The Posture of a Kingdom Heart....

As we all know, children ask lots of questions. Sometimes, as an adult or parent, you may wonder if the questions will ever stop. However, long before children speak, they communicate non-verbally. One of the strongest non-verbal communications of a child is when he or she raises their arms. So, why do children do this? Of course, as we all know, they are seeking the comfort and safety of their parent’s (or another adult’s) arms. More specifically, it says, “I cannot get up there from down here on my own. I am totally dependent on you to understand this and am trusting completely that you will not leave me down here”. Furthermore, this non-verbal signal (raising arms) actually communicates humility or dependence on the parent or adult to help them do what they cannot do on their own. In today’s passage, Mark 10:13-16, we see how important children are to our Lord and how He prioritizes ministering to them. Just as importantly, we will learn that we must have the humility of a child for God to get us where we need to go spiritually - into His eternal kingdom. 

By reading Old Testament scripture, it is evident that children have always been key to God’s design and plan. This applies both to children physically born into families and those spiritually born or born again into the family of God.  We first see God’s heart for children in the creation and dominion mandate to man. As God performed the first marriage ceremony, God said to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Even before the fall of mankind (when sin entered the world), God’s design was for man and woman to fill the earth by having children. Stated succinctly, we were created by God to desire to have children in marriage. Furthermore, children were integral to God’s Old Covenant people. Let us look together at Deuteronomy 6:1-7 to see what Moses spoke to all of Israel. “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.” In verses 20 and 21, Moses goes on to say the following: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Obviously, by looking at these two Bible passages, we see how important and special that children are to Jesus, the Creator and Deliverer of the Old Testament. 

Now, in Mark 10, Jesus continues this theme of the importance of children by rebuking the disciples who were blocking the children’s access to Jesus when He said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). Then, in verse 15, He expands on this by saying “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Now, we must note the specific language used here; Jesus does not say “as a child”; instead, he says “like a child”. Here, Jesus is telling the disciples and us there is a specific way, or posture that we must receive His kingdom to enter it; that is we must accept Christ as Lord and Savior with the same humility and faith that a child has when he or she raises their arms. Friend, if you, with the humble posture of a dependent child, have placed your faith in Christ alone, you are born again and a child of God. And, as such, you are part of a new covenant people - not based on ethnicity, but on a shared identity in Christ, the One who shed His blood for the atonement of your sin and conquered death by rising from the grave three days later. Hallelujah, what a glorious blessing this is! However, if you have not yet humbly placed your faith in Christ, your destiny is eternal seperation from our Lord in a place of everlasting torment. Friend, if you have not yet done so, will you, like a child with outstretched arms, reach out to Jesus and accept His gift of salvation today?.....

Click here to learn how you can enter God's eternal kingdom and receive His free gift of salvation.

To listen or watch this entire sermon, click here.