Matthew 18:1-6, 10
THE CHILDREN ARE THE OBJECTS OF GOD'S PARTICULAR CARE 1-6 (7-9)
He has given the angels charge concerning them. "It is bad being enemies to those who are so guarded; and it is good having God for our God, for then we have his angels for our angels" (Matthew Henry, ad loc).
Our Conversion as Children 1-3
Who is the greatest (1)? Jesus called a child and set him in the midst. This child was willing to come. Children are willing to come to Christ. Jesus said "Suffer the children to come unto me" (Luke 18:16). The problem is with the adults who try to stop them. So how do we become like little children? Do we revert to childish behaviour? No way; it is not Reversion that we need, but Conversion. We all need to be born again, and become as little children, babes in Christ (1 Peter 2:2). Then as we feed on the Word of God, we grow into Christian maturity as adults for God.
Our Evangelisation of Children 4-5
Who is the greatest (4)? The one who receives children for Christ. Evangelism of Children is a divine imperative. DL Moody once complained after a meeting that there were "only 2= converts". Sankey thought he meant 2 adults and a child; but he said "No: two children with all their life ahead of them, and one old man who had spent more than half his life already". The Scottish minister at Ormiston (near Prestonpans) in about 1807 offered to resign, because he had had no converts that year but "wee Bobby Moffat", a smaller-than-average schoolboy. But this Robert Moffat went as a missionary to Africa to work in Bechuanaland from 1817 to 1870. He learnt the Bechuana language, reduced it to writing, published a grammar, and translated first the New and then the Old Testament for the Bechuana people. He gave his daughter Mary in marriage to Dr David Livingstone, the pioneer medical missionary explorer, who started in Bechuanaland 1840-49. The year that pastor wanted to resign was that pastor's best year ever in terms of results! Let us never despise any of Christ's "little ones" (10).
Our Consideration for Children 6 (-9)
Child Abuse and "kiddie porn" are among the greatest evils of today. The stumblingstone we set before our children will be the millstone that we hang around our own neck. "Woe to the world" (7) because of offences against children. "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). "Fathers" includes priests who abuse their position. We must mortify those parts of our body which are a menace to the children, or it will be the worse for us and for our church.
THE ANGELS ARE THE AGENTS OF GOD'S PARTICULAR CARE 10
The Angels wait upon God's Orders 10a
As for the angels, "they look continually on the face of my heavenly Father". They stand in His Presence and serve Him (Luke 1:19). They have the joy of always looking upon the fair beauty of God; and they have the joy of continually executing the will of God, expecting to receive orders to intervene on behalf of God's precious little ones.
The Angels wait upon God's Children 10b
Jesus said "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents" (Luke 15:10). Why? Because each sinner is a client on an angel's case load. Is your guardian angel rejoicing in heaven today over you? We are all "children of God", regardless of our physical age.
There is a type of piety which promotes the idea of Patron Saints. The Bible says nothing anywhere at all about patron saints. The holy Saints form a nebulous "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) who have gone before to show us the way. They "being dead yet speak" (Hebrews 11:4); but they bear witness to us: they do not make intercession for us. We rightly praise God for their good examples. But the Bible assures us here of Guardian Angels. That is why we observe the feast of "St Michael and All Angels" every year on 29th September. Better to trust a present angel, than a departed saint.