I've talked about this much to you. I mentioned it this morning for those of you who were here, that every day you assign some kind of identity to yourself. Maybe a way to begin this evening is to ask you the question: Who do you think you are? What is the stuff that you tell you about you? You are in that constant conversation with yourself, and the things that you say to you about you are very, very important; they are formative of the way you live; they are formative of the way you think; they are formative of what you desire.
Chosen to Never Grow Up
Who do you think you are? I don't know if you've thought about this, but if you're God's child, you have been chosen to never grow up. Oh, I don't mean God doesn't want you to mature physically, in terms of your thought, and even spiritually, but God has chosen you to be a child. My experience of being a father is that my children didn't always enjoy being children. My children wanted to be the adults in charge often. When I'm doing parenting conferences, I will often say to parents that there are moments when you need to have this conversation with your child: "You're trying to be the daddy of daddy; and when you're trying to be the daddy of daddy, you don't have a daddy.
You need to be comfortable with being a child." Are you comfortable with being a child in God's eyes? Are you comfortable with the picture of dependency that that depicts? Look back with me at Mark 10; it's there in your Order of Worship. Verse 13: And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."
And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. Once again, the disciples get it wrong. Once again, they are in the way of what God is doing rather than being part of what God is doing. Remember what I have said to you; it's very clear in Mark that Jesus has placed these disciples in the 24/7 school of discipleship. He is seeking to craft their hearts, to change their hearts, so that they would be prepared for the work of His Kingdom because He didn't so much call them to be witnesses to the work of His Kingdom, but to be participants in it.
And He was not just working to inform them so that they would understand the doctrine of the Kingdom, the teaching of the Kingdom, but to transform them so they would think and desire and live in uniquely different ways. Now, here's this moment where parents are bringing, it seems, children to Christ so that He would hold them, so that He would touch them. Maybe there were needy children, maybe crippled children, but surely parents were bringing children to Christ. Immediately, the disciples are outraged, and they rebuked these parents and tried to keep them from bringing their children to Christ.
And Christ's response was...He's indignant at the disciples' response. Let's examine this moment. The problem with the disciples is not first their view of children. The problem with the disciples is first their view of themselves; because if the disciples understand what Jesus has been teaching them, they are no more deserving of the acceptance of Christ than these children are. They are just as undeserving of any love, any affection, any acceptance of Christ as these little children are. In fact, these disciples are much more like these children than unlike them.
But the disciples get it wrong; they don't see themselves as needy; they don't see themselves as unworthy; they don't see that their only hope is that, quite apart from anything they could ever achieve, deserve, or earn, that this Messiah would, for a moment, accept them. They were the disciples of Christ not because they had earned it, not because there's something special in them, not because they deserved their position, but solely because of the grace of Christ. Listen, no one gives grace better than a person who is deeply persuaded he needs it himself.
They Didn't Know Who They Were
The problem first with the disciples is not that they misunderstood Christ's view of children; the problem with the disciples is they didn't know who they were. And when you think you're deserving, it's all too easy to look down on, to condemn people who you don't think deserve what you deserve. Children in first century Hellenistic culture had little position, few rights; but with respect to the love of Jesus, these disciples have little position and few rights as well. Their position is only the result of His grace.
And so Jesus is indignant; He's not just indignant because the disciples have gotten in the way of these children coming to Him, but He's indignant because of the pride that's in the heart of the disciples. They don't get it; they don't get the fact that this Kingdom operates by a whole other set of rules; it doesn't operate based on power or money or position or prestige. I'd like you to do something with me; I'd like you to take your church Bibles out; I don't ask you to do this much, and turn, if you would, to First Corinthians, Chapter 1, because I think this passage confronts this instinctive human system where your acceptance, your respect, is based on your power or your position or your education or your wealth or your family.
And the Gospel just blows all of that away. Look what it says beginning with verse 26: For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." Any moment I'm able to look down on any class of human being; any moment I'm able to think that I'm more deserving of God's love, God's acceptance than another human being; anytime I don't want to be near them or around them; anytime I get in the way of their movement toward Christ, it's not just that I've misunderstood who they are; I do that because I've misunderstood who I am.
Grace, the Cross of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God, levels the playing field; we're all alike, all of us undeserving of His favor, all of us like little children: no power, no position, few rights to demand, dependent on the Father's love. Well, turn back to Mark 10. You see, although the moment is initiated by those bringing children to Christ, this passage is really about the nature of His Kingdom and the nature of our relationship to Him. He says, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." I am called to have that attitude of a child; I'm called to understand that the Kingdom is always only ever a gift. I'm incapable of earning it; I will never deserve it; I could never achieve the things that would mean I could demand it. It's always a gift; it's always a gift; it's always a gift! There are really two ironies that are depicted by Christ's teaching here. Isn't it interesting, isn't it sad, that once you and I have been accepted by unearned and undeserved grace, it's easy for us to take our acceptance as a reason for looking down on and condemning other people?
Turning Grace Into Pride
How could it be possible that we would take the most gorgeous message of undeserved love, the most beautiful story of grace, and turn it into an occasion for pride, turn it into an occasion for wanting to separate ourselves from other people, turning it into an occasion for condemnation? It's so easy to do. Maybe that's as simple, parent, as your want to believe that you're different than your children. Maybe that's in moments where you say, "I can't believe you would do such a thing." Of course you can; you're a sinner, parent; why would you be surprised?
You know, your child has waited till the night before to tell you that they have a science project due. You know that was assigned six years ago, and you launch into this diatribe about how you would've never thought of doing such a thing; how in your day, you didn't even have science projects, you were such a good student, you made up your own. Now, what you're telling, you're trying to tell yourself is, "I'm righteous, you're not. Your problem is you're not like me!" The humbling thing that I came to discover - I wish I would have known this earlier - is that there were few sins and struggles in my children's lives that I still couldn't identify in my own.
What's the problem with that science project? Well, we would call it procrastination. If you're a parent, are you able to say there is no instance of procrastination in your life? Many people here have garages you can't drive into anymore, that you keep telling yourself you're going to empty. Anybody here do your taxes the night of; you know the post office that stays open till midnight? You know all the people that are procrastinators too; it's like a reunion? This year you're going to bring the brownies?
You see, when you believe that you're as desperately needy as any human being you would ever encounter; that there's nobody who is in a more desperate condition than you; that all of us stand in need of rescue; that none of us can solve our problem; that all of us are only ever accepted by grace, that's the beauty of the message that it changes the way that you respond to other people. The disciples didn't get what this Kingdom was about; the rules have changed. It's this childlike heart that God is trying to work in you.
God is trying to change the way you think about you; to take you away from your arrogance, your trust of your own wisdom, your awe at your own strength, you're being convinced of your own righteousness; too, you are a child who is dependent, who runs again to your Father for His help because you instinctively know that you need Him; that's what God is trying to do in your heart. You could argue He's trying to move you from the delusions of your adulthood to produce in you the heart of a child; that's what He's trying to do.
And if the disciples had seen themselves as children, they wouldn't have gotten in the way of children coming to Jesus. It's an irony that the Church of Jesus Christ, in many ways, has taken the message of grace and turned it into an occasion for pride. May God forgive us, and may we not be in the way of what He's doing like these men were. There's another irony here, and it should scare you. It's this: that those who convinced themselves that they deserve grace seldom seek it. Did you hear what I said?
Those who convince themselves that they deserve grace seldom seek it because they are convinced that they're okay. You see, to the degree that you convince yourself that you're different, to the degree that you convince yourself that you don't need the love of the Father, to the degree that you convince yourself that you're deserving, you're actually telling yourself that you don't need the rescue of grace. Grace is only ever exciting to the needy; grace is only ever exciting to sinners; grace is only ever exciting to the hopeless and the helpless.
Who Do You Tell Yourself That You Are?
Those are the people that run to the grace of the Father. Well, as your pastor this evening, I would ask you the question again: Who do you tell yourself that you are? You see, an incredible contrast here, I don't want you to miss it, between the shocking love of Jesus and the shocking lack of love of the disciples. Think about this: if there was ever anyone who ever lived on earth who had the right to be selective about His company, it was the Messiah. If there's anyone who had the right to say, "No, this class of person is beneath me," it was the Messiah.
But in His heart was gorgeous, accepting, redemptive love. And there's no one who was too low to receive His acceptance. Contrast that with the disciples who were convinced that there were people beneath them. And in a moment when they could've been part of Christ's agenda of love, they actually stand in the way of it. Jesus says, "Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter." You must admit who you are. You must admit your inability. You must admit your weakness in order to be the recipients of His grace.
Well, here it is. You and I really have been chosen to be forever children, to never think that we've come to the place where we've outgrown the Father's care; to never desire to grow up and be on our own; to be comfortable with being needy; to be comfortable with weakness; to be comfortable in his Father's care. Our drive for autonomy, our drive for self-sufficiency, our drive to measure up must be abandoned; it is the call of the Kingdom. Well, Christ does take the children in His hands. I've hinted at this, but I'll say it again: it's a radical action in the culture He's in; and in that action, He's announcing what His ministry is about, the radical new agenda of His Kingdom.
He will not live by the old rules of money and power and station; because before God, everybody is alike; everyone is unworthy; everyone is dependent on His grace. This One who opens His arms to children would soon be One who is numbered with criminals. He was willing to do that in order that the grace we need, we would receive from His hand. I would ask you this evening: are you part of what God is doing where you live every day or in the way of it? Do you remember who you are? Has your reception of grace made you a person of grace?
Has your knowledge that you've been given, love that you don't deserve, made you a person of love? Are you patient and kind and understanding and gentle because you know you daily receive patience and kindness and gentleness? No one gives grace better than a person who is convinced he needs it himself. "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such is the Kingdom of God." Let's pray: Lord, it is easy for us to forget who we are. It is tempting for us to receive what we did not earn and turn it into an occasion for pride.
It's easy for us to look down on others who are no more unworthy than we are. It's easy for us to think that we're something special, we're better, we are more righteous; oh, Lord, we pray that You would forgive us, and You would help us to remember that all that we have received we have received as a gift from Your hand. Give us hearts of children we would pray. In Jesus's name, Amen.
