Blessed Are the Meek Pt.2

Introduction:

In our series The Way, the Truth, and the Life: Studying Jesus Through the Gospels, we have reached the point where Jesus gives his most famous discourse commonly called The Sermon on the Mount.

This particular sermon will take quite a bit of time to study, so it has become its own "series within a series." Now, within this sermon, there are several topics that are dealt with by Jesus, and some of these sections will be broken down into their own "sub-series" as has happened with this first section, the Beatitudes.

We have already noted that this whole discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, is foundational to Kingdom living. If this were a college course,we would call it call it Christianity 101. In this sermon, Jesus lays out what his Kingdom, the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven, is all about. He has declared already, and will continue to do so, that entering the Kingdom of God is not a matter of race or ethnicity or physical birth, but it must be a spiritual birth brought about by the belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. As Jesus is now sitting on this mountain, he begins teaching his disciples about what it means to be part of the kingdom of Heaven. Now, the disciples are not the only ones present; Jesus has a multitude that has followed him to this mountain, but the disciples and those that are truly interested in the Kingdom of Heaven are his target audience.

He then begins his sermon, not with behaviors or expectations, but he begins his sermon about the Kingdom of Heaven describing those who are a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. The first thing he says is the word "blessed." Happy, actually, happier than happy.

Jesus begins his sermon stating that those in the Kingdom of Heaven are not only happy, but that they possess a very deep and fulfilling happiness. They are not looking to be happy, they are happy. And this is the a very important thing to realize.

Jesus describes the people of the kingdom as happy, not because they are pursuing happiness, but because they have been influenced deeply by the Holy Spirit.

This happiness does not come from possessing certain things or accomplishing certain goals. It comes from the transformative work of God.

We remember that we have carefully observed that none of the Sermon on the Mount is to be interpreted as a stand alone passage; everything is connected. This is especially true of the Beatitudes.

Verse three of Matthew 5 gives us the first three of the Beatitudes, "Blessed or happier than happy, are the poor in spirit."

Who is it that has this very special happiness? It is not those that go looking for it. It is not the man or the woman that has dedicated their life to the pursuit of happiness. King Solomon did this, and for all his pursuit, at the end of his life he wrote, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Emptiness of emptiness; futility of futilities, nothing satisfies!" You can read his lament in the book of Ecclesiastes, the lament of an old man turned back to God after wasting his youth pursuing everything that he thought would make him happy only to find that he had turned away from the only thing that could have given his life meaning and fulfillment, and that was a close, loving relationship with the Lord."

So Jesus makes it clear as he goes through these Beatitudes that the pursuit of happiness is not what makes us happy. Instead, the only thing that can bring this deep seated happiness is God. It can only be obtained supernaturally.

All these beatitudes build upon the first one, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." To be poor in spirit is to recognize that we have nothing that makes us worthy of God's blessings, his care, or even his consideration. When we get to a point where we understand that we bring nothing that makes us worthy of salvation, it leads us to the next beatitude which is, "Blessed are those that mourn." We talked about the fact that this is a spiritual mourning. A grief over the state of sin in which we and the world find ourselves in. We mourn over our sin, and Godly grief brings us to repentance, and in that repentance we are comforted.

It is that comfort that brings us a happiness that can never be matched elsewhere. It is because of the fact that confession of sin due to a poorness in spirit that we have entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, not as visitors or tourists, but as Spirit-born citizens.

This in turn leads us to be meek. Last week we discussed the meaning of meekness. It is "my limited power surrendered completely to God." (T. Gillit).

It is an absence of pride. Meekness as a character trait rejects the need to assert ourselves and express our personality.

Meekness leads us to be responsive to God's word. It is meekness that will allow God to internalize His word in our hearts and see it make a difference in our lives. When the Holy Spirit speaks either through our personal time of seeking the Lord, through a sermon or a Bible study, through song as we praise his name, or through Godly counsel from a fellow believer, it is pride that will reject that and meekness that will accept it and surrender to whatever God has to say.

We discussed that this is the way Christians grow spiritually, through meekly receiving the word of God that is able to sanctify us.

We left a little off on the topic of meekness last week, so I want to take the time to cover these things today. If you were present during the Life Group time, we quickly covered these things during that time.

D.A. Carson once wrote "Meekness is a controlled desire to see the other’s interests advance ahead of one’s own," and there are certain behaviors and attitudes that indicate that someone is short on meekness.

The main one that we saw last week was the unwillingness to respond to God's word. When God points out something, the meek accept it, apply it, and because of it possess all the fulfillment that the world is always seeking.

However, when God speaks, and we do not respond to it, we do not apply it, we become hardened and callous to God. This in turn leaves a deepening sense of dissatisfaction.

"Bro. Mike, how can I tell if I am meek?" One of the biggest signs will be how you react to God speaking to you. If you obey, then meekness is present. If you disobey, or if you grudgingly obey, pride is reigning in place of meekness.

Meekness affect our relationship with God's word, but it also affects other relationships: family, friends, coworkers, authority figures whether that be at home/work/government.

And we find the other other indicators about the presence or absence of meekness in our lives most often in these relationships

A meek person is one who is teachable. This is seen by their willingness to follow God's word. The opposite of teachable is stubborn. We have all met the person who has the "Can't nobody tell me nothing," kind of attitude. Parenting? I got it figured out, and regardless of what anyone says or what the Bible says, I am going to do it my way.

Relationships? I go this figured out, and nobody is going to tell me what standards I need to have when looking for a mate.

I've been in church longer than you have been alive, you aren't going to teach me anything.

A meek person is one who is never sensitive about self. He is not overly concerned with how others see him, for the meek person is submitted to following the Lord and is concerned only with how the Lord sees him.

A meek person is never defensive. We all know about getting defensive. We all know about making excuses for our behavior or our attitudes. This stems from a sensitivity of self. But when we allow God to develop meekness within us, we no longer protect ourselves. We no longer worry what others say about us. What is there to defend if indeed we have reached the conclusion that "I bring nothing to the table"? If I reach that conclusion, then I understand that there is nothing worth defending. This is why David said, "The Lord is my shield and my strength."

It happens often. I see it as a parent, I saw it as a youth pastor, I saw it a mentor to, and I see it as a pastor: you go up to someone who is in sin, has skirted a responsibility, is acting selfish, or is in rebellion to God's word and you bring that to their attention. Unfortunately, the response that is often given is one of defensiveness. We've all been there, and let's call it what it is: a lack of meekness; a lack of surrender to God.

A meek person is not an easily offended person. This also stems from being too sensitive about self. There are those that live to be offended. If they aren't offended directly by something that day, they look for something to be offended by. There are social media personalities that make a living off of being offended and broadcasting there offense to the world. This is not meekness, it is pride.

Paul spoke to easily offended Christians in the church of Corinth. These people were constantly suing each other because of some offense, real or perceived, and airing their offenses with one another out for the world to see. In short, what Paul tells these offended Christians is that they should be spiritually mature enough to handle these offenses meekly, and in the end if no resolution can be found, to meekly take the offense and forgive it rather than to air it out to the world or become bitter.

This brings us to our next point: a meek person is one who does not stay angry long. He understands that anger is an emotion given by God, and, like every other emotion,should be subjected to God's authority. When things happen that anger the meek person, they understand Ephesians 4:26 that says, "Be angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath." So a meek person will put away anger and wrath, as we read in Psalm 37 last week, knowing that as Ephesians 4:27 says, it "gives place to the devil." It lets Satan have an influence in our life rather than God. If you have to wait several days to be able to talk to someone because of how angry they made you, you have a meekness problem. If you have a problem with that being pointed out, you have a meekness problem. When we are controlled by emotions such as anger and bitterness, we are no longer meek, but we have surrendered our limited power, not to the control of God, but to the control of the devil.

Continuing on, the meek person is not bitter and does not hold grudges. This is a selfish hold on the idea that someone has wronged us, but remember, the meek person is one who never pities himself nor takes the defensive. If we need defending then we leave it to the Lord. "Vengeance is mine" said God, after all. And if it is his, then it is not ours, nor do we control the timing nor the method of God's vengeance. In fact, as we will see later throughout the sermon on the mount, to be truly meek is to forgive and to seek and pray for God's blessings upon those that have caused us offense and anger. (5:44-48; 6:12, 14-15)

A meek person is not a self-pitying person. Self-pity comes from a lack of confidence in God. Whatever we have gone through and whatever we are going through, God is in control and he is using it in your life to accomplish a specific thing. Self-pity is a form of pride because it takes our eyes off of God and puts them squarely on ourselves. The Bible tells us to be careful not to think of ourselves "more highly than we ought to think." (Romans 12:3) And guess what? The context of this verse is in dealing with Christians as members of the body of Christ. Philippians 2:3 tells us that we ought to think of everyone else as more important than ourselves. This leaves little room for self-pity. It is hard to say, "poor me," when you are serving others and praying for others and focused on God.

The meek person is one who is content. Paul was a notably meek Christian and wrote on the topic of wealth and poverty, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content." (Phil. 4:11)

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation [lifestyle] be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

For the meek person, Jesus is enough. He does not think so highly of himself that he must always have more.

In short, the meek person is not self-centered. " Individually, each man tends to assume, without thinking, that he is at the center of the universe; therefore he relates poorly to the four billion others who are laboring under a similar delusion. But the meek man sees himself and all the others under God. Since he is poor in spirit, he does not think more highly of himself than he ought to." -Carson, D. A.. Jesus's Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: A Study of Matthew 5-10 (pp. 25-26). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

These things are telltale signs of the presence or absence of meekness in our lives. But what happens to the meek? What is the promise for the meek?

We had to skip this whole section last week, so I'd like to make sure that we touch on it today.

They Shall Inherit the Earth

Just like we have seen the "already but not yet" concept of the Kingdom, the fact that the Kingdom of God is here, present in every believer because every believer is part of the Kingdom of God, but is not yet fully established here on the earth but will be someday. The same thing applies to this inheriting the earth. The Bible clearly states that Christians will one day reign with Christ, ruling in his kingdom and judging even the angels. That has not happened yet, but it will someday. However, there is a sense that those that walk in meekness have already inherited the earth.

Let me put it this way. What is the thing that all the great and ambitious conquerors wanted? What did Alexander the Great want? What did Julius Caesar want? What were the goals of people like Kublai Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, and Stalin? To conquer the world, to bring the world under their dominion. They were all evil, and have all been cut down as the grass, but even though each of these people were able to establish rule over great chunks of the world, none was as satisfied as a humble and meek Christian is.

The meek are satisfied by Jesus. They are so filled with the him, the prince of peace, the Spirit of peace, that they have no designs on anything. They have no ambitious goals of pleasing themselves for they are absolutely satisfied in Christ.

Let's illustrate it this way. Someone who is absolutely full of food can walk by the most luscious buffet and not take a bite to eat and be happy. They may acknowledge the delicacies set before them, but when they are fully satisfied, there is no desire to feast on anything else. So is the meek man or woman. They may acknowledge that there are pleasures in life, but in being fully submitted to the Lord, he has given them a delightful satisfaction that nothing in this world can add too.

1 Timothy 6:6-11 tells us Godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

Why is meekness great gain? Because it gives the possessor something that the world fights for, strives for, worries about, and pursues endlessly - contentment.

Here's the truth of it: If you are meek, you could be no more content owning the world than you are in your current state.

Invitation

As we begin our invitation, I am going to ask Tahsha to come and play something on the piano.

As I said last week, meekness is probably one of the hardest Beatitudes to have. However, I want to stress, we do not make ourselves meek. God makes us meek. The closer we are to him, the more we pursue this relationship with the Lord, the more we surrender to what he tells us, the more present these Beatitudes will be in our lives.

Making ourselves meek is impossible; faking meekness even more so. God wants to make meekness flow through us, but he can only do that if we are surrendered fully to him.

I am going to ask everyone to bow there heads and close their eyes. We mentioned things today that are indicators of the presence or absence of meekness.

Do any of those things apply to you?

Are you teachable? Or would you best be described as stubborn? Do you hang on to your ideas without a willingness to hear counsel from godly people or even the Bible?

Are you very sensitive about yourself and how others perceive you?

Are you easily offended, or do you find yourself looking for ways in which somebody might have offended you?

Are you an angry person? Do you get angry easily, or do you stay angry for long? Do you find it hard to set aside anger?

Are you bitter? Is there an offense or an anger that you have held on to and that you have not let go? Have you become bitter toward someone?

Do you find that you regularly pity yourself? Does the "poor me" attitude come up often in your life?

Are you truly content, or are you chasing after things? How highly do you think of yourself?

Is there anyone that would say with an uplifted hand, "Bro. Mike, I struggle with one of these, or several of these. Would you pray for me?"

At this point, I would like to invite you, if God has spoken to you in one of these ways, or in a completely different way, to respond to the Lord.

That may be coming and praying at this altar if that is what you feel God is leading you to do. If you would like to talk to me or pray with me, I would be happy to do that.

Maybe you are here this morning and there is an offense, an anger, or a grudge that you are holding on to against someone that is here also. This would be a great time to approach someone and say "I'm sorry, I wronged you in this way or that way, please forgive me."

It would be a great time right now to approach someone whom you are holding a grudge toward and say, "Hey, I have been holding on to anger toward you and have grown bitter, please forgive me," and start that path toward reconciliation.

Whatever it is, if God has touched your heart, would you please respond this morning?

Life Groups

Where does true happiness come from?

Are we meant to pursue happiness?

What should we pursue instead? relationship with God

What was something that stood out to you either from this week or last week about meekness? Or perhaps something that we didn't cover?

Of the three Beatitudes we have covered so far, which would you consider the most impossible (because they are all impossible to have without the Holy Spirit's influence and power)?

Why?

Which characteristics of meekness do you find the hardest to embody?

"Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others. It is therefore fore two things. It is my attitude towards myself, and it is an expression of that in my relationship to others."

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Kindle Locations 947-948). Kindle Edition.

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