Joyful Weeping

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

Matthew 5:5 ““Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

“Blessed are those who mourn,

This mourning has to do with mourning over sin and not over a loss of a person or object. This is mourning over loss of fellowship with the Lord. The word for “mourn” is the strongest word in the Greek for mourning. It is the word used for mourning for the dead.

Mourning here is not self-pity. We do not use pity for self as the instrument of forgiveness. Our forgiveness comes from the One who died on the cross for our sins. That is why there is blessedness in conviction over sin.

“Blessed” emphasizes God’s part in forgiveness. Our comfort does not rest in who we are or even in the act of mourning but in God’s provision. God provides for us in grace. God frees us from the penalty of sin through the death of Christ on the cross. There remains no barrier between God and man. God forgives us because of who Jesus is and what He did on the cross. He does not forgive us because of the sincerity or intensity of our mourning.

for they shall be comforted.

The comfort here has to do with forgiveness. God directly comforts His people by forgiving their sin.

In the immediate context, all mourning will cease when the King sets up His kingdom because He will pardon the sins of Israel.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. Is 40:1-2

PRINCIPLE:

Those who mourn sense their personal bankruptcy and utilize God’s forgiveness.

APPLICATION:

Spiritual poverty comes from conviction of personal sin. Those who seek close fellowship with the Lord mourn over their sin by seeing sin the way God sees it. They sense their spiritual poverty and unworthiness before God. Note how David viewed his adultery with Bathsheba.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Ps 51:17

God blesses us because we have His forgiveness by the death of Christ for our sins.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace… Eph 1:7

The second benediction from His epic sermon was: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Ever since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, mourning was the sad legacy of every child of Adam. Deterioration, disease, death, and decay ravaged the body and spoiled the beautiful world that God had created. The earth was cursed, relationships were marred, and pain and problems pursued the path of earth's inhabitants.

However, the mourning in this verse is primarily connected with the inner spiritual grieving of a broken and contrite heart. It is the innermost garment of a sinner, separated from the God Who made them. It is an acknowledgment that man's sin is the primary cause for the tragic condition of this fallen world, and sin is the disease that has infected every human heart.

It is those that grieve over the sorrowful state of their sinful heart who will enjoy the comforting grace and consoling mercy of the Lord. It is those that weep for the wretched condition fallen man and of God's beautiful earth, which was cursed because of man's sin, who will receive the heavenly comfort offered by the Lord. It is the penitent sinner whose contrite heart laments over his own sins, and the sins of an entire world at enmity with God and under His eternal curse, who will be granted solace from the Lord, for He has promised to wipe away every tear from their eye and to comfort each one of them in their pain.

May we who are already born from above remain in a state of godly humility and grieve over the hardness of sinners who stand guilty before our gracious and merciful God, and may we ever seek to walk before Him in spirit and in truth. 

a. Blessed are those who mourn: The ancient Greek grammar indicates an intense degree of mourning. Jesus does not speak of casual sorrow for the consequences of our sin, but a deep grief before God over our fallen state.

i. “The Greek word for to mourn, used here, is the strongest word for mourning in the Greek language. It is the word which is used for mourning for the dead, for the passionate lament for one who was loved.” (Barclay)

ii. The weeping is for the low and needy condition of both the individual and society; but with the awareness that they are low and needy because of sin. Those who mourn actually mourn over sin and its effects.

iii. This mourning is the godly sorrow that produces repentance to salvation that Paul described in 2 Corinthians 7:10.

b. For they shall be comforted: Those who mourn over their sin and their sinful condition are promised comfort. God allows this grief into our lives as a path, not as a destination.

i. Those who mourn can know something special of God; the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10), a closeness to the Man of Sorrows who was acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).

https://www.preceptaustin.org/matthew_54-5#5:4

8:18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

Sin is…

· Determined

· Detrimental

· A Death Sentence

Happiness comes when…

· Admission of guilt is owned

· Belief in our inability and Christ’s supernatural ability is proclaimed without reservation

· Confession of Christ as in control is lived out

Comfort exist…

· Knowing our hope is secure

Happy are those who understand their depravity, but choose not to remain in it for they will have eternal comfort.