Matthew 19:13-15 | "The Biblical Case for Children's Ministry"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Would you take your Bibles, please, and make your way to Matthew chapter 19?

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

And as you make your way there, I will let you know that Allison told you, told me that I should let you know that I am almost blind this morning.

I have new bifocals, and the bottom part, I just can't see.

So I've spent the week in front of a computer doing this.

So I have no idea if the notes that I have written are correct.

And I have no idea if I'll be able to read my notes.

So if you find me doing this, that's what's going on.

Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

If you are visiting with us, if you are our guests, we want to welcome you.

We've been working our way through Matthew's gospel.

And this morning we find ourselves in Matthew chapter 19, beginning in verse 13.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Just three verses.

You know, we've been through millennia of Earth's history.

And even though those thousands upon thousands of years have gone by, they have not changed the world's view of children.

Two thousand years ago, the Romans left unwanted babies exposed to the elements.

If the gods wanted the baby to live, it was believed that the gods would rescue the child, perhaps by a passerby taking the child and giving them a life of slavery or prostitution.

At one point in Roman history, the preferred method of disposing of unwanted newborns was by throwing them on the manure pile.

We see throughout history that sin is often seen in its most pronounced ways against children.

Observed various times in history, perhaps most cruelly, most horribly in child sacrifice, sometimes in alarming numbers.

So it was an incredibly subversive, culturally subversive action of the early church to open their hearts and even their homes to take in such unwanted children.

While people with a still-functioning conscience might recoil at the sinful spiritual war against children, we might ask ourselves the question: how often do we think of the positive elements pertaining to children?

In other words, how frequently does God's view of children stir our hearts?

Monthly?

Weekly?

Daily?

It's an important question because how God views children should be how we view children.

How God acts towards children ought to be how we act towards children, regardless of the pressures and the ideals of the culture and the world in which we live.

So if the world in which we live indulges in a spiritual war against children, the same war that existed in first century Roman Empire, then our churches today ought to be viewed just as subversively, just as countercultural, as gatherings of people to change the lives of children.

We find a short but insightful text on God's perspective of children in Matthew 19, beginning in verse 13.

Matthew records for us.

Then children were brought to Jesus so that he might lay his hands on them and pray.

The disciples, though, 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.

Amen.

Matthew narrates this scene for us in simple stages.

Children are brought to Jesus.

As the children are brought to Jesus, the disciples rebuke either the children coming or the parents bringing the children.

Jesus then corrects the disciples, and Jesus then receives the children.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

But it becomes too simple, far too simple, if we too quickly put ourselves in the category of those who willingly receive children, rather than consider whether or not we are in need of rebuke.

Just because we, as a gathering of people in a church, think more highly of children than our culture does not necessarily mean that we automatically have a biblical view of children.

When we consider that Matthew wrote this section a decade at least or more after these events took place in a book given to the church, we see that it relates for us some things about how the church ought to relate to children.

This is a critical passage for us about ministering to children.

There's many things perhaps that we could focus on this morning, but I'd like us to spend our time thinking about, excuse me, thinking about four principles for children's ministry that we draw from these verses.

And don't worry, if you are not involved in children's ministry, you will be soon.

First principle that we see is found in Jesus' acknowledgement of the humanity of children.

We see that in his commanding the freedom to come directly to him.

The people bringing children to Jesus aren't thinking twice about it.

They knew who Jesus was.

I mean, this is two, almost three years into Jesus' ministry by this point in time, and so Jesus' ministry is well known.

Jesus is well known.

The parents, the folks bringing these children to Jesus, they're not having to consider whether or not this is a good idea.

They knew who Jesus was, they desired to have him pray for their children, and there isn't much that is odd in that picture because this type of activity was quite common in the first century.

Jewish history tells us that parents took their children to the synagogue for teaching and for worship.

And a father would often bring his children to the elders of that synagogue for them to lay hands on their children and pray for them.

One of those prayers is still being used today, 2,000 years later.

It's a prayer that asks God to make the child famous in the law of God, to make them faithful in marriage and abundant in good works.

A Jewish commentary called the Talmud tells us that this kind of blessing was particularly important on the Day of Atonement.

That day when the high priest would make atonement for the forgiveness of all the sins of all of Israel.

And on the evening of the Day of Atonement, that day when the offering was made at the temple, the tradition was for the people to bring their children to the elders or to a local rabbi and have them blessed through the prayers of those leaders.

So it's no surprise that these parents are bringing their children to Jesus.

It's commonplace, it's ordinary.

And Jesus is popular.

He's popular with a reputation of being a man of God.

So the wise thing would be to take your children to Jesus.

Ask him to ask God to bless their children.

Now we aren't told if these parents believed in Jesus as their Messiah.

We don't know anything about their status of faith.

All we know is that they think it's important for their children to come to Jesus.

You and I would likely do the same thing if we were walking those dusty roads.

Seeing Jesus come down the road ministering to people, healing them of their diseases, teaching people.

You wouldn't see him and know him as God's emissary.

And naturally being concerned about your children's future, you would want to do whatever you could for them.

And these parents are concerned about their children's future as it pertains to God.

They have some belief, some measure of trust that Jesus has some kind of connection to God.

And somehow that connection will make a difference with their children.

It's fascinating and sad at the same time.

That the parents would have that desire.

But the church people don't want anything to do with it.

I'm sorry.

The disciples.

The parents want their children to be blessed by Jesus, but the disciples say, yeah, no, we're not having any of that.

Isn't that surprising and sad?

You see, sometimes even disciples have wrong perceptions of what is most important.

That's a hard thing for us to admit, isn't it?

Sometimes we have wrong perceptions of what is most important.

And that fact should not give us comfort that we're not alone.

Let me say that differently.

We should not be in a position to say, I'm glad I'm not alone.

At least there's others like me.

No.

Should not give us comfort.

It should not solidify us in our improper perceptions.

Instead, it should cause us to grieve.

Now, the duty of a disciple was to guard his teacher from distractions.

That's well known.

A disciple's responsibility in part was to guard his teacher from problems and situations and people that may keep him from doing his job of teaching.

And it seems to be that that's exactly what the disciples are doing here.

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.

He's intent to get there.

And on his way, he's already been interrupted by the Pharisees.

He's ministering to people, he's healing them.

And now the disciples view this influx of children as the wrong thing at the wrong time.

And so they react accordingly.

They rebuke the people.

No, Jesus has to do his teaching.

The Pharisees have already taken up way too much of his time, and we can't rebuke them.

So stay away, parents, stay away, children.

They're sort of pushed over the edge when people push their children into Jesus' arms.

See, there's a confluence of conflicting cultural traditions happening here in this moment.

The people have a tradition of bringing their children to a teacher, to a rabbi to be blessed, to be prayed for.

That's a tradition, and it's a good one.

The disciples also have a tradition of keeping their teacher from being overwhelmed by people that come to see him.

And that's a good thing.

So we have two positive traditions conflicting.

And the disciples' conviction is quite clear.

They do not see children as worthy of Jesus' time and attention.

Isn't it a sad and sinful part of our nature to get all stirred up about what we think should be the priority?

But in actuality, people are the most important thing.

We've all been there, especially us introverts.

See, the disciples had a common perception that the children were to be seen and not heard.

And gatherings of adults, children were largely unimportant.

But Jesus' reaction implies that he views these little ones as equal in need of his attention, his grace, his mercy, and his salvation.

They might not be very high up on the ladder of social significance, but they carry the image of their Maker.

The Lord does not see them as interruptions, he does not see them as noisemakers or disturbances to his plans, but as people who need him.

Therefore, we see a principle that God's people must not stand in the way of children who want to come to Jesus.

If we establish as churches or as parents patterns or methods or have reactions that hinder children from coming to Jesus, then we have not heard what Jesus said.

Now, when we expand our context beyond these three verses, we see a second acknowledgement from Jesus.

He acknowledged the value of the poor in spirit.

And he encouraged them.

Not to be poorer still, but to find their worth, their value in him.

Jesus applies the exact words from Matthew chapter 5, verse 3, to this situation.

Matthew 5:3

You know this verse, Matthew 5, verse 3.

Matthew 5:3

It's the first of the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

But there's an essential difference between Matthew 5, 3 and Matthew 19, 14.

If you're using the English Standard Version, it's the difference between theirs and such.

Matthew 5, 3, the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In Matthew 19, 14, it belongs to the such.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, in Matthew 19, 14, it means people who are like little children to such ones as these.

There's this group of children coming to Jesus.

And he says, the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these.

To put it differently, the poor in spirit are like little children.

And little children are like the poor in spirit.

But that shouldn't surprise us if we've been paying attention to what Matthew has been teaching us.

Back at the beginning of chapter 18, we heard Matthew teach quite a bit about little ones, those who have humble spirits and who ought not to be despised, Jesus said in verse 10 of chapter 18.

These little ones, these poor in spirit, these childlike ones, are the ones whom the shepherd of chapter 18, verse 12 goes out to pursue.

Because they belong to him.

The kingdom of heaven belongs to the little ones.

Like most cultures throughout history, first century Israel looked down on the poor in spirit because they had little to no value.

In many cases, they had no contribution to society.

They only took from society.

Strength and honor were prize over humility.

Stories, though, of the poor in spirit fill the gospel accounts.

There are tax collectors who come to Jesus.

There are prostitutes rescued by his mercy.

There are debtors who are forgiven.

The unclean and the diseased are restored.

But Jesus didn't bestow value on these people when he encountered them.

He didn't return to them what the culture stole from them.

No, he enabled them to find their ultimate worth in him.

He says, Let me give you what you need to live as poor in spirit.

That's what Matthew taught us in chapter 18.

The Lord's people are little ones, so don't despise them, brothers and sisters.

Don't look down on them, don't trip them up because the Lord Himself is their worth.

And now Jesus gives us a living object lesson.

He doesn't say that children possess the kingdom of heaven.

No, that comes only to those with faith in Jesus.

No, he says that the kingdom of heaven, where even the littlest one has access to the king, that kingdom belongs to those who are childlike in their trust, that are childlike in their faith and childlike in their spirit.

Because all they see is Jesus.

Their value is not in the newest thing or the best thing.

Their worth is found in Jesus.

Therefore, as families and as a church, we possess the incredible honor of being able to say to children, Come and see Jesus.

We have the privilege of guiding them in their value and status and finding that value and status not in social media followers, not in responses to a post, or in how they look or in what they can do, but to find their worth in Jesus.

We have the honor of showing the poor in spirit where ultimate value is found.

But there's a third acknowledgement here.

Jesus acknowledged the tendency to selfish motives.

And when he acknowledged that, he rebuked those selfish motives.

He says, listen, you don't hold others back.

It would be natural to think that Christians, the disciples of Jesus.

Hopefully that's all of us.

We have as our motto, as our as our focus, making disciples.

We want to make disciples.

So it makes sense that disciples of Jesus would, of all people, have the right perspective on children.

But it's not always so.

Just because someone follows Jesus doesn't mean they see children the way Jesus sees them.

Just because someone serves in children's ministry does not mean they have the same perspective as the Lord.

Sometimes adults are so selfish that they don't see children as an important area of ministry.

In one way, I understand that.

I understand why adults don't want to participate in children's ministries, especially if we we miss out on the worship service, if we miss out on fellowship group or time at the lake.

And besides, it takes time out of my week to prepare.

Where am I going to find time?

Right?

But it seems that if we are to take this passage of scripture in the way that God intended, our children's ministries should be continually overstaffed rather than needing help.

It's good to bring children to Jesus.

Of course, we know that.

You're preaching to the choir, right?

None of us would argue otherwise.

Of course, it's good to bring children to Jesus.

Of all people, we know that children possess a beautiful innocence that makes them more receptive to Christ than adults.

And we want to ensure that we provide the opportunity for that.

We know that.

We affirm that.

Here's the problem.

I'm sure that these twelve disciples would have said the same thing.

But they were distracted by what they thought was their top priority.

They felt they needed to pay attention to Jesus when all along the way, to pay attention to Jesus was to make way for the poor in spirit to come to him.

Sometimes I receive complaints about the noise children make in the worship service.

Yes, there's a responsibility for parents and guardians to establish a sense of awe and respect for God in our children during the worship service, as well as an appropriate level of concern for not distracting others from seeing Jesus.

Yes, that's appropriate.

But at the same time, allowing the children to see Jesus is always good.

We must never believe that perfect quietness or undistractedness is the higher good.

Oh, but Pastor, they're not going to get anything out of the service.

Maybe.

But who are you to limit the one who made the eyes and the ears and the mind and the heart?

Will the thing created tell the Creator what he can do?

At the same time, more specific, age-directed ministries can have a more straightforward path to the heart of a child.

So at the very least, this passage seems to establish the appropriateness, if not the expectation, for such a ministry in the local church.

But sometimes I hear, I can't help with the nursery or with children's church because I can't miss the worship service myself.

Can't or won't.

Perhaps perhaps the way to follow Jesus, perhaps the way to worship Jesus, is actually to make a way for the little ones to come to him.

I've already stuck my neck out, so I'll stick it out another time.

It's long enough, I guess.

When I was in school, there were no activities on Sundays or Wednesdays for school kids.

Guys remember that?

Some of you are too young to remember that, but some of us remember that.

It was policy.

There were no activities on Wednesday evenings.

There were no activities on Sundays.

It was church day.

Now we have all kinds of activities for all kids of all ages these days.

But if I can ask this question, what is our higher calling?

Is it to make sure that our kids can do what we could not do?

Is it to make sure that they can do what they want to do or what we want them to do or to participate with other kids, or is it our responsibility, our higher calling to bring them to Jesus?

We fail, I think, sometimes to realize as Christian people that serving the Lord by bringing children to Jesus is an act of worship.

It is participating, being involved in worship.

Our service to Jesus in that way is worship.

We worship by having the same attitude toward children as our Lord.

Why?

Because Jesus says that children are a picture of those who believe in Jesus.

The innocence and the receptiveness to trusting define a true believer in Christ.

You don't have to be a child to come to Christ, but you must have a child's faith in Christ.

If we do not have a proper understanding of Christ's view of children, we will not have a proper understanding of any of his people.

And if we will not lead a child to Jesus or make a way for children to come to Jesus, then I would suggest we're not likely to do that for anyone else either.

So is quietness and worship time more important than a child being brought to Jesus?

Pause.

Confession time.

Our nightly pattern is to sing with our kids, to read a Bible story with our kids, and to pray with our kids.

And work on some memorization of scripture.

Oh, I can't tell you how much how many nights of the week I get so frustrated with their distractedness, with their noise, with their craziness.

Full confession.

It's almost a nightly confession for me.

But is quietness and attention more important than bringing a child to Jesus?

As a parent or a grandparent, are you more concerned about what school your children are in, what doctor they see, who their friends are, what clothes they're wearing, or are you more concerned about their spiritual state?

Are you concerned about bringing your children to Jesus?

Are you focused on them hearing and receiving the gospel?

Are you more concerned about their eternity or their today?

Children are important to Jesus.

Are they important to you?

And that I think is the principle here.

A proper view, a godly view, a biblical view of children's ministry crushes our selfishness.

It takes everything that we want and it throws it to the ground and it stomps it underfoot.

How do we view children?

But Jesus also acknowledged something else.

He acknowledged the inbreaking of his kingdom.

The undoing, we might say, of the curse against his little ones.

Now, so far I've I've stretched our hearts and our consciences by hopefully leading us to the truth that exposes our sin and opens us up to consider others more significant than ourselves.

For our last few minutes, I'd like to stretch our minds along with our hearts.

Because I'd like to suggest here that there's something far more comprehensive happening in these three verses than I think we often see.

I think there's something far grander occurring than ministering to children, as vital as we've seen that to be.

And the best way, I think, to show this is to just walk through some passages of Scripture with you.

Everything that we find in the second part of our Bibles that we call the New Testament has its basis in the Old Testament.

So we ask ourselves the question: what basis is there in the Old Testament in the first part of our Bible for what we see here?

There's a lot.

There's a lot.

There's just one aspect that I would like to focus on for our last few minutes here.

And we'll do that mainly by looking at some prophets.

Specifically the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Jeremiah.

There was a significant time period in Israel's history where God said, Enough is enough.

I put up with your sin and your rebellion long enough, and so I'm bringing in some foreign enemies to destroy your land, to destroy your homes, to destroy your temple, to destroy everything in your land, and to take you captive.

Isaiah ministered as the Lord's prophet just before that time.

Jeremiah ministered during that time.

And they talk an awful lot about children.

But the way they do it is interesting.

Most of the time, the Old Testament will talk about children as a picture of something bigger.

So the children of Israel.

You see that a lot, right?

Israel is the name that God gave to Jacob when he changed his name.

Remember Jacob?

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob?

Jacob had 12 sons.

From those sons come all the people of Israel, right?

So the children of Israel are a picture of all of that group.

So children in the Old Testament often represent the larger group.

Maybe we even might say composed of adults.

It uses the term children to refer to groups of mature people, of adults.

So what does it say?

Well, let's start in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 2.

Isaiah 1:2

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Children I have reared up and brought up, but they've rebelled against me.

If you'll notice it's Isaiah 1, verse 2.

Isaiah 1:2

That's how Isaiah starts his book.

God has rebellious children.

He raised them up, he taught them.

He even goes into more description.

He says, listen, a donkey knows where its owner lives.

It knows where to get fed, it knows where it finds comfort, but my children don't know me.

That's how Isaiah starts.

So it doesn't really present to us a positive picture, does it?

So let's move on a couple of verses.

It says in chapter 1, verse 4 Ah, sinful nation of Israel, a people laden, loaded down, burdened with iniquity, with sin.

Offspring, children of evildoers, children who have dealt corruptly.

How corruptly they've forsaken the Lord.

They've despised the Holy One of Israel.

They are utterly estranged.

You feeling good right now?

It gets worse.

Isaiah thirty, verse nine.

They are rebellious people.

Lying children.

Children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord.

See, Isaiah paints a picture, but it's not really Isaiah painting the picture, it's God painting the picture.

God painting a picture of his people, those who are called by his name, the people who belong to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob.

And he's lumping them all together.

And he says, as a group, as a core of people, as a group of children, you are rebellious.

You never listen to me.

You don't want to be around me.

You don't want to hear what I have to say, and you do the exact opposite of everything I tell you to do.

We'll come back to Isaiah in a little bit.

Let's move to Jeremiah chapter 3.

Jeremiah 3 · chapter mention

Return.

Oh faithless children, declares the Lord.

For I'm your master.

You get a little bit there of the heart of God, don't you?

It's the heart of God for a wayward child.

Saying, please, please come back.

But notice how how the children are described.

Faithless.

They have no faith.

Now take what we've we've already talked about about children this morning.

Children are poor in spirit such that they have they have hearts that are tender, that are receptive, that are trusting.

And yet God says, My children are faithless.

A couple of chapters later, God had had it.

Chapter 6 of Jeremiah, therefore, Jeremiah says, this is Jeremiah speaking, I am full of the wrath of the Lord, and I can't hold it in anymore.

I'm weary of holding it in.

Therefore, you see quotes.

So what's coming out of Jeremiah's mouth now is the wrath of God.

It's not Jeremiah's wrath, it's God's wrath.

He says, Pour it out on the children in the street.

On the gatherings of young men and husbands and wives.

They'll all be taken, the elderly and the very aged.

Why?

Chapter 7 of Jeremiah, the children gather wood.

Okay, what's so bad about that?

Well, we keep reading.

The fathers kindle the fire, and the women need dough.

So this is a family activity, right?

We love family activities sometimes.

Family activity of doing what?

Making cakes for false gods.

We're doing something as a family so that we can go as a family to worship a false God, the queen of heaven.

They pour out drink offerings to other gods and they provoke me to anger.

So here we have a whole family activity focused on abandoning God for something that is false.

And God includes the children in it.

Jeremiah 32.

For the children of Israel, the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from the time that they were little kids.

They've done nothing but provoke me to anger.

Have you ever been in one of those situations where your children or your grandchildren just keep pestering you and pestering you and not listening to you and not listening to you until you've just had it and you blow up at them?

Maybe you've been the child who's been blown up at.

It's a very picturesque illustration.

God says, you've poked me and you've prodded me and you've pushed me over the edge.

By everything that you do.

These are God's kids.

These are his children.

Now we move to another prophet, Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 21.

Ezekiel 20:21

God says, The children rebelled against me.

They didn't walk in my statutes, they were not careful to obey all of my rules, by which I gave them hope.

I gave them positivity.

If a person does them, you will live.

Here's how to succeed, God said.

But instead, they just profane my Sabbath.

So God says, All right, I will pour out my wrath upon them, I will spend my anger against them.

It's one thing to endure the wrath of a parent.

It's another thing to endure the wrath of a parent who is God.

But do you see where God had gotten with his children?

Hosea chapter 4, verse 6.

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you rejected it.

God says, you don't have the knowledge that you need to have because you don't want it.

I've given it to you.

I've provided everything you need, but you don't want it, so I reject you.

Since you've forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

That's devastating, friends.

That God Himself would get to the point as a father of his children to say, I'm done with you.

Not only am I cutting you off, I'm forgetting that you even exist.

That doesn't mean that God didn't work to turn them around.

For going back to Isaiah verse 31, chapter 31, verse 6, Isaiah wrote, turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.

God's still there, standing, if we can use a New Testament image, like the father of the prodigal son, waiting day after day after day for his children to return to him.

He says, Come home.

Yeah, no thanks.

Not going to do that.

God gave hope.

But then there's this really strange passage in Isaiah that really doesn't make sense about all of this children stuff.

And all of you are looking at the screens, waiting for me to put it up there.

I'm not putting it up there yet.

God says all along, come to me, come home, listen to me.

I'm going to give you all that you need for life and godliness.

Direct your heart to me.

Trust in me, O children.

Yeah, no thanks, Dad.

Don't want what you have to offer.

And so God says, okay, enough's enough.

I'm cutting you off, I'm forgetting you, and I'm going to pour out my anger on you.

Then there's this statement in Isaiah 54.

All your children shall be taught by the Lord.

And great shall be the peace of your children.

That didn't happen in Isaiah's time.

That didn't happen in Jeremiah's time.

Like Jeremiah was carted off to Egypt just like the rest of them were carted off to Babylon.

So we're left sort of hanging.

How is God going to reverse all of this with his children?

How is he going to undo this curse that he's poured out on them?

How is he going to suddenly change everything around so that his children are going to be taught by him himself?

How is it that the children are going to have peace?

Here's how.

And now Jesus comes and says to his disciples, no, let them come.

He commands it.

Because now in the reign of King Jesus, all of the poor in spirit belong in the kingdom of heaven.

And the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

That ought to define a church's children's ministry.

But even more than that, it ought to define every person who comes into this room.

We all ought to come with humble hearts as little ones.

Even little ones who say, I don't understand everything, Jesus, but I know.

I know there's something special about you, and I want to believe that in you I will find hope.

That in you I will find value and worth.

And even more than that, in you I will find my eternity with you in the kingdom of heaven.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, may we all today have this hope by the grace of your spirit working within us.

May you make us people who are receptive to your leading, to your guidance, to your direction.

May we be open to leading all of your little ones, be they children or adults, to you.

May we all have the sight and the insight to be able to make way for those who would come to you.

Give us hearts that love you, Lord Jesus.

Give us hearts to have openness and willingness to have others come to you.

May we, may we, like your disciples, say to those who who might have interest in you.

Let's go and let's see Jesus together.

Use us, Lord Jesus, to bring more children into your kingdom for your praise and your glory.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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