Well, this text is likely for most of us a familiar passage.
You can find its parallels in Matthew 19 and then again in Luke 18.
You'll see this rehearsed by those gospel authors as well.
And really the passage can be incredibly helpful to us
as we are considering difficult questions that relate to a theology of children
and how the gospel relates to children.
We can utilize this passage for a lot of reasons.
We can appeal to Jesus' teaching here when we're thinking about
whether or not children can actually understand the gospel and be saved.
You know, that's a question for a lot of people.
At what point in life can a child actually understand the gospel?
Should we actually put limits on ages when we take seriously a confession of faith
for a child or a young adult?
Should we put limits on ages for baptism and so on and so forth?
And lots of churches take different approaches to that.
And we can appeal to Jesus' teaching here as we're thinking through those things
and thinking through how the gospel relates to children.
That in turn helps us understand the appropriateness of baptism for children
as we will celebrate and enjoy today.
If a child can be saved, then that means that their profession of faith
then can be seen as credible, which means there's really no reason to withhold from them baptism.
And we celebrate that with Clementine just here after the service this morning.
It helps us as we consider Jesus' teaching,
and really Jesus' actions here in this passage,
to think about the eternal destiny of young children who die.
Luke emphasizes in his account, in Luke chapter 18,
that some of the children being brought to Jesus in this particular moment were infants.
Mark uses a word, paideia, which is just generally used for children.
He used that earlier in the book to describe the 12-year-old girl who was dead that Jesus raised to life.
So it could mean referencing children up to about 12 years old.
Jewish custom would have pronounced a person as an adult at age 13 at that particular time.
So it could be kids up to age 12.
But then Luke uses a different word.
He doesn't use paideia.
He uses a different word that emphasizes infancy,
those who literally would have had to have been carried to Jesus at this moment.
Which just becomes incredibly helpful to us, doesn't it?
Because Jesus in this moment pronounces that such children actually belong to his kingdom.
I know some of you have experienced the excruciating grief of losing a child.
And here, Jesus assures our hearts that there are children who may not intellectually be able to understand
everything there is to understand about the gospel,
and yet they can still belong to the kingdom.
And so I think this passage is really helpful to us in a lot of ways.
The bottom line is that a comprehensive theology of children in the gospel
is going to have some type of emphasis from this particular passage.
But as we dig into the verses this morning,
I think we'll find that their significance here,
the significance of this teaching of this event,
is about far more than children.
It's not just a passage about kids.
It's actually much greater than that and much more significant than it.
So if we take this text for what it is,
we discover that it's a wonderful passage on the grace of God and who can receive it.
That's really the point.
What is God's grace in salvation?
And who can actually receive this grace?
And of course, one of the immediate applications relates directly to children.
We learn here that Jesus loves children.
It's as clear as can be as we read through this particular case.
Perhaps you remember singing the chorus,
Jesus loves the little children,
all the children of the world,
red and yellow, black and white.
They are precious in his sight.
And Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Maybe he sang that in Sunday school growing up.
And of course, it's absolutely true.
And we know it's true because when we come to Mark 10,
we see the great love and tenderness that Jesus had towards these kids.
He loves them.
We not only learn that Jesus loves children,
but we also learn in this passage,
I believe that children can indeed possess an authentic, vibrant, saving faith.
Jesus broadens here even the entrance to the kingdom of God
to include people who will come like children.
And he uses these babies and kids here symbolically in this lesson.
Here, they're representing all true disciples.
It's not just about them.
It's about who they represent.
They represent all true disciples of Christ.
And of course, children can be included in that group.
But at the end of the day,
the passage is really about the gospel of God's glorious, sovereign grace.
So let's dig in.
The first thing, if you want to keep notes,
the first thing is this.
We see the tension here in this text.
The tension.
Look with me at verse 13.
And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them.
Mark doesn't tell us where exactly these events unfolded,
but we at least know they were somewhere in the area of Judea
or the Transjordan region of Perea.
Jesus was now finished with his public ministry in Galilee.
He is moving ever closer to Jerusalem and to the cross.
Luke says his face is set toward Jerusalem,
meaning he is focused now on heading to the cross to make an atonement for our sins.
And on his way there, he moves through Judea.
That's where we found Mark's narrative moving last week in our text.
And he's doing the same things as he goes to Judea and Perea.
He's ministering to the people.
And masses of people are coming to him.
He was spending his days teaching the crowds.
He was healing the sick, Matthew tells us.
And then he was also confronting the religious apostates,
the Pharisees and Sadducees and some of the Herodians as well.
But it's here that Mark introduces a facet of Jesus' ministry
that we haven't been introduced to yet.
We haven't seen this yet, at least in Mark's gospel.
We haven't seen this.
Parents were bringing their children to Jesus
so that he might touch them and bless them.
And we've noticed this before, but it's worth stating again
that Jesus became known among the people for his compassionate touch.
Think back in Mark's gospel.
How many times does Jesus come to a particular area?
And the narrative tells us that people were coming to him
in order that he might touch them.
And of course, what they're looking for is blessing.
They're looking for healing in that touch.
They're looking to experience the power of his touch.
But the very fact that he was willing to touch them
said a lot about Jesus.
It was a distinctive feature of his ministry
that set him apart from the other rabbis of the time.
He was tender.
He was compassionate.
He embraced the people.
Those who came to him, even the worst of the worst,
those with deadly, contagious diseases like leprosy,
when they came to Jesus, he embraced them.
Those are the people that everyone avoided.
Even those people Jesus is embracing.
He was known for his touch.
And here are these parents.
They're bringing their children to Jesus
because they expected and anticipated
that he would show that same tender compassion towards them.
But what specifically were these parents hoping
to achieve in this touch or in this blessing?
Spiritual blessings were deeply rooted
in the historical traditions of the Jewish people.
You remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
all pronouncing blessings on their children.
You'll remember that the priest commonly would bless the people
as they came for worship.
In fact, we use Aaron's blessing often.
We'll use it today as a benediction to our service.
May the Lord bless you and keep you
and make his face shine upon you.
That was pronounced by the priest on the people
as they would come for worship,
making sacrifices to the Lord God.
They were significant blessings.
In Jesus's day, it wasn't uncommon for parents
to take their newborn babies to the temple
or to the synagogue where a respected rabbi or priest
would pronounce some sort of blessing on their children,
similar to a dedication service like we would have here
in our services.
These blessings were significant.
They weren't just well wishes for the kids
or for the people who received them.
They were prayers to God.
Prayers on behalf of the people,
but they were prophetic in nature.
Think back to the story of Joseph and his brothers.
Remember at the end of Jacob's life, Israel's life,
he's in Egypt now,
and he calls in Joseph and all of his brothers,
and what does he do?
He pronounces the blessing on them,
and he goes one by one,
and it's not just that he says,
I hope things go good with you when I'm gone.
He actually prophesies what God
was going to do with their lives,
and he goes one by one.
These blessings many times had a prophetic nature to them.
So what is it exactly that these parents are looking for
when they come to Jesus?
They're looking for Jesus to pray to his father
on behalf of these kids,
and that his blessing would be prophetically relevant
to their child's spiritual life.
So this is an important thing to them,
and look what happens when they come.
Verse 13 again,
and they were bringing children to him
that he might touch them,
and the disciples rebuked them.
They rebuked them,
and this rebuke is significant to the story.
It wasn't like the disciples,
using this word that Mark uses, rebuke,
it wasn't like the disciples were seeing these parents come,
and they were just very politely kind of taking them
to the side and saying,
you know, Jesus is very busy,
and he's got a lot of teaching on his schedule today.
There's a few sessions that he's going to be performing
here on the hillside.
There's a number of really sick people
that need his attention at this moment.
Maybe you could consider waiting to the end
or perhaps coming back later.
That's not what the disciples are doing here.
These parents are coming,
and they're bringing their children to Jesus,
and Mark says they rebuked him,
and this word rebuke is the word that Mark typically uses
when he's talking about Jesus casting out demons.
It means to chide someone.
It's not just that they're saying,
hey, this is really not a good time.
We'll have to wait and do that later.
No, they're actually angrily,
in the same way that Jesus rebuked demons
that were destroying people's lives,
that was the spirit with which these disciples
were rebuking these parents
for bringing their children
to receive a blessing from Jesus.
But why would they do that?
Why?
It doesn't make sense.
Well, just like in the previous passage
on divorce and remarriage,
the disciples had imbibed the cultural view of children.
Hellenistic society thought their thoughts
were very different than the sentimental notions
that we have toward children today.
They were based entirely,
their thoughts on children,
based entirely on their benefit to the family.
And if there was no benefit to the family,
there wasn't much holding them back
from perhaps even killing their children in the process.
In Roman culture, infanticide wasn't uncommon.
In fact, there's a piece of,
a famous piece of papyrus
that has survived from about the time of Jesus's birth.
It was written from a Roman man to his pregnant wife.
And they didn't know, of course,
what the gender was until after the birth.
But he wrote that if it was a boy to keep it,
but if it was a girl to cast it out, destroy it.
The common thoughts toward children in that day
was that they're insignificant.
They don't matter.
They're needy.
They're helpless.
They contribute nothing.
So unless they're actually gonna benefit our family
somewhere down the road,
there's no reason for us to keep them around.
And there were many people that would actually just,
at least in secular culture in that time,
would be more than willing
to even put these children to death
or to cast them on the street if necessary.
Now, the disciples weren't going that far with it,
but they were beginning to imbibe
the cultural understanding and view of children.
So to them, these kids were only a distraction.
They were insignificant.
They didn't want them bothering Jesus
because it was gonna keep, in their minds,
Jesus from doing the, quote,
real work of the ministry.
And to them, children didn't fit real gospel work.
They were just in the way.
And so these parents bring them,
and it's almost as if, how dare you?
Why would you ever think that Jesus,
someone so important as him,
would care anything about your children today?
Don't you care about all these other people?
He rebukes them.
We're not always so unlike the disciples.
I don't know of any churches
that would outright reject children,
not at least like the disciples did here.
Still, I'm not convinced
that every children's ministry
and every church is really focused
on helping kids follow Jesus
as much as it is about getting the kids
out of the way
so the adults can do the real work of ministry.
We market our kids' programs.
We want to do that.
We want to let everybody in the community know,
hey, bring your kids.
We got all of this stuff that they can do here.
But I'm not always convinced
that it's really with the priority
of the spiritual health of those children
as much as it might be
an incentive to just get their parents in the door.
And the spirit behind it sometimes is,
at least the unfortunate message
that is sometimes conveyed subliminally in this,
is that your children are welcome at our church.
They're just not welcome in the worship of our church.
You can bring them,
but we've got this other place over here set aside.
And you can take them there
and you can check them in
and we've got some games for them
and we're gonna tell them some Bible stories
and stuff today,
but don't bring them into the auditorium.
That's reserved for real worship.
It's not a place for children.
There'll just be a distraction there.
That's the message that we send at times.
Don't get me wrong.
I am not against children's ministry.
The very opposite is I think is the case
as we come to this passage today.
We need to love them and care for them
and serve the gospel to them in every way possible.
What I'm against is an attitude
that would only pretend to care
about the spiritual health of a child
when really what they only want to do
is just get them out of the way
so that they can get on with more adult things.
That's not right.
And so sometimes we can actually be
a little bit more like the disciples than we think.
We can find their attitude
at least partially revealed in our hearts.
And we have to consciously fight against that.
We can't view gospel ministry to kids
as lesser ministry than any other ministry
because in Jesus' eyes in Mark chapter 10,
it's as significant as gospel ministry to anyone else.
Today, we celebrate today in Clementine's baptism
the fruitfulness of gospel ministry to children.
And it's not just one.
And it begins with Andy and Amy
and the time that they invest in reading their Bibles
and praying with their kids
and making sure their kids are involved
with the things of the Lord.
It moves on to our Lakeside Kids Discipleship class
that happens every other week
as we're teaching, catechizing them
and teaching them the Bible
and teaching them songs about the Lord
that they'll carry with them through life.
It goes to vacation Bible school
in the mountains
when she goes to class night by night
and here's the gospel preached
so that she can go to grandma
and say, I think I want to know Jesus.
That's the fruitfulness of gospel ministry to kids.
I'm not saying that that's a problem.
I'm saying let's actually care about it,
legitimately care about it.
Let's not bring kids in.
I know this is,
I'm preaching to people
that this doesn't apply to, I feel like,
because our church, all the kids are here.
But it's on my mind.
I love that our kids are in our worship.
I want them here.
I don't care if they cry.
And if they cry too loud,
we can go to the cry room
just like Abby just did.
That's fine.
We actually moved the speaker in there this week
so they can hear me at the same time.
And if they get too loud in there,
maybe the speaker will drown them out.
I want the kids in here.
But they need to know what worship is.
They need to hear the truths of the Bible.
We don't need to shove them in a corner somewhere
because they're a distraction.
They're a problem to us.
No, let them come.
Let them come.
And then let's take opportunity
as much as we can
to emphasize the truth of God's word
on their level.
They must be welcome to church.
They must be welcome to genuine worship.
We have to teach them these things.
And then let's serve them the gospel
in every way that we possibly can
because it makes a difference.
Just look at Clementine.
It makes a difference.
I love that story so much
about the Blevins riding down the road
and Gus telling Winnie,
you don't know God.
And Winnie, who's probably two at the time,
says, yes, I do.
He's the creator of everyone and everything.
And she may not know what that means,
but she hears it every other Sunday night
when they go through their catechism
and Lakeside Kids,
and she's two years old at the time,
and she's saying this every week.
What is God?
God is the creator of everyone and everything.
And listen, when she's 12 and 15 and 25 and 45,
if you go to Winnie and say, what is God?
She may not believe it,
but she'll at least be able to say,
he's the creator of everyone and everything.
Our kids need that.
They need that.
They need to stand next to you Sunday by Sunday
and sing, thou who was rich beyond all splendor,
all for love's sake became as poor.
They need to see the expression on your face
and the passion that you have for the gospel
and what Christ has done for you.
They need to see you open your Bible in a service.
They need to see how you interact with other people.
They're not a distraction.
They're not a problem.
They're gifts.
And we need to view them that way.
Well, I'm meddling.
Listen, notice how Jesus responded.
Verse 14, I love this.
When Jesus saw it, he was indignant, it says.
When he saw it, he was indignant.
And again, the word Mark uses here is significant.
It's the only place in the gospels,
this word for indignant,
it's the only place in the gospels that it's ever used.
It means to be incensed.
Jesus' anger with the disciples,
it wasn't the product of sentimentality toward children.
That's not what it is.
It wasn't that he was just good with kids
better than most people, even though he was.
It's not just that.
It's not just that he loved them more
than other people loved them,
even though that's true.
This anger wasn't the product of sentimentality.
His anger was toward the disciples
because they were intentionally keeping people away from him.
It wasn't about the kids
so much as it was about his chosen
preventing other people from getting to him.
And very few times in the gospels
do we read about the severity of Christ's righteous anger.
Two of those times we find taking place in the temple in Jerusalem,
we recognize them all the time
because Jesus drove out the money changers.
He was frustrated and angry at the corruption of their worship.
This is the other time that we see it.
And what is it that he's angry about?
Not just the kids.
He's angry that his disciples
are actually keeping people from the gospel.
They're keeping people from him.
So if we want to know what makes Christ angry,
what really sets off the righteous anger of Jesus,
it's when we corrupt his worship
and when we prevent people or hinder them
from receiving the gospel.
The disciples were representatives of Jesus.
And if they rejected these kids,
it was as if Jesus himself was rejecting them.
But nothing could have been further from the truth.
Jesus wanted them.
Which brings us to the next point.
Number two, the correction.
The correction.
Look with me at verse 14.
Jesus corrects the disciples
and in the process answers two important questions here.
The first one is this.
To whom does the kingdom of God belong?
Answer, to such as these children.
Verse 14.
He said to them,
let the children come to me.
Do not hinder them.
For to such belongs the kingdom of God.
So the first part of this correction,
it has two imperatives
and then a statement to ground the imperatives.
And you can almost imagine Jesus,
almost like a frustrated parent,
emphatically maybe clicking through
or clapping through this instruction to his disciples.
Let them come to me.
Do not hinder them,
Jesus says.
Imperative statements.
Serious statements.
Let them come.
And then he grounds it.
Why?
Because such as these children
belong to the kingdom
and the kingdom belongs to them.
The kingdom of God is a,
it's a reference to the sphere of salvation
over which Jesus is the king
and he rules over all those in the kingdom.
It includes every person
who has received forgiveness of sins
and eternal life.
And Jesus here is emphatically proclaiming
that this salvation belongs to people
such as these kids.
The disciples thought that the kids were insignificant.
Jesus puts them on equal ground.
Remember the disciples have this elitism problem
at this point.
We've already seen it in other passages
and the way that they dealt with other believers
that weren't a part of their little group.
And here we see it again,
except it's about a generational thing.
The kingdom is actually for us
is what they're thinking in their minds.
And then Jesus says,
no, the kingdom belongs to them,
which means that the disciples
and these children
are then put on equal ground.
This is a shocking statement to them.
And Jesus doesn't mean
that all children are saved
just by the fact that they're a child.
That's not what he means.
But what he means is that children
can indeed receive the gospel
and be saved.
They can know Christ.
Kids, listen, give me your eyes.
You don't have to wait till you're an adult
to know Christ.
You don't have to wait till you're old like me
to figure that out.
You can know Jesus.
You can follow him.
You can be his disciple.
And I'm not just saying that
because it's what I think.
I'm saying it because it's what we just read together
in the Bible.
Did you see it in your own Bibles?
You've got them open.
What does Jesus say to these children?
He says that the kingdom can belong to you.
You don't have to wait.
Cast yourself on him.
Believe him.
Follow him.
Not only does Jesus love children,
but he affirms and respects their personhood
and their spirituality.
They can't know Christ.
They must know Christ.
Spurgeon, perhaps with a touch of hyperbole,
wrote this about children in his church.
He said,
I'll say broadly that I have more confidence
in the spiritual life of the children
I have received into this church
than I have in the spiritual condition
of the adults thus received.
I will go even further than that
and say that I have usually found
a clearer knowledge of the gospel
and a warmer love to Christ
in the child converts
than in the man converts.
I will even astonish you still more
by saying that I have sometimes met
with a deeper spiritual experience
in children of 10 and 12
than I have in certain persons of 50 or 60.
You ever known a child that was more serious
about the Lord, it seemed,
than even their parents?
Now I told you that this verse answers the question
to whom does the kingdom belong?
And part of Jesus' answer here is that,
well, children can be saved.
Children can be a part of the kingdom.
But he doesn't mean that the kingdom
is exclusive to children.
Here's his point.
That no one is too insignificant
for the gospel.
No one.
No one is too insignificant
to come to Christ.
No one is too insignificant
for the kingdom.
Salvation belongs to all
who come to Jesus
like those kids came to Jesus.
Which brings us to the next question
in verse 15 that Jesus answers,
or at least the ones I came up with
that he answers here.
Not only does he say
to whom does the kingdom belong,
well, it belongs to people
such as these children.
But then he says,
how can one enter the kingdom?
Answer, by becoming like a child.
That's the only way in.
By becoming like a child.
Verse 15.
Truly I say to you,
whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God like a child
shall not enter it.
Just read that again.
Let that settle in your mind.
Truly I say to you,
says the Lord of all creation
in this moment,
whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God like a child
shall not enter it.
How can one enter the kingdom?
How can one be saved?
How can one receive salvation?
You can't do it
unless you receive it like a child.
And notice the seriousness of this.
He opens with truly or verily
as you might read in your Bible.
What does he mean?
He's not just saying
that this is more trustworthy
than other statements he would make.
That's not what he means.
He's bringing a certain gravity
to the conversation here,
Jesus is.
He's saying,
listen to me,
essentially.
Listen,
get what I'm telling you right now.
This has gospel implications.
This has eternal implications,
this lesson Jesus is saying.
And then the seriousness is seen even further
in the final statement.
Shall not enter it.
It's impossible.
You can't do it.
You won't slide in any other way.
It's impossible for you to have salvation
and enter the kingdom
unless you do it like a child.
But what does that mean?
How can one receive salvation like a child?
There's other passages that teach us
that faith like a child
is really what results in eternal salvation.
But I don't think that's what Jesus means here.
He doesn't say anything about a child's faith here.
His reference is,
unless you come in the same condition
as these children.
Kent Hughes,
I think,
clarifies it.
What Jesus has in mind here
is an objective state
that every child who has ever lived,
regardless of race,
culture,
or background,
has experienced.
Here's the state.
Helpless
dependence.
That's what Jesus is getting at here.
He's not saying you have to come
and be dedicated like these children.
That's not what he's saying.
He's not saying that you have to go through
a certain traditional religious type of formality
in order for it.
He's not even saying that you can't think deep thoughts,
that you have to be base
in your intellectual agreement with the scripture.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying that the only people
that experience salvation,
the only people that enter the kingdom,
are the people that are seeing themselves
in the same condition as these children,
helplessly dependent.
To receive the kingdom as a child
is to recognize how desperately hopeless
you are without Jesus
and to cast yourself wholly,
entirely on him and his mercy.
A child can do nothing for himself.
He can only rely on the power of others to survive.
And so it is with salvation.
You can do nothing for yourself.
You can't earn your way to heaven.
No amount of religious activity
will get you there,
will forgive your sins.
You can't atone for your sins
in any possible way
except to go to hell forever.
You're helpless.
You're hopeless in and of yourself.
And like a child,
you must rely entirely
on the power of Jesus alone to save you.
That's what Jesus means.
Another way to think about this
is to say it this way.
Only one who is helplessly insignificant
like a child
would ever come to Jesus.
And only those who come to Jesus
will enter the kingdom.
You won't ever come to Jesus
unless you realize you need Jesus.
And only Jesus.
And only those who come to him
with that kind of faith
enter the kingdom.
We sing about this all the time.
We sing Rock of Ages a lot.
I like this song.
There's one verse that goes,
Nothing in my hands I bring
Simply to the cross I cling
Naked come to thee for dress
Helpless look to thee for grace
Foul I to the fountain fly
Wash me, Savior, or I die
Isn't that what salvation looks like?
At least in the process of conversion
Someone finally getting to the point
where they cry out to God
and say,
If you don't wash me
I'll die
If you don't forgive me
I'll go to hell
If you don't give me grace
It's over
For me
I have no hope
I'm helpless
So who
To whom does the kingdom belong?
To people such as these children
Well how can one enter the kingdom?
Become like a child
How do you become like a child?
Realize how much like a child you already are
And come to him
Come to him
He wants you as much as he wants the kids
He wants you
Come to him
Finally we see the gospel
We've seen the tension in the passage
We've seen the correction from Jesus
And now we see the gospel of grace
The gospel of grace
Verse 16
Notice what Jesus does
This is so wonderful
He took them in his arms
And he blessed them
Laying his hands on them
We see this tender compassion of the Lord once again
He corrects the disciples
Luke says he then calls ahead to the parents
Bring them to me
Bring them here
And what does he do?
One by one they come to him
And he takes them up in his arms
And he holds them in his arms
Imagine what that moment would have been like
For these kids
They probably don't even
They don't even realize what's happening
He takes them up in his arms
As their parents look on
And he blesses them
And he touches them
MacArthur is helpful here
He notes that
God never blessed someone in the scripture
Who was cursed
And Jesus never pronounced a blessing on someone
Who didn't belong to him
What's Jesus doing?
This wasn't sentiment
It wasn't meaningless
It wasn't just being nice
I think Jesus was claiming that these children
That he was in that moment
Taking into his arms
Belonged with him
In the kingdom
I think that's what he's saying
He's blessing them
He's claiming them
He's saying
They're mine
And I am theirs
But how can he do that?
What could those kids have possibly done
To earn that kind of favor from God?
That's the point
Nothing
They did nothing
This was all of Christ's grace
It was all grace
Nothing else
They didn't do something good
It wasn't that they were so
Doggone cute
It wasn't that they were morally innocent
Because all of us with children
Know that they're exactly not that
These were sinful kids
These were depraved kids
They hadn't yet experienced the extent of that depravity
But if kids didn't
If kids aren't born
With a depraved heart
Like the rest of us
Then there would never be a kid who dies
But children die
Why?
Because they have sinful hearts
That must be redeemed
Well how are these kids redeemed?
Not because they did something
Because Jesus did something
Imagine maybe 15 years later or so
Perhaps a little girl
Taken in Jesus' arms that day
Goes with her parents
Maybe she's hearing Peter preach now
Last time her parents saw Peter
Peter was fussing at them
For bringing him to Jesus
And now they're watching and listening
As he preaches the gospel
This is all hypothetical
And this little girl
May be enamored with the message of the gospel
And she looks at her parents
Did I ever meet Jesus?
Yeah actually
He took you in his arms
And he pronounced a blessing on you
And he claimed you as his own
To which the girl would
Inevitably respond
Why?
Did I do something?
I must have said something really funny
You know I was a pretty smart kid
No you didn't say anything
In fact you didn't even want to go
It was hard for us to get you to go
But he took you in his arms
Why?
Because he did
Why did Jesus love me?
Because he loves you
Well what did I do?
Nothing
It's his grace
That's salvation
That's the gospel of grace
That's why so many theologians
Come to this particular passage
And they say
There is not a better picture
In all of the Bible
Of the grace of God
And salvation
Than this one
Because these kids did nothing
They did nothing
To earn it
God just gave it to them
And so it is for each one of us
Who know Christ
He didn't do anything to earn that
Well why does he love you?
Because he loves you
Why have you received grace?
Because he's gracious
And he's kind
And you may wonder
How Jesus could have actually
Shown this kind of grace
To people who did nothing
To earn it
It all seems too good
To be true
But his grace
Didn't come without a cost
It just wasn't the kids
Who paid it
Jesus could pronounce
These children
Belonging to him
Because he was planning
To go to the cross
To pay the price
For their sin
The grace in the gospel
Is not God coming to you
And saying
Oh I'm so glad that you came
I'm just going to turn
A blind eye to your sin
That's not what happens
Sin must be paid for
Every single sin
Must be paid for
And those who belong to Christ
It's not that God
Turns a blind eye
It's that he takes your sin
And he puts them
On his righteous son
He puts them on Jesus Christ
On the cross
That's the significance
Of the cross
Without it
You have no forgiveness
Why did Jesus come?
Why do we celebrate
This incarnation?
He came to die
He came to make
An atonement
For the sins
Of his people
And when we come
To him in faith
The grace that we receive
From him
Is not him
Turning a blind eye to us
It's him taking
The sins that we have committed
And putting them
Justly on his son
And then in return
He takes the righteousness
Of his son
And he puts it on us
So now
He does not view you
Anymore
As a result of your sin
He views you
Through the lens
Of the righteousness
Of his own son
Jesus Christ
That's why Jesus
Could proclaim this
Because he was paying
For those kids' sin
It's all of grace
And this is what
We come to reflect
As we celebrate
And gather around
The Lord's table
This morning
It all ends up
At the cross
It's all of God's grace
It's only received
Through faith
That faith
Only comes
In the heart
Of those
Who recognize
Their deep need for it
Which in itself
Is a grace of God
And then it leads
Them to the cross
Because that's where
It was accomplished
And that's where
We rejoice this morning
And that's where