SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/18/2012 12:39:16 PM
Adult Shall Be as Children (Mark
10:13-16): “13 ¶ And they were bringing children to Him so
that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and
said to them, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for
the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15
"Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God
like a child will not enter it at all." 16
And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands
on them.”
In this
second SD on the tenth chapter of the gospel of Mark we will look at children
and why it is important for adults to be like children. I want to remind you of what was said in the
last SD pertaining to how all of the Spiritual Diaries will flow throughout
this tenth chapter of Mark by quoting a section that Dr. Wiersbe wrote at the
very end of his introductory commentary:
“He (Jesus) could have preached long sermons; but instead, He gave us
these five important lessons that can be expressed in five succinct,
paradoxical statements.” “A paradox is a
statement that seems to contradict itself and yet expresses a valid truth or
principle.”
We move
from the section on divorce to look at a short section on children and how the
Lord viewed children. This is not the
first time that the Lord spoke of children or the first time that His disciples
tried to stop the children for coming to see Jesus. In the church that I attend, and the one that
I use to attend we had “baby dedication” services in which parents would bring
their new babies to the front of the sanctuary and the pastor would pray for
the parents that they may receive grace from the Lord in order to raise their
children in a way that the Bible shows that they should be raised and also asks
the congregation to pray for these parents in the same way. This section that we find here has some similarities
in that it was the parents who brought their children to Jesus so that He would
bless them.
I stated
that the first section in this 10th chapter of Mark discussed
divorce, but it also spoke of marriage and not we move to children in this
section which is usually what happens after a young couple is married. It is
sad to see that in many homes today children are looked upon as a burden, and
even killed under the “law” of abortion as we have surpassed 53 million abortions
in this country since 1972. In the days
when Jesus walked the earth the Jews looked at children as a blessing, which is
the right way to look at children. “1
¶ «A Song of Ascents, of Solomon.»
Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the
LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To
retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved
even in his sleep. 3 Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The
fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like
arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. 5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full
of them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the
gate (Psalm 127).”
“1 ¶ «A Song of Ascents.» How blessed is everyone
who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways. 2
When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, You will be happy and it will
be well with you. 3 Your wife shall be like a
fruitful vine Within your house, Your children like olive plants Around your
table. 4 Behold, for thus shall
the man be blessed Who fears the LORD. 5
The LORD bless you from Zion, And may you see the prosperity of
Jerusalem all the days of your life. 6
Indeed, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel (Psalm
128).” These two psalms are “Songs of
Ascent” that the pilgrims would sing as they climbed the hill to get to
Jerusalem during the different feasts that they attended.
The answer
to why His disciples did not want Jesus to see the children could be that they
were trying to look out for Him, to conserve His strength for more “important”
things, but they should not have done this for Jesus had already taught them teachings
on this subject in Mark 9:36 and following.
I want to
give you the meaning of the word that Jesus used to show His displeasure, a
word that the NASB translates as indignant:
“1) to be indignant, moved with indignation, be very displeased, vexed
{#Mt 21:15 26:8 Mr 10:14 14:4 Mt 20:24 Mr 10:41 Lu 13:14}.”
Jesus then
goes on to state that the children were better kingdom examples than were the
adults. Many times we tell our children
to behave like adults, but Jesus is telling the adults to behave like
children. There is a reason for this as
we expect for Jesus never stated anything that is not true so we have to ask ourselves
in what ways are children a pattern for us to follow? I suppose that many have seen or participated
in watching, especially a mother, care for a small baby. Why does she do this, well for one thing the
baby is dependent upon the mother and hopefully many mothers do this out of
their love and dedication to their baby.
When our son was born he had to have a number of surgeries which meant
many trips to the doctors and hospitals.
It was in the hospital that my wife and I saw a young baby sitting in a
baby bed who had a very wet dipper, but was not fussing at all, just sitting
there. This never happened in our house
for when the dipper was wet it was changed at once or our children would let us
know about it. In those days we used
clothed dippers which were only good for one wetting and then they had to be
changed. My point is that a baby is
dependent upon the parents to care for them unless the parents chose not to do
this and then trouble will follow. I
wonder how this little girl turned out as she would be somewhere around 33
years old now.
Dr. Wiersbe
states “A child enjoys much but can explain very little. Children live by faith. By faith they accept their lot, trusting
others to care for them and see them through.”
We have to
enter God’s kingdom in the same way, like little children who are helpless,
unable to save ourselves and we must be totally dependent upon the grace and
mercy of our Heavenly Father. As
believers we enjoy God’s kingdom by faith because we believe that our Heavenly
Father loves us, and when we have problems we run to our Father like children
run to their parents in times when they are hurt. These are great examples that believers are
to follow, examples that little children show us.
Jesus did
not baptize these children, as according to John 4:1-2 Jesus baptized no one,
so we cannot say that water baptism will save anyone.
I wish to
make another point that seems to fit well in this section and that is what
happens to little babies who die before they know right from wrong, which is
learned at different ages, and sometimes never learned at all depending on the
child. I mentioned our son and his life threatening
condition and believe me I wanted to find out the answer to what would happen
to him if he died as a baby. Our pastor
at that time told me that he believed that the Bible teaches that Jesus died
for sin and also for sins. By dying for sin
Jesus died for our sin nature and by dying for sins He died for all of the sins
that we have committed so when a baby dies they are covered by the blood of
Jesus who died for their sin nature.
John MacArthur wrote a book entitled “Safe in the Arms of God” in which
he explains all about this.
9/18/2012 1:28:47 PM
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