Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

Bring Your Children to Jesus

Bryan Schneider · June 17, 2023

Mark 10:13-16

sharonrpc.org/sermons/bring-your-children-to-jesus

Summary

Parents bring even infants to Jesus for his blessing, while the disciples wrongly treat children as interruptions to serious kingdom work.
Jesus is indignant when his disciples act as gatekeepers and commands them not to prevent children from coming to him.
Children belong in the worship and life of the visible church, where they hear Scripture and learn to love the ordinary means of grace.
Children are sinners who need Christ's grace, yet God can sovereignly work faith even in the youngest and has always included children within covenant households.
Baptism is a sign and seal rather than an automatic act of regeneration, and participation in the Lord's Supper requires age-appropriate profession and discernment.
Parents and churches must actively nurture children's growing faith through worship, teaching, prayer, discipline, example, and patient love.
Every person receives God's kingdom like a little child: humbly, dependently, and with empty hands rather than by earning a place in it.

Do the habits of my home and congregation bring children toward Jesus or quietly communicate that they are interruptions?
How are children learning to participate in worship and listen to the preaching of God's Word?
Am I trusting a sacramental act by itself, or praying for the Spirit to give and grow genuine faith?
What am I doing to teach children Scripture when we rise, sit, travel, eat, and live ordinary life together?
How can I encourage a child's developing faith without either dismissing it or presuming upon it?
Do I continue praying and speaking the gospel to covenant children who have wandered from the church?
Am I receiving Christ's kingdom with humble dependence, or allowing the thought that I earned or maintain my salvation to creep in?

Covenant children: Children raised among God's visible people and included in the church's promises, worship, nurture, and responsibilities.
Childlike reception: Humble dependence that receives salvation as God's gift rather than personal achievement.
Visible church: The outward community of professing believers and their children who live under the church's ministry and care.
Baptism: Christ's covenant sign and seal, which does not regenerate automatically or remove the need for living faith.
Means of grace: The Word, sacraments, and prayer through which God ordinarily nurtures his people.
Age-appropriate faith: A credible profession suited to a child's maturity, including trust in Christ, repentance, and growing understanding.