We make life very complicated. But at the basis of life for a Christian are Jesus’s words that to enter the kingdom of God, we need to come as little children. And coming in that way, we can have absolute confidence in God as our Provider.
Galatians 3:23-26
This shows that before someone becomes a Christian, there’s a way of living which is demonstrated by the law. There’s a way to live which is right, and a way that’s wrong. But before we become a Christian we find we can’t keep that law because our nature keeps failing. But the law is there for a purpose. It’s a schoolmaster. It brings us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. The schoolmaster is the means by which God shows us we can’t live a good life, that our thought life is completely awry. And as we realise that, God uses the law by His Holy Spirit to convict us and make us realise we can’t keep it. When we admit that, it’s often the time when God reveals that eternal solution – faith in Him, His faith in what He did for you and me.
Galatians 3:23-26
Sometimes we rattle off that phrase, but as Christians we are all a child of God. We’re not a mature man or woman of God – we’re children of God. When Jesus was with His disciples, it was a voyage of discovery to realise exactly who Jesus was and His nature on the inside. His reaction to circumstances was often completely the opposite to their reaction. They tried to get it right, but they didn’t because inside they were as they were born – contrary to the things of God.
In Galatians, Paul was writing after Jesus had died, and risen and the Holy Spirit had been given. So he talks in terms of faith coming to a person. After that, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. We are all children of faith.
Galatians 3:27-28
The common denominator is that we are children of God. It isn’t that I’m a man, that my wife’s a woman, not that I’m free or in bondage, not that I’m a Greek or a Jew. All that is washed away. You are all one as children of God in Christ Jesus.
Brilliant! Because each person as an individual given life by God is able to completely trust our heavenly father, to have His life living through us. And as we go forward in life, we have to maintain that knowledge that we are a child.
I want to look at three times when the disciples were with Jesus, and He zeroed in on their heart condition. It’s all to do with you and me as a Christian being a child of God. To be a child isn’t complicated. I don’t have to work everything out. If I think of a youngster aged two, enjoying life to the full, everything is a discovery. Is that child worried about the things that I’m concerned to provide for them? No. Their existence is complete and utter trust. They wouldn’t term it trust. They just live and enjoy life to the full in complete trust. There’s no worry with a youngster where the next bit of food is going to come from, whether there will be a bed to sleep in. There’s no worry in a youngster at all.
So when I say that you are a child of God and I am a child of God, and we are all one in Christ, it’s important we keep that attitude in mind. Yes, difficult questions can be thrown at someone, to try and destabilise them in their faith. We don’t reject intellect. But I want to look at the fact that we as a Christian are a child of God. So when I think about this coming week, are two-year-olds worried about Thursday, about that meeting on Friday, that bill that’s due on Saturday? No – they’re just enjoying life to the full, getting on with life. Life is a voyage of discovery. And it hit the disciples big time when Jesus focused in on this.
Jesus had just been talking about Himself, and the disciples were concerned as to which of them would lead the pack.
Luke 9:46-48
Mark 9:33-34
Jesus knew what they had been talking about. But none of them would admit to it.
Mark 9:35-37
Jesus knew what they had been talking about – who had the rightful claim to be number one, dog-eat-dog. And it was as foreign to Jesus as the east is from the west.
When Jesus picked up the child, He said :-
Mark 9:37
To be child-like is not something to be sneered at, disciples. What you need to be, what you will be, the spirit you will exhibit, is this. You won’t desire to be first. But inside you will be that spirit which wants to be the servant of everyone. That’s the greatest.
So this extends practically into what happens if I learn some information about someone – “How can I help that person? I can pray for that person even if I can’t get near them to speak to them.” It’s not a waste of time – I can get in line with what God wants for that person. “Lord, bless them. Cause them to learn what you want them to learn at this time. Reveal Yourself to them.” That’s the spirit of Christ.
Jesus was identifying Himself with the child. In Philippians, Paul says He made Himself of no reputation. To him, Jesus’ thoughts were always for someone else, never for Himself. The only time He thought about Himself was to ensure He was fulfilling Father’s will.
Was Jesus fun to be with? You bet! He was good to be around. Did He enjoy life to the full? Yes. During the three years they were together, it was a reorientation of thinking.
As He sat there with a child in His arms they felt very small. He wasn’t trying to score points off them. But He was trying – and succeeding – to convey to them the nature of the kingdom of God.
Matthew 18:1-6
Except ye be converted and come as little children, you shall not come into the Kingdom of heaven. This is back a step. We’ve been saying that as a child of God, you can have complete trust in Him. It’s not complicated – so much so that coming into the kingdom of heaven, we have to come as children. There’s something about the nature of a little child, the understanding of a child, the way a child relates to the parent. I don’t have a list of forty questions that I need to have answered to the nth degree before I become a Christian. At some stage will come the realisation that it comes down to a simple faith. We don’t dispel questions. But except ye become as a little child, ye shall not come into the kingdom of heaven.
“Offend one of these little ones” I don’t think this refers just to children, but also to those who have a childlike quality of faith. Do you have that quality? Very simple – in the world’s eyes, simplistic. In God’s eyes, I’m a child of God.
1 John 4:4
As a little child, greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. It doesn’t matter what the enemy might throw at me. Greater is He that is in me. How big is your problem, that circumstance you can’t get your head round to work out the solution? Well if you come as a little child to God, He has the solution. It’s not a worry to Him, something He has to work out. It’s not impossible. Your future is in His hands. He loves you.
The enemy makes things complicated, so that cause and effect comes into our lives, bringing law back in again, so that we have to do things in a certain way before God will save us. No – that’s not God. The grace of God is sufficient for you and me. Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.
Except ye be converted and come as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven ...
Is a two-year-old self-reliant? No – he’s reliant on his parents. Is He self-sufficient, able to sort everything out? Not at all. A child has complete trust. He has complete peace. There’s no worry about the future. He has complete awareness of having no anxiety, no worries, nothing to worry about.
2 Corinthians 5:17
It’s as if you have been born again. In Christ you are a child of God, all things become new. Life is a constant voyage of discover, because He knows what He’s doing. And the spirit of life working within you will enable to you share your faith with others who are in desperate need.
There’s an answer in Christ that only He can give.
The discovery which is going on as regards parliamentary expenses – it’s just another expression of man’s nature without God.
You and I are children of God.
If you’re not a Christian, that’s what God wants to do for you – to make you become something which is different on the inside. It’s the failure to fulfil His law, that paralysis inside which frustrates you. You know what you ought to do, but you can’t. God in Christ broke all the habits of sin. He took into Himself the power of sin. He took the power which causes us to do the wrong thing.
In Christ, we are a new creation and we are children of God.
I’m a child of God. He’s my Provider in every way – physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, every way. He’s my Provider.
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