works besides the work of Christ. And so too many of us, after entering the kingdom of heaven as children, remain as children. We never move on to solid food, always needing this milk to feed on.

And we see many churches operating that way. People are brought in in great numbers and they get no real sustenance, perhaps barely enough to stay alive, really. But as we wander through this sometimes barren wasteland of this fallen world, we have to grow and get stronger in our faith if we want to persevere.

Now what does this have to do with our text? We'll see that John, in this passage in verses 12 through 14, is addressing three groups of Christians. These three groups represent different stages of the Christian life, of Christian growth and maturity that we go through and ought to aim for.

Over the last few weeks we have heard how we ought to have love and obedience to our Lord's commands, how we ought to love our brothers and have love for one another. In a similar way, we must mature and ripen as we get older in the faith.

We don't remain the same as we were when we entered the household of God, standing in place until we drop dead. There should be a difference between your first day as a Christian and your very last day as a Christian before you enter into glory.

And so I want us to consider some of these stages of Christian growth as John addresses each of these different groups. I want us to see that we first enter into the family of God, His children, and that we have the aim of knowing our God and that we grow lastly as we progress.

So let's read the text and then work our way through it. Beginning in verse 12, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.

I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.

Before we begin to consider what John is saying in our first heading, we have to briefly consider who he is saying it to. It's a passage that has been interpreted slightly different over the course of church history by many reliable and trustworthy commentators and preachers, and each interpretation has their own strengths and weaknesses, I think.

We find here in our text three different groups of people that are named. We have the children, the fathers, and the young men, and some have suggested that John here is speaking in total to one and the same collective group, his entire audience.

He's simply addressing all of them with different terms, each time applying different truths applicable to them. Others, Reformers, for example, like Calvin and I believe Luther, have suggested that the Apostle is addressing all believers in verse 12 when he addresses them as little children.

It's the same wording John has used earlier in chapter 2 and verse 1 and continues to use another five times throughout this letter, and it seems every time he's addressing his entire audience. And so then after addressing all of his audience, he then focuses his attention mainly on the old and the fathers and the younger and the young men, and so the Christians are divided into two age groups of the older and younger.

And then a third interpretation, one that I am inclined to, held by some of the Puritans and other trusted modern preachers, teaches that the use of this parallelism that we see here, this repeated, I'm writing to you, I'm writing to you, I'm writing to you, I write to you, repeating children, fathers, and young men, indicates that John is in fact addressing to, talking to three distinct groups of Christians, and these groups identify or are identified or respective of the differing stages of maturity and growth of the Christian.

And so after exhorting them to obedience and keeping our Lord's commandments and love for one another, he's now encouraging his audience by reminding them of the truths of their faith in the midst of this unrest and uncertainty that these, you remember, these false teachers, these this Gnostic teachers were stirring up.

He speaks to the new Christian, reminding him that his sins are in fact forgiven, contrary to what these false teachers may have been saying. To the older Christian, he says that they know him who was from the beginning, that there's no secret special knowledge necessary that these Gnostics were advocating for, and the young men have the word of God abiding in them and have indeed overcome the evil one and are no longer in darkness.

The Forgiveness and Assurance Given to New Believers

And so John begins by addressing the children, those who have just entered the family of God, perhaps easily shaken, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. The little assurance that they have is quickly undermined.

He gives them confidence, reassuring them that their sins are forgiven in Christ and that they know the Father. We see this when we look at verse 13 and 14. Through Christ, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to them and all that those that believe in him receive that pardon.

They are indeed children of God through Christ. This is the first step in the Christian school that we find ourselves in. We enter in through Christ. And those of you who are Christians here, you have gone through this.

You know this. God begins to do a work on your heart and he brings awareness of sin. The Holy Spirit brings a conviction of sin into your heart and then you realize that you have received the free remission of all your iniquities and you cling to Christ the Savior and the God and God your Father.

It is your greatest joy and delight when you enter the household of God. Forgiveness and fellowship with the Father is all you really know in these early days. You simply rejoice in him and you praise him and embrace him.

But young Christians have a problem. They lack knowledge and experience. They have no experience of what it means to be walking with God. We don't know what it means to walk through the valleys of trial, suffering, loss, and enjoying close communion with God in these difficult times.

How to draw strength from him when we're weakest. We don't have a precise, accurate knowledge of the scriptures and the different doctrines. We don't know how to apply it to our lives, how to obey them even.

We still have to learn to walk in obedience. All that, I'm afraid, is exactly the state that too many of us have never grown out of. Some of you have never even considered growing in spiritual maturity.

Again, you think salvation is it. That is it. That's all there is. Ticket punched. We're going to enjoy the ride, the ride. There are people that profess faith for years. They can look back after a long period of time and can barely notice a difference in them from the first day they professed until now.

There's been absolutely no growth. They're nothing but shallow waters. Brothers and sisters, we're not to remain in such a state, ignorant of the truths of scripture, never experiencing more of God and salvation.

But it is what we see around us so often. Churches keeping people at that very stage, almost preventing them from being able to mature. Some of you might think growth happens automatically. You don't have to do anything, right?

Let me ask you this. When is the last time you accidentally found yourself drifting towards holiness? When you woke up one morning and seemingly out of the blue had a deeper knowledge of God and a greater affection for him simply because you had a good night's sleep.

I'm not saying you grow and mature apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in you, but we have to think of our spiritual maturing, of our growing, in terms of a farmer perhaps planting his crops. We know the farmer does not make his crops grow, yet he does not walk out to the field one day, stand there, wave his hand, look at it, believe a lot, and ask that the Lord would make his crops grow.

We'd say that's foolishness. No, he works the ground, he plants the seeds, and when necessary, as our brother does over the summer, he sprays them to prevent pests, diseases, and weeds. It's God who makes these plants grow.

A 17th century Scottish minister put it this way, he says, all the art and industry of man cannot form the smallest herb or make a stalk of corn to grow in the field. It's the energy of nature, it's the influences of heaven which produce this effect.

It is God who causes the grass to grow and the herb for the service of man, and yet nobody will say that the labors of the farmer are useless or unnecessary. It's the same with our spiritual growth. Paul, if you remember, urges Timothy to train himself for godliness.

Peter writes, as mentioned in the last verse of his second letter, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are to grow up into him who is the head, into Jesus Christ.

Yes, salvation is most glorious. The truth that we're forgiven of our sins, that we have a heavenly father, must never escape our hearts and minds, but it is not where we stop, Christian. It is where we begin our first coming into the household of God.

It's not where the Christian pilgrimage comes to die. It is where we put on our gear and begin the lifelong process of maturing in Christ. I think we have two questions that we must answer. What am I growing into?

How do I know that I am growing? And then, how do I even grow? I believe we can find some answers if we look at the groups that John is addressing. If we look at the second group, beginning in verse 13 and repeated in verse 14, Paul writes, I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

We begin to know you. We know that we're growing by an increased knowledge of Christ. You notice John jumps from the children directly to addressing the fathers. He moves from the young to the old. Again, remember the teaching that was threatening the churches.

This idea that you didn't know God or couldn't truly and rightly know him unless you had received some sort of special, secret, hidden knowledge from him. So John again reaffirms, reminds, encourages the fathers, those that have been in the faith for a while, the spiritually mature, that they do in fact know him.

By this knowledge that characterizes the mature, we realize what we are to grow into, what we should strive for. You see, and in order for you to know if and that you are truly growing, you have to first know what you to grow into.

And so what are these fathers are said to know? They know God the Father and Jesus Christ. John uses similar language that he uses here in the opening verses of his letter, and you remember the opening verses of his epistle, of his gospel.

In the epistle, he wrote that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest and we have seen it.

And then in the gospel, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And in verse 14 of John chapter 1, he says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory.

Glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. It is a deeper experiential knowledge of the father and of the son than what the children possess when they first enter into the faith.

If you know Christ, you know the father also. And so how do we know that we're in fact heading into that direction, into the right direction? It's so hard for us to see our own spiritual growth sometimes, isn't it?

We seem to be so blind to it. It's all a very slow process sometimes. And just like children don't grow into adults from one day to the other, it doesn't happen to us overnight. In fact, we'll never reach the end of it in this life.

And so I want to quickly, briefly highlight three ways in which we can know that we are indeed growing in Christ. First, to borrow the language of Hebrews, we, you have the power of discernment trained and you can distinguish from good and evil.

The mature have grown in wisdom. They know how to apply God's word. They can discern if a thing is God honoring or not. They can give guidance and wise counsel to the children and the younger men. And they judge things rightly.

They're prudent. They don't make rash or hasty, foolish decisions. They know the truth. They can discern false doctrine and are not easily swayed and shaken. Second, it is a gradual increase over time of knowing and believing that in every circumstance, God is walking with you.

Our growth is not something we can necessarily measure by keeping some kind of record on paper or when we have learned this doctrine or that doctrine or anything like that. But some of you even here now can look back on your Christian life.

And in hindsight, you can see how the Lord has sustained you in times of great weakness, how he has provided for your every need in ways you couldn't even explain at the time. Some of your best fellowship with him has been in times of suffering and great uncertainty.

You know his love and care for you because you have experienced his love and care for you, not only once but over and over. And when your soul has been cast down and it's been in turmoil and you felt like he has forgotten you and you cry out to him, he lifts you up out of that pit.

And you know with confidence him who supplies in abundance. And thirdly, we can be sure that we are growing and maturing in your love in Christ if our love for the Lord increases. Phillips Brooks was a minister of Boston Trinity Episcopal Church for about 22 years until 1891, just a couple years before his death.

You may not know the name, but he did write the hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem. And it said of him that he was a very, very busy pastor and yet despite all that he always seemed to be so relaxed and unburdened, at peace and calm.

He always had time and took time for anyone in need and really fitting the description of a mature Christian. And just shortly before he died a young friend wrote to him asking him about this peace and serenity that was so obvious to all those around him.

And in his answer he wrote this, see if you can relate to some of these things that you consider your own growth. He writes, the more I have thought it over the more sure it has seemed to me that these last years have had a peace and fullness which there did not used to be.

It is a deeper knowledge and truer love of Christ. He goes on seemingly having some difficulty trying to explain this knowledge of Christ that he has. He continues, I cannot tell you how personal this grows to me.

He is here. He knows me and I know him. It is the most real thing in the world and every day makes it more real and one wonders with delight what it will grow to as the years go on. Let me ask you, you know what happens when you love him more?

When you love him more you see more of his beauty. You see more of his holiness. You see more of his righteousness. You stand in awe. It brings you to your knees and it makes your heart sing. And when you see more of that, you know what else you see more of?

I know some of you have experienced this already and you're growing. You see more of your own sinfulness. You really begin to see your wretchedness and how deep it runs and your need and your desire for Christ ever increases.

Does it not? The gospel is more precious to you than when you first believe. You don't forget what the new Christian knows. No, your love for it increases. It becomes more precious to you and you feel like you have greater need of it than ever before.

Burt Parsons, some of you know him, a Presbyterian pastor in Florida, said it well. He says, a lot of times Christian growth doesn't look like growing taller. It really looks a lot of times like growing smaller.

Smaller in our own eyes. I don't know who said it, but it's been said that the more you grow in holiness, the more sinful you see yourself. Brothers and sisters, we enter into Christ as children, but we continue to grow and mature into fathers.

We don't remain in the condition that we were in when we first believed. And you know you're growing when your sermon sharpens, when you learn wisdom, knowing how to apply the scriptures, to obey them, when you experience a growing trust in the Lord as he walks with you through trials and when your love for Christ increases.

The Word of God and Abiding in Christ as the Means of Growth

How then do we grow? If we are to grow, we know what we're to grow into. How do we do it? I believe the address to the young men sheds some light on it. We have seen at the beginning and the end goal, if you will, of the Christian's growth.

Now the apostle directs his attention to the young men. Right in between these two groups, the young men, the actual Greek word here, some dictionaries say, can describe someone who is beyond the age of puberty, but before the age of marriage.

I don't think John is addressing a men's single group here, but the ones that have done some growing. He tells them in verse 13 that they are strong, that the word of God abides in them, and that they have overcome the evil one.

Job describes them with these words. He says, they search the scriptures with spiritual vigor, are fervent in faith, mighty in prayer, intense in action, and bold in testimony. They are strong in Christ, endure in Christ, and resist attack through Christ.

They're a bit older in the faith, but not at all at the finish line, if there were such a thing in this life. They have ways to go. They're not children anymore, but not fathers also. They're right in the thick of Christian growth.

And like any other Christian, they have overcome the wicked one when the old self was crucified with Christ, but must continue to mature the fight against wickedness and ungodliness, and persevere by grace.

Certainly not without sin and stumble and fall, they do enjoy some victories over sin and temptation. But how are they? How are they strong? How do they grow in their fight against the evil one and move toward that Christian maturity?

The same way all of us do, by the word of God abiding in them. Without it, there is no strength in any man. They know the word of God. They have committed themselves to studying it. They can wield it like a sword in battle, like Christ did when he was tempted in the wilderness and rebuked Satan three times by quoting the scriptures.

They live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. You see, growth in that sense is easy to understand, but difficult to do. We can say we must read our Bibles more, and all of us probably should, but if you read your Bible only for the sake of having read it, you can read and read until you drop dead and there will be no use of you because it won't make it to your heart.

The word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword piercing the heart, but we must come to it with hearts that are ready to be pierced, to be transformed by it. We only really believe the truths of scripture that actually make it from our heads down into our hearts, and then we begin to grow and mature because the growth comes from within.

So don't go home thinking simply reading your Bible in a mechanical way will do anything. No, maybe we have to to ask the Lord, to really beg of Him, to plead with Him, to open our eyes and ears every time we come to His Word and expect and pray that He will plant it deep in us, that He will use it as a means to grow and mature you in your faith, that it is not a meaningless exercise, that something really is happening, that the Spirit works through the Word, that something must happen when you go into the Word and mine its depths, that it is not always some form of emotional sensation that we not may see drastic changes every time from day to day, but that it is God's Word, that it goes forth with power.

Additionally to the Word, we must have Christ, the living Word of God, dwelling in us richly, for without Him you can do absolutely nothing. It's only when you abide in Him through His Word that there will be any fruit.

Christ Himself said, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Your growing and maturing in the faith is a fruit of your abiding in Christ. You continually believe and you trust and you rest in Him, you have fellowship with Him, you maintain that fellowship with Him and you will become more like Him.

If I can, maybe here's some very practical thing you can do that many mature godly men and women have found helpful and actually recommended. Take your Bible, nothing else, and you go. I don't know where you go if you have to go outside the city, go down to the river valley, you park closer to your home, I don't know.

Be alone with Christ, no distractions, no hindrances, no wife, no husband, no children, no parents, no siblings, just you and Christ and fellowship with Him and you will experience Him drawing near, being present with you as you read His word and pray and you will grow and you will mature and He will continue the good work that He has begun in you until the day when He will bring it to full completion.

Guarding Against False Confidence in Growth

Now before we close, perhaps a word of caution in regards to our growth because sin can be so deceitful to us. I trust that most of us are probably not content with the current state of affairs, with our maturity or perhaps rather a lack thereof.

If that's you, that is not a bad thing, it is a sign of your Christian growth. We want to mature, we should strive for maturing. Christ wants us to do so but we must guard ourselves against one thing, putting our faith in our growth instead of Christ.

You see, as children we can easily trust in what we feel and if we feel good about ourselves, our emotions are high, we feel good about our salvation, we have assurance and confidence in Christ but when these fleeting passions retreat again, we swing to the other end of the spectrum and we don't feel saved anymore.

And the young men, those who are just a little bit further along, we're tempted to put their faith in what we do, in our actions, in our deeds, in our reading of the Word, in our resisting of temptation, our service even, and we begin to put our faith not into Christ but our performance.

And then the old can make too much of what they know, they can become puffed up with knowledge, put faith and knowledge of and about Christ rather than Christ himself. Brothers and sisters, strive and toil to the end of knowing Christ, of maturing in Christ by the power of Christ in you.

The Lord has much more in store for us than salvation and being a problem solver that we can go to when we feel overwhelmed. There's a closeness, there is a fellowship for us to be experienced as we get older in the faith, as we know him better.

Don't rob yourself of the fullness of Christ and then get shell-shocked when you enter into his presence. Let us take hold of him more, let us take hold of him now and at the same time guard against putting our faith into our growth.

I'll close with a quote from John Newton that I think summarizes not only the difference between the saved and the unsaved but perhaps our experience of a continuous growing in Christ until their work is completed.

He says, I am not what I ought to be, I'm not what I want to be, I'm not what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not what I once used to be and by the grace of God I am what I am. Let's pray.

Oh Heavenly Father, we confess that we have much growing to do. There is much more growing for us to do than we have already behind us. Oh Father, we long to mature and we want to apply ourselves to it.

We want to strive for it, but we cannot do it apart from you. Father, you must give the growth. Would you please continue to do that work in us that we may know you more, that we would love you more, that we would know our Christ, that we would know him better, that we would experience him, that we would fellowship with him.

Oh Father, mature us that you, that Christ would be glorified in us to the fullest until we breathe our last. In his name we pray. Thank you for listening to another sermon from.

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We pray that you have been blessed by this recording. God bless you and we hope to see you soon.