Sep9
Matthew 19:13-15.Working
19:13 Then (i.e. While in Judea, in a region called Perea,-(See map) while ministering to the crowds.-(19:1, Mark 10:1) little children (infants-K.J.V., babies-{Luke 18:15}, young children.-{Mark 10:13} Taken together children of all ages.) were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them (i.e. To bless and pray over them.) But the disciples rebuked (shoo-away, chase-off) those (Parents.) who brought them. (Suggests the disciples thought the children were unworthy to occupy their Master’s attention or saw them as little value and importance.) 14 Jesus said, Let (suffer-K.J.V. Allow, permit) the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, (By word/example.) for the kingdom of heaven (God’s Saving grace) belongs (Pertains, extends) to such as these.” (Not literally children, but childlike qualities of humility, dependance, trusting. Or as weak, helpless, and needy.) 15 When he had placed his hands on them, (took them in his arms and blessed them.-(Mark 10:16) he went on from there. (i.e. Departed “Perea” and continuing towards Jerusalem. That Jesus’ Saving touch is more than enough to carry us through.)
Continued From Book
“Teaches how just like children we have no claims or merits to offer God, but are dependent on His mercy & grace.“ ⇒ In order to be Saved you must recognize Two things. First you need the humility to confess “I’m a sinner”. Second you need to meekness to profess “I can’t Save myself”. Every one of us are sinners from Adam & Eve on. Just like children we can’t make it into heaven by our own efforts and good works. We can’t earn it, we can’t deserve it. We must come to an end in ourselves and fall at the feet of Jesus and beg for forgiveness and mercy from Him. We must put our trust in Jesus Christ alone for Salvation. Child-like faith allows us to be teachable and accepting of our weaknesses, that we need can’t to it on our own but need God’s help. It allows us to think more humbly about our own strength and wisdom. That were not that smart to manage an direct our own lives.
“Teaches the importance of evangelizing in the Lord. (Get them to Jesus as early as possible, the younger the better!)” ⇒ Obviously we cannot bring them physically to Jesus—as the parents in this story were able to do. But we can and must bring our children to Jesus in the “spiritual” sense—that is, in the sense that we draw their attention to Him and teach them about Jesus as early in life as we possibly can. We bring our children to Jesus by teaching them about His love. We bring our children to Jesus by praying for them and asking God’s blessing upon them. We bring our children to the Lord by teaching them about Jesus and how he died to be their Savior. We bringing our children to Jesus by taking them to church. We’re to be the example in our children’s lives. Think about it our kids are always watching us. They’re looking up to us, They’re learning from us. They’re hanging onto every word we say. They’re soaking up everything we do. Your kids are going to learn how to read the bible by watching you read the bible. Your kids are going to learn how to pray by watching you pray. Your kids are going to learn theology by how you study the bible. Your kids are going to learn how to spend and invest their money, by how you manage your money. Their going to learn from you how to tithe, give, and invest in the Lord. Your kids are going to learn the importance of going to church from the way you attend church regularly every Sunday morning. Your kids are going to learn from you how to be a good husband, a good wife, a good parent, a good father, a good mother, a good grandparent, etc. by watching you. Your kids are going to learn from you what a true professing believer looks like. Not the people in your church, not your pastor, not the Sunday school teacher. They’re there to guide and grow our children, but we’re the example in leading them to Jesus. (cf. Deut. 6:4-9, Ps. 78:1-8)
“Teaches the best we can give our children is not a happy childhood, education, or a secure future, but a Saving relationship with Jesus.” ⇒ At the end of the day it’s not about our child’s grades, batting average, 3.0 GPA, yards per-carry, popularity, athletic scholarship, collage transcripts, class rank. It’s not about how well we raised our kids. the values we instilled, or the love and support we provided them. But how are we investing in their souls? Because a day they will have stand before Jesus and the only thing that will matter will be, did they come to know the Lord?
“Calls for not allowing obstacles to hinder or discourage us in bringing our children to Jesus.” ⇒ Are you going to use the difficulties in bringing your children to Christ as an excuse. The obstacles are too high, the difficulties are too many. And as a result parents advocate their roles and responsibilities to professionals. Parents think its the church’s responsibility to bring their children to Jesus. It’s the church’s job to disciple them. Or it’s the coach’s job to instill character and values into our children. Or its the teachers job to educate them. All we have to do is just drop them off at school. And if they get bad grades, well its the teachers fault. When the truth is were the primary educator in our child’s life. We’re the one who instils character and values in our children. Not their coaches, not their friends, and certainly not the world.
“Even today, we can become barriers to children in coming to Jesus. We can hinder them by the way we live and act. We can hinder them when we complain and criticize. We can hinder them by our lack of patience and affection. By our lack of love and compassion. By our lack of empathy and understanding? “ ⇒ As believers we have the responsibility of modeling our faith in Jesus so that the younger generation can see that He is worth knowing. If our faith does not change our life and cause us to be a more loving, caring, and compassionate person, our children will pick up on that. We can talk about our faith, but if we do not live out our faith, it translates into hypocrisy in the eyes of our children. They are very quick to spot a phony! We must ensure that our actions, words, and lives reflect the teachings of Christ so that our children can see the path clearly. This includes actively sharing the Gospel, nurturing their faith, and providing a consistent, loving example of what it means to follow Jesus. It is crucial to remember that each moment spent teaching our children about God, every prayer prayed over them, and every example set in our daily lives contributes to their spiritual foundation. Let us lead them with love, patience, and unwavering faith, trusting that God will honor our efforts and draw our children closer to Him each day.
More Notes & Applications
Warns the longer we wait to bring our children to Jesus, the less likely it’s going to happen at all.
Jesus is not saying that babies are automatically Saved and go to heaven when they die. For they can’t repent of their sins or put their faith in Him as Savior. But rather Jesus is only using the children as an object lesson on the need for childlike faith in coming to Him for Salvation. Now what does that mean then for babies who die? Miscarriages, aborted babies, sudden infant death syndrome? What about those babies? Where do they go? Most believe that when babies and children die they go to heaven. They argue, even though babies are born corrupt, due to Adam’s fall. They have not come to the point where the consciously chose to sin. They have not chosen to be a part of Adam’s rebellion. Therefore children are under God’s special grace and belong to Him until they reach the age of accountability where they consciously chose to sin and willfully rebel against God. At which time God holds them responsible.-(cf. Is. 7:16, 1-Sam. 1:11, 22, 2-Sam. 12:23, Jer. 19:4, Ezk. 16:21, Jona 4:11, Ps. 23:6, Rev. 20:12)
The bible doesn’t tell us why the disciples rebuked the them. Maybe they saw the children beneath Jesus. Maybe to them, as part of the Greco-Roman world, children were thought of as a insignificant and little importance. And weren’t valued that much, especially if the children were girls. Or maybe they were influenced by Jewish religious thinking in a work-righteous system – that said you had to earn your Salvation by doing good works. And since these children were just little kids there was nothing they could do to earn their Salvation. In fact, the Rabbis would not teach the Torah to children under the age of 12. To them it was just a waste of time. Why spend our time teaching these little children? Or maybe they thought that they were protecting their esteemed Teacher from unnecessary interruptions and distractions. After all, their Master was the Messiah; and they thought it would have been beneath His dignity to have little children touching Him and crawling upon Him. Maybe—as is suggested by the word “then” at the beginning of the passage—they realized that He had just engaged in debate with the Pharisees over disputes about the law regarding divorce-(19:3); and were seeking to protect His rest and to relieve Him of those who were making more demands of Him.
What Jesus teaches here sounds very much to what He taught back in chapter eighteen. (18:1-) As we can see from our passage here, the disciples had forgotten the lessons Jesus had taught them earlier. Not only were they failing to rightly value the little ones that Jesus values; but as we’ll see in the next chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, they also went on to argue further about who was the greatest.-(20:20-28) Even though these two passages are similar, there’s an important difference between them. In chapter 18, the words of Jesus about “little ones” were spoken because the disciples were valuing themselves to highly—arguing over which of them was the greatest. And yet, in this passage, the words of Jesus about “little children” were spoken because the disciples were failing to value the little ones highly enough! They were failing to see the great opportunity that presented itself to them in the form of welcoming these little ones to Jesus.
WAYS WE HINDER CHIILDREN FROM COMING TO JESUS
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We hinder them by failing to share the Gospel with them.
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We hinder them by failing to fan and encourage their faith
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We hinder them by harsh and unfair discipline
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We can hinder them by a lack of accurate theology
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We can hinder them by our hypocrisy
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We can hinder them bu
BARRIERS IN COMING TO JESUS
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Our Obstant Unbelief
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Our Pride & Ego
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Our Self-Sufficiency & Self-dependance
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Our Arrogance
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Our unwillingness to submit
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Our Me Attitude & Centeredness
- Posted by David Costa/
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