Mourn

SLIDE 1 Turn with me to the fifth chapter of Matthew as we continue our study of the Beatitudes. I want to remind you that the word “beatitude” simply means “blessed.” In these opening remarks to his Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us the people who are blessed. Last week we looked at the first beatitude which is found in verse 3. That means we are now in verse 4 and the second beatitude. Each week I am going to start from the beginning and read each of the previous beatitudes. So we are going to start with verse 1. I’m going to do this for several reasons, but the most important reason is this – each of the beatitudes builds on the one before it.

SLIDE 2 Someone has compared The Beatitudes to a ladder. In a ladder each rung is built on the rung below. If you want to get to the third rung you must first climb up the first and second rung. You can’t skip a step. In The Beatitudes each is predicated on the one before which then leads to the one that follows. So each week as we cover a new beatitude I want to remind us of what has come before.

Last week we looked at the first Beatitude which says that the blessed ones, the ones who are truly happy and content, and the spiritually poor. I pointed out that the spiritually poor are those who understand they don’t have anything to bring before God to earn or deserve his grace. They know they are sinners and so they depend completely on God. This week Jesus talks about those who mourn.

1Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them. He said: 3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:1-4)

SLIDE 3 Some movies that have become known for a line that was said in them. I’ll read some famous lines and you tell me if you know what movie it’s from.

I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. The Wizard of Oz

Here's looking at you, kid. Casablanca

May the Force be with you. Star Wars

You can't handle the truth! A Few Good Men

My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. Forest Gump

There's no crying in baseball! A League of Their Own

There’s no crying in baseball. I bet there’s some crying in baseball if you watch the Little League World Series. There’s a lot of excitement and emotion and when you lose it can be difficult. But I’ve never seen any crying in the major leagues.

Why is that? Our culture has said that men aren’t supposed to cry. It’s eased up over the last few decades, but you still don’t see men cry very often and when you do it has to be for a pretty good reason. But Jesus says that those who mourn are blessed and that the reason they are blessed is because they will be comforted.

Let’s look at the second part first. The ones who mourn will be comforted.

You’re probably like me, when you hear the word comfort in relation to the Bible you think of Handel’s Messiah. The second movement in the oratorio is a tenor solo, “Comfort Ye My People.” It comes from a prophecy in Isaiah 40. Isn’t that what comes to your mind?

Maybe what you think of is another prophecy found in Jeremiah 31 where he says that crying was heard in Ramah, Rachel crying for her children and she would not be comforted.

Maybe you think of the word comfortable. You have several chairs in your house but there’s probably one that you find particularly comfortable. You have several pairs of shoes but there one pair that are particularly comfortable. You have lots of outfits in your closet. Some you wear to look nice and then there are some you wear because they are comfortable. These things that are comfortable make us happy, calm, or feel at ease. So what does it mean to be comforted?

The word Jesus used for comforted is the same word Jesus used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come along side us to encourage, strengthen, and comfort us. The Holy Spirit is a comforter. Hopefully you have experienced that kind of comfort from people in your life in times of trouble.

Hopefully your friends are not like the ones Job had. You may remember from Job’s story that he had lost everything. In a single day he lost all his wealth and even his children. By the next week he’d even lost his own health. He still had his wife, but she wasn’t much of a comfort. She encouraged him to just curse God and die. When his best friends heard the bad news concerning Job they came to comfort him. And what did they say in order to comfort him? They told him it was all his fault. “All this is happening because you’re a jerk. If you’d just confess to God all the bad things you’ve done maybe he would go easy on you.” Have you ever had friends like that? You hope you never have friends like that. That’s not the kind of comfort that God gives.

God’s comfort is more like the comfort Ruth gave to her mother-in-law Naomi. Naomi had traveled with their two sons to the land of Moab because of a famine. Once there her two sons married. But in less than ten year her husband and two sons had died. When Naomi decided it was time to return home to Bethlehem she sent her two daughters-in-law back to their parents, but Ruth wouldn’t go. She insisted on staying with her mother-in-law. Perhaps you remember what she told Naomi. SLIDE 4

16But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. SLIDE 5 17Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17)

Ruth was a companion to Naomi as she traveled back home. When they arrived in Bethlehem Ruth worked to provide food for them. Ruth was a comfort to Naomi.

In the same way, God comes along side us to strengthen and encourage us. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: SLIDE 6

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, SLIDE 7 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

We can know that God is with us no matter what we face and the he is able to give us a peace in the middle of those struggles that the world can’t understand. God is a God of comfort. And who does he comfort? Jesus says that God comforts those who mourn.

Like with the first Beatitude though, we need to understand who Jesus is talking about. It’s not just the poor who are blessed, it is the spiritually poor. And is Beatitude it’s not just anyone who cries that receives comfort.

SLIDE 9 Not all mourning is the same. There are three kinds of mourning: natural, sinful, and spiritual.

SLIDE 10 The first type of mourning is natural mourning. It is grieving for someone or something you have lost. In that prophecy from Jeremiah 31 Rachel was mourning and would not be comforted. The reason for her mourning was the loss of her children. When a loved one dies we mourn though Paul tells us that we do not mourn as those without hope. We might also mourn with the loss of a thing. You can believe there was much mourning with the fire that swept through Gatlinburg and destroyed dozens of homes. That is a natural mourning, but it’s not what Jesus was talking about.

How do we know that this isn’t what because Jesus is talking about? We know because in the beatitudes Jesus describes qualities that we should pursue and desire to have. No one desires this.

SLIDE 11 The second type of mourning is the sinful mourning. This is a pining for something God hasn’t given us. There is no sin in natural mourning. In the gospels we see Jesus crying when his friend Lazarus died. Later, we see Jesus crying over the city of Jerusalem. But there are other kinds of sorrow.

In 1 Kings 21 we read a story about this kind of mourning. It seems that King Ahab wanted the field that belonged to his neighbor Naboth, but Naboth didn’t want to sell the land to him. The land had belonged to his family for generations and he wanted to keep it. SLIDE 12

So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. (1 Kings 21:4)

That’s a sinful type of mourning. When we cry because of what we’re told we can’t have it is sinful. Another word we might use to describe it is coveting. We want what someone else has. This is not what Jesus was talking about.

SLIDE 13 The third type of mourning is spiritual. This is a sorrow over our sins against God. This is the type of mourning for which Jesus says will be comforted.

Paul writes about this kind of sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7 and compares it to a worldly or sinful mourning. SLIDE 14

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Godly or spiritual sorrow brings us to repentance. There will be comfort for those who mourn with a godly sorrow. How will they be comforted? When was the las time you mourned over your sins? When was the last time you mourned over the righteous life you wish you were living?

Here are three marks of spiritual mourning.

SLIDE 15 The first mark of spiritual mourning is that it arises from humility.

As I already mentioned, spiritual mourning naturally follows being poor in the spirit. When you realize that you have nothing to bring before God, when you realize that it’s your sins that block a right relationship with God, you will mourn over your sins and over the righteousness you do not have. The Bible tells us that every sin has a temporary pleasure. If that weren’t true no one would sin. But once the pleasure is gone we are left with guilt and shame.

That’s how it was with Adam and Eve. SLIDE 16

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:6)

There was pleasure in the sin. But once the pleasure of the moment was gone they were left with guilt and shame. Spiritual mourning begins with sorrow for our sin.

SLIDE 17 The second mark of spiritual mourning is that it is a matter of the heart. You may not be able to tell the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow in someone else, but you can tell the difference in your own heart.

The Bible gives an example of worldly sorrow in the story of Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel. He started out as a good king. He was blessed by God and had great success. However, that success soon went to his head and he disobeyed God. On one occasion he offered sacrifices to God when he knew he wasn’t supposed to. When Samuel confronted Saul with his sin Saul confessed. SLIDE 18

Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions.” (1 Samuel 15:24a)

That sounds good. It certainly sounds like he’s sorry for his disobedience. But just a few verses later we read: SLIDE 19

Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” (1 Samuel 15:30)

It now appears what Saul is really sorry about is the way it will make him look before others. Saul was concerned about how he’d look in front of the elders and the people. Who are we more concerned about: God or those around us? Spiritual mourning is a matter of the heart, not a matter of appearances.

SLIDE 20 The third mark of spiritual mourning is that it is infused with hope.

There were two disciples that betrayed Jesus: Judas and Peter. Judas turned Jesus over to the religious leaders and Peter denied even knowing who Jesus was. Both were later sorrowful, but only the sorrow of one showed hope. Only the sorrow of one was spiritual.

Judas was sorrowful. We know because he said so. SLIDE 21

3When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. SLIDE 22 4“I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” (Matthew 27:3-4a)

And then what did Judas do? He went and hung himself. Satan may allow you to feel despair, but he will never lead you to Jesus. That’s how you can tell the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. Godly sorrow brings hope of forgiveness. Peter wept when he realized what he had done and was driven to Jesus. Later we see Peter forgiven for his betrayal.

Those who mourn with a spiritual mourning are comforted. Their sins are forgiven and their relationship with God is restored. They are comforted in knowing that Jesus has died for their sins and carried their grief.

In 1 Corinthians Paul gives a list of sins. SLIDE 23

9Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men SLIDE 24 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

Then he adds: SLIDE 25

And that is what some of you were. (1 Corinthians 6:11a)

How many of us can find ourselves in that list? And if we can’t find ourselves in this list there are others where we can. But that’s not the end of the story. Paul continues: SLIDE 26

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11b)

In Jesus the spiritual mourner finds forgiveness. We are washed, sanctified, and justified before God. We may not be the people we want to be, but we are not the people we used to be. And it’s all because of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the comfort for those who mourn.