Jesus in the Sunday School

notes. I have to begin by saying. There
have been those passages that have been convicting that I’ve
come across that probably are those that are convicting to
you and I both passages about behavior, passages about prayer,
passages about the tongue. But I can tell you this, no passage
has been more convicting as a pastor of a church to me than this passage
in front of us this morning. And I’ll explain as we go along
why I say that. And I don’t mean to grandstand.
I just mean to let you in on where my heart is and exactly
how this passage struck me in these past weeks. I want to go
immediately, for the sake of time, to the text itself, to
Luke chapter 18, a passage that two other gospel writers record
and we’ll interact with briefly. Both Matthew and Mark record
this same passage, but Luke has it here in chapter 18, beginning
in verse 15. And they were bringing even their
babies to him so that he would touch them. But when the disciples
saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for them, saying,
Permit the children to come to me and do not hinder them, for
the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I say to
you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it at all. I entitled, partly for shock
value, the message, Jesus in the Sunday school. I mean, a
lot of times we have sign ups and it’s usually the same people
that sign up for Sunday school. And it is it’s a chore. It’s
a difficulty. Much like my own preparing in
a word each week, having something legitimate to say. Knowing that
in many cases, they’re not going to listen to you anyway. And so we’ve had this sign up
and from time to time you get some new people. But the thought
as I looked at this passage and the thought that as I considered
our own ministry to children is what would happen if Jesus
signed up for Sunday school responsibilities? I mean, is it really all that
far fetched? That if Jesus were part of this
church and I’m asking you to go the extra mile with me here,
if you are part of this church, Wouldn’t he be one of the first
ones to sign up? I submit to you that he would.
He’d be one of the first to sign up because he loved children.
He loved the ministry to children. And this passage, in part, provides
a glimpse into that. But even as I say that, I don’t
want us to get off track here. And from what I’ve read and studied,
people get off track and they stay off track very quickly and
very easily in this passage. What I want to do is give us,
provide for us just a glimpse into some observations into Christ’s
ministry to children. It was a simple scene and it
really conveys a very simple message, but we As humanity,
as the theologians, as Christians have done our very best. Not
only to lose sight of the spirit or the message of this passage,
but to muddy it with all kinds of personal interpretations. As I indicated, for the sake
of time, I want to get immediately into the text and immediately
into these observations. And first and foremost, I want
to point out that ministry to children is ministry in its purest
form. Because as you imagine, when
it says they were bringing even their babies to them and you
have between those of a Presbyterian background. who want to advocate
that this word means babies and those of a more Baptist background
who want to contend and say that this word can and is used for
child in a more general sense. You know what? I don’t even want
to get into the debate. The word does point to more, there is
a more general word for child and the two words are used interchangeably. But you know what? To me, I’m
not even going to get in the debate because I don’t even think
that’s the issue. It doesn’t bother me or push
me into one camp or another, whether Jesus took up a baby
who couldn’t even speak yet. Doesn’t bother me a bit. The question becomes why Did
these parents bring these babies to Christ? Why did he bring?
Why were they bringing them, these children to Christ of any
age? Whether they were still in their
strollers or still, you know, in diapers or barely out of the
crib, it doesn’t matter at all to me. Whether there was a throng
that could walk to Christ themselves or whether they had to be carried
by their mothers and handed off Doesn’t matter. Was it for baptism? Was it for healing? Or was it merely that Christ
might bless them? And for centuries, this passage
has been taken and construed. And I don’t want to I’m not going
to stand up here and give you the the final word on infant
baptism. I’m not going to stand here and
present to you the theology in its fullness on the ordinance
of baptism as it’s presented in the scriptures. I’m not going
to do it. What my goal week in and week out is to look at the
passage and say, what does this passage say? And is this passage
telling us that we should baptize our children? Is that what they
were doing? One said it this way. The belief
that since the little children of believers belong to God’s
church, which is not proven and to his covenant baptism, the
sign and seal of such belonging should not be withheld from them
and it must be regarded as well founded because of this passage. And we’ll examine that. Another
one said it this way. The words of this passage and
the act of taking children into his arms have rightly been regarded
as the baptismal office of the church. As the true warrant for
infant baptism, you know, I’ve been looking for the true warrant
for infant baptism ever since I became a Christian. Now, I
will say, if this is it. The doctrine of pedo baptism
is in deep trouble. More than doubtful passages,
he goes on in the book of Acts and epistles, more than the authority,
real or supposed, of primitive antiquity. In other words, he
says, just because the church has done it, all these histories,
even more than that, even more authority than that carries this
passage. Points to Pato baptism. They justify the Church of Christ
at large in commending infants to baptism. And yet one honest
scholar admitted this. Undoubtedly, the expression the
kingdom of God belongs to such as these is not a proof of infant
baptism. To establish that, we must look
elsewhere. And that’s all I’m going to say.
If you’re going to try to build a case for infant baptism, you
can do that, but you can’t begin here. Because Jesus, he never
baptized any of them. And in fact, when you go to the
Gospel of Mark, which passage we’ll close with this morning.
In the finality, Jesus took up the children, perhaps even one
by one, and blessed them, he prayed for them. That was the
extent of his ministry. In other words, this is a very,
pardon me, dry passage. It’s not a passage about baptism.
It’s not a passage that points us or exhorts us or commends
baptism in any way. Not one Greek commentator even
mentions baptism in connection with this passage. Origin speaks of the child likeness
that is urged in believers. Cyril speaks of the newborn child
as a symbol of innocence. Chrysostom urges that teaching
them to be lowly and trample underfoot worldly pride, he receives
them and takes them in his arms. That was Christ’s purpose, he
points out. Theophilect. I saved the hard
ones for last. He did not say these, but such
as these, the simple, the guileless, the innocent was his approach
to the passage. Euthymus spoke of those who imitate
the simplicity of these children. We’ll come back to all those
things later. The bottom line, if you include in this such of verse 16. If you include all
the infants categorically there, then you have to say that every
child ever born is saved. If you say that such includes
axiomatically all infants ever born, then you must say here,
because of this passage, that all children by virtue of their
so-called innocence are saved. Not just those that happen to
die in infancy, which has always been the impetus to find some
other way of salvation for children. Some other way of salvation than
a verbal expression of faith in Christ and ultimately some
kind of public testimony toward that end and a changed life.
There’s always been that effort. Because of the tragedy of death
in infancy, But you know, not even John Calvin believed that
a child who was newborn and happened to perish in God’s providence,
not even John Calvin, the so-called harsh Calvinist, believed that
a child precious in God’s eyes necessarily went to heaven. You
know what the bottom line is? God can do whatever God pleases
and God will. God is good. And if he wanted
to send all of us to hell, does that change his goodness a bit?
Not a bit. And so if such includes all those
infants. Those that live and become believers
and those who live and turn their back on Christ, because we know
that not even in those traditions where children are baptized into
homes, does that guarantee anything? We have what we would have tongue
in cheek been called a dry baptism, a dedication. We’ve seen children
dedicated and go up and be raised up and turn their back on not
only their parents, but the church and God and everything that is
good and right. There’s no guarantee. There’s
no guarantee here. There’s no allusion to baptism
here, there’s no literal baptism taking place here, there’s no
mention of it at all. that these little ones were baptized
in any way, shape or form. As I mentioned, the church historically
began some 400 years after Christ to begin to adopt this and to
point to the necessity of baptism for infants, but it doesn’t seem
to be the general point of the passage at all. One pastor historically said
This word of Jesus, let the children come to me, is wrongly cited
by those who attempt to establish the baptism of infant upon texts
in the New Testament. It can be used to that effect
upon condition of forming a conception of baptism itself, different
from that of John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles who demanded
beforehand a conscious and thoughtful faith. So the bottom line here. Is what
was the purpose? Of these children being brought
to Christ, why were these parents bringing them to Christ if it
wasn’t for baptism, then what was it? Some said healing, but
if you can imagine the scene of these perhaps crippled children
or or sick and children being brought to Christ. Whose ministry
of healing had just, I mean, been across the boards. And if
you can imagine the scene where the disciples rebuke the parents
for bringing their children to Christ for healing. It’s unthinkable,
it’s unthinkable, even in the face of what we do see of the
disciples. What the passage presents to us is a it’s a simple it’s
an incident rather of simple trust. These parents faith in
seeing Christ, who at this point, they didn’t know that he was
whether he was the Messiah or a prophet or just a good man,
a good teacher. It’s a picture of affection of
Christ for children. And of his tenderness toward
them. And the passage was treasured in the earthly early church because
in Judaism, children weren’t welcome attenders. We’ve made
this announcement countless times. You see it. I think, well, it’s
not even in there anymore. We used to have the little blurb.
Children are welcome. We encourage children to be part
of our service. To the end that they’re really
getting something from it, if they’re too young to even sit
and participate and listen, do everybody a favor, do a kindness
and take them to the nursery. But they’re welcome here. They
weren’t welcome in the Jewish system. So this this was new, this was
new to the apostles. I told you that we would be interacting.
With some of the other gospel accounts and really Matthew’s
account shed some good light on this. If you would flip to
Matthew chapter 19, because we see there Matthew’s account. In Matthew chapter 19 and verse
13, the same scenario is presented before us when it says that then
some children were brought to him. Why? So that he might lay
his hands upon them and pray. In Luke’s account, if you flip
back there, they were bringing even their babies to him so that
he would touch them. And you almost get this perception
if you were to just read Luke’s account that it was this superstitious,
magical touch that the parents were clamoring. Or for which they were clamoring.
But you know what? This was custom. As I already
indicated, perhaps they didn’t know Jesus as the Messiah, but
they certainly saw him at the very minimum as a good rabbi,
as a good man. perhaps even as a prophet. And
it was a custom of Jewish mothers to carry their babies to rabbis
for their blessing. Pray for my child. One records it this way on the
first anniversary of their birth. I don’t know why they didn’t
just say birthday on the first anniversary of their birth. Jewish
children were sometimes brought to the rabbi to be blessed. In
fact, the Talmud, the Jewish writings states the prayer that
the rabbis would often offer. The Talmud states that after
the father of the child had laid his hands on the child’s head
symbolically, not meaning some kind of magical energy force
was going to proceed from the man to the child. Once he laid
his hands on the child’s head, he led him to the elders one
by one and they also blessed him and prayed that he might
grow up famous in the law, faithful in marriage and abundant in good
works. I mean, isn’t this exactly what we pray for for our children,
that they might come to know Christ early, that they might
be good and faithful people and might be a benefit to society? That’s all that was taking place
here is a request that Christ as a good man, a good teacher,
a good rabbi, Perhaps a good prophet, perhaps if you want
to take it to the stretch in their minds to the Messiah, that
he would pray for their children. I don’t see anything beyond that
here. To lay hands upon them was just
this symbol of invoking blessing upon them, and we see that throughout
the New Testament from time to time. In fact, we see it throughout
Scripture, Genesis chapter 48. In Genesis chapter 48, Israel
stretched out his right hand, laid it on the head of Ephraim,
who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head,
crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the firstborn. He blessed Joseph and said, The
God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who
has been my shepherd all my life to this day. And he blessed these
young men. In Numbers, the Lord said to
Moses, take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit.
Lay your hand on him and ultimately commission him. That was the
purpose. It was a symbolic act that we are with you, that God
goes forward with you. This wasn’t magic that they were
doing or performing. In Acts chapter six, they recognized
new deacons. They brought these before the
apostles and after praying, they laid their hands on them. Ministry,
commissioning of ministry, Barnabas and Saul, when they had fasted
and prayed, they laid their hands on them and they sent them away.
There’s no doubt that Christ laid his hands on people for
healing. We see that in numerous cases
in the New Testament, but I don’t believe that that was the scene
before us. This is symbolic. It’s Christ
taking up a precious little one. Taking them in his arms, not
to impart some magical touch to them. But just to symbolically
embrace them. As he prayed for them, and I’ll
tell you. This is the first part of the
thing that was so convicting to me. Is the prayer for our
little ones that is just so absent from our church. If this is ministry in its purest
form, then I would say we as a church are struggling. In fact,
I would even go so far as to say that we as a church and me
at the helm are failing in this regard. I mean, when was the
last time that you consciously brought forth the children of
this church before God in prayer? Name them one by one and prayed
for them specifically. Because you know what? I believe
when you see the end of this passage, I don’t believe that
Jesus said, and bless all the little ones, like we do. Bless all the kids in the whole
wide world. Oh God, bless the children of this church. That’s
the best we do. And I don’t think that’s at all
at the heart of Jesus’ prayer here. I think He took them one
by one. I think He brought them up and
He brought their needs and He brought their various weaknesses
and their struggles and He brought their perceived strengths And
he offered them up one by one before God and pleaded for God
to add his blessing to their lives. And there isn’t enough
of this. There isn’t enough of this in this church. There isn’t
enough of this period in the church of America. I mean, do
we really I mean, are we really that presumptuous? To think that our children don’t
need God’s blessing. Or to think that God is just
going to bestow on them all these blessings just because they happen
to be our children. I mean, this sin, call it what
it is, it goes across denominational lines. This touches Presbyterians
and Baptists and everybody else. Those of a Presbyterian persuasion
will baptize their children and think We have this tendency to
think that just because we’ve baptized them, that now they’re
safe, they’re in the covenant and now we just kind of sail
along with them. Those of the Baptist persuasion,
they wait until they’ve made that profession. Boy, we just
wait for the profession. Anything will do. Man, once they’ve
made that profession, they’re safe. We don’t pray enough. We don’t exercise this ministry
in its purest form anywhere near enough. Secondly, ministry to
children is not only ministry in its purest form, ministry
to children is often stifled. And when you look at the apostles
here, don’t get sanctimonious, because in a moment I’m going
to point out how we are far more guilty than them. The disciples, however, They
regard this request as an unnecessary waste
of the Lord’s time and energy. What on earth are you doing bringing
all these little rugrats in? And don’t you have that attitude?
Don’t you have that spirit? Don’t you have those people in
the church that treat the children as kind of an unnecessary inconvenience
in the church? And what are they doing here?
And can’t they be quiet? See the disciples here. They
were building a ministry. You know, this is where I’m convicted,
people, because all of my thought and all of my effort and I’m
pointing, I’m just talking about me. The Lord will do with it
and I pray he will what he wants to in your life. But I’m telling
you, for me, all of my effort, all of my energy, all of my thoughts
primarily goes to preaching. But ultimately, it goes to the
adults. I’m telling you, we’ve dropped the ball so severely
here. The disciples were intent on
protecting Jesus from what they considered this unnecessary intrusion,
this undignified intrusion into his time and his energy. And
they acted as if they were the gatekeepers, the sergeant of
arms of his ministry, his protectors. They felt that Jesus had weightier
matters to deal with than to spend his time blessing little
children. I mean, shocking. It is shocking
and you can’t get away from the shock of it. You can’t get away
from the disturbing nature of what were these apostles thinking? But even as we begin to consider
the apostles, we have to consider ourselves and say, are we really
all that much different? I mean, Sunday school in this
church is basically the only ministry to the children that
we have. And even that is really just an afterthought. It’s just
something that we’ve kind of thrown together and we do. Sometimes
we will utter a prayer for it. But when was the last time that
we really poured out our hearts to God in prayer that some of
our children might come to know Christ? Isn’t that the purpose? I mean, if it isn’t what a grand
waste of time. The disciples, in a sense, were
innocent. They saw Jesus. They knew that
Jesus was busy. They knew that there were weighty
matters to contend with. In a sense, they were innocent.
But are we? And putting children’s ministry
on the back burner and putting all of our time and effort into
other things. And I’m not saying that adult
ministry isn’t important. I’m not saying that study and
preparation in the Word isn’t good. But should our ministry to children
just be an afterthought? Should it just kind of come together,
if at all? Christ’s disciples wanted to
redefine ministry, if you can imagine, for Jesus. But far worse, far worse for
us. Sometimes we want to redefine
ministry, too, and we want to cut out all those people that
are unnecessary. We will pour our heart into all
kinds of men’s ministry and women’s ministry and college ministry
and this and that. And you know, the saddest thing
of all, the saddest thing is all of all is that sometimes
even when the effort is there and the time is there and the
money is there and the energy in there is there, the Word of
God isn’t. The Word of God isn’t there,
and in that sense, it isn’t ministry. It’s a waste of everybody’s time
and energy and money, including the children’s. It’s often stifled, this ministry. that this ministry to children,
thirdly, is God ordained. It’s God ordained. Look at verse
16. Jesus called for them. Jesus
called for these children. He called for the parents, perhaps,
to bring them in their arms. He called for the children who
could walk, but he called them to himself. He said, wait a minute,
you men are not in charge of this ministry. This is God’s
ministry. This is my ministry. I’ll call
the shots here. I’m the Savior. I’m the Messiah. Permit the children
to come to me. In fact, if you consider Mark’s
account, we don’t have time to go there. Listen, in order to
grasp the tone of the moment, Mark’s account has to be considered
here because Mark says, verse 10, 14, when Jesus saw this,
When Jesus saw the gatekeepers, the sergeant of arms blocking
these children and blocking these mothers from approaching Him,
you know what Jesus thought? It says that He was indignant. Jesus was angry beyond measure. It’s a term that expresses grief
and indignation. He’s shocked at their behavior. And He’s angry at the sight of
it. He was indignant at the thought
that the apostles were going to try to redefine ministry for
him and to cut children out in the process. Would have nothing
of it. It’s just another in a long line
of instances of Christ’s human emotions coming out. It’s not
sinful emotion here. It’s not sinful anger. He was indignant that the disciples
would put a limit on his love and his work to the point where
it excluded children. The verb means much displeased,
it was it was one of the strongest terms for that emotion and denotes
pained, angry reaction to what was going on. And to that, he
says, permit the children to come to me. Matthew has the negative. Let the children alone. What
are you doing? Leave them alone. Let them come
to me. Do not hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs
to such as these. And as we’ve already talked about,
he isn’t saying here that ministry to children as if they are inherently
better than adults, He’s just saying, let’s not exclude them
because they possess a lot of good characteristics being children. The whole sentence, the whole
thought, the whole tone of this whole passage is guided by two
little words, such as such as. One person said to them and to
all who humble themselves in trustfulness and are like them,
I don’t even believe that he means categorically to them,
to the children as a group, as a class. The kingdom doesn’t
belong to children as children just by virtue of the fact that
they’re children. Jesus wasn’t thinking of children
per se. He was talking about those qualities
that they typify. And even this, it doesn’t take
long for these good things to wear off, does it? receptivity,
dependence, trustfulness. Yeah, you see some of that in
a newborn. In a two year old, you begin
to see those things wear off. Meekness, humbleness, guilelessness. They’re speaking of deception. Jesus wasn’t saying here, permit the children to come to
me because these happen to be the owners of the kingdom as
a class. But he’s saying the kingdom belongs
to such as these, these innocent ones that are so teachable and
open. And in that sense, it still continues to be the great weakness
of most churches. That spiritual ministry to children
is taken far too flippantly. There’s a fourth and final point.
And it is related to that third. Ministry to children is ministry
in its purest form, and it is often stifled. But it is God
ordained, and here we see in point four, it is exemplary.
Jesus wasn’t saying that just by virtue of being born a baby,
that you are thereby in the kingdom of heaven. But what he does say
in verse 17 clarifies it and focuses it perfectly. Truly,
I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like
a child. Because if he wanted to say that
this is inherent to the new youth movement, he would have said
whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child, when
a child will not enter at all. It’s true that a little child
who’s brought up in a Christian home naturally begins to receive
these things. They don’t contend with you.
They don’t debate theology with you. They begin to learn and
impart line upon line and precept upon precept. And he begins to
believe wholeheartedly that what’s given him is just like food.
It’s good for him. And he begins to accept it. So also said one, those who do
not doubt the love of God and who do not rely on their own
supposed merits may partake of the redemption and blessings
offered in the sovereign dominion of God. You know what he says? So we are to be childlike and
coming before God. What it rebukes here, says J.C. Ryle, is this spirit and frame
of mind which are absolutely necessary to salvation. Pride,
high thoughts and self-righteousness must be laid aside. We must be converted and become
as little children, not become children. He who does not receive God’s
grace offered in the gospel with humility and modesty, without
disputing, without malice, like a little child, shall never come
into heaven. And then in one of the most beautiful,
poignant elements of this whole scene, as recorded only in Mark’s
Gospel, it says there in verse 16, He took them in His arms
and began blessing them, laying His hands upon them. Jesus wasn’t bestowing salvation
to these in that moment. Jesus wasn’t saying that merely
by Him picking them up and touching them, Not to mention that the
fact that he didn’t baptize, he wasn’t saying that they’re
categorically saved. He was invoking God’s blessing
on their life, pleading for God’s grace on their behalf. But the question to us is, how
is our ministry to children? How is our ministry to children
lacking? First and foremost, are we as
children before God, are we as children before the grace of
God receiving it thankfully? Or are we coming, thinking that
we’re doing God a favor and coming to Him and bringing Him and serving
Him? Our ministry to children. It needs our prayer. It needs
to begin with our prayer, but it can’t stop there. Let’s pray. Our kind and our merciful God,
we have come so many times before to passages that were so convicting.
And Lord, as I acknowledged, none to me personally as a pastor
has been more convicting than this. that we have come before You
and we have presumptuously fed ourselves, a lot of times allowing
our children to starve, spiritually speaking. We take great pains
to allow ourselves time to sing and we don’t give them even a
single opportunity. Lord, we confess these things
to You. You know that our prayers have
not been offered up as they ought to have been. Our efforts have
been feeble. And we pray that you would change
us, you would change our mind and our approach. About these
who are so precious in your sight. Be glorified in changing us.
For your glory in Christ’s name. Amen.