In the Name
of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace
and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord
and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (2011)
Leading
Little Ones away from Sin
Matthew 18:1-6
(ESV)
At that time the disciples came to Jesus,
saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" [2] And calling to him a child, he put him in
the midst of them [3] and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and
become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. [4] Whoever humbles himself like this child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
[5] "Whoever receives one such child
in my name receives me, [6] but whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better
for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in
the depth of the sea.
Solomon wrote, “Train up a child in the way he
should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6 ESV).
I thought this instruction from our Lord was very apropos considering we here
at Grace have just begun a new two-year children’s catechism class. When we
listen to our Lord in today’s Gospel Reading and when we are reminded of the
words of Solomon, then it is proper for us to consider that the Christian
training of children is of the highest importance for parents. Such training
concerns the temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare of the child, the
happiness of the home, the best interests of the Church, and the security of
the nation. Such training leads little
ones to Jesus and away from sin.
It is well to bear in mind that children
belong to the Lord. Our children are not a product of evolution, they are
creatures of God. “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a
reward” (Psalm 127:3 ESV). Besides creating children, God has redeemed
them from sin, death, and the devil at a tremendous cost to Himself; the
sacrificial death of His only-begotten Son on the Altar of the Cross.
Furthermore, God has made provisions to sanctify all children. Oh you may have
brought your son or daughter into the world, but that child belongs to God in
every sense of the word. Therefore, His will concerning that child must be
respected.
God wants children to be trained in His
ways and He has revealed, in Scripture, how we are to do this. Although God is
not visibly present to take charge of the training, He is ever invisibly and
actively present, where such training is properly done. God has chosen others,
human beings, to do the work in His name and stead, and He has adequately
equipped them for the task and has promised them His blessings.
To begin with, these instructions
concerning the training of our children are not
given to the State. Even our country’s Constitution recognizes this fact.
There are those today within the boundaries of our country who insist that
every child should be a ward of the State. As well-meaning
as these people may be, their philosophy is a real menace to the welfare of the
Church, the nation, and the family.
Remember, it is a religious education,
Christian training that God demands for the child. God has given other specific
duties to the State. He has given the State the power of the sword, that is,
the power to make laws, to enforce laws, to punish evildoers, and to engage in
just wars for the protection of its citizens—all of course within His
prescribed bounds. The State may, of course, in considering the welfare of its
people and the future of the country, demand a minimum scholastic, secular
education for the children of its citizens, but God’s demand to provide a
Christian education is given to parents, not the State. However, over the
objection of its citizens, we see this order of authority routinely usurped by
legislators every year. Through hate crime legislation and equal protection
clause ideologies, the State has implemented a continual assault upon the doctrinal
teachings of the Church. Liberal progressives demand a separation of Church and
State when laws benefit Christians, yet they embrace all laws which require the
State to teach contrary to the Church, and thus offend Christians.
God’s instructions concerning the
training of children are given to parents; primarily to fathers. Nothing is
more clearly taught in Scripture.
For the most part, Christian parents
feel inadequate to the task, but they will not leave the work undone. Instead,
they will make the necessary provisions for the training of their children that
meet God’s requirements. They will choose Christian teachers, such as those who
labor in our Christian day schools and Sunday schools, to assist them. However,
this does not release Christian parents from the personal responsibility of
training their children. They will co-operate with those to whom they have
entrusted their children and they will constantly supervise their children’s
training.
These words are also addressed to the
Church and to the ministry of the Church. Besides adults, there are also
children in the Church. Our Lord Jesus says, “to such
belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14 ESV). Moreover, the Lord
emphatically charges His Church in general and every Christian congregation in
particular with the duty of teaching the Word and will of God not only to the adults
but to the children as well. Our Lord tells us regarding the children within
the congregation, “Feed, my lambs” (John 21:15 ESV) and with respect to those
outside the Church: “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”
(Matthew 28:19 ESV). Thus it is clear from these words that God wants
the Church, every congregation, to be engaged in child-training activities, not
merely because the parents, perhaps because of the lack of time or ability,
cannot provide for the necessary training of their children, but because,
parents or no parents, the Church as Church has a sacred obligation in this
direction.
This brings us to a point which is often
overlooked. Congregations are composed of individual members. Not only those
members of the congregation who themselves have children, but every member of
the congregation, whether they have children to train or not, is, by virtue of
their church membership duty bound to take a living and lifelong interest in
such child-training activities of which their congregation can establish and
maintain; be it a day school, Sunday school, catechumen classes or other
venues. Thus it can be seen that God’s instruction as revealed through Solomon
concerning the training of children are given first to parents, then also to
the Church, and more specifically to every local Christian congregation.
“Train up a child in the way he should
go.”
God has created the map which shows the way for all men to follow Him: that is the
Christian way. This is the way to the Father through Christ. It is the way of
faith in Christ, the way of love and loyal service to Christ and to our fellow
man.
In order that men walk in this way, God
insists that they be trained. The fear of the Lord and the knowledge of His
Word must be firmly implanted in their hearts and minds so that their desires,
thoughts, words, and deeds are influenced, molded, and governed by this
training. God wants men to know their duty to Him, to their superiors, to the
Church, to the State, and to society so sufficiently well that they may do His
will intelligently. He wants them so trained in the performance of these duties
that they will do them habitually and with pleasure. Thus training a child in
the way of God is training the child to walk a godly life on earth, always
looking to Jesus as the center and focus of life. All their doings in life are
to center on Jesus Christ and His sacrificial, atoning death on the Cross. This
is the way clearly revealed in Scripture.
However, experience teaches us that
those who would walk in this way are those who have been trained for it since
childhood. We are told, “As the tree is bent, so the tree is inclined.” This
rule is laid down in the Bible and supported by human experience. There are
exceptions, we know. There are men and women walking in the narrow way who had
no Christian training in their childhood, and there are those walking the broad
way that leads to destruction who were raised in a Christian home even attended
Christian day school. However, the rule still holds. “Train up a child,” says
the Lord. We had better heed these words.
To train, as the Lord means training, is
to catechize and lead. Such training imposes real effort, both on the part of
the child, the teacher, and the parents. Knowledge must be imparted; skills
acquired; habits formed; attitudes developed. This requires a protracted and
careful instruction by precept and example. Such training requires patience.
The training of children often is a slow and difficult process. God, however,
can conquer the child’s heart and will, while blessing our efforts if we are
patient. Training requires strength, more strength than we posses by nature.
God will accord us the necessary endurance to carry on in the work, provided we
ask for it in confident prayer. He has promised, and His is faithful.
Our Lord commands us to “Train
up a child in the way he should go.” Thus this command is not to be
considered idly, because, to ignore this instruction from God has serious
consequence, which brings us to the Gospel Reading for today.
The apostles had been arguing among
themselves, trying to settle which of them was the greatest. Their argument is
the result of pride, love of glory, and ignorance of the spiritual nature of
the
To overcome the disciples feeling of
superiority, our Lord places a child in their midst and tells them they must
become like children if they are to enter the kingdom of heaven (v. 3).They
must return to the gentle submissiveness of a child, they must assume truly
childlike minds. The point of comparison is not innocence, but honesty, the
total absence of arrogance and the presence of simplicity and humility. These
are the distinguishing traits of a child. The smaller we grow in our own
estimation, the greater we become in the sight of God. The mark of true greatness
before God consists in that humility of spirit, which excludes every vestige of
selfishness and pride.
To illustrate just high highly our Lord
esteems the childlike spirit, He turns to the apostles and says, “Whoever
receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these
little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a
great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the
sea” (vv. 5-6).
Regardless of
the faulty reason of men, our Lord makes it clear; faith may be received by
children. Thus our Savior shows just how terrible it is to lead a child or a believer—a
soul endowed with the humble spirit of a child—away from the path of faith.
Therefore, if one is guilty of putting obstacles in the path of a child so they
may not learn the way and will of God, they are guilty of hindering that child
from coming to God or putting their faith at risk. Doing so is committing a sin
so grievous that it would be better to have ones life end in violence than to
commit a sin so awful that it requires the forfeiture of their eternal life. It
demands an eternal death that requires their soul to be drawn into the abyss of
eternal damnation. Thus when our Lord commands us to “Train up a
child in the way he should go” He is telling us to receive that child
for His sake, because by receiving the child, we are receiving Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus came to save all sinners,
this includes children. What a sin it is to separate the children from the
salvation which Jesus has come to bring! Thank God that He gave you parents who
understood His command to leads you to
Jesus and away from sin. Amen.
May the peace
of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Amen.