Why Does The Kingdom Belong To "such As These"? Series

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.