S.O.T.M. Happy are the Meek [Matthew 5:5]

Stand for the reading of the word of God [Matthew 5:5]

In our consideration of the Beatitudes as a whole, we’ve already found that there are certain general characteristics which apply to them all. As we’ve been looking at each one individually we find this to be so in detail. Here once again the third Beatitude causes real surprise because it is so completely and entirely opposite everything the natural man thinks. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth???

World conquest, world domination, possession of the whole earth…given to the meek, of all people??? The world thinks in terms of strength and power, of ability, self-assurance, self-assertiveness, aggressiveness…that’s the world’s idea of conquest and possession. The more you assert yourself and express yourself, the more you organize and manifest your powers and ability, the more likely you are to succeed and dominate.

But here comes this astounding statement by Jesus… “the meek shall inherit the earth.” and they alone! Once again we are reminded of the Christian being different from the world. It’s an essential difference in that the Christian is a new man, a new creation in Christ Jesus, he belongs to an entirely different kingdom. And not only is the world unlike him, the world can’t understand him. The Christian is an enigma to the world. And if we are not different from the world, I’m afraid that tells you a great deal about your profession of faith.

This statement, much like the others, was a great shock to the Jew in Jesus day. Matthew was writing primarily to the Jew. The placement of these beatitudes is in the forefront on purpose. The Jews of Jesus day had ideas of the kingdom which were not right. They had the idea that the Messiah would usher in a materialistic, political kingdom and that he would lead them to victory over Rome. The Jew was thinking in terms of conquest and fighting in a material sense. The Lord immediately dismisses all that. Jesus says right away, “no, no, my kingdom is not like that...’ “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ It was the great contrast to the Jew’s way of thinking.

I would suggest it’s still in contrast to much of the Christian Church of our day and it’s way of thinking as well. Isn’t there this real sense in the church today to think in terms of fighting the world, and sin, and the things that are opposed to Christ, by means of our organizing? I don’t think I’m out of line to say, much of the churches way of thinking today, especially in America is ‘don’t tread on me’ mentality. We are going to organize, strategize, and conquer in our own power…but what does Jesus say??? Blessed are the meek…not those who trust in their organizing, not those who trust in their strategies, not those who trust in their own ability…but rather the reverse is true…not only here, but it’s consistent throughout the bible.

Consider Gideon’s conquest of Midian…God reduced the number of soldiers to go into battle from 30,000 to 300, he didn’t add to them. The point is simple…God’s in control! Trust in God’s ability to conquer, not your own ability. That’s the spiritual method…submitting all to God.

This beatitude flows from the first two. The first beatitude asks us to realize our own weaknesses and our own inability, and we are confronted with the fact we can’t live up to God’s standard…which leads to a mourning over our sinful state, where we cry out as Paul, “o wretched man that I am, who shall save me from this body of death?” But as we come to this beatitude… “blessed are the meek” there is a positive attributed to it, hunger and thirst for righteousness... this is however increasingly more difficult…why? Because here we are reaching a point where we begin to be concerned about other people.

Let me put it this way. I can see my own utter nothingness and helplessness face to face with the demands of the gospel. I am aware, when I’m honest with myself, of the sin and evil within me…and I’m ready to face them with the help of God…but how much more difficult is it to allow other people to say things like that about me??? If someone else points that out to me I instinctively resent it. We’d all rather condemn ourselves than have someone else condemn us right? This is why preachers aren’t always the most popular bunch, always pointing out sins.

I’m a sinner, I will say to myself, but when someone else calls me a sinner…the fight is on! That’s the principle being introduced with this beatitude. So far we’ve been looking at ourselves, but now we’re being introduced to others’ looking at you. How do we react to that? I think we’d all agree, this is far more difficult and humbling and humiliating. It’s to allow others to put the searchlight upon me instead of doing it myself.

I want to ask four questions about this meekness

Who is a meek person?

There are many illustrations we could look, but today we’ll focus on some examples from the bible. In the Old Testament a great example of meekness is Abraham. Abraham allowed the younger Lot to have first choice in Genesis 13. The story, Abraham had been chosen by God and God had made a covenant with Abraham. Abraham was to leave his home and go to the land of Canaan which God had promised Abraham. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, went with Abraham. When they came to the edge of the land there was a strife between Abraham’s people and Lot’s people due to the land providing for the flocks. So Abraham told Lot you choose which way you want to go and I’ll take what’s left.

Abraham could have said, “look son, I’m the one with the covenant, I’m the one he said would get the land, you’re just a tag along, I’ll take first choice, you take what’s left.” But that’s not what Abraham did, he displayed great meekness in not asserting himself and trusting God to provide for him.

Moses was described as the most meek man on the face of the earth [Num. 12:3]. In Numbers 12 Aaron and Miriam were jealous of Moses and started speaking against Moses. They boasted, “Has the Lord only spoken through Moses? Has He not indeed spoken through us?” And the Lord was angered with Aaron and Miriam. Miriam was stricken with leprosy and Aaron pleaded with Moses, “don’t lay this sin on us in which we’ve acted foolishly and sinned.”

Moses could have said, “well, that’s what you get for running me down…you made your bed, now lie in it.” But that’s not what Moses did, no he cried out to God please heal her God. God said shut her out of the city for 7 days and then she’ll be healed. They use to quarantine in those days as well???

David, though anointed true king of Israel suffered under Saul [1 Samuel 16-31]. Saul’s sin had disqualified him to be king so David was anointed king of Israel. Though Saul still had power, he had knowledge that he had forfeited his rule and was jealous of David. Saul sought to destroy David many times, and even when David had opportunity to kill Saul, he restrained from doing so, trusting God to take care of it all.

Jeremiah’s message was not popular, he suffered for it, yet persisted. Jeremiah’s message to Israel and Judah was repent or God would judge them and it did not find favor with the people. Jeremiah suffered great persecution for the truth, yet he didn’t back down from telling God’s truth even though other prophets to Israel were speaking soothing things, Jeremiah spoke truth.

In the NT Stephen and Paul demonstrated meekness. You can read about them in the book of Acts. But the greatest example of meekness is our Lord Jesus.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart [meek], and you will find rest for your souls.”

You see it in Jesus’ whole life, meekness displayed. You see it in his reaction to other people. He came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, humble and meek, when they expected a triumphant and powerful rebellion. You see it when he suffered false arrest and persecution…Jesus was innocent…he didn’t commit one sin…so every accusation against him was false…yet he answered not in defense of himself, but gave himself up to scorn, beating, and even death of the cross. Jesus displayed meekness…so then...

What is meekness?

We’ve looked at examples of meekness, but what qualities do we see in these examples? First, you’ll notice that it is not a natural quality, with the exception of Jesus. It’s not a natural disposition, because all Christians are meant to be like this. Every Christian, no matter what their natural temperament may be, is meant to be like this. All you have to do is look at the list of men I mention, David, Jeremiah, Paul were not meek men naturally but it was produced by the spirit of God in them.

Meekness is not indolence [laziness or inactive], softness [in a sense of being flabby], niceness, or weakness. Some people are easy-going, nice, maybe a little laid back…that is not the biblical understanding of meekness. Nor does meekness equal weakness as the world would see it. No on the contrary.

Meekness is compatible with great strength, authority, and power. The people we used for examples have been powerful defenders of truth. The meek man is the one who will believe and stand for the truth of God’s word and will die for it if necessary. The martyrs were meek, they weren’t week men, they were strong, powerful men of God. God forbid that we should confuse this quality as some natural trait…no it’s produced in the man of God but the spirit of God!

The Greek word for meek means mild, gentle, and tenderhearted but not weak. Let me illustrate it this way, take for example Jesus riding in on the donkey, it was said that he came riding lowly…meek. Would we say Jesus was weak? No, if Jesus had come riding in on a white horse the Jews would have rebelled and fought to take over the city…but Jesus came lowly and meek…why? Meekness is Power under control!

The usage of the word for meek in Greek implies this concept, example, it refers to meek medicine or mild medicine as soothing medicine… medicine under control saves lives…medicine out of control kills. A broken horse…a horse under control is useful…a horse out of control destroys. A gentle breeze soothes…a hurricane kills. Power under control…that’s meekness. Meekness is power under control.

It goes beyond an outward manner to an inward spirit. We all know that we shouldn’t strike someone in the face when we are angered…but it’s more than just not doing it, it’s getting to the state where we don’t feel like doing it at all. It’s not just restraint even though I feel like striking it’s control, it’s being in control not lead by our emotional state. It’s also controlling the lips and mouth, it’s not saying what you feel like saying…it’s under control. You cannot spend time in a verse like this without it humbling you.

Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others. It’s a right attitude towards myself, it’s being poor in spirit and mourning over my sinfulness. A man can never be meek unless he sees himself for who he really is a sinner in need of saving. There is an absence of pride in the meek man. The world says assert yourself, express yourself…the gospel says rather submit yourself to God. The meek man doesn’t demand for himself, doesn’t demand status or position, doesn’t seek his own interests…the meek person is done with protecting oneself, defending oneself, does not pity oneself…do you know how much time is wasted by people loathing in self pity....

…as one writer put it, “the meek man is truly done with self. altogether, and sees that he has no rights at all.” John Bunyan said, “the man that is down has no need fear falling.” The meek man is one that is truly amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as they do. The world says, “that’s nonsense…God says, that’s what kingdom people look like.”

With this right view of oneself it’s expressed in attitude and conduct towards others rightly. Example, meekness is an absence of the spirit of retaliation. This means we are patient and long-suffering..even when suffering unjustly. It’s not yelling back when yelled at, it’s not fighting back when attacked, it’s not defending oneself when reviled. Meekness implies a teachable spirit. But this is hard pastor, I mean we’re really getting slammed in the face here…I know, I’ve been getting slammed with this all week, and I’m only giving you the tip of the ice berg each week…you know that right…there’s much more I could say and would like to say…we’re just getting our toes wet…I challenge you to study this more on your own. What did we say at the beginning of this series??? God change us through this study.

Meekness is humbling oneself before God, depending on God, being taught of God, submitting all to God. So then what’s the benefit? There’s a good side to this...

What happens to the meek person?

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” There’s a future sense in this, in that we know from scripture that the Christians shall judge the world with Christ [1 Corinth. 6] Christians are going to judge the earth, judge the angels, and inherit the earth with Christ. In Romans 8 Paul puts it this way, if we are children, then heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Paul told Timothy that we, Christians, shall reign with Christ…what’s that look like? I’m not sure exactly but it’ll be like Eden restored I suppose. Adam was given dominion over the earth, when Christ establishes the new heavens and new earth, we, those who are in Christ, will receive our inheritance..not because of what we have done, what we deserve, but because of what Christ has done.

That being said, how does that help us now? We could say, the meek already inherit the earth in this life, in this way. A person who is truly meek is one who is truly satisfied and content. As one commentator put it, “as having nothing, yet possessing all things.” Paul addressed this in Philippians where he said he had learned to be content in whatever state he was in. This wasn’t because he had done some great thing, but it was because he had submitted fully to the control of God in his life. Therefore he was fully satisfied.

The Lord Himself summed it up for us in Luke 14:11 where he says, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, he who humbles himself will be exalted.” There it is in a nut shell, we will never make ourselves meek…you cant do it, I can’t do it…only the Holy Spirit can humble us, nothing but the Holy Spirit can make us poor in spirit, nothing but the Holy Spirit can make us mourn our sinfulness, nothing but the Holy Spirit can produce in us meekness. So that leaves us with just one more question...

Am I a meek person?

How do you know if you’re a meek person, lead by the Holy Spirit??? Ask yourself these four questions.

Number one, Am I self-controlled? Do you always get angry, do you always retaliate, do you always have to defend yourself, do you always lash out at people, are you impatient? If so you are not under control..remember how we defined meekness…power under control. am I under control?

Number two, Do I respond obediently to God’s word? If I’m meek I will. If we are meek people we will respond in obedience to God’s word…even when it’s difficult and demanding…because it’s produced by the Holy Spirit in us.

Number three, Do I forgive people and make peace? Do I forgive people even if they don’t deserve it, even if they have wronged me in some way, knowingly or unknowingly. Do I make peace or do I stir things up?

Number four, Do I receive criticism well? When criticism comes do I get angry and defend myself or to I take it and learn from it? I know that’s a hard one right, we don’t like criticism, but often how we respond and receive criticism helps us grow as Christians. And I’ll add to that…do you give criticism well? Do you give criticism to help the brother or sister grow or are you just being a hard critic? If you receive criticism well you’ll usually give it well…and vice versa.

As we look at these things here’s what we need to do…truly examine ourselves. As we leave here take these questions and truly take a good long look at yourself and ask God to point out where we are lacking. Because if we claim to be Christians and have received the Holy Spirit, then we have no excuse if we are not meek. Because meekness is a direct fruit of the Spirit.

So we must, face this sermon on the mount, meditate on this statement about being meek, look at the examples in the bible, look to the Lord Himself. Then humble ourselves and confess our imperfections to the Lord. So that when we are truly done with self, which has been the cause of so many of our troubles…he who has bought us with such a tremendous price may come in and fully possess us as we submit to Christ.