Luke 18:1-17 "Entering the Kingdom of God" Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. The disciples think that Jesus is too busy for children. But Jesus is never too busy for one of his little ones. Did the children understand all the details of his teaching? These little infants? No, but that is not the point. The point is that parents are to bring their little ones to Jesus. And he will bless them. This is one reason why we encourage parents to keep their children in the worship service. Perhaps the disciples were concerned that the children would be too noisy. Perhaps they thought that since the children couldn't understand everything, they had no place coming to Jesus. Jesus doesn't say, "we've got a children's program for the kids why don't you take them away." He says let the children come to me. He says that the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these little ones. Now we also believe that we are the family of God, and so we do have a nursery in order to help one another in training these little ones. We should work together towards teaching them to sit and listen. And gradually they will understand more and more of what they hear and see. Because it is here in worship that we come as one body into the presence of the living God, into the heavenly holy of holies, where Jesus himself welcomes all of us! But what is the context for this? What does it mean for the little children to come to Jesus? Introduction: Cataclysmic Judgment Is Coming! Jesus has just told his disciples that judgment is coming upon Israel. Jerusalem will be destroyed in the days of the Son of Man. Because the days of the Son of Man are like the days of Noah when God brought to an end the ancient world. And the days of the Son of Man are like the days of Lot when God destroyed the world of Sodom and Gomorrah. And in the days of the Son of Man, catastrophic judgment will come upon Israel. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. (v25) As we've seen throughout Luke's gospel, geography structures the book. 9:51-13:21 spoke of the road to Jerusalem, as Jesus is heading toward the cross, and Jesus warned that the judgment of Sodom would come upon Israel. 13:22-17:10 spoke of how since judgment is coming, therefore Israel's only hope is to repent and believe in Jesus. Now 17:11-18:34 summarizes the basic message of Jesus as he approaches Jerusalem: both in 17:25 and in 18:31-34 we have Jesus' prophecy of what will happen to himself. He will be rejected. Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. The only way to avoid the coming judgment, is to repent and believe in the Son of Man. Jesus is setting forth the only way for Israel to avoid being destroyed in the days of the Son of Man. Luke 17:11-19 sets up the context Jesus will not destroy the Samaritans he will save those who believe in him. Then the Pharisees question in 17:20-21 drives the whole passage from 17:22-18:34. When will the kingdom of God come? And, of course, this is not an abstract question! Because the whole point of wondering when the kingdom will come is how do I make sure that I am in the kingdom when it comes! Jesus' answer has five parts: 1 the coming of the days of the Son of Man (17:20-37) 2 the parable of the unjust judge (18:1-8) 3 the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (18:9-14) 4 the episode with the children (18:15-17) and 5 his conversation with the rich ruler (18:18-30) We looked at the first part last week: the days of the Son of Man. The coming of the kingdom would bring a catastrophic end to the world as the Jews knew it. When the Son of Man comes on the clouds of heaven to the ancient of days, and sits down at the right hand of the Father, then the earthly temple will be overthrown. Jerusalem will be trampled by the Romans. And we also saw that the destruction of the temple in AD 70 by the Romans points us forward to the end of the age. All of the catastrophic judgments in history are pointing forward to the final judgment. Even as the destruction of Jerusalem marked the end of OT Israel so also it reminds us that God has appointed a day when he will judge all nations. Today we are looking at parts 2-4 of Jesus response. Cataclysmic judgment is coming. How then should we live? 1. Therefore Pray and Do Not Lose Heart (18:1-8) Well, let me give you an example. You see, there was this judge and he did not fear God. A judge who does not fear God is a dangerous thing. When a judge is only concerned with what the people think of him, he will tend to render judgments that are corrupt. [Roger] But this judge neither feared God nor respected man. In other words he didn't even care what the people thought of him. This judge was entirely self-centered. He would render any judgment that pleased himself. He did not fear God, so he didn't care about wrong or right. He did not respect man, so he didn't care about his community. He only cared about himself. And there was this widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' God had told the judges of Israel to give justice to the widow and orphan because they had no other defender. But this judge refused. He did not fear God nor did he care what the people thought. Many of you are "judges" of a sort. As parents you must resolve disputes of various kinds. Are you like this judge? Self-centered and self-absorbed? Only resolving disputes in order to get the kids out of your hair? Our children figure this out pretty quick, don't they? If I pester dad long enough, he'll give me what I want! Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. Even an unjust judge may do the right thing if you pester him long enough! And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says. If an unrighteous judge will do right when he is hounded, how much more will God do right when he is hounded! Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. (v17-18) Remember the heading of this parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. The point of this parable is that you are to be hounding God in prayer! What are you supposed to be praying for? Remember that this is in answer to the question about the coming of the kingdom. When Jesus says that God will give justice to his people, he is talking about the justice that comes when God judges the earth. God's last days judgment is about to be declared. Remember the beginning of Luke's gospel? Look back at Luke 1. Zechariah and Elizabeth are said to be righteous before God (1:6), and in verse 10 Zechariah is offering incense in the temple, and the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And the angel Gabriel appears before Zechariah and says, your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. What had Zechariah been praying for? A son? We were told in verse 7 that they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. There is no suggestion in the text that Zechariah was praying for a son. Because Zechariah was not just praying for himself. He was leading all Israel in prayer at the hour of incense. The whole of faithful Israel is gathered at the hour of incense, praying before the Lord, praying for justice! Praying that the kingdom of God would come. And God answers the prayers of his people by sending a son to the barren woman. Too often our prayers are self-centered. Did Zechariah and Elizabeth want a child? Certainly. But more than they wanted a child, they wanted to see the kingdom of God! They wanted to see the God of Israel restore his people and make them whole. In other words, Zechariah and Elizabeth are the classic example of seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Are your prayers oriented around the kingdom of God? Or are they oriented around yourself and your family? Zechariah and Elizabeth were not focused on praying for a baby, they were focused on praying for the kingdom that's why Zechariah was there in the temple! This is why Psalm 37:4 says "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Our prayers are to be oriented around the coming of the kingdom "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We are to be diligent in prayer, pestering God, pleading with God, that he would establish and build his kingdom. Nevertheless, Jesus says, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Remember the context. The days of the Son of Man are like the days of Noah, or the days of Lot. In the days of Noah, was there faith on the earth? (No only eight were saved) In the days of Lot, was there faith in Sodom? (No only three were saved) When the Son of Man comes in judgment against Jerusalem, will he find faith on the earth? Like in the days of Noah and the days of Lot, there will only be a remnant that will survive the destruction of Jerusalem in the days of the Son of Man. 2. Therefore Humble Yourself and Do Not Trust in Yourself (18:9-14) Keep that in mind as you think about the next parable. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt. As the parable suggests, these are the Pharisees. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: Which way should this be read? [brashly or humbly?] 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' I think we tend to read it arrogantly, as though the Pharisee is a real jerk. But I'm not at all sure that Jesus is trying to portray the Pharisee as a jerk. Notice how it starts: God, I thank you. I think we often demonize the Pharisee worse than Jesus does. Jesus is not saying that he is ungrateful. After all, the Pharisee would have been quick to say, "Of course, I owe it all to the electing grace of God in making me part of his faithful people, Israel!" The problem with this prayer is in the pronouns. "I" am the one doing everything. This is not a kingdom prayer. The Pharisee trusts in himself that he is righteous. He views himself as categorically different from "sinners." The "righteous" are those who are "right" with God. He looks at his life and conduct and believes that he is right with God. He looks at the various "marks" of Israel and says, "Yup, I've checked off my list, I am good with God. I'm not like this sinner. . ." This attitude is deadly. It is so easy to compare ourselves with people around us. But that is simply one more way of making ourselves the center of the universe. In contrast, the sinner, this tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' And Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. We need to think about what is going on here. Both the Pharisee and the tax collector are circumcised Jews. They are both part of the covenant people. What does Jesus mean by "this man went down to his house justified"? We are used to thinking of "justification" as a once-for-all event at the beginning of the Christian life, but Jesus is not using the word in that sense. Jesus is not saying that this tax collector has come to faith now for the first time. Indeed, the reason why the tax collector has come to the temple to pray, is because he already has faith! No, Jesus is talking about the very thing that we do every Sunday when we pray our prayer of confession. When we come into the presence of the living God together, what do we say? I know, we all use the same words, but I'm talking about where your heart is! If you come to worship at God's heavenly temple on Sunday morning, and you come trusting in yourself that you are right with God because you've checked your little checklist, then no matter how often I declare the forgiveness of sins, you are not justified! you are not right with God. But if you stand before God, and cannot even lift up your eyes to heaven, and grieve over your sin, saying, "God, be merciful to me" then God declares you righteous. That's what it means to be in the state of justification that God continues to forgive your sins, and declare you righteous, because his once-for-all verdict has been proclaimed over you in Jesus Christ. The tax collector goes down to his house justified because he has humbled himself before the LORD. And he does not trust in himself. There is a shocking implication to Jesus' statement. Tax collectors are welcome in the kingdom of God. Tax collectors collaborated with the Romans. They were scum in the eyes of "faithful" Jews. But Jesus says that tax collectors do not need to quit their jobs to join his kingdom-movement. They must be honest, faithful and just. But they do not have to quit being a tax collector. (In the very next chapter we will hear of Zaccheus one tax collector who heeded the call!) For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. In the days of the Son of Man when cataclysmic judgment comes upon Israel it will not be the self-appointed leaders of Israel who are saved, but rather those who humble themselves before the Lord. This is also a warning to us! Because while Jesus speaks this to the Jews of his own day, Luke writes it for us! God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 3. Therefore Receive the Kingdom like a Child (18:15-17) The disciples didn't get it. They didn't understand what 'humble yourself' meant, so Jesus gives them a case study in humility! Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. "Jesus is too busy" "Take these children away the rabbi has more important things to do!" But Jesus called them to him, saying, 'Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.' Some like to focus on the last line. They would have us believe that it is simply people like children, people with child-like faith, who will enter the kingdom of God. But it would be a strange thing indeed for Jesus to say, people with child-like faith enter the kingdom of God, but this actual infant does not belong to the kingdom of God! Because Jesus says that the kingdom of God belongs to them. To such belongs the kingdom of God. Further, why are these parents bringing their children to Jesus? "That he might touch them." That he might place his hand upon their heads and bless them (cf Mark 10:13ff). Who would do such a thing? Those who believed in Jesus. These parents understood that the kingdom of God was at hand; and they wanted to be part of it. And they understood that God called them and their children to participate in the blessings of the kingdom. There is a whole lot more to the argument for infant baptism, but one part of it is that Jesus emphatically states that children are part of his kingdom. Indeed, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. How does a child receive the kingdom? How did these infants receive the kingdom? They were blessed by Jesus. They were taught by his apostles. The way that children receive the kingdom is the way of the Great Commission: where the apostles are commanded: Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. The way you receive the kingdom is through the means of grace. You cannot enter the kingdom by trusting in yourself. There is no "checklist" that you can check off. Rather, the way of the kingdom is the way of the persistent widow: pleading with God to bring justice. The way of the kingdom is the way of tax collector, pleading with God for mercy. The way of the kingdom is the way of a child, trusting in the goodness of our heavenly Father.