Kingdom of Heaven Economy: Those Who Mourn

Intro

Beatitudes offer clarity into the Kingdom of Heaven economy

“Blessed” = approved, accepted, recognized by the Lord

Poor in Spirit is self acknowledged weakness and spiritual bankruptcy. Knowing that we have absolutely nothing to offer God but find every bit of worth in Jesus.

Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Sin Discussion

Define sin

guilty

hamartia - an act or feeling that transgresses something forbidden or ignores something required by God’s law or character; whether in thought, feeling, speech, or action.

When we are in sin our shame is exposed and bare. There is no protection or privacy yet all that our hearts desire is to cover up and hide in shame.

Genesis 3:6-7 “6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

Shame, a result of of sin, causes us to lie about our state because of our skewed view of our real situation.

1 John 1:8 “8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

Sin alters our heart make up. We are transformed into sinners which is contrary to who God made us to be, therefore what we desire leads us to death.

James 1:14-16 “14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.”

Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Furthermore, not only does sin cause wrongdoing but it causes a denial of the truth which leads us to disobedience.

James 4:17 “17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Sin is primarily vertical, meaning between man and God. When we sin the offense is against our Creator who made us for his glory. Any disobedience in our lives is taking the power from God and placing it in our hands. We began to think we know best simply because we know about good and evil as Genesis tells us.

While sin is vertically between man and God it is also horizontal. Sin has relational, social, financial, and physical effects. There is not one area of life that sin does not impact. Therefore, we sin against God and will answer to him as the ultimate Judge but have to suffer the effects of sin in everyday life.

Mourning Discussion

Mourning IS

grieving, deep sorrow over specific issue

Mourning IS NOT

general melancholy, depressed

Mourn for General Sin

Original sin

Original sin is the sin nature that is given to us because we are born from man and woman. Jesus is the only person ever born without original sin in his heart because he was born of God and woman.

Romans 7:15-20 “15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

Sins of larger issues

Injustice and oppression

John Newton and William Wilberforce example

Amazing grace how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind but now I see - John Newton

If you love someone who is ruining his or her life because of faulty thinking, and you don't do anything about it because you are afraid of what others might think, it would seem that rather than being loving, you are in fact being heartless. - William Wilberforce

Unreached people groups

Adoniram Judson example

The motto of every missionary, whether preacher, printer, or schoolmaster, ought to be "Devoted for life."

Mourn for Other’s Sin

Sins of lost specific people (friends and family)

“And as [the mourner] weeps for other men, he finds to his delight that God is answering his prayers, very often even working through him to untangle sins’ knots and provide others with new birth, new righteousness.” - D. A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: An Exposition of Matthew 5–10 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1999), 20.

Our hearts break for those that are closest to us. It happens all too often, we beg and plead with our lost friends and family members yet they don’t see the need for a Savior. We do our very best to explain the terrible end we all deserve yet they don’t accept his salvation. We know sin is the reason for their lives’ turmoil yet they still try to fix it themselves, which almost always makes it worse.

Sins of Christian brothers and sisters

Sadly enough there are sins inside the church. There are those that buy into false teachings. They try and balance the line between obedient and disobedient, godly and ungodly, believer and unbeliever. They repeatedly ask the question, “How lost can I behave and still be saved?” They pretend that this question exists in the Kingdom of Heaven. Righteousness is not a behavior but a being. We are made to be righteous by Jesus which in turn causes us to behave righteously. Christian pretenders and hypocrites are not categories in the Kingdom of Heaven but an excuse for sin. May we mourn over the sins of our brothers and sisters.

Mourn for Personal Sin

Sins of hypocrisy and disobedience

Romans 7:21-24 “21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Sin of apathy and indifference to the Gospel

Jonah hated the Ninevites

Revelation 2:1-7 “1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”

Revelation 3:14-22 “14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. 15 “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ””

“The Christian is to be the truest realist. He reasons that death is there, and must be faced. God is there, and will be known by all as Savior or Judge. Sin is there, and it is unspeakably ugly and black in the light of God’s purity. Eternity is there, and every living human being is rushing toward it. God’s revelation is there, and the alternatives it presents will come to pass: life or death, pardon or condemnation, heaven or hell. These are realities which will not go away. The man who lives in the light of them, and rightly assesses himself and his world in the light of them, cannot but mourn. He mourns for the sins and blasphemies of his nation. He mourns for the erosion of the very concept of truth. He mourns over the greed, the cynicism, the lack of integrity. He mourns that there are so few mourners.” - D. A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: An Exposition of Matthew 5–10 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1999), 20.

The Promise of Comfort

Deliverance from sin’s end

James 1:15 “15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Deliverance from sin’s effects

Triumphant life is possible and probably for those that are faithful to Jesus.

Carbon monoxide analogy - Sin will always be present but is controlled by the Spirit in our lives. It does not lead to death and destruction.