“Jesus And Our Children”
Mark 10:13-16
SCRIPTURE INTRO: Mark divided in two halves.
First half of Mark answers the question: Who is Jesus?
The answer is that
he is the Christ, the Anointed One.
Second half of Mark answers the question: What did the Christ come to do?
The answer is that
he came to set things right by his suffering and death.
He came to redeem the world—
and
this passage shows us that his redemption extends to our children.
INTRO: Jesus loves me this I know, for my daddy
told me so.
That’s not the way the song goes—but it’s true.
My dad did tell me
when I was a little boy about Jesus, and the Gospel.
But most Christians could say the very same thing.
Could just as
easily say: Because my mamma or my daddy
told me so.
Or
my grandma or grandpa.
Sometimes that’s criticized.
Critics say—you just believe because raised that way.
But the Bible does
not see that as a criticism of the Christian faith—
instead,
the Bible clearly says that this is the way God ordinarily works.
He pours out his
grace along the lines of generations.
He works through families.
He promises to be
our God and the God of our children.
In the Old Testament, the children of believers were
circumcised,
and
brought to the temple, recognized as citizens in the
and
the
In the New Testament, we see this
confirmed.
Jesus’ attitude
toward the children of believers is that they belong to God,
and
that the
And in this passage we see that he blesses them as their
believing
parents
bring them to him for blessing, and says that the
belongs
to little ones like these.
This is a familiar passage.
It’s a comforting passage. But
it’s also difficult.
What did it mean
when Jesus put his hand on these children and blessed them?
Trying to answer
that question raises some deep theological questions.
And this is also a hard subject personally—the subject of
children, raising children.
Some people want
children but are unable to have children.
Parents themselves,
if at all realistic see their failures with their children,
and
have regrets and perhaps guilt.
Before we had children, I was so judgmental of parents I
knew.
When I was in seminary, many of our friends new parents,
we
did not have any children. We would be
with seminary friends,
then
go home and say: Can you believe
that?
We will never do that.
We will never parent that way.
We had some
seminary friends who were screamers and shouters.
Had
some others who were over-indulgent.
Well, then we had children.
And I discovered that my children were experts in exposing
and imitating
my
idols and sins and selfishness.
And left to myself, I would just teach my children to sin.
But because of
Jesus’ love for me and for my children,
he
will bless them, and take care of them, and draw them to himself.
So this is a passage that touches on some of the deepest
concerns and hopes
that
Christians have for their children.
That in spite of our mistakes and our crummy parenting,
and
in spite of our children’s own sinful natures and tendency to imitate us,
that
they would still know the grace of God and be blessed by Jesus.
Want to look at this passage under two headings.
1. The children of
believers belong to God.
2. Believers must
bring their children to Christ.
Credit where credit is due. I got tremendous help from an excellent
sermon
by my friend and
seminary buddy, Charles Garland.
MP#1 The children of believers belong to
God
We’re told that parents were bringing their little children
to Jesus
to
have him put his hands on them. That
means to bless them.
But what does it mean for Jesus to bless your children?
What were these
parents wanting and what were they expecting?
It’s almost easier to relate to these parents than to put it
into words.
But as a Christian
you just want Jesus to have your children.
You want him to
take them and do what is best for them.
I can remember when my children were infants, holding them,
rubbing
that little head and praying—Lord, pour out your grace
on
this fuzzy little head. No specifics,
just, Lord, take them.
Charles, in his sermon told about a friend of theirs in
whose
child had a rare disease, doctor at Children’s said would die.
Mother told
I wish I could take
my child to Jesus. He would know what to
do.
The end of that story is that God healed the baby.
The point is this—the
reason that all Christians parents at times cry out,
Lord, bless my
child, is because we have an instinctive notion
that
this little child of ours belongs to him.
He loves our child.
We have a term for this we call them—covenant children.
The covenant is God’s personal, saving relationship with us,
sealed
by the blood of Christ.
So calling our children “covenant children” is a shorthand
way of saying
that our children
aren’t little pagans, they belong to God.
He has a special regard for them. They have a special place.
They are marked out
of the world as his.
They are sinners, born with the original sin of Adam, they
need Christ.
but
they are heirs of the promises of God.
Professor: Little
vipers in covenantal diapers.
And our children are blessed because of our faith.
That’s something
else we see in this story.
These babies didn’t believe anything. They didn’t know who Jesus was.
But because of their
parent’s faith, Jesus blessed the children.
We see that over
and over in the Bible.
We think so individualistically in
But the Bible is
much more about the faith of the family,
and
the church community, and blessings that come to the body.
It’s clear, God blesses our
children because we belong to him.
And that’s wonderful?
Isn’t it wonderful to know that Jesus loves your children?
Isn’t it wonderful
to know that God’s promise to Abraham is a promise to you?
I will be your God
and the God of your children after you.
If we didn’t have those assurances, it would be horrible to
be a parent.
Every time you had
a child you would wonder,
Did I just increase
the population of hell by one soul?
But no, we don’t think that—we look at our newborn and we
think:
This lamb loved by
Christ. Bless this little head as you
said you would, Lord.
So this is wonderful, but it’s also confusing.
Because it’s hard
to figure out what’s going on spiritually with covenant children.
Let me ask you a question:
When Jesus took little
children in his arms and blessed them, what happened?
What was different
about those children after he blessed them?
Some people say that nothing happened when Jesus blessed
these children—
it
was just an illustration. Just
illustrating that you have to be spiritually
helpless
in order to be saved. You don’t bring
anything to your salvation.
True that Jesus was giving an illustration for the
disciples.
But it robs this
passage of all its sweetness if you say—
this
was just an illustration, Jesus not really blessing these children.
Some people have said that these parents were dedicating
their children to God.
Dedicating your children is a good thing to do—
it’s
part of what we do when we baptize children.
But the big question is not what the parents were doing,
what was Jesus doing?
Some have said these children were born again when Jesus
touched them.
That might be
right. I’m open to that.
There are a number
of places in the Bible that speak of infants being born again.
David, Jeremiah,
John Baptist, Timothy.
We have no problem with that theologically because the Bible
teaches
that
regeneration always precedes faith.
Do you understand
what that means? Regeneration precedes
faith.
This is the order of our salvation.
We are born dead in
our sins.
God makes us alive
to him, born again. (regeneration).
And then we respond
to him in faith.
Usually those things happen close together—but don’t have
to.
In the case of an infant, faith comes later, as grow into
faith.
Like Timothy who
from infancy knew Scriptures that made wise to salvation.
Born again as an
infant, grew into knowledge and faith.
So is that what was happening here? I don’t think so.
So, what was Jesus
doing? I don’t know exactly.
I think the best way to understand this is to look at what
is accomplished in
the
blessing of circumcision and baptism.
In the Old Testament, when a man converted to Judaism from
another religion,
he
was circumcised, it was a mark of being a true Israelite,
a
mark of belonging to God, having a right to all the privileges of sons of God.
And when he had sons, as infants they were given the same
mark.
What was going on
with circumcision?
Was everybody that was circumcised born again?
No, we see that
some broke the covenant, did not have real faith when grew up.
But children of believers who turn away not called pagans,
called
prodigals, or if persist, called apostates, or covenant breakers.
That’s because circumcision accomplished something for those
infants.
It marked them as
belonging to God, it brought them into the covenant,
they
became sons of
They were different because they were circumcised. They were blessed.
When someone converts into Christianity from paganism, they
are baptized.
They are marked as
a true Israelite, belonging to God, united to Christ,
with
all the rights and privileges of the children of God—just like in OT.
And just like in the Old Testament we give our children this
mark
of
God’s ownership and blessing.
The church was never told to stop marking our children with
the sign
of
God’s covenant, so we keep doing it, even though the sign itself
has
changed from circumcision to baptism.
This passage does not tell you to baptize your children—
but
it does give some of the rationale for why we do.
God lays claim to our children and he blesses them because
of his covenant
promises
and our faith in him.
As Paul says in 1 Cor. 7, our
children are holy.
They are set apart
for God. They are claimed by God.
And that brings us to our next heading:
MP#2 Believers must bring their children to
Christ.
Let me make that more personal. You must bring your children to Christ.
How did these
children get to Jesus and get his blessing?
Their parents
brought them.
Christian parents are the God-ordained means through which
God’s covenant
blessings come to their children.
If Christian parents neglect to bring their children to
Christ,
then
they can have no confidence in the covenant promises
You cannot be neutral in regard to your children’s faith.
Some parents think it’s noble to say:
I’m not going to
impose my religion on my children,
I’m going to let
them make their own decision when grow up.
I’ve never heard any parents at Christ Covenant say that
explicitly—
but
I have sometimes heard fear expressed that if you make them
do
something, make them come to church, make them sit through
family
devotions, going to turn them off—better to let them make up own mind.
Do you do that about other important things in life?
Do you say to your five year old, Honey, I think brushing
your teeth is important,
but
I’m not going to make you, don’t want you to hate it when you grow up.
So you decide
whether or not to brush your teeth.
Do you say: Son, your
mother and I think education is important,
but
we don’t want to make you go to school if you don’t like it.
We’re going to let
you make your own decision.
Or, Son, It’s not right for you to quit the team in the
middle of the season,
but
I’m not going to make you finish because that might make you hate sports.
You can quit if you
want to.
You impose all sorts of things on your children,
your faith shouldn’t be different.
You have an idea about what the good life is for your
children,
and
you want to pave the way. It’s true of
bringing children to Jesus.
My dad would read us Bible story book that we called the
Blue Bible.
I still have
it. Written in front cover, dad’s hand,
dates completed.
Got
older, read missionary biographies—Elizabeth Elliott, John Patton.
And we would pray
around the table.
Dad communicating in that:
This is who we are. Followers of Christ.
In that way he
brought me to Jesus.
Jesus wants your children.
He rebuked the disciples when they kept them away.
Don’t keep your
children away by neglecting to bring them to Jesus.
Read the Bible to them, pray with
and for them them.
If you think that other families in this church have great
family devotions and you
could
never measure up because you are not that spiritual—don’t kid yourself.
Ours are hit and miss and sometimes a disaster.
One evening last week, after supper, I picked up the Bible.
One of our children
said that I had better make this snappy
because
she had things to do.
So I read a short passage, but then another child asked a
question about it.
I answered that
question and then he asked a follow-up question,
and
was promptly accused by the first child of not really
wanting
to know, but simply prolonging devotions to irritate her.
And an argument broke out in our family devotions.
Nobody’s good at it.
Your family devotions are going to be disrupted by
schedules,
and
bad attitudes, and giggles—just do it.
Read the Bible with your children, or if little, Bible story
book,
or
some good Christian literature, and pray with them.
And bring them to church.
Bring them for baptism.
This is their
birthright, it’s their heritage.
And as their faith grows, put them in the communicant’s
class,
new
members class we have for children once a year.
When it is their faith, and they will profess Christ publicly,
and
take their vows before the elders and all of you and say—
it’s
not just my parents’ faith, it’s my faith—and take communion with us all.
Those are the biggest things that happen in the life of our
church.
Those are the
biggest things that happen in the
Covenant children,
whose parents brought them to Christ,
claiming
their heritage and faith.
The disciples didn’t think that was important, wanted Jesus
to do
the
big, flashy things—but he said, no—this is my kingdom.
And remember not to expect a huge conversion experience from
your children.
If saved as an
adult, don’t expect your children to come to Jesus in the same way.
Or if you grew up in a church tradition that stressed the
importance of knowing
the
day and the hour when you made a decision for Christ—
don’t
press your children for the same thing.
If you press them for dates and times and prayers, they may
tell you
what
you want to hear but they will probably be confused.
Because this is what most covenant children have
experienced:
From their earliest
days they have known that they are sinners,
and
that Jesus loves them and died to save them from their sins.
They know it because mamma told them so.
It’s not new to them, and yet, there are times when it seems
new.
The Gospel comes to
them with fresh power and there is
and
there is a deeper conviction of sin, deeper faith in Christ.
Might be able to look back at early childhood and say—
It was when I was 8
years old that it happened, I remember praying
in
Sunday school, or maybe it was when I was 10, went to church camp,
we
were sitting around the fire the last night, talked about giving life to
Christ,
Or maybe it was when I was 14 and our youth group studied
book of Daniel,
and
I decided to stand for Christ.
I remember my sister once asked my dad a question.
We had heard a
dramatic testimony. Man converted from
life of sin.
and
sudden deliverance from enslaving sins.
My sister asked my dad the question that I wanted to ask
him.
Why haven’t I felt
these things? Why don’t I know the day
and hour?
Does this mean I’m
not a Christian? Am I really saved?
Can you tell me the day and hour when you realized you
mother and I loved you?
Of course not,
you’ve always known it, and always believed it.
You’ve been given an incredible blessing—to grow up in a
Christian home,
and
to be baptized, and to be taught from the time you were little that
that
Jesus loved you and died for your sins.
Now, what that means is that you have to live for Christ.
You have to show
your gratitude to God for blessing you in this way.
And that is something crucial you have to tell their
children.
They can’t presume on their spiritual heritage.
They can’t think
that because they have known the Gospel from the time
they
were little that they can live for themselves and not for Christ.
Woe to the covenant child who presumes on his heritage and
lives a worldly life.
It will be better
for pagan children on the day of judgment than for
him.
So Christian parents should always be saying to their
children—
Look how God has
blessed you, now live for him.
Some of you don’t have children, or yours are grown and no
longer with you.
May wonder how this applies to you.
There are covenant children in your life—children of your
church.
You’ve made vows
before God at their baptism.
That doesn’t mean Sunday school teacher or Covenant Kids—not
for everybody.
But you can get to
know some of them, pray for them,
speak
to them on Sunday—so that they know, that like Jesus,
and
because of Jesus, you look at them with love and favor.