By Apostle Aje Pelser
Preached at Harvester Reformational Church, Milnerton
October 21, 2007 8am

1 Jn 2: 12-14
Spiritual Maturity

Issues of character. Prophets with character. Many characters walking around in Christianity today and they've got charisma, they’ve got personality, they've got a couple of things they do spiritually, they've got a few spiritual gimmicks, but we're looking for their fruit. Jesus said that we'll know them by their fruit.
We look at people's ministries not just by the glamour or the glitz, or how many people they can reach, we look at the fruit of their lives. Do they have love, joy, peace, longsuffering? Can they suffer long for God or do they complain when they suffer? Do they show goodness and gentleness to people in need? Do they understand meekness and humility? Is there a sense of humility in their ministry or are they arrogant? Don't confuse confidence with arrogance. Confidence comes through experience, arrogance is having an insane estimation of yourself. You are arrogant when you think higher of yourself than you ought to. Humility is thinking according to the measure of faith about yourself.
Meekness is putting your strength under God's control. “Lord, what do you want me to do?” like Saul did when he was knocked off his horse. Then allow the Lord to steer you.
There are stages of spiritual maturity that we go through as Christians.
1 Jn 2:12-14
The character of this great apostle is sufficiently apparent in the gospels. He and James were sons of Zebedee, and also called the sons of Thunder. John became one of Jesus' close ones. He came very close to Jesus, when He was transfigured, John was there. When Jesus was crucified, He commissioned John to look after His mother, Mary. When all the other disciples ran away, John stayed behind. John's character was busy changing. Reading through the gospels and his epistles, you'll start seeing John being transformed into the apostle of love, whereas before he was the son of Thunder. What a contrast!

That zeal of John was now tempered towards love instead of hatred towards people who did not support his cause. God channeled John's zeal and energy into love. And his anger that he had towards people who didn't receive the gospel; this was channeled towards the devil.
In his writings he would tell people how to live and walk in the light.

You can hear the writer starting to meditate on the different stages of spirituality.
As he's writing, he mixes it around as the thoughts come to him. This is a free flow of thought. He wrote it as it was revealed to him. You can see a flow of thought here that leads us to maturity.
The stages:
Little Children – teknion: a little child, but also used by teacher in the new testament to address their disciples. It is also a term of endearment.
There must be a stage in our lives where we allow ourselves to be discipled. Where we feel like we know nothing, where we have to admit that we know nothing, and learn from someone. You need to go through the 'teknion' stage of Christianity, that is why there is so much training in this church. To become part of this body, you need to become a child first. People that come in with pride cannot progress spiritually in the body.

Young men: a youth stage, a young attendant or servant, someone under 40,
they have a lot of zeal but not often wisdom.
This is the stage where they should serve and not look to be a father when they are young men. Not looking to teach and instruct when you haven't got wisdom. People will do what you tell them, and things will come back to you if you teach them wrong. That's why teachers receive a stricter judgment. Don't wish to be a teacher unless God's called you to be one.
Having a lot of knowledge of God, but they don't have experiential knowledge about God. This lacks substance. When they speak to people it's abrasive, it's hard, it's not sheathed in love, it's not tempered with experience. This is how we get to the father stage.

Fathers: a generator, male ancestor, parents, founder of a family or tribe, forefather, one advanced in years, someone who has years experience in ministry. Senior in spirit. A title of honor
“though you have many instructors in Christ, you don't have many fathers.”
Christians, who through Christ have been exalted to an especially close and intimate relationship with God, who no longer dread Him as a stern judge and judger of sinners, but revere Him as the reconciled loving Father. It's the Father nature of God that we see.

Paul talks of Timothy whom he begot in the spirit as a son. There are people whom you will beget, whom you will call sons in the gospel. You will be a father figure for them in their spiritual walk.
When apostles speak, you discern that it is experiential knowledge. Things they've bled for, sweated for, and suffered for. That's how Jesus became an Author and Finisher of our faith. He suffered things for our sake. And from there He could give us revelation. Jesus started with His ministry when He was 30.
He first lived a bit.

There are many people teaching and preaching, but we look at their fruit and their experiences. What have they suffered for the Lord? There are many Christians that have a wrong perception of this walk of faith, thinking that it is wrong to suffer. This makes you feel condemned instead of making you rejoice, because Jesus said that we are to rejoice when we suffer for His name's sake.

We have a lot of work to do as reformers. We find a lot of teachers in Christianity who tickle our ears. But what has their teaching done to change your heart? How has it built the kingdom? How has it taught you to go through and suffer for the name of the Lord?
Take suffering as medals, showing the battles you've been through. Rejoicing when you go through tribulation because is produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope and hope doesn't disappoint because the love of the Lord has been poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit.
Because we know that God loves us, it gives us hope. It is not a vain hope, it is based on suffering, substance, perseverance, and character.
Meditate on these scriptures.
Why do we have hope as Christians? Why do we have hope that God will reward those who diligently seek Him? Because we've been through so much; and we've seen how God's carried us through those things. And this has built character in us, so that we don't lose our hope at the next battle we face.
Why do you suffer? God's gives us a crown of glory that lasts for all eternity. A crown of life, righteousness. We'll cast our crowns before the Lord.

People are so deceived because they've not grown up and become a child of God, they haven't understood what it means to be a young man and serve God.

* Age has nothing to do with your spirituality. You can have grown up in the ministry and know more than a man twice your age that's been saved for 10 years. Your experience in ministry outweighs your age as a person. Older men speaking to you as a young person, where in fact you are their senior in spiritual matters. People not receiving from you because you're young in age, even though you've lived it.
God will show you what platform to build to minister to people who don't see you for who you are in Christ. Sometimes you feel like you have something to share, that you want to give someone advice, but you can't because there's no platform to give it on because they look down at you. You have to ask God to lift you in their eyes. You can't do it yourself.
Respect breeds respect. When you don't respect older