The Gospel According To Matthew 18:1-14 [NLTse]
About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
2 Jesus called a little child to Him and put the child among them. 3 Then He said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

5 “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on My behalf is welcoming Me. 6 But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in Me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.

7 “What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting. 8 So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

10 “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in Heaven their angels are always in the presence of My heavenly Father.

12 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! 14 In the same way, it is not My heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.

Sermon
In 2004, NBC debuted a reality TV series called, “The Biggest Loser”. The show features obese or overweight contestants competing to win a cash prize for losing the highest percentage of body weight. Although it’s received a massive amount of criticism from doctors and weight-loss professionals, “The Biggest Loser” has been a hit since it first aired!
That being said, when I think of someone being called “the biggest loser”, I don’t think of weight loss. Do you?

We should not be surprised that Jesus’ disciples asked Him “who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven”. After all, they had just seen Jesus feed 5,000+ people with only five loaves of bread and two fish, walk across a lake, feed 4,000+ more people with just seven loaves of bread and only a few small fish, heal the lame so they could walk, the deaf so they could hear, the mute so they could talk, and the blind so they could see, and Peter, James, and John had just seen transfigured into all His heavenly glory and talking with Moses and Elijah. I say we shouldn’t be surprised that their minds were on who would be the greatest because Simon Peter had just declared Jesus to be the Messiah. And in response, Jesus had seemingly rewarded Peter by saying that Peter would be the foundation for His worldwide, Hell-shattering Church. I can imagine the rest of the disciples thinking, “What about me, Jesus? I think You’re the Messiah, too! What place of honor do you have for me?”

Of course, the way God thinks about things are altogether different from the ways humans think about things and His ways of doing things are altogether different from the ways humans do things. So, in response to their question about “who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” the Lord Jesus calls a little kid out of the crowd to stand as an object lesson for them.

Matthew makes clear that this kid was a paidion, a Greek word meaning “very young child”. So, the Lord has maybe a four, five, or six year old standing with Him; a kid who can probably dress himself, find food in a cabinet and eat it himself, talk-talk-talk-talk-and-talk for himself, and lay down and go to sleep by himself (that is, if Mom and Dad chose not to tuck him in), but that’s pretty much it. Such a little one can’t help with chores, can’t work in the family business, can’t protect himself if there’s danger, and can’t take care of himself if he were to be on his own. Paidions are completely dependent upon others for everything.

And the Lord says, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like a needy little paidion, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (“Humble” here translates the Greek word tapeinosei, which most literally means “lowly”.)
So, the Lord Jesus is saying, “You want to be great in God’s Kingdom? Be a nobody like this helpless, needy little child.” You want to be great? Be the biggest loser!

Let me start over.

The Scriptures make absolutely clear that human beings become members of the Kingdom of Heaven by an act of God’s grace: That is, when people trust in Jesus Christ, God grants them citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. We don’t earn salvation, it is God’s gift.

Even so, the Scriptures also make clear that “being saved” – that being part of His Kingdom – will change us. (And if we aren’t changed then likely we’re really not saved.) For instance, the apostles Paul and James agree that we are saved by faith alone, and yet, if our faith does not result in any good works then our faith isn’t the kind of faith that saves.
Likewise, the Lord Jesus says that forgiving those who sin against us will become a characteristic of those whom the Father has forgiven. And He says that doing God’s will will become the habit of those who are saved. Jesus charges us: By the fruits of peoples’ lives we will be able to know whether they are in Christ or not.

Here, in Matthew 18, the Lord is revealing that those who are a part of God’s Kingdom will turn from their sins and will truly begin to think of themselves as “nobodies”. After all, God has done all the work to save them, just like Mom and Dad are doing all the caring, providing for, and protecting work in the lives of little children.

In other places around the Scriptures, this idea of thinking of ourselves as being “nobodies” is spoken of as being “humble”, it’s spoken of as “giving others more credit than we take for ourselves”, and such an attitude is shown in other places around the Scripture as “serving others, and doing what we know they would want instead of doing what we want”.
That’s how Jesus describes greatness in the Kingdom of God. [Spread my arms out wide.] Here’s God! [Point at a little speck in the air.] Here’s you and me. We are truly great only when we recognize that He is great and we are not, and yet when we trust that He is loving and good and always with us and always for us, then we are in that place where His greatness – with us and for us – makes us great, too!
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I want to leave us this morning with an outlandish statement that the Lord Jesus then makes. In verse 5, He says, “When you make those who are “nobody’s” – losers – welcome around the church just because we know I would welcome them,” Jesus says, “it is the same to Me as you making Me welcome.”
I don’t know about you, but I want to make Jesus welcome here at Evangelical Presbyterian Church. So, I want you to think of the biggest loser you know… (Maybe it’s someone who’s a jerk. Maybe it’s someone who’s a bully. Maybe it’s somebody annoying or that person who everybody makes fun of…) Who’s the biggest loser you know?
In the name of Jesus Christ I charge you to invite them to church.
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Worship Team, would you come forward to lead us in song?
As they come forward, let us pray…