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If you have a Bible, you can use that too.

You can turn to mark chapter 9, but the reading is in the booklets. Let's hear what god says, and then Tom is gonna come and preach this passage. March chapter 9, They left that place and passed through Galile. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were. Because he was teaching his disciples.

He said to them, the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him. And after 3 days, he will rise, but they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. They came to Capernum. When he was in the house, he asked them, what were you arguing about on the road?

But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest sitting down, Jesus called the 12 and said, Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. He took a little child whom he placed among them, taking the child in his arms, he said to them whoever welcomes 1 of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the 1 who sent me, Tom. Thank you very much for, reading that to us, Dean. And, good morning, everybody, and welcome from me.

Am I on here? My working. Good. It's lovely to have you, whether you have come as a part of the Thanksgiving Party or whether you're here after sending your children to the holiday club for for a week. It's lovely to have you, and welcome to anybody who's joining us online, for this service we are going to bow our heads together, and let's ask that the lord would speak to us.

Father, whether we are very new to these things, or whether we, have been Christians for many years, we pray that you would please open up our hearts that we might understand what is written in your word, the Bible and please give us, the inclination to put into practice and to obey the things that you teach us here in your word in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning, we have emphasized and rightly, the the role and responsibility that parents and family and church family have in teaching their children. It's 1 of the things that we've mentioned a number of times in the in the set readings. The parents in church family have this responsibility to instruct and to raise and to teach and to guide and to correct and to provide, safe boundaries for their children to teach them what is right to do and what is wrong to do. And, that's an important emphasis.

But we must also, according to Jesus, in this passage of the Bible we've just had read, we must also so be willing to learn from them. We must also be willing to learn from them some very big and soul saving lessons in fact. And in some ways, the younger the children are, and we've given thanks for some very young children this morning, the younger that they are the better illustration they are to us of what we need to learn about god's kingdom and about following I've titled this message this morning, the unknown child that changed the world. The unknown child that changed the world. Because in sentence number 36, and if you just look down to that reading with me, in sentence number 36, Jesus takes a little child into his arms and puts this child in front of the disciples.

But as you can see, there's very little we're told about this child. We don't know the name of the child. We don't know whether it was a he or a she. We don't know anything about their family history, their family heritage. We don't know what particular part of town they were from.

Everything that we would like to know is unknown to us about this child. And yet this child we can say without exaggeration had a hand in changing the course of world history. The 12 disciples here about a year from this occasion would be sent out into the world with the good news message of Jesus Christ. They would be sent to the nation to proclaim the gospel, the saving gospel. And this child who we know nothing about Had a big role to play in helping them to understand not only what the content of the message was but what sort of nature the messengers ought to have?

This child had a role in changing them and they went on to change the world with their message about Jesus. Now, did they realize the significance of the lesson here in this moment The answer is almost definitely not based on what happens next and what happens in the rest of the gospel. But by the time the gospel writers came to pen their accounts of Jesus, they really did understand just how significant this lesson was. Matthew Mark and Luke all include a story like this and others like it which tells us that by the time they came to write their gospels, they really had understood that this unknown child had a part to play in changing them as they went on to change the world. And so the question is What can we learn all these thousands of years later from this unknown child who changed the world, and what can we learn from children like Yema ray and aurelia who we've already had up on stage before us all.

Well, to answer that question, we need to go back to the beginning of this reading. So if you look back with me, it's sentence number 30, and then we'll work our way down to the point this child comes into the scene. They left that place and passed through galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them The son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.

They will kill him and after 3 days he will rise. On the seventh of July, 2005, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news that London had been bombed in those terrorist attacks. I was in Cornwall with some friends, and we'd hired a holiday cottage and we'd woken up and we were lounging around the cottage that morning. And 1 of our friends who was staying in another cottage nearby just burst the front door open, which we'd left unlocked and said London's been bombed. London's been bombed.

And then he closed the door, went out, and I guess went on to tell somebody else. And I can remember who said that, I can remember his name, I can remember what he was wearing on that particular day, and I can remember what we did that morning, which was to cancel our plans and just watch the telly together. There are those moments in life, aren't there? Where we hear a piece of news that just makes us pause stop what we were doing and we never forget where we were when we heard it. Might be 9 11.

It might be the more recent death of the queen. It might be something less international and more personal to you, a piece of news, and it was just like a freeze frame. You remember exactly where you were when you heard Well, this news in verse 31 is like that, or at least it should have been. It should have been like that. The disciples should never have been able to forget where they were when this message was told to them.

You see their king and their saviour and their teacher had just told them that he was going to be handed over betrayed and delivered into the hands of men that he was going to be executed in the most cruel and painful way, but 3 days later he was gonna rise. That that's the sort of information that they should never have been able to move on from. They should have just heard it, cancelled all their other plans, put on pause, all their other conversations, and tuned in to what Jesus was saying there. But we're told that they didn't understand what he was talking about. And that's not because he was speaking French to them or something and they they literally couldn't understand.

It's because the meaning of the words, the sense of the words just did not register with them in the way that it should have done. And in fact, as we see from the next verse, They didn't even really want it to register with them in the way that it should have done. You see, have a look what happens in verse 32. But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. Now why might that be do you think?

Why would they be afraid in that moment to ask him about it? I think there's 2 possible reasons. Sometimes in life, we're afraid to ask questions about something because we're scared of what it might mean. We don't want the answer. I'm thinking perhaps of a doctor who comes into a waiting room and says, I'm afraid we've found an abnormality in your test results.

There are some moments where you don't want to ask any more because you don't want to know what that might mean for you. What kind of abnormality? Is there anything you can do about What does this say about my life? You don't want to ask because you're afraid to know. Could it have been that sort of fear?

Well, it could have couldn't it? Maybe they were afraid to ask him because they didn't properly want to process what the death of their teacher and best friend would actually mean for them. But there are other times in life when we're afraid to ask questions because we don't want the answer, the truth, to force us to change. We're happy how we are. And we're worried that if we find out more, it's gonna change who I am.

I'm gonna have to stop doing certain things I'm going to have to stop believing things that I've always held to be true. I'm going to have to change my mind, turn 1 80 adopt a different way of life and truth be told I don't want to do that because my life is comfortable and I know what I believe and I'm sure of what I think, and I don't want to change so I don't ask any more questions. Could it have been that sort of fear? Well, I think there's a good indication that it was exactly that sort of fear. They didn't want to ask anymore because they didn't want change what they were talking about and change what they were desiring themselves.

You see, have a look down with me at verse 33 They came to Capernum. When he was in the house, he asked them, what were you arguing about on the road. And in light of what Jesus has just said, there's all kinds of legitimate arguments they could have been having. They could have been arguing about the best way to protect Jesus from being betrayed and delivered into the hands of men. They could have been arguing about which 1 of them it might be that could be responsible for this or have a hand in this.

They could have been arguing about the best way to protect Jesus and protect themselves from what was going to come upon them. That would have been a legitimate argument to have in light of what Jesus had said, but we're told, have a look, what was the subject of their argument verse 33 verse 34, but they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Who was the greatest intellect perhaps. No, no, it's me. I'm the man who can discern all the spiritual things that Jesus is saying.

I mean, not what he just said, but generally speaking, I can understand everything that he's saying. I've got insight into the things of God and my mind is superior to yours. Maybe they were arguing about who was the greatest miracle worker among them. I am the 1 and you've all seen it who can challenge the powers of the supernatural I can make blind men see and dead men rise and paralyze men walk. I've got the greatest connection with the other world.

Maybe they were arguing about who was the greatest pastor. I'm the most empathetic. I'm the most sympathetic amongst us all. I'm able to speak to people from all kinds of backgrounds with all kinds of burdens and to minister to them, not very pastoral towards Jesus given what he's just it, but generally speaking, I'm the best pastor amongst us, or maybe they were, who's the greatest leader? I'm the greatest leader.

When I say go, people go, when I say come, they come. I would look best on the throne of god's Messiah. People respond to my leadership. They do as I say. We don't know exactly what, but they had been arguing amongst themselves about who was the greatest.

And so I guess they were afraid to ask Jesus what he was talking about. Because they didn't want their own fantasies to be disrupted. They didn't wanna hear any more about this suffering and dying kingdom. They wanted to get back to their conversation about this golden glory kingdom. That's what they wanted to talk about, and all this stuff sounds a little bit depressing, and it's not quite fitting with the ideas that we have about worldly greatness.

And so they were afraid to ask because they didn't want that conversation to be disrupted. And so how embarrassing for in verse 33 when Jesus confronts them about it, have a look. They came to capernaum when he was in the house, he asked them what were you arguing about on the road? And the sense of that is that he didn't just ask them once he kept asking them. What were you arguing about on the road?

Come on. Just a minute ago. When we were on the road together, you were talking about something. What were you arguing about? No?

You must remember. Just after I told you about my death and resurrection, I I saw you huddled together and it looked like you were discussing something quite tense. What what were you up? What are you arguing about on the road? Come on.

What are you arguing about? It's like those moments in school. If it didn't happen to you, maybe it happened to someone in your class where someone's sharing a private joke on the back row. And then the teacher gets wind it. And the teacher says sounds like it sounds really funny.

Do you wanna share it with the class? Do you want to stand up and share it with the class? Come on. Look really funny. You are enjoying that.

Do you want to share it with us, or why deprive us all of the humor that you've been enjoying? But they were silent because on the road, they had argued about who was the greatest. It seemed like such an important argument on the road, didn't it? When Jesus wasn't looking and when he wasn't listening, it seemed really important. And all their arguments were good and it was a proper discussion to be having and they were justified in what they were saying, but now they've been asked to air their conversation front of Jesus, the true nature of it is seen for for what it is.

It was an embarrassing conversation to be given what he had just told them. It's interesting to think about that, isn't it? How many of our own debates and arguments? How many things that we like to discuss would be seen for what they are if Jesus was in the room asking us to share them in front of How many of our arguments against the existence of god would we feel confident to share if he was with us in the room? How many of our reasons for not doing what he says, which seems so good to us and persuasive What would they be seen to be if we had to share them in the presence of Jesus himself?

It's a very clarifying thought, isn't it that Would we argue in the same way and about the same things if the lord Jesus was physically with us watching us and asking us to rehearse those same things in front of him. Well, a Christian knows that the lord Jesus is always with them and is always watching them. It's just sometimes we forget all about that, don't we? And yet, do you notice how kind Jesus is to these wayward disciples. Look what he does with them in verse 35.

Sitting down Jesus called the 12 and said, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. This is amazing. It's amazing this. For 3 years, nearly He's been teaching them that humility and love are to be the hallmarks of his kingdom. Humility and love are to be the hallmarks of his kingdom, and they have been arguing about status.

Just think through that. Here are the hallmarks of my kingdom, humility and love. They have been arguing about status. It's the polar opposite of everything that he's been about and everything that he's been trying to share with them And yet, is he ready to give up on them? Not yet.

And so he gathers them. He collects them to himself, and he is graciously willing to teach them, not just leave them to teach them. See what he says again, verse 35, sitting down Jesus called the 12 and said, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. It's not that greatness itself is wrong, and it's not even that a desire to be great is wrong. It's their and often our definition of what it means to be truly great.

You see, if I were to ask you Who in your life, you can think of a person or a group of people who in your life has made the biggest impression upon you. Who in your life has meant the most to you? Who in your life would you not be unless they had come into your life. My guess is that the personal people in your mind are not those who were constantly going on about their own greatness in front of you who were constantly trying to take all of your conversations and somehow make them about themselves. Who were trying to constantly parade before you what they had done and let you know the achievements that they had achieved.

My guess is that the people in your mind are those who tended to prefer your needs above their own. Who tended to want to give up their time and lay down themselves in order to invest in you and to make you a better happier person. It's interesting, isn't it? That even if we wouldn't call ourselves Christians here, we sort of instinctively know that what Jesus says here is is absolutely right. Even though our culture tells us that self promotion and self achievement is better than self sacrifice and humility.

Even though we're taught that the ones who get on in life and earn the most and get the furthest other those who leave others behind and do what they need to do, even though we we sort of hear that message, personally we know that those who mean the most to us are those done the opposite of that. They've laid themselves down for us in hundreds of different ways, and we love them for that. That's what Jesus says, true greatness is. Those who serve others, those who put others before themselves, those who think of ways to bless other people because they belong to Jesus, not just because it's a nice thing to do, but because they belong to Jesus who has been so kind to them and they want to be kind and to lay themselves down for other people. And to rub that point in, he invites this little child into the room.

And here is the unknown child that changed the world. Verse 36, he took a little child whom he placed among them, taking the child in his arms, he said to them, Whoever welcomes 1 of these little children in my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the 1 who sent me. Here is this little child that Jesus invites into the room. And whether he's or she is so young that they're actually taken up into Jesus's arms, like Yamerey or Australia, or whether they were a little bit older, and he just has his hands on their shoulders. And he stands and he sits and he puts the child before them.

He takes this child in order to rub in what he's just said about true greatness. And it's worth knowing at this time in the Roman world that children were were considered to be of very little importance. I don't think many Romans would have had a service like this where kids from holiday club are up and loved and heard and enjoyed. And when little children are paraded on stage before us all and we give thanks for them and we pray for them. I don't know whether they would be afforded to that level of dignity in the Roman world.

That was not how the culture viewed them, but Christ has something else to say. He gathers this child and says to his disciples that if you want to follow me, if you want to be a citizen of my kingdom, You've gotta even be willing to lay your life down and give to those who can do nothing for you, whom society considers to be worthless, those are exactly the sort of people I'm talking about. Now how must that have landed in the disciples mind? I mean, you imagine you're 1 of these disciples. Okay?

You've just been arguing about which 1 of you is the greatest about which 1 of you deserves the most glory in the culture and now Jesus says I want you to serve people like this. They must be thinking of what used to us is a little child. What is this kid gonna do for me? How is this kid gonna propel me to the heights of glory that I deserve and I want This kid's gonna be useless to me in my journey to greatness. Invite invest in people like that.

I'm never gonna get where I wanna go. And don't the same dynamics often work out in our own playgrounds and our own offices. Can't we be like this? We choose who we want to invest in based on what they might be able to do for us. We work out in the office who's the 1 who's got the bosses here.

Who's the 1 who lives under the boss's smile? Who's the 1 who if we buddy up to might be able to get us that promotion and we invest in them and we try and build relationships with them, not because we particularly like them, but because of where they might be able to take us And that colleague who's a little bit hopeless in the office really lovely and genuine but definitely not in line for a promotion Well, we're gonna invest in them a little bit less because they're not going to get me where I want to go. True in the playground as well, isn't We can work out who the popular people are and we can try to buddy up to those who might be able to get us through the door and into that group. We like them not because of who they are, but because of what they might be able to do for my own name. And that other kid at school who actually seems to really like me a lot and who is interested in me, but is nowhere near the popular crowd, Well, I'm not going to invest anything in them because they're not going to get me where I want to go.

And so we choose rich relationships we want to invest in. Based on what they might be able to do for us. Jesus is saying for as long as you think like that about other people, you haven't understood the first thing about what I'm at. Here is a little child, and I am saying to you, I want you to give you self in love and invest in people like this who will be able to do nothing for your own ambition but you will be able to display the love of Christ to them. That's what I think is great, says Jesus, because that's what I do.

When I came into the world to save you, it was not because of where you might be able to get me It was not because of anything at all that you could offer me, I was not lacking in any way. I did not have a need which only you could provide. I gave myself to you in life and death because I love you. And you're a sinner, and you're marginalized, and you deserve nothing, but I love you. And I'm going to give myself to you because I want to elevate you to true greatness.

Jesus says, if you wanna be great in my kingdom, then that's what you gotta do. And so that's the first lesson. We learn from this unknown child who changed the world. This child showed the disciples and us what it actually means to love and relate to people as followers of Jesus. But briefly, and secondly, we also learn how to relate to god from this unknown child.

And perhaps we'd be able to get up Matthew Matthew 18 Steven. This is Matthew 18. This is another passage in the Bible. Where a little child is used, and it's a very similar lesson. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And so on this particular occasion, they're even more unashamed. They they they wanna sanitize their debate by bringing Jesus into it as if it's really legitimate. He called a little child to him and place the child among them, and he said, truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever welcomes 1 such child in my name welcomes me. Now you will know that to be called childish is not a compliment.

We do not think that a childish person is 1 that we aspire to because to be childish is to be a bit pathetic. To be childish is to be too self protective, to be too fragile. To be childish is to be too stroppy to run off and grump and soak and to make too much of yourself and demand too much for yourself. We don't wanna be childish, but to be child like is a virtue, to be child like is beautiful, at least it is in the eyes of god. And in what sense are we encouraged both here and in Matthew 18 to be childlike.

We are to be childlike in that we understand how needy and dependent we You see, when we had Yamarae an aurelian up here, it's so obvious it doesn't need saying. These babies can do literally nothing for themselves. I don't know if you saw aurelia. She She needs holding up even all the time or she's just gonna flop over. She needs to be held up all the time.

She needs to be fed. She needs to be clothed. She needs to be looked after, she needs to be cleaned, she needs to be put to bed at the right time, she needs to be played with. She she needs her mom and dad for absolutely everything, for everything. There is nothing that she can do without them.

In fact, If they were to leave the house tomorrow, the household would carry on running just fine because they're not net contributors to the house. They're net takers. They need everything. They need to be poured into all the time. And although as adults, We are allergic to this idea.

That is how we have to understand ourselves before god. That we need him for absolutely everything. We need him for food, We need him for heartbeats. We need him. We need him for every breath that we have ever taken we need him, and we need him for forgiveness too.

We need him If all the wrong things that we have done are going to be put right. We need him if our own sin is going to be dealt with before God. We cannot do it by ourselves. We are as needy as these babies are before their parents so we are before god. The problem is we hate that idea.

There is 1 little 4 letter word that we hate to say, and it's h e l p. Help. Help. We hate having to say that, don't we? Help.

Because when I say to you help It implies that you're stronger than me and I need you, that I'm lacking in something that you've got and I can't do it by myself and I can't make it by myself help and need you. We don't want to say that word. Because we love to give off the impression that we're strong enough and we're good enough and we're nothing like these babies. We're not dependent like them. We've got it.

We don't we don't need help. We can sort ourselves out. And the same is true before God. We do not want to look up to Jesus and say, help help I need you to forgive my sin, and I need you to make me right, and I need you to make me 1 of your children because I could do it myself, and I'll invite god into the house of my life if I want to. And I'll decide if I need him and if I don't.

I don't I don't I don't need it. I can do it without him. It's the 1 word that we hate to say and yet according to Jesus, it's the 1 word that we must say or we will not enter his kingdom. Every 1 of us has this great need for Jesus Christ to forgive us in and to bring us into the kingdom of god and the way that we receive that kingdom and that forgiveness is not by doing anything to impress him, but by simply saying help. Help Jesus.

Help. It's the only word you need to say. Help. Forgive me. I need you.

We don't want to say it by ourselves, but that's why we need to look at these children because they are a picture of dependence and that is the sort of heart that we must cultivate before god if we are going to be part of his kingdom. And so see this unknown child helped to change the world because it taught the disciples how to relate to other people and it taught the disciples how to relate to god. And so I wonder as we leave this place, as you leave this place, What are you going to argue about on the road? When you get out of here, out of the presence of god's word, if you like, What are you gonna argue about on the road? When you walk home or when you drive home?

What are you gonna debate? You're gonna debate whether the service was too long or too short. You're gonna argue about why your favorite choice of song wasn't there. It should have been. You're gonna argue about, you know, the the message and he clearly didn't know that.

And so there's no way I can listen to him because I'm not gonna debate. What are you gonna talk about? What are you gonna argue about in light of what we've heard about Jesus Christ who was crucified and for you. He died and rose for you. And if you will say help, he's all yours, and you're all his forever.

Together, we have promised to teach these children. Can we also promise to learn from them. Let's pray. We thank you so much for for what we've heard this morning, we pray that we would be humble enough to admit that we need you, we need your help. We pray you would help us to learn from this unknown child.

We thank you that you are our hope and our light and our strength and our song, and we pray you would help us as we go from this place and as we debate with ourselves and with others. We pray that we would, learn from learn from this unknown child and learn from you in Jesus' name, amen.