Moody Church Hour

Announcer (Male Voice): God has given us new birth by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to be with Jesus and learn from Him. It stands to reason that we're all still growing up with a lot of maturing ahead of us. The book of Philippians gives us Paul's insights. He talks about what growing into maturity looks like while living here on earth and awaiting our future home in heaven.

From Chicago, welcome to The Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller. Stay with us for a time of worship and teaching as we continue a series on Back to Basics. From the book of Philippians, we'll find out all about the basics of maturity. We'll find that spiritual maturity is living here while belonging there. Here now is Pastor Philip and worship leader, Tim Stafford.

Pastor Philip Miller: Well, good morning, and welcome to The Moody Church. We're so glad you've joined us today as we continue in our series Back to the Basics. Today we're talking about the basics of maturity. What does it mean to grow up in Christ? When I was a kid, I had all these ideas of who I would be when I grew up. Maybe you had some of those similar thoughts.

Well, today we're going to talk about what does it mean to to grow up in Christ? What will it look like when we finally are mature and complete? And it's a glorious vision. And even now, the Holy Spirit is on the job leading us into this kind of life. And so let's bow our heads and ask the Lord to be our teacher today. Would you pray with me? Let's pray.

Father, you have a glorious future for us. You have destined us to be revealed as the sons and daughters of God in glory. As Jesus says, to shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. And that maturity that's coming, that vision is so beautiful. And sometimes it's hard to believe that even now, the Holy Spirit is leading us, transforming us into those kind of people. But help us to learn how to follow Him, to keep in step with the Spirit so that we might be conformed to the image of Christ. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.

Amen. All right, let's sing.

Singing (Choir/Congregation): How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. Is laid for your faith in His excellent word. What more can He say than to you He has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled.

Fear not, I am with thee. Oh, be not dismayed. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by My righteous omnipotent hand.

And through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie. My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee. I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose. I will not, I will not, desert to His foes. The soul though all hell should endeavor to shake. I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

The soul though all hell should endeavor to shake. I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

Singing (Choir/Congregation): Precious cornerstone, sure foundation. You are faithful to the end. We are waiting on You, Jesus. We believe You are all to us.

Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the church. Let the righteousness of God be our holy claim on earth. Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives. We believe You are all to us.

When this passing world is over. We will see You face to face. And forever we will worship. Jesus, You are all to us. Jesus, You are all to us.

Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the church. Let the righteousness of God be our holy claim on earth. Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives. We believe You are all to us. We believe You are all to us. We believe You are all to us.

Singing (Choir/Congregation): May the mind of Christ my Savior, live in me from day to day. By His power controlling, all I do and say.

May the word of God dwell richly, in my heart from hour to hour. So that all may see I triumph, only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father, rule my life in everything. That I may be calm to comfort, sinners to Him bring.

May the love of Jesus fill me, as the waters fill the sea. Him exalting, self abasing, this is victory.

May I run my race before Him, strong and brave to face the foe. Looking only unto Jesus, as I onward go.

May His beauty rest upon me, as I seek the lost to win. And may they forget the channel, seeing only Him.

Guest (Female): Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own. Because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God.

Singing (Choir/Congregation): Jesus, draw me ever nearer, as I labor through the storm. You have called me to this passage, and I'll follow though I mourn. May this journey bring a blessing. May I rise on wings of faith. And at the end of my heart's testing, with Your likeness may I wait.

Jesus, guide me through the tempests. Keep my spirit safe and sure. When the midnight meets the morning, let me love You even more. May this journey bring a blessing. May I rise on wings of faith. And at the end of my heart's testing, with Your likeness may I wait.

Singing (Choir/Congregation): Let the treasures of the trial, form within me as I go. And at the end of this long passage, let me leave it at Your throne. May this journey bring a blessing. May I rise on wings of faith. And at the end of my heart's testing, with Your likeness may I wait.

May this journey bring a blessing. May I rise on wings of faith. And at the end of my heart's testing, with Your likeness may I wait. And at the end of my heart's testing, with Your likeness may I wait.

Pastor Philip Miller: Lord, in spite of all the things that might be pulling us back, the sin that is entangling us right now, help us to throw off all that and run toward You, to be conformed to the image of Your Son. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Pastor Philip Miller: Who do you want to be when you grow up? It's a question we sometimes ask children and they respond with the obligatory, I want to be a firefighter, I want to be a veterinarian, I want to be a teacher or whatever, right? But it's not just a question for children. It's a question for all of us, whether we're 43 or 93. Who do you want to be when you grow up? Because friends, if God has given us new birth by grace through faith in Christ, in His substituted life on our behalf on the cross. If God has filled us with His Holy Spirit so that He is teaching us to walk in His ways. If every moment of every day is an opportunity to be with Jesus and learn from Him how to do life, so that we are increasingly transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus. And if one day we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is, then we are all, in fact, still growing up. No matter how old we are, we have a long way to go in terms of maturation if we are to be gloriously like Jesus in the end. And friends, all of us, every moment of every day, are becoming someone. So the question is, who do you want to be when you grow up?

Today we come to Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 down to chapter 4, verse 1. You'll find our reading in the pew Bible there on page 981 over to 982. And in this text before us this morning, the Apostle Paul is going to focus in on what spiritual maturity looks like with three vital insights for us this morning. We're going to see together the pursuit of maturity, the pattern of maturity, and the prospect of maturity. The pursuit, pattern, and prospect of maturity. And if we are ever to grow up into who we were meant to be in Jesus Christ, we need to pay attention to this text this morning. We need the Word of God to guide us. So would you bow your heads? Let's pray and ask the Lord to be our teacher as we open His Word.

Father, we're about to open up your inerrant, all-truthful Word that is sufficient for life and godliness. And we pray that you would teach us how to live and how to be godly today. We want more than anything to live as we were meant to live, to be and become more like your glorious Son, Jesus Christ, who has enfolded us into his eternal life, who has given us the Spirit to lead and guide us, and who will one day take us home and make us like Himself. Father, we long for this. Change us, we pray in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. Amen.

So first of all, the pursuit of maturity. The pursuit of maturity. Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own." Just pause for a moment here. It's obvious that we're picking up in the middle of a train of thought, right? It's sort of in the middle of a sequence of ideas. "Not that I've already obtained this." What's this? What have you not attained, Paul? Well, remember the context, if you can think back to the last time we were together. Paul said, "I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible, I may attain," there's our word, "attain the resurrection of the dead." And then he says, verse 12, "Not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect." So what have you not attained, Paul? What's what he refers to in verse 11, the resurrection of the dead. He says, "Look, I've laid down my righteousness here, my religious resume. I I laid it all down that I might have Christ and His righteousness alone. And I will do whatever it takes to know Him and the power of His resurrection life. And I I will do it whatever it takes, even if it means suffering, even if it means dying like Jesus. If in the end I get more of Jesus, that's a win. If I get more of His resurrection life, that's what I'm all about. And yet, I want to be clear. I haven't arrived yet. I'm not already perfect. I haven't attained the resurrection from the dead. I'm a work in progress, but progress I shall. I press on to make it my own. What? The resurrection life of Christ my own because Christ Jesus Christ has made me His own. I I press on growing in Christ day by day. I press on. I share in His sufferings. I'm in chains for Jesus Christ. I press on. One day I may face death. I will be buried with Christ in this final baptism, in order that I might be raised to walk in newness of life forever with Him in glory. I press on. Jesus Christ laid down His life to make me His own. So I press on that I might make His life my own as well."

Now verse 13. "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." He says, again, "Just to be clear, I haven't made it my own yet, this resurrection life. This fullness of the resurrection life of Christ is something I'm still running after, pursuing, and it will not be fully mine until I am standing with Christ in glory. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind." What lies behind? In the context, what lies behind? His religious resume, his self-righteousness. He says, "Look, I wasted so much time in my life trying to prove to God that I was good enough. I wasted my time on wasted efforts. But I I don't have time to pay attention. Forget all that. Forget it all. And straining forward to what lies ahead." What lies ahead? Well, the rest of his life, all of his days, the suffering he's going through, eventually his death, and then resurrection glory in the presence of Christ forever. He says, "One day I will be pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Remember that prayer from chapter 1, verses 10 and 11? He says, "I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Friends, Paul says, "Look, you want to know what my life goal is? You want to know where I see myself in 10 years? You want to know what my greatest prize is, my highest calling? My highest calling, my greatest prize, my life's aim is to stand before the throne of God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, transformed into His likeness as a radiant, splendid, glorious child of God forever." And I'm not there yet, but one day, one day I will be there. And so I press on. I press on.

Verse 15. "Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained." He says, "Look, if you're spiritually mature, you're going to think this way. You're going to be humble. You'll acknowledge that you're not there yet, that you've got a long way to go. But you're also going to be confident. You're going to press on for the resurrection glory that is yours in Jesus Christ." It's this strange pairing of humility and confidence at once. This is spiritual maturity, humbly acknowledging that you're not there, you're a work in progress, and yet confident in the work of Christ that you will one day stand in glory, and so you pursue it with white-hot passion and everything you've got. Those who think they've arrived, Paul would say, "Well, God will set them straight. Our job is to progress forward, holding true to the real progress we've made, however incomplete that is."

Confident that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Because spiritual maturity, friends, is not a destination, but a pursuit. Spiritual maturity is not a destination, but a pursuit. This is counterintuitive, isn't it? When we think of maturity, we think of arriving, of completion, of an endpoint. But Paul is saying maturity is not a destination, it is a pursuit. That this side of glory, we will never actually arrive, that we are all works in progress. Oh, we've been justified, declared righteous in Jesus Christ, by grace through faith in Him alone. Amen. And one day we will be glorified. We will be made perfect in His presence forever when we see Jesus face to face, when He returns or calls us home. We will be glorified. But in the meantime, we are being sanctified. We are in process of progressively being conformed to the image of Christ. And friends, Jesus is changing our lives. There's four key relationships, dimensions of our life that are being transformed through His power. We are being changed up, around, in, and out. Up, around, in, and out. We know God through Jesus Christ. That's a transforming relationship. We are experiencing healing within the family of God, our brothers and sisters in Christ, who love us. We are growing in love and inner transformation by the Spirit, and we are going out into the world to change our world with Jesus. To know God, experience healing, grow in love, and change our world. This is what God is doing. And in all four of those dimensions, spiritual maturity is not a destination. It's a pursuit. It's a pursuit.

Let me just share this with you, friends. It is a spiritual red flag whenever someone postures themselves as if they've arrived. By definition, that person is spiritually immature. Do you see that? So they're not worth following. Follow someone else. This is the pursuit of maturity. Number one. Number two, the pattern of maturity. The pattern of maturity. Verse 17. "Brothers, join in imitating me. And keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things." He says, "Join in imitating me. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." Who is the us? Who is the us? Well, obviously Paul, right? This is our first person. As he says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1, he says, "Follow me, as I follow Christ." Follow me, as I follow Christ. I haven't arrived, but you follow me because I'm in process and I'm following Christ. And so if I'm following Christ, you can safely follow me. So Paul is the first one in the us. Who else? Well, remember Timothy, right? Timothy is the co-author of the letter, and so he's certainly included in the us. Remember, this is the same Timothy that Paul intends to send to Philippi because chapter 2, verse 20, "I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare." Remember, he's sending Timothy as one who embodies the love and life of Christ, the selflessness to which Paul is calling the Philippian believers. And so he's saying, "Look, I want you to keep your eyes on Timothy. I want you to watch his selflessness. I want you to observe his humility. I want you to imitate his genuine love. Follow Timothy as he follows Christ." So follow Paul, follow Timothy. And then, probably, he also means Epaphroditus. Remember in chapter 2? He's the one who's bearing the letter, carrying it to Philippi, and and Paul sends him with this endorsement, chapter 2, verse 30. "He risked his life, nearly dying in service to you and to Christ." He says, "Look, keep your eyes on people like Epaphroditus. Honor men like him. Watch his devotion, observe his sacrifice, imitate his service and sacrifice. Follow Epaphroditus as he follows Christ."

See, there's this pattern that we see all throughout scriptures, Hebrews 11, verse 7, says, "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith." So again, we see what we saw a few weeks ago in chapter 2 with Timothy and Epaphroditus. It's now repeated here with Paul himself. If if we want to mature in our walk with Christ, uh, we need to go find someone who is following Jesus and apprentice our life to the way that they live. Imitate them. Find someone who has that that blend of humility and confidence that we talked about. Someone who knows they haven't arrived and yet is striving for Christ with everything they've got. Find someone like that and keep your eyes on them. Because remember, association leads to admiration, and admiration leads to imitation, and imitation leads to habituation, and habituation leads to formation. In other words, we become what we behold. We become what we behold. And spiritual maturity is less taught and more caught. Do you realize that? Spiritual maturity is less taught and more caught. Which is why Paul says, "You got to be so careful because there's people out there that are not worth imitating. They'll put themselves up as someone to imitate, but you better not look at them because they're not worth it." Verses 18 and 19 again. "For many of whom I've often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things." So these people, Paul says, "Look, there's lots of bad examples out there. There's lots of people that posture themselves as religious leaders worthy of imitation and you better not pay attention to them. Instead of following the way of the cross, these are people following their own way. Instead of pursuing joy in Christ and His resurrection life, they live for the temporary pleasures of this world here and now. Instead of glorying in all that is going to come to those who are children of God, in Jesus Christ in the future, they live for this world, which is a shame in the end."

Friends, imitation is key to maturation. Imitation is key to maturation. And so Paul's warning is, "Be ever so careful who you keep your eyes on because we become what we behold." And friends, this has huge implications for our social media use, our cable news habits if we will but heed it. It's huge. So we have the pursuit of maturity, the pattern of maturity. Now, and finally, the prospect of maturity. The prospect of maturity. There are those, Paul says, who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, whose minds are set on earthly things. But, verse 20, "Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself." He says, "Our citizenship is in heaven." Now, it is hard to put into words just how radical this statement is. Philippi had the rare distinction in the ancient world of being one of the official Roman colonies, one of the very few. And so to be born in Philippi was the equivalent of being born in the capital city of Rome itself. In other words, the citizens of Philippi were granted full Roman citizenship, with all the rights and privileges thereof. In many ways, the reason for this was that Philippi was home to a lot of retired military officers of the Roman Empire. It was a very patriotic city. They hailed Caesar who had declared himself the savior of Rome, and the lord of all the earth, who had subjected by his power all the known world to his rule. Philippi lived, breathed, and bled Roman Empire. Now, go back and read these verses again. "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior," Paul, "the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself." Do you see what's happening here? This is a highly charged sentence here. The gospel is reordering the allegiance of the hearts of the Philippian believers. The citizenship, their citizenship in Rome, used to be their greatest pride and joy. But now in the gospel, it has become secondary to their citizenship, which is in heaven. Do you see that? Their allegiance used to be to Caesar, who proclaimed himself savior and lord of the Empire. But their allegiance now is to their Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. They used to bow before the one who had subjected all the known world to his rule and power. And now they bow before the one whose power enables him to subject all things to himself. Not by conquest, you see, but by his self-sacrificing humility and other-centered love. Friends, we are citizens of heaven. And we are awaiting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will return and transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body forever. One day we will attain the resurrection of the dead. We will reach the goal, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. It will be ours forever. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, face to face, and we will become what we behold. Do you see this?

Friends, the Philippians loved the Roman Empire. They loved it. They fought and bled and died for her glory. But the gospel changes everything. Their heavenly citizenship, you see, now outranks their Roman citizenship. Their heavenly Lord and Savior outranks their earthly Lord and Savior. Remember, Paul has said, "Join in imitating me. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us." Our minds are not fixed on earthly things. No, we we know our citizenship is in heaven, which means spiritual maturity is living here while belonging there. Spiritual maturity is living here while belonging there. We reside as citizens of earth, but we belong to the citizenship of heaven. Because we, as the people of God, friends, we're we're like an embassy. We're an embassy. You know, an embassy, there's embassies here, right? In in our country. It's a little space that is not under the jurisdiction of our country, it's under the jurisdiction of a far-off land of another rule. The church is in the sense an embassy, an embassy of heaven on earth. We're ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven, which means that we are fully here and yet faithfully there. Fully here, and yet faithfully there. We are in the world but not of the world. To be citizens of heaven means that we avoid two equal but opposite errors that are so prone to happen in the church. The first error is syncretism. Syncretism. This is the chameleon posture. This is this is when we try to go with the flow of the culture, we compromise little by little and we slowly become just like everyone else around us. We just sort of blend in. This is the history of theological liberalism, of so many progressive evangelical bloggers, or the exvangelical movement, who find that the teachings of Jesus are too at odds with the dominant popular cultural views. And so seek to accommodate and reinterpret and reinvent, and eventually are disloyal to the teachings of Jesus. This is a huge danger in our world, especially when we're young and we're trying so desperately to fit in. And it's a slow fade. Before we realize what happened, we we find ourselves just like everyone else. Seduced by the tyranny of majority opinion. Syncretism. We can't go there. The other error is separatism. Separatism. This is the turtle posture. Uh, it sort of pulls in and isolates itself in self-protection hoping the big bad world will go away. This is the tendency of conservative churches. We have a tendency to form a Christian bubble. And we have our Christian music, and our Christian movies, and our Christian dentists, and our Christian mechanics, and our Christian coffee shops, and our Christian schools, and we create our world within a world without any real contact with the outside world. So syncretism doesn't work because it maintains presence but without holiness. And separatism maintains holiness but loses presence. Do you see this? But there is a better way. That's the way of Jesus. It's the incarnation. It's the incarnation. It's what Jesus showed us. It's what He did for us. When Jesus came to this world, He became human in every way, didn't He? He became one with us, fully present. God in the flesh. He ate with sinners and tax collectors. He was fully present, fully proximate, and yet He never gave up His holiness, did He? Fully God, utterly holy and divine. He never lost His purity. So Jesus did not do syncretism where He blended in and lost His holiness, nor did He separate out where He preserved His holiness at the cost of being with us. No, He gave us an incarnation. He was present and holy at once. And friends, this is the path of what it means to be citizens of heaven and citizens of earth. It is a risk-laden choice to maintain strong links with the world around us while staying true to our identity as the holy people of God. It is the call to be in the world but not of the world, to be salt and light, to use Jesus' language. Salt that loses its saltiness is useless, but it needs to maintain its saltiness while being scattered into the decaying world around it. Light cannot lose its light. It needs to maintain its purity, but it is not to be hidden and sequestered and concealed. It is to be shining into the darkness. We are to let our little lights shine. This is the call to live as fully engaged citizens of earth, whose real, true, and ultimate home and allegiance belong to the citizenship of heaven. This is how spiritually mature people live, Paul says. They don't set their minds on earthly things. They set their hope on heaven itself. They know their citizenship is in heaven. So let me speak very directly to our world right now. Friends, as much as we love our nation, our citizenship is in heaven. Amen. We await a Savior and Lord from there. We do not live for Rome. We do not live for America. We live for the kingdom of heaven. Amen. We do not hope in the coming of Caesar. These were military guys. They they they looked forward to the day when Caesar came to the battlefield with the rest of the troops, and they won the day. We do not hope for the coming of Caesar. We do not hope for the coming of our favorite politician. We hope in the coming of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, who will return and transform our lowly bodies so that we will be like Him in glory, and by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. This is what we wait for. Chapter 4, verse 1. "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." Stand firm thus in the Lord. What is the thus? In this way. What way, Paul? In the way of spiritual maturity. That recognizes that spiritual maturity is not a destination but a pursuit, that is filled with humility about our limited progress and confidence about the pursuit of all that we have in Jesus Christ, who know that spiritual maturity is less taught and more caught. And so we imitate the godly examples that God has given to us, following their lead and setting an example for those who are following after us. We live here knowing we belong there. Living as citizens of heaven, and yet fully present and holy wherever we go, allowing the gospel to reorder the allegiance of our hearts, to shape our politics. And we fix our hope on our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, our soon and coming King. So the takeaway is simple. Brothers and sisters, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. Stand firm. Jesus is coming back soon. Amen.

Pastor Philip Miller: Amen.

Announcer (Male Voice): On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller, teaching on the Basics of Maturity, sermon number six in a series on Back to Basics. Next week, don't miss some great teaching about the basics of peace from Philippians chapter 4. Make plans to join us. Knowing why Christ transcends all other religious founders is key to defending your faith in a confused culture. Erwin Lutzer has written Christ Among Other Gods, a whirlwind tour of comparative religions, showing why Christ is supreme. This book will be sent as our thank you when you give a gift of any amount to support The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001. That's 1-800-215-5001. Online, go to moodychurchhour.com. That's moodychurchhour.com. Or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Ask about Christ Among Other Gods when you write or call. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller and the congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.