Of Such Is The Kingdom

Let's, once again, open up to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19. Matthew 19, and today we're gonna be looking at the story of Jesus blessing the little children.

Jesus blessing the little children. So this passage begins with the Lord, he's ministering to the people, and apparently the parents bring their children to Jesus, but we see that the disciples try to prevent this.

Apparently they thought that this would be a waste of the Lord's time. You know, maybe the children are, you know, a nuisance, and Jesus is just too important, he can't be bothered by these little kids, and, you know, the

Lord's not too happy about this. When his disciples, you know, kinda display this attitude and try to shoo the children away, he rebukes them.

That's what it says in verse 13. So this is an important passage, it really gives us a window into the mind of the

Lord and how he views little kids, and because Jesus feels this way, we should feel this way.

I think a lot of people do, but sometimes that's just human nature to kinda have that response.

So let's start reading Matthew 19, and we'll just read verses 13 through 15.

It says, then little children were brought to him that he might put his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.

But Jesus said, let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

And then he laid his hands on them and departed from there. And there's a few other passages that we're gonna look at that give a few more details, but we see very clearly what's the attitude of Christ towards little kids.

Yeah, he loves the little children. It's like that song that some of you sang in Sunday school or junior church.

Jesus loves the little children, right? What does it go, red, yellow, black, or white?

They are precious in his sight. And I realize that is politically incorrect to say red, yellow, black, or white, but that's how the song goes.

I don't care, that's how Jesus feels. He loves all the little children of the world.

So they are precious. Is that the way the disciples viewed the little kids? No, like get these kids outta here.

We just don't have time. Why would somebody feel like that? Well, kids, I mean, they don't really contribute anything to the situation.

I mean, they contribute joy into the parents' lives, and we love kids, but a lot of people, they view children as a nuisance.

Not the Lord. We see back in the last chapter, chapter 18, Jesus spoke of the children there, how it is the responsibility of any decent human being to protect little kids.

Jesus said if somebody, anyone, would cause one of these little ones to sin, cause them to stumble, it would be better for what?

Have a millstone hung around their neck and cast into the sea. So we see how

Jesus feels. We should care about children. We should protect children.

So woe to anyone who would harm or try to corrupt a little child.

And of course, we live in a society today where people are always trying to corrupt little children.

They're trying, they're teaching them to move away from God or to never accept the Lord, whether it's the public school system or even

Disney. I mean, subliminally, they're teaching them ungodliness, and it's just everywhere.

So we need to look at a passage like this and see what the scripture says.

What's the application to this text? Okay, Jesus says, let the little children come to me.

I think the application would be we should lead children to the Lord. We should lead all people to Jesus, but it's good to lead them to the

Lord and teach them when they're young. So I would say this means we should raise them up in the

Christian faith. That's kind of the major takeaway. Let the little children come to me. We want to bring children, not just to church,

I mean, that's one part of it, but we want to lead them and teach them in the

Christian faith. So there's a lot that could be said. We're gonna touch on several different things this morning, but just for the sake of context, going through the

Gospel of Matthew, I always try to look ahead and then look at the verses before to see if there's anything, some additional context that would inform us.

The next passage is, so next week, we'll probably be talking about the rich young ruler.

Nothing about that story really adds to this, at least I couldn't see anything. So is there anything in the previous verses that would inform us here?

I think so, because if you remember the sermon from last week, the beginning of chapter 19, what's

Jesus talking about? Well, he answers the question about marriage and divorce, and certainly that does affect children.

So in a Jewish culture back here in the first century, that like ours was moving away from the

Lord, many of the Jews were becoming bound by their traditions rather than what scripture actually taught.

So a tradition, if you were here last week, you remember this, a tradition was developing that said a divorce could be obtained for just any reason.

Like it didn't matter if a woman burnt dinner, the husband could divorce her.

It wouldn't make any difference. Like any reason at all. And obviously when stuff like that happens, it affects the little ones.

So if we consider that, maybe what Jesus had in mind or Matthew had in mind by connecting these two, having them next to each other, is that Jesus had compassion for the little children.

He wants to demonstrate to everybody, especially parents, how valuable children are.

I realize any parent would say that. I love my kids. I mean, what parent wouldn't say that, right?

And yet people tend to be focused on themselves. You know, they're following after their goals, their career, their wants, and sometimes the needs of the children are just placed in the backseat.

So maybe this is what Jesus or Matthew has in mind, just a way of showing people you need to put the kids, their needs ahead of your own.

But the growing attitude in Israel as it is today, people are self -focused.

So the disciples, even they're like that. You know, they had their job of ministry and little kids just didn't fit in.

So they just tried to shoo the kids away. Can you imagine that? I mean, it says the disciples, this isn't a stretch, they rebuke the parents.

So here these parents are, they bring their little kids to Jesus and Peter, Jay, I'd like to blame it all on Judas, but it doesn't say

Judas did it. But he actually, they rebuke the parents.

Can you imagine that? This is one of those things where you just wonder what are they thinking? To me, it would be like if somebody came to this church, they visited this church and they had a bunch of little kids and we're like, no, get out of here.

We don't want these kids here, just go away. Can you imagine a church doing that? I don't think there's probably not a church on earth that would do that, but that's kind of the comparison.

But why would anyone even begin to feel that way? Well, a lot of people don't have patience for little kids.

You know, let's face it, little kids make noise, right? They make noise, they get into things, they're needy and some people just don't want to deal with that.

But most churches I think today, Christian ministries would say, yes, we want the children to come in, any church that I know they want.

Young families especially coming in. So yes, bring your kids to Sunday school. We want more kids, if anything, not less, amen?

Does everyone feel that way? I hope so. But the disciples just didn't want to deal with them.

All right, let's turn to Mark chapter 10. We see the same story repeated just with a few extra details.

But as I said, this still happens back then today, the tendency is to view little children as a burden.

You know, they have their needs but they don't really contribute anything, right? They can't really do any work, especially if these little kids are like two, three years old.

I mean, they can't really do much around the house. So they're just not seen as valuable to some people.

You probably heard this expression, children should be seen in what? Not heard.

Yeah, not heard. I looked that up to try to find the origin. Apparently that's kind of a very old saying from hundreds of years ago, maybe going back further.

But yeah, that's the attitude some people have. Children should be seen and not heard. Maybe some people not seen at all, but that's not the biblical view of children.

Before we read from Mark 10, here's what Psalm 127 says. And this would apply to families that have a lot of kids.

I mean, we know that's frowned on in the world we live in, right? Because of climate change and overpopulation, the powers that be and famous Hollywood time, they want smaller families.

You know, you can have your one or two kids. I heard there was a law in China. I don't know if it's still the law where you could have one or two and you were penalized if you had any more.

But that's the way the world looks at it. How does the Bible look at it? Psalm 127 says, "'Behold, children are a heritage from the

Lord. "'The fruit of the womb is a reward. "'Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, "'so are the children of one's youth.

"'Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.'" So if there's a family that has, you know, four kids, great.

Six kids, great. Nine, 10 kids, even better. Now, I don't know if the mother feels that way or not, but it's hard to imagine.

But isn't this true, that I know my mom's family was pretty big.

And you just go back a generation or two, it wasn't uncommon for people to have seven or eight kids or 10 or 12 children, but it's practically unheard of right now.

Why? Even if it's not stated, the message is children, they cost a lot of money, they're a burden.

And we're all kind of indoctrinated into that way of thinking a little bit, even if we would never say that.

So I think we need to just kind of reset and have a biblical view of all of this.

So maybe a church has a lot of little kids. It's true, that would make the church noisier, but these are good problems to have.

So bring on the noise, you know, that's my attitude. Mark chapter 10, verse 13, it says, then they brought little children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

So more or less the same thing. These children are probably two, three, four years old. We have to ask, why are the parents bringing the children to Jesus in the first place?

Why is that? Well, it was a common practice in Israel to seek the blessing of a prominent rabbi.

Who's seen maybe the nightly news where the Pope is kissing little children, right?

You know, a faithful Roman Catholic, if they're in Rome and they can get anywhere near the Pope, they wanna, they hold their babies up and they just hope the

Pope will, you know, touch them or bless them. And that's seen as a great honor. Well, that's kind of the idea here in ancient

Israel. If there's a prominent rabbi, yeah, you would bring your kids to the rabbi and he would pray over them.

Especially if these parents believed that Jesus was the Messiah, that would be an even greater thing to have the

Messiah bless your children. So that's the type of thing that's going on here. The application though, again, would be to lead your children to the

Lord Jesus Christ. And we have to ask, how do we do that? How do you lead little children to Christ?

What's the primary way you do that? By example, okay, that's a good answer.

That's a good answer. I think for most people, the generation or two, last generation or two, we have it in our minds that if you wanna lead a little child to Christ, if you wanna get a little kid saved, you say the sinner's prayer with them.

I think probably most families here or most people here a lot, certainly when you were young, you said the sinner's prayer four, five, six years old, or you said that with your children, right?

Is that a pretty common thing? Yeah. And that's a good thing to do because I think a child can understand the gospel even at a very early age.

But it's not just that. It's not just a one -time thing. We want to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord. And it's like bringing them to church, bringing them to Sunday school. That's good, we should do it, but it's not just that.

Proverbs 22, verse six says, "'Train up a child in the way he should go, "'and when he is old, he will not depart from it.'"

Who's aware of that verse? Just about everybody. And I think this is maybe the common response.

Someone will say, well, I know parents, and maybe this applies to you, but I know parents who raise their children in the faith, and when they were old or older, they didn't depart.

I mean, you look at all the statistics. When kids are brought up in church, they turn 18, the majority leave.

Maybe they don't leave the faith altogether, but many, many do. So you say, is Proverbs 22, six even true?

Well, here's the thing, salvation is a personal choice. I don't think there's any blanket guarantee that if you just do this, if you just do this, then 100 % of the time, this will be the result.

I mean, that's almost never the case with any biblical principle, but the general principle is true.

It sticks with them. At the very least, even if a child does start to stray during the college years, which, again, is what all the stats show, just extremely common, even if they do stray, and some of you could give testimony to this, that stuff you learned as a child, those early

Sunday school lessons being brought up, that sticks with you, doesn't it? Yes, it does.

That upbringing will actually be a restraint in their life. Maybe they don't turn out the way you wanted, but how much worse would it have been if the

Lord wasn't in their life at all? I think a lot of those young people, in their heart, they wanna do the right thing.

It's just being around their friends, and it's very difficult because you want the acceptance of your peers.

But I'm just saying, maybe there's no guarantee, but teaching them the faith when they're little, it will have an effect, no matter what happens in the future.

But on top of that, if you teach them godly principles, bring them to church, raise them in the faith,

I mean, the odds go down drastically that they're gonna grow up to be an atheist or an agnostic.

So bringing your kids to church, teaching them, praying for them, this all makes a difference, even if you don't always see the exact difference you were hoping for.

I mean, imperfect children are still better than growing up to be an atheist.

So, of all the children in the nation, what percentage of them are being brought to church right now?

I don't know what the exact number is, but nationwide, how many little kids are in church this

Sunday? Small minority, would we all agree with that? Small minority, maybe five, 10%, again,

I'm not really sure. Well, I mean, what's the result of that?

They grow up, and that's why so many adults are not in church on Sunday, because they learn those patterns very early on.

So however you teach them, whatever patterns you establish when they're young, it's gonna be that much more likely they're gonna remember that and stick with it when they're older.

So children, you know, we say they're the future and all that, and it sounds like a cliche, but it's very, very true.

So Proverbs 22, six, again, train up, do you believe this? Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

I view that as a promise to lay hold to, and then pray and say, Lord, I believe this is true.

I believe this will happen, and the Lord may indeed bring it about.

So all of that to say this, bring the little children to Jesus. I believe this is our responsibility, and I wanna talk a little bit about our responsibility towards children.

Parents first, obviously, the parents have the greatest responsibility, but our number one responsibility is to bring little children to Christ.

So evangelism. Let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter six. I mean, obviously, providing for their needs, keeping them safe, it really should be, it should go without saying, but be intentional about leading your children to the

Lord, and in the society we live in, where some parents are just not doing that, they're not gonna do it, they're not interested in doing it, thank

God for all the grandmothers and the grandfathers or the aunts and uncles who step in, and they're willing to do that.

God bless them. Now, if I could give one piece of advice, and I don't teach this as a commandment because I don't feel

I can because I didn't follow it, and it was a different time back then, things have changed in the last five years or so.

Does everyone recognize that? The past five, 10 years, things have drastically changed.

So it wasn't like this back when I was in school or my kids were in school, but if I could give one piece of advice, if you are able to, keep your kids out of the public school system.

I mean, but at the same time, realize not every parent is able to do that.

This is not being taught as a commandment. Do not look down on anyone who has their kid, because there is another side to that.

Some people say, I don't want to shelter my kids. I'm gonna teach them the right thing at home, and they'll be a light in the public school system.

You know, there's another argument, another side to it, but I think just going forward, it would be better not to send them there because,

I mean, things are just getting so extreme, and I could spend the rest of the time telling you stories that would shock some of you, things that happen in the school system.

I'll just share one, since I made the statement. You know, there's one school, they had teachers and administrators at the front door trying, talking to children about sexual matters and trying to sign them up and recruit them to be an ally for certain lifestyles.

I mean, that should never happen with a straight couple. Talking to little kids about sexual matters is just not appropriate.

Talking to other people's children, I mean, that wouldn't be okay in any setting, but that happens in schools, and there's more extreme behavior than that.

But let's look at Deuteronomy 6. Not only do we lead little children to Christ and pray with them, maybe lead them in the sinner's prayer if they understand that, and I know some people have a lot of opinions about that, but again,

I think it's okay to do that. Look at Deuteronomy 6, one through seven, but we want to do more, we want to teach them, like Mark said, be an example, and that happens every moment of every day.

Deuteronomy 6, one through seven, it says, now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the

Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.

So obviously, this is for the children of Israel, that you may fear the Lord your

God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

What's he saying? If you want to live a long, healthy, successful life, obey

God and his commandments, because I think we understand people who are breaking God's commandments,

I mean, they may end up in prison, worst case scenario, but that's not a success for, or a recipe for a successful life.

Look at verse three, therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the

Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey. So what was the

Lord's attitude towards large families? Good, he was for it, okay.

So as a general promise to God's people, a nation that would serve the Lord would live long and prosperous lives by putting

God first. Look at verse four, hear, O Israel. This was sort of their creed, for lack of a better word.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.

He is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

You know what Jesus called this, right? This is what? The great commandment of the law.

Verse six, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them, not just teach them to your children, teach them what?

Diligently to your children, and shall talk of them, not in school or for an hour here or just class time here.

No, you shall talk to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

If I can just paraphrase that, talk to the kids about God and his commandments when you get up in the morning, when you go to bed at night, when you go into town, all the time, everything can be a life lesson.

Here's what we often do today. We say, okay, this hour from 6 .30 to 7 .30, you know, this is

Bible study time. These are devotional times for this, you know, half an hour right here, which is fine, but we should be teaching kids what?

All the time. I think that's more effective, actually. So how would that look, you know, practically speaking?

If you're sitting at the table paying your bills, and your little kid is there eating cereal in the morning, you know, maybe they don't wanna hear it, maybe they'll complain about,

I don't care about this, but, you know, teach them. Explain the concept of how, you know, you need to pay bills, and you know, when you turn on the electricity, that actually costs money, and we need more money, and more money coming in than is going out, and just teach them all day, every day, these basic things in life, right and wrong, especially right and wrong.

Another example, maybe you're driving through town, a lot of parents wanna shelter kids from things, and we should probably do that to a degree with some things, but let's say you're driving through town, there's a billboard.

I mean, what billboards are you seeing everywhere these days? Pot billboards, marijuana billboards, right?

Are the little kids seeing these? Yeah, they're looking at it, and they're wondering what that's about, and some of them know what it's about.

Use that as an opportunity. Say, okay, here's why you don't wanna get into this stuff, or if there's a homeless person standing there with a sign, and your child says, you know, mommy, daddy, what are they doing, why are they doing that?

Teach them, okay, what types of things lead to homelessness? Here's some things to avoid.

Just take anything as an opportunity to teach your children. As much as kids need lessons in the classroom, they need real -life, on -the -job training, so anything can turn into a teaching moment.

So the point is education. We have the responsibility to lead them to Christ, evangelism, we have the responsibility to teach them, so education is much more than just what happens in the public school system.

And it's more than just Sunday school. We love Sunday school here. We have Sunday school, not all churches do, but if you bring a child, for some kids, this is the totality of their

Christian experience. They get brought to Sunday school for 45 minutes, and that's all the

Christianity that they're getting all week. This is not enough. I mean, to train up a child when they're young, that doesn't really cut it.

I mean, if it's just the 45 minutes and that's it, that's not really what Proverbs is talking about.

But again, we love Sunday school. I just wanna make a point. Do you know when Sunday school began? When was the first documented

Sunday school class? 1826.

So what does that tell you? For the first 1800 years of church history, there was no

Sunday school, which kind of begs the question. Why? Okay, why? Okay, that's a good question.

Haven't thought about that. But here's why.

Kids were just brought to church and they sat with their parents, and you think, well, how did they stay still?

Well, I'll tell you how they stayed still. So if they misbehaved, they would learn outside in the parking lot.

Not to do it again, but people aren't gonna do that today probably. But kids, the point is kids were part of the congregation.

They were seen as part of the church. Why? Because they are part of the church. So they were just taught all the adult stuff.

And I think, don't get me wrong, I think Sunday school is good. It's just that can't be all there is.

Which I touched on before we get back into the text, and I'm almost done, but there is something that I feel like I do need to touch on, because when we're talking about children, this is part of education, really.

Part of education is discipline. It's kind of a touchy subject.

No matter what I say, somebody isn't gonna like it. But obviously some people grew up, all acknowledge this, that in the past some people were brought up where discipline was over the top.

Discipline was taken so far it started looking more like abuse than discipline.

Okay, that's true. And because that's true, the pendulum has kind of swung so far in the other direction to where now discipline is, in many homes, non -existent.

So what's the biblical viewpoint on discipline? Well, number one, the viewpoint is children need discipline.

Proverbs 13, 24 says, "'He who spares the rod hates his son, "'but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.'"

And someone might say, "'Pastor, are you really saying "'that I should be whacking my child with a stick, "'with a rod?'

"'I would never say that, but the Bible does. "'Don't get mad at me, just don't shoot the messenger.'"

You say, well, I'm not gonna do that. And most people today won't. Incidentally, of the older generation, 60 and up, how many of you were hit with a rod or a switch or a wooden spoon when you were young?

The majority, the majority. You guys turned out okay, I think. Again, I'm not saying, this is the parents' responsibility.

I don't ever tell parents what to do. That's your, it's my job, though, to preach what the

Bible says. Today, most people won't even consider the rod. They'll ask about spanking, right?

Is spanking biblical? This is really where the debate is, spanking. The Bible doesn't teach spanking.

I'm not against you if you've done it, but I think most of us were spanked, probably, when we were younger.

One pastor said this, and I never forgot it, so agree or disagree, he said the rod is what the

Bible teaches, not the hand. And he said the children, when they see their mother's hand, when they see their father's hand, they should associate the hand with love.

Like the mother's hand should show love to her children, hugging her children. The father's hand should give good gifts to the child.

The child, when he or she thinks discipline, should associate it with the rod in the corner, not with the hand of the parent.

And I always thought that was great advice, and that's probably why the Bible says that. I mean, some of you can probably think, yeah, you have that wooden spoon hanging there, you have the stick in the corner, and you didn't view your parents as the bad guys, you saw the stick as the bad thing, right?

I think that's the point. And when kids were hit with it,

I mean, if parents are doing it right, and you don't want to do it publicly, because DSS or whatever they're called now will show up,

I'm sure, but if a parent is doing it right, don't ever strike your children when you're angry.

You need to be under control when you give discipline. But if parents are doing it right, if they're consistent, and the children know the boundaries, the point of them getting hit that once is they'll learn, and you won't have to do it again.

So that's some free advice. But back to Mark chapter 10, because I can't prove this, but I imagine when the children are brought to Jesus, I picture them as being respectful and well -behaved.

Mark 10 .13, it says, then they brought little children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

Verse 14, but when Jesus saw it, and this is why I wanted to pick Mark, because we get this statement.

When Jesus saw it, he was greatly what? Does anyone else have a different word than displeased?

Indignant. Jesus was indignant. I like that word better. Sometimes the

Bible has a way of understating things. But it says they were sore, displeased, or greatly.

Jesus was, I think it's safe to say, Jesus was upset. He was angry. He was angry at Peter, and James, and John, or whoever it was that rebuked the parents, and Jesus really rebukes them.

So he is indignant, and here's what he says. Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God.

What does that mean, of such is the kingdom? Well, Jesus explains it in verse 15.

He says, assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.

A few weeks ago, we talked about this while looking at Matthew 18. In order to follow

Christ, you need to become like a little child. Little children believe whatever their parents tell them.

Santa, the Easter Bunny, they believe all that stuff because they believe their parents, you know, and we should believe whatever our

Heavenly Father says. So when we open up the Bible, we should be like a little child. I may not understand all of it, but I believe it because God said it.

Also, there's this humility aspect. Children, again, they don't have much to offer.

Little kids are not usually proud. You know, adults deal with pride, not little kids.

So we should be humble and not have a proud attitude. So these are some of the ways we need to humble ourselves and be like little children, but the primary thing is obedience.

Every parent wants their child to be obedient. If you could just get your children to always be obedient,

I mean, that would be amazing. That would be wonderful. That's the way it is with us.

God is our, what, our Heavenly Father, and He wants us to be obedient to Him.

One last thing. I talked about the responsibility of evangelism and leading children to the

Lord. We talked about the responsibility of educating little children, which it's much more than just a

Sunday school for a half hour, 45 minutes once a week. The last responsibility and the challenge

I wanna leave you with is to encourage little children. As the adults here, as the members of this church, and you as a parent, you don't want to be overbearing.

You don't want to cause your child to get discouraged. We want to encourage children.

Some of you can probably remember, going back to that attitude, children should be seen, not heard. Some of you can remember when you were little, the adults, they had all their stuff that they were doing, and it seemed like they didn't care about you.

You were ignored. Maybe you went to a family gathering, and the adults were totally ignoring you, and you felt like, whatever situation it is, in the home or at church, you felt like nobody cared.

Think about this just for the church. We're in church, so this is for you. If a visitor came in the front door, and nobody greeted them, nobody said hello to them, everyone just ignored them, or,

God forbid, viewed them as, like, what are you doing here? You're a nuisance. Would they ever come back?

And yet, there's a whole bunch of little kids in the church right now, more every month, it seems like, so let's do it.

Encourage the little children. They are part of the congregation. Don't walk by them and pretend they don't exist.

When you see them, make eye contact, learn their names, say hello. Make them feel like they're part of the church, because they are.

So if we treat children, why should we treat children that way, because Jesus did. Jesus took time, and he showed that he cared.

So I wanna leave you with that challenge. All the little kids here, show them that you care. Encourage them, because they're part of the body of Christ as well, amen?

Let's pray. And Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the little children in this assembly.

We pray that you would bless them. We pray your blessing upon their parents. Give the parents and family and caretakers wisdom, strength to continue to raise them up in the faith, and to help children to understand the simple gospel message, that Jesus died on the cross and rose again, so that we would be able to live with him in heaven.

So Lord, may you teach us to love the children the way you do, and we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen.