Culver Community Church
Pastor Chris Sweeney
Sermon Notes
August 05, 2018
Matthew 18:1 – 11 Childish or Child-Like
{vs 1} With all that Jesus has taught the disciples in chapter 17, including giving up our rights, not offending and of course the lesson on how Jesus came to suffer, die and rise again on the third day – all lessons that lead toward a somber, humble heart and mind - - - what are the twelve doing? They have revived their favorite argument (Mark & Luke tell us they were arguing) – “Who, then, is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" This is something that they will be fighting over until the very night that Jesus is betrayed when Jesus washes their feet (Matthew 26)! Feeding into their human response was the reality that great (miraculous) things were happening in their time and they were a part of it all! Just think, the inner circle had just seen Jesus in His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration (oh, yeah Moses and Elijah were there too).
We tend to think of the disciples from our post resurrection perspective – men who suffered and died, going throughout the world for the gospel starting churches and giving up their lives for God’s Kingdom. That is not who these men are at this point in time! Take heart! You and I have time to grow up in the Lord, just as these men did (and to our advantage, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, which they did not, yet). At this time, the disciples love Jesus (He is their Master and they have been following Him for three years) – they have devoted their whole lives to Him. They have also been convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, not just any other rabbi but the Holy Son of God, even though they don’t quite understand the main reason why He came (Jesus is working on it!). However, they also have a lot of Jewish tradition and teaching and a humanistic mindset that is confusing them. Their motives for following Jesus were not pure – they wanted positions, the best positions in the upcoming Kingdom of God. Don’t judge too harshly, we get caught in the same traps – following Jesus for the blessings or becoming teachers and preachers for the position of power (many a ‘man of God’ has fallen from such misplaced priorities!) They certainly thought that one of the twelve would be the one - - - Jesus’ right-hand man. Maybe Judas, the one with the credentials, maybe Peter the oldest and natural leader (for good or bad), etc. They might have had twelve opinions, but one teacher said he imagined Peter thinking, “it’s better that they hear if from Jesus directly, not me.” This self-seeking and pride damaged their service to the Kingdom. Jesus knowing their thoughts (and petty arguments) brings the matter up "What were you arguing about on the road?" (Mark 9:33b) and when they silently look at their feet (ashamed) Jesus does something unexpected . . .
{vs 2-4} This little child (the Greek describes a very young child) was probably a toddler – old enough to come to Jesus, who called him (a parent may have helped) and to stand near Jesus but young enough to be held in Jesus’ arms (Mark). At that point, the disciples first thoughts must have been “He’s the greatest????” or maybe “What does this child have to do with this?” They had been arguing like childish brats over their rank in the Kingdom but Jesus teaches that they need to change and become child-like! Notice, this goes against the assumption that they were already in the Kingdom (let alone one of the greatest) – no, unless you (plural – all of you) change, none of you all will ever enter the Kingdom! That is harsh! Jesus, just dropped a bomb on them – I won’t let you in as you are! Jesus loves each of us as He did all of these twelve but without the proper change – there is no way to come to God. Humility is a required part of repentance and of receiving the free gift of God - eleven of these men did find this secret, but they were not there yet! You see, they were under the mistaken impression that Jesus had called them because of how awesome they were (we can fall into that too). Jesus called them because of His love, because of what He knew that they could become by God’s power. In ourselves, we are nothing but with Christ - - - oh, the wondrous things that Jesus can do with a humble, yielded heart!!!
They had their eyes set on themselves and Jesus will teach a lesson in humility here, one that we would do well to take to heart! Let’s start, however by what humility is and is not. A child like this is sensitive and trusting; they are open to being loved and are dependent on others for everything! They have no accomplishments of their own and cannot help themselves. This is how we must be to accept God’s grace! There is an element of recognizing our own unworthiness and sinful state in humility, but the truest expression of humility, is often not thinking of/about yourself at all! A truly humble person thinks of others and only becomes conscious of themselves in relation to serving others. They never demand their own way or feel that they deserve anything but humbly, gratefully receive all that is given to them.
That being said, I want to warn you of a kind of reverse humility or prideful humbleness. It has been said that humility is the one quality, that once you realize you have it – it’s lost. Many confuse being humble with self-deprecation, they beat themselves up trying to prove their own unworthiness and this can be another form of being self-obsessed. Have you ever met someone who exhibits this kind of prideful lowliness? These individuals are so prideful about how they are ‘no good’, rotten scoundrels. They will even fight to prove that they are worse than you are, than everyone else is – all the while, this is just them exalting themselves – to the lowest position. Beware of this!
Another thing to remember is that God’s Kingdom is made up exclusively of God and His children (no grandchildren or other relatives!) – it is an immediate family Kingdom. While we may grow and mature, in the Kingdom we’ll always be His children (just like no matter how old you get, you will always be your momma’s baby). We enter the Kingdom as children with simple childlike faith (and humility) and we remain children! Now let’s apply that to verse 5 and 6 -
{vs 5-6} Here God is talking about believers, not just children or ‘innocents’ but “little ones who believe in Me”! Whoever here is either believers or non-believers (anyone) who either treats God’s children kindly, graciously or in a welcoming way or to the contrary anyone who persecutes or abuses them. This concept is seen in conversion between Jesus and the blinded, floored Saul (Acts 9:4-5).
God takes the way we (the world and even the demons) treat believers very personally! We should be treating each other as God’s children, not “Christians who are old enough to know better or take care of themselves.” Don’t be mean to, talk about, beat, cheat, offer candy as a stranger or otherwise abuse His dearly loved children because He sees all and He will address the matter with us personally!
That is what sin is, when we mistreat each other and ourselves! Every sin will be paid for - - - either by ourselves during an eternal life sentence in Hell or by the blood of Jesus at Calvary! We understand this passion even from a limited human perspective – if you mistreat my children, you mistreat me because I am so intimately connected with them. If you love them and treat them well, my heart will extend to you. However, if you mistreat them, you make yourself my enemy. It would be better for you (not this is what will happen, but something worse!) to have a heavy millstone (not one of those personal, household millstones but the huge kind a pack animal moves in a circle to mill grain) tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea! Gangsters did not come up with this idea (cement shoes) – the Romans used this as a method of execution. It could be not only the last five to six minutes of your life but very possibly the worst! (Picture that – it was meant to scare us – it’s that serious!) That is how much God loves you and me!
{vs 7} Woe to (cursed or what sorrow awaits those) who cause stumbling! There is no pronoun in the sentence in the Greek – this could be either the Children of God or anyone! God loves the whole world – don’t abuse the ones He loves! Jesus promises that offense will come – but DO NOT be the one who causes that offense! What are these offenses? The Greek word is one of my favorites – skandalon which is the trigger of a trap (if you remember your Saturday morning cartoons the stick with the rope, holding the box up). It can be the pit dug in the middle of the road or just something carelessly left lying in the road. Anything we do which tempts someone into sin, into shirking their duties as a believer or even into being disheartened is a skandalon or stumbling block! A few ways that we can do this are by direct temptation (waiving sin under someone’s nose; by bad example or teaching (confusing or convincing them sin is not sin); by the power of the tongue (evil talk, gossip or lies); by not leading in Godly paths (doing the right thing); etc. It could be as simple as not paying the annual temple tax or eating meat right in front of your vegetarian brother or sister (neither is sin, unless it causes them to stumble). Never let your freedoms, your actions or your words cause another to stumble! Jesus goes on from there, don’t even stumble yourself -
{vs 8-9} Again, take these offenses seriously! Even if your own hand, foot or eye cause your own stumbling – cut it off! Not literally, some through history have done that only to find that blind men continue to lust, that those without hands continue to reach for evil and the feetless crawl toward sin! The message (again, harsh enough to scare us) is we should treat ourselves that harshly. If something is causing sin – don’t rationalize, compromise or play with it - - - drastically deal with any sin, do radical surgery! Normally we are that harsh with others but give ourselves all the grace in the world! We must do exactly the opposite – give others all that grace, leaving them to be dealt with by God and practice self-discipline.
{vs 10-11} Some people have equated the statement (out of context) with “don’t hate children” but remember, in this text (context) every believer is one of God’s little ones. This is important because it extends the next sentence to us – not just children – the “their angels” is every believer’s angels! If you are in Christ, you have angels that always see God’s face! Again, don’t mess with these little ones because they are the apple of His eye.
Finally, some translations omit verse eleven (it is missing from some manuscripts) however I believe there is enough evidence to confirm it. That, and it belongs with the thought here. Together we have the expressed idea –
Don’t mess with My Children because (For) Jesus (the Son of Man) came to save them! They were so important to God that Jesus came in the flesh to suffer and die so that they might be forgiven, redeemed and brought into the family (Kingdom) of God! A-men and A-men!!