Sermon Tone Analysis

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?