Charlotte Chpl Jesus and the Children

6. At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? He called a little child and he had him stand among them. And he said, I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone calls of this little child who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hang around his neck and to be thrown in the depths of the sea. The third and final reading is from James 1, verse 26 and 27.

James 1, verse 26 and 27. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts is pure and faultless is to look after orphans and we those in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, Lamboi. He's just with us from North India and has just commenced her PhD with us in Glasgow.

Are you hearing me on this mic? Good. Let's pray again. Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace.

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my dear Redeemer's praise. All we are, all we ever will be, as a result of an unsought favor, a divine mercy to which we have responded and we're grateful. In the name of Jesus our Lord.

Amen. Amen. My favorite quotation from John Bunyan is just this.

I did feel, or rather I did preach what I did feel. What I did smartingly feel. Look at a couple of quotations which come from one of the best books I've ever come across in terms of children's ministry.

Compassion is the quest to be human as God intended. It is not a means to an end. We're not compassionate in order to make converts or as an end of poverty itself.

The purpose and motivation of compassion are one and the same. To be like God. And it goes on.

We are never closer to God. Never closer to keeping his commands. Never closer to our true humanity than when we are meeting the needs of the most vulnerable.

I did preach what I did feel. What I did smartingly feel. Joseph de Souza who sometimes comes here and is one of my closest friends.

So many times I go to India as a director of operation mobilization. And I love the trips to Asia as well as to Africa. But one thing remains in my mind about an earlier visit to the subcontinent.

When I noticed in the area where I was ministering, it was announced that I would bring all the evening massages. I did feel what I did. I did preach what I did feel.

What I did smartingly feel. There is a sense. A very real sense.

In which the distinguishing factor between preaching and lecturing is in the whole area of feeling. In the whole area of emotion. For you cannot contain and convey a burden without feeling that burden.

Without identifying with it. And this morning I am unblushingly doing what I have done on so many occasions in Scotland during the last 15 weeks. And that is to quote the book of Proverbs.

To speak up for the dumb. To plead for justice on the part of those who cannot speak. For themselves.

That verse is in the final verse in the final chapter of Proverbs. The 31st chapter. Speak up.

Speak up for the dumb. Argue for justice for those who find it hard to articulate their own needs. I don't quite know how they have a Keswick convention in India but they do.

In Calcutta of all places. So very dissimilar to the Keswick of the Lake District. I am preaching there on one occasion.

I am finding myself within just 200 or 300 yards of the residence of Mother Teresa. I responded to an invitation to go and meet with her. Although our theologies are poles apart.

One of the things that I remember her saying to me when I lost about two feet in order to get eyeball to eyeball with her. Was Pastor Sargent. If you want credibility in your ministry.

Don't just go to the poor. Go to the poorest of the poor. And there.

There you will find God. It's interesting isn't it in the Old Testament. Sometimes you get the mantra.

Introducing God. He is the God of Abraham. And the God of Isaac.

And the God of Jacob. The God of the Patriarchs. But significantly in the subtext.

Sometimes coming through on the written page itself. Is another formula. He is the God of the orphan.

And the God of the widow. The commitment of God to those who are without. Is in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

And here is the beloved Christ. And if ever there was a man who was radical in his theology. That man was Jesus.

300 million children are orphaned in our world. I love being at Charlotte Chapel. I used to come here more frequently before I was in Glasgow.

I don't know what happened to Glasgow to put you off. I was back in the church that I served for 28 years on Thursday. Last in order to take a funeral service.

And the church that I served is more or less the same. Identically the same. As Charlotte Chapel.

And whenever I go back to the church and to the congregation. And whenever I've had the privilege of coming here. I've endeavored to glory in the fact that there are some churches in the United Kingdom that at least get full these days.

Because when I crisscross Scotland generally on a Sunday. It's rarely that I come across anything that is a semblance of this. But if you were to multiply this congregation.

By something like 20. You would have the number of children who will die today. From curable diseases.

300 million children who are orphaned. 350 million children who are bound to work. Some of them day in and day out.

In little less than slave conditions. 100 million children who are forced into the sex industry. In the world each year.

I suppose Gary Glitter is not exactly a person who is often quoted from this pulpit. In Cambodian Vietnam he got his uppance. He was one of the many pedophiles that you find in the major cities in Asia.

We just bought a tract of land and indeed a building opposite the mother of all railway stations in Calcutta. Calcutta is a station the like of which it's hard to imagine unless you have been there. It's a place where people breed.

It's a place where there is a sort of social intercourse. It's a place where kids are delivered from Dhaka in Bangladesh and from Kathmandu in Nepal. And find themselves disgorged with all the vulnerability of childhood in the center of Calcutta amongst the pedophiles.

And one of the concerns of Jesus was his radical theology. The articulation of his passion. I did preach what I did feel, what I did smartingly feel to his disciples.

I have around 220 students. Why Colin didn't put his picture on that little tour of folks who've had some connection to us I don't know. I mean I think he's part good looking so he could have got away with it.

And certainly his wife. Jesus has disciples too who follow him. Twelve, one is a dud but the other eleven they've got the potential of being pictures but sometimes they're a little dull in the way that he has to teach.

And then grasping the lessons. That's what I mean by dullness. Jesus obviously lives at a time before PowerPoint.

Laptop computers, visual aids, they're not available. At least not in a modern format but they are there. And here is Jesus in Matthew's gospel and chapter 18.

And he has his disciples and in front of him he brings a child. And the reason why he brings a child. Because he's going to lay down some radical theology.

Fellas, you want to know something about the kingdom. You've been talking amongst yourselves as to who will be the greatest. Well mine is an upside down kingdom and the way up is the way down.

And he who is least has the potentiality of being the greatest. Lamboy won't mind me telling you. That he spent ten years of his life as a fifteen year old kid.

In the northern tracks of the subcontinent. As a peasant working the fields. The potential was there.

But the ability to realize the potential. The gifting that he had. Seemed at the human level utterly impossible.

Until as a result of a group of circumstances we got to know him. And enabled him to take some theological education in India. And eventually brought him to Glasgow in order to do a PhD.

To then return to his country. Better equipped to teach others. The disciples have to recognize what Jesus appreciates.

Not only in his teaching but also in his very experience. The value of a child. Don't you see that one of the reasons.

Why our beloved Lord came on earth not as Adam. Was born a fully fledged man. He came on earth as a child.

Because the vulnerability of a child is something with whom. He will identify. The greatest book and I'm not giving to exaggeration.

That I have ever come across in terms of children and children's ministry. Is a book entitled Understanding Compassion. A biblical exploration seen through the eyes of child poverty.

And Renita Boyle one of the co-editors. And also an adjunct lecturer at International Christian College. She has this comment to make with regard to our Lord Jesus.

And his advent into the world as a child. She goes on to say that. It's surely an act of deepest significance.

That Jesus Christ should become as vulnerable as an infant. When God the Son became Jesus the Babe. He entered fully into the process of childhood.

And in so doing affirmed the worth of all children. McDonald's had a coup some years ago. They were able to establish a center in Moscow.

It was the end of a lot of graft in terms of the planning. To get them launched into what was the Soviet Union. The distinction however between McDonald's in Moscow.

And virtually any McDonald's in the West. Was the lack of bric-a-brac after people had eaten. The plastic knives and forks, the beakers, the trays.

They were returned not to some trash can but they were taken home. Because the equivalent in their homes did not exist. The West lives in a throw away society.

And in the day of our Lord. Children could be thrown away. Not according to the Jewish scriptures.

But within Gentile practice. And in some respects within Jewish practice. Children could be discarded.

But Jesus comes into the world as a child. And as a theologian he highlights the significance of the child. The potential of the child.

And so our Lord finds himself under the threat of death at birth. As many hundreds of thousands of unborn children. Have come under threat.

And were never able to enter into the grace of life. Joseph will tell you. Of the unreached people's groups in Asia.

And particularly in India. I could keep you a long time going into the tribal situations in various parts of Central Africa. I could spell out for you the needs that there are in Latin America.

But the greatest unreached people's group in the world today. Are boys and girls under the age of 16. And Jesus brings his child.

In front of his disciples. And he says fellas if you want some sort of insight into my kingdom. How to enter my kingdom.

How to behave in my kingdom. Then look at this kid. And if you read the synoptics and you fill out the version.

Jesus does not just have the child in the middle. He brings the child alongside. And he lifts the child in his arms.

And he gives you a further illustration which is replete in the gospel. That Jesus is a man for boys and girls. But not only does he teach the significance of being a child.

And inbuilt into the teaching is a thought that children more than adults have a simplicity. Have an ability to faith. Because they're not so cynical.

They haven't on the whole been so badly treated though some have. Not only is a child an illustration of the sort of faith that you and I ought to represent. But a child has its own inbuilt vulnerability which must be guarded against.

Better that a millstone be hung around a person's neck. Than that he or she exploits one of these little ones. This is no gentle Jesus meek and mild.

Here is Jesus with righteous indignation. Shooting out the possibility that one of these youngsters could somehow be exploited. And rather than that happen says Jesus.

The upper stone of the millstone generally turned round by the donkey. Should be used to squeeze a person who inflicts such outrage amongst children. It would be better for he had he never been born.

One out of three children in Namibia are orphans. As a result of AIDS. I'm only recently back from South Africa.

A similar sort of situation. Though the statistics are not quite as high. Exists there.

I'm very fortunate. Not only do I occupy the best job. As far as I'm concerned in Scotland.

But it gives me an opportunity to rub shoulders with people who are not necessarily Christian. But who through a series of events have some contact with us. And a little while ago I was.

Several months to be precise. I was in Central Africa. In Kenya which I suppose technically is East Africa.

And there on behalf of the government of Kenya. And Daniel Moy who happens to be a friend. Brings me to his estate out in the.

Some miles away from the capital city. And he gives me a house I generally have when. When I'm out there.

And I start because it's quite late at night just to see the television. The Kenyan news. And the following day Moy comes across.

Moy who's perhaps one of the most influential or was one of the most influential people in Africa. Comes across from his large mansion. To talk to me.

And he says it's my birthday today. And he said that there's a bit of a celebration. And between where I'm staying and his house is an open verge.

Which has now been filled overnight with so many many hundreds of chairs. And on the chairs are obviously many people. And I agreed to go to his birthday celebration.

He's got children from the various schools there. Acknowledging that the big man is 80 and. They start to sing their choruses 80, 79, 78, 76, 75, 74.

And all the way down it's all very jolly. The politicians are there. And I suddenly notice as I'm going down the order of ceremony.

That I'm supposed to bring the address. But he hadn't told me. And I'm thinking what do I do? And I remembered suddenly how Moy when he came to the United Kingdom.

Attended Westminster Chapel and went down to Langham Place. And benefited from the ministry some very great Christians. And I recall too how he was just one of the jetsam and flotsam of society in his day.

And found himself as a kid in a place called Kapsua. Looked after by some African inland mission Presbyterian missionaries. And so I took the August Company back to what Moy used to be.

I have no defense for Daniel Moy. I have no apology for the government policies of Kenya. Sometimes they got it right.

Very often they get it wrong. That wasn't my point. My point is that he was an 80 year old man who had a potentiality.

Which at the human level was discovered by the luck of the draw. And I started to talk to them about Jesus. And the radical nature of his theology.

And how Jesus propelled this boy in front of the disciples. And spoke in kingdom terms as to how they were to behave. How they were to receive the favor of God.

And therefore as a result of our Lord's teaching and the illustration in East Africa. I had a gift situation to remind the people of Kenya. Of the significance of little babies.

Of boys and girls. I moved on from there. From his university in Kabarak where he's built alongside his house a multi-million dollar university.

To Kijabi. Probably the largest mission station in the world. And speaking to an audience like this.

Only it was somewhat larger with a lot of Africans. I can see now a movement at the rear of the church. And a couple of ladies bring in their arms a little bundle of life.

Wrapped in white. And it's placed in my arms. And I discover it's an African child.

Which has just been found in the excrement of an African latrine. And I wash the child down. And put her in my arms.

And I thought of a few months earlier. Just a year before. In the aftermath of the tsunami.

Picking up a little kid. Who had gone two hours with the wave. Her mother having grabbed the child.

And the child clunging to her shoulders. She'd managed to keep it afloat. And it was there surviving after the tsunami.

And then I thought on top of that. That just a month or so before I'd been in Africa. I was holding in my arms a little baby.

Who'd been born in northern Scotland. In a very well to do family. Who'd be looked after.

I was shown the wardrobe. I was shown the toys. And the little kid couldn't have been more than a few months old.

And I started to contrast a lot. Of those three children. And to relate the problems.

Of that contrast. To the sovereignty of God. And to the teaching of Jesus.

For when I had finished with Moy and his council. I got them to stand up and sing. Something that we will sing ourselves this morning.

In a little while. Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so.

One of the things that will ever remain in my mind. Is to see the Kenyan cabinet. Swaying.

As they're singing. The song. But it is true.

Jesus does love. The little children. But now my message becomes a little bit more smarting.

Not so much in its feelingful nature. But in the application that I try to draw. Who is responsible for the wealth that we have? And the answer has to be our Lord.

As we look into the Old Testament. As we look into the New Testament. We appreciate that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above.

In other words. The Old Testament and the New Testament. And I was quoting the New Testament there.

Makes it perfectly plain. That all that we are. And all that we have.

Is as a result of God's grace. Jesus speaks to the disciples. About a child.

And not just about the potentiality of the child. But the responsibility of adults. To children.

To minister into the lot of children. To protect the vulnerability of children. Now how can we possibly protect the vulnerability of children today? Let me give you a couple of statistics.

If you earn more than £15,000 a year. You're in the top 10% income earning bracket of the world. If you earn more than £30,000 a year.

You're in the top 0.8%. Which seems to suggest that there's an awful number of people. Who live much lower down than the level at which you live. When you get to the epistle that John wrote.

John tells us that. If we see our brother who has need. And we have an ability to meet that need.

And we don't exercise that ability. Then he puts up this rhetorical question. How dwells the love of God in that man? Jesus surely is teaching in this incident.

The responsibility of an adult generation. Towards children. Not just in terms of their protection.

But perchance also in terms of provision. It's interesting isn't it? That Matthew decides to put the parable of the lost sheep. Of the sheep that goes astray.

In this particular incident. It's there at the end of the verses. When you get down to about the 16th verse.

The little one being repatriated. And benefiting by the security and presumably the food. That there is shed amongst the rest of the flock.

It's not rocket science. To recognize. That Jesus is speaking not only to the disciples.

But also to the church. About what we have. As a privilege to do.

In his name. Going back. To Mother Teresa.

Your credibility. Is correlated with your determination. Not just to go to the poor.

But to go to the poorest of the poor. Now amongst that group of disciples. One who shall become a leader in the New Testament church was not present.

I refer to James. Not James the disciple. But rather James the brother of Jesus.

The half brother of Jesus. Who writes the epistle that bears his name. It would seem as though James comes to a face.

In Jesus Christ. After the crucifixion. After the resurrection.

And maybe on or before the day of Pentecost. And later on at the end or towards the end of his life. He writes an epistle.

It's a remarkable epistle. It's different from the epistle that Paul writes. It's a pragmatic epistle.

It's an epistle based upon certain theological presuppositions. Which sort of hover beneath the text. And on one occasion.

He starts to tell us. About what is the definition. Of true religion.

And Lamboy read it to you. Religion. Religion.

That God our Father recognises. Is not the formulation of theological statements. That doesn't mean to say that that is not important.

That that does not have a base. But if it stays as the base. And there is no pragmatic outworking.

Then it invalidates. The academic. Definition.

Of faith. Religion that God our Father recognises. And James goes to the.

Both ends of the. Of life spectrum. Those at the beginning.

And those at the end. Religion that God our Father recognises. Religion that God our Father commends.

Is that which ministers. To the orphan. In his or her vulnerability.

And to the widow. In her distress. You see how James.

Who must have stuck closer to Jesus. In the early years than any other disciple. If the tradition is right and.

It seems to be reasonably strong. Joseph dies in the early years of Jesus' life. Our Saviour becomes.

A substitute parent. He takes on the responsibilities. For the rest of the family.

Alongside Mary. And if anyone knew how Jesus lived. If anyone knew how Jesus practiced.

Then that person is James. Which is the reason why Luther never got it. So wrong.

When he suggested that the epistle to James. Is a stroy epistle. Far from being a stroy epistle.

It is an outworking of those theological presuppositions. Which you get in the epistles. And that have their origin back in the teaching.

Of Jesus. Religion that God our Father. Acknowledges.

Is a religion that works itself out practically. In terms of being where. Those who happen to be in need are.

And ministering out of your logess. To those who do not have. Sufficient.

Do you remember? Jesus not only sets up. The parable of the lost sheep. He also sets up the parable.

Of the lost son. And Luke puts three lost parables together. But Matthew here displaces them.

But in Luke's gospel. The parable of the. The lost son.

Is one of the most remarkable stories. But preceding that parable. In Luke's gospel.

Is the parable of the good Samaritan. Which you find located in the tenth chapter. And don't you see? There is a connection between the two.

The parable of the lost son. Needs the parable of the good Samaritan. You say what do I mean? You go to the father's house.

In order to find. The salvation blessings. That he offers to those.

Who have confessed him. Who have done away with their lives. In the far country.

If you come back for the rejoicing. And for the celebration. It's in order to move out as a Samaritan.

On to the road of confrontation. The parable. Of the prodigal son.

Needs the parable. of the Good Samaritan. And if you unpack that parable, what do you get? Well, you get the Samaritan, towards the end of the story, who's talking to the innkeeper, and the Samaritan cannot continue in the inn.

So he goes on his journey, and he leaves some instructions to the innkeeper, and he says, this man that I have started to minister to, I want you to continue where I left off. Take care of him. Take care of him.

And I give you the wherewithal to so do. And should it be the case that you spend more than I have given you, when I come back, I will reward you. Take care of him.

The Samaritan's word to the innkeeper. Take care of them. The charge of Jesus Christ to the church.

He brings the disciples together. He uses the illustration of a child. He identifies the significance of the child in terms of kingdom terms.

He endorses the fact that the kingdom is indeed, to use the quotation I've already employed, upside-down kingdom. And he gives them a charge. As he gives the church a charge in the 21st century.

Take care. You cannot change the world, or you cannot change everyone's world, but you can change the world of one person, or ten people, or a community. My grandfather could plead ignorance.

He was blessed. He never saw River City. He never saw Coronation Street.

He never saw television. He never knew the immediacy of communication. But we do have that immediacy, that the communication is not one way, as we are communicated to, so we can communicate outwardly.

We have an ability to change situations. In order that some people can simply live, we have to live more simply. Neil Hood was one of the closest friends I've had in my time in Scotland.

More than anyone at the human level, external to our college, he helped International Christian College to be where it is now. He died prematurely just a few months ago. I tracked his last two books in terms of checking the manuscripts and reading through what he had to say.

He wrote a triplet of books. Whose life is it? Whose work is it? Whose money is it? And before he died, he said something like this to me. Do you know what the greatest message needs to be preached in Western Christianity, and particularly in Scotland, is? And I said, no, tell me.

He said, outside the proclamation of the gospel, or alongside the proclamation of the gospel, preach on Christian credibility, the way that our faith has ownership over everything that we are, so that when we sing, take my silver and my gold, when we sing, that we're the whole realm of nature mine, that we're an offering far too small, love so amazing, so divine, we can sing it without engaging in hyperbole. We can sing it believing that all that we have, all that we ever have obtained in our life, is as a result not of our initiative, but a God-given ability to achieve the particular standards and status where we are in our society. So I leave you with this thought.

You see, I did declare my problem right at the beginning. I do feel what I, I do preach what I do feel, what I do smartingly feel. When five-year-old kids are begging on the streets of Baghdad, I cannot close my eyes without recognizing some responsibility for them.

When 15 pounds will pay for the education of a child in Darfur, then I cannot, without examining myself, with the handing of my finance, and the living of my life, I cannot reconcile with my Christianity these problems unless I determine what I personally, what we collectively, at a higher level than we have been doing before, might do. I'm nearly through. I got one of my guys, I say I got him, it was his initiative, to work on a book on a man who changed things in society just before Charles Spurgeon, Andrew Reid.

The book's just been published. It's called The Greatest is Charity. It tells you how Victoria, England was changed in London as a result of his ministry.

We had published in Operation Mobilization and went to 100,000 copies, stories from around the world of people who were determined to do things and change things. I brought both of these books with me this morning, they're at the book table. This one cost me 10 pounds, that hardly cost me anything.

Anything that you give, over above the 10 pounds, we'll get out to one of the slums, we'll get out to Darfur, we'll move in, alongside what you're already doing. I will continue to pray for boys and girls around the world. The sort of audio help that I've had this morning has not been fixed.

Just a reminder of the children, red and yellow, black and white. Just a reminder of the importance.