#149 Lu. 18:15-17  CHILDREN WHO ARE BLESSED BY JESUS

Introduction:

    In our text today we see that Jesus loves little children.  He
and His disciples are on their way to Jerusalem where He will be
crucified.  It would seem that Jesus would be too preoccupied with
His own problems to minister to the needs of others.  Yet that was
not the case.  In every city and village He ministered to the
needs of others.  He proved Himself to be the Friend of those who
were sick and afflicted.  He healed all manner of sickness.  He
cast out demons.  He was accused by the Pharisees of being a
Friend of sinners.  So He was.  Jesus was pleased to have sinners
of the very worst kind come to Him for salvation.  In our text
today He proves Himself to be the Friend of little children.

I.  Children brought to Jesus

    V. 15, "And they brought unto him also infants..."  Luke calls
them infants, suckling babies.  And so they were, at least some of
them were.  Some of them, however, must have been older than that
because Matthew called them "little children" and Mark called them
"young children."  Therefore, they ranged in age from infancy
upward, but they were all still young enough that they could not
come on their own initiative.  If they got to come to Jesus at
all, they had to be brought by older people.
    I think it is a safe assumption that most of them were brought
to Jesus by their parents.  Some may have been brought by
grandparents, aunts, uncles or even neighbors.
    Since some of these children were not infants, we may
correctly envision some of them being led by the hand.  In all
probability, most were brought in the arms of adults.
    Judging by the accounts of Matthew and Mark, Jesus was
involved in talking to a group of adults on the subject of divorce
when a rather large of group of adults arrived bringing little
children to see Him.
   (15), "...that he would touch them..."  These people
interrupted the lesson Jesus was teaching on divorce by asking Him
to touch their little children with His hands.  The whole incident
was like an object lesson to the parents present.  It was almost
as if to say to all parents with little children, "Hey, right here
is a good reason not to divorce!  There are children involved!
Stop and think before you go to the divorce court!"  Actually,
those parents and grandparents who came with their little ones did
not have that in mind at all.  They just wanted the Lord' to lay
His hands on their children.  But it does seem that their sudden
appearance on the scene when the matter of divorce was in
discussion should have carried that message to the parents on the
scene.
    Luke says that they asked Jesus to touch their little ones.
Matthew says that they asked Him to lay hands on them and pray for
them.  It was a custom in that day among the Jews to carry their
little child to the Jewish rabbi to have the rabbi lay hands on
the child's head and pronounce a blessing on him.  The rabbi would
then offer a prayer to God that the blessing which he had
pronounced may come to pass.
    This is what these adults were asking of Jesus.  Even though
Jesus never served as a rabbi in any Jewish synagogue, yet He had
taught in many synagogues throughout the land.  People had come to
think of Him as a rabbi and on some occasions they even called
Him, "Rabbi."  They recognized Him as being a great teacher come
from God.  They wanted this great rabbi, who was greater than any
rabbi they had ever known, to lay hands on their children and
bless them.  They had great faith in Him as a teacher come from
God.
    Some of them had greater faith in Him than that.  They had
come to realize that Jesus is the very Christ whom the Old
Testament prophets had foretold.  They had trusted Him as the
Christ and had been saved by Him.  Now they wanted their children
to know Him as Savior.  They surely did not expect these little
children to place their faith in Jesus and be saved at that young
age, but they must have hoped that their salvation would come
later as a result of the blessing which Jesus would pronounce upon
them now.  They wanted their children to at least see Jesus now
and get introduced to Him so that later they must trust in Him and
be saved.
    Today children need to be brought to the Lord that they might
be saved and be spared the torments of hell.  Those who are saved
need to be brought to the Lord that they might learn the truths of
God's word and be trained to live in keeping with God's will.

II.  The hindrance

    (V. 15), "...but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked
them."  The apostles saw these parents, grandparents and perhaps
others crowd in around Jesus with their children and interrupt His
lesson on the subject of divorce.  Crowding in around Him and
asking Him to lay hands on their children and bless them was
definitely an interruption.  So they moved immediately to put a
stop to the interruption.  They rebuked them.  Now they did not
rebuke the children.  They rebuked the adults.  In effect, they
said, "Hey!  Get those kids out of here.  Shoo!  Scram!  Vamoose!
Move!  You are interrupting the Lord.  Get away!  Go!"

III.  The Lord's love and concern for the children

    V. 16, "But Jesus called them unto him..."  Luke says that
Jesus called them to Him.  I take that to mean that He called the
mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers or whoever to bring
the children to Him.  He had sufficiently covered the subject of
divorce in His lesson to the Pharisees.  There was no reason not
to receive these children at this time.
    It is not mentioned here, but the verse implies that He laid
His hands upon each of them.  He pronounced blessings upon each of
them.  He prayed for each of them.
    Was it worth the effort of these people to bring these
children to Jesus?  You had better believe it!  There is no way
for us to know just how great a difference this event made in
their lives.  There is no way of knowing just how great the
blessings were that later came to each of them as a result of this
occasion.  There is no way of knowing just how much help these
youngsters received from God later in life as a result of the
blessings they received from Jesus on this day.
    Besides that--this offered Him an opportunity to teach His
disciples a lesson about children.  (V. 16), "...and said, Suffer
little children to come unto me..."  These words were directed to
His disciples.  The word "suffer," as used here, means "to allow."
Jesus said, "Allow little children to come unto me.  Don't hinder
the children from coming unto me."
    Jesus loves children!  He loves them more than we could
possibly imagine.  Jesus does not limit His love to adults only.
He loves the children right along with the adults.
    Jesus instructed His disciples not to hinder the children from
coming to Him.  They were not to send the children away nor to
hinder them in any way from coming to Him.  This not only applied
to those disciples who had ordered them to leave.  It was not
limited to that particular group of children.  Jesus does not want
anyone to hinder any children from coming to Him.
    Jesus does not want parents to hinder their children from
coming to Him.  The sad fact is that a lot of parents do hinder
their children from coming to Jesus.  They hinder them by not
bringing them to church so that the children can be taught about
Jesus.  The children, in their younger years, cannot come on their
own initiative.  The little baby or the little tot cannot get up
on Sunday morning, get dressed and drive to Sunday school and
church.  If he is going to come at all, somebody must bring him.
Parents who fail to bring their child to church hinders that child
from coming to Jesus.  They not only hinder him from coming to
Sunday school and church, but they hinder him from being saved.
In those young and impressionable years a child needs to be under
the influence of the gospel on a regular basis.  A child who
regularly attends Sunday school and church is more apt to trust in
Jesus when he gets old enough to know what it is all about.
    Let me put it this way.  If the child is taught about Jesus
before he is old enough to understand, he is more apt to
understand when he does get old enough to understand.  Also, the
child who is taught that Jesus is the Savior and that Jesus loves
him is more apt to trust in Jesus when he gets old enough to
understand that he is a sinner.  Let me say to you that the way
for parents to give their child the best opportunity to stay out
of the fires of hell and go to heaven is to bring them to Sunday
school on a regular basis so that they will be under the influence
of the gospel message and under the influence of the teachings of
the Holy Bible.  Parents who do not do so are hindering their
child from coming to the Lord.
    (V. 16), "...and forbid them not..."  On that particular
occasion it was the disciples who were forbidding the children to
be brought to the Lord.  Jesus told them to stop forbidding the
children from coming to Him.
    In our day I do not know of many parents who outright forbids
their children from coming to Sunday school and church and, thus,
forbids them to come to Jesus.  But I understand that there are
still a few such parents scattered around.  I suspect that there
just might be a few even right here in the Henderson area.  They
refuse to come to church and they refuse to allow their children
to attend church.
    But, while there are not many who outright refuse to allow
their children to come, there are a lot of parents who hinder
their children by neglecting to bring them to the church services.
Many of these are unsaved people, who do not understand the great
value of Sunday school.  I got acquainted with such a man in my
first pastorate.  During the two years I was pastor at the Salem
Missionary Baptist Church near Rusk he and his wife never attended
church anywhere.  In later years when I was pastoring somewhere
else I returned for a revival meeting.  He and his wife, by that
time, were saved and were faithful members at Salem.  He told me,
"Bro. Davis, when my children were small and wanted to go to
church I would not bring them.  Now that they are grown and
I would give anything in the world if I could get them in church,
but they won't come.
    I am afraid, however, that there are also many parents who are
saved---or at least profess to be saved---who know that their
children need to be under the teaching of God's word, but they do
not bring them.  They allow other things to interfere and they
neglect to bring them to the house of God.  They have time for
work on Sunday.  They have time to take their children on long
trips on Sunday.  They have time for all manner of recreation on
Sunday, but they have no time to bring their children to church
and Sunday school.  They are not only neglecting to bring their
children to church and Sunday school, but they are hindering them
from coming to the Lord.  By their actions, they teach their
children that everything else is more important than Jesus Christ.
They teach them that everything else is more important than the
salvation of the soul.  They teach them that staying out of hell
is unimportant.  They teach them that going to heaven is not
important.  They outright hinder them from coming to the Lord.
    Thank God that some children get saved in spite of their
parents.  Thank God that some will get saved in spite of the
interference of their parents.  Some will come to church with a
friend of grandparents or on a bicycle or they may even walk every
step of the way all by themselves.  But they come to church and
get under the influence of the gospel and get saved.  They get
saved---not because of their parents---but in spite of their
parents.  Thank God that parents cannot keep a child from getting
saved if that child really wants to be saved and will trust the
Lord Jesus Christ.

IV.  A word about the kingdom of God

    (V. 16), "...for of such is the kingdom of God."  Jesus here
continues to teach His disciples.  Jesus told His disciples not to
hinder little children from coming to Him, because "...of such is
the kingdom of God."  Not that the kingdom of God is made up of
all young people.  The kingdom of God is not made up of all
children.  The apostles were in the kingdom and they were not
children.  Other adults were in the kingdom.  There was Martha,
Mary, and Lazarus who were adults, just to name a few.
    What Jesus means is that in order to enter the kingdom of God,
one must become as a little child in some respects.  V. 17,
"Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of
God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein."  He must
humble himself before God as a little child.  He must trust in
Christ the Savior, as a little child trusts his parents.  He must
depend on the Lord to forgive him as a little child depends on his
parents to forgive him.  No matter what wrong a little child has
done, he will come to his parents counting on them to forgive his
wrong doing.  Even so a lost sinner must come to the Lord Jesus
Christ counting on Him to forgive his sins no matter how badly he
has sinned.  they are.  He is to trust the Lord completely for the
salvation of his soul.

V.  A word to the people of our day

    I would first address you who are parents.  Let me say to you
that you have no possessions in this world that are as precious as
your children.  You have no pleasure in this world that brings
greater joy than your children.  You have no business in this
world that is more important to you than your children.  You have
no task in this world more important to you than the task of
attempting to bring your children to a saving knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ.  Even after they are saved, you have no task in
this world that is more important than teaching and training those
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
    I would like to also address those grandparents who are here
in this service.  The primary responsibility of bringing your
grand-children to a saving knowledge of the Lord and training them
in the ways of the Lord rest upon their parents.  But if they will
not do it, I trust that you love your grand-children enough to do
whatever you can to help them to know the Lord.
    I would like to address every Christian whether or not you
have children of your own.  There are children in your community
who will never come to know the Lord unless you reach them.  They
will never come to the Lord unless you bring them.  May God help
you to reach out to them and bring them in.  At least bring them
to church and give them a chance to come to Christ as their
Savior.
    Let me address this whole church, there are children in other
parts of the world who will never hear the gospel message and
never hear the ways of the Lord taught unless this church and
other churches like us support the missionaries who seek to carry
the message to them.
    Let me even address you young men who are saved, if the Lord
delays His return, the next generation will have no one to preach
the gospel message to them unless some young men of your
generation will answer God's call to preach.
    Blessed indeed are those children who have someone who will
make every effort to bring them to the Lord.  Blessed are they who
have parents who will bring them to the Lord.  Blessed are they
who have grandparents who will fill the gap and bring them if the
parents do not.  Blessed are they who have at least somebody who
will bring them to the Lord.  Blessed are they, who after they are
old enough to do so, will call on the Lord Jesus Christ and ask
Him to save their soul.  Blessed is anyone of any age who comes to
Jesus Christ for the salvation.  He will never go into the fires
of hell.  He will surely make to heaven.
    Blessed are they who are saved who will live their lives
according to the will of God.  God will bless them in this life
and richly reward them in the next life.

Conclusion:

    Is there anyone here this morning who will commit himself to
the effort of reaching the children and bringing them to the Lord?
Is there some unsaved person here this morning who will come to
the Lord and ask Him to save your soul?  Are there Christians here
this morning who will come and unite with this church?