Joyful Are The Merciful
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference: Matthew 5:7
7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
Context
Context
As we have stated throughout this entire series, all of these beatitudes stem from tapping into the presence of God. A person who has not experienced God’s grace, resulting in an exchanged life, cannot practice these things. This beatitude is no different. Someone who has never experienced God’s mercy cannot show that mercy to another.
The first four beatitudes dealt directly with the inner man. They dealt with how we see ourselves in light of who God is, as well as how we respond internally towards God because of that revelation.
As we see our spiritual bankruptcy, we mourn. As we see His holiness, we hunger and thirst for it.
These next four beatitudes will deal with our external response to those spiritual revelations found in the first four beatitudes.
As we see our spiritual bankruptcy before God, we are driven to have mercy on others.
As we are driven into mourning, which speaks of repentance, we will exercise out of a pure heart towards others, based upon our own wrestlings with sin.
As we survey the holiness, righteousness, joy, and love of God, we will deal peacefully with others.
And as we hunger and thirst for that righteousness in our own lives, we will persevere through persecution for righteousness sake.
If one tries to skip the first four beatitudes, they will inevitably miss all eight, for it is impossible to externally move and operate in the righteousness of God towards others if one does not first receive that righteousness within their own hearts.
This is the first beatitude that deals with our external response towards others, but do not think for a second that it means this is the least of the four. Each of these last four beatitudes will challenge us to the core, and each of them are equally as important and equally as difficult as the other.
Content
Content
Mercy Revealed
Mercy Revealed
What exactly is meant by this word mercy?
The Greek word that is translated as mercy here is eleemon (el-eh-ay’-mone). In means to be compassionate towards another individual. Compassion stems from love. As forgiveness is only one form of mercy, mercy is only one form of love. In order for one person to be compassionate, or merciful, towards another, they must have a love for that person.
This raises multiple questions, doesn’t it?
Who all does God expect me to love?
Jesus actually answers this question from Scripture.
25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
Jesus says the two greatest commandments in all of the Law are these two commandments: Love God with every ounce of your being and love your neighbor as yourself.
The lawyer was not quiet satisfied with this response, so he asked one more question to clarify:
29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.
34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’
36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
There it is. Who all does God expect me to love? You are to love God, and love your neighbor. Who is my neighbor? Anyone whom God places in your path.
A fellow brother passed by, a fellow Jew, and did nothing for the man. Not only a fellow Jew, but also a Levitical priest passed by and did nothing. Then came a Samaritan, someone who, traditionally speaking, was supposed to hate Jews, saw this man beaten in the ditch, and had compassion. He had mercy.
Did he know this man? No!
Did this man do anything good or bad to him? No!
Was there some exterior motive to what he did? No! He was not looking for anything in return.
He simply saw someone in need and had mercy on them.
So, who am I supposed to love? Everyone God puts in your path.
How can I love everyone?
There are two things that we have to understand:
37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
The love spoke of here in this verse is not an emotion. It is a character trait. It comes as a direct result of being united with Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Once we are saved, we now partake of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the first of which is love. God’s love is not an emotion. It does not ebb and flow with circumstance or situation, but rather stays perfectly consistent. That is because “God is love.” It is who He is. It is a part of Him. He loves because He is love.
Now, it would be absurd to think that we could have the same level of love as God does. It would also be absurd to think that we could experience the same level of love with a total stranger as we do with a parent, a child, or a close friend. That love we share with those individuals comes from the relationship that we share with them. The stronger the relationship, the stronger the love.
But if we are tapped into the fruit of the Spirit, love should be part of who we are. It is one of His character traits, and therefore should be one of ours. Therefore, we are to act out of that love towards others, regardless if we know them or not.
The word love can be used as a noun and a verb. To have love is a noun, but to show love is a verb. This word used in this verse is a verb. It means to show love to your neighbor as you show love to yourself. Let’s unpack that.
To show love to our neighbor:
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
We know what love is because God showed it to us. How did He show His love for us, He laid down His life for us. We would not know love if He did not show it to us.
He goes on to say that we should also seek to lay down our lives for the brethren.
What does this mean? This is not saying that we should make it our life’s goal to go out and die for someone else. There is nothing wrong with giving your life so that another might live, but He is not telling us that the only way to show love to others is by dying for them. Matter of fact, He goes on the next two verses and tells us what exactly He does mean by this:
If you are blessed with an abundance of this world’s goods (food, clothing, money, cars, houses, etc.) and you see a brother in need, you are to help him. “To shut up your heart from them,” He says, “is to deny them the love of God that is supposed to be abiding in you.” He says, “let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” In other words, let us not just talk about our love for someone, let us show them. We are to show love to others.
So when He says that “we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”, He is saying that we are to be willing to lay down whatever we have going on; we are to be willing to hit the pause button on our current events, and show love to another who is in need. We are to show love to others because Christ has shown love to us.
As we show love to ourselves.
How can I love, or show love, towards everyone, especially those who have done me wrong? That is one the greatest challenges with this commandment, right?
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
I may be out on an island by myself here, but for me, this is one of the hardest things to do. How do I get a place to where I show love to those who are actively seeking to do harm to me, who have no intentions of building a relationship with me, or who are seeking to destroy me?
In order to make sense of this for myself, I had to really lean into this idea of showing love to myself.
Many times, this gets so watered down that it loses its whole meaning. Who can’t love themselves, right? That’s easy.......Let me ask you a few questions?
Do you always feel love towards yourself?
Are you always satisfied with your decisions?
Do you ever get mad at yourself?
Have you ever had feelings of hatred toward yourself, because of something you did or said?
Have you ever done anything so shameful, that you literally could not stand to look at yourself in the mirror?
Have you ever done anything that jeopardized your own health and well-being?
Have you ever done anything that brought pain and suffering to yourself or even to your family?
Now.......do you still feed yourself every day? Do you still put clothes on your back every day? Do you still make sure the lights are turned on for you to enjoy every day? Do you still reward yourself with things above and beyond what you deserve, based upon your own feelings about yourself? Sure you do!
Do you see it?
When God tells us to show love to our enemies, it is no different than us showing love to ourselves. Sometimes, we can be our own worst enemies.
When God tells us to bless those who curse us, it is no different than when we bless ourselves, for there are times when we curse even our own selves.
When God tells us to do good to those who hate us, it is no different than when we do good to ourselves. Sometimes we even have hatred towards ourselves.
When God tells us to pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us, it is no different than when we pray for ourselves. I would venture to say that we have all brought more pain and suffering upon ourselves than any other individual could dream of doing.
To show love to those in the world who do bad things to us, is much like showing love to ourselves. Some would even dare to say that it is easier, for we do not have to live them, we do have to live with ourselves.
So who am I to have mercy towards? Anyone whom God puts in your path who needs it!
How can I show mercy to even the worst of people? The same way God showed mercy to you and how you show mercy to yourself!
Mercy Required
Mercy Required
I want to set the stage for this beatitude by seeing just how important it is. Mercy is not only something that Christ portrayed for us, it is something that He has passed on to us.
Mercy is not just one of those things that we can do through Him, though it is that, it is more than that. God has actually commanded us to be merciful. It is more than an encouragement, it is an expectation.
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Here, Jesus speaks of forgiveness. Forgiveness is only part of mercy, which we will talk more about here in a minute. But forgiveness is one way of enacting mercy.
Jesus says that in order to be forgiven, you must first be willing to forgive. It’s a requirement.
Forgiveness is one of the toughest things to accomplish, and it is so for a few reasons.
Eye for an eye
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
Whether you realize it or not, this concept is still taught widely throughout our culture. Not only is it taught, it is believed by many throughout our culture today.
“They got what they deserved.”
“They’ll get what they got coming to them.”
“Serves them right.”
All of these phrases are built upon this ideology that evil should be repaid with evil. When someone does something wrong, they should suffer the consequences.
Furthermore, all of these phrases are built upon the ideology that we have the right and ability to judge others for their actions. They are built on the premise that we are somehow God and get to decide the just punishment for other people’s mistakes.
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.
2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
We Cling to the Law
As Christians, we have been saved by grace. Unfortunately, though we have been saved by grace, we still try to enact judgment based upon the law. When someone sins, there is a just punishment that goes along with that sin. We see sin in another person’s life, we know it is wrong because the law tells it is wrong, and we then attempt to judge them because the law says they deserve to be judged.
The law knows no forgiveness. It points out right and wrong, good and bad. When one clings to the law, they know no mercy, for the law does not allow for mercy. The law only knows how to condemn.
That is what makes forgiveness so hard. According to the law of right and wrong, this thing that has been done against us is not ok. They should not have spoken to us that way; they should not have looked at us that way; They should not have done that to us, etc. According to the law, their behavior is unacceptable and they should be punished for it. They don’t deserve forgiveness, but judgement.
What punishment do you and I deserve based upon the law? I deserve death. I mean that. Some of the laws of God say that the just punishment for breaking those laws are death. I have broken some of those laws. Many of us have. Most of us have. But yet we are here. Mercy has been poured out upon us through the forgiveness of sins.
I am number One
Though this is a little more subtle, our culture does not do a very good job of explaining exactly who #1 is. In this setting, here at church, we would all say that God is #1, or at least that is what most will say in the church house. But what bout at your house? Who is in charge at your house? If you ask any child that question, 99% of the time you will get either one of two answers: mom or dad. Is God not still #1 when you walk out this back door? Is God still not God even outside of the church building? Of course He is.
But for some reason, our culture tells us that we are #1 in our own lives. Somehow, we are more important than God and other people.
When we make mistakes, sin against God, or sin against other people, we beg God for forgiveness. But when other people do the same thing, we say, “Crucify them, crucify them.” Are we any better than they are? We are no more worthy of God’s mercy than the next person.
“Do what makes you happy.” You better not. A lot of times what makes you happy makes God unhappy. God is #1. When doing what makes us happy displeases God, we better reevaluate what’s going on.
Listen, I shared these three things that make mercy so difficult with you to show that mercy is not for the faint of heart. It is not something easily enacted. In order to be merciful, we must strip ourselves of pride and see that God’s way is better than our own. We must swallow every ounce of entitlement and realize that we are no better than anyone else. We are saved only because God is gracious. He has enacted mercy upon us and He now expects us to enact mercy on others.
23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
28 “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’
29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.
31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done.
32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
God expects us to be merciful for He is merciful.
Mercy Reciprocated
Mercy Reciprocated
The verse tells us that if we are merciful unto others that we shall obtain mercy, but we need to understand the object of the latter part of this verse.
This is not saying that if we have mercy on other people, that other people will have mercy upon us. We can easily debunk that theory by looking at the life of Jesus.
Jesus was the most merciful person to ever walk the face of this earth. People were constantly doing harm to Him, or at the very least, attempting to do harm towards Him and His ministry.
When they brought the woman who was caught in adultery to Him in John 8, they said:
5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”
These religious men had no intentions of enacting mercy towards this woman. Matter of fact, the law stated that one caught in the act of adultery was to be stoned to death, so they had every right to do so. But as we all know, this whole thing was drawn up as a scheme to trap Jesus in this situation. The law actually stated that both the man and the woman caught in the act of adultery was to be stoned, but for some reason they had only brought the woman before Jesus. Knowing their intentions, and the evil in their hearts, Jesus responded:
7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
Once Jesus added a little bit of perspective to this situation, one by one, they walked away and no one threw a stone at this woman.
10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
Jesus had mercy. Unlike all of the other men, Jesus had not committed any sin and stood perfectly just in enacting the fullest penalty of the law. He could have stoned this woman to death and been perfectly just in doing so. Instead, He decided to have mercy on her and sent her away with the command, “Go and sin no more.”
But justice was not thwarted. Justice was not overlooked. As we have stated earlier, mercy cannot overlook justice. Otherwise mercy would no longer be mercy and justice would no longer be justice.
59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
The stones that were meant for her were now pointed at Him. Jesus took on the responsibility of paying for her sin, which was ultimately fulfilled at Calvary. This is true for each of us. Jesus took the punishment we deserve.
But notice with me here that Jesus had mercy. Instead of receiving from these people mercy reciprocated, they actually sought all the more to rid of Him.
Many times through His ministry, He had mercy on people. What about all the people He healed, delivered, restored, and made whole? He had mercy on them, but yet at the end of the day, they stood by yelling out “crucify Him, crucify Him” and did nothing while He was nailed to a tree.
Having mercy upon other men does not guarantee that other men will have mercy upon you. This is rarely reciprocated fully by men.
Furthermore, to think of mercy in this way, “I will have mercy on them so that they will have to have mercy towards me later,” turns mercy into nothing more than a work that is performed. It is doing something only for the sake of getting something in return. That is not a work of God, but a work of man, and that will do nothing for you in terms of your spiritual relationship with God. That is not being a Christ follower but rather a religious fanatic.
The object of this last part of the verse is God, not man. This verse is telling us that if we are merciful towards others, then we will obtain mercy from God, not man.
God will be merciful to those who are merciful towards others.
What you and I have to decide, is whether we want to gamble on gaining the mercy of men, or being assured that we will obtain the mercy of God. Which do you seek? Which do you desire?
Commitment
Commitment
