To Such Belongs the Kingdom of God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In Matthew 16:19, Jesus told his disciples that they hold onto the keys of heaven and that whatever they bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever they loosen on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Now that is an interesting way of telling them that by their words and by their actions, they have the ability to permit or hinder people from entering into the kingdom. When we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, we open the doors to the kingdom permitting people to enter through faith. But when we withhold the good news of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, it is like we have locked the gates. No one enters for there is no gospel herald that calls people to enter.
Now if we stop and think about that for just even a split second, we are hit with the resounding responsibility that comes with Jesus’s words. While there are certain behaviors that obviously cannot be admitted into the kingdom, we do not want to hinder the repentant people of faith from joining in. Yet, it is easy to do that. It is easy to become hindrances even when we don’t mean to be—either we are passively hindering or actively hindering; either way, we often become hindrances even to the smallest of children.
That isn’t to say that we are the only hindrances. It is only to say that we can be one of the hindrances, the one hindrance that we can do something about. As we go through this passage of Luke, I want us to see three hindrances that often keep people from the Kingdom of heaven. The first we see is when followers hinder others from coming. The second is when something more favorable hinders people from coming. Lastly, family often hinders people from entering the kingdom of God.
Hindrance from Followers
Hindrance from Favorites
Hindrance from Family
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!
For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.”
And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,
who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
The Hindrance from Followers
The Hindrance from Followers
The first hindrance that we see here this morning is a hindrance that many people encounter. It’s actually the followers of Christ that hinder people from entering into the kingdom. Now, again, we may not mean to be. It may be that we think we are doing the right thing or it may be that we haven’t given much thought to what we’re doing at all. Let’s take a look at what Luke tells us about the situation.
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
In this scene, moms and dads are bringing their infants to Jesus. In pictures, this is often portrayed as four or five year-olds, but Luke tells us that these are infants; it’s the same word that he uses for Jesus being laid in a manger as an infant. It’s the same word that Peter used when he said that we ought to be like newborn infants longing for the pure milk of the word. So these are essentially Caleb’s age children being brought to Jesus so that he might touch them. And don’t think that this means that they just wanted Jesus to tap them on the head like they were some puppy. They were bringing their babies to Jesus so that he would hold them. That’s what the word indicates. To cling and to hold. Remember Mary in the garden when she saw Jesus grabbed him and he said, “do not cling to me for I have not ascended to the Father.” It wasn’t a momentary touching, but time spent with these children. Jesus wasn’t some politician who went around kissing babies and making a name for himself by being a “family man.” He cherished these moments with the kids. And it wasn’t just a one time event. The way Luke describes this, this kept happening. Imagine the amount of time Jesus was spending with the children. By the way it reads, the disciples were indignant about it. Didn’t these parents know he had more important things to do?! And so the disciples rebuked them for bringing the children.
The very followers of Jesus were hindering these infants from the kingdom of God. And obviously, I don’t think they thought that’s what they were doing. But that’s what it boiled down to. They may have thought they were freeing up Jesus’s time for more important matters: teaching and healing and traveling, keeping him on schedule. He’s got places to go and people to see; lepers to heal and lame to rise. Who knows what exactly their mindset was, but whatever it was, it was not on the need to allow these babies to come into the presence of Jesus.
And Jesus responded to this hindrance.
But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
These children, which is a more neutral word for children and not just specifically infants, were important to Jesus. He wanted them near. He wasn’t bothered by them. He wasn’t exacerbated by them. They weren’t impeding his work. They were his work! To such belongs the kingdom of God! If we want to know who belongs in God’s kingdom, all we need to do is look at tiny Caleb or little Gabriel or Hadley or Emberly or Zoey and Macey. To such belong the kingdom of God.
Think for a moment about such babies coming into the arms of Jesus. What have they to offer him? Nothing. The bring nothing. They hold nothing. Nothing to give. They simply rest in the arms of their Savior; they fully rely upon him to hold them and never drop them. They rest in him as their comfort and salvation. So Jesus says that those who are to enter, must become like a child or else they will not enter.
Beloved, we miss that all too often, especially in Reformed circles. We put more weight on knowledge and doctrine than on faith and rest.
Instead of ushering children to Jesus in our nurseries, churches often use it just to babysit them until worship service is over. There’s not much mention of Jesus, no singing to Jesus, no praying to Jesus. We actually become a hindrance to children from infancy because we do not think that they could understand all that is necessary for salvation. And while they can’t understand it, they can formulate a love for him before ever being able to speak a word.
This is the type of person Jesus says is needed if we are to enter into the kingdom: one who is like a child.
The Hindrance from Favorites
The Hindrance from Favorites
Which takes us to the next hindrance. First, there is the hindrance from Christ’s own followers, but they are not the only hindrance. Favorite things can hinder people from entering as well. In this scenario, that favorite thing is money.
Most of us probably know this story. A rich man comes to Jesus and asked what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’s response is three-fold. First he redirected him, then he instructed him, and finally he exposed him.
Jesus redirected the man first because the man started his statement with “Good teacher.” Jesus corrected him saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” It wasn’t that Jesus was denying his goodness; he wasn’t correcting the man. He redirected the man’s thought-process. Goodness is not a surface-level idea. It goes deep into a person’s character. This is important because this young man is going do defend his own goodness in a moment. God alone is good.
And yet when Jesus instructed the man as to what he must do, the man seems to have ignored this very thought.
You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
Jesus seeks to show the man that he is not good, but the man refused to hear it. Now it is possible that this man had never committed adultery or murder. It’s possible he never stole anything in his life. But it would be difficult to imagine this man having never borne false witness and never having dishonored his parents. In essence, Jesus had given the latter half to the Ten Commandments summed up with what James would call the royal law, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But the man attests to his own goodness. “I’ve been doing this since my youth.”
James wrote,
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
Many would say that James is saying that every sin is the same, that to break only one law is to break every law. That’s not what James was saying at all. Instead, what James was saying is that if you break a law, you are equally a law-breaker. A criminal is a criminal no matter what crime was committed. A murder is a criminal as is a thief as is a perjurer. It doesn’t mean that a perjurer is a murderer. If this is my land and my property boundary is here, how far over my property line do you have to cross before you’re a trespasser? You don’t have to be in my front door to be a trespasser. Some people may go that far. But it only takes one step over the line to transgress the line. That’s what James means. God said don’t commit adultery, but he also said don’t murder. One doesn’t have to commit adultery to be a transgressor, one can commit murder and be just as much a transgressor, but one also can commit a sin like partiality and be a transgressor as well. But it’s more than just that; it does just that he has transgressed the law; he has also transgressed the law-Maker, the only one who is good.
This is why we need Jesus! He is God in the flesh. Remember he wasn’t correcting the guy as if to say he wasn’t good. He is good! He is God. We need him to be our Redeemer. Only he can save us from our transgressions, and we’ve all transgressed. It’s not a matter of how little or how much; we’re all transgressors at some level and we all need to be forgiven. That comes only by way of repenting of those laws we’ve transgressed and receiving the free grace of God offered by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
This man though, was not getting it. He was blind to his own heart-status. So Jesus finally had to expose the hypocrisy of the man. He told him to go and sell everything he had and give it to the poor.
But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
His money had gotten in the way. It exposed his heart and his hindrance into the kingdom of God. He did not truly love his neighbor as himself, did he? But more than that. He preferred his money over God himself. He favored the riches of this world over the kingdom he supposedly sought. And he turned and walked away. Anything but that!
Brothers, sisters, what is that to you? What is that thing which you favor that you know if Jesus said “give that up,” it would be a sad day for you because whatever that is, it’s too costly to give away?
For some you’re like this young man; money is favored over the kingdom. This is the world that we see. It’s the world we know. We are myopic beings who see the here and now and have a hard time thinking of eternity. For others, this might be a career. God may be calling you into a different field than you were expecting and the desire to do this job or that is so strong that you are willing to forego God’s call than give up your dream job. It may be a besetting sin. You’d rather give into the three types of sin that John speaks of: the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, or the pride of lifestyle. Rather than run the race before us and laying aside every weight, we hold to the weight and withdraw from the race.
Jesus spoke of this type of thing in the parable of the soils. There was rocky soil and thorny soil. The rocky soil stood for the shallowness of faith so that when tribulation and distress set in, faith died. Many favor safety. They idolize it. The thorny soil stood for the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches that choked the word of faith out. Many favor the things this world can offer. They idolize it.
Beloved, we need to take a long, deep look at what we favor.
Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom. Why? Because unlike a child who comes with nothing, a rich man comes with everything he thinks he needs. He doesn’t come to be held; he comes to hold. He doesn’t come to rely on Jesus, but rely upon his own abilities and finances.
Idolatry, specifically the idol of money in this passage, but any idolatry hinders each of us from entering the kingdom of God, and it is only by God’s doing, by God’s grace that any one of us leaves our favorites in life and see God as favored over all.
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
The Hindrance from Family
The Hindrance from Family
But this led the disciples to ask a question and leads us to our third hindrance. The first is the hindrance from followers, then the hindrance from favorites, but now it is the hindrance from family.
And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.”
In this case, Peter is contrasting the hindrance of the rich man to the disciples willingness to leave their homes, implying then that homes can be hindrances to some people. In essence, the question on Peter’s minds and the minds of the disciples is “will it be worth it?” Losing family is absolutely horrible. Can the kingdom of God be so good that it is worth losing those who have loved you and whom you have loved? And Jesus says, “more than you know.” Like children, we come with nothing to offer, but receive the touch and blessing of Christ.
And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,
who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Beloved, I’m not sure we believe that, or at least I’m not sure we prove that. We accept the future aspect of what Jesus has said. We will receive many times more than our biological families in the age to come. When Christ returns, things will be great! But that wasn’t the full promise. The promise also included, “in this time” as well. We do not live that out. The church of Christ is woefully deficient when it comes to being the family of Christ. And it is a two-fold problem. It is both an problem of action and a problem of trust.
It is an active problem because we are not acting like brothers and sisters to one another. Look at what Paul wrote to Timothy.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,
older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
To Titus, he wrote that older women are to mentor younger women. Peter says the same about older men with younger men. He also says that men are to remember that their wives are first and foremost sisters in Christ. This is not the character of most churches. This is how we are to supposed to act toward one another, but we do not. We have a problem of action or lack of action.
But we also have a trust problem. Many people in churches do not trust one another and often for good reason. Many in churches have proven themselves to be untrustworthy. Many have been the victims of gossip and slander. Many have been on the wrong side of legalistic preferences that have no basis in Scripture. Many have been the victims of unkindnesses and unbridled tongues. Who wants to open up about their struggles with these kinds of people? Who wants to be vulnerable? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
And my question is: Do we make Jesus out to be a liar? “There is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time...” I fear many in the church do. Is it not high time that we, the body of Christ, start acting as his body? To listen with our ears. To advice, counsel, and chide in love with our mouths. To hug with our arms, touch in healing with our hands. To walk with one another as we go on about life: to the grocery store, the mechanic, the park?
I will say that I don’t do this. I just don’t think about it. I’m not opposed to it; I advocate for it. But I just am not the person who plans ahead to ask. But ought we not seek to overcome those issues? Isn’t family bigger than Sunday morning church attendance?
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish the text this morning, we’ve seen that there are hindrances that we are to let go of when it comes to the kingdom of God. Followers, favorites, and family can all be hindrances to people entering into the kingdom. But Jesus has an answer for all of them. To the followers he rebukes them and says that they are not to stop people no matter how small or unimportant they may seem to us. To the favorite, he says we must be willing to give it up and follow him; allowing him to be most favored in our hearts. To the family, he says, we will have a greater family in the here and now and the there and then.
In essence, there is a greater option than what often hinders people from coming. They need only know and believe the promise. There is more that the kingdom offers than we can ever imagine. So let us seek to enter it ourselves and never be hindered, but let us also seek to bring others in without being their hindrances either. Beloved, Jesus gave himself up for the church; ought we not love it the way he does?
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
May we not hinder people from coming into your kingdom because of our thoughtlessness. May we seek to usher them in through the proclamation of your gospel, to the youngest newborn, to the oldest of the elderly. May we be mindful of forbidding sin but permitting the repentant man, woman, boy, and girl who loves and rests in your Son. Open our eyes to our own sins, those sins that hinder us from moving forward in our holiness, from becoming the family you have called us to be. May we, by your strength remove idols from our midst.
We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Intercessor. Amen.