As we come to the end of this particular discourse on the function of the body and the ministry we are called to, we may ask the question, "To what end and for what purpose are these instructions given?" Paul could have suggested many purposes for our gifting and our working together as a body, both in the church and without. He could have chosen evangelism as the goal. This is important and I know full well that it is a primary responsibility according to Matthew 28 to go and evangelize the world. Or he could have pointed to the fact that we must do these things so that we may usher in the future Kingdom of God. I believe that too is a vital part of our preparation. To rule and reign with Him in the wonderful span of time when all of the injustices will be set straight. When there will be no more war, and righteousness shall reign. But this is not the end to which Paul says the church is gifted. As we examine the end to which the church is equipped according to Ephesians 4, notice in the first place:

I. The Purpose Explained - Maturity Is the Goal.

According to Paul, the primary issue at task here is one thing. That is found in vs. 15b That we might grow up in Christ. You have heard the expression and probably have used it yourself. "Oh I wish you would grow up!" Usually that expression follows some childish antic, or some pouting because you could not get your own way, or some other such immature action. Another similar expression is, "Act your age!" That is the sense of this exhortation from Paul. All of the preceding instruction and prioritizing of purpose and function is so that we might grow up in Christ. That we might become mature men and women established upon the foundation of Christ. When we implore our children to "grow up!", we have a standard in mind - us! When Paul exhorts us to grow up, there is also a standard in mind.

1. Christ is the standard.
Vs. 16 "from Him the whole body…grows up.
"Sola Christo," "Christ alone!" was the cry of the reformers. So our cry today must be that through our knowledge of who He is, we must set our faith upon Jesus alone. Jesus period. In Him all the answers to life's dilemmas are found. In Him all the questions are answered as we have seen at the end of the last section. When we set our foundation and our world view upon the truth of Christ we will avoid being blown about by every wind of doctrine(vs 14). And he is not only speaking of spiritual maturity. He is speaking of a wholeness of being that everyone longs for. Jesus was the most perfect person that ever lived. Maturing into the fullness of Christ takes us to a level of wholeness that every human being longs for. We will never attain His physical perfection in this life, but we can obtain wholeness. Each day becoming more like Him in our minds and our emotions. Completeness in our minds and our emotions and our spirits.

Psychiatrists have come to the conclusion through much research that all of us deep down have a longing to be perfect. To be pure and to be emotionally complete. You know why that is? Because that is the way God made us. He made us in His image and likeness. He made us with a God shaped vacuum that longs to be back in that state that we were in right at the beginning of time. That is why we are continually seeking approval. Lets be honest now. We are always wanting someone to tell us that we are #1. We may put on a false kind of humility and say, "Oh, I am really not capable of much," or , "Gee I am so useless at this particular task" But as soon as someone agrees with us, we get the huffs. That is because we don't really believe that of ourselves. We believe that we are better than we really are. Many times we can convince ourselves that we are doing great. But that is usually because we are measuring ourselves against the wrong standard. We measure ourselves against the world and we come out tops. We shine compared to the prostitute, or the shady business man, or the cheating high school student, but that is not the measure to which we as Christians are to compare ourselves. When we measure ourselves in this way we are deceiving ourselves, says Paul in 2 Cor. 10:12 "We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise."

Paul will tell us again and again that there is only one measuring stick and that is Christ. He mentioned that in vs. 13, and he says it again in our text today in vs 15. The way that we will know that we are measuring up is when we do the things that Christ would do. When we say the things that Christ would say. When we go to the places to which Christ would go. And we are not talking about pseudo religiosity here. Nor are we talking about mystical spirituality or even the working of great miracles. We are talking about growing into the fullness of Christ the man. We must model our lives after Christ the God man and the man God. We must question our actions and our thoughts based upon what He would do. The only way we can know Him, is through the Scriptures. So as Christ is the standard, we see also that:

2. The Word is the Source.
When the Word becomes life, it testifies of Christ. See John 5:39-40 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, [40] yet you refuse to come to me to have life. The Scriptures for the Pharisees were no more than a paper Pope. They studied the Word and gave honor and reverence to the Word, but to them it did not become life, so they missed the truth of Christ. Each one of us can come to know the standard which Christ set before us as we personally come to know Him through His Word.

We must read Him in the gospels. We observe how He went about His day, ministering to the poor, comforting and weeping with the sorrowful, bringing sight to the blind, forgiving the worst of sinners. Touching the worst of disease. Loving the unlovely. Obeying every Word of His Father. Taking authority over the demons. We must discover anew the tenderness and toughness of Christ, the humor and humility, the discipline and delight. His command and His compassion. We need to see both the serenity and---authority of Jesus the man. The more we see of Jesus, the more we will come to understand our full potential for being through Christ Jesus. He is the measurement of our maturity. And you can never know Him until you follow Him. And even in the following and hearing Him, unless you "do the things that I do" says Jesus, "you cannot be a part of the Kingdom of God" John 13:15-17 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. [16] I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. [17] Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

James 1:22-26 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. [23] Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror [24] and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. [25] But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does. We must not only hear and see what Christ does, but we must do as He does.

So we see that the goal of ministry is mature manhood. Now, lest you become real discouraged as you look at your own life at this point and wonder what in the world happened, we notice in the second place:

II. The Process Explained - Characteristics of Growth.
There are several characteristics about growing up which are fundamental. Most basic to these is the fact that:
1. Growth is Gradual.
Spiritual maturity does not happen over night. Paul speaks about it as a growing process. Vs. 13 "we reach maturity." "and become" vs.15b "we will in all things grow up" vs 16 "every supporting ligament grows."
This is so important to realize. I can remember as a young Christian how frustrated I would become because I did not instantly, overnight become transformed into a sinless saint. I remember when I got saved, some things did change immediately. Go gave me a whole new vocabulary for one thing. But some things took longer. I remember the first night after I got saved I threw my pipe out of the window of the car. I could have kicked myself the very next day when I walked into the store and had to cough up another 50 bucks for a new one. It was 5 years later that I finally kicked the habit. Growing is a slow process. And you inevitably walk before you crawl. Think about it this way. Each time that little infant tries to get up to walk, he takes a few little steps, then "boom", back to the floor. But each time the little one tries, the distance between the falls becomes longer and longer. That is how it is in the Christian walk, and how it should be. It should be slow and meaningful. Taking every morsel of the faith and savoring it so that you can experience the full delight of it's goodness. It is not a flash in the pan kind of thing.

God is not looking for Christian China berry trees. God want Christian Oaks. In our last house we had three beautiful trees. Two were mature when we got there, the other had been just a sapling. These trees looked in every way as big and as string as any oak. But time would tell that they were not. Within three years the first one just failed to bloom in the spring. It had to chopped out. The next spring the second one died. By that time the sapling in the back had shot up to full size. It wont be long before that one dies. They are china berries. But Oaks are different. They grow slowly. But as they grow they set their roots firm and establish themselves in that soil because they are there for life, family. God is not looking for China Berries. He is looking for Oaks. A Scripture passage that brings this home is Isaiah 61 vs 3b They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. That is a wonderful description of the believer that has come to full maturity in Christ. It takes time to mature. But mature we must. Growth is gradual. Secondly,

2 Growth Brings Stability
vs. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

Just as that Oak takes forever to grow, it establishes a root system that cannot be shaken. Children are not like that. They are always changing their minds. Just the other day, our little Michelle had this thing about changing her outfit. I declare that she had changed about five times in less than an hour. She just could not make up her mind what she wanted to wear. I have long ago learned not to give her a choice at the Candy Isle in HEB. We would never get out of there. Adults are easier to please and can decide and stick to a decision a little better. Paul is saying that as we mature into the fullness of Christ, becoming like Him according to the standard set out for us in His Word, it will be very difficult to be swayed by every new doctrine that comes along. When people come to us with strange ideas, or new doctrines, we will be able to test that against what we have learned of Christ and His ways through His word. We will not be deceived by the counterfeits in this world because we will be established firmly upon the real thing. We will know the difference. I have a feeling that if we were more established upon the truth of Christ we would not chop and change churches as much as we do either, because Oaks grow best where they are planted.

Growth is gradual, growth brings stability, and finally,

3. Growth is Demonstrated By Love.
Ephes. 4: 15-16 [15] Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. [16] From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

It is a good thing to know the fundamentals of the truth and to hold to it. But it is important to remember that the Truth of Christ is always manifest through the fundamental law of love. 1 Cor. 13:2-3 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

It is interesting that in the original text there is only one Greek word for the three English words, "speaking the truth." In the original it is a present participle formed from the word "truth." If we turn it into literal English we would have to render it "truthing," so the phrase would turn out, "but truthing in love." So the better rendering of this verse would be "acting out the truth in love." It is not just the testimony of the lips, declaring that certain things are divine truth, that Paul is concerned with. It is the testimony of our life acting out that truth. You may heard someone say, "I believe in what so-and-so says because he lives it out from day to day."

Four men were arguing over the best translation of the Bible. The first man said he liked the king James because of it's beautiful English. The second insisted the American Standard was the best because of it's accuracy to the original text. A third preferred Moffat's for it's quaint, penetrating words and captivating phrases. After thinking a while, the fourth man said, "Personally, I have always preferred my mothers version. She translated each page of the Bible into life. It is the most convincing translation I ever saw."

That is what you and I are called upon to do, to live out the truth in our lives. The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given unto us and now we are to be controlled by that Holy Spirit. We are to manifest the love of God in all our dealings with others. "When truth compels us to contend, What love with all our strife should blend."

The "grown up" Christian is never entitled to act in an unchristian way, no matter what the provocation. We are ever to be "truthing in love," and as we live out the power of the truth of God and are dominated by the love of Christ, we are growing up into Him, daily becoming more like Himself. Are people seeing more of Christ in you from day to day?

Growth is gradual, growth brings stability and growth is demonstrated by love.

When these are the characteristics of a church body, you will find a cohesiveness which is unusual and which will stand against every storm that may come. The result is conclusive as Paul writes, Ephes. 4:15-16 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. [16] From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. This is how we reach maturity. May this be our goal as we together become Kingdom builders for His glory.