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THE CHILD IN THE MIDST- -Matthew 18'1-14
Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., of Christ Church, London
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CHRIST CHURCH, LONDON.
THE ANAL YSIS
I. The Question Concerning Greatness —V. 1.
IL Jesus’ Answer—Vs. 2-6.
1. The Child in the Midst —V. 2.
2. The Fourfold Lesson.
(a) Concerning entrance to the King
dom of heaven —V. 3.
(b) Concerning true greatness —V. 4.
(c) Concerning His attitude to chil
dren—V. 5.
(d) Concerning responsibility for
children—V. 6.
111. The Application—Vs. 7-14.
1. Besetting sins—Vs. 7-10.
2. The lost sheep—ll-14.
HEN we come to study this section,
I am sure we feel that we are deal
ing with a very tender and pathet
ic section of our Lord’s life. The
section follows immediately after
the healing of the demoniac boy.
Following this healing, Jesus and
His disciples go over into Caper
naum, and so soon as they have en-
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tered they are confronted with the question of
paying tribute. So Jesus sends Peter off to
the sea, telling him to east his hook into the
s a and open the mouth of the first fish that
comes up, and in it he will find sufficient money
to pay this tribute for He must be above crit
icism. Peter goes in obedience to His Lord’s
instruction; casts his hook into the sea; catches
his fish; looks into its mouth; secures the trib
ute money, and pays it to the tax gatherer.
After this, the disciples ask the question that
we are to consider tonight: “Who, then is
greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
Now, before we, in any sense, cast any re
flection or criticism upon these disciples for
raising that question, we should stop and think
for a moment.
We must remember that they were, for the
most part, unlettered men, men of a very nar
row horizon, who had never ventured very far
out into the world until they got with our
Lord, men who had lived along the lake shore,
and engaged for the most part in fishing for a
livelihood. They were scarcely prepared,
speaking from a human standpoint, for the
great responsibility that was theirs as members
of the band of our Lord’s disciples, His
standard bearers of the new order of religion.
And so it was perfectly natural for these men,
under these circumstances, to give themselves
to consideration of the question of position in
the Kingdom about which they had heard their
Lord speak so much; and about which never
theless they were still so very ignorant.
So we are not to blame them for giving them
selves concern about the matter of position.
Besides, we must remember our own weak
ness in that direction. We find it in the
Church of Christ today. The self-seeking spir-
The Golden Age for January S, 1913.
Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Copyright Applied for.
it; the spirit that ever manifests itself in a
desire for the best place. I have actually
known men —good men —in the Church, who
get their feelings hurt, and show signs to that
effect, because when an election for officers of
the Church is held, they are overlooked, not giv
en position among their brethren. And I have
known men, good men, to actually leave the
Church because they were overlooked. They
felt that they had been of sufficient importance
in the Church to be recognized; they did not
stop to think that usually, Churches are very
keen to get men for such work who are them
selves square and above board, prepared.
So, when we come to criticise the disciples,
it will be well for us, if we will just stop and
think about our own weaknesses in this re
spect.
And then again, I would have you view the
way our Lord answered these disciples. lam
very glad He did not rebuke them. He knew
full w r ell that they had not been trained. He
knew that their view was exceedingly limited,
and that their information about these matters
had been very meagre; and, therefore, His an
swer is without rebuke. He deals with them
as little children. He comes to them on the
basis of a child, and answers their questions.
The answer is in the nature of an object lesson.
He often follows this method; and here, it is a
child He uses. He takes a child, and places it
in the midst of the disciples, and from the little
one draws four very essential lessons.
In the first place, he draws a lesson concern
ing entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Except ye turn and become as little children,
ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heav
en.” Now, they never asked Him concerning
entrance into the Kingdom. They wanted to
know about the position they occupied in the
Kingdom, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom
of Heaven?” That is what they wanted to
know. But Jesus goes further than that, and
tells them the secret of entrance into the King
dom.
Then, in the next place, He draws a lesson
concerning true greatness, which was an an
swer to their question. “Whosoever therefore
shall humble himself as this little child, the
same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heav
en.”
Also there is the lesson concerning His atti
tude to children. “Whosoever receiveth one
such little child in My name, receiveth Me.”
Finally the lesson concerning responsibility
for children. “Whosoever shall cause one of
these little ones who believe on Me to stumble,
it were better for him that a great millstone
were hanged about his neck, and that he were
drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Now, in order for us to understand the scope
and force of this teaching, it is necessary for us
1o gather up the links here and properly con
nect them. The incident belongs with the heal
ing of the demoniac boy. It is the direct after
math of the Transfiguration. The Transfigura
tion began, with the prayer meeting that Jesus
held with Peter, James and John. It manifest
ed itself on the mountain in shining light. It
expressed itself in the valley. First, in the
form of service to* needy humanity, as in the
case of the demoniac boy; and second, in the
form of teaching, as we see here in this section.
So, when we come to consider the Transgura
tion, we must, by no means, stop our considera
tion with what took place on the mountain.
That which took place there was but the prepa
ration for the things that took place immediate
ly after Jesus and His disciples came back to
the valley and what we see Him doing in the
healing of the demoniac boy, and in teaching
the disciples these great and weighty lessons, is
just as much a revelation of the glory of Jesus
Christ as that light that shone round about Him
on the Mount of Transfiguration.
I do not believe there is anything that so re
veals the glory of Jesus as His attitude to little
children.
When you think that just a while ago Jesus
was there on the mountain, glorified, in the
presence of Moses and Elias, who were there to
bear testimony to His glory; and the three dis
ciples ; when you remember that this same Jesus
is down here now, speaking so tenderly and so
fatherly, and so simply to His disciples through
a little child that He has taken and placed in
their midst, it will occur to you that there is
nothing in all the life of Jesus that reveals more
of His true greatness and glory, than that
which you see Him doing in connection with
this child.
You get here, in the first place, a view of
the greatness of Jesus as a man. No man can
be truly great, who does not properly value
childhood because no man can be truly great
and not properly consider that which is for the
best of society and of the nation; and there is
nothing best for society or the nation that does
not depend primarily upon the child.
Dear old Jack Mills, one of the greatest men
I ever knew; great in heart; great in body;
great in religion; great in faith. He was the
first man in North Carolina to provide for the
training of orphan children. He established the
first orphan home in that section of the country.
I have heard him make many addresses, and
I have seen him weep over children. I remem
ber hearing him speak before a great conven
tion, and plead for the care and training of or
phan children. In the address he said: “I
have looked round a good deal over this world,
and I have never found anything to make men
out of but boys. And I have never found any
thing yet to make a woman out of, but a girl.
I have looked around the world a great deal,
to find material to build a state out of, and I
must confess to you the only thing I have found
to build the state out of is men. And the only
thing to build men out of is boys; therefore,
the state rests primarily upon boys. And I
have tried to find material to build a home out
of, and I must confess to you that the only
thing that I have found yet is a woman. And
the only thing to build a woman out of is a girl ;
therefore the home rests upon the girl.”
That is true. The man who does not take in
the child in his consideration of the state and
the nation and the Church and society and the
home, can not be a great man. Jesus here evi
dences to us by His dealings, with this child,
His greatness as a man.
Then, again, He evidences His greatness
as a teacher. All teachers strive, or should
strive, for simplicity.
Let us now see how the child serves as an il
lustration of what Jesus is teaching concerning
true greatness.
In the first place, you will see that the child
answers in its ignorance.
There is nothing that appeals to us more than
the ignorance of the child. It is ignorant of
everything except its own ignorance. And if
you don’t think it knows its own ignorance, you
just follow it for about five years, and answer
all the questions that it puts up to you, and
you will see that it does know its ignorance,
and is trying to supply this as fast as possible,
and if you are not wiser than anybody I have
run up against you will be stumped a million
times in an effort to supply that need.
So it is to be with the man who would be
greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, He
must recognize his ignorance. The fact
is, true wisdom is for the discovery of ignor
ance, and the wiser we grow, the more we see
that we do not know. In every department of
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