Our Most Strategic Ministry
Part of Kingdom Culture
October 8, 2023

Our Most Strategic Ministry

Kingdom Culture
October 8, 2023


13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.
14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16

36 He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “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.” Mark 9:36-37

To Welcome Children in the Name of Jesus is to Welcome Jesus

14a When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. Mark 10:14a

14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Mark 10:14

What We Call The Next Generation, Jesus Calls The Now Generation.

15 “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:15

Children Show Us How To Receive The Kingdom of God

What does Jesus mean by, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it?

If we assume that Jesus commends children because of their innocence, purity, or even spontaneity, then we must conclude that the disciples’ acceptability in God’s kingdom depends on similar virtues. But, as Mark’s depiction of the disciples makes repeatedly clear, that is exactly what they are not, nor are we. We are not innocent and eager, but slow, disbelieving, and cowardly. In this story children are not blessed for their virtues but for what they lack: they come only as they are—small, powerless, without sophistication, as the overlooked and dispossessed of society.
To receive the kingdom of God as a child is to receive it as one who has no credits, no clout, no claims. A little child has absolutely nothing to bring, and whatever a child receives, he or she receives by grace on the basis of sheer neediness rather than by any merit inherent in him- or herself. Little children are ideal disciples, for only empty hands can be filled. James Edwards

16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:16


1.) Will we bring the next generation to Jesus?

2.) What am I doing to invest in the next generation?

3.) How we live speaks more to the next generation than what we say.