Jesus Blesses Little Children

Introduction and Context: Jesus's Journey to Jerusalem

0:03 I announced this morning we would be considering together a portion of the Gospel of Mark this evening, Mark chapter 10, and I will read in your hearing verses 13 through 16, Mark chapter 10 and verse 13. Mark chapter 10, and they were bringing unto him little children that he should touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation and said unto them, Suffer or permit the little children to come unto me. Do not forbid them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall come unto me, I will bring unto him little children.

0:57 He shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child. He shall in no wise enter therein. And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands upon them. Now let us again pray and ask God for the help of his Holy Spirit as we seek to understand this portion of the word, and above all to have a fresh sight of our Lord Jesus.

1:27 In all of his welcoming grace to sinners, let us pray. Our Father, we have already sought your face on several times in our gathering tonight, and we come again to seek you that your grace would prove sufficient for preacher and people alike, that your word may come to us not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Amen. May we all together be conscious that we are not left to our own pathetically weak resources, but that we may be enabled by the Holy Spirit both to speak and to hear your word as we ought. We plead through Christ our Lord. Amen. Now as we come to this portion of the word of God, we want to spend just a moment having a little bit of understanding.

2:32 As to its setting in the overall unfolding of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. We see in the first verse of the tenth chapter that Jesus arose from thence, that is, from the northern area of Palestine up in the area of Capernaum, and now he comes down south and a bit east into what is called the region of Perea. And as he does, according to Mark's account, of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, we are told that multitudes come together unto him again. And as he was accustomed, he taught them again.

3:16 As he is making his way down to Jerusalem where he will lay down his life to die for his people, we will find our Lord again surrounded by multitudes and also taking more and more time for personal instruction, with his own disciples. But as so often has happened in the ministry of our Lord, not only is he surrounded by eager multitudes and by the inner circle of his own disciples, but the Pharisees were constantly dogging his steps, seeking to catch him in his words. And we read in verse two of this chapter, there came to him Pharisees and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, trying or tempting him? They were trying again to catch him in his words to see if they could listen to him, saying something that could be the occasion of bringing charges against him, ultimately with a view to get rid of this one who had become such an irritant to them. Well, after responding to these Pharisees, the Lord is alone with his disciples. Verse 10, and in the house, the disciples asked him again of this.

4:33 What does this matter? And it could well be that immediately or shortly after the thing that Mark has recorded here, that while our Lord is still in a house, and I'll give you a reason as to why I think that may be so, we are told that these unnamed people were bringing unto him little children that he should touch them. The disciples rebuked them. Jesus responds and gives us one of these amazing signs.

The Activity of Unnamed Adults: Bringing Children for Blessing

5:02 Jesus responds and gives us one of these amazing signs. Jesus responds and gives us one of these amazing statements in which he says, Amen, or verily I say unto you. Now as we come to the passage, I want you to notice with me first of all, simply in opening up the facts of the narrative, the activity of these unnamed adults. We are told in verse 13, And they were bringing unto him little children that he should touch them.

5:32 Now who are these unnamed people? Now who are the they? We are not told. They are an unnamed group of people.

5:40 Most likely fathers, mothers, perhaps grandparents, perhaps older siblings. We are simply not told. There is some hint in terms of the gender of one of the pronouns when we read that the disciples rebuked them. It is a masculine plural pronoun.

6:02 Indicating that it may have been some fathers or the word them could be used more generically. Whoever they were, these unnamed adults or older siblings are coming into the presence of the Lord Jesus, bringing unto him little children. Now the word used here for little children is a word that has a wide range of use in the New Testament. There are several times in the Gospel of the Lord that we are told, There are several times in the Gospel of the Lord that we are told, There are several times in the Gospel of the Lord that we are told, There are several times in the Gospel of the Lord that we are told, In the Gospel of Luke chapter 1 for example in verse 56 it refers to a baby eight days old.

6:40 It can refer to a child up into what we would say the age of puberty. In the parallel passage in Luke's Gospel the word brephos is used which refers to a very small infant, a nursing child. But also we are told in Luke that they were unnamed. they were also bringing unto him brephos, little ones. So it could well be that taking the insights of Matthew and Mark, which tell us that they were bringing little children, and Luke's additional word, also infants, it could be that some were carrying very young infants, and others were bringing along with them toddlers and pre-adolescent children. But whatever the particular age bracket, we are told that these unnamed adults were bringing unto him little children, and they had a specific design and desire in coming into the presence of the Lord Jesus with their little ones. Notice what the text says. They were doing this that he should touch them. Now what in the

7:53 world? It was in their minds, bringing them to Jesus that he should touch them. Was this the kind of superstition that people show in Roman Catholic countries? When Pope Paul comes to visit, they'll do anything if Papa can but touch their children, feeling that somehow if the vicar of Christ will but touch their children, it will leave some kind of a good mark upon them for the rest of their days. Well, according to Matthew 19, 13, this was not the case at all. For in this parallel passage we read, Then there were brought unto him little children, that he should lay his hands on them and pray.

8:40 They were desirous that the Lord Jesus would lay his hands upon them. That ancient symbol of the patriarch putting his hands upon his progeny to pronounce blessing upon them, to pray for blessing upon them. These unnamed adults were bringing their children, their little ones, to Jesus, that they might receive from Jesus his benediction and his blessing, that he might lay his hands upon them and pray for them. Now, obviously, they did not share in the sentiment of the Pharisees. You do not bring your children to be blessed by a charlatan.

9:24 You do not bring your children to be blessed by someone you are convinced is possessed of devils. You do not bring your children to be blessed by someone that you regard a blasphemer. These were some of those in Israel who saw something in Jesus beyond the current opinion of their religious leaders. Were they part of that number who were the Israel within Israel?

9:54 Who had themselves personally embraced the Lord Jesus in all of his claims as far as he had unfolded those claims until now? We do not know. But all we know is that here were parents in a setting where they may well have been aware of the hostility of the religious leaders who are convinced that Jesus is more than that which he is held to be in the opinion of their official leaders. They are convinced that there is something to be had from Jesus, not only for themselves, but for their children.

10:30 And so they come into the proximity of where our Lord is, possibly within a house, bringing their little children, that those children might receive Jesus' benediction, that He should touch them. Well, that's the activity of the unnamed adults. Now, note with me, secondly, the action of the twelve disciples. At the end of verse 13, And the disciples rebuked them.

The Action of the Twelve Disciples: Rebuking the Parents

11:03 The disciples rebuked them. And it's an imperfect verb, which means the disciples were continually rebuking. They were continually bringing, but the disciples were continually rebuking them. And the word rebuking...

11:22 Here is a strong word, found several times in this very gospel record. They were solemnly, seriously charging them to bug off, back off, get lost, don't bother the Master. Now, if we ask the question, why were the disciples rebuking them? That is, rebuking these unnamed adults or older siblings who are bringing little ones, or babes in arms, possibly, to be blessed by the Lord Jesus.

11:59 Well, just as we must not question the integrity of Peter's motives when he rebukes the Lord Jesus, and tells him, this shall never be unto you, when Jesus announces that He's going to go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed, and the third day be raised from the dead, we must not question the sincerity of the motives of the twelve disciples. It could well be. That they felt, since these children could not receive instruction with any degree of intelligence, since they were not sick and did not need healing, maybe they were desirous of sparing our Lord the intrusion of these parents who are clamoring to get their kids into Jesus' arms, that He might touch them. You can only hold them, one or two, at the most at a time. And if there were quite a number clamoring, perhaps the disciples were seeking to protect them, to protect our Lord, from this unnecessary pressure and intrusion. Some suggest that they may have imbibed the current notions of the relative worthlessness of little children that was extant in that day.

13:10 Since a number of these disciples came from the Galilean region where Gentile influence was very strong, some suggest that perhaps they had imbibed the current attitude towards Jesus Christ, and some suggest that they had imbibed the current notions of the relative worthlessness of little children. We are not told. Any of those things are possible. But one thing is clear.

13:29 They were determined that these little children would not be brought into close enough proximity to their Master that He would touch them. That is, that He would lay His hands upon them and pray for them. So we've seen the activity of the unnamed adults. They were bringing unto Him little children that He should touch them.

The Reaction of Jesus: Indignation, Verbal Command, and Physical Blessing

13:53 Secondly, the action of the twelve disciples. They were rebuking them. But now note in the third place the reaction of Jesus. Verse 14.

14:06 The reaction of Jesus. And it is a reaction that is both emotional, verbal, and physical. Note what our text says in verse 14. But when Jesus not heard it, but saw it, could that be a hint?

14:28 That Jesus was looking out through a window inside this house, mentioned in verse 10, and sees these parents coming with their little ones, and as He perceives with His eyes what they are doing, then He reacts and responds to what the disciples have been doing. Rebuking is a physical activity. But the text does not say, but when Jesus heard it, but when Jesus saw it. It could well be that this was something our Lord perceived primarily by the eye gate, but once He knew what the disciples were doing, namely rebuking and thereby hindering these parents from bringing the little ones, and thereby hindering the little ones from coming to Him, that He might take them in His arms, and pray for them, that He might touch them, that He might bless them. The reaction of our Lord Jesus is described in these three categories. Note, first of all, His emotional reaction. He was moved with indignation.

15:38 You would get the idea from that rendering that it was a passive verb, but it isn't. It's an active verb. It should be translated, He became or was indignant. Very interesting.

15:53 This is the only place in all the Gospel records where it is said that Jesus became indignant with His disciples. In Mark chapter 3, we are told that He became angry when He saw the hardness of heart of the religious leaders, and there the word used is orge, for the anger of God. But this word found here, though it is used in the New Testament, the irritation and anger of others, it is only used of our Lord Jesus here, and is the only recorded instance of Jesus becoming indignant with His disciples. Our Lord is disappointed in His disciples, and He expresses disappointment. What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? He expresses that disappointment when He says, O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

16:55 But this is the only recorded instance where Jesus becomes indignant with His disciples. There is an emotional reaction in the soul of our Lord Jesus. He becomes indignant. He is moved with indignation.

17:17 Now remember, He is on His way to Jerusalem to die. He is just for the unjust. So that there was not one millionth of a gram of sin in His indignation. It was pure, unsullied, absolutely holy indignation.

17:38 Our Lord's holiness extended far beyond His words and actions and touched the deepest springs of the attitudes and dispositions of heart, so that when Mark records that He was indignant, it was a pure and holy indignation. Our Lord's reaction is described, first of all, in terms of its emotional dimension, but then notice, secondly, the verbal response. He was indignant and said unto them, Suffer, or permit the little children to come unto Me. Forbid them not.

18:19 For to such belong the kingdom of God. Two terse imperatives. First of all, He says, Permit the little children to come to Me. And do not be forbidding them or stop forbidding them.

18:40 A present imperative. Two imperatives. Permit the children to come to Me. Now it's interesting.

18:49 Jesus did not say, Permit the parents. Permit the grandparents. Permit these who are bringing them to Me to bring them. He doesn't focus on the action of those who were bringing the children to Jesus.

19:04 But He says, Permit the children themselves to come to Me. And do not forbid them. Do you see that in the passage? That's where He puts the emphasis.

19:20 Permit the children to come to Me. Could it be that the parents had some toddlers and some a little bit older than toddlers who once they were accompanied to the place where Jesus was, were themselves under the instruction of their parents or grandparents or older siblings told, We're bringing you to where Jesus is. Because we want you to go and receive the prayer and blessing of Jesus. So that when they got close enough to the proximity of that home or wherever they were, the children themselves began to make their way to where Jesus was.

20:05 And in that setting, the disciples are rebuking them. And Jesus says to these disciples, You must not further engage in this activity. Permit the little children to come to Me. Do not forbid them.

20:25 And then He gives His reason. Note in the text. Permit the children to come to Me. Do not forbid them.

20:35 For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Now pay careful attention to those words. He doesn't say, To these belongs the kingdom of God. Jesus is not here saying that all of those children who were being brought to Him were in the kingdom.

20:58 No, He says, To such as these the kingdom belongs. It is to such as these, to those who in some way or another are like these little ones, the kingdom belongs to these. And then He follows that statement with one of these magisterial sayings recorded in the Gospels. Verily I say unto you, always preceding an unusually important and solemn statement of our Lord Jesus, that whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein.

21:53 Now sermons have been preached and books have been written on what it means to receive the kingdom as a little child. And some say, Well, the child is humble and the child is teachable. And until you become humble and until you become teachable you'll never enter the kingdom. Well, it's true.

22:17 Until you become teachable and until you are humbled, you'll never enter the kingdom. But I am perfectly confident in my own mind that the position taken, especially helpfully by B.B. Warfield in his articles on children and some of the commentators that I consulted in preparation for tonight, that what our Lord is saying has nothing to do with any subjective condition within the mind or soul of the child.

22:45 For remember, and here I ask you to turn to the parallel passage in Luke. In the Gospel of Luke, our Lord makes a similar reference, Luke chapter 18 and verse 15. Verse 15 is the beginning of the section. Verse 17, Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein.

23:21 And in this context, the little child, verse 15, is the babes, the brethos, the infants who have yet to develop their cognitive faculties. That when our Lord says unless you receive the kingdom as a little child, He is not pointing to any subjective internal state in the mind or soul of the child. Children are notoriously self-centered and egotistical. The Bible says they go astray from the womb speaking lies.

23:54 They are notoriously manipulative. Look at some of the precious little ones around here. They can wrap us all around their finger like a piece of putty with their smiles and with their coochie cooing. And they know when they are doing it.

24:09 And we are silly enough to listen to it. We are vulnerable to it, aren't we? No, what our Lord is doing is focusing upon an objective state of a child. And the foundational element in that objective state is its utter dependent-ness.

24:27 The babe does nothing for its own provision, its own protection, its own sustenance. Everything is done for it. The child is not an independent, self-sustaining adult. It is an independent, a dependent creature.

24:50 And our Lord is saying, whoever shall not receive the kingdom as a little child, that is, receive the blessings of His saving grace and mercy in a posture of utter nakedness, helplessness and dependent-ness, unless we thus receive the kingdom, we shall in no wise enter therein. It is little children who enter the kingdom. That is, those who have come to the place where they stand in the presence of God and say, I have nothing, I can do nothing, I can present nothing to commend myself to God and to His grace. I must receive the kingdom in this posture of utter dependent-ness. That is our Lord's response verbally. And then notice His response physically, though there is a little verbal element mixed in with it, but for the sake of thinking through the passage, verse 16, And He took them in His arms and blessed them, laying His hands upon them.

26:12 He took them in His arms. He wrapped His arms around them. One by one or two by two, He took them up in His arms. Now you know well enough, if you are going to take a child up in your arms, you are going to get down where the child is.

26:28 You don't say, hey kid, jump up. Sunday after Sunday at that door, I bend to take children into my arms. Picture the Lord Jesus bending again and again to wrap His arms around these children. And having wrapped His arms around them, what did He do?

26:47 Look at the text. He blessed them. And this word found only here in the New Testament is not the ordinary word for blessing. It has a preposition in front of it that intensifies it.

27:02 He blessed them exceedingly. He blessed them with great intensity. His whole heart and soul were engaged in conferring blessing upon them. And the tense of the verb here is that imperfect again that speaks of past action of a continuous kind, taking them into His arms.

27:25 He was continually, intensely, may I say it, vehemently, if we can think of blessing with vehemence, vehemently, intently, passionately with His whole soul, blessing them while laying His hands upon them. And you picture the scene. They're up in His arms. He is calling down the blessing of His Father upon them, perhaps pronouncing blessing upon them using some of the language of the Aaronic priesthood.

27:56 I do not know the precise form of His blessing. I could find no commentators that agreed on what the precise form would be. But whatever He was doing, He was manifesting the goodwill and the intention of His own heart in the heart of His Father by blessing them intensely and passionately and one upon another, laying this hand upon one and this hand upon another in that tender expression as it were sacramentally, visibly, with His hands, indicating what He was doing with His words and with His prayers to His Father. That's what He did physically.

A Word to Everyone: Receiving the Kingdom as a Little Child

28:40 So we see the response of our Lord Jesus to this scene where the unnamed adults bring their little ones that He should touch them. And in that setting, the response and reaction of the twelve disciples constantly rebuking them, the reaction of Jesus, emotionally, verbally, and physically. Now, having given this brief exposition of the passage, I want to bring to you three very pointed words from the passage. And the first is what I will call a word to everyone without distinction gathered in this room tonight.

29:20 I don't care how old you are. I don't care what your background is. I don't care what your present or past knowledge of gospel truth has been, presently is. It matters not what it is about you that makes you differ from the person sitting next to you.

29:37 You may be a man. She may be a woman. You may be a child. It may be mom or dad next to you.

29:43 It makes no difference because here in this magisterial saying of our Lord Jesus, there is a word that is equally applicable to every single one of us without exception. Look at the words again of verse 15. Verily I say unto you, here is a word of unquestioned and supreme authority. This is Jesus truth incarnate speaking.

30:13 If this word is not truth and if this word can fail of its fulfillment, Jesus is a liar. To state it bluntly, if there is any exception to this word, Jesus is not the truth. He states the integrity of who he is as truth incarnate when he says verily, amen, I say unto you. It is not only a word of unquestioned authority.

30:47 It is a word obviously of universal application. Look again at the text. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. The whosoever here is as broad as the whosoever of John 3.16.

31:10 Wherever you find a whosoever in the scripture, God is opening the net of his concern as broad as the human race. And here our Lord is saying, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom. And this is the issue that is applicable to every one of us. The question is, will I take the posture of a child in all of its helplessness and dependantness to receive the kingdom?

31:43 You see, there is where the rub comes to human nature. It is the fact that the kingdom, the blessings of God's grace in Jesus Christ, the pardon of our sins, a righteous title to heaven, is something not to be earned, but to be received as a free gift of God. And that's what Jesus said, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom. The kingdom is something to be received.

32:18 The kingdom comes to us as the gift of grace, the forgiveness of our sins acceptance before God, adoption into the family of God, the gift of the Holy Spirit and all of the blessings of the kingdom of grace, they are there to be received. But to be received only by such as the little children. Those who take the posture of utter dependantness. They do not come as it were at the gate of the kingdom, there to hold up to the king of grace the coinage minted in their own efforts and their own subjective states of heart and mind. They come to receive the kingdom in all of their dependantness, in all of their nakedness, in all of their vulnerability, they come to receive the kingdom. Now would you know the blessings of the kingdom of grace? Would you know the forgiveness of your sins?

33:31 Would you know peace with God? Would you know what it is to pillow your head tonight confident that if almighty God decreed that your heart should stop beating tonight, the last beat of the heart would be the first sight of Jesus in glory. And you've got to receive the kingdom. And you've got to receive it as a little child, as a little child, as a little child, as even a babe in arms that is utterly dependant for its nourishment, its protection, its transportation from one place to another.

34:13 Receive the kingdom as a child. The kingdom is to be received by such and by such alone. But you say, Pastor, that sounds so simple. I know it does.

34:28 But Jesus said it. I didn't. Jesus said it. He knew that to say this would be very costly to Him.

34:36 He's on His way to Jerusalem where He's going to suffer. He's going to be spat upon. He's going to be bruised. He's going to be insulted.

34:46 He's going to be scourged and stripped naked and hung upon a cross. He's going to undergo the baptism of agony, of feeling in His own soul what it was to be plunged into outer darkness until He will cry, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He will die. He will commend His spirit to His Father.

35:09 He will be raised again from the dead on the third day. He has commissioned His disciples to go forth and preach repentance unto the remission of sins in His name among all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And they are to tell Me, they are to tell men everywhere, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. That is, receive the kingdom as a little child.

35:36 Receive the kingdom as a little child. That's the word that comes to every one of us without exception sitting in this room tonight. But then I want us to consider secondly a word to all adult disciples in this room. And we have many, bless God, adult disciples.

A Word to Adult Disciples: Do Not Hinder Children from Christ

36:00 Those who could have been part of this unnamed group who were bringing their children unto Jesus. The very ones that the disciples rebuked. They were sincere, adult, possible disciples, those who were bringing the children. But when it says the disciples rebuked them, that's referring to the twelve.

36:26 Those who unquestionably, outwardly, in the case of Judas, attached to Jesus. And what has struck me in my preparation for tonight is that if the only recorded instance that Jesus became indignant with his disciples was an instance where they were standing in the way of children receiving the blessing of Jesus, that ought to be a matter of deep concern to me as an adult disciple. That I be and do nothing that would hinder any child from coming to Jesus. Jesus was indignant then when he saw these disciples hindering the children from coming to him. He is moved with indignation and says to these disciples, permit the children to come to me, do not forbid them. And I do not believe that there is any true disciple in this room who would knowingly, deliberately be the occasion of hindering any child from coming to Jesus. But we can hinder them from coming.

37:48 We can hinder them from coming by what we do. The devil is all too willing to try to put doubts and cynicism in the minds of our children with respect to all that they hear about Jesus. Is it real? Is Jesus all mom and dad and the Sunday school teacher and the preacher and the hymns and the Bible stories say that he is?

38:15 Does he do all that they say and claim that he does? And they have a right to expect it when they live with you and with me. Not that they will see perfection, but that they will see the reality of the power and presence of Jesus in us. And Jesus said some very sobering words.

38:39 It is necessary that offenses come, but woe unto him through whom the offense comes. It were better that a millstone were hung about his neck and he were drowned in the sea than he cause one of these little ones, and that is not referring to little children, but true sons and daughters of the kingdom to stumble. And we need constantly to pray that God will help us in all of our interaction with our children, that we never provoke the indignation of the Lord Jesus by becoming a bona fide hindrance to their coming to Christ, by inconsistency that is justified and not dealt with by repentance and confession before God and where necessary before our children, that we be nothing in our lives and be nothing and do nothing in our lives that would hinder them from going to the Lord Jesus in the confidence that he is ready and willing to receive them. But I want to address the very real possibility that we can be a hindrance by our words. In this case, it was the disciples rebuking those parents. By words they were putting up a barrier.

39:59 And when Jesus said, permit them, don't forbid them, it was words that had become the barrier. They were rebuking them. And can it be that our words can unwittingly become a barrier to our children coming to Christ? You say, Pastor, what do you mean?

40:20 Well, this is what I mean. In our deep passion that our children not be presumptuous and in our deep awareness of the deception of our own hearts and in our great fear that the second and third generation will be but mere formalists, could it be, and that's all I'm doing is raising the question, I'm not making an accusation, could it be that we have so placed before our children the fear of presuming that they are saved when they are not saved that we have not adequately encouraged them to believe that the Lord Jesus is ready and willing to receive them now? Could it be, I only ask the question, could it be, could it be that we have allowed not willfully and not deliberately but by the subtlety of the enemy of their souls, could it be that we have unwittingly allowed unnecessary barriers to be placed in their way of growing up into self-consciousness from being babes in arms with a picture of the Lord Jesus that this passage ought to bring

41:48 home to their hearts when they think of Jesus? How should they think of Him? Distant, arms at His side, a stern look upon His face saying, White wasp sepulcher, many will say to me, in that day, Lord, Lord, or do they grow up with a picture of Jesus who is stooped over, arms outstretched, ready to envelop children in His arms, to lay His hands upon them and to bless them passionately? I ask the question, I've been asking it of my own heart, as a parent, as a preacher, have I sufficiently, adequately set forth a picture of Jesus, not spun out of the stuff of my own sentiment or current religious sentimentality, but out of the stuff of the Bible? The only Jesus we know is the Jesus of this book. And we are told in Hebrews 13, 8, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And by whatever means, children from little infants, displaced, or brought into proximity to Jesus,

43:15 how will they find Him? They will find Him not rebuking them for their presumption to think they could come to Him and He would receive them, but rebuking anyone who would stand in their way. That's the Jesus of this passage. And no doubt it was His universal disposition or these unnamed adults would never have felt the boldness to do what they did.

43:42 They were convinced that whatever disposition was being manifested by the disciples was not the disposition of Jesus. Because again, the nuances of the Greek verbs is beautiful here. They were continually coming, the disciples were continually rebuking, but they're coming because Jesus saw what was going on, was finally rewarded, and the rebuking of the disciples ceased. And so I simply raise the question for your prayerful concern, as parents and as the people of God, and for us as a congregation of God's people, desiring to constantly have our thinking and our practice stand under the scrutiny of the Word of God, I say to all adult, sincere disciples in this place, could it be that the Lord Jesus is indignant with us when we have raised unnecessary barriers? Perhaps in our passion that our children not presume they are saved, we are assuming they are not saved when their hearts are toward the Lord Jesus. They welcome the instruction we give them. They welcome the opportunity to learn of Him, to sing of Him.

45:09 Family worship is not all drudgery. Sometimes, yes, aren't your devotions a drudgery sometimes? Yes or no? Do you come with equal passion to your devotions day after day?

45:20 If you do, tell me your secret. I don't. Are we expecting a perfection in the pattern of grace in little ones? Now, if there is evident rejection of the truth in submission to Christ, no desire to please Him, no tenderness when sin is pointed out, no willingness to confess, no willingness to confess the sin, then surely you are seeing a pattern that gives you no ground to believe that grace has been operative.

45:54 But if there is in your children a discernible disposition to go to Jesus for His blessing, don't hinder them. Don't discourage them. Don't treat them as though you knew that their going was not sincere and was not real. It may well be the seeds and more than the seeds, the first springings of true, divinely implanted spiritual life, which as I have said many times in the past in the case of children reared in Christian nurture and under sound preaching and under viable examples of Christian life, many times they won't have a clue when they pass from death unto life. They'll struggle with assurance. They'll struggle with a number of things. But let's not make them struggle with unnecessary barriers to their going to Christ.

46:56 Do you sense something in my heart? I'm not accusing tonight. I'm not indicting. I'm asking out loud the questions I'm asking of my own heart.

A Word to Children: Jesus's Welcoming Heart and Outstretched Arms

47:06 So there is a word for all of us without distinction. There is a word to us as adult disciples. And now I'm thankful I can close on this note. There's a wonderful word for you.

47:19 For your children. For you children. Remember Luke's Gospel says there were brephos. That is little babes in arms.

47:26 Mark and Matthew say they were bringing children. Anything from pre-toddlers all the way up to what we would call some of you children in middle school or in elementary school. Let me ask you this question. How do you think of the Lord Jesus?

47:47 You've got to think of Him some way. I don't mean what kind of a face. Do you picture Him having? God does not want us to try to picture what the physical features of Jesus' face looked like except that it was a normal ordinary human face as was His human form.

48:03 But if you picture now if you were to close your eyes and say if the Lord Jesus were to appear before me tonight on that platform right over there how would His countenance be if He looked at me as a little child? As a boy? As a little girl? How would Jesus' eyes meet mine?

48:25 Would they be stern eyes? Intimidating eyes? Threatening eyes? Or would they be eyes that said my heart is toward you in love?

48:42 That would make you as a child take a second look and say He's got a kindly look in His eyes. And then when you look down from His eyes how would you expect His arms to be? Like this? About ready to give you a scolding?

48:57 Would His arms be here like He's ready to do nothing? Or do you think His arms would be like this saying, come I love children I welcome children I say to grown-ups who stand in the way of children get out of the way! Don't hinder them! Let them come!

49:18 That's the Jesus who's in our Bibles. He says to you in His Word every one of you come you come and His gestures would be reflective of His heart as well as His eyes. No doubt they flashed with a measure of holy anger when He rebuked the disciples He was indignant and no doubt it registered in His countenance but oh when the children come they don't jump up in the arms of a man that looks like he's just eaten a half a dozen lemons. Kids don't do it.

49:57 They recognize a welcoming face and a welcoming face and a welcoming posture. And would you believe now let me ask you kids would you believe that Jesus would I've got to use a smaller word now I was going to use validate that Jesus would say Amen to the look in His eyes and the posture of His hands do you believe He'd take you in His arms and lay His hands upon you and bless you passionately bless you with intensity that's what He did to these. Now notice He didn't stop He didn't say Father please let down the role of your elect that I may see if little Joshua here or little Isaac here or little Joseph here or little Abraham is one of your elect because it would be terrible if I were found blessing a child who is not one of your elect. He didn't do that. And don't you paint a Jesus who does that. Don't do it.

50:57 Every child who saw in Jesus a welcoming Jesus would find Him to be exactly what He saw Him to be. Now children doesn't that make you want to go to Him? Go to Him now if you've never gone to Him and keep on going to Him every day of your life until you go to Him when you die and then you'll see Him face to face and you won't find Him to be something other than what you knew Him to be through His Word and by His Spirit. Would you turn aside from a kindly man just a man who was seeking to show goodwill to you who bent down stretched out his arms with a kindly face. Well I had that happen to me this morning. Pastor Lamar taught us from the confession in the adult hour about God's providence extending to every detail of our lives and little did I know God was going to give me such a clear illustration for the sermon tonight. I've looked very carefully to make sure the visitor is not here tonight and he's not here so I won't embarrass him.

52:05 We had a visitor this morning who had a little girl with him. And when he came to the door I introduced myself and as usual when I saw he had a little one I can't remember when I was that small but I got enough sense to know that we adults can look very intimidating and kids have got to look all the way up and especially someone who's been up in the pulpit thumping and hollering and caring about like I do. So I always get down in my inviting posture. So as he was about to introduce his little daughter I got down got on her level stretched out my hand and put on my most kindly face and he said so and so this is Pastor Martin know what she did to me?

52:42 She went like this. I'm not kidding you. Turned her head away from me looked about 45 degrees at an angle here got this sour look on her face and stuck her tongue out four or five times. And the embarrassed father said oh she does that to everyone don't feel so bad something along that line.

53:03 Well it took every bit of grace for me not to give him a lecture and say how can you look yourself in the mirror and call yourself a man allowing your daughter. But I thought Lord thank you for the illustration. Let me ask you something children. Is that what you do to the Lord Jesus?

53:24 He says to you in the word and promise of the gospel come to me. Come to me. You're a sinner. You see that's the silliness of this idea when Jesus said except to become his little children as though there's some virtue in the child that would mean I've got to get some virtues before I can enter the kingdom.

53:42 No there's no virtue in a child. You children know your hearts well enough. You know your Bibles well enough to know you are sinners. Yes you are.

53:51 You've lied. You've been nasty. You've been stinky to your brother and sister. You've disobeyed mom and dad.

53:57 You've sulked. You've pouted. You older children. I don't need to tell you what your sins are.

54:02 No coming to Jesus and being welcomed is not because you're only half a sinner or just a little bit of a sinner. No you're a bad enough sinner for God to send you to hell. That's what the Bible teaches. But dear children Christ invites you as a sinner and says you come to him as a sinner and you keep coming to him and you come and you come and you come and how will you find him?

54:26 You will always find him with the kindly look in his eye and the outstretched hands and the welcoming heart. Now what are you doing to the Lord Jesus? As he stoops to welcome you with his kindly gracious loving look in his eye and his outstretched hands are you doing what that little girl did to me? Turning your face away from him and going is that what you're doing to Jesus?

54:56 Why would you do that to him? Why would you do that to him? He just wants to receive you to forgive you to cleanse you to wash away all your sins to make you his child to put his arms around you and guide you through every passage of life and at last take you home to heaven. Why would you make a sour face turn away and stick your tongue out at Jesus?

55:29 Is that what you're doing? If you are you know what repentance means? Stop turning away and sticking your tongue out and you run into the arms of Jesus and say Lord Jesus what you show in your eyes and in your arms is no fake thing. Because you went to the cross and died for sinners like me.

55:54 And you have said if I come to you you wouldn't turn me aside. Whoever comes to you you will in no wise cast out. Lord Jesus I come and I continue to come and listen to me children. Don't get hung up and say well I did that once and nothing happened.

56:12 It's not something you do once. You get into his arms and you stay there by daily and hourly going to Jesus going to Jesus. And when you sin and when you goof and when you do what's wrong you go to Jesus for forgiveness. And when you need strength to overcome a pattern of your life that isn't free you go to Jesus for strength and grace and health and wisdom.

56:42 That's what we mums and dads and grandpas have to do. We go to him again and again and again and again and again become part of those who keep going to Jesus. Who keep going to Jesus. That's the word I want to bring to you children.

56:58 And it would grieve me no end if any one of you ended up in hell because you had a false view of the Lord Jesus. The Jesus to whom we point you is the Jesus of the passage that says permit the little children to come unto me. They need to come to me. They need me as their savior.

57:24 They don't have some salvation based on their childhood innocence. No, they need to come to me. But don't hinder them from coming to me. Forbid them not.

Conclusion: A Prayer for Children to Embrace Jesus

57:37 And it's far more likely that you will take the posture of a child inwardly dependent utterly without anything to commend to God. Far more likely that you'll do that in your youth and in your adult and older years. When through the hardening process of sin you begin to think you're somebody when Jesus said he welcomes nobodies into his kingdom. Well, may God be pleased to bless this word to our hearts and give you children the joy of knowing that you have joined those children who have been taken into the arms of Jesus to be blessed with his grace. And with his mercy. Let's pray. Our Father we thank you for this portion of your word and we pray that the Holy Spirit will write it upon all of our hearts.

58:42 Father, for those of us who are parents and as adults have had the privilege of influencing others if we have unwittingly in any way failed to give a full and proper representation of our Lord Jesus. As the one who welcomes children oh God, forgive us. We pray that you would have mercy that we would never, never, never stand in the way of any child being brought to the Lord Jesus. We now bring our children and grandchildren the children of this place to you pleading with you that they may not turn away with an angry look and stick their toes out at Jesus but that they may run into his arms and keep on running there and stay there through all of their days. Father, bless your word seal it to all of our hearts dismiss us with your blessing we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.