The purpose of Maturing: Year Three has a lot to do with God’s purpose for putting all those people and their lives in the Bible. For one thing, our brain best learns things in sequence. It like to tie things together, so that one thing causes you to remember something else. It was created for the flow of life events. It has the ability to memorize facts; but, its favorite way to learn things, is to see them unfold in real life.

Another purpose of Year Three is to help you grow by example. When Bible truths come at you, it is wonderful, when you can see what they would look like, if you applied them to your life. If you can get a Biblical example, it is very helpful. As you watch Jesus live and minister, you can see what all those truths look like in someone Who is an expert at living them. You can also learn what not to do through Bible examples that God had picked for you to look at.

An additional purpose of Year Three is to help you meet people, before you have to face real life, that have almost every problem you will ever have to diagnose and minister to. As Maturing: Year Three takes you through many of the Bible characters, who lived in the Old and New Testament times, it gives you a “bird-eye-view” of what God sees in each person’s situation. The Bible helps you see inside people, so you can get used to what it is causing people to do what they do.

When two professionals are talking to each other, they can use technical terms. Rather than having to explain a situation to a layman, they can just use this technical word and the whole meaning immediately floods into the listener’s mind. What is a condenser in electronics? Those of you, who are electronics engineers know. What is a brain lesion? All brain surgeons know an incredible amount of things about it. What comes to mind when someone mentions David and Bathsheba? If you are familiar, the whole story floods into your mind. These are historical cases that facilitate professional communication.

Professionals can put various things in technical categories. There are many different aspects and case histories about schizophrenia. Patiences who are exhibiting varing degrees of this malady can be compared to other, wellknown cases to see if they fit. As you are working with people, to have these Biblical “case histories” guides you into not only the symptoms but also God’s treatment of the issue. If you are going to get off of the platform, at a church, and start ministering to people, you will need these stories that God thought you would need.

Jesus’ life, message, ministry, and methods were to set you an example of how to spread the gospel around the world. It mainly involves personal contact. We think of the Sermon On The Mount as a mighty lecture to a great crowd. Mat 5:1-2 (NIV) Now when He saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying: It wasn’t the crowds that spread the gospel all over the Roman empire it was His disciples.

The purpose of Year Three is to help you get the finishing touches for being able to deal face-to-face with any and all spiritual issues. Mat 19:3 (NIV) Some Pharisees came to Him to test Him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” This isn’t a ministry hiding in a building where Christians can come and live like Christians, talk like Christians, and worship like Christians. This is out in the world where Pharisees slither.

Mark 6:6 (NIV) And He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. This sounds like evangelism not teaching ministry. But, this is Jesus' ministry; He was out where the people were. Mat 5:13 (NIV) You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Another thing that can happen to salt is, it can get trapped in a container and never exposed to an application.

Mark 6:7 (NIV) Calling the Twelve to Him, He sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. As you can see, Jesus expected His disciples to do what He was doing and how He was doing it. He wanted them to duplicate His life, message, ministry, and method. After He had helped them get a certain amount of spiritual growth in their attitudes and character, He temporarily gave them His message, ministry, and methods. Then they went out and spent time with those who needed anything from Jesus.

Acts 5:42 (NIV) Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they (the disciples) never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. The teaching was for the spiritual growth of the Christians and the proclaiming was for those who hadn’t yet accepted Jesus, as their Savior. They did have group meetings in various people’s homes for Christians to have fellowship and grow in Jesus. But, their main ministry was out in the places where people were.

Acts 20:20 (NIV) You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. If you don’t know how to minister in a setting where you may be asked anything, then you won’t go out. You must feel comfortable in unpredictable settings. So, the purpose is to expose you to all kinds of people and spiritual conditions, so you can know who and what you are dealing with.

Mark 10:17 (NIV) As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on his knees before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus knew exactly what needed to be said next. Did this man need to have the gospel message presented to him? What did he need? It couldn’t just be a human decision addressing the obvious. It had to be a diagnosis of his spiritual need and a presentation that would prepare him for the next steps into the Kingdom of God.

Acts 8:18-19 (NIV) When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” You can see that things weren’t as tidy as they are in a chuch service. You need to go in, sit down, and shut up. You need to be in nice little rows facing the people who are going to do the ministry. You don’t see this in Jesus and His disciple’s ministry. Why?

Acts 8:20 (NIV) Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! Philip’s job was to go around leading people into the salvation experience. Peter’s job was to help people grow in their spiritual condition. Philip let Simon into salvation as saw to it that he got baptized in water. Then he moved on. He had to know what the answers to the questions he would be asked. Peter had to know how to deal with the issues after salvation.

Acts 8:21 (NIV) You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. How did Peter know this? Because he knew what a heart that was right before God looked like. Peter didn’t have to know what every heart that wasn’t right with God looked like. All these people and their lives, that you will be looking at, will be compared with the truth. The purpose of this study is to show you what a true heart doesn’t look like and what it does look like. The main issue is, what is the right kind of a heart?

Acts 8:22 (NIV) Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. Ask, seek, and knock are the three keys to all of Christianity. It isn’t all that complicated; if you can diagnose what is wrong, then all that has to be done is to pray and ask Jesus to fix it. In this case Simon needed to repent of wickedness first. Then he needed to ask for forgiveness for having such a thought in his heart.

Acts 8:23 (NIV) For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. As Peter compared Simon’s heart with what a true heart was supposed to look like, he saw a heart that was full of bitterness and captive to sin. As you get exposed to this story and many others in the Bible, the purpose is to help you see what a heart is supposed to look like. You will be seeing a lot of hearts that are damaged. But, that isn’t the objective; it is to help you learn how to compare it with what it is supposed to be like.

Acts 8:24 (NIV) Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me. Simon had to come to a place of repentence. He had to not want what Peter said was about to happen to him. Peter had studied the Old Testament from the time he could read. He knew what happens to people who are in Simon’s condition. He had read all the stories and had seen how God had responded in all those situations. He was ready for the Holy Spirit to reveal Simon’s heart and then know what to do next.