Let the Children Come!

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Tonighta we come to a passage in Mark, it is really a surprising passage by many accounts. It's a passage that frankly in the heart of the Gospel of Mark about the life of Jesus Christ that in some ways you wouldn't expect. But it shows the character of Christianity. It shows the character of Jesus Christ our Lord. It shows the heart of God and so in that sense, it's very appropriate. Because it runs contrary as you will see to all the ideas of the first century. It was radical in its time. You see wherever Christianity has gone it's left its mark on the surrounding culture. Christianity isn't about culture, it's about a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Transformed lives seeing others come to that knowledge, but it does affect the culture because the people who embrace Christ live like little Christs. They share His values and His priorities; they follow His commands. It affects the thinking of people. We had begun over the last generation; in the church, we have begun to refer to America as a pagan nation. And of course, in many ways sadly that is becoming a reality. But there are still a couple hundred million Christians, or at least professing Christians in America. As well, the imprint of 200 years of exposure to the Bible and its values cannot be erased overnight or frankly even in a single generation. So, there are vestiges still in the culture in which we live of the ethical and moral impact of the Christian faith, still imprinted on the collective American psyche.

So, in today's world, if you really want to see paganism, you can't really look at America. If you really want to see pagan, you have to get to a place where the pervasive influence of Jesus' teaching has not been felt in generations. One such place is China. You can see the results in a culture of the absence of the message of the gospel and the ethics of Jesus Christ. One of the clearest ways you can see its paganism is in its view of children. They tell us that the abortion rate in China is at least 13 million a year. That's compared to 20 million live births reported each year. That's according to the official China daily newspaper. That's one abortion for every one and a half births. And that 13 million number of abortions does not include abortions in unregistered clinics. And it doesn't include pregnancies terminated by the some 10 million morning-after pills sold in China each year. It's a huge, huge issue.

There's infanticide, there've been ongoing accusations of infanticide, because of the one-child policy. Reporters tell us in the 1990s there was a stretch of one river that was known to be a common site of infanticide by drowning, obviously mostly female babies. Wikipedia cites that recent studies suggest that over 40 million girls and women are missing in China. There's child slavery, the international labor organization has estimated that of the 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 that work in developing countries, 61% of them, 61% of those 250 million children are in Asia and many of those are in China. You see there is an impact of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Frankly, there's a residual even in our culture. Wherever there are followers of Jesus Christ they are influenced by His teaching in many ways and the surrounding culture is in turn influenced in some ways. One of them is how we treat children.

Think about America. If an international relief agency wants to ensure a good response for their mailing or their fundraising, what do they do? All they have to do is put a cute baby on the cover or better yet a poor, dirty, needy child. Our politicians gain clout and votes by responding to and kissing babies. B.B. Warfield the great American theologian was right when he said, "Childhood owes as much to the gospel as womanhood." We can see how and why that transformation of thinking particularly about the littlest ones in the culture, how that transformation takes place in the passage that we come to in Mark tonight. Turn with me to Mark chapter 10, let me read it for you, Mark 10 beginning in verse 13:

And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and He said to them, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

The obvious point of this short paragraph is that true disciples of Jesus Christ must manifest the right attitude toward and the proper treatment of children.

There are two parallels to this story I've just read to you, one is in Matthew 19 and the other is in Luke 18 and I'll be referring to those as we work our way through this paragraph tonight. It's really fitting, isn't it, that after dealing with the disciples' marriage - the issues with marriage and divorce in the previous paragraph - Mark next reveals an incident that reveals a disciples' view of children – sets our thinking straight. As we work our way through this text we have to begin with the desire of parents for their children. Really the parents that bring these little ones are universal in the desire where Jesus is recognized for who He is. Look at verse 13, "And they were bringing their children to Him so that He might touch them."

Now, remember the context. Jesus and His disciples are on their way to the last Passover, the Passover in which Jesus will be crucified. It's just now a few days before the triumphal entry. They had arrived in an area of the land of Israel called Perea. It's the yellow area there on the lower side of the map, you can see the Sea of Galilee at the top, the Jordan rift runs down between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, that was the typical travel route for pilgrims coming from Galilee. And so, they come down on not the Samaria side, but on the Perea side, the yellow there and they're close to Jericho, down somewhere, if I can get my cursor to show, here somewhere in this area here. That's where Jesus is with His disciples. And in verses 10 through 12, they were in a house, probably it was in the evening after a full day's journey, traveling down the Jordan rift, they had arrived at a house somewhere in Perea, a house of one of Jesus' followers who had agreed to let Jesus and His disciples stay there for the night.

Either that night after the conversation about divorce or early the next morning as they prepared to leave this incident occurs. As they prepare to leave town and continue toward Jerusalem, some of the parents in town had heard that Jesus was there, and they brought their children to Jesus. The Greek word in Matthew and Mark for children is paidiá. It's used of children young enough to be held; it's also used of Jairus' daughter who's 12 years old. So, it's a large margin in terms of the ages that these children could be. Luke on the other hand is much more specific. Luke 18:15 says, "And they were bringing even their babies [or infants] to Him so that He would touch them." They were bringing the youngest little ones in their homes for Him to touch.

Now, what did these parents want Jesus to do? Well, here in Mark it says, they wanted Him to touch them. Matthew adds a little more detail to that in his account, it says, "Some children were brought to His so that He might lay His hands on them and pray." To lay hands was the visible symbol of a blessing. This practice by the way was often done in the culture; it was done by the rabbis. You would take your child to the rabbi down at the synagogue, and he would lay his hands on that child, and he would bless that child. It was the classic Jewish custom. It started way back in the Old Testament. Noah blessed Shem and Japheth; Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau; Jacob laid his hands on and blessed his sons and grandsons in Genesis 48 and 49. These parents were asking Jesus to bless the future lives of these little children. Especially, I think, as it pertained to their relationship to the true God, the God of Israel. It was a spiritual blessing they wanted for their kids. And you know that is a common thing isn't it, among parents that know and respect Jesus Christ, to follow Christ we want nothing more, we pray for nothing more than for our Lord to spiritually bless our children that they would come to know Him at an early age. I find my own self often not only praying for my children's salvation but also praying that their commitment to Jesus Christ, their love for Jesus Christ would be greater than my own. Nothing would make me happier than that. That's how parents feel and that was the concern of these parents. So, they bring their little infants, their little babies to Jesus to ask Him to bless them.

That brings us to the attitude of the culture toward children, the attitude of the culture toward children. The disciples' response you see is not an isolated reaction. Rather the disciples' response mirrors the perspective of that society as a whole. Notice verse 13, "But the disciples rebuked them." By the way the pronoun them, in English it's them and you don't know if it's male or female, but in Greek, you can tell by the pronoun if it's male or female. The pronoun here is male so not only did mothers bring their children to Christ, but apparently many fathers did as well which would have been typical in that culture. And the disciples rebuked these fathers who were bringing their children. The word rebuke means to reprove, to censure with the design of bringing the behavior to an end. Stop doing this. You say, well what motivated the disciples to do that? Well, it could have been that they were just protecting Jesus. You know sometimes eager disciples can do that from a great teacher, they can try to protect him from the crowds and from interaction. It may have been that. And sometimes Jesus needed that, you remember there were times we've already seen in the Gospel of Mark when the crowds pressed in on Him so tight, He had to get in a boat and get away from the crush. But I think there's another reason here, I think what you see in the disciples is a reflection of the attitude of the culture; in their minds children especially infants were frankly a waste of a great teacher's time. Jesus after all is a rabbi, He's a teacher. What benefit would it be to Him to spend His time with infants?

You know in the previous paragraph Jesus took on the cultural view of divorce and remarriage, you remember, we talked about that at length. Here in this paragraph, he takes on the culture's flawed perspective of children, the religious establishments' perspective of children. Let me just give you a sort of view of the first century perspective on children. Let's start with the Greeks. There was a heavy Greek influence, the Hellenizing influence in Israel. Alexander the Great had spread the great Greek thought around the world and there was a heavy Greek influence in Israel in the first century. Among the Greeks, infanticide was regularly practiced. I remember when I was in seminary; my wife got onto me because one of the classes I had was translating Greek papyri. Papyri are ancient documents written on a papyrus reed, that was the writing surface that had been pressed together, and then when someone got rid of it, they just threw it in the trash. Well, in the Middle East, it's so arid, that those pieces of writing documents were preserved, the papyri were preserved. So, now archeologists can discover those from the trash heap literally of history, and then we can see how words, Greek words were used in a secular context.

And so, my professor thought that would be a worthwhile enterprise, so you know I spent basically six months translating Greek papyri. This was at the end of a six-year Greek journey. And my wife got onto me because I would spend my Monday nights doing that and watch Monday Night Football while I translated Greek papyri. And this went against her sensibilities of how studies should be done. And it worked out fine though, for the record, I'm not recommending it to any of you kids but that's what happened. But I remember when I came across a particular letter, I was translating and I came across a particular letter, it was written on and dated on what would have been June 17, 1 B.C. Obviously, it was dated in the old way of dating, but that's the equivalent. And it was written by a man named Hilarion, which ironically means cheerful. He wrote his pregnant wife a letter on papyrus; Alis was her name - not like the English Alice - with different spelling and pronunciation. But this is what he wrote, this is the letter, this is part of it, listen carefully, very matter of fact. The first part of the letter was just sort of pleasantries - having a great time, you know I forget now specifically what it was, just basic stuff - and then he says this; remember now his wife's pregnant, he's assuming she will get this letter after the child is born. This is what he wrote: "If it was a male child, let it live, if it was a female cast it out." Just like that. Just waste. If it's a female just get rid of it.

The practice of exposing children was not illegal under Roman law, let's change to the Romans now, it wasn't illegal under Roman law until 375 A.D. under the influence of Christianity. In Jewish culture things were a little better, infanticide was forbidden, but children were considered to be by the Jewish establishment to be barely members of society. Infant mortality rates were low, and so you never really knew if that child was going to survive into adulthood and profitability or not. And so, it didn't matter a lot and you needed workers, not those who took workers to care for. So, children in that culture occupied the very last place in importance and prominence. They were literally at the bottom rung of the social ladder. And so why should a teacher, a great teacher, a rabbi like Jesus waste His time on the absolute bottom rung of the ladder? After all, He's a teacher and they can't understand it. Now we're appalled by that, at least I hope you're appalled by that, but lest we climb too quickly on our moral high horse, we need to remember that in our own enlightened culture things are not much better. And to whatever degree it is better it's the result of the lingering impact of the Christian faith. It is certainly not the result, can we agree on this, it is not the result of the prevailing philosophy of naturalism that claims the survival of the fittest.

So just as an exercise let's consider for a moment the flawed perspective toward children in the secular world around us. How has what the world embraces about children began to become skewed from the teaching of Jesus, the teaching of the Bible?

This is an obvious one, but I need to say it. The secular culture says, by and large, that the child growing in the womb is not a person but a lifeless piece of tissue that is a part of the woman's body. And it's her choice as to whether she will retain that child or whether she will take it.

A second flawed perspective in the secular culture is that the human child has no more intrinsic value than any other animal, and boy we are seeing this sold. Listen watch some of the movies, that even some of the harmless studios put out that are for kids, and you will see this sold. I've told you before about Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's founder, who said, "There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights – a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy." That's the culture in which we live. Terribly flawed perspective.

A third flawed secular perspective is that children must not be allowed to stand in the way of one's career and personal advancement. I have to look out for me, and my kids can't get in the way of that and so I'm going to find a way to get them cared for but not in any way eclipse my own rise, my own fulfillment.

Fourth, and I just threw this one in, the school day and year should be lengthened to give parents more time to pursue their own lives. Oh, by the way, it's never said that way. Okay, we just need them better educated; it's always put in educational terms, but when both parents work full time outside the home, there's nothing else to do with the kids but pay for additional childcare, so what could be better than having the government pay for it? What could be better than having the government do it with the taxes we pay? Flawed perspectives on children.

What about in the Christian community? Are there flawed perspectives toward children even among professing Christians? Let me just rattle around here for a moment.

One is that children belong to us as their parents. Do you ever feel that way? They're my children. Listen, we are stewards of their lives for a short time, they will grow up and they will stand alone accountable before God. We are merely stewards for a short time of their lives, they don't belong to us, they're not our property to do with as we please, and they're not our sole possession to protect them from what God has in store for their lives for the future.

A second flawed perspective I think is a parent's most important job is to provide food, shelter, clothing, and an academic education. We are to provide those things but as we learn from Deuteronomy and from Ephesians 6, what is the parent's chief priority? To bring them up in the discipline and instruction of what? Of the Lord. It's a lie. The most important thing that will happen in your children's lives during the years they are in your home is not their formal education. That doesn't matter for eternity. There's not going to be any trigonometry tests in eternity. Amen, huh, kids?

Thirdly, children can often be an impediment to a person's personal goals and self-fulfillments. I added this because it isn't just true in the secular world, unfortunately, it's also true way too often in the Christian community. You know, I've just got to pursue what I want to pursue. You know I have these opportunities, I have these gifts, and it may hurt my interaction with my kids, but this is what I need to do. Caring for one's children is a much less important task than a woman's career.

There's another flawed perspective in the Christian community. Titus makes that very clear, Titus 2. And this one is a particularly subtle one, for women who have some gifting. Discipling one's children, or for men as well, frankly, disciplining one's children is not as important as an important spiritual ministry outside the home – it's okay for me to neglect my children because wow, look at this Bible study I'm teaching, look at this opportunity I have. These are flawed perspectives.

We need to ask ourselves: "How have we been influenced by the secular and Christian culture around us rather than the vantage point and viewpoint and perspective of Jesus Christ?"

Now that brings us - we've looked at the desire of parents for their children, it's the same among all those who fear God. They want His spiritual blessing; they want the spiritual blessing of Christ in the lives of their kids. We've seen the attitude of the culture toward children, and it is a terribly skewed flawed perspective. We see it mirrored in the response of the disciples. Go away. He doesn't have time.

That brings us to the teaching of Jesus concerning children. Because in verses 14-16 we get a glimpse into the heart of Jesus and ultimately a glimpse into the heart of the Father in His viewpoint toward kids. Look first at Jesus' sudden anger against those who mistreat children. Verse 14, "But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant."

He saw what was happening. We don't know if the disciples were outside the house sort of quietly trying to move these people on, you know, you guys you get off to the left and off to the right and make way for Jesus. We don't know if they said, "Look, Jesus is tired, it's been a long day, we've got a journey tomorrow to Jerusalem, so listen, another time." We don't know where this was happening or how Jesus saw it, but somehow, He saw it, perhaps outside the window or the door. He witnesses this and it says, "He was indignant."

This word indignant is used only here in the New Testament. It's a very intensive word composed of a couple of words glued together. It means to become angry, and it denotes a very strongly expressed emotion. Jesus was visibly angry. He was angry at whom? Not at the parents for bringing their children but at His own hand-picked representatives, at believers. He was angry at the Twelve for simply not allowing the children to be brought to Him. You know as I thought about that this week, I thought how angry must Jesus get today when a child is aborted, or when a child is neglected or abused? Or when a child is thrown out or enslaved or sexually abused? Fortunately, wherever there's repentance there's forgiveness, if any of those things are in your past they can be forgiven, washed away by the blood of Christ. But understand apart from repentance there must still be and someday will be an outburst of the anger of Jesus Christ toward those who respond to children in this way. What a terrifying thing to stand before Jesus someday at the great white throne of judgment and have been guilty of neglecting or abusing a child in any way; if He got angry with the Twelve for simply turning these children away.

So, Luke tells us that Jesus then called for the parents and their children. He got angry and then said to the parents, "I want you to come here." He calls them to Himself. That brings us to His clear command. They come and He issues a clear command to His disciples, look at verse 14: "But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and He said to them, 'Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them.'" Permit, the verb tense implies these particular children. Permit these parents and children to come to Me. Do not hinder, that second phrase is in the present tense. Don't be hindering. That probably means I don't want you to make it a practice from now on. Let these come and don't do this again. I think is what Jesus is saying here.

Now that brings us to the spiritual lesson. He takes these children and from them, He exacts a spiritual lesson. Look at verse 14, here's the reason He gives - let these come and don't stop kids in the future, for here's why: "The kingdom of God belongs to such as these." What does that mean? The kingdom of God belongs to these, remember now we're talking about a group of children many of whom, maybe all of whom, are infants according to Luke. What is He talking about? Well, let's first of all, consider what this passage does not teach. It does not teach that children are morally innocent. If you have any doubt about that just go home and look in the crib. That's where the ancient heresy of Pelagianism comes. It comes to the fact that man is born morally innocent and at some point, he either responds to the truth or refuses the truth and that's the transition point, but before that he's essentially morally innocent. Similar ideas are around today in what theologians call semi-pelagianism, you can guess what that means; it's not a full-blown version of all that Pelagianism was, the heresy, but it's got elements of it, including this one. And Arminianism, which basically teaches that people have within themselves to respond to the gospel. This is not what the Bible teaches; 1 Kings 8:46, "There is no man who does not sin." There's no person, there's no human being who doesn't sin. Psalm 51:5, David says, "I was brought forth in iniquity [I was birthed in iniquity], and in sin my mother conceived me." He's not saying he's illegitimate, he's saying sin was a part of my makeup when I was conceived. David isn't excusing his sin; he is acknowledging how deep his problem goes. It's not just his behavior. It's who he was when he was conceived. He sins because he is a sinner and so do we.

All children fall into that same category; Psalm 58:3, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; these who speak lies go astray from birth." Proverbs 20:9, "Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin?'" The obvious answer is whom? No one. Not even a child.

Romans 3 makes it crystal clear as Paul marches through his indictment of all mankind and he ends up with this statement. All the world stands guilty before God. All of humanity. There is not one who does good, not even one. So, this passage does not teach that children are morally innocent and that's why Jesus loves them.

Secondly, this passage does not teach that infants and very young children are part of the covenant and should be baptized. That is the view of some of our reformed brothers, some of our Presbyterian friends. You can ransack this passage and there is no reference to either circumcision, which they say is an Old Testament equivalent to baptism, or a baptism. This passage doesn't mention any of that. There's no mention of the covenant, none of those things are in this text and to insert them into this text is to go further than this text goes. We can argue about that from different places in Scripture, but this text doesn't even comment on that issue.

Thirdly, that infants and very young children can exercise saving faith. This passage is not teaching that these infants were in fact Christians in the true sense of that expression.

So, if that's what the passage does not teach, let me talk secondly about what it allows. Not so much what its primary lesson is, but what it does allow.

Number one, I think it allows that children who can understand their sin and understand the gospel of Jesus can be saved. You say, well okay, when is that? At what age? Well, I think the age varies. Although I think based on Luke's use of the word infants, I don't think there were any children in this account old enough to exercise saving faith. Nevertheless, the reality of this statement is still allowed by this passage. I think when it comes to our children, you're talking about, "Well okay so, how do I handle evangelizing my children?" You want to avoid both extremes. You want to avoid the extreme of manipulating your children. Children want to please their parents and it's very easy to get them to do whatever it is you want them to do. You want to avoid that extreme. You don't want them to hang their hat on a false profession they made young because it makes you feel better. On the other hand, you don't want to discourage any movement of their heart toward God, you want to acknowledge the work of God, you want to encourage them, you want to say to them, "That's great sweetheart, I'm so glad you're responding to the truth, you keep pursuing Jesus." Encourage the work of God in their hearts.

I think a second thing this passage allows is that young children who have not yet reached the condition of accountability and notice I use the word not age of accountability, condition of accountability; I think it varies based on the person. But a stage in life where they understand their sin and that it's against a holy God and they understand who Jesus is and they understand the gospel, that is what I would say is a condition of accountability. That young children who have not yet reached a condition of accountability or those in a similar childlike mental state - in other words, those who are incapacitated because of disease or congenital issues - I believe and this is what I strongly believe, they are received by God into His mercy and grace. You say, where does that come from? Well, let me admit to you there is no hard and fast verse I can take you to. In a very real sense, I would argue this from the character of God, and frankly from Jesus' interaction with these children as we'll see in a few minutes. But let me give you what evidence there is and again I'm not saying this is airtight evidence, alright, so don't hear me saying that.

First of all, historical evidence. I'm not alone here I stand on some pretty strong shoulders. John Calvin writes in the Institutes, "I everywhere teach that no one can be justly condemned and perish, except on account of actual sin. And to say that the countless mortals taken from life while yet infants are precipitated from their mother's arms into eternal death is a blasphemy to be universally detested." To that, I say, "Amen and Amen." I think that is the character of God; we'll talk more about that in just a moment. Also, the Westminster Confession, it doesn't go quite as far as Calvin does but you have the same thoughts here, it's repeated in other confessions as well, I just give this one as representative: "Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit who works when and where and how He pleases. So also, are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word." Just a different way to say what I said a moment ago. So, the historical evidence lands on, the Westminster Confession doesn't go as far as Calvin does but the evidence lands on, the grace of God receiving those who are incapable of understanding their sin and responding to the gospel.

What's the evidence biblically? I think the clearest and strongest evidence and I invite you to challenge me on this one. Try to find any verse in Scripture where a person is sent to hell for anything other than actual willful, sinful choices, either in unbelief or specific sins. Read Revelation and everywhere it says, "These are going to be turned into the lake of fire," it lists what? Active sins. And I think that is a clear pattern and that's why I have to agree with John Calvin, I think that is the evidence. You search on your own and see if you can find a single passage that implies that those who have not actually sinned with their will in a knowing way against God their Creator will be in hell.

There are some other verses that sort of imply this or hint at it might be a better way to say it, they don't even really imply it, they more just kind of hint there might be something like this. Deuteronomy 1:39 says, "Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil." There seems to be there recognition that there is an age before which there is no real knowledge of what is good or evil. And we know that with our children, don't we? They know, obviously, a child can exert his sin nature simply by screaming when it needs nothing, to get you there. At the same time, we wouldn't say that that is knowledgeable, willful sin in the same way that we eventually end up sinning.

First Kings, talks about the son of Jeroboam, and this one I think is a little more of a stretch because we don't know how old this boy was, but God basically says to Jeroboam: "Listen, I'm going to kill every male offspring of yours." Boy, this language is terrifying, God says:

I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone. Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs will eat. And he who dies in the field the birds of the heaven will eat; for the Lord has spoken it. [And then He says this,] Now you, arise, go to your house. When your feet enter the city . . ."

Now at this point, Jeroboam's wife had come to inquire about a sick son. We don't know how old the sick son was, his name was Abijah. But she's come to inquire about this sick son and in response to that the prophet says to her:

Now you, arise, go to your house. When your feet enter the city the child will die. All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam's family will come to the grave, because in him something good was found towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

What does that mean? I don't know because we don't know how old this boy was. Some would say, including my mentor, that this was a child. And that God is recognizing His gracious purpose in that child's life and that is possible.

Ezekiel 16:21, God says through Ezekiel to the people of Israel: "You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire." A reference to Molech and the burning of young children, sacrificing them to the idol. Again, just a hint, nothing strong. Jonah 4:11, "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and their left hand, as well as many animals?"

Here God says, "I'm going to show compassion on Nineveh because of the children who are there as well as the animals. There are those who are not guilty of the sins for which I am going to bring judgment on these people." So, that's what it allows for. I think it allows for the fact that children who die in infancy, in fact, are taken to the Lord. And again, when we come back to His blessing, we'll talk about that a little more.

But let's get to what the passage means; what is the main point of this passage? Jesus explains His primary point by saying, "The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." In verse 15, notice what He says. Let's get a running start, look again at the end of verse 14:

The kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly [and here He uses that word, amēn, verily, here's an important pronouncement from Jesus. Verily, truly, amēn] I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

Now in all three of the parallel passages, Jesus does not say, "The kingdom of heaven belongs to these children." He says, "The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." And then in verse 15, he explains what that means. There is a characteristic of young children, even infants, that is also true of every genuine Christian. If you're a Christian there is one major resemblance you have to babies, to infants, to children. So, what is the point of similarity between a physical infant and a true follower of Jesus Christ?

Well, let me tell you what it's not. It's not all those adoring things adults say about children. Oh, they're truthful. Really? They're trusting. There's some truth there, gullible might be a better word. Openness. Yeah, they're open to everything. Sincerity. Innocence. Simplicity. Sense of wonder. I've read all of those explanations and commentaries. What's the problem with every one of those? Listen carefully. It cannot be any one of those, because if that's why these children are commended, guess what it means that it's those same virtues that must be what makes us acceptable to God. God received me because I'm truthful, because I'm trusting, because I'm open, because I'm sincere, because I'm innocent, because I'm simple.

It can't be any of those things. Jesus is not commending some subjective quality in children. Rather, Jesus is identifying an objective reality that is true of children. All children, regardless of their circumstances share one thing in common, especially the infants that were brought that morning. One thing in common. They are completely helpless. Completely helpless. They have achieved nothing, they have earned nothing, they can contribute nothing, so everything they receive from is us what? Pure grace. It's pure grace. You think about it. You think about especially the first three months of that little life if you have a child. What did you do? You got up a lot, you fed them, and you changed their diapers, and guess what, there was zero payback.

Eventually, they started smiling, and then there was some payback, then that was enjoyable, response – there's another human being there who is responding to me. But even then, so much of what we do for our children in those early years is simply pure grace. Really, it's all pure grace. They could have been born in a home where they were cast out. But we care for them, and we provide for them, and we love them, and we nurture them because they earned it? Because they deserved it? No. We do it because it's in our hearts to do it. James Edwards puts it this way: "To receive the kingdom of God as a child is to receive it as one who has no credits, no clout, and no claims." That's it. That's how we come to God.

It reminds me of Matthew 5:3, Jesus begins the Beatitudes which we hope to start studying shortly, and what does Jesus say is the first step, if you will, of spiritual blessing in His kingdom? It's recognizing your own spiritual poverty. Your own moral bankruptcy. I am a beggar in spirit. If you've been anywhere where there are beggars, you see them sitting alone in the streets, they have nothing to offer you, they're just asking for you to do something for them. And Jesus said if you're going to come to God, that's how you're going to have to come. Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Your cross I cling. I've got nothing to offer you, God; I've got nothing you want. I'm not coming to make a deal with you, I'm not coming to sell you something, you're not going to accept me because I'm great, I'm wonderful, I have absolutely nothing you want. So, all I can do is come to You completely, helpless like a child, and hope in grace You will respond. You see it in Matthew. Look over at Matthew 18. Jesus uses children again in a similar way, Matthew 18:2:

And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child . . .

There's the key, who comes to God completely humble, nothing to offer; that one gets into the kingdom of heaven.

Over in John 3, you remember Jesus said essentially the same thing to Nicodemus. He said, "Listen, Nicodemus, you may be a teacher of the law, but God is unimpressed. You may be the greatest teacher, you have nothing to offer God, your only hope is to start over, to be born again. God has to do something to you. Your only hope is to become like a child and be born again."

That's how we all come into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. If you're a Christian there was a point in your life where you gave up your claims and your merit, you gave up anything that you could offer God and you came like a beggar saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." It's the only way in. By the way, it's no accident that in all three synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke - the next story is, guess what? The rich young ruler. The rich young ruler, a man who had plenty of personal achievement and personal merit. He was rich, which seemed to indicate the blessing of God in his life, and he'd kept all the law outwardly his whole life. God must want me, look at what I've done, look at my achievements and guess what, he walks away and doesn't get in. But Jesus says if you come as a baby, you get in if you come with nothing to offer.

That brings us back to the flow of this passage. We've seen the teaching of Jesus concerning children, His sudden anger against those who mistreat them, His clear command for His disciples, His spiritual lesson using the children, and that brings us to verse 16 and His personal example toward the children. Look at verse 16, "And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them."

Notice, Jesus does four things to these children. He takes them in His arms, which is just His affection for them. It also shows the age of these children, they were no older probably than three or four and most of them as Luke said were probably infants. Secondly, He laid His hands on them. Matthew says that: "Some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray." So apparently, He lays His hands on them and He prays for them as well. And then finally He blessed them. Jesus took these children one by one; He took them in one of His arms and held them close and then He laid His hand on the head, that warm little head with His other hand, and pronounced a blessing.

A blessing really was a prayer, that's all it was. It was saying, may God do this in your life. Now that opens up a very important question. What exactly was the blessing Jesus gave these children and was it a spiritual blessing that would eventually lead them to salvation? And the answer is we have no idea because Luke doesn't tell us. All we know is that He had a tender compassionate heart for these children. I think it may very well have meant that. The Father always hears Jesus. If He prayed for their spiritual well-being, I think we may very well see these children in heaven. That's not a guarantee every child we pray for will be in heaven, but I think probably every child Jesus prays for will be in heaven.

But that's not the point. The point isn't what happens to the children, the point is what are the lessons you and I can learn out of this text?

Number one and this is so important for us to understand, Jesus loves children. The evidence is that in this tender account. And so, we must also be active in showing compassion for children, in our own homes, in this church. We ought to care about the children in this church. We sang, when all of us were growing up we sang, "Jesus Loves the Little Children." Listen, that's true. For some of us, loving children as Jesus loves them may mean adoption. For some of us, it may mean foster care, for others of us it may mean caring and supporting those who do. For all of us, it means caring for the kids that are within the scope of our influence, loving them. And for all of us, I think it means being outspoken defenders of children. If Jesus was angry at the mistreatment of children, then we ought to be angry, not in a violent way but in a holy and sanctified way against those involved in abortion and physical abuse and child labor and the child sex trade, and other such abuses. We ought to be outspoken defenders of children against them. By the way, that's even what's behind our child protection policy in this church. It's to protect our children because it's right and because it matters to our Lord.

Secondly, another lesson we can learn is infants and children who die before they're able to understand their sin or the gospel will be in heaven as a special demonstration of the grace of God. I really do believe that. Both for the historical reasons as well as some of the biblical reasons, particularly that no one is ever described as going to hell for anything but actual sinful choices. Knowing and sinning.

Thirdly, I've already made that point, I have a lot of quotes but I won't share them with you, they're really good quotes too, I hate to skip them, but I will. Number three, we should make exposing our children to Jesus through our teaching a huge priority both in our homes and in the church. Listen, it's okay to be like these parents and want Jesus' blessing in the lives of your children. So put them in the place where they can receive that today. You can't carry them to Jesus, but you can carry them to His church. You can put them under those who will shepherd their hearts and you can do it yourself in your home.

By the way, a Gallup survey revealed that 19 of 20 Christians, listen to that, 19 of 20 Christians became Christians before the age of 25. At 25 - the Gallup polls said one in 10,000; at 35 - one in 50,000; at 45 - one in 200,000; at 55 - one in 300,000 and at 75 - one in 700,000. Now, those are statistics and God can do whatever He has chosen to do. Those on whom He has set His love will be His, but it tells you how God normally works. We ought to intensively as a church and as families, pour ourselves into the lives of our children.

Number four, just as these parents did, we should ask in faith of our Lord to bring spiritual blessing upon our children. Have you prayed consistently as we talked about this morning? Persistently, stubbornly for your kids that they would come to know Jesus Christ at an early age. Have they heard you pray that for them? Do they know you pray it?

And finally, if we want to enter the kingdom of Christ, there's only one way in, you've got to enter it like a child. This passage is really a profound lesson in salvation by grace alone. Because only those who have no merits or accomplishments can enter the kingdom. When it comes to getting into Jesus' kingdom, you have to become like a child in the sense that you acknowledge your complete helplessness. Everything must be done for you and given to you and that is exactly what God has done in Christ. Notice again what Jesus says, "You must receive the kingdom of God like a child." Like a child receives everything, with absolutely no claims, with no merit but just receiving it as an act of grace. And Jesus says in verse 15 if you don't receive it that way, and then He uses in the Greek text a strong double negative, you will not enter it at all. Or if I could put it this way, there's no way you're getting in. Let me ask you tonight - have you ever come to the place where you realize that you have nothing to offer God and the only way you can come to Him is like a beggar, begging God to save you, to change you, to give you new life? That is the only way to enter the kingdom over which Jesus rules. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for our time together tonight. Thank You for Your heart that we see reflected in the heart of Christ, Your Son. And Father, thank You for Your love for those who are helpless, for those who are physically helpless. Lord, thank You for Your great heart and help us to have that same heart to pray and to do what we can within the confines of the law. But Lord, help us most of all to pray, help us to remember that You take back rebels one heart at a time. Father, thank You as well that You care for spiritual children. Those who have absolutely nothing to offer You. Thank You that You brought us to that place where all we could do was look up and cry out be merciful to me the sinner. Father, it was Your grace, and we bless You and thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.