Title: Childlike faith in Christ is the true gift of eternity!
Text: Matt. 18:1-11
1At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Robert Fulghum wrote in the Kansas City Times, "Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.
"These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody . . . When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. “This writer has captured part of what Jesus meant when he said, "Unless you become like little children, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven."
Hugh Duncan.
Now we all know that it is not the things we do in this life that bring us to God and his salvation but only ...
Childlike faith in Christ that is the true gift of eternity!
18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Is it human nature to want to know who is the greatest? Or, maybe you want to know your standing compared to your fellow man? At least you and I can be sure that it is a true sign of the motivation of the sinful nature. If you like me grew up or were around in the 1960s and 70s you remember Muhammad Ali or Cassius Clay as was his given name and his statement:
I am the greatest! He said this and then went about proving it on the word boxing stage. Today he is an old man that struggles with Parkinson’s disease and at 71 years of age is not a factor in boxing any more as a contender or any other sport for that matter that I’m aware of.
But the disciples come to Jesus with this question of “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
And our Lord answers in reply in a very visual way as He brings a small child and places this child in their midst.
2 … “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. It brings to mind our Children’s message time here at Peace and the looks, wonder, answers and faith that these children exhibit by God’s working in them. The weight of the world has not quite torn them down and replaced this childlike faith with the cynicism of the world and the reason that drives your lives and your motives at times.
Jesus continues:
4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Ill.
Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, who was once asked if he ever encountered situations where he didn't know what to do, responded, "More than once, and whenever I could not see my way clearly, I knelt down and prayed to God for light and understanding."
Morse received many honors from his invention of the telegraph but felt undeserving: He said, “I have made a valuable application of electricity not because I was superior to other men but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone and He was pleased to reveal it to me."
Tim Hansel, Eating Problems for Breakfast, Word Publishing, 1988, pp. 33-34.
Jesus goes on to reveal the blessing and curse in his object lesson for the disciples and also your benefit.
5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, in other words, to receive theses precious gifts of God requires the same childlike faith that is given to you by the Holy Spirit. With this faith you are given access to the blessings of Christ and are connected to all that He has merited for you.
6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
Wow! This takes on a whole different character doesn’t it? How do you cause one of these little one to sin? Are children ever drawn into an illicit activity? Are they ever used for illegal gain?
Ill.
In one incident in Philadelphia from June of this year, Police are looking for a woman who used a young child to steal someone’s wallet inside a nail salon after the entire theft was caught on tape.
The surveillance video shows the victim getting a nail treatment with her purse on the ground next to her. The suspect tells the child to slide the purse over to where she was sitting, and then she reaches into the pocketbook.
The video shows the child taking out a small wallet and handing it to the suspect. The child then slides the purse back over near the victim before the suspect and the child walk out of the store.
Police hope that the video will help to bring the woman to justice.
Jesus tells of the consequence of sin involving a child when He says: it would be better for him or in this case her to have a great millstone fastened around his/her neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
What about your child and mine? Having been given faith by the Holy Spirit in their baptisms, have they been nourished or have they been spiritually starved, left without the word of God to strengthen and build their faith? The truth is that sin can be committed; the sin of commission or it can be a result of things not done, the sin of omission. Teaching your child the ways of Christ and bringing them up, as Paul writes to the Ephesian Church in his letter when he says:
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Eph 6:4)
I take a special note that he writes to fathers because you and I as dads have a special responsibility and are also specially called and gifted by God to do what he calls us to do. Our Men’s Breakfast Bible Study group has found in our study the requirements and Godly blessings we are called to give and receive from the Lord.
Jesus calls out, “Woe to the world for temptation to sin!” and we who are of the world to understand the consequence of sin and the temptation that leads up to it. Jesus knows that in the brokenness of this life you will have tribulation ... and having my dad’s surgery and cancer diagnosis come to light, in the last few weeks, I can attest to the struggles of this life. But Jesus says that:
… it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
And He talks about some severe medicine:
8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Sin leads to death but you, dear friends, have been given:
Childlike faith in Christ which is the true gift of eternity!
Jesus in talking to the disciple brings them comfort in the storms of life as He tells them to not despise one of these little ones, but welcome them and the faith that they posses by God’s Spirit in them.
Christ is speaking His truth, from His mouth, to the disciple’s ears. You too hear the word of Christ Jesus our Lord preached to you from this pulpit but it is still God’s word and it is still His comfort just the same.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Rom 10:14)
Childlike faith in Christ is given by God to you and is the true gift of eternity!
For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
Christ Jesus is the gift of life and the savior of the world. His virgin birth, sinless life, death in your place at the cross, burial and glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven above was accomplished just for you. This childlike faith is given by his glorious gospel bringing you to this childlike faith by God’s word and sacraments. Baptism is called the liquid gospel because it bring with God’s word of promised connected to this water life from death, connecting you to His life, death, burial and resurrection.
In Him the power of Satan is destroyed and you triumph over the devil with this same childlike faith given to you as a gift of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Childlike faith in Christ is forever and the true gift of eternity!
What you learned in kindergarten is important in how we deal with our fellow man but what you have been given in the gift of childlike faith from God in your baptisms, comes for many shortly after their own physical births, because it is God who give faith and calls you to believe and trust in Him and it is God who by the Holy Spirit working in you will keep you in that same faith unto life everlasting.
Childlike faith in Christ is the true gift of eternity!
May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be and abide with you now and forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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