This sermon was preached at University Park Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. For more information about UPBC, visit upbchouston.org. If you don't have a Bible, there are some provided on the side racks, shelves there, and we'd love for you to have a copy of God's Word as we go through it together this morning. Look as I read God's Word from Luke 18, beginning in verse 15. Now they were bringing even infants to Him that He might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked Him. But Jesus called them to Him, saying, Let the children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Amen. Let's ask for the Lord's help as we look to His word now. Father, we pray that you would give us the helpless dependence of children as we look to you. And Lord, thank you that we have such a wonderful, perfect model of that in the Lord Jesus. And so we pray that we would repent of self-sufficiency and being kind of spiritual adults when we need to bow down and come low simply like children to you. And so Lord, would you work in us now? This is such an important truth, such an important part of being a Christian. And we so often fail in so many ways at this. I do, so many ways. I tell you, I've got this taken care of. I've got this, and I don't come to you with my need. And so Lord, just do that now. I pray that you would help us. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. We're not totally sure why the disciples rebuke the parents or the group that are bringing children to Jesus, but maybe if you're a parent, you can identify a time when your children maybe embarrassed you. I can think of a time when my wife was in the grocery store, strolling one of our children who will remain nameless, but they were very little, And they said in a very loud voice to her in a crowded group, look how old that lady is. Mommy, look how old. So that's one way that that's happened. I could give you many examples. Maybe you've seen the video that recently went viral, maybe it was years ago, of the man on CNN being interviewed on CNN, but he's in his home office and he's on TV talking. And then all of a sudden the door behind him opens and this little toddler girl walks in and she's just strutting in like this, like this on national TV. and uh the dad has no idea and then her little sister comes in in a walker next behind her and it's coming in and then he's kind of doing this and then the funniest part of the video is the wife comes in and you can tell she realized what happened she like slides in the door frantic and tries to literally drag these kids out of the office i cry laugh i could watch that video 100 times every day Great picture, but what I love is there's no embarrassment from the children at all, right? They just want to be with their dad. They're on national TV, they're ruining this appearance that is probably the biggest thing of his life, but they're just totally themselves. This is the way children are, right? When you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, they say president, astronaut, professional baseball player, whatever it is. Did you like dinner? No, it was gross. Or they just spit it out. You don't have to wonder when a child is afraid because they're in the bed with you in the storm. You don't have to wonder when they're hurting because they run to you for comfort. You don't have to wonder what they think of you. They're often just doing what you do, mom and dad. They're imitating you. I remember walking in on my kids one time in the game room, having a communion service. That's what happens when you're past your family. They're just doing communion. So they're imitating you. So Jesus is teaching us that there's something about children that we are meant to observe and remember and learn from. not idolize, okay, not bow down to, as is very common in our culture today, not to assume that children are perfect. They're not. They're little sinners, right? And it's so easy to identify their sin because they haven't learned to hide it yet. It's just out in front for everyone to see. Parents, raise your hand if you taught your children how to sin, right? You haven't done that. But there's something absolutely wonderful about childlikeness and Jesus actually arguing something central about being a disciple that we must learn, we must do. Unless you come like a child, you will not enter the kingdom of God. Think about all the ways sin kind of knocks on our door, creeps in, and we sort of begin to act like adults. When we grow up, well, there's times we're disappointed, and so we lose somebody in our life, or whatever it may be. We start to lose some of the wonder of life. Maybe not to trust people, but because we've been let down before. We start to try and fix our own problems. We lean into the secular worldview of everyone around us. We start pretending everything's okay, that maybe we don't need help. We carefully craft our words to achieve the result that we want. We realize that we can appear to be spiritual or responsible or happy, but we're really not, but no one will ever know. So we stop depending. We take on the stress and anxiety ourselves of life. We stop dreaming. We stop asking. And I mean, we stop asking and talking to God. We stop hoping. Jesus uses this awkward scene when his own disciples are shooing away parents and children to teach us what it means to be disciples. What an object lesson. This is what it means to enter the kingdom of God and to walk with me. It means becoming like a child. And so the implications here I think are much deeper than we can go into in one Sunday, but I'm gonna just scratch the surface with a minor observation and a major observation, okay? Minor point first, here's our outline if you're taking notes. Number one, this isn't minor as in insignificant, but it's not the main point of the text. Jesus loves children. Jesus loves children. But I think the main point, the major takeaway is the point number two, we must come to Jesus like a child. Jesus loves children and we must come to him like a child. So first, kind of the minor note that I wanna hit here this morning is that Jesus loves children. And look at the way Luke describes the scene there in verse 15. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. So it seems that parents are bringing their children to Jesus that he might bless them. That's likely what's happening. They probably want Jesus to touch them, to put his hand on them and bless them. Often this would be done by elders or scribes, maybe even on the eve of the day of atonement. Think of the patriarchs blessing their sons or grandsons. Or think about Jacob and Ephraim and Manasseh. The ESV translates this word here, the Greek word for young child as infants. So you get this picture of babies, but it can also be used in other places, kind of like little ones or even older children. Clearly the parents are the ones initiating this. They're bringing the children to Jesus. And the disciples are trying to put a stop to it. Perhaps they thought that they're protecting Jesus from the crowds, they're wasting his time maybe, or they're thinking of his prestige as a rabbi. You can't be messing around with these little things. So again, our view of children in Western society for the most part is positive. We often will see children running people's lives, idolizing children. That's not the problem that Jesus' day and the people in Jesus' day are going through. Children are seen as insignificant, lowly, unimportant. They would have been right next to the tax collectors in terms of people that would be important to a rabbi that he would never think to concern himself with. but Jesus is not any typical rabbi, right? Verse 16, but Jesus called them to him saying, let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Edward says this, one will search ancient literature in vain to find or for sympathy toward the young comparable to that which is shown by Jesus. So Jesus calls the children to himself, this would have been eye-opening for the disciples, and commands that they are not hindered in any way. So I just wanna linger on this simple but important truth that Jesus loves children. So many of Jesus' miracles involve children. The official's son who's ill in John 4, the demonized son of the man that Jesus met coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration in Mark 9, Jairus' 12-year-old daughter that heard the words, Talitha cumi, little girl, rise in Mark 5, and she rose. These that society sees as low, seen but not heard, nuisances, until they're old enough to be productive, Jesus loves and welcomes. The psalmist shows how Jesus' love, I think, is just a reflection of his Father's heart. Psalm 115, 12, the Lord has remembered us He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron, and he will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. What a picture of that, just being illustrated here. Jesus blessing the small, the insignificant. And he's taught the disciples this already in Luke's gospel. Back in Luke 9, verse 46, he says, we read this, an argument arose among them as to which was the greatest. You remember this? But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, whoever receives this child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me, receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you, all is the one who is great." Over and over in Luke's gospel, we've seen Jesus' heart for the lowly, the outcast, and here we see it for children. There's no one too small, too young, too insignificant to be loved by Jesus. So Jesus gives these babies, these little ones, his personal warm attention. He touches them and blesses each one in the midst of a pressure-packed ministry schedule. He gives his full attention, often in the Gospels, to individuals. in their own brokenness. And here he touches these children. His mission is not to be only there for the powerful in the world, but the needy, the dependent, the unspectacular. This is Jesus. And we are called to follow him in this, to love children like Jesus loved, to copy him, How do we do that? Well, I think we should see children the way Jesus saw them. The psalmist teaches that in Psalm 127, three, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. And so we pray as parents that the Lord would bless us with children. We thank him for the provision of children. And we do that in a culture that is actually moving away from not just having children, but from getting married. We wanting to celebrate God's good gift of marriage and good gift of children and them growing up to know and love the Lord. As parents, this is our objective. This is a picture of what we're called to do, to bring our children to Jesus. We cannot ensure their salvation. We cannot make them follow him, but our job through prayer, through teaching, through discipline, and patient love is to bring them to see the person and work of Jesus. So we teach them the gospel. We discipline them and bring them back to the gospel. When they sin, we point them to Jesus. We pray for them. We model love and provision for them. We're not too busy for them. and we involve them with the people of God, who are also called to love and care for them. And so, church family, I wonder, what goes through your minds when you hear the phrase children's ministry, or kids' men, as we often will say it here? I wonder if, to you, that sounds a little bit like the B team at church. You know, teaching adults, or going on a mission trip, or stuff that happens up front, serving as a church officer, that's kind of the A team. I think that's a lot like the disciples kind of, that's where they are. That's kind of the way they're viewing these children. And we would also need to be rebuked by Jesus if that is the way we're thinking. If we're devaluing the stewardship God has given us over children as a church. Are you thankful we have so many children in our church? Do you rejoice when you see them doing what kids do in church? Do you rejoice, or do you secretly wish, I wish that person wasn't here? Do you sometimes give them the impression, we wish we weren't there, wish you weren't there? Jesus' don't hinder children from coming to him. What better place for them to be than the family of God, hearing the word of God around the people of God. Don't hear VBS as a church program. Hear it as an opportunity to bring some children from Bonham Elementary School to meet Jesus. From the neighborhood, from your extended family, even your own children, to meet Jesus. Jesus loves children, and as we follow him, we want to grow in our love as well. What value he places on them, why? Well, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. We don't need to interpret Jesus' words too romantically here. He's not saying that children are so innocent and lovely that they're worthy of the kingdom of God. That's not what he's saying. Or like some of our Paedo-Baptist friends, that this text says we should baptize infants or young children before we discern their faith in Jesus. I think it's the opposite, that children are sinners. The quality they possess in abundance is that unworthiness. They're just like the tax collector that we saw earlier in the text. They have no resume of works righteousness, no spiritual accomplishments. This is the kind of person that enters the kingdom of God and no other. to pray for the children in our church to come to know and love and follow Jesus Christ. And that we as a church would grow in our love for children and our love for discipling them and equipping parents to disciple them well. And then also pray that we would grow in childlike faith. as disciples. And that's the second kind of major point that Jesus is getting to in our passage. Number two, we must come to Jesus like this, like a child. The context of the passage just helps us to see the main thrust of the text. So what Luke does is he sandwiches it between the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee and the account of the rich young ruler. So just the quick visual there on your screen, you'll see you've got the Pharisee and a tax collector, You know, the Pharisee saying, I'm not like other men. Tax collector beating his chest. I bring nothing. All I need is mercy. And then next time we'll see the rich young ruler. I've kept the law. And Jesus saying, you put too much trust in yourself, sell all you have and follow me. Right in between is this little picture. Come to me like a child. Come like a child. Look at Jesus' conclusion in verse 17. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. So the context helps us to see what it looks like to come to child, you know, as an adult. Adults tend to take care of themselves. You know, we don't like asking for help. We don't like making our needs exposed. The Pharisee had done well with his life. He didn't have a lot to ask from God at all. The rich young ruler will be the same. Both are spiritually bankrupt. And so Jesus says the only way you can enter the kingdom is to be the opposite of that. Be like the tax collector who brought nothing to the table except his need for mercy. That is childlike faith. Think about how dependent children are on their parents when they come into this world. What can a child do to provide for himself or herself? What can they do? Nothing. They can literally do nothing. It can't feed himself, clothe itself, protect itself from the elements, from danger, doesn't know when to sleep, when should I be awake, when should be a nap time. They can't even communicate what their needs are. All they know how to do is cry. Totally, utterly dependent. Friends, that's how you enter the kingdom. Helpless. This is where your relationship with Jesus must begin. I've got nothing but my sin. I deserve judgment because I have sinned against my creator and judge. I walk away from him. I have walked away. I do walk away. I've broken his commandments, all of them. If left to myself, I'm like a newborn baby that someone just dropped in the desert. I can do nothing to save myself from the judgment and wrath that I deserve. And so when we sing about the gospel, we talk about the gospel, we come together as a church, we say with the famous hymn, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross, I cling. Naked, I come to thee for dress. Helpless, I look to thee for grace. I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. Part of the gracious work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of this reality of our total helplessness, our total depravity, total inadequacy, total failure to meet God's standard that we cannot do anything to save ourself. We're born into sin. Adam's sin has been imputed to us. And we sin every day. We have a resume, a list of the ways we've sinned every day, even today. And so we have to look away from ourselves and look to Christ. And when we do, when we look to Christ as our Savior, what we find is the most dependent, childlike human being who ever walked the planet. Who are we trusting in as our Savior? When He's asking us to be childlike, what is He asking us to do? And I just want to read a few examples to you from John's Gospel. John 5, verse 19. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. John 5.30, I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, but because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. John 8.28, so Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. John 12.49, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me." This is the Lord Jesus. He never tells us to do anything, beloved, that he hasn't already done before us and for us. Turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus like a child. Trust Him for your righteousness. He died a death for you that absorbed God's wrath against your sin and was raised from the dead that the wages of your sin would be defeated death. And He justifies you before the Father. For you to understand that and believe that, it actually takes a miracle. It takes a miracle if you believe that. It's because of a miracle. We're so helpless. You don't just learn this to be childlike. We just figure this out. You need to be totally, utterly changed. You need to be born again. That's another one of those, unless you do this, you'll not enter the kingdom of God statements. John 3, 3, Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Born again. And then follow Jesus in this childlike way. He describes what regeneration looked like in chapter 10 in Luke, if you remember, Luke 10, 21. In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things, these things of salvation, from the wise and understanding and revealed them to who? Little children. Yes, Father, for such is your gracious will. If any of you don't know Jesus, could he be today revealing your need for him Would you trust Him? It's so simple. Would you turn from your sin and trust Jesus? When you do this, there's so many things that are happening, this miracle. One of those things is that the Spirit of Jesus, the third person of the Trinity, comes to live inside of us. And this is where it gets even more amazing. the praying, dependent, righteous, God-loving heart of Jesus, then comes to us in the Spirit. Paul says it this way, Galatians 4, 6, And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you're no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. So Christian, don't say, I can't do this. This is beyond my ability. Well, that's true. But you have the Holy Spirit in you, the Spirit of Jesus, who is making you more childlike, drawing you away from your dependence on yourself, more toward dependence on the Father. So we come to Jesus, trusting in Him alone by the power of the Spirit. We're made a new creation by the Spirit. And then the Spirit of Jesus comes to live in us, calls us, to live like Jesus, and in this most intimate way, we would call out Abba, Father, so that Spirit is at work in you, Christian, which means more and more childlike dependence upon God for everything. This intimate relationship that Jesus has with His Abba Father is yours by the Spirit, because your new identity is in Christ, and we have the Spirit in us. And so, just as Jesus did nothing apart from his Father, he tells us in John 15 5, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me, I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. No one enters the kingdom any other way. There are no adults in the kingdom, spiritually speaking. It's not the adults of God, we're the children of God. Our helpless and childlike trust does not stop at conversion. I love the way Paul describes this just even so briefly in Colossians 2.6. Therefore, he says, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. that we receive Him as a child in need of mercy and grace and everything, and therefore we must also walk with Him as a child in need of mercy and grace in everything. He enables us to do this by the power of the Spirit, and then He calls us to do it. So walk this way, right? We don't grow out of childlike dependence. We actually grow into it. And so our prayer should be like that of the psalmist in Psalm 131, Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. There's a lot in that category that some of us are really, really, really twisted up about right now. But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. So lifting up our hearts It's what we do, I think, when we lose track of, and we start trying to take on the heavy load of life ourselves. We occupy ourselves with things that we're not meant to carry, that are too high for us. You and I know what that looks like. Worry about the future, worry about our children, worry about our finances, worry about God's plan, worry about His provision, worry about His timing. But a child, as he lays on his mother's arms, a weaned child, is not worried. This weaned child has learned to trust his mother to feed him. He's not gonna starve. He knows that. Even when she doesn't give him what he wants right away, he trusts his mom. This is what Jesus is calling us to do. We can learn from children. Just observe. Observe how children ask for things. They find out about a water park, never heard about it, I wanna go right now. Now, I mean today, and if it can't be today, it can be maybe later or tomorrow. And if not then, I'm gonna ask you until you take me repetitively over and over and over and over again. This is why some of you parents spell things out in front of your kids so they won't know what you're saying because if they hear there's a possibility you might go out to eat or something, they're gonna ask you one million times. What a great trait to have. What a great thing to feel the freedom to ask for anything and everything. As much as you want. You know that your parents love you and it seems like they can do anything. So I'm going to ask them. It's not always what's appropriate. It's not always at an appropriate time. They just ask boldly. They see a toy, they ask for it. They see a dog, I want a dog. There are no limits. So what are they doing? They're coming to you as they are. Unvarnished, unfiltered, no pretense. They come with all their selfishness, all their dreams, all their hopes, all their desires. And what do you do as a parent when that happens? Do you scold them? Do you discipline them because they come and say, can we have cake for breakfast? No, you just laugh and giggle and give them some cake because you adore them. You love them. It's not gonna kill them. That is God's heart for us. He adores us. He's our father. He loves us. And that means you and me, we come to him. We must come to him as we are. We have to. Not hiding, not pretending. You see this in the disciples so often. Peter just blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind. You know, Nathanael, he insults Jesus, his family, and all of his friends. Can anything good come from out of Nazareth? And instead of rebuking him, Jesus just kind of enjoys him. And he highlights this in John 1 47. Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. He just overlooks the words that he said, these awkward words, and says, no, I'm just gonna enjoy this. You should see this. You should maybe be like this. The disciple who had the most pretense was Judas, the one that pretended the most. We can learn from this kind of instinctive trust, coming to Jesus as we are, completely messy, distracted, with problems on our minds, after we've sinned, He says, come to me when you're weary and heavy laden, not just go figure yourself out and then we can talk. You seem to be going through a lot. Come talk to me when everything's better. That is the opposite of what he says. Hypocrisy not only lies to others, but it actually will rob our joy in prayer because we're not being honest with God. And so we're doing something that is very perfunctory, a duty. And that's why we're struggling with it so much. Instead of saying, I don't even want to pray today, God. I don't know what you're doing, God. I don't understand. I'm hurting. For some reason we think he doesn't want to hear that, but he's our father. If we don't present the real us to the real God, our real needs will never be addressed. The Pharisees never tell Jesus what they're really wanting, what they're really asking. They're always trying to trick him. But the gospel frees us to come to Jesus messy, just like your kids do. So be honest with him, open up to him in prayer. So where does this picture of childlike faith strike you? Is your time with God enjoyable like a small child crawling up on his dad's lap? Do you feel free to dream with God about what could be? Are you asking God for things that only God can do? Do you know that in the Gospels, when that happens, Jesus pushes pause and says, everybody look at this. Often when it happens, it's a Gentile who does it. Remember the Roman centurion in Luke 7? His servant is dying and he comes to Jesus for help. Jesus says, I'll go with you. And the man says, you don't even need to come with me, just say the word and my servant can be healed. And Jesus marvels. He draws attention to this. Luke 7, 9, when Jesus heard these things, he marveled him and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. Are we asking God for things that only God can do? That's what children do. They don't ask for things that we can probably figure out anyway on our own. So often we've been disappointed, and so often we become cynical about what we think God can do or will do, and then our childlikeness just slowly dies. But Jesus says, be like a child, ask with faith. Keep asking, ask big, ask bold. Christian maturity isn't that we've learned a lot of stuff about God and now we don't really need him anymore, right? Strong Christians do pray more, they do read their Bibles more often, but it's not mainly because they're strong in themselves, but because they have understood now how absolutely helpless they are, absolutely sinful they are, and they need Him every moment, even more. I'm so weak. Immature Christians will often pray less and talk more because we're just trusting in ourselves more. Now, one thing that often changes that, of course, is suffering. God working in us through that suffering, Jeremiah Burroughs said it this way, since God is contented with himself alone, if you have him, you may be contented with him alone, and it may be That is the reason why your outward comforts are taken from you, that God may be all in all to you. It may be that while you had all these things, they shared with God in your affection. A great part of the stream of your affection ran that way. God would have the full stream run to him. He wants our full, simple, childlike trust. He wants our prayer to be an honest conversation with a real person. Time with Him matters, not because we structure it right and we have the right words, because you are with your Father who delights in you. You have that sort of access. The child walking into the office, that's you. We come to God, as the hymn says, just as I am, with wide-eyed wonder in His presence, like we just stepped out of the wardrobe into Narnia, with the reception of the grace of God. Notice that word receive again. Our hands are open. We receive His grace like a gift. Children do not have a problem receiving gifts. It is not an issue. It's adults that say, oh, you shouldn't have. Right? We object. Please know, I'm fine. We have to unlearn. We have to unlearn this self-dependence by the power of the Spirit. Cornelius Plantinga says, once upon a time, we knew how to receive something uncritically and then live off of it. But now we are so reliant upon ourselves and so critical of others that it's hard for us to receive anything from anyone, even our heavenly Father. And so we must be born again. We must come like children. We must trust the one who made us, the one who died in our place, the one who trusted his father, and the one who lives and reigns in us. Again, we're not the adults of God, but the children of God. And Paul says in Romans 8, 17, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. So let's come to Him as we are, as a child. Let's pray. Lord, I'm so thankful for this passage, and I just confess, I am not good at this. There's so much self-trust, and Lord, I just pray that we as a congregation would just be honest with you and admit this and know that we're really not gonna see your power, we're not gonna see Lord, the things that only you can do in our church, in our lives, in our suffering, in the difficult things that we are faced with, until we do this, until we want to see you work and trust you like children. And so Lord, we pray that you would help us to grow in this, that you would receive glory. You are strong and kind. And so we trust you. And we wanna just sing that now together. In Jesus' name, amen.