Let the Little Children Come: Receiving the Kingdom by Grace - Sermon AM 1st March 2026

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Good morning, everyone. Today's reading will be from Matthew 19, verses 13 to 26.

Matthew 19:13–26

Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them

and pray for them. but the disciples rebuked them.

Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,

for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

Just then, a man came up to Jesus and asked, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?

Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. There is only one who is good.

If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.

Which ones? he inquired. Jesus replied, You shall not murder,

you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony.

Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.

All these I have kept, the young man said. What do I still lack?

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.

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, Truly, I tell you, it is hard for someone

who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, Who then can be saved?

Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Okay, so how good do you have to be to get into heaven? I've got some answers.

Which one do you pick? And we're not going to do a vote just in case,

but I've got some options here. You just need to try your best.

You need to be better than him or her on balance you need to be more good than

bad or perfect have you ever been asked a question like that,

i know it comes up in different ways and phrased in different ways but think

on that what's your answer i suspect that if we were to ask many people would say maybe a b or c.

We're going to break today's passage into three parts to help answer this question.

And it's good to be here. And I trust that as we read God's word, we'll be blessed.

The father of my much-loved youth leader sadly died recently.

He was a minister for many years. And my mom recalls him saying the most important

part of a service is the reading of God's word.

So thank you, Christine, for reading it for us.

That might be proved true any moment. So some context, Jesus and the disciples

are on their way to Jerusalem from Galilee.

Large crowds are with them and Jesus is teaching and healing the sick.

Soon Jesus will be in Jerusalem heading to his death.

So can I encourage you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 19 verses 13 and onwards.

Matthew 19:13

And we're going to look first at 13 and 15, the way of blessing.

So some parents are bringing their children, their little children to Jesus

for blessing. That's God's favour.

The disciples rebuke the parents for doing this.

At that time, kids were certainly cared for and loved, but they didn't have social standing.

In the context, you can perhaps appreciate that the response of the disciples was fairly normal.

So it's a bit surprising when you see Jesus call the children to him.

Maybe it's a bit like that football star holding back their bodyguards to allow

their fans through for a hug. It's lovely to see.

I do remember, though, that the disciples were all too happy to let children

through when food was needed. But anyway, Jesus graciously invites the children to him.

And in verse 14, he says, The kingdom belongs to one such as these.

So whilst this would be a bit surprising, it probably shouldn't have been.

Because just before this scene, the disciples have, in true fashion like us

all, have been asking Jesus about the kingdom, saying, who is going to be the

greatest in the kingdom, this coming kingdom of God?

Let's take a look back at chapter 18. You can flick back or you can just listen.

Look at what Jesus has said.

The disciples came to Jesus and asked, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.

Then he said, I tell you the truth.

Unless you turn from your sins and become like little children,

you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom.

Remember from Little Life Words last week, when we think of the kingdom of heaven,

Think about the world renewed, perfectly restored, present with Jesus forever.

No crying, no pain, no tears.

2 Corinthians, Paul says this in 2 Corinthians, No eye has seen,

no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.

What a wonderful picture that is, this wonderful kingdom in store for those who love him.

So who's the kingdom for? it's those like little children those who are humble

we belong to the kingdom but what does it mean to be humble there's more but

what does it mean to be humble.

Based on some thinking, I think from C.S. Lewis, some have put it like this,

and I found this helpful.

Think of humility as self-forgetfulness. It's not thinking of yourself less,

but thinking of yourself less.

It's not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.

The humble person displays no arrogance, boasting, self-importance,

or self-righteousness.

Romans says this do not Paul says in Romans do not think of yourself more highly

than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,

but more than this the young come empty-handed capable of contributing nothing

to their present reality or future destination they simply must rely on others,

the babe in arms has no concept of their own greatness or good works they simply

receive what is given the kingdom is something given not earned,

the scene ends with him blessing the children that's how we know that the kingdom

is not earned it is given because jesus blesses the children.

So what might the reality of the faith of a child look like?

I got a wonderful text just recently from one of the parents,

and I'm so thankful that I can share it.

I've changed the name, but I got this when I was at work, and it was just so

wonderful to see how God is teaching people about himself. Listen to this.

Sam is learning a lot. She tells me how every person has two daddies,

with one being God, and that God knows everyone inside and out.

On one occasion, I heard her saying thank you to God. It's so beautiful as I

wouldn't be able to teach her, and I feel in my heart how good it is for her

to find safety and comfort in learning about God and Jesus.

How wonderful to see our little ones showing their faith in God.

What a blessing to hear this.

I think this child's testimony displays somewhat for us the reality of Jesus, what Jesus is teaching,

a profound and real faith in God's reality, his grace, his relationship with

us, his love, his presence, his fatherhood, his acceptance, his provision and

care. All of that is all wrapped up into that.

Praise God for his gracious love for the little children, our little children,

and for each of us. Just because we're old doesn't mean we're not his children.

So what's something we can take into this week? Well, can I encourage you to

pray for those who teach our children?

Pray also for our parents, but also for each of us as wider church family.

Each of us is involved in bringing God's blessings to our children.

Through our love, care, attention, conversations, examples, playing around,

service, and many other ways too.

Don't discount what you can do. I am thankful to the young and old, like my youth leader.

Who showed me Jesus' love when I was a child. How in our homes do we enable

our children to come unhindered to Jesus?

Is there something we can change to ensure our little ones see Jesus?

A changed behavior reflecting Jesus more than ourselves.

More time with them. Bible reading together. Prayer. What's some things that

we can be doing to point our children to Jesus?

We should also ask God that through the processes in place of things like safe

churches, we provide a safe space for our young and vulnerable.

Ask that we might show the world that the lives of children are valuable.

Thanks for helping out in this space. More to come on that later.

So Jesus shows that children are important.

And their example of simply receiving blessing is the way to belong to the kingdom of heaven.

How can we be sure? Let's go on to the second bit.

In verses 16 to 24.

In this section, we see a man showing his grief as he realizes he cannot get

eternal life the way he hoped or thought.

I think these two sections are together because in them we see two approaches

to that eternal life question.

We see Jesus' approach, that's a good one, the way of blessing and faith we've just looked at.

And now we look at man's approach as we'll see the way of grief.

So let's take a look at him.

He's a young, wealthy, and from other accounts, a ruler.

In verse 16, he asked Jesus a question. What good thing must I do to get eternal life?

It's a bit like our opening question. What caused him to ask this?

Possibly a lack of assurance. How do I know that I've done enough? Am I missing something?

Despite what he has done, he really is not sure that he's got eternal life.

So he asked that question.

You see perhaps you see people around you who when they when they say yeah.

My good works i think i've been good enough to get eternal life,

and you hear them being asked are you sure well no i don't have any assurance

i'm not confident in that it's a bit of a gamble isn't it it must be quite stressful

so let's follow jesus response to see the conclusion this man comes to.

So Jesus responds in verse 17 by saying, why do you ask me what is good?

There is only one who is good.

If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.

And I think this hints a little bit of the problem for the man.

If only one is good, that's God, then how can doing a good thing be the way

for this man to get to heaven? He's just a man.

He's not God. But Jesus pushes the man on. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.

Jesus then lists a number of commandments, all of which the man says he has kept.

And then the man asks, what do I still lack?

Despite asserting that he has done all this, he still feels lacking.

And here Jesus helps a man see the reality of the situation.

In verse 21, if you want to be perfect, go sell all your possessions and give

to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

Jesus is not saying, if you do this, then you'll be perfect and you'll get eternal life.

Jesus knows this man inside and out.

He knows that he holds onto wealth as the thing he truly worships.

It will be impossible for this man to do as asked. How do we know?

In verse 22, when the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had

great wealth. He didn't deny it. He knew it was true.

It was impossible for him to give up his wealth. It would become his idol, the thing he focused on.

He could not do what the law required. He was clinging to his works and his wealth.

And by clinging to his works and wealth, it was not going to bring him eternal

life, the thing he said he wanted.

This man did not want to give his wealth to the poor. By his own words,

he has fallen short of the commands he said he followed.

Did he love his neighbor as himself? Did he love God perfectly? No, it's impossible to.

Now, thinking for a moment on God's good commands, commands like those in the

Ten Commandments, summed up in Matthew 22, love God and love others as yourself.

And I think I understand God's law to be more like a mirror.

As we look at the commands, God's moral law, we see ourselves reflected and

we see the reality that we haven't in actual fact kept them at all.

As someone said, the man is trying to clean himself with a mirror.

If you've ever tried to do that, it just doesn't work. If anything, it makes more mess.

If we want to be right with God, it points us to the need of a savior.

Somebody's going to fix this mess for us.

Following God's law is not the way we're going to be made right with God.

Now, the man might say, or we might say, or somebody, a friend of yours might

say, well, I've kept the big ones.

I haven't murdered anyone, for example. Well, that's good.

I haven't told big lies great but unfortunately we don't get off the hook because

james reminds us of this in james 2 for whoever keeps the whole law and yet

stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all,

by clinging to the idol of wealth this man's trapped.

Handling wild baboons is considered dangerous, but if you want to get into baboon

baiting, all you need to do is follow this method and a big baboon is yours. Okay. So this thing up.

So what you need to do, you need to take one strong wooden box.

Now you need to make a hole large enough to put a shiny bauble in and large

enough to fit a baboon hand, but not large enough for both at the same time.

Note, baboons like shiny baubles. Now bind this box firmly to a tree,

preferably one with baboons nearby.

Wait patiently. As the inquisitive baboons spot the box and the shiny bauble

within, they cannot help themselves.

The baboon takes the bait and reaches into the box to grab the bauble.

The baboon's love for bauble's is such that despite him being trapped,

he's unwilling to let go of his bauble and be free.

And the hunter comes up and takes his prize, the baboon.

All the baboon need do is let go of the bauble, but the bauble is way more important than his freedom.

I think it's a bit like the situation our earnest young man faces. Matthew 16,

Jesus says this, if you try to hang on to your life you will lose it but if

you give up your life for my sake you will save it and what do you benefit if

you gain the whole world but lose your own soul.

I was reminded of this verse when i was looking at this idea for it is by grace

you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves it is the gift of god.

Not by work so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork,

created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for

us to do. Now it's good to be good.

It's good to be good, but we are saved not by good works, but for good works.

It's good to be good, but we are saved not by good works, but for good works.

What can we do with some of these matters this week? let's think about this

what what idols might we put in the place of god,

what take and if you go well i don't know what's an idol well what takes our

money our devotion our time and attention to the point of turning away from him,

as phil reminded us last week are we throwing off the sin that so easily entangles

us or we're just relaxing into the snare,

are we aware of our attempts at self-reliance and the way in which that can

turn us away from reliance on god,

Are we even boastful about our good works?

Remember too that the invitation to follow Jesus was given to this man.

And the invitation to follow Jesus is given to us all, to you, to your friends.

What will you do with it? What's holding you back? What's holding your friends back?

We recognize that it is impossible for good works to get us into heaven,

if we do then we need help if it's impossible for us to turn away from the shiny

baubles of life then we definitely need help,

and in our final section we see the disciples astonished and then we see the hope that God gives,

so in the response to the man's position we see that in 23 and 24 Jesus says

this to his disciples in response to the man.

Truly, I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

By the way, as I was trying to understand this, the commentaries helpfully say,

nobody knows what this really means, but I think we get the idea.

It's just hard for a rich man because of his idols, because of the things that

he is looking, This rich man is focusing more on that, and it's really difficult

for him to give that up. In fact, it's impossible.

And responding, the disciples see this, and they're astonished,

and they say, well, who can be saved?

See, at the time, different to the children, the rich were seen to have God's favor resting on them.

We probably think the same now, but it was definitely seen then if you're rich,

and you're well-to-do, and you're wealthy, and you're a ruler,

then you definitely have God's favor. You are a shoo-in. It's all good.

So to see Jesus pointing this out, it flips the understanding of the disciples on its head.

We have seen children favored and those like them belonging to the kingdom of God.

And we have seen a rich man exposed as in fact not being favored by God.

If this rich man can't be saved, who can be? It is a good question.

And Jesus agrees. He follows on. He goes, well, with man, this is impossible.

But with God, all things are possible.

And this is our hope. Out of the hopeless impossibility we face comes the way of hope.

And notice too that I think Jesus broadens the scope of the application,

not just to that man, but to man, to all of us.

He says, yeah, disciples, you're right. Who can be saved? Not this rich man

because of him idolizing wealth, but not for anyone else either.

It's impossible for us to come into the blessing of eternal life without God.

How does God do the impossible for us?

I like this summary. God made it.

We broke it. God fixed it. See, God made the world and he made us.

We broke the relationship with God by rejecting him as the rightful loving ruler of our lives.

And we put ourself in his place. But God in his mercy fixed this problem for

us by sending his son Jesus to seek and to save the lost, to take our sin upon himself.

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead

to sin and live for what is right.

By his wounds, you are healed. That's for one Peter.

Who has eternal life? Who belongs to the kingdom of heaven?

Those like the little children. Those who with God's help change their mind

about Jesus and the world we live in.

Those who put their trust in him and his good work for us. That's how God makes

the impossible possible.

So are you willing to let Jesus do in your heart and mind what we cannot?

We have everything to gain by following Jesus into his kingdom.

Who are you wanting to be like?

Are you wanting to be like those who are little children, who trust only in

Jesus for eternal life and receive it?

Or would you prefer to be like the rich ruler who relied on his thought favor

and his good works who was exposed as not really being able to follow God at all.

Let me pray for us as we close that those things would be on our mind this week.

Heavenly Father, I do thank you for the good news of Jesus.

Father, I thank you that you loved us so much, that you have given us the gift of eternal life.

I thank you that even though it's impossible for us to get eternal life by our

own works and deeds and that favor that we think we have, we know that.

The kingdom of heaven, a place with you, belongs to you as a great gift that you have given us.

Father, I ask that you would help us this week to consider the account of the rich man.

Lord, I ask that there would be nothing in our lives that would hold us back

from faithfully following you.

Father, I ask that we would fix our eyes on what is ahead.

And whatever happens in this life, Lord, we know that great things are in store for those who love you.

And it's incredible to think that no mind has seen or we cannot imagine what

it's going to be like. And that is exciting. And we thank you that we can be

part of that because of all that Jesus has done for us.

And so, Lord, as we sing your praises and as we share in our communion together,

as we fellowship together, Lord, may we be encouraging each other in this.

May your spirit be working in our lives to make us more like your son.

For our children, each of our children, Lord, I ask that as the example of faith

I read out, Lord, that our children would know and love you,

not just when they were young, but for their whole lives.

Please keep them safe and secure in your hands.

And I thank you, Lord, for this time together this morning. Amen.