Matthew 5:4-5 - The Beatitudes Part 1
Tom Shrader continues his exposition of the Sermon on the Mount by examining the second Beatitude: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.' He distinguishes between godly sorrow that leads to repentance and worldly sorrow that merely feels bad about consequences. Shrader emphasizes that these characteristics build upon one another - after recognizing spiritual poverty, believers naturally mourn over their sin condition. He concludes by introducing the third Beatitude about gentleness, using Christ's restraint during crucifixion as the ultimate example of strength under control.
“Your Christian life is primarily doctrinal, not ethical - it's primarily a set of beliefs, not a set of behaviors.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Recorded: February 07, 2002
Duration: 44 min
Themes: mourning, sorrow, repentance, comfort, sin, humility, gentleness, brokenness, struggling with guilt, convicted of sin, new believer, feeling broken, seeking comfort, dealing with regret, pastor, experiencing loss
Scripture: Matthew 5:1-10, Matthew 5:3, Matthew 5:4, Matthew 5:5, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10, Galatians 2:20, John 11:35, Matthew 27:38-44
Theological Themes: beatitudes, godly sorrow, worldly sorrow, spiritual poverty, sanctification, christian counterculture, kingdom values, biblical grief
Full Transcript
Today is the second week, and I don't know how long this series is going to last. We're moving through in no hurry to get it done. It's one of those things that we try to do at least once a year—take either a book of the Bible or a section of Scripture and work through it in a methodical chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse fashion. That's what we're doing with the Sermon on the Mount.
We spent an awful lot of time in introduction last week, and we're spending a ton of time in review this week. The reason is this understanding of what Matthew has in mind as he writes, and Jesus has in mind as He speaks. That understanding is critical.
The Christian Counterculture
Let me read to you again from John Stott. Here's what he said: "The Sermon on the Mount describes what human life and the human community look like when they come under the gracious rule of God." Jesus emphasizes that His true followers, the citizens of God's kingdom, were to be entirely different from others. They were not to take their cue from the people around them, but from Him, and so proved to be genuine children of their heavenly Father. Their character was to be completely distinct from that admired by the world.
Thus the followers of Jesus, Stott writes, are to be different—different from the nominal church, different from the secular world, different from the religious, different from the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counterculture. Here is a Christian's value system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, lifestyle, network of relationships—all of which are totally at variance with the non-Christian world. What Jesus is saying here is, you and I ought to be distinct. We ought to be different.
Now interestingly enough, if we go back to the very first sentence in Stott's commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, he writes this: "The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood and certainly the least obeyed." That's the backdrop that we wanted to use as we came in to the introduction to this study.
The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached
Jesus is speaking and He's talking about you and me and how we ought to live as Christians. John MacArthur wrote this one simple sentence: "No part of Scripture more clearly shows man's desperate situation without God." The New Testament, especially these Gospels, give us the life of Jesus. And this Sermon, the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7—are exactly what Stott says. They are probably, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the greatest sermon ever preached.
If you have one of those Bibles with the words of Jesus in red letters, you'll see essentially all of chapters 5, 6, and 7 are red letters. This is Jesus speaking to us, and He's telling us how we ought to live. Here's what Jesus is saying: all Christians should exhibit this kind of life. This isn't optional behavior.
Again, I really need to make these points, and I know they're a little repetitious from last week, but it's by design that we go through this. When Jesus begins with the Beatitudes here in Matthew chapter 5, it's important to understand they are not a smorgasbord. This is not take two of eight or three of eight, pick the ones you like or pick the ones you want. Jesus gives us the characteristics that ought to be present in every Christian's life.
The Progressive Nature of the Beatitudes
They're also not in a random order. They purposefully build one on another. That's why we study in that way, and what we're trying to do is to connect all of them together. Here's what we said: We want you, over this study in the Sermon on the Mount, to examine your life to see if when Jesus describes this Christian life, He's describing your life.
Now let me make this point. Somebody said to me two weeks ago, they said that was a terrific point. I said thank you very much, because I really do think this is a huge point. Your Christian life is primarily doctrinal, not ethical. Let me give it to you what I mean. It's primarily a set of beliefs, not a set of behaviors.
Do you see that Jesus is not telling us, if you do all these things, you'll be a Christian? If you do all these things, you will be saved. What Jesus is saying is, because you are saved, you do all these things. Do you see that? That is a huge difference. That is a very important distinction that has to be made.
The Heart of the Matter
Frequently, I'll talk to somebody and they'll say, you know so and so, and I'll say yes, and they'll say, he's a good Christian man, and I'll say, well really, tell me about it. He's a great dad, he's a great husband, he's an honest businessman. Well I can introduce you to Hindus that are great dads and great businessmen and honest and a great husband. It's not just the ethic. See it?
We're to be different than the rest of the world, but what Jesus is really going to tell us when we get into the meat of this thing is the difference between us and the rest of the world is a heart that's changed, a heart that's been broken, a heart that's been transformed. It's not the action. We can be deceived by the action. The actions are critical. These things that Jesus talks about must be present.
But even at the end of this, He has, to me, words that absolutely throw fear into you when He says, wait a minute, many will say to me, Lord, Lord. And they'll even go back and say, we had all these actions, and He's going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. That heart wasn't changed. This is key stuff. I get a little passionate about this section right in here.
To understand who we are and who God is and the reason that Christ came to this world—fundamentally, it was to save us from the consequences of our sin—that there's a radical transformation that takes place in our life, that all of a sudden, we see
Here you go. Very important. We see ourselves differently. It is not at all unusual, in fact, it's the dominant thought in our culture today that man's basically good and getting better. That everybody has that little bit of good in them, and what we've got to do is light that spark of little bit of good that's in them. And that is what the world thinks. The problem is that's not what God says. God's word says no one is good, no not one. No one seeks God.
So what I was trying to do was to make the point to you last week and obviously again today and we'll make it, I guess, throughout this study, that your life is to be different because your heart is different. I was talking to somebody not long ago and I was saying, back in March of 1980, I became a Christian. And they said, well, what were you before that? That's a good question. I said, well, I was a pagan. They said, well, did you go to church? And I said, well, yeah, some. I said, I don't get it. If you go to church, you're born in America, I mean, what else can there be here? And that is exactly how many of us think.
What It Means to Be a Christian
Being a Christian is some person, man, woman, student, boy, girl, who at some point in their life comes to the realization that they are lost and helpless and hopeless and dead in their sin. And I say some point in time, let me, because this comes up a lot in studies. People will come and they'll say, I don't know that moment. And I do. I could take you, I could drive you out to McCormick Ranch. I could sit you down. I could say, I was sitting right there when I became a Christian. But not everybody can do that.
It's not significant that you can do that. What's significant is that you know that transformation has taken place. Some people, they just, it's the understanding over a period of time that all of a sudden they ended up here. I don't know how they got there. All I need to know is that they're there. That's the significant thing. And when my life has been changed, my heart's been changed, my behavior's changed. My life will change, inevitably. It can't help but change.
Your Greatest Asset in the Marketplace
I was at a conference this week. It's a secular conference. I happen to be speaking. It's totally secular, and they're talking about their industry and a lot of advertising and some new products that are coming out, but there was a lot of conversation about staffing and people. I don't know if you saw it, but on Tuesday, USA Today, on the money section, the cover story, I don't have it with me, the cover story was the new motto at work, trust no one, and my point is very simple. My point is, how are you going to function in that environment?
If you get a chance, pull out the cover story of the money section from USA Today on Tuesday. It's a fascinating article. They said less than 10% of employees now feel they can trust the organization. How are you possibly going to have a relationship? And they started talking about what they wanted in employees and what employees should want in employers, and let me tell you, it's exactly what I've been saying to you for years. Your greatest asset in the marketplace is your Christian faith.
You know what employers are looking for? People that will work hard. People that are honest. People who understand there'll be good times and bad times, and when they make mistakes, they'll acknowledge them. You know what employees are looking for? They're looking for an honest day's wage for an honest day's work. They're looking for somebody that'll trust them. They're looking for somebody that will protect them, not necessarily baby them or cocoon them, but protect them.
Your greatest asset is this. It's that faith. It's that kind of integrity. I don't care. You know, no matter how dark this marketplace gets, there's always going to be a place for honest, hard-working people. It's just the way it is, and that flows from a life change.
The Word "Blessed"
Here's where we started. We said, just look down, Matthew chapter 5, and I think we told you, and again, if you don't have them with you, I just encourage you to bring those Bibles with you, because we're not going to put the verses on the screen. You're just going to have to work your way through it here. You're big people, and I've got great faith in you, some of you, and yeah, yeah, yeah, two of you. That's what I meant.
Look down. Just let your eye fall on Matthew chapter 5, verse 3 down to verse 10, and as you look at that, jumping off that page is that word, blessed. Every verse begins with it. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the gentle. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those that have been persecuted.
Well, I know you have no training in Greek, and I know that most of you have never been to seminary, but I'll bet when you look at this, you can draw one very important conclusion, and that is this word, blessed, is pretty important. And if I understand that, I'm probably going to go a long way toward understanding what Jesus is saying.
A Different Kind of Joy
That word, blessed, is also translated, and it's a little superficial, it's also translated happy, but not happy in the sense that we might see. It's not the happy that buys Enron at 80. It's the joy that sells it at 30. That's the difference. Yeah, not a lot of smiles on that, but you get the point. You get what I'm saying. This joy that He's talking about here is a joy that's unrelated to circumstance.
There is absolutely no way for you to protect yourself from the world around you. We did a class, getting plugged in class, at church the other night, and that's when new people, the church come in and ask anything, and one guy said, I've got a ten-year-old daughter, and I'm just petrified she's going to be in junior high. What are you going to do to protect her? What are you going to do to, is she going to be safe coming here? And I said, yeah, but I mean, will there be kids here who cuss? Will there
Be kids here who take drugs? Will there be kids who are sexually active? And I said, I would expect so, I guess, I don't know. But I said, I'll tell you this, I don't see how we can possibly in one hour undo all the good that you've done for a week, any more than you can have a kid and be a lousy parent and give it to us for a week and think you're going to have a great kid.
I understood exactly what this dad was saying. This dad is petrified because he looks in the world and he sees the stuff around him, and he's saying, I don't want my kid to be exposed to that. Well, let me help you out here. One thing we're going to learn from the Sermon on the Mount is, you need to be exposed to that. You need to be in contact with the world, but not contaminated by the world. That's a very important truth.
Now, we need to be wise. You understand what I'm saying here? We're not advocating taking kids that are 12 and throw them out with drug addicts. That's not my point. My point is, you're having a little bubble baby here, and at some point, this kid's going to have to go out in the real world and discover what it's like.
Contact Without Contamination
There's a great movement in the Christian community to isolate ourselves. Christian music, Christian TV, Christian comics, Christian dogs, Christian pets, Christian golf, everything. That's not it. Boy, I'll tell you, one thing when I read the Sermon on the Mount, I don't hear that. I hear, you're salt and light, you better get out there. Contact without contamination.
Blessed are those who understand that circumstances in life are going to go like this, and you can't stop them. But in the midst of that, there's a joy. In the midst of hardship, there's a joy. In the midst of pain, there's a joy. Because there's hope. That's where you find it. And if there's anything that the Scripture teaches us, is that we have hope in Christ.
Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit
Here's where He begins. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Literally, blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt. The word He uses for poor, He had two options. One of them was somebody who doesn't have much. That's not the word He used. He used the word that means totally destitute with no possible means of support.
That's who you are. Your spirit is bankrupt. You are a sinful person who on your own can do absolutely nothing. The characteristic that Jesus is talking about here is humility. The Bible is very clear. God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Rather than even give you the illusion here that I'm going to teach this, I just want to read to you a little bit talking about humility. What I want to give you are seven things, seven characteristics that are present in your life so that you can know that you're humble. Or so that you at least have a barometer against which to measure these things. Again, this humility is not a work. It's not something you say, I'm make myself humble so I'll be acceptable to God. Humility is just understanding that you're unworthy.
Seven Characteristics of Humility
Here's seven things. Here's the first of them. We'll credit John MacArthur with these. Here's the first of them. We're humble when we're weaned from ourselves. We're humble when all of a sudden we're weaned from ourselves.
Galatians 2:20, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered me up. All of a sudden I understand that. And I understand that I'm nothing and He's everything.
Weaned from Self-Focus
I'm weaned from myself in a world that says, from the time the kids were this, and you know, we got these girls and they're close enough in age that there's always that closeness and not rivalry, just friendship. But whenever I would deal with one, boy if I had something for one of the girls, the other one, she could not say fast enough. What about me? What about me? What about me? You come into the world saying, what about me?
Sunday at church, every once in a while, because there's five services, so I'll try to take a break and just walk the campus because I want to see what's going on. I want to see it with my eyes and see if I see what I see. And I walk by, they had to be 18 months, two years, and there's two kids in there and they are absolutely fighting over this toy. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. I guarantee you what happened, one kid was playing with it, the other kid saw it, he didn't have a toy and said, I want that, it's mine. We didn't hold a seminar to teach him that. We didn't do a Bible study to say, look out for yourself. That's just instinctive. That's natural.
Let me remind you, these characteristics are supernatural. This doesn't come naturally. First way you look at this humility, first characteristic is you're weaned from yourself.
Lost in the Wonder of Christ
Secondly, you're lost in the wonder of Christ. Your mind, in the course of a day, kind of just drifts to Him. Right after I became a Christian, I heard that phrase for the first time, Christians are so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. My experience has been the opposite. We're so earthly minded, we're no heavenly good.
So, heavenly minded. What does that mean? That means that there's times where all of a sudden, you just have lost track of time. Not fantasizing about a date, or not thinking about a new car. You've fantasized away your time, dreaming about, meditating about Christ. Lost in Him. And I think that intensifies as you get older, because you understand that not long from now, you'll be with Him forever.
No Complaining
Here's the third characteristic. We don't complain about our situation, no matter how bad it is. Because whatever it is, we deserve worse. We don't complain in our life about bad things that come, because what we understand is worse. Even the awful situation in life is an extension of God's grace to you.
This is all going to come back. We'll talk about it again today. But this all comes back to that defective view of sin. We see sin as just that
That one moment where we just didn't really get it all together, and it was just a little slip up. Rather than an offense against the Holy God.
Here's the fourth thing. We more clearly see the strengths and virtues of others, and see our own weaknesses and sins. We see more clearly other strengths and virtues, and more clearly see our own weaknesses and sin. Isn't it interesting? My tendency, I bet yours is too, is the exact opposite. I see all the weaknesses and sins in others, and all the strengths and virtues in me.
I come back to this again and again because I think it's the key not just to being a Christian, but living the Christian life. It's a total reversal of the natural process of thinking. It's to look out for others rather than yourself.
Prayer as Spiritual Begging
Here's the fifth thing. We spend much time in prayer. If I'm a beggar, if I'm a homeless guy today, and I'm going to be dependent on the money that I get from begging in downtown Phoenix, I may not have a job where I punch a clock, but I've got to get out there and beg. I'm a poor person, materially poor, and I have to go and I have to beg.
Here's what Jesus is saying. You're spiritually poor. Come to me and beg to me. That's what prayer is. I'm begging to Him. Give us this day our daily bread. That always bugged me. Why wouldn't He just do this? Why wouldn't He just give it to me all at once? He knows how long I'm going to live. He knows what I'm going to need. Why didn't He just give it to me all at once?
Two reasons. Number one, I'd blow it. I'd have it in Tyco. A little shot right there, huh? Unfortunately, that comes from personal experience. Number two, if He gave me everything I needed, you know what? I'd never come back to talk to Him. If I had everything I needed, I'd have no need to come back to Him. But now I come for my daily bread.
Taking Christ on His Terms
Here's the sixth thing. We take Christ on His terms and not ours. We take Christ on His individual terms. You and I live in a world that is a negotiating world, isn't it? Let's say you've got a house, and you want to buy this house. You see this house, and there it is, and it says a listing price. And all of a sudden, what you say is, well, that's what they're asking. Here's what I'm going to offer, and you make an offer. Then they make a counter, and then you make a counter. And all of a sudden, you have a meeting of the minds. You've negotiated a deal. And that's the way we look at all of life.
I'm not a very good seller of or buyer of cars. I don't like the dance that goes with it. I'm probably just fresh meat to these guys, because I just don't like to mess around with all this stuff. But some people do. They love to dicker around. That's their thing. They just love to bargain. If I went up, if there was a yard sale, and they had a bed out there, and they had $25 on it, I would just give them $25. But, boy, if I'm with a veteran, they say, no, no, no, no, no. Just offer them $5. They'll probably take $12.
All of a sudden, we bring that attitude to God. And here's what we say. Hey, I know you said poor in spirit, but you didn't really mean poor, did you? I know you said you wanted 100%, but can we just start with 50% and work our way towards 75%? Aren't you asking a lot here when you say you want it all? A humble person says, listen, I bring nothing to this party. It's all about you.
The Grateful Heart
Here's the last thing, number seven. When we're poor in spirit, we will praise and thank God for His grace. One of the great characteristics of someone who is poor in spirit is that they are extraordinarily grateful. They're gracious. They can't say thank you enough.
Sometime when you want to do a little word study, get a concordance, and just look up the word thanks or thanksgiving, and just keep it isolated if you want to the New Testament, and look at how often that word is there. It appears that you and I are to be thankful, grateful people. Here's where He begins. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Who's going to be in heaven? Those who are poor in spirit.
Moving from Poor in Spirit to Mourning
But the point we made to you last week is that these build on one another. Verse four, this is where we left off last week. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who are overwhelmed by their sin. They don't be filled with despair, but they're broken over it. It follows out of necessity of poor in spirit.
When I understand that I'm a wretched sinner, now there's a brokenness over it. Now I want to know, why do I do this? How come I act this way? What makes me act in a way that's selfish and jealous and petty and trite and egotistical? And all of a sudden, there's a conviction. That's a good word. It's like the word guilt. Guilt's got a bad rap. There's a good guilt, there's a bad guilt. And I understand sometimes you feel guilty about stuff you can't do.
I'm talking about a good guilt. I mean where you understand you are guilty, guilty, guilty, and rather than try to get somebody, try to get Johnny Cochran on the phone and try to figure out how you can get around this thing, or rather than try to explain it away, you just say, you know what, I'm guilty. That's what it means to mourn.
Two Kinds of Sorrow
You're in Matthew, just turn to the right, through the Gospels, into the book of Acts, and into the book of Romans, and into the book of 1 Corinthians, and then 2 Corinthians, and stop at chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Paul gives what, for me, has been an extraordinarily helpful insight. Because Paul makes a delineation, when he talks about sorrow, between godly sorrow and earthly sorrow.
Here's what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 9. "Now I rejoice that you were not made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. You were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us."
For the sorrow that is according to the will of God, produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation. But the sorrow that the world produces, results in death. Two types of sorrow. There's godly sorrow, that's what He's talking about here, and there's earthly sorrow. There's godly sorrow, and godly sorrow produces repentance.
I have sat and listened to men, grown men, real men, muscular man's men, who have cried, and cried, and cried, and said, "I know I was wrong." I've watched them take the hands of their spouse, and see those hands trembling, and see those eyes filled with tears, and hear them say, "Honey, I know I was wrong. I'll never do it again. Give me another chance. I'll never, never, never do it again." And she'll say, "Okay." And then, out the door he goes, and it's like, "Well, I got that done with. What are we going to do now? Let's party."
What were those tears? I'll tell you what they were. Human sorrow. Human sorrow. Got caught. Feel bad. Sometimes guys just feel bad. Want to get out of this relationship, don't know how to do it, so they just figure they'll make life hell for her, and finally she'll just leave. Don't have the guts to even act bold when they sin. That's not godly sorrow. Godly sorrow says I'm broken over this.
Christ's Pattern of Mourning
I want to make a point to you here, and I don't have a clue what this means, but it's a fascinating point. Martin Lloyd-Jones makes it, that in Jesus' life, we see Him move to tears. In John 11, He comes to the grave of Lazarus, His good friend, and you all have been around know that whenever they give you a Bible memorization assignment, you always memorize John 11:35. Remember it? "Jesus wept." Great verse to memorize. You can check off and get a hundred percent real easy on that one.
He comes to Lazarus' tomb, and He weeps. Now why is He weeping? It can't be over Lazarus' death, because He knows He's going to raise him from the dead. I think He's weeping over the sin that He sees, and the consequent effects on humanity. He looks at Jerusalem, and He weeps.
There's a point recorded in John chapter 8, where the Jewish leaders come to Him, and they're trying to trap Him. And Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I am." And they say to Him something there that's always been interesting to me, and they said, "How can this be you're not yet 50?" Well we know in reality He's probably 31 or 32.
Now I understand this may be a stretch, so if it's too big a stretch for you, that's okay, just write me off on this one. I think they looked at a guy who was pretty beaten up. He looked almost 50, and I'll tell you what, that's what two years of ministry will do to this guy, or anyone. Stott makes this point: we hear of Jesus' sorrow, we hear of Jesus crying, we do not have one record in the Gospels where Jesus smiles or laughs.
The Balance of Joy and Sobriety
And this comes, I'm just telling you, this is me. I love to laugh. I love to smile. Girls came in last night, and Hailey turned the alarm off, but then she didn't set it right away, and that just bugs me. So now I'm laying there, I'm thinking somebody's going to break in. When's she going to set the alarm? Finally after about five minutes, I get up, I go down, and she's just coming to the alarm. I said, "Hey what are you doing?" She said, "Well I have a routine I go through." Well I said, "Well take the routine and flip it, and put the alarm on when you come in. I don't know, how hard can it be? You're standing right there, just go ahead and punch it." "Well I like to go down and change first."
Well we end up in a long discussion, and we're standing out in the kitchen. It's 1:37 this morning, and we're laughing, and I'm all over her, and she said, "Let's go wake up mom." I said, "That's not a really good idea." She said, "Come on, she's probably awake anyway." So she's down, and we're just having a blast. I love having fun, but I do see a solemnness in Christ, and yet it's such that the kids are comfortable coming to Him, the hookers and the tax collectors are attracted to Him, so there must be a sobriety of life there that is nonetheless contagious.
Jesus weeps, and when He weeps, He weeps, it seems, over this sin. Blessed are those who mourn.
Defining the One Who Mourns
Again, let me just read to you from Martin Lloyd-Jones as he talks about this idea of mourning. Here's what he said: "Let us then try to define this man who mourns. What sort of a man is he? He is a sorrowful man, but he's not morose. He's a sorrowful man, but he's not a miserable man. He's a serious man, but not a solemn man. He's a sober-minded man, but not a sullen man. He's a grave man, but never cold."
Here's how he closes his discussion on this, "Blessed are those who mourn." "That is the man who mourns that is the Christian. That is the type of Christian seen in the church in the past age. When the doctrine of sin was preached and emphasized, and men were not merely urged to take a sudden decision, a deep doctrine of sin, a high doctrine of joy, the two together produced this blessed, happy man who mourns, and who at the same time is comforted."
A Defective Understanding in Today's Church
Martin Lloyd-Jones, I'm going to go ahead and read it. We read it last week. Let me read it to you again. He's lamenting the situation in the church. I don't know what year this would have been—1959. He's lamenting the situation in the church. He writes this: "I cannot help but feel that in the final explanation of the state of the church today is a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin. Couple that, of course, with the failure to understand the true nature of joy. There's a double failure. There is not the real deep conviction of sin as once was the case, and on the other hand there is a superficial conception of joy and happiness which is very different indeed from that that we find in the New Testament. Thus the defective doctrine of sin and the shallow idea of joy work together of necessity producing a superficial kind"
Talking to a guy the other day, he pastors a church, and I said, "Tell me about your church." He said it's a seeker church. You know what that means? It's a church where they're saying we really want to attract non-Christians. We want to break down all the barriers. We want to communicate to them in a way that transcends any of this stuff, and we want to get down to their level. We want to be relevant. We want to be real.
I'll tell you what's happened, my personal view. In a quest to be relevant and real, they've made themselves irrelevant and superficial. That's what's happened in these denominations. They're drying up and blowing away because they're on this quest to be relevant and real.
The Bible says there isn't even such a thing as a seeker. No one seeks after God. God seeks after those He'll save. You know what you want to do to be seeker sensitive? Make certain when they come in, they hear the doctrine of sin and the doctrine of grace. That's what the church has lost.
Somebody was at our church not long ago, and they said, "Why is everything working so well?" I said, "Well, first of all, it's like Disneyland. It looks much better than it really is. I'm sure we have issues like everybody else, but one of the things we have at our church that you don't find in a lot of churches is we have converted people." That makes a big difference.
The Promise of Comfort
What Martin Lloyd-Jones is responding to is the world that you live in, where people have been invited to a luncheon and talked about wanting peace and joy, and said, "Make a decision for Christ," never hearing about sin. Blessed are those who mourn. You hear what He says? "For they will be comforted." There'll be relief. It's not filled with despair.
When I'm convicted of my sin, I find relief. It struck me, as I was writing this, I made the point that hell is very similar to this, in this sense. Hell is a place where everyone realizes that they're a sinner, and realizes they're unable to rescue themselves. The difference is, in hell, there's no way out. There's no option. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed Are the Gentle
Let me do verse five. Blessed are those who are gentle. Some of your translations may have a different word there than gentle. Blessed are those who are meek. Meek means, simply, strength under control.
Meek is not somebody, when I hear that word, I have a connotation that thinks of Barney Fife looking for his bullet, or Wally Cox in Mr. Peepers, or some little milquetoast guy. Meek is not that at all. Meek is somebody who's strong, but that strength is under control.
When they were doing the Super Bowl setup this year, they were doing the most popular Super Bowl ads of all time. The number one, the most popular Super Bowl ad of all time, was the one from 1975, and it's Mean Joe Green, and it's the Coke ad. Here's the boy, and the boy's there, Mean Joe's there after the tough game, and he said, "How about a Coke, Mr. Green?" He takes it, and Mean Joe flips that jersey back to him.
The contrast there, what I was struck by was not the racial dynamic that some analyzed. What I was struck by was, here's this massive man and the gentleness of the man. That's what I was struck by, strength under control.
The Ultimate Example of Meekness
You want a perfect picture of strength under control? Turn to Matthew chapter 27. We'll end with this. Here's strength under control. Here's meekness. Matthew chapter 27 beginning in verse 38. We are looking at the crucifixion. Jesus is on the cross.
"At that time two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, and wagging their heads, and saying, 'You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.'
In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, 'He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, "I am the Son of God."' The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words."
Go back to that scene. Here's Jesus. Do you get this? Here's Jesus hanging, bloodied, crown of thorns in His head. He's been scourged. He's hanging there probably naked, fighting for life. And the people are walking by and they're hurling insults at Him. "You were going to tear down the temple and rebuild it in three days. Why don't you save Yourself?" And the Jewish leaders are walking by and saying, "He saved others, but He couldn't save Himself." And as He hangs there these criminals are now insulting Him.
If I'm Jesus, and we're all happy I'm not, but if I'm Jesus that would have been the moment that to me would have been the end of it. When I'm hanging there and this little pipsqueak comes by and he's spitting on me and he said, "You saved others, You couldn't save Yourself." That's about the moment I'd want to come down and go, "Come here."
Do you understand He could have done that? He could have called down angels. He could have delivered Himself from that. But there's a sense in which what they say is true: if He did that and saved Himself, He couldn't have saved others. You understand that Jesus went
to that cross voluntarily. Jesus didn't have to go to that cross. God was under no obligation to provide that sacrifice and protection for you. But He did out of His grace and out of His mercy, not out of obligation and not out of duty.
Blessed are those who are gentle, for they'll inherit the earth. The idea is blessed are those who are gentle, for they will be satisfied.
The Pattern Emerges
There we go. There's the introduction. It builds: blessed are those who are poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn for their sin. Now it turns outward, and now they begin to exhibit that as they interact with others.
We'll pick up exactly right there next week. What verse are we in? Verse 6 next week, Matthew chapter 5 verse 6.
Closing Prayer
Father, help us see this truth. Help us examine our life in light of these words. God, help us understand that we are sinners who deserve death, who deserve hell, who deserve to be separated from You forever. But in Your love and Your mercy and Your grace, You've extended to Your people life and joy in heaven.
Even as I'm saying this, Lord, this seems like a pretty heavy message for 7 o'clock on a Thursday morning. Not a lot of laughs. But then I don't think it's a funny subject.
God, bring us face to face with who we really are. Let us use Your word to examine our life, not the bar that's set by the world, not the standard that others around us have. God, help us understand how You see us, and give us the courage to be the men and women You've called us to be.
God, we ask that in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.