Today’s passage is one of the best known stories of the gospels. It’s very simple truth, presented in a simple, straightforward way. So much so, that the full significance of this passage might be easily overlooked. I believe it contains some of the richest theology in regards to salvation that we might find anywhere in the scriptures, and so I want to focus on just these four verses this morning.
Let’s read it in it’s entirety first of all, and then I will try to comment on it. Vs 13, “And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it [at all.]" And He took them in His arms and [began] blessing them, laying His hands on them.”
This account is repeated in all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with very little variation. Another interesting thing to note is that the familiar story of the rich young ruler follows directly after the account of the children coming to Jesus, which serves as a stark contrast. If the subject of entering into eternal life is the point of that contrast, as evidenced by the rich young ruler’s question in vs 17, then the significance of this event with the children must be taken as instructive as to how one may enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus says here that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these children. And that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. Compare that to the rich young ruler who after asking how he could inherit eternal life went away sorrowing, even though he had kept the law, because he was not willing to forsake everything and follow Christ. And of course, the phrase “enter into the kingdom of God" is the equivalent to the phrase “inherit eternal life.” They are both speaking of the same thing; the kingdom of God is eternal life. Eternal life is not just a long, long, long life. It’s the abundant life that Jesus said He gives. “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
The prosperity gospel preachers have bastardized the abundant life concept as something that you get when God blesses you with health, wealth and happiness. But Jesus wasn’t talking about that, or promising a heaven on earth type of existence for believers. But rather, Jesus was talking about a new life through Jesus Christ. He was talking about being born again of the Spirit into new life. And that life is everlasting life in the kingdom of God, as we live under the reign of Jesus Christ the Lord.
The passage begins by saying that they were bringing children to Jesus so that He might touch them. The idea was that He would bless them, laying hands on them and praying for them such as was the tradition passed down from the patriarchs. You can find examples of Isaac and Jacob doing the same for their children. Today we have somewhat of a tradition of bringing your baby to the church for dedication, which may have come from this sort of thing. But it would seem not to be out of place in Jewish society of that time to bring your baby to receive a blessing from the priest or rabbi.
So I think it was a sincere desire on the part of the parents to see the child grow up unto the Lord, to have a godly upbringing, to call upon God to protect and nurture the child, and to bless the child as he grew up. There was nothing wrong with such a thing, in fact, the parents are to be commended for their desire to raise their child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
I would encourage you that are parents today to realize that you have a stewardship of the gift of children that should not be taken lightly. Your responsibility in raising a child is not merely to keep a roof over their head and feed and clothe them. Your responsibility is not just to save up money so that they can go to college. Your responsibility is to teach your children the fear of the Lord. To raise your children up in the church. To teach them the word of God.
When God gave the commandments to Moses He gave specific instructions to the parents saying in Deut. 6:6-9 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Being raised by Christian parents to believe the Bible and follow the Lord should not be an option. I’ve heard parents say, “Well I am leaving it up to junior if he wants to come to church or not. I don’t want to push anything on him, you know.” I wonder if such parents leave it up to junior whether or not he wants to brush his teeth. Or whether or not he wants to go to school. I would suggest that their spiritual state is of greater importance than their grade point average or how many cavities they have. So I encourage you as parents, and as grandparents, to make the spiritual development of your child the highest priority.
These parents wanted the best spiritual advantage for their children and so they brought them to Jesus. Commentators tell us that Luke makes it clear in his account that the little children were actually infants. I would think it included infants up to the age of toddlers, because we see later in vs 16 that Jesus took them in His arms. So I doubt that they were much older than toddlers.
The disciples though rebuked the parents for what they perceived as bothering Jesus with their children. This is another example of the disciples exercising certain behavior that we can as arm chair quarterbacks easily criticize them for. Many preachers seem to love to point out the faults of the disciples, as if to show their own surpassing spiritual maturity. But in the disciples defense, there are multiple instances recorded in Mark when Jesus Himself attempted to get away from the crowds.They were constantly being hounded by people seeking to see some spectacular miracle, or people seeking healing, or all kinds of things that people wanted from Jesus. And so they were probably just trying to prevent what they thought were just another type of interruption. They certainly didn’t understand the full significance of what these parents were trying to do. I’m sure in their minds, blessing babies didn’t compare with the pressing business of healing blindness or casting out demons.
But when the disciples rebuke the parents, Jesus rebukes the disciples. Actually it says He became indignant towards them. I think a better translation might be annoyed. I think Jesus thought the disciples were missing the point. Jesus came to give life, everlasting life. That was His purpose. His goal wasn’t to heal everyone of every disease in Israel. And as evidenced by Jesus’s statement, these children were the perfect recipients of the grace of God.
Jesus says to them, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Previously, in chapter 9, Jesus had said that whoever puts a stumbling block in front of one of these little ones, (referencing a child that was among them) it would be better for him if a milestone was tied about his neck and he was thrown into the middle of the ocean. So when Jesus says don’t hinder the children from coming to Me, I suppose He is annoyed that they so quickly have forgotten that admonition.
The point is Jesus wants the children to come to Him. Listen, there is no better time to come to Jesus than when you are young. I read some statistics once that I can’t find now, but they spoke about the odds of coming to Christ at various ages. The percentage of the possibility of coming to Christ when you were below the age of 18 was quite high, but with every decade that passed the likelihood of coming to salvation dropped considerably. By the time someone had reached the age of 60 or more, and had not come to salvation, the likelihood dropped to the low single digits. So for you parents, you’re not doing your child any favors by waiting until they get older to make a decision about the Lord. The best opportunity to become a believer is while they are young.
Jesus says, “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” John MacArthur preached a sermon on this text and the whole premise of the sermon was to say that children who die before the age of accountability are saved by the grace of God. I think he also wrote a book on that subject. And I think that has long been the traditional view of many conservative Bible teachers and scholars. John Calvin, for instance, seems to hold to that view. And they use this text and a number of other supplemental passages to support the idea that God bestows His grace upon those children that die before they have an understanding of right and wrong, and consequently are innocent of presumptuous sin. They have inherited the sin nature from their parents, but they haven’t had the cognizance to act upon it, and God grants those who die in that state grace. I would tend to agree with that view, but I don’t feel we can be dogmatic about it on the basis of this statement alone.
But Jesus does seem to make an unequivocal statement here; the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. He doesn’t qualify it by saying the kingdom of God belongs to such as these who are born of believing parents. He doesn’t say that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these who are baptized. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. And these little children have nothing to offer God in exchange. They can’t even offer God faith. But God grants them grace.
But while the salvation of babies may be implied in what Jesus says, I don’t think that is the primary point of what Jesus is saying. He further explains His point by saying, "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” So He isn’t saying that only babies will enter the kingdom of God, but that unless you become like a child you will not enter it. Unless you become LIKE a child.
Well, what does that mean? How do you become like a child? It means to accept the gospel with genuine trust, with child like humility, knowing that you have nothing to offer in exchange. It’s complete trust in what Christ has done for us, and not trusting in your own righteousness, or your own accomplishments, or your own inherent goodness. To be like a child means simple, child like trust in Christ.
I heard the story of a wealthy shop owner that piled up gold coins on the window sill of his storefront. There was a sign in the window above it which said “Take one.” All day long people walked by the window and saw the coins and read the note, but inwardly they were thinking, “You can’t fool me.” And so they passed on by. When evening came, just before the shop owner was going to remove the coins, a child came by, read the sign, and reached out and took a coin. That’s child like faith.
How many people, I wonder, have refused to trust in Jesus as their Savior because they think that they are too smart for all this Christian stuff. I shudder to think of who might be here today who doubt in the validity of the gospel, who want to think about it, who want to believe that it can’t be that simple, that there must be more to entering into the kingdom of God. But Jesus said in Matt. 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
But there is yet another application that we could make from this statement of Jesus. To become like a child is to be born again. To be born again in spirit. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3: 3 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
So to be born again is to become a child again, but not in the flesh, but in the spirit. That is how you must become like a child in order to enter the kingdom of God. Being born again is to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, the Holy Son of God, who came to die in your place, to pay the penalty for your sins, that whosoever believes in Him might be saved.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Through the cross of Jesus Christ, my sins are transferred to Jesus, and His righteousness is transferred to my account. And by faith in that sacrifice on His part, I am given new life, I am born again. I have become like a child born into the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is the rule of Christ in your heart and life, together with all the blessings that result from His rule. Entering the kingdom means receiving new life, that is, everlasting life. John 17:3 says, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Once you come to know and believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you enter into eternal life and all the blessings that come from being a child of the King.
Then after stating how you must become like a child to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus took the children in His arms and blessed them. Vs.16, “And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.”
John 1:12-13 says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The Bible tells us in several places that salvation is of the Lord. God is the author and the finisher of our salvation. Do we have a part, a responsibility in salvation? Yes, our responsibility is to believe. To come to Jesus. And He will do the rest. As many as receive Him, He will give you the power to become the sons and daughters of God, even to them that believe on His name.
You are born again by believing in Jesus Christ, believing in who He is, and what He accomplished for us, and you are born again not of flesh, nor by the will of man, but you are born of God. You become like a child, born for the second time, born of the Spirit, and as a child of God, you are granted an inheritance in the kingdom of God, even everlasting life.
Today the ruler of the world has left a coin of the greatest value on the window ledge of the kingdom of heaven. He has put a sign there which says, Take one. What is your response? I urge you - in child like faith to receive His gift of eternal life, the greatest treasure.
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