RECEIVING THE KINGDOM LIKE A CHILD!

Receiving the Kingdom Like a Child!

We find that while Jesus was about the towns and villages around Galilee, people brought their little children to Jesus for Him to bless. Somehow, this was seen as a disruption to what Christ was doing. The disciples rebuked those people who brought their children to Jesus, but Jesus sets the record straight and our text for today reveals what He said. So often, instead of doing what God requires of us, we tend to do what we think is what God wants us to do. In this case, the disciples were on the wrong side of understanding what Christ wanted from everyone present. Are we getting in the way of our children and pushing them aside so that we can get a better view of what is happening? The world has many wrong perceptions concerning children that need correcting. Children are viewed as discardable tissue or part of a woman’s body and thus can be aborted at their convenience.

Luke 18:17 “But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’”

Others see children as possessions that belong to them to shape and mold as they desire. Many have child idolatry where their sense of identity and purpose is wrapped up in children. Others think that children are angels that are sinless and can do no wrong. Today we are seeing an increase in seeking to make children independent and autonomous as young as possible. The key new role being defined for parents is one enabler, and facilitator of self-discovery and self-definition. The traditional parental role of helping our children to know the truth about God, the world and themselves is now perceived as oppression and an imposition. The Bible of course has always presented God’s view of these things, children are not a mass of tissue, nor even part of a woman’s body technically, they are unique human beings made in the image of God with an eternal soul.

Children are not our possessions but gifts from God. They are not our idols but a stewardship that we will have to one day give an account for. They are not angels but sinners in need of salvation in Jesus Christ, and they need the new birth to help them produce Christlikeness. They are not self-defining deities or autonomous, they are created beings accountable to God entrusted to the delegated authority of their parents who are obliged by God to love them, model good behavior before them and bring them up in the instruction and discipline of the Lord. Many of these truths that you and I took for granted are now revolutionary and scandalous. The world needs the truth of God’s word when it comes to children more than ever before.

Children became a major casualty in the sexual revolution of the twentieth century with the legalism of abortion, no fault divorce, the rejection of chastity before marriage, and pornography. In the twenty first century children continue to be the greatest casualty in the gender wars as young impressionable minds are being told that they are not necessarily male or female and can define their own gender as they see fit. Hormone suppression, sex reassignment surgery, the pressure of an online world, progressive sex education curriculums, increase in teen suicides, and many other factors hurt our children spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Don’t help kill our children – instead kill the deceit, evil and lies that are prevalent today!