Why Evangelize Children?
Pastor Matt Black
03 July 2007
Midweek Bible Study
Matthew 18:6, 10-14
Introduction: Open your Bibles to Matthew 18. We are going to look at verse 6, 10-11. The title of our message is “Why Evangelize Children?”
Matthew 18:5-6, 10-11, “…whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea… 10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. 11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost”.
Why should we evangelize children? That’s a good question! We all have natural compassion for little ones, and we all have that natural draw to the cuteness and seeming innocence of a child. We need to reach children for more than sentimental reasons. John Dewey is recognized as the Father of modern education and was a signer of the “Humanist Manifesto”. Upon his foundation we have built the pillars of our post-modern society and all the mess of relativism. In one generation, John Dewey changed America from a God-fearing nation, into an evolutionary, atheistic, and secular nation. How did he do it? John Dewey was somewhat of a child evangelist, only he did not have good news! He came about in the 1930s and said all he needed was a generation, and he could bring the whole society to believe in his philosophy of secular humanism. He propounded that if he could have the textbooks of the public schools, he could own American culture. He also helped bring in what is now known as Planned Parenthood, and his philosophy is the one that made abortion legal in 1973. John Dewey thought if he could reach the children, he could change the world in one generation. He was absolutely right. There is a crisis in our culture, and the only way to change the direction is one child at a time. We need to reach the children!
How many of you heard the Gospel as a child and that made a difference for you? Almost everyone in here. The fact is that a large number of believers in our churches heard the Gospel and some of them actually came to know the Lord before the age of 15. If you think about that, a child has the rest of his life to serve the Lord. So there is a lot of motivation for reaching children.
OUTLINE:
I. The Word of God commands us.
II. The condition of the heart compels us. The children are lost in sin.
III. The shortness of time challenges us.
But the most important motivation is that…
I. The Word of God commands us.
Look at verse 10, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones”. You know the Great commission includes children! And these verses in Matthew are targeting children specifically. Take heed—pay careful attention!
A. We need to Carefully obey this command! Look at Matthew 18:5-6“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea… “
1. Don’t offend the children verse 9. The idea of this word “offend is to “cause to stumble”. Who’s going to stop a child from being saved? Well, nobody! Who would do that? No, that’s not how we cause children to stumble—we all want children to be saved.
The way we cause children to stumble or offend them is by not getting the Gospel right—not sharing it correctly. Verse 6 says, “whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck,”It’s not clear. We tell children that God loves them. We are giving them the cure before they know they are sick and dead in their sins. Now there is a sense in which God loves all the children of the world. There is a sense in which babies and small children are covered by the blood of Calvary before they are able to think abstractly. When we share the Gospel with children, we need to begin where the Lord Jesus begins. Repent! Unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish! Spurgeon said, “A child of five, if properly instructed can as truly believe and be regenerated as an adult." Are children sinners? Are children in need of a Saviour? Is there a point when children begin to comprehend things to where they are accountable to stand before a holy righteous God for their sins? Kristen at six years old repented and was saved. It is a joy to see her grow. I once heard a well known Christian leader say that he was saved at the age of three. So we’ve got to get the Gospel right. A lost and sinful child who is now aware and cognitively making his own choices is a hell bound sinner! So we need to get the Gospel right. Liars, thieves, and disobedient go to eternal punishment. We’ve got to get the Gospel right. It’s almost a mystical thing with children. They add Jesus to their cartoons, and to their interests.
2. Secondly, Don’t despise the children. That is, don’t discount them!
By sheer neglect— verse 10, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones”–don’t discount them, thinking they can’t understand. That is a lie of Satan. John Dewey knew that the youngest of children could understand. Go to socialist Spain and you will find that they want your children in school at two and three years old. Yet why is it that Christians at times are found neglecting children?
So despising or discounting them and causing them to stumble on a sanitized message is never to be done with Children. They need the truth! They need to repent!
If we don’t communicate this correctly, there are some warnings in verse 9 and following.
B. We need to think of the Consequences of disobeying this command.
1. The picture: Millstone! “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea… “ Has anyone here ever seen a millstone? How big is a millstone? Its bigger than me! It’s round, it’s probably 2 feet thick. Its purpose is to crush things—to pulverize them. Jesus said that if you were not to get the Gospel right and neglect children it’s better that you have a millstone hung around your neck and you are drowned in the depth of the sea.
2. Explanation: Of course we understand is that what he’s saying is, that if you claim to be a believer and you have no desire to reach children, you had better examine yourself. You see all true born again believers are united to the heart of the Father and the Scripture says in verse 14, “it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” These are the marks of a Christian. A Christian wants to get the Gospel right and has a compassion for souls, especially for little children.
Despise not (don’t discount them!): verse 10 says, “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. 11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.” And then he gives a parable, “12 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? 13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”
Who’s he referring to in that verse? In general he is referring to His elect people, but specifically he is referring to children, because he has children there while He’s teaching. And he’s saying “many of my elect are little ones!” Many of my elect I’m going to draw when they are children.
We need to get a hold of that!
C. Why shouldn’t we discount children? Here are some further considerations.
Why shouldn’t we despise them?
1. Angels minister to them. He says in verse 10, “Take heed [TAKE SPECIAL CARE] that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”
Do you realize that from the foundation of the world God chose a people, and from the time of their birth, God is sending out ministers called angels. Hebrews 1:7 says this about angels, “of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” That word spirits is pneuma, it means “winds”. He sends out His angels like the wind and like flames of fire. Now we understand this is a graphic illustration, We understand God controls all natural events. Fire by lightening or wind, that all comes from God. In the same way, God has sovereign authority over His angels and He sends them out to minister to His elect. Many of whom are saved as children.
So what the verses in Matthew are saying is that children are so important to God, that God sends angels to minister to them and to protect them. This passage is speaking of God’s elect ultimately, but to children, “little ones” in particular.
Listen to what John Calvin said about this:
“It would be [insane] indeed that a mortal [human being] should despise, or treat as of no account, those [little children] whom God holds in such high esteem…it is no light matter to despise those who have angels for their companions and friends…. We ought therefore to beware of despising [the salvation of children], which even angels have been commissioned to advance.”
Isn’t this amazing? We are organizing Backyard Bible Clubs. The reaching of children is designed by God! First and foremost in the home, but for those children in homes where the Gospel is not preached, we need to go after them.
Angels aid in the salvation of the elect! Have any of you ever been close to death? And those are just times that you know about! How many times did you escape death, and you had no idea of it?
So angels minister to children, but look at verse 11, we find out that…
2. Christ Himself is after the children, and we need to be like Christ. Verse 11 says, that “the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”
Listen to what John Gill, the predecessor of Charles Haddon Spurgeon had to say here,
“This is another, and stronger reason, why these little ones should not be despised; because Christ, who is here meant by the Son of man, came into this world to save these persons; who were lost in Adam, and had destroyed themselves by their transgressions, and carries great force in it: for if God had so great a regard to these little ones, as to send his Son to obtain eternal salvation for them, when they were in a miserable and perishing condition; and Christ had so much love for them, as to come into this world, and endure the sorrows, sufferings, and death itself for them, who were not only little, but lost;…then utmost care should be taken not to despise, grieve, offend, and injure them in any form or shape whatever.”
3. The Father wills that none of these perish “14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” This is the basic conclusion of the warnings and the parable. If you discount the children, first and foremost, God is going to go to all measures to save His elect, and if you discount or despise, or handle these matters lightly, you are most certainly deceiving yourself about your own salvation. A saved person has a passion for the lost, and specifically for little ones to be saved. The Father wills that these be saved.
With this in mind, angels are sent to minister to children, Christ Himself provided for them, and the Father wills that none of these should perish, we should take this seriously.
4. Of course we are commanded to reach children in the home! Children should be reached first and foremost in the home.
2 Timothy 3:14-15 “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
Deuteronomy 6:7-9 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
But how many children have unsaved parents? Go into the highways and byways and compel them to come.
5. The children are included in the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Mark 16:15-16 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
II. The condition of the heart compels us. The children are lost in sin.
If children are old enough to be saved, they are old enough to go to hell!
A. Children who die without Christ will Incur damnation as the punishment for sin! If they can understand the Gospel and refuse to respond to it, they will most assuredly go to the place of torment.
Mark 16:15-16 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
B. Children Inherit the sinful nature from Adam.
Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die,
Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God
Have you ever saw a child and said, “Aw, how cute!” How long does that last? The truth of the matter is found in Jeremiah 17.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
C. We must identify the child’s problem for him: He is a sinner under God’s wrath and has broken God’s Law.
1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Matthew 18:11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost
III. The shortness of time challenges us. The children may not live to be adults. The Lord may return soon.
Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
I Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
We read these verses here, and as the redeemed, we get all excited. But this same event is seen from another perspective in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”
That which is a day of hope for the saints is a day of everlasting terror for the lost. That day of glorification is coming when the Lord Jesus “shall come to be glorified in his saints”. Mortality shall put on immortality. Corruption shall put on that which is incorruptible. But at the same time, Christ shall in “flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Let us all the more preach the Gospel in the highways and byways and compel them to come before that great and terrible day of the Lord.
Conclusion: Are you committed to reaching children? If not, you are not in line with God! You are not in line with Christ, or Christ’s ministers, the angels! You do not see their condition! You do not see the shortness of time! Won’t you pray this evening, “God open my eyes to these children.”