Merciful

SLIDE 1 Turn with me to Matthew 5. We have been looking at the Beatitudes and we’ll continue with them this morning.

In the Beatitudes Jesus is not telling us how to become a Christian, but how to recognize who is a Christian. Jesus is not telling us how to get into heaven, but he describes what those who are on the path to heaven look like.

We are saved when we place our faith in Jesus, repent of our sins, and are baptized into Christ. But how can we recognize someone who is in Christ Jesus? How can we identify those who are saved? The Beatitudes describe the distinguishing marks of a true Christian.

The Beatitudes then, are a mirror. If the Beatitudes are the distinguishing marks of a true Christian can they be found in my life? Are the things I am pursuing?

What we’ve seen in the Beatitudes it that one leads to the next. The first leads to the second, the second to the third, and so on.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who realize they do not have what it takes when it comes to standing before God. Anyone can start here and indeed we must all start here. The poor in spirit will be blessed for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

Blessed are those who mourn. When you realize you don’t have what it takes and understand why you begin to mourn over your sins. You mourn for the position you are in and the sin that put you in that position. You are blessed because you will be comforted when you realize your sins have been forgiven.

Blessed are the meek. Meekness refers to those who are willing to submit to the leading of God. Realizing the forgiveness that God has given we yield ourselves to him. They are blessed for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. When you submit to the Holy Spirit you will create in you a hunger for righteousness. This is one way you know you are a Christian. No unbeliever has this. The mark of Christians is not that they feel righteous, but that they long to be more righteousness than they are. They desire it. They are blessed because they will be filled.

Let’s read our text.

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. The Beatitudes 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. 5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:1-7)

We desire mercy and Jesus says we should show mercy, but what exactly is mercy?

First, sometimes mercy is shown when we not receiving some punishment, discipline, or correction for a wrong we’ve done.

A friend of mine was driving to visit his mother this past Christmas Eve. The road he was on ended at a “T”. There was no traffic so he rolled right though a stop sign. As soon as he did he saw a county sheriff who promptly pulled him over. The officer started the conversation like they always do, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” Yes, he knew. He’d just run a stop sign. As my friend sat waiting for the officer to write his ticket something amazing happened. Mercy. “I’m just giving you a warning this time.”

Has that ever happened to you? Mercy feels great when we receive it because we don’t deserve it. My friend deserved a ticket, but he received mercy.

And second, mercy is shown when we receive something we have not earned.

You remember the story of the religious expert who asked Jesus what he needed to do to receive eternal life. Jesus told him to love God and love his neighbor. That led to another question, “And who is my neighbor?” And then Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. After a Jewish man was beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road a priest and then a Levite both saw him but refused to help him. Later a hated Samaritan took care of the beaten man and saw to his needs. After the parable Jesus asked the expert who had been a neighbor to the man? The religious expert replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” The Samaritan showed mercy by giving the victim something he did not deserve. Jesus told the religious expert, “Go and do likewise.”

So mercy is not receiving a punishment we deserve or receiving a gift of help we do not deserve. Mercy is not simply feeling pity or sympathy for a person. Mercy requires much more than that. Mercy requires action.

SLIDE 2 God is often described as a God of mercy. Seven times in the Old Testament God is described as being gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in love (Exodus 34:6; Nehemiah 9:7; Psalm 86:15, 103:8, 145:8; Joel 2L13; and Jonah 4:2). This phrase describes what we most need to know about God. God doesn’t give us the punishment we deserve but instead gives us what we don’t deserve.

In the Old Testament we’re told: SLIDE 3

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

The Hebrew word translated for mercy in that verse is “checed”. It refers to getting inside someone’s skin – or walking in their shoes – to better understand what they are going through. And isn’t that what Jesus did? We read in Philippians: SLIDE 4

6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; SLIDE 5 7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:6-7)

Then we read in Hebrews: SLIDE 6

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

Jesus left the comfort of heaven to live a human life so we know he understands what we’re going through. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say: SLIDE 7

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Surely this is the greatest act of mercy. Jesus got into human skin, lived with us, looked through our eyes, felt our pain, walked beside us, and then died for us. We read in Ephesians: SLIDE 8

4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5)

God shows us mercy when he forgives our sins and gives us the promise of eternal life – neither of which we deserve. God has shown us mercy and now calls us to show mercy on others.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

What keeps us from showing mercy like we should? The simplest answer is a wrong focus. It is so easy to become self-centered. We get use too looking out for ourselves and our family that we don’t see those around us who need mercy. Or we are so busy we don’t have the time or energy to be merciful. That’s why Paul reminded the church in Philippi: SLIDE 9

3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4)

The gospels record an incident in the life of Jesus when he called Matthew the tax collector to follow him and become a disciple. Matthew responded by throwing a party and inviting all his friends to come meet Jesus. The religious leaders weren’t excited about those Jesus chose to be his disciples, but they were especially upset about this one. SLIDE 10

11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” SLIDE 11 12On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. SLIDE 12 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:11-13)

The Pharisees were very religious, but they were lacking in mercy.

We are called to be disciples of – followers of – Jesus. We have not been called to be rule enforcers. Neither have we been called to compare our righteousness with the righteousness or unrighteousness of others. As followers of Jesus we have been called to show mercy.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

SLIDE 13 Tim Winton is one of Australia’s most celebrated novelists. Winton has written more than a dozen bestselling books and won numerous literary prizes. Winton was interviewed for a popular television show by its host Andrew Denton. At one point, the conversation turned to Winton's well-known Christian faith.

“I want to talk about faith,” Andrew said. “When you were, I think, about five, a stranger came into your family and affected your family quite profoundly. Is that right?”

Winton went on to tell how his father, a policeman, had been in a terrible accident in the mid-1960s. He had been knocked off his motorcycle by a drunk driver. After weeks in a coma he was allowed home. Winton said he remembers thinking, “He was like an earlier version of my father, a sort of augmented version of my father. He was sort of recognizable, but not really my dad, you know? Everything was busted up, and they put him in the chair, and, you know, ‘Here’s your dad.’ And I was horrified.”

Winton’s father was a big man, and his mother had great taking care of him. There was nothing that Tim, five-years-old at the time, could do to help. News of the family's situation got out into the local community, and shortly afterward, Winton recalls, his mother got a knock at the door. “G’day. My name’s Len,” said a stranger to Winton’s mother. “I heard your hubby's a bit [ill]. Anything I can do?”

Len Thomas was from the local church, Winton explained. This man had heard about the family’s difficulties and wanted to help. “He just showed up,” continued Winton, “and he used to carry my dad from bed and put him in the bath, and he used to bathe him, which in the 1960s in [Australia] in the suburbs was not the sort of thing you saw every day.”

According to Winton, this act of kindness from a single Christian had a powerful effect. “It really touched me. Watching a grown man bother, for nothing, to show up and wash a sick man – you know, it really affected me.” This “strangely sacrificial act,” as he described it, was the doorway into the Christian faith for the entire Winton family.

One act of mercy can change an entire family’s eternity. Imagine what an entire lifetime of mercy would do. Imagine what an entire church full of lifetimes could do. We were shown mercy by God, Jesus calls us to live a life of mercy, and then he gives us a promise – if you’ll show mercy you’ll also continue to receive mercy.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

Quickly, I want to share seven ways you can show mercy this week. I’m sure you’ll have an opportunity to do at least one of these and maybe more.

SLIDE 14 First, help someone with a material need. That may involve giving money, but it may be physically helping someone. The Samaritan payed the man’s bill, but before he did that he bound the man’s wound. Sinclair Ferguson writes:

Mercy is getting down on your hands and knees and doing something to restore dignity to someone whose life has been broken by sin. The Samaritan did not deal with the cause of the man’s need by chasing the robbers [that may be a reasonable thing to do but it’s not mercy], nor did he complain about the failure of society to meet the man’s needs [that may be a legitimate thing to do but it’s not mercy], the Samaritan addressed the immediate need that was set before him and he did what he could to bring relief.

SLIDE 15 Second, help with a spiritual struggle. Christ calls us to have mercy on those who are struggling with their faith. We read in Jude: SLIDE 16

Be merciful to those who doubt. (Jude 1:22)

SLIDE 17 Third, ignore an embarrassing failure. Charles Spurgeon recommended that we always have one blind eye and one deaf ear for ignoring the failures of others. And Peter wrote: SLIDE 18

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

There are some sins that shouldn’t be covered, but there are many that a merciful person will cover with love. We certainly don’t want our sins pointed out.

SLIDE 19 Fourth, ignore slanderous gossip. Satan is the father of lies, but he rarely deals with full out and out lies. Rather he deals with half-truths and the twisted truths. Don’t help him out by spreading them to others. Remember, it is as bad to believe a lie as it is to speak one. Our culture talks so easily about someone’s failures and so little of their virtues. But a merciful person goes the other way speaking more of the person’s virtues than their failings. Thomas Watson wrote:

A man’s name is more valuable than his goods. He who takes away the good name of another sins more than if he’d taken the corner of his field or the good out of his home.

We may never dream of breaking into someone’s home and taking something, but Thomas Watson says we do even worse than that when we pass on some bad thing about a person. Watson continues.

The one who receives stolen goods is as bad as the one who steals them. It is an irreparable injury for something of it will always remain.

Ouch. We must not only not share a false report; we should pay attention to them either. Think about that the next time you hear a juicy story and aren’t sure if it’s the truth.

SLIDE 20 Fifth, forgive personal injuries. If someone wrongs you, don’t be surprised if God allows you to come into a situation where you can get revenge. That’s what happened to Joseph after his brothers sold him into slavery. When that happens God is testing you. What you do in that moment will be very revealing. Follow Joseph’s example and forgive. That’s what mercy does. Jesus says you will be blessed.

SLIDE 21 Sixth, don’t have unreasonable expectations. Aren’t you thankful God remember we are dust? We should do the same for others and not set unreasonable expectations of others. Just because someone is a Christian doesn’t mean they won’t sin or make mistakes. We must remember they are dust even as God does so for us.

SLIDE 22 And seventh, love lost souls. If you have mercy in your heart you will talk to God a lot about lost people and you will talk to lost people a lot about God. We weep for loved ones who have died. It’s only natural. St. Augustine asked:

If I weep for the body from which the soul has departed, how much more should I weep for the soul from which God has departed?

Think about this challenge – if you show mercy you will receive it – which also means if you don’t you won’t. Make the choice to show mercy this week even as God has shown you mercy.