Sermon: Sunday, 29th June, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Luke 18:15-17
2. To help establish a new church in Leven through prayer, finance, and other support. Video 2
Jesus really does love babies and toddlers and children of all ages. Boys and girls here this morning – Jesus thinks you are very special and important and always has time for you when you pray to him. How do we know that? Well, this story of Jesus spending time with wee ones and blessing them teaches us that this is true.
D R Davis: ‘There must have been something about Jesus that indicated he was ‘approachable’… the parents assumed Jesus would welcome their little on… What a grand assumption and what a superb Saviour’.
In Jesus’ day, it was customary to take your children to a Rabbi in order to receive a blessing from the Lord. This goes all the way back to Genesis 48, where Jacob places his hands on the sons of Jospeh and blesses them.
Sinclair Ferguson: ‘Jesus seems to be moved by the fact that these parents wanted him to receive and pray for their children. It was an expression of their recognition of his grace and their trust in him.’
Picture the scene: many cheerful families are gathered around Jesus, waiting for their turn to spend some time with him. Mothers carried their babies; toddlers would be wandering around and other children would no doubt be laughing and playing. Probably some were even crying about something or other! Imagine you were there with your children and were nearing the front of the queue and were getting excited! Suddenly, Jesus’ own disciples stride over to you scowling and try to break up the expectant crowd. You’re so disappointed. You may think, ‘My children will never receive Jesus’ blessing now.’
But happily, you are proved wrong. Jesus himself comes over and gives his own disciples into trouble. It is a bit embarrassing! And you hear what he says: ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ (Luke 18:16) You smile at Jesus’ wonderful words. Jesus says the kingdom of God belongs to my children. Jesus really does love and care for our children.
1. Don’t be like the disciples and block people from Jesus
The disciples really get it wrong here. They rebuke the parents for bringing their children to Jesus but they themselves end up being rebuked by Jesus. It’s hard to know exactly why the disciples want to get rid of all the children. At best, perhaps they wanted to try and protect Jesus from burning out, and getting shot of the children seems like a no-brainer. After all, in those days, young children had no standing in society. They seem to assume that Jesus should not give quality time to children. Or, maybe the disciples feel that they themselves are too busy doing ministry and that the children are just getting in the way. How wrong they are. This wrongness is itself a reminder to us that we can think we are doing the Lord’s work, but actually we are not. We must make sure we are doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. We can be busy in the church but can do more harm than good, because our thinking is not right.
This is a really sad picture, as the disciples were meant to be those bringing people to Jesus, as Andrew often did. But here, they are so wrong-headed and actually try to prevent people from coming to Jesus. They behave like bouncers, not disciples. They might not have had time for children, but Jesus did! And so, Jesus rebukes them: ‘Do not hinder them!’
Before we all get too comfortable at how stupid the disciples are being here (and it is stupid) we have to realise that we can be more like them than we’d like to admit. There are many ways in which Christian parents, as well as those who don’t have children, can act as barriers preventing children from coming to Jesus. This is a most serious thing. You don’t want to be that person.
In what ways can we be like the disciples here? We could neglect the children in our church by failing to take an interest in them, not really even ‘seeing’ them, except as a nuisance. As parents we could be so focused on our work or hobbies that we fail to give our children the time and love they need. We can both overvalue our children, which is idolatry, or undervalue them which is neglect.
Another easy way we can block our children from Jesus is simply by our own silence. We fail to teach them the core Bible stories and fail to teach them to pray. We don’t bring them to church regularly and we don’t have family worship in the home, so our children are not hearing the voice of Jesus much at all. This is our silence. On in conversation at home, the time comes when we need to speak up about something happening in current affairs but we say nothing.
When we read Deuteronomy, God specifically tells us to speak to our children constantly about him. This is a long way from silence: ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.’ (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)
All of us are guilty of closing the road to Jesus by our hypocrisy. When our children see us acting winsomely at church but then being short-tempered and unkind or disengaged at home then they can see right through us. If our children don’t see us walking the walk as well as talking the talk then we are in danger of putting them off the faith. This too is a serious business. There are many times when I have failed my children in this way, and acted as a barrier to Jesus. What about you? If money, our appearance and success and having a good time and being happy are the most important things to us, then our children will soak this in. If serving Jesus and loving him is what makes us tick then our children will soak this in like sponges. They have eyes! What are they seeing?
2. Be like the parents and bring people to Jesus
In these parents we have a beautiful picture of faith and godly parenting. The parents truly believe Jesus could bless their children. They do the very best thing possible for their children – they bring them to Jesus. There were obstacles – no doubt – there always are. The disapproving disciples. They had to take the time to stand and wait their turn. There is a cost involved.
But there is nothing better for a parent to do than bring their children to Jesus. Never say that you are too busy to bring children to church. There are always obstacles in bringing our children to church. But I’d encourage you to do that every week. This is what Christ wants. Sure, sometimes you have to miss out on social opportunities for your children – there are lots of other things on in our society on Sundays and you can’t be in two places at once. What are you going to choose? Our society has very little interest in Jesus so expect many things to compete with the preciousness of bringing our children to Jesus at church.
Bring your children to Jesus at home with family worship. Bring your children to Jesus at Sunday School and church. Will they be able to come to the 5:30 pm service to get used to that? Let’s keep being like these parents and keep on bringing our children to Jesus. One of my good friends lived in a remote part of Scotland and there were very few other Christians his age around. As an adult, he now looks back with massive appreciation at the efforts his parents made to run him to Christian clubs and youth groups. His parents made great efforts to bring him to Jesus. At the time, he did not appreciate just how valuable this spiritual investment was. Now he does.
3. Parents who trust in Jesus have covenant children
‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ (Luke 18:16)
Jesus is telling us here than when parents trust in Jesus and look to him for blessing, their children are special – they are covenant children. The blessing Jesus gave the children that day does not automatically mean they will all be saved; however, these children are brought up in a privileged way, hearing about the love of God. Why does the Kingdom of God belong to such children? Remember the promise the Lord made to Abraham. ‘I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.’ (Genesis 17:7)
We see from this verse that in the Old Testament, children were part of the covenant community. Did this stop in the New Testament. ‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.’ (Ephesians 6:1) In the New Testament also, Jesus is viewed as the covenant Lord of these children. And that is exactly why we baptise our children, because the Kingdom of God belongs to them. We Christian parents belong to Christ and our children also belong to Christ, and we pray that one day they will repent and believe in the gospel for themselves.
S Ferguson: ‘The inheritance of believing parents belongs to our children – they still have to come to faith – but they have this great inheritance on offer to them.’
4. A picture of becoming a Christian
If you are not yet a Christian, what does God want from you? How does he want you to come to him? God gives us a really helpful picture of how he wants us to come. ‘Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ (Luke 18:17) So, the logical question is this, how do children receive things from their parents?
When they need some food, do they try and pay their parents for it, or do they need to earn it? No! Do they need to convince their parents that they deserve their food? No! They simply come to their parents with empty hands, expecting to receive the food as a gift.
Young children are marked by a helpless dependence on others in order to survive. They have nothing to offer. That’s exactly the way God wants us to come to him. He wants us to come as beggars, with empty hands, asking for his forgiveness and love, even though we don’t deserve it. Children are good at receiving gifts without trying to earn them. We must come to God like them.
The 3rd verse of the hymn ‘Rock of ages’ goes like this:
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress, helpless, look to thee for grace:
foul, I to the fountain fly, wash me, saviour, or I die.
Kent Hughes: ‘The soul that receives the kingdom is grace-oriented – it is open to the unmerited favour of God.’
Some people do not like to receive charity. But when it comes to God, we need to. Imagine you have run out of money and food. You decide to go to the foodbank. You arrive with an empty bag, that’s all. You are given food to tide you over for a few days. That’s how we should come to God spiritually. We come in prayer and say to God, ‘I am empty; please fill me. I am a sinner; please forgive me. I don’t deserve your love; but please love me on account of your grace and mercy.’
Have you come to Jesus like this? You won’t get to Heaven any other way!