SPEAKER_00: This morning though, Matthew 18, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God, and I pray that we would feast from it this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There is a perennial debate among the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It is arguably their favorite conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Who is going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Man, they loved this topic.
SPEAKER_00: This is a conversation that is difficult for us to, as Americans, to understand, but believe me, this conversation fits right at home in the Jewish culture of Jesus' day.
SPEAKER_00: This was a topic, this was a concept, the ranking of people, the greatness of people that is laid over every social event in a way that's very literally and figuratively foreign to us.
SPEAKER_00: In the Jewish world, you have every wedding, every funeral, every formal meal, to use the American parlance, every retirement ceremony.
SPEAKER_00: You have a seating structure that is laid out that is not arbitrary and it's more than just honored guests.
SPEAKER_00: It is laid out to demonstrate a person's greatness.
SPEAKER_00: The host of the feast sits at the head of the table.
SPEAKER_00: And at his left and his right are his number one and number two guests, the two greatest people who are there after the host, of course.
SPEAKER_00: That is followed then in rotating fashion back and forth across the table.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a very clear and evident ranking of somebody's greatness as they gathered there.
SPEAKER_00: Then you start to get into the arbitrary world where is it better to be like the eighth greatest person at the first table or to be the head of the second table?
SPEAKER_00: And there's a competition around this.
SPEAKER_00: This takes place at, as I mentioned, every wedding, every formal gathering.
SPEAKER_00: It takes place particularly at every Sabbath meal.
SPEAKER_00: Usually on the Sabbath, the families would get together on Friday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: You'd journey to somebody's house and you'd be there before the sun sets.
SPEAKER_00: The meal would already be prepared.
SPEAKER_00: The meal itself would go well into the evening.
SPEAKER_00: If you were in Jerusalem, you might go home after the meal, but everywhere else you would spend the night at that person's house.
SPEAKER_00: You would eat that way on Saturday as well, and you would spend the day together with that family or a group of families until Saturday evening.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the this is one of the favorite things about the Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_00: We do this like once a year at Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: In the Jewish culture, that is every Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: And the people sit around the table, and like I said, there's a ranking in there.
SPEAKER_00: You know, at your Thanksgiving meal, you might honor the oldest person there, or the patriarch, or the matriarch of the family.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't say, oh, since you're oldest, you can sit here.
SPEAKER_00: Like you recognize this is the family's patriarch, or this is the family's matriarch, and there's a certain amount of respect, and maybe the patriarch might pray, or maybe the matriarch might uh go get her food first or be served first, or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Every family does it differently, but you have this concept, but in our world, it's just at that level, and then everybody kind of sits wherever you want to.
SPEAKER_00: That would not happen in the Jewish world of Jesus' lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: No sit wherever you want to, you've got to be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: Like this stuff is mapped out ahead of time, and there's an order to it.
SPEAKER_00: You are prioritized by greatness.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, these Jewish meals, you are you're laying on the person next to you.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're the host, the guy at your left is leaning against you, his head is on your chest.
SPEAKER_00: These meals you sit, you eat kind of sitting on the floor, and they go for hours.
SPEAKER_00: So you're relaxing or reclining on top of each other.
SPEAKER_00: The host might lean to the person on his right.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, in our world, there's a lot more at stake here than in the Jewish world than in our world.
SPEAKER_00: Like you would care more about who you sat next to at the wedding if you had to, you know, put your head on their chest for a significant amount of time.
SPEAKER_00: We do have some of this concept, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: At weddings, there might be the numbered tables.
SPEAKER_00: But really, like all that matters is the family tables at the front.
SPEAKER_00: After that, you know, it doesn't really matter.
SPEAKER_00: Difference between table 10 and 30, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: Believe me, they cared.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a constant debate.
SPEAKER_00: A constant debate.
SPEAKER_00: We have fantasy football.
SPEAKER_00: They had fantasy greatness in Heaven League.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were not immune from this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: They had it often.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, judging by the lack of shame in their discussions of it, I don't think they viewed it as something to be ashamed of.
SPEAKER_00: In Mark's telling this event, they didn't want to tell Jesus what they were arguing about, but it is not because they were embarrassed about talking about who the greatest is, it's because they were arguing about it.
SPEAKER_00: Why would they be arguing?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this kind of set in stone?
SPEAKER_00: They've been with each other now for a few years.
SPEAKER_00: They know where people are sitting.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Peter and John are the two greatest apostles.
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones sitting at the right and left of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was the loudest, he was the leader of the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: John is the one Jesus loved more.
SPEAKER_00: You can just ask John, he tells you that like several times.
SPEAKER_00: So you could get the debate as it relates to Peter and John.
SPEAKER_00: Why are they discussing it again?
SPEAKER_00: Well, something happened about five minutes ago, if you recall.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe five days ago.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told Peter that you are acting like the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Get behind me, Satan, he told Peter.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty serious rebuke, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: For the other eleven, that represents what you might consider an opening.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the greatest in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus tells Peter you're talking like the devil, does that mean the number one spot is open?
SPEAKER_00: Is there a reordering, a re-ranking?
SPEAKER_00: James has an outside shot at this.
SPEAKER_00: James is the son of thunder, also.
SPEAKER_00: He's, oh, he's the brother of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He's over the top.
SPEAKER_00: He's one of those boisterous voices that fills the room, a charismatic personality.
SPEAKER_00: He's always right next to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And again, these numbering systems are not arbitrary.
SPEAKER_00: When all the gospels rank the 12 apostles, they're always presenting them in more or less the same order.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's James now.
SPEAKER_00: So that's their debate.
SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, Peter had just been rebuked a minute ago, in fact.
SPEAKER_00: He comes in.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the tax collectors asked Peter, does your teacher, does your rabbi pay the taxes?
SPEAKER_00: Peter did not ask Jesus about it.
SPEAKER_00: It was a very complicated question.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at this last week.
SPEAKER_00: Peter just cut through the the all the intricacies of it and just said, Of course he does.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's not even going to tell Jesus about the conversation.
SPEAKER_00: He shows up at his house, they're staying at Peter's house, remember, in Capernaum, takes off his jacket and is getting ready to sit down.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Peter, is there something we need to talk about?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he calls him Simon, do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: Going back to the old name.
SPEAKER_00: Simon, I have a riddle for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so the conversation renews itself again.
SPEAKER_00: To be clear, Jesus never rebukes the desire to be great in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It is good to desire greatness in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That's a virtue.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the New Testament says, whoever aspires to the work of an elder, an overseer, it's a noble work you aspire to.
SPEAKER_00: It is good to have godly aspirations, it's good.
SPEAKER_00: And think about it this way: if greatness in heaven is seen in proximity to Jesus or in passionate worship or in responsibilities in the kingdom, however, you parse out greatness in heaven, it is all good things.
SPEAKER_00: It's all good things.
SPEAKER_00: You would want those things.
SPEAKER_00: But my wife, when she was subbing for me, she assigned it to the students as extra credit.
SPEAKER_00: As extra credit.
SPEAKER_00: No, if a teacher offers extra credit, it becomes a virtue to want extra credit.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be the worst kind of teacher who would offer extra credit and then rebuke the students for desiring it.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says consistently that you can store up for yourself treasure in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He says consistently, whoever leaves houses or lands or family for the sake of following Christ will get more houses and more lands and more family in this life and in the life to come.
SPEAKER_00: So don't say it's wrong to want those things.
SPEAKER_00: And do you remember what Peter says as soon as Jesus says that?
SPEAKER_00: Peter's like, oh Lord, I've left all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus pats him on the head and says, I know you have Peter.
SPEAKER_00: I know you have.
SPEAKER_00: So now they're arguing about who is going to be the greatest in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You would have thought Peter until the Satan thing.
SPEAKER_00: But you remember what else happened?
SPEAKER_00: They walked up on the Mount of Transfiguration and they saw Moses and Elijah glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, those were candidates for the conversation I hadn't even thought of.
SPEAKER_00: They were all fixated on the 12 of them.
SPEAKER_00: Now you got Moses and Elijah interstaged left.
SPEAKER_00: They're glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Can you compete with them?
SPEAKER_00: However, don't forget about John the Baptist either.
SPEAKER_00: In your fantasy league, you might want to draft John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Among those born of women, no one's greater than John.
SPEAKER_00: But then he followed it by saying, in the kingdom of heaven, the least of the Christians is greater than John, because the most immature believer knows more about Jesus than John the Baptist did.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the lowest in the kingdom of heaven, the lowest in the church, the lowest believer in Christ is greater than the greatest Old Testament saint because we know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So that's an argument back for Peter again, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: That's their debate.
SPEAKER_00: You can see why.
SPEAKER_00: This would be a fascinating debate that would keep you going for days.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I've overstayed my welcome on it already.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows the debate.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 1, Matthew just says, uh the disciples came to Jesus saying, Mark, let you know kind of the backstory of that.
SPEAKER_00: They were arguing.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, What are you arguing about?
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, We're not telling you.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, one of them did fess up and say, and Matthew just says, They told Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus responds in verse two by calling to him a child.
SPEAKER_00: He put the child in the midst of them.
SPEAKER_00: This child is, so the Greek word is a little child, like a toddler, would be the English word.
SPEAKER_00: Don't picture like a seven-year-old here.
SPEAKER_00: Picture a child that is old enough to walk but not old enough to talk.
SPEAKER_00: You got that window there?
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus calls.
SPEAKER_00: Old enough to know his name and come when called, not old enough to engage in conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls that kind of child to him.
SPEAKER_00: And the child toddles through the room.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls to him, verse 2, it's the word for summons.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls a child by name, would be the idea, summons him to himself.
SPEAKER_00: The child responds.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus puts the child in the middle of the group.
SPEAKER_00: He takes him up into his arms and then puts him on display.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the expected answer to the question, who's the greatest in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, there's a good debate to have between Peter and John with an outside shot at James, and it's fun to talk about John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus grabs some wandering toddler in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Probably Peter's nephew, I would guess, from without Peter's house.
SPEAKER_00: There's not some, you know, Jewish families were bigger and more hospitable.
SPEAKER_00: Probably it wouldn't be odd to walk into a neighbor's house like it would be in our world, but still, it's a child whom Jesus knew.
SPEAKER_00: It's out of left field.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Truly I tell you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus answers a question that was not asked.
SPEAKER_00: The question that was asked, who's the greatest in heaven, is not what Jesus answers first.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus answers first is, how do you get to heaven to begin with?
SPEAKER_00: This is not a bait and switch thing.
SPEAKER_00: When you understand the first question, you can reason to the second.
SPEAKER_00: They were starting with the second question, who's the greatest in heaven, without understanding what it takes to get to heaven to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't come through the front door, you're not going to understand the seating arrangements in the house, in other words.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus starts with what it takes to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You will never even enter it, it says in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: This is similar to his rhetorical repertoire with Nicodemus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus has one question about Jesus' capacity as a teacher, and Jesus answers a different question.
SPEAKER_00: He says, unless you're born again, you won't even see the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Forget ranking teachers there.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same principle here.
SPEAKER_00: I'll borrow this for an outline here.
SPEAKER_00: How childlike faith is born.
SPEAKER_00: There's really a first will be last, last will be first kind of vibe to this exchange here.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, if the first or last, in the last or first, that means that everybody ties, is the idea.
SPEAKER_00: So there is a system of greatness in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There are rewards in heaven, but that's not what Jesus starts with.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus starts with everybody getting the same wage.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody getting to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he starts.
SPEAKER_00: He begins this way Salvation comes by turning or repentance.
SPEAKER_00: That's where he starts.
SPEAKER_00: So he calls the child.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: The child comes to him.
SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus is explaining what they just saw in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Truly I say to you, unless you first turn.
SPEAKER_00: See the word turn there?
SPEAKER_00: That's where this begins.
SPEAKER_00: For you to enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to first turn from your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You have to turn from your old way of living.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus draws attention to that word.
SPEAKER_00: It's an odd facet of this exchange to draw attention to, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: You call a child over to you and the child comes to you and you put the child on display.
SPEAKER_00: It's odd to draw attention to that.
SPEAKER_00: First, the child had to turn.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what Jesus draws attention to.
SPEAKER_00: Why did the child turn?
SPEAKER_00: Like just put yourself in the room there.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think the child came when Jesus called him?
SPEAKER_00: Well, children are dependent, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: Children generally come when called.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if you can really imagine the room, children come when called by, you know, an older guy in the room because they're expecting to get something.
SPEAKER_00: They're like seagulls in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: Children and seagulls are very, very similar.
SPEAKER_00: You know, children need everything.
SPEAKER_00: Everything they have has been given to them, hasn't it?
SPEAKER_00: They can't even, at this age, they can't even dress themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They can't feed themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They can't, they can't put themselves to bed at this age.
SPEAKER_00: You know, not the Jewish world, the American world.
SPEAKER_00: We have cribs and everything, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta stuff the child in there at this age, put them in, and you might even patrol to make sure they don't get back out.
SPEAKER_00: And then you see them crawling back up and they can escape those cribs.
SPEAKER_00: And that is a long fall, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: You would think they would just learn that lesson one time, but no, they will repeat that lesson many, many times.
SPEAKER_00: They can't dress themselves, they can't feed themselves, they can't soothe themselves, they can't put themselves to bed.
SPEAKER_00: They're utterly unable.
SPEAKER_00: And so they come when they're called, expecting food or a diaper to be changed or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the image of childlike faith.
SPEAKER_00: It begins with you recognizing your utter dependence on the Lord for all things, that you cannot work your way to God.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot be good enough to earn heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot work hard enough to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be the right kind of person to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You can't work your way to God.
SPEAKER_00: You're in desperate need.
SPEAKER_00: Children don't even know what they're going to do the day they wake up.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even know what day of the week it is.
SPEAKER_00: Recognize that spiritually speaking, you are like that child.
SPEAKER_00: You do not know what it takes to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You only know that you are not good enough to get there.
SPEAKER_00: You know that you want to go to heaven, but you don't have what it takes to get there.
SPEAKER_00: You have to turn from your wicked ways and you have to turn from trusting in your own goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the classic, I mean, this is true in every culture probably, but it is exceptionally true in the American culture that our default position is to think that we're good enough to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is classic Americana thinking that I'm not entirely sure if God exists, but if he or she does exist, when I die, I'm gonna go to heaven because God will know that I tried my best.
SPEAKER_00: That is the default American thinking that we think if we tried our best, if we lived up to who we wanted to be, if we just made our best effort, that would obviously be good enough because you can't ask or expect more than my best.
SPEAKER_00: Now set aside for a moment, just briefly, set aside for a moment the fact that it's not true.
SPEAKER_00: Like nobody actually does their best all the time.
SPEAKER_00: So stop it.
SPEAKER_00: But set aside that objection and just roll with this idea that people have trained their minds to think that if they are going to die and stand before God, if God exists, they will go to heaven because God will know that we've always done what is right in our own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: But what if your best is not good enough?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that really is the heart of the problem.
SPEAKER_00: That your best effort is still sinful.
SPEAKER_00: Your best effort is not acceptable to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is holy and perfect and cannot entertain sin before him.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord is a righteous judge, he will judge sin.
SPEAKER_00: And if our best consists of sinning, then there is no hope for salvation based upon our work or our own efforts.
SPEAKER_00: There's none.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first step of salvation is turning from trusting yourself, turning from your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Let the wicked person forsake his ways, let the unrighteous person forsake his thoughts and call out to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible refers to people who are living for themselves as lost.
SPEAKER_00: Let the lost be found by turning to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible calls them dead, but let the dead live by turning to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible calls them blind, but the blind can see by turning to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible calls them deaf.
SPEAKER_00: They don't hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But the scripture also says that they can hear and have their ears unstopped by turning to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's worse than being dead and blind and deaf because we're also contagious.
SPEAKER_00: In our natural condition, we have spiritual leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just that we're dead, but we are rancid.
SPEAKER_00: We infect others.
SPEAKER_00: But the leper can be healed by turning to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is really the divine call.
SPEAKER_00: God calls the human heart, and the human heart responds by repenting from sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's the initial part of childlike faith.
SPEAKER_00: That is followed by being born again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says you have to turn and then become like children.
SPEAKER_00: Children are the image of new life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is the most obvious part of the childlike analogy here.
SPEAKER_00: The most obvious analogous feature of children to being saved is that children are born.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus makes this obvious feature even more drawn out and explicit from John chapter 3, where he says to remember to Nicodemus, you want to go to heaven, you can't even get there.
SPEAKER_00: You can't even see it unless you are born again, born from above.
SPEAKER_00: The child comes to Jesus and is received by Jesus and is put on display, and Jesus extrapolates from that display to becoming like a child, to being born again.
SPEAKER_00: Your old heart was dead, and through responding by turning from your sin, your new heart is made alive.
SPEAKER_00: You place your faith in the Lord, you receive the word of God, the word of God is implanted in your heart, and by faith it grows through grace, and you are born again.
SPEAKER_00: You place your faith in the Son of God, the Son who is given for you, and when you believe in Him, you can be lifted up with Him.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus lifts the child up, you believe in Jesus, you will be lifted up with him.
SPEAKER_00: This is new life.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is implanted in your heart and grows and produces spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If repentance is the human response, the new birth is the divine initiative.
SPEAKER_00: When a baby is born, you don't say, good job, baby.
SPEAKER_00: Good job thinking about it and choosing to breathe.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're happy when the baby is born to breathe.
SPEAKER_00: There's like a moment of suspense there, you know?
SPEAKER_00: When the baby breathes, you don't tell the baby that was just such a good decision.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you weighed the pros and cons.
SPEAKER_00: Because breathing better than not, and I'm glad you sorted through that.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's just even go further upstream.
SPEAKER_00: Good job deciding that you want to be alive, choosing to be born.
SPEAKER_00: That great choice.
SPEAKER_00: This world's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Great choice to decide to be born.
SPEAKER_00: High five to you, baby.
SPEAKER_00: No, the baby didn't choose to be born.
SPEAKER_00: You'll even hear that and proclaim it later in life, normally in a temperatantrum in Walmart.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't ask to be born.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I didn't ask for you to have a meltdown at Walmart, but here we both are.
SPEAKER_00: The new birth is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that happens to you.
SPEAKER_00: God works on the human heart and causes people to be born again.
SPEAKER_00: And when you come to faith, there's a sense in which your life starts over.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the old is passed away and the new has come.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not only a new start, but it's a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just, you know, you sin this week and you're like, next week I'm going to try better to do good or not be a sinner or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I won't do that again.
SPEAKER_00: And of course you'll fall into sin over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not just getting a new week to have a new start.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is having a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: Having the record of your sins canceled, nailed to the cross of Christ, crucified with Christ, so that when you place your faith in Christ and you're born again, you can say it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives through me.
SPEAKER_00: It's a new life with a new nature.
SPEAKER_00: You even get a new name, the book of Revelation says.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be born again.
SPEAKER_00: Third.
SPEAKER_00: You have a rest in salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The divine work coincides with the human response.
SPEAKER_00: The divine work here of regeneration coincides with the human response.
SPEAKER_00: You rest in your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The child is now on display.
SPEAKER_00: You turn and become like children.
SPEAKER_00: Then you enter the kingdom of heaven and you are resting at this point in your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You are not working to maintain your salvation, you are resting in the gift of grace that God has given to you.
SPEAKER_00: The child is held by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's his contribution.
SPEAKER_00: He is lifted up, that's his contribution.
SPEAKER_00: He heard his name, he came, he was lifted up, and he's the model of what it means to be born again.
SPEAKER_00: That's his contribution.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice that children, they're not, it's not that they don't contribute anything to the family, it's that they're not even expected to.
SPEAKER_00: Like you bring the baby a gift at the baby shower and you don't expect the baby to reach for his wallet.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pay you back.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you buy the two-year-old the kid's meal and you don't expect him to say, Oh, can I split that with you, Dad?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll cover the tip, Dad.
SPEAKER_00: You got the last one, I'll cover the tip.
SPEAKER_00: No, he the kid doesn't you don't expect him to go get a job at two years old.
SPEAKER_00: Just try your best.
SPEAKER_00: You know, knock on doors, see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: He's not expected to contribute anything to the family.
SPEAKER_00: What a picture for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You're saved by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Through grace.
SPEAKER_00: You're saved by grace of God through faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift from God to you.
SPEAKER_00: You can't earn it and you don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: You receive it.
SPEAKER_00: That's all you can do.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Dieter and I used to send our kids to the Dollar Tree or a store like that with a couple bucks to buy each other gifts as Christmas time was approaching.
SPEAKER_00: Because we were trying to teach them like, you know, Christmas is not about just receiving gifts.
SPEAKER_00: You got to give gifts to your sisters and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, start to get them thinking on the other person kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately you realize, like, at the end of the day, it's just Dieter and I buying more gifts for our kids.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's our money they're using.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Christian life is like.
SPEAKER_00: You're just living off of the grace that God has given you.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is a gift, and we are beggars who cannot do anything in return.
SPEAKER_00: That is the resting of faith.
SPEAKER_00: You live like that.
SPEAKER_00: Once saved, you don't start earning your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I read a book recently on that had a chapter on kids that were adopted like around seven or eight, um, especially those adopted from orphanages and other countries.
SPEAKER_00: And this book pointed out that one of the most difficult things for a kid at that age psychologically is it takes him a couple years before he can have any sense of security in the new family that he's part of.
SPEAKER_00: And then for several years, there's still something in the kid's mind that if he sins or he misbehaves or he breaks something or he does something wrong, he might get kicked back out of the family.
SPEAKER_00: Just because that's the only world he he's been familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so there's there's a sense in which that's almost even a better illustration of salvation than somebody who's born into a family naturally.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's this sense hanging over you that what if I mess up, I could be gone.
SPEAKER_00: And it's only until it finally clicks to you, which might take several years, where it finally clicks to you, no, these are my parents now, and they love me because they're showing me grace.
SPEAKER_00: They adopted me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to burn down the house or anything, but I recognize like I'm safe and secure in my parents' arms.
SPEAKER_00: That's the picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You recognize the Lord chose you, the Lord saved you, so you can rest in the sureness of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: You could map this out this way.
SPEAKER_00: There's the call of the Lord, there's the human response of repentance, there's the divine work of the new birth, and there's the resting of faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a chronological order.
SPEAKER_00: You would make a mistake if you saw these things as chronological.
SPEAKER_00: There's this is just the sequence they are in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: I might even order them logically.
SPEAKER_00: If I was trying to teach the logical order of this, I would probably move the divine work forward on the list.
SPEAKER_00: There's the external call, and there's the divine work of opening the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: There's the response of faith and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I would order them logically.
SPEAKER_00: Chronologically, they're all simultaneous.
SPEAKER_00: They happen at the same instant.
SPEAKER_00: But with the narrative here in front of us, that's the order they're in.
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty fascinating to see how Jesus takes an argument about who's the greatest in heaven and calls this little tiny toddler to himself to make a complex picture about soteriology, how a person is saved, by placing their faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't leave it there.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just leave it with that, this is how a person is born again.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about how childlike faith is born, but he goes on to how childlike faith lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now, understanding the baseline of what it takes to be saved, now you're able to actually engage the conversation about who the greatest is.
SPEAKER_00: But answering who the greatest is wouldn't work if you didn't start with what it takes to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus keeps going in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So verse 3, what it takes to get to heaven, the doorway to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, the posture of those who get through the door.
SPEAKER_00: And it starts with humility.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever humbles himself.
SPEAKER_00: Humility becomes the attitude of childlike faith.
SPEAKER_00: And here's where the parable is over, parable with the living parable with the kid, the living parable with the kid is over here, and Jesus is extrapolating from the kid to the listeners, which are grown adults.
SPEAKER_00: Now the point of continuity is the child's humility, which is an odd point.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you've had a kid or more than one, you recognize this is an odd initial point of comparison, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you think of your children, you don't initially think humble.
SPEAKER_00: Like when you think of a one-year-old or a two-year-old, the first thought that comes to your mind is, oh, my two-year-old is so humble.
SPEAKER_00: They're so others-oriented, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: You know, the baby cries in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be effective to go over to the child and say, Listen, I know you're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: There are other people that live in this house that are not hungry, that really love their pillows right now.
SPEAKER_00: So consider them above yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Have the same pattern in you, which was in Christ Jesus, that considered others more important than himself.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to work.
SPEAKER_00: So what does he mean with humility here?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about the way children recognize in an ongoing sense their own need.
SPEAKER_00: That's humility.
SPEAKER_00: A child takes a couple steps and totters.
SPEAKER_00: What does a child do?
SPEAKER_00: Lifts his arms up to dad.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to try to fix it on himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's humility.
SPEAKER_00: It's this constant dependence, this constant need.
SPEAKER_00: This constant recognition that they're low.
SPEAKER_00: And that is innate in children, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And children will jockey with themselves to be the leader, right?
SPEAKER_00: The four-year-olds will argue over who gets to be quarterback next, you know, who gets to be the hero in whatever they're playing, or the lead singers are making their music video in the basement kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: The kids will argue about who's going to be the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: Of course they will, until a grown-up shows up.
SPEAKER_00: And then they instinctively recognize the grown-up is in charge.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, so much so that you have to teach kids that you don't have to listen to every adult.
SPEAKER_00: Because they instinctively do.
SPEAKER_00: They recognize how low they are compared to the grown-up.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they think grown-ups are so wise, don't they, kids?
SPEAKER_00: If only they knew.
SPEAKER_00: You see this with the kindergartens and the line leaders, you know, they get the get the ropes out, and all the kids are going to grab the rope to be parated to the hallway or to lunch or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And the teacher always says, Who wants to be line leader?
SPEAKER_00: And every hand shoots up.
SPEAKER_00: And the teacher says, You are the line leader.
SPEAKER_00: And that kid goes to the front and everybody else falls in line.
SPEAKER_00: That's the picture of childlike faith.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why this story is so mind-breakingly counterintuitive.
SPEAKER_00: Because it starts with the two loudest of the disciples that are always putting themselves forward, Peter and James, arguing about who the greatest in heaven will be.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' response is that greatness is not determined by the loud guy up front.
SPEAKER_00: It's not determined by the person who does the most.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, it is good to want to do things for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is a virtue.
SPEAKER_00: Don't hear me wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Ambition is a virtue, especially as it relates to the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Doing things for Jesus is better than not doing things for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But greatness for Jesus is not determined by productivity or the volume of the voice.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of person who takes over a room when they're there, I love those people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves those people, and he elevated three of them to the front of the line.
SPEAKER_00: But that is not what determines greatness in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Greatness in heaven is determined by this kind of humility.
SPEAKER_00: Being low, humble, living like that.
SPEAKER_00: Having a dependence upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's why this is a crazy story is that Jesus turns greatness upside down.
SPEAKER_00: The measure of greatness is humility, not arrogance, not competence, not effectiveness even, but humility.
SPEAKER_00: That's the measure of greatness.
SPEAKER_00: And there is an ongoing stream in Christian thought, going back thousands of years, that recognizes the distinction here between greatness as the world sees it and effectiveness as the world sees it, and greatness and effectiveness in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther said it best, based upon this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Luther says this is why the kind of leaders that are effective in the world ought not to be leaders in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And Luther even said it'd be better to live under a, basically, he means a Muslim leader than it would be who's effective, than it would be somebody who is humble.
SPEAKER_00: And we should recognize that in our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: What defines greatness is not what makes somebody a successful politician or a successful police chief or a successful, you know, even manager at a restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: What defines greatness in the kingdom is an others-oriented humbleness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, certainly there's effects of humility and being others-oriented that would make you an effective manager or an effective police chief or an effective leader.
SPEAKER_00: There's elements of it.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm sure if you think about it critically for a few seconds, you realize that this is a stream of leadership that divides.
SPEAKER_00: It's so different than other religions, too.
SPEAKER_00: Other religions often give you literally a system of works to do.
SPEAKER_00: Works to reduce time and in purgatory or reduce suffering in the afterlife, works that you can do to climb the ladder, so to speak, you know, pillars or sacraments or whatnot.
SPEAKER_00: Even, I mean, think about it, even a religion like Mormonism even has actual rankings in the afterlife that you can elevate yourself through based upon effort.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus here esteems and recognizes distinctions in the afterlife.
SPEAKER_00: He recognizes that there's greater or lesser in the afterlife.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deny that ever.
SPEAKER_00: He just completely flips the script about what kind of person will be considered great.
SPEAKER_00: It is humility.
SPEAKER_00: It is being childlike.
SPEAKER_00: And childlike in that area.
SPEAKER_00: Don't, I mean, people get confused because they want to make childlike in every area Christian virtue.
SPEAKER_00: That would be disastrous, also.
SPEAKER_00: You know, new believers are childlike.
SPEAKER_00: You see this here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus flips, even keeps going here, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.
SPEAKER_00: He's now leaving children behind and going into new believers.
SPEAKER_00: New believers at any age are children in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: You get saved at 80 years old.
SPEAKER_00: At that moment, you are an immature believer.
SPEAKER_00: You're mature in this world.
SPEAKER_00: You have worldly wisdom, of course.
SPEAKER_00: But you're immature in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You're a new believer in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells the Ephesians that new believers in the Lord are tossed this way and that way, to and fro by every wind and passing fancy of doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: An immature believer sees a book as like a, you know, the bestseller list in the Christian bookstore, like, oh, I'll read that and I'll believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: That's immature.
SPEAKER_00: They get thrown by every passing fancy.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be like that.
SPEAKER_00: Let your roots grow deep.
SPEAKER_00: That's maturity.
SPEAKER_00: So it is not a virtue to be a childlike believer in terms of discernment or in terms of godliness, in terms of spiritual maturity, you need to grow up.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, when you get saved, you're immature Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you are.
SPEAKER_00: You have to grow in maturity.
SPEAKER_00: You have to develop discernment, Paul tells the Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: Train yourselves in the gift of discernment so that by practice you can distinguish what is good and healthy and what is bad and fruitless.
SPEAKER_00: You have to teach yourself that.
SPEAKER_00: You have to grow in maturity.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the entire Krishna walk, greatness will be defined by humility.
SPEAKER_00: Maturity will be defined by godliness.
SPEAKER_00: Maturity will be defined by discernment.
SPEAKER_00: But greatness will always be defined by humility.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the only description of greatness.
SPEAKER_00: Childlike faith lives in humility, but it also lives in holiness.
SPEAKER_00: You see the attitude of humility and the action of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6: whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, that who believe in me here, he's, you know, he's setting aside children now and he's moving to new believers.
SPEAKER_00: That's the transition.
SPEAKER_00: That transition, you have to mark it there because it will be throughout the rest of Matthew 18.
SPEAKER_00: All of Matthew 18 is one sermon Jesus gives in this household setting here.
SPEAKER_00: And the intro to it is the child.
SPEAKER_00: The bridge then is to child-like believers.
SPEAKER_00: At any age, one of these children who believes in me to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Better to have a millstone tied around your neck and hurled in the sea.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Peter's house has been excavated.
SPEAKER_00: It's right next to the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: It's right there.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus uses this analogy, it is an at-hand illustration.
SPEAKER_00: Millstones are huge.
SPEAKER_00: Don't picture like what you roll a tortilla with.
SPEAKER_00: Picture like a Ford pickup out of stone.
SPEAKER_00: That's how big these things are.
SPEAKER_00: Donkeys move them in circles.
SPEAKER_00: I know because sometimes people get confused with millstone.
SPEAKER_00: There's a smaller millstone that people, you know, make their tortillas with, but this is not that.
SPEAKER_00: This is imagine a pickup truck tied to your neck and you're hurled into the sea.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going to happen to you if you cause a believer to sin.
SPEAKER_00: And this goes, mark this.
SPEAKER_00: This goes from causing believers to sin straight to church discipline.
SPEAKER_00: How elders protect children in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: How elders protect people from sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's the rest of Matthew 18.
SPEAKER_00: It is better to be drowned in a lake than to be the lifeguard that falls asleep.
SPEAKER_00: And you would never say, I'm going to let this child play with a knife because I honor this child.
SPEAKER_00: I have so much love and respect for this child that I'm going to let him play with a knife.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know the child's parents, they can run with a knife all they want.
SPEAKER_00: It's an act of love to the child to let him run around with a knife.
SPEAKER_00: No, you would say, out of love for the child, I'm going to stop him from stabbing himself.
SPEAKER_00: I'd do whatever I can to protect him.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't meet that bare minimum standard of protecting children, better to be hurled in the lake.
SPEAKER_00: So this gets real very fast, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: He covers the whole expanse of the Christian life here.
SPEAKER_00: From childlike faith to the elders guarding the church.
SPEAKER_00: Childlike faith is not about being childish.
SPEAKER_00: It's about knowing who your father is and living with arms lifted up towards him.
SPEAKER_00: You enter faith by hearing the Lord call your name, by turning from your sin and believing in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You rest in that faith saved not by works but by a gift of God.
SPEAKER_00: You walk in that faith with humility and holiness because you recognize you're a child of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, what a wonderful picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful picture of the holiness and the humility that marks your children.
SPEAKER_00: In this regard, Lord, help us no longer be like children.
SPEAKER_00: Help us be mature.
SPEAKER_00: Following you with our life.
SPEAKER_00: In this regard, Lord, help us always be like children, with an utter dependence upon you, never thinking more of ourselves than we ought.
SPEAKER_00: Recognizing you are our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, our older brother.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit with the bond of adoption.
SPEAKER_00: We are brothers and sisters in your family.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for anyone here this morning that has never turned to you, has never called out to you, has never recognized their own inability for salvation and humbled themselves.
SPEAKER_00: What humility it takes.
SPEAKER_00: Especially to be old.
SPEAKER_00: Think maybe of dads and moms that are here this morning that have led wise lives but have never trusted you.
SPEAKER_00: What humility it would take to turn towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you receive children.
SPEAKER_00: It's so evident.
SPEAKER_00: You stretch out to them, you call them, you embrace them, you lift them up.
SPEAKER_00: You receive children.
SPEAKER_00: You've called us, receive us as well.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.