And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them.He took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.
4 sermons cite this verse
… who always see the face of his father in the presence of the Lord's throne in heaven as well. Mark chapter 10, verse 16, Jesus took children up into his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. And not one time in scripture does Jesus ever confer a blessing on an unbeliever. Only those who are at that place of being his. God claims children as his. Until they get to a place of being willing to choose for themselves, they belong to him. Then they can choose as they grow to reject that love and reject that protection, reject that grace. Matthew 21, verse 16, when Jesus was being praised by children on the way to the cross, the Pharisees scolded him and said, tell the kids to shut their mouths. And Jesus said what? Quoting Psalm 8, verse two, out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have perfected. God has had a lot of time to perfect praise out of the mouth of babes. …
I. First, then, I want to show you that THE NEW BIRTH IS A GREAT NECESSITY. That it is a necessity is quite certain, because it is Jesus Himself who says,' 'You must be born-again," and Jesus cannot err. Unless we are prepared to reject Him altogether, we must believe Him to be the Infallible Teacher sent from God. Yet He says, "You must be born-again," and you may depend upon it that you must if you are ever to be saved. He was of a gentle, loving spirit. He never bound heavy burdens upon men's shoulders which they were not able to bear. He was so gentle that the little children gathered around His knees and He took them up in His arms and blessed them. I am sure that if He could have said, "You can enter the Kingdom of Heaven without experiencing the new birth," He would have said so. He said, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads unto life," because He must speak the Truth of God. In other places, how blessedly has He set the gate of mercy wide open, saying, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink." And His last Gospel invitation is, "Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely." The words of our text become all the more solemn because they drop from the lips of Him who would not exclude a single soul from everlasting happiness unless the Truth of God required Him to do so. It is the kinder, gentle, loving Christ who says, "You must be born-again," and so shuts and bars the gate of Heaven against the admission of the unregenerate! …
On this first view of the case then, from the original corruption of our nature, from the need which all men are under from their birth of pardon and help from God, from Baptism being a promise of mercy just suited to our need, and from the impossibility of any one (let him be allowed to live unbaptized ever so long) bringing any self-provided recommendation of himself to God's favour; on all these accounts, I say, since God has given us no particular directions in the matter, but has left it to ourselves, it seems, on the first view of the case, most fitting and right to give children the privilege of Baptism. 2. But, in fact, we are not, strictly speaking, left without positive encouragement to bring infants near to Him. We are not merely left to infer generally the propriety of Infant Baptism; Christ has shown us His willingness to receive children. Some men have said (indeed most of us perhaps in seasons of unbelief have been tempted in our hearts to ask), "What good can Baptism do senseless children? you might as well baptize things without life; they sleep or even struggle during the ceremony, and interrupt it; it is a mere superstition." This, my brethren, is the language of the world, whoever uses it. It is putting sight against faith. If we are assured that Baptism has been blessed by Christ, as the rite of admittance into His Church, we have nothing to do with those outward appearances, which, though they might prove something perhaps, had He not spoken, now that He has spoken lose all force. To such objections, I would reply by citing our Saviour's "own word and deed." We find that infants were brought to Christ; and His disciples seem to have doubted, in the same spirit of unbelief, what could be the good of bringing helpless and senseless children to the Saviour of men. They doubtless thought that His time would be better employed in teaching them, than in attending to children; that it was interfering with His usefulness. "But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased." These are remarkable words: "much displeased,"--that is, He was uneasy, indignant, angry (as the Greek word may be more literally translated); and we are told, "He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them." Christ, then, can bless infants, in spite of their being to all appearance as yet incapable of thought or feeling. He can, and did, bless them; and, in the very sense in which they then were blessed, we believe they are capable of a blessing in Baptism. …
15. Verily I say unto you, Whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Instead of growing wiser, in order to be fit for Christ, we must be more conscious of ignorance, more trustful towards Him, more dependent upon Him, more childlike. 16-18. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them. And when He was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to Him, and asked Him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life. And Jesus said unto Him, Why do you call Me good? There is none good but One, that is, God. He did not here unveil His Deity to that young man, but if he had thought a while, he might have seen it. However, He answered his question. "If you are to be saved by your doings, this is what you have to do—not attend to sacraments and go through performances, but this." 19, 20. You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not Honor your father and mother And he answered and said unto Him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.And he probably had very cautiously and anxiously done so, yet, for all that, he had not really kept all those commands without a flaw. We are right well sure of that, but as yet his eyes were not open to see his own shortcomings. …