GOSPEL OF MARK: GOD’S SERVANT IN ACTION
“LET THE CHILDREN COME TO ME”
A. Value!
ILLUSTRATION:
A few years ago, the Country Gazette newspaper in Franklin, Massachusetts had this listing in its CLASSIFIED section: “Unknown item for sale. We know it’s valuable; we don’t know what it is.
If you can identify it, we’ll sell it for $250.”
COMMENT:
Now isn’t that interesting? They had no idea what this thing was. But they knew—somehow—
that it had VALUE. And they realized that “only someone who knew what it is” would understand
how VALUABLE it truly was.
1. As far as I know, I really don’t OWN anything of real VALUE.
a. Our HOUSE is the most VALUABLE thing we have, but we really don’t OWN it—the BANK does.
b. We have two 13-year-old VEHICLES that is not nearly as VALUABLE as we think they are— especially when you TOTAL one and the INSURANCE COMPANY pays you around 3,000.00
dollars less than what you think it’s WORTH.
ILLUSTRATION:
Many of you have been in our HOME, you know that we don’t have anything in our HOUSE of real VALUE. In fact, if anyone broke into our HOUSE and tried to ROB us, instead of TAKING anything they would LEAVE us MONEY.
2. But there is one thing that we have that is of great intrinsic VALUE . . . YOU and ME! (no FAT people)
COMMENT:
The WORLD may not know what kind of VALUE we have, but that’s because only the ONE who CREATED us really knows what we’re WORTH. To God, our CREATOR, every person who
has been BORN and yet to be BORN is VALUABLE to Him.
a. “Of all of God’s creation, we are the only ones CREATED in the IMAGE of God”- Genesis 1:27.
b. God was personally involved in our formation. David- “For you [God] created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb”- Psalm 139:13.
c. God has a PURPOSE for every human being. God told the prophet Jeremiah that “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet
to the nations”- Jeremiah 1:5.
d. “We are so VALUABLE to God that He sent His Son to the CROSS to DIE in our PLACE so that
we can LIVE with Him for all ETERNITY”- John 3:16.
COMMENT:
As we studied last week, Jesus reminds us of how VALUABLE we are when He asked, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”- Mark 8:35. (YOU CANNOT PUT A PRICE TAG ON OUR SOULS.)
3. And, yes, the UNBORN have souls. David writes in Psalm 22:10- “From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.”
B. So if HUMAN BEINGS are so VALUABLE, why is ABORTION still prevalent in the WORLD?
1. Last year in 2019, ABORTION was once again the number one cause of DEATH worldwide. Over 42 million UNBORN babies (“PEOPLE”) were KILLED throughout the WORLD.
2. And, although I am deeply grateful that last year the ABORTION RATE dropped to its LOWEST
LEVEL ever in the United States, still over 850,000 UNBORN babies lost their LIVES.
a. And what’s even more DISTURBING, is that within the last two years 9 states along with Washington DC passed laws allowing ABORTIONS to be performed up to the moment of BIRTH.
b. How can anyone ARGUE that a BABY that has been growing inside his or her Mother for 9 months
is not a HUMAN BEING?
COMMENT:
Yet, the legal stance of our government is that an UNBORN CHILD is not a HUMAN BEING but a “FETUS”— a collection of tissue that can be tossed aside if it is INCONVENIENT because it
doesn’t have the quality of being truly HUMAN.
MESSAGE:
I. JESUS VALUES CHILDREN- Mark 10:13-16 (READ)
A. Mark said, “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them…”
1. I realize that this passage is referring to little children, including babies (Luke 15:1), who were
already BORN.
a. This PASSAGE has nothing to do with ABORTION, but it has everything to do with how God
VIEWS children and babies—they were “KNIT TOGETHER” by Him in their mother’s womb.
b. These PARENTS wanted their little CHILDREN and BABIES to be BLESSED by Jesus, the
Son of God.
c. But did you notice what the APOSTLES did? “They weren’t ALLOWING these parents to bring their CHILDREN to Jesus to be BLESSED.”
2. Now, Mark doesn’t say what the apostles’ MOTIVE is, but we do know historically that CHILDREN
were not VALUED very highly during this time.
a. King Herod didn’t think twice about sending his SOLDIERS to Bethlehem after the birth of Christ to KILL innocent baby boys 2-years and under in hopes of GETTING RID of Jesus, whom
he thought was going to take over his THRONE.
b. The ROMANS certainly didn’t VALUE children.
ILLUSTRATION:
By Jesus’ time, it’s recorded that the Romans had a TRASH HEAP beside many HOMES, where they often left UNWANTED children; and if people wanted them, they would PICK them up. Often these kids were raised to be PROSTITUTES, GLADIATORS to be used for SPORT, or SLAVES.
3. Whatever the apostles’ MOTIVE was for not allowing these PARENTS to bring their CHILDREN,
Jesus is terribly UPSET with them.
a. Mark said, “When Jesus saw this, he was INDIGNANT, and said, ‘Let the little children come
to me…’”- v. 14.
b. The Greek word for “Indignant” is a strong word referring to being “very angry or irate.”
COMMENT:
If not ALLOWING these CHILDREN to come to Him made Jesus “IRATE”, just imagine
how ANGRY God is when CHILDREN aren’t even ALLOWED to be BORN?
And yet BABIES are ABORTED by the millions each year without second thought, because ABORTIONISTS don’t even CONSIDER them as being HUMAN.
B. That is what photojournalist Michael Clancy also believed.
1. Michael Clancy was a PRO-CHOICE advocate who actively SUPPORTED a woman’s right to
CHOOSE to ABORT her UNBORN BABY for any reason.
ILLUSTRATION:
Back in 1999 Clancy was HIRED by Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN to film an experimental surgery on a 21-week-old FETUS that had a LESION on his back
caused by SPINA BIFIDA. The surgery took place on August 19, 1999.
While Clancy is FILMING and PHOTOGRAPHING this ground-breaking UTERO SURGERY, the baby reaches out through the incision of his mother’s UTERUS and GRABS Dr. Joseph Bruner’s finger. At that very moment Michael Clancy began to question everything he believed about ABORTION. He later wrote a book entitled: THE HAND OF HOPE. He writes, “I was totally in shock for two hours after the surgery… I know abortion is wrong now—it’s absolutely wrong.”
So, what happened to the BABY? Three-and-a-half months after the surgery, Samuel Alexander Armas, was born on December 2, 1999. When it was determined that the BABY that Julie Armas was carrying had SPINA BIFIDA, she and her husband Alex were given the option to TERMINATE the PREGNANCY. As a NURSE she was well aware of the HEALTH COMPLICATIONS that this BIRTH DEFECT could cause. But being faithful Christians, they wouldn’t HEAR of it. And, sure enough, Samuel did have has difficulty learning how to WALK.
Samuel turned 20-years-old last month, and is now attending Auburn University with a full MATH SCHOLARSHIP. He still has some difficulty walking—his PARENTS describe his WALK at the “SPINA BIFIDA SWAGGER”. Not only is Samuel SMART, he is also a good ATHLETE and plays on the Auburn Tigers’ Wheelchair Basketball Team.
2. EVERY LIFE (BORN AND UNBORN) IS VALUABLE TO GOD.
II. THE KINGDOM OF GOD BELONGS TO CHILDREN- v. 14
A. Matthew uses the phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven”- Matthew 19:14.
1. Children BELONG to God and have a PLACE in HEAVEN.
a. There is that time between CONCEPTION, when life begins, and a CHILD reaches the age of what is often described as “the age of accountability” (which is different for each child, because each child matures differently) . . . where the SOUL of that CHILD is SAFE and SECURE.
b. And God forbid, but if that child was to DIE, he or she will be in HEAVEN.
COMMENT:
Think about it! Of all the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of BABIES that have been
ABORTED, their SOULS are with God in HEAVEN.
Although they didn’t have a CHANCE to even take their first BREATH and to fulfill the PURPOSE that God had for them, the “Kingdom of God” is theirs.
2. And then Jesus said, “…anyone who will NOT receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will
never enter it”- v. 15.
a. If we want to go to HEAVEN, we need to be like little CHILDREN.
b. I love what Warren Wiersbe said in his book: BE DILIGENT: “We tell CHILDREN to BEHAVE like ADULTS, and here Jesus is telling ADULTS to BEHAVE like CHILDREN.”
B. Now, Jesus is not saying that we are to be CHILDISH, but we are to be CHILD-LIKE—to take on
those CHILD-LIKE QUALITIES.
1. Like little children, we are to come to God’s Kingdom HELPLESS.
a. Romans 5:6- “You see, at the right time, when we were still powerless (HELPLESS), Christ
died for the UNGODLY.”
b. We come to God realizing that we are NOTHING without Him, and that we can do NOTHING
without Him. We remove all PRIDE and PRETENTION.
COMMENT:
Little children are HELPLESS. And like little children who DEPEND entirely upon their PARENTS for SURVIVAL, we come to Father in Heaven SEEKING Him to SAVE us, to STRENGTHEN us, to CHANGE us. We know that without Him, we are LOST.
2. Like little children, we are to come to God’s Kingdom HOPEFUL.
a. Romans 8:24-25- “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently.”
b. Children are so HOPEFUL, aren’t they? They are HELPLESS, but they are HOPEFUL!
COMMENT:
Like little children who place HOPE in their PARENTS’ care and love for them—that Mom and Dad will always be there to PROVIDE whatever is needed . . . so do we place HOPE in God’s PROMISES that He will “never forsake us”, that He will PROVIDE for our every physical, emotional and spiritual need, and take our HAND and LEAD us to our HEAVENLY HOME.
3. WE ARE VALUABLE TO GOD!
CONCLUSION:
WE ARE DEEPLY LOVED BY OR HEAVENLY FATHER!
(You may be sitting here today thinking, “No, He doesn’t love me. I had an ABORTION.”)
