Matthew 18:1-7

Last week we saw this teaching moment that Jesus had with Peter. It revolved around taxes, but the greater lesson was about Peter’s witness before others. We’re going to be talking about that some more this morning, but we’re not going to start there, as we have to deal with a little situation with the disciples first in this passage. But Jesus is going to take this situation and expand the lesson that He was sharing with Peter last week, to all of the disciples today. So, let’s go ahead and read this passage.

 

Read Matthew 18:1-7

 

This passage starts with the disciples asking Jesus a really interesting question:

 

“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

 

 

All of those things happened in the last chapter of Matthew and now these guys are just sitting around trying to figure out which of them is the greatest in God’s kingdom. And you know maybe I can give them the benefit of the doubt a little bit. I know that guys can be competitive about literally anything. There are pages on Reddit called things like, “whywomenlivelonger” and “justguysbeingdudes” that are filled with guys doing some the dumbest things imaginable, and a lot of times it’s just because a guy is trying to one up the other guys around him. It’s like, “oh really, you did that, well check this out”. We have a natural leaning towards pride and guys love trying to be better or to do something crazier than the next guy.

 

And so, there’s a part of me that’s like ok, maybe this is just relatable guy stuff. I mean it obviously shouldn’t be happening anyways, but maybe it’s understandable. But then they bring the question to Jesus. I mean I could totally picture a group of guys having this debate and then one of them, not putting any thought into his actions, is just like … well I’m just going to ask Jesus to settle this for us!

 

Jesus doesn’t give them a direct answer to this question, because the question is kind of ridiculous. Instead, He once again turns this into a teaching moment.

 

Jesus could have been like, “well obviously I’m the greatest” and He would have been totally right in saying so, but instead, what does He do in verse 2?

 

Read Matthew 18:2

 

My wife loves teaching with visual aids, and that’s never really been my strong suite, but she’s great at it, and here we see that Jesus teaches that way too at times. He could have just talked about a child, but Jesus calls over a child, brings them right into the midst of the disciples, and was essentially like … you guys need to be more like them.

 

But what does Jesus mean by this? What lesson is He teaching His disciples?

 

The disciples were probably disappointed in Jesus’ response, not only did He not settle their little dispute and pick the greatest one among them. He is also now telling them that they need to be like this child to even enter the kingdom of heaven and much less to be the greatest in the kingdom. And so, what is it about children that makes the lesson here?

 

Jesus brought this child in as visual lesson to go against their prideful debate with a lesson in humility.

 

This is a very different culture that we are talking about here and obviously very different times. The children at this time and in this place weren’t really regarded with any sort of importance. They were just there, they had to be looked after, they were seen more as property than as individuals or as people.

 

And it’s these children, in this time and culture, that Jesus is giving as the example for His disciples.

 

Today, you have kids trying to be social media influencers and stuff and trying to make a name for themselves at a young age. You have all the popularity status issues and clicks in school that they are dealing with now. But back then you were just a kid, you were kind of looked down on by society, you weren’t making a name for yourself, you were just being what you were and trying to make it. You probably weren’t worried about your social status and all of these other things. You probably weren’t asking “Who’s the greatest among us?!” No, I’m just a kid.

 

Jesus tells them in verse 3 that unless “you are converted and become as little children” you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was telling them that their mindset needed to be transformed away from this prideful pursuit and graduate to the humility that these children have. The Bible is so clear about God’s dislike, and it even says hate, of pride. Look at some of these passages.

 

1 John 2:16 says:

 

 

 

 

Jesus’ disciples were in this weird debate of theirs and Jesus is like, hold on, you need to be more like this kid right here. You need to stop all of this mindset about who is the best and trying to be elevated above other people. God hates pride because pride is us trying to establish ourselves and our own interests above others and even above Him and His interests. If there is anything that our flesh wants us to fall for, it’s pride, because it will lead us towards an attitude of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness and lead us away from dependance on and submission to God.

 

And like I said, please don’t miss what it says in James 4:6. Not only does God dislike and even hate pride, but He will also actively oppose prideful people. If you have any idea at all about Who He is, why would you ever want to be in opposition to Him? That simply would not work out well for any of us.

 

Pride is the problem here, and the opposite of pride is humility. We still see that in that James passage there. We see opposition on one side, but grace is given to the other. Jesus’ visual example with the kid in this passage is that this kid isn’t trying to lord himself over anyone, he’s not trying to be the greatest, he’s just a kid, he was probably still dependent on others to survive, and he probably recognized his place in the world that he lived in.

 

And just to clarify, Jesus isn’t saying, be childish, He’s just saying, be humble like the kid. And the fact of the matter and the heart of all of this, is that God is so extremely great and glorious, and so, what business does a person have in trying to take part of that for themselves? That kid I’m sure wasn’t trying to do that and that’s why Jesus said to be like them. God loves us, but He wants us to stay humble in light of Him and others.

 

There’s a sign right when you walk through the front door here that quotes Micah 6:8 which says:

He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

 

We are to walk humbly with Him. We’re supposed to know our place. He is awesome and we don’t have any place to try to take any of that away from Him for ourselves.

 

1 Peter 5:6-7 says:

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

 

God tells us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. Not try to just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, not to try to work everything out ourselves, not to think that I can just take care of all of this. That’s not to say that we don’t get busy and that we don’t work, but we humble ourselves under His mighty hand, because we realize how great He is, and He tells us there that He’s got us. To cast our cares on Him, BECAUSE HE CARES FOR US. Humility will lead us to do that, while pride will try to have us prove self-sufficiency and fail.

 

Jesus essentially told His disciples here in Matthew 18 that this humble mindset is a requirement for the kingdom and it’s definitely a requirement for kingdom greatness. Humility doesn’t equal salvation, but salvation through Jesus Christ and a real relationship with the Lord has to result in some real humility along with it.

 

And this humility not only effects our interaction and relationship with God, it also absolutely affects our relationships with others. I want to go to a passage together in Philippians.

 

Read Philippians 2:1-4

 

Paul is talking to this church, and he is like, if we’re in Christ, if we have the Spirit of God, then we need to be of this same mindset together. He tells them that we can’t be selfish prideful people, that we need to be humble, and that we need to think of other people more than ourselves. And even their interests or their needs right along with our own and maybe even above our own at times. This isn’t our natural fleshly self-preservation and prideful mindset; this is something totally new with Jesus. We’re to be radically different than our natural selves because of the transformation that He brings to our lives.

 

This “others focused mindset”, brings us back to our witness, like we talked about last week. And when we consider this, we need to ask the question:

 

 

That’s what our witness is. It’s the answer to that question that other people are seeing and evaluating.

 

 

 

That’s a big deal and a very serious issue. Jesus shares some really hard words about this back in Matthew 18. Let’s read them again.

 

Read Matthew 18:6-7

 

Now Jesus’ wording is still coming from His example of the kids, but most take these comments to be talking about people that are young in the faith. Newer believers in Jesus. And so, Jesus is warning us here against leading others towards sin and stumbling, especially those that are new or maybe weaker in their faith. Jesus uses really strong wording here to let us know how seriously He takes these things. Jesus fully acknowledges that problems or offenses and stumbling blocks will come, and that is something that we all need to be aware of, but He’s warning here that the person that causes these things, will be held accountable for it. We need to keep that in mind as we consider our actions.

 

Like we talked about last week, we need to consider the impact of our choices and our actions on the lives of others. As followers of Jesus, we have a real responsibility to help others grow in their faith and to actively avoid doing things that would hurt or slow down others progress.

 

The disciples having this conversation today to further their pride was never going to help them, and it could absolutely hurt others too, by maybe setting an example that pride might be OK. And it’s absolutely not. Jesus brings a lesson to the middle of the situation and says be like this kid here that’s not prideful and recognize that it is serious problem if you lead people the wrong way with things like this.

 

I’m pretty sure for all of us, that we probably don’t put the amount of thought that we should, into all of our words and actions. Let us learn today that we can’t be living carelessly, when we represent Someone so holy and so awesome.

 

Listen, Jesus says that it would be BETTER to have this extremely heavy millstone put around your neck and to be drowned in the sea. He says that would be better than causing people to stumble in their faith. With Jesus talking like that, this is definitely not something that we should be taking lightly.

 

But as we close, as we walk away today, forget the pride, who are we in light of the almighty God. Our eyes should be on Him only, with a new desire because of Him, to benefit others above ourselves. And I really hope that the graphic severity of Jesus’ warning in this passage, would cause us to be more serious, and to put more thought, into the way that we live. Because people are absolutely watching. We’re supposed to be representing Him, there’s no days off from that, and our lives are hopefully helping build others up, and point them towards Jesus, rather than causing anyone else to sin or stumble.

 

 

 

Let’s Pray