Greatness: Children
Matthew 18:1-4
Pastor Bob Hiller
9/7/2014
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/Mrj86sl7dFg
Matthew 18:3 And He said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
1. The Law of Achievement says: If you ____________ a certain ideal, then you are ____________.
2. Jesus defines greatness as ____________.
3. The ____________ and the ____________ are the greatest because they ____________ solely on ____________.
Scripture Readings
Ezekiel 33:7-9
Romans 13:1-10
Matthew 18:1-4
Take It With You!
Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the message to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with what we are hearing.
The faith which determines fellowship is, objectively, a gift; subjectively, a receiving. Jesus bids the men who dream of greatness in the kingdom to "turn and become like children." (8:3). "Turning" is the Old Testament's characteristic term for repentance; and repentance is, for Biblical revelation, God's work and God's gift: "Create in me a clean heart!" the psalmist cries; and Jeremiah has Ephraim say: "Bring me back, that I may be restored" (Jer. 3l: l8; cf. Lam. 5:21). The reach for greatness, Jesus tells them, is not the reach of faith. Faith is a passive and receptive Yea to God's royal working; therefore the reach for greatness will shut them out of the Kingdom (18:3). Only the shame of beggary of childhood can receive the greatness which God confers (18:4). The king reveals His kingship to the debtor; the debtor does not know the full measure of royalty while he can still plead for time in which to make good his fault. It is the forgiving word which reveals to him the King in the full stature of His royalty and creates faith in Him. That faith is not performance but receiving is underscored by Jesus' recurrent emphasis on the "child" and the "little ones" in this discourse.
Martin Franzmann, Follow Me: Discipleship According to Saint Matthew. pg. 150-151
