Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

When you hear the phrase: “humble, meek, and mild,” what image comes to your mind?

Some of you would say Jesus because you’ve heard that phrase used to describe Him.

But what exactly does that mean?

We probably know what it means to be humble, but what does it mean to be meek or mild?

Charles Wesley, the famous hymn writer wrote,

“Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild”:

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,

Look upon a little child;

Pity my simplicity,

Suffer me to come to Thee.523

Charles Wesley

When you think of Jesus being meek and mild, you might think of Jesus as a pushover.

That would be the wrong image of what it means to be gentle, meek, and mild.

Jesus is also the One that Psalm 2 describes for the kings of the earth that would rebel against the King.

We often use phrases and character descriptions without realizing that the words that we use can become tired and trite expressions.

When these phrases loose their meaning, they loose their ability to describe for us what we are trying to paint a picture of.

Tonight, we want to paint the picture of Jesus.

All of these beatitudes find their completion in Him.

Remember that it is Jesus that we want to come out in us, so let’s go back to our text from this morning.

Pray

We mentioned this morning that the word “beatitude” means blessed.

Well what does it mean to be blessed?

Some might say “happy.”

That’s certainly an option and you are happy when you follow God’s commands.

You at least have joy in your heart.

You may not be happy always with where it leads or what it costs you, but you have the joy of the Lord as your strength.

Here’s something interesting.

The New Testament was, of course, written in Greek.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint.

Now, did you know that the only time the same Greek word found here in our text for blessing is used in the Septuagint is in Deut.

33:29?

It says,

You can only know joy in the Lord.

That’s why we spent so much time this morning talking about coming to Jesus through prayer and the Holy Spirit and having that joy manifested in your life as Jesus is displayed in you.

It’s a joy to be in the presence of the Lord and you can have that all the time.

You can “Rejoice always, and again I say rejoice!” if you are letting Jesus shine through you.

So the first three ways we can do this are found in the first three beatitudes.

1. Blessed are the Poor in Spirit (v.3)

You can’t have Jesus lived out in you unless you are first poor in spirit.

You have to recognize that you are a sinner and need to be changed.

That’s why Isaiah prophesied and Jesus applied this prophecy to Himself Isaiah 61.

A few chapters later, Isaiah said

Now, I don’t want you to think that Jesus doesn’t care for those who are oppressed and beat down.

That’s absolutely not true!

Jesus can relate to any of these people.

But the reason these are described as poor in spirit and the ones to whom God preaches the good news to them through Jesus is because they’ve first heard the bad news that we are all sinners and separated from God.

The Puritan preachers were notorious for bringing out the sinfulness of man.

I recently saw an article where a well-known Bible teacher was picking on Jonathan Edwards’ sermon Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.

In this sermon, Edwards describes God as angry at us for our sin and he describes us as if we were a spider hanging over the pit of hell by a thread.

Now, the Bible teacher blasted him and said if this is the God he is presenting, I would run far away from Him.

I wouldn’t want anything to do with Him.

That’s because the Bible teacher didn’t finish the sermon, or either ignored it.

You see Edwards was painting the picture of the predicament that we were in so that he could then turn his attention to what Jesus did for sinners so that they did not have to remain in their sins, but instead shows the love of God demonstrated through Jesus on the cross.

The Puritans were excellent at doing what modern evangelicals don’t like to do and that is to make people uncomfortable with their sins.

We have to be broken by our sinfulness and become “poor in spirit” so that we can hear the good news.

Remember what Jesus said from Isaiah again.

Why is it good news?

Because there was bad news to begin with.

Now, I mentioned to you that all of these traits were represented in Jesus.

Sinfulness was not represented in Jesus, because He was sinless.

But the humility of submitting Himself to God was.

The Bible says this,

So what is the reward for those who are poor in spirit that Jesus says?

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We gain heaven when we humble ourselves and come to Jesus to receive the good news.

2. Blessed are those Who Mourn (v.4)

Again, why are those who mourning blessed?

Like before with those who are crushed, we need to know that Jesus weeps with us.

He wept with Mary and Martha at Lazarus’ tomb.

Hebrews says,

Jesus can relate to our sorrows, but that’s not what Jesus is getting at here.

These people are mourning over their sin.

If you are like the Bible teacher I mentioned earlier and you are offended by God’s hatred of our sin and His anger poured out on it, you don’t look at your sin the same way that God does.

Now, let’s take for a moment that possibility that what they meant was that this approach is not gentle enough to woo someone to Jesus.

Well, two problems with that are seen.

In urgent cases of dire need where someone needs to be warned immediately of the ever-pressing dangers upon them, you don’t woo them.

You don’t gently tell a child to get out of the way of an oncoming car.

You don’t care if you dislocate his arm trying to pull him out of the way!

We can fix his little broken heart and his feelings, but not if he’s dead!

We have no reason to boast in the flesh or feel good about ourselves, but we can get over that later.

We are in a 5 alarm fire and need to get out of the building NOW!

The second problem with this is that it assumes that my wooing is drawing the sinner to Christ.

It’s not!

It’s the Holy Spirit and He uses the Bible to do the drawing.

Interestingly in the Bible, there’s no wooing.

Look for example with me in Acts 2 at possibly the largest evangelistic movement of God in a single day in the Church’s history.

Peter says,

Okay, we have to start with the fact that these people call upon the name of the Lord because they see the signs of judgment coming in the sky.

It’s an awesome, terrible day of the Lord.

Second, Peter goes on to say this.

He didn’t coddle their feelings!

He said, “You killed your own Messiah!”

The Bible records their response.

So the application for us is this:

Use the means of God and the methods of God and the Words of God to see people won to the Love of God.

Now what is the reward for those who mourn?

They will be comforted.

There’s no greater relief to your hurt feelings over sin than realizing you once were dead, but now you are alive!

Now how did Jesus fulfill this?

Well, Jesus was often grieved over the sins of other.