WWUTT 2461 Let the Children Come to Me (Luke 18:15-17)

When children were being brought to Jesus, the disciples tried to stop them, but Jesus rebuked his disciples and said, Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

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Luke 18 and the Connection Between the Children and the Rich Young Ruler

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we continue on in chapter 18. We get to where Jesus says, let the children come to me, and then he has an interaction with a rich young ruler. Let's read it here, beginning in verse 15, and I'll go through verse 30.

Hear the word of the Lord. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And a ruler asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And he said, All these I have kept from my youth.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Those who heard it said, Then who can be saved? But he said, What is impossible with man is possible with God. And Peter said, See, we have left our homes and followed you. And he said to them, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life.

Now this is one place where Matthew, Mark and Luke are almost exactly the same in the way that they present these two accounts. You will find in all three of those synoptic gospels, synoptic meaning same, but you will find this account of Jesus saying, Let the children come to me, followed immediately by the interaction with the rich young ruler.

And you can probably see the connection to the children, to such belongs the kingdom of God, to the rich young ruler, he's not going to make it because he's still trying to get in by his wealth and his works, Jesus says, of the children, and then using them as an example to the disciples, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child shall not enter it, the rich young ruler, not receiving the kingdom of God like a child.

So that's why these two accounts are placed side by side like this, I really enjoy teaching on the account of the rich young ruler. And so we're going to spend a couple of days on this particular section.

Let's begin, first of all, of course, with Jesus teaching the disciples about entering the kingdom of God like a child. So in verse 15, once again, they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them.

Now this word, the word that gets translated for infants here is unique to Luke. You don't find it in Matthew and Mark. Usually the translation in Matthew and Mark will say little children or just children.

But here, the word that Luke uses in the Greek is closer to being translated as baby or babe. And so therefore, in the English, it gets translated as infants, they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them.

That's even younger than the picture that you might have, according to Matthew and Mark. Now this verse will get used with me ever so often from a baby baptizer, whether that would be a Presbyterian or a Lutheran or somebody like that.

They will refer to Luke 18, 15, because infants were coming to Jesus and Jesus rebukes the disciples who were trying to keep them back and says, let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

To infants belong the kingdom of God, therefore infant baptism. And that of course is a leap from what we're reading in this passage, because baptism is not in view in this at all. It would be an argument from silence or it's eisegetical.

You're imposing your own baptism tradition onto this text to draw that conclusion. I'm a Baptist and even I believe that the kingdom of God belongs to infants. My wife and I had a child that we did not get to meet.

The child died in her womb. And so someday when we get to heaven, we're going to meet this child that we never got to meet on this side of heaven. The child didn't need to be baptized in order to get there.

And even Presbyterians, Lutherans and so on, they understand that as well. If a child dies in utero, a child dies in the womb, wasn't able to receive baptism, the Lord would still be gracious enough to bring that child into his kingdom.

Baptism is not what makes a child fit for the kingdom. That's not the way that we understand baptism. And in fact, the disciples would not have had that idea in mind either. The disciples would have been baptized when John was baptizing.

So even before they met Jesus and became disciples and followed him around, they were being baptized by John the Baptist. Well, if the disciples had an understanding that even infants were coming and being baptized by John, then why would they stop infants from coming to Jesus in this particular case?

Again, baptism isn't even in view here. And then, of course, the disciples are going around and they are baptizing also. We read about that in John chapter four. Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were.

And you may remember also this from John three, that when John and his disciples, so John the Baptist and his disciples, when they saw that Jesus and his disciples were baptizing people, John had said, I must decrease and he must increase.

So the time for John to do this was coming to an end. And now it was Jesus ministry that was taking on from there. John was not baptizing infants. If John the Baptist had been baptizing infants, then the disciples would have had an understanding here to let the little children, let even the infants come to Jesus to be baptized.

But that again, baptism is not even the subject here. It's not even mentioned. There's not even water in this picture in any way, shape or form. So be careful about reading your own baptism tradition into this particular text.

It's not even the point. The point is simply that you have to receive the kingdom of God like a child. God's blessings are upon even children, even infants. Let the children come to me, he says, and do not hinder them.

For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Do not try to prevent them from coming to Jesus. If you have a child that eagerly loves God and wants to know more about the gospel and sing great hymns and biblical songs and things like that.

I'm thinking of my girls in particular, because they love to do this. Encourage children in doing this. Don't hinder them from doing it. I've known parents who might try to stop their child from getting too enthusiastic about Christianity because they will say, my child doesn't really know what that means.

They don't understand what they're talking about. Don't stop a child from things like that. I mean, you might want to direct them in their understanding being correct. You know, if a child enthusiastically says something about God or the Bible that's wrong, well, then you lovingly want to correct that.

But you don't want to discourage a child from eagerly seeking the things of Christ. My girls love to sing about Jesus. My two middle girls, Aria, who is 10, Mariah, who is eight. They are my singers. They love to sing about God.

My son, Zachary, who's 14 now, never really got into singing that much, but he loves to play the piano, and he's going to be playing in the worship band at the Christian school that they attend. I'm very, very proud of him in that sense, but he didn't get the singing bug.

My girls have, and they love to sing and even write their own songs and make up their own songs. Some of the songs that they sing, we don't sing in church. Like, they're not really fit for corporate worship.

But even those songs, I still want to encourage them in because they just love to sing about God. So when you identify that kind of eagerness in your child, find ways that you can encourage it, facilitate it.

Especially don't have like a blasé, laissez-faire kind of attitude about it, or that you're just kind of shrugging it off. Oh, they're kids. They don't really understand. It's great to hear that, I guess, but we got to wait until they grow up and understand it more.

No, look for ways where you as parents can encourage this interest in your child, that they would grow in an understanding and knowledge of Christ and his kingdom. Don't hinder them, but encourage them.

Sometimes even our attitude of like, well, my kid can't really know what it is that they're saying. Sometimes that attitude can be a hindrance to a child. I was baptized when I was a teenager, but I gave my life to Jesus, praying that Jesus would forgive me of my sin and that I would follow him.

I said a prayer. It's something like a sinner's prayer. Not really exactly that, but I prayed to God to come into my heart and that I may serve.

Him.

When I was four, and I still remember it. It's one of my earliest memories as a child. I even remember then going from there to my parents and saying, I just asked Jesus into my heart or whatever I said.

I don't remember the exact words that I said when I was a kid, but my understanding of whatever it meant to follow Jesus. I was giving my life to Jesus, and then I was telling my parents about it, and they just didn't act like it was any big deal.

Probably because they thought, what can my four-year-old possibly know about what it is that he's saying? Now, of course, I didn't have a real in-depth understanding of my own sin. I knew that I was a sinner.

I knew that. I had been punished by my parents. I'd been told that I did wrong, and I had been directed in the right way that I'm supposed.

To go.

So through the discipline of my parents, as well as the teaching that I got from them in the Bible and from my Sunday school teachers and listening to sermons, I knew what sin was. I just may not have known how deep it went in myself and how deserving of the wrath of God I was.

These are things that I grow to understand as I mature, but nonetheless, my devotion to the Lord, even at the age of four, was serious. It was genuine then. I remember it then, and it never changed as I got older.

The worst period of my life was probably in my late teens, early 20s, when I then go off to college, and I'm not under the direction and guidance and discipline of my parents.

Anymore.

And then I start to experiment with sin a little bit. Let's see how free I can get with this. Or I would even draw lines for myself. I'll get this close to the line, and as long as I don't cross it, then I'm still righteous.

This was more of a prodigal period for me, but it was never that I ever left the faith. I did not renounce Christ. I wasn't ever saying of myself that I wasn't a Christian. I always claimed to be a believer, even though I was living very worldly.

But the Lord would eventually convict my heart and draw me back to him. That was about the most rebellious phase that I ever went through. But my commitment to the Lord from the age of four was always genuine.

Again, never got baptized until I was a teenager. So you're talking over a decade went by before I then got baptized and demonstrated through my baptism that I've been buried with Christ in my sins and risen again to new life.

Something that I had believed for a long time and just didn't demonstrate it until I was later baptized. But my parents would tell me, and I think this was around the time that I got baptized. If memory serves, my parents would tell me that they were sorry that they didn't make a bigger deal out of my saying to them that I just asked Jesus into my heart.

I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of Jesus. Now, my mom in particular, she remembered me saying that remembered me coming to them and saying, I just asked Jesus into my heart. A little house in Blythewood, South Carolina was where that happened for me.

If you were to set me down there in South Carolina to try to find that home, I would still be able to find it if it's still standing, if it still exists in that neighborhood and say, yep, that was the place.

That was a place where I got on my knees in my bedroom and said that I was going to follow Jesus. So my parents were rather apologetic about that later on, saying that they wish they had made a bigger deal out of it and would have done so even with my siblings.

So I've tried now as a parent that whenever my kids are saying or doing something like that, that I'm going to ask them questions about it. My daughter, my 10-year-old, actually came to me not long ago, just a few weeks back and said, I became a Christian on Sunday.

I have it written in my journal. I know exactly what day it was and everything that she told me this. And I said, well, let's sit down and talk about it. Immediately when she told me that, I wanted to sit down and talk with her.

I did not want to have an attitude with her that was like, okay, well, let's talk about it later. No, let's talk about it now because this has eternal ramifications. This is an extremely important decision that you have made in your life.

And I wanted to make sure that she understood exactly what it was that she had committed to because while it is easy to become a Christian, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Yet, as we've read in the gospel of Luke, we must also consider the cost that there's a lot that comes with being a Christian.

In fact, we're going to read this a little bit later on in Luke 18. Sometimes it will cost you the relationships you have with your family in order to become a Christian. So I did want to sit down with her and make sure that she understood.

What does it mean to take up a cross and follow Jesus? What does it mean that you have your sins forgiven? What would happen to you if you were not a follower of Jesus? Some of the questions that I asked, I've baptized children before, not infants, but I've baptized children who have made a profession of faith.

And there are certain questions that I ask of them to make sure that they understand what it is they believe when they say that they have become followers of Jesus. They're not just repeating phrases that they've heard their parents say, but they themselves know the Lord and they desire to follow Jesus and even show with their lives that I've been buried with Christ in my sins and I've been risen with him to walk in newness of life.

What does it mean to walk in newness of life? So some of the questions that I might ask will be, can you tell me what the gospel is? Very simple, basic question. So making sure that they understand what it is that they have put their faith in and what it is that Jesus has done for them.

I may ask a question that's like, what does it mean to take up a cross and follow Jesus? I've already said that question a moment ago, but does a child have a concept of dying to self and living for Christ?

I just want to ask and see if they understand what that means. Do they understand that the baptism is not going to save them? It's not being dunked in water. That is now your entrance into the kingdom of God.

Do they understand that they're already saved by faith in Jesus? And now what does this baptism represent to you? What do you understand about baptism? So just an example of some of those questions that I might ask, I won't in any way hinder a child from coming to the kingdom of God.

I instead want to encourage that and I want to celebrate that. And I'm hoping that sometime in the very near future, we're going to be having a baptism for my 10 year old as we continue to talk about these things and get closer and closer to that.

So Jesus saying again to the disciples, let the children come to me and do not hinder them for even to such as these belong the kingdom of God. And that's a very reassuring thing too. If you're a parent who has ever lost a child, have you ever, has that kind of thing happened to you?

And maybe you've thought about, did I share the gospel with them enough in the right way? Did they know enough to enter the kingdom of God? Well, fret not Christian, because your child is in the hands of God and even to them, the kingdom belongs.

Verse 17, of course, is the point. This is the lesson that Jesus means to teach his disciples with this interaction. And it's the lesson that carries over into the next interaction that he's going to have with the rich young ruler, which we'll look at tomorrow.

But in verse 17, he says to them, truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child shall not enter it. So you might be looking at kids, you might be thinking of them, they can't possibly understand what these songs mean, what the sermon means.

Even when they talk about being a follower of Jesus, they don't know what that means. You might think that of a child's profession of faith, but let's not be arrogant. Let's not be full of ourselves because it was not by our knowledge that we come into the kingdom of God.

Not because we learned something or attained to something and we put in the work and we studied hard and we passed the test. And so now we enter into the kingdom of God. That's not how any one of us enters the kingdom of God.

The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 .30, it is his doing that you are in Christ Jesus. Not because we learned or attained to some kind of knowledge, but it's by the grace of.

God.

Plenty of people hear the gospel and never come into the kingdom. There's a transformation of the heart that happens by the work of the Holy Spirit. It is God's doing that changes us from the hard-hearted rebellious sinner into the soft-hearted receptive worshiper.

This is a work that God does in our hearts. And we need to trust God fully, not in ourselves, but trusting in God. Like a child trusts their parents. What can an infant do for his his self or herself?

You can't teach about God to an infant because the infant doesn't understand your language.

Yet.

But yet this infant or this child or toddler, however old they may be, though still not understanding English, they understand that they need their parents and they will continue to cling to their parents and trust in them for everything that we need, everything that they need.

And so we need to have that same sort of desire for God. We know that we can't do anything on our own. We know that we can't do anything to enter the kingdom of God. It is not our doing. It is God's doing.

And so our receiving the kingdom of God must be like a child. We are clinging to our father in heaven. He is the one who has brought us to himself through his son, Jesus Christ. He is the one who will bring us into the eternal kingdom of God in heaven.

You certainly don't do anything in that respect. You don't even take a step in that direction because you can't transport your soul from this body and into the eternal dwelling where God lives. You have no power or ability to do that.

And so we must trust God. That is the only way that we can enter into eternal life. Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And we go from that statement into the interaction with the rich young ruler, because the rich young ruler is trying to enter the kingdom of God by his own way.

And we'll consider that interaction between Jesus and this man tomorrow. Heavenly father, we thank you for what it is that we have studied here. And I pray that we would have a childlike faith, that we would trust in you for all the wonderful good things you have done for us and are doing for us and will do for us through Jesus Christ, bringing us into your kingdom.

He died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of God. And if we believe in him, what he has accomplished on the cross for us, the forgiveness of sins that we have received by faith, then we will enter the kingdom of God to be with you.

Bring us into your kingdom, dear God. Let us have that faith and that enthusiasm like a child. And God save our children. Draw them to you as well. And may they grow to see and know the savior. It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

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