Jesus Loves Us More than Enough!
The Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 18:1-14
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared October 3, 2022)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 18. In our last study, Jesus began by answering the disciples' question in vs. 1: "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?''
*Turns out, they were wondering about that question, because they had been arguing about it as they walked on the road to Capernaum. Mark 9:33-35 says:
33. Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?''
34. But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.
35. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.''
*On the road, maybe all of them thought they were entitled to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And they were stubborn about it, even up to the night before the cross. (1)
*But Jesus tried to teach them that their whole idea of greatness was upside down, and He used a little child to do it. In vs. 2-4:
2. . . Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,
3. and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
4. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
*Then Jesus began to express His love for little children, and it's the same kind of love He has for us. Please think about God's love as we read vs. 1-14.
MESSAGE:
*There should be no doubt that God loves every single one of us. John 3:16 is one of the most loved verses in the Bible. And there Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
*John 3:16 is the heart of the Gospel straight from the heart of God. "For God so loved the world." This word "world" is found 79 times in the Gospel of John. And "this word is not talking about the physical world or the sinful world system. It's talking about the world's people.
*Walter Wilson said: 'No one in all the world could possibly love everyone in the world. In fact, most people find it hard to love all their relatives.' But in spite of our faults, God's love is so great that it's possible for Him to love every person in the whole world! God loves Americans, but He also loves Russians, Chinese, Arabs, Pakistanis, the British, Japanese, Israelis, everyone." (2)
*You have probably heard this truth in the song our daughter Katie and I used to sing in the car every day when she 4. The tune was first written as a marching song during the Civil War. The original words were "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching."
*But after the war, Claire Woolston wrote new words that turned that tune into one of the all-time favorite Christian songs for children:
"Jesus loves the little children,
ALL the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world." (3)
*Jesus loves the little children, and all the big children too! God so loved the world! That means God loves the oldest to the youngest! And He didn't start loving those little babies when they were born. No. God loved them, as my daddy used to say, "when they were just a twinkle in their mother's eye."
*God loves all of us! But how much does He love us?
1. FIRST: JESUS LOVES US ENOUGH TO WARN US ABOUT THE DANGER OF SIN.
*When the Lord thought of that little child beside Him, and all the little children in the world, He began to think about the godless, evil people who would harm those children in any way. Jesus especially thought about the people who would lead children away from Him into sin. And He began to warn about the dangers of sin.
*The world doesn't want to hear about sin. Talking about sin is old fashioned, out of date. Talking about sin makes people feel uncomfortable. It crimps their style, so many people would rather just not talk about it. But Jesus talks about sin. And why? Because He loves us enough to warn us about the great danger of our sin. And the Lord makes this danger clear in three ways.
[1] JESUS BEGAN BY TELLING US IT WOULD BE BETTER TO LOSE OUR LIVES THAN LEAD LITTLE CHILDREN INTO SIN.
*The Lord made this truth clear in vs. 5-6 where He said, "Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea."
*Have you ever come close to drowning? That is a scary experience. Years ago, Alan Jackson had a popular song called: "Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee." That song reminds me of home, because the Chattahoochee River runs through Atlanta. It has a few rapids, so it's fun to go down in a tube or a rubber raft, and I used to do it when I went to Georgia Tech.
*But one of those times I fell off the raft and got trapped under a huge rock. The rushing river was pushing me deeper and deeper under the water, and I couldn't get my breath. I almost drowned, and I believe that I would have drowned, if God hadn't helped me get free.
*For a few moments, I didn't think I was going to get loose. What a terrible feeling: Running out of air. But Jesus says that drowning would be better than leading little children into sin.
[2] HE ALSO SAID IT WOULD BE BETTER TO LOSE OUR LIMBS THAN TO SIN.
*Starting in vs. 7, Jesus said. "Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!" Here Jesus said one of those things that's hard for us to understand. "Offenses must come." In other words: It was necessary to allow sin to come into the world. It was necessary for God to allow people to sin.
*Some people think, "if I was God, I wouldn't let any of these terrible things happen in the world." Or they may ask cynical questions like, "If God is good, then why does He let bad things happen?" When people do that, they are setting themselves up as better than the most holy God. They are setting themselves up as judge over the Judge of all. When people do that, they have no idea how proud and presumptuous they are to question God. They also have no idea how patient He is with our pride.
*Many things in life are hard to understand. And it's hard for us to understand why it was necessary for God to allow sin to come into the world. But the best way I can understand it is that it was the only way God could carry out His plan for the world. It was the only way God could make men in His image, make people with the ability to choose. God did this knowing that everyone would make sinful choices, but only some would choose to receive the forgiveness we can have by receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
*Much about life and the Lord is a mystery, but we will never regret trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ! And in vs. 7-9 He said:
7. "Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!
8. And if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire.
9. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire."
*Of course, Jesus was not telling us to literally cut-off our hands or gouge out our eyes, although a few mentally unstable people have gone to that extreme. And in some Islamic countries people do have their hands cut-off for stealing. That is absolutely barbaric, and there is no Scriptural evidence whatsoever that the Lord was telling us to literally do this.
*Cutting off our hand or our foot, or plucking out our eye wouldn't do any good anyway, because the real sin problem is not in our physical body. The problem is in our spiritual heart. And in these verses, Jesus was showing us the seriousness of sin. It's worse than losing our lives, and worse than losing our limbs.
[3] BUT JESUS ALSO STRESSED THAT OUR SIN LEADS TO THE ULTIMATE LOSS.
*Again in vs. 8-9 the Lord said, "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire."
*Why did Jesus speak so strongly about the dangers of sin and the horrors of hell? Because He loves us! Jesus loves us enough to warn us about our sure future in hell, if we do not receive Him as our Lord and Savior.
*A vast number of people today don't believe that hell is a real place. But Heaven and hell are just as real as the world we live in today. And it would be evil to ignore this sure truth.
*John Piper pointed out that failing to look at this strictness of God would be dangerous and unloving. It's like a parent teaching their children how a red-hot eye on the stove is good, because it makes water boil to cook spaghetti or eggs for breakfast, but then never telling your children that the red-hot stove is also very dangerous, and can hurt us very badly."
*The strict justice of God is a profound and dreadful reality. John Piper said, "To speak of God's strictness lightly, or not to speak of it at all simply proves that we do not grasp its horror. I know of no one who has overstated the terrors of hell. We can scarcely surpass the horrid images Jesus used: 'Weeping and gnashing of teeth, their worm shall not die, unquenchable fire, eternal fire, eternal punishment,' and 'anguish in the flame.'
*The point of all these expressions is that we are meant to shudder. We are meant to tremble and feel dread. We are meant to recoil from the horrific reality, not by denying it but by fleeing from it into the arms of Jesus who died to save us from it." Thank God, Jesus loves us enough to warn us about the danger of sin! (4)
2. HE ALSO LOVES US ENOUGH TO TELL US ABOUT HIS HEAVENLY HOME.
*In vs. 10 Jesus said, "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven."
*Here Jesus opened a window into Heaven for us, and we see an amazing thing. Little children, our little children, all little children have mighty angels assigned for their help and protection. "THEIR angels see the face of My Father who is in heaven." God had specific angels assigned to help them. That makes me think He has specific angels assigned to help us too!
*And we can't begin to imagine all of the wonders of Heaven. The few people I've talked to who went there and came back all said it was indescribable. Wesley's grandfather really struggled to put into words. He kept saying, "It's just amazing. It's just beautiful." He also talked about light, and prisms of infinite colors, and seeing his life full circle.
*My favorite Scripture about Heaven is Revelation 21:1-4. There the Apostle John wrote:
1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
2. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.''
*God wants to deliver us from sin, so that we can live forever with Him in Heaven. Billy Graham gave this testimony: "The first death in our immediate family was that of my maternal grandmother, Lucinda Coffey. Grandmother talked often about her husband, Ben Coffey, who had been badly wounded in the Civil War.
*Ben was wounded while serving with the 11th North Carolina Regiment, which led the advance on Gettysburg from the west July 1, 1863. Shrapnel almost severed his left leg. While Ben was lying on the battlefield, a bullet grazed his right eye, blinding it forever. Doctors were forced to amputate his wounded leg sometime later.
*Ben's friends testified to his concern for spiritual values. I never knew him; he died in 1916 at the age of 74. When Grandmother Coffey died, I was in elementary school, and my sister Catherine and I were called out of school.
*The manner of her dying became a legacy of faith for our family." She had been very weak, but "when she died, the room seemed to fill with a heavenly light. . . She sat up in bed and almost laughingly said, 'I see Jesus! He has His arms outstretched toward me. And there's Ben! -- He has both of his eyes and both of his legs . . . And I see the angels.'"
*"Then," said Dr. Graham, "She slumped over, -- absent from the body; present with the Lord." (5)
*Because of her faith in Jesus Christ, Billy Graham's grandmother went home to Heaven. And that's what the Lord wants for us, so here He speaks to us about His home. Thank God, Jesus loves us enough to tell us about his heavenly home!
3. HE ALSO LOVES US ENOUGH TO SHOW US GOD'S LOVE FOR LOST PEOPLE.
*About 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God came down to earth as the Good Shepherd to seek and to save the lost. That's what Jesus was talking about in vs. 11-14, when He said:
11. "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
12. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?"
13. And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
14. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
*That one lost sheep in these verses represents every person who has ever lived, except Jesus Christ. That lost sheep represents us, for Isaiah 53:6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way." By our sinful ways, we wandered away from God. We were cut-off from God's flock. And we were in the greatest danger of all. But Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who came looking for us. He made a persistent, sacrificial search for us all!
*Christians: God was willing to go the distance to get you saved! The Good Shepherd in vs. 12 didn't just go to one mountain. He went to mountain after mountain until He found His lost sheep. God went the distance for us!
*Jesus was relentless. How far was He willing to go? -- Even into this world, and that's a long way down from Heaven! The Heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son into the world to die for us! The Son of God left His throne in Heaven, and humbled Himself to become a man. Jesus the Good Shepherd went the distance, even to the suffer and die on the cross for our sins.
*In John 10, Jesus talked about being the Good Shepherd, and in vs. 14-18 He said:
14. "I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
15. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
17. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
18. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.''
*Today, the Spirit of the Living Lord is in the world. He comes to us, to witness to us, to convince us that we need Jesus, and convince us that Jesus Christ will save our souls. Here in Matthew 18:14, Jesus also shows us the love our Heavenly Father has for all people. Again, Jesus said, "Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
*This Scripture is one of greatest places to see God's heart for the lost. Another shining example is 1 Timothy 2:1-4 where Paul wrote, "I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
*Does God want you to be saved? You should never doubt it, because "God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" about Jesus Christ! That's how much He loves you!
*In 2016 we spent Mother's Day with our daughter Becky in Raleigh. That day we went to the Southbridge Fellowship Church. It's a church that had been meeting in a movie theater for ten years. And that was different, but kind of neat in a way. The people were very friendly. And the pastor preached about how Jesus is stronger than any storm we will ever face in life.
*His name is Scott Lehr, and during the sermon, he told us a little about the terrible storm their family had recently been through. It was a parent's worst nightmare. Their 10-year-old and 4-year-old daughters were playing in the front yard, when a man came by and grabbed the 4-year-old.
*The older daughter ran into the house screaming. They called 911, and Scott raced through the woods to try and catch the man. Scott didn't give us the details, but thank God, in less than 24 hours that little girl was found and returned to her family safe and sound.
*Scott said it actually seemed to affect their older daughter more than the younger, and a few days after the trauma, the 10-year-old asked her daddy, "If we didn't find her so soon, how long would you have kept looking for her?" Scott reassured her by saying, "As long as there was any hope of finding her, I would have kept looking for her."
*Then he said to us, "How long would I have looked for her?" -- "Forever." (6)
CONCLUSION:
*That father's love is a taste of the love that God has for us. It's a taste of the love God has for all people. So, don't count anybody out yet! Don't write anybody off. God has a heart for little children. God has a heart for the lost. And God has a heart for you. It is not the Father's will that any of us should perish!
*But salvation comes through childlike trust in God's Son who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. Salvation comes by receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior, so that you are born again as a child of God. Put your trust in Jesus today, as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) See: Matthew 20:20-28, Matthew 23:11-12, and Luke 22:23-27
(2) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon "John 3:16 - The Greatest Story Ever Told" by Joseph Wallis - John 3:16
(3) http://www.allaboutgod.com/jesus-loves-the-little-children.htm
(4) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon "Behold the Kindness and Severity of God" by John Piper - Romans 11:17-22
(5) Adapted from "Just as I Am" - The Autobiography of Billy Graham, Harper San Francisco and Zondervan, 1997 - p. 4
(6) This story starts about 28:00 - Source: Online sermon "Jesus is Stronger than the Storms" by Scott Lehr - Mark 4:34-41 - May 8, 2016 - http://southbridgefellowship.com
