Humility & Service

Matthew 18: The Greatest in the Kingdom Requires Childlike Humility

Matthew chapter 18. We'll be reading verses 1 through 14. This is the word of God. At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Then Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire.

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones.

For I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?

And if he should find it, assuredly I say to you he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so, it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

And may the Lord add a blessing to the reading of His Word. But this morning as we go through this passage, Matthew 18, 1 through 14, I was having a hard time deciding where should I stop, but I thought all these verses were connected, at least in the sense that Jesus seems to make reference to children and little ones through verses 1 through 14.

I think little ones by the end of this passage probably refers to all Christians in general, but certainly Jesus starts off talking about children because He brings one of these little kids into the midst to teach His disciples a lesson.

And what was that lesson on? Well, humility. Why? Because the disciples, what are they arguing about? What are they debating and disputing? Who's the greatest? Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

I mean, have you ever heard somebody arguing about this? Debating who the greatest, who's the greatest Christian? Can you imagine coming into church on Sunday morning and hearing, you know, let's say you visit a church and the elders are all arguing about who's the greatest.

Who's the greatest in the church? You might think this is not the place for me. I'm going somewhere else. But that's what they were doing. I mean, here these are the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ and yeah, they need a lesson on humility.

So the things that connect these verses, yes, Jesus is talking about children, little children, connecting them to this and that and the other thing. There's one reference here about maybe even the idea that children have guardian angels.

We'll talk about that. Maybe it's not just children. Maybe every believer has guardian angels. But the main theme, I think, not just with children, is how do we treat one another? Are we humble? Are we, you know, self-serving?

How do we treat our fellow believers? And this is the main point I want to get across. Because how we treat others is how we treat the Lord. The verses were already brought out in Sunday School. We're going to read it again later from Matthew 25.

Jesus was very clear. However you treat, you know, the least of these or however you treat one of these little ones, what you do to them, you are doing to Christ. Because Christians, the church, this is the body of Christ.

So how you treat a fellow believer is how you treat Jesus. So that's what we want to focus on. But let's just go through these verses one by one. Matthew 18 begins in verse 1. At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

So before they've argued on their own, this time they actually get the courage to come to Jesus and ask him themselves. So what is this? This sounds like a prideful debate, a prideful question even. So when Jesus hears this, he knows he has to set them straight.

And he does it in a very gentle way, I think, instead of just telling them, hey guys, you're acting like, you know, fools. Or, you know, he could have been harsh. But he doesn't do that. He brings a child into the midst.

And he uses this child to make a point about humility. He brings this child in, and basically what Jesus says, if you want to enter the kingdom, today we would say, if you want to go to heaven. That's how Christians talk.

Back then, the Jews, their idea of the afterlife was all centered around the kingdom. They believed that they would die, and on the last day they would be resurrected, and they would enter into the kingdom.

We call this the Millennium, the kingdom of God, the thousand-year reign of Christ. But that's how they thought about it. So Jesus is saying, if you want to inherit the kingdom, if you want eternal life, this is what you need to do.

You need to humble yourself and become like a little child. Children are a good illustration because they're dependent on other people. Children are needy, right? They rely on their parents for most things.

The younger a child is, you know, they rely on parents for everything. But even when they're young and get to be seven, eight, nine years old, that's probably how old this child was, five, six, seven years old, they rely on parents and adults for all sorts of different things.

To some degree, children are helpless. They are helpless, and that's the idea here. The disciples, and really anyone who had desire to follow Christ, you need to recognize first that you are helpless.

Now this is where we say, I'm not helpless. I can take care of myself. I'm I'm a good person, and I got things under control. That's the way we think, and you know, in this world maybe we do have some things under control, but from a spiritual point of view, if you're gonna follow Christ, you need to realize you are at least spiritually helpless.

You need to recognize you cannot save yourself. You have to recognize there's nothing you can do to earn God's favor. I think this is the point that Jesus is making. So we need to be able to, obviously, we need to have faith.

We need to trust in God, but in order to be saved, we need to first recognize we are in need. Okay, and why would someone need to come to that plate? I think one of the the main things, maybe not the main thing, but one of the main things that prevents people from following Christ is pride.

This is why a lot of people refuse to become Christians. They don't want to, you know, come forward or make a public profession of faith because they're prideful. I mean, people think, yeah, I'm a good person.

I got it under control. They refuse to ask for help. They refuse to acknowledge their neediness and ask the Lord for help and forgiveness. There's one famous individual, I won't mention his name, but you probably know who I'm referring to.

He wants, someone asked him in an interview, have you ever asked God for forgiveness? And he said, no. What do I need to do that for? I've never needed to ask for forgiveness. And that, you know, kind of says something, but this is what a prideful person would say.

What do I need God for? I'm a good person. I don't need forgiveness. Look at verse 3. Jesus says, assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Is that, is that clear? Let me paraphrase this. Unless you humble yourself and acknowledge your neediness before the Lord, there's no way you're going to heaven. Isn't that what he's saying? Another thing children do, we need, yes, we need to become like little children.

The disciples needed to become like little children. Another part of this, children believe whatever their parents tell them, right? This is why little kids, again, scanning the congregation for four and five year olds, I don't see any here, so I'm safe.

This is why little kids believe in the, the Easter bunny and Santa Claus. As absurd as that is, and if that offends you, I'm sorry, it's absurd, but this is why they believe that stuff, because if mom and dad says it's true, it must be true.

Isn't that the way four year olds are? Whatever their parents say, they believe it. Well, that's the way we should be when it comes to, when it comes to the Lord. When we open the Bible, we are to be like little children.

So we read the Bible, whatever it says, we believe it, and we receive it as the Word of God. Instead of coming to the scripture with a critical eye and saying, well, I don't see how this could be true, and I don't believe this, and, and we sort of test God's Word with our own viewpoints.

So we need to receive God's Word as little children. If the Heavenly Father says it, hey, even if I don't understand it, I can study it for myself, I can ask questions, but we receive it as the Word of God.

So we understand what Jesus is saying, where you need to be like a little child, because again, if you are not like a little child, if you don't become like one, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Okay, so Jesus has to make, make this point, because why? Well, the disciples, they're, they're at it again. You know, these, these, the disciples, let's be clear, they are some of the greatest Christians who ever lived.

I mean, the Apostle Paul, of course, is not following them, with them at this point. Peter and John, though, they, they developed into some of the greatest Christians who ever lived, but at times they were walking in the flesh.

At, at times they had totally wrong ideas, and this is really way off base to even be thinking this way. You know, who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? I can just imagine Jesus hearing this question and just shaking his head, like, well, what are you guys doing?

This isn't the first time or the only time this has happened. There's a, an occasion where they were walking down the road, arguing about this, and Jesus overheard them, and he had to admonish them. I don't know how many times they did it, but again, it was, it was more than just once.

I think it's a pretty common thing, though, if you, if you think about it. Don't we argue about who's the greatest? I mean, maybe not in the church or in the kingdom of heaven, but it's a pretty common thing for people to argue about this.

I remember when I was a kid, we would love to debate, you know, who is the greatest basketball player? Who is, who's the greatest quarterback? You know, that's pretty common. Today, people will argue, maybe, I don't, I don't know, what do people debate?

Who's the greatest mechanic in town? I mean, each, each little group argues about who's the greatest at what, you know, whatever their interests are, but for spiritual matters, you would think they would know better, but do they know better?

No. All right, so let's turn to Luke chapter 22. We're gonna look at another example of this. Yeah, but I just try to put it into a church context, and I suppose people have done this, you know, arguing about who's the greatest pastor?

Actually, I have heard people, you know, usually it's the nationally known guys, the people that, the names everyone knows. This guy is a lot better than him, and that's probably not the best debate to have, but let's look at Luke 22, starting in verse 24.

Luke 22, 24, it says, Now there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors.

But not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table?

Yet I am among you as the one who serves. But you are those who have continued with me in my trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as my father bestowed one upon me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So, we see, will the disciples inherit a kingdom? Yes, they will. But first, they need to humble themselves. Okay, let's turn to Philippians chapter 2, just more along these lines. But we saw in Luke 22, Jesus teaching them a lesson.

In Matthew 18, it's become like a little child. Here in Luke 22, or there, it's a life of service. I mean, if you want to be great, you need to be a servant. That's not the way the world operates. The world, it's backwards.

It's upside down. But you need to learn how to serve. But either way, humility is the key word in both situations. And why do Christians need to serve? Why do Christians need to humble themselves? Because we are followers of Jesus, and this is what Jesus did.

Look at Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 3. The Apostle Paul says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others as what? Better than himself.

Is that the way you're inclined to view things? Just whoever it is, you know, they are better than me. That's the opposite of arguing about who's the greatest. Verse 4, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

And let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So we should be able to humble ourselves looking at what Christ did. Here he is, God of true gods, you know, the Lord of glory.

And what did he do? He came in the likeness of one of us. He condescended. Nobody humbled themselves more than the Son of God. He left his home in glory and took upon the form of a servant. And he was obedient even to the point of death.

So if Jesus can do it, and if he can do it to that degree, then obviously we need to be able to do it. And because Jesus did that, you know, there is a payoff. I mean, that's true. The disciples need to humble themselves and they need to serve.

And many of them, they gave their lives, their entire life. And some of them lost their lives for the Lord, but they did get a reward, didn't they? They're going to govern the 12 tribes of Israel. They're going to have a lofty position in the kingdom.

And what did Jesus get for laying down his life? Look at verse nine. Therefore, because of all that, because of what Jesus did, therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on the earth and those under the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So this is a lesson about humility. All right. So the first time Jesus came, yes, he was humble. He laid down his life, a ransom for many. But when he comes again, he will be that glorious king. He will sit on a throne.

So long story short, if you want to be exalted, do you exalt yourself? No, you humble yourself and then you let the Lord exalt you. Because here's the thing. If the Lord exalts you, nobody can bring you down.

Here's the thing about people who exalt themselves. Everybody wants to tear down people like that. Even you, even though you might not do it or admit it, if you see somebody really puffing themselves up and they think highly like you, you love it when you see them fall, don't you?

They say, well, not me, not me. Well, you know, it's natural. It's natural. And it's kind of like a repulsive thing. Like seeing a prideful person is yeah, it's off putting. So humble yourself, let God exalt you.

And if God's exalting you, no one can touch you. All right. So that that's the lesson. And before, like I said, before the apostles can rule in the kingdom of God, they need to learn to humble themselves and be like their master.

So we should ask ourselves this, is there anyone here this morning who needs to humble themselves? And the way to do it, I think you've heard of the acronym joy, you know, J-O-Y. How do you do it? Put Jesus first, J.

Put others second, that's the O. And then you, or Y, yourself, you come last, right? And that's the opposite of what we're inclined to do. We want to be first, taking care of number one, as the world would say.

Peter learned this lesson, 1 Peter chapter five, many decades later, Peter said, God resists the proud, but gives grace to what or to who? The humble. Therefore, Peter says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.

So this is the Christian way. And like I said before, the thing that keeps so many people away from Christianity is pride. So let's go back to Matthew chapter 18. Hopefully, this teaching is clear. I think it is.

Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, there's no way you're going to heaven. I mean, that's my paraphrase. But you'll by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

So that's how you get in. And if you want to be great, if you want to be the greatest, then the more humble you need to be, the more humble, the better. Jesus says this in verse five, look at verse five of Matthew 18.

Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. So now we're getting into the idea of how you should treat another believer because how you treat another believer is how you're treating Christ.

People who are prideful typically don't treat others very well because you think highly of yourself and anyone's not doing what you think they should do. Then you get upset because it's all about you, right?

So if you can humble yourself, you're much more likely to treat others better. So this is the principle here that Jesus, that we're going to expand on this, but as the body of Christ, the church being his body, how we treat fellow Christians, how we treat church members, that's how we are treating Jesus.

And likewise, when we despise a fellow believer, if we despise fellow church members, that is the same as despising Jesus. John talked about this in his epistle. You cannot say that you love God and hate your brother.

If someone says they love God, but they hate their brother, what does John say? You're a liar. That's not possible. So this is a lesson many professing Christians today need to learn. I hope everyone here is set on this, but I mean, I see this all the time, especially on the internet, and I admit the internet is not the best, you know, gauge for things, but I mean, this is so common out there where you see people, hear people, they say they love Christ, they say they're followers of Christ, but they have utter contempt for the church.

I mean, it's so very common, and this is common among people who, you know, once went to church, but now they don't go to church anymore. They still claim to be a Christian, but they have an ax to grind with, you know, churchgoers.

They say they love Jesus, but they have contempt for the church. Well, I'll just say it based on this principle. Anyone who says that, they have contempt for Jesus because the church is his body. I mean, it's a safe thing to say, you know, because you're here, you're in the assembly, but I mean, this is a pretty common thing.

Let's go to Matthew 25, just to really hit on this point, how you treat others is how you treat Jesus. Matthew 25 is a great passage on this. Jesus himself lays it right out, because I think some people say, well, I love God, but you know, Jesus isn't here.

I can't go to him. I can't do anything for him. He's not physically here. Well, you can do things for Christ, and all you have to do is do those acts of kindness to a fellow Christian, and you're doing it to Christ, and we'll see that.

Matthew 25, starting in verse 31, or excuse me, yeah, 31, it says when Jesus says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory, verse 32, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats, and he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right hand, the sheep, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry, and you gave me food.

I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty, and give you drink?

It's like, I never did that for you. When did we see you a stranger, and take you in, or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you? I never did that to you. Verse 40, and the king will answer, and say to them, assuredly I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, what does it say?

You did it to me. You did it to me. So what you do for a fellow believer, who are you doing it for? You're doing it for Jesus. And you're not just doing it for Jesus. In a very real sense, you are doing it to Jesus.

And flip it around. Let's say you mistreat a fellow believer. Let's say there's a there's this guy. He says he's a Christian. And man, you can't stand him at home. You are just running him down. There's a certain friend you have that you, the two of you, just love to run this fellow Christian down.

You say all sorts of nasty things about him. You're talking about Jesus, right? What you say about him. Now acknowledging facts is one thing. But we know when we cross the into just gossip and slander.

If you run the guy down, who are you running down? I mean, this is what Jesus is. So likewise, an evil act done against a believer is an offense against the Lord. And one of the worst things a person can do is not just speak against or harm fellow believer.

But I think the worst thing to do is to harm a child. Look at verse six. But whomever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

I thought, you know, this would be a good verse to just do a whole sermon on this one statement. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you read this? I'll tell you what comes to mind. Those who would cause one of these little ones to sin or to stumble.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the clergy abuse scandal that happened in the Catholic Church, what, 20 years ago is when it all broke. How many children were taught about the Lord and yet the man that was supposed to most represent Jesus in that system, it would be the priest.

How many children were abused by the priest? How many people were, even though we say that system does not really reflect biblical Christianity, you know, the world doesn't make a distinction. How many people were turned away from Christianity because of that?

Probably millions and millions of people were caused to sin because of that. How many children left the faith? They won't. Catholic, Protestant, it doesn't even matter. That happened to me. I will never again consider Christianity.

How many? We don't know. Yeah, too many. One is too many. Well, what does Jesus say about this? Jesus loves the little children. You know, we see what Jesus says in the next chapter, I think it is. He'll say, let the little children come to me for if such is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus loves children. We need to love children. We need to protect children. And of course, you know, children are under assault by, you know, whether it's the school system or even like Disney, you know, targeting kids to lead them into a certain agenda.

And what does Jesus say about anyone who would lead a child or cause them to sin, lead them in that direction? It would be better for them at the millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the ocean.

It'd be better for them if they did that. I mean, Jesus reserved some of his harshest words for those who would harm children. Let's move on. Verse seven, Jesus says, woe to the world because of offenses for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes.

One commentator says this about verse seven, it is expected that those in the world will cause Christians to be offended, stumble in sin, and they will be judged for it. But it should not be that fellow believers lead others into sin, whether it be directly or indirectly.

So doing wrong yourself is bad enough. Teaching others, leading them into error is so serious. Jesus has some more hard things to say. Look at verses eight and nine. Let's just read this one statement.

If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. I think we've heard these statements before. Why? Because it'd be better for you to enter into life lame than having two hands to be cast into the everlasting fire.

And then Jesus mentions hellfire. What is Jesus saying here? I realize we live in the 21st century and more and more people are rejecting this idea of hellfire. More and more churches are teaching that this isn't true.

You don't have anything to worry about. You know, universalism is on the rise. One famous evangelist said this. He said the fire is not literal. There is no fire in hell. He said the fire is just symbolic for thirsting after God.

Well, I don't know where he got that idea. Jesus, you realize Jesus is the one who coined the term hellfire? It wasn't some 18th century, you know, fire and brimstone preacher. It was Jesus himself. I'll say this.

If Jesus describes it as fire, I'm not going to, I'm not about to say that. No, it's not. On the other hand, Jesus is speaking figuratively in the sense that he's not actually telling people to cut off their hands and their feet, right?

We all recognize that. What is Jesus saying? If there's anybody or anything that is causing you to sin, whatever it takes, it may be painful. You need to cut that out of your life because that is far better.

No matter how much harm that does, it's far better than the alternative. So if you have to stop hanging around with the wrong crowd, do it. If there's adultery or fornication, you need to end the relationship.

If it's alcoholism or whatever it is that leads a person away from God, whatever you have to do to break away from that, you have to do it. That's what Jesus is saying. So he's bringing out the strong language to show people the importance of it.

We're almost, we are out of time, but let's just finish it up. Jesus says, let's see, verse 10, you know, about this idea of guardian angels. You ever wondered where guardian angels comes from? Well, it comes from this, this verse.

Jesus says, take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I say to you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my father in heaven. So protect, love children, protect children.

And keep in mind, based on this verse, it seems as though there are maybe angels assigned to these little kids. And if I can just summarize this, you know, when you mess with the sheep, you mess with the shepherd.

So that's how we need to view others. We need to humble ourselves. It's not all about me. It's not all about, it really is all about the Lord. And then it's about his people, others. If the Lord loves people, so should we.

Let's pray. And father, I just asked that you would challenge us this week and how we view others, how we speak about others. Lord, give us a heart for service, help us to recognize those opportunities to maybe come to someone's defense, maybe to protect children, maybe to just speak a kind word because when we do it to a fellow believer, we're doing it to Christ.

And if there's anyone, Lord, that we know who has professed faith and yet they have strayed, Lord, you work through your people. Maybe we could help and reach out and try to bring them back into the fold.

The question was once asked, by Cain, he said, am I my brother's keeper? And the reality is yes, yes, we are. And Lord, help us to be busy doing good works, serving you by serving others. And Lord, we thank you for your word on this matter.

And we pray it all in Jesus name. Amen.