Matthew nineteen, verse thirteen. The children were brought to him, that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and went away. This passage answers one key question how does a person enter the kingdom of God? They don't enter it by earning it. They don't enter it by achieving it. Rather, they enter it by receiving it. The kingdom is granted to someone, not gained by them. As I noted earlier, as we started this section through Matthew eighteen and nineteen, the Roman world and the Jewish world had a slightly different view of children than our American world does. In the Jewish world, children were, you know, they were cherished, but their primary function was to receive property. They passed along the family name. You had to pass along your tribal identity or even your land through your offspring. And so children were considered a blessing, but also a necessity in the Roman world. Children were considered an economic asset. They could be sold into slavery around age fourteen or fifteen. They would often stay enslaved until they were thirty. And it's not anything at all like the American system of slavery. You would receive money for your child entering slavery, and you had slaves at every rung of society's ladder. But when they were thirty, they were more or less granted their freedom and the economic status of their previous master. And so parents viewed children as an investment. You could use an American analogy. You could run up credit card debt, so to speak, and then sell your fifteen year old off and have it washed away. They did not consider childhood something to be protected. There were no American girl doll stores in Jerusalem. Kids were often an inconvenience. In our American world, we have shades of that still. You hear of people who don't want to have kids because it would interrupt their lifestyle. Every few months, it seems there's some story in a newspaper or magazine about how expensive it is to raise kids, and those stories are always packaged around the idea of, you know, it costs you five hundred thousand dollars to raise a child, so you better not do it. I talked to one couple not in church a while ago, who told me they weren't going to have kids because they wanted to enjoy their marriage. They wanted, you know, they had a. They explained this to me. They had a low fare alert set from Delta Airlines. And so Delta would do these flash sales and they'd want to be able to jump on that and travel anywhere they could at a moment's notice. That's living life. And you can't do that. You know, flash sale to Maui. You can't bring your four year old with you. Or I guess you could, but you would enjoy Maui less. And so in their mind, that's a no brainer. We we want that lifestyle and kids would be a hindrance to it. And I was, I was listening to that and it just made me sad, honestly. I mean, that's the picture of a such a shallow desire, isn't it? Like a desire so shallow that it's you don't even know where you want to go. Like something I might want to go somewhere next month, so I better not have a child. In contrast, the Bible presents children as a blessing. Designed to bring happiness and life and joy into the world. Psalm thirty seven, verse twenty six says that a righteous man receives his children as a blessing. His children are a blessing to him in the midst of a fallen world that is plagued by evil. Children are a token of God's goodness and kindness and wonder and innocence that is expressed in the world. Kids have this wide eyed optimism, this humility, this reception, this innocence is probably the best word for it. It's a word that God uses to describe children. In the book of Ezekiel. He refers to them as my innocence. They doesn't mean they're sinless. Of course, children are sinners. I mean, if you met one before, but they have a sense of innocence to them. They're not hardened. They're not hardened. They believe that God exists. They are in that sense naked and not ashamed. They. They present this personality or persona to you that almost makes you wonder what the Garden of Eden was like. When Adam and Eve sinned. Of course, they sinned before they had children, but when they sinned, God didn't wipe out Adam and Eve and start over with a new couple. No. Instead, God decided that he would bring salvation to the world through children. Eve, of course, was made from flesh because she was going to produce life and give life. She was the mother of all living and she was cursed in her sin, in her childbirth. It will be painful to bring life into the world so far from God saying, because of sin, I'm going to eradicate the human race. Rather, God said, because of sin, sin will multiply, sinners will keep being born and sin will expand. And yet through the birth of sinners, salvation will come to sinners through the offspring of Eve. Satan will have his head crushed through the child of Eve. Salvation comes to the world. This is what Paul means when he tells Timothy in chapter two that women will be saved through childbearing. It doesn't mean that you have to personally have kids for to be rescued from your sin, but that God, back at the very beginning, designed a way of salvation that hinges on children being born. And thus a mark of biblical womanhood truly is the love for children. Even Eve knew this. When she fell pregnant with Cain, she rejoiced. She rejoiced. This is a basic contrast in godliness. Christians view children as a blessing not just to themselves but to the world. In contrast, the world often views children as collateral damage in divorce, an obstacle to be avoided, a hindrance, a commodity to be parked in child care while we chase our own dreams. That's why Psalm one hundred and twenty seven, verse four says that children are like arrows in the hands of a warrior. Solomon then writes that you are blessed in Psalm one twenty seven when your life is filled with them. Now even the hard parts of parenting bring joy. Parenting isn't all joy and blessing. Of course, there are hard things in parenting like discipline, like potty training your kids. That's the hardest part right there. Disciplining is probably the hardest part of being a parent. And yet, even in that, you get a window of how God disciplines his own children. He disciplines those whom he loves. Psalm Proverbs twenty nine verse seventeen says, correct your son, and he'll give you rest. He'll be a delight to your soul. If you discipline your kids when they're young. They, generally speaking, remember proverbs aren't promises. They're wisdom principles. If you discipline your kids when they're young, they'll generally grow into blessings again. What a contrast with the world and the world. Discipline is so rare of children. It's usually swinging between neglect and coddling. And so children do become a hindrance when a children grows up in the fear and knowledge of the Lord. This is why Christian parents love to teach their kids about the scriptures and about God, because they grow into blessings. Those that delight in God themselves are children of God and see children as a blessing. Generally speaking, those that delight in themselves rather than God make it evident that they are not children of God, and they look at the world and see children, generally speaking, as an obstacle. But those who know the Lord cherish the virtue and the innocence, the childlike nature of children. This sets the stage for the encounter in verse thirteen. After teaching on marriage, Jesus is still talking with the disciples. The context here is important. He's teaching on marriage. He had just said what God had joined together. Let no one separate. And the disciples remember saying in the larger context is about church discipline and forgiveness. It's about life in the church, remember? And Jesus had taught that if a new believer is like a child, this goes back to Matthew eighteen. A new believer is like a child. He had just taught that. And you confront them in their in their sin, and you win them over. And if a person has brought sin into your life and into the world, you confront them. If they repent, great, you've won them over. And if they repent, you receive them back. And so now he's dealing with what do you do with a a in a marriage where one spouse says, I'm not receiving this person back, they've hurt me too much, I won't receive them back. And Jesus corrects that thinking and says, no, you need to receive them back. You cannot divorce them. And then the disciples say, well, if that's true, then why would anybody get married? That's what just happened. And Jesus says, what God has brought together, let no one separate and right you are. There are people whom God gives the gift of singleness to, and Jesus calls it a gift. I know not everybody receives singleness as a gift. I know there are those that that don't don't want to stay single that long for a spouse, but Jesus refers to it as a gift. This is what he just said. And after saying that is when they're bringing him children. Do you understand? The children here are illustrations of what he's talking about. And what are the disciples doing? They are saying, no, stop bringing the children to Jesus. Excuse me. Jesus is teaching on marriage. Children are a distraction to this topic. Now, why are these parents bringing children to Jesus? It says in verse thirteen that he could lay his hands on them and pray. This is a common Jewish custom. It goes back to Noah, who laid hands on his kids and blessed them. Jacob laid hands on Esau and Isaac and passed down the blessing. This is very common in the Jewish world. Do you have an older godlier person? Lay his hands on your children and they bestow a blessing as they pray for them. That's what they're asking Jesus to do so. Again, context here. These parents that are bringing their kids to Jesus don't picture them as what we would call believers. They don't recognize that Jesus is the Son of God, and he's the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the father except through him. That's probably an overstatement. They haven't made Peter's confession where they say, you're the Son of God. They're not there, but they recognize that Jesus is a healer, that he is a teacher. They recognize, as Nicodemus said in John chapter three. Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher sent from God because no one can do what you do unless God is with him. They recognize that Jesus has basically driven illness out of Israel at this point in his life. So parents get that and they see him teaching. He's moving from Capernaum down to Jericho here. So he's on a road he's not usually on, and parents are flooding him with kids while the Pharisees are trying to trap him about divorce. I mean, the whole thing is incredibly ironic. They just want these parents just want Jesus to lay hands and bless their children. So this is not the best motivation from the parents, but it's also not the worst. Like they get if the battle is between good and evil, they get that Jesus is on the side of good, and they want their kids to be blessed by somebody they consider to be a strong religious teacher. That's the context. And Jesus is eager to receive the children. He wants to receive them. But the disciples look at the end of verse thirteen, rebuked the people. I mean, that is insane. And I know it's easy to just impute bad motives to the disciples, but you cannot lose sight of the fact that this whole exchange started in chapter eighteen, with the disciples arguing over who the greatest in the kingdom was, and Jesus, having a toddler brought to him and holding his child in his arms and saying, this is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And so it appears the disciples take away now that children are still being brought to Jesus, is to view the children as competitors with them. They want to be the greatest. And why are all these kids around? The word that Matthew used for uses for children here is not the word for like, you know, a seven year old or a ten year old. It is. It's the word for like a toddler, somebody who has to be brought somewhere. Carried. Maybe they can walk or waddle a little bit. That's the age we're talking about here. And parents are bringing them to Jesus, and Jesus is blessing them while proclaiming that these kind of people are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And I mean the disciples, they want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So understand how confronting Jesus's words are towards the Pharisees who are there with their bejewelled plates and their long hats and their robes and the whole shebang. They've got that going on as they're trapping Jesus. the disciples have been following Jesus everywhere. They're trying to climb over each other's shoulders to be the greatest. And in the middle of that circus, Jesus is holding toddlers, saying that they are the ones that are greatest. So the disciples rebuke him. Jesus is not happy. You don't see this in Matthew's gospel, but Mark uses stronger language. Mark chapter ten, verse fourteen says that Jesus was indignant with the disciples. That's a two dollar word that means triple super dog. Angry. Jesus was hot or furious. Might be a more commonly used English word. Now, not all anger is sin. There's such a thing as righteous anger. We can safely deduce that Jesus wasn't sinfully angry at the disciples, but he was indignant. He was furious. He was super triple dog angry with them for blocking these children from coming to him. Because again, the context he's already told them to such belong the kingdom of heaven. These are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. What are you doing? He gives a dual imperative here in verse fourteen Greek, you can tell a positive and a negative imperative. You get them both paired together. Here, let. This is the positive one. Let the little children come to me. It's a positive imperative. Let is kind of permissive in English, but it's a strong imperative in Greek. Let the kids in. Let the children come. The implication is that there's this floodgate, so to speak, that's been closed. The children are stacking up outside of the door to see Jesus, and the disciples are barring it. And Jesus is saying, open the gates. Flowers might bend towards the sun. It's clear that children's hearts are bending towards Jesus. Here the disciples are blocking it and there's a negative imperative stop hindering them. Stop putting yourself in the way. Again, this Greek verb tense implies a cessation of something you're currently doing. In other words, an English stop it! Stop blocking them. Do not hinder them. Now why is Jesus so insistent the children be brought to him? Because children have an innocence to them. Like I said, innocence is the word the Bible uses to describe them. It doesn't mean they're sinless. Don't hear me say children are sinless. They are not sinless. They sin all the time. They don't have to be taught how to sin. They come out of the womb sinning. That's their default setting. Nevertheless, they have a sense of innocence to them because they do not sin like adults. Sin. Adult sin by knowing the command of God and doing the opposite. Adults know that God is true. Adults know that idolatry is wrong. Adults know that lying is wrong and that lust is wrong, and that stealing is wrong and that hatred is wrong. Adults know all those things and adults suppress that truth in their minds. They make excuses even though the law condemns them and says that you're a liar and a thief and a lusting adulterer and a murderer at heart and all of that. Every adult knows that when they reckon with what their conscience reveals to them, they know they fall short of God's standard. But what do adults do with that? They say, well, that doesn't matter because I'm actually really good anyway. Adults suppress the truth. They know idolatry is wrong, and yet they worship all kinds of things. That's adults. Kids aren't like that. Kids are sinners, of course, but they also have a sense of innocence and open eyed wonder at God and who he is. Kids know that they're a creature and that God is the creator. They haven't learned to suppress their conscience yet. Kids fight with their conscience, but they don't suppress it the way adults do. Kids know they don't rule their life. It takes an adult and lots of degrees to get somebody to actually believe they're in charge of their life. Kids don't. And so Jesus says in verse fourteen, to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. That word that's rendered there. For to such it. It's a kind of a technical word that means a subset of a group. Kids are part of the group that belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. They're representative of it. A way this is used in classical Greek literature as give me a banana from the bunch. And there's a connotation to it that not only does that banana belong to the bunch, but that you're choosing one that best represents the bunch. And that's what Jesus is doing here. Children belong to the class of people that are going to heaven when they die, and they perhaps best represent that class. That's Jesus's point again. This is so confronting to the Pharisees, and it's so confrontive to the disciples, because the Pharisees think that they're at the top of the food chain. The disciples are fighting to be at the top of greatness in Jesus's mind. And Jesus keeps bringing kids, toddlers in front of him. And doesn't just say that these are good people also, or you should look out for children. He actually says, these are the examples of what saving faith is like. There's a lot of implications for Jesus's statement here. This is one of those little sentences Jesus says that turns the world upside down. One of the implications of this, I just want to touch on briefly, is that little children who die go to heaven when they die. God's grace covers their sin because they are in a sense, innocent, not because they're sinless. Of course, if they were sinless, they wouldn't die. You understand that the wages of sin is death. If little babies were sinless, they would not die. No, they are born as sinners. That is why oftentimes babies die. But God receives them into glory because they have a special relationship with him. There are all kinds of. I've counted thirty three passages that teach that in the Bible. I'm not going to drag you through all thirty three today, but it would make a good sermon sometime. But I do just want you to notice that his analogy to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven. It is an analogy, but the analogy only works if the underlying point is true. For example, if I said my car is as fast as a cheetah, it does not mean that my car has spots. It does not mean it has fur or paws or claws or lives in Africa. It only means that it is fast and that analogy only works if cheetahs are fast. That's the only point of connection, and the analogy only works if that's true. When Jesus says to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. In fact, in Mark's gospel he goes further and says, unless you enter the kingdom like a child, you are not going there. So that's the point of connection. It doesn't mean that Christians are like children in every way. Of course not. The single point of connection is that children are going to heaven if they were to die. That's the point of connection. The analogy only works if that's true. And of course, it's offensive to the disciples, and it raises all kinds of questions to us. In what way are children's representative of what it means to go to heaven? In what ways do children represent the kingdom of God? I'll give you a brief outline for our remaining time this morning. It's not about what children have. That's the key to understanding this passage. When Jesus says, to such belong the kingdom of heaven, he's not talking about what children need or what they possess to go to heaven. It's all about the absence, what they don't have. That's the point of comparison. It's almost like it's the opposite of a prerequisite. There might be an English word for that. I don't know what it is, but a prerequisite is something you need in order to get to the next stage. This is almost the opposite of that, something you can't have if you want to get to the next stage. First. Children lack authority. Children don't have authority. They recognize that they are low. Now, if you put a group of four year olds together, I'm sure one four year old might appoint himself the boss of the others. You know, you see on the stage all the kids up there, it's like a living illustration of this. And you see a kid who was parked in the back row because of his conduct. First hour. And yet somehow manages to navigate himself to the front row and then act as a traffic police and tell everybody else where to go. I get it, kids will elevate themselves over other kids all the time, but all of those kids recognize Miss Kelly as their authority. All of them. In fact, those kids would recognize probably any adult as their authority. They're young enough. You tell them to move over there. They would. They would all do it. Like they get that the kids recognize they are not in charge. It's not it's not them that determines their lives. Kids understand that they're under other people's authority. They know that God is greater than them. They know that God is their creator and that they are only a creature. Like I said, kids understand that almost any adult can boss around a kid because kids know they're low. That's the point of comparison. They don't have authority, but what they do have is humility. They receive that kind of direction because they know where they stand in life that's analogous to saving faith. For a Christian to have saving faith, you have to recognize that you are not in charge of your life. You're not the captain of your own ship. You are not in charge. There is an authority above you. You are a creature. God is the creator again. Children generally understand that. And that's Jesus's point. Secondly, children lack strength. They can't do things for themselves. They can't carry things. You don't send your five year old to the store with the credit card, and it's not because you wouldn't know how to use the credit card. He probably would. He's watched you for five years. It's that he can't carry home the milk afterwards like he just can't. Try as he might, he can't. The kids don't. You know, four year old doesn't load the dishwasher because he can't reach the sink. That's that's why they don't have the strength to do things. They can't cross the road. Even if they knew to look left and right, it wouldn't help. They can't see over the parked cars like that's just the reality. They lack the strength to do things. What they have instead is weakness. Children become a symbol of weakness. And this. And kids understand that by the way they reach for your hand across the street like they get it. This becomes a symbol of saving faith that we lack the ability to earn our way to heaven. We don't have what it takes to generate our own righteousness. We are weak. So this idea that you can be good enough to go to heaven when you die does not work. If you're starting point of your relationship with God is that I don't have any. I don't have the muscles. I don't have the righteousness to do what God requires. God requires this. I can't even get on the game. I can't make the team. I don't have what it takes. I'm only weak when it comes to righteousness. I do not make the cut and it's not an issue of effort or work. I can't do it. I can't do it. That's the analogy for saving faith. Kids are walking embodiments of that third kid's lack independence. Like I said, they can't do anything for themselves. They need their parents to do everything for them. I mean, this one year old has been alive for twelve months, has worn an outfit every day of his life and cannot dress himself. Can you believe that, kid? Come on, man, figure out a onesie. It's one piece of clothing. Cannot do it. Kids need help for everything. They need you to cut up their little food for them. You think God gave you teeth? And they're like kids, like. Yeah, but not yet. They can't. They can't fill their juice cup. They can't tie their shoes. You give them the, the little Velcro shoes to help, and they're just yanking on the Velcro all day long. Like the little kids need help for all things. They need help to go to the bathroom like they are weak and dependent. They lack independence. They are entirely dependent on everybody around them. For everything. For everything. They need you to make their food every day. And they're thankful, aren't they? Like the young age. They're so thankful. You make them breakfast in the morning. You've made them breakfast every day of their life. And yet they're so thankful that young age. Thank you. By the time they're a teenager, they're like, yeah, I know. You know, and if you wonder, by the way, why there's conflict in the home with teenagers, it's these things on the screen. Like little kids don't have authority, don't have strength, don't have independence. As they become teenagers, they start expanding their borders and exercising their authority, acquiring authority, exercising their independence. So view teenagers in your home as a game of risk. It's just the other team expanding their armies. That's all it is. But little kids delight, delight in their dependence. I remember once with one of my kids, I dropped the rest of the family off at the front door of a restaurant or wherever we were, and I went and parked in the parking lot, and I had one of the kids in the back seat. I won't tell you which one, because they're now all old enough to be embarrassed by the story, but this one was in a car seat facing away, so I couldn't see that I was in the front of the car, and I was just sitting there on my phone in the front seat. And after a couple of minutes, I hear in the back seat, I'm alone. I was like, no, you're not. I am right here. I am right here. And do not tell your mom I left you alone. Do not. Like there's this sense in which children want to be under the watchful eye of their parents. That becomes an analogy of saving faith. You don't want to be away from God's providential care. You don't want a God who doesn't hear your prayers, who doesn't see your steps, who doesn't know your ways. You don't want that. Like if you're running off in sin. Of course you hope God closes his eyes. But if you are in a right relationship with the Lord, you want the care and the forgiveness and the kindness of God to envelop you. And fourthly, kids lack works. They can't do anything. They don't bring anything to the table, so to speak. You make them food and they don't say, I would like to clean up after dinner to show you how thankful I am for the food. Like they're not able to do those things. They can't. They can't add anything. They only have need. And this becomes analogous to salvation. It's the difference between works and faith. What kids have is faith. Faith. Their parents will feed them. Faith. Their parents will care for them. This is analogous to faith. We cannot work our way to heaven. We receive all that we have by faith completely by faith. And this is an analogy that breaks down in Catholicism. For those of you who raise in Catholicism, you know that Catholics generally teach that salvation comes by faith, but it is faith that energizes works. That's kind of the standard line. You have faith. The faith energizes your works. Your works then become meritorious in giving you righteousness. That's not this analogy. It's not that kids have a little bit of faith that energizes what they do around the home. No, they can't at these little ages do anything. Like they can't mow the grass. They can barely pull weeds, they can barely pick up sticks like they're not. Faith is not energizing their contribution to the household. The point is they don't have works. This is analogous to our salvation. We cannot offer anything positive to God from the source of our own works. We are only recipients of God's righteousness through faith. We're dependent upon the Lord for all things. Now, in Mark's Gospel, Jesus goes on to say, unless you receive the king, unless you enter the kingdom this way, you will not enter it at all. Unless you receive the kingdom like a child, you will not enter it and not let you know this kind of two fold attitude here that the kingdom is something you receive now and enter later. You receive it at your conversion. You enter it at death. You receive it when you become a new believer. That's the whole analogy over all of Matthew eighteen. New believers are analogous to children in the faith. That's the millstone. Remember, you cause a new believer to sin. It's like causing one of these children to sin. Millstone neck ocean is what you deserve. You defend children in the faith. It does not mean that Christians are to be like children in every way. Of course not. You are supposed to grow up when you come to faith in Christ. You are a childlike believer. You have immaturity. You are supposed to grow roots in doctrine. You are supposed to grow more stable. It is a sign of immaturity to be swayed this way and that, to be swayed by every passing fad, every church growth thing, every hip style in the world. The person who gets swayed by that kind of stuff is immature. Paul says, when I was a child, I talked like a child. I reasoned like a child. As I grow up, I put childish things behind. So you should grow in the faith, but you should never grow out of childlike faith. That's the key difference. Yes, you grow in maturity and your knowledge of God and in your stability in your walk with the Lord. You should be growing in maturity, but you never grow out of childlike faith. That's why Jesus goes on verse fifteen to lay hands on the kids. He's blessing them and going away. He loves them. He cares them. He prays for them. Remember, it's not about the touch here. It's not some sacramental thing that he's touching them or some mystical thing. He's just blessing them. This is Jesus's attitude toward children turned on its head. Now, I just want to give a little side note here to those that are single and don't have children, or to married couples, that God has never blessed you with children. He's not talking only about your biological children. The analogy works with biological children, of course. That's the analogy. That's not the main point. He's talking about children. New believers in the church beginning in chapter eighteen, verse one, all the way through this, this bookmarks this whole section of church discipline, marriage, divorce, singleness, children. It's a chord that runs through all of it. You may have forgotten this, but Jesus was single. These kids are not his. But he blesses them and demonstrates the blessing of children in the family of God. This is one of those bridge narratives here that's so providentially designed by the Lord. It closes out the section that went before this. It kind of puts a bow on. Jesus's teaching about marriage begins with an illustration of children and ends with an illustration of children. But it also sets you up for what comes next. We'll look at this in two weeks. The rich young ruler who marches in, and the disciples wave him right to the front, don't they? They're like, come on down, man. You're who we've been waiting for. He's monetarily rich, politically powerful, religiously has authority. He is the perfect candidate for the gospel in their mind, but he will not enter it like a child. He comes in holding his authority. Holding his money, holding his rugged, youthful good looks. And he's not allowed in. What a contrast. What a contrast. Let's not miss the main fact of the story. People were coming to Jesus, and Jesus equated coming to him with coming to the kingdom of heaven. How do you get into the kingdom of heaven? You don't climb in. You don't earn your way in. You don't prove yourself worthy. You come empty handed in. Jesus receives you. Lord, we are grateful that you open the kingdom doors wide. You receive all who come to you in childlike faith. I pray for anyone here this morning that has never given their lives to you. I pray that you would open their hearts this morning, that they would receive the kingdom like a child. They would believe this message and be welcomed into the arms of Christ. We know that you can do that through the working of your spirit. We give you thanks in Jesus name. Amen. And now for parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson. If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website. If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to TMZ dot edu. Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, DC area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel. I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service. But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church. Now, may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly. Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel boldly.