Great to see you all this morning. If you got a Bible, would you grab that and open with me to Matthew chapter 18? You don't have a Bible with you this morning and find one on a shelf or a table somewhere near you whichever worship venue You're in and we are on page 1046 and one of those Bibles. My name is Jon I get to serve as executive pastor of teaching here at Peace. Great to get to worship with you gather with God's people get to hear the word whether you're here in the family venue, or joining us online, great to be with you this morning.

We are continuing our series called It Had to be Said, the quotes of Christ that changed the world. This morning we're tackling a verse that I would say is sweet and sour. At the beginning we're gonna find that it is sweet, maybe even cute, make you wanna say, aw, but the second half we're gonna find a little bit more sour, a little bit harder to swallow. But all of it is God's truth and we need to hear it. So let's open our Bibles, let's read, then we'll pray and then we'll get to work. Matthew 18, we're going to start in verse one.

Matthew 18:1-6

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,[a] it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

This is God's word, let's pray. We'll get to work. Father in heaven, we love you, we thank you for your truth, your word. God, I pray that you would open up our hearts to hear it, receive all that it has to say to us this morning. God, I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit to bring your perfect word through a broken instrument to your people. God pray that you'd be glorified. God, I pray that we would trust you, obey you, follow you closer. We pray this all in the precious and powerful name of Jesus this morning. Amen. Amen.

Well, a few weeks ago, I remember going with my family over to my parents' cottage on the lake, getting to spend some time, hang out. It was sunny, the water felt good, we were on the lake, we went out on the boat and pulled some tubes behind the boat and my four kids each got to take their turn and I'd go out there with them and I'd be on one tube and they'd be on the other tube, we'd have a great time going around. And I remember getting towards the end of the cycle of the four kids, I remember just thinking, man, it's beautiful out, this feels great, this is so much fun. Remember back in the day when I used to do some crazy fun things on tubes like jumping the waves and barrel rolls and stuff like that? I bet I could still do that.

And we went around a curve and my tube starts to swing out and I drop my shoulder to do one of those rolls and I did not come all the way back around. Opened my eyes to find that I was by myself floating in the water as the boat drove away. And later that night, as I said to my wife, man, I feel kind of sore. She said those three words that many husbands have heard from their wives. You ever thought about acting your age? Maybe you've been told that before. Act your age, act your shoe size, grow up, something like that. Well, in this passage, Jesus seems to say to us just the opposite of that. He tells grown adults to become more like children. So this morning, our main idea is this.

Jesus calls his disciples to be like children, to receive children, and to protect children.

As he answers the question, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? So we're going to look at that main idea in those three parts as we go through this morning. So let's take a look at the first of those ideas that Jesus calls you and I to be like children. Let's take a look at the first couple of verses of Matthew 18.

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom. So the disciples come to Jesus with a pretty audacious question. They dare ask Jesus, who is the greatest? And if we look at other gospels, we look at like Mark chapter 9 and we see what's going on leading up to this conversation, we find out that actually the disciples have already been arguing on the road up to this point about which one of them is the greatest. Unfortunately, we also find out a few chapters later that this is an ongoing problem for the disciples. They not only fight over their place in the group here in this instance, but even after hearing this speech from Jesus, a few chapters later, the mom of James and John goes to Jesus and says, Jesus, would you let my sons sit at your right and your left hand? Can you imagine your mom going to the king and saying, would you let my boys sit at the highest places in the kingdom? I mean, what a moment. I think one of those face palm moments, right?

Can you believe that these guys with the humblest person in the universe in front of them, the son of God who came from his throne on high to be born as a baby in a manger, to grow up as a carpenter's son, to suffer and to die, that guy, they're gonna argue about who is the best of his sidekicks. What a moment, right? Great moment for the disciples. Perhaps at some level we might want to admire a little bit the fact that they at least were going for being the greatest in the kingdom of heaven instead of the kingdoms of this world. Maybe that's admirable a little bit. But at some point we've got to ask ourselves, what took these disciples from being nobodies to thinking that they were somebody's. Right? These are guys who were fishermen, tax collectors, and Jesus goes to them and says, follow me, and all of a sudden everything changes. Pride is so deceptive that way, isn't it? We can go from one minute feeling so sorry for ourselves, feeling ashamed of ourselves, thinking I'm nobody, to thinking, actually, maybe I'm the greatest person who's ever

lived. Pride is deceptive. So the disciples asked Jesus the question, who is the greatest?

And we can imagine the different types of answers that they might have expected. You can think from the way of the world, somebody might answer, well, the greatest is the person with the most money or fame, power, muscle, intelligence, influence. In our world today, you might think of names like Elon Musk or Bill Gates, the President of the United States, people with money and power and influence.

In contrast to that, you might think of what the Jewish rabbis of Jesus' day might have said. You might think of what would the religious leaders say is the greatest? And you think of the Jewish rabbis saying, well, it's the person who dots all the I's and crosses all the T's, who gets all the religious rules just right and shows up for all the religious traditions and practices and appears to be the most godly person that anybody could imagine You imagine that's the answer the pharisees would give guys who were the strictest of the religious leaders were known For their adherence to the law and even their legalism.

But then you got Jesus Who comes and offers a third way that nobody expected. He doesn't answer like the kings of the world. He doesn't answer like the other Jewish rabbis. He said, Jesus gives an object lesson. He grabs a child and pulls a child into the middle of a circle of grown men and says, this is what it looks like to be the greatest. In the ancient world, you gotta understand that children were of very low regard, right? They didn't have a whole lot of muscle. They weren't maybe the smartest people in the room. They couldn't serve in the army. They didn't make a ton of money.

They didn't have a whole list of achievements. And yet Jesus says, this is our example of what it looks like to be the greatest. It seems upside down as Jesus' way often does. And this isn't the only thing that Jesus says that is shocking. If you take a look at verse 3, you notice that Jesus doesn't just answer the question of who is the greatest, he actually takes it to another level. Take a look at verse 3.

Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom

of heaven.

All right, so they asked, who's the greatest in the kingdom? Jesus says, no, no, no, you're not even going to get in unless you turn and change your ways.

It's not about who's the greatest.

You don't even get in unless you change the way that you're approaching this whole thing. So let's talk about what it means for disciples of Jesus to become like children. I wanna point you to a few passages, a few other things that Jesus says.

This comes from Matthew chapter 20. Jesus says, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. Their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

Think of Matthew chapter 23, where Jesus says, whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. It's the opposite of what you're going for in a job interview, right? In a job interview, you're trying to bring yourself to the top of the list of candidates, trying to make the most of yourself. And yet Jesus says, if you try to make much of yourself, God will bring you low. If you approach from a lowly place, God will raise you up. Perhaps the greatest passage in the Bible on humility, Philippians chapter two, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not to his own interest, but to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of his Father. So what does it look like to be the greatest? I can summarize it this way. Not to exalt yourself or lord it over others, but to serve others, to be humble, and to be like Jesus.

We can't imitate children in every way. If you go to work tomorrow and tell your employer that your pastor said that you should be more like a child and so at work today you're gonna act more like a child, probably not gonna work real well for you. So there's not every way in which we're supposed to imitate children, but there are some ways in which we can imitate children. I read one author this week who used a great word, I thought, to describe it. I think he made up this word, I don't think it's a real word. Unselfregarding. Unselfregarding.

Somebody who's not all about themselves. Somebody who's not walking into every room wondering what other people are thinking of them, how they can be the greatest, what their status is. Friends, what if you and I had no fear to take on the lowliest task in front of us?

What if we didn't care about status? What if we didn't care whether the idea came from me or from you, as long as it was the right idea. What if you and I could take on that lowly place and be willing to help others, to lift others up, highlight the accomplishments of others instead of ourselves? One of the things that I've noticed about kids is that they are not afraid to ask mom and dad for help. It kind of drives us nuts sometimes. All right, I think you could get your own glass of water. You could tuck yourself back into bed for the 10th time because you've gotten out of bed 10 times. You could make your own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But kids are marked by trust and dependence. They ask mom and dad for everything. What if we as Christians were not afraid to always run to our Father with everything.

To have the same trust and dependence that our children have and just say, Father, whatever it is, I'm going to the Father because I know that he will provide for me, I know that he will hear me, I know that he will take care of me.

I'm just gonna run to him in prayer every time. What if you and I were willing to admit when we were wrong? I think that's one of the greatest marks of humility, admitting when we are wrong.

Unfortunately, children don't always get that one right. I recently had an argument with one of my daughters.

She likes to watch the Spider-Man cartoon TV show, and in it there's a character called Black Panther, and I like superhero things, so I know some stuff about this, and she was explaining to me how Black Panther is from this country called Orkanda, and I said, well, actually, sweetheart, it's Wakanda. And she said, no, dad, it's not. I said, yes it is. And we went back and forth for probably like five minutes. And I finally said, it's one of those moments I should have just walked away from,

but I didn't because I knew I was right. And so we sat down and I said, sweetheart, we're gonna watch this thing right now. I got out the remote, I put on the TV, said we're gonna watch an episode right now. We watched a whole episode, get to the end.

Of course, it is pronounced Wakanda. And then we get to the end of the episode, and she says, well, in every other episode, dad, they say it the other way. At that point, you just give up and walk away. Humility, even if not always practiced by a child, something all of us are called to, including admitting when we're wrong. So Jesus in this passage calls us in one specific way to become more like children, being willing to take on a lowly estate, a lowly place.

At this point, Jesus pivots from talking about how we should become like children to talking about how we should treat children. He gives us two ways in verses five and six. Let's take a look at the first one, how we're supposed to receive children. This is verse five.

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. So two questions about this passage. The first question is, who are these children that Jesus is talking about? What does it mean to receive a child? What child?

Well, you got to imagine Jesus is probably still kneeling next to a child in the circle of his disciples. So I think we can say literal children, kids are one thing that Jesus has in mind. We can also say, looking at verse six, the next verse it says, these little ones who believe in me. So I think more generally we could say he's talking about believers. Any believer is a child of God. And so I think generally we could just say, Jesus is talking about believers in the Lord, followers of Jesus, and maybe specifically children or those who are weak or vulnerable is who Jesus is talking about that we're called to receive. So the second question, what does it mean for us to receive them? I think there's one of those familiar religious phrases that we can easily just walk by and not even think about what does this really mean to receive one such child. One of the things that makes me think of is a receiving blanket. If you've had kids, you remember maybe that moment in the hospital receiving that little baby in that little blanket that I never quite figured out how to do the whole folding swaddling thing, they always had to fix it for me, but you receive that little baby and how do you receive them? With gentleness, with care, nurture, love. You want to just hold them, protect them, care for them, provide for them, serve them. I think that's a picture of what it means to receive someone as a child. Another picture is that of adoption.

God the Father gives us this beautiful picture of adoption. It's what he does for us. None of us are biological children of God the Father. The Bible says that all of us were born into sin. All of us were enemies of God. Until Jesus came and he lived a life of righteousness that we couldn't live.

He died the death for sin that we should have died and he conquered the grave. And he says, if you put your faith in me, you become one of my beloved children. That is the image of receiving a child that God the Father gives us.

The perfect example of adoption that God offers to us and he calls us to offer to others. A couple of passages that this also makes me think of. I think of Matthew chapter 10, when Jesus is sending out the 12 disciples, he sends them out two by two to go and do ministry and cast out demons and heal and preach. And so the disciples go and he says, when you go into a town, find somebody's house and you go and you stay in that house. And as they receive you, they receive me. So the picture Jesus paints of this receiving is of being welcomed into somebody's home to be cared for, to be provided for. I think in Matthew chapter 25 where Jesus says, as you care for the least of these, you care for me. So again, Jesus gives the image of us caring for, taking care of, serving the weak and the vulnerable. So how are we doing? How are children. Do you welcome the needy into your home? I'm not saying you have to have a big home. I'm not saying you have to have a huge dining room table. I'm not saying the cupboards have to be enormously full. You don't have to have a lot of money or a lot of stuff to be hospitable. But when you meet somebody who needs some love, do you have an open door? Are you willing to bring them in, whether the house is messy or clean, bring them in, sit them down, listen, talk, pray, serve them, care for them? Do you have a home like that? Do you have a lifestyle like that where you can stop and make some time for the inconvenience of coming across somebody in tears, somebody who just needs somebody to talk to, a brother or a sister in Christ who needs some encouragement, some prayer? Are you able to receive someone, one of God's children, with love, with nurture, with care? I think another way that we give this attitude of receiving children is how we talk about children. Do you say, oh man, praying for you, good luck? I've heard that too many times.

I've maybe said it a time or two. Or do you say, oh man, praise God. What a blessing from the Lord. Children are a blessing from the Lord. Now I know they're challenging. I mean, I've got four of them, I know, they're challenging.

But the Bible tells us that we have a different perspective on children than the rest of the world does. We see them as a gift, a blessing, as arrows in our quiver, the Bible tells us. And so when you meet somebody who's got lots of kids, do you say to them, oh man, good luck over there,

you must be busy. I remember when we got to number four, which by the way, at Peace Church, four is not that many. I mean, you all outrank me, many of you do. But I've got four. I remember getting to number four, I remember people saying, are you sure you wanna have four? I remember being like, we're pregnant or I don't know what to tell you. Like, it's not going back. I mean, this thing's coming. I remember going to a pastor's conference recently, and some of the guys thought I was crazy that I had four, and I said, no, no, no, you should come home with me, meet some of these folks. We're talking lots of kids. When you meet somebody with lots of kids, do you think, oh boy, they're crazy,

or do you think, man, praise God, that's awesome.

The Lord calls each of us to a different number of kids.

It's not about how many you have, but all of them is a blessing. Brothers and sisters, we are called to receive little children. Last one. Let's take a look at verse 6. You and I are called to protect children. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." So earlier I said this passage was sweet and sour. We've had some sweet parts. Becoming more like children, receiving little children, now we have a bit of a sour part.

We talk about the wrath of God against those who hurt children. The logic of this passage works like this. Children are vulnerable, adults have a high responsibility. Children are easily influenced, deceived, manipulated, abused.

Adults have a high responsibility to protect such children, not to cause them to stumble. Jesus says, whoever causes one of my children to stumble or to fall has another thing coming. The word literally used in the Greek for cause to sin is the word scandalizo, which you can imagine, we get our English word, scandalize. Whoever scandalizes one of God's children, leads them astray, leads them to places they shouldn't be, things they shouldn't be involved in.

Whoever scandalizes one of my children, Jesus says, it would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and cast into the sea. There's a picture of a millstone, first century. It's a stone that usually a donkey would pull in a circle and it would grind out the grain. Big, heavy stone designed to grind things out. And Jesus paints the picture of what I think for many of us would be our worst nightmare. I know it makes my top couple of worst nightmares, the idea of drowning.

Takes it to a different level. Not only are you in the water drowning? You've got a big honking stone tied around your neck drag You're looking up at the surface maybe clawing towards the surface and yet this thing is dragging you down. What a terrible brutal painful image and Yet Jesus doesn't say this is what will happen to you if you hurt my children.

He says it would be better for you if this happened to you then what will happen if you hurt my children? Jesus ups the ante a whole bunch. I Think it's one of the signs of human depravity That some people get pleasure out of defiling Making dirty some of the purest and most innocent people in the world children I I think that is true for literal physical children, as well as for Christians more generally. People like to see something great fall. They like to see something pure get dirty. So what might Jesus be referring to in today's world?

Who might be causing his little ones to stumble? I think there's lots we could talk about in the world around us, but let's first look at ourselves. Where is the Bible convicting you and I first and foremost? Parents, how are we causing our children to stumble? How are we protecting them from sin and temptation in the world?

No, we can't take them out of the world, we can't protect them from everything. No, no parent is perfect, but how is it that we are doing our best? What kind of example, what kind of model do we set for them? The things that we say, the things that we do. How often do we have to say to our kids, do as I say, not as I do.

What kind of things do we expose them to? From our own mouth, from the television. Teens in the house are not going to want to hear this, but parents, do you limit the amount of phone time that your kids get? Do you limit their access to social media or things like that? Things that we know can be very bad, yes they can be used for good, but they also can be extremely bad. Are we letting our kids fall prey, be scandalized by terrible things, or are we guarding them from it? How do you talk in front of your kids about marriage, about family, about the church? So much more at home is caught than taught. You can tell them a million times that church is important, that marriage is beautiful, that family is important, but what do you show them week in and week out? None of us is a perfect parent. All of us have room to grow, but how are we doing our best to protect our kids? We move beyond us. We think about what's going on in our world. There's so much we could talk about, from human trafficking to domestic abuse. Pick one instance for today, think of just two nights ago, Friday night. I remember in the evening, playing out in the yard with my kids and thinking, oh man, today's the opening day of the Olympics. This only comes around every few years. This would be really great for my kids to watch and just what an experience. I happened to forget about it.

And after they were in bed, I pulled out my phone and I looked up some clips I thought I better check this out and see what this is like and I was appalled. I was really glad that my kids didn't get to see that. If you don't know what I'm talking about I'm sure you'll hear about in the near future. It was not something for kids to get to watch, much less be participants in, even though they were. Now some of you might be rolling your eyes and saying, well Pastor John this kind of stuff happens all the time.

We've got a pride parade right here in our own town. You might be rolling your eyes and saying, well, Pastor Jon, this kind of stuff happens all the time. We've got a pride parade right here in our own town. Why do we even bother in talking about this anymore? Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters, if we let this become normalized in our own minds, in our own homes, then we have already lost the fight. It can't become normal. The Bible very clearly tells us that there is judgment for those who scandalize God's children. Now, I don't relish the fact that they're going to face eternal judgment, but it's true.

Our real prayer is that they would hear the gospel of Jesus, that they would repent of their sin, that they would receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and have salvation. That's what we want for those people We need to realize that there is so much more to this world than material There are spiritual eternal realities. There is spiritual eternal Judgment that all human beings will face one day And either Jesus will take our place or we will receive that punishment ourselves and in the meantime that punishment ourselves. And in the meantime, you and I have a calling to protect our children, to protect God's children from anything that would scandalize them. You and I have a calling to preach the gospel, to make disciples of Jesus, because changed hearts is what will lead to a changed world, amen? world. Amen? God has called us to become more like children, to receive children, world. Amen? Will you please stand with me and let's pray as we close?