Sermon: Matthew 18:1-10 - God's greatest children

Matt 18 sermons – God’s greatest children

Sermon 1: Matt 18:1-11 – the status of the children of God

Question “who is the greatest” is in the context of paying temple taxes. If the rich aren’t the greatest, who are?

The answer is “children” – weak, vulnerable, lowly; and yet still a valuable member of the family

-          We are weak, vulnerable and lowly

-          We are to welcome the weak, vulnerable and lowly

o   Who are the weak, vulnerable and lowly today?

o   Still kids; but also poor, undereducated, disenfranchised and marginalised

-          We should not cause them to stumble!

o   False teaching, being unwelcoming, making it hard for people to come to Christ

o   Preaching is only part of the solution: disadvantage holds people back from Christ

-          We also have responsibility in our own stumbling

o   We need to be ruthless in ensuring we are not stumbling ourselves

-          We are weak, vulnerable and lowly, yet still valuable

o   We cannot despise ourselves or others, because we are all valuable to God

o   Ministries to the despised are central to Christianity

 

Good morning, Waitara Gospel Chapel! This is Ben Carpentier, on our last day in Windhoek, Namibia – for now! As you may have heard, the Namibian government has denied my visa, and now Penny and I must leave the country. We can’t come back to Australia because of the restricted numbers on repatriations, so we are headed to the UK to stay with her aunt and uncle while we try and sort out what to do next.  Penny and I are so thankful for your continued support of our ministry here, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to preach for you this morning. Perhaps one silver lining in the otherwise cloudy times of our current predicament during this global pandemic is being able to preach for churches back in Australia even while being in Africa. I pray it’s as much a blessing to you as it is to us.

Today’s passage is in Matthew 18, from verses 1 to 10, and it starts with the disciples asking Jesus a question, (reading from the NIV) “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”” When a passage starts with “at that time” it’s obviously important for us to know what time they’re talking about; what the context is. In this case, this teaching of Jesus comes right after the tax collectors for the temple tax had come and asked if Jesus would pay up. You might remember that Jesus tells Peter to go catch a fish, open its mouth, and there he will find a coin enough to pay both Jesus’ and Peter’s temple tax. Jesus asks Peter in front of his disciples in the end of Matthew 17, “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?” And the answer is, of course, that kings do not collect taxes from their own children.

Just in case there is any confusion, the temple tax is not like a tithe to the temple. It is collected by the government through the temple and goes into government coffers. The government back then maintained the temple. You might already know that it was King Herod – made king by the Romans – who rebuilt the temple in this time, and he did it through heavy taxation.

Back in the ancient world, people in power unashamedly used their privileged position to benefit themselves all the time. Kings and governors would charge their subjects tax, but they would not tax their own children, thus providing them an advantage, a privilege of their position as the children of great people, so that they can keep being rich and powerful. Today, it’s mainly multimillion dollar companies and billionaires that don’t pay tax – so perhaps it’s not really that different.

So when the disciples are asking Jesus, “Who, then, is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” it is because they know that in the world they live in the greatest ones are the ones with many privileges, many benefits, who were born into already powerful families. And let’s be honest, not much has changed with the world we live in! The son of a billionaire is the current president of the USA, and he has placed his own family in positions of political power and influence. Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, proclaims himself a self-made billionaire, because he started his business with nothing except an electrical engineering and computer science degree from Princeton University and a US$300,000 loan from his parents. Many Namibians wouldn’t earn that much money in their entire lives. Who your parents are still has a huge influence in what your future will be, what opportunities you will get, how successful you will be, how great you will be.

The disciples are asking, “Will kings still be kings in heaven? Or will the rules be different?” And they are not just asking this out of theological curiosity. We know from other passages in the gospels that these guys were very concerned about their own status! They argued multiple times about which of them was the greatest. Remember the brothers James and John got their mother to ask Jesus if they could sit on his right and his left – the places of status! Remember Peter, when Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich people to enter the kingdom of heaven, said, “We have left everything to follow you!” Even after Jesus’ resurrection these were the men who asked, “Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” They wanted to know was their messiah going to become an earthly king, and what would it mean for them.

Jesus’ followers were fishermen, tax collectors, rural bumpkins. Here they were following the true Messiah, and they figured that this was likely to impact their earthly status. So when they are asking, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” they wanted to know how they can make themselves great. And this makes Jesus’ answer to them really stand out – verse 2: “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.””

I’m going to repeat verse 3 again, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is laying it on the line here. Those who do not become like children will never enter God’s kingdom.  The kings of this world, the rich of this world, the powerful and influential of this world, even the fishermen and tax collectors of the world – Jesus is saying that unless they fundamentally change their attitude to become like that of a child, they will never enter God’s kingdom.

Now there is sometimes a bit of confusion about what Jesus means when he says “become like a little child”. Of course when we think of little children, we think of them through our own cultural lens – we think of little darlings: precious, valuable; or little angels: innocent, maybe even ignorant. But remember that Jesus is talking about status here – about who will be greatest – and so he is focusing on another qualities of children here. The quality we see clearly in verse 4, “whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Children might be precious and valuable, but they do not have high status. We do not let children vote, we don’t let them get married, we don’t let them work, we don’t let them make a lot of choices for themselves – children do not have a lot of freedom. Children are weak, vulnerable and powerless. And this was the same back in ancient times. Paul says in Galatians 4 that even the heir of a vast estate, when he is still underage, is no different than a slave. Children are not powerful. They are not influential. Even a rich child is no different than a slave. And this is what we are called to become – to take the weak, vulnerable and powerless position of a child.

Here in Namibia, status is everything. I have seen flashy cars parked next to tin shack kambashus, because it’s all about showing off what you have. In meetings, everyone will have their say, but often it is the elders who have the last word, and that ends up being the decision of the meeting. If you have grey hair you don’t need to wait in line at the bank; you go straight to the front. When I taught a subject at the NETS Bible College here where Penny works, my students called me “Reverend” because they needed to show some kind of respect for my status as a teacher, even though I am not a church leader. I have had black friends here take me shopping with them just so that they get treated with respect and get good service, simply because I am white: even though apartheid ended 30 years ago, there is still status attached to being white. I have seen people put on their business card here “Bachelor of Arts (failed)” to show that they attended university even though they failed, because attendance gives them status! Even when driving, Namibians always need to be in front – they can’t stand being behind someone else, or giving way to others, sometimes turning the streets of Windhoek into a racetrack.

In Australia it may not always be so starkly visible, but the thirst for status is still there. Which means for many of us, Jesus’ call for us to take up the weak, vulnerable and powerless position of children turns the world upside down. The way we become great in the kingdom of heaven is by recognising and accepting that we don’t deserve to be there. We have no claim, we have no status of our own. We are only accepted into the kingdom of heaven because of what God has done for us.

And Jesus made this amazingly clear when he was talking about the temple tax. He said here on earth, the children of kings are exempt from their taxes. But let me show you how it works in the kingdom of heaven – go catch a fish, and inside its mouth God will provide you with a coin; enough to pay your taxes and mine. Because in the kingdom of heaven, the king does not make his children exempt from paying their debts; he pays their debts for them. As God’s children, we can do nothing but accept that incredible payment on our behalf.

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Those who are humble enough to recognise that they bring nothing, they can offer nothing, they have nothing, and by themselves they are nothing. We need God; he does not need us. It is God who gives us our value, it is God in whose image we are made, it is God who pays our debts for us, and it is God who makes us great. Again in Galatians, Paul says in chapter 6, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” God paid the price for us through Christ’s death on the cross to make us the children of his heavenly kingdom.

But this can be difficult for us to accept when we are in positions of authority, power, and status; when we are important people in our jobs, in our social circles, in our families, or even in our churches; when we are born to power, influence and wealth – basically anyone born in a rich country. But we must not take our eyes off the goal: those who will be truly great in God’s kingdom will be those who put God first, not themselves. Even if we do hold those positions of status here on earth, we can use those to give glory to God, to make it clear that it is him who has made us who we are and placed us where we are.

And then Jesus shows us the most excellent way to do that in Matthew 18:5: telling us that by welcoming the little children of God in his name, we welcome God himself. Because it isn’t enough to simply recognise that we are weak, vulnerable and powerless compared to God, and that we don’t control our path to his heavenly kingdom. God has called us to be his hands and his feet: to learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow (Isa 1); to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free (Isa 58); to spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed (Isa 58); to proclaim good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners (Isa 61).

This year I was preparing to join a new ministry that SIM has recently started. It’s called For Freedom, and it is an anti-human trafficking ministry aimed at promoting awareness and prevention of human trafficking in all the different areas across the world where SIM works. Human trafficking preys on the weakest, the most vulnerable and powerless in society. And something I have learned in my training in anti-human trafficking is that the people who were most vulnerable back in ancient times – the fatherless and the widow, the poor and the foreigner – continue to be the most vulnerable people in our societies. Children, especially in state care; women, especially widowed or abandoned by husbands; the poor, especially those where there are no opportunities for education, employment and betterment of their lives; and refugees seeking to escape danger or persecution: these are the people most likely to be targeted for human trafficking because they are the least likely to get help or be able to help themselves. They are the weakest, the powerless, the most vulnerable.

And at this point can I take a moment to encourage you, friends at Waitara Gospel Chapel? Because I know that you are a church that has been welcoming to refugees and migrants to Australia – people who can often find themselves alone, vulnerable, weak and of low status in their new home country. Having lived as a foreigner in Namibia now for three years, I have tasted that loneliness, that weakness and that vulnerability. When I answered the phone a few weeks ago and I was told, “Your work permit has been denied – you are now officially illegally in the country, and you have 14 days to leave”, that made me feel powerless! Tomorrow I have to get on a plane to leave this country, and I can’t even return to Australia, my home country, because of the pandemic restrictions- that makes me feel weak and vulnerable!

But your fellowship at Waitara Gospel chapel, you have shown love and care for the powerless, and I pray that you will continue to do so; that you will continue to uphold the cause of the weak and the oppressed. “You are to love those who are foreigners,” God tells us, “For you yourselves were foreigners.” We were not always citizens of the heavenly kingdom – once we too stood outside, without hope and without God. So now we are called to love and welcome the weak and lowly, the little children of the world, because we too are nothing more than little children whom God loves.

If we are those who do not have high social standing, who are looked down on in this life, who do not have power or money or influence or status, then we can be comforted in knowing that we are the ones whom God truly favours. Again, it might look like we are small, insignificant or forgotten: but God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing (Deut 10); The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed (Ps 9); he defends the fatherless and the oppressed (Ps 10); he defends the weak and the fatherless, and upholds the cause of the poor and the oppressed (Ps 82); he works righteousness and justice for the oppressed (Ps 103); he upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry (Ps 146); he shows favour to the humble and oppressed (Pr 3); it is better to be lowly in spirit with the oppressed than to share in the plunder of the proud (Pr 16); he will deal with all who oppressed you. He will rescue the lame; he will gather the exiles. he will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame (Zph 13). Long before Jesus let the little children come to him, God has shown us that his heart is with those of low status.

And Jesus shows us just how seriously he takes the treatment of the weak, the lowly and the vulnerable in Matt 18 verses 6 and 7: ““If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!”

There is nothing spoken against more strongly in the New Testament than false teaching that leads people astray from the truth of the gospel. Jesus has choice words for it, describing its punishment as the most heinous a Jew could imagine – in ancient Judea, drowning was even more feared than crucifixion. Woe be to the person through whom false teachings come!

I can personally attest to the horrific damage that false teaching can do. The church here in Namibia is desperately, desperately in need of strong theological education. But so many of the churches here are poor, and although many of the people see themselves as Christians and seek to follow God, the only churches they can find are those that are preaching a false gospel – and because many people don’t read the Bible for themselves, and the culture requires them to show respect to those of high status, like a church leader, many people here are sucked in to false teachings, robbed of their incomes, and taught things that are thoroughly against what scripture teaches.

They are taught a prosperity gospel telling them that God will bless them with riches and wealth, but then they lose faith in Christ because the only people they see getting rich are the preachers! Just last month I received from someone a 60 page prophecy from a so-called prophet in the north of Namibia, that said (among other things) any Christian who drinks energy drinks or eats sausages will go to hell! And people listen to him! They don’t know any better! They don’t know their bibles! They don’t know that Jesus said plainly that he has made all food clean. Even in the weekly Bible study I attend, some of the young men were saying that when they are getting married, their parents tell them they must follow the burdensome and even idolatrous pagan ceremonies of their tribes because they must “honour their father and their mother”. When I pointed to Luke 14:26 – “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” – they were shocked: they had never heard this verse, or at least never heard that they should put Jesus ahead of their family when required! The fifth commandment was being used to uphold the status of the parents, to the point that it held young men and women in spiritual slavery, such that they would put tribal practices ahead of Christ!

And it’s not like this doesn’t happen in Australia too. When we made our decision to come to Namibia, to give up our jobs and our income and our comfortable lives back in Hornsby, there were a number of people – even Christians – who told us we were crazy, that we were being irresponsible, that we were giving up any hope of owning a house, that I was giving up the ability to progress as a lawyer and throwing away my law degree. Maybe they were right: but even if they are, that is what it took for us to be obedient to God’s call.

When we think about it, it’s not just purely spiritual things that cause the weak and the vulnerable to stumble. As I’ve said, many of these people don’t know their bibles, because many struggle to read. They don’t have relationships with strong Christians they can trust, who can answer questions for them and be good models for them. Many churches don’t have trained leaders because they are too poor to support them. Especially now in the midst of Covid-19, many churches are struggling; they definitely can’t afford to send their students to a Bible college like NETS, where Penny works. And NETS simply does not have the funds to pay theological educators. So the provision of a Greek and Hebrew scholar like Penny to come from Australia and teach is a huge blessing to the church here.

My point is that it is not just false teaching by itself that causes these vulnerable people to stumble: it is a lack of education, a lack of opportunities, a lack of good relationships, and overwhelming poverty and powerlessness and desperation that makes them vulnerable. If we want to protect God’s little children from stumbling, if we want them to be able to sort the true teaching from the false, we must help them have the power to stand against these false teachers. We must empower them both spiritually and physically.

But I’m not saying that the weak and vulnerable have no responsibility. Jesus makes it clear in verses 8 and 9 that ultimately when it comes to stumbling, it is up to us to cut ourselves off from those things that might make us stumble: “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”

The responsibility shifts here – yes, false teachers preach a false gospel, but if you listen to them you may well stumble and find yourself out of the kingdom. And yes, Christ says that those who cause his little children to stumble will find themselves in the hands of a very angry God. But ultimately, the responsibility for avoiding those who would seek to stumble us is our own. Other people can’t make our decisions for us. Not even God restrains us and makes us incapable of sin or mistakes. We must seek to equip ourselves with the knowledge, skills and character to recognise these stumbling blocks and overcome them, because when the stumbling block does come – when the false teacher preaches to us, or the pressure comes from our parents or our cultural heritage, or our own difficulties threaten to overwhelm us – we need to decide ourselves to stick with God and his heavenly kingdom, and to trust in Christ and his payment of our debts.

I have more to say on this topic, because the truth is that although we are responsible for our own decisions, we do not make those decisions alone. We are called to be part of a kingdom – that is, a community together. There is no such thing as a kingdom of one. And we will see that in next week’s sermon on the next part of this passage.

So let me end instead with verse 10 of chapter 18: ““See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” Jesus paints a picture of every little child, every weak and lowly person, having their own angelic advocate in God’s heavenly throne room. And he says that these advocates can always see God’s face – they are always in his presence, they are always right there with God: the circumstances of the weak and the vulnerable are always being brought to God as matters of the utmost importance. If we are members of Christ’s heavenly kingdom, then we must also see the circumstances of the weak, the powerless and the oppressed as our business. We cannot despise those who have no status in this world: because, just like us, they are God’s little children.