FIVE-FOLD PURPOSE OF CHURCH
TO BUILD PEOPLE IN CHRIST
DR. JIM DIXON
FEBRUARY 24, 1991
MATTHEW 28: 18-20
EPHESIANS 4:10-16
HEWBREWS 5:11-14
Sir James Matthew Berry was only six years old when his 13-year-old brother died, and little James could see the agony on his mother’s face. He could see her pain. She cloistered herself in her room. She rarely came out. It was like the lights went out of her life. Little James loved his mother, and he decided that he would try to take his brother’s place. He began to whistle like his brother and laugh like his brother, and began to adopt the expressions and gestures of his 13-year-old brother, the expressions and gestures that his brother had, had. He seemed to please his mother. So, in a sense, as the years went by, James just kind of took the place of his brother. When he was 10 years old, he was still acting like his 13-year-old brother. When he was 20, still acting like his 13-year-old brother. James lived 77 years, but through all those years he acted like he was 13 years old. He never really grew up. His mother told him that he was really better off living in the world of children, pretending to be a child. After all, adults had a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. So, James Matthew Berry wrote children’s stories throughout his life, and he fellowship with children, spent most of his time with children, had a difficulty relating to adults.
In a sense, in the year 1904, when he wrote his most famous story called Peter Pan, James, Matthew Berry was really telling his own story because Peter Pan was the boy who never grew up. He lived in Never Never Land, the place where people never grew up. Of course, Peter Pan took Wendy and John and Michael with him to Never Never Land, and they had many adventures with Tinkerbell and the crocodile, Tiger Lily and Captain Hook. But Wendy and John and Michael all returned to the real world where they grew up, but Peter Pan never grew up. Today, psychologists speak of the Peter Pan syndrome, which describes people who never grow up. People who never grow up emotionally, and people who never grow up relationally. And it’s a sad thing, a sad thing when people do not grow up. But it’s sadder still, tragic, when as Christians we do not grow up. There’s a lot of babes in Christ — men and women who have accepted Christ as Lord and Savior and they’ve been born into the kingdom of heaven, but they never grow up. And as Christians, we are called to maturity. We might grow under the very likeness of Christ, and this is what discipleship is all about.
As a church, we seek to help people. We seek to help Christians grow to maturity. We want to exalt Christ, bring people to Christ, bond them in Christ, and build them up in Christ. Now, as we focus this morning on discipleship, I really have three teachings, and the first concerns, knowledge. If we’re really going to become mature in Christ and if we’re going to be discipled, if we’re going grow up in Christ, then we must grow in knowledge. And I would ask you this morning as a Christian, whether or not you really believe that you’re growing in your knowledge of the word.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Sir Thomas Phillips. He died at the age of 80 in the year 1872. He was a very, very strange man. He didn’t like cheese or vinegar, and I don’t think that’s particularly strange, but he wouldn’t allow anyone who had eaten cheese or vinegar to come into his house. And that seems kind of strange to me. He didn’t like Christianity, and he didn’t like Christians. And maybe that’s not really strange, but he had a paranoia belief that Jesuit priests were always following him. And that seems kind of strange. He had three daughters, and he never really provided for them. These three daughters never had more than a single dress. This is really strange because, you see, Sir Thomas Phillips was one of the wealthiest people in all of England, a wealthy English landowner. He owned an estate called Middle Hill, and he had a mansion. This mansion had a drive, his own private drive coming up to the mansion, and this drive was a mile long and lined with oak trees, hundreds of oak trees, all centuries old.
When Sir Thomas Phillips oldest daughter was married, Phillips didn’t like the guy she married. Yet under English law, this son-in-law was destined to become his heir. And so, Sir Thomas Phillips went and cut down all the oak trees along that mile drive, all of them, hundreds of them. Though they were centuries old, he cut them down because he didn’t want his son-in-law ever to have them. And then he began to destroy his own mansion, began to destroy his own house because he didn’t want his son-in-law to have it.
People who knew Sir Thomas Phillips began to say he’s a fool. And perhaps he was a fool, but if he was a fool, it wasn’t because he hadn’t been educated. It wasn’t because he had some kind of lack of learning. In fact, sir Thomas Phillips perhaps read more books than any other person who has ever lived. He was a bibliomaniac. He collected books, and he had hundreds of thousands of books and more than 60,000 rare manuscripts for which he had paid exorbitant sums. His own personal library was larger than the collective libraries of Cambridge University, and he had the largest personal library that anyone has ever had in the history of the world. When he died, it took 103 wagons and 230 horses and 160 men to move the books.
It’s been more than a hundred years since he died, and the Phillips Library is still being sold. The amazing thing about Phillips was that he not only collected these books, but he read them. And we are told that he literally read thousands, thousands of books. But he was a fool. Despite all of his information, all of the learning, all the education, all that he had stored in his brain, he was still a fool. And you see, biblically, he really didn’t have any knowledge. So, when the Bible speaks of knowledge, the Bible is speaking of knowledge of the truth, truth concerning the will of God, truth concerning the condition of man, truth concerning the purpose of light. That’s knowledge.
You cannot acquire this knowledge through books. You cannot acquire this knowledge through education, through colleges or universities. You cannot acquire this knowledge through the pursuit of degrees, no matter how advanced the degrees. The Bible tells us that this knowledge really only comes through the word of God. This knowledge comes from the scripture. You want to know the will of God. Do you want to know the human predicament? Do you want to know the purpose of life? You’ll only find it here. And if as a Christian you want to be mature in Christ, and if as a Christian you want to cease to be a child, then you must grow in your knowledge of the word of God. The Bible says all scripture inspired of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness that the man or woman of God might be complete and equipped for every good work.
So as a church, we preach the Bible. As a church, we teach the scriptures. We seek to be faithful to proclaim the scriptures every Sunday morning and to teach the scriptures every Wednesday night. We offer classes at the seminary that are designed to help you grow in your knowledge of the word of God. If any generation of Christians were biblically ignorant, then this is the generation. Never in American history have so many claimed to be Christians, and so few had knowledge of the word of God.
It was just last week that Senator Bill Armstrong told us that according to Gallup polls, I think he said 88% of the people in America claim to be Christians, and yet he said, most of the people in America don’t even know the Ten Commandments. I’ll tell you something more tragic, something far worse. And it is this, most of you do not know the Ten Commandments. If we were to hand out pieces of paper today and ask you to list the Ten Commandments without looking at the Bible, I’d be amazed if more than 5% of you could do that. Never in American history have so many Christians been biblically ignorant, and we desperately want to help you grow in your knowledge of scripture. This is necessary for discipleship’s sake, that we might be mature in Christ. And so, we teach the word and we trust and pray that you’re going to want to grow in your knowledge of the word.
But maturity in Christ is not simply a matter of knowledge, and I think you know that maturity in Christ also involves character. And this is really the second teaching that I have this morning. If you had become mature in Christ, if I would become mature in Christ, we must grow in character. Unless we have the character of Christ, it doesn’t matter how much knowledge we have. All of our knowledge will be moot. All of our knowledge of scripture will be in vain if we have not the character of Christ.
Now, about three weeks ago, I think it was about three weeks ago, Barbara and I and our daughter Heather were driving to the Cherry Creek Mall. Barb and Heather had been to the Cherry Creek Mall on a number of occasions, and they had told me it’s just incredible. They said, “This is the best mall,” and I said, Jim, “You have got to see it.” So, I was kind of excited about this. We came off of a side street onto University, and there was a lot of traffic. And, you know, I waited to turn onto University. The traffic was barely moving, and I waited till there was a gap of about four or five car lengths. That seemed plenty because the traffic was almost at a standstill, and I pulled in. Apparently, the guy behind me didn’t like this because he laid on his horn, and you could tell he was really enraged. And when I turned around, he flipped me the bird, and he was really mad. He began to flip me dual birds, and he would kind of alternate between honking his horn and flipping me off. And he was really ticked off, and we began to go north on university. We’re barely moving, and he’s right behind me and he’s just enraged. You can just feel the heat.
You know, we went on for about five minutes with him honking and flipping, and then we came up to a red light. And he had pulled into the other lane because he was trying to get alongside of me. I’m not sure why, maybe he had a shotgun or something, but he was trying to get alongside of me as we came up to this red light. You know, my lane stopped. And so, we, stopped he was focusing on me, flipping me off and honking his horn, and his lane stopped. But he didn’t notice that he ran right into the car in front of him, and this was an incredible moment. The woman in front of him got out of the car, and then he got out of the car. But he wasn’t looking at the woman. He was still so mad at me. The light turned green, and I began to drive off. I could see him in the distance, both hands in the air just flipping me off. And, you know, I don’t know, I mean, I don’t know this man. Obviously, I hope he’s not a member of our church here, but obviously this man was having a hard day. And as I was driving off it, obviously it wasn’t getting any better for him. And, you know, it occurs to me that this man had a few flaws in his character.
The reality is that all of us, even as Christians, we all have flaws in our character, and that’s what growing in Christ is all about, that we would begin to get rid of these flaws. We begin to become more like Christ. You see, character has to do with your moral constitution. It has to do with the way you act, and the way you behave has to do with the way you think. Our English word character actually comes from the biblical or Greek word character. Our word character is simply a transliteration of the Greek word used in the Bible. And the word character in the Bible referred to a dye or a seal or even the face of a coin that could be stamped on a surface and make an impression, make a mark. And that impression in that mark would be the exact image, the exact reflection of the surface of the dye or the coin or the seal.
When in the Bible, we are told as Christians that we are meant to have the character of Christ, that means that our character should reflect Him. We should bear His stamp so that our actions and our behavior and our attitudes and our thoughts should reflect Him. We would begin to, by the power of the Holy Spirit, become Christlike so that people would look at us as Christians, they would actually see Christ. This is critical. If we do not have the character of Christ and if we’re not growing in Christlikeness, it doesn’t matter how much knowledge of the Bible we have. We will still not have power in ministry, and God will not be able to really fully use us in this world. We desperately need the character of Christ.
I’m reminded of a time when I was at college at Westmont College. We had a guest speaker come to speak in chapel at Westmont one week. And he was going speak for the whole week. He was very famous, famous Christian leader. I’ll not give you his name because of what I’m going share, but he was a very famous Christian man. He knew the Bible backwards and forwards. He had written many books. He was knowledgeable in the Greek and in the Hebrew. One of the most famous graduates of Dallas Theological Seminary, and he was coming to speak to us for the whole week.
When he arrived, it seemed kind of strange, he came in a solid white Cadillac, got out and he was wearing this white suit with a 10-gallon white hat, a bolo tie and white leather boots. And he kind of walked with a strut. I’m not saying there’s anything’s wrong with that, but it seemed a little showoffy. He seemed a little arrogant, and as he stood up in front of us and he began to teach us in chapel, he only had spoken for maybe a minute or two, suddenly he said, “You!” Just silence, as he was pointing to a student who had just come into chapel, and his class had gotten out late. He happened to be a very nice person, and this speaker was pointing at him and said, “You! How dare you interrupt a man of God in the midst of his proclamation.” And he just began to lambaste this guy. Then as he went on in his talk and he began to talk about hell. You could tell he really wanted us to go there. And when he began to talk about our sin or what he perceived to be the sin of college people, you could tell he had a lot of anger and rage, but he didn’t seem to have any sorrow. Somehow though, he had all this knowledge. It really wasn’t ministering to any of us because something seemed wrong with his character. It was so bad that the student council and the faculty council got together and said, do we really want this man to speak to us all week? And they finally decided to let him go ahead, and just trust that by the grace of God, some good might come.
It’s a tragic thing though, when we don’t have the character of Jesus Christ. See, the character of Christ is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. The character of Christ is summed up in the word love, and his desire for us as disciples is that we might grow in love and that we might be evermore like Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not loved, I’m a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I have prophetic powers and I understand all knowledge and I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I’m nothing. If I give away all that I have to the poor and deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I accomplish nothing.”
So, we have this second teaching that we need to grow not only in knowledge, but in character, and as a church, we really want to help. We want to help each other grow in character, and we all need to grow in character. And this really is not easy. I mean, it’s much easier to impart knowledge than it is to impart character. In fact, I’m not capable of giving any of you character, and you’re not capable of giving me character. Only the Holy Spirit can transform our character. But see, we pray that by the grace of Christ, somehow the power of the Holy Spirit might be released in our preaching and released in our teaching for our own transformation, that we might become more like Christ.
We have an excellent counseling staff at Cherry Hills Community Church. They are really excellent, and they’re there to help us grow in character. And when we know we have some really major flaws that need to be dealt with, these are people God has given us we can talk to. We have classes over at the seminary that we offer, and some of them focus specifically on attributes of character, Christlikeness, because we want to be a church that disciples so that people come here, they grow in knowledge, and they also can grow in their Christ-like character.
Thirdly, and finally and briefly, we have this teaching and that is that if we’re really going to be discipled and we’re really going to grow in Christ, we need to grow on our skills for ministry. If we’re really going to be mature in Christ, then we need to have knowledge of the Bible, knowledge of the word. We need to have the character of Christ, and then we need to have skills and talents and abilities that we’ve recognized and we’ve cultivated and we’ve developed and then are using in ministry. And that’s really what we want to do as a church, is help you discover your gifts and skills and abilities and use them for Christ’s sake.
You know, Benjamin Franklin was an amazing man, the son of a candle maker. He was one of 17 children, the youngest of 15 boys. And his father wanted him to be a minister. But when he was 10 years old, the money ran out, and Benjamin Franklin had to drop out of school. He began to work for one of his older brothers. Began to save his money. He educated himself, he denied himself meat, and he used the money to buy books. He educated himself in arithmetic and English grammar and even in navigation and algebra and geometry and in philosophy and in many different subjects and disciplines.
When he was only 17 years old, in the year 1723, he left Boston and went to Philadelphia, and when he arrived in Philadelphia, he had no friends and he had no money. Yet, in a period of only a few years, he became famous throughout the colonies. And today, historians tell us that perhaps in American history, no person has been more skilled, more talented, than Benjamin Franklin. He may have had the greatest diversity of talent of any man who ever lived. His accomplishments are absolutely mind boggling. I mean, here’s a man. Actually, it was Benjamin Franklin who discovered that lightning consists of electricity; and Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod; and he invented the Franklin stove; and he invented the platform rocking chair; and invented the bifocal glasses. Benjamin Franklin was the first to state belief in what today is called the gulf stream. Benjamin Franklin was the first to recognize that physical reality. And Benjamin Franklin’s, Poor Richards Almanac and his autobiography are among the classics of American literature. Of course, he founded and established the Philadelphia Gazette, which became The Saturday Evening Post, and he organized the first fire department in Philadelphia. He established the first hospital in America, the first lending library in America, the first postal services in America. He was one of the founders, some would say he was the founder, of the University of Pennsylvania. He established the first organization to oppose slavery. He established the American Philosophical Society. He was our diplomat to England and our diplomat to France, and many historians say the greatest diplomat in American history. And he organized the Continental Army. He was our postmaster general. He helped to draft the Declaration of Independence, an amazing man. He was a philosopher. He was a publisher. He was a painter. He was a scientist. He was a statesman. He was a writer, an inventor, mind boggling.
We can look at someone like that, and you know, we can say, well, I don’t have many talents; and I don’t have many skills; and I don’t have many abilities. And certainly, none of us had the natural talents and abilities that Benjamin Franklin did. But you all have talents, and you all have abilities. And if you’re a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you also have what the Bible calls, gifts. Special endowments of the Holy Spirit given to you at the moment of your regeneration, and subsequent to regeneration, you have gifts and you have talents, and you have skills, and you have abilities. You can do what Benjamin Franklin never really did. You can use your talents and your gifts and your abilities for the service of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. But you need to discover what your gifts are and what your talents are and what your skills are. You need to cultivate them, and then you need to be mobilized in ministry.
This is what we want to offer you as a church. We’re starting a new ministry that’s called Lifewalk. This ministry will begin in about two months, and you’re going to be hearing more and more about it. All of our deacons are going to be involved in the leadership of Lifewalk, and all of our department heads are going to be involved in the leadership of Lifewalk. And through this ministry we hope to mobilize the laity. We’re going to offer tests and interviews through which you can discover your gifts, and we’ll be able to process about a hundred people a month, 1200 people a year. And we’ll be able to help you understand what are your gifts and what are your skills and what are your talents and what are your abilities. And then of course, we’re not going to force you to do this. You have to volunteer to do this, but we’re going to have this service available to you. Once you discover what your gifts and skills and talents and abilities are, we’ll then refer you to the appropriate ministry department where they’ll have a whole list of ministry opportunities, and you’ll be able to choose the ministry opportunity appropriate to you. That department will be ready to train you in utilizing your gifts for the service of Christ through that ministry. We want to train the saints. We want to mobilize them in ministry, and we hope you’re going to want to be part of that.
Even before Lifewalk begins, we have opportunities for you to grow in your skills and in your gifts and abilities. You know, evangelism is a skill that needs to be cultivated. I mean, some people have the gift of evangelism, but all Christians are called to participate in evangelism and to share their faith and their love for Jesus Christ with others. A lot of Christians feel insecure and they’re kind of afraid and they don’t know how to share their faith, and you need to learn. We’re going to have three classes on evangelism taught by Bill Fey. These are going to be forthcoming. We want you to avail yourself of the opportunity to grow in this ministry, ability, for the service of Christ.
You know, even prayer in a sense is a skill that must be cultivated. Again, some Christians have special gifts in prayer, but I think all Christians need to learn to pray better. Bob is dealing with the subject of prayer on Wednesday nights right now, and this coming Wednesday night, he’s going to be talking about proper strategies in prayer. And maybe you don’t even really know how to pray. I mean, you love Christ, and you know prayer is important. But you don’t know how to pray, and you want to spend more time in prayer. But you just get bored, and it doesn’t seem effectual. Come out Wednesday night, and Bob’s going to have a great teaching for you on the strategy of prayer because we need to grow. We need to grow in our ministry abilities and skills, and that’s what we’re about as a church. We want to help each other grow, grow in our knowledge of scripture, grow in the character of Christ, and grow in our skills for ministry. So, let’s close in a word of prayer
Lord Jesus, as we come to you this morning, Lord, we really want to be faithful to you, Lord. Most of us in this room are Christians, and there was some point in our life where we committed our lives to you. And we asked you to come and live within us and to forgive us of our sin and to be the Lord of our life. And we were born into your family. We were born into the kingdom of heaven, and we became a baby in Christ. Lord, we don’t want to remain as babies. We want to grow to adulthood. We want to grow to maturity. We want, Lord, to grow in our knowledge of scripture, and we want to grow in our Christ-like character. We want to be transformed, Lord Jesus, to be like you. And we want to discover our gifts and abilities, and we want to develop them and then use them for the service of your kingdom. Lord, bless our church that we might exalt you, bring people to you, bond people in you, and build them up in you. We love you. We pray these things, Lord Jesus, in your great name, amen.