Maturity
Acts 17
August 18, 2002
Intro:
A. [Paul Harvey’s "For What It’s Worth"]
Our For What It’s Worth Department hears from Hershey, Pennsylvania—where the woman in the Mercedes had been waiting patiently for a parking place to open up.
The shopping mall was crowded.
The woman in the Mercedes zigzagged between rows—then up ahead she saw a man with a load of packages heading for his car.
She drove up, parked behind him and waited while he opened his trunk and loaded it with packages.
Finally he got in his car and backed out of the stall.
But before the woman in the Mercedes could drive into the parking space, a young man in a shiny new Corvette zipped past and around her and he pulled into the empty space, got out and started walking away.
"Hey!" shouted the woman in the Mercedes, "I’ve been waiting for that parking place!"
The college-ager responded, "Sorry, lady; that’s how it is when you’re young and quick."
At that instant she put her Mercedes in gear, floor-boarded it, crashed into and crushed the right rear fender and corner panel of the flashy new Corvette.
Now the young man is jumping up and down shouting, "You can’t do that!"
The lady in the Mercedes said, "That’s how it is when you’re old and rich!"
B. Today, in Acts 17, we want to see if we can learn some things about maturity.
1. Obviously, because one is old, does not necessarily mean they are mature—especially when it comes to spiritual maturity.
2. The Scripture is replete with importance of not remaining babes in Christ but to continually move towards maturity.
3. Part of our vision for the future of Somerset is to continually move believers towards maturity.
4. We are to be continually growing spiritually, more and more in the image of Christ.
5. Hebrews 6:1, Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity,
C. Now, before we read about what happened in Thessalonica, I want to give you a little "pop quiz" to see how I much I’m getting across.
Question #1: Where was the first place Paul normally went when he entered a new city? Answer: The synagogue.
Question #2: To whom did Paul usually preach first in each city? Answer: To the Jews.
Question #3: What was the main point of Paul’s preaching in the synagogue? Answer: That Jesus really is the Christ, the Son of God.
Question #4: Were there any conversions as a result of Paul’s preaching? Answer: A great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.
Question #5: Did everyone believe Paul’s message and if not, what did the people who refused to believe normally do? Answer: There were usually refusers who stirred up persecution for Paul.
E. Well…shall we read now what happened in Thessalonica?
I. Predictability in Thessalonica / Regular Worship
Acts 17:1-9, When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, " he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. 5 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus." 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
A. Sound familiar?
1. All predictable things that we have seen of both Paul and the people in the city.
2. I think Paul is probably getting as used to this as we are.
B. But what can we take from this incident in Thessalonica about maturity?
1. I believe there is something here about regular worship in spite of circumstances!
2. Verse two says, "As his custom was…"
3. Time and time again, Paul went to the synagogue.
4. Time and time again, people stirred up trouble for him.
5. Time and time again, Paul was persecuted, being beaten, thrown in jail, and run off.
6. Time and time again, Paul continued to go right back in the synagogue.
7. It was Paul’s custom, his habit, his routine to go to church every week—no matter what had happened in the past.
C. Paul understood that going to church to worship God on a regular basis was not a matter of how he felt.
1. Paul was clearly not going to church for what he could get out of it.
2. Paul was not going to church because it made him feel good.
3. Paul was not gong to church because the other people made him feel good.
4. Paul was committed to regular worship because he was whole-heartedly focused on God and others!
5. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regularly joining the assembly to tell God how much He meant to him.
6. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regularly joining the assembly to sing praises to the true love of his life!
7. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regularly joining the assembly to serve!
8. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regular worship because he was whole-heartedly committed to God and others!
9. It had nothing to do with himself!
10. I can’t imagine the apostle Paul saying, "I’m just too tired this week."
11. I can’t imagine the apostle Paul saying, "I’ve got too much work to do."
12. I can’t imagine the apostle Paul saying, "Well if things don’t change down there, I’m not sure I’m going to keep going."
13. I can’t imagine the apostle Paul saying, "Somebody said something that offended me last week, so I don’t think I’m going back."
14. Nothing could keep the apostle Paul from stopping his custom!
15. Not persecution; not jail; not people talking about him behind his back; not even beatings or stonings.
16. Once, he got stoned and left for dead one day and was preaching again the next day!
17. No, Paul continued to go to church "as was his custom!"
D. And that friends is one of the marks of spiritual maturity.
1. Regular worship is a mark of spiritual maturity.
2. One of the driving forces of the mature is the unstoppable desire to worship.
a. Do you long to gather with other Christians to praise God?
b. Is weekly worship one of the high-lights of your week?
c. Is it the highest priority of your life?
d. Do you anticipate each Sunday’s worship service?
e. Is regular worship your custom?
f. Do you pray about and prepare yourself for worship?
3. Bearing with others is another mark of spiritual maturity as well.
a. Longing to worship and be with other imperfect people is a mark of maturity.
b. The ability to overlook and bear with others at their particular stage of spiritual maturity and desire to worship with them (no matter how spiritually mature they are) is a mark of maturity.
c. The desire to accept them for who they are and where they are and to worship our risen Savior together is a mark of maturity.
4. And beyond just bearing with or putting up with others, the desire to serve them is another mark of maturity.
a. Do we come to worship just to see who will and who won’t speak to us?
b. Or do we make it a priority to look for ways to serve others?
c. Do we look for ways to encourage them; congratulate them, pray with them, console them, hug them?
5. Are we here to see what we can get out of it, or are we here to see what we can GIVE?!
a. Paul’s heart was to give and that should be the attitude of our heart when we come to church!
b. When we come to worship, we come to give to God and give to others—and when our attitude and desire is to give, then and only then will we truly receive!
6. Regular worship is a mark of spiritual maturity that we all need.
II. Nobility in Berea / Regular Study
Acts 17:10-15, As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. 13 When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
A. Luke says that the people of Berea were more noble than the people of Thessalonica.
1. Luke gives two reasons why there were more noble…
a. First Luke says they received the message with great eagerness.
b. And second Luke says they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
2. They were noble because they listened to and received Paul’s messages with great eagerness.
a. They were attentive to what Paul said.
b. They were eager to hear what Paul said.
c. They wanted to hear what Paul said.
d. They enjoyed listening to what Paul said.
e. They received what Paul said.
f. They took to heart what Paul said.
g. They meditated on what Paul said.
3. They were also noble because they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
a. They paid close attention to what Paul said; they may have even taken notes.
b. Then they took their notes home and studied and meditated on what Paul had said.
c. They searched the Scriptures themselves everyday to see if what he said was true.
d. Paul preached, and they spent the next week studying to see if what he had said was true.
e. They didn’t just sit there and absent-mindedly believe everything Paul said.
f. They didn’t just trust him; they checked him out.
g. They received the message eagerly, but they still checked it out.
B. And again, these are marks of spiritual maturity.
1. The desire to regularly worship and anticipate what God has to say through the preaching of the Word is a mark of Spiritual maturity.
2. The ability to receive the message with eagerness is a mark of maturity.
a. I know that no one here does this, but there are spiritually immature people who don’t receive the Word of God with eagerness.
b. I know it is hard for us here to believe that, but there are some who are natural scoffers when it comes to preaching.
c. I know there are some who are not inclined to accept anything that is preached.
d. There are some who don’t think that God actually speaks through preachers.
e. There are some who think they know so much that there’s nothing the preacher could say that would be of any benefit to them.
f. There are some who are always thinking about how the sermon applies Howard and Suzie, but it never applies to themselves.
g. There are some who when it does sound like it applies to them, they get mad because the preacher is preaching right at them and singling them out.
h. I know there aren’t folks like that here, but there are people who don’t receive the Word with great eagerness.
i. But the ability to receive the Word with great eagerness is a mark of maturity.
3. And then the desire to examine the Scriptures daily is another mark of maturity.
a. Obviously, eagerly sucking up everything your told and never checking anything out for yourself is not a mark of maturity.
b. Just receiving the message with eagerness without studying the Word for yourself will not greatly increase your maturity—you’ll simply become a mind-numbed robot.
c. The apostle Paul was a great man of God.
d. The apostle Paul wrote over half of the NT.
e. The apostle Paul turned the world right-side-up for the cause of Christ!
f. And the Bereans were examining the Scriptures every day to see if what he said was true.
g. If the Bereans were examining the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true, we need to be examining the Scriptures daily to see if what our preachers and teachers are saying is true.
h. I’m not the apostle Paul, Tom Cole is not the apostle Paul, Billy Graham is not the apostle Paul so we need to examine the Scriptures daily for ourselves to see if what we are being taught is true!
i. This is another mark of maturity: the desire to search and examine and meditate on and apply the Scriptures personally.
j. The desire to want to know what our True Love has said for ourselves.
k. The desire to want to know for ourselves what our Beloved says and expects is a mark of maturity.
l. Receiving what our teachers and preachers say with eagerness the appropriate first step, but we also need to study for ourselves and not simply depend on others to spoon feed us the baby food of the Word.
m. We cannot simply depend on others to spoon feed us and expect to mature.
n. Spiritually mature Christians regularly study the Word of God on our own.
III. Flexibility in Athens / Regular Change
Acts 17:16-34, While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ’For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ’We are his offspring.’ 29 "Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
A. Now notice that Paul was greatly distressed when he got to Athens.
1. What was Paul distressed about?
2. Paul was distressed that the city was full of idols; the city was filled with other gods.
3. Gareth Reese says, [New Testament History Acts, College Press, p. 621]
"Hermes-busts at every corner, statues and altars in the courtyard of every home, temples and porches and colonnades, all reminded Paul of the idolatry in which these people were steeped. … Where we are used to seeing street lamp poles, street name markers, fire plugs, and post-office mail boxes on every corner, Paul saw evidences (in the idols and altars) of the degradation men sink into when they try any of the Devil’s substitutes for the real, God-revealed, way of worship."
4. The city was filled with people who did not know God, but thought they were religious.
5. Paul was distressed with what in saw in the culture of Athens.
B. Notice also, this is what I would call a college culture.
1. Paul reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue and with the Greeks in the marketplace.
2. There were philosophers there who specialized in the "what if."
3. They specialized in the hypotheticals of how they would like the world to be.
4. They liked to sit around and philosophize.
5. They liked to discuss the latest and greatest theories and ideas.
6. They referred to Paul as the "babbler," but they were amused enough by him that they asked him to speak to them.
7. Why not? He had something new for them to speculate and debate.
8. They believed in many gods; the Greek gods.
9. Paul told them about Jesus and the resurrection.
10. This whole picture that Luke paints of the culture of Athens is very indicative our current college culture.
C. So how does Paul respond to all of this when he is asked to speak?
1. Paul was greatly distressed by all of this, and they finally gave him the opportunity to lecture to them.
2. Does he launch into them and tell them how stupid they were for believing in all of these false gods?
3. How would they have responded if he had tried that approach?
4. Paul was greatly distressed by the spiritual status of the people of Athens, but he was also people-focused enough to know that they needed respect and sensitivity given to them if they were going to listen to what he said and not reject him.
5. Notice that Paul didn’t say one negative thing about the culture of Athens.
6. Even though Paul was greatly disturbed by what was happening, he didn’t say one negative word about what they believed or how they were living their lives.
7. Acts 17:22-23, Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
8. Paul was flexible in his approach to evangelism so that he could get his foot in the door of this intellectual culture.
9. Paul used creativity in his approach to evangelism so that he could get a listening in this philosophical atmosphere.
10. Paul was willing to change his approach to evangelism in order to get these quasi-religious people to listen to him.
11. Paul was respectful and sensitive to people of Athens so he found a creative way to say what he needed to say, in a way that would be palatable to them.
12. There are times when Paul was direct and confrontation, but not with the Athenians.
D. Regular change is another mark of spiritual maturity.
1. Flexibility and creativity is a mark of spiritual maturity.
2. Spiritually mature people have been around the block with evangelism enough times to know that you must change your approach with different kinds of people.
3. Spiritually mature people know that the methods that were used to win their grandparents to Christ will not work in leading their grandchildren to Christ.
4. Spiritually mature people know that the Scriptures teach that it is the mature who are to change and be flexible.
5. Spiritually mature people know that in order for the Kingdom to grow, things must change.
6. Spiritually mature people know that if things don’t change, they die.
7. Spiritually mature churches know that if things don’t change, the church will die.
8. Spiritually mature people know that in matters of the Gospel, we stand like a rock.
9. But Spiritually mature people also know that in matters of style, we must swim with the current.
10. Spiritually mature people know that if we are going to reach the culture of the 21st century, we are going to have to continually change in order to meet their needs.
E. It is staggering to think of the resistance to change the church often displays.
1. [The King James Version]
When the King James Version of the Bible was issued in 1611, it was widely criticized and rejected by the clergy.
Archbishop Richard Bancroft said, "Tell his majesty that I had rather be rent to pieces with wild horses than any such translation by my consent should be urged upon poor churches."
2. [Singing Hymns]
Deacon Watts called his son on the carpet for his lack luster participation in congregational singing.
According to the common practice, the clerk would read the Psalm out line by line, with the congregation singing after him.
Isaac Watts told his father bluntly that there was no music in the Psalms, and, furthermore, they didn’t rhyme.
Old Deacon Watts, outraged, suggested that Isaac write his own songs if he thought he were smarter than King David.
Watts (of course) did (writing such songs as: "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross").
Not everyone was happy with replacing the Psalms with hymns.
Typical was this incident: When the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States of America met in Philadelphia’s Second Presbyterian Church in May, 1789, Rev. Adam Rankin was granted permission to speak.
"I have ridden on horseback all the way from my home in Kentucky," he said, "to ask this august body to refuse to allow the great and pernicious error of adopting the use of Isaac Watts’ hymns in public worship in preference to Rouse’s versifcations of the Psalms of David."
3. [Sunday School]
When Robert Raikes started the Sunday School Movement, the Archbishop of Canterbury called together the bishops to see what could be done to stop him, for, he said, it was a violation of Exodus 20:8.
In the late 1700’s "Sabbath (or Sunday) School Societies" were started here and there throughout the young United States of America.
But at first, many members of the clergy were opposed to them, maintaining that it was a desecration of the Lord’s Day to hold school on Sunday.
A pastor in Connecticut said of a class held in his church on Sunday, "You imps of Satan, doing the devil’s work. I’ll have you set in the street."
4. [Radio Evangelism]
When the pioneers of radio evangelism started using the airways to proclaim the Gospel, they labored against a loud, persistent chorus of criticism.
Clarence Jones, co-founder of missionary station HCJB in Equador, faced these questions: Will God prosper this new-fangled fad since it operates in the very realm of Satan—the air? Don’t the Scriptures clearly portray the devil as the prince of the power of the air?"
5. I wonder if the church would have opposed the venue and the methods of Paul when he addressed the Athenians.
6. It is staggering to think of the resistance to change the church often displays.
F. The apostle Paul taught and practiced the flexibility the mature are to display when relating to those less mature in their faith.
1. Romans 14:1, Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.
2. Romans 14:7, For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.
3. Romans 14:13, Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.
4. Romans 14:15, If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.
5. Romans 14:19-21, Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
6. 1 Corinthians 8:9-13, Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
G. Paul also taught flexibility in the spiritually mature in reaching out to the lost.
1. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
2. The apostle Paul taught and practiced flexibility and the Spiritually mature should do the same.
Conclusion:
A. Someone has said, "The older we grow, the more we become like the place we’re going."
B. From the events that took place in the cities of Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, we learn 3 characteristics that are true of the spiritual maturity. (There are certainly other characteristics of spiritual maturity, but these are three found in Acts 17 are very important ones.)
1. Regular worship.
2. Regular study.
3. Regular change.
C. "The older we grow, the more we become like the place we’re going."
1. That is clearly true of the growing Christian.
2. It is certainly true of those who are Spiritually mature.
3. Is it true of you? Are you becoming more and more like a citizen of heaven?
4. Are these three characteristics true of you?
a. Are you worshipping regularly?
b. Are you studying regularly?
c. Are you changing regularly?
