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Listening to the Holy Spirit:
The Biblical Approach to Maturity & Evangelism
Introduction: I would like us to give some thought to the above title. When we think about a mature Christian we usually think about what a person does. We measure it by works we see. But we must admit, it is possible, and often not uncommon, to be very active in service to God, and yet not be mature (Pharisees). In other words, we humans can have motives for service other than reflecting our love and knowledge of God. Therefore, what maturity actually is and how we are to get there can often be quite vague in our thinking. The key to maturity is truly listening to the Holy Spirit in the way he revealed his message.
The Method (Eph. 4:11-16)
First notice that this text specifically labels maturity as the goal of the Lord for us. Verse 13 notes two parts to maturity in a local church:
“Unity of the faith” – is referring to a church’s knowledge of scripture that grows together to a higher and higher level. As verse 14 points out, the goal is to not leave anyone as “children” in their knowledge so he/she is vulnerable to false teaching.
“Knowledge of the Son of God” is referring to the growing relationship a Christian has with the Lord. This is a true intimacy with Christ, not just a superficial knowledge of Him.
Second, we see descriptive terms to help us understand when a level of maturity is reached:
Not tossed or vulnerable to every wind of doctrine that crafty men invent. It is knowing the scripture well enough to not be fooled and know how to defeat the false teaching.
Being able to “speak the truth in love.” Actually speaking the truth (not just thinking) is a big challenge and I will submit to you that not only are most Christians neglecting this point, but a large percentage seem not even to care to get to that point (as is witnessed by how few practice such just in a small group Bible class when asked what they see in the text).
Being able to practice what we have learned by using our talents to the building up of the body (vs. 16).
Third is the means to get to maturity. It is not done completely on our own without help. The gifts of verse 11 are the means. Now in the rest of this lesson I want to concentrate on how the apostles and prophets equip the saints to maturity.
How the Apostles & Prophets Do Their Work
Of course, we could be simplistic and say that they do their work in equipping us to maturity by revealing the Bible. But that answer is too generic. There are many ways in which the apostles & prophets could have made their revelation. So why did they choose, that is, why did the Holy Spirit choose to make this revelation in the “format” that has been given to us?
Consider that the Holy Spirit could have revealed the scriptures according to a “topical” format. I have been studying with a Catholic lady and she has repeatedly referred me to websites that have a basic Catholic catechism in which hundreds of questions are asked and the answers are given. The study of the Bible has been reduced to finding the “right answers.” This should sound familiar to us because that kind of Bible study has been the majority approach for a couple hundred years.
But the Spirit did not reveal the scriptures in such a format, and it is interesting how uncomfortable we are with His approach! This is evidenced by…
- Taking the four gospels and harmonizing them instead of finding the message in each.
- Seeing topics in each verse we study and studying those topics without consideration of the context.
- Studying primarily for the purpose of defeating a false doctrine and thereby looking frantically through the Bible for verses that will prove us right and others wrong. [Premillennialism, Salvation, Holy Spirit]
- Our woeful lack of knowledge of the intent, purpose, and primary message of each of the Bible books.
There is a reason the Spirit did not reveal topically. The Spirit’s primary concern is not having right answers but a right relationship. Therefore, the Spirit’s revelation is personal, leading our hearts to be in love with our Creator. This is evident in the mistake of the Pharisees (Matt. 23:23). They reduced scripture to a list of rules and in so doing missed the true essence of serving God. (See also John 5:39) God has rules, but we are missing it when we approach scripture in a quest for “rules.”
It is the reason the Pharisees continually thought Jesus was violating the Sabbath. They looked primarily for the rules without seeing the relationship (Hosea 6:6).
So have you given thought to the fact that the Spirit revealed the NT through letters? These letters have an occasion and a purpose, and when we read them we get a full picture of the glory and majesty of God; we are drawn to our Creator.
- Reading Acts as Theophilus would have heard it. Reading Genesis as Israel would have heard it at Sinai. Reading Matt. 3:11 as Pharisees and Sadducees would have heard it.
- How would the Corinthians have heard chapter one?
- How would the church have heard Phil. 4:2?
- How did the Galatians hear their letter? How did they hear 3:29, Abraham’s offspring?
Here is what is critical: the years of following primarily a topical approach to Bible study and preaching has resulted in a Christians and churches suffering serious consequences.
- Christianity is reduced to “thou shall” and “thou shall not.” 1 Cor. 8:1 warns that “knowledge puffs up, love edifies.” This affects how we approach the lost and one another.
- Rules by themselves become a system of works that are lifeless, life sapping, burdensome, and boring.
- Our own false teachings begin to abound because we are paying more attention to defeating someone else’s error than discovering truth regardless of anyone’s teaching, ours or someone else’s.
- We have missed the intricacies of how the Spirit’s message is revealed. The message in the “signs” of the gospel John is completely missed. The OT quotations are not read based on their original context and nearly always ignored. [John 6]
- We have simply missed the beauty of the scripture, the magnificent way the Lord as a great artist painted His story. The depth is equivalent to the ever-expanding universe. But once we have the “answers,” we think we have seen all there is to see.
The Importance of Preaching/Studying Texts
Textual preaching/study forces us to see Jesus and His purpose for us in every text. Consider how cold Ephesians 4-6 is without chapters 1-3 showing us that we are to be “to the praise of His glory.”
Textual preaching/study forces us to see the beauty of the “whole,” not just look for nuggets of wisdom here and there. [Exodus, Chronicles, 1 & 2 Corinthians, boasting]
Textual preaching/study forces us to deal with uncomfortable sections of scripture that may be counter-cultural or something that the church has neglected. [Ezek. 36:26-27, 31]
Textual preaching/study forces us to deal with texts that are unfamiliar to us or that on the surface do not interest us. It confronts our fears of hard passages.
Textual preaching forces a preacher to avoid “hobby-riding.” He must preach according to God’s agenda, not his own.
Textual preaching/study forces us to see depth and thus get beyond the surface (1 Cor. 2:10-14). Depth is what brings us to maturity. First principles maintain immaturity (Heb. 5:11—6:2).
Textual preaching/study creates Christians and teachers who or soaked in the word of God, not simply right and wrong answers. In fact, in textual preaching and teaching we find the “answers.” But we will have learned these truths in context and will not have to fear that we have “seen” something that really isn’t there.
Conclusion: I am certainly not saying that there is not a place of preaching topics. This lesson is certainly topical. But the Spirit delivered the word in such a way that best facilitates our growth, and for the most part we have ignored it.
Berry Kercheville