Matthew 5:4 - Blessed are they that mourn

INTRODUCTION

Several years back I went to Las Vegas with my dad. I did not go there to gamble or involve myself in sinful situations; rather, I wanted to spend some time with my dad with hopes of talking to him about the Lord. We went there around the sub-prime crisis that took over our nation in the mid 2000’s. On the main strip, there were several hotels not completed. Evidently, the ownership group for those hotels ran out of money to complete the building project. Some of the buildings were almost done, others still had a lot to go. In both cases, these not completed hotels became a eye soar to Vegas for many years. An incomplete project is not something to behold.

Similarly, this is how the beatitudes must be viewed. Jesus did not preach this portion of the Sermon on the Mount encouraging us to nail down most of these beatitudes. The purpose of this portion of the sermon is for Christians to exhibit all of these beatitudes. It is not good enough to live out 5, 6 or 7 of the 8 or 9 beatitudes. If this is the case, then we become an incomplete project and a potential eye soar for the world to view. We must strive (and it will be striving) in allowing God to complete the work in us.

There are two hindrances that prevent us form living out all of the beatitudes:

We do not believe it is possible to live out each of these beatitudes. We convince ourselves the power is within us to do this; when the opposite is true. Our responsibility is to work out what God has already put into our hearts. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:12–13 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” In other words, we are using His power to become the person and Christian, He wants us to be. If Peter walked on water, then we can become these beatitudes; if God stopped the rotation of the earth so that Joshua could defeat his enemy then we can become these beatitudes; if God can create the universe out of nothingness, then we can become these beatitudes; If God can intervene so that a virgin can birth the Son of God, then we can become these beatitudes; If God used Moses to part the Red Sea so that the entire nation of Israel can safely cross, then we can become these beatitudes.

We become satisfied and complacent. We are happy living out several of the beatitudes but not all of them. Satisfaction is the death knell to progress and growth in the Christian’s life. Never be satisfied with yesterday’s victories or today’s accomplishments. Complacency leads to inactivity. The prophets have much to say regarding the dangers of complacency. There are several to choose from but I will narrow the selection to Zephaniah 1:12:And it shall come to pass at that time, That I will search Jerusalem with candles, And punish the men that are settled on their lees (complacency): That say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.”

John Piper writers regarding this text: “The word complacent here translates an image which the old version, of wine settling on the dregs. The old word was lees, settling on the lees — the dregs. So, the picture is of a large jug of wine just poured from where the grapes are being pressed, and if the jug just sits there day after day — inactive, unused — things just settle to the bottom, undisturbed. That’s the picture. It’s a picture of people in Jerusalem totally unaware of the looming day of the Lord — virtually inactive, as far as spiritual reality is concerned. They are happily embedded in the routines of this world, and God has fallen so far into the background that he is of no practical consequence at all.” (John Piper, “Complacency: A Silent Killer”)

Paul writes in Philippians 3:14: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” He was not the man satisfied with past victories.

In building this masterpiece with our life, Jesus laid down the foundation upon which the remaining beatitudes are to be built upon in Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We cannot live out the remaining beatitudes if we have not incorporated the first one. in 2018, my wife and I visited India. While there, we saw a building being constructed. Even though the building had all the necessary stories, the brick a mortar and foundation would not hold that building up if an moderate earthquake occurred. The problem was not just the material used but the improper foundation. The reason many churches are full of false believers is they are coming to Jesus through an improper foundation. They are not “poor in spirit.” They are coming to Jesus because they are: poor Emotionally; poor Physically; poor Financially; poor Relationally; poor Politically; poor Situationally. But they are not poor in spirit. There was never this overwhelming valley of pain because of their sinfulness and condemnation that produced immense poverty of spirit that cause them to cry “abba Father” (Galatians 4:6).

1 Corinthians 3:11: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Paul speaks of this foundation in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” Paul was not addressing economics but spirituality. He became spiritually poor so that we can be spiritually wealthy. However, we cannot become spiritually wealthy until first, we come to Jesus as spiritual bankrupts.

The work of grace and regeneration produces a transformational and seismic shift in our heart that allows us to become “poor in spirit.” Therefore, if I am “poor in spirit” then can build upon the rock of Christ using the rest of the beatitudes as building blocks.

Blessed are they that mourn

Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

“A benediction for the mourners is most unexpected. We generally regard mourners as the most unfortunate of people. We see them as people to be pitied, helped, comforted, but not as those to be envied as the recipients of God’s blessings.” (Morris).pg.97

What Jesus said here is not contradictory than what Paul said in Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” We should rejoice in the Lord. The act of rejoicing shows that we are completely satisfied in Christ Jesus. Spurgeon preached: “People who are very happy, especially those who are very happy in the Lord, are not apt either to give offense or to take offense. Their minds are so sweetly occupied with higher things that they are not easily distracted by the little troubles that naturally arise among such imperfect creatures as we are. Joy in the Lord is the cure for all discord. Should it not be so? What is this joy but the concord of the soul, the accord of the heart, with the joy of heaven? Joy in the Lord, then, drives away the discords of earth.” (Spurgeon, “Joy, a Duty”)

Paul was not the only one who wrote on joy and rejoicing.

Psalm 28:7: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in him, and I am helped: Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; And with my song will I praise him.”

Psalm 19:8: “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

Proverbs 17:22: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: But a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction in the Bible. On one hand, we are commanded to rejoice, but on the other hand, the happy man mourns? To the world, this seems completely paradoxical, (Broadus).pg.89 but to Christians this is true. Jesus’ context for the one who mourn’s helps us to solve the conflict between Jesus , Paul, the Psalmist and Solomon. The context begins with the character of the person who mourns. John Bell wrote: “If you want to know someone’s character, find out what makes him laugh & what makes him weep.” (Bell)

The person who mourns is not the result of a natural event. In fact, this entire sermon has nothing to do with the natural faculties of men. Jesus is not saying that the blessed man mourns over natural things like the death, disease, car breaking down, losing a job, etc…anyone can mourn those things. He is saying that to be blessed in mourning means a divinely supernatural intervention has taken place in their life.

This means, the mourning is not directed towards the natural. I am 56 years old and have many regrets in my life that causes some degree of mourning. I mourn not being a better husband, father, employee and church member often, but this is not the mourning that Jesus had in mind. Our mourning is directed towards the supernatural - towards God! The first evidence that a person is “poor in spirit” is they mourn over sin. (Morgan).pg.43 Our sin has offended a holy God.

John Macarthur told a story about a college student. He said: “several years ago a college student said to me: ‘I’ve been liberated. Someone explained to me the true meaning of 1 John 1:9, and now I realize that I no longer have top confess my sins.’ I asked him, ‘Well do you still confess your sins?’ ‘I just told you that I don’t have to anymore,’ he replied. ‘I know you did,’ I said, ‘but do you still confess your sins?’ When he replied, ‘Yes, that’s what bothers me,’ I stopped being bothered. I said, ‘I’m very glad to hear that.’ and then I told him that I knew that, despite the false teaching to which he had been exposed, he was a genuine Christian. His redeemed nature refused to go along with the false teaching his mind had temporarily accepted.” (MacArthur, Matthew 1-7 MacArthur New Testament Commentary).pg.161

The character of the person who mourns is seeing life through the lens of how this impacts God. One reason Joseph was such a special person was he saw life through this lens. Joseph did not sleep with Potiphar’s wife because of God. Genesis 39:9: “There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Later, he was able to discern the evils acts of his brothers as God moving His plan forward to save the Joseph’s family: Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

The blessed man mourns over their own sinfulness. He is not rejoicing over the activity of sin but mourning the activity of sin before God. We read this in David’s confessional Psalm. In Psalm 51:2–4, David prayed: “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: And my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest.” Even though Bathsheba and Uriah were impacted by David’s decisions, he understood his actions offended an holy God more than any other person.

This is not an act that only occurs at salvation. There are nine words in the New Testament that speaks of sorrow and mourning. The one that Jesus used is the most intense of the nine. (MacArthur, Matthew 1-7 MacArthur New Testament Commentary).pg.157 The word is expressive of “a heartbreaking lament over tragic death. It is the word in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament to signify’s Jacob’s overwhelming grief when he thought Joseph was dead (See Gene. 37:34).” (Ivor Powell).pg.94 This word is in the present and the active voice. Meaning that the mourning happens at salvation and throughout their Christian lives. An evidence of a person’s salvation is their mournfulness over their sin. John MacArthur wrote: “Spiritual poverty leads to godly sorrow; the poor in spirit becomes those who mourn.” (MacArthur, Matthew 1-7 MacArthur New Testament Commentary).pg.157

Why is the person who mourns blessed? “Those who mourn for sin will be comforted in confession.” (Hindson and Borland).pg.50 The blessed man mourns because he knows that God will comfort him with grace and mercy. The word “comfort” is in the passive voice and indicative mood. Meaning that the one doing the mourning receives an action. God comforts the mournful one. “Comfort” comes from the same root word that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14:16. It means to be called near and invited with the intention of being consoled. An amazing truth when you consider that after we sin and mourn over our actions, God still want to identify with us, console us and strengthen us. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:5: “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” One other structural thought before shifting: “shall be” does not reference eternity. Instead, they reference an action that occurs after obedience. We do not have to wait until heaven to be comforted. The only ones who will be blessed are the mourners. How are we comforted, today?

God cleanses us and purifies our hearts: James 4:8–9: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.”

Our lives are changed: 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” Mourning produces repentance to life. How do you know when a person has not repented sinful activity? They have changed. Even if they have mourned over their sin, it was not towards God but the event itself.

We cling to the promises of God: Nehemiah 1:5–11: “And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.”

“Blessed are they that mourn” does not just apply to our sins but others as well. (Spurgeon, Commentary on Matthew : The Gospel of the Kingdom).pg.37 3Being critical of others is often easy to do. We know this for two reasons: Adam and Eve were more critical of others than themselves (Genesis 3); and our own experience paint the same narrative. The question to be asked is: when was the last time we were broken over other peoples sin? Psalm 119:136: “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, Because they keep not thy law.” Psalm 119:53: “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked That forsake thy law.” Ezekiel 9:4: “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.”

Yet, for many Christians, we are not mourning our sin. We are confessing without mourning for offending God. Nor are we mourning over the sin of our nation or world. We are quick to criticize out leaders without mourning their sinfulness. As an example. In November 2012, Tammy Baldwin became the first elected lesbian to the United States Senate. I remember thinking: “Wow, we have come along way as a nation.” Instead, I should have been broken and mourning over sinful acceptance in our nation.

Conclusion

Robert Louis Stevenson tells of a storm that caught a vessel off a rocky coast and threatened to drive it and its passengers to destruction. In the midst of the terror, one daring man, contrary to orders, went to the deck, made a dangerous passage to the pilot house and saw the steerman, lashed fast at his post of holding the wheel unwaveringly, and inch by inch, turning the ship out, once more, to sea. The pilot saw the watcher and smiled. Then, the daring passenger went below and gave out a note of cheer: “I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well.”