Transcription

At that time the disciples came and they asked Jesus, "So who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? He called a small child and had him stand among them. Truly I tell you," he said, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child, this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to fall away, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because because of offenses. For offenses will inevitably come, but woe to that person by whom the offenses come. If your hand or your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out and throw it away. It It's better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hellfire. I'm going to ask you to pray with me. We want to ask that God would open up our eyes to understand this text. Lord, we just we are given this gift as a text. It's in our language. We get to read it in English. We don't have to read it in Greek how it was originally written. And God, we pray that you would connect what's being written here to our hearts and minds that you would be our teacher. Speak to us we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And so Jesus here is again teaching about the kingdom and we've been going through this identity material, identity material about Jesus um over the last couple months for us in the past few chapters. And Jesus has been establishing who he is in the kingdom, that he's the Messiah. And remember the transfiguration where Peter, James, and John saw him up on a mountain. He's literally his his visage was changed. His light, his face is like shining like the sun. So So we see this material all about identity and it brings about this question of greatness. So the question of greatness in verse one, the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Now, it's easy to be critical of the disciples and be like, well, you know, why are you so worried about greatness? Like, you know, who really cares? But this is a good step for the disciples. This is a step forward from where they were. They're catching on to some stuff about Jesus because notice they're asking a question about the kingdom of heaven and not about the Roman Empire, not about Jewish society. So they're now they're curious. They're tapped into a new society, a different reality. And that's what we want as followers of Jesus where we start to get preoccupied and curious about, well, how does this work in the kingdom? Because man, I know how Baltimore City works and I know how the United States works. I know how my family society works or my culture works. But oh that the Holy Spirit would give us this inspired curiosity about God's kingdom where we'd be wondering how does this work in God's kingdom. Now now if kingdom this whole conversation is new to you Jesus is not saying the Bible does not teach that you die here on earth and then you go into his kingdom. Jesus is telling his followers, "No, I want you to step into my kingdom." In fact, when he sent his disciples out, he said the messenger to bring is say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You can reach out and grab it. And he's inviting people into the kingdom to experience it now. So, when you walked in that door and you're around a bunch of Jesus followers, you're getting a glimpse of the kingdom of God because the Holy Spirit is making this these these ethics, the social fabric of the kingdom, a reality that we get to benefit from. When we get dumped uh on by Amazon with a whole load, that sounded wrong. When Amazon dumps a bunch of food on us, that's like that's a miracle, right? It's this crazy thing that happens. It's like a glimpse of like God, your kingdom's breaking out in Fel's Point. When we experience somebody a being healed of of a sickness or we see miraculous provision in their life. It's like, wow, that's the kingdom of God breaking out. And so, oh, that we would have a just a fascination and a curiosity and a hunger for God's kingdom in our own life. And that's what these disciples, they're wondering, who's the greatest in the kingdom of God? or the kingdom of heaven. Well, Jesus is like, I'm glad you asked. So, we get this object lesson. He takes a small child like Manny's age right here, Emmanuel's age. He takes a small child, puts them in their midst, and um that's the working example. Okay. Now, culturally, children were um hardly recognized hardly recognized in society. Um there was a high mortality rate. Um they could they were not very productive. They were a drain on the system. It wasn't easy to care for a a child. It was this it was this investment of like I'm going to invest in this child. They're going to take a lot from me and hopefully someday they'll take over my farm. Now that's similar somewhat to parenting, but in that setting you know, you don't have any help. It's like you're really hoping this kid um is a financial benefit to your family. And so this is shock material. There's there's some shock value in this in a different culture. Um and he sticks this child has the child stand among them and he says, "Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So, here is the second time that we hear this word kingdom. And he explains really clearly that you need to turn and become like a little child. That is the key. Turn and become like this little child. Now, if this is where the the the teaching ended, if the teaching ended here, we would be like, well, what um what what should it be like to be a little child? This on Friday night, uh my my youngest son had a um elementary school dance and it was basically like the cafeteria was open for snacks and they brought in a DJ and she had all these elementary kids running around in the dark with fun lighting in this gym. It was like the happiest room I was in for the whole week. All these like squealing and happy kids just freaking out over the music and having so much fun. It was like it was it was really sweet. But I was looking at it and I was like, you know, it's easy when you're reading this, it's like, well, what's the quality here that when Jesus places this kid in their midst, what's what does he want his disciples to learn from this little child? Because he stakes the entrance into the kingdom. Now remember, the question was about greatness in the kingdom and he's saying know if you want to enter the kingdom, you've got to turn. That's interesting. And you got to become like little children. It's almost uh what was that movie that like the the guy like reversed in his age? Benjamin Button. Yeah. It's that kind of idea, right? You need to turn stop aging and you need to turn and become like a little child. There's this funny thing about that room on Friday night. You got kids just going crazy with their friends, running all over. I I I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't want to be the creepy guy taking pictures of like little kids that I didn't know. But it was so much fun. Like there was so much joy in that room. And around the perimeter are all these grown-ups kind of with their leaning against the wall afraid to dance. It was a a couple bold ones like they took like a couple of steps off the side of the wall and they were kind of like moving their hips a little bit. We needed some more black people to be honest. I live like in a very that's just that's just that's just how it was. I was I literally thought that I was just like man this is too many white people in here. But there was like there's this funny thing about the just getting older. It's just like how did how did how did it go from like just this elation and the innocence and the joy of these kids to like kind of like arms crossed just kind of like watching get get me out of here, you know? It was interesting. So Jesus is saying like he's he's prizing he's putting um he he's essentially saying like do do you want to understand my kingdom? Then you need to understand the value system. Like for example, like in the United States, we have like a monetary value system. Like if you wanted to like buy my car and you're like, I have three bags of pinto beans. It would be like that's not the value that we trade in. Like we use dollars um is our monetary system, right? Magic pinto beans. Magic pinto beans like you'd have to show me. You'd have to prove it to me, right? A society has has values like what is what's important, right? A culture has what's important. And Jesus is saying, "Listen, you've got to understand that you've been living in this culture here, Jew, both Jewish society and the Roman Empire. And I'm introducing you to my kingdom, the kingdom of heaven." And the value system here is personified. This child is the object lesson for you. And so what I need is this action here. I need you to be able to turn away from what you've learned. And I'm asking you to adopt this childlike behavior. But he goes on, he goes on and he says, "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child," so he not only says to us, "Be child child like, but he identifies a quality in the child that he's really going after. Okay, this isn't the only thing that he's going after in this idea of childlike um a childlike nature, but he's really highlighting this um humility. He's saying, I want you to humble yourself like this child. This one is the greatest in the kingdom. So, there's the answer to the question, who's the greatest? what innocence and no sin. Yes, there's there is this innocence. Yeah, there's this this ready readiness to like um there's like a purity, right? A simplicity. What were you what were you going to say? Humility. Yeah. This beautiful humility, right? There's a vulnerableness. You don't have all of life figured out, but you're but you're not so self-concious. ious too, right? Because all those adults on the edge of the room are not dancing because they're super self-conscious, right? They don't want to get out there. So, there is in this child this humility here that he is emphasizing and saying, "That's what I want you to revert back to. I want you to go back to that place." Let me pull up in my teaching notes. Make sure I'm not missing anything here. So the child this is this is going to be important. So we have this child the object lesson coming from this child number one is that you want to follow Jesus into his kingdom. You need to turn away from pride and embrace a humble disposition. But what you need to know is that for the next couple of weeks. I think it's at least next week, maybe the week after. This idea of the child, he's going to continue to talk about little ones. Little ones. He's already said it in chapter 10 when he told sent out his disciples and he said, "Whenever you give a drink to these little ones in my name, you do it to me." And so, what you're going to need to do as the reader of the text is understand that Jesus is using the child as an object lesson and then he's assuming that you're going to obey what he says here and you're going to be the little one because he's going to talk later on in verse six uh five and six if you offend one of these little ones he's not talking about the child he's talking about you being the little one a child of God this goes back to Zechar IA when it talks about um the shepherd there in need for a shepherd because the sheep are scattered and the shepherd comes in and he cares for the little ones. Jesus is in Matthew 10 he's called his disciples or those that the disciples care for little ones. When you go and you read the book or the letter that John the Apostle wrote, it's called First John. All throughout five times he calls followers of Jesus us little ones. Okay? So, even though we have this child as the object lesson, you need to understand that he's mapping that child onto your life. He's asking for you to Benjamin Button like reverse your aging. Go back to this childlike state in the kingdom with a humility, with this innocence, this openness, this dependence upon God. Okay, let's keep going here so that we have this idea of the radical responsibility towards others. So greatness in the kingdom is the ones who are humble. The second thing that we see is this some stuff about society. How do we treat one another? How do we treat one another? He says, Whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me. Right? It's at this point that Mark, when he's recalling the same thing in Mark's book about Jesus, he stops here and there's a there's a couple verses that are slotted in right here. Matthew just keeps going into the next material because it there's a break that should be right at this point. or kind of around this point. It's all the same teaching, but there's more material in the middle of the text in Mark and in Luke, but he says, "Whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me." So, he's mapping it on. If you do this, if you're welcoming, then you're welcoming me. So, the kingdom of heaven is a welcoming space. There is this generosity that we extend with an openheartedness towards others. Hopefully, you've experienced here as you've come to church in that um there is this kindness. I'll give you a chance. I'm openhearted to you. Now, look, when you're an adult and you've done some life, especially life in the city, you gotten hurt many times. those calluses start to build up and the idea of welcoming somebody else becomes more and more of a foreign concept because you got to protect your heart. But you see, Jesus followers are filled with the love of God and recognize that they've been welcomed in even though they're an enemy in rebellion against God to begin with. They see that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. They're welcomed in and we become a community that's just welcoming, welcoming. And Jesus says, "When you're welcoming, you're doing it and you're welcome in my name, you're welcoming me." But let's contrast that. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Okay. So, here we're we have these little ones. They're the ones that are fall finding out about Jesus. They're they're coming to faith in Jesus. They're starting out their relationship. And he says, "Look, if you cause one of these believers to fall away, it would be better for you if you were just drowned with this heavy rock around your neck. He's he's creating a a standard. So on one hand, he's like, "Hey, we're welcoming, but you come into that kingdom and the way you behave around one another, you're causing somebody else to get upset. You're causing somebody else to stumble. This is how serious it is." So in other words, the relationships that we have with one another are very important. And the The way we treat one another is not just this flippant like, oh, you know, whatever. We love one another. We're very careful with how we treat one another. We're making sure that the way that we treat one another is not going to throw that person off this week. This idea of falling away is is it's to fall away and feel separated from God. So, we got to think, is there anything that I'm doing that's making my friend Christian, the person at church that I go to church with feel separated from God? Am I hurting their relationship with God? Because Jesus says, "It would be better for me to be just thrown in the water and drowned." I had a time in my life where I worked for a pastor who I thought was amazing at when I was 25. Um, and I came to find out that he was highly abusive to people in his church. He was incredibly destructive. And I watched for three years as he messed with people and uh he asked I was on the board of the church and I was really young and there was stuff that was happening where I was just like this doesn't seem right. But I was I was just filtering. I was trying to I I was still trying to get my bearings as a as a Christian and I was just like, "This doesn't feel right. This doesn't seem like how we should treat people." And um I at that time had a young family. I was praying like, "Let get me out of here. Get me out of here, God. Let me just escape from this. I was afraid he was going to hurt my family and hurt my career." And so my whole thing was like this self-preservation. After I left, I felt convicted like, man, I was in a position of authority. I should have really kind of stood up for the people in the church. and I had an opportunity to and there was a 11 other former board members that wrote letters and made it really clear like you're doing the wrong thing. You're hurting other people and he was willing to have a meeting. Um I flew all the way across the country to back for a full day's meeting. I was unrepentant. He pretended that he was repentant and he he played the games that we had seen him play over and over again. We left and ultimately the decision of some an outside church group was that, hey, listen, we don't want you to we don't want to be affiliated with you. We think you should resign. Your whole ministry team should resign and we'll put somebody else over the church. And they said, if you don't want to do that, just change the name of your church. Don't be affiliated anymore. So, he continued on for a couple of years. He reached out to me early on when I moved to Baltimore in 2016. And I wrote him a letter and I said to him, "You have been corrected publicly. Why would I come back to your church and pretend that we're reconciled, that things are okay when you have left like a trail of bodies of people you've hurt? You have an opportunity now to repent and to turn. And he didn't receive that letter. And literally the next day, it was one of those times where I wrote a letter and I like read it. I still have it. And I've read it and I was like, "Man, God helped me write that letter. speaks specifically to this man. The next day after I wrote that letter, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and he died. He probably died I think 20 years earlier than he should have. He's in incredible health. Incredible health. He died in his like late 50s. And I looked at that and I I felt like as I watched this, this is God taking somebody who is causing little ones to stumble and he's just saying, Hey, it's better in your situation that you just aren't you're not alive anymore. I think he's in heaven. And I wrote to him in my letter and I said, I think I said, I can't wait to be with you in heaven where these things are going to be gone where God's justice is going to be, you know, it'll have dealt with this stuff. It'll evened out all this stuff, but please repent. And he didn't. He didn't. In fact, on his deathbed, the last week of his life, he continued to hurt Christians around him. So God is is serious about this stuff. He's serious about his kingdom. You don't get to just come in to church and play games and hurt the people around you. And I don't know each God deals with people differently, but like if you're in your in your life, if there's like ongoing suffering, one of the first things when I'm suffering that I ask is like, am I hurting somebody? Am I hurting the body of Christ in some way? Is there something that I need to deal with in my own life? Well, we need to keep going. on to finish this up. He says, "Whoever welcomes one child like this in my name welcomes me." And then we we read verse six. And then here's this final warning. Woe to the world because of offenses for offenses will inevit inevitably come. But woe to the person by whom the offense comes. We don't use this word very often. I mean, I don't ever use that word, but it's like the um it's the sign when you go to the gas station, they have a propane tank and it's a big like yellow sign that says don't smoke right here. Next to the propane tank. That's what the woe means. Like warning, this could blow up. Right? So, he's saying warning to the world because of offenses for offenses will inevitably come. But warning to the person by whom the offense comes like take it really seriously. Take account of your life. Is there stuff in your life that is doesn't belong in the kingdom? You're in Jesus's kingdom, but you continue to practice stuff that's offensive to either him or the people around you. Get it out of your life. Just like you wouldn't smoke by the propane canister at Mobile or Exxon. Get that offense out of your life because it's going to make a mess. It's going to blow stuff up. If your hand or your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal life. He's using he's making an a an example. He's speaking figuratively to show you and I this is how serious patterns of sin in our life are. And here's the thing, church. God puts in our life family, wives, husbands to help us see the junk in our life that's going to keep us from the flourishing and the fruitfulness that God's called us to. God's put friends in our life that are bold enough to say, you know what, you keep doing this thing and it's really not helpful. It hurts. And I would just encourage you to listen to those people and to take a severity, a stance towards your own sin or your own thing that causes the fall away. Think about, okay, what things do I do? that makes me feel further away from God. That's what falling away means, right? What is it? Is it anything? And let me deal with it severely. Now, you can relate to this, but you didn't have your leg cut off because of it was causing you to sin, but I find it ironic that you had your leg amputated on the only week without glasses. Well, here. We love you. We love you. I don't know how to tie the amputation of your foot in with this text, but I did find it highly ironic. Physical mind and spirit are the same. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. We love you and we're sorry. We That's right. You can't. You can't. And he says, he continues in the same vein. If your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out. Throw it away. It's better for you to enter your life with one eye than two eyes. to throw it into hellfire. Again, the severity of sin in our life. If you're in Jesus's kingdom and you identify as a citizen in his kingdom, then you are taking account of your life and you're going, you know what? This doesn't belong. This doesn't belong. I'm going to war with these things. But here's the thing. Here's the beautiful thing about being a follower of Jesus is that Jesus wasn't just amputated. for your sin. He died on a cross for your sin. So we contribute a sense of severity and a desire to mortify our flesh. That's John Owen's famous Puritan. That's his name of uh a book. That's the title of his book. Mortification of the flesh. I love that title because that's the idea here. Jesus is like put it to death. But know this that the spirit spirit of God is at work in your life to put to death the deeds of the flesh. You're just cooperating with him. Now, do you know the Catholic Church did not want to translate the Bible into English be and didn't want to give you a copy of the Bible because they were afraid that you go start cutting off pieces of your Bible. Thank you very much. Isn't that funny? So, the debate was the Bible was in Latin or in Greek. or Hebrew. And there was this resistance of like, well, if we put the Bible in everybody's language and everybody can read the Bible, people are going to go start cutting off their arms and jabbing out their eyes. They they didn't believe that you could read the Bible and understand that there's figurative language in it. So, thank God that Tinddale and Wickliffe decided to translate the Bible so that we could have it in our own language. The idea is that severity of sin a kingdom people look at sin in their life and go, "Nope, I'm cutting it off. We're getting rid of it. It has no place. No place here." So, we're going to celebrate what Jesus did that he was cut off on our behalf. We're going to take communion together. Before we do, before you come forward and and receive the elements, um what I want to do is I want to just uh pray. When I pray, I think of like cement that like solidifies. We've had a moment with the Lord. We've been able to read his word. We We've The Holy Spirit's been knocking on our hearts with different things. And I I just want to pray. And as I'm praying, I want you to just agree just like, "Lord, yeah, do those things in my life, Lord. We We've sat before you. We've submitted ourselves to your word. We pray that Lord, you would work it into us. Work it beyond just our heads. work it into our hearts. Give us a desire for these things. Give us an anticipation that this is how you want to work. Bring forth fruit in our life because we walk in obedience to what we've heard your spirit saying. Lord, we love you. Thank you for being such a good teacher. Thank you for teaching us this morning, for speaking into our hearts. Lord, have your way with us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.