Introduction
This is the word of the Lord,
Mark 10:13–16 ESV
13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.
14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
Let us pray.
We looked at the men and women of the church, and now we turn our attention to the young and old of the church. Over these next two weeks, my goal is to establish what I consider the foundational framework for understanding the composition of a local church—that is, who truly makes up the body of Christ in a local congregation. So, if you consider the sermons so far in ‘the intentional church’ series, we have
• The intentional church
• A heart and mind captive to Christ
• Who is a healthy church member?
• Who are elders and deacons?
• God made them male and female
• The men of the church
• The women of the church
And now we have,
• The children of the church
• The older saints of the church
This covers a foundational framework that will then allow us to dive into a series of topical sermons that will address the relationships in the church. These will be an exercise in practical theology.
Because we don’t just want you to hold sound theology in your hands and not know what to do with it.
And that was one of the biggest gaps in the lives of those who left our congregation at the tail end of last year. What is being give to you here, my brothers and sisters, is an explanation of the sum and substance of what it means to be a covenanted church member, a saint (a true believer) who is a hand or a leg, or an eye or ear in the body of Christ.
Let it be declared, today and every day henceforth, that this pulpit—at Redemption Hill Church—stands unshaken in its conviction: If you are not gathered in fellowship with a local body of like-minded believers, if you are not submitting yourself to the means of grace ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ—the sacraments of the Lord’s Table and baptism—if you are not engaged in the work of the church through evangelism, through the selfless care and love of the brethren, through the building up of one another in truth, in reproof, in instruction, so that each may be presented mature in Christ—then let it be clear: you are walking outside the will of God.
I do not care what the world says. I do not care what broader evangelicalism has caved to in its weak-spineless accommodation. This is not up for debate. Jesus will build his church, and that promise has not failed in over 2000 years and you’re never going to be the wall that prevents its progress. Do not waste time with the tired, worthless objections about that lone soul stranded in some forgotten wasteland of Rajasthan, unable to find a church for miles in all directions. We are not in a wasteland, are we? No, most who argue in that manner are here, in a land saturated with churches, with open doors and open Bibles, yet so many would dare plead the exceptions as their excuse? If my brother in Rajasthan can’t find a church in miles and God can care for his spiritual needs, then I won’t cross the road to go to mine because his God is my God. And the foolishness of that kind of argument is that he will flourish where there is nothing (in his desperation), and you will perish where there is plenty (in your stubbornness).
The command of Christ is clear: Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. We ignore this to our own peril. And the forces of darkness that would keep many in this culture away from the church are ever tugging away at your hearts to give you every reason to give up. Most of the people that come to our church are coming from either a more traditional or a more pentecostal background. And in both cases, they carry with them the wounds, disappointments, and disillusionments that come from those experiences—like someone stepping out of a difficult or even toxic relationship. But when a person walks into a healthy church, just as when they enter into a healthy relationship, they don’t walk in as a blank slate. They bring their past with them. Much like a man who has only known relationships filled with distrust and betrayal. He enters into a new, faithful marriage, but instead of embracing the love and security he now has, he constantly questions his wife’s motives, anticipates her failure, or even overcompensates in unhealthy ways out of fear. The weight of his past distorts his present. In the end, he was far more accommodating of his toxic relationship than he is of his healthy relationship.
We’ve seen in the last decade, several people who come into a biblically faithful church and expect manipulation, expect the legalism, expect the emotional coercion, or expect the instability they once knew. And so, instead of resting in the life-giving rhythms of truth and grace, they impose unnecessary strain, in the name of avoiding any possibility of any of those ills from infecting this church. And in the process, they become the very thing they hate. And a church devoted to Scripture and unwavering in faithfulness, like ours, will never pander to their demands—irrevocably so. This is not a matter of mere kindness, but of righteousness, love, truth, and justice. For true kindness does not abandon these things, nor can it exist apart from them. So, our aim in this series is a serious one. To establish with certain clarity – what it means to be a local church. What it means for you individually, and what it means for us as a congregation.
Why Children Matter
Today, we turn our attention to the smallest members of the church—the children. And because they are small, and noisy, and often quite frustrating, the world would have us believe they are insignificant, at least for a time, till they grow up and prove themselves useful. The modern couple, in the comforts of their carefully curated lives, looks down at the crib and hesitates. They have careers to build, vacations to take, and ambitions to chase. Children, they reason, would only slow them down. They are far too sophisticated for such things. They’d rather have pets, dogs perhaps, and treat them like their own children. And yet, Children matter, not because we say so, but because God says so. Let me show you how much God thinks they matter.
Children are the Fruit of a Healthy Civilization
Genesis 1:28 ESV
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God blesses the first couple at the very beginning when all things were created, and gives them the first commission – to be fruitful and multiply. What can we learn from this?
1. This commission is pre-lapsarian or before the fall of man.
That means that children were God’s intention since the beginning and not a consequence of the fall. Pain in childbirth was a consequence of the fall, but bearing children was the plan since the beginning. It was not good for man to be alone, so God made the woman to be his wife. And together, they were to have children. This was the command of God. Having children was not a matter of convenience, it was a matter of obedience.
2. Children are the fruit and not a means to fruitfulness.
Children are not a stepping stone to some greater legacy; they are the legacy. The world wants to treat children as a commodity—something to acquire when convenient, something to manufacture in test tubes, something to freeze, edit, and discard if they don’t meet our standards. But children are not a means to our fulfillment—they are the fulfillment of God’s command. When a man and his wife comes together and express the most intimate form of love and affection, the fruit of their union is a child. What is a thriving civilization if it is not full of children? A culture without children is a culture on ventilator support. A nation that stops having babies is a nation near extinction. We don’t build the future—we raise it. One child at a time.
3. Children are not the means to fruitfulness, but they are the means to dominion.
The command to bear children is inseparably tied to the command to rule the world. Dominion does not happen in a single generation. It happens through generations of faithful people, raising their children in the fear of the Lord. Dominion belongs to the fruitful. Dominion belongs to those who have children and raise them well. Dominion belongs to those who don’t buy into the lie that they can change the world by becoming an Instagram influencer and make a lot of money. Dominion belongs to those who realise that they’re not the hero, but you can be the shoulders that heroes can stand on.
Psalm 127:4–5 NASB95
4Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.
We have children because they are weapons against the darkness. A man who has many children is a man equipped for war. A people who love fruitfulness are a people who will inherit the earth. The enemy of our souls knows this better than we do. And that is why the world is rabidly anti-child. That is why progressive movements are obsessed with birth control, sterilization, abortion, and euthanasia. This is why they rage against large families, mock at stay-at-home mothers, because they can’t comprehend the idea of fruitfulness as a virtue. The people who raise the next generation will own the next generation. The people who show up in numbers will be the people writing the laws, shaping the culture, and deciding the future. The future of the world will not belong to those who spent their prime years building their LinkedIn profiles, it will belong to those who were fruitful, multiplied, and took dominion.
God has given us a battle strategy, and it is this:
Fill the earth. Subdue it. Raise children who love the Lord.
Let the pagans worship barrenness. Let them celebrate their childlessness as freedom. Let them pretend that the future belongs to the least fruitful people on the planet. But as for us? We will be fruitful. We will multiply. And by God’s eternal grace, we will take dominion.
4. Children are not the problem, they’re the solution.
Governments pass two-child policies. Intellectuals warn of overpopulation. For the good of the planet, they say. For the sake of sustainability. Yet, they forget that God commands us to fill the earth. Population control is man’s attempt to empty it. One of the great modern lies is that the earth is running out of space, food, and resources. This is nonsense. God did not command us to fill the earth while failing to stock the pantry.
Psalm 50:10–12 ESV
10 For every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
There is no shortage of food, there is only a shortage of just rulers. There is no lack of land, there is only a lack of faith. There is no crisis of resources, there is only a crisis of obedience. The only nations facing a population crisis are those who have stopped having children, not those who are fruitful. And still, the more seemingly kindhearted folks will ask, “Why bring a child into this broken world?” And here is the answer – To fix it! The world is fallen. The world is sinful. And yet, how did God determine to redeem and restore this broken world? What did He do? He sent a child.
Isaiah 9:6 ESV
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
God’s answer to a fallen world was not population control, but incarnation. His answer to the curse was not population control, but a Virgin’s womb. If Christ Himself came into a broken world to redeem it, then every child we bring into this world is a weapon in the hands of God. The world doesn’t need fewer children. The world needs more faithful parents raising more righteous children.
Children are a heritage and reward from the Lord
Psalm 127:3 NASB95
Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Not an expense, not a hindrance, not an obstacle to fulfillment but a heritage and a reward. What Does Heritage Mean? A heritage is something that is passed down, something received as an inheritance. Heritage is what outlasts personal ambitions, temporary achievements, and fleeting pleasures. A house full of children is an investment in the only kind of wealth that survives death. Your career will be replaced. Your wealth will be spent by others. Your reputation will fade. But your heritage continues. A man with a large family is a man who is building something that will outlive him. A culture that values fruitfulness is a culture that has a future. A people who understand heritage will rule the world.
Deuteronomy 28:18 NASB95
“Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the 1produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.
When God judges a people, He does not always send fire from heaven. Sometimes, He just closes the womb. A barren nation is a dying nation. A culture that despises children is a culture with no inheritance to pass on. They are writing their own obituary. But the most faithful nations, churches, and households have always been marked by fruitfulness. Scripture ties the blessing of children directly to God’s covenant faithfulness:
Leviticus 26:3–9 ESV
3 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them,
4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.
7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you.
Fruitfulness is not a coincidence. It is not random. It is covenantal.A culture that fears God will be a culture that welcomes children. A household that loves the Lord will be a household filled with children. A church that values covenant faithfulness will be marked by the sound of crying infants and noisy toddlers.
The Kingdom belongs to the children
Mark 10:15 NASB95
“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”
The disciples thought they were helping. They assumed Jesus had more important work to do than dealing with noisy, unpolished, unimportant children. But they failed to see that the Kingdom of God does not belong to the proud, the powerful, or the accomplished, it belongs to the children. More on that in just a bit. The world values independence, autonomy, and self-sufficiency. The world tells us to build our resumes, accumulate wealth, create our own meaning, and establish our own legacy. But children do not come to the kingdom like that. They come empty-handed, dependent, and trusting. They come with nothing to offer, and everything to receive. And this is how all of us must come. No man enters the kingdom by his works, his intellect, or his achievements, he enters by grace alone, through faith alone. That is why Satan has always waged war against children. Pharaoh killed the sons of Israel because he feared their numbers (Exodus 1:16). Herod slaughtered the infants of Bethlehem because he feared a child would dethrone him (Matthew 2:16). The modern world, with its abortion mills, and population control policies, does the same. They will never say it outright, but their policies scream it loud and clear: they want the kingdom to belong to someone else.
How did God treat children
Therefore, if you want to know what a culture truly values, look at how it treats its children. So, before we dive into how the church ought to treat children, let us look at how God treats with them. We’ve seen how from the very beginning, children are presented in Scripture as a sign of God’s blessing, not a burden. The very first command given to mankind was not to build cities, amass wealth, or start businesses—it was to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). And throughout the Bible, God repeatedly ties His covenant promises to fruitfulness.
• To Abraham: “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.” (Genesis 17:6)
• To Isaac: “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven…” (Genesis 26:4)
• To Jacob: “Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you…” (Genesis 35:11)
• To Israel as a whole: “None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.” (Exodus 23:26)
God treats children as an inheritance, a reward, and a gift. He fills the hands of His people with them. The only ones who treat children as a nuisance, a liability, or a drain on resources are those at war with God’s order. And we see a vivid display of this in Mark 10:13-16
Mark 10:13–16 ESV
13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.
14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
• The word for children, as accounted by Luke in his Gospel for this same event, is explicitly an infant. These weren’t children running to see Jesus of their own accord. As Mark highlights here, these children were being brought to Jesus. This is what faithful parenting looks like. God did not primarily give children to the church—He gave them to parents. The first and greatest responsibility for the discipleship of a child belongs not to the local pastor, not to the Sunday school teacher, not to the Christian school—but to the father and mother who received that child from the Lord’s hand. And how blessed are the parents who receive their children with gladness. Throughout Scripture, the opening of the womb is portrayed as one of God’s greatest earthly blessings. When God wants to favour a nation, a household, or an individual, He does so by giving children.
• To Abraham and Sarah:
Genesis 17:16 ESV
16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
• To Hannah, who cried out for a son:
1 Samuel 1:19–20 ESV
19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.
20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”
• To Rachel, whose womb was finally opened after years of barrenness:
Genesis 30:22 ESV
22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.
• To Leah, who was unloved, but whom God saw and blessed with children:
Genesis 29:31 ESV
31 When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
The ability to bear children was never taken for granted by the faithful women of Scripture. It was seen as a gift, an honor, a sign of God’s favor. To have children was to be remembered by the Lord. Yet, contrast it to many young women of this age who would much rather prefer the curse of barrenness in the name of true femininity. The women of Scripture longed for children. They wept, prayed, and pleaded with God to open their wombs. They understood what our modern world has forgotten: children are a sign of God’s blessing, not an inconvenience.
• Hannah wept bitterly and prayed for a son (1 Samuel 1:10-11). She did not try to “focus on herself” or console herself with a career or even her husband. She went before the Lord and begged Him to give her a child. And when God granted her request, she gave Samuel back to the Lord.
• Rachel cried out to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!” (Genesis 30:1). She saw barrenness as a sorrow too great to bear. She wanted her womb to be filled, not her life to be free of children.
These women longed for children. They knew that a full womb was a sign of divine favor, and that a barren womb was something to be lamented, not celebrated. It is an occasion for sorrow and not celebration. Just as God blesses by opening the womb, He also judges by closing it. When God’s people rebel, when they turn from Him, when they reject His ways, one of His judgments is to remove fruitfulness. In Leviticus, God warns that disobedience will bring barrenness (Leviticus 26:16-17). In Deuteronomy, a nation under judgment is a nation without children (Deuteronomy 28:18). In Hosea, God speaks of barrenness as a punishment (Hosea 9:14). In Psalm 106, Israel is condemned for treating their children as expendable (Psalm 106:37-38). When a nation embraces wickedness, God does not need to send fire from heaven. He can simply remove the fruitfulness from their land and from their bodies.
If fruitfulness is a sign of God’s blessing, does that mean that a believing couple who longs for children but remains childless is under some kind of divine curse? By no means. Just as disease is a curse in the broad sense—part of the fall, part of a world groaning under sin’s weight—and yet, in the life of a believer, it is often used by God for refining, sanctification, and His greater glory, so too, barrenness can be both a general sign of judgment on a people and yet, for a godly couple, a providentially appointed trial meant for their good. In Scripture, the closed womb was sometimes a sign of disfavor, but just as often, it was the stage upon which God displayed His power—opening Sarah’s womb in her old age, answering Hannah’s prayers with Samuel, and granting Elizabeth a son who would prepare the way of the Lord. The presence or absence of children is never about human effort or worthiness, but about the sovereign hand of God, who gives different gifts to different believers, calling some to raise households full of children and others to bear spiritual fruit in ways unseen. The measure of faithfulness is not found in the number of children one has, but in the heart that seeks God’s blessings and then trusts in God’s providence with joy, whether in abundance or in longing, knowing that all things work together for the good of those who love Him.
So bring your infants to the Lord Jesus Christ! Don’t wait to bring them when they’ve matured in their understanding. Bring them now, in their most vulnerable situation. As I heard a preacher announce to his congregation, let me join my voice with him in saying to parents in this church, “Your children are welcome here”. When you come on a Sunday morning and bring your children with you, they are not the burden that prevents you from being fully involved in the service. You are not to manage your children in order for you to better participate in the service. This is you bringing your children to Christ. They are as much a part of this service as you are. As a parent, this is your orientation for your children. Don’t put them in the back corner over there so that the rest of us can participate. Bring them forward. Help them attend. Don’t always distract them. Be wise, lest you train them to be distracted during service. When they make noise and cause a commotion, they are doing what children naturally do. They are most welcome in this place and parents, this is your training ground to teach them, to discipline them, to mould them – to bring them to Jesus Christ.
• They were bringing them to Jesus so that he might touch them.
The concept of “touching” in Scripture, particularly through the laying on of hands, is deeply tied to blessing, consecration, and divine power.
i. The Laying on of Hands as a Blessing
• In Genesis 48, Jacob lays his hands upon the heads of Ephraim and Manasseh, blessing them with the covenantal promises of God (Genesis 48:14-16).
• The priestly blessing of Aaron over Israel in Numbers 6:22-27 was a spoken blessing, but such blessings were often accompanied by the laying on of hands, signifying the transmission of God’s favor and presence.
• In the case of children, the blessing of a father upon his sons was a weighty matter—Isaac’s blessing of Jacob (Genesis 27) was so binding that once given, it could not be revoked. The idea here is that a touch was not merely physical—it carried divine authority and covenantal significance.
ii. The Laying on of Hands as Consecration
• When priests were ordained in Israel, they were set apart by the laying on of hands (Numbers 8:10-11).
• This act symbolized God’s divine call upon a person’s life, marking them as belonging to Him.
• Parents bringing their children to Jesus were, in essence, bringing them to be set apart by Him, just as covenant children had been throughout Israel’s history.
iii. The Laying on of Hands for Healing and Authority
• Jesus frequently healed the sick by touching them (Mark 1:41, Matthew 8:15, Luke 8:54).
• His touch was not just affectionate—it was restorative, authoritative, and life-giving.
• The parents bringing their children to Jesus weren’t just hoping for a sentimental moment; they understood that His touch meant something—that in Christ, their children would receive true blessing, divine favor, and some would argue, covenantal inclusion.
The parents in Mark 10 were doing what every faithful parent should do—bringing their children to Christ, not waiting for them to seek Him on their own, not postponing their introduction to the covenant community, not treating their faith as something neutral until they are “old enough to decide for themselves.” One of the great failures of modern evangelicalism is the neglect of children in the church. Parents today, rather than bringing their children to Christ, often bring them to entertainment, or to secular education that will undo everything the church teaches. Instead of bringing them to the pulpit, we bring them to Disney. Instead of raising them in the covenant community, we hand them over to the culture. We are forced to wonder what these parents expected Jesus to do. This is the sovereign Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the predeterminer of the predestination of the elect. He is the only one that can bless and speak salvation into our lives.
What are you bringing your children here for? Does the sermon only bless the parents and not the child, because he’s too small? Does the Holy Spirit pass over them because they’re not covered in the blood of Christ? Does he ignore them in order to hear your prayers? There is a reason why at the end of the service, I give a charge to children though there are none here who can comprehend it. I give it nevertheless because my charge is not just my instruction, but my blessing as a pastor. And I believe the Holy Spirit will carry it into the lives of our children.Do you believe it?
• and the disciples rebuked them. The Master is too busy for this. Stop bothering him.
And we are also forced to face the question, that in the grand scheme of things, are we more like the disciples or are we more like the parents in this passage? Clearly this was unimportant in their minds in comparison to all the other greatly important things that Jesus was doing.
Mark 10:14–15 ESV
14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
• Jesus saw it. He was, and is, watching how you treat his children.
• Jesus was indignant. The verb that is used in the New Testament to express indignation, indicates a strong emotional response of displeasure. It often conveys a sense of righteous anger or deep concern over an injustice or inappropriate action. This term is typically used to describe the reaction of individuals who witness actions or situations that are perceived as morally or ethically wrong. This wasn’t Jesus passively saying, “Guys, c’mon! What’re you doing?” What he saw angered him deeply because it was morally wrong to rebuke these parents. Yes, the disciples aren’t rebuking the children for what can they do or understand. They’re rebuking the parents.
Don’t you see its service time? There’s a room outside. Put your children there and come. This is a serious time of worship. Not a child’s play time. Here is Jesus’ response.
• Let the children come to me.
This is a command with both an invitation and an expectation. Christ is not merely permitting children to come—He is summoning them. He does not say, “If the children want to come, that’s fine,” or “I suppose I can make time for them.” No, this is a direct order: Let them come. And He does not say, “Give them time. Let them come when they’re old enough to understand,” or “Let them come when they’ve made a mature decision to follow Me.” Jesus welcomes them as they are. Tiny. Dependent. Weak. Needing to be carried. And He does not see their dependence as a flaw, but as a virtue, a picture of how all of us must come to Him. He says, “Let them come.”
• Do not hinder them.
Jesus now rebukes the rebuking disciples. There are ways in which children are kept from Christ, and the responsibility falls on those who hinder them. The disciples were, at that moment, the ones trying to hinder them. And Jesus was furious about it.
• Some hinder children by neglect—by failing to bring them to Christ at all.
• Some hinder children by worldliness—by letting them be discipled more by the culture than by the Word of God.
• Some hinder children by underestimating their capacity for faith—by assuming that a child’s faith is lesser, rather than recognizing the kind of faith that Jesus commends.
• Some hinder children by turning the church into an entertainment center rather than a place of worship and discipleship—by giving them distraction instead of doctrine, games instead of godliness.
Mark 9:42 ESV
42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
Look at the heart of Christ for children. The modern church would do well to take this warning seriously. If we treat children as a side ministry, if we fail to catechize them, fail to disciple them, fail to integrate them into the worship of God’s people, then we are hindering them from coming to Christ. And Jesus will not take it lightly.
• For to such belongs the kingdom of God.
Here is the most astonishing part of Jesus’ response: The kingdom belongs to them. Not “one day.” Not “when they’re old enough.” Not “if they pass a seminary exam.” Now. This is a statement of ownership, of possession. The kingdom belongs to such as these—not because they have earned it, not because they are wise, not because they are strong, but because the kingdom of God operates on grace, not achievement. Children come empty-handed. They do not arrive with a list of accomplishments. They do not approach Jesus with theological arguments or righteous works. They come as they are—needy, dependent, trusting. And this, Jesus says, is the very posture required to enter the kingdom:
Mark 10:15 ESV
15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
In other words, the children are not peripheral to the kingdom—they are the picture of how all of us must come to Christ. Does that mean children are automatically saints? Nobody believes that. They must grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and live their lives in step with the faith. A church that embraces children, trains them in the Word, and welcomes them as members of God’s covenant people is a church that understands Christ’s heart for children.
Mark 10:16 ESV
16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
• He took them in his arms
The scene here is deeply personal. Jesus does not merely acknowledge the children from a distance. He does not wave to them politely or offer a generic word of encouragement before turning back to more “important” matters. He physically gathers them into His arms. This is not an impersonal, distant God. This is not a cold, detached Christ. This is the Good Shepherd, who gathers His lambs into His embrace. Isaiah foretold this kind of Messiah, Isaiah 40:11
Isaiah 40:11 ESV
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
Is this mere sentimentality, or is it covenantal care? Just as a shepherd gathers his sheep, just as a father embraces his children, just as God upholds His people, so too does Christ take these little ones into His arms. The incarnation itself was an act of Christ coming down to embrace us, and here in this moment, that embrace is made literal.
• He laid his hands on them
And so he lays his hands on them – for blessing, consecration, authority and commission and healing. For Jewish parents, this was a deeply significant act. To have a rabbi—let alone the Messiah Himself—lay hands upon your child was a mark of favor, covenant inclusion, and divine blessing. This is the heart of Christ—He does not just acknowledge the children; He identifies with them, marks them as His own, and claims them for His kingdom.
• He blessed them
What is Christ’s blessing for these children? That they become professional carpenters? For a bright future on this earth only to perish in eternity.
Numbers 6:24–26 ESV
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
So when Christ blesses these children, He is doing far more than offering kind words—He is placing the seal of His love and favor upon them. The disciples saw the children as a distraction—Christ saw them as heirs of the kingdom. The disciples tried to turn them away—Christ drew them in and blessed them. The disciples wanted to push them aside—Christ placed His hands upon them and spoke words of divine favor.
Conclusion
In this one verse, we have a beautiful image of salvation itself:
1. We are brought to Christ, unable to come on our own (like these infants).
2. He takes us in His arms, embracing us with His mercy.
3. He lays His hands on us, marking us as His own.
4. He blesses us, speaking words of life over us.
This is how Christ receives all of His people—not because we have earned it, but because He loves to bless the weak, the helpless, the dependent. This is why children belong in the church. This is why they belong in worship, in discipleship, in the covenant community. Christ does not turn them away—He draws them in, He places His hands upon them, and He speaks words of blessing over them. What are we to do as Christian parents? Do not hinder the children but bring them to Christ.
