Let the Children Come
Use these materials to go deeper into this message on your own, or with your small group.
Series Overview
Common Ground Workbook
Good morning Chapel family. I have to say: I am so thankful and so proud of The Chapel for the way we are responding to the opportunity in Malawi. It’s staggering to think that the lives of about 400 children will never be the same because of our investment in them. So…next Sunday is going to be like Christmas morning, as we find out who chose us, and as we begin those relationships.
As you’ve probably realized, it’s not a coincidence that we’re starting this child sponsorship endeavor at this time, because today is the first day of Common Ground 2023, and the theme for this year’s Common Ground is “The Faith of a Child.” Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” So, as we’re beginning our relationship with the children of Malawi, we’re going to take the next six weeks to explore what Jesus meant by that. What does it mean to “change and become like little children?”
I believe that deep down, we all know that there’s something we’re supposed to learn from children. Does anyone remember the early Tom Hanks movie, Big? Here’s this little kid who suddenly finds himself in an adult body, and because of his childlike spirit, he becomes successful in business and everybody wants to be around him. He’s so refreshing. Or how about the movie Elf? Buddy the Elf is basically an overgrown child, right? And all the cynical grownups are amazed by his childlike wonder and his innocence. So at some level, popular culture recognizes: there’s something that kids have that adults usually miss.
But Jesus takes it so much deeper. He says the key to understanding spiritual reality, and even the key to eternal life, is to become like a child. What does that mean? We’re going to answer that question by starting with that teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, and then in the following weeks, we’re going to look at examples throughout the Bible of children and youth who lived out remarkable faith. So…no matter how old you are, I invite you to open your heart and receive what God has for you over the next six weeks.
So…let’s read today’s Scripture together—Matthew 18, starting in verse 1. Let’s hear God’s Word…
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
And then Matthew chapter 19, verses 13-15…
13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.
14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. This is the Word of the Lord.
Let’s talk about three things today: The Trap of False Greatness, The Example of a Child, and The Invitation to True Greatness. The trap of false greatness, the example of a child, and the invitation to true greatness.
So, first: The Trap of False Greatness. Matthew 18:1 says the disciples of Jesus came to him with a question: Who’s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? That question is surprising when you look at the context. This conversation between Jesus and his disciples also appears in Mark’s Gospel, and look how it’s described in Mark 9, starting in verse 31: 31b He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. 33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. So they’re walking down the road, and Jesus pours his heart out to his closest friends: I’m about to go through hell, literally. I’m going to be arrested and mistreated to the point of death, and ultimately I’m going rise again. And the very next thing the disciples talk about—right after Jesus shared that!—is about which one of them is the greatest.
We humans seem to have an obsession with knowing who’s the best. If you’re a sports fan, there’s an endless debate about who is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in each sport. Basketball fans argue over whether it’s Michael Jordan or LeBron James. Football fans seem to agree that the best quarterback of all time is Tom Brady (it’s hard to admit that, but we’re all about the truth here). A lot of people are saying the greatest soccer player is Lionel Messi. We’re obsessed with ranking people. And we do the same thing with musicians and actors and authors. We can’t just enjoy their art; we have to know how they compare with each other, and who’s at the top of the list.
But here’s where it gets dangerous: we don’t just do that with athletes and actors; we do it among ourselves. How do I compare with him? Am I as good as her? So it’s not enough for us to just be good at what we do, or to honor God in what we do; we walk around our job or our school, and we spend time on social media, wanting to know how we stack up against others, and what do I need to do to be the best?
So Jesus, in this kingdom you’re building, we know you’re #1—of course—you’re the king. But after you, who would you say is the best? It’s hard to miss the competition and comparison and selfish ambition behind that question.
But this is how humans have always been wired. The Roman Empire prided itself on being the greatest, right? The greatest Empire in the world—and within that society there was a very clear ranking: from the emperor, to the wealthy landowners, to the common people, to slaves.
Even within first-century Judaism, there was a ranking system. Remember the parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the tax collector who went to the temple to pray? The Pharisee said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.” He was basing his sense of worth on…what? How he compared with others! Even the Apostle Paul, before he came to Christ, found his identity in how much better he was than the other Pharisees—just read his résumé in Philippians chapter 3: he makes his case that, among the other spiritual leaders of Israel, he was the GOAT.
So that sense of pecking order has existed in every society, at every time in human history…including among Christians.
Tim Keller told a story about when he was in college, and he was part of a Christian group. And there was a new guy who joined up, and everybody was shocked—because this guy was famous on campus for being extremely sexually active—good looking, charismatic; always with a new girl. And all of a sudden, he said, “I’m a Christian now—and I’m going to live sexually pure.” So he threw himself into Christian activities. And everybody said, “What an amazing change!” But then they started noticing something. In every group; every Bible study; every service team, whether he was the leader or not, he had to be the leader. There was power struggle after power struggle. And Keller said after a while it became clear that when he had been sexually promiscuous, it wasn’t about sex; it was about power. He would go after some girl until she fell for him, and then he would lose all interest and move on to the next one. It was all about power. So when he came into the church, he signed on to all the beliefs, and went to all the groups, and stopped the sexual promiscuity, but deep down inside, he still wanted power. He still wanted to be the greatest, just in a different way. So there was a much deeper change that needed to take place in his heart.
And it’s the same change the disciples needed, and it’s the same change we need.
I want to pause and invite you to dream for a minute. Whatever it is that you are competing for right now—whether it’s getting into the best college or losing more weight or making more sales or getting more followers or driving a nicer car—whatever you find yourself competing against others for…I want to invite you to take a deep breath and dream about what your life could be like if you were no longer driven by that. If—instead of envying others who seem to be doing better than you—if you could be genuinely happy for them, and not threatened by them at all. If you could do whatever you’re called to do in life not to prove you’re worthy of love, but out of a deep security of knowing you already are deeply loved. Can you feel how freeing that would be?
Point number two: The Example of a Child. So in answer to their question, Matthew 18:2 says He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. This took place in Capernaum, and their home base in Capernaum was the house of Peter. So it’s very possible this little child was Peter’s little boy or girl. Can you picture the little kid? He had probably been on the outskirts of the room, and now all of a sudden he’s the center of attention. Maybe looking up and smiling at Jesus; giggling.
Paul Offit is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s a nonreligious man—in fact, he was writing a book about how religious faith can get in the way of medical care. But as he read the Bible and explored the history of medicine, he was surprised by what he found. Here’s what he wrote:
Independent of whether you believe in the existence of God . . . you have to be impressed with the man described as Jesus of Nazareth. At the time of Jesus’ life, one historian said that child abuse was “the crying vice of the Roman Empire.” Infanticide was common. Abandonment was common. That's because children were property, no different than slaves. But Jesus stood up for children, cared about them, when those around him typically didn't.
I agree. And I couldn’t help but think, by coming alongside the children of Malawi, we are representing Jesus well. We are standing up for children, like he did. Amen?
So Jesus calls a child, and puts the child in front of them. What do you see when you look at a child? One of the main things I see is a creature who is very dependent on others. Right? Small children really can’t fend for themselves, so they have this innate sense of their need for others—especially their mother and father, and including their heavenly Father.
There’s a psychologist at Yale named Paul Bloom, who said this: “When children are directly asked about the origin of animals and people, they tend to prefer explanations that involve an intentional creator, even if the adults who raised them do not.” There’s another psychologist from Oxford University named Justin Barrett, who said this: “built into the natural development of children’s minds [is] a predisposition to see the natural world as designed and purposeful and that some kind of intelligent being is behind that purpose.” He even said that if a group of children were put “on an island and they raised themselves, I think they would believe in God.” Wow. Kids have a natural sense that God exists, and that that he’s responsible for the beauty around them.
There was an Italian researcher named Sofia Cavalletti, who specialized in the study of spirituality in young children. And she wrote about a 3-year-old girl who was raised in a completely non-religious family. One day she asked her father, “Where did the world come from?” And her father answered her in strictly naturalistic, scientific terms. But then he said, “there are some people who say that all this comes from a very powerful being, and they call him God.” And when she heard that, the little girl started dancing around the room. And she said, “I knew what you told me wasn’t true! It’s God! It’s God!” There’s something in a 3-year-old that knows all this beauty must be designed by Someone, and that acknowledging that Someone brings joy. That’s what it means to have childlike faith!
But it’s more than just that. Really young kids are not yet conscious of their image. They don’t care what other people think of them, and therefore they are free to express joy and wonder.
A couple of years ago at the Boston Symphony Hall, there was a performance by the Handel and Haydn Society. So picture this formal auditorium; everyone in suits and dresses. They were playing a piece by Mozart, and right when it ended, the place was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. And into that silence, a little boy’s voice said, “Wow!” That’s not what you’re supposed to do at the symphony. And there was this awkward silence for about a second, and then the crowd burst into laughter, and then thunderous applause. It turned out it was a 9-year-old boy named Ronan Mattin. He’s on the autism spectrum, and he usually doesn’t say much at all, but he could not contain his wonder. The CEO of the Orchestra later said it was, “one of the most wonderful moments I’ve experienced in the concert hall.” Ronan has become known as the “Wow Kid,” and he’s been invited back as an honored guest.
Isn’t there something beautiful about being able to freely express wonder and awe and joy, without worrying what anyone else thinks?
Jesus took a child and placed the child among them. And when they looked at that child they saw simple trust and dependence and wonder. They saw the opposite of the competitive, power-hungry drive that was consuming them. So this fall, as we get to know some children in Malawi, and as we focus on some children in the Bible, would you allow God to show you places where maybe you’ve grown older, but you still need to grow up into a childlike faith? Because as you do, you will begin to experience a very different kind of greatness.
Which leads to our last point: The Invitation to True Greatness. So after placing the child in front of them, here’s what Jesus says—verse 3: 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
So the thing about this child that Jesus specifically wants us to notice is the child’s lowly position. In that culture, children had a very low status. Their parents loved them! But they were not celebrated and honored and protected in that society the way kids are today. They had a lowly position. Some Bible translations say, “Therefore, whoever humbles themselves like a child.” So to “humble yourself”
is to realize you’re not the center of the universe. The English word “humble” comes from the Latin humus, which means “earth” or “dirt.” So to be humble means you realize you’re made of dust, and you have your feet planted on earth—you don’t have an inflated view of yourself. The world doesn’t revolve around you.
Isn’t this the same thing Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount? Blessed are the meek…blessed are the poor in spirit. Why would those kind of people be blessed? Because only when we are meek and poor in spirit and humble, are we in a position to receive what God wants to give us. If we are self-sufficient and proud, we will never receive what God wants to give us. That’s why Jesus says, “Unless you change and become like this, you will never even enter the kingdom of heaven.” Forget about being the greatest; you’ll never even get in! You have to change and become like a child. Stop your self-promotion and pride; stop defending yourself when you feel disrespected. Humble yourself and accept the grace of God.
And the more we live that way—with childlike humility—we will become truly great in the eyes of God. Not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of the One whose opinion matters most.
I love the way Joni Eareckson Tada explained this—listen:
Jesus lifts up the last. The least. The lost. The little. And even the dead. He drives home that He will not reward the rewardable or improve the improvable. His grace is reserved for those who, like a little child, see themselves as ...little. Who is great in God's eyes? Whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
By the way, did you notice there’s not just one “greatest”? Jesus doesn’t say, “Now Peter, if you can humble yourself even more than James and John, you’ll be the greatest. Those guys will be so jealous, because you’ll be number one!” Jesus removes all competition. He removes all comparison. It’s not a hierarchy; it’s not a contest. I don’t have to let your greatness threaten me. I don’t have to try to elevate myself over you. Because Jesus says, “Anyone who humbles himself like a child is the greatest in my kingdom.”
So: how do you know if you’re really getting this? There’s actually a simple test. You can tell if you’re humbling yourself like a child by the way you respond to people who are insignificant in the eyes of the world. Look at verse 5: And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. And then in the next chapter, the disciples get a chance to live that out: people are bringing their little kids to Jesus so he can bless them and pray for them. So here are these vulnerable, weak, insignificant members of society. And how do the disciples respond? “Get these kids out of here! Don’t you realize we have important work to do?” They completely and utterly fail the test! And Jesus says, “No, no, no. Let the children come to me… the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
So how are you doing on the test? How do you respond to people who are insignificant in the eyes of the world? People who have nothing to offer you; people who don’t rank high on the social ladder? How do you respond to them?
I remember a time that God tested me on this. It was back in the late ‘90s, and The Chapel was hosting a concert by the Christian rock band Petra. Does anyone remember Petra? They were pretty popular back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. So at the time, my family was living in the church parsonage, which was right behind the main Chapel building. And a few days before the concert, the manager of the band contacted us, and he said, “The band is going to show up around noon, and they’re going to set up and do their sound checks. But they’ll need a place to hang out and eat and rest up before the concert. Is there any place they can do that?” And I said, “They can use my house!” It felt like a
generous thing to do. But I also liked the idea of these famous people being in my house—maybe some autographs; some selfies; free CDs.
So the day arrived, and I was away with my family the early part of the day. I got home in the late afternoon and walked in my front door, and there were a few people sitting in my living room—I could tell by how they were dressed they were members of the road crew. So I greeted them, and I started walking up the stairs toward my bedroom. And one of the road crew guys said, “Please be quiet.” I said “Why?” And he said, “The bus driver is taking a nap in your room.” And I didn’t say this out loud, but in my mind I said, “The bus driver? Where’s the band? Where’s the talent?” It turned out that the actual band members didn’t really need my house—they were off at a restaurant somewhere. Apparently I had volunteered to host the road crew and the bus driver. In my bed—did I mention that part?
And I could almost hear the voice of Jesus saying, “Whoever welcomes road crew dudes and bus drivers in my name welcomes me.” They’re not famous; they’re not powerful; they really have nothing to offer you; and the way you respond to them says everything about the condition of your heart.
How are you doing on the test? How do you respond to people who are insignificant in the eyes of the world? The homeless guy in Paterson? The immigrant who can barely speak English? That woman at work that everybody laughs at behind her back? The kid at school that no one wants to sit with at lunch? People that you don’t find attractive or appealing or interesting? Have you carefully constructed your life to avoid those people? See, when we humble ourselves like a child, we stop feeling so self-important, and we start seeing those people with new eyes. We realize they’re just as important as we are, and however we treat them, Jesus takes it very personally.
In Matthew 11:25, Jesus is praying to his Father. And he says, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” There is so much spiritual reality that will remain hidden from us until we get rid of our pride, and humble ourselves, and become like kids. And these next six week are a perfect opportunity to do that.
As we close today, I want to remind us of one more thing Jesus said about children. In John chapter 3, Jesus is approached by a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Pharisees were very knowledgeable about the Bible, and they were highly regarded in their communities. But Nicodemus is obviously spiritually restless, because he comes to Jesus looking for guidance. He comes at night, because he doesn’t want anyone to see him coming to Jesus for guidance. And Jesus says to him, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” So think about this—in our main passage today, Jesus said you’ll never enter the kingdom unless you become like a child. And we all know that every child starts out…how? As a baby! Being born! So Jesus is inviting this sophisticated spiritual leader—who knows a lot about God, but doesn’t actually know God—to believe in him and to start a new life.
Before you become a spiritual child, you have to experience spiritual birth.
Jesus laid down his life so we could have new life. So as we begin this journey and learn about the faith of a child, if you have never experienced that spiritual rebirth—or if you’re not sure if you have—I want to invite you to receive it as we close today.