REQUIREMENT FOR ENTRY INTO THE KINGDOM

INTRODUCTION:

When I came to the States, I had to meet certain requirements before I could gain entry. I had to have a valid passport and visa. Without these documents, I was going to be detained by Immigration and deported.

If we are to enter the kingdom of God, we must also meet the criterion laid down by Christ.

So what is the criterion according to this text?

First, lets take a look at the disciples actions (v. 13).

Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and He made a stop in Judea. When the residents of Judea heard that Jesus was in their community, they ran to meet him. They also brought their children for Him to bless. This was a common practice. “It was customary to bring children to great men to have them blessed.” So, the parents excitedly brought their children to be blessed. There were people coming from all over town to see Jesus and to have their children blessed. The schools were emptied because no one went to school. This demonstrated the popularity of Jesus. Because of His miracles and teachings, He was popular. It was mayhem. And the disciples did not like what they were seeing. Like bodyguards for Jesus, they stopped the parents and the children from reaching Jesus.

The disciples forgot the lessons Jesus taught them in chapter 9:36-37, “And He took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in His arm, He said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but Him who sent me.” In chapter 9, He commanded them to receive the unimportant within their culture. But the disciples had forgotten. They forgotten the lesson that Christ had taught them. They also forgot how Christ had been demonstrating His care for the poor within their culture.

Second, Jesus also taught His disciples not to hinder anyone who wanted to be His follower. In , John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.”

The disciples missed these lessons taught by Jesus. They refused to receive those who were considered the least within their culture. This was an outright disobedience to Jesus’ command.

Let us not look with disdain on these disciples for failing to obey Jesus’ teachings. We too are guilty of disobeying the teachings of Christ. We confess our sins regularly because we fail to do what God commanded us to do. states, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Those who claim to be without sin are not in fellowship with God. When we are in relationship with God, we will evaluate our lives regularly by His word and we will quickly realize how sinful we are. We lead ourselves astray by thinking that we are perfect.

2. LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT JESUS’ RESPONSE (V. 14A).

The Bible states that Jesus was indignant. The Greek word for “indignant” is a compound word. That is, the word is the combination of two words. The first part of the word (agan) means very much and the second part of the word means (pain or grief).

This word was used several times within the New Testament. In , the mother of James and John came to Jesus accompanied by her sons. She asked Jesus to allow her sons to sit on either side of him when He came into His kingdom. When this news reached the other disciples, they were indignant.

This word is also used in . In this passage Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath. And the Bible states that the synagogue’s leader was indignant because of this healing. He was angry because the healing took place on the Sabbath day. Jesus was very angry with His disciples for failing to receive the children. Instead, they were hindering them from reaching Him.

gives us a glimpse of the greatest indignation Christ will demonstrate. “Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. To the sheep He will say, ‘come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”

Then He will say to the goats, “Depart from me, you cursed , into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” According to the ESV’s notes, the goats are guilty of the sin of omission because they refused to show compassion to the least of these, which is the same as if they failed to have any care for Jesus Himself.

Now, you get the picture of the word indignant. Mark is conveying to us that the disciples’ actions angered Jesus. In chapter 9, He taught them to embrace and care for the least of these, the so called lowly within their culture. In chapter 10, they disobeyed Him. Jesus is indignant because the disciples’ pride is getting in the way of serving others.

Jesus commanded His disciples not to hinder the little children. The word means to restrain. Jesus was angry that the disciples were restraining the children from reaching Him. The word for restrain is the same word used in , when Jesus warned His disciples against hindering or restraining one who was working for the kingdom of God.

This is the lesson:

“…for such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (vv. 14b-15).

Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God belongs to those who are childlike in their faith. This does not mean that they are innocent, gentle or pure. Childlike in our faith means that we come to God in complete dependence for our salvation. We bring nothing to the table but our sin.

We have Olivia in our congregation. She is the youngest member of our church. She depends on her parents for everything. She depends on them for her feeding, lodging, care, and protection. In the same way, we depend on God for our salvation.

To receive the kingdom as a child means we receive the kingdom by faith. Paul writes in , “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.”

Paul is telling us the following in this verse:

Our salvation is solely based upon the unmerited favor of God. Grace. One author points out that it means, “we didn’t earn it.”

It is through faith we placed in Christ.

It is a gift from God.

It is not by our works.

There is no boasting on our part. We cannot boast because it is a gift.

Jesus, in His initial announcement of the kingdom, calls on His hearers to repent and believe in the good news (). One author had a good description for the word “repent.” The word repent means to do a 180-degree turn, to recognize your were heading in the wrong direction. Once you recognize your misdirection, you abandon your course and start heading in a new direction, toward God and His kingdom. Repentance is not just an intellectual acknowledgment of your mistake, but also a decision with the intent to live differently. Repent means recognizing our sin and turning away from it. Believing in the good news means trusting in God for our salvation. One person in Scripture who epitomizes repentance is the Prodigal son. In , Scripture points out that when he came to his senses, he turned away from the path of destruction and went home to seek forgiveness from his father.

The prodigal son came home with nothing in his hands to offer his father. He simply pleaded for his father’s forgiveness.

Another beautiful picture of repentance is seen in the book of Jonah. When the city of Nineveh heard the message, in , they repented. “So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.” That is repentance.

The apostle Paul shows us how to humbly come to Christ. He listed His accomplishments in . Then in verse 7, he pointed out that those accomplishments are worthless. “But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake, I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

Paul was a pharisee who thought that he could enter a relationship with God by keeping the law. He quickly realized that it was impossible to keep God’s law and to enter a relationship with Him based upon that. He abandoned that concept and humbly came to Christ like a child.

We do not gain our salvation through our own righteousness. We come like children fully depending upon His work on the cross for our salvation.

Jesus blesses the children:

Jesus blesses the children:

Jesus blesses the children. He exemplified what He taught His disciples to do. They should open their arms to the least in society.