Blessed Are The Merciful

Introduction

General: We do not live in a merciful society. Just go for a 10-minute drive, and you’ll see what I mean…

Personal: Mercy or justice? Mailbox… Self-checkout kiosk… Overgrown lawn… Borrowed tool… Forgotten anniversary… I love mercy when I need it; but I love justice when someone else needs mercy.

Biblical: In a hard world that lacked both justice and mercy, Jesus said Matt 5:7.

Subject: What is mercy? And how can we become merciful people?

Part 1: What is mercy?

Mercy is a resonant frequency of God’s Heart.

Exposition

What is a resonant frequency? It’s the natural frequency at which an object or system vibrates. // The stage of a church I served had a resonant frequency of a low D.

Look at Exod 34:5-7… Heartstrings that, when plucked, vibrate with a resonant frequency of God’s heart: mercy, grace, patience, steadfast love, faithfulness, forgiveness, and justice.

Illustration: Humpback whale songs can be heard hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of miles away.

Application: When we are merciful, we are vibrating with a resonant frequency of God’s heart—we are singing God’s heart-song.

Mercy is compassion in action that…

Responds to the hurting. Mercy moves toward people in their suffering.

Exposition: The Good Samaritan… Luke 10:33-37.

The Samaritan saw the immediate need in front of him, and did what he could to bring relief.

What did Jesus say? “You go, and do likewise” (v. 37).

Application: Your friend loses his job… your neighbor’s teenage daughter gets pregnant… coworker misses a major deadline again… “You go, and do likewise.”

Releases the guilty. Mercy moves toward people in their sin.

Exposition: The Conversion of Saul… Acts 9:17-19.

Mercy doesn’t clear the guilty but it does release them from their debt of sin.

“Forgive” is a financial term… to “forgive” a loan… When a loan is forgiven, who absorbs the cost of that loan? The lender who forgave the debt.

When you forgive someone, you absorb the cost of their sin against you… How can we do that? By remembering that Jesus absorbed the cost of our sin as he hung dying on the cross.

Application: Is there someone you need to forgive?

Restores the broken. Mercy moves people toward God and community.

Exposition: A Sinful Woman Forgiven… Luke 7:36-50.

This woman was broken by sin, separated from God, and despised by her community. But Jesus restored her.

“Mercy is getting down on your hands and knees and doing something to restore dignity to someone whose life has been broken by sin.” —Sinclair Ferguson

Illustration: William & Catherine Booth founded the East London Christian Mission in 1865 (later known as the Salvation Army)… Their philosophy of ministry: “Soup, Soap, and Salvation.”

Part 2: To become merciful, receive and give God’s mercy.

Receive God’s mercy.

Eph 2:4-5… We were helpless, guilty, and broken. But God showed us mercy in Christ.

Christian mercy is not earning—it’s evidence.

“The truly merciful realize how indebted they are to God for his mercy, and so they show mercy to those in need.” —Paul Louis Metzger

Give God’s mercy. Matt 5:7 // The more we give, the more we can receive, which enables us to give even more.

Conclusion

Do you need to turn from sin, come to Jesus, and receive God’s mercy?

Do you need to show mercy to someone? Is there someone hurting who you can help? Is there someone you need to forgive? Is there someone broken who you can help restore to God and community?