Little is much (when God is in it)

The disciples come to Jesus and ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Jordan explains, “These guys are arguing, and they’re arguing about who’s the greatest, who’s the biggest, who’s the most important--the key guy in the kingdom of heaven. They are confused about the nature of the kingdom because they’re arguing, ‘I’m going to be up there, and you’re going to be here, and which one of us is going to be bigger than the other guy?!’

“What they’ve done is, sort of like most of us, forgotten and missed the real nature of the witness they were going to carry on in the absence of Christ.

“They’re have been some heady things going on here (in Matthew 16-17) about these men as it becomes evident to them Christ is going to go away, but they don’t fully perceive that, and yet it’s beginning to be evident He’s going to turn the mantle over to them and He’s beginning to talk to them about it and they begin to get a sense of that coming kingdom.

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“Come over to Matthew 20 and notice this is a contention that goes on all through this period. Matthew 20:20 says, ‘Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.’

“Momma’s bringing her boys and momma’s always taken care of the boys.

“You know, through the years I’ve done a lot of marriage counseling, and I’ve married a few people, and you know who causes more trouble among in-laws in a marriage than anybody else, dare I tell you? The one individual consistently on average is the mother of the husband. That’s a fact. God knew that and that’s why the man is to shake mother and father and get away.

“That boy’s momma will make sure he got a good deal, see? Well, these boys in chapter 20 are big enough to take care of themselves, but they just haven’t been assertive enough for her and so she comes, worshipping Him—she’s buttering Him up—to get something.

“ ‘And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.’

“What does she want? She wants her son to be the big guy, see? He’s up top and everybody’s going down.

“Jesus talks to him about it in verse 25: 'But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
[26] But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
[27] And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
[28] Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

“In other words, the way the Gentiles run their kingdom is a dictatorship, or one or two great guys and everybody in subjection.

“You see Christ’s kingdom is not going to be like the Gentiles’ kingdom and He’s trying to communicate that to these guys. The basis and standard of greatness isn’t going to be might and ability to be exalted. The basis of the standard of greatness is in verse 27.

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“So this issue back in Matthew 18:1 of discussing who’s going to be greatest is they misunderstand God’s kingdom as though it was going to be one of the Gentile’s, and missed the nature of the witness they’re to have in the world.

“So Christ, in verses 2-3, uses an illustration. Verse 2 says, ‘And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them.’

“There is indication, if you compare the other gospel accounts, that they may have been in Peter’s house and perhaps He called one of Peter’s children there.

“When He says ‘little child,’ He’s illustrating the character of the testimony that these men are going to bear. [3] And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
[4] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
[5] And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

“The point there is very clear. The little child is a humble, simple child. Someone who just comes in and believes. The word ‘convert’ means you can change it over—like a convertible top on a car. You gotta be changed from the kind of thinking you have, and from the way you are, into somebody who thinks and acts and is like this little child. And if you don’t do that you’ll never enter into the kingdom of heaven.

“You don’t want to miss the point about the little child. Why did He pick the little child out? Come to Luke 12 and John 13.

“There’s a special reason He talks about the little one. Who’s going to get the kingdom? The little flock. In Matthew 18 the little child gets the kingdom. You see the comparison there?

“Notice what He calls His apostles in John 13:33: ‘Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.’

“Notice the mental attitude they’re to have. He says in Matthew 18:4: ‘Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’

“Old Bob Jones used to say that ‘humility is truth’s most becoming garb.’ The most becoming clothes and dress, and deportment, and mental attitude, that truth can have is humility. Because, folks, when you profess the truth, you’re not professing something that is innate in you—you’re professing something God gave you!

“If you’ve got the truth, it didn’t come from you—it came from God, and you have an ability to perceive truth. It comes from God, not from you. People who are stuck on their own ability and their own mind and their own greatness, as these men being discussed here, are people who never rely on the Lord.

“Luke 10: 21 is a verse of Scripture I hope you men never forget. Every Believer needs to understand this verse because this is the key in any age to understanding the Word of God and the will of God.

“The verse says, ‘In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.’

“In other words, don’t rejoice in all this business of powerful demonstrations, where you can go out and zap people and all that kind of thing, and throw out demons, but rejoice that your name’s in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

“In Luke 10:21 you’re fixing to read a verse of Scripture that is the only time in your new testament, that I know of, where the Bible says Jesus rejoiced. I’m sure He had many happy times. I don’t think He went around poker-faced and unhappy all the time and, in fact, there are too many illustrations in the Gospel accounts of the sense of humor in which He dealt with people.

“The Lord has a marvelous sense of humor. He has a marvelous biting sarcasm in the Word of God and He has a real sense of humor as He looks there at man’s feeble efforts to get things done, you know, and He considers our frame that we’re just dust and ashes, and the Lord is not some ogre sitting in the heavens with a stick looking for some way to crown you in the back of the head and knock you in the mud. The Lord’s not that way; that isn’t His nature or outlook.

“But it’s interesting to me that the only time I know of that Jesus is said to have rejoiced is in this verse. You see who gets it? Look people, child-like humility is the first requisite for learning the Bible. It’s the first requisite to learning the will of God in any and in every age.

"Now that is especially true in this kingdom age. For He told them back in the Chronicles: ‘If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’

“He says to Peter, ‘Humble yourself. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.’ The verse has been quoted in Matthew already—Micah 6:8: ‘He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’

“The idea is not self-assertion, which is what these men were doing here, but it’s just being like a baby. It’s being like a child, like a little one, just coming in and not making anything of yourself.

“Haven’t we already studied through Matthew where you see the little flock had nothing in themselves to brag about. In fact, Moses said that they were going to be considered a foolish nation. And Paul recites that passage in Romans 10 that describes that little flock in the eyes of the nation Israel as a ‘foolish group of people.’ The idea is that it is foolish that this little group of people could ever accomplish the great purposes He has and that’s what He’s dealing with here.

“In Acts 5 they look at them and call them ‘ignorant and unlearned men.’ They say, ‘Where’d you guys go to school?’ They said that about Jesus in John 7: ‘Where’d you get your degree?’ and He said, ‘Nowhere. Not the schools of men anyway.’

“And they called them those ‘ignorant fishermen,’ but they took note of them that they had been with Jesus, see? The point is they weren’t taking in the wisdom of men.

“I’m for education but I’m not for trusting men’s brains and calling that education, see? When you start trusting your noodle and your ability to figure out and logic your way out, you’re just in trouble.

“You can get some nuclear physicists together and they can figure out atomic fission and then they can pollute the whole world with radiation. Technology’s one thing, but I’m talking about the brains to use the technology, and the moral character and fiber to use the technology in a way to enhance men.

“You take all the technology of the 20th Century and all it’s done is allow us to kill each other faster.  Man’s brain doesn’t figure out the answer to problems; it just creates more problems, so you don’t want to trust man’s brains.

"It’s not man’s effort; it’s what God does, and the way you want to get in line with that is you just be humble. As soon as you get up you ought to get down, and when you get down, God will put you up.

“God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. What did the Beatitudes say? ‘The meek shall inherit the earth.’ Sometimes it doesn’t look that way in the eyes of world so He’s assuring them there, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ The point in the passage is God takes care of His own.”