Harbor Church - Mid City

Keeping the Spirit of Christmas Alive—Through Receiving

Mk. 10: 13-16, 35-45

Christmas is Friday. The last few weeks we have been going through a series that is aimed at helping us take the Spirit of Christmas and keep it alive in our hearts past Friday. So we’re looking at some of the central things that we do each year at Christmas and saying, “OK, now how do we capture the spirit of that and keep it with us.” We looked at the role of family, the role of giving, and this week we’re going to talk about receiving. Like it or not, receiving gifts is generally apart of most Americans Christmas. So this morning we’re going to take a bit of time to think through receiving gifts.

Now in the passage we just read, you just heard Jesus talk about receiving gifts. Specifically, he talks about receiving the gift of the kingdom of God and he tells the disciples in v15 “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” The gift of the kingdom---this is something that I am pretty sure most of you would like to receive. Receiving this gift, according to Jesus, is bound up with being child-like. We’re going to look at 3 different ways you need to be child-like in order to receive the kingdom of God: (1) Child-like faith, (2) Child-like expectations, (3) child-like helplessness.

(1) Child-like faith:

Think about it. Kids are just naturally trusting aren’t they. We have to teach them who they shouldn’t trust because in the beginning of their lives they have an innate trust of humanity. In fact, we have to teach them who not to trust, like strangers.

When we relate this to spirituality, we call this child-like faith. God gave some of you the gift of having child-like faith in Jesus. You don’t necessarily need or find interesting the latest apologetic arguments. You just have faith in Jesus and it came to you, as Eph. 2:8 says, as a gift. If you have this simple child-like faith, rejoice, for it is a gift.

But this presents a problem for those of you who are here this morning who aren’t naturally wired with child-like faith. You like to reason through things, think critically and analytically. You love scientifically verifiable truth. Does this mean you are not able to receive the gift of the kingdom of God? No.

In one of our Curious Discussion Forum, one of the participants put it this way. “If I become a Christian, my friends will all think that I have decided to stop using my brain. They pride themselves on being progressive, rational thinkers and Christians, in their minds, are simple-minded people who don’t use logic and reason.”

Well, here is my response—Christianity isn’t less than reason, but it is more. There is plenty of evidence for the historical life, death, and resurrection of this little baby born in a manger. I’d love to show you this evidence either in one of our Curious Groups or by having you meet with me or someone else here at Harbor. But the evidence leads you to a person who is in love with you, not a verifiable formula. And that person requires you to humble yourself, b/c he tells you that you bring nothing to the table (Eph. 2: 8-10). Rather, you will have to become child-like and put your faith in Him like a child does his dad.

(2) Child-like Expectations

This leads us to our second point. To receive the kingdom of God like a little child as v15 says requires child-like expectations because only children have expectations big enough expectations for the inbreaking kingdom of God.

Think about how huge kids expectations are. I find it absolutely hilarious when I think about the things that my son and daughter ask me to do. Ford and Milly, like all other 3 year olds, love balloons. Whenever we go to a restaurant that has a balloon, they are in heaven. One day they both got balloons and life was absolutely peachy. Shockingly, we made it to the car with both balloons. Not so shockingly, we didn’t make it home with both balloons. One suffered a casualty in the car. But then another shocker happened, we actually made it into the house with one balloon before it flew off into the sky. Not so shockingly, the balloon went flying up to the top of the ceiling as soon as we walked in. At one point in our ceiling, we have pretty tall ceilings—probably 20 feet because it is an Aframe. And my kids just casually looked at me and said, “Dad, could you get that?” “How,” I responded. “Jump.” Lebron James couldn’t jump up and get that balloon. But in my kids minds nothing is impossible for Dad.

See if you want the Spirit of Christmas to remain alive in your heart, then you must have child-like, gargantuan expectations of what this little baby can do and will do in terms of ushering in his kingdom. Now unpacking how big your expectations should be for the coming kingdom would take months, but this morning I am going to focus on one aspect of the coming of the kingdom that I think is in view here and try to expand your expectations. Listen to Lk. 17: 20-21, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “there it is,” because the kingdom of God is within you.” The kingdom of God is within you. It has personal implications, mainly that this baby that was born has the capacity to take your broken life and make it whole.

Now there are 2 groups of people here this morning. Some of you have experienced the inbreaking of the kingdom in your heart and some of you have not. First, let me talk to those of you who have not and let me tell you a true story about a young woman named Kate. I’ll tell you this story for because I think there is something very common in her story. The way to receive this gift of the kingdom of God is for adults to develop big, huge, child-like expectations.

Some of you remember her because she shared her story here before she moved back to DC. She came out to San Diego from New York. She was in the progressive, sophisticated New Yorkers. She decided to move to San Diego and knew one person out here. She called her to see if she might know of somewhere she could stay and this girl said, “Well, it just so happens that one of our roommates moved out. You’re welcome to live with us.”

She comes out for a weekend and on the weekend that she came out, it just so happens that my wife was doing a Bible study at the house Kate would be living in. Her roommate tells her about it and invites her and she immediately thinks, “Great, a bunch of Bible thumpers. But maybe I can shed some enlightenment to these simpletons.” So she goes and the discussion unnerved her, so much so that she went back to NY and considered bailing all together on this living arrangement. She was angry at her friend—how could she be so narrow-minded and believe in such a childish fairy-tale.

But she came anyway and moved in. And when she did she found out that it was worse than she first thought. Her friend was involved in what she knew must be some sort of cult named Harbor Mid-City. They met in a house for crying out loud. And so she decided to come to rescue her friend and hopefully some others along the way. And when she came to this infant house church she heard talk about the kingdom, about God breaking into to hard places like City Heights and beginning to give kids in the neighborhood hope. Wait a minute—she thought—these are things I care about. Things that my progressive, free-thinking friends care about.

And one day the leader of this cult, yours truly, asked her if she wanted to meet with him to consider some of the evidence about Jesus and his resurrection. Evidence—aha, she thought, now we’re talking. So we reasoned and explored hard questions and looked at evidence. All very adult-like stuff. But during the process, I told her to do one thing, which is this: I want you to be child-like in one area--with your expectations. I asked her to expect Jesus to show up in her life and reveal himself in a supernatural way. Children expect impossible things—I want you to as well. Ask Jesus if He is real, to show up in your life. And expect him to do so like a child.

So some friends and supporters of mine came out to visit. And the woman who came out was from New York. Kate came over to our place for our weekly discussion about Jesus, but some things came up and it ended up that she was there with Nance the New Yorker all alone. So Nance told Kate her story, one New Yorker to another. And when I came back, Kate was in tears. Jesus showed up. In the midst of one woman from New York sharing with another woman from New York her story Jesus showed up and the kingdom of God broke into Kate’s heart and she received the kingdom like a little child. See Kate had reasoned with Jesus and in the process, as she began to shift her expectations, Jesus showed up and his kingdom broke into her heart. And now, to this day, she is seeking first his kingdom that was born into her heart by faith.

For those of you who are followers of Jesus, you must do the same thing on an ongoing basis: continually expect Jesus to keep showing up in your life like a little child. My children expect me to show up in their life everyday and make their life more rich & full. This is why Jesus told you, as a follower of Jesus to pray this way, “Our Father.” Shift your expectations every time you pray. You’re a child, coming to daddy, and daddy can do anything. “hallowed be thy name,” see Daddy is holy and awesome and all-powerful. There is nothing he can’t do. thy kingdom come, thy will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.” You’re praying expectantly that his kingdom is going to come here on earth. Not only in your heart, but in your city and throughout the world, righting wrongs. B/c the inbreaking kingdom is cosmic, global. (maybe add daily bread stuff

(3) Childlike dependence

But there is another part of being a child that is absolutely critical to receiving the kingdom and it is this—you must have a child-like dependence. Now to see where this comes from let’s go back to the part of the text that we haven’t focused on quite as much. In v35ff, James and John say, “Jesus, listen, when this political machine really gets rolling and you get elected, can we have the top two positions in your cabinet. I know, I know-- tyou have to hang around the poor on the campaign trail, but once you are elected and we get power, would you put us right up their in the top two posts with the rich and beautiful and powerful.”

Disciples response in V41 says, “When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Now there are 2 ways to read that. One is to say that the disciples were scolding James and John themselves and saying, “You know better than to ask such a stupid question. We’re not in this for power, we’re in this to serve.” They had memorized the line that all elected officials are supposed to quote.

But I don’t think this is the right read of this verse. I think the disciples were ticked because they wanted the top 2 posts themselves. See just a bit earlier in Mark 9 they revealed their hand. Listen to Mk. 9: 33-36, “³³They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" ³⁴But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. ³⁵Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."  ³⁶He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.”

See I think James & John are just like the rest. They just didn’t get it. They all wanted greatness and power and status. Jesus twice uses children in ch 9 & 10 to say—no, you must be like a little child. And then he uses another image at the end of our text to help the disciples get it in v42-44. Jesus says, “OK, the child imagery isn’t getting through—let me give you another utterly dependent image--that of a slave or servant. See kids and slaves have this in common—they are both completely dependent. A child is completely dependent on their father or mother—without them, they will die. In the same way, a slave is completely dependent on their master for their livelihood.

Then, in v45, slave in need of ransom on someone else through the concept of a ransom, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The word ransom comes from the Greek word lutron. Lutron or ransom means to pay a price to an opposing army to free a slave. This can get a little confused in our modern language b/c we tend to think of ransoms being paid to hostages. But in 1^st century warfare, If you won, you either killed the enemy or put him into abject slavery under horrific work conditions. Your only hope as a slave under an oppressing army was to be ransomed. Your work product was never going to change your fate. Someone else had to act on your behalf . A person of means or political influence had to pay an enormous price to set you free from slavery. So that is the message of Christmas—that the Son of Man was willing to pay the ransom to set you free. We’re all looking to be ransomed, to be set free.

I saw a great example of this longing we have to be ransomed in Gran Torino. Clint Eastwood plays, without a doubt, the most intentionally racist character I have ever seen. He is a Korean War Vet living in a crime-ridden Detroit neighborhood that used to be white and isnt’ anymore. There is a Hmong gang that is active in the neighborhood and they try to initiate Clint Eastwoods next door neighbor Thao. To get into the gang, this young Asian boy has to steal Eastwood’s prize possession—his 1972 Gran Torino that Eastwood has spitshined. But Eastwood catches Thao in the process and his family is humiliated. See this is a traditional Asian family that is deeply shamed and they force Thao to come over to Eastwoods house to do penance. Eastwood wants nothing to do with it and tries to do everything he can to offend the boy and get him to leave, but this Asian family will not budge. Their honor is on the line. So Thao begins this relationship with Eastwood and the family next door. Eventually Thao’s sister Sue comes into the picture as well and Eastwood develops a warm relationship with her. She is bright and filled with promise.

Over the course of time, Eastwood realizes that the Hmong gang will not give up on Thao or his sister. He has threatened them, beaten one of them up horribly, and done everything he can to run the gang members off, but the gangs vengeance on Thao & his sister only got worse. But then finally the thing that sends the grizzled vet over the edge is when Thao’s sister is gang-raped by the Hmong gang. At that point it becomes painfully clear to Eastwood that Thao & his sister could never have a life with the Hmong gang on the loose. They would always be in slavery to this gang.

And so he puts on his coat and he heads over to the house where the gang members live and he walks to the front lawn. They all see him and remember, they are positive he is a crazy war vet. He has beaten one of them up and shot at them—so they know he is violent and they hate him. He and the gang members make enough noise so that the entire neighborhood is watching. And Eastwood stands there and reaches into his coat, as if he is going to pull out a gun, and the entire Hmong gang just unloads on him while the whole neighborhood was watching. And the whole gang goes to jail.

See Thao & his sister were in slavery. Their only hope was if someone paid a ransom to set them free and Eastwood knew that this was the only way. He had to coax the gang into shooting an unarmed man so that they would be behind bars and Thao & his sister could live in freedom. His death for their freedom. That was the ransom—his life.

On Christmas, my friends, a little baby was born with one purpose: to pay the ransom. Like Eastwood, he knew that the only way to set people who were slaves to sin free was for him to die. A man dying for mankind, so that mankind could be set free. Ransomed. Have you received this gift? You can’t buy it, you don’t earn it—you receive it with child-like faith and dependence.

Recent Sermon