03 October 2021
Mark 10:2-16
A Holy
Permissiveness for Children
O God, Your
Almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy and pity, grant us the
fullness of Your grace that we may be partakers of Your heavenly treasures;
through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the
Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever.
Notice what Jesus is asking in our text for this
morning – Jesus asks parents to permit their children to come to Him. Though parents
may not deliberately neglect their children nor physically abuse their child,
they may be cruel to them by neglecting them by failing to bring to the Savior.
Which parent among us wants nothing but the best for
their child?
When we consider our children, we include words such
as bigger, better best; bigger
opportunities better schools, the best opportunities possible.
If children are our future, why not afford them those occasions,
which produce success. If they are to be shining stars, we want to place them
in those circumstances where they will succeed and prosper.
This morning
the Savior invites you to bring your children and permit them –
I To be
blessed by Jesus – Vs. 16 And he took the children in his arms, put
his hands on them and blessed them.
He embraced them – He took them up into His arms
putting His hands on them. While the disciples refused them – Jesus accepted
and welcomed them.
Children are in a place where often all they can do is
receive. They don’t refuse gifts out of self-sufficient pride. So you also must
receive the kingdom of God as a child – because we surely will by no means
enter it by what we do or earn.
He blessed them. What is the biggest blessing we can
receive from the Lord? Is it not the gift of faith? Notice that the faith is
something that is given to us. It’s not earned. We certainly do not deserve it.
It is received freely by God’s gift and favor.
The writer to the Hebrews teaches; “Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good
report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of
God, so that things, which are seen, were not made of things, which do appear.
(Hebrews 11:1-3, KJV)
When we have faith, then we can trust that everything
we hope for and dreaming of. We have confidence it will eventually come true.
Even though we cannot see the path ahead of us, faith tells us that the road
will lead to something great.
Transition: We bring our children to Jesus to be blessed by Him.
But how will they know Him?
II. To know
Jesus by our instruction – Vs. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not
receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
To enter the kingdom a person enters the kingdom, “like a child.” There is an innocence, an
openness, and receptivity on the part of a child. That a person wanting to
enter the kingdom of God must have.
Only by receiving the Kingdom, as would a child can our
connection with God be changed. This happens through the gift of faith in
Christ as our Savior.
A child is ready to believe and trust what an adult
says. They take things literally. They have a literal mind. They readily obey
without questioning. This is why we give our youth truths that transform. – The
clear teachings of Christ and His Word.
Transition: To know the Savior is to trust Him. The Savior in
the waters of Holy Baptism initiated all that trust.
III. You come to Jesus through baptism – Vs. 14 When
Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, Let the little children come
to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Mark tells us, “He was indignant”. Indignation does not mean, “flying off the
handle,” displaying publicly a fit of temper, or expressing an irrational rage.
It means a “holy” displeasure, a
disposition, which will act with displeasure every time it is affected. Jesus
certainly was no “pushover,” and indignation is absolutely not a vice.
Jesus was indignant toward the scribes, Pharisees and
hypocrites. (Matthew 23) Jesus was
indignant toward the moneychangers. (Matthew 21) Jesus was indignant toward the disciples who
refused children to come to him.
When the disciples kept the children from being
brought to Jesus He was indignant. Jesus always took time for children. He was
never too busy, and was indignant with those who would not. He rebuked the
disciples sternly in one breath; and in the next, He spoke kindly to these
little ones.
We must not hinder them. Rather they are to come – for
the kingdom belongs to such as these. The Savior invites children to come to
Him.
Children are helpless...they bring nothing... And that
sounds exactly like…you. Thus, St. Paul teaches, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) Sin condemn us. We are powerless to
save ourselves. Every day we sin against God with terrible thoughts, wicked
words, and evil actions.
Even the good that we ought and do not perform is also sin. In spite of all of
this, the Savior loves and forgives. Isaiah of old would teach; "We all,
like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the
LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6).
Graciously our loving Lord does not keep a record of
our sins. The fact is that the Lord God Almighty sees sin as sin. In His eye,
all sins are the same. Only in man’s thinking are there different degrees of
sin. Big sins, small sins, worse sins, and not so bad sins are terms we prefer and
favor to describe sin.
The LORD’s term for missing the mark is simply sin. Christ’s
forgiveness for your sins is simply complete.
"But if
we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7). Only by the blood of Jesus is
there forgiveness. This holy blood of Jesus forgives all sin: not a few, some,
or many but ALL sin. This is how the LORD shows us his great love.
You are now the shining lights in today’s darkness. We
do not deserve the Father’s great love. We cannot earn His mercy. It is only by
the free grace of Christ that we are saved. We are sinners, always.
True. We are sinners, forgiven of all sins. This is The
LORD’s great love to us and for us. This is also His great love to and for all
humankind.
The difference for believers is that we know we are
sinners; sinners who have been freely forgiven purely out of the Father’s
divine love, mercy, and grace.
"But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with
Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been
saved." (Ephesians 2:4, 5)
“…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of
reconciliation.” -2 Corinthians
5:19
You are helpless - Never hopeless. Remember the LORD’s
promise recorded by the Prophet Isaiah thousands of years ago – “I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I
have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I
have paid the price to set you free.” –Isaiah
44:22
In Christ,
you are free; free to love God and serve your neighbor.
Words-1,350
Passive Sentences –7
%
Readability –79.5 %
Reading level – 5.3
