Encountering Jesus - Session Two: Stages of Spiritual Maturity

Understanding Stages of Spiritual Maturity

We're looking at 1 John 2:12-14 today. These verses may seem repetitive at first, but in the Hebrew mind, repetition emphasizes truth—it's like putting an exclamation mark on what matters most. Though written in Greek, John still thought like a Hebrew.

John addresses three groups: children, young men, and fathers (which also includes mothers and young women). He's not speaking about literal age or gender—he's describing stages of spiritual maturity and growth.

"I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. I'm writing to you fathers because you know him who's from the beginning. I'm writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one." (1 John 2:12-14)

Understand this clearly: all growth takes place through stages. You don't bypass stages. You don't jump over them. You move through each stage in the order God establishes, because every stage has an emphasis you need to embrace before moving to the next.

The Stage of Children: Learning to Receive

John uses two Greek words for children. Technia emphasizes relationship—you are in relationship with God. Paidion emphasizes immaturity and the need for instruction and direction.

About children, John says two things:

1. Your sins are forgiven on account of his name
2. You know the Father

When we come into relationship with Jesus, we come as children. In this stage, you're learning what God has given you—embracing the sacrificial atonement and understanding the price God paid for your forgiveness. You learn to come to God as Father and become a receiver.

The Child's Focus: Receiving

In this stage, life wraps around your needs. Children are consumers, not contributors. They are takers. And that's not wrong—it's natural. God expects to teach you to be a receiver in this stage.

The primary question children ask is: What can God give me? What can God do for me?

Those in this stage live to be ministered to, attended to, taken care of, blessed. And here's what's crucial: great saints are great receivers. You cannot bypass this stage without being handicapped for life. The Bible says, "Freely we receive, freely give." If you haven't learned to be a good receiver, you won't be a good giver, and you won't have much to give.

God isn't upset with you for starting off needy or even selfish. He uses that to equip and train you to be a good receiver. Your whole Christian life, you must remain a good receiver—always coming to Him like a little child, always receiving the things of Heaven.

The Child's Struggle: Performance Mindset

Children often equate gifts and blessings with God's love. If God blesses you, God loves you. If He doesn't, maybe He doesn't love you anymore.

But that's not how it works. Consider these signs you may be stuck in the child stage:

• You're jealous of other people's blessings
• You compare your blessings to others'
• You wonder why God blesses them more than He blesses you
• You think He's withholding things because you've displeased Him
• You believe a lack of blessing means a lack of love

These are performance-based thinking patterns. God wants you to move beyond them.

The Stage of Young Men and Women: Learning to Do

About the young men, John says:

"You have overcome the evil one because you are strong. The word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one."

In this stage, you've moved from dependency to skill and success. You're moving toward strength. Fear no longer rules you. You face the enemy and fight—and you have a habit of winning, overcoming, conquering.

The Young Person's Focus: Action

Young men and women find their identity in what they do for God. When they share their testimony, they talk about great exploits—people led to Jesus, healings, demons cast out, the work they're doing.

The primary question they ask is: What can I do for God?

This is a huge advancement from the children's stage. Young men and women embrace the Gospel of the Kingdom—not just the gospel of reconciliation (getting people to heaven). They embrace Jesus' mission: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." They're trying to bring Heaven to Earth.

The Young Person's Strength: Discipline and Victory

Young men understand sacrifice and discipline. They know that if they're going to grow and be victorious, they must exercise restraint and self-discipline. They're on the offensive, bringing everything around them under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

They've grasped the truth: "Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world." They're claiming their inheritance and fighting for it.

But young men can become proud of their works. They flaunt their spiritual victories. There's a reason consumer-based churches grow rapidly—they're full of children. And that's not all bad, but such churches need systems in place to move people into maturity.

The Stage of Fathers and Mothers: Learning to Be

About fathers, John makes one statement and repeats it:

"You know him who is from the beginning. You know him who is from the beginning."

Notice the emphasis: from the beginning. The father has an eternal perspective. He sees from the beginning of time to the end of time. He sees the bigger picture—God's agenda for planet Earth, what God has been doing all along.

The Father's Focus: Being and Reflecting God's Character

Fathers and mothers have moved beyond receiving and doing. They've entered the stage of being—reflecting the nature and character of God.

Jesus said: "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father." The father's goal is that when people encounter them, they encounter the Father because they so fully reflect His character and nature.

The knowledge fathers have isn't merely mental—it's not just reading theology books. It's the knowledge of 2 Corinthians 3:18: "Gazing into him face to face, transformed from glory to glory." It's experiential knowledge that transforms you and changes you.

When you truly know Him like that, His heart and passions begin to work in you. You begin to reflect the nature and character of the heavenly Father.

The Three Different Identities

• Children see themselves as objects of God's love and provision
• Young men and women see themselves as tools and instruments in God's hand
• Fathers and mothers recognize they are the expression of God's character and nature

The Test: Facing Trials and Suffering

Here's where maturity becomes real: How do you face difficulty?

Children approach hard times seeing only their needs and the here-and-now. When pressure mounts, they quit, give up, run away. They can't see the joy on the other side.

Young men and women endure because of discipline and because they understand sacrifice, but they're still fighting one battle after another.

Fathers and mothers approach trials with eternal perspective. They look through the suffering to what's on the other side. They understand James 1:2-3:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."

Children often hate this verse. They think it should say if you encounter trials, not when. But fathers understand that trials are inevitable, and they produce something eternal.

The Power of Perspective: Looking Beyond the Cross

Consider Hebrews 12:2:

"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus didn't focus on the pain of the cross. He looked through it to what was on the other side—forgiveness of sin, the defeat of Hell's powers, billions of souls coming into Heaven. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

Fathers and mothers do the same. They don't deny the pain. But they say: "I know what's on the other side of this. This suffering will produce character and stature in me. My eyes are on the other side."

The Cost of Maturity

Maturity is expensive and costly. Grace is free. Gifts are free. But maturity will cost you something. You have to be willing to pay that price.

Romans 8:28-29 teaches this:

"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son..."

Children love verse 29—God wants us to look like Jesus! But they avoid verse 28: God works all things for good. That implies not all things are good. Some things are hard and painful. But God will work good in all things.

Fathers understand: Everything I go through shapes me for what God has called me to do. There's always a purpose. Even in suffering, God brings something good. The character produced in trial is irreplaceable.

Eternity and the Stature You Build Today

Here's something profound: The stature you gain on this earth, you carry into eternity.

1 Corinthians 3 says that in heaven, some of our works will be tested by fire—some things burned up as wood, hay, and stubble; other things remain as gold, silver, and precious stones. We see the apostles in Revelation carrying the stature they gained on earth into the next realm.

This time on earth is your only chance to build the stature you will carry for eternity.

Why? Because on the other side, there's no devil, no temptation, no struggle—the very things that build character here. In heaven, you won't be able to grow in character anymore. The struggles that produce endurance, perseverance, and maturity exist only here, now.

Don't waste your time. You can't afford to waste it. Don't avoid letting God do what needs doing in you.

A Call to Intentional Maturity

Most of us come into maturity accidentally. God drags us through trials, and we grow reluctantly. But if you become intentional about pursuing maturity, you grow fast. You move quickly.

Be honest with God about where you are:

• Are you still a child? That's okay. Embrace it. Learn to receive.
• Are you a young man or woman? Great. Pursue victory and strength.
• Are you a father or mother? Keep pressing into His character.

The whole point: Run after maturity with the same intensity you run after anointing. Run after character as you run after Jesus.

You pursue it through encountering Jesus. Second Corinthians 3:18 is the key: "Gaze into him. Encounter him. Be transformed from glory to glory." That's how you grow. That's how maturity comes.

Let your vision be clear: What do you want to carry into eternity? What character, what stature, what reflection of Christ's nature will you have built by then? Be relentless in pursuing that.