The Kingdom Of Heaven – Part 3 Series

INTRO: A couple in Southern California were planning to get married, but before they were able to get married, they were swallowed up by an earthquake. The next thing they knew, they were standing together in heaven. As soon as they were presented to St. Peter for processing, they asked Peter if they could still get married. Peter hesitated for a moment and then answered, "Let me think about it—I’ll get back to you on this."

A week passed, then a month, then six months, but still no word back from St. Peter. Then, after seven months of waiting, they were approached by St. Peter with a pastor following closely behind. "All right, you can get married now!"

The couple thanked Peter for his granting of their request, but they now had a second request.

Over the seven months of waiting, they felt that it would be wise to draw up a prenuptial agreement.

St. Peter was upset, and he told the couple so: "Listen, it took me seven months to find a pastor up here; how long do you think it’s going to take me to find a lawyer?"

-In all seriousness, we’ve been going through a series on the kingdom of heaven. Let me review for those who’ve missed.

: Kingdom is like a mustard seed; principle: it starts small but grows big.

: Kingdom is like yeast; principle: it changes what it’s put into.

: Kingdom is advancing and desperate people lay hold of it.

-Last week we looked at a revolutionary concept.

: Jesus instructs to repent for the kingdom of God is near. The kingdom is as close as a Christian. Rivers of living water flow from us to others.

: The gospel is about others and not ourselves and as we are obedient a fringe benefit is our Heavenly Father takes care of our needs. (Seek first his kingdom.)

Summary: So far in this series we’ve looked at: what is the kingdom of heaven, and where is the kingdom of heaven? Today we are going to look at: who are the kingdom people?

TITLE: The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 3

TEXT: Mark 10:13-16

I. Background. Jesus by this time in his life knew his purpose and what lay ahead of him—that was the

Cross.

A. It was at this time that he had children being brought to him.

1. Can you imagine the tension in his mind? But he still had time to take them in his arms, and he had the heart to smile into their faces, and maybe to play with them awhile.

2. It was customary for parents to bring their children to the rabbis for a blessing, and so it was reasonable that they would bring the little ones to Jesus.

3. Why do you think the disciples rebuked the people?

-Was it because they were hard? Or maybe they were tired and didn’t want to handle all that comes with a bunch of kids.

4. I believe the disciples were just trying to protect Jesus from this oncoming mob of people. They probably thought they were doing him a favor.

-In other words, they did not consider the children to be important.

B. The Lord became indignant, his anger was aroused by something unjust, it caused him pain. 1. The Lord openly rebuked his disciples for standing in the way.

-Then the Lord announced an amazing thing. He described what kingdom people will be like. II. Who are kingdom people? They are like children.

A. Children are better kingdom examples than are the adults. We tell the children to behave like adults, but Jesus tells the adults to model themselves after the children.

Thought: What is in children that God sees as qualities of kingdom people? In fact, he communicates that we better receive the kingdom like a little child or we will never enter it.

1. The 1st characteristic – is a child’s dependence. A child depends of his/her parents for everything.

-When a toddler gets hurt they don’t think about what doctor they need to call, they just want Mom or Dad.

Example. I remember when I was in kindergarten my father had some cherry bombs stored in the closet and we were instructed not to play with them. WeLl the next day Mom was on the phone, Dad was at work, and I was in the closet getting his cherry bomb to light it. As I lit it (I was not fully aware of how powerful it was) I just held it in my hand and off it went. At that moment, when there was this rush of pain, all I wanted was Mom.

-I knew she could make it better. That’s all I knew.

Point: God wants us to depend on him—it’s called faith. We need to have such a close relationship with God that when something happens we go to him first, not as a last resort.