ATTN: Several years ago, when I was working primarily with the youth, a young dad came into my office asking if he could help me with anything. As we were talking about what he could help the ministry with, he said he trusts me even though he didn’t know me personally. And he explained the reason why. He said, “I can trust people who like little children and youth.” I took him to mean that since associating with little children and youth do not help you advance in your career, if you like them and willingly works with them, then you are genuine in you heart. I knew this young dad himself coached a youth soccer team and devoted his life to giving himself to the young people. God took him home a couple years after that through cancer….

It is no secret that I’m in love with my girls and if I could have it my way, they would remain at this age forever – 9 and 7. But that would be selfish. As such, one of my favorite images of Jesus is when He’s involving children. Whether it’s when the disciples were shooing the little children away, Jesus rebuked the disciples not to do that or when, like today’s passage, when the disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He called a child in the midst of them and told them that they had to become like that child. That is what God will look at in the end – whether we were childlike….

We’ve been on Beginning from the End series since the beginning of the year. As we are starting out the year, we wanted to look at what will matter in the end and focus on those. It won’t matter in the end what our Body Mass Index was. It won’t matter how many exotic places we’ve visited. It won’t matter how much we have earned, or whether we were married or not, or whether we owned our own home or not. Those earthly goals are unworthy to be our ultimate goals. We want to look at what will count toward eternity.

Starting from the 1^st week this month, we said God judges us by 1) our response to His word, 2) being god-centered rather than self-centered, 3) our faithfulness in little, 4) whether we have made a name for ourselves or for God.

Today, we will look at one more aspect of our lives that God will look at to judge us by: Humility. The passage that illustrates humility involves a little child.

CONTEXT: Jesus’ 12 disciples were arguing with one another who was the greatest among them. I guess men are alike no matter the era or the culture, they love ranking stuff. For example, on ESPN.com this week, I was reading about the 50 greatest Superbowls of all time and last year’s Superbowl was ranked #2. Now, 2000 years ago, these disciples of Jesus were sitting around and arguing who among them was the greatest. Perhaps Peter said, “I’m first among the disciples and so of course I’m the greatest.” Then, Andrew might have said, “Well, Peter, I’m the one who brought you to Jesus, so I’m the greatest.” And Judas might have said, “well, Jesus made me the treasurer which means he trusts me with money. So, I’m the greatest.” And John might have said, “But everyone knows that I’m Jesus’ favorite. So, I’m the greatest!” So, they were arguing and they finally decided to ask Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” expecting that Jesus will name one of them – after all who else left everything to follow Jesus – other than those 12 men? And how does Jesus respond? He looks around and gets this random kid playing on the street and says, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

This was completely unexpected of course. The disciples were thinking like the world – those who are great are the ones with great power and position but that child had neither. What is about children that Jesus is thinking of that makes them great? It is certainly not their ignorance about certain things or lack of wisdom because the Bible warns about being childish. It is their humility. But what is that childlike humility that Jesus says God will look at to determine our greatness?

1) Nameless:

Now, what was this child’s name? We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t tell us on purpose, I believe. Humility means being at peace with being nameless. While the disciples were arguing who made a name for himself better than anyone else, Jesus brings in a nameless child and tells them that they must become like him. Pastor Eldie told us last week that those who built the tower of Babel were trying to make a name for themselves. That is the definition of pride. The opposite – humility – is then being at peace with being unrecognized, and nameless among the people. Think of a normal child. He is not eager to get his name out. He doesn’t go out of his way to get the credit for the work he has done, making sure that he is not passed up or a promotion. He doesn’t showboat his singing voice on Youtube to get likes – his parents might, but he won’t do that thinking that he will make a name for himself. He doesn’t bring attention to himself unless of course he is spoiled. Being humble, being great in the eyes of God are those who are at peace with being nameless, being in the background, not getting the recognition, but simply being recognized by God in the end.

 

2) Self-forgetful:

A humble person is self-forgetful. This is slightly different from being nameless in that being nameless is being at peace with not being recognized by the world, but that person can still be preoccupied with the self. But being humble like a child means not being preoccupied with the self. You don’t see a child sitting in a psychologist’s office talking about why he’s the way he is. He just doesn’t think about himself that much. That is why they can be silly and not be self-conscious.

David danced naked in worship not realizing that he was. He was completely oblivious to what people thought. He was freely expressing his love for God and not thinking about how people saw him. He was self-forgetful – that is, humility.

C.S. Lewis said, “… if you meet a really humble man, he will not be [one]… who is always telling you that he is nobody…. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.” In other words, a truly humble person is not someone who tells everyone, “I’m a nobody. I suck. I can’t do anything right. I’m worthless!” Well, such a person is full of himself. Yes, of bad opinions of the self, but still preoccupied with the self. But if you met a truly humble person, he will be all about you. He’s more interested in you than himself. He does not wait for you to finish your story so that he can tell his own story. After you finish your story, he asks you more about that story so that you can tell another story. You love talking to him because he makes it about you rather than himself. A humble person is self-forgetful.

 

3) Dependent:

A humble person knows he lacks wisdom and ability and so he asks for help. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” He doesn’t say, “weary and burdened? Toughen up! Learn to cope with it on your own!” But rather, He wants us to come to Him and ask for help. That is what humility will allow us to do. “How often do our children ask, “daddy, mommy, what does this mean?” or “How do I do this?” Contrarily, how many of us adults are reluctant to ask for help because that would be like admitting that the other is superior.  We are taught to be self-sufficient and independent. It’s a sign of weakness to ask for help. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, “I didn’t ask for help because I didn’t want to be a burden.” I appreciate you thinking of others but when you really need help, you ask. That’s what humility does. Children have no such pretenses, do they? They have no shame. They know they need help and they will ask. So, they are dependent. We ask God to forgive us over and over and over. And He will, to His children.

Spiritually, speaking, the more mature we are in Christ, the more dependent we become in Christ. This is an easy concept to grasp but a difficult concept to practice. The way spiritual maturity works is exactly the opposite of physical maturity. When a child is born, he is completely dependent on the parents. But as he grows, he becomes less and less dependent on them until he grows completely independent. But spiritually, when a person is not born again, he is completely separate or independent of God. But when he commits himself to God, he is for the first time depending on God to save him. But as a newborn, he will still try to do many things without asking God. He will make decisions regarding career moves, where to live or even which church to belong to without really asking God because it never occurs to him. But as he grows more mature, he becomes more and more dependent. Now, when he is about to talk to his wife about something or children about something important, he asks God how he should do it when before, it would never even occur to him to do so. A child is dependent on the parent. And so is a humble person dependent on God for everything.

And not only dependent on God, but also on others. We need others to help us. That’s why God gave us the church. God wants to be in a community, helping one another, doing things for one another that we lack the resources for or the self-discipline. Those of us who are of minority culture grew up in shame-based culture. We’ve been taught, “It’s shameful to ask for help. Don’t ever take handouts. Be proud even though you have nothing!”  Not biblical. Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you.” As Christians, the poor are there to serve the wealthy by giving them the opportunity show them grace and thus racking up their reward in heaven! Besides, we are all poor in God’s eyes and only those who recognize how utterly bankrupt they are, God comes and saves.

It takes a humble person to say, “I need help.”

 

4) Association with other “little” people:

Jesus says in v. 5, “whoever receives one such child in my name receives me…“ In other words, you who are humble enough to associate with other “little” people like yourself, I will receive. This goes with being faithful in little things with little people. A humble person will associate with and love people who are otherwise of no benefit to them. I think that’s what that young dad I told you about in the beginning of my sermon was referring to – people who like and work with children are trustworthy since there is nothing that these children can give back in return….

Unfortunately, some people, even so called Christians, won’t “waste” their time with those who won’t advance their career or who won’t make them look good in association. That’s the way the disciples originally thought. When little children were coming to Jesus, the disciples try to shoo them away because they weren’t deemed important in that culture, but Jesus got furious at the disciples and made them to allow these little children to come to Him. Jesus associated and died for the little people. That’s how you and I could be saved in the first place. If Jesus didn’t associate with the little people, then only the kings and queens would be saved. You and I – the “little” ones – would be lost forever.

 

CONC: There will be no proud people in heaven. Jesus says in v. 3, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Not only will you NOT be great in heaven if you are not humble, you won’t even enter heaven if you are proud. That means there will be no people in heaven who 1) continued to make a name for himself, 2) were preoccupied with the self, 3) were completely independent and self-sufficient, and 4) did not associate with other little people.

If we are in danger of hellfire because of pride and judged to be unfit for heaven, what should we do? How do we humble ourselves? By trying to convince ourselves how evil we are? No. If we succeeded at that, we will be proud that we convinced ourselves to be humble… ! But rather, we fix our eyes upon Christ.

Philippians 2:5-8, [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

            Compare yourselves to Jesus Christ. Saturate yourselves with His holiness and love. Then you will know how far you fall short of His glory. You won’t be able to help but be humble and self-forgetful and be in awe of God who alone is worthy!