Grosey's Messages

Matthew 18:1-14     Converted And Concerned

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 them3 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, 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.

Greatness!      The Pursuit of Power.

Fame Fortune Power and Pleasure… Chuck Swindoll summarised these four attitudes as that which constitutes life for most people.

This is the source of the problems in our world.   

What's wrong with the world?  I am!   Said G K Chesterton!

"Pride is the mother of all sins, and there is a bit of her DNA in all of us."1 And perhaps (if I may correct myself) there is a bit more than "a bit." Pride rears its ugly head in everyone everywhere. I have seen it in the kindergarten girls' soccer team I coached, when one girl kicks the ball farther than the rest of the team in a practice drill and she thinks she has scored the winning goal in the World Cup finals. I have seen it in prisoners in the First Division of the Cook Country Jail, where one inmate thinks he rules the world because he rules the cellblock. I have seen it in myself, and if you would let me close enough to your heart, I will see it in you as well.

Pride rears its ugly head in everyone everywhere. And it rears its ugly head here in 18:1: "At that time [seemingly right after the tax question and lesson] the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'"

What a question! Had they forgotten the first beatitude—"Blessed are the poor in spirit" (5:3)? Had they forgotten the faith-filled Roman centurion's humility—"Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed" (8:8)? Had they forgotten that father's mustard-seed faith—"a man came up to him [Jesus] and, kneeling before him, said, 'Lord, have mercy on my son'" (17:14, 15)? Yes. Yes. Yes. It seems they had forgotten.2

In 18:4 Jesus tells us that the motive behind his disciples' question was pride, for he begins that verse, "Whoever humbles himself . . ."

Our Lord Jesus, however, will have none of their presumption. In verses 2–4 he gives a visual and verbal rebuke:     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 of heaven."

The child is the parable of the Kingdom!

You Need To Be Converted

J Macarthur wrote: "The kingdom of heaven, a phrase Matthew uses some 32 times, is synonymous with the kingdom of God. It had become common for Jews at the end of the Old Testament era, and especially during the intertestamental period, to substitute out of reverence the word heaven for the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), God's covenant name (often rendered as Yahweh, or Jehovah). Used in that way, heaven was simply another way of saying God. Both phrases refer to the rule of God, kingdom of heaven emphasizing the sphere and character of His rule, and kingdom of God emphatically pointing to the ruler Himself. God rules His kingdom with heavenly principles and heavenly blessings and in heavenly power, majesty, and glory. Entering the kingdom means coming under the sovereign rule of God.

The phrase "enter the kingdom of heaven" is used three times in the book of Matthew (see also 7:21; 19:23-24) and in each case refers to personal salvation. It is the same experience as entering into life (18:8) and entering into the joy of the Lord (25:21).

The fact that a person must enter the kingdom assumes he is born outside of it under the rule of Satan and that he is not naturally a heavenly citizen under the rule of God. The purpose of the gospel is to show men how they may enter the kingdom and become its citizens, moving from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God's beloved Son (Col. 1:13).

The central focus of Matthew's gospel is to draw men and women into the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ, and that is doubtlessly one of the reasons the Holy Spirit placed this book at the beginning of the New Testament. Throughout his gospel, Matthew carefully and systematically presents the components of genuine belief.

The first component presented for entering the kingdom is repentance. The message of John the Baptist was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (3:2), and it was with that identical message that the Lord began His own ministry (4:17). The initial call for entering the kingdom was a call for people to recognize and repent of their sin, which involves genuine desire to turn away from it. This repentance is not a human work but a divine gift that only God can grant (see 2 Tim. 2:25).

A second component of the faith that grants entrance to the kingdom is the recognition of spiritual bankruptcy. That, too, is a work of God, not man, because it is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin (John 16:8-11). The Beatitudes begin with a call to humility, expressed there as poverty of spirit (Matt. 5:3). The person who genuinely wants to enter God's kingdom sees himself as utterly unworthy and undeserving. His awareness of his sin brings guilt and frustration over his inadequacy to remove it. He knows that he cannot himself cleanse his sin and that he has nothing to offer God that could merit forgiveness for it. The Greek term behind "poor in spirit" refers to a beggar who has absolutely no resources of his own. Because the repentant and bankrupt person is deeply aware of his sin, he mourns over it (v. 4); because he has no righteousness of his own, he hungers and thirsts for God's righteousness (v. 6); and because he cannot himself cleanse his sin, he longs for the purity of heart (v. 8) that only God can provide.

The one who enters God's kingdom also is willing to make public confession of his desire to follow the Lord. "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men," Jesus said, "I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven" (10:32-33).

The one who enters God's kingdom is aware of his need to be self-denying. Jesus said, "He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it" (10:38-39).

As He took the young child in His arms and held him up before the disciples, the Lord gathered up all those elements of salvation: "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."

The phrase are converted translates an aorist passive of strepho which elsewhere in the New Testament is always translated with an idea of "turning" or "turning around." It means to make an about face and go in the opposite direction. Peter used a form of the term twice in his message shortly after Pentecost, as he called his hearers to "repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away" and declared of Jesus that "God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways" (Acts 3:19, 26). The term is used repeatedly in the book of Acts to speak of conversion (11:21; 15:19; 26:18, 20). Paul used the word when speaking of the Thessalonian believers, who had turned "to God from idols to serve a living and true God" (1 Thess. 1:9).

Conversion is the other half of repentance. Repentance is being sorry for sin and turning away from it; conversion is the expression of will that fully turns from sin to the Lord. Psalm 51:13 alludes to these two halves of the turning when it declares, "and sinners will be converted to Thee." Jesus' use here of the passive voice indicates that the disciples could not be converted from sin to righteousness by their own efforts but needed someone else to turn them around. Although the response of a person's will is required, only God has the power to convert.

To be converted requires people to become like children, Jesus explained. A little child is simple, dependent, helpless, unaffected, unpretentious, unambitious. Children are not sinless or naturally unselfish, and they display their fallen nature from the earliest age. But they are nevertheless naive and unassuming, trusting of others and without ambition for grandeur and greatness.

Sensitivity:  Be Tender about Sin

Sincerity:  Be Turning from Sin To the Saviour

Simplicity:   Be Trusting In the Saviour

                                                        

2. You Need To Be Concerned

If you are converted you will be concerned!

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, 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.

7 "Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

 

Don't Be A Stumbling Block To Kids

Stumbling block   Ὃς δ' ἂν σκανδαλίσῃ Scandalian

 6 Ὃς δ' ἂν σκανδαλίσῃ ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς ἐμέ, συμφέρει αὐτῷ ἵνα κρεμασθῇ μύλος ὀνικὸς ⸀εἰς τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ καὶ καταποντισθῇ ἐν τῷ πελάγει τῆς θαλάσσης.

 8 Εἰ δὲ ἡ χείρ σου ἢ ὁ πούς σου σκανδαλίζει σε  9 again!

New believers are at interest here, but also children.

By  Disenfranchising Them    

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, 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.

Coming out of verse 4 into verses 5–14, Jesus makes that same transition. In verses 5–9 our Lord teaches them and us about our actions toward little ones and in verses 10–14 about our attitude toward little ones.

First, we have our actions toward little ones (vv. 5–9). I say "little ones" instead of "children" because Jesus makes this linguistic shift in verses 5, 6. He starts (v. 5), "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me," then continues (v. 6), "but whoever causes one of these little ones . . ." and only uses the term "little ones" from that point on. This might just be a parallelism (child = little one), and that seems to be the case in verses 5, 6. But in what follows (vv. 7–14) we learn that Jesus subtly shifts from talking about literal children to certain children of God, those he labels "little ones."

By "little ones" Jesus could mean everyone in the kingdom of heaven regardless of age, or he could mean, as I think he means,9 "the least of these my brothers" as he would phrase it in 25:40. That is, "little ones" are those Christians who are most often marginalized or whom we'd be tempted to marginalize due to lack of wealth, health, giftedness, or spiritual maturity. They are those with little resources, little social standing, and perhaps little faith (i.e., the weaker brethren of Romans 14:13; 1 Corinthians 8:13). They are those prone to wander like that one lost sheep of verse 12.

So then, regarding these "little ones" within the church, Jesus calls his church (especially the more mature or less "little") to action. And the primary action here is guarding oneself as a means of guarding them. You see, we are not only to "receive" these little ones into our fellowship because Christ receives such into his fellowship—we open the church door to them "in [his] name" (v. 5)—but we are also to protect them once they're in. Jesus teaches:

 

By Disillusioning Them

6 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.

7 "Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Here Jesus uses two graphic and grotesque images to wake up Christians. Yes, these are warnings for believers, not unbelievers. Christian, if you think your little sins are not a big deal to Christ and his church, you couldn't be farther from the mind of Christ. To our Saviour, personal holiness is a matter of life and death, Heaven and Hell for you and others.

The two judgment images here involve water and fire. First fire. Imagine being thrown into a pit that's on fire—"the hell of fire." You are engulfed by flames. Eternal fire is everywhere!

Then water. Imagine a great millstone—a two-ton slab of circular stone so huge and heavy that it needs a donkey to move it—fastened around your neck. There you are wearing this heavy and horrific concrete collar. Then imagine being taken out to the middle of the sea and left to yourself. Bye-bye. Down you go. You'll hit the bottom pretty fast. And you'll hit the bottom and stay there. There is no means of escape. Death by fire or death by water; burning or drowning—what will it be? Neither option sounds all that pleasant.

Christian, wake up. Shape up. Grow up. Your personal holiness matters. Christian, "be killing sin or it will be killing you" and potentially killing others, these "little ones" in the Lord. What we do privately—with our hand or our foot or our eye (those are private or personal parts)—actually can affect other believers. That's what Jesus is teaching here. How you see things (the eye) affects how others see, what you do (the hand) affects what others will do, and how you walk (the foot) affects how others will walk. You see, the church, especially the local church, is like a thousand dominoes perfectly spaced apart, standing together. We are all equal in God's sight, and we all can potentially affect one another equally. But we know that if the first domino falls, all fall.

Jesus has talked this way about sexual sin in the Sermon on the Mount (5:29, 30). But here he expands it to every imaginable sin. Do you grasp for worldly power? Do you rush to judgment? Do you easily lose your temper? Do you gossip? Do you hoard money? Do you overlook the unimportant? Do you think yourself so very important? Cut it off and cut it out. Cut off pride. Cut off lust. Cut off sloth. Cut off anger. Cut off greed. Cut off envy. Cut off gluttony. Cut off those seven deadly sins and seventy more because they will kill you—"It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire" (v. 9b)—and because they endanger the lives of the "little ones," some of your dear brothers and sisters in Christ. This is serious stuff. So take it seriously.

 

By Despising Them

10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.

why should we value them? Jesus gives one reason (they matter much to God) and two illustrations.

The first illustration is about "their angels": "For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven" (v. 10b). There is no need for us to get bogged down on whether or not every child or every "little one" has a guardian angel. It seems they do—if not a guardian angel (cf. Acts 12:15), guardian angels (cf. Luke 16:22)—that is, in the words of Hebrews 1:14, "ministering spirits sent out to serve . . . those who are to inherit salvation." (Note, however, that the guardian angel or angels here are in Heaven, not on earth as popularly depicted.) But the point is not that some or all Christians have angels who protect them. Rather, the point is, if these beings ("angels") who serve these "little ones" (they are "their angels") are "in heaven" (that's an important place to be) and they there are directly looking upon God (these must be angels of "the very highest order"), how much more valuable are "the little ones" they serve and protect? Does that make sense? If your bodyguards are Moses and Elijah, you must be fairly important. And if your angel stands perpetually before the face of God, your stock has substantially gone up. God values these little ones.

The second illustration of this divine value is the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Our Lord says:

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (vv. 12–14)

I will identify the characters in this parable and then highlight two points. There are three characters: (1) the ninety-nine sheep, (2) the strayed sheep, and (3) the man, who is obviously a good shepherd.

The shepherd represents Jesus Christ. I say that because (a) Jesus is often called a shepherd, (b) this shepherd is called "a man," and (c) what the shepherd does here fits the purpose of the incarnation: "[F]or he [Jesus] will save his people from their sins" (1:21).

Therefore Make Children and Youth Ministry A Priority

The parable of the Good Shepherd (as in Luke 15).

11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

The hundred sheep represent the church or the community of the kingdom of heaven. The ninety-nine are either the spiritually mature or more likely those not currently backsliding. Presently they are doing a good job of sticking near Christ and Christians and are cutting off sin. The strayed sheep then is the backsliding Christian, or more specifically the Christian who is so proud he doesn't think he needs the shepherd or the other sheep to guard him and so foolish or sinful that he thinks he can wander off into various sins without any real danger.

Those are the characters of the parable. But what is the point? As parables are flexible entities (sometimes you can find a point for each character or a point for each phrase), let me give you one point before I give you the primary point. God is joyously gracious to each Christian.

I discovered 20 years ago that this is the one mandated ministry for local churches that they must fulfil!   This is a very important area of ministry for the local church.

God blesses us when we make children and young people a priority in the Kingdom of God.