And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 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, 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.
Ephesians 4:11-14
In The Last Days Newsletter, Leonard Ravenhill tells about a group of tourists visiting a picturesque village who walked by an old man sitting beside a fence. In a rather patronizing way, one tourist asked, “Were any great men born in this village?” The old man replied, “Nope, only babies.” A frothy question brought a profound answer. There are no instant heroes—whether in this world or in the kingdom of God.1
God desires for His people to become mature Christians. We are all born as spiritual babies. None of us are born “great”. Even Jesus had to grow into maturity (Lk. 2:52). Nevertheless, God desires for us to grow into maturity. And that takes time.
Who God Provides For Our Maturity
We see in this text in Ephesians 4 that God provides people to help people grow into maturity. There is no such thing as becoming a mature believer if you’re not immersed in the covenant community. Even when Paul is naming the different offices that God has given to the Church, you can see that each of these offices are plural rather than singular. God did not want there to be any shortage of people helping other people grow into Christian maturity. You cannot grow into Christian maturity without other Christians.
How God Provides For Our Maturity
God provides for us by equipping us. The Greek word for “equip” is used of doctors realigning patients necks, shoulders, or hips. In order to make us mature, to “line us up” with Christ, God repairs us spiritually through the proclamation of the Word. A mature Christian is one who is living an “aligned life” with Christ. An aligned life is not a self-centered, “just me and Jesus” type of Christianity. We have a personal relationship with Christ but not a private relationship with Christ. Being equipped means to perform the work of ministry to others (Word and Deed). A mature church is one that grows in aligning their whole lives to minister the gospel and perform godly deeds.
Why God Provides For Our Maturity
God provides maturity in us individually for the purpose of us becoming mature collectively. A mature Christian is someone who is seeking to mature other Christians. Paul says this is “to build up the body of Christ”. What God does in us is not only for us. Our lives are not cul-de-sacs. We’re Interstates. God matures us in order for us to mature others. God changes us through others proclaiming the gospel of grace to us. This maturing community glorifies God and transforms the Church.
What God Provides For Our Maturity
But, listen to what Acts 19:9 says, “But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.”
Why is this relevant? The ESV translation attaches a footnote to this verse which reads, “Some manuscripts add from the fifth hour to the tenth (that is, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.)”.2
What does this have to do with Ephesians? Acts 19 is all about Paul’s ministry in Ephesus! In other words, what does God provide for us to grow into maturity? An expansive ministry of the Word.
If you want to be a mature Christian, if you want to see your church become a mature church, then you must soak in and study God’s Word with God’s people. We’re talking about simmering for hours over a fire rather than a quick microwave.
It is important for us today to realize that this means that being a mature Christian (and being a mature church) is not merely because people like to be with each other. That is an important ingredient but at the same time unbelievers like to be around people as well. What makes this gathering different is what we are gathered around—the gospel of grace.
This does not mean that church members can never simply have times of fellowship without the teaching of the Word. We need and must have those times! Yet, it does show us that just because people are always gathering together that it does not make them mature Christians. It depends on the quality of those gatherings. The primary gatherings, but not the only ones, are gatherings of people around God’s Word.
Sinclair Ferguson says, “So for two years (Acts 19:10) Paul was teaching and discussing the Scriptures and the gospel for up to five hours a day! And this for ‘ordinary’ Christians! No wonder ‘the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily’ (Acts 19:20). To some (many?) Christians today this may seem excessive. But the effect of it was remarkable: ‘all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord’ (Acts 19:10). Clearly God’s Word so transformed this group of believers that they powerfully impacted their society for Christ.”3 Maybe we would actually see more cultural transformation if there was more (not less) teaching and preaching of God’s Word. To put it another way: Maybe the reason we don’t see as much progress in our societies today is because of how much we scaled down our exposure to sitting under the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
It has been very clear to me over my years in ministry: The people who most consistently gather to hear God’s Word are the people who most consistently grow in leading God’s people.
We would never expect an NFL Rookie to develop a Hall of Fame career with minimal training, effort, and help from others. Let me just tell you: Those guys get cut very quickly.
As Leonard Ravenhill was getting at, we don’t become “great” Christians (at least in people’s eyes) by giving leftovers of our time, desires, and opportunities to God. To be sure, the goal is not to be “great”. The goal is to show that God is great. But, God shows His greatness most often through believers who are growing into maturity—and that comes from much time studying, meditating, and fellowshipping over His Word.
What Should We Expect?
I wish I could write one sentence as packed with truth as Sinclair Ferguson does. This is why I’ll quote him at length here:
It should not surprise us that whenever there has been a spiritual quickening in the church Christians have looked for an intense diet of the ministry of the Word. Thus, in Reformation Geneva, for example, it would have been possible to hear John Calvin preach on average five, six, or seven times during the week. Were our churches to attempt to employ this simple pattern in ways that were appropriately adapted to the circumstances of modern life it might not be long before the world similarly began to take notice. Why do we seek other models [of ministry]? Is it because we are so malnourished that we lack the appetite and the stamina?4
This is why whenever genuine revivals broke forth in Church History it was always because of the Word being proclaimed and it resulted in people longing to hear more of the Word proclaimed.
A Strategy For Growing Into Maturity
We’re practical people. That is not all bad. It can be overkill but it doesn’t mean we ignore practical measures in light of God’s truth.
We must greatly prioritize and guard our current opportunities to hear the Word of God in the local church. It is greatly disheartening to hear how quickly we make excuses to not gather for worship—and this is often playing into the very strategies of the Evil One who wants to keep us from God’s means of grace.
We need to greatly protect and pursue our individual devotional rhythms. Not only those rhythms but we must make sure we pursue the most biblical material and practices in order to grow into maturity.
We need to observe the entire Lord’s Day (Sunday) as a day of worship. In much of our modern contexts, this often makes sense (though is not a biblical rule) to have not only morning worship but also evening worship.5 The rule is not to have two worship services. Rather, it is to see that the principle for growing in grace is for us to spend much time soaking in God’s Word. It is true, though, that you can look across ages and cultures to see that morning and evening worship services have been frequently implemented and that this led to much maturity in the people and in societal change. This is certainly a challenge for us who think that hearing only one 25-minute sermon is enough for our entire week.6 Each context should determine how it works out best for them. But, the biblical principle is never: Be as minimal as you can.
We should seek for other ways for us to gather together throughout the week to study God’s Word. This does not mean that it is always a sermon. Even though preaching is God’s central way of growing His people it is not the only way. Solid preaching should actually cause people to want to overflow into other ways to study and discuss God’s Word with each other.
We need to bring back catechism. We need to keep coming back to the basics of the faith and applying them to our lives. Thankfully, we have some incredibly rich catechisms. The Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Larger & Shorter catechisms, and even the more modern New City Catechism are all great to rotate through. These teach us the foundational truths of the faith that hundreds and thousands of pastors have thought sufficient to teach their people in order for them to understand “Christianity 101”.
We need to revive some form of family worship. This is a challenge for me and I have attempted numerous different “styles”. There is no hard-and-fast rule for this. Be biblical. Be practical. If you can only get 5 minutes then take 5 minutes. God delights when we come before Him even if it is for only a couple of minutes.
We should creatively strive for how we can continually educate ourselves theologically. There are various forms of media that can assist God’s people. (Don’t forget about the hardcopy book!) At times, technology can certainly be too much.7 When it is helpful and wise (not merely because it is a norm), using various platforms to communicate God’s truth for further education of God’s people should be encouraged. It does not replace church and it never will. If God wanted to make YouTube videos for the Bible’s original form of communication then He would have. Your favorite podcast preacher cannot look you in the eyes and compassionately say, “For God so loved the world that He sent you His only begotten Son.” Your favorite podcast Bible teacher cannot hug you afterward and say, “I’m praying for you. Please let me know how I can help.”8 At the same time we don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Podcasts, blogs, YouTube, or other avenues to help God’s people grow in their knowledge of His truth can be of great use. Nevertheless, nothing replaces being with people and hearing your pastor.
Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002).
Sinclair Ferguson adds, “While this may be a later explanatory note inserted by a scribe, it is probably an accurate reflection of what Paul did.” Ferguson, Let’s Study Ephesians (Banner of Truth: Carlisle, PA 2005), p. 111.
Ibid.
Ibid.
And in the Fall, we all know what happens on Saturdays and Sundays. We spend 8-12 hours of our Saturdays immersed in football to then go to bed late and wake up with just enough time to drive to church. As soon as church ends, we rush out of the building to make it back to watch another 10 hours of football (while endlessly checking our Fantasy Football teams). The problem is not lack of time; the problem is lack of biblical priorities.
https://rts.edu/resources/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-technology-for-the-church/
For a funny parody blog, see the Babylon Bee: https://babylonbee.com/news/god-develops-ultra-realistic-metaverse-where-people-can-talk-learn-and-work-with-other-people-calling-it-universe