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THE HEART OF GOD FOR THE LITTLE ONES AND FOR THE LOST
Matthew 18:1-14
Key Verse: 14
“In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little
ones should perish.”
A few years ago, CBC announced the top 10 greatest men in Canadian history.
Tommy Douglas who brought in Universal Medicare system to Canada was chosen as
the greatest man. And the second was Terry Fox. Many people are interested in
knowing the greatest person in different professions. In today’s passage, the disciples
come to Jesus with a question about who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus doesn’t name a person; rather he teaches how to enter the kingdom of heaven
and how to be the greatest. Furthermore, Jesus teaches them the heart of God. To
God, those who enter the kingdom of heaven are all great. To God, those who are
humble and who welcome his little ones are great. God is not willing that any of his little
ones be lost. Let’s learn the heart of God through this passage.
Before delving into today’s passage, we need to know Jesus’ whereabouts in his
messianic work. After Peter made the confession of faith to Jesus, the focus of his
messianic ministry was changed from public preaching and healing to teaching his
disciples. Jesus began to teach about his suffering, death and resurrection. Now Jesus
was heading to Jerusalem to be crucified as the Lamb of God who would take away the
sin of the world. The disciples could not understand why Jesus would suffer and die.
They didn’t like to hear Jesus’ suffering and death. They were still very earthbound and
full of earthly hope that one day they would have honor, fame and prosperity. On this
journey to Jerusalem, Jesus and the disciples were in very different spirit. Jesus was
thinking about horrible suffering and death, but the disciples were excited with
groundless hopes that Jesus would establish his kingdom in Jerusalem and they would
be appointed as the cabinet members of his kingdom. So the serious question to them
was, “Who would have the highest rank and distinction sitting next to Jesus?” They
could not form a consensus. There was tension between them. Each of them thought
that he deserved to be the greatest. So they came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
What was Jesus’ answer? Look at verses 2-3. “He called a little child to him,
and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you
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change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of
heaven.’” Here Jesus’ primary concern was not about who is the greatest, but about
entering the kingdom of heaven. The disciples thought that even in the kingdom of
heaven there would be the greatest person, fairly great people, ordinary people and so
forth. But God does not think like human beings. God does not show partiality. It is a
human thing to think that someone is greater than others. We know the Guinness book
of records or “Who’s Who” books that record the most outstanding achievements of
mankind in all disciplines. But in God’s eyes, everyone is different and great in his or her
talent that God endowed. To God’s eyes, human beings’ most important matter is to
enter the kingdom of heaven. In Jesus’ time, Nicodemus was a great man who had
chased power and glory in religion, politics and wealth and achieved great. But he felt
that in all his successes he could not find the way to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said to him, “Mr. Nicodemus, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of
heaven.” It is most vital issue for all of us to enter the kingdom of heaven.
How then can we enter the kingdom of heaven? Look at verse 3 again. “And he
said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will
never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” Usually we think that children need to be taught
to become adults and become great. But for Jesus, adults need to be taught and
become like children. The key point here is to change. To enter the kingdom of heaven
the disciples should change. Otherwise, Jesus said, they will never enter the kingdom of
heaven. What does it mean to “change and become like little children”? Does it mean
that we buy toys and play like Little Peter? No. “Change” simply means repent or
convert from the worldly and godless lifestyle to God and God’s way. So we need to die
to our old self and to live in Christ. It is because flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of heaven (1 Cor 15:50). We must be born again by the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Look at verse 4. “Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” In Jesus’ times, children were ignored and
treated as comodity. They were in the lowly and humble position. Likewise, whoever
takes lowliness and humbleness is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus himself
took the lowly position of the child when he left the glorious kingdom of God. On earth,
he did not consider equality with God. Instead, he lived as an ordinary man. Being
greatly moved by Jesus’ humility Paul says in Philippians 2:7, “…he (Jesus) made
himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
A humble person acknowledges God as God. A humble person obeys God and his
words willingly. A humble person prays to God, not depending on his/her strength and
ability. One boy bragged about his father to his friend, saying, “You know what, my
father can move a big desk all by himself.” Then his friend countered him saying, “That’s
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nothing. My father can lift even a tank with one of his hands.” I don’t know if the tank is a
toy or a real tank. But these boys certainly believed that their dads are powerful and
great. Humble people believe that though they are weak, the Abba Father God in
heaven is mighty strong. They believe that what is impossible with them is still possible
with God (Lk 18:27). Humble people acknowledge God’s purpose for their lives and live
up to that purpose even though it requires much suffering. Humble people build up
others and serve others joyfully and cheerfully. On the other hand, proud people
disregard God and others. They think and live as if they are the center of the universe.
Proud people don’t say “Thanks” to God and to others. Proud people hurt others and
are also hurt by others. The Bible says, says, “God opposes the proud but shows favour
to the humble” (Jam 4:6b).
The Old Testament chose Moses as the most humble man. According to Numbers
12:3, Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth. But Moses was a proud
man when he was a prince of Egypt. Once he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Then
he killed the Egyptian and fled to Midian. In Midian he was no longer a prince of Egypt,
but just a nameless shepherd who took care of his in-law’s sheep for 40 years.
Gradually Moses lost confidence about his ability and lived in deep despair. During
these long years, God disciplined him in the desert until Moses recognized his lack of
ability and feebleness. In other words, God disciplined him until Moses could no longer
rely on his own ability but depend on God. Then God called him as the deliverer of the
Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. But knowing his incapacity and despair, Moses
answered, “Send someone else.” God then persuaded Moses and Moses accepted
God’s call. From then on, Moses depended on God and obeyed him absolutely in all
detail. Many times he faced life-threatening situations from his enemies and from his
own rebellious people. But he humbly came to God and asked God’s help. He humbly
shepherded rebellious people and prayed for them before God humbly. God exalted him
and used him greatly and called him as the most humble man on the face of the earth.
We know that we cannot pretend to be humble. Our pretention will not last long.
We must change fundamentally. We can be truly humble before God when God helps
us to overcome our pride and become humble. Therefore to be humble we must come
to God’s throne and humbly ask God to change us to be humble as we learn of Jesus’
humble life. We should not forget that to enter the kingdom of heaven we must be
humble; and to be great in the kingdom of heaven we must be humble.
Let’s move on. In verses 5-9, Jesus teaches us about two things that humble
people do in the world. The first thing they do is to welcome little ones in Jesus’ name.
Look at verse 5. “And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes
me.” New Christians are like little children. They are weak and vulnerable. How they are
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received by a Christian fellowship makes a tremendous difference in their spiritual lives.
In the movie “Les Misérables” Jean Valjean a former convict was rejected by everyone.
He slept on the street, angry and bitter. But a bishop welcomed him and gave him
shelter. At night Valjean ran off with the Bishop’s silverware. When the police captured
Valjean, the bishop told the police that he had given the silverware to Valjean and
pressed him to take two more silver candlesticks as if Valjean had forgotten to take
them. After the police left, the bishop encouraged him to use the candlesticks to make
an honest man of himself and live for the Lord. The bishop’s welcoming moved the
heart of the former convict and changed him forever. There are always some little ones
like Jean Valjean whom we may not like to welcome. But we can welcome them in
Jesus’ name. We know that Jesus has welcomed us even though we have grieved him
again and again. With our own strength, we may not welcome certain little ones. But in
Jesus’ name and love, we can welcome them. Welcoming little ones is the same as
welcoming Jesus. Let’s pray that our church may be a church that welcomes little ones
in Jesus’ name.
The second thing the humble people do is not to cause little ones to stumble. Look
at verse 6. “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—
to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their
neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” If new Christians are not
welcomed, but despised or discouraged, they can easily fall away from Christ. Once
Gandhi went to a church to attend the church service, but the English church elder
sneered at him, “There is no room for Kaffirs (racial, offensive term) in this church. Get
out…” After this incident Gandhi stopped pursuing Christian faith, even though he often
quoted from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in his speech. There are some people
deliberately causing new Christians to stumble. Some use the internet to spread slander
about Christian churches or organizations. They may think they can do so freely. But
Jesus says it would be better to drown violently than to face the consequences of such
an action. The point Jesus tried to come across here is that we must be very serious
about our bad influence to others. So in verses 8-9 Jesus warned us to know the root
cause of our sin and cut it off. If the root cause of our sin is hatred, we must cut it off. If it
is the internet porn, gouge it out and throw it away. There is a young man of God in
Montreal who had struggled hard to fight against his lustful desire. He used to enjoy
looking at many foxy women as he was walking down the busy streets of Montreal.
Then one day he identified the root cause of his sin that was his glasses. He took off his
glasses as he walked down the streets. He could not see people on the street clearly.
So he was so joyful to overcome his lustful thinking. He then gave his heart to God
wholeheartedly. Let us find the root cause of our sin and cut it off or gouge it out and
throw it away so that we can become a good influence and great in the kingdom of
heaven.
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Now look at verses 12-14. In this part, Jesus teaches us about God’s heart for the
lost ones through the parable of the lost sheep. A shepherd owns a hundred sheep.
One day a sheep wanders away and is lost. But the shepherd does not say, “That’s
bad. I lost one. But it’s alright because I still have ninety-nine.” Instead, he goes out and
looks for the one that wandered off. When he finds it, he is so happy about that one
sheep. That is the shepherd’s heart toward one lost sheep. And that is God’s heart
toward one lost soul. When one lost person comes back to God, there is great joy in
heaven.
Look at verse 14. “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that
any of these little ones should perish.” Here Jesus revealed the heart of God. God is
not willing that any of his children should perish. He was willing to save one lost sinner
at any cost. So he crucified his son Jesus on the cross and saved his children from
eternal destruction. God’s care for one person is absolute. Let us participate in God’s
shepherd heart and care for one person with God’s absolute love and his earnest heart
for the lost. Let us be willing to pay the price to be shepherds of God’s flock. Paul
deeply experienced the heart of God who changed him forever from a cold-hearted,
dangerously ambitious and selfish man to a man of God’s heart who sacrificed
everything to take care of God’s flock. Once, while in prison for the gospel, he could
care for a runaway slave named Onesimus as if he were his own son and raised him as
a powerful gospel worker.
Today, we learned that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must be changed and
that to be great in it we must become humble people before God. As God’s people we
must understand God’s heart to welcome little ones in Jesus’ name. We must
participate in the heart of God for the lost by bringing them to Jesus.