WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.560 Okay, just for a few minutes this morning, I want to talk, before we get the kids back 00:00:05.560 --> 00:00:14.000 up and enjoy the baptism together, I want to talk a little bit about these two passages 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.559 that we read together. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:18.559 It's great. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:24.640 We're going to, I think, we're going to have lots of baptisms in the next few while because 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:28.600 we've got lots of babies that have been born in the pandemic and the closing of church 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:29.600 and everything is meant. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:33.000 It's kind of like planes stacked up in a runway. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:37.439 I think we're going to just have lots and lots of them coming back to church and the 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:40.439 thrill of baptisms coming soon. 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:45.719 And it was great to see the con all there with us, killed on after Friday night, even 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:46.719 better. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:49.280 It looked fantastic and you should have just kept them in. 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:50.280 He's fine. 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:56.359 But these passages are really interesting because Jesus speaks in these two addresses 00:00:56.359 --> 00:00:58.960 that he gives to the disciples. 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:02.120 He speaks about what's important, about value in life. 00:01:02.120 --> 00:01:05.000 He talks about the significance of children. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.519 And he's also talking about the kingdom of God in these passages. 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:15.400 And so we look for, when we come to the Bible, we look for what Jesus is saying to us and 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:18.439 what he wants us to learn. 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:25.000 And we sit up and take note of what Jesus says because we regard Him and recognize Him 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:34.840 as God in the flesh and one who is hugely relevant and important and living, and His 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:36.439 word is living for us. 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:39.840 He's always worth listening to. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:47.400 And at a broader level today in our baptismal service, we're reminded of what we want to 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:56.160 be reminded of what baptism says for us, why our children and the children of Christian 00:01:56.160 --> 00:02:04.680 parents, what we are saying about our lives, our families and what we regard as significant 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:10.319 because when Graham and Cursley take their children for baptism, they're saying that 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:15.520 they recognize as we do when we've done that, that the most important thing our children 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:20.480 need to know about and experience in life is the reality of God and the good news that 00:02:20.480 --> 00:02:25.920 He declares and the significance and the importance of that in our individual lives 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:30.200 and in our family life as well. 00:02:30.200 --> 00:02:35.160 In the second of the two sections in Mark chapter 10, Jesus speaks about the kingdom 00:02:35.160 --> 00:02:36.680 of God. 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:42.840 And I guess we just, we ask that question, well, what does that mean? 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:45.960 And He speaks about the kingdom of God, it's kind of not the kind of phrase you hear every 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:51.759 day, and it's very important in the Bible. 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:56.480 And really basically what, when Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God, He's reminding us 00:02:56.480 --> 00:03:00.439 that there are two ways to see life. 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:08.199 We can see life with God, or we can look at life and live our lives without God at the 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:10.000 center really of our lives. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:15.840 There's two ways to live, and recognizing who God is and recognizing who Jesus is and 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:22.520 trusting our lives to Him enables us to live in that, with that perspective and in that 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:27.039 place which is the kingdom of God. 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:33.199 But most people in, certainly in the Western world today are living without God in their 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:40.399 lives to any degree, maybe other things, other people or themselves at the center. 00:03:40.399 --> 00:03:46.079 And so there's, in a sense, two kingdoms that we see and that the Bible speaks about. 00:03:46.079 --> 00:03:54.000 One with God at the very center, God who reveals Himself as Creator, kind of important, the 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:03.560 author of life, the author of love, the author of justice, the one who is unparalleledly sovereign, 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:12.560 eternal, unique, holy, uncreated, of whom Jesus is God and the flesh revealed to us. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:18.079 So there's that reality of recognizing and knowing as we come and worship together, as 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:20.879 Christians that's what we do. 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:26.040 Knowing the importance of the centrality, the kingdom of God and having God at the center. 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:35.719 And Jesus uses children in these two episodes to explain or help explain that choosing to 00:04:35.719 --> 00:04:40.360 follow Jesus and to belong to His kingdom, in other words, turns our world upside down 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:45.159 and gives us a different set of priorities, reminds us that we will live very differently 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:55.800 now as Christians when we follow Jesus and also transforms our prospects eternally. 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:58.520 In other words, as a life changer when we're following Jesus. 00:04:58.520 --> 00:05:02.200 And I think sometimes as Christians we forget that. 00:05:02.200 --> 00:05:05.800 Sometimes we forget who He is, we forget the significance of Him every day. 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:11.840 We become cold and cynical and unchanged and we use Him as some kind of insurance policy 00:05:11.840 --> 00:05:14.680 for something that might happen in the future. 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:18.800 Rather than living for Him and serving Him and knowing Him and loving Him today. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.319 So there's a couple of things just I want to say about that. 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:29.079 The first is in the first section we read in chapter 9, verses 33 to 37, He redefines 00:05:29.079 --> 00:05:31.120 greatness for us. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:34.560 He redefines what we mean by greatness. 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:38.439 And that's a practical and an interesting question for all of us. 00:05:38.439 --> 00:05:40.480 How do we define greatness? 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:41.480 Who's the greatest? 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:42.680 Or what is the greatest? 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:45.680 Or what is the most significant thing in our lives? 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:53.040 The disciples in this passage had been walking previously before Jesus met them and they'd 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:56.160 been arguing about who was the greatest. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:01.800 In one of the other gospels it has the parallel passage and it tells us they were arguing 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:04.120 about who's the greatest in the kingdom of God. 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:10.040 So as believers they were asking a bit of a crazy question. 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:15.200 And Jesus wants to shake them out of their misunderstanding of what it means to follow 00:06:15.200 --> 00:06:19.200 Him and what it means, what greatness means. 00:06:19.200 --> 00:06:22.720 And He uses children to do that. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:29.960 He uses the children that come to Him and He uses them as an example. 00:06:29.960 --> 00:06:35.600 And He says, this is what true greatness is about. 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:41.960 And that would have been very, very shocking for the people and the disciples especially 00:06:41.960 --> 00:06:44.680 to whom Jesus was speaking I think. 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:54.840 Because in that society and at that time kind of kids were very much to be seen, at best 00:06:54.840 --> 00:06:57.120 to be seen and not to be heard. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:58.120 They weren't important. 00:06:58.120 --> 00:06:59.120 They were often silenced. 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:00.120 They were ignored. 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.000 They were sometimes neglected and rejected. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:07.439 And regarded as vulnerable and weak rather than the greatest. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:13.279 Nobody would take a child and would regard a child as kind of object or a definition 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:15.720 of greatness. 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:20.199 And now that situation has changed very much today in the society which we live I hope 00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:21.879 and pray. 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:27.279 There have been huge advances and huge changes so that people do regard and value children 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:31.360 I hope much more than maybe sometimes they have been in the past. 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:41.759 We educate them, we love them, we safeguard them against abuse and we seek to protect 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.800 them as those who are vulnerable. 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:50.879 But yet, strange isn't it? 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:55.840 In 2020 the lives of over a quarter of a million unborn children in the UK didn't see the light 00:07:55.840 --> 00:07:57.800 of day. 00:07:57.800 --> 00:08:04.040 And in a world of staggering inequality it's often the children that are neglected and 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:11.360 most vulnerable and suffer most in this strange and equal world in which we live. 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:18.160 Even in Scotland the statistics are that one in four children live in poverty. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:25.439 So I wonder even if today society's markers would ever use children to define greatness, 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:30.279 to define what's really important in society and what really matters. 00:08:30.279 --> 00:08:33.480 Maybe still doubtful about that. 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:39.679 But from Christ's perspective, greatness looks different and He uses children here as we'll 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:41.240 go on to see. 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:47.200 Because His challenge for us today is that everyone has a definition of what is of first 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:55.080 importance, what really matters, that defines in many ways how we live and what we regard 00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:59.200 as significant, what we value. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:03.840 And it can be lots of different things as we compare ourselves to others, as we do our 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:04.840 best. 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:10.480 Maybe it's health, maybe it's wealth, maybe it's love and relationships and happiness, 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:17.080 maybe it's this driving desire for greatness within ourselves. 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:22.560 And very often maybe today it's simply just being true to ourselves that that is the mark 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:29.719 of greatness in people, just being honest and being yourself and what that means for 00:09:29.719 --> 00:09:32.799 every individual. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:41.919 And Jesus wants us to challenge that idea of greatness and to change our perspective 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:45.039 if He is not in the picture of what's ever in our lives. 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:48.879 And you know we've experienced that change of perspective often at a human level as well, 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:49.879 haven't we? 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:56.600 Maybe if in the workplace you've maybe been betrayed by a colleague or something like 00:09:56.600 --> 00:10:03.120 that, then maybe loyalty and trust takes on a completely different perspective to you 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:08.960 and you see things differently and you value it in a way that you maybe never did before. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:17.639 Or if you've had a heart attack and you recover, therefore a walk on the hill, breathing the 00:10:17.639 --> 00:10:25.039 fresh air, maybe something you never did before and weren't interested in, your life has changed 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:29.679 and your perspective has changed and that becomes important when it maybe wasn't important 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:30.679 before. 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:34.919 I wonder if Christian Erickson, and even if you're not sorry, football illustration I 00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:40.600 know, for those of you who are not in St. Columbus normally, there's always football illustration, 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:41.600 sorry. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:45.240 But even if you're not a football fanatic, maybe you'll have heard of Christian Erickson 00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:48.799 who had a cardiac arrest last week playing football. 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:53.960 I wonder if his perspective on life and on what is important will have changed as a result 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:54.960 of what he's gone through. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:57.759 I'm sure it has in many different ways. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:03.840 But Christ is challenging us here as well to do something radical, to consider all that 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:09.240 we're aiming for, all that we're searching for in life, and that elusive kind of permanence 00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:15.759 is security that we think maybe greatness will give us. 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:19.799 To consider looking at things differently and stop making these things your ultimate 00:11:19.799 --> 00:11:28.519 goal and stop chasing them as the meaning of life and listen and be challenged and be 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:38.000 moved by what Jesus has to say about greatness and what really matters. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:50.759 And he uses the simplicity of the life of children to do that for us. 00:11:50.759 --> 00:12:02.000 In chapter 9 he speaks about trusting and believing like little children. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:07.360 But it starts with Christ Himself, doesn't it, as king of His kingdom? 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:11.440 It starts with who He reveals Himself to be. 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:17.800 And I guess that's at the core of our Christian faith and of our Christian lives and of the 00:12:17.800 --> 00:12:23.919 good news of the gospel because it is for us greatness defined. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:30.560 As God, God is the sovereign King of what we believe is the universe, the source of all 00:12:30.560 --> 00:12:35.920 power, of life, of justice, mystery. 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:43.439 The one before whom we will all stand to give account, His holiness and His perfection 00:12:43.439 --> 00:12:50.279 would blow us all away if we were to stand ever, try and stand in His nearer presence 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:52.799 because of our own imperfections and because of our failings. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:57.000 As the Bible just calls, refers to that as sin. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:06.639 Yet in His relentless inexplicable love He comes as God in the flesh. 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:12.080 We can't, it's hard for us to understand God as a spirit. 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:13.080 Just difficult. 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:19.000 So He comes in the person of Jesus in the flesh and He comes in poverty and He lived 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:24.879 in the darkness and in the protection of the womb for nine months and He humbled Himself 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:32.600 to being a child and to growing up unheralded and in anonymity and who lived to know rejection 00:13:32.600 --> 00:13:40.080 and betrayal and in death made Himself nothing and in the third day rose again. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:43.399 You know, what is that all about? 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:50.440 Why in earth do churches and Christians still speak about that from such a long time ago? 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:54.480 Why is that significant and important? 00:13:54.480 --> 00:14:00.200 He reminds us that greater love is no man than this one who would lay down his life 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:05.840 for his friends and He asks us to entrust our lives to Him and to know His friendship 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:13.560 and to know that He has sacrificed His life on our behalf and taken the sin and the failure 00:14:13.560 --> 00:14:17.120 of our lives and paid the price for that on the cross. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:23.039 And that's for us to investigate and it's for us as Christians to be reminded of every 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:25.519 day in our lives. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:32.919 So it starts with Christ and then He goes on to explain greatness from His point of view 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:41.879 and recognizing that we become great when we learn from the humility of little children, 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:48.159 which is really what He's speaking about in that passage about the little children who 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:58.079 come to Him and who He uses as an example of being last of all, a servant of everyone 00:14:58.079 --> 00:15:01.759 and He takes a child in His arms. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:08.159 And that greatness is that, is an ongoing recognition, we're not so great on our own 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:17.600 and we entrust ourselves to one who is truly great so that we can know true greatness. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:24.840 When we are bowled over by His love and we commit our lives to Him and come to Him forgiveness 00:15:24.840 --> 00:15:30.360 and grace, when we learn to hate the things He hates and love the things He loves, when 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:37.920 we know that being forgiven is the best and greatest thing and our priorities change so 00:15:37.920 --> 00:15:44.639 that we are willing to become a servant of others and have a special love for the most 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:53.000 vulnerable, the most isolated, maybe the most unimportant people in the eyes of others. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:58.039 It's kind of that we think of ourselves less rather than thinking less of ourselves because 00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:00.319 we're precious children of God. 00:16:00.319 --> 00:16:05.600 It's not that we are worthless and come to that, a position of thinking that, but rather 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:12.480 that we are unworthy but still loved and given grace and a future. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:20.360 And we welcome, therefore, children and bless them just in the same way that He did. 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:26.720 And that's why we love having children in the church and I hope that's why we love just 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:34.800 the energy and the noise and the disruption that they cause because that's great. 00:16:34.800 --> 00:16:36.200 It's wonderful. 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:42.680 And we always want to treat whoever it is in our lives and in our day-to-day living 00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:46.400 as image bearers of God and therefore of great value. 00:16:46.400 --> 00:16:50.680 And that may be a challenge for us in our day-to-day living. 00:16:50.680 --> 00:16:56.920 So He starts and He shows us greatness from a different perspective. 00:16:56.920 --> 00:17:03.360 And then He just, I'm just, as I close with this, He illustrates the kingdom of God in 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:09.360 the second passage in chapter 10 again by using the example of children. 00:17:09.360 --> 00:17:12.960 And He says, truly whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:13.960 enter it. 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:19.319 And He's really just using an example there of receiving a gift in the same way as a child 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:20.319 does. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:25.799 You know, just think of children who receive a beautifully wrapped gift on their birthday 00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:27.559 from their mum or their dad. 00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:30.120 They just receive it, don't they, without question. 00:17:30.120 --> 00:17:33.039 They don't leave it in a corner unopened. 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:35.680 They just trust that it's going to be a great gift. 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:38.399 And there's not that ounce of cynicism in them. 00:17:38.399 --> 00:17:42.960 They just, yeah, they rip it open and it's something great that they're going to be given 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:47.279 from those who love them most. 00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:55.879 And He uses that in an illustration of the simplicity of a child receiving a gift to 00:17:55.879 --> 00:18:00.000 reflect the way that we should receive the gift of salvation from Jesus. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:06.480 That's the way we enter the kingdom of God, accept what He's done for us as a gift and 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:13.400 recognize it as a gift, a gift where He gives us faith and forgiveness and new life now 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:17.640 and forever and it comes to live in us and with us. 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:25.720 So we become children of God, not childish, grown-ups, but those who have a childlike 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:34.400 faith in that it's one that we receive without cynicism and we accept willingly. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:38.720 And it's not like the gifts we get and, you know, what happens, gifts that we get are 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:43.480 lovely and new and then they get old and then we throw them out and then we get a new gift. 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:45.000 It's not like that at all. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:47.200 It's a growing relationship we get. 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:51.160 So it's not like as as Christians here, I don't want you to think and sometimes you 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:54.759 think, oh yeah, I became a Christian 30 years ago but I sold hat now, it's all dull and 00:18:54.759 --> 00:18:57.759 boring and I really like other things more. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:00.480 It's not like that for us. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:06.720 There's a satisfaction and a growth and a development and a resourcing and an ongoing 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:11.640 forgiveness and grace in our lives that changes us every day. 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:17.920 So I think we have much to learn from children and from their attitudes and from what God 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.799 thinks of them for ourselves. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:26.519 You know, maybe the world we live in would scoff at that idea but we believe literally 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:29.519 that the little children belong to God. 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:35.319 They are, I think the citizens of heaven on that last day will surprise us a great deal 00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:37.680 by all who are there. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:41.720 Not one of his children will be lost. 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:48.720 And as believers, we baptize our children because they matter to him. 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:50.440 He blesses them. 00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:56.279 We believe they belong to his covenant family of faith and they receive the outward sign 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:57.279 of the promise. 00:19:57.279 --> 00:20:02.080 I wish everyone else enjoyed my sermons as much as they say that she's having a great 00:20:02.080 --> 00:20:08.160 time, just the visual outworking of the joy of receiving. 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.160 Okay, no, don't take it out. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:12.559 No, she's fine, she's fine. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.759 I love to hear her laughing. 00:20:14.759 --> 00:20:21.680 But he blesses them and they belong to the covenant family of faith and they receive 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:29.440 the outward sign of the promise which they will come to know when they accept Jesus 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:36.799 themselves as the seal of the promise that they are given in baptism. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:42.359 And the use of water which we will use just in a moment is a sign of Jesus cleansing from 00:20:42.359 --> 00:20:47.919 sin and the life-giving reality of the Spirit of God that comes into our hearts when we 00:20:47.919 --> 00:20:48.919 believe. 00:20:48.919 --> 00:20:57.240 Therefore, it speaks of our union with Jesus and also it speaks more broadly therefore of 00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:05.679 our union with his family, the people of God, which is why when we come to the baptism, 00:21:05.679 --> 00:21:12.079 the congregation will be asked to take a vow as well and answer a question on behalf of 00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:13.079 Connell. 00:21:13.079 --> 00:21:19.879 So, we rejoice today with the Thompson's and we hope and pray for them that Connell will 00:21:19.879 --> 00:21:27.679 grow up like Struan, will grow up to love and serve the Lord Jesus and we can celebrate 00:21:27.679 --> 00:21:35.679 and rejoice and thank God for his greatness and all we can learn from our children. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:44.680 Amen.