God's Adult Children

MATTHEW LECTIONARY SOURCE

December 2, 1998 AM

Matthew 5:21-37, 48

There is nothing as wonderful and charming as a baby. When a baby is born into a home, or a new Christian comes into the fellowship of a church, there is a new life, and new life is almost always attractive.

God made little babies heart-smashing. They look at you and smile and its all over! "Gas pains, my eye! She SMILED at me!" Of course, when you consider what babies demand of their young parents, and the really basic things they do, it is a wonderful thing that babies CAN smash our hearts. They con us into taking care of them and loving it!

But perhaps the most wonderful thing about babies is that they start growing up, and they get housebroken before too many years they can even put on their own clothes. (Getting them to pick them up when they take them off may take a little longer!) One of the tragedies of life is when babies refuse to stop being babies.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1 Paul is addressing the fact that the Corinthians are not growing up. They are refusing to quit being babies. Paul is challenging them to move up, and get with it to grow up.

The Gospel lesson picks up this theme. Jesus says, "THAT is what you have heard THAT is what you learned then NOW HEAR THIS! THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW!" The over and over Jesus repeats this formula: You have heard it said but I say unto you! You have lived by legalism, now you need to live in the spirit.

Another way to look at maturity in faith is to look at the difference between the Old and the New Covenants. The Old Testament has its oughts and shoulds and its promises and the New Testament has its promises, too but the oughts and shoulds now deal not only with actions, but with motivation with the spirit and the soul. Look at the contrasts in the lessons for the day, the contrasts of Old and New, (and by application) of babes in Christ and mature Christians:

I. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN UNDERSTANDING THE PROMISES

In the OT the promises are literal, concrete, immediate.

[Little children need behavior reinforcement NOW Jacob was home this week and very restless. Then his teacher came with an "assignment" and the promise of a "star" if he took a nap. he did. He got his "star." And Grandma got a little rest!]

The ultimate promise is A LAND CALLED ISRAEL. Crops will grow, prosperity will follow if God is obeyed, and the Commandments are kept inviolate.

In the NT the promises are no less real, but they are somehow fuller and higher.

"Blessed" are the poor in spirit To be congratulated! A hint at eternity! {A willingness to trust for the "Well done! ??]

The ultimate promise is AN ETERNAL KINGDOM CALLED PEACE. There is a Christ, a Master, who asks us to dare to love Him, and trust Him, and follow Him even though it means carrying a cross. The ultimate promise is that He will say "Well done!"

If we are constantly seeking prosperity as a goal in relation to our faith we are betraying Old Testament concepts and wrong application of those concepts at that!

II. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN THE DEMAND FOR OBEDIENCE

In the OT every nuance of performance is proscribed. Do this! Don't do that! You can walk this far on a Sabbath and not one step farther. You can carry this much weight and not one ounce more! You must tithe exactly ten percent and that meets your requirements.

[Little children like routine. They NEED sameness to help them learn stable character ways. Just try changing the words in a picture story book to a two year old sometime! You will be corrected!]

In Deuteronomy 30 Moses challenged a new generation of God's people to make covenant with God for themselves. And do you see HOW they were to begin? BY KEEPING LAWS! A very necessary part of preserving society is learning to obey laws. We don't reason with babies (at least not on an adult level) when we teach them not to play with fire, or to stay out of the traffic. We all have to pass through elementary school for law keeping before we graduate into maturity.

In the NT Jesus teaches us the importance of WHY we perform the way we do.

Rules, laws, regulations serve as the guides and norms. But growing up involves internalizing law and order the reason we do what we do becomes as important as the acts themselves.

In Matthew 5 Jesus challenges the cutting edge of the human spirit: Don't just keep the letter of the law! BE pure in heart! BE peacemakers! BE meek strength under control! Jesus was beginning the lesson that tells us only by internalizing discipline will we ever be truly free.

When we quit kicking against God's law quit seeing them as "restrictive," we find they release within us the love of God! We find we can "come of age" spiritually!

WE BEGIN TO BE GOD'S ADULT CHILDREN!

Which brings me to my last comparison of Old and New Covenant or more properly of babes in Christ and God's adult children:

III. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN RELATIONSHIP

In the OT there is almost a child's attitude: I CAN do this I CAN'T do that so let's see how far we can go up to the very limit!

[Have you ever seen how a little child will take literally what you say? Be careful what you promise! They won't forget!]

All too often the parent child relationship is ADVERSARIAL. Too often children and especially adolescents come to think of authority as adversarial, when in fact good parental authority is loving and necessary. Remember SOCIETY DEPENDS ON CHILDREN LEARNING TO OBEY LAWS!

But all too often we never get past this inner rebellion it grows and grows into our teens and we transfer it to the heavenly Father. Sometimes people never do get over the idea that God is trying to curtail and limit and censor everything really GOOD!

Paul says: "I have brought the baby bottle with me all too often! You need to get on to more substantial fare!"

In the NT covenant Jesus introduces a COLLEGIAL RELATIONSHIP. He says to the disciples: "I have called you FRIENDS!"

Jesus closes this section of "You have heard it said ... but I say unto you" sayings with the remarkable verse (48) that is so often misunderstood, even by good scholars: BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT, EVEN AS YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT! The word is "complete" or "mature." It doesn't mean absolute perfection, or perfect performance or even perfect love, as much as we would like to hear it say that. "Perfect" here means MATURE finally filling the purpose for which you and I are made of being GOD'S ADULT CHILDREN.

Closing Illustration

If you will pardon a very personal application: I sat with Charlie and Sherry Burt the other day celebrating the birth of Gerron's little brother, Nicholas Dean. It is hard to describe the joy we all feel when a baby is born into a family that loves it. A baby brings a joy that can hardly be described.

As I sat talking I thought of the generations, of Lowell and Dorla as themselves parents, and of Charlie and Sherry as children themselves. I thought of my own grandchildren, as wonderful as they are. And as I thought out loud with the Burts, I expressed a fact that only older people fully understand! ADULT CHILDREN ARE THE BEST OF ALL!!!

When your children are grown up and still love you and for the most part share your values not because "you" are right but because in maturity they have found Christ for themselves THIS IS THE ULTIMATE RELATIONSHIP IN HUMAN CARING ... and it is what Paul is telling us GROW UP AND ENJOY THE BEST IN LIFE!

And somehow I am sure this is how the heavenly Father feels! When we begin to mature and love Him for himself and share His mind not because we HAVE to or we'll get spanked or because if we are good we will get a star but because he is who he is, and we are his children maybe we begin to understand what Jesus is telling us when he said "You have heard it said ... but NOW I say unto you!"

(Reprise: Jesus closed this section of the sermon with these words; BE PERFECT, EVEN AS YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT! The word is TELIOS! God's adult children! His friends! No longer "babes!" but now ( I Co 3:9) " Laborers together WITH the Father!" Amen!!

Let us pray:

Hymn: #461 Open My Eyes, That I May See