Let the Little Children Come to Jesus (Matthew Sermon 91)

Introduction

So I consider myself a very blessed man. I have five children, and every week as I’ve mentioned before, I have the privilege of getting Daphne dressed for church. She’s three years old and with us today. This morning, knowing I was gonna preach on this text I said to her, “Do you know that Jesus loves you?” She said, “Yes, Jesus loves me. He died on the cross with blood on his face.” And I said, “Yes, and he was raised from the dead on the third day.” And she said, “Raised from the dead on the third day?” I could tell the phrase was new to her and hasn’t really thought it through. And so it’s a joy and a privilege to watch the words of the gospel rise up in her little heart over the years. I’ve seen it happen with our four older children. So they learned the language of salvation. And more than that, they learn a living Savior behind each of those words. Amen. What a great privilege.

But it’s also struck me recently, what a sobering thing it is as well, because these little ones that are entrusted to us are eternal beings. And they are infinitely more God’s than they’ll ever be ours. It was he that crafted them together in their mother’s wombs; it was he that holds them together every moment of their lives, and they will stand before God on Judgment Day alone in that sense, to give an account. And they will spend eternity in Heaven, or Hell. They are eternal beings. And what an incredible privilege it is for us to encounter them at that early age to begin sharing with them the good news of faith in Jesus Christ. John McArthur tells a tragic but powerful story of a family in his church, Grace Community Church there in California.

He said, some years ago, a family in our church experienced a great tragedy, the mother and two daughters were planning to fly the next day to New Zealand to join the husband and father who was on a preaching mission there and as the wife was learning some new crochet stitches to use on the long flight, the girls went outside to play. A few moments later, the mother heard the screeching of automobile tires, but since there was no crash, she thought little of it, that is until the older daughter came running into the house screaming and crying that the little sister Tanya had been hit by a car. The girl was unconscious but showed no signs of serious injury. Well, the mother bent over her, Tanya breathed a heavy sigh and turned her head to the side. At the hospital, the neurosurgeon told the mother that the girl had suffered massive brain damage and had little chance of surviving. Relatives and friends prayed fervently and the mother kept a vigil with her precious little daughter throughout the night, praying with great intensity that God would spare and restore her daughter. But she also prayed that above all God’s will be done, even if it meant taking Tanya to be with himself. A relative who was a doctor, explained that Tanya’s breathing and heartbeat were functioning at the hospital solely by artificial means. He said her body is being kept working but Tanya isn’t there anymore. She is with the Lord.

With a radiant face, her mother said to the Lord, “Have Thy will, not mine.” To her friends and loved ones she explained, “I shall not forsake my Lord. Because if I did, I would be saying Tanya is gone, forever. I will do as David did in the Old Testament, when his child was taken, he washed his face, changed his clothes and went about his business satisfied that God knew best.” At that moment, she was determined there would be no more begging God to bring her little girl back. Tanya was in the Lord’s care and her mother believed she had entered into his presence, when lying unconscious on the street, she sighed and turned her head. The mother testifies that she was filled with an inner strength that was foreign to her, supernatural in origin. She recalled that for several months previously, Tanya had prayed, “Lord, I want to go and be with you while I’m young.” When her mother asked why she made that request, Tanya smiled and replied, “Because I want to sit on Jesus’ lap when I get there and I don’t wanna be too big.” On remembering those words, the mother said, “New assurance and peace surged through my sorrowful soul.”

We serve a Lord who’s incredibly tender and gentle to the little ones, isn’t he? And that’s the picture we have in today’s text. And it’s incredible, an amazingly high percentage of his chosen ones come to a saving knowledge of him early in life and what a great privilege it is for us who interact with those children, parents, brothers and sisters, church workers who interact with those children at an early age.

Now, in today’s passage, we’re gonna catch a glimpse of Christ’s heart for little, little children. We’re going to catch some of that heart, I hope, for ourselves. We’re going to understand the preciousness of those first few years of a child’s life, to learn how significant it is to bring those little ones to Jesus’ day after day, for him spiritually to place his hands on them and pray for them and bless them. We’re also going to try to understand the powerful attitude that had taken root in the hearts of his disciples that Jesus had to rebuke and correct. The attitude goes as follows, adults do important things, and there’s no time for little children and all of that. We need to come to Jesus again and learn the value of little children, and see the preciousness of the brief time we have, with them like that and to make the most of it. And finally, this sermon is to encourage parents of little children in they’re awesomely important responsibility to evangelize and disciple their children from the first moment of their relationship with them.

First Baptist Church has been blessed, lavishly by the Lord over the last number of years. Is that an understatement? Lavishly? I was thinking of what would be the best way to say it. Dozens and dozens and dozens of little babies, that’s about right. And maybe more than that, we’re not up to hundreds and hundreds yet, but the Lord is blessing abundantly… And it is a blessing, isn’t it? And so I’m speaking to parents, lots of parents of little children who have the privilege of intersecting with eternal beings, these little children created in the image of God during this key time in their lives.

I. Understanding This Encounter: Parents, Children, Disciples and Jesus

And I wanna begin just by understanding this encounter from every angle. From the angle of the parents, the angle of the children, of the disciples and of Jesus. Look at Verse 13, “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.”

Understanding the Parents

So let’s try to understand these parents, these were Jewish parents seeking to raise their children in the Laws of Moses. They cherished their babies like any parents do and they desired that their babies be blessed. Now in the Greek, both Mark and Luke give us a strong sense in the imperfect tense, that this was a continual process. Parents kept bringing their children over and over for Jesus to place the hands on them and pray for them. And by this time, I think Jesus’ reputation as a teacher who delighted in little children was well-known. These Jewish parents having heard about Christ’s ministry, they were still very much short of understanding who he was, I believe.

But according to the Talmud, the Jewish instruction based on the law of Moses, Jewish parents were to bring their children to respected Rabbis for prayer and blessing. Now usually, that would happen in the synagogue, so they’d go to the Rabbi at the synagogue and they would… The Rabbi would pray for their children and bless them. But there was a sense of greater blessing from a more prominent and God-blessed Rabbi and who could be greater than Jesus at that time? Jesus’ reputation as a prophet from Nazareth and Galilee had spread far and wide. And Jesus was doing miracles and even more than this somehow had a tender heart for children, all of this well-established. So the parents came from all around, continually bringing their little children for Jesus to place his hands on them and on pray for them.

Now, these little children that are brought, new in life. Parents know that the bitterness of life as they grow older and they know the purity of the hearts of their little children, they know how much God will have to protect them and bless them, for them to be fruitful and prosperous in this sin-cursed world. And they want all the help they can get. Parents, you know what I’m talking about. So they said, “Let’s bring them to Jesus, and Jesus can pray and bless them and God will protect them.”

Understanding the Children

So there’s so much for the parents. Let’s understand the children; who are these children? The Greek word is “paidia” and it is the youngest stage of life. The word is used for newborn infants all the way up to the toddler years. So we’re talking about little, little babies now, we’re not so much… This sermon isn’t so much about parenting all the way through, but it’s about these little infants, these little babies and toddlers. Luke goes even further in making this clear in Luke 18:15, and says, “People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them.” So there are these babies, these infants and toddlers as well.

So even the most tiny human being, maybe just a few days old, barely able to open its eyes and focus, is of infinite worth and value to Jesus. Now, Jesus does not have a sentimental view of children, he knows that they are descended from Adam. He knows it better than anyone that they have a sinful nature; children do not have to be instructed in how to disobey their parents. It’s part of the original equipment, I’m finding. No offense intended any attending here. But it just comes. It’s natural because of the sin of Adam. They naturally have a tremendous bent towards self-focus, and selfish interests. They have a powerful sin nature and Jesus knew this better than anyone, but he also understands that children have at that early stage, a tremendous drive, it seems a natural bent toward God. Towards spiritual things, towards supernatural things. Toward invisible things. A natural yieldedness to him. A desire to learn about him. Though they cannot see him. Little children then have a deep attraction to the invisible God, so much for the little children.

Understanding the Disciples

Let’s try to understand the disciples. “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.” What were the disciples thinking? In some sense, you kind of feel sorry for them, especially Peter, as their weaknesses, and sins, and mistakes keep getting displayed generation after generation, we get to talk about them. So why were the disciples rebuking the parents? I wonder what words they used to do the rebuking perhaps they were frustrated. Their time alone with Jesus was being spoiled by all these crying infants, one after the other, coming, making noises and doing annoying things. Messing up their schedule and their plans.

In any case, it seems the issue of this: The teacher’s time is too important for little babies, was preeminent in their minds. Now, often times you see this kind of thing in the inner circle of some great figure, a political leader, military conqueror, or some great general, an important statesman, a CEO of an important company, a well-known singer or entertainer or famous athlete. There’s a coterie of kind of bodyguards and hangers-on around that individual all the time. And you can’t get near them. I’ve often thought, “Oh, I’d love to go back in time and be with Jesus.” You wouldn’t get within the same county. Just tons and tons of people around him all the time. And Jesus has his inner circle as well. Now this entourage will put their hands up as you try to get near. Put a stop sign up. Now, especially these important people, these great men have no time for anyone who cannot further their great agenda. They’re great men meeting with other great men. Doing great things and have no time for little people and for distractions. And so little children, they think especially are a waste of time.

Sadly, they might not even have time for their own children. Even to have children, or if they have them to spend any time with them at all. I was reading recently about the family lives of royal families in Europe over the last 150 years and it’s pretty tragic in this very area. This one area, for example, in the English royal household, a hundred years ago, King George and Queen Mary spent less than 30 minutes a day with their own children. 30 minutes a day. The children were raised entirely by nannies, they would frequently cry or shrink back from their biological parents, they’d barely recognized them. They felt much more comfortable with their nannies.

I read a recent story translated out of a Dutch newspaper telling a similar tale of woe about the royal family of the Netherlands. The central figure of that story was a nanny who cared for the little princess Louisa Marisa, and she said that 10 days after this little baby girl was born, the royal family left her to go on an official trip to the US. And that more or less from that moment on the baby was the nanny’s to raise almost entirely. And so, also, for the other children born to the family and these little children would cry when being held by the mother, and reach for the nanny and wanna be taken back by the nanny. Now as they grew, they started to understand who their mother was and she would promise a goodnight kiss but would be distracted by important business, so that it would sometimes take up to an hour for her to go upstairs and kiss them at night. And here are these little children fighting to stay awake so they can have this one little kiss with their mother. The only encounter they’d have with her all day long.

Anyway, so many people look on children as an unwelcome intrusion from the vastly important business of their lives. And perhaps the disciples felt this same way when they rebuked the parents for bringing the little ones. “Our Master is too busy saving the world to hug your children.” And almost certainly, this response flowed from their own pride, in their own importance as well. And therefore, this is a very serious issue that must be rooted out of the hearts of the disciples. It’s not a minor thing. If Jesus doesn’t check this response in his disciples at this point, they will develop into the kinds of leaders who walk around in the marketplace with flowing robes and long to be greeted by others at the marketplace and to be called Rabbi and don’t have any time for little people. It will shape and pollute their entire ministry, if this root of bitterness isn’t weeded out. They cannot be bothered, not just by little children but by any small person, any insignificant person. It will shape their entire ministry. And it wasn’t what Jesus was about. So much for the disciples.

Understanding Jesus

Let’s try to understand Jesus. Jesus’ reactions really are quite remarkable. I often think about that, Jesus is probably the most unpredictable person in history. I’m not saying you shouldn’t ask the question, “What would Jesus do?” It’s an important question, but sometimes I have no idea what Jesus would do. Because he does surprising things. And it says in Mark 10:14, “When he saw this, he became indignant.” He was indignant. The word means to be aroused to a certain level in anger, to be vexed, to be annoyed, to be irritated. That’s part of the larger display we have of Jesus’ emotional life; our Lord is an emotional being. Perfect emotions, yes. But he had emotions.

B.B. Warfield wrote a great article about the emotional life of our Lord and talking about this encounter, he likened Jesus’ response to that of anybody having a physical irritation, like a teething baby or a man walking down the road with a rock in his shoe. Jesus is annoyed with his disciples, he’s mildly angry at them and their blatant misunderstanding of his heart and his mission. Now, for me, as a pastor, as a man, one of the most remarkable and amazing things about Jesus is how incredibly interruptible he was. I mean, here he is, he is in fact saving the world, he doesn’t have much time to do it. It’s only gonna be a short ministry, some calculate it to be as short as three years. And you hardly ever, if ever see an encounter where somebody comes to Jesus, and doesn’t get what they came for. Or an encounter with Jesus, it’s remarkable, he’s incredibly interruptible.

He never rushed. Every encounter was precious, and he made the most of every single one of them. Even with these little babies. So he cherished these little children, he was absolutely not annoyed with the interruption, was delighted with it, I’m sure.

II. “Let the Little Children Come”

So look what he says in verse 14, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” So let’s pick it apart, phrase by phrase. First, “Let the little children come.” Now, this implies that the natural bent of these little children is Godward. That if you’ll just let them, they’ll come. And I think it’s true, more than at any other time in their lives.

One commentator put it with great tenderness in this way, this is what he said, “As the flower in the garden stretches toward the light of the sun. So there is in the child a mysterious inclination toward the eternal light. Have you ever noticed this mysterious thing, that when you tell the smallest child about God, the child never asks with strangeness and wonder, ‘Who is God? I’ve never seen him.’ But listens with a shining face to the words as though they were soft, loving sounds from the land of home. Or when you teach a child to fold its little hands in prayer, it does this as though it were just a matter of course. As though there were an opening for that child, of that world of which the child has been dreaming and longing with anticipation. Or tell them, these little ones, the stories of the Savior, and show them the pictures with scenes and personages, of the Bible [and] see how their pure eyes shine and how their little hearts beat.”

And there’s just this drive, this interest that little children have for spiritual things, and Jesus wants to make the most of that. Let them come. Let them come to me. Again, proximity to Christ is everything. Jesus frequently says, “Come unto me.” “Come to me,” he says. He says it to the fisherman by the Sea of Galilee. “Follow me,” He says, “And I’ll make you fishers of men.” In Matthew 11:28 he says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Jesus is gonna say in the next passage, we’ll look at in Matthew 19, to the rich young ruler, “If you want to be perfect, sell all your possessions, give to the poor. And you’ll have treasure in heaven, then come follow me.” In John 6:37 Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and those who come to me, I’ll never drive away.” To his enemies, He says, “You refuse to come to me that you may have life.” John 7:37, “On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and called out in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’” And in John 12:32, he says, “But I, when I’m lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

And so he says “Let these little children come,” encourage their God-given desire to be near me, feed their spiritual appetites, let them do what their heart wants to do before the world, the flesh, and the devil come and harden it, and corrupt it and make it so difficult and put so many obstacles in their ways, and twist their desires. Let them come near to Christ for eternal life, let them come to know Him and cherish Him, and love Him. Feed their spiritual appetites and yours. Isn’t that something you can feed on that? They’re excited about Jesus. You should be too. They wanna know more about Jesus. You should, too. So you kinda piggyback on your little kids, and they’ll rekindle your love for Christ. Feed it, feed that appetite. You can’t feed it too much. Parents are always worried about too much with their kids, always too much sleep, worried about that. Too much food, too much crying, too much play, too much fluoride.

Too much salt or sugar in their diets, too much thumb-sucking, too much TV, too much music, too much of anything can be harmful. Let me tell you something, there’s no such thing as too much Jesus. Cannot be. Oh, there’s definitely too little Jesus. There’s no such thing, as too much Jesus. Jonathan Edwards commenting on Song of Songs 5:1 says, Song of Songs says this: “Eat friends, drink, and be drunk with love.” Commenting on that in terms of our relationship with Christ, he said this, “Persons need not and ought not set any boundaries to their spiritual and gracious appetites. Rather they ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and obtain more spiritual pleasures. Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can’t be too great for the value of these things. Therefore, endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of enticement. There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food.”

So, as parents of little children, we ought to be first of all, ravenously pursuing Christ, ourselves putting our love for Jesus on full display in front of those little children and secondly, we ought to be fanning their own love for Christ into a flame more and more, there is no danger here. Friends, feed their appetites to know Jesus. “Let the little children come.”

III. “Do Not Forbid Them”

Secondly, he says, “Do not forbid them.” Do not forbid them. This is prohibition clearly, in context, Jesus is just telling his misguided disciples to stop doing what they’re doing, and allow the parents to bring as many children as God will, but in a deeper sense, he doesn’t want his disciples playing the role of the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, in verse 13, he says, “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the Kingdom of Heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Don’t play that role with the little children, let them come. Don’t hinder them, don’t make it hard for them. Now, the word can mean forbid, Don’t forbid them, but it could also mean hinder. Don’t make it hard for them, don’t slow them down.

How We Prohibit Children from Coming to Jesus

So how do we hinder children, little children, from coming to Jesus? Well, first and foremost, above all, we hinder little children from coming to Jesus by not telling them about Jesus, we can know nothing about Jesus apart from the written word of God. They don’t have Jesus naturally in their hearts, and so in order to let the little children come to Jesus, they need to hear stories about Jesus, they need to be taught who Jesus was. Says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” And so, from the moment they come home from the hospital, tell them about Jesus, read them Bible stories about Jesus, they must know about Jesus, His miracles, His teachings, all of the stories. Tell them again and again about Jesus, don’t hinder them by starving them this Gospel of Jesus. They will sit for hours and hours. I’ve tested this. You will get tired of it before they do. I have proven that, alright? They will keep asking and keep wanting to hear more and more, so feed them. Feed ’em stories about Jesus.

We hinder them also by stifling their enthusiasm for Christ. If you put their childish excitement down you’re hindering them. You should fan those affections into a flame, you should make much of the little pictures they draw and the little things that they do to express their love for Jesus, put them up on the refrigerator, put them on your door, and have them there years later. Like when they get married, you still have them, those little pictures. Now, if you found a picture and didn’t know who drew it, was just on the ground, it wouldn’t mean anything to you. It’s not art of the highest order, but for you it means everything, because they’re expressing their heart and their love for God. By the way, that’s a picture of our worship for God, too, it’s not worship of the highest order that’s up in heaven, but he takes it from us ’cause he loves us so. And he welcomes our worship, imperfect as it is. So get those pictures and put them up. We hinder them by quenching the spirit, spirit is fanning their love for Jesus into a flame. We act like a wet blanket slowing it down, by refusing to take their spiritual hunger seriously by blowing off their questions that they may ask. Make the most of that time. We can hinder them by exasperating them with harsh or unjust discipline. I know that the Bible speaks of corporal punishment. It’s an important part of training.

The Bible also says in Ephesians 6:4, Fathers do not exasperate your children, instead bring them up in the training and the nurture of the Lord. We can hinder them by curtly cutting off their childish questions, like during family devotion for people to say, “Oh. Just childishness, irrelevant. It doesn’t ever seem to connect to what we’re saying. Don’t let him speak, he’s too young, don’t let her participate, too little.” Don’t do that, let them come, let them express an interest let them participate.

IV. “Of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven”

And then finally it says “Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Now, the Kingdom of Heaven is the theme of the Gospel of Matthew. It’s mentioned throughout the Gospel. 32 times in the Gospel of Matthew, that exact expression, is used, “the Kingdom of Heaven.” Four times we get the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom itself, by itself, as mentioned four more times. Once Jesus mentions Your Kingdom in prayers such as Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He uses expressions like the Kingdom of my Father. He frequently introduces parables with the phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like.” Now, what is this Kingdom of Heaven?

Well, the central concept is, that God the Creator of the ends of the earth rules actively over all that He’s created. He is a king, he sits on His throne, He’s a good king, a loving King, he gives laws by which we are to be governed, He will hold us accountable to those laws. He is also our Judge, and he is our Savior having sent Jesus into the world, and he is saving us from outside of the Kingdom in, from rebellion against the laws of God, to glad submission to the throne that is at the center of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now people must enter the Kingdom. This is the language used again and again. Matthew 4:17, Jesus began to preach “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near,” so you need repent and come in, enter the Kingdom. Matthew 5:20 says, “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who’s in Heaven,” and of the tax collectors and the prostitutes Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees “they are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you.” So we must enter the kingdom of God

Now, poignantly here, Jesus says “of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” That means the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of people like this, of newborn infants, somewhat, as it were. So let’s talk about the infants themselves, the actual babies.

John McArthur put it this way, “It’s not that small children are regenerate and then lose their salvation later, if they do not receive Christ as Lord and Savior. It’s rather that His atoning death is applied on their behalf if they should die before they are able to choose on their own. It may be that infant mortality rate is so high in many countries where the Gospel has not yet penetrated because the Lord is taking those little ones to Himself before they can grow up in a culture where it is so difficult to encounter the gospel and believe.”

And if that’s true, and I think it is, isn’t it marvelous that there’s already people from every tribe and language and people and nation, around the throne? Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying we don’t go and preach the Gospel, we must, we’re commanded to, but I think many of them are already there and that’s a delightful thing. But I don’t think, as John McArthur said, that they lose their salvation later, but they have it at the infant stage.

But secondly, the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of people who are like little infants, themselves John Calvin said, “This passage broadens to give kingdom citizenship to both children and those who are like them,” a child-like faith, a willingness to come and be saved, to act like a lisping infant as though you were born yesterday and know nothing. Because that’s kind of the truth isn’t it? When compared to the Ancient of Days you just humble yourself like a little child. We already bumped into this concept earlier in Matthew 18:3, he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven,”

So I want to address any that are here today that have never trusted in Jesus. You’ve heard the testimony of these three young men, they testified to saving faith in Jesus. What about you? Have you ever changed and become like a little child? And entered the Kingdom of Heaven through simple faith? Have you trusted in the blood shed by Jesus on the cross as a forgiveness for your sins, for your violating of the laws of that king? King of the Kingdom of Heaven? Have you trusted in Him? Are you ready to go and be with Jesus if he should call you today? Like he called that little girl? Suddenly, by a car accident. Are you ready? Have you trusted in Jesus?

Now, the danger for the disciples is that they’re gonna be hardened through pride; in hindering the little children is showing they really don’t understand the Kingdom of Heaven. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And so he says, “Let the little children come.” Let’s evangelize these little children, let’s talk to them about the Kingdom, before their hearts get hard. Reese Kaufman, who’s the CEO of Child Evangelism Fellowship, he’s the President, and he said “We spend so much time in adult evangelism trying to get them to be in that little childlike state. Little children are already there.” Let’s take advantage of it and speak sweetly to them of the Gospel.

V. Jesus Touches Them and Prays for Them

And so in verse 15, Jesus finishes by placing his hands on them and he goes on for this, the power of the incarnation. Jesus frequently touched people, sick people, lepers, a mother-in-law who had fever, he touches her. And here he touches these little children and he blesses them. In Mark 10:16, he takes the children in his arms, and he puts his hands on them and blesses them. In the Jewish culture patriarchal blessings meant so much. Remember how Jacob swindled Esau out of Isaac’s blessing, the placing of the hands and the speaking of words of blessing became almost prophetic at that stage of what was gonna happen with Jacob in the future. So also, Jacob on his deathbed, he rouses himself up out of his deathbed, to place his hands on Manasseh and Ephraim who are Joseph’s sons, his grandsons, and speaks a patriarchal blessing on them. Jesus does the same thing and he touches them. Little children need touch. I really do, I think we all do. Isn’t it a delight to pick up a little child and hold him or her in your arms? You hear these tragic stories of these orphanages in third world countries and other nations where, totally neglected, they’re being biologically fed, but nobody’s holding them, nobody picks them up, and cares for them and they have lasting problems as a result.

Jesus holds them and touches them. These little children. He yearned to touch them and minister to them. Now, these little infants, were pre-lingual, you can’t speak to them, But it says in Psalm 22:9, David speaking he said “Yet you brought me out of the womb, you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast.” So, at a very early stage, they’re learning how to trust. At that point they’re learning how to trust mommy, though they don’t know the words of trust or mommy or any of those things, they’re learning how to trust. Later on that trust will be transferred through the words of the Gospel to Jesus Christ. But even in an early stage a nursing mother is doing pre-evangelism, for that growing baby, and so Jesus touches them.

VI. Applications

So what applications can we take from this? Well, first and foremost, just from that tragic story as we began, I want to urge you to consider your little children as the eternal beings they really are. They’re going to spend eternity in Heaven or hell, they have been given to you for a short time, If the Lord should take one of them in infancy, or in childhood, don’t murmur against God. Remember what I said at the beginning of my sermon? They’re infinitely more his than they are yours, they are. We don’t have a claim against God, in reference to any child; they’re His.

Now, he gives them to us for a period of time, and we can love them and nurture them. Let’s be focused, intensely focused from an early age on their salvation. Now you could say “They don’t even understand. I’m gonna wait until they’re…” Well, until they’re what? Two? Three? At what point will you start telling them about Jesus? I would urge that you do it while they’re still in the womb. Train yourself. Get yourself ready to be an evangelist and then as soon as they come out, you start telling them about Jesus, read them stories and people will think You foolish. A seven-week-old and you’re reading them the Bible. But at some point they’re suddenly gonna be three and all of a sudden they can start saying about Jesus with blood on his face, and soon they’re seven and they’re speaking a little bit more maturely about the gospel and pretty soon they’re like, these young men that were baptized, earlier here today. Start early.

Parental Responsibilities

What responsibilities do you have? Let me just give you these 10 briefly. First of all, receive your children thankfully. They are a gift of God, from him. Receive them thankfully. Thank God for them and don’t be arrogant over them. Don’t act like a king or queen or emperor or empress with them.

Secondly, love your children deeply. Let your heart melt frequently concerning your little children.

Thirdly, understand your children positively and negatively. Positively, they are created in the image of God, and have immense potential. Negatively, they are descended from Adam and you’ll find out soon, most definitely. Don’t idolize your children, understand them.

Fourthly, teach your children, constantly. Deuteronomy 6 says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” I have some booklets that I did on two sermons on Deuteronomy 6 and they are available free of charge out here in the North Tower. Sermons I preached on how to saturate your children’s daily lives with the word of God, just pick them up. I think there’s about 20 of them out there.

Fifthly, be Christ-centered daily. Say things like, “Jesus made that pretty bird. Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus gives us days like today? Let’s thank Jesus for the food. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” Saturate them with Jesus Christ.

Sixthly, discipline your children wisely with tenderness, with compassion, with diligence, with consistence, with love.

Seventh, pray for your children consistently. Pray for them consistently. Pray for them every day; bring them to Christ. Charles Spurgeon in his sermon “Children Brought to Christ and not to Baptism,” he said this, we can’t physically bring our children to Jesus. The way we do it spiritually now is through prayer, bring them to Jesus, so that he can place his spiritual hands on them and pray for them.

Eighthly, Model Christ for your children faithfully. Let them see the love you have for Jesus and the way you seek to live with him day after day.

Number nine, involve your children in church early. When they’re ready to come, bring ’em to church. I mean here, big church. And I wanna speak to this congregation, there are many parents here that bring their children into the sanctuary. Praise God for them, do not play the role of the disciples in this story. You don’t wanna play that role. Don’t despise them, don’t wish they weren’t here, don’t wish you didn’t have to listen to their sounds. Parents, you know enough to take your children out of the sanctuary if they’re making too much noise. Take them out. And when they’re quiet, bring them back. I would urge you, the other six days. Work hard on them to get them quiet okay? Six days a week, work, work, work, work, work. Fruits of the labor on the seventh day. You understand that. Okay? But bring them, bring them. And can the rest of us realize that the overwhelming majority of congregations throughout the world, they’re all worshiping together? In Kenya, I was there, 1986, there are babies everywhere, there are children everywhere. They don’t have separate children’s church, they don’t have all that. They just all worship together. Bring them early.

And tenth, encourage your children tenderly. Be gentle with them, and tender and get them ready for their life.

A Word About Child Baptism

I wanna speak a brief word about children’s baptism. I can’t think of another place where I could say it. First of all, I wanna say this: Spurgeon in his sermon “Children Brought to Christ and Not to the Font”, meaning to baptism, he’s addressing the topic of infant baptism, there, not children’s Baptism. It’s a different issue. He does say this, and I’m warned by Spurgeon, concerning this, this passage I’m preaching on today has “not a ghost of a whisper of a shade of anything to do with baptism.” So you may wonder “Why am I bringing baptism up?” Well, just because people ask frequently about child baptism. May I say, to you this child baptism is a uniquely Baptist problem? Presbyterians don’t have the problem, they baptize infants. Methodists don’t have the problem, they baptize infants, Anglicans and Episcopalians, they baptize infants, Lutherans baptize infants. We don’t. What are we looking for? Well, we’re looking for a credible profession of faith in Christ. What does credible mean? Now, there’s an interesting question. When it comes to little children, it’s particularly interesting. It is not hard to get a little child to pray a sinner’s prayer. You know what I’m talking about? It’s not hard to do.

I do not, for one, believe there should be multiple baptisms in someone’s life. I think it should happen just once. We do not believe, as Spurgeon was preaching vigorously against, in something called baptismal regeneration. That you have to have the water of baptism or you going to Hell or limbo as the Roman Catholics might teach. I don’t believe that. Bible doesn’t teach that. Thief on the cross was never water baptized and he was with Jesus in paradise. You don’t have to be water baptized. It’s important that you not refuse to be baptized, that’s very important, but little children growing up in a Christian home aren’t refusing to be baptized, they’re ready and willing for anything that their parents lead them to do.

So therefore at what age should they be baptized? Now there’s a question. Would you recommend that the elder sets a threshold age? Okay, you tell me what that age would be and then I’ll search in a concordance and try to find a Bible verse to support that number. I don’t think we’ll find it. There actually won’t be any New Testament encouragement for setting the threshold date.

And you know what would happen, it would interject an artificial force into the life of this congregation where when that age comes you’ll feel a certain pressure to have your children baptized. It happens over and over. What then, what then? We’re cast on the Spirit of God or cast on the elders to make wise decisions or cast on on the parents to make wise decisions. Understand your theology. It is not baptism that saves, it’s faith that saves. So saturate their lives with the Gospel with the Gospel with the Gospel and let the Gospel grow up in them and at the right time they can be baptized and if you bring them to the elders we’ll talk to them, we’ll find out what’s going on in their lives, we’ll seek as best we can to deal with them. But here’s this. Don’t bring them too early please. Now, if you’re pressing me to know what early is, I don’t know what too early is. I just say there should be charity in this and there’s no harm in waiting, and when the right time comes and you’re certain that the word of God has taken root in their hearts and is bearing fruit above, then bring them.

A Word to and About Children’s Workers here at FBC

And I would appeal for like I said Charity and love on both sides. There’s too much harshness that goes on sometimes in controversial issues like that one, all I’m saying is, evangelize them, bring them to Christ and at the right time, you’ll be… It’ll be obvious to you when it’s time for water baptism. Final word, I just wanna say thank you to children’s workers here in this church. Praise God for you, I’m thankful for you. Jesus sets an example here of blessing other people’s children. We do not minimize the role of parents, we maximize it, but others can make an impact too, can’t they? And so it’s a sweet thing for families to worship together and stay together. It’s also a sweet thing for others to interact with those little children and make some kind of an impact, and we have some godly men and women, they’re doing that every week. And I just wanna say thank you on behalf of the congregation to you for your sacrifices. Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

John MacArthur’s tragic story:

“Some years ago, a family in our church experienced a great tragedy.  The mother and two daughters were planning to fly the next day to New Zealand to join the husband and father who was on a preaching mission there.  As the wife was learning some new crochet stitches to use on the long flight, the girls went outside to play.  A few moments later the mother heard the screeching of automobile tires, but since there was no crash, she thought little of it—until her older daughter came running into the house crying that her little sister, Tanya, had been hit by a car.

The girl was unconscious but showed no sign of serious injury.  While the mother bent over her, Tanya breathed a heavy sigh and turned her head to the side.  At the hospital the neurosurgeon told the mother that the girl had suffered massive brain damage and had little chance of surviving.  Relatives and friends prayed fervently and the mother kept a vigil with her precious daughter throughout the night, praying with great intensity that God would spare and restore her daughter.  But she also prayed that, above all, God’s will be done, even if it meant taking Tanya to be with Himself.

A relative who was a doctor explained that Tanya’s breathing and heartbeat were functioning at the hospital solely by artificial means.  “Her body is being kept working,” he said, “but Tanya isn’t there anymore. She is with the Lord.”  With a radiant face, her mother said to the Lord, “Have thy will, not mine.”  To her friends and loved ones, she explained, “I shall not forsake my Lord; because if I did, I would be saying Tanya is gone forever.  I will do as David in the Old Testament had done when his child was taken.  He washed his face, changed his clothes, and went about his business, satisfied that God knew best.”

At that moment, she determined that there would be no more begging God to bring her little girl back.  Tanya was in the Lord’s care, and her mother believed she had entered His presences when, lying unconscious on the street, she sighed and turned her head.  The mother testifies that she was filled with an inner strength that was foreign to her.  She recalled that for several months previously Tanya had prayed, “Lord, I want to go and be with you while I’m young.”  When her mother asked why she made that request, Tanya smiled and replied, “Because I want to sit on Jesus’ lap when I get there and I don’t want to be too big!”  On remembering those words, the mother said “New assurance and peace surged through my sorrowful soul.”

We serve a Lord who is incredibly tender and loving to us all, but especially to little children…

And an AMAZINGLY HIGH percentage of Christ’s chosen ones come to saving faith in Him very early in life…

In today’s passage, we are going to see some of Christ’s heart for little children

We are going to try to catch some of that heart for ourselves… to understand the preciousness of the first few years of a child’s life, to learn how significant it is to learn to bring our little ones to Jesus day after day for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them

We are also going to understand the powerful attitude that had taken the hearts of His disciples captive that Jesus had to rebuke… the attitude that ADULTS DO IMPORTANT THINGS AND THERE’S NO TIME FOR LITTLE CHILDREN IN ALL OF THAT

We need to come to Jesus again and learn the value of little children, and see the preciousness of the brief time we have with them… to make the most of it

Finally, this sermon is to encourage parents of little children in their awesomely important responsibility to evangelize and disciple their children from the first moment of their relationship with them

And to encourage other church members who also play a vital role in shaping the lives of our little children by their ministry and example

I. Understanding This Encounter:  Parents, Children, Disciples and Jesus

Matthew 19:13  Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

A. Understanding the Parents

1. Jewish parents, seeking to raise their children in the Laws of Moses

2. Cherishing their babies, desiring that they be blessed

3. Greek:  Mark and Luke both used the imperfect tense; implies that this was a continual process… the parent “kept bringing their little children” to Jesus

a. By this time Jesus’ reputation as a teacher who delighted in little children was well-known

4. Having heard about Christ’s ministry… still short of understanding who He is

a. Talmud—Jewish instruction based on the Law of Moses

b. Taught Jewish parents to bring their children to respected rabbis for prayer and blessing

c. Usually a Jewish father would bring his child to the rabbi at the synagogue

d. But there was a sense of greater blessing from a more prominent rabbi

e. Jesus’ reputation as a prophet from Nazareth in Galilee, a man who had actually done miracles… and even more, who had a tender heart for children, was well-established

f. So the parents came from all around with little children…

5. Brought their little children for Jesus to place His hands on them and pray for them

a. They know the bitterness of life, the challenges they will face

b. They know how much God will have to protect them and bless them for them to be fruitful and prosperous in this sin-cursed world

c. They want all the help they can get for the growth of their children

6. They probably didn’t know truly who Jesus was… they probably didn’t believe He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God… but the parents came anyway

B. Understanding the Children

1. the Greek word is paidia… referring to very young children, perhaps from infancy through the toddler age

2. Luke goes even further in making this clear

Luke 18:15  People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them.

The Greek word there is frequently translated “infants”

Even the most tiny human being, barely able to open its eyes and focus, is of infinite worth to Jesus

3. Jesus does not have a sentimental view of children… He knows that they are descended from Adam and thus have his sinful nature

a. Children do not have to be taught how to disobey

b. Children naturally have a tremendous bent toward self-focus, selfish interests

c. Children have a powerful sin nature

d. Jesus knew that better than anyone… he can search hearts and minds

4. But he also understands that children have a natural desire to know God and learn about Him; a natural yieldedness to obeying Him, though they cannot see Him

5. Little children have a deep attraction to the invisible God

C. Understanding the Disciples

Matthew 19:13  Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

1. So what were the disciples thinking?

2. They REBUKED the parents who were bringing the children…

3. I wonder what words they used?

4. Perhaps they were frustrated that their time alone with Jesus was being interrupted

5. Perhaps the children were crying or making other annoying noises

6. in any case it seems the issue of “The teacher’s time is TOO IMPORTANT to waste on little children” must have been in their minds

a. often times you see this with the inner circle of some great figure… a political leader, a military conqueror or great general, an important statesman, the CEO of a major corporation, a well-known singer or entertainer, a famous athlete

b. there is a coterie of body-guards and hangers-on in a mighty entourage around this great figure, and you can’t approach them

c. the entourage put up their hands as a stop sign for the pressing multitude:  this far and no farther

d. especially these “important people” these “great men” have no time for anyone who cannot further their agenda… they are “great men” meeting with other “great men” and they have no time for distractions

e. little children, they think, are a complete waste of time

f. sadly, they might not have time even for their own children:  they try to avoid having children, and if they should have them, they minimize any time with them

Illus.  I was reading about the family lives of royal families in Europe and I found it all very sad;  for example, in the English Royal Household a hundred years ago, King George and Queen Mary spent less than 30 minutes a day with their children—the children were raised entirely by nannies, and would frequently cry or shrink back from their parents when they saw them;  a recent story in a Dutch newspaper told a similar tale of woe about the Royal Family of the Netherlands.  The central figure of the story was a nanny who cared for the little princess Luisa-Maria;  she said that 10 days after the little baby girl was born, the royal family left on an official trip to the US, and that more or less from that point on, the baby was the nanny’s to raise;  so also for the other children born to the family.  These little children also would cry when being held by the mother and would want to be back with the nanny.  As they grew, the mother would promise a goodnight kiss, but would be distracted by important business for as much as an hour.  The children would fight to stay awake for that goodnight kiss—the only encounter they’d had with their mother that day.

Anyway, so many people look on children as an unwelcome intrusion from the vastly important business of their lives

Perhaps the disciples felt the same way when they rebuked the parents for bringing the little ones:  “Our Master is too busy saving the world to hug your children.”

Almost certainly, this response flowed from their own pride in their position as well

If Jesus doesn’t check this response on their part, they will develop into the kinds of leaders of the church who can’t be bothered with ANY “little person”, ANY insignificant person, ANY interruption at all

D. Understanding Jesus

1. Jesus’ reactions are amazing… in Mark’s gospel, it says he was angry at them

Mark 10:14  When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.

a. The word means to be aroused in anger, to be vexed, annoyed, irritated

b. It is part of the larger display of the emotional life of our Lord

BB Warfield:  likened Jesus’ response to that of a physical irritation, like a teething child or a rock in a shoe, as well as a mental irritation…

Jesus is mildly angry at his disciples blatant misunderstanding of His heart and His mission

2. One of the most amazing things about Christ:  how INTERRUPTIBLE He was… yes, He had come to save the world, and yes, He had only a short time to do it… but He was NEVER RUSHED and He lingered over every encounter with people… even tiny newborns like here

3. Jesus CHERISHED little children, and was absolutely not annoyed with their interruption

4. Listen to His statement:

Matthew 19:14  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Let’s pick it apart

II. “Let the Little Children Come”

A. The Natural Bent of a Child is GODWARD… More than at any other time in their lives

One commentator puts it with great tenderness:

As the flower in the garden stretches toward the light of the sun, so there is in the child a mysterious inclination toward the eternal light. Have you ever noticed this mysterious thing that, when you tell the smallest child about God, it never asks with strangeness and wonder, “What or who is God? I have never seen Him” – but listens with shining face to the words as though they were soft loving sounds from the land of home? Or when you teach a child to fold its little hands in prayer, it does this as though it were a matter of course, as though there were opening for it that world of which it had been dreaming with longing and anticipation. Or tell them, these little one, the stories of the Savior, show them the pictures with scenes and personages of the Bible [and] see how their pure eyes shine, how their little hearts beat. (R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel [Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1943], p. 743)

1. He wants them to COME to HIM

2. again, proximity to Christ is everything

3. He wants people to come close to Him for salvation

4. so Jesus frequently speaks of Coming to Him

B. Come to Me = For Eternal Life

Matthew 4:19  Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

Matthew 11:28  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 19:21  Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

John 6:37  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

John 5:40  you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 7:37  On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

John 12:32  But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

C. Let The Little Children Come

1. Encourage their God-given desire to be near God

2. feed their spiritual appetites

3. Let them do what their heart WANTS to do… before the world, the flesh and the devil start to harden them and twist their desires

4. Let them come near to Christ for eternal life… to know Him and to love Him

D. Feed Their Spiritual Appetite and Yours

1. a little child yearns to come to Christ

2. they have an inbred longing for spiritual things

3. we must FEED that appetite… we can’t feed it TOO MUCH

Parents frequently are concerned about excesses in their children

Too much sleep… too much food… too much crying… too much play… too much fluoride or salt or sugar in their diets… too much thumbsucking… too much TV… too much music… too much of ANYTHING is harmful

BUT when it comes to their taste for Christ, when it comes to that allurement they have within for Christ, there is NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH:

Jonathan Edwards, commenting on Song of Songs 5:1, “Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love…”

“Persons need not and ought not set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites.”  Rather they ought “to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and obtain more spiritual pleasures…Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can’t be too great for the value of these things… [Therefore] endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement.  There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food.”

So as parents of young children, we ought 1) be ravenously pursuing Christ ourselves, putting our love for Jesus on clear display in front of our children; 2) fanning their own love for Christ into a flame more and more.  There is NO DANGER of too much of Christ… too much of “letting the little children come to me”

III. “Do Not Forbid Them”

A. Prohibition

1. clearly in context, Jesus is just telling His misguided disciples to stop doing what they’re doing, and allowing the parents to bring as many children as God willed

2. in a deeper sense, He doesn’t want the disciples playing the role of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:

Matthew 23:13  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

3. The word in the Greek can mean “forbid” but it can also mean “hinder”… to make it difficult for children to come to Christ

B. How We Prohibit Children from Coming to Jesus

1. First and foremost, we hinder children from coming to Christ by not telling them about Jesus!!  No one can come to Christ apart from hearing about Christ from the Bible:

^ESV Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

a. The biggest way a Christian parent can hinder a child coming to Christ is by not taking full advantage of their eagerness to hear Bible stories

b. They will sit for hours and listen to you talk about the Bible…

c. You will get tired of telling them before they will get tired of listening

d. Also at an early age they are very able to memorize Scripture… you hinder them coming to Christ by not studding their growing minds full of the word of the Lord

2. By stifling their enthusiasm for Christ

a. If you put their childish excitement down, you are hindering them

b. You should fan their affections into a flame

c. You should make much of the pictures they draw about Jesus, praise them abundantly when they memorize a Bible verse

3. by quenching the Spirit

a. the Spirit may be moving in them, urging them to love Jesus more

b. a parent or older person can quench the Spirit by refusing to take their spiritual hunger seriously

c. when they ask you spiritual questions, make the most of that time to tell them what they need to know

4. by exasperating them in discipline

Ephesians 6:4  Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

5. by being overly skeptical or negative toward their budding spirituality

6. by curtly cutting off their childish questions or worship or enthusiasm

a. during family devotions, by not allowing them to speak… or sighing when they bring up some childish issue… the older children can groan and say “Don’t let him speak… He’s too young… he never says anything worth listening to

b. that can crush a little child’s spirit

IV. “Of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven”

A. The Kingdom of Heaven:  the theme of the Gospel of Matthew

1. Mentioned often throughout Matthew’s Gospel

a. 32 times the exact phrase is used

b. four times “the Kingdom of God”

c. “the Kingdom” 4 times

d. once “your kingdom” in prayer

e. also uses expressions like “the Kingdom of My Father”

f. frequently introduces His parables with the phrase “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”

g. central concept:  that God is sovereign over all creation, actively ruling by His omnipotence and His perfect wisdom, according to His perfect plan;  but the Kingdom of Heaven especially shines in the hearts of people who are converted through faith in Christ

h. the advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven then is an advancement of human salvation through the gospel

2. people must ENTER the Kingdom of Heaven through repentance and faith

Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Matthew 5:20  For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 7:21  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 21:31 “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

B. poignantly here: OF SUCH IS the Kingdom of Heaven

1. that means the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of little infants in God’s sight

a. first, then, infants themselves

John MacArthur:  “It’s not that small children are regenerate and then lose their salvation if they do not later receive Christ as Lord and Savior.  It is rather that His atoning death is applied on their behalf if they die before they are able to choose on their own.  It may be that infant mortality rate is so high in many countries where the gospel has not yet penetrated because the Lord is taking those little ones to Himself before they can grow up in a culture where it is so difficult to encounter the gospel and believe.”  [Commentary, 181]

b. second, those who are like infants

John Calvin:  “The passage broadens to give kingdom citizenship to both children and those who are like them.”

c. humble, lowly, faith-filled people enter the Kingdom of Heaven; arrogant people do not

2. already bumped against this concept recently in Matthew 18

Matthew 18:3  And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

a. The danger for the disciples is that they will be hardened through pride in misunderstanding the heart attitude God delights in for entering the Kingdom of Heaven

James 4:6 God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

b. If the disciples were to continue rejecting children and rebuking parents, their own grasp of the gospel itself would be seriously jeopardized

3. CEF President, Reese Kauffman

a. We spend so much of our efforts in evangelism of adults in getting them to that humble, childlike state necessary for them to call on the name of Jesus for salvation, but a child is already there

b. With adults, we have to cut through years of pride and sin and habits and hardness… children don’t have any of that built up

V. Jesus Touches Them and Prays for Them

Matthew 19:15  When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

A. The Power of the Incarnation

1. Jesus frequently TOUCHED people, especially when healing them

2. so also he reaches out and touches these little babies

3. this is part of the reason why the Word Became Flesh… so that He might touch sinners and minister to them that way

B. Touch AND Blessing

Mark 10:16  And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

1. Intrinsic in the touch was Jesus’ desire to BLESS these children

Greek word is intensive, indicating a passionate fervency in blessing;  Jesus must have smiled with a sweet tenderness as He looked into the face of those tiny children

2. blessing is an old Jewish ritual… patriarchs would extend their hands and touch children or grandchildren and speak powerful words of blessing over them, and those words would become prophecies that would guide their lives

a. so significant that Jacob was willing to lie to his blind father, Isaac, and swindle his elder brother Esau from his blessing

b. at the end of his life, Jacob roused himself from his death bed to speak a patriarchal blessing on Joseph’s two sons in Egypt

3. how much more significant would it be to have Jesus bless your children??!!

C. Children Need Touch

1. tragic stories of orphans in Russia or China or Romania who never received any human touch

Human Touch Project:  Eight years ago Charlotte resident Karmelle Chaise traveled to the former Soviet state on a humanitarian mission. While there she was appalled at the conditions she witnessed at state-run orphanages — diaperless babies packed in sheetless cribs where the sun rarely shined. Children who were never held, touched or hugged.

Karmelle’s efforts focused on educating Ukrainian child care workers about the physiological and emotional benefits of human touch… she started the “Human Touch Project”

Karmelle preaches how human touch can be worked into a daily regimen with little extra cost or time.  Karmelle’s most poignant moment came when she watched an otherwise healthy 4-year-old boy lay motionless in a metal crib, his hands bandaged to keep him from scratching himself from scabies. An overworked caregiver came in and tried to force-feed a bowl of gruel to the child as he lay on his back; most of which ended up on his face and neck.

“I just could not bear to watch her shoveling that mush into that poor child’s little mouth,” Karmelle said. “We later lifted him and he was rigid as a board, but in time curled up on our laps just like any child would.”

AIDS babies:

 “AIDS Babies Who Die Alone” ;  pictures of rows of iron cribs, or cots. Each iron crib held one baby, all alone, and there was also a close-up photograph of a baby crying to be held. The wonderful caretakers in the article are 2 people…one couple, by themselves, are trying their best to care for 30 dying AIDS babies at once. The babies live in rows of metal cribs, or iron cots. Babies, caged in white iron bars, crying for the comfort of a human touch. The overwhelmed caregivers in the article did not ask for money. They simply requested the comfort of the human touch and a teddy bear, so the dying AIDS orphaned babies would have the company of a toy as they wait for death, all alone by themselves, in white metal cages.

These stories illustrate just how powerfully little children need to be touched and held and cherished and loved

[Note:  there are controversies about the power of human touch with healing; some with a New Age bent believe that there is healing energy just in human touch… I don’t want to digress here!!]

2. Jesus yearned to touch these little ones and minister His love to them in a way they could understand

3. these infants are pre-lingual and from an early stage their faith can be built up by touch and other physical things

Psalm 22:9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast.

The word “you” is not in the Hebrew of Psalm 22

Basic idea:  the ability to trust in general is developed long before the ability to trust God is possible;  so a mother’s gentle touch for her nursing infant is PRE-EVANGELISM… teaching the child to trust before he or she even knows what trust is… a feeling of security that all needs will be met, that everything’s going to be alright in the future

Later, they get that same feeling from the Word of God but now focused on the invisible Christ

VI. Applications

So how do we put this command into practice now?

FBC has been richly blessed with a sweet abundance of children… especially infants born to our couples over the last many years

How can we obey Christ’s command here:

Matthew 19:14  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

The greatest desire a Christian parent should have in life is this:  the eternal salvation of all your children… therefore you should be CONSTANTLY bringing your children to Christ, to the gospel, to the eternal realities of judgment day, of heaven and hell, of Christ’s death on the cross, of His glorious resurrection from the dead, of their sinfulness and their need for repentance and faith

Jonathan Edwards was an excellent father in this regard… when his ten year old son Jonathan Jr, was serving on a mission station among Indians in upstate New York, his father Jonathan Edwards wrote him a letter.  Amazingly, the day before the date of that letter, the elder Jonathan had fallen off his horse and the horse had rolled over him.  But the godly father didn’t even mention that in his letter… instead he wrote to his little ten year old son of one thing:  the urgency of being certain that his soul was in Christ through faith:

Edwards wrote to his boy that he was always thinking about the boy, but glad that he was always in God; the one thing the boy had always to remember was that he might die at any time; recently David, an Indian boy who’d been a playmate of little Jonathan’s had died; Edwards wrote:  “This is a loud call of God to you to prepare for death; never give yourself any rest until you have good evidence you are converted and have become a new creature.”

So… in light of that urgency, here are ten quick exhortations to parents for the souls of their little ones:

A. Parental Responsibilities

1. Receive Your Children Thankfully

Children are a gift of God; on loan from Him;  they are infinitely more HIS than they are OURS;  therefore cherish them as the gifts they are, and don’t be arrogant over them

2. Love Your Children Deeply

Let your heart frequently melt for your children; be willing to make the greatest sacrifices for them cheerfully;  deeply yearn for the best for them, especially in eternity through the gospel

3. Understand Your Children—Positively and Negatively

a. Positively:  they are in the image of God and have immense potential

b. Negatively:  they are descended from Adam and have an inbred sin nature

4. Teach Your Children Constantly

a. Deuteronomy 6

Deuteronomy 6:6-7  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

b. Even more: saturate them with the gospel of Christ (Romans 10:17)

5. Be Christ-Centered Daily

a. Make Christ the central part of your conversation with your children

b. Talk to them about Him in everything you do… “Jesus gave us this beautiful say!  Isn’t Jesus wonderful!!”

6. Discipline Your Children Wisely

a. Proverbs speaks much of the “rod of reproof”… corporal punishment is an essential part of discipline

b. However, do it wisely… with tenderness, with moderation, with justice, with love… and with no anger or pride or selfishness

7. Pray for Your Children Consistently

Charles Spurgeon, “Children Brought to Christ and Not to the Font”:  How can we bring children to Jesus Christ to be blessed? We cannot do it in a corporeal sense, for Jesus is not here, “he is risen;” but we can bring our children in a true, real, and spiritual sense. We take them up in the arms of our prayer. I hope many of us, so soon as our children saw the light, if not before, presented them to God with this anxious prayer, that they might sooner die than live to disgrace their father’s God. We only desired children that we might in them live over again another life of service to God; and when we looked into their young faces, we never asked wealth for them, nor fame, nor anything else, but that they might be dear unto God, and that their names might be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We did then bring our children to Christ as far as we could do it, by presenting them before God, by earnest prayer on their behalf. And have we ceased to bring them to Christ? Nay, I hope we seldom bow the knee without praying for our children. Our daily cry is, “O, that they might live before thee!” God knows that nothing would give us more joy than to see evidence of their conversion; our souls would almost leap out of our bodies with joy, if we should but know that they were the children of the living God. Nor has this privilege been denied to us, for there are some here who can rejoice in a converted household. Truly we can say with the apostle John, “I have no greater joy than this, that my children walk in the truth.” We continue, therefore, to bring them to Christ by daily, constant, earnest prayer on their behalf.

8. Model Christ for Your Children Faithfully

9. Involve Your Children in Church Early

10. Encourage Your Children Tenderly

B. A Word About Child Baptism

1. We Baptists are committed to the concept of believer baptism… that an individual must make a credible profession of faith in Christ before they can be baptized

2. Unlike most other Christian denominations, we do not baptize infants

3. But in the case of baptizing older children, we Baptists have a problem… at what age can a child make a credible profession of faith in Christ?  And at what age should they testify to that in water baptism?

4. First of all, I believe a child can come to a genuine saving faith very early in age… but I also believe it is very difficult to determine if that has happened

5. I believe baptism should happen only once in life, if at all possible… too often Baptist kids get baptized at some young age after they have “prayed the sinner’s prayer”, then they come to a deeper knowledge of the gospel as teens and are baptized again

6. We do not believe that water baptism is required to go to heaven, and that genuine saving faith is what really matters

7. I would counsel parents of young children to wait on baptism until their confession can be tested

8. I would also counsel a wide measure of grace and love on that issue… too many have judged the motives of pastors and parents alike;  the goal, parents, is not baptism, but salvation… and that is a constantly ongoing work

C. A Word to and About Children’s Workers here at FBC

1. to Children’s workers

a. First, THANK YOU

b. Second, never underestimate the significance of your ministry

c. do not become discouraged at all about what you are doing

2. God may be leading some of you to assist with children in some way… please do not despise this ministry… it is unspeakably precious!!!