Heirs of the Promise: Blessed are the meek...; Build your Life #5, the 3rd Beatitude

Intro: This is a painting of the old Franklin house where my dad grew up, painted by his 1st cousin. ‌This is the house where I would stay with my granny on Saturday nights & have slushy coke in a real glass bottle with popcorn & watch HeeHaw. This is where I would go home with her after church on Sundays & eat Kentucky Fried Chicken- her original recipe, & me crispy. This is where I saw my daddy cry for the 1st time when I was 6, when his daddy died. This painting means a lot to me because this place meant a lot to me.

‌Granny’s house sat on the front side of 80 acres of wooded timber that belonged to my papaw & his siblings, inherited from their father - William Daniel Franklin. This land was in my family for about 5 generations, the last generation to see it was my son. Several years ago, I took him for a visit to see what was left of the old home place. The land was prime, & as the town grew, the county wanted to buy it & build a hospital on it. The house is gone now, the land is all gone now, all I have of it is this picture & my memories. You probably have a similar story.

‌The people that Jesus was talking to in the Sermon on the Mount, delivering the Beatitudes to, they had similar stories. God had chosen Abraham, blessed him, & promised him a piece of land called Canaan, i.e., the promised land. Several generations later, Abraham’s descendants, known as Israel, inherited that promised land by driving out the inhabitants of that land, the Canaanites.

God told Israel that if they would keep His covenant, He would keep His promises & bless them, but if they did not keep the covenant, then they would be cursed, exiled from the land God gave them. And that’s what happened- 1st by Babylon, then Persia, Greece, & finally Rome in Jesus’ day, these nations occupied the tribal lands of the families of Israel. What land Israel kept; it was only at the mercy of Rome & they had to pay taxes on those lands. These were not free people.

‌So, when Jesus said these words, Matthew 5:5, Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth (aka land), it meant a lot more to them than it might mean to us on face value. So, let’s begin with prayer & study this promise from Jesus.‌‌

1. A Promise of RELATIONSHIP. (Inheritance)

An inheritance is essentially a promise. To inherit- to obtain or gain possession of something by legal right as an heir after their death.

E.g., The same granny that lived in the little white house, after she passed away, she left me a little sum of money that I received because I was her favorite grandchild. :)

When talking about an inheritance, it’s natural to start with the One who is leaving the inheritance and the one receiving it, i.e., who has the right to leave & who has the right to receive? The promise to leave the earth as an inheritance is an extravagant promise; one that you cannot make if you do not own it. Who owns the earth?

Psalm 24:1, The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. God made the earth; therefore, He owns it, & as the owner it is within His rights to leave it to whomever He chooses.

He gave that right to His Son, Hebrews 1:2, (God) has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds...”

Jesus gave the right of heirship to His followers. John 1:12, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name… You are not a child of God by being born into this world, you are only a child of God by being reborn into His family through believing in the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ.

‌Romans 8:16–17, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ… Through Jesus, we become related to God as Father, Jesus is our brother, and we become heirs of the earth.‌

But what earth does Jesus mean? Is it this one, so broken down by sin & suffering & sorrow, or a different one? The promise is a renewed earth.

2. A Promise of RENEWAL. (Earth)

‌To inherit the earth is an extravagant promise, with an eschatological flavor to it. Eschatology = the study of last things, i.e., end times. Does Jesus mean that the meek will inherit the world as it was then, or as it is right now? It’s neither. It is a future-oriented promise.

He says the meek shall, or willreceive it- this means a later, different earth than we experience now, & we need to be glad for that.

‌This earth is hurting! When man fell through sin, the earth was made subject to the curse of sin. Genesis 3:17-19, … “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

‌Jesus came to make people new- 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

‌Jesus will do the same thing with creation. Romans 8:19-21, For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. Creation was rendered ineffective by the curse of sin, but there is hope! 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The world is waiting for Christ to return & redeem His people, because all creation will be redeemed too.

In the end, after Jesus’ return, after the restoration of all things, there will be a new heaven and new earth. Revelation 21:1–4, Now I saw a new heaven & a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.… 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. This promise to inherit the earth is the promise of a new earth.

3. ‌The Path to this Promise is TRUSTand REST. (Meek)

‌‌‌Notice: the earth goes to those who are meek- a person who is humble, gentle, & mild. I’m convinced we don’t really understand what it means to be meek. We know the dictionary meaning, but we don’t know the discipleship meaning. Being meek doesn’t match our lived experience.

This beatitude is straight from Psalm 37:11, But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Meek-(Heb.) bowed; characterized by humility; poor, afflicted, needy.

It’s hard for us to grasp the concept of being poor, afflicted, & needy because it hasn’t been our cultural experience. ILL: a baptism questionnaire from a church in South Asia. Questions-

· Are you willing to leave home & lose the blessing of your father?

· Are you willing to lose your job?

· Are you willing to go to the village & those who persecute you, forgive them, & share the love of Christ with them?

· Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord?

· Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?

· Are you willing to go to prison? Are you willing to die for Jesus?

That is a radically different experience from ours, isn’t it? It calls for a radically different view of what it means to be meek, & we may not be ready for it. E.g., When someone embraces a different ideology, how do we respond? When someone steps on our rights, how do we react? When someone attacks our favorite politician, how do we reply? Are we humble, gentle, & mild (i.e., meek), or are we proud, hard, & harsh?

Our American Christian experience is the exception not the rule, the outlier, not the norm. I think that experience has made meekness our weakness, but Psalm 37 is the way forward for us- it has the path.

Psalm 37 focuses on the ultimate fate of the wicked in contrast to that of the righteous. It warns believers not to envy their apparent success because it is short-lived, but the inheritance of the meek (righteous) remains forever. 6 times this Psalm talks about their inheritance- inherit the earth (3x), the land (2x), their inheritance shall be forever (1x).

Psalm 37:9, For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

‌Psalm 37:18, The Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever.

‌Psalm 37:22, For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by Him shall be cut off.

‌Psalm 37:29, The righteous shall inherit the land, & dwell in it forever.

‌‌Psalm 37:34, Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

How? How do the meek inherit the earth? Do they fight? Resist? Take matters into your own hands? NO. He says wait, wait on the Lord & keep His way. God will do it, & we must TRUST that He will. The path is trust.

And the path to this promise is REST. Matthew 11:28-30, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle (i.e., meek) and lowly in heart, and you will find restfor your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

No one exemplified meekness better than Jesus- humble, gentle, & mild. 1 Peter 2:21-23, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously…

Jesus was reviled but did not return the venom. When He was arrested, He did not attack. When He was beaten, He did not fight back. When He was crucified, He did not call for help. He could have called 12 legions of angels, but He didn’t. Jesus wasn’t weak, He was meek.

Anyone who could endure what He endured- the mocking, beating, crucifixion, the weight of the sin of the world, is not weak. Meekness isn’t weakness, it’s Christlikeness. Meekness doesn’t mean you CAN’T do something; it just means you DON’T.

Revelation 21:7, He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. Meekness is the way to overcome the evil of this world, & to receive the renewed earth in the kingdom of God. But if we are going to have it, we must trust God and rest in Jesus.

How is your relationship with God? Is He your Father? Is Christ your brother? Have you turned from your sins & trusted in Jesus? That is the only way to be saved.

Are you tired of fighting? Hasn’t this American culture war just worn you out? How do you get out of it? Meekness. Trust in God and rest in Jesus. They’ve got this. They are the Ones who will renew the earth, but are you ready for the renewal? To be ready, you have to be made new too.