As I type this, three of our ladies from the Living Proof faith family are in Haiti on a mission trip. They are spending the week with local churches and running VBS for the kids in these churches. All reports so far from the team tell us that the trip is going well. We are excited to hear from them when they return about all that they saw, did, and learned.

One of the difficult things for us here is to know how to consistently pray for this team and for the people we have have never seen in a country most of us have never been to. In an effort to assist you in this vital work of prayer I have included a video below from Operation World. Take 2-3 minutes to watch the video and I promise that you will be motivated and better equipped to pray.

Let us go boldly to the throne of grace with unrelenting faith in the One who opened the way for us to approach our God.

Did you know that Jesus expects…maybe even demands…that you work in the nursery or children’s ministry in your local church?

I am thinking that there are two main types of reactions to my previous statement. The first would come from those who avoid the nursery because you put sitting on the floor with toddlers, wiping goldfish crumbs off of your lap, telling a 3-yr-old to not throw blocks (for seemingly the hundredth time), debating as to when the right time to “get the mother” is, and viewing the horrors of a full diaper from a much closer vantage point than you are comfortable with right up there with inserting bamboo stalks under your finger nails. Your response might be, “Eric, I believe your hermeneutics may be somewhat skewed. You are clearly confusing your Greek verb endings on this one. Furthermore, I think you are basing your conclusions on more of an eisegetical approach rather than the proper exegetical approach. You may be standing in judgment for how you are mishandling the Scriptures.”

Conversely, the second group would be those who regularly serve in the under-staffed nursery and children’s areas of churches. These are the ones who discover “mystery spots” as they change out of their Sunday best each week, have come to associate church with the smell of baby wipes, begin twitching when they hear “Jesus Loves Me” or “Jesus Loves The Little Children”, and know just the right time to “get the mother.” Your response is probably more along the lines of, “Eric just got a word from Jesus. I mean it! Jesus is speaking to him. We need more help in here!”

Regardless of the group you fall into, take a breath and read on…

In Mark 9:33-37 we read that Jesus and his disciples came back to their ministry base in Capernaum. It would be easy to say that up to this point Jesus’ ministry had been hugely successful. Crowds were growing, people were getting healed left and right, demons were fleeing in terror, and lives were being changed. To be on the inside of this ministry, as the disciples were, had to have offered one a massive sense of pride and prestige.

We are reminded that the disciples are just like us. They are normal people who are beset with sin and who often succumb to the idolatry of self-worship. As they were on their way to Capernaum, verse 34 tells us that they had been arguing over who was the greatest among them. Isn’t this where our minds go? God is doing something great. He is working in and through us. Clearly he deserves all glory. And there we are trying to figure out who is the most indespensible cog in the machine. So Jesus turns to them and asks, “What were you discussing on the way?”

uhhhh…nothing.

Our self-absorbed debates always seem so significant until Jesus turns to us and asks us what we are talking about.

I think that the disciples realized at this moment who the greatest truly was. It was the man who stood before them and questioned the motives of their hearts. Jesus is the only indispensable.

Then he does something great (as he always does). He calls them together and tells them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Okay. Rebuke and correction taken. But he does not leave it there. He goes a step further. In verse 36 he takes a child and puts him in the middle of the disciples.

I wonder what was going through the disciples’ minds at this point. “Hey, what is Junior doing here. I mean, this is a meeting for grown-ups. We are talking with Jesus here. We don’t need these types of distractions. He’s probably going to interrupt the lesson or make some kind of embarrassing sound. Where is this kid’s mother? Don’t we have a nursery?”

Then Jesus ups the ante. He takes the little boy up into his own arms. He picks him up and holds him. He gets face to face, hand to beard, and drool to shoulder with this little guy. And this is where he gets to the heart of the issue. Verse 37, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Kids were often marginalized in ancient societies. Jesus, though, does not usually play be the rules of the spirit of the age. He simply makes God known. And as it was back then, so it is today. Jesus revealing the truth of God often runs totally contrary to cultural categories and expectations. He is letting his disciples know that true greatness in the kingdom comes from a true heart to serve. The truly great do not argue for their position and rank. They serve. And furthermore, they are willing to serve even those people who are considered to be the “least of these.”

But if you noticed, Jesus did not leave it there. This was not just a “take care of those in need” lesson. It was much more than that. Look at two things. The first is that Jesus says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name…” So this speaks of motivation. When we receive a child in the name of Jesus, we are receiving this child as a response to the character and work of Jesus. Let me put it this way. We receive those who are lowly or lesser, because Jesus has received us.

We start with the gospel and see a God who lowered himself to meet us. He did not wait for us to achieve or attain or mature or better ourselves. He lowered himself and came to us in order save us. So he is saying here, “If you receive this child in the same way that I have received you…” The disciples were not to receive one such child because their arms were being twisted or because their wives secretly signed them up for the nursery. They were to do so as a natural and right response to the gospel of Christ.

Secondly, look again at verse 37. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.” As we receive those who are “lesser” because we know the gospel, and because its fruit is overflowing from our hearts, we have a reward. That’s right…a reward. We get God.

Does it amaze you that God has decided that as we serve because of the gospel that he uses this act of service to bless us with the reality of his presence in our lives? Milton Vincent says it this way in his little book. A Gospel Primer for Christians:

Pride wilts in the atmosphere of the gospel; and the more pride is mortified within me, the less frequent are my moments of sinful contention with God and with others. Conversely, humility grows lushly in the atmosphere of the gospel, and the more humility flourishes within me, the more I experience God’s grace along with the strengthening his grace provides. Additionally, such humility intensifies my passion for God and causes my heart increasingly to thrill whenever He is praised. (Pg. 28)

So this is the heart of service that Jesus not only produces, but expects. It comes from gospel-produced humility.

So to the folks who currently serve in the nursery and children’s areas, continue to explore the beauties of the gospel, and your service to God, to these children, and to your faith family will produce more in you than you ever thought possible. I would contend that if you serve in the nursery in Jesus’ name, you potentially will get more of God than you would in most of my sermons.

And to the group that says, “no way, no how,” I would challenge you at a motivation level. Why do you have this perspective? Is it because your kids are beyond that age group and you are serving in other ways? Is it because you do not want to miss out on the worship service? Is it because you are afraid of small children? Or is it because the gospel has not become beautiful and glorious in your heart and mind?

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me. -Jesus

Yesterday we studied 1 Timothy 5:1, 2 together. If you remember, the first point from this small portion of the letter was, “In this faith family, we do not BEAT up, we BUILD up.” (By the way, if you need reminding, or if you missed our time together yesterday, click here to listen.) We saw this point as we considered the instruction Paul gives in verse 1.

Do not rebuke (gk. ἐπιπλήσσω-lit. to beat upon, or strike upon) an older man, but encourage (gk. παρακαλέω-lit. to call to one’s side to entreat, encourage, or comfort) him as you would a father…

We thought together about the issue standing behind this instruction. Timothy and the people in the Ephesian church would need instruction on how to offer correction and redirection because correction and redirection were necessary. It is as if Paul is saying, “When folks mess up and you need to get them back on track, do not do it this way, but rather do it that way.”

So we need to be honest with each other and have realistic expectations of each other. We are in a faith family together with real people. I am not perfect and neither are you. We will all need help and correction at times…maybe more often than we would like to admit. Paul places the responsibility upon the person offering correction to do so in a way that does not damage, or beat up, the straying brother or sister. Correction is to be offered in a “coming-alongside” kind of way.

Again, let us think about why this type of instruction is needed in the church. I know that I need to hear this word because my natural inclination is to beat up. Yes, I want to beat you up. If I think I am right, and you are in need of seeing things my way or acting in a way that I think is appropriate, then I am bent in such a way that I just want to club you over the head and drag you by the hair toward my measure of righteousness. The gospel demands that we get bent the other way.

We are to approach one another with the respect, dignity, and honor that fathers, brothers, mothers, and sisters deserve…even if those family members are actually in error…and we are not to pretend issues do not exist, but rather we are to deal honestly with the issue in a loving and caring way.

As a word of warning, if you find it easy and even somewhat enjoyable or exhilerating correcting and/or rebuking others, I would encourage you to examine your heart and your motives. Do not throw up your hands in surrender and claim that your personality is such that you are just more abbrasive, or that your ethnicity grants you the right to snap at people or get overly emotional.

If you are truly a follower of Jesus then you have the Holy Spirit in you. This is the Holy Spirit who necessarily will cause the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control to come forth in your life (Galatians 5:22, 23). This is His job…and He glorifies Jesus in you and in the world as He does this work in you.

So, in truth, you may have the natural tendency to be harsh in your words or attitudes. You may find yourself in a situation in which folks might even say you are justified in coming down hard on someone. But in the Lord Jesus, we are not given the green light to beat up. We can correct, and we are commanded to even do so. But we are to do so in a very specific way. A way that is rooted in the gospel and the person of Jesus, and a way that seeks to not just correct wrong thinking and behavior, but that seeks to build up the person who needs correction.

We are a faith family…we bear the name of our heavenly Father…we do not beat up…we build up.