The Father's Love for His Little Ones

The Children of God and the Call to Humility

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 18th chapter. At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child 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 to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned into the depth of the sea.

Woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come. But woe to the one by whom the temptation comes. And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes and be thrown into the hell of fire.

See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven where the Son of Man came to save the lost. So what do you think?

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother.

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

If he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. This is the gospel of the Lord.

Becoming Like Children in the Kingdom

In the name of Jesus. Amen. I remember being a kid. There were certain things that annoyed me about being a kid, and that was that I was never really allowed to do what I wanted to do. But then again, the things I wanted to do as a kid sometimes were kind of dangerous.

I'll tell you, I remember very distinctly when I was a young lad that every time my dad would take me to the grocery store, he had this thing that he would do. Of course, grocery stores are a terrible place to take kids.

I don't know why parents are forced to do this. Because the checkout line, have you ever noticed it's like a gauntlet? All the cheap Chinese toys are down below, right at kid level. And of course, when I was about that size, every time I would see one of those cheap Chinese toys, oh look, it's a Lone Ranger cap gun made of plastic.

I wanted one so bad. Dad, I want one. No, I'm not going to let you have that. You don't need that. All right, and this is how this went. But then after checking out, and these were the days before they had the scanners, so there was no boop, boop.

You had to actually ring things up the hard way. But anyway, what my dad would do, as soon as the groceries were done being put back into the cart and we were heading back to the car, he would always make me hold his hand.

And I hated that. Oh man, did I hate that. My dad's hand was big, it was hairy and sweaty, and it was strong. And the thing I hated about it is that every time we were in the parking lot, I wanted to kind of take off and do my own thing.

But my dad was wise in holding my hand because parking lots are a little more dangerous than you think. It only takes, you know, you'll note that kids are kind of at a level where a car can back up and the person can legitimately look behind them and not see little kids.

So we know how dangerous they are. So we as parents understand this. But then again, I always hated it when my wife would send me to the grocery store with all three kids. Oh goodnight, I only have two hands.

I can't do this. You work out the math. But the point is this, as parents we know that our jobs are to protect our children. That's what we do. And I'll tell you this, one thing I really miss about being a child, never having to worry about paying the bills, never having to fill out a tax return, never sweating whether or not I'm going to keep my job or lose my job or any of the things like this.

Because to be a kid is to be given to. Kids are constantly being cared for, receiving. Their whole life is a gift. I mean, I remember the days when my biggest concern was whether or not there was a new episode of HR Puffin Stuff on television.

Boy, am I dating myself. Anyway, or was it going to be a rerun? You get the idea. So with this kind of in mind, you're going to note that there is a theme here in our gospel text. And this is a multifaceted text and we're going to work our way through it, but the theme works through it all.

And it's the theme of becoming like children. And so our text begins in the Gospel of Matthew. At that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? What a boneheaded question.

It's boneheaded because this is a question that assumes the ideas and the values that the world seeks after. Prestige, honor, power. It's as if the disciples didn't hear Jesus say to Peter, Get behind me, Satan.

They didn't hear this at all. Maybe it just ricocheted off their foreheads. Like so many things ricochet off of mine. And so they're still trying to jockey for position. Jesus is heading to Jerusalem to bleed and to die for our sins.

And these guys are still trying to figure out who's the greatest. And you can almost see Jesus rolling his eyes. So he called to him a child. And this is a little child. This is a tyke. This is a toddler.

Put him in the midst of them and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn. Think of turning here like repentance. It's not quite the same word. But the idea here is pretty much the same. Unless you turn in your thinking, become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Child? What do childs accomplish? They barely even do chores. Little ones you have to constantly. That's kind of the point. You guys remember the Chronicles of Narnia? Hopefully you've read the Chronicles of Narnia.

Always something that was really disturbing to me in the final book of the Chronicles of Narnia, the last battle, was that Susan, Susan Pevensey, she didn't make it to eternal life. And the reason given by C .S. Lewis is that she grew up.

Kind of a weird way of thinking about it. But that's kind of the thing. The cares of the world, growing up and chasing after the world's values. Little kids don't worry about that. And have you ever noticed how excited little kids are to receive gifts?

Always love, always love seeing the excitement on little kids' faces at Christmas time. Oh! It's a big, magical thing for them. And so there's something to consider here. Christ is telling us to become like little children, to be receivers.

Those who can only be given to. Who are cared for. Cared for by whom? A doting, loving, heavenly father. Think about it. So whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And this challenges all of our values when we chase after the world's systems and beliefs. And then he goes on to say then, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Jesus puts his big stamp of approval.

Not only that, if you receive a tyke, a toddler, you can only be given to. In my name, oh, you're receiving me. And what does this tell you about the love of Christ towards our little ones? Right? But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea.

And you'll note here, there's a great threat here. A great threat to those who would cause one of these little ones to stumble. And the threat is, well, the threat that you'd get from a dad. You mess with my kids, you're going to be messing with me.

Right? So that's kind of the point. But who's the father here? It's God the Father. And this is where we need to consider this important thing, is that each and every one of us baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we have been adopted into the family.

God is our Heavenly Father. Our sins have been forgiven. And now, what does God say about each and every one of you? You are His little ones. That's what you are. You are one of God's little ones. And this is His disposition towards you.

Anyone messes with my kids, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. So you blood-bought sinners, forgiven, absolved, bled for, died for, raised from the dead, adopted into the family.

Note here the great love of this way of talking about each and every one of us that God has for us. And then, to even make the point even further, Jesus goes on to say, Woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it's necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes.

There's going to be a reckoning. God is going to be holding accountable those who would cause His little ones to sin or to tempt them. But then you're going to note that, always and again, it is good biblical doctrine and theology to recognize that temptations not only come from outside of us, from the world or from the devil, but also from our own sinful flesh.

And so as we listen now here, Christ is talking about those temptations which come burbling up from your old sinful Adam. He says, If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away.

It's better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. I always like to point out that I'm glad that they don't name this Sunday in the liturgical calendar the Sunday of the holy amputations.

It seems a little bit extreme. And afterwards we'll pull out the saw or the chainsaw and we can practice what we preach. No, that's not the point here. The point has to do with the fact that we mortify our sinful flesh and we do not obey its passions and we do this by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So Christ is saying, If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye and two eyes be thrown into the hell of fire. So keep in mind the temptations to sin then come from outside and from within because of our sinful flesh.

And so we are wise to note that we as God's little ones would do well to pay attention to the woes that Christ speaks here not only to the world but also to our old Adam. Then Jesus goes on to say this, See that you do not despise one of these little ones.

And who are the little ones again? That's you. That's me. Do not despise each other. So you're going to note, let's use the metaphor for a minute. We're all adopted little ones, children of God. This is most certainly true.

But have you ever noticed that siblings don't get along? I was terrible to my brother. Just saying, you know. And we're going to note here that siblings here oftentimes may not get along too well. That seems to happen.

Of course, I need to kind of put it this way. If your expectation is that you're going to come to church and that everybody is super duper holy and that you're all just going to get along perfectly, you got another thing coming.

I don't know. Take a look around. This whole church is filled with sinners, man. From the pastor all the way down to the youngest person here. And all of that being said, so we are not to despise one of the little ones of God, and that's each and every one of us.

So don't be despising and hating on your brothers and sisters in Christ. He says, and note what he says is, For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

And this is where, this is one of those little sentences in scripture where we get the idea of guardian angels. Scripture says that angels are ministering spirits. They minister to the saints. And so here you can see that the little ones of God, that they have angels who always see the face of their Father in heaven.

And this is a good thing. This is a good thing because you're going to note that God hasn't withheld anything. In fact, he has for real dispatched great, great resources for the purpose of protecting each and every one of us.

So each and every one of us, we have angels who guard over us. But even more important than that, we have the very Son of God who came to earth, was born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered in our place for our salvation so that we could be called the children of God.

The Lost Sheep and the Father's Will

So then Christ asks this question. So what do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?

Now the commentaries I read on this, all kind of agree that this is not really a standard practice when it comes to being a shepherd. Think of it this way. Back in the day in Israel, if you've read about the shepherd David, King David, as he was a shepherd, he had to deal with lions.

He had to deal with bears. The only thing missing was tigers. Oh, my. But you get the idea here is that shepherding is one of those things where, well, I don't know if you notice this about sheep. They're not as clever as goats.

They have this tendency to wander off. Have you ever looked at a shepherd's staff? It has like a crook, a hook in it. Well, you've got to pull them back. They have this tendency to wander. And then that shepherd's staff, when you have a wandering sheep, usually the first nudges are you take the shepherd's staff and you poke it hard into the sheep's ribs to get it back in with the group because sheep, they don't have any natural defenses.

They don't have sharp pointy teeth or the ability to run quickly. They're just basically good for wolf food and lion food and bear food and things like that. And so a wandering sheep is a dead duck. And if you have a sheep that's wandered off, nine times out of ten, that sheep's done for.

So what do you do as a shepherd? You count your loss. You write it off on your taxes. That's what you do with lost sheep. But here Christ, He's not like any other shepherd on planet Earth. When He has a sheep that has gone astray, listen to the voice of the devil.

Listen to the voice of His own sinful flesh. Listen to the voice of the world. What does He do? He sets out. He sets out to find it. And we hear here that this shepherd Jesus truly rejoices over the one that He finds and over the 99 that never went astray.

And then you're going to note these words. It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. It is not God's will that you should perish. Have any of you ever heard preaching along the lines of when you pray according to the will of God, Scripture says God hears you.

Of course, when I heard that as a young lad, oh really? God, if I pray according to the will of God, I thought I'd roll the dice. You know, my prayers went something like this. God, if it's your will that I have an Aston Martin.

Everybody needs one of those. Those are needs. Lord, if it's your will that I have a vacation home in the south of France on the Mediterranean. Lord, if it's your will I have a private jet. You sit there and go, these are kind of empty prayers, are they not?

Why would God will for me to have any of those things? But have you noticed that there are a smattering of a few passages in Scripture, and this is one of them, that tells us explicitly what God's will is.

And note that when we pray according to God's will, God hears us. So note then, it is not the will of the Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. It's not His will. It's not His will that you would perish.

So then note, that being the case, ooh, we can pray for people. And praying, knowing that this is God's will, He hears us. And we know that it is His will that these little ones do not perish. So what do you do then when your brother, notice the text, if your brother sins against you, remember siblings, we're all little ones of Christ, siblings don't always get along, so what happens if your younger or your older brother in Christ sins against you?

What do you do? This is an example, by the way, of a sheep going astray. That's the context. You ready? You go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Brother, you know, you sinned against me.

You sinned against me. If he listens, you've gained your brother. If he doesn't listen, well, take one or two others, more of siblings. Maybe take a sister or another brother along with you so that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, then tell it to the whole family. Tell it to the whole church. And it's not for the purpose of gossip. It's for the whole family, all of your siblings, so that they can gather around you and say, brother, repent.

Be reconciled. And if he refuses even to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Again, this is in the context of Christ going after erring sheep. And let me ask you this question.

So if at the very end you end up having to put him out of the house, how did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors? With love and kindness, preaching the gospel to them and calling them to repent. Now, they don't get to live in the house and have the privileges of being in the house and being put out of the house.

You want them to come back in. That's the point. And so you continue to love them and to preach the gospel to them so that they can be reconciled and forgiven to God as well as you. So truly, Jesus says, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

And again, this is referring to the office of the keys, this authority that the church has to forgive sins. And of course, it's not the church doing it. It's Christ who's giving them that authority. And he's the one doing the forgiving.

And so if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven where two or three are gathered in my name. There I am among them. And it's nice to know that we are not left alone, that Christ himself promises his very presence.

Repentance, Reconciliation, and the Church's Authority

So brothers and sisters, what are we to do in light of a text like this? Because this tells us how to treat each other. But more importantly, it tells us of the great love that God has for us. So then note then, Christ has bought you.

You and I, we're all born children of the devil. That's what Christ says to people who don't believe in him. You are of your father, the devil. But we were originally created in the image of God, and because of God's great mercy and compassion for us who have gone astray, he sent his Son, who bled and died for all of your sins.

And because of this being reconciled now to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, we are to be reconciled to each other, to love each other, to lovingly call each other to repent, and as we will hear next week, to forgive each other when they repent.

I love how these texts kind of all flow together in these past few weeks. Last week we heard again about the temptations to sin, the suffering that we all have to go through, the temptations that come from Satan, from the world, from our sinful flesh, and the danger in which we walk all the way through our sojourning here as we take up our cross and we follow Christ to our death.

And now we hear that we are to be kind to one another and understand that as brothers when we call each other to repent, that that is a picture of Christ going after erring sheep. And then when our brothers sin against us and they repent and ask for our forgiveness, well next week we're going to find out what the limits are of that.

Should we put limits on how many times we forgive somebody? My wife sometimes thinks that that might be a good idea because I keep screwing up the same ways over and over and over again. But you get the idea.

You get the idea. So all of that will work together. So brothers and sisters, I assure you, you who believe, you are the little ones of Christ, bled for, died for. So let us repent of all the different ways in which we haven't been children.

We've grown up in our thinking, separated ourselves from God, chased after the values of the world, or even after our own sinful passions. And let us turn and be like children who, well, very simply trust that our God loves us and has sent His Son to bleed and to die for us.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Support, Distribution, and Closing Notice

If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax-free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744.

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And again, thank you for listening.