IN THE WAY
#140 IN THE WAY
Matthew 19:13-15 NIV Orig. 7-11-65 (9-73)
Rewr. 8-25-88
Passage: 13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. 14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.
Purpose: Approaching the new church year, to remind my people of our need to offer ourselves in service to the needs around us.
Keywords: Christ the Saviour Heritage Hunger
Children Home Special Day
Timeline/Series: New Church Year
Introduction
Both of the presidential candidates are talking about things important to all of us: childcare, education, patriotism. Private education has become a felt need for many parents. We are reading more and more about parents who are being allowed to educate their children at home.
Problems in the schools, public and private, are rife. One is put in mind again of the Baltimore woman who brought suit against her county school board. She claimed that her son, in choosing not to participate in what she called religious exercises, was being unduly ostracized. At that time, the schools opened with scripture, and with the recitation of the Lord’s prayer. Children who did not wish to participate were allowed to excuse themselves and leave the room.
Two hundred years ago, and many of the years since, every school of higher education in this country was connected with some church denomination. Except for the joint effort of Christian people, there would have been no higher education on this continent. Most of those colleges and universities are still around: Colgate, Bucknell, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, and many others. They are, however, no longer denominationally aligned. Then, the terms, “education” and “Christian education,” were synonymous.
In light of what is happening in education today, it is no longer remotely conceivable that our children will not be challenged by spiritual things in public or private education. We must be sure that our churches do our utmost to provide this vital service. Every Christian is obliged to offer himself/herself in this essential kingdom service.
I. First, There Must Be Education. The words of Matthew are that Jesus “blessed them.” It is a heritage of Judeo/Christian conviction. Every person in this land is better off because of our heritage. Many do not acknowledge it. Yet, they feast on what these religious imperatives have given. It is one God, living, loving, working through the evils of satanic influence. Adam was warned after his compromise: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread.”
This life knows no true good that comes without cost. There is a truism: “There’s no free lunch.”
Our heritage is not only Judeo-Christian, but set in a free republic. Whatever your genetic origins, what would life be in those origins? At once remembering the price paid by our forefathers for this, we are not that far removed from forebears who tilled the ground behind hand-forged plows, and unrelenting oxen, carrying a blunderbuss for protection. You worry about the cost of living: They paid dearly for meat and potatoes.
The blessing is that the Kingdom of God has come among us. It is as near as breathing and sunshine. It does not come with little children, but from little children who are brought to Him.
True prosperity is not material but conditional. The need of the hour is in the Kingdom of God. So we are not the answer. These, our children, are not the answer. All of us become the KINGDOM. That’s the answer.
Since the Bible is taken from the school, we must pinpoint its value as never before. We need sixty-seventy people involved in Christian education. We have no more than half. Church Training is an eight-cylinder engine beating on two. Missions and music are hanging on the hope and whisper of half-a-dozen.
We start next week. What will you as a Christian be doing between morning worship services from one Sunday to the next?
II. Secondly, We Must Grasp the True Vitality of the Home. “Then there were brought to Him little children.” The event here described is simply that of caring mothers bringing a child to some distinguished rabbi for a blessing. It was a common occurrence. It happened on the child’s first birthday.
A question of responsibility is put forth. What is the bottom-line charge? It is, of course, parental. The best thing the church can do for parents is to convince them. Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” III John 4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”
In an age that seeks liberation from all strictures, some demands are to be put in place. There is little efficacy in marriage. The license doesn’t prove God is in it. Being a biological parent is no proof of Christian manhood or womanhood. The mystery content is found in commitment: commitment to God; commitment to each other forever; commitment that children will be reared in an atmosphere of love and trust.
“My parents forced me” say the uncaring and the uncommitted. “I will not force religion down them.” Would you force air if suffocating? If cancer attacked, would you force treatment? Would you advise seat belts, helmets?
If they were hungry, would you not force food for them? During the noon meal in this country, 1200 children worldwide will starve to death. 30,000 will die today. 12-18 million people will die this year. Check the label to see where a gift was made.
III. And Three, Certainly not the Least Important, Is to Encourage Them to Faith in Christ. “Suffer the little children and forbid them not. We have long heard of parallelism in Hebrew prose. Something uniquely important is repeated. And as if to add further meaning, he repeats the concept positively then negatively. “Permit” is followed by “do not forbid.”
Perhaps we need to review some of the marvelous characteristics of childhood. Trust is the first essence of children. They readily forgive even to the threshold of abuse. They approach life with an eye for wonder. Obedience is natural to them. But disobedience is a learned ruse. Childlike faith is to live in trust of God, to think first of obedience, to desire to be forgiving, to contemplate the wonder of God’s care.
The best way to such faith is development over time, to so touch the lives of our children, to see other children whose lives can only be touched for good by the gospel. No matter what the age of need, it is still this child-like faith offering opportunity—not childish, but childlike.
And Jesus instructs us. We are not to be negative influences. But more, we are to be positive motivators urging spiritual children of all ages to the gospel: to Jesus.
Conclusion
We have approved our Nominating Committee report, and we have a full slate of workers. Next, the Finance Committee gets to work on the budget. It will need to be between $100,000 and $120,000. Peter spoke for the early church: “Silver and gold, have I none; but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.” Such as we have also.