Suffer Little Children to Come unto Me

But the good thing is we get to look at passages of scripture we don’t often look at and figure them out, or try to at least, make an attempt at it. And we also don’t get into control how often things are mentioned. We must address it as it is mentioned. And so sometimes it’s surprising how frequently a particular subject will recur, and this is one of them.

This is one of them, little children. And so verse 13 says this, then were there brought unto Him little children that He should put His hands on them and pray, and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them and departed thence. Would you pray with me tonight?

Our Lord, we come to you now and we thank you for this passage of scripture, these three verses, and also Mark and Luke, parallel passages where you express something rather unique about your character toward little children. Lord, we’re intrigued by it, your attention upon those little ones that are so often overlooked, but yet you care and you love them enough to put it in your word repeatedly.

So Lord, as we try to give an honest examination of this passage of scripture and this truth, these principles, would you please help us? Would you help us not only to see what you’ve said and what you’ve done, but also to know how to apply it, Lord, as we interact with the children in our lives, be it our own children or little children over whom we have some influence to help them to the Lord Jesus.

So Lord, guide us. Lord, help me to say what you would have me to say and in the way you’d have me to say it to help your people and strengthen them. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

Now we won’t take the time to look in Mark and in Luke, but the parallel passages, if you’re noting it, Mark chapter 10, verse 13 through 16, and Luke chapter 18, verses 15 through 17, say essentially the same thing, which is in particular verse number 14, suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for if such is the kingdom of heaven. That sentence is repeated in all three passages.

There are some differences in the passages, though. Luke refers to the little children as infants, which is slightly different, maybe a slightly different indication of age, but then he later, when he gets to the equivalent of verse 14, he actually uses the term little children again, which indicates that we’re all talking about the same thing. These are kids that are old enough to be aware, we’re talking Thomas’ age and older, old enough to be aware of what’s happening, but not really old enough to exercise real faith in Christ, at least the adult kind of faith, a serious kind of faith, but yet old enough to interact with the Lord, old enough to be held and taken up into his arms, old enough to be blessed.

So these are the little crumb snatchers that are running between your legs and that kind of thing, and so that’s the age we’re looking at. Not older kids, not teenagers, we’re looking at young kids, and that’s what’s in view here. Now it’s only in Matthew, though, that the Lord, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three of them mention the Lord laying his hands on them, but it’s only in Matthew that the prayer is mentioned, and so we’ll look at that in just a minute, but notice verse number 13, the Bible says this, then there were brought unto him little children.

Now notice that the children did not come to him, they were brought to him, okay, this passive voice, and so there was a third party who is not mentioned here, but is a significant part of this story. In fact, this story, this narrative would not exist if it was not for this unnamed third party that brought these children to Jesus, because the children would not be there, because they don’t have a way to get there.

They don’t have a car they can drive, as if they had cars, but they don’t have a way to get to the Lord Jesus, they’re not aware of what’s going on around them, so there were other adults, there were other adults who were there who were bringing these kids to the Lord Jesus, and that’s commendable. That is extremely commendable, and that’s the way it is with kids.

Kids must be brought to Jesus. The Bible says, a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Why is that? One preacher, actually, he died recently, help me, help me, somebody knows the black fellow who, thank you, him. He had a saying that little children are vipers and diapers, and that’s true, that’s true. Those of you who have children, or watch children, or whatever the case, you know that that’s true.

So what I’m saying is if you leave a child alone, and you don’t bring the child to Jesus, the child’s gonna do what the child does. He’s gonna be a viper and a diaper, and he’s gonna grow into an eight-foot long cobra, right? That’s because that is the natural inclination of sinful man. That’s the way I was, surely that’s the way I was, and I’m sure it was true of you as well.

And so if kids are going to come to Jesus, they’re not gonna come naturally. We can’t let them figure it out on their own, because they won’t. That’s not their condition, right? And so that’s what you see these people doing, bringing the children to Jesus. Now, we’re not told who brought the children to Jesus, but I think it’s probably safe to assume that at least in some case, the people who brought children to Jesus were the parents.

Right, can we safely assume that? That’s likely the case. And the truth is the parents are, if you are a parent of a little child, or will be the parent someday of a little child, you are the primary one responsible for introducing your child to Jesus Christ. It is your duty that must not be shirked. It is your duty that must not be neglected. It is our duty as parents to be this unnamed third party that is bringing the child to Jesus.

Now, that doesn’t mean it has to be the parent. You know, in some way, I honestly do not understand this. I honestly do not understand this. But some people will not bring their child to Jesus, but they will allow other people to bring their child to Jesus. I’m telling you for me, nobody is taking my child to see anybody without my express approval, certainly in any matter, religious or spiritual.

You think I’m gonna let somebody take my child to a mosque? You can forget it. It’s not happening under any circumstance unless my dead body’s lying in the road, right? So, but other people, whatever the case, for whatever reason, they allow others to have influence over their children with permission, and therefore people like grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends and all those things have an influence where they can exercise that to bring those children to Jesus, or we might say influence those children and introduce them to the Lord Jesus Christ, or the parents maybe aren’t believers or whatever the case might be.

And so let me encourage you a couple of things. First of all, to take the initiative in that way, especially if you’re a parent for sure, but take the initiative and the influence you have over the kids in your life to make a point to bring them to Jesus. It’s not enough to love them and show compassion and care and tenderness. That’s all good. That’s all right.

But if you do that but you don’t bring them to Jesus, what doth it profit, right? It’s the ultimate thing, the ultimate service that we can render to a little child is to introduce that child to Jesus. Now notice what the Bible says in verse 13 again. They were brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray. Now again, this part of his hands is mentioned in all three gospels.

I thought it was just an interesting fact. When you see a politician or a famous person or whatever, you always see, anytime you see them greeting crowds, you always see people, it’s never enough to look at the guy from a distance, right? It’s never enough to look at the guy from across the arena or across the room. Everybody always wants to get close and to touch him.

I don’t know why. Maybe we don’t think that Donald Trump is a human. Maybe he’s not. I don’t know, there’s some conspiracy theories going around about that. But Candace Owens in particular, have y’all been following that? She has gone off her rocker. Anyway, I’m distracted.

They always wanna touch the man. But you think about it, and it’s just me meditating on this, think about the idea of Jesus putting his hands on the child. When the Lord does that, he has closed all the gap between himself and that child. The child is in no way at a distance from him anymore. He is up close, he is personal. He is, the child sees and knows by touch the love and the compassion and the tenderness and the care of the Lord Jesus by virtue of his touch.

It’s one thing to speak to a child, but it’s another thing when you fist bump or you give him a hug or that kind of thing. Children, there’s a difference, and the Lord shows that. He takes the child up, he gives the child a hug. He prays over the child, lays his hands on the child. I thought about this, hope nobody gets mad at me, but if you do, sorry.

Just picture this in your mind. Jesus probably kneels down. Maybe he’s sitting on a stool. He has the child come up and he puts his hands on the little shoulders or maybe sits the child on his lap or whatever. I don’t know what he does, but it struck me as very similar to Santa.

It did. I don’t know if this was intentional or whatnot, but you look at this picture and if you had a big red suit and it was in a mall, that’s exactly what people do with Santa, with little kids. Now, we don’t do that with our family. Our kids know about Santa, the truth about Santa. That’s just not something we do, but it is vitally important. It is vitally important that our kids know that there is a Savior, though He is invisible to us now, that there is a Savior who cares for them, who loves them.

Not just a guy in a red suit somewhere, but there’s a Savior who actually does love them, who is real. And it is our job to bring them to Him for that purpose. Now, I know what I’m saying is a little bit difficult. We’re making an application because Jesus is not present with us, but yet we can apply this by faith in the way that we introduce our kids to the Lord Jesus.

We can’t absolutely apply it by faith. Now, notice in verse number 13, He says this. He should put his hands on them and pray. Let me ask you a question. This is, again, this is the benefit of meditation.

What would Jesus pray for these kids? Think about it. What would Jesus pray for these kids? Think through the scriptural things you know about the Lord Jesus. You know, what would He be praying? Because He did pray for them. What did He pray, do you think? The Bible doesn’t say directly, but we do find one place where we find Jesus praying for people. There’s one particular place.

Anybody wanna know where that is? Anybody think of it? David preached on it recently. John 17, John 17. Look at that real quick, if you would, John 17. We might think that Jesus is praying that these kids would have a happy life and they would be healthy, and He might, He might. We might think that they would grow up to be respectable citizens or have a good career, or you know, or you know, graduate from college, or whatever the case might be.

But in John 17, rather, Jesus does pray for certain things, for His disciples, who in fact, in John 16, look at 1633, if you would, which is interesting. I’m gonna get the verse wrong. Where is it at? Where is it at?

It’s not 1633. It’s, maybe it’s 13. I lost it, and that’s not one that’s in my notes. Anyway, there’s a passage in John, I believe it’s in John 16, where Jesus refers to His disciples as little children. Yeah. 1333, read it for us, Sam. Little children, after a little while I will meet you, and you shall save me, and I will send you to wherever I go, and I will not say it.

Isn’t it interesting the Lord refers to them as little children, though they’re grown people? And now in chapter 17, He’s gonna be praying for those same people. I think we would be safe to assume that the things that Jesus is praying for the disciples are probably similar to what He’s probably going to be praying for, for the little children, right? That’s because I think the prayer reflects His priorities and those things.

Now what’s interesting, however, is as we go through, let’s go through this, just a few points here. Look at verse two, here’s what Jesus said, how Jesus prayed for His disciples. Verse two, as thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him, and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, that they might know God.

That’s what Jesus prayed for His disciples, that they might know God, and therefore, by knowing God, have eternal life. Look at verse number 15, or verse 11, rather. Jesus said, Jesus prays, and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, the disciples, and I come to Thee, my Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.

Look at verse number 15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Jesus prayed that the Father would keep the disciples, and that He would keep them from the evil of the world.

That’s what Jesus prayed for them. Verse 17, look at that if you would. Jesus prays, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Jesus prayed that the disciples might be sanctified, set apart, made holy by God’s word, that the word of God and its effect in their life would serve to purify them, to make them holy, to make them different from those around them. Verse 21, look at that.

Says this, verse 20 to pick up the context, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That’s me, that’s you, not just as disciples now. That they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Jesus prayed that all of His disciples, both those and these, who believe might be one. And then in verse number 24, the Lord prays, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me from the foundation of the world. Jesus prays that the disciples and the disciples’ disciples might be with Him in heaven and see His glory.

So think about the prayer list of the Lord Jesus. These are pretty much all of the direct requests that the Lord makes to His Father regarding His disciples. That they might know God and have eternal life, that God might keep them and keep them from evil of the world, that they might be sanctified by the word of God, that they might be one with God’s people, and that they might be with Him in heaven and see His glory.

Now that doesn’t cover college graduation, that’s fine. Doesn’t cover having a good career, that’s fine. It doesn’t cover all of the more common things that we frequently pray for our kids, right? The Lord’s prayers are aimed way up here, are they not? Are they not? So what did Jesus pray for these little kids in Matthew 19? I don’t know. But I think it was probably something like this, given what we know about the prayers of Christ.

So if that’s the case, we’re gonna assume that that’s the case for the moment, how should we pray for our children? Now again, this is the application part of it because Jesus isn’t here. We can’t, well I guess we can, because we know Jesus intercedes, but we don’t necessarily pray that Jesus would pray right now. Here they literally and actually brought their kids to Jesus to pray, to lay His hands on them and pray for them.

But we can, listen, we can kind of in the place of the Lord, we can pray for our children. We can intercede for our children in the same way that the Lord is interceding. And I think that this list of prayers, of requests that the Lord prayed to His Father concerning His little children, the disciples, is a good starting point for your prayer for your kids. Do you wanna see your kids in heaven?

Do you want the world to wreck your kids’ life? Do you want your kids to know God? Pray to that end. Pray those things. If you make a prayer list, put that at the very top. Put that at the very top. And then pray for all the other things too, but put that at the very top. Following the example of the Lord Jesus. This is what I think He was praying for them.

But that also leads us to another point. Were these poor kids elect? Because I mean, if there were a few that came that were not the elect and Jesus is praying for them to have eternal life and know God, it’s kind of a little bit of a problem, right? One of the silly little wrenches in that system. Anyway, note verse 14 back in Matthew 19.

But Jesus said, suffer, I’m sorry, verse 13 still. And the disciples rebuke them. Now, Luke tells us that, I believe it’s Luke, no, it’s Mark. Mark tells us that Jesus was very displeased. He was very displeased at the disciples rebuking them.

Now, think about this. To the disciples, these children were an annoyance. They were a bother. They were a bother. But children are not an annoyance. Think about it from the perspective of the Lord Jesus. We look at the kids as, we often have seen kids in the way that we view them ourselves, right? The fact that they always have dirty diapers and they always are crying about something and they’re always self-centered and they’re always this and they’re always that.

We see that and we deal with that every day and we get annoyed at them. But when the Lord Jesus looks at them, he’s looking at them from a different perspective. This is the God who, in Sunday School we read, he is the God that inhabited eternity. He sees them as they shall be, not just as they are at this moment. And I think that’s the way we need to understand for kids.

Kids are not an annoyance. Children are not an annoyance. They are the future. Remember, those same kids are gonna be the ones taking care of you when you get too old to take care of yourself, right? I see those eye rolls.

Was Jesus, I just wanna pose these questions, was Jesus annoyed at these children? No, he was not. And if he wasn’t, how can we be? Children, we must remember, are souls for whom Christ died. Children are adults to be. Children are servants of God to be. Children are missionaries to be. They are prayer warriors to be. They are lovers of God to be. And we must understand and view them, your children, the ones that you brought into this world, and also the ones that you have an influence over, they are not simply as they are at this moment.

They are something far more than that. With the blessing and help of the Lord Jesus, they can be something far greater than just a child, but an adult who loves and serves God and glorifies God. Now again, we don’t have Jesus with us in this world, like we see here, but what does it look like to us? You know, we don’t, the fact that people rebuke the children, the disciples rebuke the children when they were brought to Jesus, oftentimes we’re not gonna rebuke a child in that kind of outright way, but sometimes we make light of the spiritual concerns of children.

Sometimes we brush them off, sometimes we think we can deal with it later, sometimes we don’t prioritize it, or sometimes we might neglect it because we don’t wanna be bothered with their concerns because children, it takes time for kids to understand things. It takes time for them to get it, and we just don’t have the patience. We must have the patience. We must have the patience. Look at verse 14.

But Jesus said, now remember at this point, He is not a happy camper. Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me for as such is the kingdom of heaven. We’ve already looked at the second part of that in an earlier message, but notice the word suffer. Suffer means to allow the children to come to Jesus, to permit them to come. But the question I wanna ask you is why would they want to come?

Think about it. Again, these little vipers and diapers, they are not going to want to come to Jesus unless someone introduces them to Jesus. It is not natural. And the reason that they would want to come, suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me, the reason they would want to come is because of the influence that you have over them as a parent, as an aunt, an uncle, a grandparent, a friend, whatever the case might be.

That’s the reason that a child might want to come to Jesus because you talk to them about Jesus. You think about in this time right here, why do you think these kids might have wanted to see Jesus? Might have wanted to meet Jesus? It’s probably because their parents were talking about all the wonderful things Jesus had been doing. You hear about Jesus, he did this and he did that and he put his hands, I was standing there and the guy could see, and the kids hear that and they think, man, this is fantastic.

Maybe not in those terms. It’s because these parents talk to their kids about Jesus. So if they’re going to come to Jesus, they’re going to come to him because of you.

You’re the reason, you’re the reason. Now, let me say, look at verse 14 again, suffer little children and forbid them not suffer. Again, it means to allow, to permit.

To suffer a child to come to Jesus does not mean, however, that we rush children into a confusing or thoughtless or we might say faithless sinner’s prayer or some other exhibition for our own gratification. Listen now, a lot of times when you’re dealing with little kids, we want to lead them through the prayer. I don’t even like saying that, but we want to lead them through the prayer, not so much for their sake, but for our sake that we feel better about their relationship to God.

It makes us feel better, but hastily rushing children, this is not what this verse says. This verse does not say rush children through a prayer. It doesn’t say that. It says allow them to come, allow them to come, allow them to come. No, the initiative is on the child, not our pressure.

Because sometimes we might lead our child through a prayer even with good intention or something like that, and it might make us feel better, but it could very well cause confusion in the child later. So it is much, much better to have a child who is unsure and seeking Jesus rather than having an unconverted teenage sinner on your hands that is convinced that he’s just fine because he prayed a thoughtless and ineffectual prayer as a little child.

That is a bad place to be in. My wife and I have personally met people that we have known as children who when we met them as adults and talked to them about the Lord, they would say something to the effect of, yeah, yeah, I’ve done all that. I prayed, yeah, I prayed the prayer. I can think of at least two or three people off the top of my head, and one of them is a sodomite at this point.

And they’ve done the prayer and prayed the prayer, all that as a child. They did all that. They did all that. But by that point, right, a lot of times kids, some kids go through an experience like that and then they come out and as they become a teenager, they really start to question it and they try to get it right and they try to figure out where they are with the Lord and they try to make sure they’re saved.

But then there are others who look at that same experience and say, I did that and it did nothing. There’s nothing to it. And they go on with life. They go on with life. Again, it is better to have a child who is unsure but who is coming to Jesus rather than having someone who is convinced that because they prayed the prayer, everything’s good and there is no indication at all that they know God whatsoever.

So I would say to you, based on this verse, what we need to do is let them come. We’re not rushing anything. You gotta remember who’s speaking here. You gotta remember who’s talking. This is the same one who brought, who pulled the kids up close, who loved on them, who cared for them. We have to remember that it is the Lord who will gently guide them to himself.

Many well-meaning Christian parents are anxious about their kids, whether their kids are saved, whether they’re, you know, if they’re saved at a young age or not and all those things. But you have to remember for that anxiety, you have to remember that this is a matter of with the Lord Jesus Christ and he loves that little baby. He loves that child. He is going. You just need to say, come on, let, come on.

Let’s talk to Jesus. Let’s instruct you about Jesus. Let’s show you about Jesus. The Lord is going to lead that child to himself. We don’t need to fear. We don’t need to fret. The Lord’s gonna do his business. We can’t, we don’t have that business. We don’t have that prerogative. Only the Lord does himself.

Sometimes we must allow our children to come to Jesus over and over and over again until they get the matter of their eternal life and the matter of their relationship to God settled firmly. And sometimes that takes a long time. It does. And that’s okay. That’s okay. That’s good.

We must, the key is this verse, verse 14. Suffer. Allow them to do that. Allow the Lord to teach them. To suffer little children to us means that we patiently and gently and continually guide our children to know Jesus as long as it takes. It means taking the time to answer their questions with biblical answers. It means patiently instructing them in the things of God, trying to untangle their confused thoughts and trying to help them get a greater understanding of the basic truths which will then later lead to grander truths of salvation and the gospel and those things.

We’re gonna be with them all the way until they get it settled. One of the greatest things is when you have influence, one of your children or a child over whom you have influence is when that little person or big person who was once a little person comes to you and has said to you that they are convinced, they know for certain that they know God and they walk with God and they love God.

That is so rewarding. It really is so rewarding. Because you know that God did that. You just kind of stood by and let them come. Let them come. Now back in verse 14, suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me does not mean the following.

Take a moment to read this. I’m gonna read from Mr. Matthew Henry, volume five, page 272. Here’s what Matthew Henry says about suffer the little children to come unto me. He says, therefore he takes it, he takes Jesus now, takes it ill of those who forbid them and cast them out from the inheritance of the Lord and say, ye have no part in the Lord, quoting Joshua 22, 27, and who forbid water that they should be baptized who if that promise be fulfilled, quoting Isaiah 44, 3, have received the Holy Ghost as well as we for aught we know.

Now I know that’s the 1600s, that’s quite a long time ago. Let’s see, who’s got, can someone get Isaiah 44, 3 handy and read it out for us? Nice and loud so everybody can hear it.

Go ahead brother. Alright so based on Isaiah 44, 3, the phrase that says, God says, I will pour my spirit upon thy seed. It is assumed, because he cites that verse, Matthew Henry cites that verse and says, God says he would give his spirit to your seed, that is your children, your little children in the way he’s using it here. And he says this, he says, that the Lord takes it ill, looks ill upon those who forbid water that they should be baptized because they have received the Holy Ghost as well as we for aught we know.

In other words, for as much as we know, they have the spirit of God because of Isaiah 44, 3. Think about what he’s saying. Matthew Henry is arguing that this verse, suffer the little children coming to me, is the reason why we should allow children to be baptized.

Because he says, for all we know, they have the spirit of God. I wanna tell you something, when I read that, I got to share this with this Baptist congregation.

This is terrible hermeneutics, terrible Bible interpretation. He takes a random verse out of Joshua and a random verse out of Isaiah. The verse out of Isaiah has literally no reference at all to what we’re talking about here. And then he casts doubt, he says, see, Isaiah 44, 3 says that God says the children will have the spirit of God. And then he says, they should be baptized because for all we know, they have the spirit of God.

So based upon a doubt, we’re gonna baptize a baby? Matthew 19 says nothing of the sort. It says nothing about baptism. It says nothing about water, nothing at all.

Then I got to Albert Barnes. The faithful Presbyterian. He says this, no act therefore, think about what he’s saying here. No act, you think of all the acts in the universe that a person could perform. No act therefore can be more proper than by which parents in a solemn ordinance of religion give them up, children, to God in baptism, consecrating them to his service and seeking for them the blessing of the Savior.

This is his comment on verse 14. Now, I wanted to bring this up at this point because verse 14 is one of, I gave you two proofs, is one of the verses that people argue to say that you should baptize children, baptize babies. And there’s no baptism anywhere in the verse.

What they’re doing is they’re imposing upon the words of Christ, upon the words, suffer the little children to come unto me, to make it to mean allow little children to be baptized. That’s not what Jesus is saying. He’s saying, let them come to me. Let them come to me.

Second, coming to Jesus is not the same as being baptized. That’s not the same thing. One does not come to Jesus by baptism. Third, which is kind of a little bit ironic, third is those who baptize babies, almost all of them, baptize using a fusion or a spursion, a fusion being pouring, a spursion being sprinkling, neither of which is baptism. They’re uses of water but not baptism, which means immersion.

I think there is an Orthodox, like a Eastern Orthodox that does baptism. I’ve seen a video, have you seen a video of Brother David? They take these babies, I mean, I gotta give them credit. At least they immerse, but they take these babies and violently dump these babies in water. I mean, almost like they get arrested by DSS. Three times, like, I mean, like a baby’s on a washboard.

But I mean, at least they do it by immersion. The reason I brought that up is just because it was convenient. Because this is one of the, kind of the go-to verses that say you should be, you should, you should have your children baptized. Now on the subject, one more thing before we finish is this, on the subject of baby dedication, baby dedication. There’s nothing in the Bible that says that we must do that.

There’s nothing in the Bible that says that we must do that. Or that forbids that we should not do that. Baby dedication is not the same as baptism. Although some people who practice infant baptism liken the two. But you know what? You don’t have to be in front of a church to do that.

You can bring your child to Jesus anytime, anywhere. And it’s not a one-time thing either. You can pray an intercession for your child and you can let that child go to the church. You can pray an intercession for your child and you can let that child come and deal with that child. This is what Jesus is talking about. He’s not talking about a ceremony. He’s talking about the nitty-gritty real life dealing with a little sinner who needs a savior and who is just learning the truths of the gospel.

Just learning the truths of the gospel. So let me encourage you, we’re gonna close in just a minute, but to be the one who likes to be the one who loves you. Like the Lord Jesus, praise to the Lord Jesus for those kids in your life. Make that a matter of priority. Take the Lord’s own prayer request for his disciples whom he called little children and pray those for those children in your life.