A Little Child in the Middle sermon teaches us that each and every child is yet another creation in the image of God. And therefore, they are sacred. As you minister to little children, it is like ministering to Jesus.
Key verses:
Matthew 18:1-10
Matthew 19:13-14
Take your Bible, if you will, and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 18. To begin with, we will be reading just verse 10. Eventually, we will be reading verses 1 to 10 and then going over to chapter 19 for a little bit. But to begin with, in Matthew 18:10, Jesus said:
Matthew 18:10: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
As we’ve said already, today is Sanctity of Life Sunday. It has been designated as such for many years now, decades, really. It is set apart to honor human life and to speak about defending the defenseless, and to speak about those who are unborn and who have been targeted by many, not everyone, of course, but by many for elimination. There are many different reasons for that. There is not one single reason.
Who Has a Right to Life?
But all of it is rooted in humanism. It is rooted in the idea that man is god and man decides his own fate. Man controls his own fate and therefore has the right to control the fate of other people. That’s the idea of humanism, making man a god. There is no god outside of man himself. So, man himself makes the decisions and determines who lives and who dies. There’s more to it, but that’s a general idea.
We were talking somewhat about this in our Sunday School class this morning. I encourage you to go to Sunday School at 9:30 each Sunday morning. Brother Quinn brought up Adolph Hitler. We talked about that, and I said to the class, “All my life, I could not understand how anybody could follow that man, his ideas, his teaching until I read his book. When I read his book, I can understand how people can follow him.” Was that book that good? No, it was not particularly good, but it is logically written, the English translation of it is.
But the whole thing is based upon evolution. Hitler’s theory was that there is no God; we have no need of a Creator. We are all evolved. Where did he get that from? Charles Darwin and Friedrich Nietzsche. How do I know that? He said so. But he said we are evolving, and man is supposed to evolve into a master race. Man is supposed to evolve into superman, if you will.
But he said there are some people groups who are not as evolved as others. This is not me talking; this is Adolph Hitler. He said there are some people groups who are not as evolved as others. And if we can eliminate those lesser evolved people groups, then the more evolved people groups will evolve faster and will speed up evolution, and we’ll get to our goal.
Now, if you believe in Adolph Hitler’s philosophy which is to say, if you believe in evolution, then that would be logical. But there is one major factor that tells you that Hitler was a maniac. And that is, you are not accidents, you are not cosmic accidents, you didn’t create yourself, you just didn’t happen. You have a Creator, you have a Designer, and you have a purpose. There’s a reason for your being, and you are here by the will of God.
If you follow God and you follow the Bible, again, Hitler was a maniac. And you know what I’m going to say to you? Hitler was a maniac. I’m not alone in that thinking, not by any means. If you notice in your bulletin, we always have a quote in our bulletin, and it always has to do with the theme of the day. I don’t know how many of you actually read it, but it is always there.
And this time, it’s from the first sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men,” not some, not particular ones, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator.” In the bulletin, it is capitalized “C,” but in the Declaration of Independence, it is capitalized “C,” the reference is to God. “They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Notice the first Right that is mentioned there. It is the Right to Life. And you have a Right to Life. Each and every one of you has a Right to Life.
“Let Us Make Man in Our Image”
Now, with that said, let me share with you some scripture.
Genesis 1:26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Did you understand that? God said, “Let us.” Isn’t that interesting? God said, “Let us make man in our own image.” Did you notice the inclusive plural personal pronoun is there? “Let us make man in our own image.” Well, who is “us”? Isn’t this God speaking? It is. Who is “us”? He’s talking about the Trinity. Elohim is a plural noun that takes a singular noun, “El,” and when you add the “im” ending to it, “im” in English, then in Hebrew, it makes it plural. So, you have a noun there that is both singular and plural at the same time. Many people express it this way, many but one.
So, “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” – That’s Genesis 1:26. You know what God said? You are not an animal. You are above the animals. You are to have dominion over the animals. You are not an animal. Why? Verse 27:
Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
You are a special creation in the image of God himself. You and I are not gods. We’re not trying to say that; please understand that. It’s very important that you don’t miss that. But we are created in God’s image. And we are not animals, and we are not accidents, and we are not evolving.
Psalm 8:4-6, David wrote this:
Psalm 8:4: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
Psalm 8:5: “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”
Psalm 8:6: “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:”
So, you have God, you have the angels, and you have who? Human beings. Angels are not human beings. I know that will disappoint some of you. I was looking forward to being an angel. No, angels are a separate created order. So, the created order, as given in Psalm eight, is God, angels, human beings, and then animals.
We have in our society today many people, again, thank God it’s not everybody, but many people who have been taught to believe that you are an accident and/or an animal. You are neither. You have a spirit and a soul that no other creature has, created in the image of God.
God loves His creation. He loves mankind. It’s a sad fact that so often, mankind doesn’t love God. But God loves mankind, and therefore, God gave us this commandment:
Exodus 20:13: “Thou shalt not kill.”
“Thou shalt not kill.” That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? It’s not a complicated sentence. “Thou shalt not kill.”
In Matthew 5:21, Jesus said:
Mtthew 5:21: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:”
How to Earn Eternal Life
That’s pretty serious. What judgment? God’s judgment. In Matthew 19:16-19, if you have your Bible open, I want you to look at it:
Matthew 19:16: “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”
That is what most people think, “What good thing can I do to inherit eternal life? I want to know how much good I have to do to go to Heaven.” I’m going to say this, the Lord is going to answer the question, but let me say this, you cannot do enough good to get to Heaven. Thank God it’s been done for you. Notice Jesus’ answer in verse 17:
Matthew 19:17: “And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
“And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God,” – that’s why you and I cannot do enough good to get into Heaven. Because to do enough good to get into Heaven, we’d have to be as good as God, and we’re not. That’s why Paul wrote that we’ve all come short of the glory of God. We’re not as good as God. Again verse 17:
Matthew 19:17: “And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”
“Wait a minute, preacher. You just said we could not do enough good. Why are you telling us to keep the commandments?” He’s making a point for this young man. This young man is still thinking he can do enough good to earn eternal life.
Matthew 19:18: “He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,”
So, he, the young man, said to Jesus, “Which commandment should I keep?” Right away, you see a flaw in his thinking. Which one? All of them. Keep all the commandments. “I can’t do that.” Exactly. You can’t do that. But he is still wanting to know which ones. Verse 18 again:
Matthew 19:18: “He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,”
“He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder,” – pretty clear, isn’t it? There really is not any question there that you could question. “Thou shalt do no murder.” Murder is wrong. It’s wrong. I’m going to tell you this, and I’m only going to tell you this to make the point I want to get across to you.
For decades now, decades, not the last two or three years, not in the last six years, but for decades now, every time we’ve had a presidential election, we get a new president. Somebody, not the same person every time, but somebody will come up to me and say, “I hope he gets assassinated.” My answer to those people has always been the same. My answer has always been the same, “Well, I don’t.” They say, “Why not?” Sometimes they’ll say, “Did you vote for him?” And that is totally beside the point. It has nothing to do with it. They say, “Why not?” I say, “Number one, that’s murder. And God says, ‘Thou shalt do no murder.’ That’s reason enough right there. Number two, this is the United States of America, and we have ways to settle our political differences, and that’s not it. It’s not right, and you cannot make it right.”
So, Jesus said, “Thou shalt do no murder.” Now, who is it that we are not supposed to murder? Anybody. Do not murder anyone. Does that include the president? Absolutely. Does that include an unborn child? It does. Now, I’m not trying to hurt somebody who has already been through that situation. I want you to understand that. That’s not the point. I’m trying to teach you the truth as opposed to lies.
“Thou shalt not commit adultery,” that’s a novel idea these days, isn’t it? “Thou shalt not steal” that’s another unusual idea these days. You know, I’ve heard that in some areas, some states, that if people are going into a store, I’ve read this in several different places, going into a store to shoplift, if they take less than $1,000 worth of merchandise, you’re not to do anything about it.
Let’s think about that logically. I go to store A, and I take $500 worth of merchandise. I go to store B and take $300 worth of merchandise. I go to store C and take $100 worth of merchandise. I’ve stolen from three stores, and no one can do anything about it. I didn’t take $1,000 from any of them. Do you understand that there are flaws in this kind of thinking?
We had somebody here years ago, decades ago here, steal some checks, some of our church checks. Made them out and cashed them. It took a while to discover that, and when we did the logical thing, we called the police. The city police came, and they did an investigation and they said, “Here’s the problem. These checks were not cashed within the city. Therefore, we do not have jurisdiction.” Ok, that makes sense.
So, I called the department where the checks were cashed. You won’t believe what the person on the phone said to me. They said, “Did the bank give you your money back?” Actually, they did. “What are you worried about?” I said, “I’m concerned that a crime has been committed and if nothing is done about it, the same people will do it again. That’s what I’m concerned about.” And why wouldn’t they? If you commit a crime and there is no penalty, why wouldn’t you do it again? If nobody makes you pay for that crime, you could do it again, and again, and again, until you die.”
What am I saying? I’m saying there is such a thing as, at the fundamental, the base level, a difference between right and wrong. There is a fundamental base difference between truth and fiction. There is a fundamental base difference between good and evil. We cannot confuse those lines. We cannot compromise them together. Right is right, just like light is light, and dark is dark.
So, He says, “Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,” – do you know what that means? Don’t tell lies about people. Don’t say things about people that are not true. And I’m sure the Lord would endorse this: Don’t say things about other people that are true but are hurtful and unnecessary. Honestly, as a pastor, I’ve had people come up and tell me things that I don’t tell other people. Why? It would be hurtful and unnecessary for me to tell it. Just don’t.
Then He says:
Matthew 19:19: “Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
“Honour thy father and thy mother,” that’s a good idea too, isn’t it? Honor your father and your mother. We’ve talked about this on Father’s Day and on Mother’s Day in the past over the years. “Well, if you knew my mother or my father, you wouldn’t honor them.” You know what? The Lord didn’t say to honor your father and your mother if they were perfect people. He didn’t say that. He just said to honor your father and your mother. There are no qualifiers on that.
Then, He says, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. You know, Jesus led up to that one because He knew this was this young man’s problem. He didn’t love his neighbor as himself. Remember, this young man said, “Which commandments do I need to keep?” Well, He told him which ones he needed to keep. And that was the one he was missing. If we treat our neighbors as ourselves, that means we don’t treat them the way they treat us. It means we treat them the way we want them to treat us.
I’m sure this is true of me and not of you. I am really good at treating somebody the way they treat me. That’s easy. If somebody is nice to me, I’ll be nice to them. If somebody is mean to me I can show them I can be even meaner. Now, let me ask you a question. How much good do you think that does? None. As a matter of fact, it does harm. It doesn’t do any good.
It’s not what Jesus said. He said to treat other people the way you want them to treat you. Not the way they treat you, the way you want them to treat you. The way you want to be treated, that’s the way you treat other people.
Verse 20:
Matthew 19:20: “The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”
I’ve done all that. What am I missing? He was missing loving his neighbor as himself. How do you know that?
Matthew 19:21: “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”
Matthew 19:22: “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”
So, he didn’t love his neighbor as himself. He didn’t. Jesus knew that. Do you know what He was showing that young man? There is none good but God. That’s what He’s showing him.
Children Are an Inheritance
Now, I want us to go back to chapter 18. As we are turning back over there, I want you to think again of what we talked about in Genesis 1:26-27, where God created man in His own image. But then later in Genesis 1:28, the next verse, God says this:
Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,” – you know what God is saying? Have children. That’s what He was saying. Now, Psalm 127:3-5, we read this:
Psalm 127:3: “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”
Psalm 127:4: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.”
Psalm 127:5: “Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.”
So, now, look at what Jesus has to teach us here.
Matthew 18:1: “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Now, Matthew doesn’t give us this detail, but the other Gospel writers do. The ones who came to Him were James and John. They wanted to know who was the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. And their mother put them up to that idea. I don’t want to say their mother was a bad person. Don’t misunderstand me, but she wanted Jesus to say that her two sons, James and John, one of them, could sit on His right hand in the kingdom of Heaven and the other on His left hand. But they would be the chief underneath Him over everybody else. Does it really say that? It really does.
So, what we are seeing here, and don’t misunderstand me, I’m not holding myself up to James and John. That would be foolish on my part. But they were being selfish at this point. When they say, “Who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?” They weren’t saying, “You know, I want to nominate Judas over there.” They weren’t saying that. They weren’t saying, “Peter is a good candidate.” They weren’t saying that. They were saying, “Hey, that’s going to be us, right? We’re the ones.”
Mankind is selfish by nature. And I’m going to tell you when the Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil,” what it’s not saying is money is the root of all evil. It never says that. It says the “love” of money is the root of all evil. Do you know what He is saying? Selfishness is. Greed, self-centeredness is the root of all evil.
So we won’t be too hard on the disciples. Because a very large percentage of human beings are focused on what will benefit them. So many of us are not interested in what we can do for others, but we’re interested in what I can get for myself, and how can I get my needs met. This person over here has needs. Yeah, that’s their problem. We need to come to understand that serving the Lord is a great work in life, and serving self has to come last.
Look at verse two:
Matthew 18:2: “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,”
Matthew 18:3: “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:4: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, what is He saying there? Well, He puts a little child in the middle of them, and He is so wise that He commanded us to reproduce children. We’ve talked about this before in the spiritual sense. Let’s talk about it in the physical sense.
I personally love apples. I really do. I like other fruits too, but I love apples. I wish we could have an apple tree. Unfortunately, apple trees won’t grow and produce in this area. Our climate is not right for it, and so forth. But I guess I don’t need to worry about that because the climate is changing. That was a joke, folks. But I wish I could have an apple tree. We have other trees in our yard but would love to have an apple tree. Apple trees produce fruit. What kind of fruit does an apple tree produce? Apples. We do have orange trees around here, and they produce? Oranges. You can grow grapefruit around here, and grapefruit trees produce? Grapefruit. You can grow banana trees that produce bananas, and on and on.
So, human beings are supposed to produce? Human beings. That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? It doesn’t take a scientist to figure that out. But if you study science, you will find that is true also. We have to understand God’s will. Now, God is so wise, He commanded us to reproduce, and He gave us babies. That was His wisdom to give us babies.
Suppose that He didn’t do that. Suppose that every new human being who came into the world came at 16-years of age. Now, there would be very little growth for them to do. They may not have reached their full height. I reached my full height at 15, but some people grow into their 20s. There would be very little, if any, growing to do because we would be close to our full size if we hadn’t already reached it. And there would be very little for us to learn because, at 16, young people know everything.
But God is so wise that He gave us babies. They are innocent. They don’t know the things they need to know, and they have to learn everything. Not only that, they are totally dependent. They are dependent upon us. They cannot feed themselves. They cannot care for themselves in any way.
God did that so we would love them and so we would care for them. If they came into the world at age 16 – you’re a big kid. Take care of yourself. But they don’t do that. We are thrilled at every new thing they learn. Did you see that? Did you see they took their first step today? Oh, before that, they were pulling up. Did you see that? They got on their hands and knees and started that little rocking, and now they are starting to crawl. You get excited about that. You get excited about every new thing that they learn. God is so wise to give us babies so we will love them.
Become as Little Children
But Jesus says:
Matthew 18:3: “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
He says, “Verily” – Truthfully, He says, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children.”
John 3:3: “Jesus answered and said unto him [Nicodemus], Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
I’m going to throw something in here that doesn’t have anything to do with the message. It might help some of you. I had the weirdest dream last night. It was a nightmare, and it lasted all night long. I would wake up, go to sleep, and have the same thing. I couldn’t get away from it. So, early this morning, I woke up and started meditating on scripture. I said that I had to get this thing out of my head and started meditating on scripture. I am telling you that so it might help you sometime. If you have something like that happen sometimes, then meditate on scripture. You know what? It worked, it worked. Why do I mention that now? Because I was meditating on John chapter three.
John 3:3: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Then Nicodemus said unto Him:
John 3:4: “Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”
Well, no. It was a logical question. You can’t be born when you are already an old man. So, when Jesus said you must be converted and become as little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God, is He not saying the same thing He said to Nicodemus? Nicodemus, you need to be born again. You need to be born again.
Matthew 18:4: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Humble yourself like that little child who doesn’t know everything, who can’t do everything, who is still learning. Humble yourself and recognize that you have a need. The Lord is saying that we need to take upon ourselves the innocence and the loving trust that a little child has, that we are dependent upon our Lord, not upon ourselves, and He will exalt us. And then, we will be as great as we possibly could be when He exalts us, not when we exalt ourselves.
We sometimes get the wrong idea, and it’s a huge mistake that children are not as important as adults. Many years ago, again, decades ago, I was in a meeting, and there was a pastor who talked about what a large attendance they had had in Sunday School. And another pastor asked him, “Yeah, you had that big number, that large attendance at Sunday School, but how many of those were bus kids?” How many were children that came in on the bus? Like that makes a difference. Are they not as important as those who did not come on the bus? Are they not as important as the adults who came? What a question. We couldn’t be more wrong about how important children are. Look at verse five:
Matthew 18:5: “And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.”
Do you know what He is saying? He’s saying each and every child is yet another creation in the image of God. And therefore, they are sacred. Receive a child in the name of Jesus, He said, receive me. What’s He talking about? He’s talking about, as you minister to little children, it is like ministering to Him.
Do Not Harm Little Children
Then verses 6-10, He talks about hurting children. Now, He uses the word “offend.” The word “offend” here carries the idea of putting a roadblock in the way of someone who would otherwise believe. Don’t keep people, don’t keep children from believing in Jesus. Look at what He says:
Matthew 18:6: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
That’s pretty severe. If you are offending a little child who believes in Jesus, it would be better for you to drown in the sea. Having a millstone hung around your neck, which depending on the size of the millstone, could be anywhere from 100 lbs. to 1000 lbs. How many of you think if that were hanging around your neck and you were dropped in the ocean, you could swim to the surface? How many think you can do that? No, I guarantee you couldn’t. it wouldn’t take you long to find out.
He said that would be better if it happened to you than you offend a little child who believes in Jesus. For those who would turn away from believing in Jesus, it is better for them to have a millstone hung about their neck. Why? Because it is the Lord’s will for children to believe in Him. Because it is the Lord’s will for children to be saved. Because it is the Lord’s will for children to live. Because it is the Lord’s will for children to grow and be like Him. Therefore, He puts His protection on children. Look at verse seven:
Matthew 18:7: “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!”
When the Lord says, or the Bible says, “woe unto” somebody, you see that in the Old Testament prophets, you see Jesus saying it a number of times, woe unto means judgment be upon. “Woe unto the world” – judgment be upon the world. “because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!”
Matthew 18:8: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.”
Pretty harsh words. He’s not finished, verse nine:
Matthew 18:9: “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.”
By the way, I heard somebody sometime say, “Jesus never talked about Hell.” I guess they didn’t read that verse. The Lord is against those who would harm children. He’s against those who would keep a child or take a child away from Heaven or eternal life and cause them to be eternally condemned. Jesus says judgment is upon that one.
Words in verses eight and nine are some of the harshest words He ever spoke. What He’s saying is it is better to lose a major body part than to go to Hell. If you are thinking logically, that makes perfect sense. It would be better to lose a major body part than it would be to go to Hell. But that is not all He’s saying. He’s saying it’s better to lose a major body part than to come under the judgment of those who would turn children away from Jesus. That’s something we need to take seriously. No Christian has ever done that, has he? I’m afraid they have. Can you show us that? Be patient, and we’ll get there in a minute. Notice verse 10, He says, “Take heed,” which means sit up and listen:
Matthew 18:10: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
I have read that verse and studied that verse for decades now, and I’m not sure I totally understand that verse. I’m going to show you why. “For I say unto you, That in heaven their angels” – the angels of the little children. Now, we’ve already said that children don’t become angels, and people don’t become angels when they die. You are still you after death. Angels are a separate created order. But “their angels” personal pronoun, their angels belonging to the children, “do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” I’m not 100% sure I know what that means. Does that mean, as we’ve often heard, that each child has a guardian angel that is in Heaven? Maybe. Maybe that’s what He meant.
I shared this with a group of college students a few years ago. Afterward, a young lady came up to me and said, “You don’t have to worry about it anymore. My father is a pastor, and he knows what that verse means. I’ll tell you what it means.” And she did. She said that God has angels sitting there, just looking at Him, waiting for Him to send them out and help a little child. Maybe that’s what it means. Maybe that’s right. I’m not 100% convinced it is, but that makes sense. You know, maybe that is it.
Whatever it actually means, Jesus is telling us that there are angels in Heaven representing children on earth that always behold the face of the Father.
“Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.” Don’t do it. Don’t do it. There is a direct connection between children and their God. We must not do anything that turns them away.
Forbid Not the Little Children
Now, go over to chapter 19, verse 13, and we’ll finish.
Matthew 19:13: “Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.”
Notice the phrase, “and the disciples rebuked them.” What had He just said? He said don’t keep the children away from me. Don’t offend the children who believe in me. And the parents were bringing their children to Jesus so He could put His hands on them and pray, much like what we do when we have a baby dedication here. Same general idea. We’re not the Lord, but we’re doing things the way He did them. And the parents were bringing their children to the Lord Jesus, so He would just place His hands on them and pray. Nothing wrong with that. But it says that the disciples rebuked them.
Now, let’s be fair to the disciples. Why did they do that? You’ll read other passages in the Gospels, and they will tell you that Jesus and the disciples were so thronged with people, they were so busy ministering to people, they didn’t even have time to eat. And on at least one occasion, at the end of the day, He had to leave town just to get a little rest. That’s why. That’s why I’m sure they turned them away, why they rebuked these parents. Look, don’t you see, Jesus is ministering to all these people, He’s healing people, He’s helping people, and He doesn’t have time to pray over your little baby. That seems to be how that went. Notice verse 14:
Matthew 19:14: “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
“But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not,” – now, “suffer” there does not mean what we think of today. We use the word “suffer,” and you think of somebody having pain or agony or going through a difficult time. It’s not what the word means here.
I remember when I graduated high school. I think I still have this thing somewhere, but on our high school yearbook, our senior year, on the inside cover, one of the students had drawn a painting, and it was a gaunt, emaciated child reaching out a hand as if to be reaching out for help and it said, “Suffer the little children.” The idea I got from that picture, maybe this is not what the artist intended, was that little children are suffering. That is true, and little children do suffer. There is no question about that. But that’s not what this verse means.
The “suffer” here means to allow or permit. So, He’s saying allow little children and forbid them not. Don’t keep the little children away from Jesus. That’s what he’s saying. Don’t keep them away from me. Allow or permit “little children, and forbid them not.” To do what? “To come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Go back to chapter 18, verse 3:
Matthew 18:3: “And [Jesus] said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, go to chapter 19 and verse 14:
Matthew 19:14: “But Jesus said, Suffer [allow] little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Sounds like He’s talking about the same concept, doesn’t it? And so, He’s saying here, allow the children to come. Don’t stop them, for of such is the kingdom of God.
What happens next? Well, first go back to verse 13:
Matthew 19:13: “Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.”
Look at now, verse 15:
Matthew 19:15: “And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.
He did what those parents wanted Him to do. He put His hands upon them, no doubt He prayed, and then He left. Why? He was finished. He was finished in that time and place. He moved on. He moved on to talk to that young man we talked about earlier, who wanted to know which commandments he needed to keep.
Not Enough Children
I recently read some things in the Huffington Post and the LA Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and Time magazine, all major publications of notoriety. If you like them or not is beside the point. But none of those are publications that you would call conservative Christian publications. I think that is a fair statement. All of these contain stories that state the US birth rate is not sufficient to keep the population stable. What does that mean? It means that not enough children are being born to sustain the population of the United States. So, in other words, we are not having enough babies to outpace the death rate.
I heard a story years ago about a fellow who came into town for the first time. He met a resident of that town, and he said to him, “What’s the death rate around here?” And the resident said, “One to a person, just like everybody else.” But here’s what it’s saying, we’re not having enough babies. Why would that be? There are a lot of different reasons for that. It is a horrific shame that we live in a day where children are not loved as they should be. Jesus loves the little children. That’s not just a song we sing in Sunday School. It’s the truth.
But why is that? Why are we having fewer children, not enough to outpace the number of people dying each year? Well, one story said women are more educated. Okay, you are more educated, so you are not going to have children? I have a hard time with that one.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, if you’ve been in America for the last couple of years, you know all about the Centers for Disease Control. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are more than half a million abortions in America each year. That’s 500,000. That’s not only true now; that has been true for the last 40 to 50 years. At that rate, that would mean, and let me put it into perspective for you, that 20 million children who were conceived were never born. 20 million. Now, let me put that in perspective for you. That’s close to, not exactly, but close to, the population of the State of Florida. I say close to because Florida’s population is growing. Or that’s approximately 7% of the population of the United States.
Now, from 2010 to 2014, more than 25% of pregnancies worldwide were terminated by abortion. The US is not the only country that has a birth rate below what is necessary for an increased population. I shared in the Sunday School class what I read recently in the last few days. In China, they have more people die every year than are born every year.
As a matter of fact, the statistic that I saw is there are about a million more people dying each year than are being born. That’s a lot of people, wouldn’t you agree that’s a lot of people? So, does China have a population growth issue? Not really. Why? Because in China, within the borders, we’re not talking about Chinese people elsewhere, but in the country, there are a thousand million people, the largest population on the planet. Second to that is India.
So, am I saying those million people don’t matter? I’m not saying that at all. They do matter. To add to all this, in the last 50 years, the number of births per woman has dropped by 50%. What does that mean? It means women are having half as many children as they used to have. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of the reasons is that people are choosing to have less children. It’s by choice, and there are reasons for that also.
It’s estimated that 31% of children in the world are Christians. Now, let me help you with that statistic. They are saying that 31% of the children in the world are “Christians.” When they give a statistic like that, that means anyone who is connected with a church whether that church preaches salvation through grace by faith or works salvation or whatever, they call themselves Christian, so that is included in that. So, that means in the best-case scenario, 69% are the vast majority of children in the world are not Christians. What does that mean? That means we need to reach children with the Gospel, doesn’t it?
Add to that statistic, according to the Voice of the Martyrs, there are 50 countries in this world – there are 200 countries in this world – but there are 50 countries in this world where Christians face severe, political, or religious persecution. In other words, to be a Christian and meet like we’re meeting this morning, you do it in peril. What kind of peril? This isn’t how it always happens. A lot of times, it is not as severe as this, but I’ve heard of cases in recent years where Christians were gathering for Christian services, and people came along and set the church on fire and burned them in it. It’s not always that severe. But there is persecution in at least 50 of the world’s countries. If there are over 200 countries in the world, and 50 of them are persecuting Christians, that means one-fourth of the countries in the world are persecuting Christians.
Value Life
You and I call ourselves Christians. We need to learn to value life. Every human being is important. Every human being has a purpose. I said it earlier and I’m going to say it again. People are not accidents, and they are not animals. They should not be treated as accidents and animals. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We need to learn to value life.
Secondly, we need to learn to value children. Jesus loves human beings. “For God so loved the world” – that means the people of the world, not talking about the planet, not talking about the world system of the planet. It’s talking about the people of the world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
You and I must pledge ourselves to bring people in general, and children in particular, to know Jesus, to be saved. Let me share a little practical something with you. We have a church here. I like our church. I’ll be honest with you. You may say, “Sure, you’re the pastor.” Yeah, but I like the people of our church, not just because I am the pastor.
Ever since I was born again in ’69, I always loved going to church. I always have, and I still do, not just because I’m preaching, because, you know, for a lot of those years, I wasn’t a preacher. I still love going to church. If I travel, and I’m going to be traveling on Wednesday, I try to find a place to go to church. I want to go to church. I have had some great experiences that way, by the way.
But, as we love our church, if we don’t bring in young people, if we don’t bring in children and teach them to know the Lord, you know what? One day this church will be gone, won’t be here anymore. Because those of us who are older, one day, we are not going to be around. And if we don’t bring up children and teenagers and young adults, and get them in and get them involved, there won’t be a church here.
Before we can do that, of course, we need to be sure of ourselves that we know the Lord Jesus. We need to know we are saved. We need to know that we’ve trusted Him as our Savior, we’ve been forgiven, and we’ve been, as Jesus says, born again. I cannot tell you how important it is to know that you are born again. If you’re not sure about that term, you’re not sure what it’s all about, we’re about to give an invitation here. I’ll stand down front, and you come down and meet me. We’ll help you know that. Right now, we are going to pray.
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Father, thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you for each and every soul who is present here today. We pray for those who have been unable to be here today because of illness, work, or other situations. We pray that they, too, will know the reality of your presence.
But right now, we come to you, and we ask you by your Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts. There are some questions we need to answer standing before God. Number one, are you sure you are saved? Do you know for sure there was a time and a place in your life when you opened your heart and trusted the Lord Jesus? You were born again, and you were saved. Are you sure of that? If you say to that, “I hope so, I think so, I feel maybe that’s true,” the Bible says you can know you have eternal life because you believe in the name of the Son of God. If you’re not sure of that, you need help with that, “I’d like to get it settled.” When I leave the platform, I stand down in front here, and as we sing a hymn, you come. Don’t wait to see what somebody else is doing. Don’t worry about what other people think about you coming. They’ll be glad you did. Would you just come? We’ll have somebody take the Bible and show you how to be saved and know it.
Maybe you are here this morning and say, “I know I’m saved. If I needed to, I could tell you the time, and I could show you the place. I know that I’ve been saved.” I thank God for you. But maybe God is speaking to you about something else, something I’ve talked about this morning. Maybe I haven’t talked about it at all, but God is dealing with you, and you know it. You need to respond to what the Lord is telling you. You need prayer, or a decision you need to make. You come. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate, just come. Father, bless and move this invitation time we do pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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About the Speaker
Dr. Michael L. McClure
Senior Pastor
Dr. Michael L. McClure, our lead pastor, is known for his in-depth knowledge and effective teaching style of biblical truths applicable to everyday living.