The Virtue of Children Matthew 19:13-15

Original Sin and the Selfishness of Fallen Humanity

When you live in the world long enough, you come to realize that very few people are kind, caring, and selfless. Brianne and I are friends with a couple who got married in their later years of college.

They grew up in the Twin Cities, but went to college on the east side of Wisconsin, right on Lake Michigan. And after working in that area after college for a year or two, they decided to move back to the Twin Cities.

And as they moved, what they realized is that they could really use some help, just like anybody does when they move. But they did not know anyone in the town in which they lived, in which they had lived for several years, who would take the time out of their day to help them.

Most people in the world are this way, and the longer you live, the more you will see this. The goal for people is to live for themselves. Why is this? The Bible gives the answer. People are sinners by nature and by choice.

The doctrine that people are sinners by nature is known as original sin. Adam sinned and his sinful seed is passed on to every human. For one to be a sinner by nature means that one does not love God, and if one does not love God, then that means that that person does not love other people.

The two go hand in hand. You love God, you love other people. A life apart from God is a self-absorbed life. Selfishness is something that can be seen at the very earliest of ages. If you're ever in a conversation with someone who doesn't believe in original sin, all you need to do is point this person to little children.

Children want what they want when they want. They are sinners by nature, and they are doing what their heart naturally leads them to do. But while we see this in children, there is something about children that is different from adults.

If you put a bunch of unbelievers in a room, and among that group are children, the most noble group in that room won't be the adults, it'll be the kids. Once you see the corruption in most adults, it is refreshing to see children.

While children are sinners, yes, there is an innocence to them. They bring so much joy because they are so sweet. Children naturally love and trust their parents who take care of them. In one moment, a child might throw a tantrum against one's parents, but minutes later, the child is back in the arms of his or her parents, like nothing happened.

Children don't hold grudges like adults do. They often tell the truth, unlike adults. They are quick to forgive and move on. Children carry virtue that unbelieving, sinful adults do not have. And Jesus highlighted this in His ministry.

The only way for anyone to dwell in God's presence forever, one must become like a child. If we continue our sermon series through Matthew this morning, we will see Jesus speak on this important teaching that we all need to hear.

So this time, I encourage you to turn in the Bible with me to Matthew 19. We'll be looking at verses 13 -15. If you're using one of those red Bibles, it's on page 980. This sermon is titled, The Virtue of Children.

And I will begin by reading the text. Matthew 19, verses 13 -15. Then children were brought to Jesus that He might lay His hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them.

For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them and went away. This is what our sermon is going to be. These three verses. Here's our big idea. What this sermon is calling you to do.

See the great love Jesus has for children. And we will see two lessons how in this text. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one Sunday ago. We looked at verses 10 -12 of Matthew 18.

And that passage focused on singleness. In fact, Nate told me this morning that one of his sons wants to be single. After listening to this sermon. We'll wait until he gets a little bit older and we'll see if he still feels that way.

But the reason he's saying that is because he heard the high place that the Bible has for singleness. That is so often thrown by the wayside. God not only has a wonderful design for marriage, but He has a wonderful design for singleness.

Once one gets married, a married person takes on certain responsibilities. And these take away from the other things that one may do. But the single person has the freedom to do much for God's kingdom.

Things that a married person can't do. Some people, like the Apostle Paul, have this calling. Look at what Paul was able to do in his life as a single man. Some have this calling within the church. And so singleness should be celebrated, not seen as a second class life like sadly it so often is.

So let's as a church uphold singleness to the high place that God does. Now this leads us back to our text that we've already read. But now we will zero in on these verses. And I'm going to begin by zeroing in on verse 13.

Where Matthew writes again that children are brought to Jesus, that He might lay His hands on them and pray over them. And we see here that the disciples rebuke the children and the parents of the children for bringing these kids to Jesus.

What we have seen throughout this Gospel is that wherever Jesus goes, that is where the crowds go. Anyone who had an ailment will be brought to Jesus, whether it was a physical ailment like leprosy or a spiritual ailment like demon possession.

They would be brought to Jesus and what would Jesus do? He would heal them instantly. And in this passage we see that parents desire to bring children to Him in order that He might pray over them. There was a Jewish custom at this time that parents would bring their children to the synagogue, the place of worship at this time in history, and they would bring their child to this place to be prayed over.

The father would pray a blessing over the child and the father would also hand the child to a Jewish teacher who would also pray a blessing over the child. When a Jew sought a Jewish teacher, what they called this person was rabbi.

Because Jesus was always teaching, people referred to Him as rabbi. Instead of parents bringing a child to an official rabbi who was trained within the pharisaical system, many parents instead decided to take their children to Jesus that He might pray a blessing over them.

In the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke, and we see this in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Matthew are very similar Gospels. So there's often parallel accounts. And in those parallel accounts in Mark and Luke, the Greek verb that is used here for brought is a verb describing a continuous action.

Something that's happening over and over again. This tells us that the parents were continuously bringing children to Jesus. This was not just a few parents bringing their children for a short time. No, this was many parents bringing their children to Jesus over a long period of time.

They just kept coming and coming and coming. And it should be no surprise that parents brought their children to Jesus since they knew the love that He had shown them. You don't bring your kids to someone who doesn't care.

Jesus had already healed children on several occasions. Not too long ago in Matthew, we saw Jesus talk about children in Matthew 18 in a very positive light, and we'll look at that in a little bit. The parents, knowing the love that Jesus had for children, continuously bring their children to Him in order to receive a prayer of blessing from Him.

And it may be that these parents believed Jesus to be the Messiah as the people had been saying. Jesus is happy to receive them, but the disciples are troubled by the fact that these parents in a train are bringing their children to Him.

Let's read this at the end of verse 13. The disciples rebuked the people. Now earlier I mentioned that the Greek verb for brought was continuous in Mark as the children are continuously being brought to Jesus.

The Greek verb for rebuke is also continuous. In other words, the disciples are saying over and over again, stop bringing your children to our Teacher. They're troubled by this.

They're annoyed.

Stop bringing them. The disciples saw the children as a nuisance and not a blessing to be around as Jesus did. Admittedly, I can fall into this with my kids. If we're honest, we can say this. I was talking with Mark about getting together with a mutual friend this past week and what I said to him was, will our kids be a distraction?

But Mark did not see it that way. He lovingly rebuked me, telling me to bring them. He did not see them as a distraction, but as the blessing that they are. People need to be reminded of the blessing of children.

Little children are difficult, yes. Sometimes very difficult. But Jesus sees them as a blessing to have around. He was glad to have them in His presence. We see this by what He says in the first half of verse 14.

What He says is, Let the children come to Me, and do not hinder them. As we put ourselves in the disciples' shoes, or more accurately, their sandals,.

What were they thinking?

What were they thinking here? They know who Jesus is. In Matthew 16 and 18, the great confession that Peter made. We believe that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter says this on behalf of the disciples.

They know how important He is. It is an understatement to say how important He is. He is the most important person in history. And because He is that important, the disciples are thinking, the last people we want to be around are Master and Teacher are children.

These people who have tantrums and pick their nose and get in little fights. Half of parenting, if you have multiple kids, is breaking up fights, right? Children are commonly viewed as a nuisance, both in the first century and in the present day.

But Jesus says, bring them to Me. Usually we associate importance with, stay away from this guy. This guy is important. Don't go near him. Don't go near her. In other words, common people and most of all children should not be around this important person.

You go to a baseball game, they have the VIP section. The VIPs can't sit next to the common people, right? They're just too important. They can't fly coach with the other people. They need to sit in first class or have a private jet.

Isn't that how our society works? Imagine if you come across a famous person whom you look up to. It is common to be afraid to approach that person. What am I going to say? Am I going to say something silly?

When I was in high school, we took a trip to Washington, D .C., and we were walking through the Capitol building and Ted Kennedy walked by us. Now even if you don't like Ted Kennedy, which I think is pretty much everyone in this room, right?

We shouldn't like his politics. It's still Ted Kennedy. This man is the brother of John Kennedy? Instead of saying hi, one of my teachers froze. And then he joked that evening at dinner with the students that whenever he sees a famous person, he freezes and can't form basic sentences.

It is common for people to feel this way because it's easy to think that this person who stands before you is important, and because this person is important, you can't have a normal conversation. You can't act normal.

You have to tremble. There is a trembling because the person is seen as unapproachable. But Jesus is not this way. He created everything. And yet, He's very approachable. You can talk to Him whenever you want, and He's always glad to listen.

Now we need to remember who we're talking to. We're not talking to our buddy. You're not talking to a mere human. You are talking to the God-man. But He is approachable. He wants people to come to Him.

Even children, the very ones who are so often seen as a nuisance. But Jesus does not see them this way. He wants to be around them. He welcomes them and prays over them. With Aletheia and Isaiah, our two kids, who are five and three respectively, we had to decide if we were going to let them pray.

Prayer is something that we want to take very seriously. We are talking to the living God who is all-powerful, who is holy, and the Scripture even says stands in unapproachable light. What this means is that when we pray to God, we do not want to be flippant.

We must come to Him in awe and reverence. When Bree and I pray with our children, we want to model this. But we didn't feel right excluding our kids from prayer because they're kids, right? They're going to say silly things in prayer.

Even though they are very little and understand very little, we felt we should let them pray. We are letting them pray now, realizing that God is gracious. They pray for silly things. It's mostly about having good dreams and not bad dreams.

But we want to teach our kids to go to God even with the smallest things. He cares about the small things in our lives, even as adults. And we want our kids to get used to talking to God. What Jesus says to children is, come to Me.

He knows them.

He knows how much they don't know about the world. He knows how simple they are. But Bree and I let our kids pray because Jesus says, let the children come to Me and do not hinder them. Whether it is children or us who are so small compared to Him and so unimpressive compared to Him, He wants us to come to Him in our weakness as well.

To Him, children are not a nuisance. And we feeble humans are not a nuisance also. He is approachable. He will listen and He will help when we come. So see the great love that Jesus has for children. And the first lesson how is through encouraging the children to approach Him.

Childlike Dependence and Humility Before God

The second lesson how we are to see the great love that Jesus has for children is by explaining that one must be like a child to be His follower. Explaining that one must be like a child to be His follower.

And we'll see this in the second half of v. 14 and v. 15. Now in the first point, I explained that Jesus rebuked the disciples for keeping the children away from Him. And I explained the eagerness that Jesus has to be around children and us.

But He was eager to help when He was approached by them. But Jesus not only wanted children to be around Him because He had compassion on them, as we see throughout His ministry, He has compassion on the weak.

Not only that, but He likes them. Jesus is attracted to children. He enjoys being around them. He is attracted to certain traits. Certain traits that children have. Let's read this in the second half of v. 14 and 15.

For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. To little children that is. And He laid His hands on them and went away. What Jesus says in this verse is a repeat of what Jesus already said in the beginning of chapter 18.

We looked at that passage back at the end of February when it was below zero. Now it's a little warmer. But in those verses, the disciples were talking about who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus knew what they meant by this. They were wondering who was the greatest from a prideful, sinful point of view. We see this all the time, don't we? People like to talk about who is the greatest athlete, musician, artist, president.

And the most trivial thing is who is the best at solitaire. Who is the best at playing pool? People love to talk about who is the greatest. This is nothing new. All throughout society, we have a group of people who are elitists.

Elitists are those who think they are above those in the common population. And so they shouldn't associate with them. And you can't really learn anything from commoners. They view commoners as those who contribute little to nothing to society.

There was an atheist professor who thought he and people like him were something special. So special that he thought Christians were no better than those who could dig ditches. That's all they could do.

But let me say this. When we are raptured from the earth, the world will find out that these Christian Neanderthals actually kept this planet from destroying itself. So to be a Christian is to be much different from this.

It's not to be an elitist. You should be the exact opposite of an elitist. What we saw in the first point and what we have seen throughout Matthew is that even though Jesus is the most important person in the history of the world, He's the furthest thing from an elitist.

Far from it. He enjoyed hanging out with the ordinary folks and even the weakest of society.

As we just saw,.

He enjoys having children around Him. The elitist of Jesus' day were the Jewish leaders. The Pharisees and Sadducees. And He wanted nothing to do with them. He didn't spend time with them. And when He was around them, He rebuked them.

If Jesus were on the earth, the last place He would live is Hollywood, California. That's maybe one way to think of it. Or He would hate Washington, D .C. He'd probably like Eureka! I'm just putting it out there.

But the disciples have this desire to be in this elitist group. To be important. And Christians can have that.

To be great.

In this conversation from the beginning of Matthew 18, this is how the disciples are thinking. Who is the best among us? The disciples apparently think that the better, more talented, more prestigious you are, the higher the rank you will have in Christ's kingdom.

In verse 1 of Matthew 18, the disciples say, not only who is the greatest, but who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? This kingdom that's coming to the earth. They want to be the higher ups.

They know that Jesus is going to be the king, but they want to be right below Him as sub-regents. And what Jesus said in chapter 18 is what He is saying here in verse 14 of our text. What Jesus tells them in Matthew 18, verse 3, is that the only way you will enter the kingdom of heaven is by becoming like a child.

Talking about their pride being shot down. Like, really? These ones that we just rebuked? In verse 14 of our text, He says this, to children belongs the kingdom of heaven. This would have been humbling for them to hear this.

They were beating their chests as those who desired to be among the strongest, toughest, and most talented.

They're hanging out with the Messiah for three years. They hang out with Him. They're thinking, we must be something special.

And Jesus tells them that they must become like children. Not only to become the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, but even to enter the kingdom at all. The kingdom of heaven one day, in the future, will be a place where everybody's like a child.

Now the question we should be asking here is this. What is it about children that Jesus loves? Earlier I mentioned that Jesus has compassion on the weak of society, but He also enjoys being around them, including children.

What is it about children that Jesus tells grown men and women to be like them? The answer is in verse 4 of chapter 18. There Jesus says, whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus reveals to us here what He loves about children. There is a way about children that can be described as humility. And that is their complete dependence upon their parents. Children are helpless.

Children bring nothing to the table. When children are babies, they need help all the time. When children start to grow, they still need lots of help. And there comes a point where a child can be self-sufficient, but the road to get to that place is a long road.

Little children need their parents and they know it. Children know that without parents, they would not be able to survive. Children are not impressed with their own capacities. They know how much help they need.

But sinful adults are not like this. Sinful adults are like the disciples who think they're something special, as we see here. Unbelieving adults and even younger Christians are impressed with their own thinking, their own abilities.

In fact, any Christian can fall prey to this from time to time. Sinful adults do not find their security in God, but other things. Think about what people find their security in. They find it in their job, their money, their hobbies, other people.

Sinful adults who have not been transformed by the Holy Spirit don't think they need God. And even Christians who struggle with immaturities have a hard time depending on God. And even mature Christians can find this from time to time.

It is easy to be self-sufficient. It is easy to be independent. And when one lives this way, God is not being leaned on. As we sang today, lean on the everlasting arms. But what Jesus is saying here is that to enter heaven, you need to humble yourself like a child.

You need to be completely dependent upon another like a child does. You need to empty yourself.

Of your own abilities.

And trust the abilities of another.

This is hard.

It's hard for us to do this.

Every false religion.

Says the same thing. Just do it. Nike says that. So does every false religion. Just do it. It's up to you. This is the attitude of every other religion other than the one true one, biblical Christianity.

And by the way, saying that is going to get you killed down the road here. But we need to say it. Because we always need to say the truth. Every religion says you can do it. You can't be good on your own.

But they say you can.

You can do it your own way.

As long as you're a good person, it doesn't matter what you believe. You'll be okay in the end. This is what the devil tells people. You don't need a Savior. The answers are inside of you. You're a good person.

And if you're a good person, of course you'll go to heaven. But these are lies. In order to enter God's Kingdom, you need to know who you really are. You are a sinner and on your way to travel down the wide path that leads to destruction.

As Jesus said in Matthew 7, 13, and 14,.

Enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide.

And the way is easy.

That leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few. This way of becoming like children is rare.

It's a minority in the world. The people who travel down the wide path think they can live life on their own. These people, these sinful adults, are so unlike children who humble themselves, who know they need to completely rely on their parents to live.

In Matthew 5, 3, what did Jesus say? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? To be poor in spirit means that you realize what a mess you are apart from God.

You want to find the meaning of life? You want to reach the point where you realize, man, I've got issues. Man, I'm a mess. And God's like, okay, progress is happening here. This is good. We often don't see it that way though.

You're supposed to think good of yourself. But the Bible says, recognize what a sinner you are. And then you can become good. What we hear is listen to your heart. This is what society tells us. But if you follow your heart, it will not lead you to God, but away from Him.

And yet we hear everywhere people say, follow your heart. What should you and I listen to? Listen to this book. That's what we should listen to. It always tells you the truth. Listen to this book that tells you who you are and who God is.

Jeremiah 17, 9 says this about the human heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Isaiah 53, 6 says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. If you listen to your heart, you will go your own way from Christ. To follow your heart means depending on yourself. It means pride in yourself. We must understand that God judges the pride of humans.

This is the story of history. He judged the pride of Adam and Eve by kicking them out of the garden. He judged the wicked world at the time of Noah by sending a global flood. He judged the world of the Tower of Babel by spreading the people across the earth.

He judged Sodom and Gomorrah by sending fire from heaven to destroy those cities. And in the present day, He has been judging America for decades because we abandoned Him and we went our own way. Now, when I say we, I don't mean you probably didn't, right?

But most of the country has. And when that happens, God forsakes the country. America lost a childlike faith and instead thought they could live life better on their own. They were impressed with their own intellect, with their own capabilities.

How has that worked out? You can't deny the decline that is there. Why was the World War II generation so successful? What was the foundation of their success? Answer, biblical Christianity. Do you realize that when the West fought Hitler in World War II, they knew that their leaders sang onward Christian soldiers before they went to battle?

They knew this was a spiritual battle. They knew that the God of the Bible was the one true God. If you say that today,.

You're a bigot.

You're anti-American. They didn't think that. And they were called the greatest generation. I wonder if they'd still be called that or if things changed. The blessing that our nation once enjoyed is all but gone and it is those full of pride, turning from God,.

Who are to blame.

The church is also to blame for becoming like the world instead of calling them to repent and follow Jesus. A life of what I want to do, when I want to do it. A life of going your own way. A life of following your heart.

This path will only lead to destruction. And those who have gone on this path will go to hell if they don't repent. There is only one way to the Kingdom of Heaven and that is through humbling yourself.

It is through recognizing your sin. Recognizing that apart from God's work, you will be lost forever.

As the song says,.

Jesus paid it all.

All to Him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. This is what Jesus did at the cross and through His glorious resurrection. He earned your salvation for you. There are only two paths in the world and that is going your own way or going God's way.

To go God's way, you need to rely 100 on the work of another to enter God's sweet presence when this life is over. My son Isaiah says all the time in his sweet voice, help me, help me. He knows his great limitations.

He knows how much help he needs from Brianna and I. He's not going to tell us I want to move out. Life would be better that way. You might think in a split moment that that's a bad idea. He'll back away from that real quick.

And we have children in this room and everyone in this room was once a child. You need your parents and you knew that. And if you had good parents, you trusted them to take care of you. Christ earned your salvation for you.

He lived a perfect life. He died in your place at the cross and He was raised on the third day from the dead. That's the Gospel. And to everyone who believes, your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life.

And this is what Jesus is saying in the second half of verse 14. You need to be like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. To be a resident in this future kingdom that's coming to the earth.

You need to be like children. When Jesus asks you one day, why should I let you into my kingdom? We should not go to our merit. It's interesting that in Matthew 7, the people that Jesus says, I never knew you, are the ones who are impressed with their credentials.

We did all these things in your name.

Look what we did.

And Jesus says, I never knew you. The ones who are going to enter are the ones who say,.

You know what?

All these people that went to hell, I deserve to be there. But by your grace and your grace alone,.

Am I here?

That's the right answer. Now it is also important to understand that living like a child is not something that only happens when you're first converted. This is a daily practice in our lives. You need God's help every step of the way.

We've seen this in Matthew. The disciples were not able to cast out the demon in Matthew 17 because they were relying on their own strength. And they failed. And we as believers can do that too. We can do things our own way.

But Jesus calls you and I to a life of complete dependence upon Him. Just as a child realizes that apart from their parents they cannot live, a Christian realizes that nothing will happen spiritually in our lives unless we depend on God for constant help.

We also realize that everything we have physically comes from Him and we must give thanks. The reason you and I are breathing right now is because God is enabling you to do that and I. Now at the end of February, when we talked about children, I also explained the part of the child that we don't want to reflect and that's childishness.

1 Corinthians 3 .1 Paul is alarmed by how immature the Corinthian church is. And he's telling them, don't be like that. Don't be childish. There's a difference between childishness, which is sinful, and a childlike faith where we depend on God.

So it's important to point that out. We do not want to be childish. But you know what's amazing? When you see people who have walked with the Lord.

For many years.

Who are mature in the faith, they're like children. The more mature one is, the more one is like a child. We should never move on from that. That sweet dependence upon our Lord to take care of us, to work through us as we go through the life of faith.

And those who rely on God, not only for salvation, but to get through life, those are the ones who will populate the future kingdom on the earth where Christ will reign. And then hell will be full of people who are self-sufficient.

Those who thought they were special. Those who relied on their own merit. This is how it's going to be. Those who are last will be first. Those who are first will be last. This is the story of life. See the great love Jesus has for children.

And in this text, we've seen two lessons how. The first lesson how is through encouraging the children to approach Him. And the second lesson how is through explaining that one must be like a child to be His follower.

We have seen the great love He has for children. And may we approach Him like children approach Jesus. And may we realize that our life should be one of complete dependence on God to help us at every turn.

The Rich Young Ruler and the Call to Repentance

Now next Sunday, we will look at a very sobering passage where Jesus describes the story of a rich young ruler who approached Him. And we're going to see Jesus' wise response to this man. And this will be a sobering passage to look at, but a blessing to hear the warning that is in it.

At this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in Heaven, what a wonderful God You are. Lord, it is true, as Jesus says, that apart from You, we can do nothing. And I pray that we would come to see that.