Sermon Tone Analysis

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

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to err is human

o err is human, (to forgive, divine).

(formal)

something that you say which means it is natural to make mistakes and it is important to forgive people when they do You'd think he could find it in his heart to forgive her.

To err is human and all that.

Matthew 5:

I. Morally Bankrupt

A. TO ERR IS HUMAN, TO FORGIVE DIVINE

1. err is human, (to forgive, divine)

something that you say which means it is natural to make mistakes and it is important to forgive people when they do You'd think he could find it in his heart to forgive her.

To err is human and all that.

2. something that you say which means it is natural to make mistakes and it is important to forgive people when they do

B. TODAY, I titled the sermon “TO MOURN IS HUMAN”

1. We’re constantly looking around and noticing everything that’s wrong, aren’t we?

2. Have you watched the news?

[PAUSE]

a. It’s never, “Well, Phillis, everything’s wonderful over here… no murderers thieves or rapists over here — everything is fantastic!”

i.

This would get NO TV ratings whatsoever

ii.

It makes me think of Anchorman, covering a squirrel that’s waterskiing, “that squirrel can waterski...” NO ONE IS TUNING INTO THAT… I MEAN I WOULD, BUT I’m kind of weird...

b.

We are always noticing, and intensely focusing on, the things that are falling apart!

i.

When a new congressman/woman is elected, or a new coach, or public official is hired or elected — it’s like “who cares!” … But if they get fired, it’s headline news — SCANDAL, “forget about it… everyone’s tuned in...”

ii.

All reality TV is built around the most obnoxious, bombastic, absurd kinds of people, typically.

Right?! Who’s going to watch a show about a normal, kind, loving family.

“BORING!”

iii.

“Housewives of FILL IN YOUR CITY...” and everyone’s screaming at each other and yelling and cutting each other… IT’S ABSURDITY!

iv.

But that’s what we gravitate towards, isn’t it.

That’s what get’s TV ratings… that’s where our attention goes… WHY?

C. WE ARE MORALLY BANKRUPT

3.

1. Humans are spiritually poor people… We are miserable on our own.

We always notice the broken things because we are broken.

We always gravitate towards noticing what’s missing because there’s something in us that’s missing.

2. “Poor in Spirit”

Refers to those in Jesus’ day who recognize and bear their desperate plight, and who long for God’s restoration through the Messiah.

a.

But “blessed” only applies to those who acknowledge their brokenness, their spiritual poverty, and whom by faith in Christ are saved.

b.

Most people do not want to acknowledge our spiritual poverty and our need for God.

c.

But existentially, we experience brokenness… Meaning — in our actual experiences we feel our brokenness… We all sense that something’s missing.

“IF I JUST HAD THIS OR THAT, LIFE WOULD BE ALL BETTER” — “WE LOOK FOR GOD SUBSTITUTES WHEN ALL ALONG THE ONLY THING THAT WILL QUENCH OUR THIRST IS GOD, IS JESUS!”

d. “God put eternity into man’s heart!” — Meaning: “We all have these longings, this 6th sense that there must be more to life than this, we desire for something we cannot quite grasp on our own...”

e.

This is the built in desire for God — but we often look elsewhere to fulfill that longing… We compare our morals to that of others — In essence, we compare sin to sin… “I’m not as bad as that person… I’m better than they are!”

i.

This results in “the blind leading the blind...”

ii.

We are morally bankrupt

iii.

Pastor Timothy Keller says it best,

What does it mean to be poor in spirit?

It means to be spiritually bankrupt.

Everybody in the world, besides Christians, if they were to suddenly appear before God, would say, “Hey, I’ve done some good things and I’ve done some bad things.”

Right?

Isn’t that what everybody says?

In other words, if God suddenly appeared to you and you had to kind of make an account for your life, you would say, “Well now, God, I’ve done a lot of good things.

I’ve tried very hard.

I’ve made sacrifices.

I’ve helped people.

I’ve been very good to my father and my mother,” or “I’ve been very good to my children,” or whatever.

In other words, “I have a lot of things I’ve done good, but there are a lot of things I’ve done bad.”

Now let’s put this in economic terms for the sake of the metaphor.

What you’re really saying is, “I have some money in the bank spiritually.

You know, I’m not destitute, but I have debts.

I have a lot of debts.

blind leading the blind

“poor in spirit”

debate on these texts

A.

1.

II.

Comfort for Mourners

A. MOURN

1. DEFINE MOURN

GRIEF AND MOURNING Practices and emotions associated with the experience of the death of a loved one or of another catastrophe or tragedy.

2. Typically used as the emotion one has when a loved one has died… Jesus, in his sermon we’re examining, is talking about a spiritual mourning — a mourning as a result of our spiritual death/poverty.

B. What does it mean “BLESSED”

what does it mean “blessed”

3 The Greek word for “blessed” (GK 3421) describes the person who is singularly favored by God and therefore in some sense “happy,” though the word can also apply to God (1Ti 1:11; 6:15).

The common factor between these two views is approval: humans “bless” God, approving and praising him; God “blesses” humans, approving them in gracious condescension.

In the eschatological setting of Matthew, “blessed” refers to a promised eschatological blessing, specified by the second clause of each beatitude.

1.

Why Blessed?

Those who acknowledge their “poverty of spirit” — i.e. their need for something beyond themselves… This leads to a genuine mourning… Because just like we would mourn when a loved one dies — we mourn the fact that we are in a desperate situation — — — When that mourning is aimed at God… when it leads us to repentance… We are blessed!

We have an eschatological blessing.

a. Eschatology is the study of the end times...

b.

Christianity teaches that in the end Christians are with God in heaven — no suffering, no pain, no death — there is more after this life than this!

c.

That’s what it means when it says, “we are blessed!”

3.

C. Who’s Mourning

1.

So who’s mourning?

The Christian mourns their sin.

a. Pastor Martin Lloyd Jones wrote:

When one sees God, his holiness and the kind of life one should live, and then examines the reality of one’s life in poverty of spirit, one mourns [MLJ].