The following is a sermon I wrote and delivered at Bal Vikas Kendra, an orphanage with which we have a partnership in Derhadun, Uttarakand, Northern India. I'll have more about our trip in a later post
Suffer the little Children
Introduction: It is wonderful to once again be in Dehra, the beautiful hillside valley of beautiful mountains, beautiful lush greenery, and beautiful people and most importantly, a beautiful God. Though I am a foreigner in your country, I am a brother. I have been here before in reality and in my dreams. When my daughter who is 33 years old was but a baby, I began a poem about an unknown place in India where she, my daughter lived in my mind, Raj Pur, just up the road here, I found out. I wrote:
In Raj Pur the Puriwat with majesty did sit
Exalted high upon the ruby throne,
Whose dais filled the great hall there,
At least the most of it,
With each and every kind of precious stone . . .
I never finished the poem, for I had never been to Raj Pur or in fact, never heard of it or her sister-village the beautiful Dehra. But in 2007, I came here and saw it and the images I had imagined only in my head, became real. It was changed some, yet it was the same, just like India, it changes some, but its heart remains the same.
Ah, Dehra, the place of poetry a paraphrase of a song about a Scottish Village,
(Sing) Dehradun, Dehradun, blooming under sable skies.
Dehradun, Dehradun, there my heart forever lies.
Let the world grow cold around me, let the Heavens cry above,
Dehradun, Dehradun, in thy valley there’ll be love.
Witness “Return to India” by Ruskin Bond on the Book Our Trees Still Grow in India.
So this is old Dehra of mangoes and lemons,
Where I grew beside the jackfruit tree
Planted by my father on the sunny side
Of the house since sold to Major-General Mehra.
The town’s grown hard, none know me now or knew
My mother’s laughter. Most men come home as strangers.
And yet, the trees my father planted here, these
Trees – old family trees – are growing still in Dehra.
But I am not called here to praise a village, a beautiful vegetation, or even a beautiful people. I am called here to praise a Beautiful God, whose Son came to save us all. All - isn’t that a wonderful word? Jesus came to save us all, men … women … and children. It is about those children that I would speak today in a message entitled, ‘Suffer the Little Children.”
I speak today from an auditorium that is only used as a church house. It is the assembly hall for a great orphanage wherein live many beautiful children who are like me – orphans. For you see, I grew up an orphan until adopted, and then my adopted father left and I was once again an orphan of sorts, though I had a mother.
Isn’t it wonderful that we have a Heavenly Father who still never leave us or forsake us? One who cares for us though were ourselves don’t care and who loves us though we are unlovely?
This orphanage is a picture of the world, a great orphanage where we all, young and old, rich and poor, with or without a family, are spiritual orphans with no father to love us – until we allow God to do so. In that sense, we are all little children hoping for a Father to come take us by the hand and say, “Let’s go home.”
I say to you, we have such a Father, God … and what’s more, we have an Elder Brother, Jesus who loves and cares for us, His chosen children, those who will follow His leadership.
Let us see what that Great Father says in His word about children.
People were also bringing babies to Jesus for Him to place His hand on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Luke 18:15-17.)
The same passage is found in Matthew. 19: 35 and Mark 10:13-16. This is a passage so important that God chose to have three Gospel writes put it to pen and ink.
In reading that passage, I see two parts:
1. The little children and
2. The disciples.
Who are these little children? The little children of the world. We used to sing a song in Bible School, perhaps you did too. “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.
What are the characteristics of these little children?
1. Loving
2. Caring
3. Trusting
At least until the world and its failed system teach them that only the weak are so and teach them not to be so – loving, caring and trusting. But, if you look at it carefully, if we truly want a Father and an Elder Brother, God and His Son, Jesus, that is how we must approach him – as a little child, loving, caring and trusting.
Little children know that they do not know the answers, we the world-wise educated are not so fortunate. We “know” all the answers – except that we don’t know. In fact, we don’t know anything. To this, Jesus says:
I praise You, Father, Lord of the Earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. Luke 10:21. See also Matthew 11:25.
Until we become like those little children, we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven, a place even more lovely than Dehra.
But what of the little children in the story? The disciples rather than rushing them to the Master to bless, stopped them. They said, “No, Jesus is too busy for such as these.” Too busy? Jesus, I think not. He says in the KJV, “suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.’ Which little children? All little children. In fact. To forbid the little children is to bring down upon oneself a curse. Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
. . .
If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. Mark 9:37; 42.
So, we are all little children and should bring other little children to Jesus for only He can bless, only He can comfort, only He can guide and lead only He can truly love. Rather than forbid them, I submit it is our duty not only to bring them, but to go out into the highways, the rainforests and mountain village, the deep woods and deeper cities and bring them in. Did He not say so?
“Go ye, therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you and lo, I am with you even always, even until the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20.
After we have first ourselves been so brought and so blessed and then have so brought them to Him, it is our duty and privilege to teach and make disciples of him, like ourselves – only better, I hope.
Great theological truths we shall not teach, only God reveals those, rather we teach them a simple message, be just what they are and have always been – little children – loving, caring and trusting. We teach them keep on coming to Jesus every day for love, care and guidance – keep on coming to Him like the little child comes to His Father every day with his arms stretched out . Crying, ABBA, Father, I need You.” For need him we do and always shall.
We have the rare privilege to teach them to love unconditionally like they already do. In other words, teach them not to change, to remain as they are, little children. To love unconditionally as my daughter loved and loves me though I make mistakes that cause her grief. The difference is that this Father makes no mistakes. We teach them to love like that, expecting nothing in return. [1]
Why, you might ask? Because as I John 4:10 teaches us, because He first loved us. First loved us – when we were not like little children, we were not loving, caring or trusting, rather we were unlovely, uncaring and wary as though He were a Cobra.
When we come to Him, we learn it is not so. He is not a Cobra, ready to pounce, but an Eagle, ready to put us on His shoulders and carry us high – to soar where we have never soared before and could never soar before.
We teach them to love, care and trust by our words, yes, but more by our actions. I have learned in the study of language that though one does not speak the language, he can converse an another speaker by his actions. Approximately 80% of communication is non-verbal. The apostle James knew this fact when he said:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27.
Thus, you see, we are all little children and we should love the little children, our brother and sister little children as Jesus and James told us to do.
We should bring them to Him by our saying and our doing. We should, ourselves, learn to spend time with Him to let Him carry us on those Eagle wings and soar with Him in spiritual heights that cannot be written in words or spoken in voice.
We are to teach the little children to be little children and to carry other little children to Jesus and we are to minister to them in His name for we, little children, are His hands and feet, his eyes and His voice, the reflections of His like in the world.
Above all, we do what we do by our actions, not by mere words. Our words pass away, but His word will never pass away.
What then does it come down to? Love, not as we posses but a love we can only be given by Him. But then, there comes a time for little children to grow up, to mature, to become elders in the faith.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was child, I thought as a child, I talked like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 1 Cor. 13:11, 12.
Never, however losing our child-like characteristics of love, caring and trust.
The singer, Allen Jackson once wrote song in the United States. It was after a dark time, when the towers of New York fell and Americans were angry. Such devilment is just that, devilment, but when we lose our love, we do engage in devilment. We cease to be little children and become angry old men. Let it not be said of us. Rather let this be out watchword.
I’m just a singer of simple songs, I’m not a real political man.
I watch CNN but I’m not sure I can tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran.
But I know Jesus and I talk to God and I remember this from when I was young,
Faith, hope and love are some good things He taught us and the greatest of these is love.
And the greatest of these is love.
So let it be written, so let it be done. “Suffer the little children to come unto me and for bid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” AMEN and AMEN.
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