Evangelism At It’s Finest… Is Truly Discipleship.
Mark 10:13-14 And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them.
Mark 10:14-15 “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”
When someone puts their faith in Jesus Christ and accepts the ransom He paid for their life, when they turn their lives over to the God who did not spare His own Son, we are told by Scripture, that they are born again”(John 3:3).
Babies… in need of the most basic things in life.
So, where do we send them? Nursery School or Divinity School? Or… better yet… anywhere EXCEPT in my care!
Granted, when the gospel is being preached in stadiums filled to capacity, it is impossible to expect infant care from the same Good News Team. Babies need one-on-one, personal, face to face care. It is absolutely essential to have a trusted team of spiritual pediatricians to do the heavy lifting of raising children… this would be Discipleship.
Evangelism might only require presentation, but Discipleship requires both presentation and God-Parenting. If you (or I) claim to be a disciple of Jesus, we must be involved in both.
Who better than the children who already know God as Abba? We have first hand experience, from birth (we too were born again), to growing up Godly, to seeing in a mirror dimly our future eternal home.
Who better to speak the truth in love than those whom the truth has set free?
Who better to understand that training up takes a lifetime? Who better to treat others as they want to be treated? Who better to understand the needs of a child, than those who remember their childhood? When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; (1 Corinthians 13:11)…
Paul says, “when I became a man, I did away with childish things” I think some of us interpret this to mean that we need to rush ourselves and others through childhood. That somehow, childhood is not a good and holy state, it is more of an unclean state that must be exorcised out of us. It is in this cleansing that sometimes we are determined to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Evangelism is about the birth. It is the first part of Jesus’ instructions… Permit the children to come to Me…
Evangelism without child care is a hindrance.
Evangelism at it’s finest encourages all the children, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation (1 Peter 2:2)
Evangelism at it’s finest is the nursing mother, who having just given birth, is staring in amazement at the newborn at her breast and singing “Jesus Loves You… This I Know”
The dictionary says that the origin of the word evangelism began in 1620 and was “preaching or promulgation of the gospel” (dictionary.com). REALLY?
We have to receive the kingdom of God as a child… Is there ANY child you know or have known that could or would respond in a positive way to “preaching or promulgation”? (I had to look it up too… promulgate = to make known by open declaration; publish; proclaim formally or put into operation)
Evangelism without the intimacy of child to child is like the disciples before they were schooled by Jesus…
Mark 10:13-14 And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them.
But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant…
For those Evangelists out there who just want to talk to and never touch the children… Jesus reminds us all that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
These are the future princes and princesses… these are HIS future kingdom dwellers!
He wants to touch them!
And WE want Him to touch them!
Let’s be the finest Evangelists… let’s be Disciples… let’s bring our baby brothers and baby sisters to Jesus… and while we’re at it… let’s do it Side by Side and Hand in Hand…
Sshh…
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible