“There is a great deal that we should like to say about this high priesthood, but it is not easy to explain it to you since you seem so slow to grasp spiritual truth. At a time when you should be teaching others, you need teachers yourselves to repeat to you the ABC’s of God’s revelation to His children. You have become people who need a milk diet and cannot face solid food! For anyone who continues to live on ‘milk’ is obviously immature – he simply has not grown up. ‘Solid food’ is only for the adult, that is, for the one who has developed by experience his power to discriminate between what is good and what is bad for him. Let us leave behind the elementary teaching about Christ and go forward to adult understanding. Let us not lay over and over again the foundation truths… No, if God allows, let us go on.” (Hebrews 5:11-6:3 Phillips)

People have always attached special meaning to a person’s last words. When someone is dying, they don’t waste time and energy on the trivial. Whatever a person’s last words are, we know they are to taken seriously.

That is why the words from the twenty-eighth chapter of Matthew have always been important to the Church. They are Jesus’ last words, and in them he was saying something important to his followers. He told them, and us, what he wants his followers to do, and he assures us that he will be with us as we do it. We call these last words of Jesus “The Great Commission.”

According to Jesus, the primary task of the Church is to make disciples, and that is a two part process: first, we are to help people to be born into the Christian life. That happens through conversion – that is, being turned around. Turned away from inadequate centers of meaning, and turned toward the God we have met in Jesus, so that God becomes the center of our lives, with everything else in life deriving its meaning and direction from that center. Conversion. We sometimes use the term, “being saved” - being saved from sin and for the abundant, God centered life, being saved from meaninglessness for usefulness, being saved from self-centeredness for God-centeredness. That’s what we mean by being converted, saved, born again. That’s the essential first part of the “making disciples” task.

We hear a great deal about that, especially here in the Bible belt. But we don’t hear nearly enough about the second part of the process. It is essential to help people be born into the Christian life – that’s the first part. But then after they are born, we are to help people grow up. The goal is to help people become mature, adult Christians. Both parts are essential to the Christian life. You can’t grow up unless you have been born; that’s true. At the same time, there is something sad about someone who is born and never grows up.

When Paul wrote his letter to the Hebrews, he had a picture in his mind of a church filled with spiritual infants, people thirty, fifty, seventy years old, who still drank from a bottle and who had never begun to eat solid food. They were people who met regularly to recite their ABC’s, but who had never gone beyond the kindergarten level of the faith. He said to them, “Let us go forward…to adult understanding.” In other words, “Grow up!”

Of course, learning is an important part of growth. As soon as we arrive in this world, we begin to learn. We learn from many sources. The question is: if we want to grow to maturity as Christians, who will be our teacher? Of course, the answer is: Jesus. That’s what it means to be a “disciple.” In the first century, Jesus called 12 people to be disciples – that is, they were to follow him and to learn from him. Later, they were called “apostles” because they were sent out to be in mission. But, in the beginning, they were disciples, followers, learners. And that is what we are called to be as well – people who learn about life from Jesus.

And, there are two parts to that as well. The Christian faith is an historic religion. Every thing we believe has its roots in history. There were some things that God did in history – especially as He acted in Jesus. So, we are to learn about that. The primary sourcebook is the Bible. But, of course, even after the canon of the Bible was closed, God continued to act. So we learn from that as well. All of that is what I call “the historic word” – all the things that God has done and said throughout history. That’s the first part.

The second part is the context in which we learn about what God has said and done throughout history. Right now, we and all other human beings have questions we are asking, problems we are encountering, experiences we are having. In other words, life is going on. Where Christian discipleship comes alive is at the point of intersection between those two: how what God has said and done in history informs the life we are living right now. So, Christian discipleship is rooted in history, but it is vitally related to what is happening right now. If we only talk about the Bible and Christian history, spend all our time and thought in the first century and before, then the faith is irrelevant. At the same time, if we simply thrash around with the questions we are wrestling with and the problems we are encountering, then we are powerless. But when we get those two together – when we look at the life we are encountering right now in the light of all that God has said and done throughout history, then that’s dynamic and exciting and redemptive!

So, to summarize, the task of a Christian disciple is to learn from Jesus, to look at and to live all of life in the light of what God has shown us throughout history, especially in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We are to do that every day for as long as we live, so that we grow and never stop growing, as we become mature, adult Christians. If the right things are happening, as long as you live, you and God will be working on something. If the right things are happening, you are not the same person today that you were a month ago, and you will not be the same person a month from now that you are today. You will be growing, going on to mature, adult discipleship!

All my life I have heard people say or imply that the Church exists primarily for children and youth. I know what they are getting at, because I want nothing but the best for my children and grandchildren too. But, when adults neglect opportunities for their continued growth, when they think they have learned and experienced all they need, and begin to concentrate only on what is available for children, they have it all backwards.

Hear me loud and clear: if you want the best of all possible Christian experiences for your children and grandchildren, with the best of all worlds for them to live in, the place to start is with the adults, because the goal of the Christian faith is to make disciples, mature, adult disciples. And it’s impossible to help children grow in that direction unless they have got some samples around. Commercials aren’t enough. We need some samples!

That’s why, all my adult life, I have invested considerable time and energy in providing opportunities for adult growth, because I know that’s where everything good in the Church must start. Isn’t it obvious? If we have committed, well-informed adult Christians, then we will have Church officials who make right decisions; we will have teachers who will teach our children and youth with effectiveness; and we will have parents and grand-parents who will set the right example and provide the right guidance. Unless we have mature, adult Christians, none of those things will happen.

Parents and grand-parents, you have a better opportunity than anyone of helping those in your family to become genuine Christians - but only if you take your faith seriously. You can’t pass the faith on to those who come after you, unless you are continuing to grow in faith, not just for their sake, but because that’s who you want to be. When children see their parents and their grandparents growing, then their growth is reinforced in the home day in and day out. There are family prayers. They see their parents and grand-parents reading the Bible or other Christian literature. They see their parents and grand-parents being loyal members of the church. They see them becoming more caring about others, more loving, more giving. And they are encouraged to do likewise.

Children are great imitators. There’s no doubt about it. They’re watching you. And the truth is, we do our most effective teaching when we are least aware of it. One of the greatest fears of my life has been that somehow my example would be a hindrance to my children’s Christian faith. For too many children, if they become Christian it will have to be in spite of the example of the adults in their family and not because of it!

What do your children and grandchildren see when they look at you? Do they see an adult who is functioning as an informed and mature person in most parts of your life? Do they see you competent and responsible in your work? Do they see you managing your finances well, keeping up to date and being able to discuss politics, economics, and world affairs in an intelligent way? Taking an interest in your community and investing yourself in organizations and movements that make it a better place?

Do they see all of that, or in contrast, do they see you taking only a marginal interest in your Church, unsure of your beliefs, casual about your faith, and uneasy when you are asked questions about it? If that’s the picture your children and grandchildren get, they are probably thinking to themselves, “If it’s not important to them, then it’s not important to me.”

And, you know, they are right, 100% right. If the Christian faith is something primarily for children and youth, something you grow out of, something you don’t have to take as seriously later on, then they are right. It’s not worth the effort unless it keeps on growing, day after day, as long as we live. It’s not worth it unless it takes hold of us as adults and makes an obvious, vital difference in our lives. Our children and youth are watching us, you know. And they are making their decisions about what is important in life. And they are making those decisions not just by what we say, but by what we do.

Tertullian, one of the early Church fathers, said that he and most of the early converts to Christianity were won to Christ not by books or sermons, but by observing how Christians lived and how they died. That’s still the way it works.

I admit that I just don’t understand those people who say, on the one hand, “I believe in God,” but who don’t worship regularly, don’t take prayer seriously, don’t participate in learning and growing opportunities. They say, “I believe in God” but act as if so many other parts of life are more important. They are somehow content to remain spiritual infants. How in the world can you believe in God and not understand that nothing is more important than learning about Him, getting to know Him, learning how more faithfully to serve Him. How can you really believe in God and be casual about it? Most especially, how can you be a parent or grandparent who believes in God and not know the awesome responsibility of that?

Will Durant tells of the time his little girl approached her mother and asked, “Mother, what is God like?” The mother hesitated in the face of so great a question. She could have helped her sew on a button, plan a meal, work a math problem, even talk with her about her boy friend. But, about God she was unsure, so she sent her daughter to her father. The little girl went in to her father and said, “Daddy, what is God like?” He, too, hesitated, unsure of what to say. Later, among her possessions, they found a slip of paper on which she had written a bit of free verse. This what she wrote:

“I asked my teacher what God is like. She did not know.

I asked my mother what God is like. She did not know.

Then I asked my father, who knows more than anyone, what God is like. He did not know.

I think, if I had lived as long as my teacher, my mother, or my father, I would know something about God.”

Of course! They knew so much about the things that were important to them. Tragically, their little girl learned that God was not near the top of their list.

We are called first to be disciples, and then to make disciples. So, every Christian is, simultaneously, both a learner and a teacher. Through the New Testament, we are to live with Jesus every day, listening to him, learning from him. And then, we are to live our lives as his faithful followers, so that all who look at us will know that we are learning from him, that increasingly our lives look and sound like Jesus, and that all of that is of first importance to us. Then, seeing that, seeing the authenticity and meaning of that, they will be called, also, to be his disciples.

If you want that for your life, if you want every day to be growing into mature, adult disciples, there are numerous experiences available to help with that. We have worship times, classes, prayer opportunities, retreat experiences, mission outreaches. You don’t have to travel very far to plug in to quality growth experiences.

But it’s not going to happen for you and your family unless you make it a priority. You must be ready to say: “This is important. I want to grow up to maturity in Christ. I want to become all that God has created me to be. I’ll do whatever is necessary to make that happen.”

And, it’s not a matter of too little time. Forgive me for being blunt, but that’s not a reason; it’s an excuse. Each of us is issued the same 24 hours each day. We decide how to invest them. And the fact is, we find a way to take care of that which is important to us. We just do.

And, the good news is that we’re not on our own in this. Jesus has promised to be with us and to give us everything we need. I think that’s one of the most beautiful promises in all the pages of scripture. Whatever Christ calls us to do, he gives us the grace to do, and he is with us as we do it. He promises, “Remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

Someone has suggested that when we come to the end of our lives and stand before God to give an account of our lives, He will ask but one question. He will ask, “Well, what did you do with it?” What did you do with it? Did you die before you got around to growing up? Or did you become a committed, mature, growing, adult disciple? I know what I want to be able to say!

Prayer: Loving Father, we are grateful that You have created us with such great potential for growth, and that, each day, You call us to come to You, to learn from You, and to stretch out to become the persons You created us to be. Father, do not let us be content with spiritual infancy. Help us to become growing, mature, adult disciples, both for our sake, and for the sake of those we love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.