Sermon Tone Analysis

“Personal Humility”

October 8, 2017

John Steger, Senior Pastor

Grace in the City Church, Minneapolis, MN

(Speaker Notes)

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom

As we witnessed last week with King Nebuchadnezzar, pride is at the root of all evil.

Pride is why the devil became the devil!

And we know that Pride is the anti-God state of mind.

So much so, we are all guilty of this sin in one form or another and to one degree or another, because we are all natural born sinners.

The one thing I find very interesting about pride, is that one who is proud can’t stand the pride of another.

Have you ever felt that way?

Meaning, pride has a horrible stench and even the proud hate the proud.

As we read in :

Pride goes before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall.

We know what’s coming when we see pride, but the prideful don’t think anything like that could possibly happen to them.

No one has the secret code to live in sin and get away with it.

“A life without Christ is never fixed” we must remember this at all times.

So in preparation for this message, I asked; “Lord, who is the character you want me to use as an example for humility, this week?”

He immediately said; “you John!” “I want you to share with people what I have done in your life.

How I brought you from proud to humble.

How you have surrendered everything to Me.

And how you currently live your life dedicated to serving Me.”

I said yes Father, I will become vulnerable for You, because I trust You!

So, the Lord took me to , so if you have your Bibles please turn them on or open them to our Scripture:

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

This passage of Scripture resonated in my heart, because that's what I feel like when I’m before the Lord; a little boy!

So our big question of the day is this:

Why does Jesus address humility as it relates to little children?

When we open the chapter, we see a scene developing.

A scene complete with pride, arrogance and ego.

The testosterone is flowing and these dudes what to know who’s better then the next.

So without even looking in a mirror to check themselves, they come boldly to Jesus and ask in 18:1:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Jesus see’s the pride walking toward Him.

He knows whats going on, and I could only imagine how much it must have pained Him, considering everything the disciples have witnessed and participated in up to this point.

They have seen miracle after miracle.

Peter was on the mount of transfiguration and saw Moses and Elijah standing with Jesus.

They have watched and witnessed the most humble example to ever walk the earth, but they are still full of pride!

Does this look familiar?

Can we see that even if we walk with Jesus, we can still be prideful?

So much so, that we have the nerve to ask Him who’s greatest in Your Kingdom Lord.

Who’s greatest?

Who do you think is greatest you knuckleheads: GOD!

I have to check myself here, because I have seen my feathers rise at certain times and humility goes right out the window.

But when I look at this question, which the disciples ask, I ask one myself; “Where is their faith in Jesus?”

Which is why I believe Jesus doesn't answer their stupid prideful question with a direct answer, but makes an illustration, so we would all understand what He wants.

He wants us to believe and have faith, and be innocent and pure.

Sold out for Him!

Hence His example in verse 18:2:

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them

He bi-passes them, being the disciples, and “calls” a “child” to Him.

He summoned a little child to come to Him, and the child did so.

We don’t know if it was a little boy or girl, but what we do know is this: the little child felt the presence of Jesus and knew that it was secure.

He places the child in the center of them, and tells them in verse 18:3:

and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

“Truly, Truly” or “Assuredly I say” are common terms that Jesus uses, but what do they means?

Amen, let it be so, truly amen!

Meaning this is how its going to be; Amen!

Unless we adopt the faith of a little child, the innocence of a little child, and the love like a little child, we will never see the kingdom of God.

Humility is at the core of these little people.

Unspoiled, innocence, purity are also character traits of the little child.

An unspoiled child usually displays humility not pride.

Which leads us into verse 18:4:

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Warren Wiersbe is 100% correct when He states:

It seems that Jesus is, in these verses, blending two concepts: the human child as an example of humility, and the child of God no matter what his age might be.

He shows us the perfect example of human humility besides Himself.

One that we can relate to, and then make the point in verse 4 that whoever takes on the humility of a child, will be the greatest in heaven.

Humility honors God and invites God to be with us, but pride does the opposite.

Peter gives us a very clear depiction of this is :

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

The Lord Jesus loves us so much, that He wants us to cast our cares upon Him.

Proud people don’t cast their cares upon Him, because we believe we can take care of our own situations.

But humble people do, because they realize they don’t have the power to change anything, and Jesus does.

Jesus Christ is a game changer!

If we really believe for one minute we can get ourselves out of anything on our won power, we’re fooling ourselves and we are 100% deceived.

So God wants us to come to Him humble as a child, and at any age.

FYI: their are no age requirements for being a Christ Follower!

Folks, true humility thinks of others verse self.

which leads me to our last verse where Jesus states in verse 18:5:

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

When ministering to the brothers and sisters God has placed in your trust, we must not lead them astray.

We must minister to them with the love of Christ.

We must receive them with gladness, because that’s why they’re standing in front of our faces, God has entrusted them to us.

But if we look at them with other intentions then pure ministry, we have a problem.

There are many proud pastors in our world today.

The church revolves around them, they have fancy things, but they sprinkle enough Jesus in their speech and everyone believes there holy men of God.

Well, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Humility is what God wants.