NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH: The disciples tried to keep babies away from Jesus.
- Luke 18:15.
- Why did people want Jesus to touch their babies?
a. Protection.
- It was a much scarier time back then. Childhood diseases were more prevalent. Infant mortality was a tragic way of life. In fact, that's one of the reasons that most couples had more children - so that a few would make it to adulthood.
- In that environment, the thought of having special protection over your children would have been compelling.
b. Blessing on their lives.
- The other main reason I think was blessing on their lives. This would envision the blessing from Christ to be one that would lead to open doors and greater opportunities.
- I’m reminded of the old prayer: may the road rise to meet you and the wind always be at your back. It’s the thought of having outside help coordinating things for you that is appealing.
- Why did the disciples deny the babies?
a. They likely felt that Jesus had more important people to talk to.
- Jesus has many people pressing in to talk to Him. Jesus is already often interacting with hundreds of people a day. He’s got enough on His plate, to the disciples’ thought, and unnecessary children don’t need to be added to it.
I’m reminded of modern time management practices, like delegating everything that you don’t absolutely have to handle to someone else. Streamline your schedule and hand off secondary tasks to subordinates. You should only handle what only you can handle. To that way of thinking, the optimal plan here would be to designate one of the disciples as your staff member in charge of children and have them deal with these parents bringing their children to Jesus. But this was definitely below the level of stuff that Jesus should be dealing with.
b. The babies and children were too young to benefit from Jesus’ teaching.
- Another thought might have been that even though Jesus often used simple parables to teach, His words would nonetheless be well above what young children would be able to understand. If they couldn’t comprehend, why waste everyone’s time?
c. Jesus was busy.
- This is a piece of the first reason, but let me say it separately: Jesus was busy. His ministry was thriving, the crowds were pressing in upon Him, He had way too many demands on His time, and there were always things undone at the end of the day.
- In light of that, someone is going to have to get cut. It makes sense that the kids got cut.
- Three things in Jesus’ response:
a. Don’t keep the children away from Me.
- v. 16.
- Jesus explicitly tells the disciples to let the little children come to Him. He’s not too busy. He wants to bless them.
- The Kingdom isn’t efficiency and meeting important people. It’s about doing God things God’s way. The children bring something that no one else does and Jesus wants to be near them.
b. The Kingdom belongs to such as these.
- v. 16.
- The children aren’t add-ons to the Kingdom. They aren’t an unnecessary appendage. They are exactly the type that the Kingdom belongs to.
- This brings out the fact that we likely misunderstand what kind of Kingdom Jesus is bringing forward. Just to give one prominent example, many Jews of His day wanted a Kingdom that was political and military and would overthrow Rome. That doesn’t exactly sound like a Kingdom that belongs to children.
c. No one receives the Kingdom except as a little child.
- v. 17.
- In fact, you can’t receive the Kingdom into your life unless you do so like a little child. That's the statement we want to spend the rest of the sermon on. What exactly does that mean?
- I’m going to share four ideas below. I don’t think this is an exhaustive list, but I do think it speaks to the key elements.
WHAT DOES RECEIVING THE KINGDOM LIKE A LITTLE CHILD LOOK LIKE?
1. Not trusting in an impressive resume.
- Luke 18:9-14.
- You all are used to hearing me say that context is key. As we answer the question about receiving the kingdom like a little child, a good place to start is to look at what comes before and after this little passage.
- The last sermon in this series was about vv. 9-14 and the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. You can go back and listen to last week’s sermon for a more in-depth analysis, but I want to focus on the main point of the parable here.
- The main point of the parable is that you don’t get right with God by an impressive resume but by heartfelt repentance.
- The Pharisee comes with his list of religious feats and proudly displays them to show his worthiness. Those accomplishments allow him to see himself as superior to those around him, including the tax collector. He is impressive.
- On the other hand, the tax collector knows how far short he falls from God’s standards and all he can do is beg for mercy.
- The plot twist is that it is the tax collector that goes home right with God, not the Pharisee. How can that be?
The big reason is that our standard of comparison is not supposed to be those around us but rather God Himself. The standard is not beating the 51% but beating God’s perfection. Those standards are miles apart.
- We can always find someone whose life is a sufficient mess that we can feel good about ourselves. But none of us who have an accurate understanding of ourselves can look at God’s perfection and feel like we are approaching that. We are nowhere even close.
- This, of course, leads us to the ideas of grace and mercy and the need for undeserved forgiveness from God.
- How does this tie into the passage about the children?
- Children don’t come touting their resumes. Children aren’t trying to impress with all they’ve accomplished. Children don’t have resumes. They don't have C.V.s.
- They are anti-Pharisees.
2. Not trusting in our own resources.
- Luke 18:18-30.
- Next, let’s look at what follows our passage. This is the story of the rich ruler. We will get into this in more depth in the next sermon in our series, but let me again hit the main point.
- A rich young ruler comes to Jesus. He, like the Pharisee in our last point, has a religious resume that sounds impressive. Jesus gives him a command - to sell all he has and follow Jesus - that is too much for him to do. Please note that this is not a command for all followers of Christ at all times, but rather is designed to get at the heart of what was holding this man back from fully experiencing God.
- The man is unable to let go of his wealth in order to experience all the Christ has for him. It’s a tragic moment.
To put it the way I said it in the point in your sermon outline, he is trusting in his own resources. His trust is in his wealth rather than in the hand of Jesus.
- How does this relate to our passage about the children? Again, directly.
- Children don’t trust in their own resources. Children don't have any resources. They trust that their parents will supply what’s needed each day.
- In fact, I’ve heard people say this is one of the things they miss the most about their childhood. They never had to worry about anything. Their parents were taking care of all that. They just joyfully played and had a good time and trusted that somehow there would be food to eat and clothes to wear and a house to live in. What a great way to live!
3. Having pure faith and trust.
- All of that sets the stage nicely for the third reason and this is the one you probably thought of first: pure faith and trust.
- One of the most beautiful things about children is the purity of their faith and trust. They believe that what’s promised will come about. They trust their parents are going to take care of them.
- We have spoken before about the importance of faith. Jesus shares it as the most important condition of answered prayer. That means that prayers uttered with great faith get answers that faithless prayers don’t get.
- One specific way this relates to our salvation is that we have to receive it by faith as a gift from God. That's the nature of grace. We receive it by our trust in what Jesus has done for us.
- Are we people of childlike faith?
- Often, the longer we walk as Christians the less of that childlike faith we have. We get used to what we need to do and often just do things ourselves. We have less of the childlike wonder that believes that God can and will do anything. We know what we’ve seen in the past and that's all we expect in the future.
- A childlike faith believes that God can do everything He has promised.
4. Not worried but confident in the Father’s care.
- Finally, I’ve mentioned in passing that children rely on their parents for their needs, but let’s make that point specifically.
- Kids don’t stress about the electric bill. Kids aren’t worried about the rising price of beef. Kids aren’t concerned about the staggering price of new homes. None of that is stuff they need to worry about. Why? Because it’s their parents’ job to worry about all that.
- I’m reminded of Matthew 6:25-34 where Jesus instructs His followers to trust their Heavenly Father with all their earthly needs. He tells us that our Heavenly Father knows our needs before we even ask. We can delegate our money worries to Him and just focus on pursuing the Kingdom. It’s a similar arrangement to what kids enjoy.
- How worried are we? Lots?
- We are invited to behave like little children in abundant faith that our Heavenly Parent will care for our needs.
Just think how attractive our witness would be if we actually lived like that.
